(Ijok) Chun Wai’s gamble April 25, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Democracy, Malaysia, Politics.trackback
At least the Editor-in-Chief doesn’t hide about which side his bread’s buttered, and who butters it.
Barisan has taken a gamble, as a matter of principle, by deciding on an Indian candidate although the constituency has only 28% Indians and the opposition candidate is Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, a Malay.
If voting is based on race instead of a candidate’s policies and credentials, then it would be a sad day for Malaysia.
As we wait to celebrate the country’s national day, the people of Ijok should vote for Parthiban, not because he is an Indian or a Malay, but because he is a Malaysian. Likewise, no one should be voting for Khalid because he is a Malay as it would be a seriously unhealthy political trend. (source)
I’m sure everyone by now have developed this special Malaysian gene to read between the lines. I have no time to write a thesis on this.
No doubt merit, sincerity and ability should be the criteria for electing someone into office.
This is not the case in Ijok. It’s “gold, guns and ghouls”.
In developed countries, both candidates would have equal air-time and media space to debate issues. Shouldn’t the Star be sponsoring a town hall debate between the two candidates?
After all, the ability to debate and speak in the state assembly is a must. We don’t need another ‘yes’ man.
Politikus gnaws Star’s EIC here.
elizabeth wong 
Who is Wong Chun Wai?
He is the biggest pembodeh in the Star as everyone working in the Star knew who he is.
I still remember when the Star was shut down by Mahathir in the 80″ he was jobless and at that time he was always hang at the Penang DAP leaders office like beggar. .
The Star like many of the other mainstream media, will have to count their days…..it is the day of the information age….and soon, like the horse-cart….they will have to change their ways or get ready for that sunset. Better keep a clip of this cutting for it may prove to be of some archaeological importance
His analysis is too simplistic and lopsided. Yes I agree we are all Malaysian but I would go beyond that and argue we are all human beings. Hence everyone is entitled to a life that is free of misery and exploitation. So Chun Wai, don’t tell us to vote him because he is Malaysian and stop there. Tell us what this candidate can do to improve the lives of the people….and The Star should have the guts to call the candidate to accountability.
tell mr wong to write something against BN on IJOK. he will be like jobless in no time. dont believe me. ask him to try and he will have good company in me.
you think he is prepared to lose his shirt for principle. no way and i dont blame him. who would do that except for some principled perosns. remember Lim Guan Eng and Anwar Ibrahim.
hey eli,
i am not sure what your grouse is.
he wrote: “If voting is based on race instead of a candidate’s policies and credentials, then it would be a sad day for Malaysia.”
i can’t find anything wrong with this…as we hope Tan Sri’s policies and credentials will stand out.
i guess wong is just concerned that some older malaysians may just vote along racial lines.
ijok being a malay majority constituency, it is likely that older voters may vote for khalid.
just a statement of the reality in malaysia?
well, i guess wong is suggesting that Khalid may be selected based on his ‘race’ rather than credentials.
perhaps we cannot totally ignore this RACE factor?
salute: wong writes fairly balanced commentaries within the restrictions of the MSM. just bcos his view doesn’t gel with yours doesn’t mean you should bring up dirt?
ali: under WCW, STAR has become more open actually if you compare it with before. many positive changes have come along too…like the new layout….
sathia: wong is a political science graduate and has many years of experience in political reporting. i agree with him that despite denials by PKR, race may have been a factor in selecting Khalid.
yh: regarding principles, whose principles are you talking about? yours or wong’s? both of you may have different principles. for you it may be about fighting the opposition cause while wong may have chosen to stick to his principles of providing for his family and doing his best as a journalist within the MSM environment.
mr. wong is a one sided reporter. We read between the lines and he is also one of the lines. We can tell, we can read n we know who we want to vote. Tell Mr. wong to keep his mouth shut if he cannot be a fair reporter.Ta ada ethics,mana sekolah..Ijiok
also he is not editor-in-chief, he is Deputy Group Chief Editor of The Star 😀
from http://wongchunwai.com/
Star openly campaigns for the Barisan. It has become the propaganda arm of the Barisan. But its circulation keeps on soaring, thanks to stupid, bodoh, idiotic, crass, vulgar Malaysians. NST surprisingly tries to play a bit fair. Of course NST wants to regain its former readers who deserted it in droves during the reign of terror under Kadir Jasin. Wong Chun Wai, you have no shame. Tadak malu, you. shame, shame, shame. You make lovely Elizabeth mad.
What Wong Chun Wai is doing is not a yes-man but harlotry – its doing things the master want that he won’t do himself not just agreeing with him
I love the way the lines get blurred when a particular side wants to use the ‘race’ card. Actually, Ijok is not about race at all and the fact that ‘everyone’ keeps harping on it means they just want to reduce it to the lowest common denominator – esp the Star’s EiC. What Malaysians shd realise is that they have to vote for the representative who is sincerely FOR them and is willing to put his energy, time and heart to see that the people he represents get their due accordingly – it is not so much ‘development’ or ‘progress’ as the simple fact their rights as citizens are protectedby rules, laws and procedures that are enforced wisely not arbitrarily or simply ‘by the book’ .
Like the man who paid taxes for his land for years only to find that the land has been ‘taken’ without his knowledge, or people who had to wait for 15 years for a CF (thank goodness for a buy oops. by- election), or house-buyers having paying for a house that they will never get to live in because the developer has fled and the project has gone kaput, or civil servants who have been transferred for following procedures thus depriving someone else who didnt follow procedure but still want the cake anyway.. – who protects the honest Malaysian? Who speaks for them?
Even children want to be treated fairly and can recognise when a parent is being arbitrary..All any Malaysian want is an even playing field in their own backyard and a referee who listens to both sides and understands and adheres to the rules of the game, [lus is backed up by an organisation with the same values in actions and words. And it doesnt matter what race the referee is to be fair, upright and sincere.
chun wai a kaki bodek
Wong Chun Wai?
The La took Wong Chun Wai, mutant clone of turned-over and upside down and thoroughly chastised VK Chin since the eighties?
The Star is a black dwarf that’s about to turn into a black hole – and sucks (e.g. everything in, even the light of truth).
On the other end, NST wields a Joceline who thinks she can reinvent reality by jostling your mind into non-thinking(all thinking will come from her only).
They really have that swell-headness expectation but we know they are lost souls, gladly sold for largesse.
Hi Betty,
Both of us see eye to eye, as the idoim goes. I highlighted those disgusting same lines in MT yesterday, and I questioned his integrity as a good journalist. I told him that I was really disapponted with his approach, and that he was insulting the intelligence of his readers. This is NOT a case of being under pressure, but self zealousness. After all, he is the editor-in-chief, and he could easily have omitted those lines. To me, this is simply bad journalism.
“If voting is based on race instead of a candidate’s policies and credentials, then it would be a sad day for Malaysia.” freelunch2020 said that WCW said.
The sad thing about Malaysia is we have race based parties. How then can be avoid race not be an issue? Race is an imporant factor and it will always be so as long as we have race based parties.
In fact every gamut of our lives is decided by race.
Why deny the undeniable?
If we do not want voters to take race as a factor then let us start ONLY supporting multi racial parties.
If I belong to MCA and lament and bitch about voters voting allong racial lines then I am a hypocrite. If not, get out of MCA.
freelunch2020 says:
//”salute: wong writes fairly balanced commentaries within the restrictions of the MSM. just bcos his view doesn’t gel with yours doesn’t mean you should bring up dirt?”//
Hi, I guess Wong must be a good friend of yours for you to come out and salute him. Those lines highlited by Betty clearly shows a lopsided and biased opinion from Wong.
I’m NOT saying that a journalist cannot exert his or her influence to sway public opinion, but his intentions ought be explicit right from the very beginning. He can’t portray himself as “Mr. Nuetral” and them try to insert something unintelligible in the middle of his article to insult the readers intelligence.
As a matter of fact, I’ve commented on several occasions in MT before this, that Wong Chun Wai is among the last bastions of “good journalism” in the mainstream media. But this article of his really disappoints me. The leopard is beginning to show its spots…….
erm..i like WCW’s columns, commentaries….
Everyone has a price.
Guess that’s the end of the tunnel for him.
Well, let’s forget all the ‘well-balanced’ journalism he had pursued in the past and remember him as the someone who had abandoned his journalistic principles(is there such a thing?) for material/status gain!
hey, at least he got a fat paycheck at the end of the month, hor latuk hor… *sarcasm intended.
Wong Chun Wai,
People like Ruhanie Ahmad and BigDog declare their political allegiance in a noble and gentlemanly style. We know all along that they’re life members of UMNO, so we as readers know exactly what to expect of them. We can either agree or not agree with their analyses. There’s no big deal.
You can’t be a saint and a villian at the same time.
This Wong Sifu is a master apple polisher. He can polish apples like anything you have ever seen., He takes pride in his work, foregoing ethics, responsibilities, comradeship, roots and even his dog. He earned his datukship shamelessly, writes about things that he himself would puke. Poor Wong Fei Hung’s ashes and dust would turn in his grave.
Quoted from Cun Wai’s
“As we wait to celebrate the country’s national day, the people of Ijok should vote for Parthiban, not because he is an Indian or a Malay, but because he is a Malaysian. Likewise, no one should be voting for Khalid because he is a Malay as it would be a seriously unhealthy political trend.”
urghh… I’m vomitting… The political trend is already ‘unhealthy’ since the day of ‘tunku’…