Why UMNO/BN is bad for the country

Yes, why I believe UMNO/BN is bad for Malaysia. Reasons can easily be seen if you are unbiased. The main reason is UMNO/BN practices patronage and money politics.

Why is patronage bad for Malaysia? Because get voted into positions wielding power in their political power, they need to buy support from warlords, division heads. And division heads in turn need to buy support from division members. Not only that, while the opposition volunteers generally work for free, UMNO/BN volunteers needs money in cash or kind to work, etc.

And because of this need for money to buy support, there is tendency to get money unethically. So there you have it all.

PAS now offers prosperous Sabah without Hudud? Not believable

The Malaysia Today reported that PAS would aim for a prosperous Sabah without Hudud. But can we trust PAS? I would say an emphatic NO!

Remember that earlier had talked about PAS for all when they contested against UMNO/BN together with the now defunct Pakatan Rakyat, but on winning the 13th General Election under Hadi leadership, they submitted a bill to the Parliament that is equivalent to introducing Hudud despite objections from other Pakatan Rakyat component parties.

Not only that, PAS wants to enforce Hudud in Peninsular Malaysia, but now offers "no Hudud" in Sabah for expediency reason merely because they want to win power in Sabah and since they have gone back on their promises (remember PAS for all? plus going against the agreement to decide on consensus basis in PR) there is no guarantee they will not go back on their promises to Sabah.

Remember decisions in Pakatan Rakyat are made subject to consensus and clearly that step to introduce the "Hudud" bill did not receive consensus of of PR component parties leading to breakup of Pakatan Rakyat.

And what did PAS do after that? PAS started overtures to get close to UMNO/BN despite knowing of all the scandals that had been committed by UMNO/BN. Not only that, they did not raise their voice against all the wrong doings of UMNO/BN including the heinous 1MDB scandal

How a party professing religion can ignore such wrong doings I do not know.

Car prices reduction? UMNO/BN lied again

UM/BN 2013 election promised a gradual car price reduction up to 30% and "proudly" declared that its manifesto promises had been kept. But PaulTan.com blew the whistle and revealed that their calculations were based on unfair comparison - like comparing a Proton with a BMW, comparing models in 2013 with lower models now.

Read more at
http://paultan.org/2018/02/05/betul-harga-kereta-semakin-rendah-beberapa-tahun-terakhir-ini/
(Bahasa Malaysia)
or
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/411185
(English)

Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki (PAS) again propose join BN. His excuse.

Remember PAS research centre director Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki? Remember that news about a leaked WhatsApp conversation about PAS joining while PAS was still a component party of Pakatan Rakyat?

PAS research centre operations director Dr Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki, whose WhatsApp message about the party working with Umno went public, claimed that the message was about "analysing scenarios" of the party breaking away from Pakatan Rakyat.

Dr Zuhdi said on his Facebook page that the options of the party leaving the coalition was a request made by a PAS leader of the central committee WhatsApp group.

Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2014/07/29/pas-dr-zuhdi-says-whatsapp-message-exit-senarios/#kjH2Iau5jCiLkzPt.99

"PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli also hit out at the PAS member, Dr Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki, for the racial and religious tone in the leaked message.

In a sign of escalating tension between both parties as a result of the current Selangor menteri besar crisis, Rafizi also demanded that PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang state the number of PAS leaders who held such views."
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3303875/all

Zuhdi is now again reported for PAS to join BN (Barisan Nasional). His excuse?
Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's "arrogance" and belittling of PAS' plan to form or be part of the next government has left the party with only two choices, a PAS strategist says.

PAS research centre director Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki said the choices are either for PAS to remain in the opposition, or to join BN in forming the next government.

What kind of morals/excuses can PAS offers to join in or support a corrupt and power abusing government just escape me.
(PAS still considering joining government with BN after general election)

Read more at https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/410096#u5ek1xzhRw0Pc7Wh.99

PAS still considering joining government with BN after general election

PAS had frequently been accused of supporting/intention to join UMNO/BN and denied by PAS. But here it is loud and clear that PAS do have intention of doing what it had been accused of doing:

PAS masih pertimbang sertai BN selepas PRU
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/bahasa/2018/01/23/pas-masih-pertimbang-sertai-bn-selepas-pru/

Here it is clearly been reported that Azman Ibrahim, a PAS leader and committee member of the PAS Central Working Committee (Ahli Jawatankuasa Kerja PAS Pusat) stated that PAS would consider cooperating with BN coalition after the 14th General Elections.

Why would PAS, a claimed religious/political party, cooperate with UMNO/BN, a coalition that practices crony capitalism and political culture runs on money. All religions eschew bribery, corruptions and stealing.

Amanah, PAS, Hadi and UMNO BN (and divorcing wives)

The progressive members of PAS left PAS and formed Amanah to continue cooperation with DAP and PKR. Why? Because cooperation of DAP and PKR become very problematic recent months especially with Abdul Hadi Awang leading PAS.

And some PAS members had been screaming for those who left PAS to form Amanah to resign their elected offices plus divorce their wives. But are their demands justified?

My opinions. PAS contested in past elections against UMNO BN in cooperation with DAP and PKR as Pakatan Rakyat plus the Common Policies Platform. This cooperation and Common Policies did not provide for Hudud. And certainly not one component party (PAS) leaving Pakatan Rakyat to form a Selangor State Government with the tainted UMNO BN.

And now Husam Musa, the former PAS Vice President, have come out to confirm what many already have accepted as fact that Hadi had conspired to leave Pakatan Rakyat to form Selangor State Government with UMNO BN with cooperation from a few PKR ADUNs after the 2013 elections (correction, it seemed it was during the Selangor Mentri Besar crisis when PAS was in loggerhead with DAP and PKR about removing Khalid as Mentri Besar).

That is clear cut betrayal of DAP, PKR, Pakatan Rakyat and especially those who voted for the opposition in the 2013 elections. So now with you tell me, with this, who should resign from their elected offices and divorce their wives?

Hadi conspired to form Selangor unity government with Umno, says former PAS veep

Katak Ibrahim Ali laughing? He shouldn't be

Why is Katak Ibrahim Ali (katak = frog) laughing? First, why is Ibrahim Ali commonly denigrated as a katak (frog). It was his habit of first wining an elected post with one party, then subsequently changing political party. That is, he, like a frog, jump from one party to another. Malaysians are particularly sore that he won the parliamentary seat of Pasir Mas on a PAS ticket(opposition) in the 2008 General Election, but subsequently leaped over to the much despised ruling Barisan Nasional.

So why is Ibrahim laughing? Because a significant number of Members of Parliament and State Assemblymen have removed them from PAS and subsequently joining newly formed Parti Amanah Negara, and another over to PKR intenting to form a new opposition coalition. So he claimed that his accusers have become katak themselves. So does that make Katak Ibrahim Ali "innocent"?

But Ibrahim Ali should wipe that smile on his face because these elected members didn't jump from an opposition party over to the ruling party. They jumped from PAS, component of the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat, but they intend to still continue as opposition in "Pakatan 2.0".

Their big difference from Katak Ibrahim Ali is that Katak Ibrahim Ali jumped from opposition party to that despised ruling party, a world of difference. So Katak Ibrahim Ali, you are still an incorrigible Katak.

Political funding: BN and opposition positions

UMNO/BN is now hammering on the point that it was the opposition parties that opposed disclosure of their funders. And Najib who is currently under a big dark cloud of suspicions, have come out to proclaim that he is prepared to declare UMNO's funders if the opposition is prepared to do likewise?

Malaysia badly needs transparency regarding political funding, but just why are the opposition parties reluctant to do so? To me, it is clear, it is because of the uneven playing field, the fact that practically every institution of importance (Election Commissions, Registra of Societies, Police, the mainstream media, MACC etc) in Malaysia is under a cloud of suspicions that they are not impartial. Not forgetting power abuses such as punishing opposition funders by withholding license, contracts and business whereas UMNO/BN funders would have no worries in this area.

Take the Election Commission and the blatant case of Najib recorded on video his "I help you, you help me" case in Sibu for example. Did the Election Commission do anything? And the blatant use of government facilities for campaigning during elections. That is clearly wrong but the EC just looked the other way.

Whereas because power is currently in UMNO/BN's hands. Business and individuals will not worry about their funding activities revealed as they would never be punished, on the other hand they probably would be rewarded. Not only that, there is a cap on the amount of funds that can be used in campaigning during elections. UMNO/BN could probably exceed it, even opening I think, and the EC would probably not act. For example, when it was revealed that a huge amount of money was banked into Najib's account which Najib did not deny but only said he did not take money for personal use. He probably was trying to say the money was used for political purposes, but did the EC do anything as very likely, the cap on political funding was breached.

BN won unfair victory with less than 50% popular votes

When everyone was so enthusiastic with the unprecedented crowds at Pakatan Rakyat's ceramah's and people were very confident of a PR victory, I had my worries. Worries about the traditional gerrymandering and malapproportionment which ensures that BN can win will less than 50% of the votes. In addition to that, there were worries about the effect of cheating, phantom votes, the buying of votes via BR1M handouts (with public money), crony mega dinners and worries about how those civil service who had helped BN implement very unfair policies and actions, would vote because of fear of retribution.

My worries were increased when, while the majorities were impressive, it was not a landslide majorites when preliminary results in Selangor began trickling in. Thus it was not a surprise when The Malaysian Insider revealed their calculations showed BN won only 5.22 million votes (48.7%) as compared with Pakatan Rakyat which won 5.489 million votes (51.3%) and still won by a simple majority.

Is it payback time for the cronies for helping BN retain a simple majority with public money? Let's hope not.

I am confident without all the gerrymandering, malapproportionment, vote buying, etc., Pakatan Rakyat should have won.

Good News - UMNO BN is trashed

Look at this photo. It fits the state of UMNO/BN at current time exactly, bruised, battered, trashed:

Let's pray that this would be their status (trashed) post General Election 2013 for we just cannot wait to get rid of them.

Malaysians must participate in BERSIH 3.0

I was at the first BERSIH protest in 2007. I missed BERSIH 2.0 because of an impending trip to Google Campus in Mountainview, California. Come April 28 baring unforseen circumstances, I will be at BERSIH 3.0 to help put pressure to put further pressure on the EC and the federal government for reforms and clean and fair election.

And Malaysians must join us. Why? Because the EC (Election Commission) and the UMNO/BN federal government will never willingly give us a really free and fair election and the 13^th General Election will as expected be the dirtiest election in history.

They have rammed through the amendments of the Election Offences Act, 1954 together with another 7 bills and have thus resulted in monitoring and prevention of electoral fraud very very difficult if not impossible.

What are those changes?

1. cannot establish identity of voter anywhere in constituency, 5k fine or jail
2. no barung agent (monitoring agents) at registration booth
3. polling and counting agents only allowed at time stipulated by EC
4. deleted provision for all printed documents to have printer & publisher name & address




Malaysians Bangkit (Malaysians Arise)!!!

Education, Form 6 one more reason BN/UMNO should be kicked out from Putrajaya

The Malaysian education system is already down in the pits and it is all the fault of the Malaysian Education Department and the UMNO/BN regime.

However, with this Is this the death blow to the right of our children to pursue the best education overseas?, it is going to get much worst.

This stupid Education Department headed by the cow Mooohidin is going to scrap STPM (Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia), a replacement of the much respected HSC (Higher School Certificate) and A Levels, is going to be abolished to be replaced by assessments by the schools.

The likely (more like surely) result will be in the Sixth Form of our nation to be not recognized by oversea universities as qualification for admission. Thus all Malaysians aspiring for oversea education to escape the hopeless Malaysian universities will have to bring forward sending their children oversea by 1 to 2 years thus increasing the burden of parents worried for their children's future.

If this is not the final straw for you to vote ABU (Anything but UMNO) then I do not know what will make you see the light.

How votes are bought in Malaysia and the polling booth orientation (and how to spoil your vote)

Update: for those whose votes have been bought (because they badly needed the money) as explained in the article below and you are concerned at the terrible state that Malaysia is in and want to do your part, spoil the pre-marked ballot paper that had been given to you by crossing the other box or boxes as any ballot paper with more than 1 cross (mark) will be considered as spoilt and will not count. Perhaps this is why sometimes we get an unusual amount of spoilt votes?

During my training as a polling and counting agent for the 2008 elections, my trainer explained to me how votes are bought by the corrupt UMNO/BN.

It all starts with a voter going in to the polling station with a pre-marked fake polling ballot in favor of UMNO/BN candidate hidden in his pocket and putting that pre-marked voting slip into the ballot box, then taking out the unmarked voting slip out of the polling station. However, first I will explain how the much much earlier orientation of the privacy shield at the polling booth makes cheating very difficult.

Earlier orientation of privacy shield at polling booth which makes buying of votes difficult

It seemed some time in the past, the privacy shield was orientated away from the polling agent and so when the voter is at the polling booth, his back is facing the polling agent. See Figure 1 below (click to enlarge):

Figure 1: Earlier layout of privacy shield and polling station which made bying of votes difficult

So it seems that polling agents will be able to observe the back of the voter at the polling booth and while no person other than the voter himself will be able to see him marking the ballot slip, he will be unable to take out the pre-marked voting slip from his pocket and hide the real unmarked polling slip in his pocket without being observed, put the fake pre-marked ballot slip into the ballot box and take the unmarked genuine polling slip out of the polling station.

Orientation of privacy shield to facilitate cheating

In the 2008 and prior general elections, the privacy shield was deliberately reoriented to face the polling agents and the voter's back is facing away from the polling agents can see only the legs of the voter while the backside and upper body is hidden from the view of the polling agents (see figure below, click to enlarge):

Figure 2: Orientation of privacy shield 2008 and "prior" which enables cheating

Thus to start off, a cooperating voter is given a fake pre-marked (in favor of BN) polling slip to hide in his pocket, walks into the polling station and is given a genuine polling slip, take the slip to the polling booth and now his back is facing away from polling agents and only his legs are visible.

He hides the unmarked genuine polling slip into his pocket unseen by the agents, take the pre-marked false ballot slip and put it into the ballot box and walks out of the polling station unhindered.

At a secret location the first voter exchanged the unmarked genuine polling slip for a pre-arranged sum of money.

The genuine polling slip is pre-marked in favor of UMNO/BN and is given to the next voter with instruction to put that into the ballot box and take out the unmarked ballot slip in order to collect his loot.

The second bought voter goes in and is given a genuine unmarked polling slip, goes to the polling booth and again hide the unmarked polling slip in his pocket unseen, goes to the ballot box, puts in the pre-marked slip and walks out of the polling station with the unmarked polling slip (genuine) undetected.

Again at the secret location, he exchange the unmarked polling slip for money and that unmarked polling slip is pre-marked for the next voter and the whole process is repeated until the end of polling.

Thus in this way the person/party who wants to buy votes ensure that the bought voter actually vote for the selected candidate.

The "new" orientation of the privacy shield as shown in NST

I saw the new arrangement of the polling station in New Straits Times and it is shown with the original orientation of the privacy shield facing away from the polling agents with the whole of the back of the voter visible to the polling agents which must be enforced at all cost. This is as it should be and and was the orientation used in the distant past (see figure below):

Previous and "new" layout of polling booth and polling station

Actually, the diagram in NST may be slightly different from the above which is reproduced from memory, but the essential relation of the polling agents, the voter and the privacy shield is as shown. That diagram I believe is given by the Election Commission. If anyone has that diagram given by the Election Commission anywhere on the web, hope you can leave the URL in a comment below.

Thus I hope those doing the training for the upcoming 13^th General Election should inform the potential polling agents and all polling agents must ensure that this orientation of the privacy shield is adhered to.

Please spread this information to as many people as you can to reduce buying of votes.

PM and DPM's electricity bill enough to light a house for 100 years

Subject: 'PM and DPM's electricity bill enough to light a house for 100 years'

KUALA LUMPUR - Following details revealed in parliament about the high cost of maintaining the prime minister and his deputy's official residences, Rasah member of parliament Anthony Loke (pic) has done some maths to show what the sum means.

“The government paid RM160,000 for electricity and RM33,000 for water bill monthly for the official residences of prime minister and deputy prime minister.

"This is enough to pay my electricity bill for 100 years and water for 6,000 people,” he told a press conference at the parliament yesterday.

In a written reply to PAS's Rantau Panjang MP Siti Zailah Yusof, the government said some RM49 million was forked out annually to maintain the official residences now occupied by Najib Razak and Muhyiddin Yasin between 2006 and 2010.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz said the cost to maintain the duo's homes came to RM48,789,115.03, covering rent, renovations, electricity and water.

Giving a breakdown of the yearly costs, Nazri revealed that the rental for both buildings came to RM32,972,115.55, renovations RM3,581,744.78, electricity RM10,267,868.15 and water RM1,967,386.55.

The amount comes to an average of RM18,000 a day for the rental alone, paid by the government to Perbadanan Putrajaya.

Kota Raja MP Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud urged the government to justify the high cost of upkeeping the houses, saying it was ironic that such huge amount was spent to maintain the two houses when the government kept telling Malaysians to change their lifestyle in coping with rising prices of essential goods.

"When it comes to educating the public about savings, it should start with the leaders," she told reporters at the same press conference.


- Harakahdaily

UMNO-BN government still misusing public fund?

It was reported in Malaysiakini: RM1.8mil ... for a Facebook page? that RM1,800,000 (zero’s added for impact) was spent on creating Malaysia’s Tourism Ministry Facebook pages when Facebook is free to use. Even Khairy Jamaludin agreed it was too much. So looks like despite Malaysia’s population being very unhappy on how the UMNO/BN government using public funds, they are still happily wasting it on simple or unnecessary projects:

RM1.8mil ... for a Facebook page?

Joseph Sipalan
Jun 14, 11
3:06pm

10 friends can read this story for free

The Tourism Ministry came under fire again today, as MPs questioned why it had spent RM1.8 million to start and maintain its Facebook page - yet another on the list of controversial projects.
Anthony Loke (DAP-Rasah) slammed the decision to use so much money when the social networking site can be used free of charge.
“On my last check, there are 20,308 fans on the ministry's Facebook page. Comparably, the 'Visit Penang' Facebook page, for which the Penang government did not spend a sen, got over 100,000 fans. Why spend RM1.8 million?” he asked during Question Time.
Loke said it is hard to believe that not one person in the ministry has knowledge of how to maintain or update a Facebook account.
He stressed that the Tourism Ministry could have easily sought advice from various parties, including BN and opposition MPs, many of whom are ardent users of social networking sites.
“You don't even have to ask members on this side (opposition). There are those among the backbenchers, such as Kota Belud and Rembau... they can come in as consultants,” he said, referring to Umno MPs Abdul Rahman Dahlan and Khairy Jamaluddin, who are both heavy Twitter users.
Deputy Tourism Minister James Dawos Mamit said the budget covers the cost of hosting various activities on the Facebook page, including six interactive Flash applications, development and maintenance work and advertising, which was tendered out to a company, Impact Creations Sdn Bhd, on a three-year contract from 2011-2013.

James added that it cost the ministry nearly RM300,000 to develop each of the six applications found on their Facebook page.
'It looks like a waste of money'
Khairy, in a supplementary question, agreed with Loke that the RM1.8 million budget “looks like a waste” of funds, stressing that the low interest in the ministry's Facebook page is not reflective of the expenditure.
He acknowledged that it would take money to maintain the page and its various activities, but insisted that by engaging a company to focus on promotional work, there should already be big returns.
“Currently there are 2,013 'likes', and the page design is nothing extraordinary. It's only using the same template. We don't even have to look at the Penang tourism page; some of the MPs here are even more popular,” he said, while asking how the ministry will measure the success of its campaign.
James pointed out that Impact Creations was engaged to run an advertising campaign to promote domestic tourism, particularly among Generation Y Malaysians who are generally more tech-savvy.
He said the success of the ministry's social networking campaign, including advertising, will be measured based on the national return of investment in terms of an increase in domestic tourists.

Update: Malaysia Insider reported Yen Yen as saying “The Facebook pages do not cost a single sen. This is a social media advertising, promotions and branding campaign and also data collection,”.

However, her contention that the Facebook pages were free appeared to contradict her ministry’s detailed account of the cost for each page

Update 2: From Malaysian Insider: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today that Cabinet would seek an explanation from Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen over the tourism ministry’s RM1.8 million expenditure to develop six Facebook pages.