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Change has come to Malaysia!

by Martin Jalleh
(MJ from the Shah Alam Court )

It was a very moving moment in time – one which your memory will forever hold and behold. I had thought that we only get to see this in a Disney movie. But it was happening right in a courtroom in Bolehland today (7 Nov. 2008).

The packed courtroom of Raja Petra (RPK) supporters could not contain their joy. They clapped and burst out into cries of excitement and elation even before Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad could finish delivering his judgment.

They were gently reprimanded by the judge that they were in a Court of Law. But for some it was impossible to be silent. You can’t be restrained when it is such a great and glorious victory! And so they whispered: “We have won! We have won! RPK is free!”

The judge ruled that the detention of RPK under the ISA was illegal (unconstitutional) and ordered his immediate release. The court found the (Home) minister had not followed proper procedure under Section 8 of the ISA.

As the judge left for his chambers, everyone sprung up…some with their clenched fists raised high in the air – speechless. Others grabbed the nearest person available to express their elation whether it be a stranger, supporter or Special Branch. Continue reading “Change has come to Malaysia!”

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RM100 million Sabah money-laundering – why ICAC but not ACA investigating?

I started my speech on the Finance Ministry during the 2009 Budget committee stage debate in Parliament today by referring to the latest bad news for Malaysia – international ratings agency Fitch today downgraded its outlook for Malaysia from “positive” to “stable”, saying the economy would be hit by lower oil and commodity prices.

In revising the outlook on Malaysia to stable, Fitch took into account the likely impact on the balance of payments of lower oil and other commodity prices.

It said that Malaysia would also suffer from “the deterioration in external demand conditions for electronics exports.”

I pointed out that the latest Fitch rating for Malaysia is further proof of the testing times the Malaysian economy is facing with the worst global economic crisis and the crucial importance of the confidence factor in tiding through the trying times.

I expressed regret that when the new Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak presented the RM7 billion economic stimulus when winding-up the 2009 Budget policy debate last Tuesday, its “confidence” capability was seriously undermined when Najib committed the serious parliamentary faux pax of not presenting it in a regular and proper manner in Parliament by an amendment to the 2009 Budget.

I blamed this on the preoccupation of UMNO Ministers on Umno party elections resulting in serious neglect of their government and parliamentary duties. Continue reading “RM100 million Sabah money-laundering – why ICAC but not ACA investigating?”

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Police mayhem

Firstly, the excessive police force and violence at yesterday peaceful candlelight vigil to campaign for “No to ISA” and mark the first anniversary BERSIH campaign for free, fair and clean elections must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

It shows that the police has completely forgotten the important recommendation of the Royal Police Commission that the police force should become an efficient, professional, incorruptible world-class police service with three priority objectives – to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and respect human rights.

If the Royal Police Commission recommendations had been taken seriously, the shameful and disgraceful episode in Petaling Jaya yesterday, where some 23 people were arrested including DAP MP for Petaling Jaya Utara Tony Pua, DAP Selangor State Exco Ronnie Liu and DAP Selangor State Assemblyman for Kampong Tunku Lau Weng San would not have happened.

Why is the massive deployment of police personnel to break up a peaceful gathering of Malaysians to campaign for freedom, justice and democracy by excessive police force and violence continue to be a greater priority and more important police agenda than the mobilization of police personnel to keep crime low and restore to Malaysians, tourists and investors their fundamental right and freedom to be safe from crime and the fear of crime? Continue reading “Police mayhem”

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Urgent motion in Parliament – no to Hamid’s appeal to court to re-arrest RPK

I have given notice to the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia to move an urgent motion of definite public importance in Parliament tomorrow urging the Cabinet to overrule Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar’s decision to appeal against the Shah Alam High Court decision to free Malaysia Today website editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin from Internal Security Act (ISA) detention.

My motion, under Standing Order 18, deplores Hamid’s decision to appeal as “utter contempt for the fundamental concept of the rule of law and the most rudimentary commitment to human rights in the country”.

The motion said:

“In ordering Raja Petra’s release after a 56-day ISA detention, Shah Alam High Court judge Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad ruled in the blogger’s habeas corpus application that the Home Minister acted outside his powers in detaining Raja Petra under the ISA, as the grounds given for Raja Petra’s detention were insufficient rendering the ISA detention unlawful. Continue reading “Urgent motion in Parliament – no to Hamid’s appeal to court to re-arrest RPK”

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Changing Mindsets

by M. Bakri Musa

[Talk given at a forum at the University of Buffalo, on November 1, 2008, themed “Alif Ba Ta, Towards the New Malay,” organized by Kelab UMNO New York-New Jersey.]

We are familiar with E H Weber’s three-bowl water experiment where if you were to put your right hand in a basin of warm water and the left in cold, and then both in a bowl of water at room temperature, the right would feel it as cold while the left, warm. The physical reality is the same yet your perception is very different, in fact the very opposite.

Dispensing with the philosophical discussion on the meaning of reality, I would modify the oft-quoted observation that “perception is reality” to “perception creates the reality.”

We view reality through our own special lens, which imparts its own hue and tint, the consequence of our experiences and expectations as shaped by, among others, our culture, language, and environment. Language especially, as it is more than just a means of communication; it is also our collective way of looking at and understanding the world, the basic thesis of Edward Sapir.

Additionally, the reality we perceive depends on how it is being framed. Framing, by definition, means highlighting certain elements and excluding others. Continue reading “Changing Mindsets”

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Can Zaki prove doubters wrong about his suitability as CJ?

The announcement by the newly-appointed Chief Justice, Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi, who as a lawyer had represented Umno, that he would as far as possible avoid hearing cases involving the political party (or as Star headlined “No Umno cases for now”) is a step in the right direction to disprove doubters wrong about his suitability as the No.1 in the judiciary.

This is however only a small beginning if Zaki is to dispel all the doubts even the most non-partisan in Malaysia entertain about his controversial appointment as Chief Justice.

Public disappointment at the appointment of Zaki as Chief Justice had been most palpable especially as the the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had promised judicial reform to top his final short-list of three reforms before stepping down from office next March – but Zaki’s appointment as Chief Justice was made in disregard of the spirit of judicial reform and there was no consultation whatsoever with the major stakeholders in the country, whether Bar Council, MPs or the civil society.

As I had said before, MPs who had grave reservations about Zaki’s fast-track appointment as Chief Justice had two options after his elevation: firstly to invoke Article 127 of the Constitution to move a substantive motion in Parliament with the support of at least one-quarter of Members of Parliament, i.e. 55 MPs to discuss Zaki’s appointment; or two, to give Zaki the opportunity to acquit himself and prove that he is capable of taking full account of the widespread reservations about his appointment to the process to restore public confidence in the independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary after two decades of judicial darkness.

I belong to the latter category and I will like to see Zaki proving all the doubters of his appointment wrong. Continue reading “Can Zaki prove doubters wrong about his suitability as CJ?”

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RPK’s rearrest under ISA – Cabinet/Parliament must overrule Hamid

Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar’s announcement in Kota Kinabalu last night that the Home Ministry will appeal against the Shah Alam High Court decision on Friday to free Malaysia Today website editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin from detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) is most deplorable and reprehensible.

It shows Hamid’s utter contempt for the fundamental concept of the rule of law and the most rudimentary commitment to human rights in the country.

In ordering Raja Petra’s release after a 56-day ISA detention, Shah Alam High Court judge Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad ruled in the blogger’s habeas corpus application that the Home Minister acted outside his powers in detaining Raja Petra under the ISA, as the grounds given for Raja Petra’s detention were insufficient rendering the ISA detention unlawful.

Syed Ahmad Helmy held that although Section 8 of the ISA on the detention order by the minister barred judicial review, there was a procedural non-compliance by the Minister resulting in an “ultra vires” order.

As illustration, the judge gave the example that the minister cannot act in bad faith to detain a person who decided to colour his hair red.

In actual fact, Hamid acted mala fide in a very substantive manner in issuing a detention order under Section 8 of the ISA late in the night of September 22 not because Raja Petra constituted a threat to national security but to frustrate the administration of justice and the rule of law by “killing off” Raja Petra’s earlier habeas corpus application. Continue reading “RPK’s rearrest under ISA – Cabinet/Parliament must overrule Hamid”

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Why Azmi should resign as PAC Chairman

Yesterday, the Star carried a letter by an ex-airman contending that “We don’t need the Eurocopter”.

He wrote:

“AS an ex-RMAF serviceman for 22 years, I believe I am qualified to comment on our government’s insistence on purchasing the Eurocopters. Worse still, without any physical tests.

“Buying the Eurocopter for use in Malaysia is like buying an F1 for use in Petaling Jaya; or a Rolls Royce for use in a remote kampung.

“This chopper is such a sophiscated machine, it is not meant for the normal role of a helicopter. I still see the Aloutte and Nuri (Sea King) in service in other countries.

“Eurocopter is more a combat helicopter. Who do we want to fight anyway? Why use it for search and rescue or during flood relief operations? Other choppers can do that just as well or even better!

“The Eurocopter is expensive. So are the training, spare-parts, servicing, accessories or role changes and armoury. Can we afford the subsequent costs of parts and modern armoury?

“You don’t buy such a sophisticated machine without evaluation. By first going through its built-in purpose, the subsequent cost of training for pilots and ground crews, availability and cost of spare parts, etc.

“Saying that the Alouettes and Nuris are old and obsolete is no justification for buying a machine that will not be fully utilised.

“Just buying the armoury to go with the machine will cost a bomb! Buying the Eurocopter just to show off is downright arrogant!”

As the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had concluded its “rush” inquiry into the RM1.6 billion Cougar EC725 Eurocopter helicopters, can the PAC Chairman Datuk Azmi Khalid answer the questions posed by this former RMAF personnel? Continue reading “Why Azmi should resign as PAC Chairman”

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MCAC – 3 reasons why no confidence in Abdullah’s last fling with anti-corruption reform

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced at the National Integrity Convention in Kuching yesterday that the Cabinet had endorsed the formation of the Malaysian Commission on Anti-Corruption (MCAC) and that the MCAC Bill will be passed at the current meeting of Parliament to replace the Anti-Corruption Act 1997.

He said the MCAC is modeled after Hong Kong’s Independent Commission on Anti-Corruption and New South Wales’ Independent Commission Against Corruption, “which are among the best anti-corruption agencies in the world”.

I have no confidence that Abdullah has the political will to carry out meaningful anti-corruption reforms, and that the MCAC will not end up as another toothless tiger for anti-corruption like the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) with its statutory duty to promote and protect human rights!

My lack of confidence that Abdullah is capable of one final fling with a meaningful institutional reform before he ends his hapless five-year tenure as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia is supported by at least three reasons:
Continue reading “MCAC – 3 reasons why no confidence in Abdullah’s last fling with anti-corruption reform”

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Two recently-retired corrupt judges – ACA must start investigations from CJ Zaki

The new Chief Justice, Tan Sri Zaki Azmi’s revelation of two recently retired judges who were suspected to be corrupt is shocking not because of the admission of rotten apples in the judiciary but only that it was made publicly in so specific a fashion for the first time.

That there are corrupt judges in the judiciary has long been an open secret, which had been more than amply proved by the “correct, correct, correct” Royal Commission of Inquiry into the V.T.Lingam videotape. Continue reading “Two recently-retired corrupt judges – ACA must start investigations from CJ Zaki”

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Towards The New Malay

by M. Bakri Musa

[Talk given at a forum at the University of Buffalo, on November 1, 2008, themed “Alif Ba Ta, Towards the New Malay,” organized by Kelab UMNO New York-New Jersey. The contents here are from my book Towards A Competitive Malaysia.]

Whenever the theme of this conference (or variations thereof, as with the “Malay Problem” or “Malay Dilemma”) is discussed, whether in the hallowed halls of Putrajaya or the warong kopi in Kota Baru, the various arguments expounded could be crystallized around two main clusters. On one side there are those who would confidently assert that there is nothing wrong with us, rather the fault is with the evil outside world intent on doing us in. The other would find nothing right with us; we are our own problems.

The two viewpoints may be poles apart in their basic assumptions, but they share one underlying commonality. They view Malays essentially as victims, with the first seeing us as victims of the merciless outsiders – the “them” – while the second viewing us as invalids, the tragic victims of our inadequacies, real and perceived.
The cruel “them” could be the colonialists. If only they had stayed out of our world, we would not today be burdened with a dangerous race problem, and we would not have to work so hard to keep up with them. We would then enjoy our tropical nirvana shaded by the lush fronds of the coconut tree and soothed by the lapping waves of the South China Sea. Continue reading “Towards The New Malay”

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Tajuddin of Pasir Salak – “tak sekolah ke?”

Before the disgraceful “bastard” episode in Parliament on Wednesday (5th November 2008), the Barisan Nasional (BN) MP for Pasir Salak, Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman was involved in an earlier parliamentary row when I was speaking on the Prime Minister’s Department on how the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) was poisoning the minds of the new generation of public servants with racist, communal and unMalaysian propaganda.

This was Tajuddin’s “tak sekolah ke?” expose.

Many MPs, not only from Pakatan Rakyat but also from BN, have been wondering why Tajuddin had been enjoying immunity not only for showing utter contempt for parliamentary decencies but even for openly challenging the authority of the Chair, as happened on on 29th October 2008 when the Deputy Speaker Datuk Dr. Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaffar was presiding, and Tajuddin threw the gauntlet:

“Kalau macam ini saya tidak setuju kalau Tuan Yang di-Pertua hendak ambil tindakan kepada saya, ambillah! Betul, ambillah, ambil! Come on. Let’s be fair dengan izin. You dengar ini dengar!”

DAP MP for Bukit Gelugor Karpal Singh was suspended for two days over the “main, main” issue but Tajuddin got away scot-free for unprecedented open defiance to the Chair except to subsequently withdraw the statement.

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“Bastard” in the House – most severe action must taken against Tajuddin

Yesterday, two DAP MPs were suspended from the Dewan Rakyat – a dubious record for a single day of parliamentary proceeding.

DAP MP for Batu Gajah Fong Po Kuan was reduced to tears not because she had committed any crime or wrong but at the injustice of being ordered out of the House for trying to discharge her parliamentary duty to speak up on behalf of her constituents and Malaysians.

DAP MP for Bandar Kuching Chong Chieng Jen was suspended because he stood up to support Fong and complained about the harsh nature of the Speaker’s decision.

On Tuesday, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) MP for Batu, Tian Chua, was suspended from the House for repeatedly demanding to know why the Finance Minister, Datuk Najib Razak was refusing to allow opposition MPs to seek clarification on his new RM7 billion supplement to the 2009 Budget which had not been formally tabled in Parliament.

Last Thursday, DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor Karpal Singh was suspended for two days over the “main, main” issue.

But all these “infractions” of the four Pakatan Rakyat MPs added together are nothing compared to the ultimate parliamentary offence by the obstreperous Barisan Nasional MP for Pasir Salak Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman in his most obnoxious and completely unacceptable conduct on Wednesday when he used the terms “bastard” and “bloody bastard” against the DAP MP for Ipoh Barat, M. Kulasegaran.

Continue reading ““Bastard” in the House – most severe action must taken against Tajuddin”

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Abdullah would fail in judicial reforms if original Article 121(1) not restored

The parliamentary reply of the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, yesterday on judicial reforms and the RM10.5 million ex gratia payment to six judges who were victims of the 1988 “Mother of all judicial crisis for two decades” has raised more questions.

Firstly, Nazri most irresponsibly tried to rewrite history about the 1988 “Mother of all judicial crisis for two decades” when he denied that the judges, particularly the then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas and two supreme court judges the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh and Datuk George Seah were “sacked” , saying that they were asked to “retire early”.

Nazri was flying in the face of facts of history in making such a claim, for there can be no dispute that Salleh Abas, Wan Suleiman and George Seah were sacked after the outcome of the two “kangaroo” judicial tribunals set up by the then Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad time, while the other three judges, Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin, Tan Sri Wan Hamzah Mohd Salleh and the late Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdolcadeer were victimised when they were suspended and virtually “sent to conventry” for the rest of their judicial service after their suspension was lifted. Continue reading “Abdullah would fail in judicial reforms if original Article 121(1) not restored”

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Great news – Court orders RPK’s release

The Shah Alam High Court this morning ordered the release of Malaysia Today editor and blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin who had been detained under the Internal Security Act since Sept. 12, 2008.

The judge, Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad ordered the police to produce RPK, who is detained in Kamunting Detention Centre, in Shah Alam court by 4 pm today to be formally released.

I would be in Shah Alam Court myself to be a witness to this historic moment if I am not in Penang now and have to be in Alor Star tonight.

The Shah Alam High Court decision sustains hope that basic judicial decency, independence and integrity have not been completely destroyed despite two decades of judicial darkness.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should ensure that the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and the police fully respect the Shah Alam High Court’s decision on RPK’s habeas corpus application and uphold the rule of law and should slap down any trickery or stratagem to frustrate the judicial decision, such as a re-arrest.

Welcome back RPK!

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Entering the Malay mind

by Azly Rahman

[Lecture notes of a recent speech given to Malaysian students in New York]

In this digital age of postmodernity, hypertextuality, alienation, and of chaos and complexity in which the historical march of capitalism has dictated the way nations think, it is becoming difficult for us to understand how the mind of a people work – unless we build a metaphysical chariot (like the one Krishna prepared for Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurusektra) to journey into it, through the eyes that will also bring us through their soul. At strategic points in that much the soul is corrupted by the material condition created by those who own the means of controlling the march of “progress” and the definition of “history”. At every epoch in the history of nations, there will be those who will be clueless of what they exist for and who they exist for; marginalized by those who have a better command of the art and science of social control and in the art of war.

I realize that the above sentences, for some, are dense and complex and require clarifications through simpler language; but like the monologue of Colonel Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic, “Apocalypse Now,” we ought to try to understand the meaning of such a statement. Like James Joyce’s stream of consciousness, sentences may flow gracefully with intensity. Continue reading “Entering the Malay mind”

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RM7 billion economic stimulus – Najib wants MPs and nation to live a fiction

Yesterday, the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia made the ruling that Parliament was debating the Abdullah budget presented on August 29, 2008 and not the Najib Budget of an additional RM7 billion economic stimulus package announced during the 2009 Budget winding-up debate on Tuesday, as no changes to the Abdullah Budget had been tabled in the House.

The Speaker is right as MPs could not possibly be debating a revised 2009 Budget incorporating an additional RM7 billion economic stimulus package, when neither the details of the supplementary RM7 billion package have been tabled in the House nor an amendment to the 2009 Budget proposed in Parliament.

The trouble with such an interpretation is that MPs would have to live the fiction of pretending that the RM7 billion economic stimulus package announced by Deputy Prime Minister and the new Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in his speech winding-up the2009 Budget policy debate had disappeared into thin air within 24 hours and does not exist!

In fact, the nation and Malaysians are being asked to join in his fiction, if Najib persists with this unprecedented solution to the parliamentary faux pax he had committed in failing to follow the correct parliamentary procedure of submitting a proper parliamentary amendment to the 2009 Budget incorporating the new RM7 billion economic stimulus package.

This was why I had likened Najib to the illusionist David Copperfield yesterday when the Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, responded to my query in Parliament and explained that the RM7 billion economic stimulus package announced by Najib on Tuesday was a hypothetical one, as it depended on savings made from the downturn in global fuel prices, and what the government will do with RM7 billion when the situation arises. Continue reading “RM7 billion economic stimulus – Najib wants MPs and nation to live a fiction”

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A New America? Lets Shut Guantanamo First, Please.

By Farish A. Noor

Needless to say, the news that Barrack Obama has become the new President of the United States of America has spread worldwide and already the world rejoices over the timely demise of the Neo-Con empire of Bush and company. In Asia in particular the news of Obama’s victory has been greeted with a collective sigh of relief, and genuine jubilation in places like Indonesia for the Indonesians have claimed Obama as one of their own, no less. Time will tell if this historic sea change in American politics is indeed historic, but for now we can at least recover some meaningful respite from the simple fact that momentarily at least America’s vast arsenal of destruction has been laid to rest. But for how long?

Obama’s campaign was, from the outset, driven by a simple message that nonetheless resonated with a vast cross-section of American society: The time has come for change. The old crumbling power structures that has for so long been dominated by the same incestuous community of white, upper middle class, elite men whose genealogies date back to the founding fathers of America seems to have been opened up for a while, allowing for this rupture in the collective imaginary of the American people and forcing all of us to question some of the settled assumptions that have guided our understanding of America for perhaps too long.

But before we all don our rose-tinted glasses and celebrate a second Woodstock, let us pause for a moment and consider the hurdles and obstacles that will have to be overcome by Obama and the American people before we can utter the phrase ‘change has come’ with due and warranted confidence. Those of us who reside in Asia would have our own set of questions that ought to be put before the latest resident of the White House, and there are lingering dilemmas and quandries that need to be laid to rest before we herald the coming of a new order. Continue reading “A New America? Lets Shut Guantanamo First, Please.”