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Malaysia Govn desperate for early Election this year?



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Nov 03 2007
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The wind of general election is blowing. And it’s blowing real fast and strong, so much so that I overheard not once, twice but thrice conversations about it from the next table when I was having a glass of Teh Tarik kurang manis” (pulled tea minus condensed milk) with my buddies within this week alone. In a rare occasion, the UMNO assembly which will see 2,500 delegates attending the event is set to clash with Indian community main festival, Deepavali. UMNO assembly is from 5th to 9th Nov 2007 while Deepavali falls on 8th Nove 2007.

Umno secretary-general had said that the party’s AGM would not take a break on Deepavali. Interestingly, MIC (one of the founding members of the ruling coalition representing Indian community) president Samy Vellu said the Indian community will not feel slighted by Umno’s decision to continue its general assembly on Deepavali. In actual fact, Samy Vellu can’t do anything even if UMNO doesn’t give a damn if MIC likes it or not. Heck, the truth is, even if the whole nation’s Indian community feel offended, what can the minority Indian do?

Ali Rustam bully PPPUMNO president, Abdullah Badawi, himself is having a crisis and it appears he had just awakened from his long sleep when his plan to have previous Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz’s extension was blatantly rejected. He might be wondering why he was advised otherwise. He thought that he can do whatever he wants, including extending the tenure of the Chief Justice; at least that’s what the de facto Law Minister Nazri told him not long ago. But I guess when he’s alone with the King (minus the boot polishers) sitting on the round table together with others in the Conference of Rulers last Thursday, the former lord president of the Supreme Court, Sultan Azlan Shah, who chaired the conference might have lectured the PM the basic 101 of Judiaciary Independence.

Kayveas PPP bulliedRecently PPP (People’s Progressive Party), another member of the ruling coalition was left reeling when UMNO’s third most powerful man, vice president Ali Rustam, told PPP to fly kite and leave the coalition (BN, Barisan Nasional) if the party was unhappy. PPP president, Kayveas who was equally stunned by the speech by Ali Rustam was reportedly didn’t say anything even after Ali Rustam delivered the rude and insulting speech, not that he can say or do anything being bullied by his “big brother” in the coalition. What Kayveas could do was to report it to UMNO President Abdullah Badawi as if a small kid lost his ice-cream to his big bully brother. Majority of PPP members are Indian but Badawi couldn’t care less. He has bigger headache to take care of. He’s worrying about the coming general election.

Influence political blog had spills the bean that current administration has three auspicious dates to choose from for the coming general election: 25th Nov 2007, 15th Dec 2007 or 15th Mar 2008. Looking at how the UMNO rushing things at the expense of offending the feeling of the Indian community by having the AGM knowing well Deepavali festival clashes with it gave hint the general election could be held within this year itself after all.

Most importantly the government needs to hike prices of several important commodities such as fuel, gas, electricity, toll and other miscellaneous. It can only implement the unpopular policies after the election. With the existing Chief Justice seat temporary held by Court of Appeal president Abdul Hamid, Badawi needs to rush to the finish line before Abdul Hamid himself retires early next year. Badawi can’t afford a confrontation with the King now. He needs the King’s consent to dissolve the Parliament for the coming election and what’s important within his agenda now is to probably get the UMNO AGM done. The rumor is his son-in-law, Khairi, might be given the easy ride to take over from Hishamuddin as the new UMNO Youth Chief. Hishamuddin is said to be eyeing one of the three vice presidential slots.

All the good news is in order, at least that’s the best Badawi could do now with his limited knowledge and expertise. The stock market is at all time high, amazingly higher than the 1993/94 Super Bull Run. The PM is proud that he has sent the first Malaysian to space, never mind it was part of the Russian arm deal that cost the nation $30 million for the space tourism expedition. The two Angkasawan (Malaysian version of astronaut since both NASA Space Station Crew’s Profiles and even the Russia Federal Space Agency said Muszaphar was only “Flight Participant”) will be presence during the UMNO AGM and likely be on the nation roadshow to instill another “feel good” factor and to publish Badawi’s achievement in an apparent attempt to fish votes. Small fry was put on stage on charges of corruption – just like previous pre-election.
Disneyland coming to Malaysia?The time couldn’t be better to call for a snap election. But let’s not stop there. Let’s add more spices. Citing unnamed sources, theEdge’s Saturday business news (picked up by Reuters) reported that The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:
DIS, stock) is looking to build a theme park on a 500-acre (202-hectare) site in southern Malaysia, referring to the Bardar Nusajaya in the Iskandar development zone. The proposed Disneyland theme park and resort is slated to be bigger than Hong Kong Disneyland and about the size of Tokyo Disney Resort. I would rather take this piece of news with a
pinch of salt. This is not something new. In fact the rumor of Mickey and his gang coming to Malaysia already started in May 2006 with news that Badawi flew to Japan apparently asking Oriental Land Co. Ltd. for support. However a day after the reported rumor, Disney denied and said it has no plans to build a theme park in Malaysia.
Using Keris at UMNO AGMWhether theEdge is trying to create sensation for UEM World Berhad (KLSE:
UEMWRLD, stock-code 1775) stock or to help create “feel good” factor on behalf of the government is everybody’s guess. But one thing is for sure. The UMNO Youth Chief is adamant about displaying his weapon again during the AGM. Fortunately this time there will not be any live telecast of the meeting or else the true face of the party could be resurface again (for those who had missed the first episode)

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Comments

to me, you are spot on. gotta get thru this tragic-comic assembly over with and have an election before the end of november. nothing to do with slighting the indians.
december is a bad month coz of the monsoon season. next year, deadmeat for BN coz they will have to raise petrol and toll, potentially two timebombs. what more, world equity markets are just too uncertain with sub-primes floating around.
so, november is the only feng-sui month for the election.
any takers for a small bet, loser pays for a KFC meal, eh?

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