Some 600 motorcyclists were reported accompanying Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin on their vehicles from Pasir Mas to Rantau Panjang in Kelantan during his visit to the state on Monday…
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 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.
It’s a peaceful nomination day on Feb 24.
BN got a head start as expected, winning seven of the 222 parliamentary seats and two of the 505 state seats without contest.
The surprise of the day probably belongs to PAS’s Wan Ubaidah Omar, who retained the Kijang state seat (Kelantan) after BN’s challenger was disqualified for bankruptcy… a rare unopposed win for non-BN parties.
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?
Malaysian bloggers and opposition party leaders are one sided in calling Samy Vellu to quit from the coming election (and probably from all his political posts as well)… but is Samy Vellu really that unwanted by the Indian and Malaysian community?
The Hindraf rally (and post mortem events) is a clear indication that there are serious discontent among the Indians about Samy’s leadership. There are also bloggers’ reports that Samy was being booed and insulted in various events that he attended in the past few months.
Thing is… can Hindraf and some others represent the majority voices of the Hindus or Indians? There are still large group of Indians (and non Indians) that have been silence about Hindraf and recent development about the Indian community… and we can never assume anything about what they are thinking.
Besides, those people who constantly claimed that Samy Vellu is unwanted probably have not been to Sungai Siput before… as far as I know, Sungai Siput is one of the best maintained areas in Perak, and Samy (and his representatives) has been very responsive to the community issues in the zone.
Samy is unwanted only if he can’t win at his stronghold at the end of the election day… else, it probably shows that he still has his influence after all, and that the silent majority still has some fate or hope for the MIC leader.
Let the voters decide.
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.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has announced the dissolution of Parliament to pave the way for the 12th general election. The announcement was made at a media conference at his office in Putrajaya and telecast live on RTM1 at noon on Feb 13.
The dissolution of this Parliament was made 15 months before the expiry of its five-year term on May 16, 2009. According to the Election Commission (EC), the country has 10.9 million voters including about 700,000 new voters who can vote in the upcoming elections. [Bernama]
[Update Feb 14] Polling is on March 8, while nomination on Feb 24.
