A morbid fear of Malaysian Spring?
FT Kuala Lumpur has 9 Pakatan MPs out of 11, yet the control is by a FT Minister whose ministry controls the appointment of KL Mayor. The phobia has led to denial of the use of Merdeka Square for any kind of rally by the federal opposition or NGOs like Bersih.
The mal-apportionment of constituencies (due to past gerrymandering) meant BN could easily win with a simple majority of 112 seats, with less than 20% of registered voters! That BN garnered only 47% of total votes compared with PR's 51%, and yet won 133 seats to form the new government, had led to rallies of discontent all over Malaysia.
By the way, the new FT Minister happens to be Umno Secretary-General, and had won in Putrajaya, the new capital of Malaysia, which is the smallest (15,791 voters) constituency out of a total 222 parliamentary seats.
BN and Umno in particular, had it easy in GE13, by concentrating on the smallest constituencies. Umno won in 66% while the coalition BN which it leads, won 88% of the 112 seats. So much for being 'the most democratic country in the world' as claimed by one of its leaders.
The main aim of 'Black 505' is to force the en bloc resignation of all the 7 election commissioners, because of their failure to carry out their duties without bias towards the ruling BN. If the unfair alienation of constituencies continue together with the biased referees, there is no way Malaysia could have a fair election in future.
From Zorro-unmasked:
The statements by ministers and police chiefs were similar to previous statements: declared illegal gathering with warnings by police of arrests. This time, a police chief even thought of calling in the army to control the expected huge crowd. But this was condemned by most people of unwarranted overkill just to control unarmed citizens who wish to make a statement about the recent unfair GE13.
Past experience had shown the significant difference between a hard line approach by police which resulted in unnecessary brutalities by police, and a soft approach of recent rallies where the police allowed the rallies and there was no incidents other than the inconvenience of traffic jams. But when dealing with a national election of who should rule the country, that seems a small price to pay.
Reports by various news portals:
'Black 505': Crowd swells, thousands in KL city
Black 505 rally: ‘It would be fun’
CALM AT PADANG MERBOK: Lesson in leadership for 'gangsters' Najib, police chiefs
Despite having 9 out of 11 Member of Parliaments in Kuala Lumpur, this is not reflected in the City's Advisory Board or even the Mayor. Maybe ALL the 9 MPs could follow the American solution,viz "No Taxation Without Representation".
ReplyDeleteThe early Americans did not want to pay taxes to the British if they were not represented in the government. The residents of Kuala Lumpur would withhold paying their annual assessment till their MPs are represented.
It work for the early Americans though. It's time for our elected representatives to take action rather than moaning for another 5 years.