Rant & Raves

Everyone is shouting, “Say no to money politics!” and more interesting, “Total transparency! Fight Corruption!”

Interesting.

But what’s more interesting is that Najib announces RM3.5m for mosques, suraus, schools in Kg Jaya Setia. The original article is from The Sun, and I took the liberty to reproduce the article below.

Najib announces RM3.5m for mosques, suraus, schools in Kg Jaya Setia

Maria J. Dass
The Sun
BATANG BERJUNTAI (April 23, 2007): The Barisan National (BN) is leaving nothing to chance in Kampung Jaya Setia within the Ijok constituency.

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced a special RM3.5 million allocation from the Prime Minister’s Department for seven mosques, 16 suraus and six schools for the constituency.

“Although there has not been any request for these but we feel that we need to do this as a sign of the BN’s commitment,” he said during a ceramah in Kampung Jaya Setia.

Even though the BN won the Ijok state seat in the 2004 elections, the party lost in Kampung Jaya Setia to Parti Keadilan Rakyat by 50 votes.

Kampung Jaya Setia is a traditional village of 100% Malay voters, with a host of issues, including land grants, and the lack of amenities such as water and electricity. Some houses in the area still depend on well and rain water for washing, drinking and cooking.

Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo said although the opposition expects 70% of the youths in Kampung Jaya Setia to vote for Keadilan, he was confident they would vote for the BN.

Najib, meanwhile, charged that the opposition’s campaign tactics of “spreading rumours and slander” was akin to following the laws of the jungle, and was unIslamic.

“I know Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s story and if I start, he will slump down or have to lean on something,” said Najib.

“Why did he leave Umno? It was because he could not buy the shares he wanted. He left and joined Keadilan because of this, not because he wants to serve in Ijok,” he said.

“Division heads in this area also tell me he is a very stingy man and if he has RM10 million, I will cut off my small finger if he uses his money for Ijok,” said Najib, adding that it was difficult for the public to meet up with an important man such as a “Tan Sri”.

Later, when asked to comment on allegations that he left Umno because he could not obtain shares, Khalid said: “That’s interesting, Umno is giving out shares?”

“I left Umno to become CEO of Guthrie and I decided to leave because it is not easy being both a corporate man and in politics because sometimes, one has to make biased deisions,” he said.

“As a corporate man, I have to make decisions based on what is best for shareholders and I cannot be biased,” he added.

“If Umno has shares and wants to offer it to us, then we are more than happy to accept as citizens of Malaysia, with a certain level of dignity and maturity,” said Khalid.

He was speaking to reporters after presenting a development plan for Ijok which includes the setting up of an Ijok Development Centre to look into the community’s socio-economic and education needs.

The community division is to act as a conduit for the people to voice their concerns, the economic division is to facilitate activities in Ijok and provide small scale economic development plans, while the education division is to concentrate on funding and aiding students to excel in their studies, and industry linked education for youths, unemployed and adults to upgrade their skills and knowledge.

“Although there has not been any request for these but we feel that we need to do this as a sign of the BN’s commitment,” our DPM Najib said.

Wow! Since when the BN has decided to be some generous and built all the mosques, suraus, and schools? How about temples and churches? I don’t believe there is any formal request for these as well. We can definitely build a few more temples and churches for the other racial and religion citizen. There is nothing wrong with that idea, right? Since we are a multi-cultural country with the citizens embracing each others. So why no announcement on building new temples and churches?

Also, DPM Najib put up an allegation against Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim that he was stingy and he would cut his small finger if the Tan Sri uses his own money for Ijok. That’s really mature and professional. That should definitely present our country’s politicians as matured and professional. Now, I wonder if the Tan Sri has proof to show that he forked out money for Ijok, will our DPM live up to his promise?

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim was opening the Ijok Development Center to look into the community’s socio-economic and education needs. Great job! But why now? Why didn’t you open such development center months, if not years, earlier?

Another more interesting news from The Star [here]. Our DPM Najib said, “Don’t fall for opposition’s ploy.”

In summary, he said:
1. the people would miss out on a lot of development between now and the next general election should they vote the opposition.
2. only the Barisan Nasional had the capability to carry out development.
3. PKR had won seats before but the candidates were unable to carry out any meaningful development as they lacked the backing.
4. DPM Najib said funds were being set aside to carry out development projects and also to help the poor.

Now, that sounds like a threat to the voters of Ijok. The underlying message is, “Vote for BN or you are fucked. If you vote for the opposition party, all the funds allocated for the development will vanish, and the BN will not provide any backing to the opposition party to do any development and projects. So vote for BN.”

On a totally unrelated topic, Wikipedia has a very interesting “definition” of Altantuya Shaaribuu here. Hint: Check out the Trivia part, especially the last paragraph.