Result of the Bukit Gelugor By-election

Result of the Bukit Gelugor By-election held on 25.05.14 has more to tell

The result of the By-election was announced by the Chairman of the Election Commission at 9.05 pm after the closing of the voting at5.00pm.

Candidate Ramkarpal of the DAP won the Bukit Gelugor Parliamentary seat. He scored 41,242 votes which was approximately 88% of the total 46,999 votes casted. He obtained the majority of 37,659 votes. This showed the constituents preferred him to the others.

The rest of the contestants (1) Huan from Party Cinta managed to gather 3,583 votes. (2) Mohd Nabi, the independent managed to receive 799 votes and (3) Abu Backer another independent managed to receive 225 votes. All of them could not even gather 1/8% of the total votes. All their deposits given to secure a place to contest were confiscated by the Election Commission.

The turnout of voters was surprisingly low, only about 56.4 %. The Election Commission expected a 70% turnout. Those who turnout were mainly from the older generation whereas those who failed to turnout were from the young generation. According to the Election Commission, it was estimated that 37% of the total 82,431 registered voters between 21 years and 39 years had not voted.

This is rather surprising. At campaigning sessions we observed scores of youngsters rather than the elders were around listening to the speakers but they absented themselves on the day of voting. What could have been the cause? This low turnout phenomenon needs to be looked into seriously. Just to dismiss this matter believing they took it easy because they had already known who the winner was may not be entirely right.    

Dr. Chan          

Malaysians are in a Dilemma

Malaysians are in a ‘Dilemma’

Of late, Malaysia seemed to be plagued by the burning issue of attempting to replace the long standing penal law with the Islamic penal law, the Hudud. Majority of the population non-Muslim and Muslim alike feared that eventually, beginning from the state of Kelantan, other states sooner or later will follow suit and eventually the whole country will adopt the Hudud. With that Malaysia will be noted as an Islamic state. By the by the Democratic system will be automatically unimportant. The Federal Constitution guaranteeing the secular status Malaysia is no more. The question is, with the Islamic state status what will the future of the country be? Of course, no one can say for sure what will Malaysia be but we can still predict the out-come by looking at what had happened to the Middle East countries and of our neighbor Brunei. Brunei has very recently, about a week ago, declared the implementation of Hudud for the country. It shocked the world. The world reaction to this could be said was unfavorable. A certain group of people, formally the supporters of Sultan, withdrew their support and in addition advocated a boycott to all his businesses. In fact, the economy of the Sultan is the economy of the country. To what extend the economy of Brunei will be affected it is left to be seen.

What actually is Hudud? Yes, it is Islamic penal law. But why is it feared? My understanding is that the uneven implementation of punishment is the cause of the fear.

Offences classified as criminal offenses are: (1) Absence from Friday prayer services

                                                                               (2) Becoming pregnant out of wedlock

                                                                               (3) Wearing indecent clothing and for women refusal to         wear a hijab

                                                                               (4) Employing a non-Muslim babysitter

                                                                               (5) The use of the word “Allah” by Christians and the discussion of faith by any non-Muslims

                                                                               (6) Publicly eating and drinking during Ramadan

                                                                               (7) Theft

                                                                               (8) Homosexuality and

                                                                               (9) Adultery

Punishment is imposed to the offender according to his station in life. The same offence committed punishment can be at different levels.  The range of punishment can be from the lightest, this is a fine and to the heaviest, that is stoning to death. In between, there are jail sentence, amputation of limbs and public flogging, all depending who you are or whom you know. 

Judging from the above criminal offences and punishments for them may I ask, can the present modern society whether Muslims or non-Muslims agree and accept them?

Again you may question, where are the Muslim intellectuals? Why are they silent about this issue?

Dr. Chan    15.05.2014

Food for thoughts

My afterthought after reading the comment of Professor James Chin and the comment of Khoo Kay Peng on the decision of MCA not to take part in the coming 25^th.May 2014 Bukit Gelugor By-election.

Professor James Chin saw the decision of MCA not participating in the By-election was the correct move. To him it would be a waste of resources and sacrifice of good leader knowing full-well it would be a lost contest. Could it be said he was prudent?

Whereas Khoo Kay Peng saw it as a lost of a good opportunity to grill DAP on the issue of Huddud (Islamic penal law) regardless of the outcome of the By-election. Could it be said he was fool-hardy?

 Ong Kar Chuan, the Secretary-General of MCA came out with the reason that the Party is concentrating in opposing the issue of impending implementation of Huddud (Islamic penal law) and the party could not be bothered with the Bukit Gelugor By-Election. Could this be a good reason?

From the comments of these intellects it would appear to me our Malaysian Chinese intellects are lacking far behind in wise thinking. They may be literate and having a style but without actual substance.

Dr. Chan

Bukit Gelugor By-Election

The late YB Karpal Singh was a lawyer by profession, Chairman of a political party, DAP and also a member of Malaysian Parliament.

In the early hour of Thursday the 17^th.April, 2014 while on his way back from Kuala Lumpur to Penang on the North/South Express way his chauffer driven car collided with a moving lorry at the stretch near Gua Tempurong, in the state of Perak. It was a nasty fatal accident He died on the spot.

The Election Commission on April 24^th. 2014 announced that a By-election had been decided to replace the late YB Karpal.  It was decided that nomination date will be on May 12^th. 2014 and polling day will be on May 25^th. 2014. The early voting date will be on May 21^st. 2014.

Statically, Bukit Gelugor Parliamentary constituency has 82,431 registered voters. 74.5% are Chinese, At the last General election, May 2013, the late YB Karpal scored 41,778 Majority over Teh Beng Yeam from the MCA.

DAP now needs to carefully select one suitable person to replace him in the coming By-election, even though it is a foregone conclusion that any person picked to contest from the DAP ticket will surely win. This conclusion is mainly based on the past election statistic and as well as from the sentiment of the people who showed up at the funeral of the late YB Karpal.

A wrong selection of candidate will bring a bad image to the party and may even jeopardize future elections.

If you care to reflect on the present situation, a situation from the time the DAP took power till now it would appear visible incompetency of the government to govern properly is showing. Incompetency has shown up here and there.

For examples, street lights at important stretch of roads were not on at the right time. It appeared no one to supervise the correct timing of switching on the street lights. That was why traffic accidents were on the rise. Open drains at Taman were not swept properly. It seemed there was no supervisor to see the workers did their duties properly. Workers after reported their attendance, took up their tools, carried out their duties half-heartedly for a short period of time and then they grouped together to chit chat until the time was up and they left calling it a day. The clog-up drains could be the cause for the increase of dengue case. Health Department had reported that already about 30,000 cases of dengue cases treated and it had caused 60 deaths.  Public lavatories and public wash basins especially at public markets were filthy and water either leaking from taps or taps not workable. What had happened to the market inspectors? All these appeared to be small matters but they created an impression of incompetency to govern.

Strangely, out of nowhere the hurriedly formed Penang Action Party (PAP) which is yet to be registered with the Registrar of Societies came into picture.

The Chairman of the PAP, Dato Go Chui Tiong (believed to be a member of the MCA) through his spokesman Saw Chong Tatt, he declared the party is Barisan Nassional friendly. He further declared the party has 2000 members. It has the support of 44 Chinese NGOs from Penang. The objective of the party is to ensure Penang state is to be governed by local Penang born and not outsiders. Let us see how this fly by night party will fair. I believe it will fade out soon after the By-election.

MCA has learned a lesson by entering the Kajang By-election and lost. Refraining from competing in this BY-election is a right move.

Dr. Chan