Tuesday, December 23, 2008

9 CANDIDATES QUALIFY TO CONTEST FROM JOHOR, BUT ARE THEY ALL DESERVING?



PART ONE


















DO WE PICK THEM FOR WHERE THEY ARE FROM OR FOR THEIR CALIBER? LET US DO SOME LIGHT VETTING TO ASSIST US IN OUR FINAL JUDGMENT.

First of all, I must justify the positioning of the two flags above. In my book, the Johor State flag flies higher then any other but is on equal level only with the Malaysian flag on Johor soil, quite like the Texan flag in the U.S.

Having said that, I don’t believe that allegiance to the State means we have to support all the running candidates from Johor vying for the various posts in the UMNO Supreme Council. Political candidates should be voted in based on their service to the Party and the people at large, depending if the election is at the Party or General level. For instance, if all of them from the State have served the Party well and better than the rest, then they all deserve to win. However we must be weary of some who were undeservingly appointed at the government level and are trying to use their positions and the strength of UMNO Johor’s reputation to power their way in. Let us hope the buck stops here for these people. For UMNO to survive and remain relevant, we must choose only the best.

In Part One, we will briefly introduce candidates from Johor for the positions of UMNO Deputy President and Vice Presidents.



FOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT




Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Hj Muhyiddin b Hj Mohd Yassin



He is the former Menteri Besar of Johor and served through the Constitutional crisis. Born in 1947 in Muar, he is currently the Pagoh UMNO Division Chief , UMNO Vice President and Minister of International Trade and Industries. He has served with full colours in several other ministries including the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture. He was elected to the Supreme Council for the first time in 1985 and Vice President in 1993.

He is a rare breed in UMNO, one who dares go against the grain in order to do the right thing. While holding the post of Menteri Besar, he stood his ground against the much feared Johor Royal Palace during the Constitutional crisis and recently conveyed to the UMNO President repeatedly of what the general sentiments were of him on the ground with respect to the grassroots while the others kept on providing the President with false confidence. Having exhausted almost all resources, the latter finally succumbed and decided not to run for office and withdraw as Prime Minister in March 2009.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin is a very deserving candidate and should win if he can improve on his public relation skills. He has proven his worth, but it wouldn’t hurt to smile a bit more. At the very least the grassroots should remember his sacrifice for being their voice in the Supreme Council at the high risk of losing his lucrative Government job. If Malay culture is upheld amongst the UMNO delegates, then they should be grateful enough to elect him as Deputy President in March. His action has also accelerated Dato’ Sri Najib’s advancement as President of UMNO.


FOR VICE PRESIDENT


DATO’ SERI MOHAMED KHALED NORDIN


Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled is currently the Minister of Higher Education. Like Muhyiddin and many other great leaders from Johor, he too was born in Muar. He is the UMNO head for Pasir Gudang and was political Secretary to Dato’ Shahrir when he was the Minister for Wilayah Persekutuan in the 80s. He started off as a Legal Officer in Petronas before entering politics. He could’ve risen much quicker having been in the party youth mainstream since his early 20s if not for an unfair advantage given to an outsider who was an untested political novice by the former Prime Minister. He is now the Deputy Chairman of the Johor UMNO Liaison Committee.

Previous to this, he was also Minister of Entrepreneurial Development & Corporatives. He is a stand up gentleman and a cool politician who rose through the ranks. He is not greedy neither is he impatient, and is one who says very little but performs well not having to backtrack and cover any damage like the person he was put on hold to give way to when he was younger.

Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled is experience enough and is a deserving candidate for the post of UMNO Vice President. His service to the Malays in particular is well known. He is an exceptional Minister and a splendid UMNO leader. Like Shahrir, his name is synonymous with Johor UMNO.


FOR VICE PRESIDENT



DATO' SERI SYED HAMID ALBAR

Datuk Seri Syed Hamid was born in 1944 to a much feared senior politician, Tan Sri Syed Jaafar Albar. He is currently the head of the Kota Tinggi UMNO Division and is holding the third most powerful position in the Cabinet after the Prime Minister and his Deputy, as Minister of Home Affairs (in charge of Internal Security and Immigration). The last time a non PM or Deputy PM held this powerful position could be as far back as the seventies when Tun Ghazali Shafie was the Minister.

He has been a minister for more than 20 years holding positions in various Ministries from Defense to Law to Foreign Affairs, the latter being the longest for 9 years. He is very easy to speak to and listens to opinions both pro and contra but is very much firm in making his own decisions.

He was having slight problems in his Division because of his hectic schedule during his tenure as Foreign Minister and the lack of united support from his close allies in his absence. Now that his feet are firmly on national soil, he visits his constituency and division on a weekly basis. He garnered one of the highest winning majority votes in BN in the last General Elections refuting claims that he is unpopular in his constituency.

Civil disobedience which has been a crying nuisance for the general public has reduced remarkably ever since he took the office of Home Minister and his deft handling of Domestic affairs, including the reintroduction of active use of the ISA has appeased the silent majority. Many outlaws too have been either arrested or terminated in action indicating future reduction in crime, translating into savings for taxpayers having to feed and house these criminals, enriching only the lawyers defending them.

Datuk Seri Syed Hamid, with his vast experience and very powerful position in the government should be a definite yes for Vice President. At 64, he would be able to guide the relatively young field vying for the same position. The rest are all in their late forties and early fifties.


FOR VICE PRESIDENT

DATO' SRI HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN


Dato’ Sri Hishammuddin was born into a very prominent family in 1961. His grandfather was Dato Onn Jaafar, the founder and first President of UMNO, and father was the third Prime Minister of Malaysia and forth President of UMNO. His cousin is currently the President Elect of UMNO. He is the head of the Semberong UMNO Division, the National Youth Chief and Minister of Education. He was previously Minister for Youth and Sports. He has been a Minister for 9 years beginning at a relatively young age of 38. Before that he rapidly rose through the ranks from parliamentary secretary to Deputy Minister then Minister thanks to the former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed.

He was Member of Parliament since 1995 and has been Acting or Actual Chairman of the UMNO Youth Wing for more than 8 years. He did a very good job of uniting a divided youth wing during the sacking of the then Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Then when he became powerful within the wing, the struggle became downhill when we started witnessing efforts made to help and defend faraway causes such as Palestine when domestically, very little was done when our national and ethnic honour was at stake.

His worse mistake was how he handled the Keris issue. After giving out extra allocations to Chinese schools thinking that the MCA entourage led by its Youth Chief Datuk Liow Tiong Lai would let bygones be bygones, Hishammuddin still received continuous pressure to apologize until after the recent elections were over. He finally succumbed at a time when it didn’t matter or even mean a thing, which was after the general elections. With his action, he disappointed millions of Malays who thought then that being a person who couldn’t defend his own heritage and the symbol of his people, he has no business being an UMNO leader. This article from BigDogDotCom says it all at
http://malaysianpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/umno-hishammuddins-keris-apology-is-sign-of-weakness/

Furthermore, many people think his lack of action in defense of Datuk Ahmad Ismail from Penang and his lack of strong action in offence to the GERAKAN Wanita Chief, MCA Deputy President and Wanita Chief’s statements on the Malays as UMNO Youth Chief shows that he is no longer serious to work for the benefit or defense of the Malays.

He may be an exceptional orator and an outstanding Minister, but as the UMNO Youth Chief, members can no longer ignore the gap between reality and the promise. He left far too much to be desired. Contesting for Vice President of a Malay Party, he may need to fall back on his bloodline if that is of any use in addition to his Ministerial skills to win, because he won’t be voted in for his Malay struggle for sure. If he doesn’t make it, we hope he will be retained as Minister. We may not miss him in UMNO but we might miss him as a very capable Cabinet member.

Part Two will see a run down on Supreme Council Candidates from Johor.

What is written is not meant to be deemed as gospel but merely a matter of opinion in the hope that we can discuss the merits of each candidate nationwide before finally making the best decision in March based on the information gathered from our discussions in this forum.

Please do participate. I thank you.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do I sense you have preference for Khaled over Hishamuddin?

TPJ said...

Anonymous,

If Hishammuddin was just a normal Supreme Council member, my view would probably be different, but we expect much more from him as the current UMNO Youth Chief.

If Khaled were in his position and sat on his hands as well during moments when our Religion and Race were being challenged, my position on him would be reversed.

sfso@pulaijb said...

Assalamualaikum TPJ,

Finally a new posting from you.What took u so long bro..

Anyway, very interesting article on Johor candidates as I am also from Johor.UMNO's stronghold.

As for Muhyiddin,I'm surprised that he have to face Ali Rustam and Mat Taib for the Deputy President.Hope that he could win because he was brave enough to ask Pak Lah to quit(in a polite way lah bro,dia takdalah cakap direct).Yang lain,hampas.No balls.
Masa dia jadi MB dulu u can see that development was done at a speed of an F1 car.This guy can work although there's reservations about his character here and there.Anyway he's way better than my current MB and definitely he can win as long as there's no sabotage and solid support especially from Johore delegates..

HISHAMUDDIN - Sorrylah.Mamat ni lembik bro,but I wonder how did he garner so many votes during nominations?Is it because he's Najibs cousin? Other than that I don't see much contribution from this guy.

KHALED - Maybe I am judging a book by it's cover this time.I see him as quite an arrogant politican.Not so people oriented.He doesn't like to entertain associations,people that much while he was the Pembangunan Usahawan Minister.He hardly can talk or answer a question with full of confident.Cakap ala2 Pak Lah.Mengantuklah.Anyway there must be a reason for you to praise him.Maybe u have the experience of working with him and maybe he's a man who talk less and work hard.

SYED HAMID - Job well done so far.Kesian dia kena handle such a tough ministry.I do like his firmness on sensitive issues such as ISA but personally I think Pak Lah is trying to make him a scapegoat.Ada isu panas je he will lepas tangan and ask Syed Hamid to answer..Chances to win a bit slim because he's not very popular although he's good in his work.

Enough said from me.I do hope that candidates from Johor will win big this coming March 2009 UMNO election.

Sorry for the long comment and keep on posting bro.Just asking is it true that Shahril's and Khaled's division ni tak sebulu dgn Muhyidin?Pls enlighten us

Salam

TPJ said...

Alaikumsalam sfso@pulaijb,

Sorry for the delay bro. I was a little under the weather. My attention span is short under those circumstances.

Yup! Muhyiddin should be a clear runner for this post but he didn't even get the full support of the man he helped win uncontested.

It is my view that Najib could have shut the door on the rest had Pekan (Najib's division) nominated Muhyiddin for the number two. Instead that division only nominated Najib for President and left the rest of the posts void, indicating that he will work with anyone who wins, leaving the door wide open for the other two.

Honestly speaking, Muhyiddin will have some problems getting full votes from Johor. The fact that Ali Rustam and Muhammad Taib managed to steal a good number of nominations from Johor says that that it wouldn't be a clean sweep in Johor for Muhyiddin.

Yes Hishammuddin I presume, did get some "devine" help from someone influential to obtain those many nominations. I know a few in Johor alone who nominated him but still speak ill of him which means those nominations will not be translated into votes. If he still wins, I'd wager his votes will not relate conversely with the number of nominations he acquired. He'd probably be fighting for life for third place among the three VPs.

Khaled has a complex, but is attentive to those who comes to him seriously. He is Shahrir's protege, and those under Shahrir usually don't say much but work very well for the people. Yes I have had an experience with Khaled.

Syed Hamid is getting the momentum going. His popularity within UMNO should peak by March because he has finally warmed up to his ministry. If everyone of the delegates get to mingle with him, they will see that being with people is his passion and he doesn't even have to fake it. They will like him.

Let's hope only those deserving from Johor wins. We do not want them to win only to bring disgrace to Johor when the people actually see them for what they are, a selfish leader of a Malay party who doesn't care enough for the Malays but use them instead for his /her own political benefit.

I'm not too sure about whether Shahrir and Khaled have problems with Muhyiddin or not but I'm pretty sure Johor Bahru didn't nominate Muhyiddin for Deputy and although Pasir Gudang (Khaled) nominated Muhyiddin for Deputy President, Pagoh (Muhyiddin) didn't return the courtesy of nominating Khaled as one of the VPs. Very messy huh?

FYI, Ledang (MBJ) nominated all three Johor candidates for VP and Muhyiddin for Deputy President. Very safe indeed for the Chairman of the Johor State UMNO Liaison Committee.

BoyHjJamil said...

Salam TPJ. Brilliant posting from a very BZ man like u. My comment for ur posting is very simple..

Muhyiddin = If not bcoz of sabotage and money politics, surely he is the right choice

Syed Hamid = Good for the nation

Hishammuddin = Good for the chinese

Khaled = Slow but steady, but not so convincing in communicating with people

Shahrir = A bit gelabah in making critical decision especially with oil prices recently, but a very senior politicians

As a rumusan, Johor Politician Memang Layak Memimpin Malaysia, Cuma MB Johor je yg tak berapa layak memimpin negeri Johor.

Keep on posting bro..

TPJ said...

Salam BoyHjJamil,

I'll remain silent on the first three but will comment a bit on Shahrir. He isn't gelabar. He appeared that way because in the beginning he said one thing while Pak Lah said another which undermined his credibility.

Remember when he said the price will be increased but in August, then Pak Lah vetoed and raised it on the same day at midnight? I had pity on him because he had the pulse of the rakyat while Pak Lah was in never-neverland. We blamed Shahrir for not teling the truth when actually his call was shot down without warning.

Today he makes the calls to reduce oil prices which we have seen almost 5 times already, and in the history of any Minister holding his portfolio, I dare say it has never been done before on any commodity. Shahrir is doing well for the rakyat, in this ministry, much better than his predecessor, that is why the latter is sent to a less important Ministry today.

It seems most of the Johor people do not have anything nice to say about our MB. We can't blame him for Iskandar. But we can blame "Iskandar" for him I guess. There are one or two good things that he has done but those are for Agama dan Bangsa". For the State, I'm not too sure but the Guy up on the hill seems to want him.

BoyHjJamil said...

Salam TPJ.. If that is the case with Shahrir, maknanya.. Syed Hamid bukanlah the only scapegoat as what have been mentioned by sfso@pulaijb in the earlier posting..

Takpelah kalau begitu.. kerungsingan mengenai harga minyak sudah diubati.. Tahniah pada Shahrir atas komitmennya "membawa turun" semula harga minyak.. Cuma isu "dual pump" harus dipercepatkan implementation nya agar rakyat asing tidak sewenang2nya menikmati kadar harga yg rendah di negara kita ini.. esp. Singaporean..

Pada TPJ.. your komitmen pada Bangsa JOHOR amat kami hargai..

TPJ said...

What can I say bro? I can bring the horse to the river but I can't force it to drink.

I handed a proposal for a dual pump system including the statistics on the number of Singapore vehicles entering Johor on a yearly basis and the amount of loss in income for our treasury to the DPM way back in 2006.

Take a look at my article in June. http://tpj-one-thepatriot.blogspot.com/2008/06/emergency-break-to-barring-singapore.html.

First they said ok to the dual pumps (separate islands) , then they retracted it, then they said they were going to charge RM20 per car entering Johot, then they remained silent. I don't know what power Singapore has on our leaders.

Only Tun Dr Mahathir knows how to handle them!

Unknown said...

adakah anda bersetuju?setiap PM datang daripada kalangan menteri pendiddikan?

TPJ said...

Salam PemudaUMNO@JB

Jika dahulu ianya mungkin menjadi kepentingan kerana agenda utama negara adalah untuk menguatkan dasar dan mewujudkan infrastruktur pendidikan bagi rakyat Malaysia tidak kira apa kaum pun.

Sekarang asasnya sudah pun tersedia dan yang penting adalah kita mendapat seorang Perdana Menteri yang tahu tentang ekonomi, tehu tentang system perdagangan dan kewangan dunia dan bagaimana ianya akan mempunyai kesan terhadap negara kita.

Yang paling penting adalah ekonomi negara. Apabila Negara jatuh muflis, huru hara akan meleluasa. Harga barangan akan meningkat, rakyat akan kehilangan pekerjaan dan suasana toleransi akan hilang.

Maka dari itu, kita perlu "a hands on economist" sebagai seorang PM. Najib ada latarbelakang sedemikian.

Anonymous said...

dude,

duke expressway was mahathir's parting gift to him through his brother,harris.harris then appoint lim of ekovest bhd to do the job.that is 1.2bil and 3percent upfront.

he supported mahathir during the 98 crisis and zahid was isa in
order to control umno youth.that was how he was promoted to sports minister then..he carried 600,000
umno youth members and saved tun's asre..

his father made mahathir pm and mahathir vouch to return the favor.

of course la he waits for mukhriz to be umno youth head,then more projects..more $$$ la..

love that helicopter of his and
bumped into him in macau new year..hmm...