Posts Tagged ‘UMNO’

Newer Entries »

No surprises in Machap…

April 12th, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


No surprise
http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=17616
Pauline Puah
MACHAP (April 12, 2007): There was a no surprise result. There was no mood swing among the rural electorates. As expected, Barisan Nasional (BN)’s superior machinery streamrolled for an overwhelmingly win in the by-election, as it did in the 2004 general election. But, the 481 decrease in the winning margin announced tonight did spoil the party for the BN which had clearly worked their hearts out to try and secure an even wider mandate.
Machap is also the first Chinese-majority constituency to see a by-election since the 11th General Election.
Machap is made up of 45% Chinese and the by-election was caused by the death of Malacca MCA chief Datuk Poh Ah Tiam on March 15.
The by-election is also seen by many political observers as a barometer to gauge the mood of the voters, especially the Chinese before the next general election. But this is an exceptionally rural electorate.l
The increased in votes for DAP in the Chinese-majority area of Machap Baru, though insignificant, is still a wake-up call for the MCA. More so, Machap Baru is Poh’s kampung.
In their respective post-mortems, the MCA will do well to determine the grouses of the Machap Baru Chinese while the DAP must surely find a way to win the hearts of the Malays and Indians for any real possibility to unseat the BN in the next general election.
This time around, DAP secured 527 votes while MCA garnered 914 votes in Machap Baru. In 2004, MCA garnered 1,270 votes while DAP got only 356 ballots.
The BN was confident of a bigger majority by fielding “local boy” Lai Meng Chong. The DAP’s Liou Chen Kuang is from Malacca town.
“The residents here voted for BN in last general election because of Datuk Poh Ah Tiam. He had done a lot for the villagers. But what has Lai done for us? We know him too well (to know his weaknesses),” said a young voter when met in Machap Baru on Wednesday night.
For the BN and Umno, they can take heart that, depsite the thousands that turned up at former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s ceramah on Wednesday night, the crowd did not translate into votes.
Anwar had also made his rounds in Malay villages that saw him locked in warm shakes which did not really mean electoral support.
The BN was also able to retain the support of the Indian community. Machap is one of the few constituencies that feature a high percentage of Indian voters – at 15%.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng’s political secretary Ng Wei Aik said: “We had no chance to even talk to the voters in the Malay and Indian villagers who were either satisfied with the BN or had been intimidated not to see us.”
The Opposition had raised many national issues, alleged scandals and corruption but clearly these did not impact the rural folk.
Although the BN had won the by-election with its “development” trademark, unfortunately it had been marred by allegations of vote-buying and abuse of government machinery.
Updated: 10:22PM Thu, 12 Apr 2007

Comments Off on No surprises in Machap… »

Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags:

calling all malaysian to pray this week!!! – MCCBCHST organised week-long prayer for non-muslims

April 3rd, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


Pls spread this news – can refer to Sun paper (2/4 and 3/4).

finally, MCCBCHST is doing something about this. let’s all join in and support them. many of us argue on the forums abt the injustice happening to Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Taosists, Sikhs, etc. Let’s show our support and join in the prayer sessions. fill up the churches, temples, gurdwaras.

It will be great if MCCBCHST can come out with arm bands or car stickers to support this event.

all this happening due to the cowardly act of the husband (saravanan) who misuse islam. his action just spoil the religion’s name. hopefully the rest of the muslims realise this. ms subashini will be better off without him.

m poobalan
www.poobalan.com/blog
www.friendster.com/mpoobalan

Religious Council: Prayers not move to undermine Islam, Muslims
Subashini files appeal to Federal Court
Maria J.Dass

http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=17482

PETALING JAYA (April 2, 2007): The initiative by non-Muslim groups to hold prayers for and read out letters nationwide in support of justice, fairness and respect for their constitutional rights is not meant to undermine Islam or Muslims, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) said.

Instead, the efforts are to create awareness among non-Muslims regarding recent court judgments, and help them understand the implications of conversion to Islam.

Council president Datuk Chee Peck Kiat said the initiatives had also received support from Muslims, including from Sisters in Islam (SIS) and Umno MP Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, noting that they had spoken up on the injustices caused by the lack of religious freedom, and the recent civil court decision to direct non-Muslims to the syariah court.

“We urge all fair minded Malaysians, irrespective of their religion, to voice their grievances against this injustice through proper and peaceful channels, and to do all that is possible, and pray that justice and freedom of religion be restored,” he said today.

He was speaking in a press conference to launch a series of special prayers following the March 13 Court of Appeal judement directing R. Subashini, a Hindu, to seek recourse through the syariah court.

The court, in a majority decision, had also dismissed SubashiniÂ’s appeal to stop her Muslim-convert husband, Muhammad Shafi Saravanan Abdullah, from going to the syariah court to dissolve their civil marriage, seek custody of their children and unilaterally convert their young child.

However last Friday (March 30), the same bench granted Subashini an interim injunction preventing her husband from proceeding with his case in the syariah court pending the disposal of her application to the Federal court.

“The fact that the wife has been granted temporary respite by the court does not detract from the seriousness of the original decision,” Chee said.

In a statement today, SIS said the Muslim group believed in justice and the non-discrimination of people of other faiths as enshrined in Islam.

“We support any initiative that affirms the supremacy of the Constitution that has been agreed by all ethnic groups in Malaysia,” SIS said.

The prayer sessions by MCCBCHST over this week will coincide with the Christian Holy Week, the Hindu and Tamil New Year, and Cheng Beng (ChineseÂ’s All Souls Day).

Christian Federation of Malaysia executive secretary Rev. Dr Hermen Shastri said: “We will pray that the government will be moved by moral conscience to rectify the situation, by upholding laws in the Constitution.”

The Buddhist community will also hold prayer sessions over the next three months during the full moon.

“Our devotees have to understand these issues, that once you enter (convert to Islam), it is very difficult to leave,” Malaysian Buddhist Association adviser Ng Hong Pau said.

Comments Off on calling all malaysian to pray this week!!! – MCCBCHST organised week-long prayer for non-muslims »

Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags:

NEWS:4.9mil yet to register as voters

April 2nd, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


wonder who will be shitting in their pants? bn, dap or pas?
 
selangor, sarawak and perak – high number of non-muslims as compared to other states’ number of non-muslims. more concentration in town areas especially in selangor.
 
johor – umno heartland.
 
also, most are in the age bracket of 21-35, where education and getting a job is priority, which was mentioned in the survey.
 
 
 

4.9mil yet to register as voters

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/4/2/nation/17322941&sec=nation

KUALA LUMPUR: There are 4.9 million eligible Malaysians who have not registered as voters. 

Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said these people were denying themselves the right to elect their leaders. 

“Malaysians like to do things at the last minute – even for registering as voters. But they forget that there is a three-month period for their names to be validated into the electoral roll.  

“When their names are not in the electoral roll in time for an election, they will blame the EC for not providing enough facilities and venues for them to register themselves. 

“This happens every election,” he said during the launch of the nationwide campaign by the Malaysia National Sikh Movement (Gerak Sikh) to register voters. 

Wan Ahmad said the EC had done everything to make it easy for people to register as voters, including establishing over 640 counters at post offices nationwide.  

“They can walk in and register in 15 minutes. But while people donÂ’t mind queuing up to buy stamps, they complain of having to queue up at the EC counters,” he said. 

There are 10.3 million registered Malaysian voters. 

As at December 2006, Selangor had the highest number of eligible people yet to register as voters, followed by Sarawak (450,000), Johor (400,000) and Perak (375,000). 

Seventy per cent of these people are between the ages of 21 and 35.  

Wan Ahmad said the campaign by GerakSikh was the first time a non-governmental organisation was working with the EC to mobilise people to register as voters.  

Under the campaign, GerakSikh would organise the registration of voters at various venues, with the EC providing mobile units.

Comments Off on NEWS:4.9mil yet to register as voters »

Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags: