Sunday, June 10, 2007

Malaysia, After Lina Joy: More Pics

The Panelist for the Forum (left to right):
Leonard Teoh, Ambiga Sreenevasan, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, Lim Guan Eng,
Azmi Sharom, Yusri Mohamad, Tony Pua (Chair), YB Lim Kit Siang



Full House: Standing room only at the back, after the
hotel staff squeezed in additional chairs



The audience lined up eagerly in 2 rows behind the 2 available microphones to voice their views. This certainly provided a level of interaction between parties on both sides of the fence, meeting the humble objectives of the forum.



More reports in my earlier post here.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

CONGRATS TP!

DAP IS TAKING THE CORRECT POSITIVE ACTION WHICH ARE WELCOMED BY ALL EDUCATED MALAYSIANS!

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

__mars said...

I am impressed with Azmi Sharon. He is easily the best and the most alive speaker of the evening.

stevie said...

dear tony, while i applaud yours and DAP's good work at encouraging debates, i also noticed that the activities have been concentrated on preaching to the converts and the educated/intellectuals.

i came from a new-village style environment where the voters are of 40-70 age group, and i must say in all these years they have not heard one word from you guys. zilch.

i am NOT saying these people are stupid and can't think for themselves, but they need reassurance.They know the problems, but they have never heard of the solutions, solutions with credibility, that is.

as for myself, i only want to see DAP personify its own ideals/ideology. I don't see much of that in your internal electoral system.

so please, get your ass moving.

stevie said...

plus, sometimes i don't even think you guys could speak their language.

really.

Anonymous said...

Will Dr Azmi Sharom be a DAP candidate for next election?

He definitely represent the modern educated Malays looking for meaningful Governance

Anonymous said...

What is on the blog and things said on the ground are totally at divergence. It all boils down to politics, and politics are all the same everywhere

123 said...

Dear Mr. Pua, DAP has to distinguish itself from other political parties, all of which promise reforms and improvements.

A political party is comparable to a product in the market. Through the use of various marketing and promotional techniques, they are differentiated from other competing products. In this sense, DAP has to differentiate itself from other parties by promoting its distinctive aims and ideologies to the masses of society.

Another point would be the party's racial composition. As DAP is predominantly Chinese, it lacks the representation of the Malaysian society as a whole. There is a need to increase the number of Malay and Indian politicians in DAP. Through that, only can DAP further enhance its reputation, credibility and representation in the eyes of Malay and Indian skeptics.

stevie said...

dear 123,
you have just contradicted yourself.

Anonymous said...

I don't see 123 contradicting itself, unless DAP's chinese agenda should be its mainstay and it does not matter if Malays and Indians remain skeptical.

Anonymous said...

Tony,

A friend recently told me that he was going to vote MCA in the coming election. He acknowledged that he's sell out, but in his words "at least we get two new Chinese Schools, I voted for DAP for three decades only to see things go from bad to worse".

Now to be fair to DAP, one really cannot attribute the plight of our nation to DAP. But it does highlight the fact that DAP is irrelevant at its current state. So what if DAP wins a few more seats or even Penang in the coming election, things are going to continue deterioriate unless more sensible policies are in placed at the national level.

I think we are in a stage where "whehter we eat porridge or we rice in this country, it all depends on the Malays". When you think about it, DAP only ignores 55% of population, which is why forum like this is important to bridge the gap, to reach out to Malays. In fact, I think all your MPs should ignore the Chinese constituents, be it in Seputeh or Cheras, instead they should just focus their effort in getting the DAP message across to the Malay constituents.

Now, you may tell me that DAP is a multiracial party, but you and I know that's not true. For example, I got to discuss the unemployed university graduates issue with my friend recently, and all I got was bitter and even derogatory comments made by my friend, who had first hand knowledge in hiring new grads. Yes, the whole situation is really frustrating, but I can't help but thinking what have DAP done to help the unemployed graduates? If you think about it, they are also the victims, products of failed policy.

Which leads me to another question "Does DAP want to be a single race party?" That I really can't tell, you need to ask your party leaders. Listen to what they say and see what do actually do. I have friends from MCA telling me that LKS actually works for UMNO, and his goal is to divide the Chinese. Funny that they are people who "actually" work with UMNO. I also have other people telling me that DAP leaders are afriad to reach out because it risks the party being hijackted by others. May be, I don't know. In my opnion, maybe there's just a lack of good game plan, and a good game plan means winning the game, not just delay the inevitable. So please ask tough questions to your DAP leaders and MPs, I hope your party will hold more forum, ceremah to reach out other voters. Good luck.

A DAP supporter

Anonymous said...

Eureka, DAP is and will remain a single race party. This is politic and a very strategic gameplan - chinese can demand from the outside through DAP and work from the inside through MCA. So the chinese win both ways.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

OFF TOPIC:

TP,
I am looking forward to the programmes of your Descartes Centre.

Any development or you are too buzy with DAP centres?

Anonymous said...

Azmi Shanom the best

( shenyeeaun.disagrees.net )

Anonymous said...

Yeah Anon 1:31 am,

yours right! brave

see Lim Kit Siang, is not he resemble the great Mao Tze Tung....give him power, he will take all your wealth to his grave!!!

DAP = Dunia Aku Punya...

Anonymous said...

anon 1215 it is a reief I am not the only one here having differing view. But kudos to TP for at least listening in, it is a start. The day he starts to censor we'll know what the future is like if ever ( God forbid) he is elected to office.

Anonymous said...

Kudos Anon 12:40,

if you follow Lee Kwan Yu, that actually the picture of Tony in future.

Not Only censorship, he even will consider all malay as 'unwanted person' like LKY did to Jayaratnam and the SIA pilot...

Anonymous said...

Only comfort we have no tunku to give away pieces of land to you know who

Anonymous said...

anon 1053 don't be too sure, our elected 'tunku' is starting to do just that under the IDR. I think we should call him pengkhianat