The Spreading Reformasi

First, the people revolted against the BN, showing that reformasi was alive and well.

Then the Perlis, Perak and Terengganu royal houses followed suit, refusing to cave in to demands from any political party in choosing their respective Menteris Besar. Sultan Mizan of Terengganu, aka the Agong, showed Badawi that being Prime Minister no longer means being the most powerful man in the land.

Is the media next? Malaysiakini reported on March 29th, the observations of 3 media watchdogs, including:

...The Star was the most partial among English newspapers in terms of elections reporting in favour of Barisan Nasional (BN) with 63.12 percent its election reports being ‘pro-BN’.

The daily was also found to have had the smallest proportion (5.5 percent) of pro-Opposition reports, while 31.3 percent of its stories were ‘neutral’.

Talk about a slap in the face! Once upon a time in 1987, the Star had enough guts to go against the BN and found itself banned from publishing. Having suffered through the aftermath of its embarrassingly out-of-touch election season coverage, the Star Online unveiled a new look yesterday, accompanied by more neutral reporting (gasp!) of non-BN parties.

Check out the latest headlines (2 non-political stories not displayed):

• Penang gets its shadow Exco
• [Taiping] MIC branch dissolved; members become PAS supporters
• [Perak] Village chief polls next month
• Gerakan deputy sec-gen quits all posts
• Release Hindraf 5, says Samy... yes, you read that right!
• Ahmad Said sworn in as Terengganu MB
• Experiment on reforms, opposition-led states urged
• Focus on service to the people, DAP founder says
• Three houses gutted, MB [Kelantan]'s home saved

None of them are about the BN in a power position. No "the Prime Minister said..." or the people "told" to do this and that by Najib, etc. And perhaps more shocking is the front-page feature story with a smiling Wan Azizah and the caption:

GRACE UNDER FIRE: A doctor turned accidental politician has survived the political roller coaster of the past 10 years and now promises some vitamins to improve the nation’s health.

What?!! This would have been blasphemy just last week! Perhaps this MCA-owned publication, like the MCA itself, has finally woken up and smelled the coffee.

And if the formerly-delusional Samy Vellu can change his tune, does that mean there's hope for the likes of the UMNO-owned daily below?

Utusan Malaysia had allotted about 83 percent of its pages for pro-BN reports, and only 1.89 percent for pro-Opposition reports. -Malaysiakini

My Wish List for Penang (updated April 18th)

I'll update this post as I think of more to add.

More parks, please

Sorry, Patrick Badawi, take your PGCC plans and shove it! I hope the state gets a smart, sustainable plan for the interconnecting parks instead. With 1.5 million vehicles on the state's roads (and 1.06 cars per person!), a green lung is much needed. Perhaps they could take some pointers from New York's Central Park.


Improve public transport

This is such an old problem. I wish the monorail, modeled after Singapore's MRT, will become a reality. In the meantime, the state should take over the entire public bus system. We simply cannot tolerate an atmosphere where bus drivers are being threatened with parangs to their necks! Look at Boston's MBTA system: buses and trains generally run on-time, their schedules are online, and users can plan their trips point-to-point with estimated travel times to their destinations. I would settle for Penang buses being on time.

As of April 18th, the estimated completion date of the Second Link to the mainland is September 2011, at a cost of RM4+ billion. Is it too late to scrap this project? We really don't need more cars on the island, but we do need to ease congestion on the Penang Bridge. The ferry operators have long complained about running a loss-making public service, when they should be looking into new technology and some fresh thinking. Perhaps water transport can be corporatised? I find it ironic that we can take a high-speed ferry to Langkawi and Medan but not to Butterworth.


Review high-rise building permits

Now that PGCC and its 35 towers are all but history, the government needs to be much more selective in allowing developers to build one skyscraper after another. Ivory Properties is planning to build over 1000 new high-rises in the next 2 years. Obviously, developers think there is much potential in creating housing catering to the upmarket clientele. But housing for the middle-income family is already so expensive, higher than in KL, because we only have so much land. We need quality, affordable housing, where profit margins aren't quite as large for the developers. Yet, even if there are 1000 new condominiums and they cannot be filled by existing Penangites, do we really want people migrating into Penang, clogging the island with more cars, when public transport is so woefully lacking? And bear in mind, this plan is only by one developer. There will be others, some who will end up bankrupt, leaving cleared plots and half-raised structures in their wake. We already have enough of those.


More tourist attractions?

Apparently the state government is miffed that Penang was not on the list of the 3 must-see locations during Visit Malaysia Year 2007. They're considering building an attraction like a zoo or aquarium to pull in the tourists. Who needs a zoo when there's already one in Taiping and why build an aquarium when there's one in Langkawi? Must we have an attraction featuring trapped animals? Can we be sure they won't end up neglected like the ones in the KL Zoo? Besides, we already have the Butterfly Farm in Teluk Bahang. What we really need for tourism is to clean up the beaches and waters. Perhaps impose entrance fees, say $5 per car, to enter "state beaches". This is standard practice in the US.


Build something unique, educational and family-oriented

Many families spend their time week after week in shopping malls, which is a tragic waste of time and money. KL has the PetroSains Discovery Center. Penang could have a discovery center or children's museum catering to those aged 3-12. Boston has a fantastic one while the one in Ann Arbor shows that a smaller space and smaller budget can still translate into a good museum. A successful children's museum would automatically become an attractive tourist attraction.


Improve the culture factor

We have museums, art galleries, heritage houses and a library but how many Penangites actually visit all these places? We need to up the cool factor. Museums and galleries need to improve on their outreach programs. Coordinate with schools and encourage them to make regular field trips to these spots. The state education department could even direct schools to integrate state history into the curriculum, requiring visits to any 2 museums per school year.

My Wish List for Malaysia (ongoing)

Reduce third-world mentality

We don't need kiasu attitudes like I-must-get-ahead-of-you-in-that-traffic-lane. We cannot be indifferent to our fellow people and excuse it as the Asian trait of shyness or segan when we don't help the old lady across the street or ignore a potential crime-in-progress. We have to quit being so petty, like the Education Ministry when it issued a directive to Penang schools to refrain from inviting non-BN VIPs to school events. (The Penang government smartly countered by removing teachers' obligations to attend state functions. Separation of education and politics - yay!).


Restore faith in the police

Gosh, wouldn't it be nice to be able to trust the police again? New slogans and badges won't cut it anymore... haven't they learned anything from the last elections? People don't want form over function. We want things to work as they should! We don't want the smirks and smart comments from police officers when we go to make a simple police report. We don't want to be told we are at the wrong police station or be given the run-around by police personnel who are too eager to pass the buck. And we don't want to hear anymore about police who refuse to respond to a burglar alarm at a resident because it occurred in the middle of the night!

Badawi said 2 days ago that the IPCMC (Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commissions) will be brought up in Parliament soon... but will it be the IPCMC developed 3 years ago, or the derivative SCC (Special Commission of Complaints) that gets tabled?


Improve road safety regulations

Statistics from 1996 indicate Malaysia has the highest rate of road accident fatalities WORLDWIDE. In a country where the government has their hands in everything and anything, there is so much more that can be done to keep our people safer on the roads. Tell all car manufacturers to abide by higher safety standards, like making airbags compulsory. No more making cars out of Milo tins (Proton, you listening?). Ban motorcycles from highways (I know, there'll be a massive revolt on this one). If you have to carry children on motorbikes, they must be wearing a proper-sized helmet (not 2 sizes fits all), in bright clothing, no more than 2 people on a bike, and travel at no more than 20 km/h. No more babies on laps in the car! Such a shame that only medium-income-and-above families can afford carseats priced at RM250 and up. Educate parents that this is one of the most important purchases to make. If they can't buy new, find one used.


Next: Limit awarding of Datuk-ships and such

Links on the Terengganu Story

Raja Petra wrote a very enlightening article on the power struggles behind the current Terengganu Menteri Besar fiasco, explaining why the Agong chose Ahmad Said, and why Badawi is adamant Idris Jusoh is the MB. Take with a grain of salt, but well worth a read...

http://www.malaysia-today.net/2008/content/view/4906/84/


Update March 27, 2am EST: Idris Jusoh stripped of Datuk-ship by the Agong? Guess his apology wasn't accepted...

Update March 27, 10am EST: The heavyweight match between PM vs Agong ends... Agong wins!

"Idris, who also took part in the meeting, had been directed to accept the endorsement [of Ahmad Said]..." (NST)

har har...

Update March 27, 2pm EST: Malaysiakini, on its free BM site, tracks the chronology of the Menteri Besar debacle, and its subscriber site reports on the events of the night, including a snippy Badawi telling the press that the details of what transpired during the UMNO supreme council meeting was not for them to know. It sucks having to lose face yet again, doesn't it?

Will the Dust Never Settle?

Two weeks ago, Malaysians voted for a change. They got a bigger change than most even wanted. If we had a do-over election today, there's a fair chance the non-BN parties would not have won as big as they did. I believe Penang would still have fallen out of BN's hands, and perhaps Selangor too. But Perak, where the difference between the two "Barisans" was only 3 seats, compounded by the Menteri Besar flap, would probably still be BN-land. Kedah has been quiet lately so I'll assume people are ok with PAS, although the tourism industry can't be too pleased.

Penang

Lim Guan Eng is starting to come into his own. Where his father, Lim Kit Siang, lost some respect for suggesting the boycott of the Menteri Besar swearing-in ceremony (he later backtracked and personally apologized to Raja Nazrin), Guan Eng as DAP's secretary-general, gained some when he ordered his party officials to attend. He unknowingly blundered his first official statement as Penang Chief Minister when UMNO and even Badawi hyped up his perceived anti-NEP stance to mean he was anti-Malay. PAS and PKR came to his defense, saying it was the corrupt practices within NEP that needed to be thrown out, and Guan Eng has had to repeat this over and over to the press. He should know now to tread more carefully with his "shocking" reformist agenda. By all means, reform as needed, but it's time to keep the rhetoric down. We've heard the promises during the campaigns; now get to work. Looking into these bad land deals made during the previous administration is a good start.

As far as the in-house atmosphere goes, some of Dr Koh's former staff could not wait to jump ship, for different reasons: feelings of disloyalty, now that they are working for the "enemy", or simply perceiving the new administration as having suspicious, unfriendly faces. Others have embraced the new leadership enthusiastically, making them look like traitors in the eyes of their friends. Many are taking a wait-and-see approach. For now, they are needed because they know what they're doing and the new people don't. They don't expect to stay for long and are keeping their job options open.

As for the case of the disappearing files, I know some of the staff was in the office on the night of March 8th, dumping the contents of their drawers into boxes the way anyone would upon hearing they had lost their jobs. They were told to clear the office, then came the DAP people watching them with suspicion, while the police presence increased at least triple-fold. This was new territory; no new party had taken over the government before. However, Dr Koh was mindful that file-destroying allegations would surface following evidence of shredded official documents in Selangor, and he did not want to be sued by the incoming government. Thus his former staff was asked to stay on to help the new people find their way around. Who knows, maybe other staffers and former officials had more to hide.

The Executive

Back on the national level, the biggest event of the past week was the unveiling of Badawi's new cabinet. The most welcome news was that Malaysia's most-hated son-in-law was not on the list. The reformist-pleasers were the appointments of Zaid Ibrahim, whose task was to help restore public confidence in the judiciary, along with former Maybank CEO Amirsham Aziz, and long-time in-house critic Sharir Abdul Samad. The semi-shocker was that Rafidah Aziz was booted, as well as Tengku Adnan (implicated in the VK Lingam scandal) and Jamaluddin Jarjis (remembered for his racist remarks). The disappointment was that both Nazri Aziz (of "Bodoh!" fame) and Hishamuddin "Keris" Hussein (son of Tun Hussein Onn and cousin of Deputy PM Najib Razak) were retained. Interestingly, Nik Aziz stated in Malaysiakini that the new Cabinet had been engineered to remove pro-Najib people, inferring Badawi was seeking to insulate himself from a hostile takeover.

But the most mind-boggling news to me was the appointment of Muhammad Muhammad Taib, former Selangor Menteri Besar, who in 1997 was caught red-handed at the Brisbane airport with over RM2 million in cash. Investigations into his multi-million-dollar properties in Australia and New Zealand failed to land him convictions in both the Australian and Malaysian courts. Honestly, I want to believe that Badawi is not the inept, spineless, pushover that his critics make him out to be, but I simply cannot comprehend how he could elect a man who is so widely perceived as corrupt. Why not just keep Rafidah then? At least the Iron Lady kicks butt and gets things done. What has Mat Taib done in the past 11 years other than be an UMNO loyalist?

Terengganu

Two weeks along, and still no Menteri Besar. The battle between UMNO and the royalty exploded onto the frontpages today. On one side is former MB Idris Jusoh, with the public backing of Badawi, and 22 of the 23 UMNO state assemblymen; on the other is the Terengganu palace, who picked the 23rd assemblyman Ahmad Said as MB. Before Ahmad Said could be sworn in, UMNO kicked him out of the party for accepting the job. The palace is said to be displeased with Idris Jusoh for the Batu Burok incident, the water-cannoning of PAS supporters during the recent elections, and Idris' egotism. Since technically, the royal in charge is an 11-year-old boy, a royal committee has been handling the negotiations. The Sultan of Terengganu as Agong is legally barred from "interfering" with the Menteri Besar selection, but does anyone doubt he is calling the shots? However, the Agong may have to rethink his choice of Ahmad Said as the latter does not appear to be squeaky-clean either. As it is, the battle royale between Prime Minister and King is shaping up to be a very interesting one.


This post-election fortnight has been volatile, to say the least. BN is trying to keep it together and prevent defections; UMNO is fighting the royalty, the anti-Badawi camp, and DAP/PAS/PKR; and the informal Barisan Rakyat is trying to actually work with each other. When will everyone stop playing politics and start governing?

Adjusting to Power.. or the Lack of it

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

~Plato

Ok, so we are screwed. Here are 3 categories of the power players in Malaysia today...

The Newly-Empowered:

Lim Kit Siang

His response to the Sultan of Perak's decision to appoint PAS' Nizar for the Menteri Besar position was disappointing, to say the least. Responses from his blog readers came swiftly, most in the negative. For those who were new supporters of Mr Lim in this recent campaign, particularly the Malays, it was downright embarrassing to see his perceived u-turn on judging Malaysians based on merit instead of race or creed. He also came under heavy criticism for disrespecting the royalty, for which he promptly apologized. Perhaps it was a case of old habits dying hard for the 67-year-old, accustomed to decades of criticizing the authorities at will. Or perhaps it was a rookie mistake, not knowing the requirements for a politician belonging to a ruling party, namely the art of subtlety and diplomacy. He should have aired his opinion to party members, not splashed it on his blog. BN was only too quick to jump on this faux pas, with much glee.

Syed Husin Ali

The deputy president of PKR threatened to pull out of the coalition government in Perak if they failed to get more than 1 representative in the State Executive Committee (exco). Come on, people! Please refrain from making these public comments and work things out in private! We want to see you solve problems, not whine about them.

And to think that a lot of this could have been averted if the candidates' qualifications were well-publicized in the first place. DAP Perak had been telling the press that the most qualified candidates from each party in the coalition had been nominated for the Menteri Besar position. But most people were forced to take that statement at face value, not knowing what exactly those qualifications were. Hence there was a lot of confusion when PAS, who had only 6 seats compared to DAP's 18, PKR's 7 , and BN's 28, appeared to have the front-runner candidate. In truth, PAS' Nizar is a multi-lingual mechanical engineer with vast experiences in domestic and foreign projects. Was this fact not publicized because DAP and PKR held out more than a little hope that their respective candidates would take the top job?


The Newly-Disempowered:

BN Leaders

Samy Vellu, Koh Tsu Koon, and former Perak MB Tajol Rosli all lost their high-ranking positions on March 8th. While Samy disappeared into the night with a sullen "goodbye", Tajol Rosli hunkered down in his palatial office and sobbed into the morning. Media persons waiting for a quote camped out from 8pm to 6am to no avail. In contrast, praise came from all quarters including media analysts and opposition party leaders for the way Dr Koh handled himself in defeat. He shook Lim Guan Eng's hand in congratulations for all the media to see on that difficult night, and a few days later sat in the front row with his elegant wife to witness Guan Eng's swearing-in when no other BN leader showed their faces. The only other loser who did not lose face was Shahrizat, who went to the polling station to concede defeat to Nurul Izzah. Too bad she missed the golden opportunity to personally salam with Izzah, instead relaying her congratulatory message to one of Izzah's aides.

UMNO Penang

They came marching to Komtar almost 2,000-strong after Friday prayers yesterday, protesting Lim Guan Eng's declaration that the state government would no longer practice NEP. When the BN was in complete power, social protests were blamed for causing racial disharmony. Why did no BN leader come out and speak against this rally? And the police knew the day before that the rally had been planned. Had they received an application for the rally? If they had, was it approved or denied? If they hadn't, why did they not demand the organizers apply for one? They did warn people through the mainstream media against joining the rally, and they did bring the FRU and their accompanying water cannons out when the first requests for dispersal went unheeded. However there have been rumblings that the police have yet to learn the rules of fair play in this changed political landscape. We didn't see any UMNO-ites dragged away by the police and thrown into jail under ISA, did we?


The Already-Empowered Finally Wielding their Might:

The Royals

Who ever knew they actually had power? All this while we've been used to them being mere rubber-stampers to the BN's will. For example, did anyone really think the Agong would deny Badawi permission to dissolve cabinet and clear the way for elections? There were rumors he tried to circumvent this by going on a vacation overseas, with the intention of forcing Badawi to hold elections after Anwar's ineligibility had expired. Badawi got wind of the trip and went to seek an audience with the Agong on the morning he was to leave.

Two days ago, the Sultan of Perak and Raja Nazrin had their say in choosing their state's Menteri Besar, and took things a step further in requiring each of the coalition's MP's to sign a letter of allegiance to the new Menteri Besar. Yesterday, the Sultan of Perlis ignored former MB Shahidan's recommendation (read: appointment) letter from Badawi and selected a Md Isa in his place. Rumors of an affair involving the former MB likely contributed to his downfall, along with his well-known rivalries with other local politicians including the Sultan's brother.

Next up is Terengganu. This is where BN's phantom voters supposedly congregated, because they assumed the threat of this state falling to the Opposition was bigger than in any other. BN ultimately won 24 of the 32 state seats. Former MB Idris Jusoh has the public support of the other 23 BN ADUN's to continue his stint as MB, but the Terengganu palace excluded him from the meeting at the palace today. Look for the Sultan of Terengganu, who is also the Agong, to make his authority known.

Why BN Lost

The post-mortems, analyses, and dissections continue. The list of reasons for the "political tsunami" that washed away BN's power in 5 states are almost endless.

Among them: a relatively freer society under Badawi that has allowed dissent to flourish on the internet; Anwar's release from prison, also courtesy of Badawi; Badawi's weak leadership; reliance on bad advisors (who supposedly operate from "the fourth floor"); heavily favoring son-in-law Khairy, arguably the most hated person in the country; higher petrol, food and toll expenses; rising crime rates; the police's heavy-handedness in dealing with the Bersih and Hindraf rallies; and inheriting Mahathir's system of excessiveness.

The former-Opposition parties, DAP, PKR and PAS had rallies featuring crowd-pleasers like Anwar and Raja Petra Kamarudin; an anti-corruption agenda; a multi-racial platform; and an active anti-establishment blogging community.

But the main reason for their victory was for people like this:

...a voice in the crowd was overheard to have said: “It's not because I particularly liked anyone in the DAP or anything like that, but because we cannot stand anyone in BN that they (the former party) won. A dog could have stood for elections under their banner and we'd still pangkah it in.”

- From the Malaysian Insider, at the DAP supporters' gathering on the night Penang fell from BN's grasp.

At last, the silent majority had spoken.

The Aftermath

All I could say when I heard the results was: WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Over and over again!

In summary, the BN was denied its 2/3 majority, PKR won 31 parliamentary seats (up from 1 in the last elections), DAP won 28 and PAS won 23. Penang, Selangor, Perak, Kedah and Kelantan all now belong to the "Opposition" . Total parliamentary seats: 222. BN : 137, Opp : 82, way more than the 70 it had aimed for!


The best parts:

- Samy Vellu lost! He had bragged that Dr Jeyakumar could contest him 25 times and he would still win. Now he is forced to eat his words!! Upon learning that he had lost, apparently he told some that he was leaving to take a shower and never came back. To reporters, he said "goodbye" and has never been seen since.

- Nurul Izzah won! I have nothing against Sharizat, but it's fantastic to see an intelligent young woman pull off a much-deserved win! Margin: almost 3000 votes.

- 49% of the popular vote was for anything but BN!


The spoilers:

- Khairy wins. The first reports had him winning by 100+ votes and so Chegu Bard asked for a recount. But in the end Khairy won by 5700 votes. However I read an interesting comment on one of the blogs today that it is good that Khairy won, so he can fight against Najib to become PM once the inevitable happens and Badawi steps down. While UMNO's internal combustion is an intriguing prospect, the thought that either one will be PM turns my stomach.

- My mother is out of a job. The earliest news from the polls was that Penang had fallen to the Opposition. Dr Koh lost by almost 10,000 votes, sealing his political demise. Apparently my mother didn't even have time to participate in the vote-count; by the time she got to the polling center the writing was already on the wall.


Other interesting points:

- Rumors abound that Mahathir had a hand in BN's massive loss. Badawi will now have to step down, having raised Mahathir's ire publicly since 2005, and Mahathir's favorite, Najib, will take over and restart the projects that were shelved by Badawi. Don't forget, the man ruled Malaysia for 22 years. He put in place the laws and machinery that suffocated the people's rights. It's not such a long shot that he still pulls the invisible strings even now.

- Teresa Kok won the Seputeh parliamentary seat by whupping Carol Chew's behind with a majority of almost 37,000 votes, the highest margin in these elections. Thanks for those sexist cartoons, Carol!

- Wan Azizah, Tian Chua, Sivarasa, Hannah Yeoh, Loh Gwo-Burne, Manoharan... all the famous PKR candidates won! LGB, start your BM lessons today! Wan Azizah won by 13,000, from 590 in the previous elections. Anwar should have no problems winning this seat in a by-election.

- My $50 contribution to these elections did not go to waste. Jeff Ooi won the Jelutong parliamentary seat (margin: 16,000), and Anwar Ibrahim won the hearts and minds of millions of Malaysians.


What's next?

- The BN is busy doing a post-mortem. Gerakan won 2 parliamentary seats, MIC 3, and MCA 15, down from 31. I wonder if Gerakan will now consider leaving the BN, seeing as how they've been the only ones who've dared to go against the BN line on occasion. Obviously, the non-Malays don't want to play racial politics anymore. UMNO did not lose big, showing they still have a large Malay following. Will it be Malay vs non-Malay in the next elections? I certainly hope not! But I wouldn't put it past UMNO to keep playing the race card.

- New Selangor Menteri Besar, Khalid Ibrahim of PKR, announced that he would make radical changes: more transparency in viewing state documents, for example. He's on the right track: the ISA, UUCA, Printing & Publishing Act all need to be abolished and the EC completely revamped. But the biggest and most important change needs to be in the judicial system.

- In-coming Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng of DAP, immediately issued a statement to foreign businesses that he would foster a business-friendly environment, following reports of nerves in the economic sector. He will need to hire the best economic brains, perhaps even entice some overseas Malaysian financial experts back home. On a larger scale, I believe this new political landscape will be able to reverse the brain drain to some extent.

- For Penangites, it also means the end of the PGCC! The elitist development project must now be relegated to the archives. Many have been calling for the development of a "green lung" instead, a network of interconnected parks. I wouldn't mind seeing a man-made lake, a budget-friendly children's museum, and a dedicated theater/arts center included in the plans. And no more shopping malls!


It is certainly a new dawn in Malaysia. Let's see what morning brings.

Things They Should Have Thought of BEFORE Election Day

While I enjoy living in the States where generally, things work like they are supposed to, this is one of the times I wish I was back home. I wish I had been back to attend the many ceramahs. I wish I had been able to feel the electricity of thousands of Malaysians coming together for our common good. And darn it, I wish I had been able to vote. Although looking at The Star Online lately has been an eyesore, I'm glad they brought up the subject of overseas Malaysians wanting to vote in today's "Oh, for the chance to cast vote by post."

As the reports on the ground come in, one has to wonder why the following were not brought up prior to the all-important Election Day.

Access for the disabled and the elderly. Don't the people setting up these polling stations have parents? You would think at least one 50-something poll station worker would have said, hey, how are the older folks going to climb up 4 flights of stairs to cast their ballots? We are notorious for not having ramps or disable-friendly facilities. I've had to carry my kids in their strollers up flights of stairs and over many longkangs. Looking on the bright side, I'm heartened to note there were people willing to physically lift the disabled up to the polling stations. Finally, the Star reporter noted, "Another voter Koh Hoon Eng said she was stranded for three hours before she was assisted to her polling stream. However, the problem was resolved an hour later when Returning Officer M. Ashaari Othman transferred a polling stream to the ground floor of the school, much to joy of the elderly folks." After 4 hours of waiting, I don't think joy is what they felt. Try relief, or perhaps the urge to smack the Returning Officer on the head for not acting sooner.

Hacking into the EC's database. Why, oh why, could this not have happened sooner? All those computer geeks out there, and only now does Mr Ong surface with his revelations. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad and awed that he spent the time to run almost 600 records through his script. But the timing certainly could have been a little better! Perhaps a court order could have been filed and the EC might have fixed all those duplicate records! Wait... the EC fix something? More like them being used to fix these elections... sigh.

So now we wait. A thought for all those hard-working volunteers going through stacks and stacks of ballots; a cog in the wheel of democracy. My mother is one of them.

Makkal Sakthi?

And I thought the 10,000 crowd at Han Chiang on March 1st was huge...



This crowd tonight at DAP's rally in Han Chiang is said to be 30,000-60,000 -strong. This, and more pictures are from the Malaysian Insider. According to audience members, Jeff Ooi provided the entertainment, singing and playing the guitar. I hope he's enjoying this! It's probably the only time he'll play to bigger crowds than Siti Nurhaliza and Mawi at BN rallies!

Dare we compare this to BN's Anwar-bashing rally just the night before? Thirty-five hundred people turned up at Rifle Range to listen to Badawi and Dr Koh.

I have to say I'm relieved the police did not try to stop the rally tonight. But was this a display of Makkal Sakthi (people's power)? Or will 1995 repeat itself and show a disconnect between crowds at rallies and votes in the ballot box?

Other sobering points... not many Malays in the crowd. Perhaps there would have been more if Anwar had been scheduled to speak? Tonight Wan Azizah was there instead. Or perhaps more likely, Malays still view a multi-racial party with deep suspicion, expecting a loss of power, property and rights if a Malay party was no longer calling the shots.

Neither is the young, urban voter someone the Opposition can count on. All their lives, they have known suppression of dissent. Let's face it, you could get smacked in the mouth for talking back to your parents. And blasted by water cannons if you speak up against the government. Young urbanites just want to be left alone and are not willing to put up with major change.

In about 32 hours, polling begins. I hope and pray all the blood, sweat and tears spent fighting for a better Malaysia will not be for naught.

Fighting Against The Odds

Once upon a time, perhaps it was during the 1990 election, I remember my parents driving me through some pro-Opposition areas in Penang. DAP's rocket posters were densely papered here and I would look at them almost guiltily because they were advertising for the "enemy."

Eighteen years on, I have to admit, I've begun to admire the long-time DAP leaders more and more. People like Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh have been constantly vilified by the BN as noisemakers, even troublemakers, out to spread fear and discontent among the public. With BN's father-knows-best mentality, disobedient children like the Opposition are trivialized, embarrassed, and outcast. After 30 years of this, most children would have tolerated it no more, packed their bags and moved out of the house. Yet, here are these old folks, hanging tough, and fighting on. Their indomitable spirit is astounding to me. It's gratifying now to see them showing up at ceramah after ceramah, cheered on by thousands of their fellow citizens.

I admire their fighting spirit, because mine is fledgling in light of all the discouraging news coming out this last week before the election. At the top of the list of course, is the EC backtracking on their promise to use indelible ink to mark voters who have cast their vote. The EC agreed in June of 2007 to use the ink. They had all these months to investigate potential problems that have cropped up in the various countries that have used it over the years. They certainly had more than enough time to realize they could not make it compulsory for all voters to be marked. Do your research, people! But they chose to spend the RM2 million first and brag about being "clean" and "transparent". The sweet promises turned out to be empty ones, which also happens to be BN's trademark.

The EC also has the nerve to pooh-pooh the discrepancies in the electoral roll. Five hundred non-existent residents in an abandoned markas in Penang? Ala... people move, they don't tell us, so it's not our fault. Nine thousand voters over 100 years old? Those people are still alive, what! Even if they're dead, the National Registry didn't tell us, so it's not our fault. Talk about passing the buck. If it's not the EC's responsibility to maintain the electoral roll, whose is it??

And how about all those "new" voters cropping up? Did 14,000 adults, all conveniently registered to vote, move into Permatang Pauh in the last 4 years? Of those, 6,000 are postal voters which are perhaps 90% for the BN. If the same number of people vote for Wan Azizah and PKR as they did in 2004, when she won by 590 votes, then BN will win this one by a "thumping majority" come Saturday. This funnelling of thousands of votes into an opposition area is not new. In 1999, PAS captured Terengganu. In 2004, 9300 fewer people voted for PAS, a decline of 5.2%, but 93,000 more voted for BN, a mind-boggling increase of 72%. It's as good as BN saying, yes, we're cheating you, everyone knows it, but no one can do a damn thing about it.

Then there are the infamous postal votes. Civic-minded students overseas have spent loads of time and money trying to get their hands on a postal ballot. They put up with embassy and consulate workers ignorant of voting procedures and the rights of Malaysian citizens. One embassy representative even let it slip that she thought only government-sponsored students were allowed to vote from overseas. One student called up his embassy twice to verify the day to cast his postal ballot, only to find out after he made the trip that voting had been carried out the day before. Sorry, try again next year.

Honestly, how do we keep our spirits alive with all the odds against us? To fight on, you need hope and the government has done a terrific job of taking the hope for a true democracy away from us.

So to Kit Siang and Karpal, we need you. Keep on fighting. Salud.

The Penang Potential

Anil Netto was at this much-anticipated rally at Han Chiang High School last night...

Anwar, Guan Eng join hands to rock Penang

This was one of the big ones.
It was one those evenings where you just had to be there to experience the growing sentiment among Penangites seeking change and reforms.
Some 10,000 converged at the indoor stadium of the private Han Chiang High School in Penang.

Imagine the traffic jams! Kalah Pesta!

Penangites are known to be a fickle sort, come election time. In 1969 they voted then-opposition party Gerakan into power. Gerakan joined BN in 1974 and has evolved into a party of apologists, almost on the same level as MCA and MIC (one notable difference is that they dared bring up the Bangsa Malaysia concept of multi-racialism last year). In 1990, the same year 21-year Chief Minister Lim Chong Eu passed the baton to Dr Koh Tsu Koon, Penangites again revolted; the DAP came within 3 seats of taking over the state. The following elections, DAP was left with a single seat.

This year, it is Dr Koh's turn to pass the baton, but few seem to agree on who the next best Chief Minister is. Will Penangites turn to the Opposition again? There are more issues at hand than just Dr Koh's departure of course. The man is a very likable person, with none of the arrogance or pretentiousness I've seen in UMNO leaders much lower on the rungs of the political ladder. However, he has been accused of being too nice and indecisive. I think the last straw for some people was when the PGCC project was announced, as part of a string of economic corridors Badawi wants to build across the country.

Anyone driving in Penang knows what a nightmare the traffic issue has become. PGCC is certain to exacerbate that. The main road in front of the Turf Club gets terribly congested at different times of the day, and this is without any form of construction whatsoever. What kind of hell will it turn to when contractors start to build 40 high-rise towers in that spot? Then there are the environmental concerns, the questions over Patrick Lim and whether he is a government crony, and the indignation that nobody bothered to ask Penangites what they wanted in the first place. Many, many jobs will be created, mainly for construction workers, and we all know Penangites are just lining out the door to fill these back-breaking positions - NOT.

There are many other on-going issues of course. Once the premier tourist destination in Malaysia, Penang beaches have degenerated into dirty sands with murky waters. Its reputation as an IT hub suffered a major embarrassment* with the still-unsolved theft of Intel chips worth RM50million from the Penang airport in November 2006 and supposedly led to the company cutting back its operations in the state. We can't escape the racial issues: the Malays, now a minority, feel sidelined by the Chinese majority. On a half-wall where a home used to stand along Jalan Tanjung Bunga, a tsunami victim scrawled, "Di mana hak orang Melayu?"

In this cosmopolitan state of 1.3 million where 80% are urban-dwellers, Penang's population is 47% Chinese, 43% Malay, and 11% Indian (year 2000 stats). Gerakan, MCA, UMNO, MIC, DAP, PKR and PAS all have state and/or parliamentary seats here. Penangites have the potential to be the first in Malaysia to practice the concept of Bangsa Malaysia. Now, if only Anwar can convince the Malays to support him again...

*Update March 2nd, 2:03am: Malaysiakini broke this story about a letter Dr Koh sent to Badawi on December 3, 2007, essentially warning Badawi that Motorola would pull the plug on its Penang operations, flushing 10,000 jobs down the drain, unless the federal government approved an RM1 billion deal for the company to upgrade the police force's radio network. Can't wait to see the fallout from this one!