vox populi small thumbnail 'Are you going be in Pakatan Rakyat or be Umno friendly? Are you asking these Third Force candidates to come under your banner? Let us know so we can sum you up better.'

Zaid Ibrahim is now Akim president

Mikey: It is not an impressive debut but I will give Zaid Ibrahim the benefit of doubt. Let us see how he progresses before we judge him. In many ways, it is sad how we Malaysians seem to condemn anyone who doesn't agree with us.

We appear to have this ‘them' and ‘us' mentality. I really dislike BN and want them out, but I will not stoop to the extent of ‘at all cost'.

Proarte: Let us wait and see. Kita must be secular and willing to tackle thorny issues like the necessary constitutional amendments which will make Malaysia a less dysfunctional country.

The root cause of our problems is this notion of inequality which our constitution tacitly promotes. The 'special position' of the Malays and the 'legitimate rights' of others is easily abused by opportunists to justify discrimination and grand scale robbery of the nation's coffers.

If after 53 years, the Malaysian constitution cannot confidently and unequivocally say we are all equal before the law, then it has failed us as it goes against basic norms of decency and religious values to promote discrimination, willingly or unwittingly. That Malaysia should be run on secular lines must be clarified.

The current double negative use of language to define us as secular should be changed into more confident language, i.e "Islam is the official religion but we should be considered secular".

Fly Emirates: My prediction is Zaid will fade away into oblivion. After all, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah with his team of strong supporters could not survive under Semangat 46. My take is he will lose in any seat he is contesting under GE13.

Chipmunk: So Zaid finally reached his goal to be the president of 'a party'. That had been his life-long ambition and looking at his happy face, one can tell his real reason for leaving PKR and that is to be the boss and demand respect from his subjects.

Victor Johan: Are you going be in Pakatan Rakyat or be Umno friendly? I understand the Third Force candidates will be fielded under one of Pakatan's party banners. Are you asking these Third Force candidates to come under your banner? Let us know so we can sum you up better. I hope you do not further diminish your reputation.

AkuMelayu: See for yourself, Zaid. These same people who praised you when you are in Pakatan are now cursing you. If they truly supported you to bring reform to this country, they will still support you even if you are in another political party.

It looks like they have been supporting you not because of your principal but because you were then in PKR, the party which is being used by the DAP to achieve their agenda. I salute you for your principles. Your mind is not easily clouded and corrupted by the superficial praises of these Pakatan supporters.

Urban Malaysian: What's wrong with a reverse takeover of a political party? It happens all the time in the corporate sector when a Sdn Bhd wants a quick route to become Bhd. After the takeover, they change the constitution to reflect the new owner's mission and vision. At least, there is one Malay Malaysian who dare stand up to say out loud that he wants his Kita to be multiracial.

Remember that PKR was founded on the basis of Anwar Ibrahim's fall-out with Mahathir Mohamad and the reformasi spirit was tied to that. It was never explicitly stated that it will be multi-racial and we now see Umno shadows in most of them. Besides we don't want PKR giving us the likes of Wee Choo Keong, Zulkifli Nordin, Zahrain Hashim, and even Low Gwo Burne, etc.

We cannot let politicians control us and decide for us that the ends justify the means. We, the people have a nation to take back and we need all principled and capable Malaysians standing on a multiracial platform.

Jiminy Qrikert: Here is one reality we all live with in this land we call 'tanahair tumpahnya darahku'. I have a Malay colleague in my office whose father came here as an immigrant. That makes my colleague a first generation Malaysian born of this land.

Before his father came here, his father was not Malay. No, not Malay because that would have been an insult. Instead, his father was Sumatran. Today, his father is Malay and Malaysian and my colleague too a Malay and Malaysian. And he has every right to be called Malaysian - he was, after all, born here.

But my first generation Malaysian colleague, whose father came from Sumatra, is more equal than Malaysians of non-Malay origin whose ancestors were born in this land. And they are insulted as 'pendatangs' as well by those whose fathers migrated here a century later.

My colleague's father came over only in the 50s. My parents were born here. And so were theirs.

Armour Man: Jettisoned to the top - just the way Zaid wanted at PKR but could not. Look at him now with his new party members - Kelantan-based, conservative, all-Muslim men. He will be disillusioned with them in no time and he will yet again leave a political party.

Thereafter, he will slip into oblivion. Goodbye, Zaid.

Suspensions will 'give BN two-thirds majority'

Changeagent: I believe that we, the voting public, can show our extreme displeasure and disapproval of today's shameful development by making a concerted effort to boycott any businesses linked to the BN government.

For a start, how about boycotting Petronas service stations for the next six months? We can also stop buying newspapers like the Star , New Straits Times or Berita Harian . There is no point in fighting fire with fire in Parliament. The corrupt speaker is clearly on BN's side and there is no need to risk getting any more suspensions.

It is time for Pakatan to think outside the square and fight a smarter warfare. Most important of all, Pakatan must mobilise more people to the ground to inform the rural voters of the evil and corrupt deeds that BN have been up to. The rural and semi-rural voters will be the kingmakers in the next general election.

Gerard Samuel Vijayan: The entire opposition benches should call Najib and Rosmah murderers tomorrow, accuse them of selling the country to Singapore because of the evidence that the Singapore ISD (Internal Security Department) has on Najib and Altantuya, that Apco is an agent of Israel to which the Najib government is now working hand and glove with to cover the PM's misdeeds and weaknesses and end the debate by calling the BN an authoritarian, power crazy, corrupt and immoral government that is not fit to rule this country.

Then the Pakatan should withdraw from Parliament all together for the next six months and let the BN do what it likes. The Pakatan should take their case to the people and let them decide once and for all in the GE13.

Parliament as it stands now is a circus and the speaker, Pandikar Amin Mulia, is nothing but a clown attached to the strings of the BN. So why bother about Parliament, it can join the ranks of other parliamentary assemblies such as in North Korea, Cuba, Burma, Sudan, Somalia, etc, that are beacons of democracy.

Ksn: What a way to achieve two-thirds majority. The speaker has nullified the people's decision to punish Umno-BN, the election results of 2008. But the real idiots are the opposition MPs. Knowing the speaker's stand and not allowing proper discussions of all opposition propositions, why push themselves to that extend of being expelled?

Longjaafar: I would say that the Pakatan MPs are not smart enough, and deserve to be where they are. Knowing that the two-thirds majority is so important, they still went ahead to get into trouble with the speaker. Too much playing to the gallery or too emotional, and look where they are now? I guess they are still on the learning curve.

Pemerhati: BN has been winning elections since Dr Mahathir Mohamad's time by using various dirty tricks such as by ridiculous and outrageous gerrymandering whereby the same number of simple rural folks (who usually support BN) can elect about five to 10 times more parliamentarians than the more informed urban voters; using phantom and postal voters; giving hundreds of thousands of MyKads to foreigners to vote for BN; using the completely monopolised media to influence the voters and using the kangaroo courts to unfairly jail opposition leaders like Lim Guan Eng and Anwar.

The latest outrageous parliamentary action being taken to expel Anwar without allowing him to defend himself is not unexpected and indicates that BN feels it might lose the next elections and hence needs to pass some more crooked laws to ensure victory. Currently Najib and BN have dictatorial powers and can do anything they like. Only a massive swing at the next elections can remove these crooks.

Adcin: Anwar is not allowed to substantiate his claim, and now they want to suspend him. Why be scared of what he has to say? This is justice boleh . Does it really matter whether he is suspended? The country loses more with this sham and disgrace of a committee.

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