Of Machap, pre-election psycho.....

As the nomination day for Machap by-election is drawing closer, aspirational parties started to fire pre-election salvos, marking the beginning of the psycho and counter psycho to test the mood swing of voters.

The BN head of Malacca, Datuk Ali Rustam has expressed his desire for the voters to be given the day off on the election day, come 12th April 2007.

The Deputy Prime Minister, who happens to be the No 2 man in BN claimed that the opposition parties are inconsistent in their stand, referring to the previous Batu Talam by-election when the main opposition parties decided to boycott the by-election.

Democratic Action Party (DAP) who many feels will put their candidate in the by-election has accused the Election Commission's Chairman of bias in selecting the date for the all important by-election.

This is the by-election closly monitored by all parties from both sides of the fence, BN or opposition and maybe the fence sitters and the political analysts.

The online news will play a small but important role in the by-election. Whether the online bloggers will be able to sway the voters will be closely monitored by the main media as well as the guys from the so called 4th floor in Putrajaya.

Me? I guess I will wish Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are... Read More

Of Gelombang Biru, revived mega project and election war chest...

The planned ruling party's blitz across Terengganu and Kelantan signal the final phases of BN's election preparation to keep Terengganu and to capture Kelantan from PAS. The events drawn up by the respective state's BN's dominated UMNO underlines the seriousness of BN to control the 2 eastern states of Peninsular Malaysia and draws a strong parallel to the Gelombang Biru that distances the voters from re-electing PAS to govern Terengganu.

However, the keypoint to the carefully staged programmes pointed to one thing - BN, or rather UMNO is going all out to win the hearts of the Malays of Terengganu and Kelantan. And why is Kelantan and Terengganu so important to UMNO? It is for a pure reason that UMNO is desperate for the Malay supports of the rural areas. UMNO can no longer depends on the urbanised Malay since there are too many issues that keeps coming out which can no longer swept under the carpet. Further, the urban areas are multi-racial and the non-Malays votes hinges on the performance of the present ruling party which, coincidentally nothing worth bragging.

The coming by-election of Macap, Melaka can be a good barometer to gauge the support and the voting trends on non-Malays. The election campaign for Macap will not be the same as those of the rural Terengganu and Kelantan. Here, the voters will not be coerced with kain pelikats, bicycles and praying mats. The Macap voters will be asking the BN to tasks including the welfare of non-Malays, the education and other worldly things.

The recent announcement by the Government to revive the double tracking rail project is another pointer that the elections are drawing near, maybe providing the present Prime Minister with many beautiful dreams consisting of numbers i.e. dates. The mega project will be one of the sources for the election war chest. The project is raising eyebrows to many when it was first cancelled, then KIV and now revive.

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are... Read More

Of makeover and self denial...

After all the excitement of accusations involving bribery to both a senior politician and a senior public official, the statement by the Prime Minister has put a damper to the ongoing saga of theories and tale spinning.

The latest news by the Select Committee cancelling the coming 12th March '07 invitation to both the ACA director and its accuser, on the pretext that the police are investigating the case seems to be illogical at times. The police was given a chance several months ago to pursue the case but the AG has opted to classify it as NFA (No Further Action), so is there a need for investigation now? It should be the Select Committee to pursue the case, not to prosecute anybody but to get to the bottom of the things. If the ACA Director is innocent, then declare so.

The case of the Senior politician, on the other looks set for an interesting showdown, with the police nabbing the second detainee mentioned in the original accusation of bribery. And the interesting part is the detainee was nabbed by the ACA. What a coincedence. Has the ACA becomes super-efficient surpassing that of the police? Is there a friendly competition between ACA and the police with the police investigating the ACA Director and the ACA nabbing the detainees released by order of the Deputy Minister in charge of police?

However, it shall also be noted that the flurry of events happen after the Prime Minister commented that on the monthly gathering for Departments under the Prime Minister's Department.

The Prime Minister himself is not spared from entering the self-denial mode of side-stepping the issue whether he has re-married or remains a widower. The Prime Minister should come out clean and openly declare whether he has re-married or not. The issue of whether it is a rumour or not should be left as that. A rumour may be true and can be false. A statement of fact will remain a statement of fact. So, Mr Prime Minister, are you married now?

Another interesting news is the goody claimed by Ceupacs, the national body representing the public sector, that the Government may agree to the salary hike requested by the public sector. Is this a danggling carrot for the General Election?

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are...
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Of events leading to NFA...

Lately, the Malaysian media is playing on the supposedly accusation that the current Director General (DG) of Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) is amassing properties beyond his capabilities based on his monthly drawn income and the police report regarding his sexual misconduct of 1997.

A flurry of media exchanges from the Attorney General (AG), the Police No 1 (IGP), The Chairman of Select Committee and even the Prime Minister circulated and base on the media preference, it will either be highlighted or carried on as a supplementary news.

However, it is interesting to note that although the initial accusation was made early on by one of the outgoing ACA officers, the headlines were only made when the oppossition raised the issue in the ceramahs. It will not do so if this is not highlighted by the opossition and relentless echoed by the bloggers.

And yet the end of the tunnel has been indicated by the Malaysian PM from Yemen with his statement that the DG of ACA has been vetted twice and by two different government agency provides the clear signs that the DG will be scot free. At most, the Government will set up another committee to review the processes of vetting top civil servants.

All in all, the events will be a drama of sorts stemming from the miscommunications between the Police and the Attorney General (and that's why the investigation papers were neglected for the past few years), the oversight from both the Police and ACA vetting processes (due to insufficient documented proof), the wrong advise and recommendation to the PM (due to the insufficient time as the PM is always abroad - :) , the non-executive power of the Select Committee (as they can only call for hearing but cannot pass any judgement) - the results shall be NFA (No Further ACtion) stamped on the file folder and laid to rest.

And at least the Government has something better to do that is to scrutinise and to provide recommendations on what the DJ Linda Onn shouldwear at the Grammys...

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are... Read More