Pribumi not there yet

I was alerted of the less than successful "Love Malaysia, Eradicate Kleptocracy" rally in PJ yesterday by commentator Cik Minah

Cik Minah14 October 2017 at 20:51

I say Annie, Himpunan Kleptokrasi di PJ pun Kosong!!!!
Blog-blog umno macam Hussien Lempoyang and Cucu Tok
Selampit, bukan main bertepok tangan!!!!!!
KAHKAHKAH..........memang patut Najib adakan PRU14
dengna segera. Sepatutnya bulan depan,
PASTI BN SAPU BERSIH SEMUA KERUSI PARLIMEN!!!

Thanks Cik Minah

I checked those Umno blogs and other sites and it's true that the rally was rather poorly attended.

Its attendance was definitely less than the 100,000 touted by the organisers.

It was reported that the organisers estimated that 25,000 people were there but police said there were just about 4,000.

The rally at 9pm

I think it's a case of poor planning and an overestimate of support.

If I'm not mistaken, the rally was mainly spearheaded by Pribumi.

The day's official colour was Pribumi's red.

It clearly shows the party's lack of experience.

Since it was held in PJ, they should have let DAP be the main organiser of that one.

Even PKR and Amanah would had done better.

It's something they should learn from.

A poor turn out such as at yesterday's event reflects badly on the opposition coalition.

It's actually better not to have a rally at all rather than having a poorly attended one like that.

I think even the theme of the rally was a bit off.

It's too elaborate, if you asked me.

I always believe that the 1MDB issue is not really a good sell as most Malaysians don't really understand it.

Those who said they understand it are also mostly saying so because they wanted to appear as if they understand it while in actual fact they don't.

The issue may add to the body of accusations against PM DS Najib Razak and his government, but it's not actually something they could use as the main selling point to the general Malaysian public.

Pakatan people, especially those with Pribumi seemed to think too highly of issues against Najib and BN that they highlighted, while in actual fact the people are more concerned about more basic things such as costs of living, education and health care. 

I noticed something about many Pribumi people - they think they are smarter and know better than others, especially their former Umno comrades.

I don't think they actually are.

I think this mistaken belief of theirs is the main problem of Pribumi, which led to blunders such as yesterday's poorly attended rally.

Now that it's clear that they don't have what it takes yet to organise such events, they should learn from their seniors in the opposition coalition.

That, or they better stick to what they were supposed to be good at - winning the rural Malay votes for Pakatan.

I know, Pakatan readers of this blog are likely unhappy with what I wrote here, but it's the reality of things for them.

This is my honest opinion of how things are at the moment.

If BN was said to be in bad shape, based on what happened yesterday, I think Pakatan is not doing so good either.

Remembering Araki-san and a little question to Pakatan people

I was surfing around today when I came across this picture,

Corporal Yukio Araki holding a puppy with four other young men of the 72nd Shinbu Corps around him on May 26 1945. Araki-san was 17 years old. He died the following day after crashing his plane into a US warship off Okinawa during a kamikaze attack.

I was touched by the story.

Araki-san was the youngest kamikaze pilot known to die during the Second World War.

Japan surrendered to the Allied forces less than three months after his death.

Sad.

Politics?

Hmmm....okay.

Someone sent me these just now via WhatsApp,

Pakatan people, are these for real?

What happened la.

BN winning the cyberwar....

Saw this at RPK's Malaysia Today;

​BN Semakin Popular Di Media Sosial, Pembangkang Semakin Ketinggalan

excerpts;

Menurut kajian terbaru Politweet, 5.8 juta pengguna media sosial Facebook (FB) berumur 21 tahun ke atas semakin berminat kepada Barisan Nasional (BN) berbanding hanya 3.1 juta yang berminat dengan Pakatan Harapan. Politweet adalah sebuah firma penyelidikan yang membuat kajian mengenai media sosial di Malaysia.

Menurut kajian yang dilakukan Politweet pada Julai 2017, 51.6% atau 3.3 juta pengguna Facebook berumur 21 tahun adalah peminat eksklusif kepada BN berbanding hanya 9.4% atau 600,000 yang dikenalpasti sebagai peminat eksklusif Pakatan Pembangkang manakala 39.1% atau 2.5 juta meminati kedua-duanya.

Bukan itu sahaja, menurut kajian bebas itu turut mengesan kecenderungan pengundi muda di Malaysia sekarang ini lebih minat kepada UMNO dengan jumlah sebanyak 4.4 juta orang (68.8%), PKR 1.8 juta (28.1%), DAP 1.3 juta (20.3%), PAS 950,000 (14.8%), MCA 740,000 (11.6%), Gerakan 150,000 (2.34%) dan MIC 81,000 (1.3%).

I'm not sure how true is the report but it sure defy my belief all these while that Pakatan is winning the cyber war, especially among younger Malaysians.

Apparently, Malaysia Today picked the report from here,

https://najmibintangku.wordpress.com/2017/10/11/%E2%80%8Bbn-semakin-popular-di-media-sosial-pembangkang-semakin-ketinggalan/

This is also interesting from that report,

excerpts;

...Social Bakers pula menyenaraikan lima fan pages pro Barisan Nasional yang merupakan “Fastest-Growing Politics Pages in Malaysia” pada minggu lepas iaitu Fan Page Zahid Hamidi yang bertambah 44,273 fans, MCA yang bertambah 2,257 fans, Friends Of Barisan Nasional yang bertambah 2,240 fans, Irmohizam Ibrahim yang bertambah 805 fans dan Noh Omar yang bertambah 726 fans dalam masa seminggu lepas.

Hmmm...even Selangor Umno chief TS Noh Omar seems to be getting more popular.

Okay, if that's so, then I was wrong, and BN is going to recapture Selangor in the coming general election.

In fact, based on the report, I think BN will without doubt win the coming GE14 with two third majority again.

Well, I just wish the report is more specific on the reasons behind the popularity of BN and Umno especially among the younger people.

For instance, maybe Noh Omar is getting more popular especially among the younger female voters because he's handsome and cool.

Maybe other Umno leaders could emulate Noh Omar's style.

Seriously.

Okay, whatever.

Please don't mind me too much ya.

I'm actually writing this post because I'm bored.

Just took my medication and feeling a bit groggy.

Going to take a nap now.

Cheers.

Ghani's new job

I had lunch with an old friend and his wife yesterday.

Lovely couple.

We had bento sets at a very nice Japanese restaurant near Mount Kiara.

My friend used to be my team leader during the defence of Johor in 2013.

He and his wife are now living a rather peaceful life, spending their extra time writing books and pampering their grandchildren.

We mostly talked about those good days in Johor and a bit of the present.

Then, out of the blue, my friend's wife popped a question to me.

"Do you know what they made him?". the "him" she was referring to was former Johor menteri besar TS Abdul Ghani Othman.

I told her I didn't know what's the latest about Ghani.

My friend's wife nudged him and said "She doesn't know. Tell her la."

I think my friend was a bit embarrassed as he hesitated before saying to me,

"They made him Umno's disciplinary board chairman."

I laughed when my friend told me that. I just can't help myself.

"See, she's laughing," my friend said to his wife. I think he's a bit annoyed with my reaction.

But his wife was laughing too. The couple know Ghani very much more than I do. I believe she also felt that it's too weird for Ghani to come out of his retirement from politics like that.

"Why can't they let Ghani retire in peace? Do you think he will take it?" I asked.

My friend said Ghani will take the responsibility.

"There's no way for him to decline. The supreme council had decided on it," he said.

My friend is right, Ghani is a loyal party man, and he will do the job.

From the bit that I know of him, he will do it as according to the book, the same way he did when he was the Johor MB.

The guy is just like that.

Well, the post is actually quite important. Making sure there's no nonsense going on in the party.

Things such as money politics.

I know, many of you would say there's no way that Ghani can do it.

But I'm confident that he will try his best.

He's retired and has nothing to lose anyway.

Ghani will do it without fear or favour. That I'm very sure.

Of all the Umno leaders that I know, he is the one who have absolutely no fear to say "NO" to anyone when it comes to doing the wrong things.

Not even to the most powerful people.

I know that he did so when he was the Johor MB and more recently as the Sime Darby chairman.

What is right is right and what is wrong is wrong. Ghani doesn't talk too much but that's just the way he is.

He rather not have the job than having to do the wrong thing.

In fact, that's why he decided to retire from politics in 2013.

If not for the request by PM DS Najib Razak for him to contain Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah, he would not have contested in the general election that year.

Everyone knew that it's a suicide mission.

He contested a Chinese majority constituency (the first Umno leader to do so) against the biggest DAP leader at the height of the Chinese tsunami. What's more suicidal than that, right?

But he still did it the best that he could because he's a loyal party man.

I was there at Gelang Patah to witness it, and I saw him and his team tried their best.

That's why I'm sure he will try his best too with this new appointment.

In a way, the Umno supreme council actually made the right decision to appoint him as disciplinary board chairman.

They need someone with his credibility to do that job.

Ghani doesn't belong to any faction or owe anyone in the party, so, he's the right man for it.

I'm confident that he will do the right thing.

Nonetheless, I do pity him for having to get involve in all the mess again.

He's past 70 and by right should be allowed to rest.

Ok, he looks younger than 70 but I still think they should let him rests.

What to do. Back to work for Ghani.

At least they are not asking him to contest in elections and such. Alhamdulillah for that.

Well Datuk Ghani, in case you are reading this;

All the best.

And don't stress yourself too much.

Where the Pakatan's hammer will fall

The MP of my hometown, DAP's Liew Chin Tong was quoted by Malaysian Insight as saying this yesterday;

GE14 to be decided in Umno's 40 marginal seats

excerpts;

Liew said Umno has 73 seats in the peninsula, in which 30 were fixed deposit seats, mainly situated on the east coast.

Taking a 60-40% mixed seat as an example, Liew said PH could garner 80% of the non-Malay votes while the Malay votes would be divided four-ways among Umno, PH, “hardcore” PAS voters who are virulently anti-Umno and those who are pro-PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang who supported Umno.

Liew said PH needs only 10 to 15% of the Malay votes to win the seat.

“A swing is possible. The scenario painted by Lim Kit Siang of a 10% Malay swing for PH to win the general election is achievable.

“There will be a Malay-Malaysian tsunami. You will see a new government.”

Liew said the battle ground will be in southern Kedah, northern and southern Perak, northern Penang, northern Selangor, Pahang along the Karak highway, and northern and southern Johor.

So, it's quite clear now where the Pakatan's main attack will be concentrated for GE14.

The key, as always, is on whether Pakatan can get enough Malays to support them.

Liew and his DAP buddies know this for certain and learning from the experience of GE13, I believe they will let the Malays in the opposition coalition to take the lead this time.

DAP tried to do that in GE13 but it was not good enough as the Chinese tsunami spooked the Malays. They also realised that their aggressive wooing of the Chinese and demands for things such as a non- Malay for the DPM post had back fired.

Back then they used Pas to break the Umno's Malay vote bank but it didn't work. Pas was simply not good enough to do that.

For instance, in Johor, which is definitely going to be the most important frontline state for GE14, over 83 per cent Malays voted for BN in 2013.

This time, I believe Pribumi will take over the role played by Pas in the last general election.

Despite being a young party compared to Pas, I think Pribumi can be quite dangerous in especially those targeted areas.

With Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad leading their charge, the risk of BN losing those marginal seats is very much greater.

Pribumi is after all mostly ex-Umno and they know how to fight their former colleagues.

PKR and Amanah may know this too and willing to take the back seats. If they don't, then that's too bad for them.

The question in my head now is whether BN, particularly Umno realise this impending danger and are prepared for it.

At the moment, from the little that I know, Penang and Perak Umno are doing a relatively good job. At the current rate, I believe it will be status quo there.

Kedah Umno, I was told, is doing its best but its efforts may not be good enough.

Selangor Umno is Selangor Umno. No need to comment further.

Pahang Umno is quite okay but those areas along the Karak Highway being targeted do look quite vulnerable.

Johor, which is where I'm most familiar with, is the one I think where the Pakatan's hammer will fall the hardest. The last time I checked, Johor Umno is trying its best to be prepared  but has yet to reach the level of preparedness it achieved at the same point before the last general election. If I'm still involved as I did there in GE13, I would be worried.

Well, you can compare Liew's analysis with this one by me;

• Pas-Umno cooperation and possible GE14 scenario

Meanwhile there's this story by Malaysian Insight too yesterday ;

Pakatan had better not pin hopes on Malay tsunami, says pollster 

Interesting, isn't it?

Okay, those are quite serious stuff.

To lighten up things, let's listen to some music;

Cheers.

Ong being silly for attacking public transport system (updated)

(Updates at the bottom of the post)

I think I wrote quite a bit in the past about BN's not so clever strategy to win the hearts and mind of the people.

So this time, let me tell you how the Pakatan people can be not so clever either on that one.

I read this story just now and think that they got it wrong attacking efforts to improve the public transport system,

Public transport ridership falling, despite the billions spent 

It's by DAP's Serdang MP Ong Kian Meng

excerpts;

"despite the billions of ringgit poured into these large public transportation rail projects, the overall ridership for the LRT, KL Monorail and KTM Komuter has not increased significantly over the past two years.

As the figures below will show, Najib’s administration should be ashamed that it has spent so much money on these projects with so little apparent benefit to the rakyat."

For me, it's silly of Ong to attack the government for spending money to improve the public transportation system.

It doesn't matter what the statistics at the moment indicate.

No matter what line of his argument is, the government's initiative on public transport is an issue which the opposition should not have argued.

It makes them look silly.

It's very much like in the 1980s when Lim Kit Siang attacked Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad when the then prime minister initiated the privatisation of the North-South Expressway project. 

Just imagine if Kit Siang had managed to stop Dr Mahathir from doing that one.

If he had his way then - government, rather than private sector fund the project - we would still be travelling on the old trunk road, crawling for hours just to get to nearby places.

Well, even with the highways we still got stuck in jams during festive seasons. Without them, it would be worse.

Even Kit Siang's son Guan Eng, the weird looking Penang chief minister is now all for privatisation of such endeavours, paying quite hefty sums to consultants just to study his tunnel project and others. 

Ong should bear all that in mind before he attacked the current improvement of the public transport system. 

Ten or 20 years from now we would likely be unable to imagine how life would be if we still don't have things such as the MRT.

I really don't understand why Ong, supposedly being a smart guy that the Pakatan people said he is, tried to harp on this issue which I think will only make the opposition look ridiculous.

Opposing for the sake of opposing, that's what many would say.

People love the MRT, okay.

Even Dr Mahathir and Tun Dr Siti Hasmah took a ride on it.

It's as good as those in Tokyo and Singapore.

I believe it's the way forward for Malaysia to be a fully developed country.

We can't be developed if we continue to get stuck in traffic jam in downtown KL.

In fact, these improvements should have been done a long time ago.

Really, this is one issue which the opposition can do better by keeping quite as opposing it will only turn off people.

On Ong's insistence that people are not taking public transport despite the initiative to improve it, he should know that most public transportation projects requires a certain gestation period to be fully utilised. 

A friend who is a bit of an expert on this told me that there must be a buy-in process from the public for it and therefore the operators need to first come up with a lot of campaigns to encourage the public to leave their cars at home and use the public transport system.

This take a bit of time, and we should give it that time.

My friend said as an MP, Ong should offer himself to help the operators with their campaigns so that more commuters from Serdang use the public transport system.

"Admittedly, Ong is right when he said efficiency and affordability are issues which needed to be overcome. But that will eventually come if the system has reach critical mass of ridership," he said.

I have to agree with my friend that it doesn't help if people like Ong continously derides the operators rather that lending a hand to promote the use of public transport. 

UPDATES

Someone sent me this last night,

MEDIA STATEMENT
GOVERNMENT’S INITIATIVE ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT RESULTS IN INCREASED RIDERSHIP

Since 2010, the Government invested heavily in improving public transport infrastructure under the Urban Public Transport (UPT) NKRA. 

The modal share of public transportation within the Greater KL/Klang Valley in 2010, was only at 10%. 

Guided by the National Land Public Transport Master Plan (NLPTMP) established in 2013, we have set ambitious goals to achieve a modal share target of 40% for land public transport in urban areas by 2030. 

With concerted effort, in 2015, the modal share had grown to 20%, marking a significant progress.

In 2015, an urban rail fare review exercise was undertaken as it had not been reviewed over the past 19 years. 

The immediate impact was a decline of 9% in ridership in 2016, however this normalised with a significant pick up of 12% in ridership in 2017 i.e from 570,021 to 638,605. 

This numbers does not include the MRT Line ridership. 

The full opening of the MRT Line 1 alone, recorded a daily ridership of 101,024. 

Daily Ridership for Urban Rail on upward Trend: 2016 vs 2017 (Pax/Daily)

The LRT Kelana Jaya Line led the growth, with an increase of 26% or 271,250 daily ridership for the said period in 2017 compared to 215,855 in 2016. 

Adding to this growth was the LRT Ampang Line which recorded an increase of 14% which translated to 184,931 daily ridership in 2017.

The KTM Komuter services has suffered a dip in ridership in 2017 due to the Klang Valley Double Track (KVDT) rehabilitation project, which saw the frequency impacted. 

This reduced the average daily ridership by 5% to 103,074 in 2017 compared to 108,023 in 2016. 

However, we expect ridership to stabilise and pick-up once the KVDT rehabilitation work which covers the upgrading of track and signaling systems is completed in 2019 to modernize the 42km KTM Komuter network.

In the case of the KL Monorail ridership, the numbers have also hit a downtrend in 2017 with a reduction of 11% compared to 2016 bringing ridership to 53,337 due to the removal of the 5 four-car Monorail train sets due to safety concerns which resulted in reduced frequency. 

Prasarana is taking the necessary actions to resolve this technical issue in stages.

Commuting via public transport today has also become relatively cheaper than owning a car, especially if one factors the cost of ownership, insurance, road tax, maintenance and related expenses including parking, fuel, toll and not to mention unproductive hours spent in traffic. 

For example, a commuter can take an MRT Feeder bus to the Sg Buloh station for RM1 and take the MRT to Pasar Seni for RM3.70 and switch to an LRT ride to KLCC for RM2.10, at an affordable RM6.80, one way. 

This does not take into account the further reduction on Touch ‘n Go and 50% concession rates enjoyed by students, senior citizens 
and the disabled.

The Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) an independent survey carried out by SPAD indicated that 84% of respondents are satisfied with the urban public transport in 2016, an increase of 10% from 2015. 

These findings reflect the Government is on the right track in planning and implementation of initiatives under the National Land Public Transport Master Plan.

To continue to attract more ridership by making transit more seamless, SPAD will soon launch the Journey Planner in quarter 4, 2017 and implement the integrated ticketing system by 2019.

The Greater Kuala Lumpur/ Klang Valley’s record of delivering its recent public transport projects on-time is testament to the forward planning process now in place. 

Many high impact projects are being delivered, and we are making big changes to people's lives from the position we were in 10 years ago.

Moving forward, the Government remains committed to ensure that our longer term plans to improve the bus network, and increase the rail 
capacity on the existing lines progresses well with projects such as LRT3, MRT 2 and the upcoming MRT 3.
-End–

For media enquiries, please contact:
Communication Division
Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat 
Tel : +603 2726 7000/Fax: +607 2726 7300 

E-mail : communications@spad.gov.my

Dr Mahathir will be helping Umno if he goes to Putrajaya

This is a comment just now from my last post;

Anonymous5 October 2017 at 11:24

Latest news.

Dr M said he might contest in Putrajaya!

http://www.msn.com/en-my/news/other/dr-mahathir-says-he-may-contest-in-putrajaya-in-coming-election/ar-AAsUh1S?li=AA59GK&ocid=ientp

How do I change my voting location to Putrajaya?

So, I searched for the story and here it is from NST,

By SOO WERN JUN - October 5, 2017 @ 12:54am

PETALING JAYA: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said it is a possibility that he may contest in Putrajaya in the coming general election.

Dr Mahathir said, “Yes, maybe I will stand in Putrajaya. You can tell them that I may contest.”

He was reponding to reporters today when asked on reports of him contesting in Putrajaya, at the PPBM headquarters.

Since last year, there have been calls for him to contest in the election, including from Parti Amanah Negara which had proposed that he stand in Putrajaya.

Dr Mahathir, who is also Pakatan Harapan chairman, had said recently that Langkawi or Putrajaya would be his preferred choice.

While both Langkawi and Putrajaya hold special significance for Dr Mahathir, both the constituencies are currently held by Barisan Nasional.

Putrajaya member of parliament is Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, who is also Federal Territories Minister.

Suddenly, for the first time, and I thought it would never happen, I felt pity for Ku Nan.

The guy surely can't sleep well after this.

Well, if Dr Mahathir really contest Putrajaya, then I think he will win.

Actually, in a way, I think he will be helping Umno by doing that.

My opinion is that, Ku Nan is bad for Umno's image and Dr Mahathir is going to help the party get rid of him.

I still hope Dr Mahathir can contest against TS Shahrir Samad in JB but if he chooses to contest against Ku Nan in Putrajaya, then it's his choice.

Contests JB, he will capture the birthplace of Umno, contests Putrajaya and he will capture the constituency where the seat of government is located.

Okay la, both have merits.

Only that it would be more exciting if he contests JB as it would be a tough fight against Shahrir.

Against Ku Nan, I think it it will be a walkover.

Here is the Putrajaya details for the last general election in 2013;
Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor (BN/Umno) - 9,943 votes (69 per cent)
Husam Musa (Pas) - 4,402 (30.5 per cent)
Majority - 5,541
Eligible voters - 15,791 (Malays 94 per cent, Chinese 0 per cent, Indians 3 per cent, Others 2 per cent)
Voters turnout - 14,418 (91.3 per cent)
Spoilt votes - 73 (0.5 per cent)

And yes, there's no Chinese voter in Putrajaya in 2013.