Azmin bersama Khalid Ibrahim dalam...

Serangan Umno BN terhadap kerajaan Selangor hanya omong kosong dan gagal menafikan penarafan Laporan Audit 2011 ke atas negeri itu, kata Timbalan Presiden KEADILAN, Mohamed Azmin Ali.

“Laporan Ketua Audit Negara baru-baru ini menyatakan Selangor merupakan negeri terbaik di bawah kelolaan Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim jelas menafikan segala tohmahan terhadap pemerintahan kerajaan negeri,” katanya depan 5,000 rakyat pada Ceramah Perdana Merdeka Rakyat di Bandar Baru Batang Kali, kelmarin.

Pengerusi KEADILAN Negeri itu berkata, anggota parti bersama pimpinan Pakatan Rakyat harus mempertahankan segala usaha Menteri Besar selama ini.

“Kenapa kita mesti pertahankan Tan Sri Khalid? Ini kerana beliau telah berusaha sepenuh hati merakyatkan ekonomi negeri.

“Kekayaan negeri telah beliau agihkan untuk dikongsi bersama seluruh rakyat negeri, sekaligus memberi kesenangan dan menyenangkan rakyat yang selama ini terpaksa hidup dalam tekanan sepanjang pemerintahan kerajaan korup Umno BN,” katanya disambut sorakan hadirin.

Ahli Parlimen Gombak itu turut menyelar dakwaan tidak berasas Umno BN bahawa pemberian air percuma mengakibatkan Selangor kehabisan air.

“Masalah kita bukan tidak ada air, air sentiasa ada. Masalah kita adalah ketiadaan air untuk dirawat.

“Itupun bukan salah kerajaan negeri, tapi salah Syabas (Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor). Syabas di bawah arahan Umno BN telah sabotaj kita (kerajaan negeri) supaya air yang sedia ada tidak dapat dirawat dan ia menyebabkan kita gagal membekalkan air yang berkualiti untuk rakyat,” kata Azmin.

Beliau turut menempelak kenyataan beberapa pimpinan tertinggi BN yang mendakwa negara akan hancur jika dipimpin Pakatan Rakyat.

“Mereka kata kita tidak ada pengalaman, saya nak beritahu mereka, ya memang kita tidak ada pengalaman. Tapi pengalaman apa? Kita tidak ada pengalaman menyumbat lembu ke dalam poket sendiri.

“Kita juga tidak punya pengalaman dalam aktiviti membekalkan projek-projek untuk anak beranak serta kroni, mengkayakan sesama sendiri dengan menyeleweng wang rakyat. Ya, kita tidak pernah ada pengalaman itu,” sinis Azmin lagi.- keadilandaily

Azmin adakan sidang media bersama Khalid Ibrahim...

Timbalan Presiden PKR, Azmin Ali hari ini bersama-sama dengan Menteri Besar Selangor, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim dalam sidang media bagi membantah projek Langat 2.

Sidang media bersama oleh kedua-dua tokoh ini amat menarik kerana mereka berdua dikatakan tidak 'sebulu' dalam banyak hal.

Bagi memberitahu mereka berdua mengadakan sidang media bersama ini, Azmin telah menulis dalam twitternya:

"Saya bersama Tan Sri Khalid mengadakan sidang media berkenaan Projek Langat 2 di Parlimen."

Perhubungan antara Azmin dan Khalid sentiasa sahaja ditafsirkan tidak baik walaupun Azmin membuat kenyataan yang positif kepada Khalid.

Misalnya, apabila Azmin berkata Khalid sepatutnya menjadi menteri pusat selepas berjaya dengan cemerlang sebagai MB Selangor, ia telah ditafsirkan sebaliknya.

Azmin didakwa mahu menolak secara halus Khalid ke pusat untuk membolehkan beliau mengambil alih kerusi MB Selangor.

Namun dengan sidang media mereka hari ini, ia menunjukkan kedua-duanya tidak ada apa-apa masalah.- harakahdaily

Vote for party, not candidate...

The next general election seems so near yet so far. Political parties seem to have decided their candidates and it is now just the question of time for the official announcements by party leaders.

Candidates are indeed important as they are representatives of their respective parties and might be leaders of the country in the future. However, I am more and more convinced that the next general election is going to be a battle between the BN and the Pakatan Rakyat. Except for a few heavyweight candidates or those who are really notorious, voters would basically tend to vote for political parties, instead of candidates.

According to my personal observation, supporters of the alternative coalition basically voted for the party instead of the candidates in the past few general elections. For them, it was more important to let the alternative coalition expand its political map than supporting the candidates. Moreover, the alternative coalition had been facing a talent shortage problem even in the last general election.

 
However, the next general election will be different from the previous ones. After the 2008 political tsunami, many young intellectuals have joined the Pakatan Rakyat and it has strengthened the base of the coalition while enabling it to have a large number of potential and talented candidates with political ideals.

It also means that this time, BN candidates will no longer face opponents who are incomparable with them in terms of personal knowledge, image and talent. Instead, they will compete with opponents with equal strength or even stronger.

Undeniably, the quality improvement of candidates can strengthen the trust of voters while making the election campaigns more worth seeing. However, similar personal qualities might cause voters to further tend to vote for parties and not to care about comparing the candidates.

Our politics has obviously moved towards duality in which those who are not categorised as friends will be regarded as enemies. It has also made it difficult for independent candidates or a third force to rise. The by-election held in Johor Bahru on August 25, 1988 serves as the best example here.

There was an outbreak of struggle between team A and team B within Umno at that time. Former Welfare Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad, a team B leader along with former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam, resigned from his Johor Bahru parliamentary seat after being sacked from Umno, forcing a sensational by-election.

The then Umno was divided into the confronting team A and team B and the voters would also like to take the opportunity to teach the domineering Umno a lesson by intensifying the confrontation. Therefore, they urged Partai Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia (PSRM) Deputy Chairman Abdul Razak Ahmad to withdraw from the election, but Razak insisted to contest. As a result, Shahrir won with a majority more than double the votes of BN candidate, while causing the prestigious Razak to lose his deposit.

The by-election illustrated the fact that in an era asking for changes, the situation is always prioritised over people. It is not changeable by personal prestige. Similar to the current situation, voters generally want to see a showdown between the BN and the Pakatan Rakyat and therefore, the next general election is doomed to be a battle in which voters vote for political parties, instead of candidates.- Lim Mun Fah,Sinchew daily




cheers.