Winds of change

Malaysia's Elections Commission has transformed vote-rigging and gerrymandering into an art form.

In 1969, the opposition garnered 55.1% of the votes but still the ruling party got in, though minus its two-thirds. In 1999, the opposition garnered 46% of the votes and still the ruling party got in, and with a two-thirds majority on top of that. Since 1969 and 1999, the Elections Commission has 'fine-tuned' the gerrymandering so that the opposition will need 60% of the votes to form the government, and even then it is not sure if it will form the government with a two-thirds majority. That is what the opposition is up against. So, even if the Malays, Chinese and Indians unite as a solid front, it will still not be enough. There must be one more factor thrown in, the faktor dalaman or internal factor -- the element of sabotage within the ranks of Barisan Nasional.

Shahidan Kassim was dropped from the candidates' list and thereby would have to retire as the Menteri Besar of Perlis as well. He stormed into Abdullah's office in Putrajaya and only after the seventh attempt was he able to meet the Prime Minister. Under immense pressure and Shahidan's threat of handing the state over to the opposition, Abdullah relented and reluctantly gave him back his seat. This upset Umno's Secretary-General who had been trying to get rid of Shahidan because of his many sex scandals, the latest involving a very young girl who was forced to have an abortion to get rid of Shahidan's baby she was carrying.

the opposition would need 75 seats to deny Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in Parliament.



one of its comment:

written by Uncorruptible, March 02, 2008 | 17:48:43

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is now Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. I don't know how he got his doctorate degree, but let me tell you how he got his masters degree as told by one of his course mates. He enrolled in the UKM for his masters and during his studies, he was put together in group of five to do the course work. However, he hardly attended to the studies, and never did any course work with his group. His group was naturally upset, but decided to carry on the work and submitted the work to the professor including his name. The reason why he didn't do any work was because he had hardly any knowledge of English. The professor knew, but at the end of the course decided to award him a pass to save him embarrassment. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was furious and went to see the professor telling him that he (Ahmad) cannot accept a pass. The professor, as he later told his students, was shaken and so intimidated that he finally awarded Ahmad Zahid Hamidi an honours masters degree. So this is the type of professors we have at the UKM. And this is the standard of the bn leaders of our beloved Malaysia.



from: Malaysia Today