As usual, Barisan Nasional came out with the manifesto that ensures security, peace and prosperity. The 24-page manifesto shows the progress report on the left and promises on the right focusing on economy, balanced development, education, law and order, welfare, public service, corruption and governance as well as religion and foreign policy with supported by statistics. You may have a look at the manifesto and download a copy from BN's 2008 election website. If you can get a copy of their 2004 manifesto, then that would be more interesting though :P
Opposition parties voiced out their manifestos as well. All of them have agreed with People's declaration. They stand strongly holding hands together in order to deny 2/3 of BN's majority. They have to acquire a minimum 75 wins for parliamentary seats in order to break BN's domination for the past 50 years.
For 2008 election manifesto, DAP kept it short and sweet with their motto - Just change it! If DAP elected to be the government, then they promise for safer streets, better living standards, quality education, healthy environment, cleaner water and transparent government. Promised a number of goodies including a bonus of up to RM6,000 per family for households earning RM6,000 or less per annum in their eight-point manifesto with the tagline ‘Just Change It’. Their ceramah schedules and election updates available here.
PKR just announced their manifesto moments ago. The 22 pages manifesto available in all four languages making sure that the contents reach all the people of Malaysia. Carrying the slogan a 'new dawn for Malaysia', the party promises :
A constitutional state for all - upholding unity, integrity and human rights;
A vibrant, prosperous economy for all - equitable distribution for better competitiveness;
A safer Malaysia for all - a cleaner police force for safer streets;
An affordable Malaysia for all - better control of prices for petrol and basic goods; and
Better education for all - universal access to higher quality education.
We are now being served with sweet words and impressive promises. Think twice and exercise your vote wisely. It's time for proactive stance to make our lives better. Make sure you vote for true honesty, integrity and welfare; vote for change we can believe in; vote for the freedom and peace. In short, vote for a better future.
It's people power. We decide; we govern. The choice is in our hands. Give your five minutes of voting time for someone who are willing to commit five years of their life time serving the community. Quoting Haris Ibrahim , "We do not vote to secure 20% for the Chinese and 9% for the Indians. We vote to secure 100% for all Malaysians, for all anak-anak Bangsa Malaysia."
I received this poems in email from one of my friend. Excellent poems by not so famous poets... found on toilet doors and walls.
Here I lie in stinky vapor,
Because some bastard stole the toilet paper,
Shall I lie, or shall I linger,
Or shall I be forced to use my finger.
Before he graduated to be a poet, he wrote this...
Here I sit, Broken hearted
Tried to sh*t, But only farted
Someone who had a different experience wrote,
You're lucky, You had your chance
I tried to fart, And sh*t my pants!
Perhaps it's true that people find inspiration in toilets.
I came here, To sh*t and stink,
But all I do, Is sit and think.
There are also people who come in for a different purpose...
Some come here to sit and think,
Some come here to sh*t and stink,
But I come here to scratch my balls,
And read the bullsh*t on the walls...
P/S: More to come. I'll share the other half of the poems in the next LOL Mondays post
Meanwhile, Manoharan Malayalam who is currently held under ISA has decided to contest in the Kota Alam Shah state assembly seat. After weeks of speculation, the DAP has confirmed that lawyer and Hindraf leader M Manoharan will face People's Progressive Party’s (PPP) Datuk Dr Jason Goh Teck Chai in the general elections. This would make Manoharan the first Hindraf leader - out of the five that are currently detained in Kamunting - to run in the elections.
All the political parties has came out with their finalized list of candidates. Everything will be confirmed in a few hours time as the nomination would be held today from 9 to 10am.
The list is out putting a full stop to speculation and rumors. MIC is ready to go with it's front line army consisting of 28 people contesting for 9 parliamentary and 19 state seats. 13 new faces for state seats and 2 for parliament have been introduced in the list as most of the veteran leaders have stepped back to give away the chances to new leads. Some highlights from the list :
- Sweeping changes at state level - 13 out of 19 assemblymen replaced with newbies
- Woman Candidates - MIC fielding three women candidates with a new rose among the thorns, S.Tangesvari
- Maintained : President Samy Vellu to defend Sungai Siput for the ninth term
- Dropped : Subang MP and vice-president Tan Sri Dr K.S. Nijhar
- Demoted : Tapah MP and vice-president Datuk S. Veerasingam to his previous Sungkai state seat in Perak.
- Swap : MIC swaps Ijok state seat in Selangor with Umno's Bukit Melawati
Two out of nine candidates for perlimentary seats are new faces. The rest of them are defending* their seats :
Sungai Siput : Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu*
Tapah : M. Saravanan
Hulu Selangor : Datuk G. Palanivel*
Kapar : Komala Krisnamoorthy*
Subang : S. Murugesan
Kota Raja : S.A. Vickneswaran*
Cameron Highlands : S.K. Devamany*
Teluk Kemang : Datuk S. Sothinathan*
Segamat : Datuk Dr K.V.S. Subramaniam*
MIC would be fielding only fresh faces in four states - Kedah, Malacca, Perak and Johor - while dropping notable figures such as Perak MIC chief G Rajoo and Johor MIC chief KS Balakrishnan. The list of new faces for state seats are :
KEDAH - Bukit Selambau : S Krishnan
KEDAH - Lunas : S Ananthan
PENANG - Perai : L Krishnan
PERAK - Hutan Melintang : S Thangesvari
PERAK - Pasir Panjang : Dr S Vasan
PERAK - Sungkai : Veerasingam
PERAK - Behrang : M Ramasamy
SELANGOR - Batu Caves : T Mohan
N.SEMBILAN - Jeram Padang : V Mogan
MELAKA - Asahan : R Perumal
JOHOR - Permas : M Munusamy
JOHOR - Tenggaroh : T. Murukasvary
JOHOR - Kahang : R Vidyananthan
The six who would be defending their state seats would be :
PENANG - Bagan Dalam : PK Subbaiyah
PAHANG - Sabai : M Davendran
N.SEMBILAN - Port Dickson : T Rajagopalu
SELANGOR - Bukit Melawati : K Parthiban (formerly in Ijok)
SELANGOR - Seri Andalas : A Kamala Ganapathy
JOHOR - Gambir : M Asohan
It's done. The list is out. Now its time for the most awaited battle. The party won all nine parliament and 19 state seats during the 2004 general election. But then, it's not gonna be as easy as that for 2008, especially after the mindset change and major political awakening among Malaysian Indians following the recent rallies and street protests. And yet, MIC is anticipating a 100 percent victory, although they know this is not going to be easy.
I wonder how the people are going to react towards this list. It's ain't like years ago. Now it's people's power which is going to decide the fate of MIC. It might give Samy Vellu a great birthday gift on March 8, else it might just colapses MIC's political domination for more than two decades being the sole party that represents Malaysian Indians.
Apa kata survey?
February 16 rose rally was a simultaneous protest around the globe. Indians across the world demonstrated outside the offices of Malaysian embassies and high commissions on Saturday to show their support towards the campaign of roses, hours after the similar protest held at Kuala Lumpur. Here are some of the pics of the campaign in LA and NY which attracted dozens of people to voice out their concern.
ps : I know Mahen looks cool enough in the above picture. But do not try to get arrested the next time. It's not cool as it looks to be. Trust me, you wouldn't want to be behind the bars, especially when your luck fails you. *This is a community service message from The Blank page* :P
A summary of International media updates on the rally:
There are a lot of videos from today on Youtube.
BBC News Video : Malaysian protest broken up
Sify News : 60 held as Malay police stop ethnic Indians' rally
Reuters : Tear gas scatters Malaysian 'flower power' protest
Also check out MSNBC, BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and Channel News Asia for the stories.
Malaysiakini, NST and The Star had their news reports updated as well.
And, here's more pictures of the stand off.
Updated : 6.00pm
Police released all the arrested people by today evening after taking their statements. I received information from Mahen few hours ago that all of them were given food late in the afternoon and the police started to release the people batch by batch. Those who were arrested earlier in the morning were released first.
Mahendran, who was arrested near the Masjid Jamek area in the morning had managed to contact Malaysiakini to give updates on the happenings at Pulapol. The last batch of them was released a while ago in the evening. Less than ten campaigners were remanded under police custody for further investigations.
Some of the pictures are available here.
Original Posting
Today hundreds of people proceed with the campaign of roses for PM despite the stern warning from police. Roads to parliament were closed and roadblocks set up in few places around KL to crack down the rally. Malaysiakini has quoted that around 300 Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) supporters gathered for the peaceful rally, early this morning. Some of the people from ground zero mentioned there were around 400 people at the spot. The FRU behaved aggressively as they started to fired teargas and chemical-laced water cannons in a bid to disperse the campaigners. Surviving the battle between guns and roses, almost half of the crowd moved towards Pudu Kottumalai Pillayar Temple after receiveing orders to disperse.
Around 200 more people, including some of the bloggers and elderly people were arrested as the crowd started dispersing and brought over to Pulapol. Popular blogger Mahendran and Hindraf’s rose campaign organiser S.Manickavasagam were also arrested during the nab. All of them are now detained at the parking lot of Pulapol before receiving further instructions from the police.
An elderly couple was also arrested from the spot
As for now, there was no food or drinks given to the arrested ones. A food stall was set up a while ago next to the Pulapol parking lot, which gives the chance for the arrested ones to buy their meals themselves. It seems some of the peopele were detained in Pulapol since 3am without given any meals. They were arrested earlier around midnight during police road blocks at tol plazas, where Indian motorists heading towards KL city were stopped for check ups.
Election Commission today fixed Feb 24 as the nomination day with polling day on March 8. That gives 13 days campaign period that runs between nomination day and polling day. The campaign period should not be less than seven days and it was kept short in recent years - nine days in 1999 and eight in 2004.
Original Posting
What was a no yesterday is a yes for today.
Parliament was dissolved despite Abdullah's statement yesterday that hat there will be no dissolution of Parliament today. In his yesterday's statement, he also denied that today’s Cabinet meeting would be the last with his present team of ministers before Parliament is dissolved.
But things can change overnight in Malaysian politics. In less than 24 hours after his denial to speculations, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced the dissolution of Parliament today at 12:34pm at the Prime Minister's Department in Putrajaya. State governments, except Sarawak, advised to dissolve their respective State assemblies to enable the state elections to be held simultaneously.
Meanwhile, the issues that matter most to Malaysian voters made their headlines of the newspaper today. Based on a survey, it was revealed that 96% of respondents were concerned with the rising cost of consumer goods, while 88% said they were worried about the incidents of crime in the country. That reminds me of Sharlinie who is still out there. It has been more than a month now since she went missing on 9 Jan 2008. Let's not stop looking for her. We can't affort to be part of the blame for another Nurin tragedy. I hope and pray for the 5-yer-old to be found soon. Alive.
And, this week is going to be hectic with the burning election fever. The parliament might get dissolved tomorrow. "Since nobody wants No. 13, I take it," PM said earlier when asked if he will dissoved the parliament on 13th February as it favors the election to be held in March. If the parliament to be dissolved tomorrow, then there might be no one to usher the peaceful gesture of handing of red and yellow roses to the Prime Minister on 16th February by the childrend of Hindraf supporters together with their parents. There will be also simultaneous ’show of love’ in major cities in the world such as London, New York and LA in conjunction with the valentine rose rally planned end of this week in KL. Malaysiakini has more of the story.
Meanwhile, more of fresh line ups for the 12th General Election will be made public soon. Nurul Izzah, the eldest daughter of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, is slated to contest the Lembah Pantai seat in Kuala Lumpur. DAP has named a blogger, lecturer and political scientists to be their new faces. MIC President is yet to introduce his new team which might be full young and fresh candidates to rebrand the party to fight the growing challenges. It's not long before we get to know who stepping in and out.
In short, it's going to be a week that will make up huge headlines on newspapers and international medias. Enjoy it :)
A shopkeeper was dismayed when a brand new business much like his own opened up next door and erected a huge sign which read 'BEST DEALS.'
He was horrified when another competitor opened up on his right, and announced its arrival with an even larger sign, reading 'LOWEST PRICES.'
The shopkeeper panicked, until he got an idea. He put the biggest sign of all over his own shop. It read... 'MAIN ENTRANCE'
Sometimes we have to be more aware and a little proactive to create a BetterMalaysia that we deserve. A new website BetterMalaysia.com was launched recently, designed to enable every single Malaysian to do their part to make make Malaysia a safer and a better nation to live.
The main motive of the web is to help overcome the obstacles Malaysians face in getting access to free, fair and balanced information. Do read about the site’s goals, how you can be a part of the movement, and most importantly, how to spread the word.
This is the first BetterMalaysia.com news letter, spreading awareness about the rise in crime. You may download the pdf and high resolution jpg versions of Bahasa Malaysia, English and Chinese news letters.
The Tamil version of jpg was uploaded moments ago. In case you need a higher resolution jpg or pdf version of the the Tamil newsletter, just drop me a note.
Hopefully, more and more Malaysians will be part of this initiative. It's time to stand up, and take the first step to being a better Malaysia!
Most of you might have came across this catchy poster.
A well written event summary on what went wrong before. Here's something you can add on to it - "you tak suka, you boleh keluar." Yes, that's how rude some of our MPs are nowadays.
This piece of poster was by a citizen initiative group to push for genuine candidates in the on-coming General Elections.
Click here for more details.
Gong Xi Fa Cai & Xin Nian Kuai Le!
Yes, I'm born in the Year of Rat, the first sign of the Chinese zodiacs.
So, Ang paw lai.. Ang paw Lai.. Drop it here :D
Deputy Education Minister Noh Omar announced that Malaysian government will not build any new Chinese and Tamil primary school under 9th Malaysia plan.
But then today,
The Government has approved an RM20mil package for the rebuilding and expansion of 23 Tamil schools in the country. MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said 13 of them would be completely rebuilt while the others would have new buildings. The Star has the story.
And here's one more to your surprise.
Long known for its hilltop Hindu temple, the Batu Caves state seat is set for a massive facelift with several mega projects costing almost RM50 million being earmarked for the area, Malaysiakini reported today. Also, the state government has allocated RM20 million for the establishment of a Hindu Cultural Centre.
In conclusion, the next General election is very much closer than you think.
YB Kula has a great feeling that general elections will be called within the next 40 days. Meanwhile, Jeff Ooi hinted the parliment might get desolved very soon.
It's coming. It's coming. I can smell it already!
Make sure you don't get fooled by empty promises and election goodies.
Lee Nian Ning.
Mohd Zailani.
Pang Boon Eng.
But they are no longer with us now. We have lost all of them in a fatal bus crash on 25th of January. :(
We all know it wasn't their fault to travel on that bus. It was the bus company's fault not to provide sufficient trainings and let an incompetent driver to take charge of their bus. It was the authority's biggest mistake to let a bus which owns 13 summonses to stay on road - being a killer machine. How can a company with 13 summonses on it's bus could have operated it on the road? :o Federal traffic chief Senior Asst Comm (II) Datuk Hamza Taib said that he will take action against the bus company. Rubbish! Don't we pay them to screen reckless drivers from driving on road? :@ We always wanted proactive measures. Not some silly reasons to cover up the officers' stupid mistakes.
Sometimes I wonder how can a nation with finest roadways in Asia also has the highest number of road accidents. That means something is very wrong somewhere and it unacceptable. This was not the first one. We have lost even more lives in 2007. It was august last year when a bus hit a protective barrier on the side and careened 20 yards off the road before flipping over and falling into a 20-feet-deep ditch. More than 20 died :(
And now, we have lost three more. Nian Ning's father knows nothing could bring back his daughter, but he demands for justice to be in place. Meanwhile, friends of Lee Nian Ning have set up a Facebook Group in Loving Memory of Lee Nian Ning and a web blog (http://www.buscrashnomore.blogspot.com) to seek signatures for a petition in order to express appalled anger towards the bus crash incident. They are going to send it to the Transport Ministry after Chinese New Year.
"We don’t know how much we can change the situation but we know that something needs to be done and someone has to start something," that's what they said. I think all of us should hold hands together and join them in voicing out our concern towards safer long distance bus rides for fellow Malaysians.
Innocent lives are continuously being lost on our roads. We had enough. It's time to throw away our 'buat dunno' attitude and do something to save lives. We never know. It could be ours as well.
I have signed the petition. HAVE YOU?
p/s: It's festive season. Be careful on roads.
About This Blog
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2008
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February
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- GE 2008 : Will they walk their talk?
- LOL Mondays 14
- MIC list : 11th hour changes
- MIC set to go with new blood
- Campaign of Roses : LA & NY in pictures
- Campaign of Roses
- Parliment dissolved today
- This week brings you the best dramas
- LOL Mondays 13
- For a Better Malaysia
- For better MPs
- Happy CNY!
- GE : I can smell it from here
- Bus Crash : It wasn't her fault
- Ashop Commerce
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