VOXPOP 'The AG chose to charge a person based on a police report made by a complainant who doesn't even have any basic knowledge concerning the subject.'

'Repentant' complainant wants Mat Sabu cleared

vox populi small thumbnail ABBN: It is another fiasco in which Umno leaders made a big blunder and a fool of themselves again. They thought they can fool everybody.

They may mislead in the beginning but when truth reveals itself, the misled knows who the cheaters are. The more lies they create, the more miserable they are going to lose in the coming general election.

Go ahead and tell more lies. Only fools think others are fools.

Telestai!: Something amiss and I don't get it. An Indian guy reads Utusan Malaysia and makes a police report when he doesn't know where Bukit Kepong is. Now he wants to undo what he did?

Kit P: This is shaping up to be a ridiculous, frivolous case. The attorney-general chose to charge a person based on a police report made by a complainant who doesn't even have any basic knowledge concerning the subject, and based it on an erroneous newspaper report.

The AG is clearly indulging in political persecution.

iKnow: PAS deputy president Mat Sabu has done nothing wrong. Only Utusan has twisted on what had been said. We expect justice to be administered.

Ben-ghazi: What a frivolous charge. They'll try everything to put opposition leaders behind bars, so that they do not have to fight against these opponents in the GE13.

Once behind bars, it will be plain sailing to Putrajaya for them; that's what they think. But they are wrong. One Mat Sabu behind bars, there will be several 'Mat Sabus' to replace him.

Penang Umno fails in RM30mil suit against CM

Billy The Kid: The unscrupulous, unethical Umno-BN people can demonstrate, protest and vilify Lim Guan Eng and Penang state government but ultimately it is how I mark my ballot paper that determines who is right and who is wrong.

I will unequivocally cross on Pakatan Rakyat candidates come GE13 and do it with such determination that I will definitely break the pencil's lead or tear the ballot paper.

This is to vent my anger on those irresponsible hoodlums and rascals who have been disturbing the peace in Penang.

Ferdtan: After the judgment on DAP MP Tony Pua's defamation case with Syabas, the Selangor water concessionaire, ordering him to pay the company RM200,000 in damage, this case against another DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, is a welcomed relief.

Same judge, different results. After the decision of the Pua case, you can hear uproars, not only from readers from Malaysiakini but other online websites as well.

We believe that, we, the online commentators and the other more powerful social network phenomenon, Facebook, have the part to play on the discourse of natural (and judiciary?) justice.

Odin: File an appeal, Penang Umno chief Zainal Abidin. If need be, keep appealing up to the highest court. Your party can always engage Queen's counsels. You must teach those pesky ‘pendatangs' a lesson, no?

Never: Umno, you think RM30 million is easy to earn? You want it and you will get it?

Not that money from poor and honest people like the Penang CM or any other right-thinking Penangite.

You go and get it from your master who already had RM2 billion from the Scorpene deal. Or ask him to share a bit from the plastic money job from Australia.

Democracy has its limitations, says Mahathir

Tan Kim Keong: "Really the countries of Southeast Asia have great potential for growth, prosperity and empowerment. All we need is people and leaders who love their country and people more than they love themselves," former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad concluded.

Really, Mahathir, you have lost your memory about how you did not love other Malaysian races because you only loved Malays, and still do, as shown by your full participation in Perkasa.

As this saying goes, "If you love only your race, you will be sure to discriminate." Get my drift. This is so typical of the Malay leadership here - double speak.

Anonymous #58437020: Our past and present politicians should reach out for Asian history books, and try and remember how democracy landed on our shores after the World War II, and look at how change has come to the Philippines and Indonesia.

Lord Acton says, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." That's why we have election every four years. That's why we have auditors.

But the question in Malaysia is we have very successful Big 4 firms in our country but somehow the audit function has failed in its role to unravel the following:

  • How come politicians' children become so rich when their parents retire?
  • How come politicians' children can flaunt their wealth for all to see when their parents are in power?
  • How come politicians think the rakyat wear blinkers and cannot see how taxpayers' money is being used?

The audit function within the current administration should also be reviewed. That's why civil servants should never dabble with politics. When you have separation of power, there is check and balance.

LittleGiant: Mahathir has once again conveniently forgotten the fact that during his 22 years of premiership, it was not just limitations on democracy but he had also imposed some extraordinary limitations on democratic principles and democratic functions in the country.

The nation's judiciary is still struggling to fully regain its dignity and freedom, which it lost during his tenure as PM.

Of course, it is true that democracy would not bring goodness if people thought only of freedom without responsibilities.

But is it not the democratic freedom and rights of the people to express their disappointment, frustration and anger to oust irresponsible and uncouth politicians?

It is not the common man but more often than not democracy is thoroughly abused by politicians who have the arrogance to think that they have the right of freedom to say and do anything and everything and get away with it.

Boonpou: Mahathir has no idea or even the shallowest understanding of democracy.

Democracy, besides being a modern form of governance, is also an idea. It is an ideal that if practice properly, demands freedom of speech, action, but also, responsibilities.

Responsibilities from the people as well as the state. Notice the hyphen between nation and state? Nation-state in any democratic form is a contract between the people and the state. It calls for mutual protection and responsibility in order to promote freedom and peace.

This is the ideal of democracy, something a true democratic country strives for in practice. What we have in Malaysia is not democracy.

The state and its agents do not protect the people, do not grant its people the freedom of expression, and so on but continues to plunder the country of its resources in every forms. It started way back, especially since Mahathir's reign.

Hang Babeuf: Too much democracy hampers progress, says Dr M. And these days, many would say, too much of Dr M hampers democracy.

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