POLITICAL DEBATE

This is the first time in the history of Malaysia to broadcast a local debate between the opposition (de facto PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) and government (BN-UMNO Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek) on the 15th of July 2008. The topic for the great debate is “Form the government today, reduce fuel prices tomorrow”. Two guests were invited and Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Chairman Datuk Johan Jaahar served as the moderator.

The political debate mainly focuses on the ability for the government to sustain high fuel subsidies as an oil-producing country. All the while, we are expecting to hear in full why the government cannot use Petronas profits to subsidise fuel. According to Information Minister, the debate will be able to provide a clear picture of it. Before the debate, everyone is glad to hear this but the end result is absolutely different. Through the debate, we learnt nothing from the BN government but just the tactics of using 'personal attack' against political opponent. If I am not mistaken, one of the representatives, fulled of courage to say that if he loses in the debate, he will resign from his post. In conclusion, being a politician is not easy, besides having ability in making empty promises at the very beginning, he/she must be brave to deny everything at last.

That is the voice of the people.

THE MONGOLIAN EFFECT

Altantuya's case seems to be extraordinary tough and 'mysterious' to for many can see until today, the powerful and effective Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDM) is still struggling to handle and to find out the truth behind it. Raja Petra Kamarudin, the most famous blogger in Malaysia was charged with Sedition Act for showing his personal 'act of justice' by sending a post entitled "Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell". Obviously, his effort was not appreciated by the government.

This issue was brought to the Parliament (Dewan Yang Mulia) for debate. Again, Raja Petra was accused by the young YB from Rembau, who claimed that only God (Allah) has the right to perform punishment. Sadly, this smart and capable MP who graduated from Oxford University failed to persuade the opposition again. In contrast to that, he was reprimanded by the them. Anyway, as Malaysians, we should be proud of him. Don't you think so?

That is the voice of the people.

DIPLOMATIC TENSION

Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa (1978 – 2006) was murdered by C-4 explosives or was somehow killed first before her body destroyed with C-4 in October 2006 in a deserted area in forested land near the Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam. The Mongolian lady was clamied to be introduced to Abdul Razak Baginda, a defense analyst from the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre think-tank, under Malaysian famous DPM, Najib Tun Razak, and reportedly began a relationship with him. She then worked as Abdul Razak’s translator on a shady deal he was brokering for the Malaysian government to buy submarines from France. The 'couple' seemed to have travelled to Paris together for the submarine deal.

Some rumours was saying that Altantuya came to come Kuala Lumpur with a cousin in early October 2006 to confront Abdul Razak. Then, she went missing on Oct 19. Her last letter that was uncovered showing that she had been blackmailing Razak. However, it was not clearly stated how she blackmailed him. Abdul Razak and three members of the police force were arrested during the murder investigation. The other two murder suspects (Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 30 and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 35) had been members of the Unit Tindakan Khas (the Malaysian Police Special Action Force or counter-terrorism unit) and were both assigned to the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, who was also the Defence Minister at the that time.

Throughout the investigation, this incident seems to be more complicated when two statutory declarations were made. First evidence was told by Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin , saying that our dearest DPM's wife, Rosmah Mansor, and Acting Colonel Aziz Buyong and his wife, Norhayati, Rosmah’s aide-de-camp, were present at the scene of the murder and Aziz Buyong was the 'chosen' one who placed C4 plastic explosive on Altantuya’s body and blew it up. Aziz was seeking apology from Raja Petra to be published in certain website and newspaper. That's the end of the first new evidence. Soon after that incident, Abdul Razak Baginda's private investigator P. Balasubramaniam, disclosing Najib's links to the murdered Mongolian girl. He said the police omitted information about the 'intimate' relationship between Najib and Mongolian victim Altantuya Shaariibuu in his statement.

According to Bala, Abdul Razak was not directly involve in this case. He also said that all traces of allegations with references to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Altantuya Shaariibuu's murder were erased. On Sunday 6 july, our government police sought help from Interpol to find the brave private investigator who was missing together with his entire family. Balasubramaniam is said to take refuge in a neighbouring country with his wife and children. Well, will Bala be rewarded by keeping the truth as secret forever? On the contrary, will he and his family's life be threatened by telling the truth ? Nobody knows and even if some people know, they won't dare to care. Anyway, as Malaysians, our main concern is that this incident has badly impressed other countries with Malaysia's wonderful image. Hopefully this will not affect the 'intimate' relationship between Malaysia and Mongolia.

That is the voice of the people.

DREAMS of PENANG

All these years, Penangnites are facing traffic congested problem which seems to be a 'Mission Impossible' for the formal state government to get rid of. For many Malaysians like us, 'traffic jam' has become a part of our daily lives and therefore it is no longer a hot issue anymore. Early in the morning, car drivers and motorcyclists are speeding to their different destinations with the hope to avoid heavy traffic but as usual, their great effort is always in vain. However, life will be better for those who are using effective and safe public transport because they can enjoy having fellowship or gathering and even make new friends while waiting for spacious trains which arrive punctually, comfortable buses and taxis with skillful drivers.

However, the new Penang state government had fed up with all these, especially the heavy traffic in the island. Thus, they are trying their best to get help from the federal government to improve the infrastructure by planning many mega projects, such as second bridge, Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) and monorail projects. But now, due to some simple reasons, the sweet dreams of Penang vanished. Even though the federal government claimed that these projects will be deferred, who knows that will become another Wawasan 2020 (Vision 2020), 3030, 4040 which we are heading to?

That is the voice of the people.

SAPP

The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) was formed in year 1994. According to the president, Datuk Yong Teck Lee, SAPP was formed because of the urgent need for a state- federal reconciliation in order to bring Sabah into the mainstream of development. Later, the party joined BN in continuing to strive for the rights and benefits of East Malaysians. After the 3/8 political tsunami, although two parlimentary candidates (Sepanggar-Eric Enchin Majimbun, Tawau-Dr. Chua Soon Bui) and four state assembly candidates of the party won in their contested territories, the party's leadership began to voice out their discontentment towards the BN government and rumours arise that this party will withdraw from the coalition of BN. For this reason, the party's leadership is strongly condemned by others, especially many respective BN leaders.

That is the voice of the people.

FUEL CRISIS

As usual, after the General Elections, fuel prices increase again. This issue is no longer a hot topic for the entire nation anymore because it meets our　nation's expectation. If we refer back to the history, perhaps one would say this has become the trend of BN government after every General Elections. However, things that matter to us right now is the government's credibility. Before PM Abdullah announced the petrol hikes starting from the 5th of June, Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Sharir did promise that the government will not increase petrol price but within the following 24 hours, BN government proudly presented a wonderful gift to the whole nation, which created an unforgettable sweet memory (nightmare) to all the fellow workers of petrol station in Malaysia.

June 12 midnight........
1.Petrol ( RM1.92 ......... RM 2.70 )
2.Diesel ( RM1.58 ......... RM 2.58 )

For many people, especially economists, it's reasonable that government increases the fuel prices due to the petrol hikes in its world market. However, as oil exporter, isn't it improper to make such a disaster all of a sudden ? After comparing with other countries (especially oil consumer like USA), many feel that it is ridiculous to increase our burden as Malaysian in this way. The opposition started to voice out their dissatisfaction and they began to question on this matter through different methods. Why is it that there　is no earlier announcement made to inform the public regarding this plan? Why the government does not take this step by step? The explanation given by government was made clear and simple, 'We have to follow the global petrol market, if the government will suffer great loss if we continue to provide subsidy for petrol price.' As everyone knows, once the fuel price increases, price for everything will also increase. Nowadays, many unethical business fellows will take advantage to find trouble with our wallets. However, the BN government is smart enough to handle this by employing 2000 unemployed graduates to perform 'spot check' in order to ensure that those people don't over-increase price of goods such asrices, salt and etc. This shows that the government does care for civilians' needs and welfare. Thus, be proud for being a Malaysian !

Example-

1 packet of flour (1kg) = 5.00(before) 5.20(after)

Then, the packet of flour is used for the following:

1 plate of fried mee 3.50(before)3.70(after)

1 piece of cake 0.50(before)0.60(after)

Can anyone recall the joke made by our respective DPM a few years ago when the same scenario happened? It　was indeed　very comforting for everyone, because this indicates that poor people will be the smartest group in Malaysia.

'Maybe this will make help consumers to be wiser in purchasing things that are needed only, instead of spending thrift unnecessarily.'

That is the voice of the people.

THE SECRET 'SNOOP SQUAD'

Many were shocked to hear rumour that the MCA leaders set up a secret 'snoop squad' to pry into the private affairs of his rivals within the party. The great party then formed a just and effective panel to investigate allegations on its respected president, Ong Ka Ting, who was accused to employ spies to pull down anyone who might challenge his position, including the former health minister who was caught in a video sex scandal. Although Ong denied the allegation before gaining support from several officials and panel, someone still claimed that this snoop squad did exist.

One of the victims, Dr Chua Soi Lek, the formal health minister and vice president of MCA also believes that his sex video scandal was orchestrated by spies in this squad. Generally, everyone will be interested in getting this life job if it does exist and there are more vacancies, with the salary of RM 10000 a month and a cool title, 'MCASA' (Malaysian Chinese Association Special Agent). Anyway, this matter has greatly caused many of the MCA members to lose confidence to the leadership of their party, and for the Chinese community, they also begin to question on MCA's effort in striving for their rights and benefits.　

That is the voice of the people.

THE WIVES' CLUB

After the 12th General Elections, many ridiculous secrets are going to be made known one by one. The BN Wives' Club,　the　so-called 'charity association' in the new PR states were dissolved immediately before the oppositions take over the new state governments. However, their charity funds seems to be 'gone with the tsunami' after the election. While these respective BN assemblymen's wives were asked to provide rational reason for their weird decision, they were so naive by just telling the whole　nation that the money were given back to all the members. In this case, seems like they have forgotten that their funds were somehow provided by the government. It　is sad to say that no further news were heard from the powerful Anti Corruption Agency(ACA) under the Prime Minister's department. Anyway, the public would still want to find out reasons behind this.　

That is the voice of the people.

PROJEK KHINZIR RAKSASA

It　is believed that every Malaysian will be surprised by this name. Maybe some people might feel that　is pretty funny, but certainly I　am not one of them. As everyone knows, after the 8/3 political tsunami in Malaysia, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People's Justice Party) had become the biggest opposition party in Malaysia, along with the leadership of its Advisor, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

When the Menteri Besar of Selangor Khalid Ibrahim brought out the idea of transferring the pig farm which concerns the Chinese community, there was a BN MP　who mentioned something that he himself thought that was humorous enough to insult the PKR MPs. His behaviour was strong enough in provoking the entire nation, including non-PKR members. Yes. He is the first son-in-law of the country, our beloved MP from Rembau. All the while, we can see his great effort of proving his ability to be an outstanding and capable politician, not just the noble son-in-law of PM. However, through this incident, obviously he failed to gain respect from us again. At the same time, this poor young YB also successfully embarrassed the entire BN government.

That is the voice of the people.

EMPTY OFFICES

After the General Elections in 2008, there were many funny and ridiculous scenarios happened in the process of adapting the new Malaysian politics. This is because both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat parties have to handle many problems after exchanging their roles, especially the five new state governments.

Among these problems, one of the incidents that drew our attention was the missing of documents in the state government offices, and most of these files are important and confidential records and projects done by the previous government. Many people think that there must be some unknown reasons behind this. But who knows ? Firstly, this had caused a lot of serious problems to the new government in carrying out their works smoothly. Secondly, what is the plot behind this ? Some of us may assume that some people were trying to eliminate evidence that against 'them'. Superstitious groups of people might claim that the state government offices became haunted after the political tsunami. Who are they? The 'Ghostbuster' (PR government and the public) should not give up to catch them.　

That is the voice of the people.

PR's CHALLENGE

When the Perak Sultan used his power to manage the religious matter, it is clearly shown that this affair was directly against decision of the Menteri Besar of Perak, Nizar and this led to the dissatisfaction of the DAP chairman, Karpal Singh. After that, he made a statement which caused him into trouble. He claimed that in his opinion as a lawyer, the Perak Sultan should not carried out his duty in that improper way. Until today, more than 20 police reports were made to put him under investigation. No doubt, in our constitution, the Sultan of each state has the right to manage any of the religious matter. However, as a prominent lawyer, there must be reasons for him to say something which would affect the cooperation of the People's Alliance (Pakatan Rakyat). This is because a majority of people misunderstood his intention to voice out his personal view.

As many can see, many Malays were not contented with him and parties like Keadilan and PAS would have to be extremely careful in handling this problem so that their cooperation with DAP would not cause them to lose support from Malays. In this critical period, we can see many BN leaders took this opportunity to accuse Pakatan leaders for not respecting Sultan and his authority. Obviously, we know why they did this. Therefore, Pakatan Rakyat would have to get ready to face any possible challenge in future by strengthening its coalition of different parties.　

That is the voice of the people.

WORLD-CLASS PARLIAMENT

In the General Elections 2008, Pakatan Rakyat (coalition of PKR, DAP and PAS) won 82 (31, 28 and 23) seats to deny BN's two-thirds majority in Parliament. BN only won 140 seats out of 222 parliamentary seats. BN candidates who were defeated by PR include Acting President of Gerakan Dr Koh Tsu Koon, MCA Vice President Donald Lim, MCA Wanita Deputy Chair Chew Mei Fun, MIC president S. Samy Vellu as well as PPP President M. Kayveas. PR also won key parliamentary constituencies located in the capital cities of several states such as Klang (Charles Santiago) Petaling Jaya Utara (Tony Pua Kiam Wee), Lembah Pantai (Nurul Izzah), Bandar Tun Razak (Khalid Ibrahim).

The first parliamentary meeting shocked all the Malaysians when words like 'Bigfoot' and 'Big Monkey' came out from the respective YBs while arguing with each other. As representatives of the poeple, they should be able to control and abstain themselves from committing sins with their mouths, for example, MP from Kinabatangan (BN- Bung Mokthar) and Pasir Mas (IND- Ibrahim Ali) should not insult MP from Bukit Gelugor (DAP- Karpal Singh) by ordering him to stand up and talk. And even after they were found guilty by doing so, they refused to apologize for their misbehave in the Parliament. If any of you could still remember, there are some NGOs who represent the disabled had made request to these MPs with the hope that they could admit their fault and promise not to offend the disabled again. However, their attitude were so bad that especially MP from Pasir Mas even shouted to them, saying that he will never apologize for he did nothing wrong. He even claimed that he did not know that MP from Bukit Gelugor could not stand when he made the statement that 'Yang Berhormat dari Bukit Gelugor telah melanggar peraturan mesyuarat kerana tidak berdiri semasa bercakap'. If you have watched the Parliament on the first day, you can see he even laughed after he stated this.

Obviously, these people did not receive any warning or punishment, even the opposition MPs have been appealing for many times. Their request did not get any clear respond from the fair and just Parliament Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin from BN government. This matter should be taken into further consideration and immediate action should also be taken against these MPs so that they would learn how to behave themselves well while serving the people. Otherwise, they will remain like naughty kids who know nothing but create troubles and problems.

That is the voice of the people.

THE NEW STATES

After this political tsunami, many things have changed in the country's history. This is the first time for non-bumiputras to hold the post as DUN Speaker (Teng Chang Khim- Sungai Pinang State Assemblyman as Selangor DUN Speaker and V. Sivakumar- Tronoh State Assemblyman as Perak DUN Speaker). This clearly shows that there should not be any discrimination in ministering a country because only the learned and capable ones will be entrusted with such great responsibilities to govern a country, just as what the late premier of China, Deng xiaoping (邓小平) said,

'A cat that knows how to catch rats is considered a good cat, regardless of whether it's a black cat or a white cat.' (不管黑猫白猫，会捉老鼠就是好猫。)

Here, the Pakatan Rakyat (People's Alliance) has shown a good example in this case.

That is the voice of the people.

THE NEW OPPOSITION

After the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced the adoption of the competency, accountability and transparency (CAT) in developing the state in terms of applying and acquiring projects from government, instead of just implementing the New Economy Policy (NEP) straightly to avoid curruption from taking place, the Penang BN (UMNO) quickly took this opportunity to protest at the the Komtar building to voice out their dissatisfaction, saying that they would be discriminated without the NEP. This has clearly shown that these people are so immature and ignorant that they do things without having any consideration.

Throughout all these years, the public understood that that NEP does not really effective in helping up those poor ones in rural areas, instead, it does contribute a lot to great people like Zakaria and many other rich fellows in making money. Since the very beginning, CM Lim Guan Eng had no means to offend anyone by reviewing the truth. However, the misinterpretation of his intention caused him to be put under police investigation. I think this is the first time in our history that a state Chief Minister is being accused under Seduction Act after general election. Through this incident, it is also proven that the BN government is also eligible and has the potential to be a powerful opposition by taking immediate action effectively against the newly-formed state government, perhaps they may have to learn to be the country's opposition party as well one day.

That is the voice of the people.

THE AFTERMATH

The 12th General Elections has now become a hot topic of the public and the issue is so popular that one can hear it everywhere, even in the public toilet whereas the central government started to question each other ‘Why would this happen?’ Apart from having their unexplainable curiosity, some began to blame one another for the shocking defeat. They should have realised the importance of this incident for them to learn the lessons from their past mistakes, instead of blaming others for the poor election result.

In fact, this phenomenon is still comprehensible because according to some experienced senior politicians, 'pointing at each other' is always a common practice or culture in Malaysian politics. Therefore, it is not surprising for the public to see BN leaders like Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, Deputy PM Najib and formal Penang Chief Minister Dr Koh would still ask all the fellow Malaysians to stay calm and not to worry over the changes in state government. It seems like they were still unaware of the needs of the whole nation to change.

That is the voice of the people.

FOREWORD

This blog is created in conjunction with the Malaysian 12th General Elections which brought a 'political tsunami' to the country for the first time since Malaysia gained its independence in the year 1957. This is the first time in the history of Malaysia that the Barisan Nasional (National Front) government not only lost its administration in five states (Kelantan, Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor), but also lost its 2/3 majority in the Parliamentary seats. Thus, all Malaysians are now looking forward towards a better change in the government.

This blog consists of articles which collect news, evidence and opinions from all kinds of media, in which some may seem to be unacceptable to certain group of people. Anyway, we apologize at the first place for any contents of articles that may sounds offensive but our aim is to get the firsthand and truthful news for readers without any intention to blaspheme and slander persona involved or even cause disruption and tension to the society. Thus, there is no reason for any form of legal action to be taken against the author and commentators. Thanks for your cooperation and please do not hesitate to voice out your comments.