Do election petitions really work?

ANALYSIS The 13th general election held on May 5 set a number of records, one of it being the highest number of people turning up to vote. This election is now expected to set yet another record that is not going to look good for Malaysia in the face of the rest of the world: a record number of election petitions.

Both Pakatan Rakyat coalition members and the BN are expected to file these election petitions for both state and parliamentary seats and going by earlier reports, at least 70 such petitions are expected to be filed, with the results of the election having been gazetted on May 22.

Petitions must be filed within 21 days of the gazetting. According to earlier news reports, Pakatan intends to file more than 40 election petitions, with PKR alone planning to file 27, while the BN is considering to file about 30.

Effectively, the last day for the filing of the petitions will be June 12. Section 34 of the Election Offences Act allows the voter, the candidate who lost or other candidates who contested in the election to file the petition.

The Act also stipulates the relief that can be sought by the petitioner:

• A declaration that the election is void;

• A declaration that the person was not duly elected or ought not to have been returned (declared the winner); and

• Where the seat is claimed for an unsuccessful candidate on ground that he had the majority of lawful votes, a scrutiny of the votes be done.

The judge the hearing election petition is called an election judge and these people must be High Court judges and are given six months to dispose of the case.

The decision of the election judge can be appealed before the Federal Court, within 14 days, failing which the decision of the election judge is deemed as final.

Uthaya: We didn't anticipate losing our deposit

INTERVIEW The following is the final of the two-part interview of Hindraf founder P Uthayakumar. In this part, he talks about his loss in the May 5 general election and what he hopes will be the future role of Hindraf he claims to represent.

Part one appeared yesterday.

Why did you choose to stand for election against a Pakatan Rakyat candidate when you knew it was a losing battle and there was a desire for change amongst a certain section of the electorate?

We had no choice. I have been and am consistent with the struggle that on top of Umno even the five Pakatan-ruled state governments were and are practicing institutional racist policies - see www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com - on day-to-day issues.

The concerns of the Indian poor lacked the political mileage and therefore became vulnerable. Therefore, both Umno and Pakatan take advantage of the Indian situation. For taking a strong stand against Pakatan institutional racism from the day I was released from Kamunting prison, Pakatan had refused to even talk to me despite numerous formal letters and through third parties.

The only solution forward that I could come up with was the uphill task of HRP's Project 15/38 (15 parliamentary seats/38 state seats), which was the creation of Indian majority seats as a means of attaining political empowerment to fight Umno and any other kind of institutional racism.

Project 15/38 was a failure. The closest I could get and my best bet was to contest in Kota Raja (parliament seat) and Seri Andalas (state seat under Kota Raja) - the constituencies with the highest Indian voters in the country.

Pakatan had neither respect nor regard for Hindraf and the almost 2.5 million Indians in the country by blatantly refusing to make way for us in even one of the 222 parliamentary seats for a one-to-one contest with BN.

Spotlight on Barisan’s Indian leaders

By Dr DENISON JAYASOORIA 

THERE are murmurings in the Indian community over posts and positions in the Cabinet, with some individuals questioning the Prime Minister's appointment of Hindraf chairman P. Waythamoorthy as deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department recently.

The reality today is there are more Indian members of parliament in the Opposition than in Barisan Nasional.
MIC has only four MPs to DAP-PKR's eight.

Furthermore, at state level, MIC has five in three states only (Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor) whereas the Opposition has 19, with 14 under the DAP and five under PKR. Barisan Indian candidates under Gerakan and PPP all lost.

When one takes the 60 Parliamentary seats with more than 10% (and up to 30%) Indian voters, only 20 seats were won by Barisan candidates, the remaining 40 were won by Pakatan Rakyat parties.

Thus, there are more elected Indian representatives within the Opposition than in the Barisan Federal Government and state governments.

Therefore, the focus of the Barisan Indian leaders must be not to fight over positions and appointments but to compete to outdo each other for the betterment of the community.

Problems affecting the Malaysian Indian community are huge and there is much work to be done.

MIC already has two ministerial posts and two deputy ministerial posts. PPP has one.

Badminton: Ini Macam Tak Boleh Jadi Lah... (This Cannot Be Lah...)

THINGS are looking bleak as far as badminton is concerned.

How do we explain, especially to foreign friends, Malaysia's embarassing exit on Tuesday in the on-going Sudirman Cup. And the tournament is hosted by us.

Malaysia is supposed to be a badminton-mad country and one of the big powers in the world but could not even survived the group stages of the Sudirman Cup.

Malulah.

The Malaysians were knocked out aftter losing to Taiwan and Germany in Group C.

With due respect to Taiwan and Germany, who played their hearts out, Malaysia had no business to miss the cut to the last eight.

The truth always hurt, like they say.

Malaysia, at least for now, do not have enough world class players and keep on relying on the 30-year-old Lee Chong Wei, who is already reaching the  twilight of his career.

Oh well...this is cliche. Has been said or written many, many times.

And some seem to always blame the doubles pair of  Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong for any misfortunes suffered by badminton.

It is true that  they are struggling to regain their kind of form they enjoyed before which instilled that fear into opponents.

But then it is not just about these two only. It's easy to pin-point certain players for failures because of indiscipline and so on.
.
The thing is that, again, Malaysia are lacking in world class players to be utilised.

This is the result of what we have been doing or rather not doing in the past seven or eight years in term of developing and identifying world class players.

Some are excited with players like Liew Darren, whom they tipped to take over Chong Wei in  bringing honors to the country.

Really?

He is already 25 and yet to win any major tournament. At that age, he should have already winning some major tournaments.

Unless, of course, he is a 'late starter'. But this is badminton, where top players normally already show their prowess, at least, by the early 20s.

Malaysia’s only consolation yesterday was the success story of Khim Wah-V Shem.

Malaysia’s gamble in fielding the youngsters paid off big time when they defeated Ingo Kindervater-Schoettler Johannes 21-16, 23-21 in 36 minutes.

Perhaps, this is the bright spot for Malaysia in this tournament.

Yes..it's only perhaps. Don't get excited.

It's a bit too late to get good results from the current btach of players in the next two years or so with the exception of Chong Wei.

But be patient.

Malaysia should have a few players to be world beaters in near future - five or six years - IF Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and those involved like clubs START start working hard on a more systematic way towards this goal

Source : http://www.malaysiandigest.com/sports/350751-badminton-ini-macam-tak-boleh-jadi-lah-this-cannot-be-lah.html

Mahabharata – Bahagian 33

Putera Salva dari Kerajaan Saubala sering terkenang akan kekalahannya di tangan Bhisma semasa swayamvaram (sayembara) yang diadakan oleh Raja Kaasi. Lebih malang apabila putera itu masih gagal sewaktu berdepan dengan Bhisma bagi kali kedua.

“Betapa aku telah dimalukan! Kekasih aku dibawa pergi di depan mataku sendiri,” katanya kepada diri sendiri dengan perasaan yang berbaur antara marah, kecewa dan malu.

Pada waktu itulah Puteri Amba sampai dari Hastinapura. Sebaik sahaja turun dari kereta kuda, putera itu berlari ke arah kekasihnya. Tanpa dirancang, air mata berguguran.

“Apa yang kau lakukan di sini?” Salva bertanya dengan nada hairan, terkejut dan marah. “Bukankah kau sudah dibawa pergi oleh Bhisma untuk dijadikan isteri?”

Amba segera mengesat air mata dan cuba tersenyum di hadapan kekasihnya. Puteri itu amat memahami rasa terkejut, hairan dan marah yang diluahkan oleh Salva menerusi reaksinya itu.

Uthaya on Hindraf's Kane and Abel situation

INTERVIEW At this moment, it is very easy to demonise P Uthayakumar. No doubt Hindraf (or whatever it is now) and Uthayakumar have done their fair share of demonising of their political opponents. This is the nature of partisan and racial politics.

With my last article - and let's face facts, it was a polemic - I assumed I was done with Hindraf. As a Pakatan Rakyat partisan who was supportive of the aims of Hindraf (even though I was attacked by the racists within the ranks of Pakatan), the fact that P Waythamoorthy and Hindraf, embraced Umno and called for a return of a two-thirds majority after years of fighting the institutional racism that afflicts this country, was a move that for me at least was unforgivable.

However, I still maintained contact with Uthayakumar (left). These days, most people who have always despised Uthayakumar gleefully, link his brother's "betrayal" to him. Mixed in with the usual racists comments about Hindraf, is the added bonus that Uthayakumar was complicit in Waythamoorthy's betrayal of the oppositional forces in this country.

In our conversations, Uthayakumar was adamant that he would never fall under the thrall of Umno and I believe him.

Some Hindraf supporters, those in Waythamoorthy's corner, do not agree with my partisan stand, but my response has always been, that when Hindraf under Waythamoorthy signed the MOU (memorandum of understanding) and when Waythamoorthy become a deputy minister in BN, they lost all claim to being simply a non-partisan non-governmental organisation. Hindraf, or the faction Waythamoorthy represents, is now part of the BN machinery.

Mahabharata – Bahagian 32

Nasib Puteri Amba bagaikan jatuh tangga ditimpa tangga. Sejak beberapa bulan lalu, dia bercinta dengan Putera Salva dari Kerajaan Saubala.

Walau bagaimanapun, ayahnya iaitu Raja Kaasi mengadakan swayamvaram (sayembara) bagi memilih bakal suami bagi Amba dan dua orang adiknya, Ambika dan Ambalika.

Salva tewas kepada Bhisma dalam sayembara melibatkan pertandingan bermain pedang. Malah, putera itu kalah kali kedua apabila cuba berdepan dengan Bhisma semasa mereka dalam perjalanan menuju ke istana di Hastinapura.

“Saya bersedia untuk mengahwini Ambika dan Ambalika, tetapi saya tidak dapat menerima Amba.”
Demikian pula keputusan Vichitravirya sebaik sahaja putera itu mendapat tahu bahawa hati dan cinta Amba sudah menjadi milik orang lain.

Bhisma terkejut mendengar kata-kata adik tirinya yang ternyata sudah semakin matang dalam membuat keputusan. Amba turut terkejut mendengar keputusan Vichitravirya. Ambika dan Ambalika berpandangan. Dalam diam, mereka gembira kerana kakak mereka masih ada peluang untuk bersama kekasihnya, Salva.

“Maknanya kau menolak hadiah yang aku bawa khas untuk kau?”

New cabinet - Waytha, Khairy, Paul Low in; MCA out

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak unveiled his "transformation cabinet" this evening, which included a P Waythamoorthy (below) of Hindraf as a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

It also included Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin who was overlooked in the last cabinet - he is tapped as sports and youth minister.

No one from MCA and Gerakan has been included in the new cabinet. However, Najib said that the door is still open to MCA participation if the party amends its decision not to participate in the cabinet.

Another surprise was the appointment of Transparency International-Malaysia president Paul Low (below) as Minister in Prime Minister's Department.

Maybank Berhad chief executive officer Abdul Wahid Omar was roped in as a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, and most probably will be in charge of Economic Planning Unit.

However, Najib did not name the responsibilities of the six ministers in his department, an increase of one compared to his previous cabinet.

The Transport Ministry is understood to be the ministry allocated for MCA, which will be helmed by Hishammuddin Hussein.

Another new face in the cabinet is Abdul Rahman Dahlan, who has been named local government and housing minister.

This cabinet also sees a merger between the education and higher education ministries.

Najib unveiled his cabinet at his office at 5pm. The announcement, Najib’s first official action as head of government following the May 5 general election, was telecast live by local TV channels.

Najib had earlier submitted the cabinet list to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and said his majesty had given his approval to Najib's cabinet list.

"I believe this is a balanced cabinet. It's a balance between the experienced, technocrats and young leaders," he said.

As for MCA's resolution not to take up government positions, Najib said that MCA has to amend its resolution before it can participate in the cabinet.

"If they re-consider later, we have a ministry post ready for them," he said, referring to the Transport Ministry.

Najib's new cabinet is heavily dominated by Umno and PBB with 20 ministers, while PBB (Sarawak) has four. The other posts go to MIC, two, PRS (Sarawak), PBRS, PBS and Upko (Sabah) all have one each.

Three ministers, all of whom are in the PM's Department, have no party affiliation.

Indians, too, backed Pakatan in GE13

ANALYSIS In the recently concluded GE13, we have witnessed quite an obvious trend of the Chinese predominantly voting for the federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat. The Malays on the other hand had been generally supportive of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), barring a few states like Selangor, Kelantan and Terengganu.

There has been very little mentioned about the Indian voting trend. Therefore this article is intended to shed some light into how the Indians voted, taking into account the local demographics of the various constituencies.

During the build up towards GE13, there had been a lot of chest thumping by Barisan Nasional, particularly by the MIC leadership, that the Indian support had returned to pre-2008 levels. It had been speculated that the community’s anger towards the BN government following the Hindraf-instigated 2007 protest and the subsequent ISA crackdown of its key leaders had subsided following the overtures made by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

The community had also felt letdown by some Pakatan Rakyat state governments - particularly noted was the disillusionment towards the PAS-led Kedah state government for failing to honour its promise to declare Thaipusam a state holiday, along with the failure of its state executive councillor S Manikumar (left) in managing a lot of issues concerning the Indian community residing mainly in the southern tip of the rice bowl state.

The community was however noted to be generally very pleased with the performance of the DAP-led Penang and PKR-led Selangor state governments - particularly in relation to the land issues plaguing the temples and Tamil schools, and state employment opportunities for the Indians.

BN is effectively a minority government

COMMENT In assessing the results of the long-awaited 13th general elections, it is imperative that one considers the actual conditions under which the elections were conducted.

Uninformed observers, particularly from overseas, assume that because Malaysia has a Westminister-style parliamentary democracy, our elections are conducted freely, fairly and in the spirit of fair play.

The reality is that our elections are never held as they are in mature democracies like the United Kingdom, India or Australia.

They are rather akin to another Commonwealth country, Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe has been in power for some 33 years, and where the ruling party always wins because it thinks it has a divine right to rule, and will cheat to remain in power. Institutions intended to be independent and impartial have never acted independently and impartially.

First, the Election Commission (EC). It does not even give the semblance of being an independent umpire in a contest between two coalitions.

Instead, the EC has been most partisan, always favouring the ruling BN. Bridget Welsh, a well-respected and independent scholar, highlighted in Malaysiakini, the impact of the increased numbers in the electoral roll which were out of line with historical patterns of voter registration.

Gross distortions in Malaysia's voting system

COMMENT The recently completed May 5 general election (GE13) revealed some interesting facts and figures based on the results as published by the Election Commission.

There have been, for a long time, much criticism of the ‘first past the post' (FPTP) election system we practise in Malaysia, because of what is inherent in this antiquated system.

The FPTP is one of the legacies of the British rule in Malaya and was based on giving all segments of the populace a voice in Parliament. Hence, constituency boundaries were drawn based on this segmental need for representation.

The original intention was noble indeed, that people in Sungai Buloh should have a voice in Parliament, just as those from Shah Alam, even though the Shah Alam constituency may have a population five times larger.

To prevent abuse and disproportional representation, certain limits were set when our founding fathers drew up the federal constitution. One important feature was that there should not be a population variance greater than 20 percent between the smallest and largest constituencies.

This safeguard was gradually eroded by successive ruling governments, since they enjoyed two-thirds majority Parliament to amend the country's laws, until this sanity check on societal representation was totally removed.

As a result of this, today we have 26,000 voters in Putrajaya, Igan (18,000) and Lubok Antu (19,000) commanding the same parliamentary voice as those in Kapar (144,000), Serdang (133,000) and Gombak (123,000).

Indians voters didn't really return to BN in GE13

The mainstream media seem to be peddling the notion that the Indian votes have returned to the BN. Several political pundits and analysts also supported this notion even before polling and after polling.

Let's study the general elections results on a state by state basis to ascertain if indeed Indians have returned to support the BN.

In Selangor, Pakatan maintained its hold on this richest state with a bigger seat majority. This bigger majority and popular vote could have come only from support from all three races, not just the Chinese voters alone.

In many Parliament seats with high Indian populations like Kota Raja, Kapar, Klang and Shah Alam and state seats like Seri Andalas, Kota Alam Shah and Sementa were all won by Pakatan with comfortable majorities.

P Kamalanathan of MIC is the only one to win in Hulu Selangor.

In Perak the same trend can be observed. In Buntong, the state seat with the largest number of Indian voters was won by DAP.

Indian votes would have helped Dr Micheal Jeyakumar of PSM, M Kulasegaran (DAP) and V Sivakumar (DAP) to win their respective Sg Siput, Ipoh Barat and Batu Gajah Parliament seats.

M Saravanan of MIC won in Tapah - the only Indian from BN.

In Penang, Prof Ramasamy of the DAP won in Prai while Kasturi Rani Patto won in the Batu Kawan Parliament seat, with both of them defeating BN Indian candidates.

Indian votes would certainly have helped the multi-racial DAP candidates like Chow Kon Yeow, Zairil Khir Johari, Karpal Singh, A Tanasekharan and RSN Rayer to attain wins and bigger majorities in seats throughout Penang.

In Kedah, prominent human rights lawyer N Surendran won the Padang Serai Parliament seat, which has a significant Indian voter base.

It must be noted that MIC also lost in Bukit Selambau and Lunas state seats to their Pakatan counterparts. Both have significant Indian voters.

In Pahang, Pakatan managed to wrest the Sabai state seat which has been a MIC traditional seat. MIC president G Palanivel won the Cameron Highlands Parliament seat.

In Negri Sembilan, MIC failed in its bid to win the Teluk Kemang Parliament seat but was victorious in the state seat of Jeram Padang.

In Johor, MIC's Dr S Subramaniam retained the Segamat Parliament seat.

There are more Indian MPs and assemblypersons in Pakatan, who won with support of all races including the Indians.

It can be concluded that at least two-thirds of Indian voters voted for Pakatan.


Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/229515

Nik Aziz has set high standards for politicians

COMMENT Many Kelantanese only know Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat as a menteri besar and his departure on Monday as head of the state government, after 22 years, may have caught many by surprise. However, it has been an expected move on his part.

The frail-looking Nik Aziz has been in and out of hospital of late, but his contest in the state seat of Chempaka, which he successfully defended with an increased majority of 6,500 votes, stems from his pacifying the Kelantanese that he will remain in power. His statements before the election reflect this.

Nik Aziz himself, and many PAS leaders as well, know that if he were to step down before the general election, PAS may have a problem retaining the state, for the Kelantanese would stay with PAS because the party represented their spiritual leader.

Now, with his former deputy Ahmad Yaakob taking over as menteri besar, the people have time to evaluate Ahmad's capability, and to decide whether PAS should be allowed to continue leading the state after the next general election, which will not be due until 2018.

The people of Kelantan hold Nik Aziz dearly. A very simple man, in person and in the way he lived. When he first became menteri besar, he chose not to stay in the official residence of the state government head but in own kampung house in Pulau Melaka, where he continued to lead his humble life.

Mahabharata – Bahagian 31

Pasangan kembar Hussain dan Hassan terus tekun mendengar kisah-kisah daripada epik Mahabharata yang diceritakan oleh datuk. Halaman demi halaman buku Razmnameh versi Parsi diselak sambil datuk bercerita kepada kedua-dua cucunya.

“Apakah Putera Vichitravirya akan mengahwini ketiga-tiga puteri itu?” Hassan bertanya dengan tidak sabar.

“Atau adakah Putera Salva dari Kerajaan Saubala akan berjaya membawa pulang Puteri Amba iaitu kekasihnya?” Hussain pula bertanya.

“Jangan terburu-buru. Biar kita sama-sama mengikuti kisah yang berlaku selepas Salva menahan Bhisma serta kereta kuda khas yang membawa Amba, Ambika dan Ambalika iaitu puteri kepada Raja Kaasi,” kata datuk sebelum meneruskan cerita.

Mahabharata – Bahagian 30

“Saya memilih ketiga-tiga puteri.”

Balasan yang diberikan oleh Bhisma bergema dalam gegendang telinga ketiga-tiga puteri Raja Kaasi. Amba, Ambika dan Ambalika tertanya-tanya siapakah di antara mereka bertiga yang terpaksa menjadi isteri kepada putera Kerajaan Kuru dari Hastinapua itu.

“Tidak bolehkah kau memilih salah seorang sahaja daripada puteri beta?”

Demikian Raja Kaasi telah bertanya sebentar tadi tetapi Bhisma yang rambutnya sudah beruban tetap dengan pendiriannya. Malah, dia juga masih merahsiakan realiti bahawa dia sebenarnya menyertai swayamvaram (sayembara) itu sebagai proksi kepada adik tirinya, Vichitravirya.

“Tidak. Saya tetap dengan pendirian mahu membawa pulang ketiga-tiga puteri ini ke istana di Hastinapura,” tegasnya.

Para pembesar yang berkumpul di perkarangan istana Raja Kaasi terus terpinga-pinga. Tidak ada sesiapa yang berani mempersoalkan atau mempertikaikan keputusan dan pendirian Bhisma. Jika mereka membantah, mungkin mereka menjadi mangsa pedangnya.