PBB’s indulgence into racist and religious politics should be stopped!

Baru Bian is portayed as a threatening candidate for muslim voter-most despisable racist campaign tactics!

It has been reported that the above poster has been used to scare Malay/Melanau & muslim voters-who largely are PBB’s `safe deposit’, of the prospect of being ruled by a minority ethnic person and by a Christian. Such propaganda is probably working over time in rural areas where Malays/Melanau are predominant. It is unfair as an election tactic: Taib himself has frequently claim to represent all ethnic groups in Sarawak despite coming from a minority Melanau ethnic group. No one dispute his claim-they only dispute his mis-rule. Not his ethnicity! However his campaigners are claiming that another Sarawakian is not entitled to rule over Malays/Melanaus just on account of his ethnicity and religion. Preferaly an open debate is held to clarify the issue-however the side holding the propaganda tools are not coming to the table. They would rather work behind everone’s back to push the dirty politicking by abusing ethnicity and religion. on account of this there is a need for the public to speak out that they have no problem with working with any capable and impartial leader-with no consideration to ethnicity and religion.

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Freedom of campaign in jeopardy!

There are a few ways where freedom to campaign have been jeopardised in the Sarawak state elections: 1. Long houses are stopping Opposition parties to campaign-cutting off the info-poor residents from getting information from all sides; 2. Some campaign by the opposition are stopped on account of not getting police permit-even though the party which refused to give permit in the first place is the police themselves; the police don’t think that they need to prove their suspicion of any threat to security to anyone-thus making it possible and likely for partisan consideration to come in ; 3. Stopping the coverage of religious issue specifically the Malay bible issue and the ban over the word `Allah’ for Christians; While the Sarawakians Christians are given exception they are told that their fellow co-religionists in the West Malaysia are stopped from using the word. Meanwhile the Chief Minister try to credit himself by saying that he was the one to stop the printing of serial number on the Malay bible-saying that it is `stupid’. It is not difficult to see that he is trying to gain political brownie point for himself-but at the same time isn’t he giving himself an exception to discuss the religious issue that everyone have to avoid? Lastly the police and the military are beyond accessiblity by the opposition parties. Only the incumbent can campaign to them-causing over 90% of these postal voters to vote the incumbent parties!

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Anwar stopped by police at Niah junction-in the middle of a campaign period?

The police seems to be able to smell Anwar from far away..

It seems that the PKR Advisor is targetted for campaign harassment: he has been stopped by police in Kuching, Lawas and many locations in between-including this one in Niah junction, which is 1.5hour from Miri. The police will risk being seen as partisan to stop campaign speeches when the BN politicians never have to bother about permits or being stopped by the police. Look like the PDRM need to take a crash course `Non-partisanship Administration 101′. A small report from our observer who happen to be there:

Are the police being people-friendly or only BN friendly?

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BN’s Cy-war stopped Sarawakreport, Radio Free Sarawak web site & Dayak Baru?

The `secret weapon’ of BN seems to have been unleashed: popular anti-Taib web site Sarawak Report and Radio Free Sarawak web site are out of reach to readers for the last few days, and a Dayak blog Dayak Baru show a notice `This account has been suspended’. These web sites have been the main conduit of information critical to the ruling parties. Instead of rebutting the arguements and reports from the web site-the power that be seems intent to just shut them up! The voters are left none the wiser without any rational and intelligent debate. Taib has recorded a few videos to put up his side of the story-which some how fell flat to be convinsing. Eg he claimed in 1 of them that he does not stay in any lavish house-while the setting to the recording is something like a 5-star hotel!

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PBB’s bikers gang harass Baru’s home base

A PKR Kelabit supporter Mr Gerwat Maran sent a SOS message to friends as follow:

`CM has sent his gangsters to surround my house…so I’m on house arrest now! I want you to call baru Bian to explain to him about me…and ask our community to pray for the ministry…and I call this jihadwith a pen!’

After some investigation through our local observer there and also the party sources it is confirmed as follow: Mr Maran’s house in Miri was harassed by a group of party supporters believed to be from PBB, targetting Mr Maran’s daughther. Mr Maran was the deputy chair of the PKR branch in N71 Bukit Sari. His post in the party currently is an exco-member of the PKR branch in Bukit Sari. The harassed person is now with the PKR Lawas.  Actually this is only one of a few other harassment cases from Lawas-a veritable hot seat which see a major party’s leader fighting for a breakthrough.  There were 2 cases of harassments so far, according to reliable sources:

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Sebuyao: dissatisfaction beneath inscrutable surface

MEO-Net's training at Rh Lingga 2 weeks ago-but now the house is off-limit to observers!

From our observer in Sebuyao:

The area where 14 villagers are affected by logging in a disputed areas is reported by our observer as arather  quiet place where dissatisfaction may just hide below the inscrutable surface. There are numerous BN flags, posters and banners which overwhelmed the Opposition’s , reflecting the omni-presence of the incumbent party in Sebuyao. The quiet surface however produce a 1000-strong gathering ahead of a court hearing of a local Numpang Suntai who was charged for criminal intimidation after some equipment, vehicles and quarters were burnt after a bloakade. In the hearing the accused was released-but the police is appealing. The sentiment of these largely Iban residents affected may not be reflecting the ground sentiment among the majority muslims community. There is a PAS compaigning contingent here, supporting their candidate who fight here for the first time. Mat Kati Seman the blogger noted during the Perak crisis is among them.

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Police deny freedom of campaign?

Reports are coming out that the police are holding back permit for campaign by the parties especially when the campaign activities appear to be capable of attracting big crowds. This definitely deny freedom of campaign to the parties/candidates involved-which inevitably are the Opposition parties. The police as part of the election administration units should be impartial in carrying out their job-especially after they give themselves the right to issue permits for gatherings even when the official election campaign period is on. They must exercise their power fairly and rationally. By giving excuse that the bid gatherings will create traffic jam the police are exposing their incapacity to control traffic, on the 1 hand, and their partisan stand on the other. Do they only give permit to BN’s smaller gatherings?

So far 2 DAP gatherings in Kuching last night was denied permit at last minute by the Kuching police, according to Tony Pua of DAP. We will keep monitoring this very disturbing trend by the law enforcers.

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Dead voters found in Batang Ai by-election in 2009 still live on in EC’s electoral roll!

Many dead voters were identified in the Batang Ai by-election observation (run under Mafrel’s name at that time) -yet the dead voters reported to the EC were not removed even in this current elections. How serious is the EC in removing the dead voters? Report frm our observer to Batang Ai here:

Menurut Daftar Pemilih bagi maksud pilihanraya umum DUN Sarawak ke-10 bagi N29 Batang Ai yang diwartakan pada 25 Mac 2011, pengundi tertua ialah DYG Utat Binti Abg Kamaruden yang lahir pada tahun 1898. Menurut cucu kepada DYG Utat Binti Abg Kamaruden yang ditemuramah oleh pemerhati MEONET, neneknya sudah lama meninggal dunia dan kematian beliau pernah didedahkan oleh pemerhati MAFREL pada piliahanraya yang lepas.

“Nenek saya dikebumikan di Seri Aman dan hal ini telah didedahkan oleh MAFREL,” berkatanya Adam Bin Latip (45), yang juga merupakan pegundi pusat mengundi Kutai, Batang Ai. Namun, beliau berkomen bahawa beliau pun tidak faham mengapa nama neneknya masih tercetak dalam senarai nama pengundi.

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Anonymous posters attack Pakatan in Batang Ai

Why the author remain anonymous? Why there is no law enforcement here?

From our observers in batang Ai:

Dalam perjalanan melawat kawasan DUN Batang Ai, kami telah mendapat dua risalah yang tidak tercetak pihak penerbit, pencetak, alamat. Malamat tersebut ialah menyuruh pengundi tolak pembangkang/ tolak Pakatan.

Risalah pertama ialah komik dalam Bahasa Melayu. Komik tersebut menunjukkan isu-isu seperti 16 sepetember, kes liwat, Ummi Hafilda, Proksi Yahuli, Derhaka Sultan, Hudud tak jadi dan sebagainya.

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