Party-hopping: Reading along, under, over, within, and between the (party?) lines

This is a little round up on where major politicians stand on the party hopping issue. If anyone knows of anything major that I’ve missed, please do mention it in the comments.

[updated; 14th May 2008]

Guan Eng opposes toppling of federal government?

Lim Guan Eng had made the following statement in Parliament:

“In the spirit of democracy, we accept the central government as the government chosen by the people.”

To me that seems like a clear signal that Lim Guan Eng is, on principle, against the idea of changing the Federal Government at this point in time through party-hopping. He joins a woefully lonely list of Pakatan Rakyat politicians who have publicly signaled opposition to the idea. The only other chaps joining him on the list are Karpal Singh and Nik Aziz. A short list… but surely a high-impact list!

My Agenda (is not regime change)

I saw something today that stirred me out of my blogging slumber. The thing I saw raised my eyebrow ever so gradually as I came to realize that things like this have been happening quite a lot of late. And in fact, this is as good as it gets.

The thing I saw was an UMNO MP coming in for a second-hit against a BN minister, after the initial blow was dealt by a DAP MP. The issue was surprisingly germane and important: it was on the veracity of the state’s mechanisms for measuring household income, surely an important metric by anyone’s standards, moreso with dangerous inflation trends.

Rustam Sani

The passing of any Parti Rakyat stalwart is a sad thing for Malaysia. That band of faithful patriots deserves all the respect in the world, let alone in the nation. But Rustam Sani’s passing is especially unfortunate.

I learned a fair bit from his book “Ke Mana Nasionalisme Melayu”. It helped develop my view on Malaysian politics, in spite of the fact that I shamefully never finished the book! I just kept getting discouraged when I hit the chapter on the Malay literature groups… I can’t help it, I just find that topic so unexciting. But Rustam Sani acknowledges this in the opening paragraphs of that chapter, pleading with the reader to get through it because it’s important stuff, perhaps without which the penny can never drop.

Compounding the tragedy is the fact that he has passed away at a young age - he was just 64. However, he has suffered health problems in the past; if I recall correctly he had a by-pass. In fact it was during his post-bypass recovery that he felt inspired to write that book in the first place. All this I learned from the preface.

Anyway, I am glad that he at least got to be a part of the historic 838 tsunami. I think now more than ever, I ought to finish reading that book!

Whadju gonna do when HINDRAF comes for you?

Bad reps bad reps… whadju gonna do? One rep has decided “stuff this” and thrown in the towel, to the extent of quitting the DAP. The Perak government is that much less stable now.

There is talk going round of Makkal Sakhti round 2 taking place on May 8th 2008. Fulamak. So much excitement. Viviere pericoloso indeed…

In other news, the new Selangor admin has made several suggestions (RM9, zero-squatter, demo-in-stadium), which have all been criticized by civil society (PERMAS, SUARAM, CIJ). The new Penang admin has been criticized for being too slow and sluggish (e.g. they have already expressed a preference for not having local municipal elections until the next GE). The very ironic thing is that they have also been criticized for moving too fast vis-a-vis removing policies related to the NEP. DAP Penang needs some public relations help la.

The only non-BN governments not suffering general dissaray are Kedah and Kelantan. PAS FTW? Well, it helps a lot that these are more homogeneous states. And anyway, PAS does have a very substantial part to play in both Perak and Selangor, and in Selangor, they may well be the most criminal party, having flirted with Khir Toyo right after the election for reasons that are unclear (if PAS sided with BN, then Khir Toyo would still be the MB now)… but whatever the motivations, in the end PAS got a disproportionate representation in the EXCO, what up with that eh?

Living by the word of Islam my foot, politics is politics.

Speaking of which… Muslims FTW… The Vatican has conceded that Islam is now the “biggest” religion in the world. What does this mean for Malaysian politics, I wonder…

And this is all democracy in action! All things considered, I regret nothing, these headaches are good to have - let us confront all the problems, and be held responsible for them in elections to come (including internal party elections).

Speaking of action, it’s time for me to be damn “eksyen” (ba bei) and get my nose back down to the grindstone to finish my PhD and pursue other things, enough distractions, and enough false promises of laying down my keyboard. Bye bye!

David vs Goliath? (Zaid vs Anwar?)

In a by-election between Anwar Ibrahim and Zaid Ibrahim, which Ibrahim would you vote for?

• Anwar Ibrahim
• Zaid Ibrahim
• As is stands, too close to call, need to think about it/see how things develop…

(To people who voted in the previous instance of this poll, sorry, there was a technical glitch and now those results have been lost. So please cast your vote again!)

(this post bumped to top)

Does Raja Bodek deserve our forgiveness?

Many felt that Koh Tsu Koon’s humble and gentlemanly withdrawal from power was very becoming and commendable. Indeed, in contrast to the former MBs of Perak and Selangor, the conduct of the former MB of Penang gave us all the illusion that Malaysia was maybe… just maybe… almost a first-world democracy. Well done, sir…

… or wait a minute now. Perhaps what we all took to be Dr Koh’s humility was actually a big sigh of relief? Was he actually glad to be put out of his misery? Was he actually relieved to be… relieved of duty?

For it now emerges that Penang may be in quite a shithole of a situation. These are some of the problems that the new administration has inherited from the old:

Azmin Ali AlexFerguson-ing his way to Leadership?

Is Azmin Ali tying his political fate to the Selangor soccer team’s fate?

SIAPA bakal ganti Datuk Satim Diman sebagai pengurus bolasepak Selangor, kini menjadi teka-teki dikalangan peminat sukan negeri terbabit. Sumber KLpos.com memberitahu, antara nama yang disebut-sebut layak untuk menggantikan Satim yang meletak jawatan 19 Mac lalu adalah Adun Bukit Antarabangsa Azmin Ali.

Hey, let’s be honest, we all know the man who gets Malaysia’s soccer team into respectable shape ought to be the Prime Minister Emperor for life. This may not be a bad place for Azmin to start.

However, further down in the newspiece, there is something that raises my people’s eyebrow…  

‘Natang compares… ‘natang compares… to who?

Now, let’s be fair. Demonstrations are not our culture. At least not until about 2 weeks ago. Since we’ve only been at this for 2 weeks now, it stands to reason that we may not be very good at it yet.

And so it was, that UMNO Terengganu attempted to slap together a demo of their own, but alas - the HINDRAF 5 were out of reach. If they were on hand, perhaps they may have been able to act as consultants to the poor UMNO chaps, who have no clue how to put together a proper sign. In doing-so without guidance from the experienced, they may have inadvertantly insulted the Sultan of Terengganu. 

Mahfuz Omar, observing a sign carried by UMNO which reads:

“Kami nak Idris, natang”

, muses that UMNO may be calling the Sultan a binatang (wahlau-eh!). It’s easy to see why.

But perhaps, giving UMNO the benefit of doubt, it makes slightly more sense to conclude that the binatang insult is being hurled to the MB-who-was-never-meant-to-be, Kijal ADUN Ahmad Said. The binatang reference may be particularly relevant to this chap, as evidenced in this video (start paying attention from the 2nd minute): 

… not that anyone is going to give two shits, at this point it’s a free-for-all with everyone piling-on a wounded UMNO and a bleeding-from-every-orifice Badawi. So what is there to say to PAS… 

Carry on my wayward son, there’ll be peace when you are done.

Shahrir Samad: progressive on domestic economy?

A few people voted in this election for a change of personnel. They wanted a new government.

I voted for a change of policies. I wanted a new government direction. And it looks like I may be starting to get what I wanted:

The government’s price-control system which is designed to suppress the cost of essential goods is “a joke”, the new domestic trade minister said according to a report today.  

Obviously it’s still early days and it remains to be seen to what extent the government is prepared to rollback these controls, but on the whole this is a good move because it leads to a less distorted market. It would be a bold move to dismantle the price controls on consumer items, but even if the rollback is limited to things like construction materials, it is a significant step in the right direction.