ANWAR – A BY ELECTION OR APPOINTMENT AS SENATOR

Is it necessary for the newly elected Members of Parliament for Lembah Pantai and Permatang Pauh to resign to enable a by election to be held in order that Anwar Ibrahim to contest the by election and be elected as Member of Parliament. Shouldn’t both of them remain as Member of Parliament? The Malaysian Parliament like other Legislature in other countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States is made of two Houses. In the United Kingdom the two houses are called the House of Commons and the House of Lord. The same comparison could be made to Malaysia – the Lower House known as Dewan Rakyat and the Upper House known as Dewan Senate.

Since the Barisan Rakyat is now in control of five states, namely Kelantan, Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor, is it not better for one of the states to nominate Anwar Ibrahim as a Senator to enable him to voice his opinions. Alternatively, since Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) is one of the coalition parties that formed the State Government of Selangor, perhaps Selangor should nominate Anwar Ibrahim to be a Senator. (All State Governments appoint two Senators from each state).

Alternatively should Anwar Ibrahim chooses to be an elected Member of Parliament, instead of Nurul Izzah (Lembah Pantai) or Puan Azizah (Permatang Pauh) resigning their seats, and to enable Tan Seri Khalid Ibrahim to focus on his newly appointed job as Menteri Besar of Selangor, he should offer to resign as Member of Parliament for Bandar Tun Razak to make way for a by election for Anwar Ibrahim to contest and enter Parliament.

Likewise the newly appointed Chief Minister of Penang, may also resign as Member of Parliament to enable someone from Democratic Action Party to contest in the by election. He will then be able to focus on his newly appointed job as the Chief Minister of Penang.

I also feel that the Deputy President of Parti Keadilan Rakyat should be made a Senator which may either come from Selangor or Perak. Likewise Party Islam (PAS) should nominate Mohamad Sabu, Mustaffa Ali and Appandi Mohamad as Senators. Their nomination may come from Kelantan or Kedah.

As it, PAS has only two Senators in the House of Senate representing the State of Kelantan. Having more Senators in the House of Senate representing the Barisan Rakyat will make the Barisan Rakyat to be heard.

SHOW BN THE EXIT DOOR

Just before March 8 2008, where Malaysians went to the poll, Barisan Nasional (BN) felt that the results will be similar to the Election Results 2004, and at its worst will at least attained a two thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat. They were even confident that Kelantan that had been under Parti Islam (PAS) for the last 18 years will be regained. And nothing was said or heard that four states on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia will go to the opposition parties.

The results of the Malaysian 12^th. General Election had been described as political tsunami by many, and indeed surprised not only the Barisan Nasional but also the opposition parties, as well as the Rakyat, the business sector and even the world.

It was unheard before the election that people in the street will talk badly on Barisan Nasional, and it did happened just a day later. They were talking upon the disaster falling on the Barisan Nasional loud and clear, and seemed to be contented with what happened to the Barisan Nasional. And that was what were happening all over the country.

The victory that the Barisan Rakyat attained in the general election – can it be sustained or will the states be taken back by Barisan Nasional in the next general election, as what happened to the state of Trengganu, which was under PAS for only four years. As a matter many would have expected PAS to regain the state, and it didn’t happened.

Despite using dirty tactics and foul plays, Barisan Nasional only managed to secure 180 seats in the Dewan Rakyat short of 8 to secure a two thirds majority. Remours are going around Barisan Nasional are shopping to secure 8 members of the opposition members to join the Barisan Nasional. There were also remours are also going around that some members of Parliament may crossover to the Barisan Rakyat.

The self destruction of Barisan Nasional has just begun. The lost of several seats in the recent election had been attributed by many factors. The internal conflicts that existed among the Barisan Nasional parties are very real and are worrying the leaders. The choice of unpopular candidates over the incumbents, had not caused them to stay away during the election campaign, but in extreme cases, they had been going from house to house and getting the votes not to vote for Barisan Nasional candidates contesting in the election.

This was something that had been overlooked by Ahmad Badawi in particular. Thinking that Barisan Nasional will make a clean sweep in the election, attempts were made to ignore the requests from several branches on appointment of candidates whom they preferred. Abdullah had been receiving the wrong advices in particular from his son in law Khairy Jamaluddin on the selection of candidates.

The lost of several seats were attributed by the lost of seats contested by Gerakan, MCA, MIC and PPP which saw the leaders from these parties losing in the election even contesting in safe seats that had been BN’s stronghold for a very long time.

As in Kelantan since the last 18 years, BN attempt to regain the state failed miserably. The same will go for the four states that are taken by Barisan Alternatif. One of the sure way to keep out BN from taking over the states they lost, is for Barisan Alternatif to fulfill the promises that they made during the election. The fulfillment of these promises will closely be watched by people of the states that remain under Barisan Nasional, and in the next election, they may cast their votes for Barisan Alternatif candidates. The Barisan Alternatif should have a roadmap not only in sustaining the states that they now controlled but show look into possibility of getting other states under their control. The should also focus on Sabah and Sarawak, and if getting these two states under their control an impossible task, the least to lessen the number of seats to be won by Barisan Nasional parties in both states. And the works begin from now.

ANWAR – A BY ELECTION OR APPOINTMENT AS SENATOR

Is it necessary for the newly elected Members of Parliament for Lembah Pantai and Permatang Pauh to resign to enable a by election to be held in order that Anwar Ibrahim to contest the by election and be elected as Member of Parliament. Shouldn’t both of them remain as Member of Parliament? The Malaysian Parliament like other Legislature in other countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States is made of two Houses. In the United Kingdom the two houses are called the House of Commons and the House of Lord. The same comparison could be made to Malaysia – the Lower House known as Dewan Rakyat and the Upper House known as Dewan Senate.

Since the Barisan Rakyat is now in control of five states, namely Kelantan, Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor, is it not better for one of the states to nominate Anwar Ibrahim as a Senator to enable him to voice his opinions. Alternatively, since Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) is one of the coalition parties that formed the State Government of Selangor, perhaps Selangor should nominate Anwar Ibrahim to be a Senator. (All State Governments appoint two Senators from each state).

Alternatively should Anwar Ibrahim chooses to be an elected Member of Parliament, instead of Nurul Izzah (Lembah Pantai) or Puan Azizah (Permatang Pauh) resigning their seats, and to enable Tan Seri Khalid Ibrahim to focus on his newly appointed job as Menteri Besar of Selangor, he should offer to resign as Member of Parliament for Bandar Tun Razak to make way for a by election for Anwar Ibrahim to contest and enter Parliament.

Likewise the newly appointed Chief Minister of Penang, may also resign as Member of Parliament to enable someone from Democratic Action Party to contest in the by election. He will then be able to focus on his newly appointed job as the Chief Minister of Penang.

I also feel that the Deputy President of Parti Keadilan Rakyat should be made a Senator which may either come from Selangor or Perak. Likewise Party Islam (PAS) should nominate Mohamad Sabu, Mustaffa Ali and Appandi Mohamad as Senators. Their nomination may come from Kelantan or Kedah.

As it, PAS has only two Senators in the House of Senate representing the State of Kelantan. Having more Senators in the House of Senate representing the Barisan Rakyat will make the Barisan Rakyat to be heard.

Party Manifesto

During the recent election campaign the Opposition Party came up with their party manifesto. Now that five states, namely Kelantan, Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor are ruled by Barisan Rakyat some leaders from the Barisan Nasional are demanding that Barisan Rakyat honour the promises they made through their party manifesto. What they failed to understand or pretend not to understand, the promises to implement what was written in the manifesto is will only apply if they formed the Federal Government of Malaysia.

It is plain stupidity on the parts of so called leaders like Dr Mahathir Mohammad being a former Prime Minister and Hishamuddin Hussein to make statements that they expected Barisan Rakyat who are in control of the five states to honour the promises outline in party manifesto.There is no doubt that many more of the Barisan Nasional leaders will be echoing the same message, and will make similar statements that Barisan Rakyat leaders can make promises but in no position to honour such promises.

They hope that this will trigger the people’s anger towards Barisan Rakyat, and that it will pave the way for them to take back the five states. Let us hope the Malaysian at large are not easily influence by these unhealthy statements made by the so called leaders. It just proved their shallow understand of what democracy is all about.

The leaders from Barisan Nasional made several press statements that they accepted the Barisan Nasional defeat in the recent election with an opened heart and respected the wishes of the people. Yet in another breath with twists and turns, it was crystal clear that they were not sincere in what they said.

MAKING IT WORKS

The nation and perhaps the entire world is watching closely with interest whether the five states won by the Opposition Parties, namely Kelantan, Kedah, Perak, Penang and Selangor will be able to rule the five states in an effective manner, and are far better that those states that continued to be ruled by the Barisan Nasional . Differences do exist and it will not be easy to just leave them aside. More importantly such weaknesses and failures will be highlighted by the Barisan Nasional and the media that are controlled by them to cause instability in those five states.

Whether these five states will be continued to rule by the Barisan Rakyat (Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Democratic Action Party and Parti Islam Malaysia) in future will depend much on the co-operation among these three parties). Their success will then no longer be manipulated by the Barisan Nasional and the media. In all probabilities more states may fall to them in the next General Election, and their success attained will be envy by the states ruled by Barisan Nasional.

As said, it will not be easy to put aside the differences that existed among the parties that make up the Barisan Rakyat. Even before the new Menteri Besar and Ketua Menteri are appointed there are already demands from various sectors that the lines up of the State EXCOs posts. These are not healthy signs which may jeopardize the effective functions of the five states in questioned.

Due credit deserves to be given to the newly appointed Menteri Besar of Kedah, who is offering EXCO position to newly elected DAP and to the Independent in Kedah. The other three other states (Kelantan been excluded) should follow the fine example shown by the newly appointed Menteri Besar of Kedah. I believe DAP and Keadilan should appoint the sole PAS member in the Penang State Assembly to as an EXCO member as well. Think of the long run impact Barisan Rakyat.

Top party leaders from parties that make up the Barisan Rakyat should sit down and deliberate seriously and come to agreement on maximum co-operation among them. Notably in this aspect is the role to be played by Datuk Seri Anwar from Keadilan.

To ensure the voices of Barisan Rakyat are also heard in the Dewan Senate, I believe the Senatorship should be offered among others to Syed Husin Ali (Deputy President – Keadilan), Mohammad Sabu and Datuk Mustafa Ali. Forget about what the Barisan Nasional would comment on these appointments, as past performance proved that they are even bigger culprit.

Barisan Nasional continues to rule Malaysia, and may continue to do for many years to come. The obvious advantage that the Barisan Nasional possessed is the support they get from Barisan Nasional parties in Sabah and Sarawak. Together these two states contributed 52 Members of Parliament from the total of 180 Members of Parliament won in Malaysia 12 General Election. Barisan Rakyat should make an effort to intensive their efforts to spread their wings all over these two states. Perhaps get the existing local parties in these two states to become members of Barisan Rakyat, and give an all out efforts to strengthen them. The Barisan Nasional in these two states will be able to remain power for sometime, but the least the Barisan Rakyat could do is to win some seats (both Parliament and States) from these two states.

In the past, too often DAP and Keadilan contested for the same seats in both Sarawak and Sabah, and by doing so the Barisan Nasional easily won the seats. Some of the seats were marginally won, and it is not something impossible for Barisan Rakyat parties to win seats in these two states. Barisan Rakyat must make it appears that they are ready to rule Malaysia, and should go all out efforts to make it happens in the next General Election, which will be about four years from now, or earlier. Make it as the main agenda.

BARISAN NASIONAL LOSSES

Barisan Nasional was too over confident that they would win easily in the recently held Malaysia 12^th. General Election. In spite of all the advantages which they had – enormous some of money for their campaign, the government machinery (including the Police and the Election Commission (SPR), as well as the local media.

Without shame and the feeling of wrong doings, local media were extensively used to spread Barisan Nasional propaganda and lies, to the extent it became boring to read the local press or even to listen to radio and watch TV news. The mastermind in spreading the Barisan Nasional lies was none other the ex Minister of Information, Zainuddin Maidin, who was contesting in Sungai Petani (P.15) and failed to defend the seat.

Since he lost his seat, his face no longer appeared on the local TV unlike those days where more often than not his stupid and ugly looking face will appeared on local TV without failed for the last four years or so. It is a great relief that the nation is spared the torture to witness the lies propagated by this man. Zainuddin Maidin was not the first Minister of Information to have resort to using the TV in particular, to prorogate Barisan National lies. In the past Datuk Rahmat when he was the Minister of Information was no different.

Samy Vellu the ex Minister of Works, who contested in Sungai Siput (P.62) failed to defend his seat having been the MP closed to two decades. Perhaps his downfall was because the hatered by many, even among the Indians, as well as his big mouth. One of the statements he made during the election campaign was that his opponent Dr Michael Jeyakuman Devaraj of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) will never ever unseated him. Serve him right for his big mouth. Because of the hatred towards this one man, only 3 out of 9 were elected to represent Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) made it to the Parliament.

During the campaigning period there were too many negative statements made by Ministers (Samy Vellu, Ong Ka Ting and Dr Lim Keng Yaik), Chandra Mustaffa (Just World), Nallakumar, Roslan Kasim (ex founder of Parti Keadilan Nasional) and others on the ex Deputy Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim. This could be a contributing factor for Barisan Nasional loss in the election. The Rakyat must have been fed up and boring to hear the same music been played too often by these kinds of people), especially when the General Election was just around the corner. Why was such comments not made long before the election was held. Purely cheap stuff and propaganda that would suit the Barisan Nasional.

Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar was also responsible for Barisan Nasional loss in the previous election. He is the son in law of Ahmad Badawi (Prime Minister of Malaysia) and contested in Rembau (P.131). Although he won in the election it was by a much reduced majority than the General Election of 2004. Perhaps he could be one of the persons responsible for the loss of Barisan Nasional candidates in the state of Kelantan in the recent election. His ‘Enough18 Years of PAS Rule in Kelantan’ backfired on him, and turned to be ‘Enough of 50Years Rule of Barisan Nasional Rule in Malaysia’ It is strange that not a word from comes him after the General Election, except for a brief statement of his admission that some mistakes were made during the election campaign that caused Barisan Nasional losses.

Perhaps once didn’t notice and take into account the role played by Ramly the Speaker of Dewan Rakyat that caused the Barisan Nasional lost. As always including the Speakers before him, he seemed to treat whatever proposals for a debate that came from the Opposition Members were always not urgent, and need not be debated. He may still remain as the Speaker for Dewan Rakyat when Parliamentary session commences very soon. Will he continue with the same tactics whenever proposals from the Opposition Members are tabled? It left to be seen.

Of course the list is incomplete without mentioning the role played by the Chairman of
Election Commission, Rashid, and his so called gang. Despite of the many reports that were made on the irregularities that existed in Voters Lists in the Election, and the numerous defectives directives given by the commission, he denied such irregularities and defects. The Election Commission is supposed to be an independent body, but under Rashid the commission is behaving like a government agency that listened to orders dictated by the Prime Minster and the Cabinet. He would be not around in the next General Election, and hopefully the new Chairman to be appointed will be more professional and not to be bias towards the Opposition.

Added to this list was the role played by the police headed by IGP Musa. Musa and his officers should go to advanced countries to witness how protest demonstrations are carried out such as in the United Kingdom. Usually the police will walk with the demonstrators in a long queue and their roles were solely to regulate smooth movements of traffic and will not resort to using water cannons and the likes.

Another figure that needs to be mentioned is Hishamuddin bin Hussein who displayed the keris (Malay dagger) during UMNO Youth Movement Annual Meeting, that hurt the feelings of the non Malays. Mohamad Nazri Abd Aziz (Perak) during the recent Parliament session mentioned that the opposition parties would be badly defeated in the 12 General Election. Did he realized now how badly the Barisan Nasional was beaten in the election. Even his home state, Perak is now ruled by the Opposition. Mind your mouth and think before you say something, and look at the damages you had done. It is fortunate that you were elected in the recent election otherwise they will be too many people who will be overjoyed by your defeat.

There were too many more people who contributed to Barisan Nasional losses and the list should also include Mohd Toyo (the ex Menteri Besar of Selangor), Mohd Ali Mohd Rustam (Chief Minister of Melaka), Anuar Musa (Kelantan) Rais Yatim. You all tried to portray yourself as heroes but in actual fact you are behaving as villains and big bullies.

Let History Be The Judge To Your Deeds