What is Happening in Perak?

As reported by Malaysiakini. People voice their opinions on what is happening in Perak.

Spokenthots: Another successful, BN project - capture Perak at all cost. The people are expendable and don't worry about the Perakians, they will get over it.After all, Malaysians are very forgiving. Give them a project and they will forgive you. Superb training over the last 50 years. Don't worry about all the technicalities, BN can resolve them to stay in power.Pakatan wake up, you don't rule anymore and your Perak assembly is no more sacred. The sanctity of that institution is no longer visible.Neutral bodies are roped in to do the unthinkable. What to do but vote Pakatan at the next general election. Enough of this nonsense by BN.Perakians will awaken from their peaceful slumber and there will hell to pay for all that is taking place today. A true and great Perakian son, Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin will bring back justice to this proud state.Stand fast Nizar, for you stand at the threshold of history as a true son of Perak. Fighting for her abandoned people.

Chipmunk: Truly another new chapter by Malaysians for Malaysians (or is it for BN by BN)? Never in history did we have double dose of laughter, sadness, resentment as in this Perak state assembly episode.BN seems to have been prepared with their ‘gangsters' and cronies but one can never take away the hearts of the people, the rakyat.I guess it's countdown for Perakians and BN. As long as their so-called elected reps don't bother to practice self-restraint and continue to be arrogant, BN will only lose the battle.

Chan Kong Art: The sultan allowed this to happen and now it is now not going according to plan so the only right thing to do now is to end it.BN was given his ‘blessings' to take over, and nothing has come of it. And after BN ‘seized the chair' they have not managed the state assembly.So morally, the sultan must end it. Call PM Najib Abdul Razak in, like the last time but this time do the correct thing. Let the rakyat decide.

Jefferson76: If you need 20 ‘guards' to protect you as you sit on the speaker's chair, then you don't belong there!

Lim Chong Leong: The whole Perak state has been taken over illegally and by ‘gangsters' using brute force. We may have to learn from history and from countries like France or Russia to regain the people's rights. Rise, Perakians.

Gk: Seriously, the Perak sultan needs to do something concrete to end this fiasco. We cannot ignore how foreigners look upon Malaysia now. With this fiasco prolonged, not only Perak is affected but the whole of Malaysia too. Please do something, sir.

Chee Hoe Siew: I am following the development with much concern. While both parties fight, those who suffer are the people. I think it is time for both teams to sit down and talk, remove their party lines and think of the welfare of the people.

John Smith: Pakatan Rakyat, you are being unfairly treated by people who are not following the rules. I suggest you all resign today in protest.You cannot get the Perak assembly dissolved; but at least by putting almost half the seats up for by-elections together, you dissolve half of it to seek a clear fresh mandate.

Job: Oh, my god! These PKR guys as my state reps? What have we done? I cannot understand the logic of their behavior today, behaving as if they are the legitimate government.Is serving the people who voted for them not an issue anymore? My rep is nowhere to be seen. Isn't waiting for the next general election (no matter when it comes) not better for them if what they say is true?They should win 57 seats at least. No! The grand plan is to upset every state assembly held till polling time so they can remind the people.Funny, but the last time I checked, their popularity is waning. I, for one, don't like the position taken by them today at all. One vote lost.

Fly Emirates: I have given up on Malaysia. Najib Razak - you can fool some people sometimes, but you cannot fool them all the time.Bet you Lee Kuan Yew is laughing his socks out how stupid Malaysia has become lately. Seems like foreign and local investors are agreeing with him too with the poor foreign investment figures.

National Sucks: The people of Perak have been deprived of their fundamental rights as a citizen. This state has been placed under politicians and their cronies who have no fear or love for God.This will turn out to be the biggest joke of the year. Najib Razak preaches ‘1Malaysia' but the things that he does and condones simply tells you he is a hypocrite.Louis: Why not settle the issue once and for all and call for a fresh election? I hope the sultan hears our plea.We, as the rakyat, feel so ashamed of BN highhandedness and we do hope His Highness sees it the same way.

Satu Lagi Project Barisan Nasional

Malaysians are reaping the fruit of corruption? I wonder whether proper inspection was conducted by JKR before the government allowed the bridge to be used by the public?


It's sad and I grief for the parents who have to endure such pains.

I have a daughter also. And I would rather her go to jail than going to this stupid camp. I just don't have the confidence and trust in whatever the government says or does anymore.

BN, have you found your conscience?

Transforming Malaysian Economy - An Interview with Michael Spence

Prof Michael Spence, Nobel Prize winner for Economics in 2001, talks about China's experiences of becoming a developed country, and Malaysia's challenges of doing the same. There is a need to shift the focus from industries that do not add value and do not contribute to Malaysia's competitive edge. While there could be strategic reasons to focus on the automotive sector, he does not think it's a good idea to do so, and does not agree with protectionism measures.

"The Sun still Shines"

Bagan Pinang by-election produced one of the most disappointing result, it's a big blow to our fragile democracy. Every where people are real scare of speaking up because they are scare of losing their job or their livelihood. I can only guess that people are actually know what is going on in this country but are just do not have the courage to speak up. This reminds me of Sophia Scholl - the member of the resistance group in Nazi Germany. And now I reproduce some of the writing about her from Wikipedia.

On February 21, 1943, Scholl was recorded as saying "Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just do not dare express themselves as we did."

Sophia Magdalena Scholl (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) was active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of high treason after having been found distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich with her brother Hans. As a result, they were both executed by guillotine.

Her last words were "How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?"

Please go to the site to read more about her. A very inspiring story.

On the eve of BP by election

Bagan Pinang, the whole nation is looking to you to do the right thing by voting out money politics.

Just do it!

"BN Governs by the Momentum of the Past" - Anwar Ibrahim

Pakatan will not fall apart, vows Anwar
Terence Netto Oct 2, 09 7:38am, MalaysiaKini

Pausing on a two-week tour of the lecture circuit in the United States earlier this week, PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim told a crowd of Malaysian businessmen and professionals in Milpitas, a trendy suburb in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley, that while Pakatan Rakyat may fray around the edges, it is resolute at the centre.

“Things may fray around the edges but the centre will hold,” opined the opposition leader to a crowd of about 150 at the Penang Garden Restaurant on the eve of a lecture he was scheduled to deliver at the University of California in Berkeley. Anwar told a crowd obviously eager to know the reason behind what is seen in some quarters as his blithe indifference to skirmishing among Pakatan’s lesser lights: “The leadership council in Pakatan is committed to seeing the coalition hold firm against fraying tendencies at the edges. I believe the centre will hold, that things will not fall apart.” Anwar added that the entire weight of the mainstream media is being used to paint the opposition as fractious and unable to govern.

“It is conveniently forgotten,” asserted Anwar, “that there is not only wide disarray in the ruling coalition’s ranks, there is reason to believe it could also split asunder.” He iterated there was firm agreement that all major policy decisions be made in the Pakatan leadership council comprising top leaders of the three component parties - PKR, DAP and PAS. “This is the solder, this is the glue that holds the coalition together,” he emphasised. “There’s no wavering on this cardinal principle, which is why I’m confident that the centre will hold despite outbursts and skirmishes now and then by individual operatives on the periphery of this coalition,” explained Anwar.

He claimed the ruling BN was governing by the “momentum of the past”. “But governments not only subsist by momentum of the past, but also by mastery of the present and by projection of credible hope for the future,” observed Anwar. “The BN is floundering in the face of its current challenges and it cannot project hope for the future,” he remarked. Riding the wave of changeHe said the forces of history were in favour of change in Malaysia and he believed Pakatan was riding that wave of change.

He referred to Japan where the political status quo was long regarded as immutable only for the long reigning Liberal Democratic Party to be swept from power in August after 54 years. “Why should Malaysia be the exception to a worldwide democratic order of change?” asked Anwar rhetorically of an audience that rose to cheer him at the end of his speech. The event’s organisers were pleased with the turnout. William Devabalan, who had worked with Sim Tze Tzin, the PKR assemblyman for Pantai Jerejak (Penang) when the latter worked in recent years as an engineer in the Bay Area, said: “There has been a lot of excitement since the elections last year among Malaysians living in California. We want to find more ways to be involved in the efforts to bring about change and this is our small way of contributing.” After dinner, it was agreed that a Keadilan Chapter for Bay Area would be established to corral support from expatriate Malaysians.

Earlier, Anwar spoke after prayers at Muslim Community Association mosque in Santa Clara where he dwelt on themes he has often explored in his travels - that Muslims must engage with the forces of modernity or risk being fossilised by an irrevocable past. A number of Malaysians also attended the event, including some former students of the International Islamic University in Gombak who had attended lectures given by Anwar when he was president of that institution during a senior stint in the cabinet.