Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. who dreamt of a Bangsa Malaysia and a developed nation by 2020. Yet today, he speaks like we, Malaysians, are children who must be told what to do, whom to trust and to fear the bogeyman out to unseat his Barisan Nasional (BN).
Why does he worry so much, this man who led us for more than 22 years? He should have confidence in Datuk Seri Najib Razak, whom he thinks is better than his own handpicked successor, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
His statement today that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will contrive to rule forever, as reported by The Malaysian Insider, is very sad. Surely, anyone who comes to power does not want to be unseated.
Does the BN want to be unseated? Has it not spent billions of ringgit and got the Election Commission to delineate the constituencies to make sure they keep power forever?
“I know that some of us feel that, why not try something else. Then in five years, we can change again to BN. But no way... once they gain power, they will do everything possible, and we cannot change again to BN... by then, it will be too late,” Dr Mahathir said in his speech as reported by The Malaysian Insider.
What is too late, Dr Mahathir? That your coalition won’t make it back to Putrajaya? Come on, the power to decide is with the people. If they want to change the government, they can. It is their right.
The reality is that Dr Mahathir is making Najib, Umno and BN sound really desperate. Didn’t Dr Mahathir say that BN would win comfortably, so why all this scare-mongering and desperate talk? Are any of the four states under PR suffering?
Dr Mahathir, I know you want the best for Malaysia. So do all Malaysians. If we all do change the government, it is because we know that we can vote them out later if they mismanage the administration. The days of two-thirds majorities are over and we have a choice.
We will use that choice wisely for our blessed country. And we will remove the blight of the country, leaders who preach hate.
We are the bosses, the politicians are our servants. I hope you know that by now, Dr Mahathir.
There are not many date options left. The 13th general election is likely to fall in November this year, January or March next year.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak recently hinted that the general election might be fall in November, as 11 is his favourite number. Therefore, people started to speculate that, in order to avoid the Deepavali and Awal Muharram on November 13 and 15, the polling day could fall on November 3, 11 or 25.
However, it could also be a false alarm, as there is still no sign showing that the election will be held in November. If the Prime Minister wants to distribute goodies on September 28 when the Budget is tabled, it will take time to achieve the expected effects and they would not make it by November.
Najib is very likely to announce another round of the RM500 BR1M aid distribution or other people-friendly measures. The aid can be issued, at the earliest, in December and the timing will be nice if the election is held in early next year.
Feedback from the public showed positive response to the BR1M aid, even better than fuel subsidies, and it consumed only RM2.6 billion. Therefore, it is believed that Barisan Nasional will not miss the opportunity to create a feel-good mood.
Moreover, the factional problem of Umno has not yet been solved. Some district leaders actually ignore Najib’s plan of fielding only those with the highest chance of winning, and insist to compete. The election would not come so soon before the problem is solved.
Therefore, Umno leaders are very likely to invest in the party president the full authority to decide on election candidates at the annual party congress, to eliminate different voices in the party. Also, Umno is expected to motivate party members and implement the party’s policy at the congress.
Therefore, the possibility to have the election in November is not high. Since they have been waiting for so long, why should they take the risk now? Therefore, it is believed that the election should be held either in January or March next year.
Since February 10 is the Chinese New Year, February is not suitable for campaigning. Of course, Najib would not allow the Parliament to be automatically dissolved after April 28 to avoid affecting the morale of BN’s component party members.
In any case, even if the election falls in November, Najib is now Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister without his own electoral mandate, the previous record was four-and-a-half years. It shows that BN is really facing the most difficult political situation this time.
BN has done all it wants to fight for swing votes and its policies can no longer be changed. The people have also already made their decisions. Further delay will make the situation more chaotic, and more and more conflicts will be triggered. It is not something in favour of BN, too.
Incidents triggered by the “Janji Demokrasi” rally on August 30, including the move of stepping on a picture of Najib, would not affect the Pakatan Rakyat as the society has been seriously divided. BN, instead, should be vigilant against unexpected events.
For example, after two Sabah lawmakers have withdrawn from BN and decided to support the Pakatan Rakyat, BN should not give them more time to stir up Bumiputeras’ sentiments. If the world economy does not deteriorate and the global food prices surge, it might still affect domestic prices in early next year.
Therefore, based on the above analysis, January will be the best timing and the situation would turn dangerous if they fail to make good use of the opportunity. — mysinchew.com
For two decades now, every party has sold us the same lie. Vote for us, they said, and we will dismantle the corrupt edifice of the Licence Raj that had outlawed our spirit of enterprise under the pretence of banishing social iniquity. We will give you a fair chance to create wealth for India and for yourself, they said. Yet funnily, whoever came to power did just the opposite. They conspired to make the rich, richer. They made it tougher for you and me to break into the system, seek financial empowerment. Everyone spoke of economic reforms. But we still require 103 licences to start a small restaurant in Mumbai and 138 permits to hold a Lady Gaga concert.
That’s not all. If you think these licences allow you to do business, think again. At every stage, a gaggle of Government officers (often working at the behest of their political masters) will make your life hell. The entire system connives to destroy every enterprise unless its owner is (as they say) well connected. The ordinary guy has no option but to spend most of his time in Government offices, greasing palms and sucking up to a bunch of rogues. Small towns are worse. Everything is run by the local mafia which uses the system to terrorise everyone. (Watch The Gangs of Wasseypur to get an idea.) The poor kill themselves not out of poverty but frustration. After a while, people just give up.
That such a system still exists is bad enough. But what’s worse, 65 years after Independence, no one wants to dismantle it. Every year it gets worse. New laws are devised to further curb our freedoms. The last few years have been bad. Retrospective taxes have been introduced, some going back to three decades, to teach a lesson to those tax payers who had the temerity to challenge unjust tax claims in the courts and win. The Vodafone case is an example. After failing to make its tax demands stick in any court, including the Supreme Court, the ministry decided to change the law with retrospective effect. Now it’s anybody’s guess what the Government will do. GAAR is another aberration. Between retro taxes and GAAR, the Government has successfully scared off all foreign investors. Worse, even Indians have stopped investing in India. They are putting their money into overseas ventures.
Foreign investment spurs growth. So do local savings. Few nations can boast about so successfully alienating both. And yet, a brave new generation of young Indians, clever and talented, are striving to show the world that, despite all this, our spirit of enterprise is second to none. They have stayed back and fought the system. Some have even come back home, giving up successful overseas careers to build a new India for us. They fight every day with the rude, callous, unyielding and corrupt system. It’s not failure that defeats them. (In fact, most Indians do business with amazing dexterity.) What defeats us all is the system, the State and its octopus arms. Some arms reach out to strangle us. Others come with palms wide open. Even if one of those arms ever reached out to assist us, India would have created thousands of successful enterprises to take on the world.
What we need today are simpler, easier, more coherent laws. We need fewer taxes, lower rates of taxation. Knock off subsidies. Cut down on State payrolls. Make the bureaucracy smaller, more efficient, more accountable. Punish the corrupt in an exemplary manner. You will see change. Better business practices will fall into place, the economy will grow much faster and the whole world will be at our doorstep ready to invest in every idea, every dream you and I have. We will be a nation of bright, young, bushy-tailed talent, instead of being a nation of sycophants and favour seekers.
The Parthasarathi Shome committee has shown us the way. It’s now up to the Prime Minister to decide whether he wants to accept its recommendations and change India for the better, as he had once promised to, or let the stranglehold remain, as testimony to his failure.
That’s not all. If you think these licences allow you to do business, think again. At every stage, a gaggle of Government officers (often working at the behest of their political masters) will make your life hell. The entire system connives to destroy every enterprise unless its owner is (as they say) well connected. The ordinary guy has no option but to spend most of his time in Government offices, greasing palms and sucking up to a bunch of rogues. Small towns are worse. Everything is run by the local mafia which uses the system to terrorise everyone. (Watch The Gangs of Wasseypur to get an idea.) The poor kill themselves not out of poverty but frustration. After a while, people just give up.
That such a system still exists is bad enough. But what’s worse, 65 years after Independence, no one wants to dismantle it. Every year it gets worse. New laws are devised to further curb our freedoms. The last few years have been bad. Retrospective taxes have been introduced, some going back to three decades, to teach a lesson to those tax payers who had the temerity to challenge unjust tax claims in the courts and win. The Vodafone case is an example. After failing to make its tax demands stick in any court, including the Supreme Court, the ministry decided to change the law with retrospective effect. Now it’s anybody’s guess what the Government will do. GAAR is another aberration. Between retro taxes and GAAR, the Government has successfully scared off all foreign investors. Worse, even Indians have stopped investing in India. They are putting their money into overseas ventures.
Foreign investment spurs growth. So do local savings. Few nations can boast about so successfully alienating both. And yet, a brave new generation of young Indians, clever and talented, are striving to show the world that, despite all this, our spirit of enterprise is second to none. They have stayed back and fought the system. Some have even come back home, giving up successful overseas careers to build a new India for us. They fight every day with the rude, callous, unyielding and corrupt system. It’s not failure that defeats them. (In fact, most Indians do business with amazing dexterity.) What defeats us all is the system, the State and its octopus arms. Some arms reach out to strangle us. Others come with palms wide open. Even if one of those arms ever reached out to assist us, India would have created thousands of successful enterprises to take on the world.
What we need today are simpler, easier, more coherent laws. We need fewer taxes, lower rates of taxation. Knock off subsidies. Cut down on State payrolls. Make the bureaucracy smaller, more efficient, more accountable. Punish the corrupt in an exemplary manner. You will see change. Better business practices will fall into place, the economy will grow much faster and the whole world will be at our doorstep ready to invest in every idea, every dream you and I have. We will be a nation of bright, young, bushy-tailed talent, instead of being a nation of sycophants and favour seekers.
The Parthasarathi Shome committee has shown us the way. It’s now up to the Prime Minister to decide whether he wants to accept its recommendations and change India for the better, as he had once promised to, or let the stranglehold remain, as testimony to his failure.
State efforts to restrict voting access have dominated election news this year. Since the beginning of 2011, legislators in 41 state governments have introduced at least 180 bills that wouldmake it harder to register or to vote. At least 25 laws and two executive actions have been enacted, affecting 19 states. These include laws requiring proof of citizenship or photo identification to register or to vote; limiting voting registration opportunities; and reducing early and absentee voting.
The U.S. Department of Justice and voting rights advocates have challenged these laws for violating the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act, and raised concerns about their discriminatory impact on low-income people, and racial and ethnic minorities. But what hasn't been mentioned in the media coverage, and what seems of little concern to supporters or opponents of these laws, is their discriminatory impact on one of the country's largest minorities: people with disabilities.
At least 36 million people with disabilities -- more than 11 percent of the population - live in the United States. Adults with disabilities face high rates of unemployment and poverty relative to their non-disabled counterparts. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one-third of working age (21-64 years old) adults with disabilities are unemployed; and 27 percent of working age adults with disabilities live below the poverty line -- twice the rate of people without disabilities.
Many people with disabilities already face physical and other barriers when they seek to exercise their right to vote. Federal laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Help America Vote Act require accessible voting systems, to ensure equal access and participation for people with physical and visual disabilities. But according to a 2009 US Government Accountability Office study, more than two-thirds of polling places are not fully accessible; nearly 25 percent did not have equal access to a secret and independent ballot, and voting in a polling place, considered the "hallmarks of an effective and informed right to vote," as voting rights expert Michael Waterstone has noted.
People with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities may be barred from voting by state laws disqualifying voters judged "mentally incompetent" by a court (as permitted by 39 U.S. states, according to a study published before the 2008 election) or because election officials or service providers improperly screen out those they determine incompetent to vote.
In Virginia, for example, election officials refused to provide absentee ballots for people in state psychiatric facilities because they read the state law to authorize such ballots only for people with physical disabilities. A 2008 study of Philadelphia nursing homes found that staff were denying residents the right to vote based on their own assessment of capacity to vote, notwithstanding that Pennsylvania law does not require that voters be deemed competent to cast a ballot.
People with disabilities are significantly less likely to vote than their non-disabled peers. A 2012 study found voter turnout for people with disabilities to be11 percentage points lower than for people without disabilities, leaving more than 3 million Americans with disabilities "sidelined" on Election Day.
In this context, laws imposing additional burdens threaten to further suppress political participation and voter turnout by people with disabilities.
Consider, for example, laws requiring proof of citizenship or photo ID to register or to vote. The Supreme Court has made clear that states that require government-issued IDs for voting must make them available free of charge to indigent voters. But people with disabilities still face considerable challenges. Because they are more likely to live in poverty, securing the necessary documentation to get a photo ID may be out of reach ($15-$25 for a birth certificate). Also many people with disabilities don't drive and must rely on family members, caretakers, or public transit for transportation. These problems with transportation are compounded for people in rural areas or group homes.
Rather than legislating ways to take away people's voting rights, state governments should instead be coming up with initiatives to ensure that all qualified U.S. citizens -- including people with disabilities -- can register to vote, get to the polls, and cast their ballots. States should make information about the voting process and candidates accessible to all people with disabilities, using simple language, visual aids, or oral instructions, and training local election supervisors to provide such information during the voting process.
These measures would ensure that people with disabilities can make informed decisions at the ballot box, and send a clear message that they are welcome in the political sphere, and have a say in who gets to represent their interests, like all other American citizens.
Rebecca Schleifer is the health and human rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
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