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Zul Noordin's badminton analogy doesn't wash
Published:  May 29, 2013 9:18 AM
Updated: 3:15 AM

YOURSAY 'In badminton, there is a level playing ground for both sides. The referee and linesmen are neutral. The court size is equal on both sides...'

Zul Noordin uses badminton to dispel popular votes claim

your say Magnus: When you cheat in exams or collude with another and help them cheat, both parties, if caught, will be automatically disqualified from passing and will be prevented from sitting the exams again or if in school or university, will be almost certainly, be expelled.

When professionals are caught cheating or committing fraud, whether in collusion or not, they are disbarred, disrobed or struck off registers, as well as facing criminal prosecution, fines and jail sentences.

You cheat at games, you get red cards, suspensions and bans and may also face criminal sanctions.

So why when you cheat blatantly at the general election and yet expect to get away with it, and even be rewarded with the spoils gained illegally, unlawfully and unconstitutionally?

Sowat: This is the dumbest explanation I have ever heard, but no doubt it is meant for the ears of the ignorant rural folk.

Following Perkasa vice-president Zulkifli Noordin's example, I would go further - BN had nine badminton players on their side of the court, playing against one Anwar Ibrahim.

That would complete his analogy. Now, what does the umpire have to say about how the game was played?

JMC: In badminton, there is a level playing ground for both sides. The referee and linesmen are neutral. The court are is equal on both sides, the rackets are of equal size and weight, so is the shuttle.

The wind condition is the same on both sides and both players are given media coverage. Did such fair play exist in GE13?

Cala: I suspect Perkasa's Zul Noordin has misunderstood Anwar's statements with regard to the 13th general election results.

First, Anwar has been consistent in saying that results of certain constituencies are questionable, not all.

Second, the first-past-the-post system used to be workable until the rule was amended following the May 13, 1969 incident, whereby the previously stipulated condition of the largest and the smallest constituencies cannot be greater than 15%.

As an example, if the smallest constituency has 100,000 voters, then the largest permissible constituency is 115,000. Clearly, the gerrymandering and the disappearance of the constituency-size stipulation from the constitution have enabled Umno-led BN to win in the recent general election.

Third, no rule is cast in stone. If there is a will, there is a way. It is entirely up to the people to effect institutional change as they deemed fit. The people are the boss, the government is their servants.

Wira: Zul, the true analogy is that our election is just like a football match where the goal posts of BN gets smaller and narrower over the years while that of the opposition gets wider and larger with the collusion of a tainted Election Commission (EC). It is no longer a fair match.

NoBN4me: That is why this guy does not excel in his legal practice. His logic is so illogical. He says he lost the contest in Shah Alam because 10,000 voters who are supposed to vote for him did not. Otherwise he would have won. That's his logic.

Tholu: Zulkifli must be losing sleep since his defeat in GE13 to come up with an analogy to justify the legitimacy of the BN government.

Zul, there would certainly be many other sports that could analogised to state that the BN government is indeed illegitimate.

Don't act smart, my friend. You do not realise that you are actually making yourself a fool. But then, you had always been a fool.

Lim Chong Leong: Election is not a badminton game. Gerrymandering is cheating and undemocratic when re-delineation is done to secure more seats by dividing the pro-Umno seats into many tiny and lumping all the already big pro-Pakatan Rakyat seats into one single seat.

Vatican67: I am glad that Zul lost in the elections. What a moron to come up with such an analogy. He still does not seem to understand the main issue of gerrymandering of the electoral boundaries by the EC in BN's benefit.

I am sure majority of the rakyat would have accepted the election results if for 48% of the total votes BN ends up with maximum of 113 seats, while for 52% of total votes Pakatan gets 109 seats.

But actual results - BN with 133 seats, Pakatan with 89 - showed gross abuse of powers by EC under BN.

Blindfolded: Zulkifli, you are wrong. Seriously wrong. Where did you get your law degree from? We, the smarter-than-thou Malaysians, understand and don't really care about popular vote being proportional to number of seats. Such proportion is not possible.

You can have 50.01% popular votes and get 100% seats, and we can accept that is possible (because that is when you have 50.01% popular votes in every constituency).

What we care is, BN has less than 50% popular votes and yet get 60% seats - that's only possible when EC allows gerrymandering.

Don't think we are idiots, Zulkifli, or else you will receive 5.6 million police reports against you for seditiously undermining our intelligence.

Anonyxyz: If the EC is the umpire between badminton giants Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan, Chong Wei will surely romp past Lin Dan under 5 points.


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