First, it was the Penang state government offering then Gerakan Deputy Secretary-General, Lee Kah Choon, to serve the Pakatan Rakyat state government by appointing him executive chairman of InvestPenang and director of Penang Development Corporation. He later quits Gerakan after his actions were condemned by Gerakan leaders, particularly former President Lim Keng Yaik.

However, Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng has explained that his appointment is part of the policy of the state government to offer posts to whoever qualified to serve the government, irrespective of race, religion, gender and political affiliations. This is indeed a good move as we have not seen the previous BN administrations offerring posts to any opposition members.

Now, the Selangor state government is following suit by appointing Gerakan Federal Territory chairman, Tan Kee Kwong, as co-chairman of the Selangor special task force on land issues. Tan, was once a Deputy Minister of Land and Cooperative Development. Given his expereince in the ministry, it is therefore a right move to appoint Tan into the task force.

The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Residents of Bandar Mahkota Cheras have torn down a barricade rebuilt by Grand Saga Sdn Bhd that prevented access into the housing area of some 38,000 residents.

Using mallets, car jacks and steel bars, the residents broke down the foundations of the barricade made of large boulders and forced the stones to the ground.

The boulders were then chained to lorries and dragged away to the side of the underpass of the Cheras-Kajang Highway, which leads into the neighbourhood.

By 7.15pm, the first vehicle had managed to inch its way through the two-lane access road, amidst the cheers and loud blaring of vehicle horns from onlookers and residents alike.

Police and Light Strike Force personnel monitored the crowds, which swelled to a few hundred.

More roars of support ensued later when Selangor CPO Deputy Comm Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar, who visited the spot, told the residents that he had advised Grand Saga to stop any construction of barricades in the area.

He said the public would be inconvenienced each time Grand Saga built the barricade. DCP Khalid also urged the Malaysian Highway Authority and the Public Works Department to settle the matter and come up with an amicable solution.

He also urged the elected representative not to incite the residents.

Kajang OCPD Asst Comm Shakaruddin Che Mood, who was also present, was hoisted up by several residents who lauded his support for their cause.

He also persuaded residents to remove several toppled boulders that were blocking cars going into the Bandar Tun Hussein Onn access road.

Several residents then pooled together RM900 to get the job done, saying that a third of the sum would be for the lorry’s petrol while the rest would be used to buy food.

Earlier, two photographers from Sin Chew Daily and China Press were attacked by two unidentified men, who had threatened to beat them if they did not stop taking pictures.

By 10pm, all boulders had been cleared.

Fauwaz Abdul Aziz
Malaysiakini

A deputy minister’s pronunciation of a phrase in Tamil sounded uncomfortably close to an expletive, unleashing yet another slanging match between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat MPs.

The House descended further into chaos when N Gobalakrishnan (PKR-Padang Serai, left) shocked everyone by suddenly walking up to House speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia to whisper the meaning of the expletive.

Visitors in the public gallery, who included such foreign dignitaries as Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) chairperson Hashim Abdul Halim and secretary-general Dr William F Shija, looked on as a shouting match ensued.

It all started when Deputy Higher Education Minister Idris Haron (right) berated Mohd Nasir Zakaria (PAS-Padang Terap) for raising “irrelevant questions” and told him repeatedly to sit down.

“Do you not understand? This is my floor! Padang Terap, do you understand? Sit down… If you do not understand, then I’ll say this: Ukkarengeh!” said Idris, resorting to Tamil for ‘Please sit down.’

Gobalakrishnan, M Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat), and M Manogaran (DAP-Teluk Intan) stood up to protest, arguing that Idris’ pronunciation sounded too much like an obscene word in Tamil.

“Speaker, he said a dirty word! The deputy minister must take it back!” said Gobalakrishnan.

Idris challenged Gobalakrishnan to state what the offensive word was: “Say it! Say it properly! Say it!”

Gobalakrishnan retorted: “I can say it, but this is not the place for such a word.”

He also told Idris to apologise to the House for the remark.

As shouting broke out between Pakatan and BN MPs, Kulasegaran (left) was heard telling the speaker: “Maybe he does not know how to pronounce the word. If he does not know, then he should not say it! It is a very offensive word!”

A bewildered Pandikar - at a loss as to what the fuss was all about - protested that he could not make a decision on Gobalakrishnan’s call for Idris to be disciplined.

“How can I decide what is the unparliamentary word is, if I myself do not understand?” said Pandikar, to cheers of approval from BN MPs.

The speaker proceeded to remind all MPs to refrain from conduct that is unbecoming of parliamentarians.

Direct approach

Just when it seemed as if the din would subside, Gobalakrishnan suddenly stood up. As MPs looked on appalled, he walked up to Pandikar, bowed before approaching him, and whispered something in his ear.

“Biadap (Rude!)!” screamed BN Backbenchers Club deputy head Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan), while others shouted: “Take action against him!”

Bung shouted: “He must follow the rules! We have to teach those who do not know the rules!”

Idris followed suit, arguing that it was unprecedented for an MP to walk up directly to the House speaker in the chambers. “We have rules in this House for you to follow!”

An indignant Mohamad Aziz (BN-Sri Gading) pitched in: “The opposition MP has gone against the rules and done something that has never before happened in previous sessions.

“What he has done has greatly upset me and violated the sanctity of this House and he should be punished. The MP should be taught so that other MPs do not follow (his example).”

After about five minutes, and when order was restored, Pandikar noted the presence of Commonwealth parliamentary representatives in the gallery.

He also called attention to his frequent reminders for parliamentarians to abide by the rules of the Dewan Rakyat, in relation to behaviour and speech, but observed that MPs on both sides have not heeded this.

Pandikar said this applied to Gobalakrishnan’s act in approaching him directly in the House, as well as the use of foul language.

Gobalakrishan apologises

The matter was settled when Mohd Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak), acting as chief whip for PKR, asked Gobalakrishnan to apologise to the House, which he immediately did.

Met later in the lobby, Gobalakrishnan claimed that Idris had deliberately used the expletive and further said that his own apology was not for having approached the speaker, but for the 20-minute delay he had caused in the proceedings.

“I’m very sure the speaker was happy that I told him that (meaning of the word),” Gobalakrishnan told reporters.

Idris similarly maintained he had not pronounced, nor had he intended to use any obscene word.

“I did not know the meaning of the (obscene) word until just now,” he said.

Asked who told him the meaning, Idris replied: “Padang Serai, lah!”

And ‘Ukkarengeh‘, the word which brought down the House, apparently sounds similar to “Go ‘f…’ yourself”.

The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The Pakatan Rakyat alliance has called for an immediate boycott of Malay newspapers Utusan Malaysia and Mingguan Malaysia for what it said was unfair reporting and for allegedly fanning racial sentiments.

In a joint statement issued at a press conference in the lobby of Parliament, Opposition leader Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the mainstream media had shown signs of opening up since the results of the March 8 polls.

However, many publications still gave wider coverage to Barisan Nasional and its component parties, while stories on Pakatan Rakyat tended to be full of distortion and misinformation to discredit the alliance parties and their leaders, she claimed.

The Parti Keadilan Rakyat president was accompanied by alliance members DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and PAS deputy president Nasaruddin Mat Isa in reading out the joint statement.

Dr Wan Azizah said the worst were the two aforementioned newspapers, which she claimed unfairly criticised and demonised Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

She also alleged these publications were always trying to provoke narrow ethnic sentiments, “clearly with the intention of creating anger among Malays against Pakatan Rakyat component parties.”

The Election Commission (EC) intends to have a fresh electoral roll, which involves the re-registration of all eligible voters in the country. However, such a move will be held if and only if the government accepts the proposal where a Parliament bill needs to be tabled and passed.

Pros

The much alleged tainted electoral roll which many claims contain phantom voters will be abandoned in place of a fresh voter list. This will solve the problem of phantom voters, and many other problems with the existing roll.

Cons

Now, here, this is about the logistics. We are talking about the re-registration of about 11 million voters, and about 5 million citizens of qualified age who we have tried hard to persuade them to register themselves but did not do so.

So we need to encourage everyone to re-register. And you will have this problem - last minute registration! Just like how most Malaysians change their ICs to MyKad at the last minute in 2006 before the free MyKad promotion ended!

And if a huge number of eligible voters do not re-register, we will have a problem of many eligible voters not able to vote in the next general elections!

Clearly, the EC needs to also plan ahead on the logistics of re-registration.