Posted on

Pakatan Rakyat must be prepared for snap 13th general elections to be held in six month

The Mentri Besar of the usurper Barisan Nasional Perak state government, Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir has called on Barisan Nasional component parties to be prepared for snap polls and Barisan Nasional component parties are openly calling on their members to be ready for early general elections next year.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat must be prepared for snap 13th general elections to be held in six months.

In his 18 months as Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has launched three major initiatives – 1Malaysia policy; the New Economic Model and on Tuesday, the RM1.4 trillion Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) to achieve a high-income economy by 2020.

However, all these three Najib landmark measures have failed to take-off successfully as illustrated by the lukewarm response of the RM1.4 trillion ETP in the Kuala Lumpur stock market. Continue reading “Pakatan Rakyat must be prepared for snap 13th general elections to be held in six month”

Posted on

My reply to Muhyiddin could simply be: It’s the political will, stupid!

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has challenged me to show him the part of the Constitution or law where a deputy prime minister or education minister has the powers to take action against a senior civil servant with a permanent position.

Akin to the American political catchphrase, “It’s the economy, stupid”, I could have simply responded: “It’s the political will, stupid”.

But as a Malaysian, I will not do so. Muhyiddin accused me of ignorance as I have never been a government officer and worse, of being “100 per cent politician” but I will not reply by hurling the latter accusation back at him and say he is “120 per cent politician” and that he is not acting like a Deputy Prime Minister at all, let alone a 1Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister for all Malaysians.

Nobody suggested that Muhyiddin should personally take action against the two principals, one from Johore and another in Kedah, who uttered incendiary, racist and sensitive remarks to their students in school, as asking “the Chinese students to go back to China” and likened the Hindu prayer bracelets to a dog leash, but he must doubly bear responsibility as Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister for a government which for 45 days has not been able to take action against such offensive, racist and sensitive remarks, especially occurring in the education sector with two principals as the culprits!

This is for two reasons: Continue reading “My reply to Muhyiddin could simply be: It’s the political will, stupid!”

Posted on

Najib should first ensure religious tolerance is practised at home in Malaysia before offering advice on religious tolerance to President Obama

by Dr Chen Man Hin

In the first place, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should not assume that Malaysia is a Muslim country. Malaysia is a multireligious society. while Malays who form 55% of the population are Muslims, the other 45 per cent are Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, animists, atheists, etc.

Religious tolerance – there is limited religious tolerance in Malaysia. Islam is favoured by the government and is regarded as the ‘big brother’ of religion.

There is a consultative council for religions but Islam is not a member – , although invited to join. Islamic leaders prefer to stay away.

Dialogue between Islam and other religions is limited. The attitude is that Islam is superior.

The word ‘ALLAH’ is regarded as sacred and is not allowed to be invoked or used by religions other than Islam. This is religious intolerance as the word Allah is freely used in the Middle East by all religions, which has been the practice even before the advent of Islam. Continue reading “Najib should first ensure religious tolerance is practised at home in Malaysia before offering advice on religious tolerance to President Obama”

Posted on

Protecting the vulnerable

by Tunku Abdul Aziz
My Sinchew
25th Sept 2010

The Government of Indonesia is absolutely right to ban their nationals from coming to work as domestic servants in Malaysia until our own government is prepared to guarantee the safety and well being of these women. This is the least the Government of Indonesia can do to protect their people from being routinely and savagely abused by Malaysian employers. The excesses that are reported in the pages of our newspapers are a shameful reminder of our ambivalent attitude to human cruelty and suffering.

Maid abuse is not a Malaysian invention; it has, however, become an ugly hallmark of our domestic employment culture. There have been far too many reported cases of inhuman physical treatment of foreign maids to ignore. The number of unreported cases of criminal abuse is staggeringly high. What sort of society have we allowed ourselves to be turned into? We shower our animals with love and affection, and yet we cannot bring ourselves to treat those who live, while in our service, under our protection, with a little kindness and dignity. We are dealing with human beings who work under conditions of slavery, out of dire necessity, not of choice. With its own abysmal human rights credentials, we cannot expect our government to be too concerned over such trivialities as foreign worker protection and their rights in a supposedly civilised country. If we do not give a damn about how our own citizens are abused by abusive laws, I should perhaps lower my expectations as far as our vulnerable foreign guest workers are concerned. Continue reading “Protecting the vulnerable”

Posted on

RM30m for UTAR not taken up

By Teoh El Sen
Free Malaysia Today
SAT, 25 SEP 2010

PETALING JAYA: In August 2009, philanthropist Koon Yew Yin offered to donate RM30 million to Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) to build hostels with recreational facilities at its Kampar campus in Perak.

But there has been no response from Utar to the generous gesture. Koon, 77, then withdrew his offer on Sept 12, this year.

However, on Sept 13, Utar’s board of trustees and council said it did not accept the RM30 million donation because of the “many conditions (imposed) such as setting up a foundation where he (Koon) will be chairman and be in full control over the spending of his money”.

Then on Sept 14, Utar issued a statement saying it did not turn down Koon’s offer but was still discussing it.

But Koon, who called for a press conference here yesterday, rubbished the claim he wanted to exercise full control over his money.

“Ever since I made my written RM30 million donation offer on Aug 18 last year, the Utar authorities have been using various means to delay accepting my offer. Now they have informed the public that the delay is because I want full control over the spending of my money,” said Koon.

“This is factually incorrect and misleading. Even if I had wanted control, common sense would dictate that I should have some control. But I did not say that,” he said. Continue reading “RM30m for UTAR not taken up”