Jayanthi Devi Balaguru’s husband a King Con

Social media and elections: a developing story

The Prime Minister is as serious about reforming Government through generational change as he is about fighting corruption and to that end he has announced that all potential Barisan Nasional candidates at GE13 must be vetted and cleared by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) before they can be endorsed.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak made the announcement in New Delhi saying: “We will refer their names to MACC, and if they have doubtful files, they will not pass the vetting process.”

This is a brave move by Najib given that it comes with some risk because no one within the BN federal leadership knows what such checks will uncover. But it is a course of action utterly consistent with his commitment to tackle corruption and weed out corrupt individuals on both sides of politics.

Najib’s pledge to submit his candidates to this degree of unprecedented scrutiny is a response to a call by the Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel (CCPP) which Thursday invited all parties to voluntarily submit to vetting by the MACC at a state and federal level.

CCPP Chairman Datuk Johan Jaafar said: “We were encouraged by the spirit that all parties have stated their support to fight corruption. Therefore we hope to get the support of all parties on this question.”

And he said it should not be a one-off process, but should be on-going.

“They should not just do so before taking the post but also each year after taking the post. There should be no exception on this matter,” he added.

Barisan Nasional candidate, Jayanthi Devi Balaguru of Gerakan is confident of winning the Segambut parliamentary seat in the 13th General Election.

“I’m quiet certain that we (BN) will wrest the Segambut this time around,” said the high spirited first timer.

Though a newcomer, Jayanthi believed that is not a yardstick to determine her abilities to help Segambut constituents and residents.

Few things excite us more than lies. We constantly lie to ourselves. We lie to those around us, particularly those close to us. In fact, the closer they are, the more we lie to them. We lie to perfect strangers as well. Entire professions and industries have grown around the art of the lie. The more we lie, the better we lie, the more brilliant we are seen to be.

“In the last four years, Segambut residents and constituents have seen for themselves the struggle and effort put in by BN, even though the opposition held the seat,” said the 52-year-old lawyer.

Jayanthi, who is the Secretary-General of Gerakan Women’s Wing and BN Segambut coordinating chairman will be contesting the Segambut parliamentary seat against DAP’s incumbent Lim Lip Eng,  who won with a majority of 7,732 votes in 2008.

Segambut is one of the hot seats in Kuala Lumpur which BN hopes to secure in this election, after it lost its grip of the stronghold in the 2008 General Election.

Creative people lie because that’s what all art is about. More people watch feature films than documentaries. More people switch away from news to entertainment channels because after a while reality begins to spook us. Fiction is easier to live with because we know it’s a lie. Readers prefer it as well. So, most non-fiction books today are almost fiction. We read what we find more exciting, not necessarily what is more truthful.Fifty Shades of Grey excites us more than Putin’s biography. Not only is fiction more attractive, more popular, in fact sexier; it’s more enduring. Even great actors are remembered more by the roles they played. Marlon Brando is remembered more as Stanley Kowalski or Terry Malloy or Vito Corleone, the Godfather, than as Calcutta-born Anna Kashfi’s husband or Christian’s father. The lie has outlived the truth.

“We are colour blind in providing services and this is easily proven by the hard work put in by BN to address some of their problems in the last four years.”

Jayanthi said with the help of City Hall and Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Ministry, BN Segambut has managed to help residents of a housing scheme along Jalan Segambut overcome flood issues.

“We proposed some upgrading works to the respective authorities and now it’s being carried out in stages,” she said.

Jayanthi said they also have plans to turn one of the villages into “Kampung Warisan’.

“We are half way there. BN Segambut has more suggestions and improvement plans in the pipeline. However, we need a mandate to continue with the hard work,” she stressed.
Jayanthi added that she is confident that the constituents in Segambut are also aware of BN’s commitment and hard work.No marriage can work on the basis of absolute truth. No employer would ever hire an employee if he or she sent in a CV that listed nothing but the truth. No woman would ever love a man if she knew only the truth about him. No politician would ever win an election if he simply spoke the truth. No business would survive if the entrepreneur valued the truth more than opportunity. In fact, no nation would endure if its leaders told the people the actual state of the economy or why the most crucial political decisions were taken. Lies are an integral part of our survival strategy. They are what make this world go round.

The calculus of all faith is a lie. The history we read is often a lie. It’s almost entirely documented by court historians hired by ruling dynasties to make them look good.. So their crimes are glossed over. The ugliness is airbrushed. So is the wanton bloodshed and brutality. Much of what we call civilisation is a lie created to defend what is actually colonisation of the mind. Most nations are born out of carnage and tears. Yet we create new mythologies that lend a purpose to our sense of nationhood. The America that boasts so much about its role as a global peace keeper is the same America that was built on wiping out its original occupants. Look at us. Do we know or even want to know the truth about what is happening in Kashmir or Manipur or the tribal hinterland? It’s far more comforting to believe the lies the State tells us.

The Wasseypur of fiction is safer to applaud than the actual badlands of Bihar where generations have been exploited by the State and criminal warlords, often working together. Law enforcement itself is a lie. Ask any victim, and there are thousands rotting in our jails without trial or justice, and they will tell you why. Much as I hate to admit it, even our democracy is a lie. We all know people in politics and business who manipulate the system through power and pelf. Even when they are caught, they sidestep justice because they know how to play the rotten, corrupt system. The funny thing is we survive all this because our lies that offer us hope in this darkness.

There are always superheroes who magically spring up to fight back evil. There are always placebos offered by religion, cults, alternative histories, articles of faith that we keep discovering in the hope they will lead us to deliverance. And that’s how every generation endures every injustice and finds a way to make their lives look better, their dreams look more real, their hopes glitter. If there indeed is a God particle, I would like to believe it exists in every lie we speak or live. For these lies fulfil us, make us who we are.

“I’m sure the residents can compare the changes brought by BN and the opposition. I guess the grassroots are also aware of who is more capable,” she said.

Jayanthi has been actively involved in Gerakan since 2004 and was elected as the Federal Territory Wanita Head in 2008.

			Jayanthi Devi Balaguru Pengerusi Barisan Nasional Segambut
			Other Political Positions:Professional Bodies:Non Governmental Organizations: Pledge: Vision: Objective:	Central Committee Member of PGRM Secretary General of Wanita National PGRM State Chairman of Wanita FT PGRMMember of Bar Council Malaysia Member of The Chartered Institute of Arbitration of LondonSecretary of Persatuan Gerak Wanita Malaysia President of Persatuan Pengguna Wanita Nasional Committee Member of Rumah Kebajikan Kanak-kanak Our HomeInspired by People, for the People. Colour Blind-1Malaysia All Malaysians are created equal and that no Malaysian should be judged by the color of their skin nor creed.