FROM day one, the Barisan Nasional (BN) has been pulling out all the stops in its Bagan Pinang by-election campaign. Sure, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) managed to muster more than 4,000 supporters — more than double the BN’s — on nomination day. But since nominations closed, it is clear that the PR is struggling to [...]

JOURNALISTS have been warning each other that Zulkefly Mohamad Omar, PAS’s Bagan Pinang by-election candidate, is not the world’s best orator. Unfortunately, this is true. At a PAS-organised ceramah in Taman Eastern on 5 Oct 2009, The Nut Graph observes that Zulkefly is ponderous in his speech. The chants of “Allahu akbar” that greet him [...]

Isa Samad poses at a Hari Raya Aidilfitri event in Bagan Pinang “THIS is part of my programme for the Bagan Pinang by-election: jalan-jalan cari undi,” says Tan Sri Isa Samad, 60, riffing off the popular TV3 food travelogue, Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan. The 3,000-strong crowd here in Taman PD Utama initially looks more interested in [...]

PUTRAJAYA, 13 July 2009: The 1,400 delegates at the MIC general assembly in September must pick leaders who can win back the country’s 1.8 million Indian Malaysians into the Barisan Nasional (BN), said political analyst Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria. “This is most important. MIC politics is not just politics involving the MIC delegates. It is [...]

Tuan Aziz visiting a school in Manik Urai Baru FOR the past week of the Manik Urai by-election, Abdul Aziz has been sitting on the porch of the Manik Urai Baru home of the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate, overseeing a daily serving of breakfast. “Looking after the food,” Abdul Aziz says. “I support BN because [...]

THE historian’s lament is that he or she is often witness to mistakes of the past, and yet is unable to prevent them from recurring. In the end, the historian is cursed with the Cassandra complex and accused of being a tiresome doomsayer. At the risk of being black-balled from dinner parties, I would like [...]