The initial transition period that was announced in August 2008 was to have current Wanita Chief Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz handover the mantle to her deputy Datuk Shahrizat Abd Jalil in June 2009.

However, when the Prime Minister and his deputy have agreed to bring expedite the transition of power and the Supreme Council postponed the party elections to March 2009, the Wanita transition period was made irrelevant.

Rafidah being the stubborn and hot headed as she is, has vociferously defended the June 2009 as the date when she will step down even though she and the whole of Wanita Exco knows that it is meaningless to step down just 3 months after being elected into power.

Rafidah mobilized her die hard followers led by her fiercely loyal Wanita Secretary Datuk Faridah Abu Hassan to outrightly reject Shahrizat’s appeal to Rafidah and the Wanita Exco to expedite and align the transition period to the same time as the main body of UMNO.

Even though Shahrizat appealed for Rafidah to consider expediting the transition period for the rebuilding of UMNO and attracting more women voters to UMNO and BN, she rejected it flatly just to keep her enormous ego intact.

Supposedly to entice Shahrizat, Rafidah has given her consent to the supposedly ‘no contest’ for the top two post. After today’s announcement by Shahrizat, Wanita UMNO is the new battleground in the war against the Dinosaurs of the party.

It is leaders as selfish as Rafidah who is stalling the revival of UMNO.

These leaders are not willing to let go of power when it is clear that the people especially UMNO members have rejected them.

They are willing to hold power and position for decades even though they know there are more capable and more energetic waiting in the wings to bring the party forward.

These leaders should emulate the magnanimous action of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Abdullah was willing to listen to the grass roots and respond accordingly, to take drastic measures and sacrificing self interest by way of stepping down from the presidency for the greater good of UMNO.

Leaders in UMNO lack heart and passion unlike Abdullah.

These leaders consider it their birthright that they are god-given the position they are in and it is in their faith that the position shall not be given to young and able leader.

They are the causes of UMNO’s and BN’s losses in the March 8 general election.

The ‘youthfulness’ of the party has been robbed by these leaders hence distancing the party from the youths.

In the election results, it can be seen that 70 – 80% of the voters in Streams 3, 4, 5 and above casted their votes for the opposition.

True enough that those in the age brackets of 50 years and above kept BN in power.

However, the fact of the matter is that the young will take over and as they aged, they will occupy the older generation’s age bracket.

Once the pyramid chain of these group moves up and if their loyalty to UMNO and BN cannot be depended upon, UMNO and BN will be rendered irrelevant.

Hence, leaders who are not within the youth age group, out of touch with the youths and had the temerity of wanting to lead the youth wing like the spineless Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir and the feeble Datuk Seri Khor Toyo should be rejected.

They will serve no purpose for the youth wing and will be a hindrance in UMNO’s effort to woo the young.

They are bent on using the youth wing for their political benefit and have no sense of direction on how to recapture the young voters.

Leaders like Khairy Jamaluddin ought to be given whole hearted support to wake UMNO Youth out of its slumber.

UMNO should not be brought back to the dark ages where dinosaurs reign.

Alas, it will spell the end of the party - the defenders of Islam, the Malay race and the beloved nation.

By Musa Osman

Arguing that a minimum wage would dampen inflow of foreign investment into the country, Khairy said that finding the balance between labour welfare and economic competitiveness was a challenge for Malaysia’s government moving forward – and the optimal solution was wages to rise along with labour productivity.

Lamenting Malaysia’s “addiction to foreign labour”, he opined this value-enhancement strategy also promises to make jobs more attractive to locals. In the short term however, he called for a wages-negotiating council comprised of employers and the Government to be set up in order for a reasonable and fair system of wages to be agreed upon – although he made it clear that such agreements should never be legally binding.

Such centrist positioning is sure to be welcomed by investors and enterprises alike; an imposition of a blanket minimum wage – no matter how low it starts at – can prove a slippery slope. Displaying a grasp of the Marginal Productivity Theory of Wages, Khairy was able to relate to empirical economic relationships between long term productivity and welfare.

Khairy’s calculated self was again apparent when he called for genuine cooperation between Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera enterprises to further decouple economic activity from race. Only with such partnerships can the Ali Baba phenomenon – that limits real Bumiputera advancement –be stopped. Khairy was meticulous to remind that Chinese enterprises themselves should not seek nominal partnerships with Bumiputera individuals merely to be able to gain government contracts.

At a time when Malaysia’s economy is undergoing a testy period, a measured approach as recommended and defended by Khairy is doubly important as there is great temptation to subscribe to populist politics. Although the Opposition has been at the forefront of economic populism, Barisan voices to intelligently rebut their proposals have been few and far between. As such, Khairy’s value to the party of government should not be understated.

Today’s brief session on RTM was another stellar performance by Khairy. One hopes that the UMNO delegates for the party elections in March are able to see the gulf of quality that exists between him and his contenders for the post of Ketua Pemuda UMNO Malaysia.

HH may have instructed his Pemuda to nominate KJ. That was a most civil thing to do. How can you not support your own deputy? Possibly it was just a face saving gesture. HH could not afford to be seen to backstab KJ when he must grudgingly acknowledged the young man has slaved and slogged for Pemuda during the 4 years as deputy Pemuda Chief. Where KJ was here, there and everywhere, HH, like the male lion in the pride, sauntered in to grace the finishing touches. No big deal.

Can KJ trust HH? Sakmongkol thinks not. Better not. HH’s preference for KJ is proportionate to the tenure of Pak Lah. While Pak Lah stays in power, HH will play the poodle lapping up everything that Pak Lah says.
KJ must face the reality, that HH will seek the first chance to settle old scores. What old scores? Whether one likes it or not, for the 4 years deputising for HH, KJ has overshadowed the ever grinning Pemuda chief Jock. Measure it any way you want- articulation, mental capacity, bravado, fighting spirit- KJ outshines HH in every department. Now that Pak Lah is leaving on a jet plane and wont be back again, HH will play, see no evil, here no evil routine. By refusing to endorse an open debate, would have reveal a few things to KJ. He cannot count on HH.

Who will win the race? If it was a sprint, maybe Muhriz could have been the winner. Now that the race has turned into a marathon, winning requires different set of skills and techniques. You cant sprint in a marathon. You will drop off dead. A marathon man requires stamina. Now, stamina is a generic term. It can mean physical stamina. Khir Toyo can consume a lot of tempereputed to be high in protein from which he can develop muscles and cardio vascular strength. Muhkriz can rely on his own source of strength, that will include his fortune of not holding any public office before and therefore relatively immune from criticisms. KJ can do likewise. He has a track record as deputy, but he is also burdened with a perception of unofficially holding public office and therefore susceptible to more criticisms. Of course, as will be obvious in the coming months, lots of money will be involved.

Sakmongkol can put it in other terms. Mukhriz who has no record of holding public office is an angel we don’t know. KT and KJ had official and unofficial public offices and are therefore the devil we know. Who do you trust? Sakmongkol will want to trust the devil we know. On these terms, the race will actually be between KT and KJ, notwithstanding the number of nominations received by MM.

Can we make anything of the number of nominations? The rate of their increase? Perhaps, the number of nominations as they say in statistics and econometrics, are spurious. The nominations received by KJ so far have been steady, growing at a rate around 30-32% and capturing similar magnitude of 27-29% share of nominations. Statistically, the nominations by Mukhriz appeared to be troubling because they suffer from random disturbances- experiencing volatile variations. His nominations grew at the rate of 43% and suddenly dropped to 10% in the 3rd week. His initial burst in speed would fit very well, if the race were a sprint. KT’s nominations on the other hand, started at a slower pace in the initial stages and then escalated in the later stages. . .

What can we deduce from these trends? Mukhriz has not been able to sustain his consistency. Why? His initial bursts may be attributed to the fact the early nominations came from Mukhriz-friendly bahagians. Therefore his nominations cannot be treated as conclusive. Contrast Mukhriz’s performance to that of KT, the former Selangor MB. Khir enjoyed spectacular increase in the later stages precisely when MM’s fortunes were tapering down.

How do we account for this reversal of fortunes of the two men? Let us introduce the factor of MONEY. How can we use money to explain the fall and the rise of Mukhriz and KT respectively? People! Please remember, sakmomngkol is using a hypothetical variable here- MONEY.

Assume the law of economics is working here. Supply increases directly to increases in price. Convert the nominations received by both MM and KT as positions of the upward sloping supply curves. Then, the lower location of MM on the upward sloping supply curve would suggest, that the supply of nominations he received, were compatible with lower prices. Or in simple terms, less money is offered and so supply of nominations is correspondingly slowed.

On the other hand, KT appears to occupy a higher location on the upward supply curve, over the same period. This would then suggest, the higher supply of nominations KT received can only be induced by higher prices. Which means, more money is offered.

KJ on the other hand, seems to occupy a more or less stationary position on the supply curve. Which means, the price associated with the supply of nominations accruing to him, remains consistent.
Which means what? Assuming money is used by all 3 contestants, we can make the following observations- not empirically verified of course.

1. In the initial stages, MM used more money than all the other contenders.
2. In the later stages, KT used more money than MM and was able to overtake MM’s rate of increase in supply of nominations
3. KJ used money too- but his usage, over the period in question, is not as much as the other two contestants.

The above hypotheses, would solve the mystery of who actually used more money in the race. The more important observation will be, a marathon race favours consistency. MM and KT’s nominations exhibited erratic behaviours while KJ’s showing is steady and consistent. Like Sakmongkol says, a marathon race is usually won by a consistent pacer who speeds towards the end.

But people, supporters of Mukhriz, Khir Toyo and KJ, don’t read too much into Sakmongkol’s flight of fancy.

Source: Sakmongkol

While Exco member Mukhriz Mahathir’s lead is dwindling, former Selangor Mentri Besar Dr Khir Toyo has also gone ahead of Khairy in terms of nomination numbers.

Mukhriz has been banking on the influence of his father Tun Dr Mahathir and Khir Toyo on his supposedly grass root appeal.

Meanwhile, Khairy has had to go it alone based on his capabilities as his supposed ‘advantage’ due to his ties with outgoing President Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi is obliterated after Abdullah decided not to defend his presidency.

For four years Khairy deputized for outgoing Youth Chief Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein Onn.

He undertook it upon himself to mobilize, plan and execute the political machinery of the youth wing in elections whilst Hishamuddin looked from afar rarely getting his hands dirty in the rough and tumble of the numerous by elections and general election.

Khairy also took the pains of organizing and implementing the endless programmes for the benefit and to reach out to the many youths.

Khairy has also come under a lot of flak defending the special position of the Malays.

He vociferously defended the dignity of the Malays when questioned by groups with vested interest on the issues of New Economic Policy.

During the UMNO general assembly, Khairy moved the resolution to extend and prolong the New Economic Policy after it has expired.

He was on the receiving end of some fierce criticisms from chauvinistic groups such as Dong Jiao Zhong and extreme elements in political parties such as MCA, Gerakan and DAP on his principled stand.

He has had adequate training, experience and the know how to manage and elevate the status of UMNO Youth from its current slumber.

Khairy has taken the youth wing to another level with his call to reach out to the millions of youth who voted for the opposition in the March 8 general elections.

He understood and realized that UMNO was disconnected to these youth.

He was also a man enough to admit that UMNO had to reach out to these youth if UMNO was to survive the onslaught from the opposition and prolong its lifespan in the next general elections.

Almost 70% of youths departed from voting for Barisan Nasional in the March 8 general election.

One of the most important facts is that youths especially in the urban areas are becoming more egalitarian and is turned off by the racist and divisive tone eminating from UMNO and BN leaders.

Youths are less likely to distinguish and differentiate each other by the colour of their skin or creed.

They look to each other as their equal and are passionate about this fact.

Realizing that UMNO Youth needs to change its paradigm in order to remain relevant, Khairy coined the theme “Setiakawan” or “Camaraderie”.

To Khairy, UMNO Youth has to forge an even closer relationship among its own members.

UMNO Youth also has to strengthen the partnership with their counterparts within the BN fold.

And most importantly, UMNO Youth has got to foster closer relationship with millions of youths who are not members of any parties.

This single most fact is the ultimate reason that will ensure UMNO Youth especially and UMNO generally to remain the foundation of BN and the government in years to come.

Khairy was bold enough to acknowledge this fact and he was visionary enough to chart the future for UMNO Youth.

He is most attuned to the youths in general and has had the courage to speak up for their benefit.

Having had the advantage of being a youth himself unlike the other two pretenders for the post, Khairy is well placed to be the voice of youth.

He understands that he is taking a huge gamble not busily talking up the Malays and firing on all cylinders criticizing the leadership on their failures to defend one race.

He is certainly the only candidate pushing for and pursuing the dreams of many Malaysians.

Khairy – the future UMNO Youth Chief – represents the voice of not just one race but for all Malaysians.

By Joey Kazz

“Di Palestin, hak asasi adalah isu hidup atau mati. Di Malaysia, hak
asasi kita.. macam mana nak cari makan” - Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir

The creators of this weblog have gone to town with its advertising – there are multiple banners cropping up in Kuala Lumpur informing the public of the site’s URL and in no uncertain terms, displaying its disdain for Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib.

What is more shocking though, is that the blogroll on Selamatkan UMNO has recently listed down allegedly pro-Khairy Jamaluddin websites – including Kulit Pisang – essentially implying an affiliation exists between Selamatkan UMNO and those pro-Khairy sites.

Kulit Pisang would hereby like to state that it is not in any way affiliated with the weblog Selamatkan UMNO, nor does it share any of its views.

Kulit Pisang regrets that there appears to be a concerted effort from sections within UMNO itself to further smear the reputation of Khairy Jamaluddin. We can only speculate the source of this new despicable campaign.

The young man needs to understand that things don’t happen in a vacuum, it cannot be that one man or rather Pak Lah is the sole cause of the fall of Barisan Nasional in the last General Elections. He needs to understand why people gave him (Pak Lah) a resounding victory in the 2004 General Elections only to punish ‘him’ in 2008. In fact it is common knowledge that Mahathir was already on his last limb in his last term in office, such was the decline of his popularity that he was increasingly referred to as Mahazalim.

There were many reason why Malaysians were getting tired of Mahathirism, corruption, cronyism, nepotism were words associated with the Grand Old Man (just ask Dato Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, names like Vincent Tan, Halim Saad, Tajuddin Ramli, Mokhzani, Mirzan…individuals given immense opportunities to acquire immense wealth in the shortest time possible. These are Mahathir’s legacy the bad together with the good of course…I would be the last to say that Mahathir didn’t bring any benefit to Malaysians all all.

But to say that Mahathir and his family didn’t benefit big time during Mahathir’s 22 year rule of Malaysia is a big hocus pocus, a huge lie that is being perpetrated on the people of Malaysia. That is why I write the way I do, for I think it is a grave injustice to the people of Malaysia for Mahathir and his family to portray themselves as angels who are victims. For 22 years they were the top dogs, and today they are once again getting into position to monopolise once again political and economic influence among the political and economic elite. So once again people have to be wary about Mukhriz’s so call rally for ‘change’, if that change is to go back to the days of mahazalim.

This article is in response to http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/14820/84/ Stephen Doss Strenuously Protects Khairy Jamaluddin-A Rejoinder

prokhairy.com

All three prospective candidates – Youth Vice Chief Khairy Jamaluddin, Exco member Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir and former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo have all breached the threshold that allows them to contest for the post in the party elections in March 2009.

The frontrunner, Mukhriz is leading with 71 nominations followed by Khir Toyo with 56 nominations.

Early favourite, Khairy is not far behind and currently trailing the other two candidates with 51 nominations.

Even though, Mukhriz has opened up a big lead during the early period of the divisional meetings, Khairy and Khir Toyo almost caught up with Mukhriz in terms of the nomination numbers.

In the beginning, it looks as if Mukhriz might run away with the post due to wave after wave of nominations which came in for him.

However, as the youth divisional meetings got underway, the momentum built by Mukhriz has gone stale and his lead is looking slimmer by the day.

This is due to many reasons.

After Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi decided not to defend his presidency on Oct 8, Mukhriz has created the impression that he is in the President-designate Dato Sri Najib Razak’s camp.

Coupled with the rants of his father and former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who continuously poured scorn on Abdullah; Mukhriz has created the impression that he will be installed as the new Youth Chief.

However, he underestimated the propensity and the capacity of the youth delegates nationwide who despise spineless leaders in the party.

Mukhriz has shown himself to be just that – as a leader that is not able to stand on his own two feet.

He attacked and demanded Abdullah to step down from the premiership and the presidency of UMNO following the disastrous showing of the general elections.

He shamelessly used the frail body of his father Tun Dr Mahathir as a shield to defend him from being reprimanded due to his disrespect to Abdullah.

Knowing that many in UMNO still respect Tun Dr Mahathir as an elder statesman, Mukhriz threw accusations after accusations against Abdullah and hid behind his father for cover.

It is ironic for him to coin the theme of UMNO Youth “Dare to Change” but he himself is not true to his battlecry.

When Khairy threw a challenge to all three Youth Chief candidates for an open debate, he resorted to the old mantra of UMNO.

He claimed that an open debate between candidates will be used and sensationalized by the opposition for their benefit.

Tun Dr Mahathir also backed his son by saying that an open debate will not be able to influence anyone and serve no purpose.

He also got his father to twist Youth Chief Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein Onn’s hand to disapprove of the open debate on the basis that it will only open the wing to further criticisms and encourage bad publicity.

Mukhriz’s argument that internal matters of UMNO should be behind close doors and not be opened to the full glare of the public does not resonate with the millions of youth – Malays or not.

In a globalised and borderless world, pathway of information travels without hindrance and UMNO has to be prepared for it.

By crawling into their shells, UMNO Youth will be further distanced from the youth.

The general election has shown that the young and educated has disassociated themselves from UMNO and the backward thinking of Mukhriz will push them even further away.

It is common knowledge that Mukhriz is afraid to put himself on the same stage with Khairy and / or Khir Toyo.

This is because he is fully aware that he would not be able to compete on an intellectual level with Khairy.

Even though he is leading the nominations by quite a distance, it will definitely turn around if the open debate between the three candidates goes through.

It could also be that he is also not confident of taking on even Khir Toyo himself.

Mukhriz does not have the capacity and the capability of critical analysis, justification of arguments and creativity of ideas which is required in an open debate.

He is afraid that he will lose support if the delegates are given the opportunity to assess his performance and compare him to the other two candidates on the same stage.

For Mukhriz, the open debate if it goes through will open a can of worms and will spell the end of his ambition to be the next UMNO Youth Chief.

Hence, he will dispense all of his might and spineless self to ensure that the open debate will fail as it might spell D-O-O-M.

By J Kazz

KEPALA BATAS 9 Nov. - UMNO tidak akan menjadi sebuah parti yang berjaya dalam perjuangannya jikakepimpinannya tidak dibarisi oleh pemimpin yang ikhlas, berwibawa dan berintegriti, kata Presidennya, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Beliau berkata, UMNO tidak akan dapat mengecapi kemajuan dan menghadapi cabaran masa depan seperti yang diharapkan jika ada pemimpinnya yang tercemar integritinya, peribadi yang lemah dan tidak mempunyai hala tuju.

“UMNO tidak akan menikmati kejayaan dalam perjuangannya jika pemimpinnya terdiri daripada orang tidak ikhlas berjuang, integritinya dicurigai dan peribadi yang lemah.

“Apa yang kita perlukan ialah kepimpinan yang bertanggungjawab, boleh mengelola dan menguruskan parti supaya ia menjadi lebih kuat dan maju,” katanya ketika merasmikan persidangan perwakilan UMNO Bahagian Kepala Batas di Pusat Budi Penyayang di sini hari ini.

Oleh itu, beliau menasihatkan anggota parti supaya membuat pilihan dengan berhemah dan tidak hanya memilih pemimpin untuk mengisi jawatan tertentu di peringkat nasional.

Abdullah, yang menang tanpa bertanding jawatan Ketua UMNO Bahagian Kepala Batas berkata, semua anggota parti perlu menyedari bahawa pemilihan pucuk pimpinan bukan setakat mengisi jawatan tertentu malahan lebih penting lagi memacu parti untuk menghadapi pilihan raya umum akan datang.

“Pemilihan ini bukan setakat untuk kemenangan diri bagi calon yang bertanding atau rakan-rakan mereka tetapi UMNO mahu mencari kemenangan untuk parti secara keseluruhannya,” katanya.

Beliau berkata, mereka yang menjadi perwakilan mempunyai tanggungjawab yang besar untuk memastikan calon yang dipilih mempunyai nilai-nilai yang diperlukan untuk menerajui parti itu.

“Kalau ini berlaku, semua akan jadi baik. Baik UMNO maka baiklah rakyat Malaysia kerana UMNO memperjuangkan semua rakyat berbilang bangsa,” katanya.

Beliau juga berharap tempoh lebih tiga bulan menjelang pemilihan parti Mac ini tidak berterusan dicemari dengan politik wang, perbalahan antara calon dan sebarang perbuatan yang boleh mencemarkan imej parti.

“Kita fahami bahawa pemilihan ini merupakan amalan demokrasi dan banyak yang telah diperkatakan tentang pemilihan dan ada yang mengaitkannya dengan politik wang, dan adu domba antara calon.

“Apa pun, kita semua kena ingat apa matlamat perjuangan parti ini dan berusaha untuk mengukuh dan memperkasakannya,” katanya. -Utusan

Abdullah yang menang tanpa bertanding jawatan Ketua UMNO bahagian itu berkata, beliau akan terus menyuarakan pandangan dan suara akar umbi untuk kebaikan parti.

Ketika merasmikan persidangan perwakilan UMNO Bahagian Kepala Batas di sini hari ini, beliau berkata, sumbangan bahagian itu dalam pembentukan dan hala tuju UMNO telah terbukti dan peranan itu akan diperkukuhkan lagi selepas ini.

“Banyak orang tanya adakah ini ucapan good bye saya kepada Kepala Batas tetapi saya kata mana boleh good bye kepada Kepala Batas.

“Sekarang ini, Insya-Allah saya akan ada masa yang lebih daripada dulu untuk Kepala Batas dan kita nak pastikan Kepala Batas tidak ketinggalan dan terus gagah dan kuat,” katanya.

Menurutnya, beliau akan berjuang bersama dengan barisan kepimpinan bahagian yang dipilih pada persidangan hari ini untuk memastikan UMNO terus menjadi tunjang kepada Barisan Nasional (BN) pada masa akan datang.

Beliau turut menyorot beberapa sumbangan penting yang dibuat oleh bahagian itu selama ini, antaranya mengusulkan tarikh kemerdekaan negara pada tanggal 31 Ogos 1957 dan agama Islam sebagai agama rasmi negara.

Tarikh kemerdekaan itu dicadangkan oleh Allahyarham nendanya, Abdullah Fahim kepada Perdana Menteri Malaysia pertama, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Alhaj selepas pemimpin itu bertemu dengan ulamak tersohor itu.

Berikutan itu, UMNO Kepala Batas membuat usul supaya tarikh berkenaan dijadikan sebagai tarikh kemerdekaan negara.

Abdullah berkata, idea penubuhan pergerakan Wanita dan Pemuda UMNO juga lahir di Kepala Batas.

“Sejarah UMNO Kepala Batas adalah sejarah yang gemilang kerana kita terlibat menubuhkan, menguat dan memperkasakan parti itu,” katanya.-Utusan