Found 101 matches for Abdul Taib
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| 2004-03-08 | The nine-day wonder that is Malaysia's General Election 2004 But the underlying problems remain. When Parliament and the state assemblies were dissolved, Sarawak was not. The Sarawak BN is up in arms with its leader, the state chief minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, and threatened to go it alone if he is not replaced. Tan Sri Taib would leave only if, like his uncle, Tun Abdul Rahman Yaakub, he is, in turn, made the governor. Kuala Lumpur believes that it could sweep the board in Sarawak for Parliament, giving it a breather to resolve the local difficulty. The underlying problems in Sabah remain, but the BN could resolve that quicker and better than in Sarawak, where the constituent parties would not hesitate to walk out of the coalition, as several have over the years.
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| 2004-03-04 | Parliament, and all state assemblies but Sarawak, is dissolved The BN has a severe problem in Sarawak. The state BN is opposed to the chief minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, and could not be persuaded to work with him for one more term. Kuala Lumpur agrees with this, and to make that clear to Tan Sri Taib, the Anti-Corruption Agency called on him. There were too many odds and ends to tie up, and so it was decided not to have the Council Negri elections now. For Parliament, two state parties, the Sarawak National Party (SNAP) and its offshot, the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), are both suspended from the coalition, and would be out of the elections. So, SNAP has decided to field candidates against the BN team. They would have for the Council Negeri if elections were called for it as well. In Sabah, matters are a little better but not by much. The state BN is badly divided, as is the state UMNO. But the Opposition is not well organised, as in the rest of the country, and that gives BN a measure of hope.
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| 2004-02-24 | Pak Lah faces General Election as head of a fracturing coalition But this conflict exists in UMNO also at the top. Pak Lah has no time for his deputy, Dato' Seri Najib, who was forced upon him in a political sleight of hand by the former UMNO president, Tun Mahathir Mohamed. The two men cannot stand the sight of each other; their wives even more so. There is therefore a design in his selection of the BN selection committee: Two Pahang men beholden to each other, and tempered with an unelected man who has more power in it than the two combined; but if anything should go wrong - and much can 'twixt the cup and the lip - they would be blamed. There is as strong an UMNO pressure in Pahang against Dato' Seri Najib as there is MCA pressure in Johore against Dato' Seri Chua. A similar confrontation is in place in Sabah and Sarawak. In Sarawak, the BN coalition is in shambles after its coalition partners wanted its leader, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, to step down and he would not. Two coalition partners, Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak and Sarawak National Party, are out of it over leadership squabbles that is the norm in the Peninsular. In Sabah, the state BN is in shambles, with its leaders, aligned to different political leaders, fight their fratricide battles within, but with the added danger of a realignment of political forces that could deny UMNO a place in the government.
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| 2004-01-17 | The General Election is on, but when? Reporters asked him if his predecessor, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, would decide when the General Election would be held? No, of course not, Pak Lah fumed, the Election Commission would. Would the elections is Sabah, which must be by June, be with the rest of the country? No comment. "We did not discuss it. There is a long way to go." More than Sabah, is the intractable problem in Sarawak, where the state BN is united not to go into the polls with the chief minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud as its leader. In the peninsular, the Chinese and Indian parties talk of a grand merger of the racial parties. But it has not gone down well with the UMNO and Malay ground. It is seen as an attempt to paint UMNO and the Malays into a corner.
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| 2004-01-09 | "UMNO is not split, UMNO is not split, UMNO is not split, UMNO is not ..."
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| 2003-12-01 | Is there a problem with the newly appointed UMNO division leaders?
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| 2003-11-27 | The squabbling Indian leaders told to shut up, but would that address the issue? He made one fundamental mistake. He did not know when to retire. But then BN leaders do not know when to. The former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, would not until the last moment let go. The former MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, would not until he was forced to. As would the MIC president. And, let us not forget, the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik. Sarawak could well plunge into a crisis if the chief minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, would not step down after two decades in office. So would Negri Sembilan, whose mentri besar, Tan Sri Isa Samad, has been in office for 22 years. Trengganu was lost to PAS when the UMNO mentri besar, Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar Wah Ahmad, insisted 24 years in office was not enough and he wanted another term. That decision would now be made for him. What would he do then? Retire to Perth with his ill-gotten gains, or stay back and face the music as the former Georgian president, Mr Eduoard Sheverdnadze, when he declined political asylum in Germany? Whatever he does, he is history.
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| 2003-11-24 | Another ancien regime Malaysian leader bites the dust Since this is Bolehland, he ought to know of his BN colleagues: the UMNO president, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, three weeks ago; the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik earlier in the year; the SNAP leader, Dato' Amar James Wong; and to come: the Gerakan president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik; the Sarawak BN leader, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud; several BN mentris besar and cabinet ministers. In fact, only a handful of BN leaders ever leave on their own; all others were forced out in indignity. When the people move, nothing but nothing can stop them.
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| 2003-10-27 | BN veterans wants to stay on even if it makes BN weaker and the Opposition stronger The BN oldtimers who must step down show no intent. The MIC leader, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, is in office and cabinet since 1979, but he believes he is good for another 30 years. The Gerakan president, Dato' Seri Ling Kheng Yaik, in office from that year, insists the party needs him and would cling on to power until he decides to leave. The former MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, clung to office even after his sell-by date because Dr Mahathir wanted him to stay on. But he was driven out nevertheless by a communal campaign that all but split the MCA. The family dynasty in Sarawak, the paterfamilias being now the chief minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, has all but destroyed the BN in Sarawak, but he shows not sign of stepping down. Kuala Lumpur is fed up, but can do little. His cabinet colleagues threaten to boycott him, but they do not have the guts to do that. The perks of office are too varied to give up so easily.
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| 2003-10-19 | Could we ever study English as a language, not as a political agenda?
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| 2003-10-14 | The Anwar phenomen sinks Dr Mahathir and his reputation
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| 2003-10-12 | The Election Commission continues to lie and cannot now conduct fair and impartial elections
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| 2003-09-24 | The Election Commission proposes, the Police disposes
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| 2003-09-20 | Election Rallies: UMNO strikes back and gets hit
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| 2003-09-18 | The EC is compromised, and tries to wriggle out of it
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| 2003-09-17 | The Election Commission as a Puteri UMNO employment agency
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| 2003-09-13 | Helping BN and UMNO win elections the EC way
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| 2003-08-28 | The UMNO MPs' Langkawi retreat frightens UMNO The new Prime Minister cannot resolve this within weeks of
an election. Nor could UMNO MPs with more money. That is the
underlying UMNO dilemma. If UMNO cannot overcome it, neither
could BN. The Langkawi retreat could not reverse it. Nor could
it give UMNO a second chance. Its future is as finite as a man on
death row told when he is to hang. If the Sabah election does not
turn as victorious as BN and UMNO hopes, and the Sarawak BN's
problems with its leader, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, is not
resolved soon, the Langkawi retreat could well turn out to be the
first step to that finite future.
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| 2003-08-27 | Are general elections due this year? In neighbouring Sarawak, the monolithic BN in the state is
in tatters. The autocratic rule of the chief minister, Tan Sri
Abdul Taib Mahmud, has annoyed the coalition partners that, if
the reports are true, they had demanded that he resign before the
elections, or face a total withdrawal from the coalition of all
parties in the state except Tan Sri Taib's Parti Pesaka Bumiputra
Bersatu (PBB). Problems from within have come out on to the
surface: several BN partners discuss with opposition parties on
switching over to them. The infighting within PBDS, with its two
sets of leaders, could cause more damage than once believed. One
faction is prepared to join the Opposition in the state and
federal. Would these parties behave as they do if BN is fully in
control?
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| 2003-08-26 | Fly the Jalur Gemilang - and lose your citizenship
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This archive was created as a tribute to the late veteran
journalist MGG Pillai. We believed his writings are useful to develop a critical
thinking analysis.
By the way, the original mggpillai.com web site (2001-2006) was actually created
by one of us.
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