Posts Tagged ‘Elections’

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HRP aims to be third political platform

August 13th, 2010
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I can’t say much of the “dreaming of numbers” as it sounds melodramatic, but hey, great things start with one man’s dream, don’t they? Only time will tell how HRP’s ambitions will turn out.

The one problem I envision, with targeting Indian majority seats is that it will most likely be a direct assault on other Indian candidates from either BN or PR. I agree that PR will be most affected as compared to BN if HRP does enter the fray.

Anyway, for long term success, HRP should extend their manifesto beyond Indian community uplifting. They should insert issues that benefit everyone such as housing for the poor, equal education.

Good luck to HRP! Unggal vottu, Uthayavukku?

In the next general election, the Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRP) is aiming to become the third political platform to uplift the socio-economic status of the Indian community in the country.

The party is planning to go for 15 out of the total of 222 parliamentary seats in the nation and 38 out of the total of 576 state seats in the country.

Party pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar (left) said. “I dreamt of the magical number ’1538′ while I was in detention under ISA in the Kamunting Detention Camp in Taiping and we hope to realise this dream in the coming general election. This will give us the political power to voice out the concerns of the Indian community both in the state assemblies and in Parliament.”

The Indian community had first put their faith in the Umno-BN government but he was disappointed to note that it had denied the Indian community their basic rights to a better socio-economic environment for the past 53 years.

“Then the community opted for the Pakatan Rakyat as a second platform during the last general election, hoping for a change in the political climate of the country.

“They (Pakatan) sailed through the elections by taking four states by politicising our ‘Makkal Sakthi’ theme and benefiting from our labour and even imprisonment,” said the former ISA detainee.

According to him, Pakatan did not measure up to the Indian community’s expectations in solving their economic woes and improving their standard of living.

Pakatan Indian politicians who were elected in constituencies with a large Indian presence failed to highlight the plight of the community both in the state assemblies and in Parliament he charged.

Uthayakumar claimed they were not action-oriented but only gave media statements and lip service and did not bother to go the ground to solve the woes of the marginalised community.

“These elected representatives only played second fiddle to their masters and did not want to offend the Chinese and Malay voters by aggressively campaigning for the rights of their community,” he alleged.

So, HRP has decided to go on the warpath against Pakatan and BN by forming the third platform and this move may put the spanner in the works of Pakatan’s ambition to take over Putrajaya in the next general election.

He accused both BN and Pakatan of harping on Malay and Chinese issues and problems but conveniently forgetting the Indian community.

When asked about allegations that he was attacking Pakatan publicly with the aim of getting his party registered by the Registrar of Societies (ROS), an angry Uthyakumar said, “Our enemy is Umno-BN who had taken away our rights as citizens of this country.”

As the ROS has not approved the application to register HRP, the party will field its candidates as independents under the banner heading of Uthayakumar.

When asked if HRP would work with Pakatan in the coming general election, he said it was possible but with the condition that Pakatan must surrender some of its state and parliamentary seats for HRP.

“We are not going to give a blank cheque to Pakatan but expect seats in return,” said Uthayakumar.

At the moment, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) wants DAP to cede the Jelapang state seat to it or else their candidate will stand as an independent.

Uthayakumar said HRP will also take the same stand if its demand for some of the state and parliamentary seats from Pakatan is unsuccessful.

When told that HRP is seen by some as a racist party, Uthayakumar said the it was formed to help the marginalised Indian community uplift their socio-economic status in the country.

But he quickly added that the spin-off from helping the Indian community would help make all Malaysians equal partners in the economic cake.

HRP has started their preparation for the next general election by targeting the Buntong state seat, which has the highest proportion of Indian voters in the country at 46 percent, and next the parliamentary seat of Ipoh Barat which has 22 percent Indian voters.

The party leader hopes to increase the number of Indian voters in Buntong from 46 percent to 54 percent to make possible a win for HRP.

Then it will go into constituencies with a large Indian presence and increase the Indian voter populations to ensure that they win their seats.

HRP is now highlighting several social problems in the Indian community, including conversion cases involving Indian women, Malaysian born Indians being denied birth certificates and identity cards and the increase in Indian youths turning to crime.

The party also wants Tamil schools, Hindu temples and Hindu cemeteries to be given permanent state land titles and gazetted accordingly.

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I expect more than free wifi, RM1000 and saman ekor cancellation!

August 13th, 2010
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What kind of promises are these? Call this election promise kah? Come on la, be more creative and come out with something useful. RM1000 for 12 months, is less than RM100 per month. By the time you come into power, I doubt the money will have any useful value.  If RM5,000 per person, then its more reasonable.

Free wifi or wireless broadband? Its possible or not to cover all the remote areas first? And please state the minimum speed so that not putar belit like our current providers. I expect 20MB all over Malaysia within the next 3 years.

And cancelling saman ekor? I’m sure there are better options like installing more CCTVs along highways and/or review of highway speed along with cancellation of such summons.

I fail to see how this can directly impact the economy or social standard of the community.  There’s so many other promises we can expect: review of laws, equal footing for schools, revamp of civil service, upgrading of transportation, removal of equity requirements, removal of monopolies in trade and business licenses, housing for poor and middle income families, improvement of education system, etc.

I expect much more than free wifi, RM1000 for senior citizens and abolishment of postal summons (saman ekor)!

The DAP has embarked on what appears to be a quest to boost its popularity ahead of the coming 13th general election, with three promises to the people should the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) capture Putrajaya.

The promises are — to abolish the saman ekor (postal summons) system, to provide annual payments of RM1,000 to each senior citizen aged above 60 and to provide free wi-fi or wireless broadband throughout Malaysia.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said that the party’s central executive committee had agreed yesterday to issue a blanket directive to all party leaders to work on publicising these three promises during all political functions.

“These are the three policy initiatives that will bring benefit to the people that we are confident will be carried out by the PR should we win Putrajaya.

“We do not just want to harp on the corrupt practices of the Barisan Nasional but we also want to talk about what we can do for the people,” he told a press conference at the party headquarters here.

Lim noted that the practice of blacklisting owners of vehicles was not only unfair but should also be declared illegal by the courts for it was in contrary to the principles of natural justice.

“We also want to provide this annual payments of RM1,000 to senior citizens as a sign of appreciation for their past contributions to the country,” he said.

He noted that the policy would merely cost the government RM2.1 billion annually.

“What is RM2.1 billion when the country squanders RM28 billion annually to corruption,” he pointed out.

The Penang chief minister also cited an article from the global weekly magazine The Economist, pointing out that even the internationally renowned magazine was agreeable to the concept of providing money for the poor.

“This is a number one capitalist economic magazine who does not believe in giving money. But it is true that if you help those in need, there is a multiplier effect. People will spend the money and this will in turn help to generate and liven up the economy,” he said.

Lim pointed out that such a policy was also implemented in Thailand.

“In Thailand, they believe that it is the responsibility of the government to give people money when they need it. They believe that if the government does not adhere to this, they should change the government,” he said.

On the third promise to provide free wi-fi to throughout the country, Lim noted that the country needed to change with the moving times.

“We must innovate and only when you do that, you are racing to the top. If not, you are racing to the bottom,” he said.

The DAP leader denied that the three promises were merely populist measures or a form of vote-buying.

“What vote-buying? We are not even having an election now. Why is it wrong to give money to the people? To the BN, giving money to themselves is not wrong but giving money to the people is,” he claimed.

He noted that Malaysia was behind for it does not adopt international practices such as attempting to empower the poor and the elderly.

Lim also claimed that the DAP’s policy suggestions had been accepted by all PR parties and would duly be implemented should the fledgling coalition wrest Putrajaya from the BN in the coming general election.

“I have spoken to the other parties and it is not a problem. In any case, it is not about objecting, only on how to implement these policies,” he said, adding that he had also spoken with PR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Lim also said that the DAP, in introducing such promises, was showing its strong denial that it was anti-Malay and a communist party.

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SJKT Ladang Escot gets piped water after 50 years!

May 4th, 2010
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This is happening in the most developed state in the country.

Interesting to note how the executive chairman of a utilities company says that its to reciprocate support given by people during the by-election. So, in other words, the utilities company works not based on public need, but on whim and fancies?

Anyway, good to see the project successful within a month, and at such big cost of RM600,000.

With just 60 students, won’t be long before this school faces extinction or relocation to better populated areas.

HULU SELANGOR, May 3 — After more than 50 years depending on spring water, Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil (SJK) Ladang Escot here finally received piped water today.

SJK Tamil Ladang Escot has an enrolment of 60 pupils, who are mainly children of oil palm estate workers, and 11 teaching staff.

Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) executive chairman Tan Sri Rozali Ismail said the utility swung into action on learning of the predicament the school was facing during the just-concluded Hulu Selangor by-election.

“This is to reciprocate the support given by the people in Barisan Nasional’s win in the by-election. As a government-linked company, we will support the government’s aspirations,” he told reporters after checking on the pipe-laying work to supply water to the school today.

He added that the job entailed a 1.5km pipeline with the overall cost of the water supply project to the school totalling RM600,000.

Also present was the newly-elected MP for the constituency, P. Kamalanathan. — Bernama

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Kamalanathan says NO to Perkasa

April 28th, 2010
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Looks like campaign buddy no more buddy :-) Earlier, I wondered what would be the reaction of new MP Kamalanathan on Perkasa’s nonsense. He follows PM Najib’s views which is disagreement.

Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali, who was instrumental in helping newly-minted Hulu Selangor MP P. Kamalanathan(picture) clinch Sunday’s poll, seems to have lost a friend in the MIC leader.

Kamalanathan, who had earlier stood by Perkasa’s struggles, did an about-turn today and took pains to stress to The Malaysian Insider that Ibrahim calling on the government to punish Chinese voters for failing to support them, was his own personal view.

“I do not share that view. It is his personal opinion. I do not condone anything that is extreme like this,” he firmly said when met at the Prime Minister’s office here today.

Kamalanathan also came to the defence of Barisan Nasional component parties MCA and Gerakan, which Ibrahim had taken to task for failing to garner Chinese support.

“It is not true what he said (about MCA and Gerakan). They worked very, very hard in the by-election. Very hard. I saw it with my own two eyes the amount of work and effort they put in.

“I have spoken with (MCA president Datuk Seri) Dr Chua (Soi Lek) and (MCA deputy president Datuk Seri) Liow (Tiong Lai) and they are extremely committed to the cause,” he said.

He pointed out that the prime minister himself had clearly said that the government would not ignore the needs of the Chinese community in Hulu Selangor just because they had not supported BN in the by-election.

“Today is proof of this. We will not deprive our citizens the right to have a good life in this country,” he said.

Kamalanathan was referring to the function at the Prime Minister’s office earlier this afternoon when Datuk Seri Najib Razak made good on his promise to help rebuild the SRJKC Rasa schoo by handing over RM3 million to the school board of representatives.

“We lost the Chinese votes because of something else… something was just not quite right and MCA and Gerakan should not be taken down for this.

“My responsibility now is to identify what happened and see what the real crux of the problem is,” said Kamalanathan.

He added that Najib was very sincere in his commitment to develop Hulu Selangor, and to deliver on all the pledges made by BN leaders during the campaign period for the by-election.

BN has made over RM70 million worth of pledges for allocations and development in the large constituency.

“Najib has also requested that (deputy election director) Datuk Nor Omar to list down all the promises made by our leaders so that we can deliver on them,” said Kamalanathan.

He assured the people of Hulu Selangor that the development process would be an ongoing one and that even those who had not voted for the BN would benefit from it.

“Yes, it is true that Ibrahim’s statement was irresponsible but Najib today proved that we will not be listening to those demands,” he said. Kamalanathan had secured a 1,725-vote majority victory over PKR’s Datuk Zaid Ibrahim during Sunday’s poll but had failed to recapture support from the Chinese community.

The poll results showed that less than 30 per cent of the community had chosen BN in the poll, down from the 35 per cent who voted for them in Election 2008.

Ibrahim had called the Chinese voters ungrateful and had urged the government not to fulfil its pledges for allocation and development in the Chinese areas of Hulu Selangor.

He had also asked the BN government to ignore the demands made by the MCA and Gerakan, claiming the two parties had failed to help BN wrest back Chinese support.

His statement has resulted in a mad scramble by BN leaders to explain to the people that Perkasa’s demands would not be met and that the Chinese voters would not be punished.

During the function earlier, Najib had also issued a clear warning to all parties never to dispute the promises made by BN.

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Promise to build Tamil School in Serendah

April 27th, 2010
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Which school will be relocated here?  Obviously not a NEW tamil school because its government policy not to built new schools. What a pity because foreigners can set up private schools and international schools here but own rakyat can’t get permit to open new Tamil school. Some quarters will say this: Nope,this is not proof of discrimination. The Indian community must be grateful for whatever reasons. Yeah, we can hear it coming…

Can the school be up by GE13?

Malaysia Makkal Sakthi Party hopes that the Federal Government will deliver its promises to the Hulu Selangor voters by building a Tamil primary school in Serandah.

MMSP president R.S. Than-enthiran said many Indian students in the area now had to travel far to get to the nearest Tamil school in Rawang.

“The school is urgently needed in the area and I hope it will be built as soon as possible, preferably in the next two years,” he said yesterday.

For Sunday’s by-election, Thanenthiran said he had mobilised about 800 MMSP members from Selangor to campaign.

“They did this over a period of 10 days prior to the event.”

He said he was also grateful to the Indians for coming out in full force to cast their votes.

“I believe Barisan Nasional’s victory is due to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s presence there,” he said.

Thanenthiran said it was now important for Barisan to fulfill its election promises fast as the general election was around the corner.

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