On the Eve of Nomination Day

Marina could not explain what those rocket flags meant other than, “Itu bendera parti PAS Cina (those are the flags of the Chinese PAS party)’. ‘PAS’ here meaning ‘opposition’, of course, just like ‘Colgate’ means ‘tooth paste’, Lux means ‘bathing soap’ and ‘Panadol means ‘pain killers’, etc. Never did Marina suspect 20 years ago that ‘PAS Cina’ would one day become a reality.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Kit Siang: RoS move may hamper DAP win in Gelang Patah

(TMI) - DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang today admitted that his chances of winning in the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat may be affected by the Registrar of Societies’ (RoS) move to block the DAP from using its party logo for the 13th general election.

“My chances of winning in Gelang Patah from 50-50 before the announcement to field Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, then 45-55 with Ghani’s candidacy.

“With the ban on using DAP’s symbol, my chances are only 40, while Ghani’s is 60 per cent,” an emotional Lim said at a press conference at the DAP headquarters here, referring to his decreasing chances against his rival from the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition with the surprising turn of events just two days before tomorrow’s Nomination Day.

Lim, who was seen shedding tears during the press conference, said voters would be confused if the DAP is forced to borrow the symbols of its coalition partners in Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

“If until 3pm this afternoon, RoS does not issue a retraction letter, we will use the logos of component parties,” Lim said, referring to the DAP’s two allies in PR, PAS and PKR.

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DAP to contest under PAS, PKR tickets

(The Sun Daily) - DAP will not be able to use its rocket symbol in the coming general election, following two letters issued by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on Wednesday – just three days before nomination – which in effect render the party's office-bearers impotent.

As a consequence, the DAP at an emergency meeting last night had decided it will contest under the PAS logo in the peninsula and the PKR logo in East Malaysia unless the Registrar of Societies (ROS) revokes its April 17 letter which de-recognised the party's office-bearers by 3pm today.

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PAS VP welcomes usage of party logo by DAP

(The Sun Daily) - PAS vice president Datuk Husam Musa welcomes the usage of the party's logo by DAP to contest in the upcoming general election.

Husam said this move would also help increase votes for both the Islamic party and its partner DAP.

"This I believe is the real unity for Malaysians," he said in a press conference at the party's media centre here today.

He said PAS has also started preparing the surat watikah (authorisation letter) for DAP to use the Islamic party's logo for the election.

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(Bernama) - The People's Progressive Party (PPP) will come up with respective manifestos for each of the five seats allocated to the party in the 13th General Election.

Its president, Datuk Seri M. Kayveas, said the pledges in each manifesto of a parliamentary constituency and four state seats would differ, according to the importance and needs of the people in the respective areas.

"Each manifesto will have eight points on why they (the voters) should choose Barisan Nasional (BN), and also the promise to enhance their living standard," he said.

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We have less than 24 hours to go to know who is going to be contesting where and how many three-, four-, five-, six-, or more-corner fights we are going to see on 5th May 2103. Nevertheless, for sure this is NOT going to be a one-on-one general election as we had hoped for and had tried to fight for back in 2010.

Yes, three years ago, back in 2010, just two years after what many regard as the ‘historic’ 2008 general election, some of us such as Haris Ibrahim and I already anticipated that we would be seeing what we are seeing today. And we discussed this with anxiety and decided to try to do something about it.

No, I will not say ‘I told you so’ because many of you are going to get angry mainly because, as the Malays say,siapa makan cili dia rasa pedas -- and many of you rasa pedas for sure even without me having to say ‘I told you so’. Hence I will not say ‘I told you so’.

Do you remember the various reasons why we launched the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) in London back in 2010? And do you remember that one of these various reasons was to see a one-on-one contest and to avoid three-, four-, five-, six-, or more-corner fights? And do you also remember the meeting we from Friends of Pakatan Rakyat had with Anwar Ibrahim when he visited London around that same time and which we reported about? And do you remember, as well, the public dialogue session in London that we had with Anwar, Tian Chua and Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, which you can see on YouTube (where I ‘waved’ in Anwar’s face a copy of The People’s Declaration that was signed with Pakatan Rakyat in February 2008)?

No, I am not saying ‘I told you so’. I am just reminding you of all these events because ‘Melayu mudah lupa’, as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is fond of saying.

Then we who mooted the idea of MCLM were accused of attempting to trigger three-corner fights in the coming general election in spite of us explaining that our objective was to prevent and not to trigger three-corner fights. Whatever we said was not accepted and Pakatan Rakyat still insisted that our objective was sinister and aimed at triggering three-corner fights.

That was when I decided to announce that we are abandoning the ‘independent candidate initiative’ since Pakatan Rakyat is opposed to it and is saying that this initiative is aimed at sabotaging Pakatan Rakyat. Then Haris Ibrahim turns around and whacks me and says that this was never discussed and agreed upon (which means the initiative was not abandoned) and then he subsequently resigned from MCLM.

Anyway, as I always say, all I need to do is keep quiet and wait because eventually, even if it takes ten years, what I say will be proven. And, today, it has been proven.

So there! But I am still not saying ‘I told you so’.

Next issue. In an emotional press conference yesterday, Lim Kit Siang said that if DAP can’t contest under its own logo then this would cost the party some votes and maybe even some seats.

This is actually quite true. And that was why Barisan Nasional was formed more than a year before the 1974 general election. The voters recognised the kapal layar logo of the old Alliance Party but not the dacing of the new Barisan Nasional so they needed enough time to promote the new logo. Hence if DAP contests under a ‘new’ logo this may confuse the voters.

If this was 40 years ago back in 1973 I can understand that the voters might be confused and need more than a year of ‘education’ to understand that the dacing has replaced the kapal layar. I mean, back in 1973 the voters were not that educated. However, today, 40 years later in the era of the Internet and the information revolution, are you saying that this is still a problem?

So you see, when I said that the Malaysian voters are still not that mature enough I meant it. The Malaysian voters are not the thinking type of voters. Even in the west or more advanced nations this is also true to a certain extent. In the UK the voters vote for Conservative, Labour, LibDem or any of the other parties. And they will still vote for these parties even if these parties contest without any logo. But not in Malaysia, it seems.

I remember 20 years or so ago my wife, Marina, and I, together with our son and daughter, made a trip to Ipoh and the town was flooded with party flags and my son, Azmir, asked about those strange rocket flags. Being from Terengganu, he had never seen these flags before.

Marina could not explain what those rocket flags meant other than, “Itu bendera parti PAS Cina (those are the flags of the Chinese PAS party)’. ‘PAS’ here meaning ‘opposition’, of course, just like ‘Colgate’ means ‘tooth paste’, Lux means ‘bathing soap’ and ‘Panadol means ‘pain killers’, etc. Never did Marina suspect 20 years ago that ‘PAS Cina’ would one day become a reality.

DAP’s ‘angry bird’ logo for East Malaysia that I propose

Next issue. It appears like we have the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat Election Manifestos plus each political party has its own separate manifesto plus separate manifestos for each state. Wow! It looks like we are going to end up with 350 different manifestos in the coming general election. This must certainly be a world record of sorts.

Why can’t they all make it simple and reduce it to just one ‘universal’ election manifesto and simply declare thatThe Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10th December 1948 is going to be adopted after the general election is over?

Do you know that even after 56 years of Merdeka Malaysia is still not a signatory to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights? And, may I ask, why not? Our neighbours such as Thailand and the Philippines are. Even ‘rouge’ nations such as Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Afghanistan, Burma, the Republic of China, etc., are. So why can’t Malaysia adopt The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as our ‘election manifesto’?

It is no use presenting hundreds of different election manifestos when we refuse even to endorse a simple, complete and precise ‘manifesto’ such as The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

And if you adopt The Universal Declaration of Human Rights then 90% of the problems facing the country would be automatically solved. And go read it here to understand what I am talking about.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml