MENAWAN PENGUNDI MELAYU DENGAN MEMAKAI SONGKOK (UNTUK REKOD)

DONG ZONG HAND OVER MEMO TO NAZRI AZIZ

MCA condemns Dong Zong

They hope the Chinese will not support us. - Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek

LABIS: MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has condemned the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) for bringing up an alleged agreement in the 1960s between the party and the Government to limit the number of Chinese independent schools.

“Dong Zong talks about this issue to frighten the Chinese community so they will hate the MCA and Barisan Nasional.

“They hope the Chinese will not support us,” he said.

He said that although MCA was not perfect, it was undeniable that the party was doing its best for Chinese education.

Citing an example, Dr Chua said Malaysia was the only country in the region that had a complete Chinese education system from primary to university level.

He was speaking to reporters after a ground-breaking ceremony for a double-storey building with 12 classrooms at SJK (C) Karas here yesterday.

Also present at the event were Labis MP and Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Deputy Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong and Johor exco member Tan Kok Hong.

Dr Chua said whether or not the agreement existed in the 1960s was not important anymore as it had become history.

“The country needs more trilingual talent to increase its trade volume and the trade volume between Malaysia and countries that use Chinese as their main language is about 20% of the total.

“That's why we need to train more people to have good English, Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin,” he said.

“Today, Malaysia has a good relationship with China and the trade volume between the two countries has reached US$100bil (RM318bil),” he added.

On another matter, Dr Chua said Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had failed to answer if Pakatan Rakyat was going to build more Chinese primary schools, Chinese independent schools, institutionalise allocations for Chinese schools and recognise the Unified Examination Certificate should Pakatan take over Putrajaya.

“I have been waiting for the answer for the past two weeks,” he said. Dr Chua said Dong Zong should get the answer for the sake of Chinese education. (The Star)

Cina tak perlu melenting - Cheng Guan

Oleh AZHARI ZAINOODDIN

PULAU PINANG 9 Mei - Masyarakat Cina di negara ini seharusnya tidak melatah dan mempertikaikan laporan muka depan Utusan Malaysia bertajuk Apa Lagi Cina Mahu? pada Selasa lalu.
Naib Presiden Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM), Huan Cheng Guan menegaskan, tajuk artikel berkenaan sebenarnya tidak menyentuh sensitiviti masyarakat Cina sebaliknya sekadar melontarkan persoalan yang perlu dijawab oleh mereka.
Jelasnya, tidak timbul sebarang isu melalui artikel berkenaan kerana ia juga sering dimainkan oleh akhbar-akhbar Cina.
"Bagi saya itu perkara biasa. Perdana Menteri telah membuat yang terbaik dan tidak sesekali menganaktirikan orang Cina di negara ini dari semua sudut terutama pendidikan.
"Mahu sekolah Cina sudah dibuat, mahu universiti Cina juga sudah dibuat. Jadi apa lagi yang orang Cina mahu?
“Sepatutnya mereka tidak marah tetapi menjawab pertanyaan yang dilontarkan oleh Utusan Malaysia itu dengan menilai semula apa yang telah mereka berikan pada Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13 (PRU-13) baru-baru ini," katanya ketika dihubungi Utusan Online di sini hari ini. - UTUSAN ONLINE

Veteran MCA Gesa Dr Chua Segera Letak Jawatan

KUALA LUMPUR: Sekumpulan pemimpin veteran MCA mendesak presiden parti Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek supaya segera meletak jawatan memandangkan beliau perlu memikul sepenuh tanggungjawab terhadap kekalahan parti dalam pilihan raya umum ke-13 (PRU-13).
Mengakui bahawa mereka berasa sedih dan malu dengan pencapaian parti pada PRU-13, kumpulan itu turut menggesa supaya pemilihan pemimpin baharu parti diadakan untuk menentukan halatuju parti, terutamanya berhubung isu perwakilan Cina dalam kerajaan.
Kumpulan 15 pemimpin veteran MCA itu terdiri daripada bekas presiden Tan Sri Lee San Choon dan Tan Koon Swan; bekas timbalan presiden Tan Sri Lim Ah Lek, bekas Yang Dipertua Dewan Negara Tan Sri Michael Chen, bekas Menteri Kesihatan Tan Sri Lee Kim Sai dan bekas Ketua Pengarah Pentadbiran MCA Tan Sri Wong Seah Wah.
Selain itu bekas Pengerusi MCA Pulau Pinang Tan Sri Dr Sak Cheng Lum, bekas Bendahari Agung Tan Sri Lau Yin Pin, Datuk Jimmy Lau, bekas anggota majlis presiden Datuk Fu Ah Kiow, Datuk Wong See Chin, Datuk Wong Kam Hong, Datuk Freddie Long, Datuk Seri Kee Yong Wee dan Wang Choon Wing.
"Kami dengan merendah diri meminta presiden kami supaya melepaskan jawatan dan membenarkan pemimpin baharu untuk melakukan perubahan, memulihkan dan memberi kesedaran kepada parti.
"Kami tidak ada agenda diri ataupun menentang Dr Chua secara peribadi. Kami hanya merayu demi kecintaan kami kepada parti dan komuniti," kata jurucakap kumpulan itu, Tan Koon Swan, dalam sidang akhbar bersama di sini.
MCA mengalami satu daripada kekalahan terburuknya dalam pilihan raya setelah sekadar memenangi tujuh kerusi parlimen dan 11 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) yang ditandinginya dalam pilihan raya umum 5 Mei, berkurangan lebih daripada separuh kerusi yang dimenangi parti itu pada 2008.
Sementara itu, dalam mesyuarat agung luar biasa pada 2011, MCA meluluskan resolusi bahawa parti itu tidak akan menerima sebarang jawatan dalam kerajaan sekiranya pencapaiannya lebih buruk daripada pilihan raya umum ke-12.
Pada 2008, parti itu memenangi 15 kerusi parlimen dan 32 kerusi DUN, daripada sejumlah 130 kerusi yang ditandinginya.
"Hati saya hancur luluh ketika melihat berita tentang anggota parti yang menurunkan papan tanda di pusat khidmat mereka. Oleh itu beliau (Dr Chua) mesti melepaskan jawatannya segera dan biarlah jawatankuasa pusat menerusi perlembagaan parti memutuskan kepimpinan baharu dan usaha ke arah pemulihan semula parti. - BERNAMA

GE13: Reeling from Chinese tsunami

By : Joceline Tan, The Star

A CHINESE tsunami swept over the country last night. It ripped through all the seats that had a significant Chinese electorate and devastated Gerakan and MCA in the peninsula and SUPP in Sarawak.

The tsunami was basically about the Chinese electorate going for change. The result was that the DAP emerged the big winner, making new gains everywhere, including in Johor.

But it was evident that the Pakatan Rakyat slogan of “ABU, or Asalkan Bukan Umno (Anything But Umno)” had also resonated with the urban populace in general because Pakatan regained Selangor with a two-thirds majority.

The Chinese tsunami also helped to carry many of the PKR candidates in many of the mixed seats.

However, the tsunami could not quite make it to Putrajaya.

At about 1am, a solemn-looking Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that Barisan Nasional had a simple majority to form the government.

At press time, Barisan had attained 133 seats, still short of the 138-seat majority won by his predecessor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Najib was clearly disappointed but he spoke in a calm and steady voice as he urged everyone to accept the election result as part of the democratic process.

The Malay electorate, especially those in the rural states, continued to back Barisan. It is a small consolation to Najib that the Malays have returned to Umno in a significant way.

The Malay wall held back the Chinese tsunami and Barisan won back Kedah. It also held on to Perak, which was a subject of speculation until close to midnight.

At press time, Barisan won Perak with 31 state seats against 28 by Pakatan. But Pakatan continued to dominate in Penang with an increased majority.

PAS managed to hold on to Kelantan with a much reduced majority, which showed that Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat’s appeal as a religious figure still commands support in the state.

As predicted, PAS won the least seats among the Pakatan parties and DAP is now the dominant party in Pakatan with the most number of seats. It can also lay claim to having defeated a top Umno leader, namely former Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Ghani Othman in Gelang Patah.

The Pakatan wins also mean that Johor and Sarawak are no longer the fixed-deposit states for Barisan.

The zero sum game of politics means that DAP’s gain is MCA’s loss because both parties contested in Chinese-majority seats. MCA won only seven parliamentary seats, far short of the 15 that it won in 2008.

MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek tweeted late last night that the party would not be accepting any government posts.

This was in keeping with the pledge made that the party would not accept posts in the Government if it did not do better this time.

A big question mark hangs over the future of MCA as well as Gerakan and SUPP and they will have to do much soul-searching after this.

The Chinese rejection of Barisan is a big blow to Najib, who went out of his way to persuade them to come along on his economic and political transformation journey.

The Chinese have rejected a moderate and inclusive leader, who has made more overtures to the Chinese than any other Prime Minister before him, and Najib and his coalition will have to reassess all this in the months to come.

There will also be soul-searching on the part of PAS, given its loss in Kedah and the defeat of several of its top leaders, including its deputy president Mohamed Sabu in Kedah and vice-president Salahuddin Ayub in Johor. Another vice-president, Datuk Husam Musa, lost in Putra­jaya.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the election result is that the ruling coalition is dominated by Umno and the Malays while the opposition Pakatan is dominated by the Chinese-based DAP.

The impact of this will become clearer as the dust settles over the most closely-fought election ever.

GE13: Foreign envoys congratulate Barisan on polls victory

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign envoys congratulated Barisan Nasional's victory in the 13th general election under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and commended the election process, saying it was conducted in a democratic way.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in congratulating Najib, said the victory was achieved under his able leadership.

He also congratulated Najib on his reappointment as the Malaysian prime minister and noted that the scenario could be construed as a strong backing for the policies of Barisan.

In a statement issued by the Iranian embassy here, Ahmadinejad said he was optimistic that bilateral relations under Najib's leadership and guidance would continue to grow strongly and "increase by the day, more so than in the past."

"I pray that Allah grants your excellency and the government and people of Malaysia good health, success and prosperity," he said.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's ambassador-designate, Prof Dr Qaley Allahverdiyev, said that the polls were conducted in a very democratic and peaceful way.

"Taking into consideration that there were protests which took place last year and earlier this year, the recent election and the campaigns were really good," he said.

In congratulating Najib, he hoped that Barisan would fulfill all its promises and that "the people can feel or understand the changes that they will do for the betterment of the country."

Ukraine ambassador Ihor V. Humennyi said he was impressed with the elections, including the campaigns, which were well-organised and peaceful.

The Malaysian people's active involvement in the election proved that democratice development in the country was getting stronger and people were more politically conscious, he said in a statement.

However, he noted that the election results revealed polarisation of the Malaysian society on ethnic grounds and hoped that this could be overcome.

The May 5 polls saw Barisan returned to power, fending off a strong challenge from the Pakatan Rakyat, after winning 133 of the 222 parliamentary seats to form the new federal government. - Bernama