Month: September 2009

Today’s media report top government leaders virtually falling upon one another in their competition to denounce and declare action being taken against fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and Malaysia-Today website under the Official Secrets Act for leaking on the Internet an 18-page Treasury Memorandum to the Cabinet in June 2007 on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

Led by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, those who had spoken of action under the Official Secrets Act include the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, the Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar and Director of Commercial Criminal Investigation Department, Datuk Koh Hong Sun.

However, none of them has shown any concern about the right to know of Malaysians about the hows and whys the taxpayers are being burdened with the “mother of all scandals” – the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal running through three Prime Ministers, three Finance Ministers and four Port Klang Authority Chairmen.

Najib said: “We will inform the people what we should concerning the case and we will do so later but that is no excuse to reveal cabinet papers.”
Continue reading “Why didn’t AG Gani prosecute previous Transport Ministers Ling and Chan for unlawfully issuing 4 Letters of Support causing the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?”

By Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP life adviser

The other day PM Najib’s kitchen cabinet announced plans to make Malaysia a high income developed country. Two days later he announced Malaysia will become a F1 racing country to bring glory and prestige as a renowned automobile producer of world standards.

Proton is sucking up millions every year of taxpayers’ money to support the automobile industry, and now F1 will require spending a billion or more annually. It will increase the financial burden of the people.

Tun Mahathir supports the F1 initiative because it will bring publicity worth millions for Malaysia, as F1 races are splashed across the media. He forgets that it will also focus on the sorry state of the automobile industry headed by Proton.
Continue reading “Joining Formula 1 is glamorous but will not help to make Malaysia a high income developed country”

Malaysian Election and Army votes I
by drrafick

1. With the Bagan Pinang by-election just around the corner there have been concerns voiced by Pakatan Rakyat and the Rakyat as to whether there will be manipulations by Barisan with regards to the Army Postal votes . Nearly 5000 postal votes from the Army will make a difference to the results of the by-elections and being a former serviceman, I know that their concern is not without merit. Allow me to share my experience of going through 3 elections while I was serving in the Army.

2. Soldier’s votes are very important to Barisan as we all know that their numbers are significant when they are located in high concentration areas. I am not sure how many remembered that Najib won narrowly in Pekan during the General Election that took place after Anwar was sacked from UMNO. In that year, Najib the number of postal votes that came from the Army and Air Force base in Batu 9 and Batu 10 Kuantan made all the difference to him winning.

3. During the same GE, Anuar Musa lost the Ketereh seat because the airman at the Gong Kedak, which is located at the border of Kelantan and Terengganu, chose to abstain from voting. The camp is unique as it is located right at the border of Kelantan and Terengganu. They live in Terengganu and they go to work by crossing the road which brings them into Kelantan. They votes goes into Anuar Musa area in Kelantan. I remember when his wife complained to me that the soldiers were ungrateful for not voting BN.
Continue reading “Malaysian Election and Army votes”

Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s Malaysia-Today website is not accessible.

Has it anything to do with the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) documents, including Cabinet papers, on the website in the past three days?

New Straits Times reported today that investigations have been ordered into Malaysia-Today’s disclosures of secret official government documents showing how the Port Klang Free Zone issue had spiraled into disaster.

The Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail was quoted as saying that if the document was genuine, action could be taken against the editor of the website under the Official Secrets Act.

The time has come for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to honour his pledge of public accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance which must include a commitment to freedom of information and respecting the right of Malaysians to information about the entire process as to how Malaysia could be landed with a RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal through three Prime Ministers, three Transport Ministers and four Port Klang Authority Chairmen.
Continue reading “Raja Petra’s Malaysia-Today website not accessible – any connection with disclosure of the PKFZ Cabinet documents?”

By G. Krishnan

Are you keeping track of the slippers being flung so far in the slipper spat that has ensued? I have to admit, a few more of these slippers and I might just lose track of who is partaking in it – not to mention the ‘quality’ of the slipper being flung, by whom, and in which direction!

Mahathir’s most recent confession that the hits he took to his image from the slippers hurled at him from several within Umno itself must surely be one of the unequivocal highlights of this slipper fight. I can only imagine the sheer embarrassment – not to mention utter shock – this must come to those Umno cronies after they apparently flexed their muscles and primed themselves to fling Sukumaran and the MIC with their own political slippers.

Of course this retort by Mahathir about Umno having done more to insult him than Sukumaran’s now famous ‘slipper garland’ comment triggered so many me images and phrases in my mind: Umno hypocrisy, the pot calling the kettle black, blowback, getting burnt, self-inflicted wound, and a stunt that backfired are but just some of the things that came to mind.
Continue reading “Were Umno’s Slippers Soleless, Mukhriz?”

By Hussein Hamid

It would seem that Malaysia is once again, in the words of our Prime Minister Najib, raising its “profile on the world stage” by having it’s own team in Formula One next year. The first thought that hit me was this – if BMW has decided to wind down its Formula One Team after just four seasons in order to focus the resources that had been expended on the company’s F1 program to the “development of new drive technologies and projects in the field of sustainability” why oh why must this fool rush in where angels fear to tread?

Here are the other headlines news that is relevant to this issue – relevant because it only serves to complicate matters and again confirm that the usual suspects are involved – Politics, ‘big business’ well known personalities and taking money from the Rakyat:

“This is where the cars will be designed, manufactured and tested. It will be ‘Made-in-Malaysia, by Malaysians’ and of course, the pit-stops will be run by Malaysians,” he said. Najib.
Continue reading “Vrroooom….vrrooom”

In the past five-and-a-half months of his premiership, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had made valiant attempts to project his administration’s commitment to reform, accountability, integrity and good governance as exemplified by his slogan of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now”, his website, walkabouts and his emphasis on KPIs with the appointment of two KPI Ministers.

But all these efforts by Najib had failed to convince the Malaysian public that the Prime Minister is committed or capable of fundamental change in government.

One important reason is the long drawn-out farce of the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal – resulting in the public fallout between the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club (BNBBC) Chairman Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing who is also the CEO of the PKFZ turnkey contractor Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd and other political skirmishes in MCA, Umno and Barisan Nasional.
Continue reading “Best Hari Raya present Najib can give country is to declassify all Cabinet minutes and documents relating to PKFZ scandal”

by Art Harun

When I first read the news report in the Star that YAA Tan Sri Zaki, the Chief Justice, had told 2 errant High Court Judges to voluntarily resign, my initial reaction was one of pleasure. I thought it was good that the CJ has finally cracked the whip and told these useless Judges to leave the Judiciary. However, after having thought about this issue with a little bit more depth, I am now hesitant to say that it was a good move by the Chief Justice.

Our Judiciary was among the best in the Commonwealth prior to 1988. We had people of absolute integrity and capable of serving justice with the highest standard of knowledge of the law coupled with flawless judicial temperament. Tun Suffian was highly regarded as among the finest. His Majesty the Sultan of Perak, Raja Azlan Shah was among the best. Tan Sri Eusoffee Abdool Cadeer, who would scold Counsel in Latin, could teach a thing or two about the law even to some British law Lords themselves. And at the lower rung of the Courts, we had Judges such as Dato’ VC George; Dato’ Mahadev Shanker; Dato’ NH Chan; Dato’ Razak Abu Samah, Tan Sri Harun Hashim et al. It was indeed a pleasure and an honour for me, as a young Counsel then, to appear before all these legal giants.
Continue reading “Cleaning up the Judiciary – was the Chief Justice right?”

For the 46th year today, Malaysia Day is commemorated in national disunity rather than national unity.

This should not be the case as five months ago, when Datuk Seri Najib Razak become the sixth Prime Minister, he had proclaimed the new motto of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now”.

Najib had the opportunity to right the wrongs of the past 45 years with the people of Sabah and Sarawak marginalized from the mainstream of national development although it was the support of the people of Sabah and Sarawak in the political tsunami of the March 8, 2008 general elections which had kept the Barisan Nasional Federal Government afloat.

In the general elections last year Barisan Nasional won 140 Parliamentary seats as against the Pakatan Rakyat’s 82, but 54 of the BN parliamentary seats came from Sabah and Sarawak (Sabah 24 and Sarawak 30).

Without these 54 parliamentary seats from Sabah and Sarawak, BN would be reduced to 86 seats out of 222 MPs in Parliament, evicting the BN from Putrajaya into the Opposition and Najib today would have been Parliamentary Opposition Leader instead of Prime Minister.
Continue reading “There can be no meaningful 1Malaysia when Malaysia Day Sept. 16 is regarded as a Sabah and Sarawak event rather than as a national celebration”

By Hussein Hamid

Yesterday I received an email that disturbed me. It disturbed me because of the venom that it spewed on me. It said that as a Malay I am a disgrace to my race. That I deserved to be put in ‘neraka’ (hell) for advocating that the Malays no longer should be with UMNO. Do I not know that the orang Cina, India and ‘others’ together with DAP want to take over this country – that it is not ‘keadilan dan demokrasi’ that they want. What they want is the Political Power that now is in the hands of the Malays. We are the Malays! Are you not a Malay…they ask me?

Then I am reminded of the screaming newspaper headlines that I see in the “National” Malay newspapers.

1. “Ketuanan Melayu Tercabar”
2. “Jangan Persoal – Ketuanan Melayu bukan jenaka yang boleh dipermainkan”
3. “Bangkitlah Melayu – Bersatu hadapi tuntutan kaum lain yang makin keterlaluan”

To those that understand Bahasa there is no need for me to translate. To those that do not I will not translate lest I am accused of inciting racial discord.
Continue reading “A traitor again?”

By Hussein Hamid

“The people who live in the kampongs in Bagan Pinang are so very poor, Hussein. They have simple homes, and live simple lives. And they are fine people: friendly, happy, simple, good. It is a shame that despite the fact that their own kind are in power, their lot hasn’t changed”.

“If they hated our (the non malays) guts, I’d not be surprised. I might too, given that I had bumiputera status, and I had less than the bangsa asing that live next door! Sigh, things are so wrong here lah, I wouldn’t know how to change them – there’s so much to do.”

“We’re silenced by the parties that are supposed to represent us (mic, mca, gerakan, and other impotent idiots), so most will be behind Pakatan”.

“I think if we took the government, their slogans and their so-called advice out of the equation, we’d all get along fine! It’s with their help that we have these feelings that we’re not getting enough, or being bullied out of our rightful place! It’s all too stupid”.

This was what I was told when I inquired of a friend living in Bagan Pinang as to what was Bagan Pinang like. That in a nutshell is the situation in Bagan Pinang – if we take the ‘postal votes’ factor out of the equation. Continue reading “Bagan Pinang…there is no Plan B!”

It is a great disappointment that the MCA Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) is not being used for a united MCA call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal to bring to book all MCA, Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders implicated in the “mother of all scandals”.

When former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin could say that the PKFZ fiasco provides the Barisan Nasional government the best opportunity to fulfill its promise of cracking down on corruption, abuse of power and mismanagement, why are MCA, Umno and other Barisan Nasional component parties dragging their feet when they should be acting decisively to identity and punish the wrongdoers, without fear or favour and regardless of their present or past position or status?

Daim speaks with great authority, knowledge and experience when he said:

“The government must punish all those lawbreakers, only then can it regain the public’s confidence.
Continue reading “Chief Secretary should explain why he had failed in past two years to carry out Cabinet mandate to identify and punish culprits responsible for the unlawful issue of four Letters of Support by two Transport Ministers?”

By Hussein Hamid

In September 2008 The Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) media release said in essence that:

“Penan women from the Middle Baram area of Sarawak are launching a cry of alarm to the international community over cases of sexual abuse by logging company workers in the East Malaysian state’s rainforests.

The Penan are accusing workers from Interhill and Samling, two Malaysian logging companies, of harassing and raping Penan women, including schoolgirls. They come on an almost weekly basis, but the situation is worst during the school holidays when they know the students are in the villages.

In other cases, school transports operated by company vehicles had been arranged in such a way that schoolgirls had to stay overnight at a logging camp, where they were abused.

Continue reading “Penans – Last of our Mohicans?”

The Cabinet on Wednesday should ask for Tan Sri Musa Hassan’s resignation as Inspector-General of Police in view of the 25-rank drop of Malaysia’s security indicator resulting in a three-point drop in Malaysia’s global competitiveness ranking in World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 released last week.

Malaysia has dropped three positions to 24th from 21st ranking last year in the latest WEF GCR announced just before the WEF’s annual meeting of the New Champions, dubbed “Summer Davos”, in Dalian China.

This was essentially the result of a much poorer assessment of its institutional framework – with every indicator in the area exhibiting a downward trend since 2007, causing Malaysia to tumble from 17th to 43rd position in this dimension in just two years.

Security in Malaysia is of particular concern with its ranking dropped 25 levels to 85th.
Continue reading “Cabinet on Wednesday should ask for Musa Hassan’s resignation as IGP in view of the 25-rank drop of Malaysia’s security indicator”

26-vote margin still fresh in my mind, says Subra
The Star
Wednesday September 9, 2009

PETALING JAYA: Datuk S. Subramaniam has hit out at his nemesis MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu for claiming that the 30 “pocketed votes” in the 1977 party elections was an impossibility.

The former party deputy president also brushed off Samy Vellu’s claim that he and Datuk V. Govindaraj were “pathological liars”.

“Govindaraj told me he did it. He was Samy Vellu’s man and led his campaign then.

“I can’t recall off-hand the total number of votes cast in 1977 but I know that the difference was 26. That is still fresh in my mind.”

Govindaraj told an English daily recently that he took the 30 votes cast for Subramaniam during the party polls that saw Samy Vellu defeating Subramaniam for the deputy president’s post by a mere 26 votes. Continue reading “The 30 votes that changed Samy Vellu/MIC history?”

Although the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak kicked off his premiership five months ago with a pledge to raise efficiency and productivity of the public delivery system, even appointing the Gerakan President Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon to be the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Minister, the new Prime Minister has not been able to convince Malaysians that he is prepared to do whatever is necessary to check the rot in public service standards.

This hard truth was illustrated by the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2009-2010 released a few days ago which saw Malaysia’s global competitiveness ranking dropped three positions to 24th from 21st spot last year.

This report was released ahead of WEF’s annual meeting of the New Champions, dubbed “Summer Davos”, in Dalian, China.
Continue reading “Malaysia’s three-place drop in WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 because of worsening crime is powerful reason why Musa Hassan should not continue as Inspector-General of Police”

By Hussein Hamid

Anwar Ibrahim was born in August 1947. Me in October 1947. Two months separates us at birth-enough for me to be able to say that he is older, but possibly two or three lifetimes separates us knowing what he has gone through in his life.

I remember the time when I wanted to meet up with him to find out what he was doing with his life. He was then teaching at one of the shop houses along Jalan Pantai – possible with Adabi if I am not mistaken. I did find him and he was indeed teaching and in slippers. At home that evening I casually told my father that I had met Anwar that afternoon. My father was then Director of CID. He stopped, looked at me and said sternly “Engkau tak ada kerja lain?” Whenever my father uses “engkau” when addressing me I knew that he was not amused. And he then went on to lecture me as to why it would be in my best interest to keep away from Anwar!
Continue reading “Anwar Ibrahim – he cannot sing he cannot dance….”

By Augustine Anthony

Wing collar with bands, wearing a black jacket and holding my robe, my brisk stride to the usual work place came to a momentary halt by a gentle voice coming from the back me. “Bos boleh menang kah… ini BN Ooh”

In a short given moment, that gentle voice had many misgivings about the state of affairs in our country, but then I had to go or else I will be late. Then with a tinge of despair the parting words came from that gentle voice. “Tapi apa boleh buat, kita mesti undi dia”.

From his attire and the way he spoke my reading is, he must be a civil servant.

Later that evening, I sat down and thought about the words of that gentle voice that were spiked with sadness. There were no hidden meanings to decipher. The emotions were simple and clear to understand. I know. And so let us talk about fear. And not just our fear but of those who are opposed to our thoughts and actions.
Continue reading “A nation ripe with fear”

I am giving notice that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak will have to explain in Parliament next month why the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein is not charged for incitement and sedition in initially defending and justifying the cow-head protest in Shah Alam section 23 three days before National Day, committing the crime of ultimate religious insensitivity and sacrilege, if Malaysiakini is charged for showing the cowhead protest video clips.

The Malaysiakini video clips of the cowhead protests is highly offensive, not because of the news portal but because of the action of the irresponsible people who showed utter contempt for the sensitivities and sensibilities in a plural society as well as a top Cabinet Minister who could be guilty of such offensive conduct as to defend and justify such protest.

The cowhead protestors should be prosecuted. Even the Home Minister should be prosecuted. But it would not enter into any sensible, rational and reasonable person’s mind that Malaysiakini should be prosecuted – except those who have an axe to grind in wanting to penalize the news portal for the audacity of reporting the truth!
Continue reading “Najib will have to explain in Parliament next month why Hishammuddin is not prosecuted for sedition if Malaysiakini is charged for cowhead protest video clips”

By Tunku Aziz

The Javanese have done it again. They have burned our national flag.

Many years ago, I was interviewed in London by BBC Radio 2 as part of a series on the great languages of the world. I was asked about some significant differences between Bahasa Indonesia and our own Bahasa Melayu. I feigned ignorance about the existence of a language called Bahasa Indonesia. I said what Indonesia claimed as its language is really Bahasa Melayu.

They had no choice but to use Bahasa Melayu, the lingua franca of the Malay world to communicate among themselves because they never had a common language to begin with. Malay is undoubtedly the basis of their language. So, if we do what they in Indonesia do so well, we should be burning their flag every day because they have purloined our national language.

An excessive display of nationalistic zeal is generally considered “ugly” in civilised societies. The Indonesians by their actions have reduced themselves into sad figures of ridicule and fun. Their claim, and not for the first time, that we have infringed their “cultural copyrights” is totally absurd. They now have got it into their heads that we should stop singing our national anthem because the tune was Indonesian. What else next? Stop eating satay and wearing kain batik because these are Indonesian?
Continue reading “Indonesia, we are not your whipping boy”