Malaysian Government bars reporters from Parliament

Bid to prevent no-confidence vote on Malaysian Prime Minister from being reported

In a desperate bid to prevent reporters from reporting on a possible no confidence vote on the Prime Minister, the Malaysian government today set up a barricade to prevent reporters from entering the Parliament.

Preparing for motion of no confidence

Campaign to topple PM Abdullah

Fresh allegations linking Deputy PM Najib's wife to Altantuya's case

RPK playing high stakes poker

Malaysian Police more likely to "jail the messenger", again

Bait Taken - Hook , Line and Sinker

Ezam Rejoins UMNO



Comments withheld

Penang Gerakan admits launching unapproved projects

PM Abdullah Badawi forced to launch unapproved projects in Penang

Gerakan's VP Dr Teng Hock Nan today admitted PM Abdullah Badawi was invited to launch PGCC even though the project has not been approved by local authorities! This makes one wonders what are other projects in Penang they have launched without approval!!

Dr Teng in admitting this tried to save himself by blaming Penang new CM Lim Guan Eng for exposing this fact. Another stab into Gerakan's heart by its own people.

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Elsewhere: MCA's President Ong Ka Ting accused by senior party member for snooping on his deputies

Elsewhere: Sabah MPs waiting for the right time to make crossover to PR to form new government

Karim Raslan: "No one is in charge of Malaysia right now..."

Are we seeing the final last days of Abdullah and Najib?

Also read: Lee Kah Choon quits Gerakan to helm Invest Penang

Latest: Rhina Bhar quits Gerakan after 30 years citing racial discrimination

DAP not eager to challenge Desperate Housewives

DAP declines open debate invite by Bunga Tanjung

Desperate Housewives (Penang version) show their mettle - Don't run away from us!:-



This money does not belong to the DAP

Dr Koh: I am not hiding behind my wife's skirt

You exposed us to full public view

We are professionals, NOT housewives and NOT desperate

From desperate to arrogant?

Malaysian Indians still being ostracized

Malaysian Home Minister to deprive 100 Makkal Ossai employees of their jobs

Giving very flimsy excuse Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar shows off his newly acquired power by punishing Tamil newspaper Makkal Ossai for their support towards the Opposition parties during the recently concluded general elections.

By refusing to extend their permit he has managed to exact Barisan's revenge on the recalcitrant media by effectively closing them down. This will indeed go to show the mainstream media who is in power and to remind them that they will still have to support Barisan (if they want their permits, and they do not want to lose their jobs) unless when the day comes where Barisan is completely removed from the government.


This is what happens when you don't report anything good about BN

Samy Vellu: No one wants to help the Indians

Pak Lah: Don't Blame Me

I am just the president , the members are to blame

Malaysian PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has absolve himself from any blame in the recent defeat of Barisan Nasional in 2 states. In refusing to blame himself as the cause the PM said it was all due to other UMNO members sabotaging the party and NOT himself. The PM was quick to shift the blame to his own party members after a closed-door briefing session with about 1,000 Umno grassroots leaders at the Putra World Trade Centre on Sunday.


"UMNO members apologising to Abdullah?"

PM Abdullah was adamant that if UMNO collapses after the recent election, he has nothing to do with it and didn't want to be seen as the reason why UMNO and his Barisan counterparts did so badly in the recent election. As a mark of his statemanship the PM elaborated that sabotage by UMNO members could not be attributed to his weak leadership nor his inability to control his own members.

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What went wrong for UMNO

Joceline Tan lays it out for UMNO in case they are still too arrogant to admit it:-

Like they say, "the writing was on the wall", but UMNO chosed to ignore the signs and believed in the hype created by their own media dogs (e.g. The Star and Zainuddin Maidin) until they ultimately believed they were too powerful to be brought down. The Star has now began to change their tune (is it the fear of a backlash?) and Zam should start to learn from history himself.

“We give good service but we've been dealing with the symptoms, not the root causes. A classic case was Chew Mei Fun losing to Tony Pua,” said Sim. MCA's Chew, a former parliamentary secretary, was famous for her dedicated service in PJ Utara. But the DAP argued so well that Parliament is for legislators who can talk about national issues and not a “YB Longkang” that her campaign literally went down the drain.

Even Gerakan, which started off as the voice of conscience, lost its way when it allowed the politics of the day to take over. Said Penang Gerakan politician Teng Chang Yeow: “We keep asking the Chinese for full support so that they will be wellrepresented in government. But wasn't that what they gave us in 2004, total support? Now you know why they're fed-up!

“Leaders like Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein and Khairy Jamaluddin must realise this. People equated their behaviour with Umno's inability to change with the times. If an Oxford-educated guy still talks like an Umno politician of 10 years ago, what hope do we have for the rest of Umno?”


"I don't have any property in Penang!"

“The writing is on the wall. We cannot hesitate over reforms. I won't say the Opposition will do much better than us but they can't do worse than us,” said Dr Sak.

Our highly acute Ex-Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin of course sums it best on what went wrong for UMNO by just opening his mouth:

I do not believe SMS and blogs had a huge impact on the recently-concluded general election.

It (outcome of the general election) could be more of a protest the people had in mind – to vent their anger on the government.

It is a fact that there are more people owning a mobile phone than a computer.

It is common for the village folk to receive SMS nowadays but again some may not know how to retrieve them.



Dr M: Is UMNO so lacking in talent that we can't find someone to replace the present PM?

Zam: Don't blame me, blame Dr M

UMNO vs Royalty

It's now down to the wire as Pak Lah takes on the Royalty with guns blazing while Ku Li eggs him on to his imminent downfall and Che Det watches from the shadows with bated breath. This has all the trimmings of a Hollywood blockbuster. It's not hard to see who will be the Last Man Standing.

 
 
Images downloaded from Kickdefella

Kickdefella has the roundup on the high drama happening over the high seas in Terengganu and over the hot pit lanes in Sepang.

RPK gives his account on how Son-In-Law and Patrick Lim fits into the picturesque scene in Terengganu

"Azalina Bukan Wanita"

Rafidah doubts Azalina's gender as Malaysian politicians get serious

UMNO's veteran politician Rafidah Aziz gets down to serious business after reeling from the recent elections by tackling the nation's numero uno issue of all time: "Is (Ex-Sports Minister) Azalina a Wanita (woman)?"

Everyone knows UMNO is in deep shit nowadays and thus UMNO Wanita President takes the bull by the horns by openly inquiring about UMNO Wanita's Ex-Youth President's gender which has long been under the scrutiny of all disturbed Malaysians.



Never has the Rafidah had to go head-to-head to solve the nation's most serious problem of all time, more serious than the AP issue, more worrisome than AFTA, more ignominious than the scalping of Barisan...

"Is Azalina a woman or not?"

UMNO tries to stir racial tension after losing the election

PM Abdullah Badawi losing control of UMNO amidst being snubbed by the Sultan of Perlis

PM Abdullah Badawi's days are numbered as he grows increasingly out of touch with his own party. 3 days ago UMNO members planned and executed a protest rally in Penang as he sat and watched (or did he sleep through it?) without lifting a finger. This coming from the Executive who disallowed any form of protest from the Opposition prior to the just concluded election. This coming from a man who said that he worked very hard and would be fair to all Malaysians. 3 days after the protest there has not been a word coming out from him.

Spot the missing link among the 3 images below:-







Answer: FRU
Images downloaded from Susan Loones' Blog

Penang UMNO: Those were OUR projects, you CAN"T have it!

Penang new CM: "No more lawatan sambil belajar!"

Going, Going, Gone.

The 2008 General Election has indeed served a delightful bouquet of surprises to the Malaysian public and we can't wait to bid goodbye to dirty old rags:-

Goodbye to Gerakan Acting President Koh Tsu Koon

Goodbye (soon?) to MIC President Samy Vellu

MCA to kick out their President Ong Ka Ting

And finally will UMNO have enough balls to also kick out their President and PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi?

So far only Dr Koh has been the ONLY politician with honour and we respect him for that. The rest are still clinging on to their posts and if they really know what's good for their party and not for themselves they should now do the honourable thing and not wait for others to kick them out.

Malaysians Vote On Whether Pak Lah Should Resign

Interesting facts about the 2008 Election

Reprinted from Malaysiakini.com:-

Barisan Nasional only gained about 51 percent of the popular vote from the 7.9 million ballots cast on Saturday.

However, it took 63 percent of the seats contested - or 140 of 222 seats in Parliament.

Interestingly, its peninsula-wide popular vote was only 49.79 percent, which effectively means that the opposition received the majority vote in this part of the country.

However, when converted to parliamentary seats, BN has 85 of the constituencies in the peninsula, while the opposition bagged 80.

Almost 40 percent of the BN's seats are in Sabah and Sarawak - 55 out of 140.

In 2004, BN won about 64 percent of the popular vote nationwide and 92 percent of the 219 parliamentary seats on offer then.

As the dust settles on the 12th general election, we highlight a number of quirky facts and figures.

Election trivia

* The youngest candidate was PKR’s Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, who is 26. He defeated Seri Setia incumbent Seripa Noli Syed Hussin.

* The oldest candidate was grandma Maimun Yusuf, 89, who contested in the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat. She lost her deposit.


UMNO's 89-year old adversary

* 56 also-rans from opposition parties and independent candidates lost their deposits after failing to secure one-eighth of the votes cast.

* The largest majority was won by DAP’s Teresa Kok against BN’s Carol Chew, by 36,492 votes in the Seputeh parliamentary seat in Kuala Lumpur.

* The smallest majority was just 14 votes for BN’s Hamdi Abu Bakar who beat Abu Bakar Haji Hussain of PAS in the Pengkalan Baharu state seat in Perak.

* Four pivotal players in the Lingam tape scandal also won: Loh Gwo Burne (who recorded the footage), Wee Choo Keong (lawyer who represented VK Lingam’s brother during the inquiry) and R Sivarasa and Sim Tze Tzin (listed as witnesses but eventually not called). All four are from PKR.

* There will be two ‘lone rangers’ in Parliament: Zulhasnan Rafique, the sole BN survivor in Kuala Lumpur’s 11 parliamentary seats - he took Setiawangsa; and DAP’s Chong Chieng Jen who won Bandar Kuching in Sarawak - the remaining 30 parliamentary seats went to BN.

* The biggest number of candidates was in the Sukau state seat, Sabah, where eight candidates ran, including five Independents.


Debutant politicians

Prominent blogger Jeff Ooi - whose campaign was done online and funds were raised through his website - won the Jelutong parliamentary seat in Penang for DAP.

Other bloggers are Tony Pua (DAP, Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentary seat), Elizabeth Wong (PKR, Bukit Lanjan state seat) and Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (PKR, Seri Setia state seat).

Civil society activists who succeeded were Charles Santiago (DAP, water-privatisation issues), Edward Lee (DAP, local community), Elizabeth Wong and R Sivarasa (PKR, human rights).

Biggest blows

The losses in BN component parties will result in vacancies in various ministries, forcing a cabinet reshuffle.

Ministers

* S Samy Vellu (Works Ministry)

* Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (Women, Family and Community Development Ministry)

* Zainuddin Maidin (Information Ministry)

* Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin (Rural and Territory Development Ministry)

Deputy ministers

* Chia Kwang Chye (Information Ministry)

* G Palanivel (Women, Family and Community Development)

* Tan Chai Ho (Home Ministry)

* V Veerasingam (Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry)

* S Sothinathan (Natural Resources and Environment Ministry)

* Donald Lim (Tourism Ministry)

* Fu Ah Kiow (Internal Security Ministry)

* M Kayveas (Prime Minister’s Department)

Parliamentary secretaries

* Chew Mei Fun (Women, Family and Community Development Ministry)

* P Komala Devi (Education Ministry)

* Lee Kah Choon (Health Ministry)

* Ng Lip Yong (Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry)

* S Vigneswaran (Youth and Sports Ministry)

* Rahman Ibrahim (Home Ministry)

* Dr Mohd Ruddin Ab Ghani (Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry)

* Yew Teong Look (Federal Territories Ministry)

The full team from the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry all lost in the polls.

All top MIC leaders were wiped out - president, deputy presidents, two vice-presidents, women's chief and youth chief (one of the three vice-presidents, KS Nijar, did not contest).

Post-election quotes

Anwar Ibrahim, PKR de facto leader, quoted in Star today

Some mentris besar in the past spent half-a-million ringgit to renovate their offices. Such things cannot be an example in this new administration.

Nurul Izzah Anwar, Lembah Pantai MP at a press conference yesterday

(On whether she will vacate the seat to force a by-election so that her father, Anwar Ibrahim, can re-enter politics after a five-year ban): I have already started working in my constituency. The question does not arise.

PPP president M Kayveas, quoted in Star today

Prior to the elections, Barisan Nasional had kept on telling people to show their dissatisfaction through the ballot box. Now they have really shown it.

Sungai Petani losing BN candidate Zainuddin Maidin, quoted in Star today

It is not that they love PKR or PAS more that they voted against me.

The Chinese showed their resentment because of the economic backlash they often complained about. So, PAS and PKR should not be overly proud of their win (in Kedah).

The people may have to pay a price for their decision.

Election postmortem by Bridget Welsh (assistant professor in Southeast Asian studies at John Hopkins University)