‘He has negated himself by becoming a destructive leader, whence posterity of all races from all parties will unbearably recognise him as an opportunist.’
On Umno accepts Mahathir's resignation
Richard Kamalanathan: Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Mahathir has been a member of Umno as far back as 1946and espouses himself as a great nationalist along with others who were in the Left such as the late Ahmad Boestamam who formed the Angkatan Pemuda Insaf. Ahmad Boestamam stood and fought and died in honour as a member of Parti Rakyat and recently his son Rustam Sani too passed away with the valour of Parti Rakyat.
However while we rejoiced with Boestamam and Rustam Sani, it is indeed unbelievable that on the other end, a father and son have left Umno and are calling for more Umno members to join forces against Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Abdullah is not an individual, he is a symbol of a party. I am unable to equate the nationalism of Ahmad Boestamam with that of Mahathir Mohamad.
While we in PKR are much too happy watching the irreparable damage that has been invoked upon Umno by Mahathir and his son Mokhzani, it is yet a political conspiracy and treachery that can only be surmised by none other than Mahathir himself.
We do want to know why a leader, who had led the party for 22 years, must suddenly now defy it for one individual. Ahmad Boestamam cherished the party he had helped to form. Even the great peotic leader of PR, Kassim Ahmad, who later left to join Umno did not damage the party he had had once lead for the poor Malays.
But Mahathir will be remembered in Umno for neglecting and damaging a party that had once helped him to hold the reins of this nation. Hence, it calls us to conclude that ' if you cannot milk the cow anymore, kill it'. He has negated himself by becoming a destructive leader, whence posterity of all races from all parties will unbearably recognise him as an opportunist.
The Young One: Quote: ‘Umno's top decision-making body, the supreme council, has today accepted the resignation of former president Dr Mahathir Mohamad from the party. Party deputy president Najib Abdul Razak told reporters after almost a three-hour meeting that the party had received and accepted Mahathir's resignation. Najib also said that he hoped Mahathir would rejoin the party sometime in the future’ - unquote.
Didn’t TDM say categorically that he will not rejoin the party until Abdullah Ahmad Badawi steps down? As such, Najib's press statement that ‘Mahathir would rejoin the party in the future’ conveys there is a likelihood that Abdullah could step down. Or does it infer Najib's deep-seated hope?
On Why doesn't Pak Lah fight back?
Garry Khoo: Pak Lah is a matured leader who doesn’t choose to fight back. Matured leaders fight back by proving they can deliver good results to shut up all those who attack them. We shall give him a chance to prove that for after all, everyone makes mistakes.
I believe Pak Lah has enough support to remain as Umno president after the December party elections. Dr M keeps telling Pak Lah to resign and Umno will be saved. Meaning that Malaysia is not safe under Pak Lah’s administration? It's all nonsense. Malaysia won't collapse because of Pak Lah.
I encourage Dr M to give more useful strategies to help Malaysia instead of weakening Malaysia’s economy. I'm here to remind Dr M that he had plenty of good strategies over the last 22 years but today he chooses to fight for Pak Lah just because he is no longer the prime minister? Don't be so selfish. You should help Umno.
On Ezam to make a timely move back to Umno
Amir Hamzah Amha: Ezam Mohd Noor is a fighter. He was incarcerated, separated from his family; and during the height of Reformasi he even had to hide in Indonesia with Abdul Rahim Ghouse to continue the fight against BN and Umno.
Sources say that his move to join Umno was pre-planned by none other that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) themselves. After engineering Ezam's move to obscure himself from the political limelight, Ezam is now accepted as being outside PR by BN members. This was very difficult seeing his tirade as the PKR Youth chief - equivalent to a vice-president in terms of party seniority.
After taking comfort from being accepted by BN as 'not being from PR' and after not contesting in the general elections, the next logical move is now to hop onto the BN bandwagon and start the spreading of the 'PR Virus Version 1' into BN directly. This is after seeing that the government is more liberal and with Zaid Ibrahim as the de facto Law Minister, Ezam's message of anti-corruption would be better accepted.
He will continue to fight graft and corruption but will nonetheless say that it is easier to enforce anti-corruption measures by joining the system as what Anwar Ibrahim tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to do before. Best of luck to Saudara Ezam.
Goodwill: Ezam's move proves that he still holds on to the ideology of racial politics. It shows that he joined PKR not because he believed in non-racial politics but because of other issues which conflicted with the Umno leadership at that time. Perhaps Umno is where he belongs anyway.
Myoneview: If Ezam joining back Umno is for the motive of reinventing Umno into one that values being 'corruption-free’, 'accountable' and 'transparent', the same objectives of Gerak or Pakatan Rakyat, then I wish him good luck. If not, then I don't know what to say. Anyway, will it be so easy to change the Umno mentality?
On S 'gor opposition leader Khir Toyo's first day in action
Sinayah Kalimuth: Khir has to look back to what he has done to the Selangor government. He and other BN members cleared the one-year allocation within two months hoping for another allocation after they had presumed to regained the state government. What actually happened to the money? His wife on the other hand cleared some RM9.6 million from Selangor.. Daylight robbery and yet nothing much said about it. Khir has no right to question the current Selangor government.
On Uthaya's new bid for freedom, this time for medical negligence
Meng Yee: For goodness’ sake, charge him in a court of law like civilised human beings. It is easy to accuse somebody by just stating that the Hindraf 5 have terrorist links. This is the way of dictators and military juntas who do not live by the rule of law in a civil society. PM Abdullah who is the Home Affairs Minister must now take full responsibility for this inhumane act. If anything happens to any of the Hindraf 5, PM Abdullah and his entire cabinet must be held responsible. Blood will be on their hands.
I cannot understand how inhumane PM Abdullah can be. He is a father and a grandfather and a husband. Surely, he understands that such an act of cowardice by the BN government of whom he is the head, is depriving children and wives of their fathers and husbands. This is cruel and inhumane.
For this reason alone, I believe that the BN government has lost all credibility in the eyes of the rakyat . Mind you, I am not an Indian and I refuse to play the stupid racial games which the BN government is bent on playing. Enough, charge them in a court of law or release them immediately.
On Islamic group condemns 'sexy' school uniforms
Julian CH Lee: Two short comments are in order. First, the commonest form of rape is, overwhelmingly, that done to a woman by someone already known to her. While morally and religiously conservative individuals often allege that ‘sexy’ clothing invites this most horrendous crime in order to justify making women ‘cover up’, those who are actually acquainted with the facts know that there is no relationship between dress and rape.
Far from protecting young women from rape, Munirah’s comments could have the opposite effect of portraying women who do not cover up as knowingly and purposely inviting unwanted attention and sexual assault.
Second, entry into prostitution is, again, not associated with dress style. Sex work is most often a vocation that one is forced into either through economic marginalisation or trafficking. And I do not know of anything to suggest that dress style is associated with pre-marital sex or that ‘covering up’ wards it off.
In all, the associations drawn between various and dubious ‘social ills’ and school-uniforms are either without evidence or with contradictory evidence, and is little more than intellectually lazy and morally paranoiac ‘coffee-shop talk’.
On KTM loses up to RM188 million a year
Dorai Dubai: What are the recovery plans drawn up by KTM to overcome this problem? Have any measures been taken and if so, why is the figure is steadily increasing? If KTM knows that they lost RM104 million in 2006, then they (KTM) should have taken some protection measures. In such a big organisation, I am sure there will be a planning department, a finance department and other relevant departments which can look into this loss seriously.
If things doesn’t go in the proper direction then the transport ministry must look into other areas for diversifying KTM’s business without affecting the core business. Commuter trains running in the Klang Valley are not that efficient and there is a lack of punctuality.
Hence, the public are not confident enough about taking the train nowadays. Please do a market survey to analyse public reaction. Study the analyses and make the necessary improvements. It’s simple. We can’t be telling everyone that KTM is losing and losing money without doing anything. We are in 21 st century, so think.
