PAS is moonstricken by martin jalleh

actually these tips for hacking blogger appears in blogger site but i did not notice it until i went to lcf weblog, where he had pointed it out (thanks lcf!). wow! it’s great! the feature i was looking for a long time ago – expanded text – i can tweak my template for the expanded text. yippy! so now i don’t have to use my ‘mentaljog extra’ for long articles/posts. and i also managed to put the archives in the drop-down menu. hmmm… i’m not really a techie idiot after all as i can do it myself, no need to run to my techie friends for help. 🙂

ok i’ll begin with martin jalleh’s article on PAS, written on 30 june. just click on ‘jog over for more’ to read martin’s article.

PAS IS MOONSTRICKEN

By Martin Jalleh

Some call it a new moon, but almost everyone is talking about how UMNO managed to land (a deal) on “moon” recently.

It appears that after the mauling PAS had received during the last general election the mullahs in the party became so moonstruck
that they moved to make a deal with UMNO over elections petitions in Kelantan.

No one was supposed to know, not even God perhaps, that his self-appointed spokesmen had entered into a “gentlemen’s agreement” with a political rival so different and distant from their party, as the Earth is from the moon.

There are those who argue that such a deal was meant for the people but it is an open secret that the agreement is to ensure that most of the politicians who were once over the moon about ruling Kelantan remained secure in orbit there.

The not-so-gentle truth is that the “gentlemen’s agreement” in fact reduces the credibility of PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (and his post-polls bravado) to nothing more than a dog barking at the moon.

Soon after the general election in March this year, Hadi Awang had announced that his party would not recognise the results of the polls. He had demanded for the removal of Election Commission (EC) chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, and shooting for the moon, he had even called for a re-election.

Hadi had also very confidently declared that the party had collected enough evidence, that shone as bright as a full moon, to prove that the elections was marred by the interference of phantom voters, corruption, breach of election laws and irregularities on the part of the EC and its officials.

Now the public is told very casually by Kelantan PAS legal advisor Takiyudddin Hasan that the nine election petitions (five by PAS and four by the BN) were struck out as “they did not comply with various legal provisions on election petitions” — its as good as asking us to believe that the cow jumped over the moon.

Takiyuddin has made himself and his legal team look like a bunch of turkeys in their inept handling of the legal provisions on election petitions. The supposed hard evidence of his boss, who had aimed for the moon to expose the BN and the EC, is now seen as a mere hot air, empty hoo-hah and a Hadi-ha-ha.

Hadi Awang had also pressed for a royal commission of inquiry to “expose the conspiracy between the EC and the ruling coalition (BN)”. How about a royal commission of inquiry to expose the conspiracy between the BN and PAS? Surely the people of Kelantan are not asking for the moon?

Hadi had even hit out at those who voted for the BN in the election and described them as ‘cheap’ individuals willing to cause the downfall of an Islamic government. What about PAS’s ‘cheap compromise’ with UMNO? The dark side of the moon comes to the fore.

In the name of political diplomacy democratic principles are played away by lawyers with petty technicalities and as politicians on opposing sides share the pie and ignore the will of the people. Little wonder some feel there is a bad moon rising in the East (Coast).

The EC’s image is further scarred in the whole affair and with the overturning of the Pasir Puteh parliamentary result in Umno’s favour, with PAS conceding victory to UMNO and the EC admitting that it had made a “mistake”. A Tunship (also read as “due retirement”) awaits its chairman as suspicions of him moonlighting for the BN grow stronger by the day.

Martin Jalleh
(30 June 2004)