vox populi small thumbnail 'The reason you lost is because of your brash and acidic mouth. You were punished so that you can hopefully learn. Apparently you have not.'

Ronnie Liu: Unity team would have lost without me

Proarte: Ronnie Liu should not be offered a place. This would be a slap in the face of the democratic process. He says of Tee Boon Hock, "None of his people got elected .... he is irrelevant to the party." Neither did Liu get elected, so does that make him irrelevant to the party?

Liu must learn to lose graciously. Why confirm in people's eyes that he is a sore loser? If Liu really wants peace he should stay out as his presence would be deemed undemocratic and will raise the hackles of Teng Chang Khim and cause unnecessary infighting and distraction.

DAP should be seen as a party consisting of representatives with rock solid principles with an eye on the 'big picture'. Surely, DAP Selangor is much bigger than Ronnie Liu. The 'big picture' is retaining Selangor under Pakatan Rakyat's control.

Habib RAK: Both Ronnie Liu and Tee Boon Hock (TBH) had their chance to explain themselves to the delegates. Having heard both their views, the delegates made the decision. The decision is clear that both of them should stay away from leadership roles.

Ronnie and TBH should respect the decision and simply stay on the sideline. Perhaps, with the passage of time, the future may be different for them both. These views expressed by Liu now is simply uncalled for and not welcomed.

Loyal Malaysian: For such a tainted leader like him, he really have no sense of decency to dare to make such a claim. He will make a good Umnoputra.

Multi Racial: Ronnie, as a politician, you should know winning and losing is part of the deal. And when you lose, it is because your popularity has dropped. You were not among those elected because the delegates think you are not good enough.

The Selangor DAP election shows that the delegates were matured and they chose party unity above all. In fact, I believe the Unity team got less votes than expected was partly due to you been seen as part of their team. Whether you like it or not, in politics, it is about perception and what happened to you not too long ago has given a bad perception of you not just to the delegates, but to all DAP members and Malaysians.

The delegates took into consideration Malaysians' view when they voted. So if you are a true and good politician and you are not as guilty as charge, work to clear your name. Start from the bottom again and not demand for position.

Klangboy: Ronnie - from one Klangboy to another, the reason you lost is because of your brash and acidic mouth. You were punished so that you can hopefully learn. Apparently you have not.

'If Umno accepts non-Malay CM, why not DPM?'

Raveen: As much as I respect Tok Guru (Nik Aziz Nik Mat), it doesn't make sense to say that the DPM must be a good pious Muslim. Why not a pious Christian, Buddhist or a Hindu?

Why are we as a human race so divided? A good man can be anyone irrespective of race or religion. How can a pious man sub divide the human race based on religion? When can Malaysia be a great nation?

JBM: Nik Aziz is too simplistic. Life is not that simple. Anyway, what about a pious Christian Indian/Chinese or any race or religion for that matter? This is where PAS ultimately shows it is not the party that will bring hope, peace and prosperity to Malaysia.

Abil: That is the reason Nik Aziz is tok guru, he has hit the nail on Umno propaganda. He is right - when Umno can accept a Chinese CM in Penang, what is wrong in having a non-Malay as no 2. If you prescribe to 1Malaysia, then a Chinese or an Indian can be a DPM.

SusahKes: I do believe that if Lim Kit Siang converts to Islam, he'll be a more pious Muslim than all the other ‘celups' that are ‘manufactured' by Umno. I also doubt he'll give room to corruption the way Umno has happily been doing from the time of TDM (Dr Mahathir Mohamad).

Those who do not tolerate corruption or racism, they are the ones who are true Muslims.

Rent-a-crowd phenomenon hits the big time

Cala: I have two examples. First, I am not at all surprised at the ‘rent-a-crowd' phenomenon, a tactic used by a political agent to beef up his numbers for public function. An Umno division chief had once confided to me that was what he did. The only difference was that those who responded were his supporters.

Precisely because of their ability (the division chiefs) to organise huge crowd for any formal/ informal function required by the party, any discerning party chief would not dare to ignore their influence. Now that the situation is clearer, would you be surprised to learn the reason why the crowd is so big each time the PM, or for that matter the DPM, enters the hall?

Second, in one of the two books written by Lee Kuan Yew, he too complained about the "spontaneous" applause received by the Pope each time the latter makes a public appearance. Yes, you are right; all the "enthusiastic admirers" are planted there for a purpose.

KayKay: In 1994, Dr Mahathir Mohamad spoke at a rally in Beaufort before a 10,000-strong crowd brought in from many places in Sabah. Almost 100 percent of the crowd were illegal immigrants who were each paid RM20 and given a packet of ‘nasi bungkus' and water.

It was at this rally that Mahathir suggested that the chief minister's post be rotated among the Dusun (meaning non-Muslim), Chinese (meaning non-bumiputera) and Muslim (who may also be Dusun for all you know).

Apa Nak Jadi: Corruption has gone deep into the roots, so much so that we can even hire people to demonstrate. What a shame? But I hope MACC does not spring into action for this few ringgit scandal. Go for the big ones, and these little ones will disappear naturally.

Ghkok: I think this has been going on for quite a while already. The cow-head incident and perhaps even the church-bombing incidents potentially could have been done by hired people. That's even more dangerous.

Anonymous: Guess where's the money from - PKFZ? Sime Darby? Telekom? Other GLCs?

Ex-PKR sec-gen insists signature was forged

Sunshine: Anyone in Salehuddin Hashim's position - that is, having his signature used for fraudulent purposes - would be angry and do something about it. Wouldn't you?

PKR's response to date has been very evasive ranging from Saifuddin's "I found it in the file, how would I know it's genuine or not" to insistence that P Jenapala was already doing sackable things and so his sacking was appropriate. All these are irrelevant to the issue which is: was the letter genuine or not?

Woe betide a political party which condones fraud in its ranks, what more commits it itself. PKR is looking less and less a reformist party, if ever it was one.

Rick Teo: Ex-PKR members like Salehuddin are all opportunists. They go into politics to earn a cosy living. Once they find they cannot have it, they throw a tantrum and leave.

History is replete with them - Bayan Baru MP Zahrain Hashim, Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong, Kulim Bandar Baru MP Zulkifli Noordin, Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng and a host of others.

They are all political opportunists. In the next election, they will all be history.

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