NYT: 'A Certificate of Embarrassment'

I find the editorial in the New York Times (Wenesday 27 April 2011) interesring. It says in a nutshell that the release of Obama's birth certificate represents 'a profoundly low moment in American political life'.


I wonder what the same editor would say about the sexual allegations against the Opposition leader in Malaysia.


April 27, 2011
A Certificate of Embarrassment

With sardonic resignation, President Obama, an eminently rational man, stared directly into political irrationality on Wednesday and released his birth certificate to history. More than halfway through his term, the president felt obliged to prove that he was a legitimate occupant of the Oval Office. It was a profoundly low and debasing moment in American political life.

The disbelief fairly dripped from Mr. Obama as he stood at the West Wing lectern. People are out of work, American soldiers are dying overseas and here were cameras to record him stating that he was born in a Hawaii hospital. It was particularly galling to us that it was in answer to a baseless attack with heavy racial undertones.

Tornado in action in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Witness a first-hand video of one the tornadoes that killed some 200 in America Deep South.  Are we seeing a disaster of the scale of the New Orleans' Hurricane Katrina of 2005?

Difficult for BN to win two-thirds majority in GE, say analysts

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

April 21, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — Barisan Nasional (BN) will have a tough time scoring a two-thirds majority win in the next general election due to the continued snubbing of the ruling coalition by urban voters.

Analysts believe that the recently-concluded Sarawak election will also have a spillover effect on the possible outcome of the upcoming national polls, but differ as to when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will call for it.

While some political pundits believe that Najib will call for elections by year end, others say that the rise in urban vote swing towards Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as well as anti-Taib (Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud) sentiments would be reason enough for Najib to delay national polls until early 2012.

RPK: Pakatan needs to win 60% votes to topple BN

Love is more powerful than hate

Monday, 18 April 2011 Super Admin

If the opposition wins 35% of the votes, Barisan Nasional will win 90% of the seats. If the opposition wins 45% of the votes, Barisan Nasional will still rule with a two-thirds majority. If the opposition wins 50% of the votes, Barisan Nasional will still rule with a simple but large majority. If the opposition wins 55% of the votes, Barisan Nasional will still rule with a very slim majority. If the opposition wins 60% of the votes, then Barisan Nasional would probably lose the government. If the opposition wins 65% of the votes, then Barisan Nasional will for sure lose the government.

Malaysiakini mohon sumbangan tangkis serangan

Pelayan (server) utama Malaysiakini yang terletak di pusat data TM dan Jaring hari ini terus dihujani serangan melalui rangkaian Internet hari ini sejak serangan pertama dilancarkan lebih 30 jam lalu.

Pelayan berkenaan tidak berfungsi sejak jam 11 pagi semalam. Malaysiakinimasih belum berjaya menangkis serangan tersebut yang berpunca dari beberapa pelayan lain di China.

Bagi menghadapi situasi ini, semua laporanMalaysiakini, termasuk dalam versi bahasa Inggeris buat masa ini disajikan secara percuma melalui perkhidmatan Wordpress dan Facebook.

Malaysiakini juga akan berhijrah ke pelayan baru. Kami sedang bekerjasama dengan pusat data baru dengan meningkatkan ciri-ciri keselamatan terutamanya bagi menghadapi beban rangkaian dari sumber yang mencurigakan.


Sesetengah pembaca bagaimanapun sudah dapat melayari Malaysiakiniseperti biasa.

Sekiranya masih gagal berbuat demikian, anda dinasihatkan supaya memadamkan 'cache' di 'browser' (Bagi Firefox, sila ke 'Tools', klik 'Clear recent history', dan kemudian 'Clear now'. Bagi Internet Explorer, sila ke 'History', klick 'Delete browsing history', dan kemudian 'Delete').


Kami menjangkakan beberapa siri serangan akan diteruskan ke atasMalaysiakini dalam tempoh liputan pilihan raya negeri Sarawak sehingga Sabtu ini. Bagi menangkis serangan baru, Malaysiakini akan mewujudkan pelayan web dari lokasi baru untuk kandungannya.

DAP releases postal vote tampering video

By Sheridan Mahavera April 13 2011 

A screenshot of the video released 

SIBU April 13 — DAP released a video clip purportedly showing four women handing over their postal votes to a man at Wisma Sanyan here yesterday 

The one minute clip shows a be-spectacled man receiving what looked like postal ballot papers from four women who had just picked them up from the Election Commission The video which was released at the DAP’s daily press conference here showed the women handing over the ballots to the man in a stairwell at the iconic building which is the tallest in Sibu Postal voting proper only got underway at 9am today 

The five were caught unawares while they were being filmed by a DAP polling agent They immediately dispersed when they saw the party worker filming them with his camera phone A screenshot of the supposed vote tamperers being caught on camera 

The man attempted to block the DAP agent’s view of the women as they ran out of the stairwell Mary Josephine Pritam Singh a DAP election worker said the incident occurred between 12 30pm to 1pm She and a team of party polling agents had gone to Wisma Sanyan to monitor the distribution of postal votes by the Election Commission 

The party worker who filmed the episode was part of her team No money was seen exchanging hands during the meeting 

According to EC regulations postal votes are picked up a centre and the voter may take them home to fill them up Each postal vote is a package that contains two envelopes a form and the ballot paper itself The voter is supposed to mark the ballot fill out the form seal the envelopes and return the package to the EC

The women in the video were purportedly handing over the orange-coloured ballot papers to the man It could not be ascertained what the man intended to do with the papers.

PR Sarawak: Patung 'Ubah' hampir habis di pasaran

Dari Malaysiakini


Patung mainan burung kenyalang yang dihasilkan oleh DAP Sarawak bagi kempen pilihan raya negeri hampir habis dijual.

Menurut setiausaha publisiti DAP,Tony Pua, patung yang diberi nama “Ubah” dan dihasilkan sebanyak 30,000 itu dijual pada harga RM10 sebuah. Ia kini dilaporkan kehabisan di kebanyakan tempat di seluruh Sarawak.

Katanya, parti itu juga menghasilkan 30,000 patung yang lebih besar dan dijual pada harga RM60 sebuah.

“Kami baru bawa bekalan terakhir iaitu sebanyak 300 'Ubah' besar dari Kuala Lumpur. Apabila habis dijual, kita tidak akan hasilkan lagi,” katanya.

Beliau juga berkata terdapat banyak rungutan daripada penyokong DAP yang kecewa kerana tidak dapat membeli patung berkenaan.

“Kami langsung tidak menjangkakan ia begitu laris, jadi kami tidak menghasilkannya dalam jumlah yang besar,” kata Pua (berbaju merah).

Jualan 'Ubah' sebegitu laris khususnya ketika DAP mengadakan ceramah-ceramahnya. Penyokong tidak melepaskan kesempatan meminta pemimpin DAP menurunkan tandatangan mereka di paruh maskot itu 

Antara yang sering menjadi buruan penyokong adalah tandatangan setiausaha agung DAP, Lim Guan Eng yang juga ketua menteri Pulau Pinang.

Pada perhimpunan di Kuching, Ahad lalu, ribuan cuba mendapatkan tandatangan Lim sehingga juruacara majlis meminta kerjasama orang ramai membenarkan Lim beredar kerana terpaksa menghadiri majlis lain.