Perkataan ‘dedak’ yang dipopularkan mantan Perdana Menteri, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dan sering dikaitkan dengan Datuk Seri Najib Razak telah menjadi satu konsep untuk menjelaskan bagaimana sokongan terhadap Perdana Menteri kini itu digembleng demi kepentingan politik peribadi dan kelangsungan partinya, UMNO.
“UMNO bukan UMNO lagi, UMNO sudah jadi parti Najib,” demikian keluh Mahathir yang sering kita dengar dalam ucapannya di mana-mana.
Ia selalu dipadankan dengan kenyataan bahawa pemimpin UMNO kini telah disumbat dedak sehingga penuh mulut, mata dan telinga sehingga tidak boleh melihat dengan hati nurani yang bersih dan menilai perbuatan jahat dan terkutuk Najib yang menjarah hasil kekayaan negara dan rakyat.
Namun, seperti mana kiamat akan tiba perlahan-lahan tapi pasti, seperti itu juga kedudukan Najib dalam pentadbiran negara. Dedak akan habis, dan Najib akan kehabisan cara.
Seperti biasa, tanpa segan silu, beliau dengan kuasa yang ada ditangan akan menggunakan segala instrumen negara, memanipulasi dan melacurkan segala jenis retorik untuk mengaut sokongan yang semakin menghilang.
Justeru, adalah tidak ganjil untuk kita melihat Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) (sekali lagi) diperkudakan Najib untuk diarah seperti anak kecil untuk melukis semula peta kawasan pilihan raya di peringkat negeri mahupun nasional.
Ia dilakukan semata-mata demi mengembalikan majoriti dua pertiga yang tidak mampu digapai Barisan Nasional pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13 yang lalu.
Malah, adalah pelik dan ajaib sekiranya Najib tidak mempertimbangkan muslihat itu.
Hasilnya, sebagai contoh, kawasan seperti Petaling Jaya Utara (yang akan diperkenalkan semula sebagai Damansara) mempunyai 150,439 pengundi dengan peningkatan 76.2 peratus berbanding PRU-13.
Malah, polarisasi kaum dilihat kian ketara dalam cadangan persempadanan semula yang dikemukakan SPR pada Rabu minggu lalu itu.
Lalu, timbul pula persoalan, bagaimana proses dan pusingan pencabulan institusi negara ini dapat dihentikan serta merta, dan diganti dengan sistem yang benar-benar mencerminkan amalan demokrasi dan Perlembagaan Persekutuan?
Ia harus dipertanyakan kepada pihak Pakatan Harapan, kerana kita sedia maklum bahawa taktik ‘gerrymandering’ ini telah dipatahkan pada dua pilihan raya umum yang lalu.
‘Senjata makan tuan’ harus menjadi konsep taktik serang balas parti-parti pembangkang termasuk Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) yang perlu dirangka dengan penuh halus dan jitu demi memusnahkan cita-cita Najib untuk terus berkuasa.
Ia sekaligus menjadikan hasrat rakyat untuk melihat Najib dibawa ke muka pengadilan, dapat direalisasikan.
Di peringkat akar umbi, rakyat khususnya, selain menjadi tanggungjawab untuk mengundi menjatuhkan regim, harus menunjukkan kesepaduan bersama pertubuhan masyarakat sivil, seperti Gabungan Pilihan raya Bersih dan Adil (BERSIH) yang mengutuk sekeras-kerasnya cadangan persempadanan semula SPR itu.
Menyokong BERSIH sama seperti menyokong hak demokrasi ditegakkan dengan maknanya yang murni.
Dan dengan cara ini – kesepakatan pakatan pembangkang (tanpa PAS pastinya) dan kuasa rakyat – pasti akan meruntuhkan tembok ‘dedak’ atau apa pun juga yang telah menjadi penghalang kepada semangat untuk menghidupkan kembali prinsip demokrasi di negara ini. – Roketkini.com
Planning to vote in GE-14? Your area might not even exist anymore...
Yup, a bunch of Opposition MPs have recently pointed out that their areas (proper word: “Constituencies”) have suddenly disappeared, as if someone spilt a very big vat of leftover indelible ink from GE 13 over the entire town.
Shiok sendiri jokes aside, this is actually a pretty serious matter since even BN component parties MCA and Gerakan are really unhappy about it.
But first, here are some of the changes that you can expect come GE14:
Seputeh (DAP) has been renamed to Sri Petaling
Kelana Jaya (PKR) renamed to Subang
Serdang (DAP) renamed to Bangi
Petaling Jaya Utara (DAP) renamed to Damansara
In total, 12 parliamentary seats and 34 constituencies are looking to have their names changed. Not just that, 128 out of the 222 Parliamentary constituencies will have their boundaries redrawn.
Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense, we’ll explain what this is (and how it might be a bad thing) below. It’s part of something called a “Redelineation Exercise” – where voters get moved around
In regards to the name change, Thomas Fann of Bersih 2.0’s Delineation Action and Research Team tells us that it’s not that big a deal.
“The name change may be annoying for some affected voters but on its own it doesn’t have any impact. The major issue is [improper redrawing of the boundaries]” – Thomas Fann
In a pretty little nutshell, “Redelineation” or sometimes called “Delimitation” is the Election Commission (EC)’s ability to redraw the boundaries of a constituency, meaning it can be made bigger or smaller depending on certain criteria that they need to fulfill, usually to ensure that voters are properly represented and able to vote conveniently.
As a super-simple example, think of it as rearing cows and goats separately on a piece of land… You may have have initially split the land evenly for each animal, but if the cows are breeding faster than the goats, then you’ll have to make more space for the cows. So the most logical thing to do is to move the fence to “eat” into the goat’s space (aka delineation):
Black line is the original fence, dotted line is the new fence.
Of course, it isn’t as simple when it comes to doing this for voters.
The Federal Constitution basically lays out a whole bunch of guidelines that the EC has to abide to during a delineation exercise – such as making sure a constituency doesn’t land between two different states, and giving a 30-day buffer for people to object to their decision before finalizing it. This is because.
If done wrong, delineation can directly affect the results of an election without you knowing!
The logic is pretty straightforward… In the image above, say JAR A has 80 yellow beans and 20 black beans while JAR B has 10 yellow and 40 black. If Yellow Party wants a majority number of beans in both jars, all they have to do is to move 40 yellow beans from JAR A to JAR B. That way, you’d end up with a 40/20 majority in JAR A and a 50/40 majority in JAR B. Sure, JAR B might be overflowing at this point but, hey, objective achieved!
In terms of what’s actually happening with the recent delineation, Petaling Jaya Utara (renamed to Damansara) had their boundary redrawn so that it went from 85,000 voters in 2013 to over 150,000 voters today. On the other hand, 50,000 voters were moved out of Subang, reducing the number to 73,000.
For a better idea of why this shuffling around of voters is important, here’s an infographic by AMK on how the magic of creative delineation can be used to turn a 5-0 loss for BN into a 3-2 win with the same number of voters:
Like magic, right? This is called Gerrymandering, which we explained in a previous article… But if you support the party then no issue la right? After all, you vote for them because you believe that they are the best people to represent your interests, kan?
Well, not really because your votes may be “wasted” and it causes a whole lotta other problems later!
Well, the major thing that becomes obvious is that if the boundaries are drawn in such a way that favors a particular party, then your precious vote – that symbol of democracy that you’re so proud of exercising – is essentially meaningless. For example, IF (we said IF) the existing 85,000 voters in Petaling Jaya Utara were gonna vote for Opposition, and the majority of the 65,000 voters added in this current delineation were also Opposition supporters, then it means that their votes would be worth less because – 85,000 or 150,000 votes – it still translates to only one seat in parliament.
But it doesn’t end there, because improper delineation (whether parliament or state constituencies) causes various problems for people living in these areas AFTER the elections, such as:
1. Your housing area becomes separated!
One of the no-no things prevented by the Federal Constitution, which is that a delineation cannot separate families and communities. However some communities have found themselves under two different parliamentary constituencies, such as in Subang Jaya, where the boundary cuts across a neighborhood – leaving half of them under Hannah Yeoh (DAP, Subang Jaya) while their neighbors across the street are under Nik Nazmi (PKR, Seri Setia).
2. The person you voted for cannot take care of you
Pulau Ketam on the left, Klang town on the right. Image from DART.
Many constituencies are separated based on natural boundaries (like islands) and socio-economic needs. The problems happen when liberties are taken with the boundaries and drawn in a way that doesn’t make sense. For example, Pulau Ketam shares the same representatives with people from mainland Klang – which is not even on the coastline! So where should the representative be based, on the island or the mainland? Either way, one side loses out.
And when you consider again that Petaling Jaya Utara now has almost double the amount of voters, it also means that the municipal council, state representatives, and MP also have double the amount of people to take care of!
3. Instead of talking to one person to get something done, you need to talk to three.
Generally, when there’s a problem within a community (like bad roads or broken street lamps), you’d reach out to your state representative (ADUN) within your constituency so that he or she can sort it out with the local municipality council (Majlis Bandaraya). However, if boundaries aren’t properly drawn out, you may end up with 2 or more Majlis Bandaraya within one constituency, and each Majlis may have different rules and regulations that they follow. So when there’s a problem, your poor ADUN will have to deal with two or three different Majlis, taking more time and effort than it normally should.
Unfortunately, what we can’t tell you is whether your constituency has been gerrymandered or not, since the EC aren’t required to justify their reasons for redrawing each boundary. This is an issue with ethics and transparency that we’ll have to address another time, but for now, Thomas has a pretty easy way of finding out for yourself:
“If you find the name of your voting constituencies doesn’t make sense to you, it could be an indication that you are in a gerrymandered constituency. For example, my constituency is P161 Pulai even though I live near to JB centre. To me Pulai is a rural area far from where I stay.” – Thomas Fann, head of DART.
Also, while the EC announced their delineation results in newspapers, websites, and (mostly) in the local majlis bandaraya offices, we have to point out that their site is still undergoing some security issues:
DART has published a comparison between the boundaries in GE13 versus the current proposed one. You can take a look at them here.
You can still do something about it NOW – but time is running out!
Following the rules of the Federal Constitution, one thing the rakyat can do to stop their constituency from being messed around with is to get at least 100 people to sign a petition and have at least one representative to speak to the EC. The only catch here is that everyone who signs MUST be a voter in that constituency – meaning that you can’t sign a petition in Petaling Jaya Utara Damansara if you’re registered to vote in Kelana Jaya Subang.
And you only have 30 days to do it – the deadline for all petitions and objections is October 14th 2016.
DART and Bersih are already planning to set up signature collection points in the affected constituencies, which will be announced soon. But until then, we very strongly recommend that you sign up with DART as an objector so that they can contact you directly instead. They’ll help out with the procedures and paperwork as well. Click on the image below to sign up!
You can also click this link to check your voting status on the EC’s website. All you need is your IC number. - cilisos
Expensive Medicines : Ripping Off The People...
This particular company buys the drugs in India at a cost of about RM10.00 per pack. They say that if they can sell their imported medicine directly to the Government hospitals, they will charge the Government about RM15.00 per pack - which means they slap on a 50% mark-up to cover transportation, expenses and of course some profit for them.
But the drug is actually sold to the Government hospitals for RM45.
Here is how it happens. The importing company cannot sell the drugs directly to the Government.
They must go through P***niaga which we all know is a Dumbno company.
Its Directors include U*M boss, A---d P----s S--in, failed outsourcing guru Azman Y---a and Dumbno henchman Raja N--g C--k. But even here the company cannot sell the drugs directly to P----niaga at RM15.
They first have to sell their drugs to yet another crony company which is "connected" to P----niaga. So the crony intermediary buys the drugs first at RM15.00 and then sells it to P----niaga at a mark up of say RM30.00.
This is how cronies do business. It’s called "rent-seeking", no need to sweat or take risks, just collect, collect, collect! They pretend that this is NEP.
The interesting thing is this is just a paper transaction. They may not even take physical possession of the drugs. They may just tell the importing company to deliver the drugs directly to P-----niaga. They just bill P----niaga and cream off the difference.
Now kawan-kawan, this has been going on for donkey years since P-----niaga was set up in the 1990s. Then P-----niaga finally sells the drug to the Government hospitals for RM45.00 a pack. And who pays for all this creaming off?
It is you and me, Encik Taxpayer and the ordinary folks. Who are the suckers? Haramkah duit ini? It's called STEALING from the RAKYAT and this is just ONE example of their normal rasuah Dumbno's business deal.
This is now otherwise known as GOVERNMENT’s STEALING TECHNIQUE.
And to add salt to the wound; the generic version is sold to the government at a cost more expensive than the original !
For example Rocephine for meningitis. Happened when I was in the government.
Sent big protest letter as I didn’t want to take risks with patients' lives in serious infections like this.
Reply was : inform if any adverse reactions occur with the generic drug.
I replied - death. - Editorial Consultant,ostb
India minta interpol tangkap Ananda pasai M'sia...
Tawaran PR pru13 ditolak majoriti rakyat,kononnya tawaran BN/UMNO lebih baik.
Sekarang hangpa rasakan. Anak2 kita dah jadi kaki hutang...
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