COMANGO: The ideological battle of western thoughts and eastern values.

“At the heart of human rights is the belief that everybody should be treated fairly and with dignity – no matter what their circumstances.

This means that nobody should be tortured or treated in and inhuman or degrading way.

It also means that nobody has the right to ‘own’ another person or to force them to work under threat of punishment.”

When we talk about human rights, many of us will always refer to the western views mainly on the subject of freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of expression is the three most common topics associated with human rights. In the current socio-political climate of the world, human right is debated not only on the international level, but also are being discussed casually amongst friends and colleague. It is a topic most discussed by people of all levels. The question is do we understand the real meaning of “human rights” and can they be practice by all regardless of the country, race and religion of that particular person?

                Many of us failed to understand that most ideas on human rights and human rights activism come from the west. The west meaning, the ideological stands of post-World War II allied countries on the rights and liberties of a human being.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the pinnacle of the human rights activism. It is regarded as guidance by most human rights activist. However, the problem with UNDHR is that they are only focusing on the intention and view of westerners.

                And the views and thoughts of the westerners are adopted by COMANGO and many other eastern organizations without taking into consideration of eastern values. Specifically in the context of religion and eastern norms as organizations like COMANGO cannot force western ides in eastern values and culture.

                COMANGO fails to understand the concept of eastern way of life and culture tries very hard to enforce western thinking by disregarding themajority thoughts on religion and cultural aspect in Malaysia. Their action of referring the Malaysian government to the United Nation is considered as unhealthy and must be stopped immediately as it is against the aspiration of the nation.

                The inadequacy of the UNDHR to be a guideline for eastern countries such as Malaysia is the main reason why our government refuse to rectify the declaration and accept its ideas for the people of this country. As a melting pot of culture, religion and ideologies the government needs to tread lightly to ensure that the harmony and peace are well preserved amongst its people. The action of COMANGO is an insult not only to the country but also to their intelligent.

                COMANGO and those who supports their movement clearly don’t understand that our eastern culture clearly cannot adopt the declaration as it was made only for the benefit of the westerners. Eastern cultures cannot accept the declaration as we ourselves have our own rules and beliefs that we follow. COMANGO and its supporters has clearly misinterpreted the UNDHR, they are the sad victims of the western concept of “Universalism”. Universalism is a concept derived by the westerners to colonize the hearts and mind of easterners hence the same as the concept of globalization and the new world order.

                It is clear that COMANGO consist of what the Chinese call a BANANA. “Banana” is a Singaporean slang which refers to a Chinese who had abandoned their tradition and think more of themselves as westerners rather than an Asian. Like a real Banana they are yellow (banana skin) on the outside, but white (Western thinking and culture) on the inside.

ANOTHER WISH FULFILLLED IN BALINGIAN - UPGRADING OF WATER TREATMENT PLANT

The water treatment plant here will be upgraded to meet the increasing demand from local consumers, revealed Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan.

Awang Tengah who is also Minister of Public Utilities said the Mukah water treatment plant was upgraded a few years ago but the capacity has reached its limit due to the increasing number of consumers particularly the influx of workers to Mukah due to the rapid industrialisation brought about by Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).

“It was upgraded in the last few years. And I know the need to upgrade the plant. I can’t give you the details capacity off-hand but definitely there is an increasing demand because Balingain sub-district will be connected from here. So there is really a need for us to upgrade the present capacity,” he reiterated.

“The present water capacity is not enough to meet the increasing demand of the water supply, and because of that certain areas are facing low water pressure.

“Anyway we have a plan to upgrade the water treatment plant in Mukah as well as to improve the distribution of the system here. We are also taking into consideration the latest development here,” Awang Tengah told the media at meet-the-people-session at Kpg Penakub Cina, some 8km from here yesterday.

He said the government was also aware of certain parts of Balingian sub-district facing low water pressure.

He said besides the needs of the ordinary consumers, the Regional Corridor of Development Authority (Recoda) which is based here had also sought federal funding to upgrade all related infrastructure under its jurisdiction.

“I understand that Recoda is also requesting for fund from the federal Government and Mukah is one of the areas under the Sarawak Corridor of renewable Energy (Score). So it is our priority to upgrade our water treatment plant here in Mukah and to increase its capacity,” he said.

Better distribution of treated water especially in Balingian sub-district is one of the seven wish-lists of the local people which has been highlighted by The Borneo Post even before the by-election was announced.

Awang Tengah has assured the voters in the Balingian that government would look into their needs.

Among the seven wish lists, four of them have been answered and committed by the government. These four are bigger airport for Mukah, a secondary school for Balingian sub-district and a new primary for Kpg Tellian Tengah and an upgraded water treatment plant for the area.

Meanwhile, Awang Tengah reiterated that the government had appointed a contractor to build the first phase of the new Mukah Airport.

“As announced by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin recently, the new Mukah airport will be implemented in stages. For the first state, the Federal Government has allocated RM133 million for earth-works and the contractor has also been appointed to implement it,” he said.

PRK KAJANG :SUNDAY POLL, LOW MAJORITY FOR PKR IS A SLAP ON AWNAR’S PLAN

Sunday is one day away and Kajang state seat electorate will cast their votes after more than a month their minds were ‘hammered and punched’ by candidates and campaigners of both sides of the political divide who were the best.

Never mind about the late nights and day time hassle where their privacies were encrouched, tresspassed and plundered as those were done under the word democracy.

The forced by-election which was just to make way for one man Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to helm Selangor just because present Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, who is his party member – Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) - is considered as not good enough to defend the state from the purported Selanmgor Umno onslaught.

And midway, just a few days before nomination, Anwar was found guilty of sodomy and sentenced to five years jail, he conveniently got his wife, who is the party president who was about to retire from politics, to replace him as candidate.

Thus began another journey of rough and stormy weather for Wan Azizah, a woman who has tolerated and compromise everything she has for her husband, since 1998 when Anwar was expelled from the Cabinet.

Wan Azizah has been walking the streets and and kampungs of Kajang state constituency the past 10 days, officially of course, accompanied by Anwar, meeting people of all races and ages, trying heart to win their hearts and minds.

Sometimes accompanied by her daughter Nurul Izzah, Wan Azizah spoke on injustice done to her husband by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government and alleged intervention in the judiciary.

The Kajang Move as it is termed by Anwar may backfire – not losing the seat – but will not result the way he wanted it.

Barring any last minute push on Saturday night where the party plans to do a big bang at Kajang stadium – a show of focre or support that is supposedly to convince the eelctorate that Anwar’s move received full support – Wan Azizah may just win with a reduced in majority.

Wan Azizah’s campaign trail has been vigorous but lack support from its partner PAS, the vital Islamic party that commands support from half the Malay electorate in Kajang.

Majority of PAS members did not agree with the Kajang Move and stayed away from giving full support in the campaign.

With Malay votes reduced, the only hope to retain the same number of majority is the Chinese votes to stay but words have it BN Datuk Paduka Chew Mei Fun is able to penetrate the Chinese electorate minds, although not much.

Despite her not so vigorous campaign compared to Wan Azizah, Chew seems to ‘touch the right cord’ in the Chinese minds and heart – a person who is able to speak their minds if she goes to the state assembly.

Devoid of the real ‘reading’ on the inclination of the voters mind on Sunday when they cast their votes, the Kajang Move is doom a failure and a ‘slap on Anwar’s Kajang Move’ if Wan Azizah polled lesser majority despite retaining the seat.

For BN, a reduce in majority is enough to spur and push up the ruling coalition’s spirit under the present ‘unfriendly’ political situation.

PKR TOP LEADERSHIP ADMITS DEFEAT IN BALINGIAN

As Pakatan Rakyat (PR) continue their aggressive campaigning from home to home and approaching voters around the town of Mukah for the upcoming N51 Balingian by-election, reactions have still been rather lukewarm, to say the least.

This has not gone unnoticed, and even Parti Keadilan Rakyat Sarawak’s (PKR) top leadership thinks so.

Michael, a community leader in the area noted that it is frankly, impossible for PKR’S candidate Abdul Jalil Bujang to gain any traction with the rakyat in the race to be elected State Assemblyman in N51 Balingian.

“Their candidate is facing difficulties getting the necessary votes from the people of N51 district; even getting 40% of the required votes is difficult, actually winning the race is such a long shot,” Michael mentioned.

Michael added, even PKR Sarawak Vice President See Chee How himself admitted during a conversation with him that Abdul Jalil is facing a tough time going against Barisan Nasional (BN)’s candidate Yussibnosh Balo.

Chee How, who is also a State Assemblyman confessed further that this race will go on to rally the party’s cause despite their diminishing probability of winning with Abdul Jalil as the candidate.

The question now, the writer asks, if even PKR state leadership does not place much faith in Abdul Jalil as their candidate for the race, what makes them think that the constituents of N51 Balingian will do so come March 29^th?

MAT SABU ADMITS “KAJANG MOVE” IS ANWAR’S PLOY TO OUST KHALID IBRAHIM AS SELANGOR CHIEF MINISTER

In a political rally in Mukah last night to introduce Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s candidate for N51 Balingian’s by-election, Mat Sabu, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia’s (PAS) deputy president slipped a statement that would make a lot of voters reconsider the validity of the so-called “Kajang Move” that has unnecessarily thrown the Kajang constituency into a state of disarray – that said move IS done so that Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) de-facto leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim can become the new Chief Minister of Selangor.

In the middle of his heated speech outside a shop lot in Mukah, he casually insinuated that the reason why the Malaysian Court of Appeals reached a verdict in deliberating Anwar’s sodomy case in record time was to ensure that he would not be able to be named as PR’s candidate for the Kajang by-election. And then, things got really interesting.

“Kalau bicara bulan 4 nanti, kemungkinan Anwar sudah jadi Menteri Besar Selangor. Maka dia sukar lah nak meng-jail-kan seorang Menteri Besar. …kalau tiada undi tak percaya di Dewan Undangan Negeri Selangor, Anwar akan didapati bersalah, terpaksa masuk jail sebagai Menteri Besar.”

(If the trial is done in April, there is a chance that Anwar will already become Menteri Besar of Selangor. Thus, it will be difficult to put him in jail as a Menteri Besar. …If there is no vote of no-confidence in Dewan Undangan Negeri Selangor, Anwar will be found guilty, and will be forced to enter jail as a Menteri Besar.)

“Maka ia akan menggoncang arasy’ Malaysia dan diperhatikan oleh dunia. Oleh itu kita lihat Jabatan Kehakiman diarahkan buat keputusan segera.”

(This will shake Malaysia to its core and we will be watched all over the world. That is why we see Jabatan Kehakiman was ordered to reach a verdict quickly.)

His statements come across not only as a rancid insult to the Malaysian judiciary and our judicial process, but also a slap to the face to the Pakatan Rakyat constituency in Kajang, which has seen their incumbent assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh resign on the 27^th January. PKR strategist Rafizi Ramli engineered the move and try to give it a catchy name in order to allow Anwar to become part of Selangor’s Dewan Rakyat, but has never made the party’s true intentions crystal clear.

Anwar, and PKR’s top politicians have tried very hard to deny the rumour that he will be made Menteri Besar before this, as to not allow the people to know just how horrible the infighting within the party leadership actually is. With the state government tangled in various issues, they cannot afford to even bicker on political matters and instead focus on the holistic development of the state, as they have mentioned so often before. However, the reality is that they are struggling to keep hold of Selangor, and their gamble in Kajang is starting to leave them empty-handed.

With Anwar’s conviction in the Court of Appeal in his sodomy case, him being replaced by his wife Wan Azizah as the PKR candidate in Kajang, two of their seats in Pulau Pinang left hung to dry and recent news reports saying that the by-election, at RM1.6 million will be the costliest by-election yet, not even Rafizi’s pre-emptive apology on an editorial he wrote online can even begin to mask the damage PKR have done. As such, it is plain for everyone to see that Kajang has been reduced into both a sacrificial lamb and a lab rat at the same time.

If Mat Sabu is telling the truth, then Anwar, Rafizi and PKR have been lying through their teeth in justifying using Kajang as a chessboard. If Mat Sabu is lying, then he will need to answer to his audience in Mukah. Either way, the writer reckons that Pakatan has a co-ordination problem and this will prove vital in their standing in the two by-elections.

WAN AZIZAH FACES ROUGH PATH, EXPECTS MAJORITY REDUCE

Early voting has begun in the Kajang state seat by-election involving policemen and their families who would be working on  polling day this Sunday and thus would not be able to cast their votes.
While the 1,197 of the total 39,278 casted their votes today, candidates on both sides of the political divide are still desperate to outwit each other – one to retain the seat with higher majority while the other to win or at the very least reduce th majority of the opponent.

With three more days to polling which is fixed for Sunday, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidate Wan Azizah Ismail is under tremendous pressure as she walk the thin line between being considered ‘tool of her husband’ and a potential assembly woman who could serve the electorate.

Being the party president who had let go her Permatang Pauh parliament seat in Penang seat for her husband to return to mainstream politics, Wan Azizah is working day and night to ensure not just victory but higher majority in trying to ‘save her husband’s dignity’ as the by-election was forced by her husband for him to helm Selangor.

With the theme ‘From kajang To Putrajaya’, Wan Azizah is left with no choice but to ‘force upon electorates’ that it is the only way for her husband who is the party de facto chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to unseat Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Some of the urban electorate who had voted for the party during the last general election are questrioning the ‘wsidom of Anwar’ forcing the by-election which Anwar named it as the Kajang Move.
This is the setback Wan Azizah is facing as urban electorates who are well acquainted with political maneuverings are not comfortable with Anwar pulling such strategy just to unseat incumbent Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

Besides considering that as Anwar’s personal interest rather than them as electorate, Wan Azizah is also being handicapped with internal problems where the party deputy president Azmin Ali is busy strategising how to defend himself from the challenge by Khalid for his position.

In fact, Azmin has been busy sending his supporters all over the country campaigning for him to retain his deputy president post leaving the by-election to other party eladers and members.

The party poll will be held on April 26 and the results to be known on first week of May.

Meanwhile, Barisan Nasional (BN) Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun hit the campaign trail alongside other BN leaders on official events while Wanita Umno and Pemuda movement go door-to-door campaign daily even when the observers predict Wan Azizah would emerge victorious.

Zunar: Calling the Government Weak Will Not Help Find the Missing Flight

While the world is praying for MH370, the Washington Post thought that it is funny to publish the work of a Malaysian cartoonist, mocking the Malaysian leadership’s effort in finding the missing flight.   The cartoon was trying to portray the Prime Minister of Malaysia as ‘Too Weak’ as the search for the flight has been dragged for ‘Two Weeks’.

The insensitive, even ignorant piece, was not taken as a surprised to Malaysians since the cartoonist, Zunar, as he is called, is a pro-opposition hard-core.  Zunar’s work is a classic example of the Malaysian Opposition’s mind that will politicize everything and anything, including the lives of others. 

Since the first day the flight went missing, the Oppositions have been trying hard to steal the ‘limelight’ to the extent that their leader, Mr. Anwar Ibrahim had actually made a statement that he would be able to answer the questions by the press better than the Prime Minister.

His words had raised some eyebrows as people started to wonder what is it that he knows that the Prime Minister and the investigators do not know. 

Earlier, Anwar seemed to be taken aback when foreign media exposed the fact that the pilot of the flight is an Anwar’s fanatic.   A deeper look into his background, later found that the pilot is Anwar’s daughter-in-law’s uncle.

As a ‘born-politician’, Anwar is quick in turning the news upside down.  He is now claiming that the government is trying to accuse him of having something to do with the missing flight because of his relationship to the pilot.   Being famous for the nick ‘chameleon’, at other times, Anwar also hinted that the missing flight could be just a diversion from the Kajang by-election and his call for ‘Reformasi 2.0’.

According to Anwar, the government is scared to death of the people’s support for him.

Unfortunately for Anwar, his bragging only raised more question on him and the missing flight. 

If we look closely, nobody is accusing the pilot of having anything to do with anything.   It is Anwar who is telling the world that he is being accused of having something to with the pilot, and then something.

It is Anwar pulling the spotlight onto himself and Zunar is helping him to do just that:   Ridicule the Prime Minister, mock the search and rescue mission and bring the lights back on Anwar. 

Well, the joke is now on Anwar, thanks to Zunar.

In case Zunar didn’t know, the search and rescue mission of flight MH370 is joined by 26 countries.   Malaysia has been, from the beginning, very quick to accept all help offered by all parties.
Malaysia may be leading the mission, but it is only with the advice of the international experts.   All information released to the press, must first be confirmed by the experts.

Therefore, blaming or ridiculing the Prime Minister for a slow progress of the investigation only means blaming and ridiculing the experts, which are the FBI, the navy of Vietnam, China, America and etc.. and also an American Scientist, Colleen Keller who led the search mission of AF447 in 2009.

In view of this, Zunar’s cartoon would make more sense if he had included all these experts and investigators as the subject of his ‘joke’. 

Anyway, let’s just ponder on what did Zunar achieve by the joke?  Nothing.
Did he help find the missing flight?  No.
Does he have any ideas to offer the experts on how to find the missing flight?  Zero.

Now look who’s laughing?  Nobody, because a missing flight with 239 lives in it, is not funny. 

Baseless Accusation by the opposition: The government is not hiding any information.

The mission to find MH370 has become a top priority not only for the Malaysian government but also for the entire world. This includes the United States of America. The whole world is shocked that an aircraft which can be said as one of the most sophisticated in the world lost without any trace. For the record, while this article is written, it has been 2 weeks since the plane disappeared.


In this particular incident it is possible that the rumours saying that the plane was hijacked can be considered as good news compared to the possibility that the plane had crashed. Thus, many people want to believe that the plane was hijacked and they want someone to verify the information as soon as possible. If not, they will always find any parties that can be blamed for this particular incident. What is certain is that the Malaysian government is seen as an easy target as Malaysia is considered as the “owner” of the MH370 flight.

In an emotional state, most of us have forgotten that even though the responsibility to conduct search and rescue mission is carried out by the Malaysian authority, it is also being done with the help of 26 other nations. They are using all their technological assets to find the mysterious disappearance of mh370.

However, all of the experts involved in the search of the MH370 stated that it is the most mysterious case in the history of the aviation world after disappearance of Emilia Earhart who had vanished in the year 1937


As a responsible nation, the government of Malaysia has already decided that our assets and facilities are not equipped to handle such operation. Thus from day one, the government agreed to accept any help that we can from anyone.
 
The government also disclose any findings that they had received from the joint operation and all of it is legitimate information.

It is unfair for any other parties to accuse Malaysia hiding any information as the government are doing their best to ensure all information that they receive from experts is made known to everyone.

One of the experts who are involved in this particular case are the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) and an American scientist, Professor Colleen Keller, who was the lead scientist in the mission to find the AirFrance flight 447 which crashed in the Atlantic in 2009.

It is impossible to say that these experts and investigators are holding information because they have their own reputation to protect.


It can be said that, those who are accusing the Malaysian government as slow and holding information is the same as saying that the FBI, Colleen Keller with the government of Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and many other country with the same accusation.


We have to remember that in this particular incident, the Malaysian government doesn’t benefit from anything by stalling the search. The only people who benefit from this particular incident are the opposition. From day 1 they used this as a base to attack the government and to tarnish our leader’s image.


At the same time, the people of Malaysia can see for themselves how the opposition are actually celebrating the mysterious disappearance of MH370. They are trying their best to promote themselves by attacking the government with baseless accusation. They are excited in taking any chance they get to humiliate their own country. However, little that they know, the opposition are humiliating themselves in their effort to ruin our country’s image.

FOUR DAYS TO POLLING, WAN AZIZAH AND CHEW UNDER HEAVY PRESSURE

Sunday is polling day for Kajang state seat and pressure is building up for candidates on both sides of the political divide to reach their targets.

For Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Datin Seri Wan Azizah Ismail is a majority of more than 6,824 votes while for Barisan Nasional (BN) Datuk Paduka Chew Mei Fun is a simple win or at the very least reduce Wan Azizah’s majority.

The by-election was forced by PKR supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on the purported claim to end the dispute between the party deputy president Azmin Ali and Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim but the objective changed just before nomination day to Anwar heading for the Mentri Besar seat.
However, when he was convicted and sentenced to five years jail which disqualified him from contesting the created by-election, he got his wife Wan Azizah to stand in.

The going is not easy for both candidates as both are faced with ‘unfriendly’ environment where the electorate seem fed-up and tired of politics given that they are trying to make themselves comfortable with water rationing, traffic jams and garbage not disposed as promised and many more.

Eight days have passed and the 39,278 voters are still ‘slippery’ and ‘unpredictable’ which worry Wan Azizah, not so much for Chew as she goes as an underdog, contesting to gauge the support for her party – the MCA.

Claims made by PKR deputy director of operations Zuraidah Kamaruddin at her daily press conference that the party had managed to gain the support of 45 percent Malay voters was just a ‘psy-war’ to entice others.
Issues raised by PKR kept changing for the last eight days but the posters – displayed big and clearly visible – is still From Kajang To Putrajaya, while the BN is still with development for all.

The reality, after talking to campaigners on the ground from both sides of the political divide was that none has got any inkling of their support except to base it on last year’s general election.

They said the voters have not given any serious thoughts on the by-election due to the aircraft MH307 incident where everybody was glued to the TVs for latest information, forgetting or overlook the weary and tired candidates and their campaigners combing the streets and houses every day and night.

Reality hurts and in this case it burns the heart – the forced by-election is not a small matter where voters are glad to participate – they also know how to ‘play the game’.

Wan Azizah’s campaign trail the last eight says reflected her desperation to win big – started at 8am right up to 12 midnight – non-stop meeting the voters at every place where voters convene or places where the local party members arranged.

Chew on the other hand went on organized meetings and events, not as many a day compared to campaign like Wan Azizah.

Whatever ways the candidates and their campaigners have planned, the final say will be with the voters and only on Sunday the voters will reveal what are in their minds, where the victory is expected to be for Wan Azizah but the question is what will the majority be like.

BN AND PKR CAMPAIGNERS ARE STILL BLURR IN THEIR SUPPORT

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) seems to be fighting an uphill task in retaining Kajang state seat with the majority of 6,824 the party gained in Mar 2013 general election as its candidate Datin Seri Wan Azizah Ismail continues to walk the rough path.

Whether her husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had made the right move in forcing the by-election or not, she is now faced with the challenges of a different environment where the Chinese voters are no longer with the theme ‘ubah’ or change.

They seem to want an opposition voice in the PKR-led state government  which is now held by the 12 Umno assemblymen – no Chinese.

The Malays on the other hand, are also not in the mood of ‘Barisan Nasional (BN) bashing’ as they have experienced the ‘non-performing’ PKR-led state government where even the small business licences are raised or increased and their places where they put up stalls were demolished.

The ‘unfriendly environment’ has made Wan Azizah working twice as hard as she, accompanied by her husband, do their daily walk-about from morning till late evening after which they speak in ceramahs at the Kajang stadium to convince voters of the Kajang Move.

Their confidence of gaining a higher majority seems to be diminishing by the day as they failed to gather voters to flock their daily meet-the-people sessions, getting onlyfew hundreds instead of the well-known thousands at every ceramah.

Anwar’s miscalculation on the support from Chinese voters was due to his ‘overconfidence’ of a similar scenario as last year’s general election where the Chinese wanted a change in government.

However, the failure to change the federal government has somewhat changed the Chinese minds a little where in the Kajang case, they wanted a voice and a strong opposition in the state where it is now fully Malay-Umno opposition – all 12 seats – and not a single Chinese opposition.

To them, without an opposing voice, the PKR-led state government is taking them for granted resulting in the lacsadaisical attitude in dealing with the Kajang people’s problems.

This has resulted in Wan Azizah raising injustice to Anwar’s court case, an issue that she and her campaigners think could overshadow the weaknesses in the state government.

However, campaigners from both sides of the political divide are actually in a blurr as they could not get the ‘readings’ given the lifestyle in the constituency that made it difficult for them to ‘touch base’ except in open housing areas such as Saujana Impian and few other housing areas.

“Urban lifestyle where some 40 percent of the voters live make it difficult for us to reach them – gated community and security condominiums.

“We cannot get through them to do surveys, even though the surveys may not give us an accurate reading, but at least we can get some kind of guide.

“This time we are out of such guide and till today, we still do not know our reading,” said a seasoned campaigner from BN.

However, one thing both sides are certain is the Chinese voters are shifting to BN as they want an opposition voice in the state assembly to highlight their grouses.

And of course, BN candidate Chew Mei Fun is one person who the Chinese community in Selangor knows that can do that.

“She lost in last year’s general election because of the tsunami, not because of her performance,” said a coffee shop owner in Kajang.

Malaysiakini Is Adamant On Politicizing MH370

Almost half of the countries in the world are now looking for MH370.

                                                       All relevant assets have been mobilized into the region to help find the missing aircraft. 

 Since day one, Malaysian government has been doing everything it can and has been quick in accepting all help offered by all parties that led to questions being raised about the access given to so many countries into our territory. 

Even after putting MH370 first before our national security, the government is still being mercilessly criticized by the Oppositions for not doing enough or doing it wrongly. Speculations and slanders are spread around the media without second thought of the consequences. 

Suddenly, it was Lahad Datu all over again whereby not a minute was wasted by the Oppositions to attack the government.  It was almost like they have been anticipating it and then ‘celebrating’ it.  And when the Philippines intelligence exposed the opposition’s link to the Sulu terrorists, the people only knew too well to not take it as a surprise. 

As disturbing as it may sound, we cannot deny that that MH370 is looking more and more likeLahad Datu. 

Every country that is participating in the search and rescue mission of MH370 has made it a point to acknowledge and praise the Malaysian government for the professionalism and dedication in finding the missing aircraft.  However, the praise and acknowledgment are being shrugged-off by our very own Oppositions. 

The latest development on the Captain’s political stance and the fact that he is an Anwar’s fanatic, must have hit the Oppositions hard.  Therefore, they must come out with all sorts of theories fast, in order to cover-up the obvious.   And Malaysiakini’s latest slander served just that.  

Malaysiakini, a pro-Opposition portal, famous for false reporting, came out with a story that the government had rejected Interpol’s help on many occasions pertaining to the missing flight.    

It looks like ‘lying’ comes very naturally for this portal that they don’t even care about the damage that they could have done to the country’s image.  Unknown to them, they only have the Opposition supporters to lie to, because the world knows how sincere and how concern is the government for the fate of MH370.   

The world knows that the Malaysian government is not working on this alone but has been working as a team with 15 other countries.  MH370 seems to be a priority, not just to Malaysia, but the world.  Should Malaysia be blamed for anything, then, all those countries should share as much of the blame too. 

Malaysiakini’s lack of patriotism and ‘couldn’t-care-less’ attitude about Malaysia’s image, make perfect sense, as the portal is known to have been operating on foreign fund.  It seems clear to us that Malaysiakini is not just a news portal, but a portal with an agenda. 

And whatever the agenda is, it doesn’t have anything to do with the wellbeing of Malaysians, or the safety of the passengers and crews of MH370. 

Ever since the flight went missing, Malaysiakini and the Oppositions have been working hand in hand in politicizing the situation.  We can see it for ourselves just by browsing through the portal’s comments section.  The majority of the readers would offer merely one line of condolences to the victims before having a time of their life bashing the government in the rest of the paragraphs. 

If Malaysiakini’s objective is to divide the Malaysians, instill hatred and create insensitive, unpatriotic Malaysians, we must admit that they have truly succeeded. 

It is the media like Malaysiakini that gave birth to fanatics and haters. 

As much as we hate to think so, with Malaysiakini being the main source of information, we will not be surprised if Captain Zaharie did what the foreign media said he did. 

As sad as it already is, in the spirit of freedom of press, after so many lies and irresponsible reporting, Malaysiakini will always be free to continue operation in this free country.  

Even with all the freedom, I bet, that this evil portal will keep on barking ‘No Freedom of Press!’. 

BATTLE OF TWO WOMEN – SYMPATHY VERSUS IDEOLOGY

Kajang state seat by-election is a battle of sympathy versus ideology.

A battle of two women – one a president of a party – Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) - set up on the basis of purported victimisation and the other a former vice-president of a Chinese-based party MCA under the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that believes in power sharing that benefit all Malaysians.

PKR’s Datin Seri Wan Azizah Ismail is standing in for her husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who was found guilty on a sodomy charge and convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.

Datuk Paduka Chiew Mei Fun is fielded when the Kajang state seat was vacated, planned by Anwar to enable him to become Selangor Mentri Besar, which was on the pretext of solving the feud between current Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and party deputy president Azmin Ali.

The voters, educated urban dwellers numbering 38,965, comprising 48 percent Malays, 41 percent Chinese and 10 percent Indians will make their decision on polling day fixed for March 23.

Chiew arrived at Kajang Sports Complex around 8.50am while Wan Azizah arrived five minutes later, both accompanied by leaders of their respective parties and their component parties.

Wan Azizah, accompanied by Anwar and Khalid as well as other leaders from the party filed her nomination papers around 9 am together with Chew, who was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and other senior BN leaders including Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

At stake is PKR’s pride as the seat was held by the party the last two terms while for BN, it is a yardstick to gauge its support from Chinese voters who had practically ‘abandoned’ the rulign coalition in last year’s general election.

However, the by-election is in reality for the MCA to gauge its influence that has taken a big dive when racial issues were played up by its nemesis DAP. Wan Azizah is said to be the saving grace for Anwar as her candidacy has changed the minds of the voters where talks had it earlier that Anwar would not get the numbers he expected as voters had doubted his sincerity in wanting to help Selangorians but his personal ambition.

Wan Azizah is going in banking on sympathy as her main theme – a loyal wife subsevient to her husband allegedly victimised by the ruling part – which many observers said would sell ‘like hot cakes’ given her past sacrifices for Anwar.

Chiew’s development theme may be buried by sentiments of sympathy and MCA cannot make the by-election as the yardstick to gauge its support smong ther Chinese community.