I was away over the weekend and therefore missed the Nomination Day Carnival. I had to surf overtime to now read the events of the weekend. My first objective was to see how much changes have been made to rejuvenate UMNO. Change has been the buzzword, not only within the ruling party but also the opposition.
After going through the list of candidates, I am most disappointed. Why are some of the former Ministers still contesting after so many years of service? Doesn't the ruling party have a succession plan in place? Why are the MPs who show no respect to our intelligence still contesting?
The former MP of Shah Alam is almost 70 and still refuse to relinquish the seat to some one younger. What else can he expect to contribute? And if the PM thinks that he will not appoint this guy as Minister in his next Cabinet, why the hell should be contesting in the first place. If he was already a Minister before, giving him just an MP post will definitely not motivate him to work. Might as well give a young leader a chance to experience Parliament. I really hope the people of Shah Alam will send to Parliament somebody who will contribute and show wrong UMNO has been in this case. If the so-called "educated" people of Shah Alam cannot be counted upon to do this, there is little hope for us.
I also read somewhere that the Elections Commission introduced a new ruling whereby the nomination papers must be stamped. This directive was given out on Thursday, 3 days before nomination day. Given that the East Coast states have their weekends on Friday and Saturday and the nomination is on Sunday, it sure looks like EC is trying to pull a fast one on the east coast candidates (be it opposition or the ruling party). Why they did this is anybody's guess, though the opposition is saying that it was aimed at them. As it turned out, it was the ruling party that had problems complying with this last minute ruling. Apparently a few BN candidates in Trengganu failed to get their forms stamped. It must be because, the party took a long time to decide on their candidates as there were too much lobbying. When the opposition protested, the EC officials came out with a new ruling which said that the earlier ruling (issued 2 days earlier) had been rescinded. Funny though, the new ruling was dated on Saturday, when offices are supposed to be closed. Moreover, the opposition parties were not even given a copy. If this was planned to sabotage somebody I would just like to remind the perpetrators that you would need to seek forgiveness from the people being sabotaged (and this include the voters) before God will even consider forgiving you. I pray that the voters will decide to correct the wrong that had been intended on these candidates.
Earlier, I did not have too much hope on this election to provide a platform for change. But after my visit to Kelantan and Trengganu over the CNY and the latest developments, I'm more optimistic.
4 comments:
Sdr. Hussin,
It is the trend now that when you retire an old soldier he must be replaced with the son,daughter or son or daughter inlaws. I guess this old politician for Shah Alam dont have any children capable of replacing yet so they atill keep for another term.
To rejuvenate you must put in a new blood not someone new with the old blood. The PM himself set the trend so others will just follow. It has been this way all the time.
We need to vote for change. We need to deny BN a clean sweep as they did in the last election. They can still get the 2/3 majority but that should just be 2/3 and nothing more. A strong message should be conveyed to them not to take all of us for granted. The YB VIPs should be told that tax payers are not going to continue paying for their extravaganzas. In addition to the Shah Alam hopeful MP candidate, the likes of Nazri, KJ and ZAM should not be the one deciding ours and our children future. Unfortunately they are still many Melayu who cant think rationally and critically. Asyik akur sahaja ... ikut membabi buta.
As for the stamping, unfortunately I know who did it. He is a close of friend of mine, a lawyer who was appointed by UMNO Johor to handle the filling up of the nomination forms. He found the loophole in the Election Act that requires the nomination form to be stamped but was not clearly spelled out by SPR. Initially they (UMNO bossses and SPR) wanted to use that as their weapon to disqualify oppositions' nomination who fail to stamp it and thus get a clean sweep. I told him that if this were to happen he can expect the worst riot, worst than May 13 and HINDRAF, to happen on 9 Feb.
I really dont understand the reason for the out-going MPs to get their son or in-law to replace them. Pak Lah has no choice but to endorse it or his KJ will not get a chance. How could they take this as their own family business. How could Chua Soi Lek's son get to stand?
The incumbent MP for Shah Alam is a dinosaur from TDM's era. Perhaps they have already figured that BN is going to lose Shah Alam this time anyway, so why not let the old guy take the rap?
Sdr. Hussin.
May I address mokhlis. Thanks for the exposure and that seems to be the most palusible reason for the inclusion. Luckily their own candidates were caught by the trap and thus another unprecedented rioting was avoided. Some people are blinded by the desire to impress the powers that be so that they can promote themselves to remain relevant.
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