Malaysia politics: Ong Tee Keat and MCA’s baby steps

Everybody is watching the Pakatan Rakyat and their political progression since they became government in 5 Malaysia states.

We, however prefer to watch development in BN politics as it tried to recover from injuries inflicted in 308 tsunami. If BN manages to stage a great comeback to Malaysia politics, it definitely will pose an interesting study for political analysts and students.

From our observation:

•    UMNO has not showed progression from its pre-308 mindset so far.

•    MCA has demonstrated some talk and trying to walk.

•    MIC is too busy with ‘inhouse rebranding’. However, we would like to suggest it try ‘party reform’ instead.

We can put on record that as of now, we are impressed with MCA’s baby steps to reform its public identity.

Just check out the below report from The Sun and try to see what we saw.

(Meanwhile, sad to say, the Chinese newpapers and its political writers missed this. Sin Chew the community’s leading newspaper, failed to highlight in their report a very important point in this speech of the MCA President Ong Tee Keat. We do not blame them, even Malaysiakini missed it.)

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Discard old policies or lose out, says Tee Keat

By: by Tan Yi Liang (Sun, 21 Dec 2008)

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21, 2008): Malaysia will lose out economically if obsolete policies are not discarded, says Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat.

“Policies should be re-examined and discarded if they are not working to the nation’s benefit. Very often, policies drawn up with noble intentions are wayward in their implementation,” said Ong.

He said a change of mindset was needed for Malaysia to be competitive globally.

“We need to be creative, innovative, visionary and bold. There are some among us who, it appears, do not seem to have realised that we have moved into the 21st century. It’s the digital age, but they operate with an analogue mindset,” he said, adding that educational reform was needed if Malaysia was to compete globally.

“It is not just the digital gap that is widening between rural and urban areas, so is the education gap. We have no choice but to implement changes. Our children are no longer just competing with each other within national borders. They are competing with the world.”

He pointed out that the need to overhaul the national schools was more pressing than the debate over vernacular schools.

Ong, who said this when opening the Malaysian Young Entrepreneurs Conference at the Putra World Trade Centre here today, called for reforms to make the ruling Barisan National coalition relevant for Malaysians.

“The political mould has been broken. Unless we in the Barisan compete in the marketplace of ideas, there is a real possibility that we will be voted out of office in the next general election. It is time we change the political model that worked so well for us until March 8,” said Ong, who called on parties to focus on the interests of Malaysians as a whole.

“Unless we take on a wider, national role, we could soon become irrelevant. The political base of the communal parties has no doubt been within the community, and we must cater to their interests, but there is nothing that says we cannot or should not build on this base by addressing national concerns affecting all Malaysians.”

At a press conference later, Ong repeated his call for reform after the March 8 political tsunami.

“After March 8, I said it (the need for reform) loud and clear. When I was interviewed  in April by one of the news agencies, I reiterated one point, and making a reference to my own party, I said we must initiate changes, or else we would become irrelevant,” he said.

He said he was “not apologetic” about his comments.

“I did it with good intentions, because at the end of the day, what we want, what the people want and are looking for and expecting from us is good governance. We are a beautiful country, we are rich in resources, so why can’t we harness our resources for the best benefit of the country and the people.”

He said his Barisan peers accepted the need for change, and noted that each Barisan component party had its own methodology for change.

“On Feb 14 next year, there will be a big BN rally, where the component parties, leaders and members will meet and brainstorm.

Perhaps this will serve as a good platform for the component parties to brainstorm and share experiences in transforming our own parties,” he added.

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UMNO President aka Prime Minister of Malaysia: Fifth estate must lead!

Following the conclusion of the 12th General Election, news media hound’s attention is now focused on UMNO and fate of its future and its President.

Every Malaysians remembered how the rancour of the General Election’s campaign was covered. The amount of money spent was covered. But in this political season, nobody has yet to shout out about lack of information about the top UMNO proposed candidates’ vision, mission, priorities, policies, and leadership — and for that matter, important information that Malaysians will need to back up the next Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Was this why we always get the gut feeling that our political appointees too often did not make the cut or fit our aspirations?

Why? The vigorous press that was deemed an essential part of democracy in Malaysia is mediocre at best. The internet and the blogs have the tendency to spew too much flames, according to a tired BN operative (flame means hate). I am not suggesting that every journalist in the mainstream media is neglecting his/her duties as the fourth estate. There are still a sprinkling of good souls in newspapers and magazines who run analytical articles, and publicise longer, more probing segments.

And what did we learn from the 12th GE?

We found out that the mainstream media supplied faithfully a variety of analysis – that is shortened, taking every corner that is cut, which moves us further away from the truth until what is left tasted bland in our palate.

This problem has drove voters who take their responsibility to be informed seriously enough to search out information about the candidates in the internet. Even though there was not much substantive findings to be found in midst of the flames, as some may say.

Would you, as a non MCA member for example, ever know a single fact about Ong Ka Ting’s leadership values based plan? Anything at all? But let me guess, you know better about Chua Soi Lek’s sex escapade. We seem to forget the serious business about choosing political appointees, especially in the instance of the office of the Prime Minister, the next leader of the country. Are we buying pisang goreng or are we choosing a spokesman possessing speech ability or a leader with primarily leadership abilities? All are very different and not the same!

What’s troubling is that, the internet news media have shown instances where it has cut candidates like Tony Pua out of the process even before he got started. And then rushed to cover him as he won. Just to be clear: I’m referring to all serious contenders regardless of political affiliation and ranks who encounter the same prejudice. Voters are finding it harder and harder to have a 360 degrees overview, what more if they do not have access to the Internet.

And it’s not as if people didn’t want this sort of information of serious candidates with distinguished record.

Who is responsible for the veil of silence over the unheard of serious candidates?

The decision was probably made by the same people who decided that Najib or Muhyiddin were serious candidates. In the case of Najib, articles purporting to be news spent thousands upon thousands of words contemplating whether he would enter the race, to the point that before he even entered, he was already anointed the successor for UMNO presidency. Has he had not done or said anything that would allow anyone to conclude he was a worthy candidate. Whether the voters noticed the absence of leadership testimony, serious ideas or commitment to getting in progressive economic policies makes for another thesis altogether.

I join as one of the very few who noticed this shallow news coverage. An overseas report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy found that in the early months of the USA 2008 presidential campaign, 63% of the campaign stories focused on political strategy while only 15% discussed the candidates’ ideas and proposals.

Watching the UMNO party elections campaign unfold, I saw how the press gravitated toward a narrative template for the campaign, presenting stories of each characters as if for a novel: a man more comfortably fitted as a religious teacher, a second man who has no testimony of leadership qualities, a former chief minister who bettered his leadership skills and a respected royal who has not demonstrated new ideas to embrace the Rakyat Malaysia aspirations.

When the important issues will be presented to the rakyat as they watch on the sidelines of UMNO? Issues that could make a difference in the lives of Malaysians that didn’t fit into this narrative template and which was forced to take a back seat to these superficialities?

The state of UMNO’s political campaigning is not espected to be better: without a press to push them, candidates who do not have solid workable national proposals avoid the tough questions. All of this leaves Rakyat uncertain about what approach makes the most sense for them in the choosing of the next UMNO President aka Prime Minister of Malaysia. Worse still, it gives us permission to ignore issues and concentrate on things that don’t matter.

As UMNO move to gear up for its party contest, I want to propose the bloggers to know as much as they possibly can about what these men or woman would do as President of UMNO aka Prime Minister of Malaysia.

If the Rakyat want a vibrant democracy, the apparent mandate is for the fifth estate to demand it. By talking calmly, repeatedly, constantly for the ears of those in whom we have entrusted this enormous responsibility.

For starters, we the fifth estate, must fulfil our stakeholders’ rights to demand for the best UMNO President aka Malaysia Prime Minister.

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Johor state assemblyman shot dead

Tenggaroh state assemblyman, Dato’ S. Krishnasamy was found shot dead this afternoon. His body was found inside a lift in the Johor MIC HQ. The MIC vice president was on his way to attend a meeting.

S. Krishnasamy was also the MIC chairman for Labis Division.

Labis was in the limelight lately, where Chua Soi Lek announced his resignation as Minister of Health, Labis MP and MCA Vice President.

Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya chairman, Tan Sri Abdul Rashid has announced that no by-election will be held for the Tenggaroh vacancy.

This is another affirmation that the General Elections is coming soon.

Go vote, people.

Coming soon…General Elections

Confirmed.

The 12th General Elections is around the corner. We just need for MCA to defer their party election to re-confirm it.

BN workers undergoing ‘training’ intensified. Of course, UMNO workers already been primed through. Now BN is getting their MCA, MIC, Gerakan, etc. to be ‘trained’ up to ensure victory.

Expect your neighbourhood and roads/streets to be inundated with those blue scales/dacing flags extensively everywhere.

Who would you like to see dropped from the election candidate’s list?