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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

GE-13 - "May you find what you are looking for"


Our unofficial national clarion call, Malaysia Boleh, has become both an expression of proper pride in a Malaysian achievement as well as cynical criticism in a Malaysian act of dodgy-ness, the latter usually associated with officialdom or those approved, sponsored or backed by officialdom.



It would not be untrue to aver the Election Commission of Malaysia (EC) has a Malaysia Boleh stamp, not unlike a SIRIM trademark for Malaysian produced goods but certainly, in the opinion of the public, not like the standards SIRIM has set, or anywhere near that.

You too can decide which facet of Malaysia Boleh would be applicable for the EC.

In 2008 BN suffered a major setback in the March general and state elections where it lost its 36-year old two-third majority in federal parliament, and its rule in the states of Penang, Kedah, Selangor and Perak (Kelantan remains under PAS rule).

Though the BN's 140 seats in federal parliament in 2008 provides a handsome majority over Pakatan's 82, there was much wailing, renting of sack cloth and covering their selves in ashes in BN, as if the world had come to an end. The former UMNO MB of Perak went into deep shock and cried.

Worse, the loss of its richest and most iconic state of Selangor was much too much to bear for dear old UMNO. The losses were not only political but financial and party pride as well.

UMNO has had 5 years to plan to hold onto its 140 parliamentary seats if not add more and to win back Selangor and where possible Kedah and Perak as well.

Of late I have to admit I have been rather surprised by Najib's special focus on Penang, when the island state, if I may say so, is in general not considered vital to UMNO's pride.

Perhaps Najib wants to help his MCA and Gerakan mateys regain some footing, at least for BN's window dressing if nothing else.

And I suppose that possible wish to shore up MCA and Gerakan to some semblance of their respective former political lives and relevance would be due to Najib being a man who is terribly keen on form rather than substance, as he once demonstrated towards Ong Tee Keat - see my September 2006 post Corruption 'Fact' for DPM Najib & Hishamuddin

I believe Ah Jib Gor likes to see a BN with some Chinese presence - would that be a testament to his multiracial 1Malaysia credentials? wakakaka.

Okay, I've no doubt the EC has been tasked to ensure a favourable outcome for BN in GE-13, and let's not mince words as almost everyone including BN people knows the leadership in the EC, like those in the Police, Civil Service and Judiciary, are pro UMNO people, with some even considering themselves as UMNO employees.



But nonetheless, form (of democratic process) must still be preserved even as substance (of the desired outcome) is being worked at.

For example, gerrymandering is well and truly alive in our election system. The aim of gerrymandering is to advantage or disadvantage particular constituents, and don't we just know who and what will be advantaged and disadvantaged.

An example of gerrymandering techniques in Malaysia would be the compressed packing of opposition voters like sardines into seats unlikely to be won by BN such as Kapar. The aim is to reduce the representation of the voters who do not support BN while obscenely enlarging by disproportionate quantum those supporting UMNO.

The Kapar versus Putrajaya dichotomy has been a terribly blatant case of shameful gerrymandering, where the former (Kapar) a Pakatan stronghold has 120,000 voters in one federal constituency while the latter (Putrajaya), an UMNO stronghold by virtue of its predominately BTN-ized civil servant residents, has a mere 6,000 voters represented by also one member of parliament (MP), as for Kapar.

Ketuanan UMNO has been assured by as much as a 2,000 percentile guarantee. And no wonder Tengku Adnan recently thanked Najib profusely for the PM's gift of shoo-ing him in as the assured MP for PJ. Eat your heart out, Khairy, wakakaka.



If the EC as a supposedly independent organization possesses the unbiased integrity it should have, it would have an averageof 60,000 (or up to 80,000) per federal constituency, so that each and very Malaysian voter would enjoy the same 'voice' in parliament.

Such a fair approach would have Kapar represented by 2 MPs while the residents of Putrajaya would have been registered voters in a federal constituency of, say, 60,000 and definitely not by it puny sized self. 

But as mentioned, the EC is neither independent nor unbiased.

In 2007 Malaysiakini reported in its EC 'helping' UMNO secure Penang that Danny Law Heng Kiang (DAP) alleged the EC was manipulating the electoral boundaries in Penang to increase Malay-winning state seats for UMNO's benefits.

Law claimed that the gerrymandering strategy was similar to UMNO tactics conducted in Sabah in recent years and Malacca about three decades ago. The two states have since been in the firm claws of UMNO.

According to him, we should expect changes in favour of UMNO even with the Chinese making up more than 70% of Penang’s estimated population of 1.3 million. He pointed out that only 22 state seats or 55 percent were Chinese-majority constituencies. But the Malays (meaning UMNO), who constituted less than 25% of the population, dominated 15 state constituencies or 40 percent of the state seats.



Well maybe as the demography has since changed or perhaps may not even have changed much, but trust the amazing EC to work out UMNO's winning ways.

Nonetheless, according to Law, seats with Chinese-majority had an average 20,000 voters while the Malay-dominated constituencies an average of 11,000 voters – for example, the Chinese-dominated Paya Terubong had been (based on 2007 figures) the biggest state seat with 23,490 voters while the largest Malay seat, Permatang Berangan had only 14,049 registered voters.

And if we were to compare Paya Terubong (23,490) to UMNO-controlled Teluk Bahang (10,791), the ratio of state representation would be 2 to 1 in favour of the latter. It seems in Penang, some people have two votes while the rest have only one.

Apart from gerrymandering, there have also been the covert variety where phantom voters consisted of the truly dead who could not only walk but vote, of course, for BN.

Additionally there were living voters who could walk from constituency to constituency to exercise the Malaysia Boleh-ness. Alas, Pakatan lost its chief exorcist of 'phantoms' when Gobalakrishnan left PKR with a huff and a puff, wakakaka - see my 2008 post regarding the Permatang Pauh by-election where I wrote:

in the uniform he once love wakakaka

Malaysiakini reported in 5 'phantom' buses stopped, MP and sons arrested that PKR leader Gobalakrishnan, MP for Padang Serai, and his two sons plus a supporter, adopted the PKR ‘core’ group’s habit of stopping buses, allegedly full of phantom voters.

We've of course heard of indelible ink but I wonder at its efficacy in our Malaysia Boleh context.

Postal voting by the police and military have been a sore point for the federal opposition, but I have personally not been against it for fear of disenfranchising legitimate voters who are in uniformed and/or essential services (armed forces, police, firemen, hospital and ambulance staff, etc).

It would be gross injustice to deny the people in uniformed and/or essential services the right to vote just because they in general have been pro BN. 

It's not wrong to be pro BN but it's definitely wrong to block out pro BN voters, in the way as it's wrong to sabotage pro Pakatan voters by shifting them around to new constituencies and worse by stealth, without informing or providing them with notification so that they may at least know where they are to vote, and if they wish, raise legitimate objections or challenges to the changes (where we have been shown examples that were unconstitutionally exercised by the EC).

Nonetheless in fairness, we need to mindful that it's universally not unusual for the majority of military postal voters to vote conservative, as have been the trends in Australia (pro Coalition Party), USA (pro Republican Party) and UK (pro Conservative Party). In Malaysia, UMNO is the conservative party. Perhaps 'tomorrow' PKR and PAS may well be as well. Thus military voters preferring conservative (right wing) parties have not been uncommon and should not be considered as sinister in itself.



But I draw a line against including (what I heard) military/police wives as postal voters as the ladies are not on essential services, unless of course the wives themselves are military or police uniformed members, or the military and their wives are stationed overseas or in a remote location. Minus these qualifications, I consider the inclusion of military/police wives and family members as gross abuse by the EC of a facility to ensure voters on essential duties would not be disenfranchised.

The above are all threats to fair and impartial elections that we are familiar with, though nothing beats the shameful and obscene Grand Canyon-ish gap of Kapar versus Putrajaya constituencies in their respective numbers of registered voters, where Putrajaya plays the role of the Jewish lil' David, a known unscrupulous scoundrel in the biblical tales.

Let me reiterate, the shameful case of Kapar versus Putrajaya would be the most OBSCENE case of cheating, and the chairperson of the EC should have be sacked for the blatant and unmitigated gerrymandering, not that it will happen under an UMNO government, which I suppose calls for another Malaysia Boleh exclamation.

But what then has this got to do with my title on what I sense as an upgrading of an old threat. Before I tuck into it, let's revisit a few statements by Dr Mahathir in recent weeks.



In my post Deepak, a Cesium Bomb and the Devil I wrote of Vell Paari (anak kepada Samy Vellu) ... lambasting of Dr Mahathir for calling upon Najib to relinquish the latter's prime ministerial post if he fails to secure a two-thirds majority for BN in GE-13. 

I'm not sure whether Vell was bersandiwar-ishly bodeking Najib (you know how MIC pollies have been wakakaka) or he was in fact upset by the words of the man referred to as the Devil (obviously the One you know, wakakaka).

But I knew Dr Mahathir was bersandiwara-ing, because in that same post I also wrote: 

But Dr Mahathir is not an easy or manmanlai man to read. He had virtually co-authored The Art of War with Sun Tzu, wakakaka, in which his favourite discipline is “All warfare is based on deception”, wakakaka again.

I suspect Vell Paari has fallen victim to Dr Mahathir's deceptive twist in voicing that unless Najib brings home the (2/3 majority) bacon (figuratively speaking of course, wakakaka), the son of Tun Razak must relinquish his prime ministerial position even if BN wins. [...]

Thus I am inclined to believe Dr Mahathir has been playing reverse psychology. [...]

Dr Mahathir knows that the Chinese would be aware that it will be a Herculean effort for Pakatan to win majority rule because of the remarkable EC, thus he slipped in a choice for them of having either Najib or Muhyiddin as PM. 

And he believes the Chinese will prefer Najib to Muhyiddin as PM, thus he teases them into voting for BN to ensure Najib remains as PM. Whether his reverse psychology will work in accordance with his plans remains to be seen but it's still a plan, and a very devious one.

Okay, follow that up with his more recent call to Amend constitution to strip Ambiga's citizenship. As reported by Malaysiakini, Dr Mahathir stated: 



"To strip a person's citizenship, you need to amend the constitution. And to amend the constitution you need two-thirds majority in Parliament. So, I ask that you give two-thirds majority to the BN government."

Many took umbrage at what would be considered as his seditious call to strip a Malaysian of her citizenship for no other reason than partisan political purpose. And while we should slap his wrist for raising such an issue, his real aim was more directed towards the BN (or UMNO) winning GE-13 by a two-third majority, rather than for the purpose of altering the Constitution to 'fix' Ambiga.

Yes, he is certainly pushing pushing pushing!

Really, it is not necessary for BN to win by a two-third majority to rule or for Najib to remain as PM, but by setting such a high target and campaigning for it through fear, hatred and self-interest driven stampede, he wants BN to have as reasonably comfortable a majority as possible even if it's not 2/3.  A win is still a win and hallelujah, UMNO will continue to be the driver of the Malaysian gravy train

While the part about the possibility of Najib being ousted by Muhyiddin has been directed at Chinese and Indian voters for them to choose the lesser disliked UMNO man to be PM, the latter about stripping Ambiga Sreenivesan of her Malaysian citizenship has been targeted at the Heartland to promote the 'idea' an UMNO-led government with a 2/3 majority can amend the Constitution to get rid of an irritating non-Malay, an aci.

He was just following up on the ugly butts act, one of inciting hatred for a non-Malay woman in order to rally the true believers to the UMNO banner

And it has to be the Heartland he has been targeting because commonsense tells us the urban areas (minus hardcore UMNO apparatchiks) are in the main very pro Ambiga, who's virtually a goddess to them.

Thus I believe, as well millions of Malaysians, that the remarkable EC is working hand in glove with many others (wakakaka) towards such a very comfortable win for UMNO-BN, but the question is, apart from old tricks, just what new tactics does it have to achieve that?



Okay, time for a wee bit of tng k'ooi (ch'ong hei) story.

Many years ago I read a horror story based on a Chinese saying that one should really be worried one's wish may just come true - strange, isn't that, but then the Chinese are such devious people - don't believe me? Go ask Dr Mahathir, wakakaka.

The tale went something like this (as far as I can recollect):

A couple had only one child, who grew up to be a wonderful lovely young man, the pride and joy of his parents. He was smart, intelligent, handsome and a loving son. One day he tragically died in a horrible car accident.

Now flash back a wee bit - the parents being the good folks they were, had once saved the life of a Taoist priest. The grateful priest, considered to be some sort of a sage or holy man, then informed them he would grant them a wish, but it was not a wish for material gains but one to help them in their moments of most dire need. At that time, they didn't pay much attention to it, thinking that was only the rambling of an old grateful priest.

So the story went that after the son was buried, they, being so devastated by their irreplaceable loss, remembered the Taoist boon and went to see him in desperation in order to draw upon the granted wish.

Even before they could tell the priest what they wanted, he advised them not to wish for what the Heavens would deem as forbidden, and if they insisted, they would dread their wish coming true. 

Of course no advice would have deterred them from making that one wish, for their son to come back to them. The priest sadly told them their wish would be granted. And that night the son returned ... but in a form they didn't expect ... in his horribly smashed up bloodied and corrupt (decomposing) form.

Thus the Chinese claim that the saying "May you find what you are looking for" is in reality a curse, in the same way as other innocuous sounding Chinese sayings are actually curses, such as"May you live in interesting times" and "May you come to the attention of important people". Hmmm, bloody polite but devious bastards, wakakaka.

"May you find what you are looking for" has been deemed as the most severe of the three subtle curses ...

... which now brings us to what we in Pakatan have been'looking for' in terms of voting. Didn't we want our hundreds of thousands, if not millions of citizens living abroad to be able to vote at overseas location?

Haven't we lamented that only a select group, who we correctly suspect of likely to be pro UMNO people, have been permitted to vote at overseas centre?

Now, a limited form of overseas voting is allowed and which I must say, when I learnt of it, I shuddered because I knew exactly what would follow - for surely the EC would never ever do anything to threaten UMNO - au contraire, the opposite would be true.



As indicative of the EC's Boleh-ness, haven't we heard recently from Dr Ramasamy (Penang DCM II) that his daughter in UK has become a registered overseas voter even though she did NOT apply to be one?

Yes, overseas voting is not unlike postal voting, but with military/police postal votes, there's still a degree of accounting and tracing. However, with the so-called new overseas voters, how will Pakatan be able to trace their bono fides?

It'll be as bad as, if not worse than, the selling of citizenships for votes. Overseas voting is in fact the upgraded threat of postal voting, something we wanted but didn't allow for the remarkable EC's 'structuring'.

And hasn't it been ominous that Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has pre-warned Parties should remain rational if they lose, undoubtedly implying it's meant for Pakatan, because many opine that if UMNO expects to lose, it would not sound so gracious.



Zahid Hamidi has virtually informed us that UMNO will be winning big and I would not be surprised if UMNO regains rule in Selangor as it may achieve that through a 'surge' of support from overseas voting, wakakaka.

And while I don't expect Pakatan to lose Penang I again cannot dismiss the potential effect of the same overseas voting.

Should we accord the EC with another Malaysia Boleh for them wishing us "May you find what you are looking for"?

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