Zulhaidah bt Suboh

Archive for the ‘PKR’ Category

Ini adalah UMNO dan Perkasa Islam. Islam tidak membiarkan sesiapa yang merendah-rendahkan atau menghina jenis sesama manusia. Atas sebab yang sama, ramai Penjawat Awam Muslim orang meninggalkan UMNO dan akan Undi Pakatan Rakyat, iaitu PKR, PAS atau DAP. Adakah anda akan lakukan esok yang sama?

Untuk Undi Barisan Nasional (PBB, SUPP, PRS, SPDP) aka Dacing Kerajaan aka aka Memerintah adalah untuk Undi UMNO.

The contest for the Miri constituency is now the focus of attention in Sarawak as it is one of the seats most coveted by incumbents Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and state PKR.

The constituency has about 70,000 voters. The Chinese community forms about 55.0% of the population with the Ibans at 28.2% and the rest made up of the Malay-Melanau and Orang Ulu groups.

“Oil-city” Miri has been the bedrock of SUPP’s strength since the 1970.

In the 2004 general election, SUPP president Peter Chin won the seat uncontested. Chin again won the seat in the 2008 general election when he secured 19,354 votes to beat his DAP rival Fong Pau Teck by 5,216 votes.

But the results of the 2011 state election showed that SUPP’s strength had significantly eroded in the Miri parliamentary constituency. The constituency comprises three state seats – Piassau, Pujut and Senadin.

Of the three, SUPP lost Piassau and Pujut to DAP and managed to retain Senadin through Lee Kim Shin by a 58-vote majority over PKR’s Dr Michael Teo. Until today people in Senadin believe that Lee’s victory was rigged.
Teo, a medical practitioner, is now PKR-Pakatan Rakyat’s candidate for the Miri parliamentary seat.
He is in a three-cornered fight with Sarawak State Reform Party’s (STAR) Chong Kon Fatt and SUPP-Barisan Nasional’s Sebastian Ting. Chin, the Miri incumbent, had declined to contest.

Teo’s candidacy is not without hiccups.

Initially, the seat was claimed by DAP. In fact, DAP had already announced Lim Su Kien as its candidate.
But party members in Miri had strongly opposed Lim’s candidacy and had openly protested against her and criticised the party leadership.

Their actions prompted the party leadership to sack six of the masterminds.

The expulsions worsened the situation within Miri DAP and threatened to undermine not only party unity, but also its ability to capture the Miri seat.

“Perhaps it was for this reason that the DAP leadership had to give up the seat to PKR when it asked for the seat,” noted a political observer.

Between Teo and Lim, the former has a better chance of winning the seat, despite the allegations that he is “anti-birth”.

In this predominantly Christian constituency, Teo’s willingness to perform abortions is seen as a “weakness”.

One Teo campaigner said it was unfair to totally blame Teo.

“He has been helping the natives defend their native customary rights land; he talks about the woes that are plaguing the city such as the overcrowded Miri Hospital, health services, crimes, the lack of employment opportunities, the lack of business opportunities for the middle class Chinese and Chinese education.

“He has also been highlighting corruption and abuse of power which is associated with the leadership of the state government.

“He is well-prepared for this parliamentary election and has been working hard after he was defeated in Senadin,” said his campaigner, who declined to be named.

SUPP infighting
These were the very issues that resulted in the then deputy chief minister and SUPP president and incumbent George Chan’s defeat of Piassau seat.

Chan’s defeat was also partly due to the infighting in the party which persists until today.

Looking at all these issues, Teo’s chances are brighter due to the worsening split in SUPP leadership between current party president Chin and its former deputy secretary Wong Soon Koh, who is also the state’s Second Minister of Finance. Wong is also the chairman of SUPP’s Sibu branch.

While Chin had recommended Ting, a political secretary to the prime minister, for the seat, Wong had recommended one of his men.

But his recommendation was ignored and this angered Wong and his supporters.

Ting claimed that there were efforts by his opponents allegedly from Wong’s faction to tarnish his good name by distributing a doctored photo of him in and around Miri.

With the fast approaching general election, Prime Minister and Barisan Nasional chairman Najib Tun Razak has called on both sides to stop washing dirty linen in public.

Both sides appear to have halted their attacks on each other. But the enmity, nonetheless, is still there.

Even now, they have been avoiding each other either in party or government functions.

In such a scenario, how could a disunited SUPP go to “war” not only in Miri, but also in Sarikei, Lanang, Sibu, Stampin, Bandar Kuching and Serian?

As casualties are therefore expected, will Miri be one of them?

FMT

Sarawakians working in Peninsular Malaysia, Brunei and ‘outside Sarawak’ have been urged to return ‘home’ to cast their votes as this election would their last opportunity to help change the government.

In making this appeal, Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian said: “This is the last chance to exercise our rights to form the next government.

“I ask all our people who have registered as voters, wherever you are in Brunei, Semenanjung Malaysia and outside Sarawak to make arrangements to return to Sarawak once the date of the polling is known and cast your votes.”

NGO, MoCS is arranging some air tickets for Sarawakians wanting to return to cast their votes on Polling Day. Please contact them here for more details.

Bian, who is the Ba’Kelalan assemblyman, was responding to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s announcement yesterday dissolving parliament.

He hoped that the run-up to the election will be a peaceful one and advised voters not to get agitated by rumours and even threats by certain political leaders, campaigners and candidates.

“Don’t be afraid. Have courage to cast your vote in accordance with your conscience and desire.

“I also ask that voters not to fall into money politics or be persuaded by people with promises with money and projects and other goodies,” he said.

Bian, who is contesting the Limbang parliamentary seat, said that PKR is fully prepared for coming general election.

“We are prepared to work hard until polling day, and I am confident we can win in areas that we have focused ourselves on,” he said.

PKR is expected to contest between 12 and 15 seats in Sarawak.

Grey seats
So far, it has announced candidates for Limbang, Baram (Roland Engan), Saratok (Ali Biju), Hulu Rajang (Abun Sui) and Batang Lupar (Abang Zulkifli).

These seats are among the seats that ruling Barisan Nasional has identifed as “grey areas”.

Other seats are Mas Gading, Lubok Antu, Bintulu, Kanowit and Lawas.

Chief Minister Taib Mahmud had yesterday reportedly said that the state coalition could lose as many as eight seats in 13th general election.

Although he did not identify these seats, it is understood that he was refering to Sarawak United Peoples Party’s (SUPP) six seats in the Chinese majority constituencies such as Stampin, Bandar Kuching, Sarikei, Sibu, Lanang and Miri.

The other two seats are likely to be Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party’s (SPDP) Saratok and and Baram seats.

The opposition in Sarawak are however confident that they can wrest ‘at least’ 12 seats.

FMT

Imagine you were Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998. The pharaonic PM had turned off the lights on you (even cutting the power supply to your residence). On cue, the controlled media sensationalised your alleged immorality, never once referring to your reputed religiosity.

In self-preservation, the politicians ‘in the know’ shunned you like a pariah, forgetting that they used to flatter you as the ‘anointed successor’.

By hardnosed calculation, ‘smart money’ erased its memory of turning to you, as Finance Minister, to calm the financial market spooked by Mahathir’s ‘madness’ during the 1997 financial crisis.

Acting to orders, the police raided your home, captured you as if you were a terrorist, and hauled you to the IGP, who beat you into unconsciousness.

And then the Attorney-General and the judiciary lined up to send you to jail, first for six years and later for another nine years.

Would you not have thought at some point that it was all over? Or could you have endlessly resolved to start all over again? (See ‘All over? Or all over again?’, Aliran Monthly, September 1998)

Anwar’s return
You aren’t Anwar, of course; nor am I. Still we know that Anwar told the PM (aka Mahafiraun aka Mahazalim to Reformasi dissidents) to drop dead.

Anwar chose to start all over again: from Permatang Pauh he defiantly called for Reformasi.

He realised who had rallied to him. They were the common people, not BN’s YBs or the ‘fat cats’ who vanished when he was dumped.

He knew what his goals should be: justice, a clean political system and a better life for the common folk.

And out of the prison, from time to time, Anwar would smuggle ‘ideas’ on how to reorganise dissent against the ‘BN government’ (as the reliable Syed Husin Ali tells us in his memoirs).

The rest is history. But it is history that we’re making. It has carried us very far, past the BA’s disappointment in GE10, the Opposition’s debacle in GE11, and the tsunami of GE12.

With it, we’ve come to a crucial pre-GE13 moment. Now, it’s necessary to ask an exceptionally important question: How does Anwar appear to Umno?

Formidable foe
To the UMNO leaders, Anwar must appear as a terrifying opponent. Najib Razak, Muhyiddin Yasin and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi were subordinate partners in Anwar’s winning ‘Wawasan Team’ in the 1993 UMNO election.

Not one of them spoke against his maltreatment. Rather they profited from his fall. After he returned to active politics, they hatched new plots against him. Yet their monopoly of state instruments, media and untold resources could not contain Anwar as the abandonment of Sodomy II amply showed.

Instead Anwar has outwitted them at almost every turn. Most recently, his bold Jelajah Merdeka breached UMNO’s former fortresses, even gaining symbolically from the petty vandalism committed against the Jelajah bus.

Look into his eye
As UMNO leaders fear the loss of power in GE13, they also fear retribution from an Anwar-led Pakatan government.

Who among the UMNO leaders, their staunchest allies, most favoured cronies, and most obedient senior civil servants would not lose sleep over fabricating charges against Anwar and Pakatan figures? Who among them would not have to explain how they had amassed riches beyond the possibilities of ‘fair dealings’ or a lifetime of honest toil?

From being Deputy PM and Finance Minister before, and probably from many sources today, Anwar knows enough about lop-sided contracts, sweetheart deals, mismanaged projects, and nepotistic awards to ruin many people who fancied themselves to tower above the law.

Anwar, who suffered a ‘black eye’ in 1998, has said that he won’t seek ‘an eye for an eye’. But if public anger mounts against ‘corruption, cronyism and nepotism’, what’s to stop the new government from investigating some of the most outrageous cases and prosecuting those involved?

At various ceramah, Anwar promised ‘closure’ and reconciliation. But that‘s cold comfort to UMNO leaders. They who honed their political instincts under Mahathir would not trust a politician to keep his election promises. Besides, they have peddled so many lurid tales of Anwar’s tainted character that they can’t possibly believe him now.

Catalyst of collapse
Thus far there’s no sign any UMNO leader can rationally consider the prospect of losing GE13 and regrouping to fight GE14. The February 2009 coup in Perak, the desperation to regain Selangor ‘at all costs’ and Najib’s belligerent call to defend Putrajaya to ‘the last drop of blood’ betray a deep fear that Anwar’s triumph will catalyse UMNO’s disintegration.

One reason lies in the UMNO leaders’ relationship with the voters: the former have no nobler vision than to trade 1Instantnoodles for nambikei on polling day. If UMNO should lose control of the purse-strings of power, so that lu tak boleh tolong gua, gua tak boleh tolong lu, then UMNO wouldn’t know how to reinvent itself as a viable opposition with a committed constituency.

Another reason is internal. As UMNO’s original mission of ‘Malay nationalism’ degenerated into cronyistic and nepotistic ‘Malay capitalism’, rivalry for patronage and largesse intensified UMNO’s factionalism. Consequently, every major political crisis after 1969 involved an UMNO crisis over shifting political and economic fortunes. Mahathir’s persecution of Anwar had that dimension, as did Mahathir’s later assault on Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Truly, GE13 is UMNO’s existential battle: Ini kalilah! If it’s ousted from Putrajaya, UMNO may not even have an ignoble mission to keep its membership intact.

Hidup, hidup!

What has UMNO not done to keep Anwar down and out? Its leaders have thrown every kind of calumny at Anwar. They have imprisoned him, tied him down to relentless prosecution, and tried to drive a wedge between him and PAS and DAP.

Yet, far from been discredited in the public eye, ‘DSAI’ has grown much closer to the common people than when Mahathir made him a ‘martyr’ of sorts. Today, burgeoning ceramah crowds warm to him when they hear him speak of their burdens, their problems, and their sufferings. They don’t heed his UMNO detractors who live far removed from the hoi polloi whose nambikei UMNO solicits.

For that matter, Anwar is not a figure of controversy in Pakatan. On the contrary he has become Pakatan’s undisputed leader in ways that no one from PKR, DAP or PAS can presently be.

When Mahathir set out to destroy Anwar in 1998, little did Mahathir suspect he’d only turn ‘DSAI’ into an icon of dissent who would return in the form of Reformasi to cause Mahathir’s ‘optional retirement’!

Ten years later, having learnt nothing from Mahathir’s failure, UMNO tried again to destroy Anwar only to watch him ride the tsunami to a hegemonic stature in national politics that no one from UMNO can aspire to.

What supreme historical irony!

When Anwar fell, apologists of the Mahathir regime derided Reformasi as being ‘merely about Anwar’. Today Anwar, Reformasi and the tsunami – not to mention BERSIH 2.0, HINDRAF, BERSIH 3.0, BERSIH Merdeka, and KL112 – have merged into one huge and inseparable spectre that haunts UMNO on the cusp of GE13.

Now imagine you’re Najib or any of his ilk in UMNO. Would you think that it’s all over? Would you ever be ready to start all over again?

Aliran

Pakatan Rakyat leaders launched their manifesto website on Tuesday, widening the gap they had over Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Umno-BN coalition which has yet to even unveil their manifesto.

The Pakatan website can be located at http://pakatan-harapan-rakyat.com . It contains several attractively-produced videos to highlight the Pakatan’s policies including on affordable housing, toll-free roads and a Monopoly-type of game to show how it plans to reduce costs of living.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim launched the website at a joint press conference with DA adviser Lim Kit Siang and PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu.

Politics of gangsterism
Anwar lambasted the Najib administration for a recent spate of “political violence” where members of the Opposition were assaulted at various ceramah or political rallies held around the nation.

Mat Sabu also pointed to the case of PKR vice president and Batu MP Tian Chua, who has borne the brunt of death threats from Umno-linked groups accusing him of having insulted the police over the Lahad Datu intrusion, where 2 officers were killed during an offensive launched on March 1 against a group of Sulu militants.

“I personally heard at a ceramah in Malacca that if Tian Chua had turned up, they would do something to him. This is is not acceptable and we hope Umno will do something to stop this course of rash behavior,” said Mat Sabu.

Malaysia-Chronicle

Full story at Malaysia-Chronicle

Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian has expressed hope that Sarawakians will never lose sight of the harmonious co-existence of people in the state.

“We must jealously guard this most precious spirit of kinship and affinity, which is deeply felt by Sarawakians at home and abroad,” he said in his Chinese New Year’s message.

He, however, said that the people cannot be blind to the events of the past few decades, including a deliberate plan to divide and rule by politicising religion.

“My stand on religion is very clear. We are a secular nation, and Sarawak does not have an official religion,” he said, adding that the Federal Constitution guarantees the people freedom of religion.

“We must not let matters of personal belief tear us asunder,” he said.

On the Year of the Water Snake, Baru said that to the Chinese, the strengths of the snake are its great wisdom and gracious morality.

“As snakes grow, many of them shed their skin at various times, revealing shiny new skin underneath.

“The ancient Greeks and the Chinese believed that snakes possess healing properties. For this reason, snakes have become symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing,” he said.

Baru, who is also the State Assemblyman for Ba’Kelalan, urged the people to exercise their wisdom at the ballot boxes in the upcoming 13th general election.

“Let us take charge of our destiny by steering our course to one of rebirth and healing. This may well be our last chance to save what remains of our beloved Sarawak. With God’s grace, truth and justice will prevail,” he said.

The Sun Daily