The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views
The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views |
| Soi Lek thanks Pandan MCA for blanket support Posted: 22 Feb 2013 08:11 AM PST  Dr Chua previously announced that Ong had been omitted from MCA's list of candidates for the general election. — File pic The party president, in an apparent move to enforce his earlier announcement that Pandan's incumbent and his arch rival Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat would be left out of the polls race, pointed out to reporters here that the division itself had met on its own today and agreed to accept the party's final decision on the issue of candidacy. "I was made to understand that from that meeting, their decision was made unanimously... they supported and approved to backing any candidate proposed by the leadership. "So thank you for showing your concern, Pandan MCA," he told a press conference after officiating the Selangor MCA's open house at the Hokkien Association building tonight. Dr Chua's remarks tonight may further complicate matters for the already fractious Pandan MCA division, which had earlier today met to clarify their party president's shock announcement of Ong's failure to make it into the Election 2013 contest. The meeting was attended by the majority of the division's upper echelon but several notable personalities were not in attendance, including Pandan MCA chairman Datuk Eric Ong Chen Huing and vice-chairmen Wong Choy and Foo Ah Soon. In a press conference after the meet, the members refuted Dr Chua's Wednesday announcement and denied that their division had decided to field Gary Lim, their legal bureau head, for the Pandan contest. They revealed that the division has not even met a single time to discuss candidate options, much less decided on Lim, adding that this meant that no one has been selected to stand in Pandan yet. "We would like to explain here that Pandan MCA has never met to discuss who should represent MCA and BN for Pandan," the division's Youth chief Chong Sin Woon told the press conference this evening together with other division leaders. "So whomever comes out to claim to have the support of Pandan MCA, this claim is completely baseless. This is what the division meeting agreed on today," he said. The youth leader, however, stressed that the division would unconditionally support any candidate that its party and BN leadership finally selects to contest in Pandan, a parliamentary seat held for five terms now by incumbent and former MCA president Ong. Talk among party circles is that Lim, who was parachuted in from Pahang MCA some two years back, has already been preparing his campaign for the polls. It is believed that the 39-year-old lawyer has the support of the Pandan MCA division chief, as well as Dr Chua, whose open rivalry with Ong is believed to be the root cause of current shake-up in Pandan. At a Pandan MCA Chinese New Year gathering on Wednesday night, Dr Chua had told reporters that Tee Keat was not included in the party's list of possible candidates for the 13th general election, which must be held by June. Ong shrugged off this claim during his over one hour-long press conference at his service center in Pandan Jaya yesterday, which was attended by several MCA division leaders, as well as former Cempaka assemblyman and Taman Cempaka Umno branch chairman Datuk Mad Aris Mad Yusof in the room, Selangor Gerakan Youth chief Ben Liew and Pandan MIC Youth chief TM. Padmanathan. During the press conference, Ong had brushed off reports that he has been dropped as MCA's candidate, insisting that the final decision lies in the hands of Najib and not Dr Chua. It is understood that Ong is favoured by senior leaders in Umno to defend his Pandan parliamentary seat because of his personal popularity among constituents there. Dr Chua had deposed Ong as MCA president in a fractious power struggle in 2010, and since then, rumours have been swirling over whether the former minister would drop Ong as MCA's choice for Pandan. |
| ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ — too cool, or too controversial for Oscars? Posted: 22 Feb 2013 07:59 AM PST  Jessica Chastain, nominated for best actress for her role in "Zero Dark Thirty", arrives at the 85th Academy Awards nominees luncheon in Beverly Hills, California February 4, 2013. — Reuters pic But when the Oscar for Best Picture is handed out on Sunday, the thriller about the decade-long US hunt for, and 2011 killing of, Osama bin Laden is unlikely to get its name engraved on the coveted gold statuette. After a fierce campaign over the movie's depiction of torture that started in Washington and extended to human rights groups, "Zero Dark Thirty" went from front-runner to also-ran at the Academy Awards. Despite winning early honors from influential critics in New York, Washington, Boston and Chicago, pundits say the failure of "Zero Dark Thirty" to win traction in Hollywood may have as much to do with its style as the heated debate it has provoked. "It's a little cool," said Dave Karger, chief correspondent for Fandango.com. "Usually you need some kind of crowd-pleasing element to have a shot at winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and that is what (Iran hostage drama) 'Argo' has. It has a great rousing emotional aspect to it which 'Zero Dark Thirty,' by design, does not have," Karger told Reuters. 'GROSSLY INACCURATE'? Early signs of trouble for "Zero Dark Thirty" came in mid-December when US Senators Dianne Feinstein, John McCain and Carl Levin sent a letter to movie studio Sony Pictures . They called the film "grossly inaccurate and misleading" for suggesting torture helped the United States track the al Qaeda leader to a Pakistan compound. The senators cited intelligence records released in April 2012 that showed this was not the case and said the movie "has the potential to shape American public opinion in a disturbing and misleading manner." Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal said repeatedly that the film shows a variety of intelligence methods, not all of which produced results. Three weeks later, Bigelow was omitted from the Oscar's Best Director shortlist, chosen by about 5,800 movie industry professionals who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bigelow was only one of four big directors to be snubbed, and "Zero Dark Thirty" received five Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture. But Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan was among those who pointed the finger at Washington. "Chalk up this year's (Oscar) nominations as a victory for the bullying power of the United States Senate and an undeserved loss for Kathryn Bigelow," Turan wrote in January. In a column in The Wall Street Journal yesterday, deputy editor Daniel Henninger agreed. "Had Senators Feinstein, Levin and McCain not saddled up their high horses in a December 19 letter to Sony Pictures denouncing the movie, 'Zero Dark Thirty' would not now be out of the running for Best Picture at the Oscars," Henninger wrote. Pete Hammond, awards columnist at entertainment industry website Deadline.com, said the political attacks on the film certainly had an impact before "Zero Dark Thirty" was released in US movie theaters nationwide in late January. "But when it opened wide, it actually helped by bringing so much publicity, and now there has been a backlash against the backlash," Hammond told Reuters. FIGHTING BACK By late January, Bigelow and Boal were making speeches, getting magazine profiles, and writing opinion pieces in which they directed critics to the US officials who sanctioned, or turned a blind eye, to harsh interrogation techniques. Victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks ordered by bin Laden voiced their support, as did departing US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who called it a "great movie." Steve Elzer, spokesman for Columbia Pictures, the Sony Pictures unit behind the film, said the studio was very proud of the movie, saying it had generated "an amazing national conversation." "'Zero Dark Thirty' has been a huge critical and commercial success that has also been praised by a large number of experts, historians and academics outside of the political arena. "No matter how we do at the Oscars on Sunday, we know this will be a motion picture that will be remembered many years from now. We couldn't be more proud to have been associated with this film," Elzer told Reuters. Despite the furor and small protests by human rights activists at some awards ceremonies, "Zero Dark Thirty" has won stellar reviews and reaped more than US$100 million (RM300 million) at the worldwide box office, most of it in North America. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 94 per cent positive rating. Oscar Best Picture favorites "Lincoln" and "Argo" score 89 per cent and 96 per cent respectively. Yet "Zero Dark Thirty" has picked up just one major prize in the Hollywood guild awards for directors, actors, producers and writers that are considered a predictor of Oscar success. Boal won the Writers Guild of America trophy for Best Original Screenplay last weekend, and is a strong contender for the Oscar in that category on Sunday. Jessica Chastain is thought to have a good chance at taking home the Best Actress prize for her performance as the feisty young CIA agent credited with tracking down bin Laden in the face of skepticism from her bosses. "Jessica Chastain is a good place to put your 'Zero Dark Thirty' vote if you are wounded by the backlash against the film and want to express your support some place," said Tom O'Neil, of awards website Goldderby.com. However, the film, which is being promoted as the "most-talked about movie of the year," is seen as a long shot. "Controversial movies suffer with Academy voters. I think 'Zero Dark Thirty' will have a tough time winning Best Picture because I think the Academy is going to go with less controversial choices," Rotten Tomatoes editor in chief Matt Atchity said. — Reuters |
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