Month: October 2009

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak went before the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris yesterday to extend his 1Malaysia motto to 1World.

Four years ago, at the University of Malaya’s centennial celebrations in June 2005, as Deputy Prime Minister, Najib threw the challenge to University of Malaya to raise its 89th position among the world’s top 100 universities in Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) ranking in 2004 to 50 by the year 2020.

Instead of accepting Najib’s challenge with incremental improvement of its THES ranking, the premier university went into a free fall for two years followed by completely disappearing from the Top 200 Universities ranking in the past two years.

After being ranked in 2004 at 89th position in the THES-QS World Top Universities, University of Malaya fell to 169th in 2005 and 192nd placing in 2006, and in the past two years of 2007 and 2008 rankings, not only University of Malaya but Malaysia fell out of the 200 Top Universities altogether!

We can only hope that Najib’s 1Malaysia and 1World calls will not be as dismal as his call in 2005 to University of Malaya to be among the world’s top 50 universities.

Tomorrow, Malaysians will know whether Malaysian universities could redeem themselves and get back into the World Top 200 Universities ranking when the 2009 THES-QS World Top Universities ranking is released, or whether Malaysia has fallen into the “black hole” of international university competitiveness stakes, unable to prove their academic quality, excellence and worth in the international arena. Continue reading “Tomorrow D-Day for Malaysian universities – THES-QS Top 200 Universities Ranking 2009”

by Hussein Hamid

Will someone tell if this Najib is the Prime Minister of UMNO, of the Malays or of Malaysia. I did not mention the Chinese, the Indians and the Others because by default and by his actions he has certainly made these people reject him as their Prime Minister. So that leaves the Malays and Malaysia because he certainly is Prime Minister of UMNO. Now because Malaysia is made up of not only Malays but also the others then again by default he cannot be Prime Minister for Malaysia. So that leaves the Malays.

The jury is still out and deliberating this issue. Yes there are only Malays in UMNO. But are the interests of UMNO and the Malays the same? The Malays are Muslims. And so, it seems are the profess religion of those in UMNO. Tapi cakap bukan serupa bikin. Islam frowns on greed, corruption, and deceit. UMNO does not. Continue reading “Prime Minister of UMNO?”

In the Bagan Pinang by-election, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin claims that the government would not allow any quarters to disrupt racial unity in the country and would promptly act against those who played up sensitive racial issues.

He said since the Barisan Nasional (BN) governed the country, it had managed to unite the various races which had different cultures, customs and religions.

Muhyddin’s claim that BN unites the various races in Malaysia has never sounded so hollow when Umno is most guilty of playing the racial card to cling to power.

It is now Pakatan Rakyat which has a more legitimate claim to represent the diverse races, cultures and religions in the country than Barisan Nasional as demonstrated by the results of the March 8 general elections last year and subsequent developments. Continue reading “Muhyiddin claim that BN unites various races in Malaysia never sounded so hollow when Umno most guilty playing racial card to cling to power”

by TN
Letters

I would like to firstly thank you for your blog posts.

I do not know where to go with this but my sibling who is in a government university (UPSI) told me she will be not be getting any posting for the next 2 years after she graduates.

She said that the reason given by the university is that the economy is doing badly and no new teachers will be taken in.

I hope this issue would be investigated and higlighted to the mass media.

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s defence of Tan Sri Mohd Isa Ismail’s corruption offence as only a “technical matter” is a mega-tonne explosion demolishing one of the six National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) he announced on his Hundred Day as Prime Minister – “fighting corruption”.

Responding to the unabated criticisms of the choice of Isa as Umno/Barisan Nasional candidate for Bagan Pinang by-election, Najib told Malaysian students in Paris that Isa was chosen based on his capability and popularity, and that Isa’s offence was only a technical matter within UMNO and did not involve the judiciary of the country.

Najib said the question is whether Isa deserved a second chance or not, pointing out that in our system, even a criminal gets a second chance and can contest the post after serving his or her punishment.

Najib’s argument and logic are full of holes and do not stand up to scrutiny. They merely expose the hollowness and hypocrisy of the Najib administration in declaring “fighting corruption” as one of the six NKRA priority areas for constant assessment of “key performance indicators”. Continue reading “Najib’s defence of Isa’s corruption offence a mega-tonne explosion demolishing his NKRA to “fight corruption””

by Hussein Hamid

UMNO’s championing of Ketuanan Melayu from the time of Mahathir is not the result of its beliefs in the superiority of the Malay race nor was it looking at raising the lot of the Malays to what was promised in the context of the NEP. It was simply a ploy for the rise and rise of UMNO’S to its dominant position in Malaysian Politics so that they could enrich themselves to their hearts content….and their hearts are not content yet! .And so with Mahathir begun the divide and rule of the Malaysian people.

But now the Rakyat has seen that the rot has set in. We can see how precisely this policy was being used. In the enriching of the UMNO elite but not the Malays.

UMNO could not.

In the injustice and sufferings it had caused to the non-Malays by denying them basic rights and decency in a country they call home.

UMNO could not. Continue reading “Bagan Pinang…there is no Plan B (part two)”

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday he was confident that the 1Malaysia vision has spurred the people to a new level of optimism which will translate into a stronger support for Barisan Nasional (BN) in the Bagan Pinang by-election.

However, the muck-spreading and mud-slinging campaign launched by Umno/Barisan Nasional in Bagan Pinang yesterday even before the completion of the nomination process had in one fell swoop exposed the hollowness and hypocrisy of Najib’s 1Malaysia slogan as an overarching unifying national objective.

Two racist books were distributed in the Bagan Pinang constituency inciting communal hatred and animosities against Pakatan Rakyat leaders with scurrilous and baseless allegations about the sidelining and betrayal of the rights and interests of Malays – one entitled “Wajah Sebenar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim: Nasib Orang Melayu Selangor” (The Real Face of Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim: The Plight of the Selangor Malays) and the other “50 Kemusykilan Tentang Manusia Bernama Anwar Ibrahim” (50 Questions on The Man Called Anwar Ibrahim) Continue reading “Najib and Muhyiddin should apologise for Umno’s racist muck-spreading and mud-slinging tactics which make nonsense of the PM’s 1Malaysia slogan”

by Augustine Anthony

This is awful!

And I mean awful by the decision of UMNO and Barisan Nasional in fielding Isa Samad (Tan Sri) as the candidate for the Bagan Pinang constituency by-election. I will say no more about the Barisan Nasional candidate or the Bagan Pinang by election but let us explore election time in Malaysia in general.

During election time, it is common to see and hear voters being promised with all kinds of frills in the coming days before polling. It will be the same re-run of the past election campaigns with no thrills of a nation building agenda. For too long, too many politicians from the ruling coalition have engaged Malaysians in this primitive barter trade shamelessly. “You give me the votes and I will give you the roads, boats, goats, dough in loads etc. etc. etc.” This scheming scheme had even turned some opposition politicians into tricky toads.

And the usual ceramahs with a generous dose of hate message. One will be disappointed if the expectation is that the speakers will engage in topics of nation building issues like creating new leaders out of the younger generation, eradication of corruption, improving the system of governance, encouraging better race relations, a promise of better education for our children, assurance of more job opportunity for voters that brings security for families, dedication in fighting escalating crimes, etc. Continue reading “Grassroots – The other definition, the destructive definition”

by Thomas Lee

The Bagan Pinang by-election on Oct 11 is an opportunity for the voters to tell the Braisan Nasional in no uncertain term that the practice of corruption and cronyism must be wiped out in the country. They must go all out to ensure the defeat of the Umno candidate.

By fielding a candidate suspended by his own party for corrupt practice, the Barisan Nasional is obviously snubbing the people, indicating that it couldn’t care less about what they think and feel. It is a de facto endorsement of corrupt practices.

By nominating such a tainted candidate for the Bagan Pinang by-election, the purported high moral ground on which the Umno leaders have been self-righteously proclaiming has been exposed as a mere hollow sinking ground.

Umno is arrogantly confident and cocksure that it will win the Bagan Pinang battle even with a corruption-contaminated candidate.

The voters of Bagan Pinang must come out in full force to show Umno through the ballot box that the days of its exaggerated sense of superiority are numbered. Continue reading “A vote for Pakatan is a vote against corruption”

Thirteen years ago Malaysia proclaimed the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) as “a gift to the world” and the centrepiece of the country’s strategic initiative to leapfrog the nation into the IT era to become one of the world IT powers.

Since then, MSC and Malaysia have faded away from the world radar screen as an international IT hotspot – and Malaysia’s unchecked plunge in IT international competitiveness in the past decade has been confirmed by another adverse global study, the 2009 Oxford/Cisco Global Broadband Quality Score.

This study of the global state of broadband quality put Malaysia 53rd out of 66 countries in terms of the quality and reach of its networks – understandably behind countries like Korea, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, United States but also trailing countries we should be leading like Turkey, Chile, China, Qatar, Brazil, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Costa Rica, Bahrain, Thailand, Tunisia, Mexico, Philippines and UAE.
Continue reading “Malaysia in unchecked plunge in IT international competitiveness as illustrated by another adverse global study – the 2009 Oxford/Cisco Global Broadband Quality Score”

When he was announced as the Barisan Nasional candidate for Bagan Pinang by-election on Tuesday, Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad declared that he did not “commit a crime, but had violated the party elections’ code of ethics” in addressing the issue of his qualification and credibility as a candidate on account of his money politics in Umno which caused him to be suspended as an Umno for three years.

This is a fallacious argument and it does not speak highly of the commitment of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, the Cabinet Ministers and leaders of the Barisan Nasional parties whether Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC or the Sabah and Sarawak parties that no one finds anything wrong with such an argument or prepared to make a stand of principle.

Technically Isa had not committed any crime, as he had not been convicted, in fact, not even charged in court for corruption arising from Umno money politics which led to his three-year party suspension.

But was this because money politics in Umno was a mere party infraction and not a criminal offence of corruption, or was it just another example of the double-standards of the Attorney-General and the anti-corruption agency failing to uphold the law without fear or favour, regardless of status, wealth or position?
Continue reading “With no statute of limitation, will the Attorney-General charge Isa in court for the corruption of money politics in Umno?”

by Hussein Hamid

What was Anwar’s biggest contribution to what we are today? I sat and ponder over this question the whole day today. I wanted to write about it and yet I cannot because there were so many thoughts that came and went inside me. All I could do today was about two half page – notes on times go by – Cakap cakap about AP and then I revisited the “Bentong car park” issue because one of our friends sent me something new about that car park. It is now 11.42pm and I have been thinking since 7.15am this morning….fifteen minutes ago it hit me! I believe that what Anwar did to me and to many of us can be conceptualised in two words:

“POLITICAL AWAKENING”

Before Anwar was dismissed by Mahatir I was a Bumiputra intent on pursuing my “rights” as a Bumiputra. The right to have a share in the perceived richness brought into the consciousness of the Malays as a result of the New Economic Policies. All that was in my mind was where the next ringgit was going to be found. Tenders, project proposals, pink slips, AP’s, IPO, licenses, Privatisation opportunities…life was a whirl of meetings and discussions in five star hotels and lunches in restaurants whose name you find hard to pronounce – Troika was one of those that I can still remember – in Jalan Raja Chulan. The evenings were again another whirl of coffee houses and meetings until the early mornings. Continue reading “In the beginning he was DPM!”