The clamour for fresh state polls in Perak is building up as two Perak state assembly reps from PKR have quit the party while Hee has also reportedly quit the DAP. If all three were to defect to the BN – as seems likely – then the Pakatan Rakyat coalition government will not have the numbers to rule.
Now 79 per cent of 439 respondents to the poll on this blog (as at 4.00pm) are calling for fresh state elections in Perak. That’s up from 69 per cent at 12.45pm today.
Remember how in the past, whenever Malaysian workers called for a minimum wage so that they could make ends meet and live with dignity, they were often lectured by CEOs about the need to improve productivity to justify their wage hikes. These CEOs were thinking of other people’s – their workers’ – productivity, not their own.
After what has happened with share prices plummeting and lacklustre corporate figures, I don’t think many CEOs will be using that line anymore. In fact, big question marks now hang over the productivity and performance of not a few CEOs.
Think about this:
“From 2002 to 2008, the five biggest Wall Street securities firms [Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley] paid an estimated $190 billion in bonuses. Those companies churned out $76 billion in combined profits during the same period. Last year, the companies had a combined net loss of $25.3 billion, yet paid bonuses of roughly $26 billion.”
Lucchetti, Aaron and Matthew Karnitschnig. 2009. “On Street, New Reality on Pay Sets In: Financial Firms Race to Reset Compensation Policies as U.S. Government Aims to Set Some Limits.” Wall Street Journal (31 January): p. B 1.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123336341862935387.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
So far, as at 1.52pm today, 72 per cent of the 258 respondents to the online poll on this blog think the best solution to the Perak situation is to dissolve the state assembly and pave the way for fresh state-wide elections.
Another 20 per cent of you think by-elections would resolve the situation.
That’s over 90 per cent calling for new polls in one form or another.
This could sort out the mess once and for all.
The political turmoil in Perak has taken on a new twist with Election Commission chairperson Abdul Aziz reportedly saying that no by-elections would be held because of doubts over the resignation letters of the two state assembly members.
Aziz pointed out that the assembly members had sent in new letters to deny the validity of the resignation letters submitted by the Perak Speaker.
Where does this leave Perak? Will we see a battle in the courts?
See Aliran president P Ramakrishnan’s statement here in which he says the Election Commission’s decision is ultra vires.
Was the recent Israeli offensive against Gaza a “pre-introduction” to Iran?
In an unguarded speech, during which he was not aware he was being filmed by the media, Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem, issued a strident warning against Iran.
“(He said) the country’s recent military offensives were a ‘pre-introduction’ to the challenge Israel expects from a nuclear-equipped Iran within a year,” Australia’s Seven News reporter Sarah Cummings was quoted in The Australian as saying.
Remember how Mahathir often liked to say that the major decisions of his administration were often made after consulting his Cabinet ministers and obtaining their consensus?
Mohamed Tawfik, the son of the late deputy prime minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, has a different take on this.
Tawfik was dropped as an Umno MP in 1990. When asked how that happened, he explains in the cover story of The Edge, Options pullout (for the week of 26 January 2009):
Mahathir called me into his office before the election. I was with my journalist friends when he called, so they started joking that I was going to be made a deputy minister.
Sorry to disappoint them… I went to see Mahathir and the first thing he said was, ‘You know, not every son can be like the father.’…
I thought to myself, bloody insult!
Too close for comfort. This is just away from the Civic Centre, across the main road from the Lotus Restaurant. Photos by Rakyat@work
Can you see the guy behind the police line? What is he holding? This is just metres away from the people.
Wonders never cease.
One of the two Perak assembly members who were supposed to have resigned their seats is now challenging the validity of his resignation letter.
…Jamaluddin denied vacating his seat. He said the resignation letter that was supposedly sent to Sivakumar was actually an old, undated “resignation letter” that he and the other six PKR assemblymen were forced to sign in late March last year.
Just when you thought it was safe to breathe again…
Two by-elections could now be held after Jamaluddin Mat Radzi and Mohd Osman Jailu reportedly resigned their posts as assembly members of Behrang and Changkat Jering respectively.
And now the Perak deputy speaker is reportedly missing – so we could be in for some interesting times.