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Whereabouts of year-old baby girl Prasana Diksa shapes up to be first major test of Najib’s “Performance Now” motto

When Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced “Performance Now” as one of the three mottos of his government’s overarching philosophy, he would have realized that it would be put to a test early in his premiership.

Najib should have been realistic enough to know that he would not enjoy the luxury of a political honeymoon of “The First 100 Days”, but it is unlikely that he expected it to come under a major test immediately after his first three weeks as Prime Minister and in the form of a year-old baby girl Prasana Diksa.

In Ipoh, kindergarten teacher M. Indira Ghandi’s vigil for the return of her daughter, Prasana Diksa, who is still being breastfed, is coming to 48 hours since the Ipoh High Court judgment on Friday granting her interim custody of her three children, Tevi Darsiny, 12, Karan Dinish 11 and Prasana Diksa; a restraining order against her husband K. Pathmanathan, who has assumed the name Mohd Redzuan Abdullah after conversion to Islam, until full custody hearing on May 12; ordered the husband to surrender Prasana to the mother and a mandamus to the police to assist Indira in the matter. Continue reading “Whereabouts of year-old baby girl Prasana Diksa shapes up to be first major test of Najib’s “Performance Now” motto”

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Zambry’s May 7 Perak Assembly meeting – call it off as it is against Najib’s public position

The usurper Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr. Zambry Abd Kadir should call off the May 7 Perak State Assembly meeting as it is improperly convened against the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s public stand that the Perak State Assembly cannot meet until the court has ruled that the Barisan Nasional is the legal government in Perak.

This was the position of Najib, who was then the Deputy Prime Minister, Perak UMNO Chairman and who personally orchestrated the undemocratic, unethical, illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak resulting in the three-month political and constitutional stalemate producing two Mentris Besar and even two secretaries to the Perak State Assembly!

This is the Sunday Star report of March 1, 2009, headlined “Perak assembly cannot meet until court decides, says DPM” on Najib’s response to the convening of a State Assembly meeting by the Perak Speaker, V. Sivakumar which eventually became the historic “Tree Perak State Assembly”: Continue reading “Zambry’s May 7 Perak Assembly meeting – call it off as it is against Najib’s public position”

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MINDRAF: Does Malaysia Need Another Sectarian Political Party?

By Farish A. Noor

As if the political landscape of Malaysia wasn’t overcrowded already, there has come into the fray yet another sectarian community-based party, Mindraf (Malaysian Indian Democratic Action Front). Ostensibly set up by ‘good samaritans’ concerned about the plight of their community, Mindraf has announced its political ambitions with the aim of representing Malaysian citizens of South Asian origin.

Now allow me to be blunt here: In the opinion of this writer, Malaysia does not need another communitarian party that caters to the primary concerns of a particular ethnic or religious community. We are already forced to work on a contested landscape where there are too many parties that are based on ethnic and religious loyalties, and yet another sectarian party will hardly bring us any closer to realising the notion of a Malaysia where identity is based on universal citizenship and equal rights.

If anything, the tendency of such sectarian parties is to further add to the process of divide and rule and to further entrench sedimented notions of ethnic-racial differences. This comes at a time when a younger generation of Malaysians have demonstrated their ability to transcend the ethnic divisions that once haunted the generation of their parents. So while we hope and pray for a better, more united and colour-blind Malaysia, whose idea was it to create another ethnic-based party? Continue reading “MINDRAF: Does Malaysia Need Another Sectarian Political Party?”