Nothing much to do. I got so bored doing the same thing again and again - sleeping and eating. So, I decided to change my banner. It's now a new one up there with a dark blue background. And, check out the nuffnang polls on your right :) Hmmm.. It's always nice to know your own visitors.
What's next? No..no..no! I am not gonna touch the blog's theme. I love the way it is now. May be a google reader might pop up soon :) I'm still figuring out how to fit it in here. :|
Meanwhile, lotsa things happened in the past few days - Tun M's game plans, funny parliament stories up to the Batu Puteh issue which we only managed to get some pebbles while Singapore grabbed the the whole Pedra Branca lighthouse.
And, this is the latest bombshell dropped in MIC.. while MIC's president claims the party to be the sole representative of M'sian Indians, the vice president Tan Sri Karnail Singh Nijhar, the highest ranking Sikh in the Tamil-dominated party announced his resignation from MIC today. I wonder if MIC's political play is going towards UMNO's way! Bolehland got more of the story.
That was how the exact relationship between the Indian community and BN has been all this while - for the last five decades. MIC has been the only choice which they believe could voice out their problems and find them the solutions they need. There were no second thoughts about alternatives. All they knew was to cross out the “Dacing” on the ballot papers for the bits and pieces they receive from time to time. Meanwhile, on the other hand, MIC has done his part well for years being a perfect pipeline funneling most of the Indian votes for BN.
But that isn't the scenario anymore. For the very first time ever the Indian community abandoned BN and voted the opposition, as they might find BN’s relevance via MIC diminishing by the day. They were too fed up with the false promises which have bottled up and cracked the layer of sincerity between the Indians and MIC. As everything was just waiting to burst out, this 5 of Hindraf jumped into the scene to fuel up the burning frustrations and grievousness of Indians, letting the mindset change among the community to spread more than double the momentum. No one could agree more that the entire political awareness among Indian voters were sparked by Hindraf which later on evolved into a spirit of Makkal Sakthi symbolizing people's power.End of the day, Hindraf Leaders were arrested under draconian ISA. BN got wacked; MIC collapsed to ground. And now, the community is still angry with the lack of progress and even angrier at the detention of the Hindraf 5. And to make things from bad to worse, the government has decided to stay stubborn in denying proper medical facilities for Uthayakumar, a diabetic. He has not been allowed his medication nor a special diet in Kamunting forfeiting his right to medical care under whatever circumstances. Monday afternoon, Uthayakumar was rushed to the Taiping district hospital after he became ill and he was prematurely discharged back to Kamunting on Friday. That has caused almost 300 of his supporters to put up protest at Kamunting Detention Centre voicing out their dissatisfaction. All the parties are urging the government to focus on Uthayakumar’s health conditions. Police reports were made at certain parts of the country and Hindraf is demanding for immediate medical attention. Everyone is in fear for the life, safety and health of H5 leaders. Recently, Uthayakumar's mother has appealed to PM for the immediate release of her son who now suffers silent death in permanent incarceration.
The act of PM to keep on pretending deaf to all the calls to get ISA detainees the basic needs might end up in another tragedy. If Uthaya who has been a diabetic patient for years fails to get regular medication on time, he can be subjected to various related illnesses associated with diabetes such as cardiovascular disease, chronic renal failure, retinal damage, nerve damage and poor healing of wounds that could cause serious danger to his health.
If any of that happens, then that would be the end of Indians' support for BN as they will never be able to forgive the government for their inhumane act. Even many other Malaysians which have the sense of humanity and respect for basic human rights would find it difficult to vote in for an inhuman government. The government has already failed once miserably for not listening to the rakyats' voice. If they continue to do so, then they might just dig up their own graves before the next elections.
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."
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?
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.
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.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has told the Indian community earlier that he will consider declaring a national holiday on the Tamil festival Thaipusam. Then, he declared Thaipusam a holiday in Kuala Lumpur and the administrative capital Putrajaya. That makes both Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya to join Selangor, Penang, Perak, Negri Sembilan and Johor in the list of states that gives holiday for Thaipusam. I'm sure the people of Indian community welcomes the PM's decision even though it would have been much nicer if Thaipusam becomes a national holiday favoring the Hindus in Kedah, Perlis, Melaka, Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang. Better luck next election!
Meanwhile, The MIC's 'Evening with PM' gathered the largest ever number of MIC members at one location. Reuters quoted the figure as 10,000 while Malaysiakini said it was a crowd of 15,000 people and The Star reported as more than 20,000. Abdullah said he was overwhelmed by the Indian community's support for BN and further elaborated that it was the biggest MIC gathering he has attended. The premier also promised to set up a "high-powered committee" to counter hardcore poverty among all races.
In short, out of the blue, Prime Minister declared Thaipusam as a public holiday for KL and Putrajaya, after the Indian community has struggled over the years to get a national holiday for the festival. And it was announced hours ago when he attended the biggest MIC gathering he has ever seen. Those are two things that have never happened in past years!
Some say, it's an election gimmick. Some say it's a post-Hindraf pressure. What say you? And check out an excellent account of the biggest MIC gathering at The People's Parliment.
Newly formed Indian-based party, the Malaysian Indian United Party (MIUP), vowed to support the Barisan Nasional-led government, believing that by doing so, opportunity to elevate the social status of the Indian community would be better. The party's launching ceremony was held yesterday afternoon at Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur after Nalla has announced the formation of the party a month ago.
Around 700 supporters witnessed the party launching by its president, Nallakaruppan. In his opening speech, he mentioned that, MIUP was formed as there is still space for another Indian based political party to exist in Malaysia and he was sure MIUP would feel the vacum with great success.. Nalla explained the scenario of Malaysian Indian who are still lagging behind in many ways and stressed that Indians have a very poor political knowledge of where they have failed to obtain their rights in proper ways. Thus, he said, MIUP will be creating the political awareness among the Indian community and vowed to help them at its own way and style. He assures the party will play its role in a very effective way in bringing up the Indians in Malaysia using a fresh approach in a quick way. The crowd cheered loudly as Dato Nalla said his way will be very unique indeed, quoting the punch dialogue of Tamil Superstar Rajnikanth in the movie Padayappa. He expect others to not interfere in his way of doing the necessary help for the community as the party's main aim is to help Indians and not to play politics. Nallakaruppan was also quick to stress that there was no intention of discrediting the much-established Indian-based party MIC. Nallakaruppan said that MIC should continue with their agenda and that the MIUP will also concentrate on its mission though the latter might have different approaches to issues.
The party supporters were made clear of the stand of MIUP where the party will not go against BN, and will continuously support the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime minister. MIUP will extend its arm to support whatever policies done by Barisan Nasional. Yet, MIUP will not join with any other parties and will function as a stand alone entity in Malaysian politics. But, Dato' Nalla cleared that his party willing to accept other parties interested to merge themselves with MIUP in the future. He also said that his party would be first launching plans to establish an independent Tamil secondary soon. According to him, his party has started the ground work for the effort and its 10,000 supporters are standing with him in making it real. After the party president's speech, Nalla introduced his 11 leaders on stage while all of them shouting, "Kita sokong Barisan Nasional". Then, Dato Nalla and Datin M.Vijayakumari received their membership cards and it was also mentioned during the ceremony that the party logo and colour concept was designed by Datin M.Vijayakumari.
Before the ceremony ends, Dato Nalla thanked all the supporters and expressed his disappointment as more of his supporters from other states were sent back during the police lock downs to prevent Hindraf Rally. He further promise that MIUP believes in transparency and will uphold the open policy in political arena.
The newly formed MIUP was approved by the government on Sept 14. Dato' Nalla announced that he will be the party president and he has identified a team of capable leaders who will help him to run the racially charged political party. He made it clear in a recent press conference that the primary aim of the party will be to 'bring up' the Indian community which is lagging in economic, political and social development. He also vowed to uplift the standard of living of rural Indians and to help socially problematic Indian youths like those involved in gangsterism. Malaysiakini has reported that the party which has 100 members for now has planned to gather 3,000 to 4,000 members by next month and at least 20,000 new members in three to four months time.
Being the minority community in Malaysia, Indians now have more than enough political parties to cater their needs - MIC, IPF, PPP and now MIUP has joined the club. Of course, the more the merrier! But, will MIUP play a better role compared to the other political parties in projecting the voice of the minority Indians and to uplift their living standard to a better height? It might be too early to decide now. We shall wait some time to see what MIUP has in its mind for the Malaysian Indians and how well can they execute their plans as promised.
Today, Dato' Nalla gave a 10 minutes interview for Bolehland explaining his motive of coming up with a political party. The interview was conducted mainly in Tamil and a little bit of English here and there. He answered some of the questions raised by the readers and commented on several issues related to the party. He further expressed his happiness that his few days old party has started to reach the people and has become a word of mouth in some areas. Commenting for Bolehland, he stressed that he'll be explaining on the party's plans and objective in detail during its official launch next month.
The fully translated transcrip of the interview is yet to be ready. Keep an eye on Bolehland for more updates. Meanwhile, you may download the audio clip of the interview with Dato’ Nalla HERE.
