Election Fever @ Malaysia 2008

Election Fever @ Malaysia

Abdullah Dissolves Malaysian Parliament for Election
By Stephanie Phang and Soraya Permatasari

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dissolved parliament in preparation for a general election, 15 months before his five-year term expires.

Abdullah's coalition, in power since Malaysia gained independence in 1957, plans to win a two-thirds majority, he told reporters in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur, today. The country's election commission must hold a poll within 60 days and will set a date tomorrow.

An election is a gamble for Abdullah, who led the Barisan Nasional coalition to its biggest parliamentary victory in 2004. The country's Indian minority has taken to the streets to protest discrimination, and critics have said Abdullah failed to keep a pledge to crack down on corruption.

``Unless he can regain the political initiative fast and win big in the forthcoming elections,'' said Andrew Aeria, a political analyst for the London School of Economics and IdeaGlobal, ``he will face a serious challenge to his leadership of UMNO very soon.''

While the coalition is certain to win the election, a stronger opposition performance could threaten Abdullah's leadership of the United Malays National Organisation, or UMNO.

``Pledges were made and people want to see if they are being implemented,'' said Ramon Navaratnam, president of anti- corruption group Transparency International Malaysia, of Abdullah's promises to clean up the government.

Abdullah's coalition won 90 percent of parliament's seats in 2004. The opposition says that dominance hampers Malaysia's democratic development.

..... more .....
Bloomberb.com
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=albqLeVNuBlA

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Election
• Fever
• Malaysia
• 2008
• Parliament
• Abdullah
• Ahmad
• Badawi
• Anwar
• Nurul
• Lim
• Kit
• Siang
• Eng
• Guan
• Kapal
• Nik
• Aziz
• Hadi

[edddiey2001]

Can you spell 'kapal' correctly..ishhh..Karpal

[kuabt]

Thanks ..... DAP made history yesterday ..... Go Karpal!

[notymonkey]

woi kawan. General secretary of DAP namanya Lim Guan Eng. Lim Eng Guan tu nenek saya lah.

[kuabt]

ok .....

[khairykamaludin]

vote UMNO to let them rape your rights.

[casiosvpamfx570]

show the people corruptions that BN leaders committed.

"one day i google all the ministers names and found some interesting results. Nor Mohamed Yakcop is involved in forex scandal which resulted in bank negara lost of 30 billion ringgit in early 1990s, samy vellu in MAIKA Telecom share scandal in 1992, MITI minister in AP and else"

[kickland]

the song on the video is "21st Century Lullaby" by Ryan Kickland... find it on the album "Living Stones" by Ryan Kickland on itunes, amazon

[fernandis86]

I love Malaysia! I Love this country with all my heart! Make no mistake about that. But I think it's time for complete reformation and revise everything that was ever done. Go back and repair all those glitches in our beloved country before all we hold dear is destroyed by greed and selfishness. From the national constitution, the country's infrastructure to the political-social system of this country. We young people are tired and want to see CHANGE! No gimmicks and enough with the lies!

[fernandis86]

I agree with Garubolas. I think Opposition is just voting for Chinese rights only and what they really want, for themselves. Indeed nowadays, NO OFFENCE, they have been given an incredible amount of power. I see, they now misuse it for their own kind only. I just think it's selfish. Sure opposition says they're fighting for everyone. But did they ever discuss that again? No, I guess they lied too. By the way, I don't belong to any race whatsoever so I'm speaking for those have no voices.. so sad

[raven6009]

yeah!Malaysia is changing for the worse.Malaysia Boleh!

[raven6009]

mayb v should c this time round then decide on who to bring down who loh.

[raven6009]

now a days,who is clean?

[lanjiao967]

有兰教都不会用的黄家定，

回家洗兰教睡你的懒觉啦。

[Garubolas]

nicely said kggoh . Malaysia need a 2 party (at least) system like democrats and republicans of the US to ensure the checks and balances. Eventhough the seeds of that change has been sown, i fear that it will not grow to be a strong tree. The fragile tree is in danger of being cut down. The majority people here are basically malay haters, clamoring for chinese rights instead of malaysians, these monyets are no better than UMNO. Maybe i made a mistake voting the oppisition.

[kggoh]

i think having a single party in power for too long will lead to abuse of power. Absolute power = Absolute Corruption. Please fellow malaysian, we need to bring down BN to be an opposition party next election. Let them go through the learning stage to be an opposition party, then they will then learn what does the ppl really need. Any one with me?

[suzytang]

so did we blame badawi of 'meminggirkan ' oranG orang CINA!That is why more and more people vote for DAP.eventhough sometimes they can't serve the chinese,indians and malays as they promised. but at least they won't treaten to close down Chinese schools...