Blog Posts by Joshua Sip

By Joshua Sip

Well it looks like the polls are imminent, with the massive Barisan Nasional machinery cranking to a start after nearly five years running on idle.

Of course, there have been cases in the time between the 2008 general election and now when the rumour mill had churned out several potential, but ultimately wrong, dates for when Malaysians go to the ballot boxes again.

Just like those times, insiders within the ruling coalition have been whispering of plans by their president and Prime Minister Najib Razak to dissolve Parliament.

The talk now is that the nation's chief executive intends to make the announcement sometime this coming May, to make way for a June polls date.

Unlike those other times, however, there appears to be a lot more happening out in the open to indicate that it would not be too far-fetched for a mid-year general election.

The latest clue is the recent announcement by Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor, that the party could potentially have a

Maverick, frog, opportunist, intellectual. Call him what you want, but there is something about Jeffrey Kitingan that has kept him in the political limelight.

He has survived - and some may argue that he was the reason - for numerous cases of political upheaval in Sabah, and even made it through some two years of detention under the Internal Security Act in the early 1990s on suspicion of plotting to pull the state out of Malaysia.

The Harvard graduate has been accused of orchestrating various coups, from the time he was in his elder brother Joseph Pairin Kitingan's Parti Bersatu Sabah to the tumultuous period he spent battling PBRS president Joseph Kurup for the party's presidency.

He was even made a PKR vice-president at the behest of de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim prior to the March 2008 watershed elections, eventually leaving in 2009 and bringing along practically the party's entire KadazanDusun leadership base to eventually form a non-governmental organisation

The first year of the second decade in the 21st century was indeed eventful, with protests being the buzz word as dictatorial regimes tumbled and politicians - both at home and abroad - faced off against a more savvy and critical public.

Some leaders were deposed or even killed after leading their countries for decades with iron fists. Others refused to take responsibility for scandals that were simply unconscionable. And then there were those who were literally caught with their pants down.

Of course, having to go through the entire stack of stories over the course of 12 months would be overwhelming to say the least. That's why we've decided to narrow the list down to what we think are the most notable events, in ascending order, for the year 2011 starting with;

10. The National Feedlot Corporation scandal

The National Feedlot Corporation is fast becoming a yoke around Barisan Nasional's neck
Here is a situation that has even the most die-hard Barisan Nasional supporter fuming. In a nutshell, the husband of Women, Family and Community Development Minister Sharizat Jalil

Pakatan Rakyat MPs walked out of Parliament House in protest of the tabling of the Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011

The tabling of the Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011  last week was to many, a signal of yet another crisis of confidence in the ruling Barisan Nasional government.

Here was a bill that, while removing the need for police permits, instituted a host of other requirements and restrictions which the Malaysian Bar said were worse than current laws on public gatherings.

The opposition to the bill was so strong, the Bar lead a two-kilometre march of at least several hundred - some reports claimed a thousand - lawyers to Parliament yesterday, handing over their own draft version of the bill to the government.

Equally, if not more, opposed to the bill was Pakatan Rakyat, who had spent much of the past week slamming the government for allegedly wanting to thumb down public liberty.

To an extent, the sustained criticism worked in that the government relented and chose to make several amendments to the controversial bill.

Despite the amendments - which reduced the period needed to give notice to the

The National Feedlot Corporation is mired in controversy

It's been weeks, but Parliament has finally taken notice of the "cows" coming home, arranging for an internal hearing with the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) bigwigs today.

But before we delve into the August House's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) probe into this scandal, lets put the whole thing in context first.

To sum up the issue that will be investigated, it is safe to say that the NFC is charged with failing to achieve even half of its beef production target last year, while at the same time using part of its RM250 million government soft loan for beef production to instead purchase two luxury condominiums in a dubious "investment" plan worth upwards of RM13 million in total.

These revelations, as encapsulated within the Auditor-General's 2010 report, understandably sparked public anger over the perceived wastage and misuse of tax payer's hard earned money.

The fact that NFC's executive chairman is one Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail - the husband to Family, Women