Three days in KL

Came back from Kuala Lumpur last night, where my wife and I were attending one of Joey Yap's seminars. I was quite amazed that again, not once did I nod off during the three-day event. Am I getting better with my attention span, or did the topics get more interesting for me? Anyhow, I did stay awake the whole time, again.

We took the eight o'clock train back to Bukit Mertajam. Uneventful ride, although the ETS train was delayed. We were only allowed down to the platform at KL Sentral at about 8.20pm to await its arrival from the north. Noticed that the carriages were not full when it pulled out from the station and the air-conditioning wasn't working too well initially.

The delayed departure meant that we arrived at the Bukit Mertajam station about 20 to 30 minutes behind schedule. There was a mild concern when the weather turned bad after Taiping and I could see the rain pelting down against the carriage's windows.

There were also postings on facebook to warn people of an impending thunderstorm in the north of the country. Would it be as bad as last November, I wondered? Would the taxi driver be able to pick us up at the BM station? Luckily, by the time we arrived, the thunderstorm had stopped. 

Nevertheless, it was a gingerly drive back to our house. When the driver reached the centre of the town, the roads around the Police station were at least six inches deep in flood water. Luckily there was little traffic at the junction which enabled him to navigate slowly round the bend without letting up on his already slow speed. I'm sure everybody released a silent sigh of relief. The next potential obstacle was a spot of lower level ground in my neighbourhood which was very susceptible to flooding. But there was no problem here as I told the driver to take an alternative route to the house.

Congratulations, CM Chow Kon Yeow

New haircut also, ah, CM Chow? 😁

Local government elections

I would like to feature here a write-up by Jeffrey Seow, as taken from his facebook, on the local government elections which some elected representatives are pushing for Kuala Lumpur. Heck, they should be pushing for the revival of the third vote for the whole country. I know that for one, the Penang government will fully support this move. Make the local councils responsible to the people!

Maria Chin Abdullah and Lim Lip Eng said they are going to push for local elections or council elections and suddenly people are curious and asking questions about that, like, is it the same as DUN elections.

Local Government elections or Council elections are not a new thing and no, they are not the same as Dewan Undangan Negeri (State Assembly) or Dewan Rakyat (Parliamentary House of Representative) elections.

Local elections refer to the elections of the people who will lead a Municipality i.e. head of Town Council or City Council i.e. the Mayor, and his body of Municipal Councillors.

George Town's Municipal history dates back to at least 1800, the time of Penang's Governor George Leith, with the formation of her Committees of Assessors who were partially elected - they were nominated by their respective communities, and invariably included their respective Captains (Kapitan) like Chinese Captain Koh Lay Huan, Malay Captain Syed Hussain Al-Aidid and Chulia Captain Cauder Mohideen Merican (Kapitan Keling). The Committee of Assessors looked into a variety of things, which today are part of the responsibility of Municipal Town and City Councils, like sanitation, for example.

1857 saw the formalisation of that role with the establishment of that entity known as the George Town Municipal Commission led by the Resident Councillor of Penang (automatically appointed by virtue of his position per the Municipal Commissions Act), two Commissioners appointed by the Resident Councillor, and three other Commissioners elected by the Rate Payers of George Town. So just as people who pay taxes have a right to representation at a State and Federal level today, in those days, people who paid Municipal Rates e.g. Assessment or Cukai Pintu, got to vote for their Municipal Commissioners (later called Municipal Councillors). Former George Town Municipal Commissioners or Councillors included the likes of Koh Seang Tat and Lim Cheng Teik.

Local Government elections were suspended in 1913 but revived in 1951. with nine members to be elected out of a total of fifteen members of the Municipal Commission of George Town, Penang. At that time George Town, for the purposes of the elections, was divided up into Tanjung, Kelawai and Jelutong wards. By 1956 all the members were elected and George Town became the very first municipal body to become a fully elected one. The number of divisions or wards at tat time came up to five, each of whom were to elect one councillor each year, the position of President of the Council to be elected by the members of the Council. Does that sound familiar? It should, because that is how our Prime Minister was also chosen.

On the 1st of January 1957, just months away from Merdeka, George Town was made, by Royal Charter under the hand of Queen Elizabeth II, a City and her Council transformed from a Town Council into a City Council, her first Mayor was D. S. Ramanathan.

Fateful Merdeka. Not long after, the death knell was to sound over local government elections elections when the federal government suspended them in 1965. By that time George Town's City Council was the wealthiest municipal council in the whole of Malaya with an annual revenue almost twice the size of the Penang state government, and one cannot but wonder if greed was the motivation for that. Allegations of maladministration and misconduct gave the federal government excuse to transfer the fuctions of the George Town City Council to the Chief Minister of Penang in 1966.

A Royal Commission of Enquiry cleared the George Town City Council of those allegations of corruption and recommended restoring municipal elections but federal authorities refused to see this done. Instead, in 1971, the George Town City Council, together with the Penang Island Rural District Council, were taken over by the Penang state government -- Chief Minister Lim Chong Eu suspended local governments - cheating George Town residents (and residents of Penang Island's rural southwest) of their right to local representation, or representation at a municipal level.

Having lost her local elected government, George Town also lost her City status when, in 1974 the George Town City Council was merged with the Penang Island Rural District Council to form the Penang Island Municipal Council.

Anwar flexing his muscle!

I'm giving space below to my old schoolmate, Leslie Lee Kim Guan, to give his analysis and opinion on Rafizi Ramli's public outburst yesterday after the Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, had appointed Lim Guan Eng, Mohammed Sabu and Muhyiddin Yassin to head the Finance, Defence and Home Affairs Ministries, respectively.

Anwar flexing his muscle!

In our Malaysian politics sometimes there is more than meets the eyes.

In my earlier prediction,  the absence of Azizah during the press conference on the three Cabinet posts by Tun Dr Mahathir may be attributable to her unhappiness that PKR was unfairly accorded. This is understandably so.

I strongly believe that Rafizi was doing his boss' bidding because of some of the reasons I stated earlier which to me have justification.

I recall in 2008 after Selangor fell to Pakatan Rakyat that Anwar appointed his brother to be the Economic Adviser to the Selangor government.

I personally did not agree with this move by Anwar then as it was not merit-based for the people's interest but nepotism rearing its ugly head and DEFINITELY contradictory to Reformasi. OTOH after hearing and having personally met Nurul Izzah, notwithstanding she is Anwar's daughter, I am impressed by her capability, competence and sincerity to serve our nation, and I believe given time in Ministerial experience she will make a good Prime Minister for our country and its people in the same way Lee Hsien Loong has done for Singapore.

Fast forward to the current situation, I felt that Rafizi Ramli is personally not interested in the position because he believed in a good, capable and efficient government of the people, by the people and for the people with effective checks and balance. This was said during his campaign. He is still relatively young but intelligent and capable, and he realised there is a dire role that he can play to transform the country for the better. He opted for the uphill difficult obstructive challenge of Reformasi instead of an easy path through UMNO. This speaks volumes of his unquestioned character.

However if his party or the Pakatan Harapan government appoints him in any ministry including Finance, I think he will do a good job. As for our new Finance Miniaster, Lim Guan Eng, I believe that he will be discharging in time to prove himself as the best Finance Minister just like what he has done for the people of Penang as Chief Minister.

Washing dirty linen in public is another issue altogether. In any case what PKR wanted is consensus or agreement by PKR in any major decision by the current Pakatan Harapan government or by Mahathir since PKR now has the largest number of MPs followed by DAP closely behind.

From this outburst PKR indirectly is serving notice to Mahathir not to bulldoze his way like what he did as Prime Minister during his previous 22 years when UMNO was the majority partner. UMNO practically got its way in all decisions taken with all the other coalition minority partners including MCA and Gerakan without consensus. Thus no checks and balance, no discussion nor consultation or deliberations and was the main contributary cause for the demise of MCA, Gerakan and MIC.

In fact, in Barisan Nasional's final phase, practically almost all government policies were decided by the UMNO Supreme Council and not the BN Supreme Council nor by the Cabinet. The BN Supreme Council and the Cabinet were mere rubber stamps. The unchecked power and arrogance of UMNO led to its abuse and mismanagement, corruption, etc etc. UMNO was the main cause of the BN's failure in GE14.

Anwar is now telling Mahathir that although he is PM, the big brother is now PKR and therefore PKR will not agree to unequal/unfair distribution of Cabinet posts. This is precisely what Mahathir did  during his previous administration to his minority partners in BN.

I believe Mahathir will similarly do it this way if this GE14 resulted in Bersatu having a majority number in MPs.

Mahathir realising his 12 MPs are too small in number hence this may explain why he is keen to accept crossovers especially from his good friend Taib's PBB and indirectly reduce the percentage of PKR's. Politics is a numbers game.

I noted that Mahathir recently constantly emphasised that PH's four-party partnership is an equal partnership although obviously with 12 MPs viz-a-viz PKR's 47 and DAP's 42 his number and percentage is lesser. I guess he had conveniently forgotten his different tune whilst he chaired BN.

What TM wanted is equal distribution of all Cabinet posts to all four parties. If I were to be in his shoe I will do the same. However statistically it is two for Bersatu (PM and Home) whereas ONLY one each for the rest. Understandably, PKR is unhappy because the party has only the Deputy Prime Minister post without a ministry.

The outburst by PKR, whilst is not reflecting good signs of PH solidarity to the public, may now result in Mahathir to get Anwar's and DAP's agreements in major future PH's decision, for example, in the composition of the rest of the Cabinet positions. Further, Anwar is supposedly going to take over the helm in two years' time.

Mahathir has to adjust that his premiership this round can no longer be autocratic like before in BN's time. It is limited to two years as agreed and he has to obtain consensus from all and particularly from big brothers PKR and DAP.

In any new partnership/relationship the honeymoon period (getting rid of Najib) is over and the jostling for position and power is now just beginning. This may explain why the Press had to wait three to five hours yesterday whilst possible serious haggling was taking place on the other side of the wall.

There will be more haggling coming up in Round Two (in one week's time) for the balance of seven ministries out of the initial 10, and in Round Three (in the next two to three weeks) for the balance of 15 ministries. The time frame for forming the entire Cabinet is now longer than originally scheduled!

One thing for sure which is good for the country is that despite this internal bickering, Mahathir cannot be autocratic like before in the current PH government. He is determined to rectify all the wrongs in government and our institutions, and DEFINITELY those acts that were inflicted upon him personally.

PH must not deviate from the main focus about correcting the ills and reforming our new Malaysia for the benefit of the people and country in a better tomorrow.

Most importantly the PH government should reflect on itself to the public as a viable, cohesive, harmonious, competent, responsible, accountable and united coalition party and not a party of  marriage of convenience, and be honourable and fair to each other internally in its relationship amongst itself, thereby guiding andharvesting the fruits for the people as per its manifesto. The promise to deliver has to be carried out including the two years for PM tenureship.

Should PH be one single multi-racial and multi-religious united party for the future of Malaysia and for Bangsa Malaysia in the foreseeable future? Can PH achieve what Dato Oon Jaafar failed?

With our natural and human resources, can Malaysia be as developed as Singapore in the coming decade or two from now under PH?

Is Anwar prudent to flex his muscle yesterday (DAP, Ananah has to be thankful or otherwise) or should he wait till two years later when he assumes the PM's chair? Time will tell as politics is not a static game.

Leslie Lee

The six

Anwar Ibrahim being visited in hospital yesterday

State of the parties

Saving my country

Here I am, trying to save my country from kleptocracy.

Podah

The former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in an election rally at Putrajaya last night, used the Tamil word Podah on the caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Razak.

In his campaign speech, Mahathir had said: “A so-called 'religious warrior'? Podah! I picked him but now that he has become the PM, he wants to have me arrested instead. It seems I had accused him of being involved in the alleged sabotage of the plane I was on last Friday. How does he know that I was wrong, when he didn't look at what happened? Even the civil aviation authority (DCA) did not come to see me or check the plane,"

But what exactly does podah mean? I tried asking my Indian friends but none has come back with a response. I had to search for the term on the Internet before finding it as well as other colourful Tamil words. This list below, will be interesting reading:

1. Dei - The verbal response to someone who does or says something stupid, idiotic or asinine. For example, "Lee turns to walk out the door to my office, but instead runs into the wall." Dei!!
2. Podah / Podeh – Podah means to "get lost, man" and Podeh means to "get lost, girl". For example, "I don't want to see you around here anymore. Podah! or Podeh!"
3. Elek – This is a verbal response to mean “don’t have”. For example, "Hey, man, have you seen my iPhone?" Elek.
4. Sapade – Directly translates to mean "eat". For example, "Aneh, sapade order here!
5. Aneh/Anah – This is the Tamil word for “Bro”. For example, "Aneh, teh tarik satu!"
6. Kunji – Directly translates to mean "penis" in Tamil.
7. Thani – It means "water" in Tamil. But here in Malaysia, we use it for drinking alcohol. For example, "Eh, bro, tonight thani ah?"
8. Pundek – A Malaysian Tamil word for "vagina".
9. Thangachi – This is a polite word for "younger sister". But here in Malaysia, we use it to call both of our guy and girl friends. For example, "Hey, thangachi, apa buat!"
10. Macha – Literally, this is a term for "brother-in-law". It is commonly used to address our friends. For example, "Macha, we’re going to the club tonight. Wanna join?"