Politics 101 Malaysia

By Angus Whitley (Bloomberg) April 15.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he has convinced about 30 lawmakers from the ruling coalition to join an alliance that would topple Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s government.

Anwar, a former Malaysian deputy premier, is attempting to win over lawmakers from the multi-ethnic ruling coalition to his opposition group.

Anwar plans to wait for more lawmakers to switch before attempting to form a government, he told reporters late yesterday after addressing 20,000 people at a rally in Kuala Lumpur that was broken up by police.

We are ready,'' Anwar said.We want the numbers to be that meaningful so that it is comfortable for us to lead.'’ ”Continued”

(synopsis of a forth-coming book)

Books have been written about Tun Daim Zainuddin, but not many people know who the real Daim is. He is famous for being taciturn. Everyone knows that Daim is the silent type; so silent, in fact, that the victims of his scheming and conniving have fallen like ten pins without ever knowing what hit them.

He has, on the quiet, made a career of shooting poison darts, laying booby traps. and knifing friend or foe in the back. His hand is never seen, but his mark is everywhere. Truth to tell, he has been at the root of many national crises, but his name has never been smudged, thanks to the wealth he wields and his bond of friendship with Dr. Mahathir.

Most members of Umno’s new generation are aware that Daim is an acquisitive millionaire and a macho man with a taste of young women, but they concede him these weaknesses because they see in him a clean and competent Economic Adviser to the Government.

But the generation of Harun Idris, Musa Hitam and Manan Othman to name just a few of the old hands - they are the ones to ask in order to discover who the real Daim is. It was Datuk Harun who plucked Daim up from the depths of failure in the salt business. Daim’s wife, Mahani and Harun’s wife, Salmah were good friends and an influential pair in the early 1970s. It was wife power that moved Harun to give Daim 160 acres of prime Kampung Pandan land. And thus Syarikat Maluri was born. ”Continued”

malaysiakini, Mar 5, 08 8:05pm

Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim predicted today the opposition is poised to deny the ruling coalition an outright two-thirds majority in the March 8 elections.

Anwar said reports from various sources, including independent polling agencies and even the “intelligence” community, show the opposition could win more than one third of the parliamentary seats up for grabs.

Opposition parties are hoping to capitalise on a growing dissatisfaction with the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to deny the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition a two-thirds majority for the first time in history. ”Continued”

 by Terence Netto, malaysiakini, Feb 2.

De facto PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim was subjected to a rigorous examination of his stances on religious issues by about 200 Christian clerics and lay activists and appeared to emerge intact.

There was no variance between his public pronouncements and his private assurances to his inquisitors, an observer at a recent dialogue between Anwar and the Christian leaders noted.

The closed-door dialogue session held in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday morning ran several minutes past lunchtime, which some attendees, assured of anonymity, said was a sign of the eagerness of Anwar’s interlocutors to probe him on issues of deep concern to Malaysia 2.2 million Christians. The meeting began at 9.30am.

By S. Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia , Jan 8.

Malaysia’s next general elections will be held before April 2008.

That’s the prediction of opposition leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

If that happens, he said it’ll be the earliest they’re being called, in fact one-and-a-half years before the ruling government’s term ends.

And he added if elections are free and fair, the opposition would perform impressively.

It was a meeting of old friends for Mr Anwar who was in Singapore to address the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Regional Outlook Forum and the upcoming Malaysian elections was a hot question at the media conference.

Mr Anwar believes there are two reasons why the government would call for elections before April.

One - the decision not to raise petroleum prices and highway tolls and the other - to disallow him from contesting.

Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysian Opposition Leader of Keadilan, said: “From the discussions within UMNO and the Barisan Nasional, clearly this happens to be one of the major issues that has been debated, whether they should have it to allow Anwar to contest or not and the consensus was not to allow Anwar to contest.”

“Barring any other reason there are enough problems affecting the Malay population, the sex scandals, Chinese sentiments and the Hindu action, there are other problems. Right now, that’s one of the major considerations of the government,” he added.

In his reply to academics, who asked him if he still has the ambition to become Malaysia’s Prime Minister and whether he would ever rejoin the ruling party UMNO, he said: “UMNO to me is an obsolete party. It continues to harp on issues of the past, Malay supremacy, new economic policy despite the fact that we have lost our competitiveness.”

He continued: “I am supporting Keadilan as a party. Whether I will make it to become prime minister will be seen in the forthcoming elections and future elections hopefully.”

Mr Anwar and his Keadilan Party are already going full swing into election preparations.

He’s visiting Penang on Wednesday, where he’ll announce his party’s arrangements with the Chinese opposition DAP Party to contest the Northern State.

by Susan Tam, Electric News, Jan 10.

THE speeches he gave in Malay at Umno’s general assembly when he was deputy prime minister used to send reporters scrambling for their dictionaries.

Now, Mr Anwar Ibrahim, 60, grapples with words like ‘jude’ (local lingo for good-looking) as he uses the Internet to engage young voters and gain more support.

The opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leader told The New Paper he updates his Facebook profile regularly via his Blackberry, but he is shy about it.

‘These young kids are asking me some embarrassing questions, but you have to entertain them and engage them,’ he said yesterday.

And questions from some of his more than 1,400 Facebook friends range from the name of his hairstylist to the brand of fragrance he uses. ”Continued”

Anwar Ibrahim today released the full 14-minute recording of the scandalous VK Lingam videotape, and disclosed that he has more evidence to back up claims of judicial impropriety. — malaysiakini

Anwar Ibrahim today hit out at the authorities for their crackdown on free expression on the Internet.

“This is an intimidation tactic on all bloggers and webmasters,” Anwar said in a statement, referring to sedition investigations against Raja Petra Kamaruddin, founder and editor of the popular Malaysia Today political website.

He called on police to instead use their time to investigate alleged corruption involving government leaders as revealed in Malaysia Today, as well as focusing on solving a wave of street crimes, reports AFP.

“Various reports have been made on present and former government leaders that have not been followed up, yet a report against a webmaster is immediately investigated by the police,” Anwar said.

He said Malaysians needed “open minded and forward thinking leaders,” not those still “trapped by outdated political culture and unable to grasp the technological realities of today.” ”Continued”

I was reading up on Narcissistic Personality Disorder recently and noted the diagnostic criteria.

Minutes ago I read malaysiakini’s report on Anwar explaining why some people cannot stay long in PKR.

Somebody needs help. Pronto. ”Continued”