Archive for the ‘Chief Minister’ Category
PAS’s Nizar Breaks the ice
IPOH, MALAYSIA: Perak Menteri Besar-designate Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin of PAS turned up at the ”What’s Coming Next” political forum held in Ipoh Sunday (16 Mar) and immediately stunned the Chinese crowd by speaking in Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Tamil, then in English and Malay.
The audience was speechless then gave the PAS leader a rousing applause. The forum was organized by Guang Ming Daily, Sin Chew Daily, Eye Asia and Sin Chew-i and held at Dewan Dou Mu in Ipoh at 2pm and attracted 3000 people. Speakers included PKR national vice-president Dr Lee Boon Chye, Perak DAP chief Ngeh Koo Ham, Wangsa Maju Member of Parliament Wee Choo Keong and Sin Chew’s Deputy Chief Editor Tay Tian Yan.
Mohammad Nizar, an accomplished enginneer, was not a speaker but was invited to the forum by Ngeh. (Sin Chew Daily)
After the Euphoria and the short honeymoon
The Headlines in the Star today blared “Perak Crisis.”
In short, the Perak DAP under Ngeh had agreed to the power sharing agreement. But DAP headquarters ordered the DAP state assemblyman not to attend the investiture. I can only suppose that Lim Kit Siang was hoping the leverage the fact that they have 18 seats in the state legislature to be either kingmaker OR to be crowned “king” themselves. Ngeh, I can only assume, negotiated the Deputy CM’s post (supposedly extra-constitutional) in exchange for more seats on the exco. Not an entirely bad thing.
Instead we get what looks like sour grapes. How silly!
I’d be the first one to say that the party with the most seats SHOULD get the Chief Minister’s position. However, this isn’t any other country. This is Malaysia folks. We’ve just come out of a contentious election which has brought an immense amount of hope to ordinary Malaysians. We’ve handed the opposition 5 states. We want change!
Let’s face it. Our racial politics is not going to change overnight. The whole point of electing the opposition was to get things done! Not to argue about who get’s the post of Chief Minister. Yes, it would have been the magnanimous thing to do, but the mission is to lead Perak, Penang, Selangor, Kelantan and Kedah on a different path. To show that not only can the races work together but that parties of different ideologies want the same thing; what is best for the people!
Politics is the Art of the possible. One of the world’s greatest politicians uttered this and look at what he achieved. Otto Von Bismarck. The Iron Chancellor.
You don’t go around leaving openings for the government to shoot you down and point gleefully and say “see, we told you so!” What was he thinking?
More than anything, we can expect more of the same of this sort of stuff. Let’s be realistic.
We’ve had 30 to 40 years of “business-as-usual;” of cronyism, of affirmative action which only benefited certain people. In all likelihood it’s going to take the patience of Job and the staying power of lots of political viagra for the PEOPLE to put things right again. That means that we are going to see bickering, arguments, heated discussions, spin, and all sorts of unpleasantness before any of this gets put right. And even then, looking at more mature democracies, it’ll STILL be a work in progress.
That’s right folks. This never ends.
The good part is this; I certainly hope that people now realise more than ever that their destiny is in their own hands. By the Grace of God, in compassion and faith, we need to take responsibility and move forward.
