YeinJee's Asian Journal

The Election Commission (EC) has scrapped the indelible ink plan for the March 8 general election following legal advice, its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said. He said that the decision made at a meeting today was also to ensure security and public order.

“Police investigations reveal that there are irresponsible people who bought ink from foreign countries in order to persuade those not familiar with the procedure to have the ink applied (to a voter’s forefinger or nail) before polling day,” he told a press conference at the EC headquarters, Putrajaya. [Bernama]

Abdul Rashid also said that the use of indelible ink would not be effective as the country’s constitution allows those who refuse to have their fingernail marked with the ink to still be issued with a ballot, and that the use of the indelible ink could infringe the constitutional right of a voter to cast his vote, especially if the commission tries to bar someone from voting for having an ink marked in his finger. [Malaysiakini]

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DAP incumbent Teresa Kok has gained the upper hand at the Seputeh parliamentary seat against her challenger MCA’s Carol Chew, following the huge blunder from Chew for using two controversial billboards to convey her message.

The controversial poster
(Image from Merdekareview)

The first version of the Chinese billboard features a caricature of Kok, clad in a skimpy red dress and matching stiletto heels, embracing ‘Mr Kinrara’ after dumping ‘Mr Seputeh’, while the second version features Kok on a rocket, flying from ‘Mr Kinrara’ to ‘Mr Seputeh’. [Malaysiakini]

The posters was meant to tease Kok who is contesting for both the Seputeh parliamentary seat and Kinrara state seat, which is actually a point worth debating… but the way the message was portrayed certainly won’t please the public, and I find it rather disgusting as well.

Kok has off course, objected strongly on the use of these degrading posters. Her objection was echoed by the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG), some other non-governmental organisations and also some fellow bloggers.

The posters have been taken down yesterday (March 3), but the damage has already been done… Chew has probably just buried her political future while doing a huge favour for Kok at the coming election, which is just days away.

I am quite amazed that Chew and her MCA team had failed to foresee the negative impact before putting up the billboards… I am not going to use the word sexist as I am not really sure what draws the borderline (of being sexist or not), but the degrading nature is obvious, and it’s a cheap tactic that people don’t want to see from a MP candidate.

Electoral manifestos by key parties for the 12th general election…

BN (Pdf file) ll DAP (Jpeg image) ll PKR ll PAS (need to download)

Batu Gajah incumbent MP Fong Po Kuan has decided to retract her earlier decision to not defend her seat at the 12th General Election.

While the DAP and Fong’s supporters are singing their joy… I have different opinion about this; this is simply a huge joke from my point of view. I don’t like people who flip-flop with their decisions, and I believe I am not the only one.

People might argue that Po Kuan actually shows that she is willing to listen to the plea of her supporters, which should be respectable… but shouldn’t she be gathering the opinions BEFORE she made the decision to quit?

Her decision to u-turn might be a good thing for DAP and the people, but if there were actually rooms for her to change her mind, shouldn’t she be thinking extra carefully before making the first call?

Did she chat with the party leaders before calling it quits? Was it the last or only option she had back then? Whom had she consulted before making the call? Did she even had a good reason to quit at the first place?

If you are working in a corporate, and one of your colleague decided to quit and then retracted his/her call… you would know that this kind of gimmick is not generally popular. Most people would still give a “welcome back” greeting, but only a few really meant it.

Political field should see no exception… what she did was simply immature. She did apologised for this, but damage has already been done, for both Fong Po Kuan and DAP. Questions are, how bad the damage is, and how forgiving Batu Gajah’s voters are?

Batu Gajah Member of Parliament, Fong Po Kuan has throw a bomb on DAP’s camp on last Saturday (Feb 16), announcing that she won’t be contesting for the upcoming election.

Fong didn’t state the reason for her decision, but in an email sent to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, which was distributed during Saturday’s press conference… she mentioned that the development of internal party events in DAP Perak over the last few years has made it impossible for her to continue serving effectively, efficiently and wholeheartedly.

The public are holding mixed response about her decision. While her supporters are trying to persuade her to change her decision, some quarters are questioning her maturity to announce her decision when the General Election is in a matter of days.

Personally, I think we would have to respect Fong’s decision. Selfishness is not a question here, she is entitled to make the best decision for her personal interest rather than for the mass… it is just being human.

Off course it would be great if she could have find a better timing to announce her decision, perhaps a few months earlier… but it could be that she has just made up her mind recently. We can’t really tell without knowing the real situation.

On side note, DAP should just let go of this issue and move on. Forget about persuading Fong to rethink her decision… she already made the call, and it probably would show more immaturity if she decides to flip-flop in the end.

Besides, giving too much importance to Fong actually exposed that DAP might be lacking in quality candidates, which is probably a fact… but the DAP leaders certainly don’t need to endorse the weakness by over-focusing on getting back Fong.

My best wishes to Fong Po Kuan for her future endeavour, and hope that DAP could find a good candidate to replace the void.

[Update Feb 22] Fong retracted her decision and will contest in coming election.

DAP has launched its official campaign video with the slogan “Just Change It”…

Frankly, I can’t see anything sentimental with the video, but it makes it giggle, and I like it. The person who designed the campaign slogan (Just Do Change It) and the Nike logo should be shot though… that’s quite an obvious plagiarism.

According to Kit… 75 seats are what the opposition political parties need for a beginning of new democracy with an effective check-and-balance.

I think they would need 80 instead… BN might (most likely will) try to bribe an MP or two to switch side if the situation is critical. Make it 80 and they would be safe.

[Update March 12, 2008] 82 is the lucky number.

ONLY if you are an UMNO member…

At the Umno General Assembly next week, party members registered as voters with the Election Commission (EC), will stand to win prizes totalling RM5.25 million.

Umno executive secretary Datuk Husainay Hashim told Bernama this today.

He also said that Umno members who had registered with the EC would also receive membership cards. Umno had issued 2.8 million membership cards and would deliver them to those who had registered with the EC tomorrow, he said.

“For Umno members who have yet to register, we will provide the facility for them to do so during the assembly and the membership card will be made for them,” he said. [Bernama]

If PAS or DAP are doing this… UMNO will yell that it is money politic. However, since that it is UMNO that is doing it… I guess it is ok, right?