ONE of the best ways to understand the Hulu Selangor by-election is to look at the split-voting phenomenon. That happens when the same voter casts votes for different parties in simultaneous parliamentary and state elections. In 2008, due to the personality and ethnicity of the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate, MIC’s Datuk G Palanivel, BN suffered […]
Columns
The BN’s culture of “balas budi”
By Deborah Loh(Gift image by iprole, gift tag image by modish / sxc.hu) CHINESE Malaysian community leaders and MCA politicians are reacting strongly to Perkasa‘s calls for the government to “punish” Hulu Selangor voters who didn’t vote for the Barisan Nasional (BN). I believe we are in store for more of such rhetoric, this blaming and defence […]
Slopes made simple
By KW MakDEVELOPMENT projects on hill slopes always draw the ire of residents living in the surrounding area. With the numerous stories of landslides and the lack of access to a developer’s development plans, it is understandable that the public has little tolerance for such development projects. In far too many cases, hill slope development has resulted […]
How 3R changed Malaysian TV
By Marina MahathirSOMETIMES the best ideas start with simple conversations. I was worried about the numbers of women becoming infected with HIV and was trying to think of a way to educate them about the virus. I was also conscious that education alone was not enough; women who became infected were invariably women who had no rights […]
What is an MP?
By Ding Jo-AnnI WATCHED a rerun of the sitcom Friends recently where Ross and Joey accidentally end up dating the same girl. They then try to win her affection by recounting increasingly embarrassing things about each other to her. “Ross was divorced three times!” yells Joey. “Joey eats his date’s food when she goes to the bathroom!” […]
Saving Parliament from the EC
By Wong Chin HuatI COULD not believe the Election Commission (EC)’s admission that 228 (0.35%) voters had been transferred out of the Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituency to the neighbouring Selayang parliamentary constituency. Now, it is not news that voters get transferred involuntarily — you may even call it voter trafficking or abduction — from their neighbourhoods to faraway […]
Why ratepayers complain
By KW MakIN this instalment of Ampersand, I shall detail the extra duties of handling complaints as a councillor. I will explain why the public continues to approach councillors such as myself despite the fact that the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has a complaints department. The MBPJ also has a 24-hour hotline for complaints. Apart from […]
Nasihat untuk pengundi
Oleh Shanon ShahSYUKUR alhamdulillah! Sambil melayari internet tentang perkembangan terkini pilihanraya kecil Hulu Selangor, saya terjumpa pula kolum nasihat oleh idola saya, Kak Nora. Ya, Kak Nora sudah kembali beraksi. Tak sangka saya yang Kak Nora akan dipelawa menjadi kolumnis tetamu laman Malaysiabegini.com, setelah disingkirkan daripada TepiKain.com.my. Tapi begitulah resam Kak Nora — diam-diam ubi berisi. Saya […]
A curious BN government
By Jacqueline Ann SurinAll illustrations of Alice in Wonderland characters by Peter Newell, 1890(source: public domain | Wiki Commons) NO doubt about it. Some days, I think I’m Alice. In Wonderland. Because reading the news on some days, I just want to blurt out, “Curiouser and curiouser!” The latest news that made me feel like Alice was reported […]
By-elections and bumiputeraism
By Wong Chin HuatCorrected at 2.59pm, 16 April 2010 WHILE by-elections can hardly be considered referendums, they are nevertheless mid-term elections and often have far-reaching implications. The triple by-elections of April 2009 Remember the triple by-elections of April 2009? What if newly-minted premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak‘s Barisan Nasional (BN) had won all three handsomely? Would he then […]
