My Anthem

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

It's the Gerrymander, Stupid! U2?

From the MSM, only English print with some credibility left, theSun, page 2 today:

Not true govt
practises unfair
policies: Najib



PETALING AYA: The Barisan
Nsional (BN) would not have
had the Indian community's
support through the years if the
government, led by the coali
tion, practised unfair policies,
Datuk Seri Najib said.

Responding to comments
by Hindu Rights action Force
(Hindraf) legal adviser P.
Uthayakumar that the Indians
who demonstrated had been
oppressed since independence,
the deputy prime minister said
if that were true,the BN would
not have survived this long in
government.
:
:
:


DESIDERATA:


Two highlights here:

I wrote a Post recently titled "It's the Gerrymander, Stupid!" and
I reprise here Young&Articulate, second time! (GO-lah to infernalramblings.com, it's free what!:( johnleemk's sharp-like-71-year-old's observation, and he's only 17!:

*******"The most perfidious and sometimes perhaps most obvious travesty of democracy, of course, has to be how electoral constituencies are so blatantly gerrymandered. The way these constituencies are divided up makes no sense; why should my member of Parliament represent 100,000 people, while Putrajaya's represents only less than 10,000? This distortion basically ensures that some constituencies have a louder voice than others in Parliament, and makes the democratic process all but meaningless."*******


(2) Something which wikipedia can do for some Malaysians who have short memory or then were Too Young to know:

Najib -- yes, the current DPM dispensing good advice to the Indian community! -- then Pemuda Umno chief, which, history testifies, had played a critical role that culminated in Ops Lalang when 106 opposition members, NGO activists, and some "token" BN members, were taken in. Here's the extract from wikipedia (Howsy matey, got picture, ah?):

"In 1987, as UMNO Youth Chief, Najib threatened to bathe a keris (dagger) in Chinese blood shortly before the government launched a crackdown on extremist elements termed Operation Lalang. At the same rally, banners were hoisted carrying phrases such as "revoke the citizenship of those who opposed the Malay rulers", "May 13 has begun" (referring to the May 13 racial riots in 1969), and "soak it (the keris) with Chinese blood."

And some two decades later, the smiling-tiger cousin Hishamuddin Hussein -- is he your Education Minister, OMG! -- reprises the same ACT on the PWTC year every year, for the past few years. The young&ambitious SIL, like a moneky, imitates.

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