'Umno and Mahathir who still behave like political dinosaurs and are in a state of denial. Like ostriches, they continue to bury their heads in the sand.'
On Mahathir: Race-based politics still relevant
Chronicle Malaysia: Mahathir still thinks he is PM and can ram his racist ideas down our throats, forgetting that this is the 21 st century, and Malaysians, including Malays, don't subscribe to racial politics anymore.
This going by the results of the last general election and Permatang Pauh by-election where Umno/BN lost a lot of support.
It is only Umno and Mahathir who still behave like political dinosaurs and are in a state of denial. Like ostriches, they continue to bury their heads in the sand to deliberately make racial politics relevant in Malaysia.
Umno can do that because it is the government. But at least there are some rational people in Umno like Zaid Ibrahim who have realised that racial politics like Ketuanan Melayu will do more harm to the Malays than good and have called for the abolition of racist politics.
Instead of heeding what Zaid says, Umno leaders have called him a pengkhianat or traitor to the Malays. Racial politics can end on the spot if the government were to say so.
But because an end to racial politics will also mean the end of Umno, the government refuses to end racial politics, which is why Mahathir continues to beat his chest and espouse racial politics.
In any other country, anti-racism laws would have sent one to jail, but in our Bolehland, they treat this doctrine of racial politics as Umno's survival.
No wonder we are going the way of Zimbabwe because Mahathir's racist ideas continue to be out of date but not out of sight.
Kaisim: In Malaysia, there are politicians who thrive on racial issues to gain political mileage. They are provocateurs, usually instigated by other strategic politicians to further their own agendas.
Practically every major Umno politician plays this game in the early stages of his career. Many of these people were known as ‘ultras'.
They talk about justice and fairness but right in their hearts they want everything for themselves. They talk racial things in their ceramah in the kampung and thus create hatred among the races.
Politicians are not responsible and are narrow-minded. So, we fail to bring the races together to make a better Malaysia. Worst still, we have leaders who go round the country talking about sensitive racial issues.
These are the opportunists in our mist who talk about unity but are not sincere in their actions. With such opportunists around, obviously we won't have a true Malaysian society in another l00 years.
KSN: What else does this man know except racialism? It is really surprising that he gets platforms to air his views.
Just imagine, retiring after 22 of dictatorship and taking the country down a one-way street to disharmony, he still manages to bring down Abdullah (not that Abdullah deserves any better) even when not a member of Umno.
What does this say about this man and Umno who both connived to get rid of Abdullah? Both he and Umno have no salvation.
But change is coming because we can and we must for Malaysia's sake.
On 'Don't call vigil participants, criminals'
Patriotician:
Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung defended the police, saying they ‘had not done anything wrong' when dispersing the crowd that night.He also said:'If there is an illegal assembly, who can tell what is going to happen?'
I would like to ask Chor, who makes an assembly illegal and who makes an assembly legal? Surely is police right? When an application for a permit is made, it will always be deliberately rejected.
So your ministry had make the assembly illegal. But when a mob stormed a ‘legal' meeting of the Bar Council in their own building, the police allowed them to do so, so you made the storming ‘legal' right?
As the result, the Bar Council had to stop their meeting. You made it look like the ‘illegal' party was the Bar Council.
Millionth Citizen: Unless we are blind, I was there at that candlelight vigil and I did not see anybody holding any weapons, nor were there robbers.
Where did Chor Chee Heung get the notion that one can rob or mug somebody with a candle? I would like to know where he comes from.
On S'gor exco man arrested, out on bail
HAL:
Who is this Mohd. Khir Toyo? Why has he such a big influence over the police that they do his bidding?He mouthed a few accusations (all proven to be baseless and with malicious intent to date) and off went the police to arrest the accused - Teresa Kok before and now Ronnie Liu.
Even the Home Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar dutifully signed the papers to arrest under the ISA.
The known victims are all excos of the state of Selangor. How much far has the rot gone beyond what meets the eyes?
CH Siew: Things are certainly very different right now after our March elections. This is especially so with so many hidden symptoms surfacing especially in recent months.
As time goes by, we are witnessing a worrying increase in crime rate which is now more serious than the time before the elections. Never a day goes by without an article in the papers on an incident of very serious crime.
Instead of finding ways to curb criminal actions, our police are more interested in arresting harmless participants at candlelight vigils, worse when they are singing our national anthem.
Then they would harass a Selangor exco member by arresting him on rumours started by the now state opposition leader. Wait a minute, is there really any evidence to support their action?
Khir Toyo's credibility has gone down the drain after the Teresa Kok incident. There is enough evidence to show that his word has no worth at all.
Yet the police chose to act over his allegation towards Liu rather than they many other serious crimes to tackle.
On ValueCap's RM5 bil not for paying its debt
Sam:
It is nice to know that EPF currently has funds of about RM350 billion but what is hard to imagine is that the ruling Umno elite are unable to view this fund with anything but envy and greed.They must just drool at the mouth at the thought of all this cash just sitting there and which they would like to access to for their own unsavoury purposes.
This Valuecap thing has rather a bad smell about it and there must be far more than meets the eye here.
Hopefully, when we do get a clean and responsible government in place, they will place a very high priority on looking into all the past shady deals that have been financed using EPF funds.
This as well as the horrifying exploitation and wastage of the trillions of ringgit that has been generated by Petronas but for which the rakyat has never yet seen comprehensive accounting.
On AirAsia scraps fuel surcharge
SH: What most would find puzzling is why a normal consumer would find it necessary to go to the defence of AirAsia, particularly in such an erudite, if ultimately misleading way.
The blatant lies about the removal of the fuel surcharge made me suspect Airasia must have contempt for their customers.
I had been monitoring many dates for my next proposed trip over the few days prior to the announcement of the removal of the fuel surcharge.
They all increased in price after the announcement. I have travelled often with AirAsia and I am very familiar with the pattern of seats increasing in price near the date of travel.
The seat price increase now is completely different in nature to that and any attempt to attribute it to the normal booking pattern is wholly dishonest.
Sam: It is always important to read between the lines of what bankers say, I think.
What we would really like to know is who is this 'associated company' that made such huge losses of RM242 million?
And also, what is being done about the incompetent management of this 'associated company'?
And also, one could reasonably ask what level of remuneration and bonuses the chairperson, Mohamed Basir Ahmad, has received this year for presiding over such huge losses in an 'associated company'?
On A 350km 'freedom run' for Hindraf 5
P Waytha Moorthy:
The gesture by DAP Selangor to organise this human relay for 350km from Klang to the Kamunting Detention Camp is a spirited act to create awareness amongst the public against the draconian ISA law.It is a bipartisan support by DAP Selangor for the common goal of unshackling Malaysian public from the repressive and oppressive ISA.
Hindraf urges all Malaysians irrespective of race, religion, creed to participate in this ‘ISA Freedom Run' to make it a meaningful and effective event.
This will show the government that the Malaysian public is against such laws that take away the liberty of a human without a right to be heard ( the writer is Hindraf chairperson ).
On Under-the-belt criticism of McCain most deplorable
Netty E Komattu: I think many leaders in politics and in the corporate world could take a leaf or two from Senator McCain. Leaders must learn to lose in grace.
It is in defeat that we can sometimes really see the credibility and true character of a leader. In his speech conceding defeat to Barack Obama on the night of Nov 4, Senator McCain has most certainly demonstrated that he is a leader of the highest calibre.
Now, let's see how the political scenario in Malaysia will be if our past, present and future leaders could reacted like Senator McCain.
We have first-class facilities but I hope we don't end up with a leader who has a third-class mentality.
PT Tan: Just a word of caution to all that have been rooting for Obama and celebrating his victory as sign of a worldwide renaissance in colour-blindness.
His economic plans are not rosy for the rest of us simply because it is a case of the US first.
He is not going to reduce corporate taxes and he is, in fact, proposing to increase taxes for companies that outsource - so there goes our trade.
Next, he wants to tax the middle-class more so that he can distribute more to the needy - so there goes the demand creation.
Just a word of caution to all of us - we'd better get prepared.
