| 2004-02-11 | Who is the more important Malaysian: Bapak Merdeka or Bapak Kamaludin? Fast forward to 2003. Two opposition parties, the Parti Keadilan Nasional, and the Parti Rakyat Malaysia, merged as Parti Keadilan Rakyat, it was not allowed to continue to be called KeADILan. The registrar of societies potentiously declared that old parties should not adopt their old names when they merge or otherwise lose their identity. It sued. At the hearing yesterday (10 February 2004), the ROS wanted to settle it out of court. What else could it do? UMNO Baru can be UMNO, but KeADILan cannot be KeADILan if it merges with another. One is government, the other is opposition. One can, the other cannot. The ROS realises the mess it would be steeped in, in a public hearing. It had no choice but sue for peace.
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| 2004-01-17 | The General Election is on, but when? While the UMNO-led BN looks to the Chinese for electoral support, it must look over its shoulders at the plans of what the Opposition parties, PAS and Parti Keadilan Negara, has in mind. UMNO, in a bid to seize the Islamic ground, challenges PAS on its theocratic turf, leaving the moderate Muslims, its traditional strength, in UMNO confused and bewildered. KeADILan, strengthened with its merger with the well-focused Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM), is the party to watch if it can gets its act together, for its multiracial credentials attract the disaffected and dissatisfied in BN to switch to it. The UMNO leaders are more frightened of KeADILan than PAS, for if the moderates desert UMNO, it would cease to exist. It cannot best PAS in the theocratic debate for PAS, not UMNO, determines that. The BN's electoral confidence is the Opposition's - in PAS, KeADILan, DAP - utter confusion over a common platform for the coming polls. But Pak Lah, to secure his perch, must also ensure he does not lose more ground in the Malay heartland. An outright more than two-thirds majority in Parliament alone is not enough: he must also ensure the Malay heartland is not wholly lost, with signs it returns to UMNO. He cannot afford a BN-run state to fall into PAS.
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