Then we have, Ahmad Ismail, an Umno member, who stoked racial flame by his racist remarks.This was followed by an outburst from a member of his entourage, at a press conference who took down the former Penang Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon's portrait and ripped it to half. Later after that, Ahmad Ismail's Umno membership was suspended for 3 years.
Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) was arrested by the Internal Security Act (ISA) and still is in Kamunting Prison. He will be there, indefinitely, for 2 years. According to his wife, Marina Lee Abdullah, he is being held on 4 grounds;
- 2 articles on Islam
- The article on 'Let's Send the Altantuya Murderers to Hell'
- Articles on the Leaders
- Comments posted on the Blog, one of the commentator he mentioned was Anti Anti-Hadith who he has his own blog.
- Tan Hoon Cheng, a reporter for the Sin Chew Daily News
- Teresa Kok, Member of Parliament for Seputeh who is also Assemblyman for Kinrara
- Syed Azidi Syed Aziz, a blogger also known as Kickdefella
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, attempted a political coup to wrest power from Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. He even set the date at September 16 as the day that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would govern the country. The date's significance was to commemorate the merger of Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak which formed the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. That particular issue is still in debate as we speak; 51 years or 45 years?
Anyway, Anwar was eventually dealt with a setback. The reason given was that Pak Lah refused to meet up and discuss the transition of power. Anwar then went for a September 23 deadline, where PR would demand for a motion of no confidence against the leadership of the prime minister at parliament. That too was to no avail. I guess nobody wanted to open the doors for that day... By then the momentum of March 8 Election and August 26 By-election slowed nearly to a stand-still.
Before the setback of September 16 was settling in, SAPP announced its walk-out from the BN coalition on September 17. The decision of majority of its members met was with disagreement with the minority members of the party. This led to the resignations of senior leaders like Raymond Tan, Tham Nyip Shen and others from SAPP. Currently, Raymond Tan is still Deputy Chief Minister while Tham Nyip Shen resigned as Technology Advisor to the Chief Minister. There were more but I didn't care to keep track (Hey, it's my blog! I'm entitled not to keep track on matters that are of little interest to me...)
Most of the members of the party participated in mass resignations from all government related position. And now SAPP waits. The actions of this political party has won many admirers. Their future in politics is secured as they now have the support of the rakyat.
Meanwhile another Sabah BN component party, UPKO, showed its displeasure of the treatment rendered by the National Registration Department (NRD) to 78-year-old Yong Hua @ Piang Lin, a Sino-Kadazan, by transforming her from a Sabahan Bumiputra into a Permanent Resident (PR). This means that she holds a red IC and she is visitor in her own home.
Yong said;
"I asked the officer why it was red and she replied that for senior citizens who lost their IC, the department would normally replace them with red ICs,"26 September 2008, Daily Express
When he was approached to comment, UPKO Deputy President Wilfred Bumburing had this to say;
"If the NRD or government has no satisfactory answer, I strongly urge UPKO to seriously to review its position in the BN because an identification document is a very important matter as it shows their sense of belonging" 27 September 2008, Daily Express.
The NRD later issued a statement that said it detected some flaws in the blue Identity Card of Yong. Its public relations officer Janisah Mohd Noor stated that the flaw was found out after studying the document of the holder. She however never elaborated any further.
Around this time, on September 26, the UMNO Supreme Council decided that its AGM will be put off to March 2009 while their division meetings are to proceed as scheduled on October 9. It was widely speculated that Pak Lah might not defend his position as UMNO President in the wake of the party's uprising against his leadership. Pak Lah had since then swapped his Ministry of Finance portfolio for Najib's Ministry of Defence portfolio. Over at Kickdefella, the blogger has a theory that Pak Lah wanted the Defence Ministry so that his son, Kamaluddin would profit from the Eurocopter deal. Kamaluddin would stand to make RM250 Million per annum for the next 30 years.
As I go through the posts that I have placed here, I can't help noticing that the nation is undergoing a lot of political discontent, confusion and instability. I hope that most of these many many issues will be resolved in the coming days. I feel as though the country has lost its direction. I remember during the Mahathir Era, everybody had dreams and purposes to fulfill and were encouraged to see them through. We were always looking forward for the future. Whether you liked him or not, Tun M while he was pro-Malay he never once neglected the other races. He couldn't please everybody (who could have?) but he tried his best to be fair. He had his moments and he may had been autocratic but he never treated power as casually as the current PM is doing. Especially when it comes to family members. I tend to shiver every time I imagine a certain future 40-year-old power crazy politician finally becomes Prime Minister...
And the story...
...pauses for the moment.
Tomorrow is Hari Raya Aidil Fitri and I like to wish you all Selamat Hari Raya! Happy holidays everybody and please drive safely!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment