According to PM Abdullah the appointment of the Menteri Besar (a.k.a Chief Minister) of the state of Terengganu is unconstitutional. The opposition led state of Perak was first in the lime light when DAP's advisor LKS had a row with the Perak Palace. IT has since been settled amicably. Then the goverment led state of Perlis had the same problem. The problem in Perlis is also over, with the ex-MB not attending the new MB's swearing in ceremony.
Now its another government led state -Terengganu (Govt 2 - Opp 1) in terms of having "BIG" problems with their respective Rulers. Just to re-cap, the Sultan of Terengganu is our current King (i.e. Yang DiPertuan Agong). Although he is not involved in this fiasco (since he is some sort of "away" from state duties, now conducting national duties), still the scenario is still comparable to what happened in Perak (i.e. not respecting the Palace).
Continue the plot
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The Sun - CM: We are also a friend to investors
The Cheif Minister of Penang, insists that they will adopt a positive approach towards invetors. They will implement policies that will give investors all the reasons to invest in Penang. I hope that this will benefit the people of Penang, and raise the living standards of the less fortunate.
Continue the plot
Continue the plot
The Star -PAS welcomes defectors but won’t use cash to entice Barisan MPs
The Islamist opposition party PAS welcomes MP's from ruling coalition to crossover to the opposition. In line with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's comments, they would not steep so low as to "buy" crossovers. Those intending to crossover must do it with their own conscience.
Continue the plot
Continue the plot
Friday, March 21, 2008
The Star -Don’t cause trouble for Umno, Tengku Razaleigh advised
Tengku Razaleigh (Ku Li), a powerful UMNO figure especially during the 80's has announced his intention for the Presidency of UMNO and with wide spread rumours that this move is with the blessing of Tun Mahathir (his former nemesis). Ku Li has suggested that UMNO convene an EGM to iron out its problems. The suggestion has received mixed feedbacks form UMNO members. It is understood that those at the grassroot level welcome the move but those in the higher echelon (not all, but a significant number I guess) are against the move.
Continue the plot
Continue the plot
NST -Don: No law to prevent party-hopping
There is no law in Malaysia preventing an MP for one party to crossover to another party. Its all about ethics. If you were voted in because of your allegiance with a certain party, then you can be considered "duping" your constituents if you crossover to another party (the premis is the voters vote for the party not the individual). The ethical thing to do is to resign and force a by-election and let the voters decide. However, since politics is the art of possibilities, its anybody's guess.
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Reuters -Defections could sink Malaysia govt: Anwar
By Mark Bendeich
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Lawmakers from Malaysia's ruling coalition are willing to defect to the opposition, threatening to drag down the government, de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said in an interview on Wednesday
Anwar, who made a dramatic political comeback at elections on March 8, told Reuters that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's coalition was cracking apart and was fast losing support from smaller constituent parties based on Borneo island.
"The sentiments in Sabah and Sarawak are strong with a number of people approaching us," Anwar said, referring to Malaysia's two resource-rich but relatively undeveloped states on Borneo.
"They are approaching us because they realize -- for Sabah and Sarawak -- we have a better deal for them," he said, adding that the opposition would offer them more royalties from Borneo's natural resources, more development and more help for the poor.
"Events are unfolding fast. Things are changing," Anwar said in an interview in the front garden of his office, a bungalow in a leafy suburb of the capital.
The minor parties of Sabah and Sarawak ensured Abdullah's Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition clung to power in the elections, which gave Abdullah's main ruling party, the United Malaysia National Organisation (UMNO), the fright of its life.
Barisan suffered the heaviest setback in its near-unbroken 50-year reign since independence. It lost its two-thirds majority in federal parliament and surrendered an unprecedented five states to the opposition, including its industrial heartlands.
Barisan now holds a 29-seat majority in the 222-member parliament, razor thin by its own standards. Sabah and Sarawak parties, a world apart from the politics of peninsular Malaysia, delivered 42 seats to Barisan but they failed to get many senior ministries in Abdullah's new cabinet announced on Tuesday.
TROUBLE IN BORNEO PARADISE?
There is widespread talk of grumbling within Barisan's ranks on Boreno, especially in Sabah, but political experts do not feel Anwar could persuade as many as 29 of their MPs to defect.
Sarawak could be particularly hard to crack for Anwar because its chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, is a Barisan stalwart whose son was appointed a deputy minister in the new cabinet.
"I think he's unlikely to get 29," said Zainon Ahmad, the political editor of the local Sun newspaper.
But Anwar said it remained a possibility, though he declined to say how many lawmakers had voiced a willingness to defect.
When asked if it was more than five, he said: "Of course it's more than five." When pressed if it was more than 10, he declined further comment, saying, "We'll come to that."
Asked if the opposition could win enough defections to gain power, he added: "You cannot rule out that possibility."
But the prime minister dismissed this. "Why should the government be toppled? The government is strong," Abdullah later told reporters, then hinted Anwar might be making inducements for MPs to defect. "We don't go around buying the people," he added.
An aide to Anwar, Din Merican, denied this. "We don't buy politicians. It would make a mockery of what we stand for."
Opposition parties won 82 seats, with Anwar's Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People's Justice Party) holding the biggest block of opposition seats at 31. The Democratic Acton Party, which is backed mostly by ethnic Chinese, and the Parti Islam se-Malaysia, an Islamist outfit, make up the rest of the opposition.
Anwar, a former deputy premier, was barred from standing for election on March 8 because of a corruption conviction. He was jailed for about six years until 2004 on corruption and sodomy charges that he said had been cooked up by the government.
Around half of Keadilan's newly elected MPs, including his wife, have offered to resign their seat so that he can come back to parliament through a by-election, he said. Until then, his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, has been chosen as parliamentary opposition leader, the opposition parties announced on Wednesday.
But Anwar has not ruled out a lawmaker from the prime minister's own party, UMNO, quitting and causing an opportunity for Anwar to contest. Anwar was once UMNO deputy leader and still draws grass-roots support from within the ruling party.
"Don't be surprised if there are by-elections in the UMNO-controlled seats," he said.
(Additional reporting by Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Lawmakers from Malaysia's ruling coalition are willing to defect to the opposition, threatening to drag down the government, de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said in an interview on Wednesday
Anwar, who made a dramatic political comeback at elections on March 8, told Reuters that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's coalition was cracking apart and was fast losing support from smaller constituent parties based on Borneo island.
"The sentiments in Sabah and Sarawak are strong with a number of people approaching us," Anwar said, referring to Malaysia's two resource-rich but relatively undeveloped states on Borneo.
"They are approaching us because they realize -- for Sabah and Sarawak -- we have a better deal for them," he said, adding that the opposition would offer them more royalties from Borneo's natural resources, more development and more help for the poor.
"Events are unfolding fast. Things are changing," Anwar said in an interview in the front garden of his office, a bungalow in a leafy suburb of the capital.
The minor parties of Sabah and Sarawak ensured Abdullah's Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition clung to power in the elections, which gave Abdullah's main ruling party, the United Malaysia National Organisation (UMNO), the fright of its life.
Barisan suffered the heaviest setback in its near-unbroken 50-year reign since independence. It lost its two-thirds majority in federal parliament and surrendered an unprecedented five states to the opposition, including its industrial heartlands.
Barisan now holds a 29-seat majority in the 222-member parliament, razor thin by its own standards. Sabah and Sarawak parties, a world apart from the politics of peninsular Malaysia, delivered 42 seats to Barisan but they failed to get many senior ministries in Abdullah's new cabinet announced on Tuesday.
TROUBLE IN BORNEO PARADISE?
There is widespread talk of grumbling within Barisan's ranks on Boreno, especially in Sabah, but political experts do not feel Anwar could persuade as many as 29 of their MPs to defect.
Sarawak could be particularly hard to crack for Anwar because its chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, is a Barisan stalwart whose son was appointed a deputy minister in the new cabinet.
"I think he's unlikely to get 29," said Zainon Ahmad, the political editor of the local Sun newspaper.
But Anwar said it remained a possibility, though he declined to say how many lawmakers had voiced a willingness to defect.
When asked if it was more than five, he said: "Of course it's more than five." When pressed if it was more than 10, he declined further comment, saying, "We'll come to that."
Asked if the opposition could win enough defections to gain power, he added: "You cannot rule out that possibility."
But the prime minister dismissed this. "Why should the government be toppled? The government is strong," Abdullah later told reporters, then hinted Anwar might be making inducements for MPs to defect. "We don't go around buying the people," he added.
An aide to Anwar, Din Merican, denied this. "We don't buy politicians. It would make a mockery of what we stand for."
Opposition parties won 82 seats, with Anwar's Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People's Justice Party) holding the biggest block of opposition seats at 31. The Democratic Acton Party, which is backed mostly by ethnic Chinese, and the Parti Islam se-Malaysia, an Islamist outfit, make up the rest of the opposition.
Anwar, a former deputy premier, was barred from standing for election on March 8 because of a corruption conviction. He was jailed for about six years until 2004 on corruption and sodomy charges that he said had been cooked up by the government.
Around half of Keadilan's newly elected MPs, including his wife, have offered to resign their seat so that he can come back to parliament through a by-election, he said. Until then, his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, has been chosen as parliamentary opposition leader, the opposition parties announced on Wednesday.
But Anwar has not ruled out a lawmaker from the prime minister's own party, UMNO, quitting and causing an opportunity for Anwar to contest. Anwar was once UMNO deputy leader and still draws grass-roots support from within the ruling party.
"Don't be surprised if there are by-elections in the UMNO-controlled seats," he said.
(Additional reporting by Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
NST -Anwar admits meeting BN reps on crossovers, not buyovers
IPOH, Fri: On top of the Sabah and Sarawak BN elected representatives he met, Parti Keadilan Rakyat de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also held meetings with Peninsular BN representatives on the possibility of defecting to the opposition. But as things stand, PKR is not rushing into the situation.
"I had calls from the East Malaysian states and also Peninsular and even Perak...it is not our tradition to buyover it is the tradition of Umno and Barisan Nasional," he said.
"They must adhere to policies and struggle to see changes in the country if they intend to join us...and if the subject of buying over is raised...discussions would be cancelled."
He was speaking to reporters after making a courtesy call on Perak Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin at his office here today. Also present were PKR president Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and vice-president Dr Lee Boon Chye. Anwar was asked on the development of the possibility of Sabah and Sarawak MPs to crossover to the opposition party.
"There are developments but we are not rushing into it .. we have time,” he said. “People in Sabah and Sarawak know that the majority of voters in the Peninsular had chosen the opposition party candidates, but if the ink had been used and there was transparency and justice in the postal votes...we would have been in power."
When asked on the reported crossover of a Sarawak MP to PKR, he said, "we will make an announcement on it later."
However, Sarawak United People's Party president Tan Sri Dr George Chan dismissed reports that Serian MP Datuk Richard Riot Jaem had resigned from the party and joined the opposition. Riot's wife Datin Micha Kayen Lingeng also denied that he husband had left the party.
Dr Chan who is a Sarawak Deputy minister was reported as saying that Riot was unhappy when he did not get a Federal Government post. The party nominated him for a parliamentary secretary post but such posts had been abolished in the new Abdullah Administration.
On his comeback through a parliamentary by-election, Anwar said: "I have been asked the question repeatedly…but we have been entrusted with a huge task of administering the five states as the rakyat had chosen us and it is time for us to respond in a positive manner."
"The issue had not cropped up...the first sitting of Parliament is on May 5. Our priority now is to see a resilient and vibrant economy which is a key factor to bring in the revenue for the opposition held states." Perak, Kedah, Penang, Selangor and Kelantan are ruled by opposition parties.
After winning the Permatang Pauh parliament seat for the third term in the March 8 polls, Wan Azizah was reported as saying that they will keep the seat for Anwar. Prior to polling day she had said that she would vacate the seat if she wins for Anwar to contest. There are also talks that PKR’s Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim will give up the Bandar Tun Razak parliamentary seat for Anwar.
"Why are people asking about Permatang Pauh? Why not in Kuala Kangsar or Kepala Batas. Do not discount the possibility," he added. - NST
"I had calls from the East Malaysian states and also Peninsular and even Perak...it is not our tradition to buyover it is the tradition of Umno and Barisan Nasional," he said.
"They must adhere to policies and struggle to see changes in the country if they intend to join us...and if the subject of buying over is raised...discussions would be cancelled."
He was speaking to reporters after making a courtesy call on Perak Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin at his office here today. Also present were PKR president Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and vice-president Dr Lee Boon Chye. Anwar was asked on the development of the possibility of Sabah and Sarawak MPs to crossover to the opposition party.
"There are developments but we are not rushing into it .. we have time,” he said. “People in Sabah and Sarawak know that the majority of voters in the Peninsular had chosen the opposition party candidates, but if the ink had been used and there was transparency and justice in the postal votes...we would have been in power."
When asked on the reported crossover of a Sarawak MP to PKR, he said, "we will make an announcement on it later."
However, Sarawak United People's Party president Tan Sri Dr George Chan dismissed reports that Serian MP Datuk Richard Riot Jaem had resigned from the party and joined the opposition. Riot's wife Datin Micha Kayen Lingeng also denied that he husband had left the party.
Dr Chan who is a Sarawak Deputy minister was reported as saying that Riot was unhappy when he did not get a Federal Government post. The party nominated him for a parliamentary secretary post but such posts had been abolished in the new Abdullah Administration.
On his comeback through a parliamentary by-election, Anwar said: "I have been asked the question repeatedly…but we have been entrusted with a huge task of administering the five states as the rakyat had chosen us and it is time for us to respond in a positive manner."
"The issue had not cropped up...the first sitting of Parliament is on May 5. Our priority now is to see a resilient and vibrant economy which is a key factor to bring in the revenue for the opposition held states." Perak, Kedah, Penang, Selangor and Kelantan are ruled by opposition parties.
After winning the Permatang Pauh parliament seat for the third term in the March 8 polls, Wan Azizah was reported as saying that they will keep the seat for Anwar. Prior to polling day she had said that she would vacate the seat if she wins for Anwar to contest. There are also talks that PKR’s Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim will give up the Bandar Tun Razak parliamentary seat for Anwar.
"Why are people asking about Permatang Pauh? Why not in Kuala Kangsar or Kepala Batas. Do not discount the possibility," he added. - NST
KLPos.com -Eksklusif: Ke mana MP-MP Sarawak menghilang?
This malay article reports that Member of Parliments from the ruling party BN from Sarawak are being "quarantined" in Australia after recent reports on the possibility of crossovers to the opposition. It also reports 3 MP's from the ruling party were stopped on their way to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's office yesterday (20.3.08).
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The Sun -Guan Eng joins in celebrations
The new Chief Minister of Penang (predominantly Chinese state in Malaysia) joined a Muslim celebration yesterday (the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him)). I think tolerence was the message he is trying to convey to the Muslim population in Penang.
A few days after taking office, this opposition leader of the DAP met with 22 Muslim NGO's. The NGO's issued a statement they were satisfied with his explanation on issues they raised during the meeting.
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A few days after taking office, this opposition leader of the DAP met with 22 Muslim NGO's. The NGO's issued a statement they were satisfied with his explanation on issues they raised during the meeting.
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The Star -Umno probe on defection claims
More on the latest development on rumours of crossovers from the government party BN to the oppositon. The opposition which has 82 parliment seats need another 30 for a simple majority. The parliment has 222 seats. Talk of crossovers from BN component members from Sabah and Sarawak has been on the rise. Its anybody's guess from here.
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Thursday, March 20, 2008
Breaking News -BN MP quits, may join PKR - Malaysiakini
Serian MP Richard Riot from Sarawak has resigned from Supp along with many party members from his constituency after he was not appointed a deputy minister in the federal cabinet.
Richard, a Bidayuh, is a five-term MP for Serian. He first won the seat as an Independent in 1990 and joined predominantly Chinese Supp in order to keep his seat as a BN legislator as Serian is a traditional Supp seat.
Richard submitted his resignation letter to Supp president Dr George Chan Hong Nam on the same day that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced his new cabinet line-up on Tuesday.
A veteran party member, acting as a spokesperson for the Serian MP, confirmed to Malaysiakini rumours that Richard had quit the party along with a number of his supporters and members of the five sub-branches of the Serian Supp branch. Each sub-branch has more than 1,000 members.
Requesting anonymity, the spokesperson said after the letter was submitted to Chan, the party president sent his secretary-general Sim Kheng Hui to Serian hoping to meet Richard and talk him out of it.
"But Richard was nowhere to be found," he added.
According to the spokesperson, many party members in Serian, mostly Bidayuh, had surrendered their membership cards and sent them all in a bag to the party president together with the resignation letter.
The party flags at the Serian branch office had also been taken down and burned by angry members.
No Dayak interests at heart
In the letter, Richard was said to have told Chan, who is one of Sarawak's two deputy chief ministers, that the party did not have Dayak interests at heart.
Chan was accused of engaging in a musical chair by putting up four names from the party to be considered by the prime minister when in fact he had already known the quota for the party was only three - one full minister and two deputy ministers.
The four names were Peter Chin, Miri MP, Robert Lau, Sibu MP, Yong Khoon Seng, Stampin MP and Richard Riot.
Richard won the just-concluded election for a fifth term with an impressive 13,427-vote majority, defeating his sole Snap opponent Sylvester Belayong Jayang. The
Serian parliamentary seat has 27,901 registered voters, 80 percent of whom are Bidayuhs.The constituency is about 60km southeast of Kuching.
With his resignation, Supp is now left with five MPs, having lost one to DAP incumbent Chong Chieng Jen in Bandar Kuching. All the remaining five MPs are Chinese.
Richard could not be immediately contacted but his spokesperson told Malaysiakini he had already returned to his kampung and would not receive any visitor from his previous party.
He is expected to be an Independent MP in Parliament although there are reports that he has shown interest in joining PKR.
Richard, a Bidayuh, is a five-term MP for Serian. He first won the seat as an Independent in 1990 and joined predominantly Chinese Supp in order to keep his seat as a BN legislator as Serian is a traditional Supp seat.
Richard submitted his resignation letter to Supp president Dr George Chan Hong Nam on the same day that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced his new cabinet line-up on Tuesday.
A veteran party member, acting as a spokesperson for the Serian MP, confirmed to Malaysiakini rumours that Richard had quit the party along with a number of his supporters and members of the five sub-branches of the Serian Supp branch. Each sub-branch has more than 1,000 members.
Requesting anonymity, the spokesperson said after the letter was submitted to Chan, the party president sent his secretary-general Sim Kheng Hui to Serian hoping to meet Richard and talk him out of it.
"But Richard was nowhere to be found," he added.
According to the spokesperson, many party members in Serian, mostly Bidayuh, had surrendered their membership cards and sent them all in a bag to the party president together with the resignation letter.
The party flags at the Serian branch office had also been taken down and burned by angry members.
No Dayak interests at heart
In the letter, Richard was said to have told Chan, who is one of Sarawak's two deputy chief ministers, that the party did not have Dayak interests at heart.
Chan was accused of engaging in a musical chair by putting up four names from the party to be considered by the prime minister when in fact he had already known the quota for the party was only three - one full minister and two deputy ministers.
The four names were Peter Chin, Miri MP, Robert Lau, Sibu MP, Yong Khoon Seng, Stampin MP and Richard Riot.
Richard won the just-concluded election for a fifth term with an impressive 13,427-vote majority, defeating his sole Snap opponent Sylvester Belayong Jayang. The
Serian parliamentary seat has 27,901 registered voters, 80 percent of whom are Bidayuhs.The constituency is about 60km southeast of Kuching.
With his resignation, Supp is now left with five MPs, having lost one to DAP incumbent Chong Chieng Jen in Bandar Kuching. All the remaining five MPs are Chinese.
Richard could not be immediately contacted but his spokesperson told Malaysiakini he had already returned to his kampung and would not receive any visitor from his previous party.
He is expected to be an Independent MP in Parliament although there are reports that he has shown interest in joining PKR.
KLPos.com -Eksklusif: Kerajaan Barisan Rakyat terbit akhbar sendiri
This is a new beginning in our local news media industry. Never before has there been a daily paper reporting "alternative" news.
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Utusan -Tengku Azlan dan Anifah
Read up to get PM Abullah's view regarding Tengku Azlan and Datuk Anifah's decline for cabinet posts under his administration.
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Berita Harian -Cubaan 'beli' wakil rakyat BN
Hmmm... if this is true then neccessary action has to be taken against the culprits... this is an allegation that just can't be swept under the carpet. I hope PM Abdullah will provide evidence regarding this allegation of bribery. Lets take them to court!!!!
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Newsweek -Back in the light
COMMENT He did play a role. BUT it was the rakyat's (people's) independent decision and will that brought about change. Notwithstanding the good that the previous administration has done in Penang, Kedah, Perak and Selangor BUT the rakyat had the sudden urge to change due to issues common across ethnic lines. This is where the previous time tested race based political issues failed. Are we seeing new politics in Malaysia?
Purged, jailed and humiliated in the late 1990s, Anwar Ibrahim has staged a remarkable comeback at the helm of an opposition insurgency.
Anwar Ibrahim takes six calls in quick succession on three different mobile phones. Five days after Malaysia’s general election—in which his coalition shocked observers by winning several key states and almost ousting the long-ruling party—he has segued from surprise victor to tireless political operative, ironing out disagreements and building bridges within the still-fractious opposition. Inside his low-key suburban office, tucked several kilometers away from Parliament in leafy Kuala Lumpur, Anwar’s sense of purpose—destiny, even—is palpable. “Just listen to what the others have to say. Listen,” he tells one caller. “Stay calm, go home and have some dinner, some Panadol, whatever you need,” he tells another, adding, “If there are still strong views and you can’t solve it, let me handle [it].”
The performance is vintage Anwar: the great conciliator doing what he does best. Barely a decade ago, this was the man who was going to help Asia and the West see eye to eye and bridge the chasm between Islam and other faiths. As Finance minister and then deputy prime minister of Malaysia in the late 1990s, Anwar was heir apparent to the strongman Mahathir Mohammed. But it was always an odd pairing. Mahathir was an angry anti-colonialist, forever railing against the West; he denounced Western pressure for democracy and human rights as cultural imperialism, an affront to more authoritarian “Asian values,” and fiercely resisted international attempts to dismantle Malaysia’s cozy and corrupt business culture after the Asian financial crisis. Anwar, by contrast, was a proud universalist, a personally pious Muslim who was also a relentless modernizer and whose penchant for quoting Gandhi and declaring the necessity of democracy and economic openness won him international acclaim. In speeches filled with terms like “civil society” and “freedom,” Anwar opposed the notion that Asians were somehow destined for repressive rule and sought to turn regional vehicles like ASEAN into forces to promote liberty and justice. This won him widespread adoration—he was named NEWSWEEK’s Asian of the Year in 1998—and made him a darling of the Davos set.
But it also led to his downfall. By 1998, Mahathir had had enough of his high-flying deputy, and after Anwar publicly broke with his boss over the response to the Asian financial crisis (which Anwar hoped to use to impose fiscal discipline and dismantle Mahathir’s crony system), he was sacked and then jailed on what were widely seen as trumped-up corruption and sodomy charges. “It was a terrible time,” Anwar admits in a NEWSWEEK interview, but not one he is not eager to revisit. Asked about Mahathir, over whom he would appear to have scored a historic reversal of fortune, Anwar won’t take the bait, dismissing his former patron as old, ill and “not an issue for me … In order to succeed, we have to look beyond him.”
Under Malaysian law, Anwar is barred from holding office until April 15. Yet clearly the rising fortunes of his party make him once again a potential prime minister, though this time around his ambitions appear focused solely on Malaysia, not Asia and the world. Asked if he was poised once again to act as a bridge figure between East and West, Anwar embraced that “important role” as one he had been “playing for a long time,” but then quickly gave it a distinctly local focus: reassuring both Malays and non-Malays and getting them to work together in his party.
Thanks to widespread disgust with the lackluster performance of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, the three-party opposition more than quadrupled its presence in Parliament (going from 20 to 82 seats out of 222), and it now controls five of Malaysia’s 13 states. The greater import is clear: even some members of Abdullah’s camp are now calling for his resignation, and “Anwar has returned as a major force,” says Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia expert at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.
But the opposition still has to parlay those results into effective control. For the moment, Abdullah remains in charge, if barely. Still, the election was a water- shed, the closest the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has come to defeat since independence in 1957. The best Abdullah could say about the drubbing was to call it “democracy at work,” and Mahathir, who retired in 2003, called it “shocking”—adding, suggestively, “The Japanese would have committed hara-kiri.”
The vote also represented a major challenge to Malaysia’s wide-ranging race-based affirmative-action program, which, under Mahathir gave the country’s ethnic Malay majority broad preferences over the long-dominant Chinese community in business affairs. Even if the fragile center now holds in Kuala Lumpur, UMNO will soon face unprecedented threats from state governments now controlled by the opposition. Following a pattern discernible elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Anwar and his allies are staging an assault on the cronyism and patronage of old and pledging social justice, openness, transparency, and anticorruption measures.
The new movement is something of a sequel to the failed Reformasi drive of the late 1990s. Launched by Anwar after his ouster in late 1998, it aimed to ignite a “people power” uprising of the sort that had toppled Suharto in Indonesia. But Reformasi fizzled after Anwar’s criminal conviction; he ultimately served six years in prison.
Yet Malaysians’ desire for change never died. Abdullah, handpicked by Mahathir on the assumption he’d be easy to control, actually took up the reform mantle himself at first, pledging sweeping change during the campaign of 2004. Abdullah vowed to promote moderate Islam to counter creeping fundamentalism, promised an anti-corruption campaign and suggested he might turn back Malaysia’s race-based development policies. Voters responded well, especially when, in 2005, he began dismantling massive Mahathir-era infrastructure projects. But the electorate slowly soured on the new leader as scandal and indecisiveness hobbled his administration. “He did not deliver effectively, and Malaysians called him on it,” says Welsh.
If anything, the opposition’s triumph was even more significant than the raw numbers indicate. Anwar’s People’s Justice Party grabbed 31 seats—up from just one in 2004—and its victors included his wife and daughter. Opposition candidates dominated in peninsular Malaysia’s west coast, seizing the key industrial states of Penang and Selangor. To reach voters, the opposition relied on bloggers, You-Tube and text messages sent to grass-roots organizers via cell phone: common tactics in places like Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea but new to Malaysia. Indeed, they took UMNO and its National Front coalition so much by surprise that the opposition nearly won the election outright. Anwar, for one, thinks it could have; during his NEWSWEEK interview, he hinted at fraud connected to the use of mail-in votes and the Election Commission’s last-minute decision to scrap plans to stain the voters’ fingers with indelible ink.
The electorate also broke with the race-based voting patterns of old. Malaysia’s Chinese and Indian minorities, which make up a quarter and a tenth of the population, respectively, deserted government-allied ethnic parties in favor of Anwar’s Justice candidates and those of center-left Democratic Action Party. The rebellion of ethnic Indians was particularly dramatic; many quit the pro-government Malaysian Indian Congress and the MIC’s leader even lost his seat. “This is new territory” for the ruling party, says Garry Rodan, director of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. “The [party’s] longstanding emphasis on ethnic identity to mask socioeconomic inequalities traversing ethnic groups has much less currency now.”
Anwar’s coalition deftly managed this feat by playing on one issue that united Malaysians whatever their race, sex or station: dismay at rising prices that have lead to hoarding of some staples like cooking oil. Jeff Ooi, a blogger turned parliamentary candidate, traded on this anger, writing in February that “now that the cost of living has gone up, unhappiness is fermenting.” By promising to raise the people’s concerns in Parliament, Ooi won a seat in Penang with an impressive 16,000-ballot margin (out of 46,000).
Now the opposition must quickly transform its promises into a cohesive strategy for governing. Given internal divisions, that won’t be easy; the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party wants to establish an Islamic state, while the secular, center-left Democratic Action Party wants to abolish pro-Malay preferences. These divisions kept the opposition from uniting during the last election, in 2004. But Anwar and his Justice Party are hoping to provide a bridge; in addition to controlling the most seats, his party sits between its partners on most issues. Anwar himself is working overtime to find common ground, using his charismatic magic on all parties. Before the election, he managed to persuade the three factions to divvy up constituencies so as to avoid splitting the vote, and ever since he’s been working his cell phones relentlessly, jawboning allies into submission. Though he lacks a formal position, Anwar hopes to enter Parliament soon: he plans to ask an ally to resign once his legal ban lifts, and then to run for the seat in a by-election.
Any number of things could disrupt his grand plans. His Islamic allies could prove too uncompromising, or Malaysia’s economy could deteriorate—something the newly empowered opposition might be blamed for. On the first trading day after the election, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell by almost 10 percent, as investors dumped shares in companies with large government contracts.
Yet if he manages to hold on, Anwar’s comeback will offer a powerful lesson on the dangers of complacency for long-ruling parties throughout Asia. The 4 million citizens of neighboring Singapore, for example, are already watching events closely, and comparing UMNO’s fate to the city’s own dominant political machine. Abdullah’s shortcomings—scandals and political indecisiveness—have no obvious equivalents in Singapore. Yet UMNO’s surprise setback “holds a lesson” for the city-state, one reader argued in a letter to The Straits Times last week. “Democracy’s tool, the vote, is powerful and swift. A government chosen by its people must stay in touch with the ground. An incumbent who holds power for too long” could run into trouble fast if he becomes unresponsive, the writer warned.
That has been Anwar’s point since the 1990s. With his nemesis, Mahathir, now reduced to carping from the sidelines, and the government coalition looking shakier than ever before, Anwar has again illustrated the fact that when fed-up citizens demand sweeping change, they can accomplish it. Anwar, of course, still has to turn promises into reality. But he’s already made one thing very clear: if anyone can accomplish it, Anwar’s the man.
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Purged, jailed and humiliated in the late 1990s, Anwar Ibrahim has staged a remarkable comeback at the helm of an opposition insurgency.
Anwar Ibrahim takes six calls in quick succession on three different mobile phones. Five days after Malaysia’s general election—in which his coalition shocked observers by winning several key states and almost ousting the long-ruling party—he has segued from surprise victor to tireless political operative, ironing out disagreements and building bridges within the still-fractious opposition. Inside his low-key suburban office, tucked several kilometers away from Parliament in leafy Kuala Lumpur, Anwar’s sense of purpose—destiny, even—is palpable. “Just listen to what the others have to say. Listen,” he tells one caller. “Stay calm, go home and have some dinner, some Panadol, whatever you need,” he tells another, adding, “If there are still strong views and you can’t solve it, let me handle [it].”
The performance is vintage Anwar: the great conciliator doing what he does best. Barely a decade ago, this was the man who was going to help Asia and the West see eye to eye and bridge the chasm between Islam and other faiths. As Finance minister and then deputy prime minister of Malaysia in the late 1990s, Anwar was heir apparent to the strongman Mahathir Mohammed. But it was always an odd pairing. Mahathir was an angry anti-colonialist, forever railing against the West; he denounced Western pressure for democracy and human rights as cultural imperialism, an affront to more authoritarian “Asian values,” and fiercely resisted international attempts to dismantle Malaysia’s cozy and corrupt business culture after the Asian financial crisis. Anwar, by contrast, was a proud universalist, a personally pious Muslim who was also a relentless modernizer and whose penchant for quoting Gandhi and declaring the necessity of democracy and economic openness won him international acclaim. In speeches filled with terms like “civil society” and “freedom,” Anwar opposed the notion that Asians were somehow destined for repressive rule and sought to turn regional vehicles like ASEAN into forces to promote liberty and justice. This won him widespread adoration—he was named NEWSWEEK’s Asian of the Year in 1998—and made him a darling of the Davos set.
But it also led to his downfall. By 1998, Mahathir had had enough of his high-flying deputy, and after Anwar publicly broke with his boss over the response to the Asian financial crisis (which Anwar hoped to use to impose fiscal discipline and dismantle Mahathir’s crony system), he was sacked and then jailed on what were widely seen as trumped-up corruption and sodomy charges. “It was a terrible time,” Anwar admits in a NEWSWEEK interview, but not one he is not eager to revisit. Asked about Mahathir, over whom he would appear to have scored a historic reversal of fortune, Anwar won’t take the bait, dismissing his former patron as old, ill and “not an issue for me … In order to succeed, we have to look beyond him.”
Under Malaysian law, Anwar is barred from holding office until April 15. Yet clearly the rising fortunes of his party make him once again a potential prime minister, though this time around his ambitions appear focused solely on Malaysia, not Asia and the world. Asked if he was poised once again to act as a bridge figure between East and West, Anwar embraced that “important role” as one he had been “playing for a long time,” but then quickly gave it a distinctly local focus: reassuring both Malays and non-Malays and getting them to work together in his party.
Thanks to widespread disgust with the lackluster performance of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, the three-party opposition more than quadrupled its presence in Parliament (going from 20 to 82 seats out of 222), and it now controls five of Malaysia’s 13 states. The greater import is clear: even some members of Abdullah’s camp are now calling for his resignation, and “Anwar has returned as a major force,” says Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia expert at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.
But the opposition still has to parlay those results into effective control. For the moment, Abdullah remains in charge, if barely. Still, the election was a water- shed, the closest the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has come to defeat since independence in 1957. The best Abdullah could say about the drubbing was to call it “democracy at work,” and Mahathir, who retired in 2003, called it “shocking”—adding, suggestively, “The Japanese would have committed hara-kiri.”
The vote also represented a major challenge to Malaysia’s wide-ranging race-based affirmative-action program, which, under Mahathir gave the country’s ethnic Malay majority broad preferences over the long-dominant Chinese community in business affairs. Even if the fragile center now holds in Kuala Lumpur, UMNO will soon face unprecedented threats from state governments now controlled by the opposition. Following a pattern discernible elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Anwar and his allies are staging an assault on the cronyism and patronage of old and pledging social justice, openness, transparency, and anticorruption measures.
The new movement is something of a sequel to the failed Reformasi drive of the late 1990s. Launched by Anwar after his ouster in late 1998, it aimed to ignite a “people power” uprising of the sort that had toppled Suharto in Indonesia. But Reformasi fizzled after Anwar’s criminal conviction; he ultimately served six years in prison.
Yet Malaysians’ desire for change never died. Abdullah, handpicked by Mahathir on the assumption he’d be easy to control, actually took up the reform mantle himself at first, pledging sweeping change during the campaign of 2004. Abdullah vowed to promote moderate Islam to counter creeping fundamentalism, promised an anti-corruption campaign and suggested he might turn back Malaysia’s race-based development policies. Voters responded well, especially when, in 2005, he began dismantling massive Mahathir-era infrastructure projects. But the electorate slowly soured on the new leader as scandal and indecisiveness hobbled his administration. “He did not deliver effectively, and Malaysians called him on it,” says Welsh.
If anything, the opposition’s triumph was even more significant than the raw numbers indicate. Anwar’s People’s Justice Party grabbed 31 seats—up from just one in 2004—and its victors included his wife and daughter. Opposition candidates dominated in peninsular Malaysia’s west coast, seizing the key industrial states of Penang and Selangor. To reach voters, the opposition relied on bloggers, You-Tube and text messages sent to grass-roots organizers via cell phone: common tactics in places like Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea but new to Malaysia. Indeed, they took UMNO and its National Front coalition so much by surprise that the opposition nearly won the election outright. Anwar, for one, thinks it could have; during his NEWSWEEK interview, he hinted at fraud connected to the use of mail-in votes and the Election Commission’s last-minute decision to scrap plans to stain the voters’ fingers with indelible ink.
The electorate also broke with the race-based voting patterns of old. Malaysia’s Chinese and Indian minorities, which make up a quarter and a tenth of the population, respectively, deserted government-allied ethnic parties in favor of Anwar’s Justice candidates and those of center-left Democratic Action Party. The rebellion of ethnic Indians was particularly dramatic; many quit the pro-government Malaysian Indian Congress and the MIC’s leader even lost his seat. “This is new territory” for the ruling party, says Garry Rodan, director of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. “The [party’s] longstanding emphasis on ethnic identity to mask socioeconomic inequalities traversing ethnic groups has much less currency now.”
Anwar’s coalition deftly managed this feat by playing on one issue that united Malaysians whatever their race, sex or station: dismay at rising prices that have lead to hoarding of some staples like cooking oil. Jeff Ooi, a blogger turned parliamentary candidate, traded on this anger, writing in February that “now that the cost of living has gone up, unhappiness is fermenting.” By promising to raise the people’s concerns in Parliament, Ooi won a seat in Penang with an impressive 16,000-ballot margin (out of 46,000).
Now the opposition must quickly transform its promises into a cohesive strategy for governing. Given internal divisions, that won’t be easy; the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party wants to establish an Islamic state, while the secular, center-left Democratic Action Party wants to abolish pro-Malay preferences. These divisions kept the opposition from uniting during the last election, in 2004. But Anwar and his Justice Party are hoping to provide a bridge; in addition to controlling the most seats, his party sits between its partners on most issues. Anwar himself is working overtime to find common ground, using his charismatic magic on all parties. Before the election, he managed to persuade the three factions to divvy up constituencies so as to avoid splitting the vote, and ever since he’s been working his cell phones relentlessly, jawboning allies into submission. Though he lacks a formal position, Anwar hopes to enter Parliament soon: he plans to ask an ally to resign once his legal ban lifts, and then to run for the seat in a by-election.
Any number of things could disrupt his grand plans. His Islamic allies could prove too uncompromising, or Malaysia’s economy could deteriorate—something the newly empowered opposition might be blamed for. On the first trading day after the election, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell by almost 10 percent, as investors dumped shares in companies with large government contracts.
Yet if he manages to hold on, Anwar’s comeback will offer a powerful lesson on the dangers of complacency for long-ruling parties throughout Asia. The 4 million citizens of neighboring Singapore, for example, are already watching events closely, and comparing UMNO’s fate to the city’s own dominant political machine. Abdullah’s shortcomings—scandals and political indecisiveness—have no obvious equivalents in Singapore. Yet UMNO’s surprise setback “holds a lesson” for the city-state, one reader argued in a letter to The Straits Times last week. “Democracy’s tool, the vote, is powerful and swift. A government chosen by its people must stay in touch with the ground. An incumbent who holds power for too long” could run into trouble fast if he becomes unresponsive, the writer warned.
That has been Anwar’s point since the 1990s. With his nemesis, Mahathir, now reduced to carping from the sidelines, and the government coalition looking shakier than ever before, Anwar has again illustrated the fact that when fed-up citizens demand sweeping change, they can accomplish it. Anwar, of course, still has to turn promises into reality. But he’s already made one thing very clear: if anyone can accomplish it, Anwar’s the man.
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Utusan -Radzi letak semua jawatan parti
This is an early report by Utusan on Radzi's resignation from all posts except for MP for Kangar.
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The Star -Abdullah snuffs talk of rift and Umno no-confidence motion
I dont think there will be a no-confidence motion against a Prime Minister. At least in my life time.
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KLPos.com -Radzi letak semua jawatan berkuatkuasa serta-merta
The only logical statement if Mahathir was in power would be "We're gonna have a new Secretary General (FULL STOP).
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KLPos.com -"Macam-macam info Anwar dapat"
Does Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim know about something thats going on behind the scenes??? Hmmm....
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Berita Harian -Tengku Azlan, Anifah tolak jawatan
WOW!!! Never happened before in Malaysian history (as far as i know)... Hmmm... gets one to think is there more to come???
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Bernama -Abdullah Announces Cabinet Line-up, Half Of Administration New Faces
PM Abdullah has announce 50% fresh line-up. Could be good to boost the morale of the embattled Barisan Nasional during the last 12th Malaysian General Election.
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Harakahdaily -Ahli-ahli Parlimen Umno memberontak
Was this bound to happen? Unsatisfied with PM Abdullah's current setup? Well there's more than meets the eye... according to this article...
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Welcome To The Independent Malaysian Media
This blog is dedicated for Malaysians who wish to have independent news on current malaysian affairs on their finger tips. Except for a few news comments I will make now and then, all news and views are from the respective owners of the news. I hope this blog will help to usher a new awareness among Malaysians, to view, digest and make the correct decissions in our lives.
Once again, thank you... and happy reading.
Once again, thank you... and happy reading.
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