Khairy, Shahrizat and Rosnah win in party polls

A new era begin in UMNO Youth and Wanita when both went through the democratic process. The delegates think through carefully and vote in their likeable leaders.

Khairy Jamaluddin has won the Umno Youth chief's post after polling 304 votes out of the 793 possible votes, defeating narrowly Mukhriz Mahathir and early front runner Khir Toyo in the stiffest ever battle for the post.

Shahrizat Jalil trounced Rafidah Aziz to win the Wanita Umno chief's post, polling 507 votes against the loser's 280 votes. The defeat for Rafidah, 66, seems to be the closing chapter for her.

Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin has been elected the new Puteri Umno chief, polling 245 votes to beat five other candidates at the movement's elections.

Nik Aziz turns down his own decision by giving his blessing to Nizar

Pas spiritual leader Nik Aziz originally questioned the decision of fielding Nizar as the candidate in the Bukit Gantang by-election suddenly made a u-turn and change the decision to turn down his own decision by giving his blessing.


Nik Aziz

This is something that irks his supporters, who has all the while felt that he has a major influence on the party decision-making process.

Undeniably, the blessing had shown how inconsistency of the PAS spiritual leader is.

The political scenario seeming that he is totally removed from the party decision making process. This is merely a feed to give him the information after the decision has been made. The party had rejected the spiritual leader’s preferred candidate for the Kuala Terengganu by-election in January, caused tension among the party members.

Many of his supporters were unhappy over the Kuala Terengganu incident despite the Pas leadership having evidently made the right decision in not fielding Vice-president Mohamad Sabu as recommended by Nik Aziz.

It is reported that Pas spiritual adviser Nik Aziz has given his blessing for former Perak Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin to contest in the April 7 Bukit Gantang by-election. He said Nizar who is the party's deputy commissioner for the state was the right candidate to face Barisan Nasional in the constituency.

Nik Aziz who is Kelantan Menteri Besar said last month that he could not agree to the suggestion that Nizar be fielded in the Bukit Gantang by-election since the Pas and its opposition allies still regarded Nizar as Perak Menteri Besar.

"I have contacted Nizar and bless his nomination to contest," he told reporters after receiving a visit from Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia Ashok K. Kantha at his office.

PAS running the risk of angering Nik Aziz’s supporters

Former Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin has been chosen as the PAS candidate for the Bukit Gantang parliamentary by-election on 7 April.

Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang made the announcement this evening at a ceramah in Simpang, near Taiping.

However, it is reported that Nizar’s candidacy is opposed by Nik Aziz as he should focus on getting back his deposed Perak state government.

The question remains: Is PAS running the risk of angering Nik Aziz’s supporters?

To political analysis the political landscape in Perak is changing drastically under new Menteri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir as the people had been upset with the PAS leadership for being the DAP's stooge.

Mohammad Nizar, who is Perak PAS deputy commissioner, is also the Pasir Panjang state assemblyperson. He is one of four potential candidates considered for the seat.

He was chosen as Perak Menteri Besar after the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition wrested the state from the Barisan Nasional (BN) in the 8 March 2008 general election.

Nizar, 52, is also the deputy PAS commissioner of Perak a and state assemblyman for Pasir Panjang.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) has named Ismail Saffian, 49, the former Bukit Gantang Umno information chief, as its candidate for the by-election.

The by-election is necessitated by the death of its Member of Parliament Roslan Shahrom of PAS on Feb 9. In the general election held in March last year, Roslan defeated the BN's Datuk Seri Abdul Azim Zabidi Roslan by a majority of 1,566 votes while an independent candidate, M. Mogan, secured only 882 votes and lost his deposit.

Anwar Ibrahim announced Jawah for Batang Ai by-election

PKR has named former five-term Lubok Antu Member of Parliament Jawah Gerang as its candidate for the Batang Ai by-election on April 7, PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced in Kuching.


Jawah Gerang

Gerang, 55, is a degree holder in economics from Universiti of Malaya. The former bank officer joined PKR recently after he was dropped by the Barisan Nasional coalition in last year’s parliamentary election.

Gerang, who was a senior leader in the now defunct Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), was chosen over PKR state deputy chief Nicholas Bawin.

Batang Ai is one of the two state seats in the Lubok Antu parliamentary constituency. The other is Engkilili.

Gerang will face Barisan newcomer and engineer Malcolm Mussen Lamoh in the contest.

Fairus quits as Penang Deputy Chief Minister shown Anwar’s inability

Penang Deputy Chief Minister I Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin has resigned effective April 8. He also quit his position as state executive councilor.

The incident shown Anwar’s inability and he is not fit to lead the Pakatan Rakyat.

Anwar Ibrahim

It was reported that his resignation is due to the state PKR’s internal investigations into allegations that two of their leaders were involved in illegal activities with quarry operators.

However, De factor PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told reporters that Fairus, who has two Masters Degrees, had received offers for further studies and planned to take up one of those offers.

The resignation of Penang Deputy Chief Minister I Fairus Khairuddin is one of the latest embarrassments which have threatened the existence of opposition alliance.

Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin

It was reported that Fairus was known to have under allegations of under-performance, clashes with other PKR members and most recently, misuse of power. He enjoyed the trappings of power but did very little work as Penang state Deputy Chief Minister. He was frequently absent from state executive council meetings and had little to contribute. He hardly turned up at his constituency to serve the voters.

Ironically, of all the major problems faced by the Pakatan Rakyat since its formation last year, Parti Keadilan Rakyat would stand out as the source of much that ails the opposition alliance.

The scandals have seen PR lose the momentum it had gained against the ruling Barisan Nasional since last year’s March 8 general election.

From being on the cusp of power, the PR alliance is now faced with the growing pains it cannot afford if it is to have any chance of being a serious and viable alternative to BN.

It is crystal clear that PKR is the source of most of PR’s problems. It is the major challenges which threaten to derail a stunning political comeback by Anwar, who was sacked as deputy premier in 1998 under Mahathir and jailed on sodomy and corruption allegations that he said were politically motivated.

The above scenario clearly shown Anwar’s inability and he is not fit to lead the Pakatan Rakyat.

The question remains: Do we still want to support Pakatan Rakyat lead by Anwar or otherwise?

PKR name ordinary member Manikumar for Bukit Selabau by-election

S. Manikumar, 35, an ordinary PKR member from Sungai Petani, has been picked as the party’s candidate for the Bukit Selambau by-election.

S. Manikumar

PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim made the announcement, however, the announcement was greeted by howls of protest from some PKR supporters. These supporters - numbering about 20 - were from the Merbok division, which had previously backed its division committee member, K. Masilamani.

The question arises: Is it wise to nominate the candidate that is so unpopular?

It was reported that they are unhappy with Manikumar’s nomination as he is an unknown and was not a local born but was born in Alor Star. Before the announcement, Masilamani, a Sungai Petani municipal councillor, was among three front runners to be the party’s candidate .

The other two were Sungai Petani PKR division member Dr R Krishnamoorthy and the division’s committee member S Sritharan. Manikumar Subramaniam, a multi-lingual entrepreneur, has a tourism management degree and an MBA from Universiti Utara Malaysia, joined PKR two years ago and is a first time election candidate.

He is married to a secondary school teacher and they have a six-year-old daughter. The native of Alor Setar, who speaks Spanish and is fluent with local dialects, had previously worked as a marketing consultant for companies in Thailand and Tanzania.

Zaid urges King not to make Najib PM is political motivated

A person is innocent until proven guilty in the court. In the case of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, what is raised is merely a high-level political plot.

Speculation, rumors and allegations cannot influence the reality and the decision made has to be based on strong evidence against an individual.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak

The impassioned plea made by the former de facto law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is thus an unusually scathing attack and seems to be politically motivated.

The accusations toward Datuk Seri Najib Razak are baseless, political motivated and unjustified as a person is innocent until proven guilty in the court.

The former de facto law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has made an impassioned plea to the King to not appoint Datuk Seri Najib Razak as prime minister, and instead appoint someone else from Umno "to bring us back from the brink."

Ironically, Malaysia goes by the constitutional monarchy and democratic parliamentary system modeled after the Westminster in the United Kingdom.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia is the indirectly elected head of government of Malaysia. He is formally appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the head of state, and is invariably the leader of the largest party in the House of Representatives, the elected lower house of Parliament.

Prime Minister is a member of the Dewan Rakyat who commands authority over the majority members of the House.

In choosing the Prime Minister, the King of Malaysia appoints the choice of the political party with a majority in the state legislature in accordance to Article 40(2) of the Federal Constitution.

Undeniably, the monarchy has mainly giving its consent to decisions made by the government although the choice of the Prime Minister of Malaysia is at the sole discretion of the King and not to be disputed. The leader of Barisan Nasional has been choosing to administer the country since independence.

It is the largest component party of the National Front formerly known as the Alliance Party until the 1969 general election.

By and large, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should be the next Prime Minister.