In the aftermath of May 5th (part 12)

If I were to hazard a guess I would say that Khairy is the man to watch. He is going to be the ‘face’ of the reformed Umno who will be interacting with the younger generation to try to win back their support, which Umno lost in the recent general election.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

My initial response to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s new Cabinet is: SHIT! (See the full Cabinet list here). There are still many crooks, scoundrels, scumbags and slime-balls on that list. Are we going to see the new group photograph of the hall of fame or the new group photograph of the rogues’ gallery?

I fear it is the latter.

This is no reform government, for sure. If that is what Najib promised the voters in his Election Manifesto and during the election campaign then you can perish the thought. What we are seeing is not only old wine in a new bottle but also old wine that has turned to vinegar.

I see some of the recycled faces such as Shahidan Kassim (Perlis), Mustapa Mohamed (Kelantan), Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz (Perak), Ahmad Shabery Cheek (Terengganu), Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor (Melaka but now Putrajaya), Hilmi Yahaya (Penang) and Idris Jusoh (Terengganu). And should not Malaysia be spared the likes of Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Perak), Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Perak) and Hamzah Zainuddin (Perak), all rascals of the first degree?

Come on, Najib! Those are all expired goods plus tainted like hell.

Now, some of these people are personal friends of mine (I am even related by marriage to one of them). Nevertheless, although I can consider myself close to them, that has never stopped me from criticising those who I feel need to be criticised.

I can see Najib’s logic in selecting these people to be in his Cabinet. First of all, Najib needs representatives from each state. Secondly, he needs to ‘pacify’ the warlords and get them on his side in the event anyone tries to push him out like what happened to Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi soon after the 2008 general election.

I suppose you need to keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. Hence Najib has surrounded himself with his friends as well as warlords who can turn enemy if he does not bring them into the Cabinet.

Is this new team good for Malaysia? I doubt it is good for Malaysia but it most certainly is good for Najib. Some of those people are his people. Some are Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s people. But what I do not understand is why Najib appointed Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar the Minister of Youth and Sport.

If I were to hazard a guess I would say that Khairy is the man to watch. He is going to be the ‘face’ of the reformed Umno who will be interacting with the younger generation to try to win back their support, which Umno lost in the recent general election.

I believe Khairy will be given a freehand to do what needs to be done to pacify and satisfy the younger generation. And I also believe he has the brains and the political skills to deliver the youth vote.

Anyway, time will tell whether Khairy may yet end up as Najib’s ‘secret weapon’. But they have five years to do that and one week is a long time in politics while five years is a lifetime.

As for the others, well, I can only say I hope Najib knows what he is doing. But from where I am sitting it looks like a disaster. But then maybe Najib is more worried about the next party election than about the next general election. In that case then maybe Najib made the right decision after all.

Anyway, read the letter from a reader below. I am not going to analyse or comment on the letter since the contents are self-explanatory enough. You can make up your own mind as to whether you agree with the writer or not.

*******************************************

Chinese votes did make an impact

FMT LETTER: From Paraman Subramaniam, via e-mail

In the recently concluded General Election, the total numbers of eligible Chinese voters were 3.94 million. In Penang they constitute 53.3% of total voters and in Kuala Lumpur 52.2% of the total voters are of Chinese origin.

Even though by population the Chinese constitute about 22.56% of the total population in Malaysia but by the number of voters their strength is 29.68% of the total 13.3 million voters in Malaysia.

There are also many mixed seats where Chinese voters are present in significant numbers and the way the electoral boundaries are drawn they allow the Chinese voters to be quite influential.

The EC states that 84.84% of the total number of registered voters had cast their vote on May 5. This would mean that we can assume at least 3.4 million Chinese votes were cast. It goes without saying that the majority of Chinese voters are pro Pakatan Rakyat.

What no one knows is the actual total percentage of Chinese votes that went to PR. Considering the number of Chinese supporters that did outnumber all other races at most PR’s ceramah’s nationwide, many suspect anywhere between 75% to 95% of the Chinese may have voted for PR in the recent GE.

It was also reported that a huge number of Malaysians based in Singapore (mainly Chinese) had returned to cast their vote causing a massive traffic jam at the causeway. If the numbers were at least 85% then it would mean that more than half of PR’s popular votes amounting to 5.6 million would have consisted of mainly Chinese votes.

After deducting the Indian votes as well as the Sabah/Sarawak votes that went for PR, this would leave the Malay votes in PR quite a minority. A conservative estimate could give PR only attracting 40% of the Malay vote in total.

Even though they may have received considerable amount of new, young urban Malay votes, at the same time PR had lost a lot of their traditional Malay voters that they had in the 2008 GE. If PR had amassed at the very least 45% of the total Malay vote then they would have easily won the elections.

In the 4 predominantly Malay majority states Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Trengganu, BN lost an average 0.8% of the popular vote as versus PR gained an average 0.53% of the popular vote when compared with the 12th GE.

The overall increase of 2.9 million new voters (28% increase) could have contributed to this. The majority vote difference between BN and PR in these 4 states in the recent elections is a mere 9,149 votes in favour to PR, however it must be noted that Kedah itself has more than 160,000 registered Chinese voters.