WHAT is the biggest significance of the Sibu by-election outcome? I now believe it is not that Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat (PR) won its first seat since the recent establishment of its Sarawak chapter or that Barisan Nasional (BN) remains five seats away from retaining its parliamentary two-thirds majority. It is the outright rejection of clientelism […]
uncommon sense
Sibu – another referendum
By Wong Chin HuatDATUK Seri Najib Razak called the Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election a referendum on his premiership. The justification was rather obvious as it was formerly a Barisan Nasional (BN) stronghold with an ethnic composition mirroring Peninsula Malaysia’s. The campaign was largely fought by Umno, even though the BN’s candidate was from MIC. Sibu has also been […]
Saving the police
By Wong Chin HuatWILL the late Aminulrasyid Amzah be the last victim of state violence? Like political aide Teoh Beng Hock‘s death in custody — the anniversary is two months away — the extra-judicial killing of Aminulrasyid has caused a lot of anger because he was not one of the “usual suspects”. Screencap of the Facebook groupWhat if […]
BN victory or disaster in Hulu Selangor?
By Wong Chin HuatONE of the best ways to understand the Hulu Selangor by-election is to look at the split-voting phenomenon. That happens when the same voter casts votes for different parties in simultaneous parliamentary and state elections. In 2008, due to the personality and ethnicity of the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate, MIC’s Datuk G Palanivel, BN suffered […]
Saving Parliament from the EC
By Wong Chin HuatI COULD not believe the Election Commission (EC)’s admission that 228 (0.35%) voters had been transferred out of the Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituency to the neighbouring Selayang parliamentary constituency. Now, it is not news that voters get transferred involuntarily — you may even call it voter trafficking or abduction — from their neighbourhoods to faraway […]
By-elections and bumiputeraism
By Wong Chin HuatCorrected at 2.59pm, 16 April 2010 WHILE by-elections can hardly be considered referendums, they are nevertheless mid-term elections and often have far-reaching implications. The triple by-elections of April 2009 Remember the triple by-elections of April 2009? What if newly-minted premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak‘s Barisan Nasional (BN) had won all three handsomely? Would he then […]
Why fight?
By Wong Chin Huat(Boxing gloves by januszek / sxc.hu) DOES it matter if the MCA stops fighting after the 28 March 2010 party election? On one level, I don’t think so. After all, just 10 days after its elections during which Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek made a remarkable comeback as party president, the MCA’s newsworthiness has […]
The Election Commission’s secret
By Wong Chin HuatBallot box at the entrance of the Election Commission AS expected, the Election Commission (EC) said “no” to the idea of local elections mooted by the Penang and Selangor governments. Perhaps the EC is taking its cue from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is dead against “politicking“, the derogatory term for political competition. […]
Why is the BN against local elections?
By Wong Chin HuatAT least on the surface, the Barisan Nasional (BN) agrees with the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) on two things: ethno-religious inclusion and governmental reforms. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia and Government Transformation Programme are basically the BN’s answer to the PR’s ketuanan rakyat and “competency, accountability and transparency“. But the two coalitions now differ […]
Mission: Democratisation
By Wong Chin HuatI HAVE no doubt that a two-party system is better than the one-party state we currently live in. However, what is desirable is not necessarily viable. As I have argued, blind faith in the feasibility of a two-party system may lead to either one-party predominance (under the Barisan Nasional [BN] or Pakatan Rakyat [PR]), or […]
