We have been told of late that politics is a game – power game, number game, game of the elites..….etc etc , well yes to some extent it does look like a game what with rivalling factions sometimes going all out to outdo their opponents. They waste time attacking each other, saying and doing things that don’t benefit the People while important issues get sidelined.  But it can only continue if we, the People, allows it to be.

So, if politics should not be a game, then what is politics and how should it be? What should it mean to the man on the street on a day to day basis? What is politics beyond exercising democratic rights at the ballot box every time an election is called?

Let it be clear that politics IS NOT a game. Politics at its core is about people’s lives. The process of an election is not limited to casting a vote. It produces outcomes that affects the People’s lives. How the People controls the outcome goes beyond picking a candidate from a popular party, it certainly goes beyond voting someone out with no consideration for who we are really voting in.

It is time the people of Malaysia comes to the realisation  that unless we shift the focus from the politicians to the people, election and election results will always be about the politicians and not the people. Everyone is aware of voting as a right granted to every citizen, but we need conscious efforts to not surrender our rights back to politicians the minute we walk out of polling stations.

Where and how do we even start to do that particularly given our decades old culture of looking up to mainstream politicians? I say we start right here right now in Semenyih, in which a by-election has been called after the death of the incumbent state assemblyman last month. I say we no longer allow politics to be a game.

On the premise that election results will affect the livelihood of the People concerned, how do we then go about choosing our representatives in the state assembly that will bring about the desired results? How do we know their values and what they represent? How do we know they will strive to make our lives better?

A simple way is to look at their background, party (if any) history and their manifesto. A manifesto, unless with intentions to mislead to garner votes, should outline the beliefs, principles, ambition and method of delivery of the party/person that made the pledge. Party history and background will then be a good method to gauge how trustworthy or believable their manifesto is.

A rapidly developing area like Semenyih with approximately 54 000 registered voters and a population of 300 000 requires a detailed plan for true and meaningful progress. Steps need to be put in place to minimise problems associated with any modern development. National type grandiose manifesto may not be good enough to zoom in on specific issues the locals seek to address.

Yes, a state legislative assembly by-election is about the locals and what they need. Semenyih is home ground to Parti Socialis Malaysia (PSM) and their community work over the years. A walkabout in Semenyih town and talking to the locals will tell one that PSM’s presence is greatly felt with many associating PSM with problem solving of big and small issues, among other work. Arulchelvan, central committee member and ex secretary general of PSM is a familiar figure from the market to the coffeeshops to the housing estates, respected for his fearless and tireless representation of all issues involving the People. Though he is not the candidate this time, anyone who remotely understands PSM knows that they have a rule of fielding only candidates who have done at least some years of voluntary/community work in the area concerned.


PSM, for the 4^th time is contesting the state seat of Semenyih. Let’s examine their concerns and pledges  to the People of Semenyih this time round:

1) Housing for all – affordable housing. PSM is concerned that the property market in Semenyih has shot way above the affordability level of the locals. There are many new unsold houses even after years of completion. PSM clearly distinguishes low cost houses and affordable houses, and hence will campaign for the authorities to bring back low cost houses and for every housing development to have both low cost as well as what is categorised as affordable housing. Further to that, PSM proposes that quota should be imposed not just on low cost or affordable housing but also on luxury properties. This is in view of most unsold properties being in the middle upper affordability category.

2) The 300 000 population in Semenyih is dependable on Hospital Kajang , Hospital Serdang and Hospital Serdang for their medical care resulting in serious congestions in these hospitals that already have their own population to take care of. In the absence of  immediate  plans to build a big hospital for Semenyih (as announced by the Health Minister this month), and while working towards that, PSM proposes an immediate upgrade on the existing Klinik Kesihatan Semenyih to the status of a hospital with the addition of necessary equipment and facilities such as ambulances to facilitate quick transfers to bigger hospitals in times of emergency.

3) To ease the burden of the B40 population who lives in low cost terrace houses and low cost flats , PSM proposes to streamline property taxes and maintenance fees as the current system is more burdensome to low cost flat dwellers when it is obvious low cost flat dwellers are much more challenged economically than low cost house dwellers.

4) Public transportation. PSM views Semenyih’s transportation issues and traffic congestions from 2 angles. 1) economic 2) time saving and convenience, which ultimately leads to improvement of  quality of life.

A huge section of Semenyih population works in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, which means to say almost every person driving out of Semenyih will need to pay highway tolls just to get to work, sometimes more than one. Semenyih is surrounded by the Silk Highway, Lekas Kajang Batu 3 Highway as well as the Plus Putra Mahkota Highway. PSM takes the lead to urge the authorities to abolish at least one these highway tolls to help ease the burden of Semenyih citizens.

At the same time, PSM would work towards the upgrading of bus services to various places after witnessing the decline over the years. This has become much burden to the Semenyih population who needless to say depend on bus services for work and other activities. Even to go to the nearest MRT station which is situated in Kajang, one needs to take 2 buses.

5) PSM proposes localised elections in all housing estates, flats and villages to elect resident leaders. PSM believes this is the best move to directly involve local residents in support of the State Legislative Assembly to address and tackle issues directly affecting residents of the respective areas.  This is also in line with PSM’s bottom up (as opposed to top down) democracy approach.

6) PSM is concerned with the mind boggling decision to abolish Form 6 in secondary schools in Semenyih some years back and seeks to bring this back so six formers need not have to travel to nearby towns to attend Form 6 classes.

7) Environment. PSM would like to engage the government in matters of environmental preservation and natural recreation places like hot springs and Bukit Broga, famous among hikers in view of over development activities in the area of late. Promotion of these places as tourist attractions will also bring economic benefits to the locals.

Dear fellow citizens, do we have any quarrel with the above pledges? Do we see other contenders with this level of commitment and attention to details? If you don’t, please treat this as an appeal to spread the message to our fellow citizens who are voting in Semenyih.

It is time sincere, consistent and hardworking people are voted into State Assemblies and Parliament.  It is time political hegemony be considered repulsive, abusive and offensive.

Politics is NOT a game, it’s our lives.

The post Politics is not a game first appeared on NMH.

The attacks seem to be predominantly aimed at Najib when he is not even a contestant at the by-election. Pakatan Harapan it seems has forgotten about the actual candidate!

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad repeated his usual vitriol against Najib repeating the same 1MDB allegations. Clearly incensed with Najib’s “Bossku” nickname he claimed only “slaves” use those term referring to the public. 

Pakatan Harapan too has been playing up the 2016 claim by Sarawak Report’s Claire Rewcastle-Brown that RM90 million of 1MDB money was paid to PAS and its leaders. The source of the claim was Ambiga Sreenivasan. Neither Claire nor Ambiga have presented any evidence thus far backing the claim and MACC has been unable to find neither the cheque nor payments made to the party’s accounts.

Lim Kit Siang the veteran adviser of the Chinese dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) claimed that the Semenyih by-election is an “Anti-Najib exercise”.

“Many Malaysians are very disappointed that Najib, who had brought infamy and ignominy to Malaysia with his 1MDB as well as other 1MDB-liked corruption scandals in Felda, Felcra, Mara and Tabung Haji, turning Malaysia into an international butt of jokes as a global kleptocracy, is not paying for his corruption and crimes in Sungai  Buloh Prison but is allowed to strut all over the country in his Malu Apa Bossku campaign,” he said.

Kit Siang clearly out of his depth at Semenyih claimed that the by-election was a “political comeback” for Najib – when Najib is not the candidate!

Najib’s popularity rose as a result of his cool demeanour despite the relentless attacks by the DAP led coalition along with his Facebook posts taking time to explain national interest items to the public while taking humour filled shots at the government’s failing.

The Barisan Nasional-PAS alliance is likely to result in the second victory for Barisan Nasional. Led by Najib, the coalition is playing a crucial role as a credible opposition which the Pakatan coalition failed at. 

The Semenyih by-election was called after Pakatan assemblyman Bakhtiar Mohd Nor died on Jan 11. It be a four-cornered fight between Pakatan’s Aiman, Barisan Nasional’s Zakaria Hanafi, Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul and independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng.

Polling will be held on March 2.

The post Pakatan Harapan obsessively campaigns against Najib, again first appeared on NMH.

He said he was in possession of the bank statements for the amount paid but declined to show it but demanded that anyone disputing should challenge him in court.

In 2016, Sarawak Report claimed that UMNO paid PAS RM90 million to leave Pakatan Rakyat. “As Najib Denies All Over 1MDB, Let’s Not Forget His Many Other Criminal Connections” was published by Sarawak Report on 6th August 2016 suggesting that Hadi received 90 million RM for PAS’s support during the 14th General Election. Claire was unable to provide evidence supporting the claim and the matter was settled out of court. To date Claire Rewcastle-Brown has been unable to share any evidence with regards to the claim.

Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) has since investigated and confirmed that PAS did not receive the said 90m from Najib Razak or 1MDB confirming suspicion of many that Sarawak Report lied.

Pakatan Harapan has been mounting its attacks on PAS in hopes to sever the cooperation and coordinating alliance between UMNO and PAS which saw it deliver the win at the recent Cameron Highlands by election. Analysts have predicted that it is likely to be repeated in Semenyih this weekend.

Anwar playing up the alleged settlement claim confirms that Pakatan Harapan is jittery about the by-election. The coalition has lost significant support from the Malay-Muslims and in the recent months even the die-hard DAP supporters have been moving away due to the inability of the to fulfil election promises. The coalition has also been caught in fake qualification scandal that included Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng and his father Lim Kit Siang.

The Semenyih by-election is highly anticipated win for Barisan Nasional and UMNO that will boost the parties confidence and cooperation. 

The post Anwar claims to have evidence that PAS paid off Sarawak Report but won’t show it. first appeared on NMH.

“UMNO as a party respects and understands the continual need for such schools. It is UMNO’s view that vernacular should need to exist.”, he added.

He was commenting on the recent statement by Nazri Aziz that vernacular schools should be abolished if they do not agree with the special rights given to Malays. Nazri received strong backlash on his speech. He had since held a press conference strongly denying that he wanted vernacular schools to be shut down.

He said such allegations are a ploy to turn voters against Barisan in the Semenyih by-election.

“In my speech, I said if non-bumiputras argue bumiputra rights, then bumiputras will also argue non-bumi rights, including their rights to vernacular education,” Nazri said.

Nazri said he was using the call to shut down vernacular schools as an example, and he was not advocating the abolition of vernacular schools.

Mohamad Hassan cited that whether administering the government or as the opposition UMNO or Barisan Nasional’s stand on vernacular schools is clear whether in support on infrastructure, acknowledgement or providing financial support.

Pakatan Harapan has been playing up racial issues leading up to the Semenyih by election where Barisan Nasional is expected to repeat its performance from Cameron Highlands. 

The post Mohamad Hassan – Vernacular schools a necessity in multicultural Malaysia first appeared on NMH.