Here are the headlines from yesterday may have missed, in brief.

Multi-cornered fights in twin by-elections

The Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar twin by-elections will witness a three-cornered fight and a four-way tussle respectively, with the candidates being registered after nominations closed at 10am yesterday.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang brushed off speculation that the party will deliberately lose the both the by-elections in favour of the BN, arguing that PAS would go all out to fight BN's candidates in both Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar. He vowed not to give way to anyone.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad stayed coy on whether he would campaign in the twin by-elections, or disclose which party he would support. Instead, he said he "may" campaign in the by-elections, and would support any party that has signed the Citizens' Declaration.

 

 

Crime is the disease, hudud is the cure

Last night Hadi likened stealing to a disease that only amputation of limbs under hudud can cure. Using the analogy of diabetes, he questioned why nobody criticises doctors for committing an act of cruelty when they amputate to cure the patients.

In response Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang tweeted that diabetics need not resort to amputation in these modern times, as there are other medications now including insulin. "We have to move with times," he wrote taking a swipe at Hadi.

PAS kicked off its campaigning with the Kuala Kangsar Chinese community by asking them to give hudud a try, so that their womenfolk or 'Ah moi' can walk the streets safely without being harassed.

 

 

Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) president Adenan Satem said that the party will not support Hadi's Private Member's Bill seeking to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdictions) Act 1965 to pave way for the implementation of hudud, the Islamic penal code.

Keris makes PAS more ‘colourful’

Weighing in to deflect brickbats thrown at Hadi over the replica keris fracas, a party vice-president, Idris Ahmad, said that there is nothing wrong with his boss brandishing the oversized mock Malay dagger, as it makes for a more colourful political landscape.

The longer the keris, the more nationalist the party, jibes Mahathir, chiding PAS for trying to be more nationalist than Umno. The former Umno president said PAS used to criticise Umno for being nationalist, but now the Islamist party is brandishing a longer keris than the Malay nationalist party.

Mahathir also denied being taken aback by the activist Fahmi Reza’s colouring book that featured his likeness, giving the middle finger and labelled "D for Diktator", pointing out that his successor Najib Abdul Razak, who got "K for Korruptor", had it worse in the colouring book.

More Kini bites

'I'll be back,' says an unfazed Fahmi after he was released from police detention early yesterday for selling T-shirts featuring the clown-faced likeness of Najib, vowing that he will not be deterred from fighting corruption and that if one penghasut goes down, hundreds more will replace him.

It is up the people of Johor - not the prime minister or the Yang Dipertuan Agong - whether or not Johor should secede from Malaysia, said the former editor of The Malay Mail, Ahirudin Attan, in response to a Facebook post from Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim on the matter.

Yesterday Malaysiakini featured an excerpt from the book GILA, "Who cares for the caregivers?" focusing on one of the tales in the book that looks at the trials and tribulations of mental care patients in Malaysia and those who are close to, or care for them.

Feisty book-loving blind activist Mohd Rosli Ibrahim, who now fights for the disabled, recalls how his lonely childhood, spent after being ostracised for being born visually impaired, helped inculcate his fighting spirit and all consuming love for all things literary.

Looking Ahead

Today is the first day of the of holy month of Ramadan on the Muslim Lunar Calendar, and the first day of this year's puasa as Muslims start to observe the fast.

It is also the first day of the nearly two week-campaign period for the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections.

The sedition trial for political cartoonist Zunar's record nine charges under the restrictive law, which may see him put away in jail for 43 years altogether, will begins today in the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur.

Fahmi is also to be charged at the Jalan Duta Court complex today for two counts of hurting someone's feelings when he distributed the clown-faced likeness of Najib online.