On the Eve of Nomination Day (UPDATED with Chinese Translation)
Marina could not explain what those rocket flags meant other than, “Itu bendera parti PAS Cina (those are the flags of the Chinese PAS party)’. ‘PAS’ here meaning ‘opposition’, of course, just like ‘Colgate’ means ‘tooth paste’, ‘Lux’ means ‘bathing soap’ and ‘Panadol’ means ‘pain killers’, etc. Never did Marina suspect 20 years ago that ‘PAS Cina’ would one day become a reality.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Kit Siang: RoS move may hamper DAP win in Gelang Patah
(TMI) – DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang today admitted that his chances of winning in the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat may be affected by the Registrar of Societies’ (RoS) move to block the DAP from using its party logo for the 13th general election.
“My chances of winning in Gelang Patah from 50-50 before the announcement to field Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, then 45-55 with Ghani’s candidacy.
“With the ban on using DAP’s symbol, my chances are only 40, while Ghani’s is 60 per cent,” an emotional Lim said at a press conference at the DAP headquarters here, referring to his decreasing chances against his rival from the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition with the surprising turn of events just two days before tomorrow’s Nomination Day.
Lim, who was seen shedding tears during the press conference, said voters would be confused if the DAP is forced to borrow the symbols of its coalition partners in Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
“If until 3pm this afternoon, RoS does not issue a retraction letter, we will use the logos of component parties,” Lim said, referring to the DAP’s two allies in PR, PAS and PKR.
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DAP to contest under PAS, PKR tickets
(The Sun Daily) – DAP will not be able to use its rocket symbol in the coming general election, following two letters issued by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on Wednesday – just three days before nomination – which in effect render the party’s office-bearers impotent.
As a consequence, the DAP at an emergency meeting last night had decided it will contest under the PAS logo in the peninsula and the PKR logo in East Malaysia unless the Registrar of Societies (ROS) revokes its April 17 letter which de-recognised the party’s office-bearers by 3pm today.
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PAS VP welcomes usage of party logo by DAP
(The Sun Daily) – PAS vice president Datuk Husam Musa welcomes the usage of the party’s logo by DAP to contest in the upcoming general election.
Husam said this move would also help increase votes for both the Islamic party and its partner DAP.
“This I believe is the real unity for Malaysians,” he said in a press conference at the party’s media centre here today.
He said PAS has also started preparing the surat watikah (authorisation letter) for DAP to use the Islamic party’s logo for the election.
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(Bernama) – The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will come up with respective manifestos for each of the five seats allocated to the party in the 13th General Election.
Its president, Datuk Seri M. Kayveas, said the pledges in each manifesto of a parliamentary constituency and four state seats would differ, according to the importance and needs of the people in the respective areas.
“Each manifesto will have eight points on why they (the voters) should choose Barisan Nasional (BN), and also the promise to enhance their living standard,” he said.
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We have less than 24 hours to go to know who is going to be contesting where and how many three-, four-, five-, six-, or more-corner fights we are going to see on 5th May 2103. Nevertheless, for sure this is NOT going to be a one-on-one general election as we had hoped for and had tried to fight for back in 2010.
Yes, three years ago, back in 2010, just two years after what many regard as the ‘historic’ 2008 general election, some of us such as Haris Ibrahim and I already anticipated that we would be seeing what we are seeing today. And we discussed this with anxiety and decided to try to do something about it.
No, I will not say ‘I told you so’ because many of you are going to get angry mainly because, as the Malays say, siapa makan cili dia rasa pedas — and many of you rasa pedas for sure even without me having to say ‘I told you so’. Hence I will not say ‘I told you so’.
Do you remember the various reasons why we launched the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) in London back in 2010? And do you remember that one of these various reasons was to see a one-on-one contest and to avoid three-, four-, five-, six-, or more-corner fights? And do you also remember the meeting we from Friends of Pakatan Rakyat had with Anwar Ibrahim when he visited London around that same time and which we reported about? And do you remember, as well, the public dialogue session in London that we had with Anwar, Tian Chua and Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, which you can see on YouTube (where I ‘waved’ in Anwar’s face a copy of The People’s Declaration that was signed with Pakatan Rakyat in February 2008)?
No, I am not saying ‘I told you so’. I am just reminding you of all these events because ‘Melayu mudah lupa’, as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is fond of saying.
Then we who mooted the idea of MCLM were accused of attempting to trigger three-corner fights in the coming general election in spite of us explaining that our objective was to prevent and not to trigger three-corner fights. Whatever we said was not accepted and Pakatan Rakyat still insisted that our objective was sinister and aimed at triggering three-corner fights.
That was when I decided to announce that we are abandoning the ‘independent candidate initiative’ since Pakatan Rakyat is opposed to it and is saying that this initiative is aimed at sabotaging Pakatan Rakyat. Then Haris Ibrahim turns around and whacks me and says that this was never discussed and agreed upon (which means the initiative was not abandoned) and then he subsequently resigned from MCLM.
Anyway, as I always say, all I need to do is keep quiet and wait because eventually, even if it takes ten years, what I say will be proven. And, today, it has been proven.
So there! But I am still not saying ‘I told you so’.
Next issue. In an emotional press conference yesterday, Lim Kit Siang said that if DAP can’t contest under its own logo then this would cost the party some votes and maybe even some seats.
This is actually quite true. And that was why Barisan Nasional was formed more than a year before the 1974 general election. The voters recognised the kapal layar logo of the old Alliance Party but not the dacing of the new Barisan Nasional so they needed enough time to promote the new logo. Hence if DAP contests under a ‘new’ logo this may confuse the voters.
If this was 40 years ago back in 1973 I can understand that the voters might be confused and need more than a year of ‘education’ to understand that the dacing has replaced the kapal layar. I mean, back in 1973 the voters were not that educated. However, today, 40 years later in the era of the Internet and the information revolution, are you saying that this is still a problem?
So you see, when I said that the Malaysian voters are still not that mature enough I meant it. The Malaysian voters are not the thinking type of voters. Even in the west or more advanced nations this is also true to a certain extent. In the UK the voters vote for Conservative, Labour, LibDem or any of the other parties. And they will still vote for these parties even if these parties contest without any logo. But not in Malaysia, it seems.
I remember 20 years or so ago my wife, Marina, and I, together with our son and daughter, made a trip to Ipoh and the town was flooded with party flags and my son, Azmir, asked about those strange rocket flags. Being from Terengganu, he had never seen these flags before.
Marina could not explain what those rocket flags meant other than, “Itu bendera parti PAS Cina (those are the flags of the Chinese PAS party)’. ‘PAS’ here meaning ‘opposition’, of course, just like ‘Colgate’ means ‘tooth paste’, ‘Lux’ means ‘bathing soap’ and ‘Panadol’ means ‘pain killers’, etc. Never did Marina suspect 20 years ago that ‘PAS Cina’ would one day become a reality.
DAP’s ‘angry bird’ logo for East Malaysia that I propose
Next issue. It appears like we have the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat Election Manifestos plus each political party has its own separate manifesto plus separate manifestos for each state. Wow! It looks like we are going to end up with 350 different manifestos in the coming general election. This must certainly be a world record of sorts.
Why can’t they all make it simple and reduce it to just one ‘universal’ election manifesto and simply declare that The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10th December 1948 is going to be adopted after the general election is over?
Do you know that even after 56 years of Merdeka Malaysia is still not a signatory to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights? And, may I ask, why not? Our neighbours such as Thailand and the Philippines are. Even ‘rouge’ nations such as Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Afghanistan, Burma, the Republic of China, etc., are. So why can’t Malaysia adopt The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as our ‘election manifesto’?
It is no use presenting hundreds of different election manifestos when we refuse even to endorse a simple, complete and precise ‘manifesto’ such as The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
And if you adopt The Universal Declaration of Human Rights then 90% of the problems facing the country would be automatically solved. And go read it here to understand what I am talking about.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
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提名日前夕
我的妻子，馬麗娜，想不到其他方法向他解釋，只好說：“那是華人的伊斯蘭黨黨旗（bendera parti PAS Cina）”。‘伊斯蘭黨’在此的意思是‘反對黨’，就像‘Colgate’ 是‘牙膏’, ‘Lux’ 是‘肥皂’，‘Panadol’ 是‘止痛葯’一般。馬麗娜當時沒想到在20年后‘華人的伊斯蘭黨’會成真。
原文：Raja Petra Kamarudin
譯文：方宙
林吉祥：社團註冊侷的舉動可能會阻礙行動黨在振林山獲勝。
(TMI) – 行動黨顧問林吉祥今天承認他在振林山獲勝的機會可能會因社團註冊侷阻止他在大選時應用行動黨黨徽而受到影響。
（下文省略）
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行動黨會以伊斯蘭黨及公正黨黨徽出戰
(The Sun Daily) – 此屆大選中行動黨將無法應用他們的火箭標誌。這個決定是續社團註冊侷在星期三，既題名日前三天，對行動黨發出的兩封不承認黨内幹事的信件后作出的。
（下文省略）
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伊斯蘭黨副主席歡迎行動黨運用他們的黨徽
(The Sun Daily) – 伊斯蘭黨副主席Datuk Husam Musa 表示歡迎行動黨在此次大選中運用他們的黨徽。
（下文省略）
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(Bernama) – 人民進步黨在此屆大選中會就他們被分配到的五個選區提出不同的選舉宣言。
黨主席Datuk Seri M. Kayveas表示，在一個囯席四個州席裏，他們會以選民們不同的要求做出個別的選舉宣言。
“每個宣言將會有8個要點來道出爲什麽他們（選民們）應該選擇囯陣和承諾提高他們的生活素質，”他如此表示。
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在少過24小時内我們將會知道此次大選會有誰參加和會有多少個三角，四角，五角，六角戰。。。等。無論如何，這將不會是個我們在2010年所希望能看到的一對一大選。
是的，三年前，就在08年的‘歷史性’大選的兩年后，我們（就好像Haris Ibrahim 和我）就預測到我們會看到今天的情景。我們當時很憂慮地討論了這個課題，然後決定我們應該做些事情。
不，我不會說‘我告訴過你了’，因爲你們當中肯定會有人生氣。就像馬來人講的‘誰吃辣椒誰就會覺得辣’，你們當中在我還沒開始講‘我告訴過你了’以前就嘗到辣了，所以我不會告訴你‘我告訴過你了’。
你還記得我們于2010年在倫敦發動馬來西亞國民自由運動（Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement，MCLM)的理由嗎？你還記得其中一個理由是我們想看到一對一的選舉而不是三角戰，四角戰，五角戰，六角戰。。。嗎？你還記得在我們這些民聯的朋友和安華展開的會議嗎？你們還記得我們在倫敦和安華，蔡添強和東姑阿都阿玆的公開對話嗎？（你可在YouTube 上看到，我當時還在安華面前甩了甩民聯在2008年2月所簽署的‘人民宣言’）
不，我不是正在告訴你‘我告訴過你了’，我只想提醒你這些事件的存在，因爲真如敦馬所說，‘馬來人是健忘的’。
我們這群想出MCLM這個主意的卻被指責說我們的目的是要在大選裏促使三角戰的發生，雖然我們不斷的解釋我們的目的是要‘避免’而不是‘觸發’三角戰。我們所講的都沒人要聼，民聯還是咬定我們的目的是險惡和注重在觸發三角戰的。
我當時就想宣佈我們要放棄‘獨立候選人運動’，因爲我們得不到民聯的贊同而且他們還認爲那個運動的目的根本就是要破壞民聯。Haris Ibrahim 過後來個大回轉，他反過來干屌我和講説我們根本就沒進行討論（意思是我們並沒有要放棄‘獨立候選人運動‘），然後他就退出MCLM了。
無論如何，就像我經常講的，我所需要做的就只是站在一旁保持沉默，我所提到的最終都囘成真，哪怕我得等十年。但我不必等這麽久，我之前提到的今天就發生了。
你看吧！但我還是沒有說‘我告訴過你了’。
下一個課題，在昨天的記者會裏，林吉祥激動的表示如果行動黨不能以他們的黨徽競選的話那他們可能會流失一些選票，甚至是一些席位。
這其實是很正確的。這就是爲什麽囯陣要在1974年大選的前一年就組成。選民們只會認得舊聯盟的‘帆船’標誌而不是新囯陣的‘天秤’，所以囯陣要用足夠的時間來‘推銷’他們的新標誌。所以如果現在行動黨用新標誌的話有些選民可能會感到混亂。
如果我們談及的是40年前的1973年，那我會很了解爲什麽選民們會困惑而需要一年的時間來明白‘帆船’以被‘天秤’取代了；1973年選民們的教育水平沒有那麽高。但，在40年后資訊爆發的今天，你告訴我這還是個問題？
所以你可以看到，儅我說馬來西亞選民不成熟時其實我是對的。馬來西亞選民並不是會用腦筋思考的那一群。對比西方國家的選民我們也可以證實這一點。在英國選民們會把票投給保守黨，工黨，自由民主黨等。即使這些政黨沒有用他們的黨徽英國的選民們還是會把票又給他們要投的黨，然而在馬來西亞我們選民們看起來並不會那麽做。
我還記得在20年前我和我家人一同到怡保遊玩而當時城裏挂滿了各黨的黨旗。我的兒子Azmir問我那些奇怪的火箭到底是什麽，久居登嘉樓的他從沒看過這些旗子。
我的妻子，馬麗娜，想不到其他方法向他解釋，只好說：“那是華人的伊斯蘭黨旗（bendera parti PAS Cina）”。‘伊斯蘭黨’在此的意思是‘反對黨’，就像‘Colgate’ 是‘牙膏’, ‘Lux’ 是‘肥皂’，‘Panadol’ 是‘止痛葯’一般。馬麗娜當時沒想到在20年后‘華人的伊斯蘭黨’會成真。
再下一個課題：看起來其他政黨，就像民聯和囯陣一樣，都擁有自己的大選宣言。不只如此，他們還為每個選區做出不同的宣言。哇靠！看起來我們將會看到350個不同的宣言，這次真的是破世界紀錄了。
爲什麽他們就不要能簡單一些只用一個‘統一’的宣言，把聯合國在1948年12月10日大會裏採納的‘國際人權宣言’用為他們大選的宣言呢？
你知道嗎，國家都已獨立56年，但我們還未簽署那份國際人權宣言。在此我想問句“爲什麽不呢”？我們的鄰居泰國與菲律賓都已經作了，就連那些比較‘紅色’的國家如伊朗，伊拉克，古巴，阿富汗，緬甸，中華民囯等都也簽了，爲什麽大馬就不能以‘國際人權宣言’作爲競選宣言呢？
儅我們連一個簡單、完全、和精准的國際人權宣言都接受不了時，無論我們搬出多少個不同版本的宣言都是没用的。
如果我們能夠用上國際人權宣言，那我囯90%的問題將會自動地被解決。去讀讀以下鏈接的宣言吧，你就會懂我的意思了。
國際人權宣言: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
