Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
MCA not the only party that can represent Chinese: PAS is better than MCA!
Guan Eng chides Soi Lek for double standards
May 02, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — Lim Guan Eng has hit out at the MCA for threatening Chinese voters for exercising their freedom of choice while keeping silent about Umno’s “unilateral” invitation to PAS to join Barisan Nasional (BN) for Malay unity.
The Penang chief minister said this proved the MCA and its president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek have “no respect for democracy” and were willing to practise double standards to serve the needs of “dictatorial” coalition partner Umno.
“Umno is BN and BN is Umno,” Lim (picture) said in a statement today. “Once again Umno and (Dr) Chua have proven that whether or not there is any representation by MCA in government is irrelevant.”Dr Chua pledged yesterday that the MCA would stay out of government if it failed to improve flagging support among Chinese voters in the next general election, expected to be called anytime between August and early next year.
Currently, the MCA only has 15 MPs and 31 state assemblymen from Election 2008. The party had contested 40 parliamentary seats and 90 state seats then.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also Umno president, had urged the community on Saturday to support the MCA or risk losing Chinese representation in the BN government.
Najib also extended an invitation to PAS to join BN for the sake of Malay and Muslim unity that same day, telling the Islamist party it could not achieve its aims while partnered with the DAP.
But Dr Chua was quick to respond that the MCA would only accept PAS as a coalition partner if the latter abandoned its policy of turning Malaysia into a theocratic Islamic state.
Lim today also said the MCA will not carry out its threat to reject ministerial posts if the party was once again rejected by voters, claiming that no MCA leader would turn down such an opportunity.
He said Dr Chua’s failure to direct the MCA’s four ministers and two assemblymen in Perak and Negri Sembilan to resign their government posts despite the party losing badly in Election 2008 showed that the former Labis MP was an “unprincipled leader”.
“This again confirms MCA’s struggle is not about principles but for positions, not fighting for the people but for posts,” the DAP secretary-general said.
“After all, if voters have rejected BN, why is it that MCA dare not withdraw from BN? Whether MCA wins big or loses big in general elections, MCA would continue to be given four minor ministerial posts.”
Lim also slammed the MCA and Umno for “playing racial and extremist politics” by talking only of Chinese unity and Malay unity at the expense of Malaysian unity, saying that this contradicted the prime minister’s own 1 Malaysia concept.
“To date neither Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s focus on Malay and Islamic unity nor his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s support of ‘1 Melayu, 1 Bumi’ or ‘I am Malay first and Malaysian second’ is consistent with 1 Malaysia,” he said.
I have Chinese friends who voted for PAS in the last GE.
What if one day the Chinese become the minority of the minorities?
The fact is the Chinese population is declining in Malaysia.
So what Chinese representation by MCA in government is Chua Soi Lek talking about?
Joy erupts on US streets with killing of bin Laden: Don't be too happy yet! 8|
May 02, 2011
WASHINGTON, May 2 – Thousands of people poured into the streets outside the White House and in New York City early today, waving US flags, cheering and honking horns to celebrate al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s death.
Almost 10 years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people, residents found joy, comfort and closure with the death of the mastermind of the plot. For many, it was a historic, long-overdue moment.
“I never figured I’d be excited about someone’s death. It’s been a long time coming,” firefighter Michael Carroll, 27, whose firefighter father died in the September 11 attacks, said in New York. “It’s finally here. ... it feels good.”
At Ground Zero, site of the World Trade Center Twin Towers toppled by al Qaeda militants flying hijacked planes, thousands sang the US national anthem, popped champagne, drank from beer bottles and threw rolls of toilet paper into the air. Another big crowd gathered in New York’s Times Square.
“With all the gloom and doom around us, we all needed this. Evil has been ripped from the world,” said Guy Madsen, 49, a salesman from Clifton, New Jersey, who drove to Lower Manhattan with his 14-year-old son.
Many in Times Square recalled the thousands of New Yorkers who perished on a clear September Tuesday almost a decade ago. Some people held pictures of loved ones who died.
In Washington, people gathering outside the White House soon after the first reports that bin Laden had been slain in Pakistan by US forces and even before President Barack Obama announced the news. The boisterous crowd swelled into the thousands and chanted “USA, USA, USA.”
“We had to be there to celebrate with everybody else. I’m very happy with the outcome of today’s news,” said Stephen Kelley, a Gulf War veteran and former US Marine, who said he rushed to the White House after his wife told him the news.
College students, who were just children when the attacks took place, turned out in huge numbers, like Jennifer Raymond, 18, wrapped in a huge US flag outside the White House.
“We were all in our dorm rooms and everyone’s Facebook was blowing up,” Raymond said. “It’s like ‘Oh my God, Osama bin Laden’s dead.’ Everyone in the dorm was screaming. Everyone decided to come to the White House.”
The celebration may well have been the biggest crowd to gather spontaneously outside the White House since Obama’s election in November 2008.
In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement: “New Yorkers have waited nearly 10 years for this news. It is my hope that it will bring some closure and comfort to all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.”
Firefighters hold a special place in New Yorkers’ memories of September 11, as hundreds died in the collapse of the Twin Towers while racing up flights of stairs to rescue trapped people on upper floors.
“This is a tremendous moment, and hopefully it will bring us together, it doesn’t matter if you’re Muslim or Christian or whatever,” said Patrice McLeod, a firefighter dressed in uniform. “We’ll never give up.”
It was also a night to remember the 100,000 or so US troops deployed in Afghanistan. Elaine Coronado, 51, whose brother served a year in Afghanistan, said that joining the crowd outside the White House was a way of showing her support to US military families.
Donna Marsh O’Connor, who lost her pregnant daughter in the 2001 attacks and is active in the group September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, watched events unfold on television.
“Osama bin Laden is dead, and so is my daughter,” she said. “His death didn’t bring her back. We are not a family which celebrates death, no matter who it is.” – Reuters
Americans all over the world should not be overjoyed. Why? The war has not yet ended. There may be more terrorist attacks following his death.
OFFICIAL: Osama bin Laden dead - Obama: Osama killed by US forces! ;)
Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden dead - Obama
Bin Laden is top of the US "most wanted" list Al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama Bin Laden has been killed by US forces, President Barack Obama has said.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
MCA, the Umno dog, will not fight for Chinese, let alone equality for all races
Malay special rights must be respected, says Dr Chua
May 01, 2011
MALACCA, May 1 — Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has stressed that Malay special rights is protected under the federal constitution, explaining today his offer to vote for PKR was to expose Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) deception. The MCA president said the statement in a YouTube clip posted by his party was taken out of context as it was a response to a question during a meeting with his Facebook fans.
“There was this young man that said MCA was not pushing hard enough to ensure equality and abolishment of Malays special rights.
“I said very simply that the Malay special rights is entrenched in the constitution under article 153 and in order to remove that you require two-thirds and you also need the ruler’s council approval even if you get approved in parliament,” he said today.
In the clip, Dr Chua (picture) said, “If PKR dares to amend the constitution and cancel Malay privileges, I will be the first to raise my hands to vote for PKR,”
He added the public has been misled by PR’s promise of false hope.
“I said that they have been misled and the opposition only gives hope that as if they are pushing for abolishment of Malay special rights because you can see the DAP everyday is talking about equality among the races. I said that if they dare to do it then we will also be supporting them.
“Because they are not doing it but they are just spinning it and bluffing the rakyat and rising the hope and expectation of the Chinese community towards MCA and Barisan Nasional. It is a false hope,” he said.
MCA has been under heavy scrutiny following the April 16 Sarawak election where BN lost nearly all Chinese-majority seats to PR.
The result echoed the loss of Chinese votes in the March 2008 general election, where MCA won just 15 seats in Parliament — fewer than half the 31 MPs it had before.
In the aftermath, De Chua and Utusan Malaysia both called for the Chinese-dominated Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) to be dropped from the state Cabinet for its dismal performance.
However, MCA and the Umno-owned newspaper have clashed over the latter’s call for a “1 Melayu, 1 Bumi” campaign to unite Malays against the growing threat of Chinese political power.
Dr Chua also said his party would not accept any post in the federal and state governments if it scored worse in the coming 13th general election.
Recently, I posed a simple question to a Chinese young adult:
Is it fair if two people - one a Malay, another a non-Malay - who work equally hard and earn the same salary to buy the same house but each at a different price?
Obviously, he knew what I was getting at and shook his head from left to right, indicating no.
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