....... HAND IS STILL LONG AND HIS INFLUENCE IS STILL STRONG.

The half truths that NST brandished before 8308 is still in practise today.
While its editorial bashed almost everyone who had a hand in UMNOs 12th election debacle, the editors have conveniently left the feared SIL out.
The Warong kopi is certain that the public have not forgotten that it was the SIL arrogance coupled with his incendiary exhortations to “arms” that goaded mindless “yes men” to racist chants and behaviors.
The SIL hand is still long and his influence is still strong.

People are getting fed up with Umno’s moaning and groaning, the political wayang and sandiwara its cast of characters is playing up and down the country.
The truth is that the people have long been disgusted with the kind of boorish, loutish behaviour that Umno leaders had exemplified because of their grip on power since independence in 1957.
Brandishing the kris was hurtful to the non-Malays but the party leadership did nothing to take the Umno Youth chief to task for the menacing and insulting gesture. Which was why he was emboldened to repeat it and provide extra impetus for the Chinese and Indians to abandon the BN at the polls.
It also did not go unnoticed that the leadership put up with the racist and inflammatory rhetoric of the delegates at the televised 2006 Umno general assembly.
Then there was the desecration of the temple under the watch of the then Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo which did so much to outrage the Hindus throughout the country and turn them against the ruling coalition. And Dr Khir had the cheek to award a broom to a local council president, when neither he nor the party president could control the warlords who held the party to ransom over the choice of candidates, and stabbed the party in the back when they did not approve of the candidates.
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is now paying for these and other acts of omission, including the undeliverable promises of change that he made when he first became prime minister in 2003.
Every other day, he has had to deflect attacks by party members and ex-leaders who conveniently have absolved themselves of any fault. But every day that he is sidetracked by party bickering is another day affairs of state are neglected — the nation and the people are the losers.
Abdullah has said that he has got the message; he has accepted responsibility for the unkept pledges; and this time, he vows he will deliver on his promises and set the country in order before he retires.
That is, in fact, the verdict of his mandate, and he should be allowed to get on with it. But all the worms crawling out of the Umno woodwork — especially the retired and those with shelf lives past due who have found new breath in their calls for a party coup — won’t let him.
They don’t get it. Abdullah is not solely to be blamed and everything will not suddenly be all well again if he goes. Umno from the roots to the high branches all have to share the blame for their silence, their greed, arrogance and shenanigans that have turned off voters. So stop the navel-gazing and infighting.
If they have to fight among themselves, at least have the decency to keep it civilised and behind closed doors. They don’t have to drag the whole country through their infernal politicking.
There are more important things than private peeves and settling of scores.
Neither the brewing crisis over soaring food prices nor other major issues are going to wait for Umno to put its own house in order. Now is the time for the grand old party to move on, do the things its leaders have promised and show that it still has what it takes to lead the nation.

No sooner had Ahmad Shabery commented on the one sided and biased political slants over our television and newspapers, the NST had the cheek to come out with an editorial on "everyone is to be blamed for the fiasco of 8308, of course with the exception of ..."

Traditional media such as television and newspapers no longer have the credibility that they once commanded among readers and viewers.
Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek said nowadays, the public no longer believed everything they read in the newspapers or heard on television, which are known to be controlled or directly owned by political parties inclined towards the government.
“Times have changed. The public does not believe everything that the newspapers write these days.

Even without the trappings of authority, the delusion of power still reigns in the mind of a chief who does not have a parliamentary seat …..

A six-year battle by medical graduates of unrecognised universities to win a second chance to become doctors "ended" in 40 minutes yesterday.Forty-five of them who had come to a dialogue to get the help of Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu were left in a daze after the MIC chief walked off while answering the third question.