One rural vote worth six urban ballots, favours BN, analysts say

PETALING JAYA, April 25 — The Election Commission’s (EC) drawing of electoral boundaries makes a rural voter worth an average of six urban voters, biasing elections towards Barisan Nasional (BN) as it is stronger in the countryside, according to poll analysts.

Election watchdog Tindak Malaysia founder PY Wong said the ruling coalition won 112 out of the smallest 139 federal seats in Election 2008, giving it simple majority in Parliament with just 18.9 per cent of the popular vote. The seats have not been changed for the next general election.

“Something is seriously wrong when you can win 50.4 per cent of Parliament with just 18.9 per cent of the votes,” he told a forum here last night.

Wong said malapportionment — unequally-sized constituencies — and gerrymandering — manipulation of electoral boundaries — also allowed the ruling coalition to rack up 62 of the smallest seats with just 6.2 per cent of the popular vote.

Another analyst, Wong Chin Huat, pointed out that the smallest 112 seats only represented 33.8 per cent of the electorate.

The Bersih steering committee member said this allowed for the lopsided results in 2004, where BN won 90.9 per cent of Parliament with just 63.9 per cent of the popular vote, while Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was PKR’s sole MP despite gaining 8.4 per cent of votes cast.

“This means one vote for BN was worth 26 votes for PKR,” he said.

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Jarumemas: Has been voting since at the age of 21 without fail, even though at one time I was working in Sabah in 1999. No one sponsored my flight ticket. Even, when I was in Johor Bahru, I drove up together with my parents to vote in Seremban and again no petrol or toll fare were paid by any politicians. Nowadays, voters are given cash just asking them to come back to vote at their hometown. Since voting is voter's duty, their responsibility is to vote wherever their voting stations are. They should not be paid. 

PAS chief Hadi Awang vows to join Bersih sit-in

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang  said he will be at Dataran Merdeka to give full support to the Bersih 3.0 sit-in on Saturday.

In a statement today through his press secretary, he said PAS has called on all its members to join the rally in droves.

“We also urge the police to behave in a rational manner and provide crowd control for the rally," he said.

“They have to learn the lessons of Bersih 2.0 where excessive provocation (from the police) had resulted in chaos that was not a result of the protestors’ actions."

Hadi reminded that the struggle for electoral reforms was important to all Malaysians, whether from the opposition or the government, “and also the police”.

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Jarumemas: Let Hadi joins. He is asking for trouble. Is his heart stable enough?

Malaysian rare-earth anger links up with poll reform calls

BANGKOK - With Western countries and Japan seeking to get around China's domination of the crucial but mis-named "rare earths" sector, a potentially game-changing processing site slated for Malaysia looks set to become a major election issue as that country gears up to vote.

Opposition politicians and local activists from Kuantan - where Australia's Lynas Corp hopes to build a processing plant for rare earth minerals mined in Australia - are protesting against the project. The plant will provide "a crucial link in developing a non-Chinese supply of rare earth metals", according to Yaron Voronas of the Technology and Rare Earths Center, an online forum for the industry.

The fracas looks set to be entwined in Malaysia's fractious party politics as speculation grows that Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak will call national parliamentary elections soon, with whispers about an early June vote to coincide with school holidays. In the meantime, opposition-linked activists will stage renewed public demonstrations on April 28, after the findings of a parliamentary committee set up to assess electoral reform options were dismissed as "flawed" by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar hopes to make history by leading his opposition coalition to victory in the elections, an outcome that would mean a change of government away from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO)-led administrations that have ruled the country continuously since Malaysia's 1957 independence from Great Britain.

The opposition made gains in the last 2008 elections, but hopes of an outright win are stymied, they feel, by a rigged electoral system. After tens of thousands of Malaysians protested in Kuala Lumpur last July, seeking changes to how the country stages elections, the parliamentary committee recently issued 22 recommendations, including suggestions that the Election Commission operate separately from government and that the required election campaign period be extended to a still-short 10 days, up from the current seven.

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Jarumemas:  Optimist that the National Front will win in the general election. The oppositions are trying to smear the elections, the campaigns and the existing government.  

BN meningkat naik di Penang dan populariti Anwar merundum

KUALA LUMPUR, 23 April — Kepimpinan agresif oleh ketua Barisan Nasional (BN) baru Penang Teng Chang Yeow dan penurunan populariti Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim di negeri itu telah memberikan kerajaan harapan mereka akan menawan kembali negeri berkenaan daripada Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pada pilihan raya umum akan datang.

The Malaysian Insider difahamkan BN mahu Ketua Menteri sedia ada Lim Guan Eng hanya bertahan di negeri itu tanpa berkempen di mana-mana lokasi dalam pilihan raya tersebut. Sumber mengesahkan kaji selidik dalaman DAP menunjukkan populariti Anwar merundum termasuk di kerusinya sendiri di Permatang Pauh.

“Lim perlu melakukan sesuatu sekarang kerana sokongan Melayu telah berubah. Populariti Anwar telah turun kepada hanya 50 peratus di Permatang Pauh dan ia amat dibimbangkan,” kata sumber DAP kepada The Malaysian Insider.

Tambahnya, Lim telah mula menggerakkan parti dan pakatannya termasuk PAS dan PKR untuk melakukan kempen yang lebih menyeluruh untuk mengekalkan negeri itu, di mana PR menguasai 29 daripada 40 kerusi. Umno menguasai 11 kerusi yang lainnya.

Baca terus...

Jarumemas: Eloklah tu! Mudah-mudahan rakyat sedar bahawa pemimpin yang rosak akhlaknya tidak layak untuk dinobatkan sebagai pemimpin, bimbang nanti Allah akan turunkan bala dan kita yang tidak berdosa pun sama kena tempiasnya, nauzubillah.

Khaled Nordin pandang hina mahasiswa, Saifuddin kata serangan ‘perlu dibimbangkan’

KUALA LUMPUR, 19 April — Dua pemimpin tertinggi Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi hari ini memberikan komen mengenai serangan ke atas kumpulan aktivis mahasiswa di Dataran Merdeka, dengan menterinya Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin menolak untuk bersimpati sementara timbalannya Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah melahirkan kebimbangan tentang insiden itu.

Di laman Twitter pagi tadi, Khaled memberikan respons berhubung laporan serangan itu mengatakan tiada sesiapa yang mengarahkan kumpulan mahasiswa itu berkhemah di kawasan tumpuan ramai itu.

“Takde siapa pun suruh berkhemah di Dataran, bila berlaku apa2 perkara, jgn tagih simpati,” tulisnya di Twitter.

Tetapi semasa bertemu di Parlimen di sini, Saifuddin berkata beliau lega tiada sesiapa mengalami kecederaan parah dalam insiden pukul 2.45 pagi tadi menambah bahawa ia satu “perkara yang perlu dibimbangkan.”

Ahli Parlimen Temerloh itu juga mengulangi pandangannya bahawa kumpulan mahasiswa itu “mempunyai hak berada di situ” walaupun bukan semua bersetuju dengan tindakan itu.

Kumpulan aktivis mahasiswa itu telah berkhemah di Dataran Merdeka sejak Sabtu lalu selepas ratusan mahasiswa menyertai himpunan aman di bandar raya mendesak kebebasan selepas kecewa oleh terma dan syarat bayar balik skim pinjaman pelajaran tinggi kerajaan.

Namun pagi ini, kumpulan mahasiswa itu mendakwa diserang kira-kira 60 hingga 70 individu tidak dikenali mendesak agar mereka pulang.

Sumber: Malaysian Insider

Jarumemas:  Perangai mereka ini saling tak tumpah macam gelagat pembangkang yang suka memutarbelitkan kenyataan. Kesian mak ayah yang mengharapkan anak-anak mereka belajar bersungguh-sungguh dan menjadi modal insan yang cemerlang, tapi ini yang dibuat setelah disogok demi kelangsungan politik pembangkang. Pada pandangan Jarumemas, tarik pinjaman dan pastikan mereka bayar dengan apa cara sekalipun, sebab mereka tidak berhak mendapatnya. Senaraihitamkan nama mereka dari sebarang pinjaman, biar pembangkang yang tanggung hidup mereka. Mereka ini sememangnya tak sedar diuntung, tidak tahu bersyukur dengan mikmat yang ada di depan mata. Rakyat negara lain, tidak mudah untuk mendapatkan pembiayaan kerana kerajaan mereka tidak mampu. Yang malangnya nanti, lepasan SPM dan STPM yang kurang menyerlah keputusan merka mungkin akan berhadapan dengan syarat-syarat dan terma yang lebih ketat untuk mendapatkan pembiayaan pendidikan dari kerajaan mahupun dari badan-badan berkanun.

Umno member: Don't let BN pawn our country

A pre-Bersih 3.0 rally last night raised eyebrows when Tamrin Abdul Ghafar, son of former deputy prime minister Abdul Ghafar Baba, made his debut by urging the crowd to throw their support behind the April 28 sit-in protest to demand clean and fair elections.

Tamrin took to the stage and declared: “I have a clarification to make, I am still an Umno member.”

This invited laughter and some jeers from nearly 2,000 people who filled the muddy field in Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur.

“But today, I have decided to come down to the ground with you because I can no longer bear to see the electoral system being manipulated for the sake of maintaining power,” he said.

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Jarumemas: Tamrin is one of the sour grape political leaders. Does he has any followers now?

PKR claims minister paid actress RM1.5m in three-year ‘intimacy’

KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 — PKR claimed today a federal minister has been involved in an “intimate relationship” with an actress, resulting in payments to her of over RM1.5 million across the last three years. The minister and the actress have previously denied any ties to each other.

Rumours of their alleged affair began to swirl once more today after PKR lawmakers produced a police report by a Noor Azman Azemi who claimed the minister hired him to be the actress’ personal driver to allow him to “monitor her movements” since 2009.

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Jarumemas: PKR itself is not that clean. What about Anwar Ibrahim? PKR's attitude is just like ' a pot calling the kettle black' .