Well I only managed to catch 75% of the live debate last night, the rest of the time I had to keep my son company who was playing the online Disney games. Here are my thoughts on it, however these are biased since I no longer have the confidence in our current government so these are weighted more to Anwar’s side.

Before it started, I told myself to keep an open mind and try to listen to both parties. So Anwar started off first, stating his claim that he can bring the price down 50 cent per litre. Okay good.

Then Shabery’s turn for the opening statement – and what did he say? Anwar suka mengambil kesempatan dalam kesempitan rakyat (Anwar likes to take advantage of the people’s plight). What the hell? He went into personal attacking mode right on the first round! Well that threw my “neutrality” away and I was cheering Anwar on all through-out the night.

He says taking advantage of the people’s plight? If someone is selling an overpriced food to the people then I would call that taking advantage, highlighting the people’s main problem is not.

Some of the points which I can remember from last night:

• Anwar said “this is not a war between Shabery and Anwar, this is about the issue of petrol” – clearly telling his opponent not to resort to personal attacks
• Shabery said inflation is high in countries like Venezuala and Iran because their oil is too cheap. Anwar said at least their oil is cheap, in Malaysia inflation is rising and our oil is not cheap.
• Anwar said don’t compare ourselves with countries like Venezuala or Iran, but instead with countries that were on the same level as Malaysia a few years ago like Singapore and Korea (not sure if it was Korea that was mentioned). Why can they advance?
• Anwar said he’s not againts Petronas, only againts the government governing Petronas. He says “if you cannot differentiate this then we have a big problem”.

The planted audience shouting “ya betul!!” everytime Shabery seemed to make a point kinda spoil the party a bit. At the end of it, Datuk Anwar went over to Shabery’s side to shake hands with him. Shabery look a little bit confused haha.

Anyway, after the debate, the only mental image that was captured in my mind was this:

HAHAHA… yucks! Anyone noticed he was foaming at the mouth, I was like refraining myself from using the tissue and wipe my tv screen. (I know this is personal but if he can do a personal jab, then I would like to do it too.)

Anyway read more about the debate on the following links:

Anwar vs Shabery in the Great Oil Price Debate
Anwar just edges past Shabery

Watch the videos of the debate on youtube:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Ending Argument

In all, I say Anwar was the winner. What about you? Who do you think won?

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Okay today is an important night on Malaysian TV, I think for the first time ever the government has allowed their “enemy” some air time on the mainstream media. It is the live debate between former DPM and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek. We just hope that Anwar won’t get arrested by afternoon today for any dubious reason.

The issue at hand is the subject that affects everyone, that is the fuel price. In case you’ve been reading only the back pages of the newspapers for the past 6 months, Anwar claims his party can bring down the fuel price the day after they form the government while Ahmad Shabery, representing the government will state his case on why it is impossible for government (or PKR) to do so.

I hope all will go on fair and smoothly, and I hope the government will adopt this trend so next time we can watch more debates. Here are my wish list of debates:

• Dr Mahadthir vs Abdullah Badawi (Topic: Why BN is weak)
• Dr Mahadthir vs Anwar Ibrahim (Topic: Sodomy)
• P. Balasubramaniam vs Najib Tun Razak (Topic: Altantuya & C4)
• Raja Petra vs Najib Tun Razak (Topic: Altantuya & C4)
• Yong Teck Lee vs V.K. Liew (Topic: Who’s stabbing who in the election)
• Musa Aman vs Chong Kah Kiat (Topic: Mazu statue)
• mrBadak vs Osu Sukam (Topic: Where he got his millions – I represent the rakyat! cewah)

Think of the value of the commercial airtime, it could be a handsome profit for the station owners. Anyway, the channels are TV9 – (ASTRO Ch 119), Astro Awani – (ASTRO Ch 501) and Bernama.TV – (ASTRO Ch 502).

News link : Anwar-Shabery discussion live on three stations at 9pm

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