Month: April 2009

Letters

(Barisan Nasional Sabah leaders are the biggest winners in the Najib Cabinet. But the people of Sabah do not share in this largesse, as seen by the following letter from Lahad Datu. Where is the Najib slogan of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now”?

I’m Pang, currently running my own business. my phone number is 089-883033, register under publix pharmacy. My phone line has been dead for the past one week and no action has been taken.

when i go telekom and complain to the manager, SAHABUDIN, he told me to call 100 to complain, my phone no tone how to dial up? He ask me to go telekom and call 100. Come on, we are doing business, every second count, my fax all cannot go out, my customer can’t even reach me. When i call this number, is normal, just that no tone from this side, phone no ring at all.

When i tell this SAHABUDIN, no tone cannot call all the problems. He just told me, ‘I tak tau’, as a manager how can you tell me ‘ I tak tau’, you as a manager must solve the problems. Every month i did pay my bill, my biz need the phone. I’m wonder what telekom is doing, the only landline provider also can do such lousy job. Continue reading “BAD Telekom service in LAHAD DATU, SABAH”

What is the Wow factor in the Najib Cabinet?

None on the positive side.

If any, there are the negatives, viz:

• Najib’s “backdoor” Cabinet – the first Cabinet in the nation’s 52-year history with the most number of “backdoor” Senators, 11 in all and comprising mostly of candidates rejected by the voters in the political tsunami of last year’s general elections.
• Replacement of one set of “old faces” like Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said but who have entered Parliamen by the front-door by a set of equally “old faces” like Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun and Datuk Dr. Awang Adek Hussin who have to get into Parliament by the backdoor of the Senate as they had been rejected by the voters in last year’s general elections.
• Parti Gerakan becoming “Parti Belakang” with its president having to sneak into Parliament from the backdoor.

Continue reading “Wow factors of Najib Cabinet? Backdoor Cabinet, Parti Belakang”

by Tunku Abdul Aziz
The Malaysian Insider
11th April 2009

APRIL 10 — If you want my honest opinion, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s People’s Cabinet is totally uninspiring and insipid to boot. And that is being charitable. What a sad commentary on the paucity of proven talent and integrity within the ranks of Barisan Nasional that all Najib has succeeded in putting on offer is a team of recycled political expendables, many with personal records of integrity that will not bear close scrutiny.

Najib has done nothing more than a bit of tinkering. Is this the clean and honest team that he has promised the nation? Instead of calling it a Cabinet, a more accurate and honest name for it is surely “baggage room” because most of those who are our new ministers, including Najib, unfortunately, are perceived to be carrying oversized baggage into office. If this had been a team chosen by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, I should not have been surprised.

But subjecting his ministers to the discipline of the KPI or key performance indicators is an idea whose time has come. However, the danger with management tools like Long Range Strategic Forecasting and Management by Objectives, now long forgotten, and the new panacea, the KPI, is in the distinct possibility of their being more honoured in the breach than in the observance. That being said, let us see whether the new broom can keep up with a mountain of bureaucratic trash that has been generated in the corridors of Putrajaya. Continue reading “An untalented team lacking integrity”

The first task of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is to get rid of the corrupt in his new Cabinet team – whether Minister or Deputy Minister.

He should seek an appointment with former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who though praised the new cabinet as “more or less graft-free” nonetheless qualified his praise when he said that Najib “did very well by dropping most of the people who have been accused of corruption, although one or two slipped in”.

“One or two” corrupt Ministers or Deputy Ministers succeeded in slipping through the integrity scrutiny and firewall to get into Najib’s first Cabinet?

This is clearly unacceptable if Najib is to lead a clean and incorruptible administration with zero tolerance for corruption.

As Prime Minister for 22 years, Mahathir had shown great tolerance for corruption – as demonstrated by the fact that in the last seven years of his premiership, Malaysia’s ranking on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index fell from No. 23 in 1995 to No. 37 to 2003 – which could only mean that more than “one or two” corrupt Ministers and Deputy Ministers had got onto his government without any protest or action by the longest-serving Prime Minister of the country!

If by Mahathir’s very lenient attitude towards corruption – after all, it was the new Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who a decade ago had stood up as Umno Youth Leader at the Umno Youth General Assembly in 1998 to denounce Mahathir as the “father” of Malaysian KKN, corruption, cronyism and nepotism – he could still talk about “one or two” corrupt members of the new cabinet, a more stringent integrity standard would have faulted many more members of the Najib Cabinet. Continue reading “Najib’s first task is to get rid of the corrupt in his Cabinet whether Minister or Deputy Minister”

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak claims that his cabinet announced yesterday is not only a new team with a new face, but also a new approach to administer the country better in a more responsible and transparent manner that focuses on the people.

This is not the perception and reaction of the Malaysian public who find the Najib Cabinet dominated by old faces, old ideas and old approach rejected by Malaysians in the March 8 political tsunami last year and the Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau by-elections on Tuesday.

Most of the media headlines screamed “28 Ministers, 40 Deputy Ministers” when actually it should be “29 Ministers, 40 Deputy Ministers”.

How could Najib, with his new slogan of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” make such a small yet colossal mistake?

Has Malaysian educational standards fallen so low after five years of Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein as Education Minister, that the government is incapable of the most simple calculations?

What “Performance Now” when the Najib premiership cannot even count whether there are 28 or 29 Ministers in the Cabinet?

Malaysians were promised a “lean” Cabinet but Najib has 29 Ministers, only two less than the 31 Ministers of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when the fifth Malaysian Prime Minister submitted his resignation to the Yang di Pertuan Agong last Thursday and two more than the last Cabinet appointed by the fourth Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad after the 1999 general elections!

If Najib is serious about a lean and smart Cabinet, he should have trimmed the Cabinet by one third to have not more than 20 Ministers when in contrast, the United Kingdom has a Cabinet of 23 full-rank Ministers, Australia a Cabinet of 20 Ministers and France 17 Ministers. Continue reading “Najib Cabinet – dominated by old faces, old ideas and old approach rejected by Malaysians in the March 8 political tsunami and two Bukit by-elections”

Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet failed to live up to the hype of “lean” though it may be “mean”, setting a dubious Cabinet record of using the “back door of Parliament” to bring into the government the biggest crop of defeated candidates in the previous general election – namely Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun and Datuk Dr. Awang Adek Hussin which does not speak well for the government’s commitment to accountability and democracy.

If Najib wants the Cabinet to be really “lean”, he should have slashed the 32-strong Abdullah Ministers by at least one-third!
All the blurb about downsizing Abdullah’s second 67-strong Cabinet (32 Ministers and 35 Deputy Ministers) has not really borne fruit, as Najib has produced a bigger 68-strong Cabinet with 28 Ministers and 40 Deputy Ministers although there are four Ministers less.

Najib has appointed even more Ministers and Deputy Ministers than Mahathir’s last Cabinet after the 1999 general election, when there were only 27 Ministers and 27 Deputy Ministers, together with 15 Parliamentary Secretaries.

Najib’s unveiling of his Cabinet has set another record, being the worst public relations (PR) disaster in the nation’s history.
Najib’s P.R. advisers should be sacked for it was completely overshadowed by the ghost of murdered Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu after the morning’s High Court conviction and death sentence for policemen Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar for her C4 murder. Continue reading “Najib Cabinet not “lean”, may be “mean” – announcement overshadowed by ghost of Altantuya”

The end of the murder trial of the century in the Shah Alam High Court this morning, with policemen Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar found guilty and sentenced to death for murdering Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu, and then blowing up her body in a jungle clearing on Oct 19, 2006, is not going to end public fixation with any Altantuya-Najib nexus in national and international circles.

The question that is inevitably asked is who could be behind the two Bukit Aman Special Action Squad (UTK) cops’ C4 murder of Altantuya.

Those who had thought that the end of the Altantuya murder trial, with the conviction and death sentence pronounced on Azila and Sirul, would end national and international fixation with any connection of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak with the Altantuya murder case cannot be more wrong.

While Azilah and Sirul would appeal against the mandatory death sentence upon conviction under Section 149 of the Penal Code, their conviction and death sentence have not lessened but intensified public demands and necessity for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into swirling allegations of Najib’s involvement in the Altantuya’s C4 murder case. Continue reading “Death for Azilah/Sirul – intensify demand for RCI into allegations of Najib’s involvement in Altantuya C4 murder case”

by Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
Apr 8, 09

The results are in, and the 2-1 victory shows that both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional held onto their original seats. But the final tallies do not suggest a status quo. Far from it.

The larger majorities for the opposition indicate serious obstacles for Najib Abdul Razak and BN. Voters have decisively rejected his new leadership less than one week into his tenure. The debate will not only centre on the numbers, but around the factors that contributed to BN defeats.

Allow me to point out 10 factors that stand out.

1) Leadership credibility – Najib has a serious public image problem. Despite hiring public relations firms, his reform-oriented speeches and calls to give him a chance, the new premier has yet to win over the support of a majority of Malaysians. The results show that this problem is across races (even among the Malays), classes and generations. Continue reading “Pakatan’s rising hills, Najib’s declining slope”

by Azly Rahman

Two Hills were won – Bukit Selambau and Bukit Gantang.

I still remember when I was a child; the name “Bukit Gantang” is associated with a “panglima” or a warrior of fierce look and disposition equipped with the keris, Steroid-pumped up body and a tanjak (headgear). Hence Panglima Bukit Gantang. “Gantang” is a unit of measurement used to calibrate the amount of rice. A bigger unit than “secupak”. The more powerful one is in society, the more gantang one gets. The lower the rakyat is in rung of the “dog-eat-dog world”, the less “cupak” one gets. That’s the ugly side of the language of power/ideology/class of the people of “semangat padi”.

I still remember the word “selamba”, close to the sound of “Selambau”. I know what selamba means — “poker-faced” and no shame in playing dirty games. Selamba saja muka dia … That’s from a Johor dialect I grew up with. Now, “lahabau” is a bad/unacceptable/inappropriate/cuss word used by my friends from Melaka. It mean “jackass”, or worse, maybe. It is actually an affectionate greeting. Truly the Melakkans are good at ‘gangsta-use” of language. They would curse good friends secupak segantang ( a “truckload” of nasty words) when the meet friends who they have not met for months, years, maybe — wondering where this “lahabau” have been all these years. That explains my fear of meeting my friends from Melaka. Fear of being called “lahabau” or “hamlau” or “cilaka kau” in the process of being greeted! Yes– they are the fierce Vikings of Malaya, those modern Melakkans. Continue reading “Malaysia– After the Battle on Bonkers Hills”

The impressive victories by Pakatan Rakyat candidates in Bukit Gantang parliamentary and Bukit Selambau state assembly (Kedah) by-elections yesterday is a second political tsunami in Malaysian electoral politics in 13 months.

They are a double “no confidence” vote on Datuk Seri Najib Razak four days after being the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia as well as on Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir as the illegitimate and usurper Perak Mentri Besar following the undemocratic, unethical, illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak two months ago.

The Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau by-election results, with increased majorities for the Pakatan Rakyat candidates as compared to last year, are a clear and unmistakable endorsement of the March 8, 2008 political tsunami telling the nation and the world that what happened in the 12th general elections in March last year was neither accidental nor a fluke, to disappear like fireworks in the skies, but a major political paradigm shift representing the deep-seated and widely-held aspirations of Malaysians regardless of race or religion for democratic change.

Furthermore, that such fundamental political change is here to stay!

Continue reading “Second political tsunami – double ‘no confidence’ vote on Najib and Zambry”

By Farish A. Noor

The by-elections in Malaysia this week have demonstrated in many ways the fact that Malaysia’s political landscape has changed very little over the past year: The ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) that is dominated by the UMNO party won the by-election in East Malaysia, but lost both by-elections in the West Malaysian states of Perak and Kedah. In the case of the latter, the results of the elections have shown that the prevailing political mood in West Malaysia remains in favour of the opposition made up of the parties of the Peoples’ Alliance (Pakatan Rakyat), which won a majority of the votes in the Peninsula during the general elections of March 2008.

Political commentators and analysts will now set about dissecting the results of these elections and engage in the arcane art of political predictions: Not least for the simple reason that the by-election results will be seen as the peoples’ verdict on the standing and popularity of the country’s new Prime Minister, Datuk Najib Razak.

Sworn in as the country’s sixth Prime Minister less than a week ago, Najib Razak hails from one of the oldest elite families that have dominated the internal politics of UMNO – and by extension Malaysia – for more than half a century now. Son of the country’s second Prime Minister and connected to several of the aristocratic families of the country, Najib ironically cuts a curious figure in the context of Malaysia’s new and increasingly complex politics. In the 1950s and 60s he would have been seen as a prime candidate for the office of Prime Minister thanks to his elite background and Western education. But today Malaysia is witnessing the emergence of a new society that is infinitely more complex compared to the Malaysia of the 1950s. Continue reading “Malaysian Elections: A Case of Too Little, Too Late for the Government?”

Official Results

PKR	12,632
BN	10,229
Majority	2,403

—————

PKR wins with higher majority of 2,396

—————–

This is results coming in via SMS from Pooi in Bkt Selambau

9.06 pm

	PKR	BN
Bkt Balacan	256	338
Tmn Ria Selatan	882	578

————

9.01 pm Continue reading “Bukit Selambau results coming in”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Perak MB Nizar wins

PAS	21,860
BN	19,071
Independent	62
Majority	2,789
Voters turn out	75%

Continue reading “Bukit Gantang results coming in”

Breaking news : BN winning in Batang Ai

7.50pm Batang Ai OFFICIAL RESULTS

BN’s Malcolm Mussem Lamoh (3,907 votes) has beaten PKR’s Jawah Gerang (2,053). The majority is 1,854.

Update 2
Unofficial results – at 5.50 pm., BN majority in Batang Ai widens to 1,609 votes

Already 21 streams counted out of 25 polling streams.

BN	2901
PKR	1430
Majority	1415

The country is inundated with rumous and speculations about the first Najib Cabinet which may be unveiled tomorrow.

According to one report, as many as 10 Umno Cabinet Ministers may be dropped and among those named in this category are Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad, who has already tendered his resignation, and Second Finance Minister Datuk Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, Tourism Minister Datuk Azalina Othman, Energy, Water and communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor, Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique, Rural and Regional Development Minister Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd Taib, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khalid Nordin and Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Chik.

The Najib Cabinet is expected to be leaner than the Abdullah Cabinet.

MCA is reported to be demanding that a new post of a Chinese Deputy Prime Minister be created while MIC wants to have a second Cabinet appointment.

The first Abdullah Cabinet appointed after the Barisan Nasional landslide general election victory in March 2004 was a great disappointment – laying the seeds of the failure and downfall of the Abdullah premiership. Continue reading “Najib Cabinet – can it pass the test of being clean and the slogan of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now.”?”

This is the “Democracy Tree” video for which DAP Perak State Assemblyman for Tebing Tinggi, Ong Boon Piaw was arrested by the police on Sunday, 29th March 2009 purportedly in violation of the Film Censorship Act 2002 for “manufacturing, circulating, distributing, displaying” a DVD without first getting a B certificate from the Film Censorship Board.

Boon Piaw, who is out on police bail, will know on April 13 what the authorities propose to do in the case.

In his speech at the MPI-Petronas Malaysian Journalism Awards 2008/Malaysian Media Nite 2009 yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak called for a “free, vibrant and informed media empowered to report without fear of consequence and holding governments and public official accountable”.
Continue reading “The “Democracy Tree” DVD that the Police finds offensive”

The Bukit Gantang by-election has shaped into a battle between one Mentri Besar vs two Prime Ministers.

The Mentri Besar is Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, the popular and legitimate Perak MB and not the illegitimate usurper Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir.

Ranged against him are the new Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who had orchestrated the unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak and plunged the “silver state” into a political and constitutional stalemate in the past two months and the former Prime Minister of 22 years, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.

I had described Mahathir as swiftly taking his place as the eminence grise in the Najib premiership with the quick repudiation of whatever there is of the Abdullah legacy in Umno and the fifth premiership in the country.

For Mahathir’s role in the national affairs of state under Prime Minister Najib, there are blog visitors who prefer to summon up the image of Empress Dowager Cixi, who became the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, ruling over China for 48 years from her husband’s death in 1861 to her own death in 1908. Continue reading “Mahathir – the Empress Dowager of Prime Minister Najib”

by Tunku Abdul Aziz
Malaysian Insider
April 6, 2009

Every head of government, whether elected or not that I know of, begins his or her term of office by making some dramatic gesture or other. In a repressive regime such as ours, releasing political prisoners and other prisoners of conscience from detention camps in which they have no business being incarcerated in the first place, is de rigueur.

For a leader such as Tun Mahathir Mohamad, adopting this practice as a public demonstration of his overflowing compassion for the people of Malaysia was certainly not out of character.

The resultant public euphoria went as fast as it came when hundreds were later detained under the ISA in the Operation Lalang crackdown. I am naturally disappointed that Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak has allowed himself to freefall into the pits of cynicism by announcing the release of the ISA detainees days before the by-elections; one each in Kedah, Perak and Sarawak.

You, Najib, have missed a great opportunity to show us that you are different! Continue reading “Principled governance the only way forward for Najib”

by Azly Rahman
April 05, 2009

I read the following troubling Malaysiakini newsstory. It happened in Malaysia:

‘Belittling Islam’ – police report against DAP leader

by Jimadie Shah Othman | Apr 5, 09 11:52am | Malaysiakini

A police report has been filed against Perak DAP secretary Nga Kor Ming for allegedly belittling Islam during a ceramah in the campaign for Tuesday’s Bukit Gantang parliamentary by-election.

The report was filed by Malay Unity Action Front president Osman Abu Bakar at the Taiping district police headquarters this evening.

According to him, Nga – who is also the Taiping MP and Pantai Remis assemblyperson – made the disputed remarks during a ceramah in Changkat Jering two days ago, the contents of which were also published on Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s blog.

In his report, Osman accused the DAP leader of belittling Islam by reciting Quranic verses from the Surah Al-A’ raf for campaign purposes. Furthermore, he said the holy verses were recited improperly. Continue reading “What’s wrong with non-Muslims quoting Quranic verses?”

Many Malaysians must have very mixed thoughts about Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s appearance at the Bukit Gantang by-election hustings this morning and in particular at the 90-minute live telecast by TV1 of the entire event.

The first thought is that the Najib premiership has made no real difference with the continued unchecked and blatant abuse of government power and resources for Umno and Barisan Nasional purposes, the shocking lack of integrity in the inability of those in power to make the important distinctions among government, party and self which is the root cause of rampant corruption and abuses of power in a government dominated by Umno hegemony.

How can a government channel, TV1, give a live telecast to what is clearly a by-election campaigning by Umno/Barisan Nasional? TV1 is no different from RTM1, what it was known previously, which I had described as Radio/Television Mahathir in the 22-year Mahathir administration.

However, what must have occurred to many who happened to watch the live telecast was that they were not just watching Mahathir campaigning for Umno/BN in Bukit Gantang by-election after rejoining Umno, but a “coronation” of Mahathir as the eminence grise in the Najib premiership and the formal burial of the Abdullah legacy in Umno and Barisan Nasional! Continue reading “Mahathir’s coronation as eminence grise in Najib premiership”