I provide the photo. You do the caption. Best caption wins… nothing. Yet.
JJ: May I?
Obama: NO! Don’t you dare! *covers*
ps: TCMPCC sounds good. LOL!
Sarawak is a strong fortress of the establishment, Barisan Nasional. Heck, Sarawak (together with Sabah) saved BN from embarrassment last General Election by giving them enough seats to rule this country. BN already lost in Peninsular at that time judging from the popular votes BN 48% – 52% PR, the sentiment had switched to Pakatan Rakyat.
People of Sarawak are still immune to the change happening in Peninsular, and from the most recent by election held after the GE at Batang Ai, Pakatan Rakyat still has a lot of works to do in order to make wave in Sarawak. BN retained Batang Ai seat when its candidate Malcolm Mussen Lamoh, defeated PKR’s Jawah Gerang with an increased majority. Yes, increased majority. Pakatan Rakyat’s campaign for that by election is a total disappointment. I couldn’t even understand for what reason they chose Jawah Gerang as candidate in the first place. I wrote this in my previous post,
Why lah PKR chose Jawah Gerang as its candidate? This guy was the state assemblyman for the area for a freaking 5 terms! 20 over years! And we shall have him to bring ‘change?’ Niamah!
Nevermind that, we are now holding our breath over the latest political center of attention, Sibu. This seat is very important for both BN and PR. Why? Anyone who wins this seat, can confidently say it may have a greater, better chance to fare well in the coming state election and general election.
BN needs to win this seat to maintain its grip on its ’strong seat’ and to send a message to all Malaysians that it is making a comeback under the new political master and all the promised changes, mantras, KPIs, KRAs have struck a chord of acceptance among Malaysians.
PR needs to win this seat to make inroads to Sarawak. A win in Sibu will change everything. It will change the perception among people that only BN is the one and only choice for them. The perception that BN is mighty and will not lose. Just like before GE 2008, people thought it was impossible for BN to lose. People could not accept that change is possible. Who would have thought that BN would lose its 2/3 majority?
Before all this, every by election was won by BN easily without much sweat. No more of that, we have to make people understand change is a good thing. The elected party will work harder to earn its worth. We should not give our votes easily, make them beg if necessary. Just think, before all this happened, did BN ever talk about change? About reform? And now their leaders are talking about change and reforms. Most still remain rhetoric but that is a start, to acknowledge the need for change and reform.
I am not a political analyst, I am not somebody to reckon with in politics, I am not someone with plenty of experience in politics, I am not even a member of any political party. But I have few things to say Pakatan Rakyat leaders if they want to have better chance of winning the Sibu seat, this coming by election.
1) Tone and direction of the campaign. Please don’t campaign like how you campaign in Peninsular. It doesn’t work. Forget about condemning Umno, MCA, MIC. When in Sarawak, talk about the component parties here. SUPP, PBB. Why talk about Umno? The party does not even operate in Sarawak. People here cannot relate to that.
People here most probably don’t find Umno so much a threat. Most threats are from the local parties, local leaders here. Better talk about Taib Mahmud. Or talk about Alfred Jabu ak Numpang. James Jemut Masing. George Chan. Robert Lau has passed aways, not so good to talk about him and he is very much loved figure among the locals when he was alive. Better, forget about condemning other parties if you can manage.
2) Please don’t make the campaign into another ‘condemn Barisan Nasional and its evil doings’. Have some class. Try to change the way you campaign. Some opposition parties have been campaigning that way since their existence, they know nothing but to whack, whack, whack and whack BN all the way.
People already know all the good things and bad things about BN. Talk about what Pakatan Rakyat can offer. Make it a campaign on ‘what Pakatan Rakyat candidate can provide as a representative of the people, the need for check and balance, what are the good things PR has carried out as a state government in Penang, Selangor, Kelantan, Perak (er….), Kedah.
3) Talk about issues that have immediate and obvious effect to the locals. Sorry but the political reality is, locals here cannot relate to Altantuya, TBH, PKFZ. So, touch on LOCAL ISSUES. Corruption cases, dirts by LOCAL LEADERS. Address the urgent, immediate problems of the locals. Local issues like flooding, land titles.
4) Work with local leaders. Let them take the stage. If possible use local dialects to engage the locals. In a predominant Iban crowds, find some Iban leaders to talk. Or speak some stammering Iban words. It will do wonders.
That is enough for now, I guess. All the best for the by election!
I was in KL for the weekend. After breaking up many promises to go and chill out with my friends on the other side (so sorry peeps for that!), finally I made a last minute decision to go. Booked my ticket on Thursday and flew down on Friday evening. I am glad I made it to KL because I had the chance to attend few very important tweetups, meeting old friends – especially my lovely comrades from Facebook, and hanging out with many new friends from Twittersphere.
I touched down at LCCT around 7.30pm, took a bus to KL Sentral which took me an hour to reach there. Another 10 mins wasted to find a cab. First cab asked for RM35, I told him to go back and sleep, then I went to the roadside and managed to catch a macha. We had a good chat about Sarawak (after he learned that I am a Sarawakian), tuak, toddy, samsu and a little bit on politics. I was heading to Rocket Cafe to attend a tweetup with Lim Kit Siang. Tony Pua was there as well. I was late, reached there around 9pm and luckily I just missed the session about half an hour.
Teeetup with Lim Kit Siang and Tony Pua
The tweetup make-up is a very multiracial one, something different from the usual DAP organised gatherings I have been to. In fact, Vijay whispered to me halfway during the tweetup, “Hey Bong, you know this is the first gathering I’ve been that I see so many races, normally.. majority Chinese and few Indians, very seldom got Malays. Tonight we have so many”.
Many questions and comment were raised during the tweetup. Questions on Lim Kit Siang’s call for boycott during the swearing in ceremony in Perak post GE 2008, September 16 and many more.
I had the chance to ask few questions and make some comments on the image of DAP as a multiracial party hampered by its inability to get the right mixture of members and leaders to reflect a true multiracial party. Many other tweeples jumped in and gave their comments on how DAP is still perceived among Malays as a Chinese party. Something need to be done to change this perception.
Lim Kit Siang gave a good answer on this. He pointed out that in principle, DAP never close its door to any Malaysian, be it Malay, Chinese, Indian etc. The party does not limit any Malaysian of any race and religion to join the party. He then mentioned some prominent Malay leaders in DAP – a well-known Malay, MP Ahmad Nor, who was its vice-president until his death in 2003, Tunku Abdul Aziz the current party vice-president as an example of DAP multiracial and open to all. approach. It’s wrong to say that the DAP is not interested broadening its appeal to the Malays.
But DAP has difficulties to attract other races especially Malays because there are so many other parties to choose from and most of the time being an opposition party doesn’t help. Malays can choose from Umno, Gerakan, PPP then only PAS, PKR and lastly DAP. For those who are pro-opposition, before PKR was formed they would choose either PAS or DAP but now they can choose PKR.
Hmm, for me I personally feel the problem with DAP trying to attract Malay members is that DAP does not have enough specifics in their programmes or policies for the Malays as a specific community. How DAP is going to assist the Malays in their development, what kind of policies DAP has for them. Reaching out to the Malays is different from reaching out to the Chinese and Indians and other Natives for that matter. Religion is one crucial factor.
Another issue brought up was on the dissemination of information to the ground. DAP specifically or Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in general could have done many good things but all this good news are not delivered to the right people due to the distortion, manipulative and blackout in mainstream media. This problem is also related to the previous question and comments where DAP is perceived as a Chinese party when DAP has always been multi-racial in its composition and outlook.
PR also does not have an official one stop centre’ for all the news, press statements, commentaries on policies and current issues, blogs for its leaders, members and supporters. Independent or alternative media who are pro PR like Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini are not enough. TV Selangor is a good example on how Pakatan Rakyat can use it to present PR’s side on any story and issues of current interests, offering counter-statements, interviews on various issues and showing all the good works carried out by PR. Heck it even has live parliamentary session, something Malaysian cannot get from RTM channels or any mainstream electronic media.
I also commented on the cooperation between Pakatan Rakyat parties – PKR, DAP and PAS where PR still does not portray itself as a coalition with united voice when you have situation where PAS will take lead on a certain issue, DAP will take lead on another issue. I suggested that for DAP to portray and show that it is a party who is after Malaysians’ interests, it should always go to the front.
Tony Pua replied “Let’s say for an example, on the Allah issue if DAP was the first to go out and say ‘It is okay for the Christians to use the Allah word’ and then PAS followed after that, how people would think? How the Muslims would think? Don’t you think Umno and BN would jump to the opportunity to say PAS ‘ikut telunjuk’ (PAS is DAP’s puppet)? That is why for certain issues, we find it is better for us to sit back and let other parties take the lead.
Valid point, which I gave my next comment ‘Then, to avoid such problem, giving impression to the people out there on the disunity of PR parties, of who’s taking the lead and who’s taking the back seat, shouldn’t Pakatan Rakyat issue some sort of joint-statement when dealing with an issue? That way, no question of each party issuing its own statement or the possibility of contradicting each other. It is also more difficult for PR detractors to accuse any party of being submissive to other party. Any statement or comments coming from other PR leaders or parties after the official statement are considered as just personal opinions/views since the official stand has been made.”
Hmm….
Too bad, time was running out and the only reply I got was “Well, that’s an idealistic thinking”. Hmm….
Tweetup at The Reef, TTDI
A friend was waiting for more than 15 mins downstairs for me and Vijay to go for another tweetup at The Reef, TTDI. So after we took some group photos, we left for The Reef. I was so happy to meet up with the regular tweeples in person – @Asohan, @orangasle, @feistyflo (Thanks for inviting me cayang hahaha!), @zeffri (and his lovely wife), @IcedNyior, @thechannelc (she left without saying goodbye! Easier to sneak out than saying goodbye eh??), @sureshdr, @rachelweiyi, @iemzhar, @JcrT, @auzani (he came a bit late after). Sorry if I miss out your name, writing this off the top of my head.
Had so much fun, gyrating to the 80’s tune. We even made a toss to #yorais! We were so loud and at one point chanting “U2, U2, U2″ asking for songs from the band to be played. Too bad, our requests were ignored.. huargghhh! Nobody was taking photos of the tweetup, I think @IcedNyior took some and twitpic-ed it, may need to check her tweets for the photos. We adjourned to the mamak opposite the bar and I had my sleep around 4.30am. I was staying at D’aman Ria, the place where I stayed when I was working in Klang Valley. Thanks CM for opening the door at 4am LOL!
To be continued… (Next post - fish head noodle, Kanna Curry House farewell lunch and Teh Tarik Tweetup with Anwar Ibrahim)
Crunch this.
There are 15 million eligible voters in Malaysia.
There are only 11 million registered voters in Malaysia. (73%)
Last General Election (March 8, 2008), only 8 million voters exercised their votes. (73% of registered voters)
7 million voters, missing in action. (47% of eligible voters)
What the heck? The fate of this nation, the choice of who we want to run this country was decided by just a little more than 50% of all who have the duty to do so ? That is not even substantial or convincing majority!
Please, don’t be part of the 7 million apathetic, lazy, irresponsible citizen. Wait, if you don’t vote, please don’t consider yourself as a citizen of the country. You have no right to bitch or to complain when idiots like #yorais made it to the office, because of your (in)action.
To register as a voter, get your ass to the nearest Post Office, just bring your Identity Card. There is an initiative going on to register voters called EPIC for UNITY. So lend your support to do something EPIC!
The Flaccid Mind is proud to pimp this cool project by Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia (SABM) -- BANGKIT!
Dear fellow Malaysians,
Are you happy with the state of our country today? Is our country and her people truly living up to their potential? What do you think of Malaysian society today? Should “race” be a major factor in how Malaysian citizens relate to each other? What unites Malaysians? What divides Malaysians? Do you think Malaysia needs to change? Why or why not? What are your dreams/aspirations for yourself? Your country?
Do you love Malaysia?
These are questions that are rarely asked of our country’s youths. But we believe that all of them have a burning answer deep within their hearts. They may not feel at liberty to share it. Or they may feel like even if they did, who would listen? So many of these hushed voices go unheard. It’s the greatest loss to our nation…
Well, not anymore.
We believe that the youth of our nation have outstanding opinions about the issues facing Malaysia today. And we want our nation’s youths to know that they are NOT forgotten, forsaken or frivolous. Because it is their passion that will revive the hope in our nation -- to once again rise up and be a shining example to the world for our peace and prosperity. And this will happen when the youth of our country choose to stand up and speak out.
That’s where BANGKIT comes in.
BANGKIT is a nationwide search for songs written by youths, for youths and representing the aspirations of the youths in our country. We believe that they deserve…no, they NEED to be heard. And we’re going to provide the platform for them in the language that speaks to youths -- music!
And to prove the point that Malaysians DO care about their country, we will be taking a huge step of faith -- because we want to put this entire project together with NO MONEY AT ALL!
No money for salaries or allowances
No money spent on promotions/marketing.
No money spent on design.
No money spent on recording.
No money to hire talents.
No money spent on websites.
No money prizes
No money for prizes.
Tak ada, mei you, eelek, zip nada!
Impossible? Maybe…unless you and I decide to believe that it is NOT IMPOSSIBLE. We can both step out in faith that this project WILL succeed because there will be more than enough people stepping up to contribute their time, talents, facilities and resources FOR FREE, with no other motivation than their passion, creativity and love for country!
Have we got your attention yet?
If you feel inspired to join us, here are the details of BANGKIT:
MECHANISM
- A BANGKIT blog will be set up for this event
- Teasers will be spread throughout the internet (March 15 – 31)
- Selections begin, demo cuts of compositions to be submitted in mp3 format (April 1 – May 15)
- Songs will be featured on the BANGKIT blog for youths to vote on their favourites (April 1 – May 31)
- Professional judges will select 10 songs from the 20 most popular voted songs and results announced (June 7)
- A professionally recorded BANGKIT CD of the 10 selected songs will be released within 3 months of final selection (Target to be launched in September)
- A BANGKIT concert featuring local artistes will be held to showcase the selected songs (to be held either in November or December, in conjunction with SABM’s voter registration carnival)
- No prizes will be offered. Just recognition of participants’ talents and the chance for their song to be recorded.
PUBLICITY
- Primarily through the internet (facebook, youtube, twitter, blogs, websites, etc)
- Flyers and posters to be distributed to universities / colleges nationwide
- Exposure through the Mass Media
- Email, SMS & MMS
WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Attach the ‘BANGKIT’ posters/banners/videos to your blog or website and make sure to link it to our blog. We will be releasing a series so that it keeps fresh and exciting
- Tell everyone you know about BANGKIT through word-of-mouth, blogs, facebook, twitter, email, SMS, MMS, etc. We need everyone in Malaysia to know.
- Keep updated at our BANGKIT blog or the SABM website.
- Put us in touch with people who are willing to contribute to BANGKIT’s cause for free.
Please support BANGKIT in our effort to bring the voices of our youth to the nation and the world!
P.S. As BANGKIT is still the pre-launch stage, please don’t reveal too much about us yet. If you feel a need to explain a bit more about BANGKIT, just say something like “something big is brewing in Malaysian cyberspace and everyone under-30 should watch out for the announcement on April 1st”. We will be releasing more promos and information that you can post as the official launch date (April 1) approaches.
If you need more information, please email: jombangkit@gmail.com.
For more info please check out our blog at http://jombangkit.org/
And please do feel free to pass this message to as many people as you know.
Let’s rock Malaysian together!
Regards,
Lai Chee Seng
Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia -- Youth Outreach Project Team Coordinator
ps: I wrote the post “Bangkitlah Rakyat Malaysia” back in April 2009, just a month after the March 8th General Election. Eerie, how things turned out to be. I’m feeling like a seer now. But in Malaysia, it is only too easy to be one. Everything is so predictable.
