Posted on

Karpal on the DAP

1 Feb 10 : 8.00AM
By Deborah Loh @ thenutgraph.com

DAP chairperson Karpal Singh is not one to shy from criticising his own political comrades and allies. For him, principles come first. And because of this, the fiery veteran has had no qualms about putting his colleagues in their places, often giving fodder to media speculation that the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is on the verge of collapse.

There was the time when Karpal told Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to quit the PR for promoting a culture of party-hopping. He’s also lambasted fellow party leaders, secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and adviser Lim Kit Siang, for not supporting his anti-hopping stand.

He has consistently resisted the idea of an Islamic state, calling on both PAS and Anwar to come clean on exactly what one would look like. And he called PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang an “embarrassment” over proposed unity talks with Umno.

In the second and final part of an interview with The Nut Graph conducted in Kuala Lumpur on 20 Jan 2010, Karpal talks about the DAP’s way forward with PAS and PKR. Continue reading “Karpal on the DAP”

Posted on

MCA Ministers and leaders are the “politically walking-dead” in Malaysia

Surprise of surprises that there is a MCA Minister and leader who could bestir from their political comatose stage to notice current developments around them.

The MCA paper The Star today reported the MCA vice president Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha as commenting that “the ‘internal bleeding’ of Pakatan Rakyat is just the beginning of a more serious problem for the pact” and that “Normally, in medical terms, if there’s haemorrhaging in the brain, it will lead to a stroke”.

Thanks Kong for the concern, which must have been quite an exertion from a denizen of the “politically walking-dead” in Malaysia – the MCA Ministers and leaders.

Malaysians have ceased to ask why MCA Ministers have failed to pull their weight in Cabinet, as it is generally recognized that the “politically walking-dead” can have zero weight or input in serious matters of state – which is why MCA Ministers have nothing to say in Cabinet about national issues whether 1Malaysia, NEP, braindrain, corruption, galloping crime or recent issues as in getting the Cabinet to direct the Home Ministry to withdraw its appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court judgment of Datuk Lau Bee Lan allowing the Catholic weekly Herald to use the word “Allah” in the Bahasa Malaysia edition and to convene an inter-religious conference to resolve the “Allah” controversy; the exclusion of Chinese and Tamil primary schools in the selection of the first list of 20 high-performance schools or the Jakim insubordination and insurrection in organsing a forum for 800 civil servants last Thursday which openly defied the 1Malaysia concept.
Continue reading “MCA Ministers and leaders are the “politically walking-dead” in Malaysia”

Posted on

Cabinet must condemn and take action against Jakim’s insubordination and open insurrection against Najib’s 1Malaysia concept

In his opening speech for the International Conference on Religion, Law and Governance in South-East Asia on Saturday, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the tremendous force of religion must be harnessed to advance social and national unity.

He said: “A sign of our times is that religious and spiritual values take on renewed importance for human fulfillment. This is most relevant for stability and peace in fostering new openness between religions.” (Star 31.1.10)

Yesterday, Najib called on Malaysians to stand united against crude attempts to disrupt harmony in the country including the recent spate of incidents on houses of worship. (NST 1.2.10)

It must be a matter of grave concern that while Najib is preaching the tremendous power of religion to advance social and national unity, calling on Malaysians to stand united as a people, another government agency is guilty of a very crude attempt to disrupt harmony in the country virtually mounting an insurrection against Najib’s 1Malaysia concept and vision and challenging the authority of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

In Parliament last November and December, the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) which had been given a budget of more than RM600 million since 2,000, was exposed as a government agency which had been guilty of anti-national activities, creating more racists than Malaysian nationalists with its divisive, racist and seditious brain-washing by pumping communal poison and inciting racial hatred and animosity in the guise of “national civics courses”.
Continue reading “Cabinet must condemn and take action against Jakim’s insubordination and open insurrection against Najib’s 1Malaysia concept”

Posted on

Anwar And Najib – Up Close and Very Revealing

by M. Bakri Musa

The side-by-side commentaries by Anwar Ibrahim and Najib Razak in the recent Asian edition of the Wall Street Journal illuminated a couple of salient points, in particular, the state of Malaysian journalism and the quality of our leadership.

Consider first Malaysian editors, specifically of the mainstream media. They missed the essential point that the best way to intelligently inform their readers is to present them with contrasting and opposing viewpoints, as illustrated by what The Journal did. Respect your readers’ intelligence and treat them like adults.

Bernama mentioned the Journal’s articles as a news item but referred only to Najib’s piece. Obviously the Bernama editors’ instinct was to please Najib and protect his image. They see themselves less as professional journalists and more as propagandists for the state. Their reaction was predictable.

That the cue from Bernama was quickly picked up by the other mainstream editors too did not surprise me. They are after all from the same mold. What grabbed my attention however, was what the Sun Daily did. I remember that paper as one that had the courage right from the beginning to be a tad independent, and its journalists less willing to genuflect to the powerful; hence its success despite its recent entry into the business.

The Sun merely reprinted Bernama’s piece, again with no mention of Anwar’s contrasting viewpoint. The Sun’s editors had access to both commentaries (they are available on-line) but chose to follow Bernama’s lead instead of their own editorial judgment. That reflects the challenges in maintaining journalistic integrity in an oppressive environment.
Continue reading “Anwar And Najib – Up Close and Very Revealing”