BN Admits Complicity In Illegal Practices Constituting Election Offences

Chartered flights paid for by 'friends of BN', says Ku Nan

Malaysiakini 

May 2, 2013

Comments by Sarawak Headhunter in red as usual.

 

BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor has denied PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's claims that "dubious" voters from East Malaysia will be flown in chartered flights to the peninsula to vote on Sunday.

Bernama quoted him as saying that the flights were in fact organised and paid for by "friends of BN" to send "registered" voters back to their hometowns to vote.

Whether or not these are "dubious" voters, paid for by "friends of BN", Tengku Adnan's admission of knowledge of these chartered flights shows BN's complicity in various breaches of section 20 of the Election Offences Act.

"There is no substance whatsoever to opposition allegations that passengers were anything other than registered Malaysian voters," he reportedly said.

Let us hear him and UMNo's Legal Advisers try to establish that there is no substance to Sarawak Headhunter's allegations that these acts are illegal practices constituting election offences under the Election Offences Act, and that BN is complicit in these offences.  

Anwar said his party has obtained photographic and documented evidence that 16 chartered flights have been flying to the peninsula everyday from various locations in East Malaysia.

He also claimed that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was involved in purported operations to fly in the voters.

According to the national news agency, the PMO officials however denied it. In a brief statement, the spokesperson said: "The Prime Minister's Office denies any involvement in these flights."

Meanwhile, Tengku Adnan also reportedly defended the move, saying that it is normal for political parties and NGOs to encourage voters to return to their polling centres.

He claimed that the opposition had chartered buses to ferry voters back from Singapore, and that pro-electoral reform group Bersih had paid to fly Malaysians back from Shanghai and Hong Kong.

"The opposition is casting doubts about the fairness of the electoral system in a cynical attempt to undermine Malaysia’s democracy.

"It is a calculated campaign to discredit the electoral system ahead of the election. The opposition are preparing an excuse for their likely loss," he was quoted as saying.

At a press conference in Petaling Jaya today, Anwar (right) also said that PKR has obtained a copy of email communications within Malaysian Airlines (MAS) that made a direct reference to the PMO in relation to the chartered flights.

MAS has however denied that it is ferrying phantom voters ahead of the polling day.

"MAS wishes to clarify that all chartered flights in the national carrier’s system are commercial chartered flights," The Star Online quoted it as saying today.

Well, this is what section 20 of the Election Offences Act says (relevant portions highlighted):

 

Certain expenditure to be illegal practice

20. (1) No payment or contract for payment shall, for the purpose of promoting or procuring the election of a candidate at any election, be made—

(a) on account of the conveyance of electors or voters to or from the poll, whether for the hiring of vehicles, vessels or animals of transport of any kind whatsoever, or for railway fares, or otherwise; or

So, "friends of BN" have definitely commited an offence here.

 

(b) to or with an elector or voter on account of the use of any house, land, building, or premises for the exhibition of any address, bill, or notice, or on account of the exhibition of any address, bill or notice.

(2) Subject to such exception as may be allowed in pursuance of this Act, if any payment or contract for payment is knowingly made in contravention of this section either before, during, or after an election, the person making such payment or contract shall be guilty of an illegal practice, and any person receiving such payment or being a party to any such contract, knowing the same to be in contravention of this section, shall also be guilty of an illegal practice. 

Under this subsection, not only the persons making such payment or contract ("friends of BN") are guilty but the airlines, being the persons receiving such payment or being a party to any such contract are also guilty of an illegal practice. How many counts of illegal practice will there be, if each passenger is taken into account?

It may also be argued that the passengers themselves are parties to the contract, even though they may not have paid for the fare. They would this be guilty too.

 
(3) A person shall not let, lend, or employ for the purpose of conveyance of electors or voters to and from the poll any vehicle, vessel or animal of transport of any kind whatsoever which he keeps or uses for the purpose of letting out for hire, and if he lets, lends, or employs such vehicle, vessel or animal of transport knowing that it is intended to be used for the conveyance of electors or voters to and from the poll he shall be guilty of an illegal practice.

If somehow the airlines are not caught under subsection (2), they will definitely be caught under subsection (3) above, which is very clear.

(4) A person shall not hire, borrow, or use for the purpose of conveyance of electors or voters to and from the poll any vehicle, vessel or animal of transport of any kind whatsoever which he knows the owner thereof is prohibited by subsection (3) to let, lend, or employ for that purpose, and if he does so he shall be guilty of an illegal practice.

Even if the "friends of BN" make the argument that no payment was made, they cannot escape from subsection (4), which makes it clear that they cannot hire, borrow or use airplanes ("vessels of transport") which the airline owner is prohibited by subsection (30 from letting, lending or employing for the purpose of conveyance of electors or voters.

 

(5) Nothing in subsection (3) or (4) shall prevent a vehicle, vessel or animal of transport of any kind being let to, or hired, employed, or used by an elector or voter or several electors or voters at their joint cost for the purpose of being conveyed to or from the poll.

This is an exception clause where the airplanes may be let to, or hired, employed, or used by electors or voters at their joint cost. Let's see them scramble to arrange this after the fact and condemn themselves in further complicity.

(6) Notwithstanding anything in the preceding provisions of this section—

(a) where it is the ordinary business of an elector or voter as an advertising agent to exhibit for payment, bills and advertisements, a payment to or contract with such elector or voter, if made in the ordinary course of business, shall not be deemed to be an illegal practice within the meaning of this section;

(b) where electors or voters are unable at an election to reach their polling stations from their place or residence without crossing the sea or a branch or arm thereof or a river, means may be provided for conveying such electors or voters to their polling stations, or to enable them to cross the river in order to reach their polling stations, and the amount of payment for such means of conveyance may be in addition to the maximum amount of expenses allowed by this Act:

This is another exception, with a catch:

 

Provided always that such means of conveyance shall be made available equally to all such electors or voters who wish to avail themselves thereof.

If BN or the "friends of BN" have not made available equally such means of conveyance (by air & also by bus probably in this case) to all electors or voters, they are still guilty of an offence in each case.

It would be most interesting to see how BN and the "friends of BN" and also the Elections Commission wriggle out of this predicament.

Portions of the opinion given above were made by a lawyer friend and conveyed through Sarawak Headhunter.

Al Tugauw
Sarawak Headhunter

UMNo/BN's Dirty Tricks to Stop RFM, RFS & Sarawak Report

Radio Free Malaysia, Radio Free Sarawak and Sarawak Report all Hacked

The websites for Radio Free Malaysia, Radio Free Sarawak and the news portal Sarawak Report, which represent free media in Malaysia, have all been subject to relentless DDOS attacks since the beginning of this week.

Today, Thursday 11^th April, the sites were hacked and all three were brought down. The attacks have coincided with various forms of jamming which have been attempted against the broadcasts of both the independent Radio Stations, which operate from outside of Malaysia.

Radio Free Sarawak is at 1100-1300 UTC on 15230 kHz Short Wave and Radio Free Malaysia is at 1300-1500 UTC on 1359 kHz Medium Wave. Both stations are still available on Sound Cloud:

https://soundcloud.com/radiofreesarawak
https://soundcloud.com/radiofreemalaysia

Malaysia, which poses as a democracy, has nevertheless one of the most restrictive medias in the world, dominated by the ruling Barisan National coalition. Widespread access to the internet has broken into that monopoloy over information in recent years, however, evidently causing considerable concern to a government beset by recent scandals and corruption investigations involving senior figures.

Disruption of independent online news portals is regular in Malaysia and entirely expected after the disollution of Parliament finally took place last week, in anticipation of elections due on May 5^th. The human rights organisation Suaram has also been knocked offline as have the news outlets Free Malaysia Today and Malaysian Insider.

The Distributed Denial Of Service (DDOS) attacks have been mounting against the anti-corruption site Sarawak Report for the past few weeks. The site has focused on exposing timber corruption over the past three years, demonstrating how the destruction of the Borneo Jungle has been driven by a small number of politically connected individuals in the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah.

Yesterday, Wednesday 10^th April, the site was targeted by 64 million hits designed to take down its server. The sister sites for the two radio stations received similar attacks. Most of the attacks have radiated out of Russia and Eastern Europe and site administrators were able to fend off the onslaught until the site itself was hacked earlier today.

The NGO Access Now, which campaigns to support freedom of expression on the internet, has moved to assist the websites in their purpose of providing independent news and information to Malaysian voters in the run up to May 5^th.

  

“This is a pretty typical pattern for an automated attack”, explains Gustav Bjorksten from Access Now, “anyone opposing a dictatorial power tends to get attacked by DDOS.  With the calling of an election you can pretty much set your clock by it”.

Behind the attacks are criminals who build large ‘botnets’, which they then hire out to people who pay, for example governments trying to suppress inconvenient information. The cost is phenomenal, with the sort of major attacks sustained by Sarawak Report running into hundreds of thousands of dollars over a period of weeks.

The botnets operate through a web of a very large number of compromised computers, which send out millions of emails to disable the target sites. The common perpetrators are based in Russia and countries in Eastern Europe, including Lithuania and the Ukraine. Turkey is also a centre for this kind of activity.

“This is a pretty big attack” Bjorksten said of the assault on Sarawak Report and its sister sites, “they are serious, they want you off line”.

Clare Rewcastle Brown, the Editor of Sarawak Report and the Founder of Radio Free Sarawak and Radio Free Malaysia, which operate out of London in order to avoid Malaysian censorship, said today that the Malaysian Government was only showing itself up by resorting to such tactics.

“This is not a proper expenditure of taxpayers’ money and it only goes to prove how vulnerable this 50 year old regime feels to the truth” she said. “BN controls every single news paper and broadcast outlet in Malaysia, which are all forced to pour out propaganda favouring their party and to attack opposition leaders without allowing them their right of reply. And yet BN are nevertheless clearly terrified by even the most modest platforms providing independent news or alternative information".

"They are also plainly threatened by the evidence about outrageous corruption by the party’s top politicians, who have been robbing the country in recent years and amassing astonishing fortunes. Such evidence is suppressed in the mainstream media, yet Malaysia has been stripped of its resources and wealth by the political classes, who are exporting huge sums into tax havens abroad. Particularly in the rainforest states of Sabah and Sarawak the mass of ordinary people have been left poorer than ever".  

“The BN establishment clearly feel unable to defend themselves against the mass of available evidence of this corruption, so they are resorting to attempting to silence the messengers. It won’t work and it just reveals them for what they are, which is politicians who dare not subject themselves to free and open debate”.

“It is really quite shameful that a government such as Malaysia should consider it appropriate to resort to hiring criminals with taxpayers’ money. They talk about the benefits of winning the “cyber-war” as if there was some honour in what they are doing. This is a dishonerable tactic and it shows just what a sham this supposedly democratic election is, where the critics of bribes, gerrymandering and vote-rigging are being silenced by such means”.

What UMNo Malays Don't Realise Or Don't Want To Accept

Why can’t some Malays accept the fact?

April 10, 2013

FMT LETTER: From Fishmonger, via e-mail

It is very difficult to get many Malays to understand and accept the sad fact that Umno, the one founded by Tunku Abdul Rahman, is dead and gone. Deregistered as enginered by Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty.

Mahathir in his anger at being sacked from Umno by Tunku, plotted revenge against Tunku and Umno. Tunku saw in Mahathir an evil man and many in Umno supported his decision. Mahathir’s best vengence is to allow Umno to be de-registered. And to top it up, he rubbed salt into Tunku’s wound, he formed Umno baru, and coerced Umno members to join Umno Baru. Tunku died a sad man.

Till today, many Malays think that Umno Baru belongs to them, that Umno Baru and Umno is one and the same. They still think they are better off than before, than other Malaysians – which is far from the truth.

The new Umno Baru is solely his, Mahathir’s party. Mahathir made use of the blind patriotism of the Malays to his personal advantage. He used race, religion, royalty to hoodwinked the common Malays to give him their unwavering loyalty, support and adoration. He made sure that Malays became dependent on him, his Umno Baru. That they forever be grateful to him and can only stand on crutches, he said so himself.

Today we don’t have Umnoputras. We only have Umno Barua-putras, a different breed altogether. These new breed has no soul, no shame, no conscience, no integrity, utterly corrupt, resort to threats, blackmail, misuse the law, give out citizenship to undeserving foreigners while rejecting citizenship to bona fide Malaysians, abuse the judiciary, abuse religion for political gains, blackmail the PDRM, MACC, Jabatan Immigresen, civil service, election commission to do its biddings. I could go on and on and I could fill a volume larger and bigger than Rosmah’s biography.

For the past 30 years, Umno Baru held Malaysians to ransom in order to stay in power. With the GE13 looming, its colours begin to change like the chameleon. Goodies here, goodies there like an old santa who forgot that Christmas is over. It maintains that Umno Baru is the only party fit to rule Malaysia, the only pary that can govern.

Yet, today many Malays still support Umno Baru even when there is PAS and PKR as alternatives. Why is it so? I guess Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty has done a good job convincing many Malays to sink with the captain and the ship. The fact is that Umno Baru and its ardent supporters are the ones keeping the rest of Malaysia in perpetual slavery to elites like Mahathir and all his cronies.

Sarawak Headhunter's comments:

 

The presence of "illegal" branches participating in the elections was the main ground of Tengku Razaleigh's legal team but the argument for the deregistration of UMNo was put forward by Mahathir's legal team led by Zaki Tun Azmi.

This was done purposely. This was what they wanted and they knew what they were doing and what they would do (after deregistration) when the Judge accepted the argument, which he had to because that was the law.

The formation of UMNo Baru effectively locked out Tengku Razaleigh and his supporters, even though some including Tengku Razaleigh and "Burn his bridges" Rais Yatim have come crawling and slithering into UMNo Baru. 

What most present UMNo Baru members don't realise is that each of them stands guarantee for all of the old UMNO's liabilities, which could today run into billions of ringgit.

There has been no proper disclosure of UMNo Lama's assets and liabilities taken over by UMNo Baru.

The fact is that UMNo Baru never repaid a single sen of Bank Bumiputra's loan to finance the PWTC complex (RM850 million outstanding at the time of UMNo's deregistration) & thereby caused Bank Bumiputra's ultimate collapse has never been made public or acknowledged and has been covered up.

UMNo is long overdue for final deregistration and its members made to pay for all its liabilities and to pay back all that it has stolen.

It is not going to be easy but it must be done for the sake of all right-minded Malaysians.

Who Will Win What In Sarawak In GE-13 UPDATED

Who will win what in Sarawak in GE-13 Updated

The Sarawak BN is confident that it will have at least 25 in the bag out of 31 seats. At least that's what audacious Audie thinks. See his blog posting here.

Sarawak Headhunter thinks it will be the other way around and that 22 seats will go to PR and 9 to BN.

 

One thing for sure and that is that the Chinese community is highly likely to abandon SUPP completely this round. Not one SUPP parliamentary candidate may survive this time. 

 

7 SUPP seats

1. Kuching:- Will go to DAP. No change.

2. Stampin:- Will fall to DAP. No change.

3. Serian:- DAP/PKR. An upset here. Richard Riot will be defeated. 50:50

4. Sarikei:- DAP. No change.

5. Lanang:- DAP. Tiong will lose this time. No change.

6. Sibu:- DAP. Oscar Ling has a good chance to win. No change.

7. Miri:- PKR. No change.

SUPP will be almost totally wiped out.

SPDP also has a good chance of losing all its present seats.

4 SPDP seats

8. Mas Gading:- PKR/DAP. PKR Candidate Willy Tumek or DAP Mordi Bimol. 50:50 in a crowded field, edge still with Tiki Lafe standing as an Independent.

9. Saratok:- PKR. Ali Biju will win. No change. Mawan will lose narrowly.

10. Bintulu:- DAP. Tiong will lose inspite of throwing a lot of money on the ground. 50:50, edging towards DAP.

11. Baram:- PKR. Jacob Sagan has been totally discredited and will lose this time. No change even though BN has changed its candidate.

6 PRS seats

12. Sri Aman:- DAP. 50:50.

13. Lubok Antu:- PKR. Nicholas Bawin will win in a 3-cornered fight. No change.

14. Julau:- PRS. Joseph Salang will win even in a 3-cornered match. No change.

15. Kanowit:- PKR. Still 50:50.

16. Ulu Rejang:- PKR. Abun Siu to win in a 4-cornered fight. No change.
 
17. Selangau:- PKR. May possibly win in a 3-cornered fight as Entulu & Sng knock each other out. 50:50.

14 PBB seats

18. Igan :- PBB. No change.

19. Sibuti:- PAS. Robby Tandang will win. 50:50.

20. Samarahan:- PBB. No change.

21. Betong:- PKR. PKR may lose, now 40:60.

22. Petra Jaya:- PBB. No change.

23. Limbang:- PKR. Baru Bian has the edge here. No change.

24. Lawas:- PKR. Dr. Bob Baru should be able to scrape through. No change.

25. Mambong:- DAP. Mangan Ngandok. 50:50.

26. Mukah:- PBB, if Leo Toyad is not the candidate. Otherwise it is possible that DAP may make history here or a former strong PKR candidate may come back as an independent candidate to haunt him. No change, even though Leo Toyad is still the candidate.

27. Batang Sadong:- PBB. No change.

28. Tanjong Manis:- PBB. New candidate, as it is likely that Norah Tun Rahman will not be standing again. Norah Tun Rahman is still the candidate. No change.

29. Batang Lupar:- PKR/PAS. PBB's Rohani is hardworking but ineffective and without any real ideas how to help develop her constituency. 50:50.

30. Santubong:- PBB. No change.

31. Kapit:- PBB. No change, but possibility of upset. 50:50.

TOTAL FINAL SCORE: DAP - 9 (5), PKR - 12 (7), PBB - 8 (12), PAS - 1 (0), PRS - 1 (4), INDEPENDENT - 1, SWP - 0 (0), SPDP - 0 (1), SUPP - 0 (1).

Malayans Never Listen To Sabah Or Sarawak

Is anybody listening to what Sabahans want?

Lucy Ahmed 4:11PM Mar 4, 2013

When speaking of the recent Sabah intrusion incident, many people are trying to relate it only to the bigger picture of the Malaysian government's political issues.

But it is much deeper than that as it has crept into the fabric of the social lives of Sabahans.

I am here talking because I am a Sabahan, and my hometown is Sandakan, which is only few kilometres from where the incidents are taking place.

I am definitely very concerned over the lingering issue of never ending claim by some non-existent sultanate that has no legitimacy at all since the Suluks "lordship" was only valid around 200 years ago.

While the main decisions are being discussed and taking place miles away from across the ocean in the peninsular Malaysia, we the people of North Borneo are all living in a tense situation and in uncertainty on our own soil.

We are not given any right at all to voice our opinions over the matter. We are just like a colony without any power to decide our future, but to simply follow orders from across the ocean.

What we strongly disagree is for other people to change our historical and cultural background.

Yes, historically a small part of North Borneo belonged to the sultan of Sulu, but they have never done anything much to North Borneo in term of developing it.

The sultanate existed around 200 years ago, and it has long been forgotten and no longer recognised anywhere in the world.

They do not have any existing kingdom thus by the international law, any claim from them is no longer valid.

Now North Borneo is an independent state, and it is part of Malaysia since the last 50 years.

Malaysia by law has to protect the welfare of the state and the people of North Borneo.

And what we want is for Malaysia to once and for all to stop all these illegal claims and intrusions from the non-existent sultanate or any pirates that come to our shore to disturb the peace of our state.

We do not want any more fruitless negotiations which have been going on for years and years since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia.

We are very disappointed with the marines for failing to protect the shore of our state. All those "pirates" should have been stopped at sea, disarmed and sent back to where they belong but instead they were given all kinds of leniency on our soil.

This is not a new issue at all as there has been many illegal entries from those living in the islands of Sulu.

Unfortunately, without the consent of the people of North Borneo, those illegal immigrants have been legitimised by the government of Malaysia.

The social fabric of North Borneo has now been much distorted creating the racial and religious imbalance in our state which are all to the advantage of the federal government.

We, the native people, once the majority group on our own soil have been turned into a minority group due to this legitimisation over the years.

Another complication that arises through this legitimisation is the grabbing of the "special privileges" of the native people.

Understand that all these Suluk immigrants are Muslims, and they are automatically entitled to the special privileges which all Muslims in Malaysia are entitled to.

Our poor native people of Sabah, who are not Muslims, have now become the second class citizens on our own soil.

In other words, those legitimised immigrants with their special advantage of being Muslims, have grabbed every opportunity entitled to the native people of Sabah.

Many have received all kinds of help from the government of Malaysia which has left a smaller piece of pie to the native-born.

In conclusion, had the federal government had the best interest of Sabahans in mind, those pirates would not have an easy access into our soil.

Now the Suluks are having a strong footing on our soil due to the leniency of the federal government during the past 30 years.

The so called '100 gunmen' can easily increase to 1,000 and even 2,000 gunmen because the Suluks have spread themselves into every corner of our state over these long years.

Historically, the Mahathir Mohamad government should be blamed for all the mismanagement of the state of Sabah.

He actively involved himself in the affair of the Palestinians, but failed to settle a similar basic problem of his own subjects.

Mahathir never tried to solved the long-standing problem of this Sabah claim issue, but instead had escalated it to our suffocation. Mahathir is the main devil here, all due to his hunger for power as premier for 22 long years.

Why Didn't UMNo/BN Learn Anything From GE-12?

An analysis of ASLI’s analysis of GE-12

What is it about UMNo that makes it unable to change, even though it knows that it has lost the majority of the popular vote and is in imminent danger of losing the coming GE-13? Is it a death wish? Or is it just plain arrogance, knowing or believing that it can still win the elections by foul means more than by fair?

In an analysis of GE-12, ASLI, whose President is none other than Mirzan Mahathir, stated that they “did not and could not then anticipate the equally strong wave of Malay support for the Opposition which resulted in the Opposition gaining 82 seats in Parliament, denying the Barisan Nasional of its two-thirds majority, the first time since the May 1969 General Election”.

They had estimated that the Opposition would win about 50 seats.

It was noted that in GE-12, the popular votes obtained by UMNo (35.5%) and combined PAS/Keadilan (34.8%) was almost equal. What did this mean? Only one thing, and that is that UMNo had lost a substantial amount of Malay support.

As the report itself asked “What happened? What caused the massive swing?” It also noted that “There are no safe bastions for Barisan Nasional anymore”.

UMNo then had realised that it would have to find out the reasons for the loss of support, presumably so that it could repair the damage in time for GE-13. Somehow, that repair has not taken place and arguably, UMNo and the Barisan Nasional has continued to lose even more support, to the extent that they are likely to lose GE-13 to Pakatan Rakyat.

The much-hyped and hoped for transformation never really got off the ground in spite of all the time, effort and money put into it. Was it because there was no real transformation? The truth is that this was the case. Najib and UMNo/BN never really transformed, they only spoke of it and gave it lip-service and in many ways continued with their old ways, ways that had alienated the voters in GE-12 and will alienate a far greater number of voters in GE-13.

The truth is that as the leopard cannot change its spots, neither could UMNo/BN, even if their very political survival depended upon it. But as the leopard is a wild animal, so is UMNo. Pakatan Rakyat and the people who support it must not underestimate the depths to which UMNo will sink to stay in power.

In spite of the way UMNo itself has (ironically) been mistreating the Malays (as well as the whole country), the ASLI report purports that it was totally “unexpected” for UMNo to lose in urban and semi-urban Malay seats. They characterised the loss as an “emotional” swing against UMNo, ignoring the fact that the Malays themselves (let alone the rest of the country) had and still have real reasons to turn against UMNo.

The 2^nd part of the ASLI report dealt with “What the Election Results Mean”.

It was clear to them that it was “a seismic shift in Malaysian politics”. The report stated, “The old ways of campaigning may no longer work. Putting fear into voters’ minds did not work. The use of mainstream media to create spin or to demonise the opposition was detested by urban voters and had a counter-effect instead. From feedback, many urban voters were turned off by the spin especially in NST and Star”.

Yet we have seen since then an escalation of the same spin with new variations. Clearly UMNo/BN just refused to accept their own observations and conclusions. Is this stupidity or just plain stubbornness, an ingrained egocentric refusal to change, even with a far bigger seismic shift of total defeat staring at them in the face?

This time around, it is even likely that the rural voters will also be turned off as well by the spin of Utusan.

The continued demonisation of the opposition will once again backfire as more Chinese vote for PAS and more Malays vote for DAP. MCA, like Gerakan, will find itself wiped out almost completely while UMNo will lose more seats than it wins.

The opposition however must not underestimate the power of the minority Indian vote. If the Indians know better they will also not try to hold the opposition to ransom. Their lot will not get any better under a continuation of UMNo/BN.

As the report said, “Makkal Sakhti (People Power), the cry of HINDRAF, caused a tidal wave of support from the Indian community towards the opposition. This seismic shift of Indian voters contributed to the defeat of many Barisan Nasional candidates, not only MIC candidates”.

MIC will also face a wipe-out for failing to address the real needs and concerns of Indians.

The report further went on to clearly state:

“The Barisan Nasional’s brand of race-based politics is no longer an attractive proposition to voters. Chinese voters deserted MCA and Gerakan. Indian voters swung away from MIC. Many Malay voters switched to Keadilan, making Keadilan the biggest opposition party with 31 parliament seats. The Opposition parties won, not on race-based issues but across a range of issues that cut across ethnic lines. The MCA and MIC lost whilst trying to portray themselves as defenders of their race. UMNO lost ground to Keadilan even with Anwar calling for an end to NEP. Is this then, a new paradigm for Malaysian politics that Malaysian voters are more taken in by wider national issues such as corruption, crime, cost of living, social justice and human rights which cuts across all ethnic groups rather than narrow ethnic issues that favour any particular race? Even MCA championing the cause of Chinese schools didn’t get much support from the Chinese community. But, PAS delivered votes to DAP and Chinese voters supported both PAS and Keadilan. Should MCA remain purely a Chinese party when it lost more Chinese votes to the DAP or should it become a multi-racial party and widen its appeal to non-Chinese? This has set the stage for a new era of multi-racial politics in Malaysia, perhaps the beginning of a two-party system which is healthy in any democracy”.

In spite of this observation, UMNo, MCA and MIC continued harping on their divisive and unhealthy racial and religious politics while hiding behind the ostensibly uniting theme of “1Malaysia”. They exposed their own hypocrisy for all Malaysians to see.

For more than 50 years Malaysians had tolerated this nonsense for the sake of peace, harmony and development. But with UMNo/BN’s corruption and mismanagement being exposed by their own doings, it has become clearer to all Malaysians that UMNo/BN has stolen the country blind and that Malaysians had been short-changed by a rapacious government that only cared for the benefit of itself and its cronies.

The gap between the rich and poor had grown bigger and the poor were being left further behind, so much so that Sabah and Sarawak, once among the richer regions, found themselves among the poorest (with the highest incidence of poverty together with the other oil-rich states of Kelantan and Terengganu).

All their oil wealth had been siphoned off into UMNo/BN Federal government coffers via Petronas, a Federal government-owned company that grew into the 12^th most profitable companies in the world and from there into the pockets of UMNo politicians, businessmen, families and cronies.

The report further delved into the reasons for the swing to the opposition and stated:

“The political tsunami was brought about by various factors, foremost of which is the perceived arrogance of power. All racial groups – Malays, Chinese and Indians have the perception that the Barisan Nasional did not hear or listen to the voice of the people. The Barisan Nasional mishandled the Bersih and HINDRAF protests. This showed no tolerance for public assemblies and no outlet for grievances which resulted in the aggrieved parties voting against the Barisan Nasional in the ballot boxes.  The Barisan Nasional’s over-confidence and poor intelligence failed to identify growing anger and frustration of the people. The Prime Minister’s challenge to Opposition supporters not to demonstrate but to take it to the ballot box also made many fence sitters and opposition sympathizers to vote for the opposition. The Barisan Nasional failed to effectively read the mood on the ground. Many urban voters in particular the fence sitters were put off by the propaganda, spin and one-sided coverage on TV and in NST and Star”.

Yet UMNo/BN remained as arrogant, if not became more arrogant than before. They still continued to this day to refuse to hear or listen to the voice of the people. They continued to show no tolerance for public assemblies. And their sick vomit-inducing propaganda has continued to be churned out, this time even via blogs and other social media like Facebook and Twitter. They don’t seem to have learned anything. 

The report identified 9 C’s as contributing to the unprecedented swing in support to the opposition in 2008.

Nothing has changed. These same 9 C’s and even more will also contribute towards the final defeat of UMNo/BN in GE-13.

The 9 C’s were (and still are): Change, Crime, Cost of Living, Corruption, Courts, Convergence of Issues, Communications Technology, Credible Leadership and Campaign Strategy.

Change and reform are still on the agenda of the opposition, while UMNo/BN’s purported transformation programme has only managed to transform public funds into private pockets.

The people’s anger at the inability of the UMNo/BN government to tackle crime effectively has continued to grow, with UMNo/BN’s response being to point to manipulated statistics and to try to argue unconvincingly that it is only a perception that crime is up. 

The people’s frustration at the ever-increasing cost of living has not been alleviated nor has the actual problem, notwithstanding UMNo/BN’s efforts to throw money at them in an inadequate effort purportedly to address the issue but in reality in an attempt to bribe people with their own money to vote for them.

The people’s perception that corruption has worsened since 2008 is not merely a perception but an actual fact. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has done nothing to dispel any doubts that this is so by taking a partisan approach towards tackling corruption and siding with UMNo/BN in exonerating it from pre-electoral bribery and corrupt practice offences on flimsy grounds.

The people’s disgust of UMNo/BN control of the judiciary has eased somewhat with the retirement of Zaki Tun Azmi, UMNo lawyer who became Chief Judge, but major concerns still remain about judicial independence.

The people’s dissatisfaction and anger with UMNo/BN still remains and has grown because the government has not listened or effectively addressed a whole convergence of issues that arose in GE-12. This convergence of issues combined with a whole new convergence of issues will arise again in GE-13 to bite UMNo/BN in the backside with a vengeance.

The people continue to trust opposition news on the internet more than the UMNo/BN-controlled mainstream media. Communications technology has been adapted to well by the opposition. UMNo/BN has not been able to respond well enough to counter this, mainly because their inherent bias has caused them to take on the same spin found in the mainstream media. This has continued to turn people off. UMNo/BN “cybertroopers” have not been smart or independent enough to break out of their masters’ molds.

Their heavy-handed spin, distortion, pure fabrication and disinformation tactics in the cyber media have been heavily, if not completely, discounted by the people. UMNo/BN has not only lost credibility in the mainstream media but on the internet as well, and they have only themselves to blame for believing their own propaganda and expecting others to do so also.

Notwithstanding their unfair control of the mainstream media, UMNo/BN has not shown that it is willing to give alternative views any chance. But in Sarawak, the opposition’s reach into the rural areas has been greatly extended by Radio Free Sarawak (RFS), which is beamed out of London and Sarawak BN has complained bitterly about RFS’s unfair “spin”, ironically failing to see that RFS’s growing popularity in rural Sarawak is due to the BN’s stranglehold on the mainstream media.

In their bizarre attempts to defend Taib Mahmud’s much debunked “politics of development” – in reality his own development and that of his family, cronies and henchmen only, all already wealthy beyond imagination at the expense of the ordinary poor people of Sarawak – Sarawak BN and its component parties have exposed their own shortcomings and betrayal of the people.

The truth be told, notwithstanding their bare-faced lies, they probably feel ashamed of being exposed by RFS and its internet counterpart, Sarawak Report. Nevertheless, they are compelled by their own self-interests and their instincts for self-preservation from the legendary wrath of Taib Mahmud to ignore the legitimate grouses of the people whom they wilfully continue to marginalize, oppress and suppress.

This time around in GE-13, they may see an uprising of the rural people of Sarawak (and elsewhere in Sabah and even Malaya) like they have never seen before.

The opposition must continue to provide credible leadership. There is no shortage of capable and qualified potential leaders who must be given some measure of independence in organizing things on the ground and not have to depend on the dictates of the central leadership of Pakatan Rakyat.

Central control, especially in Sarawak and Sabah, must be loosened to enable the local leadership to bloom. This is something that Pakatan Rakyat, especially PKR, is still wrestling with, even at this late stage. PKR’s top leadership must learn to listen to the grassroots leadership of both territories who know better the situation on the ground. Too much interference from the top will upset local sensitivities that Malayans may not even be aware of.

This is a game UMNo/BN has learned to play well in Sarawak and Sabah, thereby giving them the misbegotten and unwise feeling that Sarawak and Sabah are their “fixed deposits”. This time around it is highly likely that they will be proven wrong, provided Pakatan Rakyat does not mess it up.

The old school approach of UMNo/BN – that of carrot and stick - does not work any more. That UMNo/BN persist in adopting such a strategy shows how much out of touch with reality they have become over the years.

Promises and fear didn’t work for UMNo/BN in GE-12 and it certainly isn’t going to work either in GE-13, provided Pakatan Rakyat fine-tunes its own strategies and avoids playing into the hands of UMNo/BN or dancing to their tune.

The people too must understand that it would be most expensive to allow themselves to fall prey to an unrepentant UMNo/BN’s tricks.

Already UMNo/BN through its extravagance, mismanagement, greed, rapaciousness and recklessness has racked up an unprecedented deficit exceeding RM500 billion, or a debt of more than RM18,000-00 for each and every Malaysian man, woman and child.

A Pakatan Rakyat government will have to deal with this, but it can only do so if it recognizes the damage caused by UMNo/BN’s profligation and avoids the same mistakes. Repairing that damage is not going to be easy.

UMNoputeras and their BN co-conspirators have milked this country dry at the expense of their own Malay supporters and ordinary people of the rural heartland. They have shown no remorse nor any change that will benefit the ordinary rural people. Instead they have resorted to violence, intimidation and gangster-like behaviour to prevent the opposition from enlightening the rural people of the real situation.

They have continued to disrupt Pakatan Rakyat activites even in urban areas. They fail to realise that this is not conducive to generating any goodwill for UMNo/BN and the voters will be inclined to punish them for this.

The UMNo/BN leadership is to be blamed for this and if they allow things to get further out of control. Instead of humility, they have continued to show more arrogance. They did not learn any lesson whatsoever from GE-12.

It is as if they have not seen the writing on the wall or any of the warning signs.

ASLI did say say very clearly that “What the 12^th General Election provided is a timely wake-up call to all political parties. They need to change, reform and deliver”.

Irrespective of the reasons for failure, this UMNo/BN has failed to do, in spite of its transformation programme and 1Malaysia sloganeering. It failed to reinvent itself to stay relevant. It only engaged in tokenism, giving crumbs to the people hungry for real food while gorging itself on the backs of the people’s blood, sweat and tears. It will be consigned to the dustbin of history, as it deserves to be.

Pakatan Rakyat must heed these lessons. They will win GE-13 - against all odds of a rigged electoral system only with overwhelming support from the people - with a short leash and limited licence. The people will no longer be tolerant of failures to deliver or misdeliveries.

Promises made must be kept. Sarawak and Sabah certainly deserve better. Autonomy must be restored (in the case of Sarawak after the state government has been changed) as they must not be seen merely as 2 out of 13 states but full-fledged nations in their own right as part of the Malaysian Federation with Malaya. Let there be no hard-headedness about this from Malaya, which has already benefitted from almost 40 years of Sarawak and Sabah’s oil resources – time to give back.

Otherwise, like Singapore, independence will be the only other option for Sarawak and Sabah.

The Sarawak Headhunter