Wednesday 20 August 2008

Permatang Pauh: Claims, counter charges and the goodies roll in …

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said he amended the Education Act while he was Education Minister in 1996 to ensure that Chinese schools were recognised as part of the national education system.

When PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was Education Minister, he did not dare make such a decision because he wanted to remain popular with the Malays, (read here) he said.

“So please believe me when I say that we will be fair to the Chinese. Universiti Teknologi Mara should not be an issue,” he told the Chinese community in Butterworth in reference to Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim's proposal to allocate 10% of the university's intake to non-bumiputras.

During the function, Najib also approved a RM500,000 allocation requested by the villagers for an indoor basketball court. He also said there would be good news in the 2009 Budget.

On Sunday Najib made a plea to the Indian and Chinese voters to support the Barisan Nasional by voting in its candidate, Arif Shah, and to reject the Opposition.

Admitting that that they had been abandoned by the coalition, he told them not to gamble the future of their children by supporting the opposition candidate who had been making false promises.

The BN, he said, would champion the Indian and Chinese communities' cause in the constituency as they had been neglected by the opposition. (The PKR has been holding Permatang Pauh Parliamentary seat since the 1999 G.E)

This what he had promised, in particular to the Indian voters that:

* a newly-set special cabinet committee to look after the well-being of the Indian community increase the educational opportunities of the Indian community,
* vocational and skills training courses were conducted for those living in the estates.
* Tamil primary schools with less than 50 students each were to be merged to enable the government provide better facilities for the students.

He also announced aid for six Chinese primary schools. (Malaysiakini - Goodies roll in, RM1 mil for Chinese schools).

Below is an excerpt from Malaysiakini
Goodies roll in…from all sides

On the PKR front, Anwar Ibrahim made an impromptu visit to Kampung Jalan Baru in Seberang Jaya, where some 100 households were affected by the flash flood.

During his brief visit, the opposition leader made a few stops at some houses and visited the affected families.

After he left, a team led by the party’s Kedah chief senator Zamri Yusuf handed out rice packets and hampers to the families amounting to about RM6,000. However, no cash was given.

Zamri told reporters that the aid was from a donation drive initiated by party members after the incident yesterday.

Also present was PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. The former MP for Permatang Pauh said this was not an unusual practice as she used to give out such aid in her capacity as a parliamentarian before.

A check with the locals however revealed that they have not received such aid before, apart from a sum of RM300 they had allegedly received from Arif Shah during the 2004 general election.

Anwar launches election slogan

Earlier today, Anwar launched his election slogan called 'mermerdekakan rakyat’ (independence for the people) at an event held in Seberang Jaya witnessed by about 200 supporters.

Standing on a lorry and against the backdrop of a huge board carrying the words ‘this country does not belongs to Umno or BN, it belongs to the rakyat,’ Anwar appealed to the voters to make the right choice.

The opposition leader said somebody asked him why he chose the slogan since the country had gained independence 50 years ago.

"I said the independence is not for ministers or son-in-laws, it should be for the people," he told the audience. He then led the crowd in chanting ‘merdeka’ three times.

At a press conference later, he said Pakatan Rakyat will review projects which do not benefit the rakyat should it come into power.

As examples, he cited the RM15.2 billion high-speed broadband service project announced recently, the double-tracking railway and the undersea cable projects.

"(These projects are awarded) at a time when people complain of suffering and when the economy is not picking up, they (the leaders) are losing their sense of priority," he said.

Under the Election Offences Act 1954, a candidate cannot spend more than RM200,000 to contest a parliamentary seat and RM100,000 to contest a state seat.

However, there is a grey area on whether the allocation or goodies handed out by the candidate’s party during election campaigns contradicts any election law.

The Election Commission has previously argued that these developmental allocations are not a form of bribery.

Read The Ancient Mariner's take : Now or never here and Magick River's Trawling the Malaysian Blogosphere here.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

ASK THE CHINESE TO TRUST HIM?

AIN'T HE THAT GUY WHO WANTED TO ANNIHILATE ALL THE CHINESE IN THIS COUNTRY OR DID WE HEARD WRONGLY?

ONE THING WE WANTED TO SAY : GO EAT SHIT & DIE IN HELL!!!

^^^SAYNOMORE

Anonymous said...

it's true that back when Anwar was the Education Minister,he didnt made such any big impact.The most obvious and most famous improvement that he made was introducing "bahasa baku".

Definitely BN made a smart move by announcing
the allocation and other initiatives to help the non-malays.Meanwhile Anwar said that he's gonna review the big projects as soon as he'll become the next PM.

Anonymous said...

Politicians can always dream about anything which favors the rakyat, but could not walk the talk as expected. ANWAR can talk big to review mega projects and bundle of promises more to rakyat, but the promises done in the state has yet to be fulfill. So why the hell want to talk big about making promise for the country?

But again, this is just a psychological tactics to fear the current government.

Anonymous said...

i agree with chua tan poh.
Anwar is known to be a populist politician.
It's very Anwar for him to sow 'sweet things' to rakyat. But for him to walk the talk will be like once i a blue moon perhaps?

Anonymous said...

Anwar can promie all he wants but he doesn't deliver.

Simply because he is technically incompetent and not maticulous enough to understand what promises are feasible and deliverable.

Anwar's way conduct of meeting with disputes is to brush everything aside. Problems will only pile up and brush aside.

Sometimes I wonder what has got into the so-called cleverer-than-Malay brains of the non-Malays.

He is not the saviour of Malaysia but a trouble maker that disrupts the peace and prosperity of this country.

Anonymous said...

You can forget abt whether SPR will monitor the spending limits. If at all, they will monitor opposition's ones but never BN's. We are so used to it now. On UITM issue as raised by Najib, it's a pity that Khalid doesn't even have the right to make suggestion, whereas Mahathir had got every right to bulldoze everybody when he opened MRSM doors to non-Malays in 2002. Where were the voices of so-called defenders of Malay rights? No demonstration unlike almost daily demonstration against Khalid. Wondering if they got permits. What happens to ITU BUKAN BUDAYA KITA?

frm: non-hypocrite

Starmandala said...

The "Magick" in "Magick River" is spelt with a K, sweet mama! Thanks for the link, though there's no reference to the Perak PKR exco arrest in that post. Tulang Besi has the dirt on this Umno sting carried out by the Perak ACA (whose chief just happens to LOVE Rafidah Aziz :-) BTW how can I apply to be added to your blogroll? ;-)

Starmandala said...

Just read the other comments on this post. Hmmm... seems like I'm surrounded by Old Paradigmers who are terrified of Anwar as PM. Guess they'd rather maintain the Status Quo - but with a stronger Opposition to keep BN's corruption under control.
Well, I fully support a TOTAL CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT - the sooner the better! :-)

maria a samad (kak ton) said...

Hi antares,

Sorry about the mispelling. Correction done. And I've added you to my list. I intended to anyway. :)

About Tulang Besi, I've already linked that particular entry of his to my latest posting.

Anonymous said...

Anybody could do that if we have the power. Najib has no essence other than offering cash rewards. As DPM what was he doing all this while not attending to rakyat in Permatang Pauh if he was sincere?

I have the urge to use words no less than ba***** when calling Najib. He is so explicit even at this stage using his only known method to win votes. Bribing Us Malaysians!

suresh