Friday, February 22, 2008

Political snippets (5)

Based on news report from Malaysiakini and Star Online.

Case I

Kim Quek, a member of PKR, published in Malaysiakini that the mainstream
Media (has) turn(ed the) election into a killing field, where he grumbled that the Chinese press have been giving DAP more publicity than PKR. In fact he averred that PKR has been virtually shut out. He said:

Political analysts have attributed this to a shrewd strategy adopted by BN, for it is a political reality that out of the three main opposition parties of DAP, PKR and the Islamic party PAS, only PKR has the potential to replace BN, which is a coalition of 14 racial parties dominated completely by the Malay party Umno.

Neither DAP nor PAS could threaten the political hegemony of Umno, for DAP has no significant Malay support while PAS has no significant non-Muslim (mainly non-Malays) support.

In contrast, PKR is now supported by all the three main races of Malays, Chinese and Indians, and led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose distinguished leadership has been acclaimed at home and abroad.

Hahahahaha

I know Kim Quek is sincere but like most of those dazzled by Anwar Ibrahim, can’t see or refuses to see the reality of what’s happening.

I must ask, why did the Chinese in PKR have to acrimoniously fight the DAP on seat allocations after Anwar Ibrahim had already made a pact with Lim Guan Eng? The only plausible reason is that in the negotiations with DAP, he had forgotten completely about his Chinese members.

And if the PKR is indeed a multi-ethnic party as Kim Quek claimed, why did those PKR Chinese members have to demand Chinese-majority seats from the DAP? Why not contest in any seat? For example, why not assign Elizabeth Wong to Lembah Pantai? C'mon, why not?

Take another example, Ijok. BN put up an MIC (Indian) candidate in a situation where racial appeal in that State constituency dictated an UMNO candidate. Yet, when it came to the PKR, which Indian member did PKR spurn and which of its Malay leaders did the party put forward instead as a candidate to challenge the MIC in a Malay-majority constituency? Where the hell was its multiracial credentials?

And why was Nallakaruppan instructed by Anwar Ibrahim not to contest for the party VP's position? Was one of the spots reserved for Azmin Ali or another ex-UMNO favourite?

For all Kim Quek said about the DAP, the latter has consistently put Indian candidates in Chinese-majority seats and even succeeded in most of them. And the DAP doesn’t have a Chinese de facto National Chairman.

Related:
PKR dwindling into the ethnic party it was/is


Case II

Last year I blogged:

The last time the MCA had some backbone and openly voiced its opposition to an UMNO policy was in 1987, when it joined the Gerakan Party and the DAP to object to the Education Ministry appointing 100 non-Mandarin educated senior assistants and principals to vernacular Chinese schools. The Education Minister was a bloke by the name of, would you believe, Anwar Ibrahim.

Following the MCA-Gerakan-DAP nexus of 'rebellion' a la Shaolin Temple, and UMNO Youth's threatened intemperate response, the government launched Operation Lalang, not unlike the preemptive razing of Shaolin Temple by Manchu troops as happened in Chinese history.

Well, in
Political snippets (4) I mentioned how one MCA member, Loh Seng Kok, MP for Kelana Jaya, had the guts 2 years ago to condemn the bullsh*t ‘imbalanced’ history textbooks, new prayer recital guidelines and the problems faced by non-Muslims with regards to places of worship.

Loh was also critical of the officially approved syllabus and history textbooks. He lambasted the authorities for the gross deficiency and negligence of historical books had ignored (1) the contribution of non-bumiputeras in Malaysia. and (2) focused only on Islamic civilization.

As we know, he was threatened not only by UMNO but by PAS as well!

Related: 50 UMNO Youths Threatened MCA MP!

Loh has not been nominated by MCA for the coming election.

This is how the MCA treats its braver MPs, one who has the guts to stand up and speak for the Chinese Malaysian community, as the MCA should.

OK, if Kelana Jaya is not suitable for Loh, then Ong Ka Ting should have re-located him to another constituency where he doesn’t need the support of UMNO. The terrible message that Ong KT has passed on is that MCA members must always kowtow to UMNO or be marginalized.

Ong Ka Ting doesn’t deserve to represent the Chinese Malaysians if he doesn’t do anything for Loh.

Case III

I am not sure what Lim KS did or say but I am glad he managed to persuade Fong Po Kuan to return to Batu Gajah as the DAP candidate for the federal seat. Malaysiakini reported that

Po Kuan will defend Batu Gajah. In the Malaysiakini report, she repented for her earlier unwise decision - but it's a miracle that she even bother to come back, having been hurt so deeply for her to take such a drastic action in the first place.

Malaysiakini states:
Fong apologised to the Batu Gajah voters, supporters and the party for causing them 'disappointment and hurt'.

She said: "It was definitely a very painful decision (to withdraw). However, I felt very remorseful when I discovered how much a majority of the people cared for me and supported me. Indeed, the reflection of their immense support touched me deeply which brought about the thought that I must not fail them."

I am glad all's well that ended well. Er ... BTW, kaytee did put in a personal appeal to her too on Facebook. Hmmm, I wonder whether she had read that? ;-)

12 comments:

  1. Seems Lim Guan Eng yet to acquire the party leader quality. If he make apology, taking the inner strife as his own responsibilities, he will earn respect and show his leader skill and responsibilities. His supporter may not "happy" about it, but there is bigger picture to draw.
    Too bad, he miss one golden opportunity.

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  2. "PKR dwindling into the Party it once was/is" ? On the contrary, the party currently has more multi-racial participation than ever in its history.
    It has attracted the support of many non-Malays, myself included, who are opposed to the UMNO controlled Barisan Najis, yet prefer to work in an environment which is inclusive of all the 3 major ethnic communities in Malaysia.
    True , DAP has successfully fielded Indian candidates in Chinese majority constituencies. But you just have to attend a few DAP meetings to realise DAP is essentially a very Chinese party (overwhelmingly Chinese-educated environment as well, for that matter). A semi-banana like me is like a square-peg in a round hole in a DAP get-together.

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  3. "But you just have to attend a few DAP meetings to realise DAP is essentially a very Chinese party (overwhelmingly Chinese-educated environment as well, for that matter). A semi-banana like me is like a square-peg in a round hole in a DAP get-together."

    Funny how an Indian like me can fit in rather comfortably. And no, I'm not talking about Indian branches. I'm talking about Seputeh and PJ Utara.

    Defend PKR, by all means, but is it necessary to criticize DAP in doing so?

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  4. Anwar will goes back to UMNO when he has the opportunity and abandon all the PKR members to take care of themselves. What coverage does PKR expect when it had only one Parliament seat in the last election compared to 12 for DAP. PKR is as multiracial as GERAKAN and PPP. The truth is that there is not place for multi racial parties in Malaysia, it hurts but unfortunaely it is the honest truth.

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  5. The environment depends on where you are. In East coast national schools, one may see more chinese and indians and they speak english. Where as in East Coast, national schools it is more islamic and malay. Likewise, I attend PKR ceremahs and it is more Malay. As PKR is fielding so many candidates, I am very surprise that there is hardly any Indian candidates. But those desperatos like Wee Chee Keong and Cheong in Kedah are easily taken in by PKR as instant noodle candiates. Whay say you?

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  6. "In contrast, PKR is now supported by all the three main races of Malays, Chinese and Indians, and led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose distinguished leadership has been acclaimed at home and abroad."

    HAHHAHAHHAHHAAHHAAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH....

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  7. All of us are convinced that it was something we personally did to get Po Kuan back to defend her seat. :)

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  8. In 2004, PKR contested in well over a hundred seats and was successful in less than 1/2 a handful of them... won't be much different on 8th March 2008 due to the unknown cheapskate candidates such as Kim Quek whose balls are 'quaking' even before the polls

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  9. So most of you guys support a political movement on the basis of being the "winning team" aahh....I guess UMNO would be just the right party for you...

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  10. Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng ( not sure ) all recieved an English education so how can Dap be overwhelming Chinese. I believed in every political party less than 30 % of the members are sincere but unfortunately PKR de facto leader is not one of them. Maybe his wife and daughter are but I really don't know.

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  11. I know many people use the language issue to mold DAP as Chinese party.

    Alas, the bible even state this issue : people around the world try to make a tower to reach the paradise, and God separate them by disoriented them using language. ;)

    But the biggest different perhaps are the philosophy. Unless one are liberal Malays, even the language problem solved, it is not easy to blend in the concept of the Chinese philosophy, which rarely study by typical Malay.

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  12. Surprise DAP follows Chinese philosophy? I thought they are part of the International Socialist Organisation and they are invited to attend like in Denmark, Norway and Germany. Chinese educated people like Theresa, Chong Eng goes aboard for conferences. Maybe, there are less Liberal and Socialist Malays and take internation views.

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