'If MCA - an Umno crony - sees it fit to suspend him, then why does PKR welcome him? Who pays the ultimate price?'
PKR deliberates Chong Meng's membership
GH Kok: Even the Democratic Party in the US makes mistakes. When humans are involved, there are always mistakes. And politics involves humans. There will always be some unwanted people slipping through...but they will be caught eventually. But the duty is upon every party member to be vigilant. Remember - the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
SusahKes: For all this supposedly ‘detoxification’ process that PKR purports to be undertaking in their present elections, you wonder what is the point when they keep letting in candidates with questionable backgrounds. I mean, if MCA - an Umno crony - sees it fit to suspend him, then why does PKR welcome him?
And then when the party (and voters) go through hell when ex- Umno/BN men start to manifest their ‘Evelyn Salt’ tendencies, who pays the ultimate price? How blind can those in charge of the vetting/selection process be? If you're not mending the fort's front doors, then what cleansing process is PKR hoping to achieve with its elections?
Clear Soul: Cheat me once, shame on me, Cheat me twice, shame on you. Shame on you PKR. Again and again PKR allows immoral individual such as this Dr Lee Chong Meng into the party. He was suspended from MCA for misappropriating certain funds. And here he is, the Bukit Bintang PKR new chairperson. What is wrong with the central machinery of PKR? Another BN in making? Shame on you PKR leaders.
Anonymous: PKR must know, and know quickly, that no person could be having dual membership; and no nation allows dual citizenship. You are either a member of A or a member of B, but not both. The same goes for citizenship of a nation. There is Chinese saying: ‘Having your feet on two ships, one on each’. Your allegiance is to one , and one only.
YF: Why is PKR accepting BN rejects? If they are people with principles, fine, but if they're no different from the garbage in BN then why spoil the whole bunch with these rotten apples? As if PKR has not learned from the present croaking ones.
Umno quelling NEM worries among members
TKC: The ultras in Umno and Perkasa are gifted with extra sensory perception (ESP). When things are not there, they see it; and when things are there, they don’t see it. Example? Article 153 says ‘special position of Malays’. They interpret it as ‘special rights of Malays’. NEM has ‘affirmative action’. They interpret it as ‘no affirmative action’.
Hibiscus: It takes too long to convince people with imaginary fear like those in Umno to change. Because they see ‘hantu’ everywhere they are easily manipulated by deceitful leaders. They will not heed levelheaded leaders, but instead will conspire to kick them out. For good of future of Malaysia, it’s best BN take a sabbatical and let Pakatan Rakyat win next general elections.
This is so that BN component parties, especially race-based ones like Umno, MCA, MIC can redefine themselves and see the necessity to merge into one single party, to start the process of erasing race identification from politics, for a harmonious Malaysia for us and future generations.
To be sure there will be no more draconian laws the Pakatan government will be able to use and abuse on their political opponents, BN should begin to dismantling these laws now - the ISA, the Printing Presses Act, the Official Secrets Act and also make the judiciary, police, MACC independent.
Then in the general elections after the coming one, BN will be reformed and possibly ready once again take over the federal government, minus all the racism.
Anonymous:
Change is something people find inconvenient: they like the old way of doing things where they could benefit a lot without any sweat of the brow. No wonder, no less a person than the CIMB CEO spoke about the ‘bastardisation of the NEP ‘and he gave the ‘AP’ issue as one example. Did the ordinary Malays benefit from NEP?Or did only a certain group of people benefit from it? Such people, while the going is good, do not like the NEM. So you need strong men to make a drastic change by replacing the NEP with NEM. Obviously some NGOs will still try to hoodwink the Malays.
Doc: I'm not too sure for which of these two factors that Umno members are most worried of: i) erosion of Malay rights will lead to a size reduction of the country's economic pie for all Malays or ii) erosion of Malay rights will lead to a size reduction of the economic pie that should handed over to Umno.
Chipmunk: The worry amongst the Malays are caused by the own doings of Umno and now they (Umno) are trying to do damage control. Finally Tengku Adnan realized that the Umno Malays were the real problem in implementing the NEM. How can these guys understand when they are being spoon-fed all the time? You say Najib Abdul Razak is a PM for all Malaysians but why is Muhyiddin Yassin preaching otherwise?
And this is nut just a perception but a well-known fact and you cannot deny that. The threat about Malay rights being eroded was caused by non other than Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the Ibrahim Ali from Perkasa.
Why? Because Mahathir's long-term plan is to put fear in the Malays and later get his son to take over the helm of the country (that will be after Muhyiddin takes over) and become their ‘savior’. In that way, Mahathir’s corrupt acts will not be uncovered and their family dynasty will continue to survive. Tell me that this is also just a perception?
Gibran: Lee Kuan Yew may have made Singapore what it is but he should not control it to the extent that his family manages everything important. It is time for Singapore to move on to the next stage of political maturity, that is without the iron-fisted control of the Lees. I think Singaporeans are ready to embrace democracy in its best form.
AT Toong: I feel it's really inappropriate and unfair of Lee Kuan Yew to pass disparaging remarks on his key political opponent, Lim Chin Siong, on such an occasion. Chin Siong was put behind bars by Lee for many years without trial and he has now passed on and therefore has no way of replying to Lee. It's as if the ghost of Chin Siong is still haunting Lee.
Temenggong: All these decades she never tampered with Lee’'s authoritarianism. She probably prodded him on. That speaks of her character. The same for Mahathir's family.
Anonymous: Behind every great man is a great woman. How true it was with the Lee couple, both brilliant scholars of law at Cambridge University. Yes, he did lament that he could have done more for the Malays in Malaysia like what he has done for the Malays in Singapore. But the twist of history made it impossible.
Now, is in the first world with high-income earners coming from foreign lands while Malaysia is languishing in the third world and trying to be a developed nation in 2020. What lesson could we learn from their story?
Why is it against 'nature'?
Yih Feng Low: I totally agree with O Young and am sorely disappointed with the other insensitive comments posted. Philosophers call the phenomenon natural fallacy - the assumption that what is natural is morally good. Its ‘natural’ for humans to feel greed and jealousy does that automatically translate to moral goodness?
I urge others to put logic on the table and reject dogmatic beliefs. Unless there is good reason to (keeping in mind that religion isn't a good enough reason - just because your religion teaches you something does not give you the right to force your religion's laws on others), others should be accorded the same rights - to express themselves in whichever way they want.
CarL: In the context of what the writer says, yes it is somewhat a tragedy that we have such opposites that attract, and also that we should allow them to congregate , and pay no mind to their practices. In reality, don't say that one would have to be practical if one had a son who is like that, but then imagine your heartache and sorrow to know that. This is reality.
The above are a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only Malaysiakini subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .