Nervous for perfection

Tun Dr Mahathir landed at the airport and claimed there was sabotage on his private jet. He said he could have arrived Friday but only arrived yesterday.

Transport Minister has instructed investigation. They should also detain the private jet.

Frankly, it is all a farce like the warning to the security folks that he will be murdered, the bankrupt Loaf is not his, Bangla immigrants voters, etc.

It is his ploy to play victim. He will resort to crying on stage as though he sincerely want to save Malaysia. Their side already viral such video.

Election theatrics

Taiwan's then President Chen Shu Bian wayang here

Anticipating he will get heavily criticised, he need to appeal to sympathetic simple folks to forget his long list of past misdeeds and deliver him the votes. In Langkawi, he has misled many as though he brought development there.

Indeed, he brought infrastructure and initiated economic activities resembling tourism, but it was merely deception. The people of Langkawi hardly benefited.

The Langkawi Unit Trust for the people of Langkawi was bandied about but no attempt to get it take off the ground. After decades, only the outsiders profited and tycoons managed to takeover the choicest and scenic spots owned by kampong folks through manovering by then LADA.

Actually, turning Langkawi into tourism was merely an after thought.

In the early 80s, Promet submitted proposal to develop Tanjung Rhu and cordoned the area into duty free area. That is why a row of empty Custom quarters is seen on the north side of the island. It was not feasible because the whole island was practically "duty free".

So the announcement to turn the whole island into a duty free. Only then tourism was thought off. However, it was not really planned properly and arrivals are seasonal. Many Mahathir's tourist white elephants all over Langkawi including Ting Pek Khing's 6-bulan siap Delima Resort.

It is Dato Najib's idea to turn Langkawi into Monaco of the East that could truly bring development, attract investment, bring tourist in the loads, create vibrant economic activities and opportunity to develop the Langkawi people.

Mahathir's attention grabbing antic was the signal that the general election will commence with nomination today. Many more such fake news and theatrics is to come from opposition and some also from current ruling parties.

Throughout the week, there was a lot of information and events that could have been written but never got around to write, especially on Mahathir's antics throughout his roadshow through out the country. He seemed to copy cat Anwar Ibrahim but it just does not have that punch.

Market up

We were too busy with certain preparations thus no posting for a week. Stock market have been good though. Volume up and lower liners recovering in anticipation of better times. Oil price up. Foreign fund in.

But who the mother screwed the bursa system to stop trading from going. There is also confusion on short term trading.

Some staff in Securties Commission and Bursa are hustling investors through brokers. Bugima punya baiyi jagah. Is someone inside Securities Commission and Bursa sabotaging a feel good factor?

Many graduates are looking for jobs.

Feeling down

We were both happy and sad with the names nominated for candidates. Lots of new names and combine with older ones. The opposition candidate list are too messy. Too many nomadic candidates that means these are non-performers.

However, many close friends - in government and opposition too - were dropped, and missed nominations. Some deserve to be dropped. Some got bad areas and look likely to be slaughtered - talking about a friend in the opposition.

Many were performers but internal politics made them sacrifice-able particular one in Johor Baru.

We were most discouraged and feeling down throughout the week when got wind a friend in Sabah was to be dropped completely and replaced by incompetents and corrupts. He truly had the people in his heart, worked and fought hard for then, and should at least deserve a Deputy Ministership.

Another long time dedicated and well loved by his constituent political activist was destined to be a first time state assemblyman. Alas, it comes down to the roll of dice and the last lobbyist ability to get the decision makers will call the shot. Yes, it is plural and we know who all of them.

It was a setback for a less than perfect nomination list. Have access on the going on the backroom horse trading and certain close door discussions, it made us dreaded the week.

Selangor

Generally the nomination list throughout the country was fine. Off course it is less than perfect. There were lots of new faces but there is also 71 year old Dato Hasan Malek getting re-nomininated. He is popular in Kuala Pilah and not likely to be replaced with another candidate.

At least, a budding political star like Sharill Hamdan get nominated for Kuala Selangor.

However, there will be casualties for few names in Selangor. Sorry to say they did not perform and developed an attitude but still get nominated. The attitude is more the problem.

On paper, BN could get a certain number of seats but not sure it could form the next Selangor government. However, it is believed that the going is not so easy with Dato Azmin Ali. Wan Azizah chopped off many of his man including an Alumni friend, we heard.

Why the hell is UMNO Selangor or at least Kuala Selangor UMNO candidate not play the Ijok game to the hilt?

Kedah

Anwar Ibrahim or PAS could gather far bigger and spirited crowd  

Attention will be on Kedah, Perak and Johor. Will say it is a battle for survival for PPBM in Kedah as they are aware they have no chance in the rest of the country.

Their focus is to win Kedah state to form a base. If they fail to do so, members, whose not yet left the party or rebel against the bad decisions of Muhyiddin or Mukhriz, will return back to UMNO. However, PPBM do not have as many members as they propagated it to be earlier.

Langkawi's members are not in the thousand.

Despite many sceptics towards him, a highly credible source have been consistently saying BN will win. He is still unwavered by Mahathir's onslaught. Some of the pessimist have turned positive. We have always felt confident but still cautious as it is not an easy one for BN.

PAS has a bevy of impressive PAN-free second-liner candidates, not only in Kedah but throughout the country. We complimented an old friend and a Haji Hadi's man yesterday

If they could make their presence, are we talking about an UMNO-PAS coalition state government ala Azmin's Selangor in the making? 

Perak

Despite BN feel confident on paper, Perak could also be a potential coalition state. It depends on the acceptance to the candidates.

The game changer plan of PPBM did not turn out as expected. One name widely thought to crossover hardly moved an inch.

He and his brothers are local UMNO leaders with a respectable dispositions and good service record but dropped. This family is highly respected by even the PAS supporters and they helped to campaign for them at last GE.

They remain steadfast in UMNO and unlikely, any of the suspected players collaborating with Chairman for PPBM Perak and PH Perak, Faizal Dato Azumu @ Peja dare make any move after the expose.

Despite being PH Chairman, the Mukhri's boy did what as expected of him. Within three months, he kept shooting his feet. The biggest shot was to ouster the sisters Dato Hamidah Osman and Hamizura Osman with her husband, Azrul out of Perak PPBM and that led to thousand leaving the party.

Peja could be Chairman of PH but DAP and PAN manouvred to put PPBM in tough seats held by UMNO. As one PPBM insider said, "Kami dapat kerusi taik... susah menang."

Ngeh and Mat Sabu felt PPBM will run back to UMNO after the GE. They want to be able to takeover Perak by themselves by using Mahathir and then be able to chug them out.

If united without any manouvring for positions and sabotaging, Perak could remain with BN.

Johor

Much has been written about Johor in this blog. By now, DAP has withdrawn themselves from a major onslaught of a "king versus king".

Dato Dr Puad Zarkashi may have brought problems for Batu Pahat and especially so, in view of two big names from PKR and PAS contesting there. He is still Division Head and could weaken the party machinery from within. Believe it will get solved.

He was too quarrelsome. Halizah is a more acceptable candidate to people of Batu Pahat. Unlike Puad, she is acceptable to the Malays and Chinese and less confrontational within the UMNO circle.

He is unlikely to get to run under any other ticket. If Puad run as independent, he is stupid. He will deplete is resources and will be totally out of the politics - be it within UMNO or opposition.

There are few hot spot like Pasir Gudang and interesting battles in Muar and Segamat district. In will remain status quo. UMNO and BN still rule. The invisible hands and arms in the Johor corridor of power still prefer UMNO.

The exciting seat to watch is Muar and Pagoh.

As one veteran political analyst, whose quite on the money with her observation, said, the sky, the sea and the state of Johor is blue.

Chinese voters

It will be interesting to watch the behaviour of Chinese voters. Few nights ago, Liow was seem talking in Alor Setar to a packed Chinese audience in a stadium. Arul Kanda talk n 1MDB in Muar saw a hall full of Chinese MCA members.

On the ground everywhere, the talk of Chinese expressing disgust with DAP can be heard. Lim Guan Eng's corruption well exposed by the two Chinese fighters - Dato Eric See-To and Dato Huan Cheng Guan made a dent. Will it be enough to give life to MCA and Gerakan?

Chinese media is already giving MCA and Gerakan some space. Murmurs among Chinese is how could DAP be so arrogant to want to kill all Chinese leaders and dominate the Chinese leadership? Why must Chinese be denied representation in government just to please DAP?

Some Chinese associations are getting together to stamp their feet. Liew Chin Tong could be buried in Ayer Hitam. Liow and Mah in Bentong and Telok Intan, respectively are seen as weak to certain Chinese but will not be surprise to see Lynas conman Wong Tuan Tat and loud mouth racist fucker Nga Kor Meng mampus.     

Penang will likely remain with DAP but sure like to see Huan be a giant killer at Bagan. Brave and concern original Penangite like him deserve a place in Parliament.

All the talk

There is so much talk of upset and wave. Let it be so because this morning, one Batu Pahat originated veteran journalist (now retired but reluctant to stay put) sent the following article:

Study: People with less political knowledge think they know a lot about politics

By ERIC W. DOLAN April 16, 2018

People who know less about politics are more confident about their political knowledge, according to research published in the scientific journal Political Psychology. The new study found that this effect was exacerbated when partisan identities were activated.

“The Dunning-Kruger effect holds that individuals with little knowledge about a topic will be, paradoxically, the most confident that they know a lot about the topic. Knowledgeable individuals will also discount their knowledgeability,” explained study author Ian Anson, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

“I became increasingly interested in the Dunning-Kruger effect after observing other scholars discuss the subject on Twitter in the run-up to the 2016 election. I follow a number of political psychologists who marveled at the social media pundit class’ seeming display of ‘Dunning-Krugerish tendencies’ in their bombastic coverage of the election.”

“Many of these scholars’ posts were assuredly somewhat tongue-in-cheek; after all, the idea that someone is ‘ignorant of their own ignorance’ is a pretty serious accusation when used in the political arena,” Anson told PsyPost. 

Read more in http://www.psypost.org/2018/04/study-people-less-political-knowledge-think-know-lot-politics-51062

One psychologist taught us about the Dunning-Kruger effect and many other stuff. True, maybe  knowing too much makes one too aware of the less than perfect situations thus makes one nervous and ignore the bigger picture.

It was comforting  to bump into friends at Dolly Dim Sum yesterday that really sooth all our nervousness.

Will need to get out of town ...

... time for political tourism. Maybe take a peak at Langkawi. Friends from the other side are working their butt off. Not easy to turn around 11,800 majority into an 11,000 majority. PAS has a popular candidate. Incumbent could remain as MP even with a 41 vote majority.

In 1987, Mahathir beat Tengku Razaleigh by cheating for the 41 votes majority. Najib also supported him. Otherwise, Ku Li would have replaced him as PM and stopped his plundering of the country.