Wishing Najib a productive meeting in China; come back and makeover

Come back with good news for Malaysians, Mr Prime Minister. Us clear headed ones are rooting for results for Malaysia.

I hope your aides have updated you about Hu Jintao’s Communist Party Of China and the quantum leap CPC made to move ahead alongside their citizens.

It is very important to keep up appearances with the times; the makeover methods deployed by the prime movers to maintain their coveted positions in the world.

May be perhaps you already know about this and are going to do the same with UMNO. If you do, please educate your brothers in Barisan Nasional component parties (MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP, SAPP, SUPP, PBS, etc) to do the same too.

On governing, PKFZ is a good starting point to emphasise the makeover initiative.

Here’s something on CPC below:

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“Tetapi apa yang menarik mengenai CPC ialah bukan sahaja kerana ia adalah parti politik terbesar di dunia dengan sejumlah 74 juta ahli, tetapi ia masih mampu berubah mengikut kehendak semasa, terutama di bawah pimpinan Hu Jintao.

Walaupun CPC adalah parti politik yang di kelilingi oleh pemimpin yang dianggap tidak mempunyai sikap tolak ansur terhadap pihak penentang, tetapi mereka mahu berubah mengikut kehendak rakyat mereka.

CPC yang selama ini sebuah parti yang tidak sinonim dengan demokrasi dan kebanyakan ahlinya terdiri daripada golongan tua dan lelaki, sudah mula dapat menarik minat rakyat yang lebih muda, sofistikated, berfikiran terbuka dan golongan wanita.

Di bawah era pimpinan Hu Jintao, CPC telah cuba berubah daripada sebuah parti yang berteraskan strategi yang mementingkan jumlah keahlian yang besar kepada sebuah organisasi yang lebih bersifat teknokrat.

CPC pada satu ketika dulu tidak begitu mementingkan taraf kelulusan dan kepakaran ahli asalkan mereka dapat menarik dalam jumlah yang ramai.

Tetapi CPC pada hari ini lebih mengutamakan ahli yang lebih muda, kelulusan terbaik dan mempunyai kebolehan memimpin.

Transformasi yang diolah oleh CPC ini mampu menarik sehingga 50 peratus golongan muda yang baru tamat pengajian universiti.

Tetapi apa yang paling menarik mengenai permohonan golongan ini ialah lima peratus sahaja yang diterima masuk kerana parti tersebut hanya mahu yang terbaik menjadi ahli.

Berbeza dengan satu dekad yang lepas, golongan muda langsung tidak berminat untuk menyertai CPC.

Tidak terlintas juga satu dekad yang lepas CPC akan memberi keutamaan terhadap pendapat dan perasaan rakyat China tetapi pada hari ini tinjauan pendapat sering dilaksanakan untuk menyelami perasaan masyarakat mereka.

Walaupun masih terdapat kawalan terhadap saluran maklumat melalui internet, tetapi jelas bahawa ruang untuk mencabar status quo telah dilonggarkan.

Bagaimana CPC menangani kes pencemaran susu bayi pada tahun lepas, jelas mempamerkan perubahan sikap CPC yang pada hari ini lebih mementingkan perasaan dan pendapat rakyat China secara keseluruhannya.

Satu perkara yang menarik mengenai anjakan paradigma CPC ialah pemimpin mereka tidak lagi menggunakan slogan komunis untuk mendapat sokongan rakyat.

Mungkin slogan tersebut masih laku dua dekad yang lepas, tetapi semenjak peristiwa berdarah Dataran Tiananmen, CPC telah memulakan langkah untuk memberi gambaran bahawa ahli parti mereka adalah daripada golongan intelek dan teknokrat.

Jika CPC sebagai sebuah parti politik yang sinonim dengan cengkaman fahaman Marxis selama lebih daripada sembilan dekad mampu berubah kepada sebuah organisasi yang intelek dan teknokrat sehingga menarik minat golongan muda yang lebih pintar dan bersikap terbuka, sudah pasti parti politik lain yang jauh lebih muda dapat melakukan perubahan dengan lebih mudah.

Apa yang penting adalah sesebuah parti politik itu mesti mengutamakan perasaan dan kehendak rakyat dan tidak hanya memberi keutamaan kepada kehendak ahli parti itu sahaja.

Oleh AZMI HASSAN
PENULIS ialah GeoStrategis Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)”

Above appeared in Utusan Malaysia

Party leader promising to act to set things right

Today was a busy day. Trust in politics has been eroded so much over the last week that I knew we needed to act fast to start setting things right. I began by meeting individual members of the Shadow Cabinet. We went through those claims that have caused concern, and they agreed to pay them back. There is a genuine desire to recognise and respond to the public anger.

Next I met the Shadow Cabinet as a whole and told them the immediate action I’m going to ask all my MPs to take. All expenses must be published online; you can’t ‘flip’ your second home to make more money; if you sell a home on which the taxpayer has been making mortgage interest payments, you have to pay Capital Gains Tax; and any claims on furniture, household goods, food – all those things we’ve read about – are banned.

After that I met the Executive of the 1922 Committee and then the whole of the Parliamentary Party. I went through the new rules in detail and told them about the key proposal for a Scrutiny Panel – including someone completely independent from the Party – to go over all excessive claims and see whether they need to be paid back. I had to be very clear about this: if they don’t co-operate with the Scrutiny Panel, they can’t continue to be MPs.

And it’s not just those in Parliament who need to understand this mission. It’s also those who aspire to be. Every single candidate has got to sign up to this new way of doing politics. They need to know that working in Parliament is a great privilege – one that must never be abused again.

All this is about being the change we seek. If we want responsibility in our society and thrift in our government, we’ve got to live by those values ourselves.

From,

A Political Party Leader

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Sigh…  no excuses, no spinning or whitewashing in newspapers or online news portal. Just zooming in straight on the problem, then zipping about restoring confidence in people simply by way of plain communication to show voters what action is undergoing and will be done.

How I wish Malaysian political party leader has the character and guts to do this. I don’t care from which party. Doesn’t matter if its a black cat or white cat. If it can catch the rats, it is the good cat. (Hear that, Malaysiakini? Give us both sides of the story too, ok?)

Any takers from UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, rest of the component parties in Barisan Nasional?

Any takers from PKR, DAP, PAS, rest of the Pakatan Rakyat?

Or am I putting too high a KPI beyond the capacity of Malaysian political leaders???

Scandalously entertaining melee in Perak State Assembly

Hee Yit Foong was very entertaining… as were all the highly energetic Yang Berhormats. Finally all the deeply buried talents rised to public scrutiny. Syabas to the hardworking YB actors/actresses.

Chanced upon a very miniscule paragraph from The Star… someone from Barisan Nasional expertly id the source of the problem (gasp! shock!)

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Sunday May 10, 2009

Pandemonium could have been avoided

KUALA LUMPUR: MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat said the pandemonium at the Perak state assembly on Thursday could have been avoided had the standing orders been upheld.

“I was shocked to learn of some (people) acting violently and some being dragged out physically. This has tainted the process of parliamentary democracy.

“If we want to play polemics and party politics, I hope we will respect the standing orders and assembly etiquette, be it in Parliament or the state assembly,” he said after launching a calligraphy exhibition at Wisma Kebudayaan SGM in Bukit Bintang.

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Oh! One question before I sign off: That was a mighty huge thumb drive you have there, Ms Hee. How many gigabytes does it store, pray tell?

Changing clothes: Nothing new to politicians

Malaysiakini carried this news “Chua could defect ‘within weeks’ from MCA” today.

Well, well, well….

What’s so special about one man jumping ship?

What’s so special about someone jaded from too comfy work environment seeking a new adventure before time forgot about him/her?

Nothing special or new…

In fact we the salarymen/women does this too on a regular basis. Changing clothes, oops, changing employers / work environment / colleagues.

Don’t be shy, admit it lar.

Our brave young ones especially, armed with the ideal of finding job nirwana, do it every yearly or twice yearly. Some impatient ones do it monthly. Got to try one’s luck, mah! Opportunity must be chased! If one is ever so lucky, can strike jackpot, ooops, ideal benefits. Doesn’t matter if the benefit is so much higher and bigger and don’t commensurate at all with one’s inflated talent. Poor mules.

So, perhaps after reflecting over his benefits past, present and future, one cannot begrudge the personal choice of Chua Soi Lek should he decides to proceed switching over from Barisan Nasional to a more meaningful job with new ’employer’ aka job with Pakatan Rakyat (most probably new boss will be Anwar Ibrahim at PKR as DAP‘s young hotshot Nga Kor Ming said a big TAK NAK to the idea of Chua joining DAP).

Indeed, a new work environment may be the potion of second life for this MCA man who has provided us such titillating fodder for gossip since last year.

Good luck…