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China Rises, and Checkmates

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
New York Times
January 8 2011

If there’s a human face on Rising China, it belongs not to some Politburo chief, not to an Internet tycoon, but to a quiet, mild-mannered teenage girl named Hou Yifan.

Ms. Hou (whose name is pronounced Ho Ee-fahn) is an astonishing phenomenon: at 16, she is the new women’s world chess champion, the youngest person, male or female, ever to win a world championship. And she reflects the way China — by investing heavily in education and human capital, particularly in young women — is increasingly having an outsize impact on every aspect of the world.

Napoleon is famously said to have declared, “When China wakes, it will shake the world.” That is becoming true even in spheres that China historically has had little connection with, like chess, basketball, rare earth minerals, cyber warfare, space exploration and nuclear research. Continue reading “China Rises, and Checkmates”

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1Malaysia test of Najib’s Political Transformation Programme – get all BN parties to speak with one voice on 1Malaysia with Utusan Malaysia stop being the biggest enemy of the 1Malaysia concept

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak spoke of his new “transformation” programme after his meeting with Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament on Saturday – political transformation.

Since becoming Prime Minister 18 months ago, Najib has been drumming the “transformation” mantra, with a plethora of alphabet soup like Government Transformation Programme (GTP), Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and now a Political Transformation Programme to gird his signature concept of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now.”

But sadly, the country had never been more divided in the nation’s 53-year history than in the 18 months of Najib’s premiership, highlighting the hollowness and hypocrisy of his 1Malaysia concept, precisely because the loudest voice against Najib’s all-inclusive 1Malaysia concept had come from none other than UMNO’s official organ, Utusan Malaysia, which had been churning out a daily staple of lies and falsehoods to stoke communal hatred and national division.

It is most shocking and outrageous that in the past 18 months, there had been no serious effort to ensure that Utusan Malaysia, as the Umno’s official organ, should spearhead the 1Malaysia concept instead of being its biggest enemy and detractor with the daily diet of lies and falsehoods poisoning inter-racial and inter-religious relations and fanning national divisions in the country. Continue reading “1Malaysia test of Najib’s Political Transformation Programme – get all BN parties to speak with one voice on 1Malaysia with Utusan Malaysia stop being the biggest enemy of the 1Malaysia concept”

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FYT – a legend is born

by Dr Chen Man Hin
DAP life advisor

At the memorial services in honour of the late FAN YEW TENG, hundreds of friends who had fought with him for human rights, democracy and justice gathered at the memorial services to pay tribute to a great Malaysian. FYT spent most of his life in the service of Malaysia and mankind.

As a teacher, he was editor of the publication of the teachers’ union and leading trade union leader and was instrumental in getting pay increases and equal pay without gender discrimination.

As a political leader, he was acting secretary general of the DAP and served as a Member of Parliament until he lost a sedition case after being charged for printing an article about the injustices of the day.

After politics he opted to struggle for human rights in the world arena. He was in the vanguard of world NGOs to campaign for freedom for Aung San Su Ki, the imprisoned leader of Myanmar, and other oppressed peoples. Continue reading “FYT – a legend is born”

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Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #48

By M. Bakri Musa

Chapter Six: Malaysia: Assets and Liabilities

The Far and Pervasive Reach of the Malaysian Government

In Malaysia, the government’s powerful reach is extensive and pervasive, affecting everything and everybody all the time. This was dramatically demonstrated to me recently. A bright Malay student on her own effort was accepted for graduate work at Cambridge University. She applied to a local university for funding under its academic training program, and was accepted. But to get that scholarship she had to be interviewed by the Public Service Department (PSD). Fair enough. Then she was told that because her TOEFL (a standardized English test) score was outdated she would not qualify, she would have to re-sit the test.

Here she was, accepted by Cambridge and deemed qualified by the dean of a local university, but the bureaucrat at PSD had veto power over her. Never mind that she had graduated from a top American university (which was why she was accepted to Cambridge in the first place) and had aced the TOEFL years ago, but those facts did not persuade the esteemed civil servant. Fortunately she was tenacious enough to fight such inanities; but it took the personal intervention of the deputy prime minister no less to resolve the issue in her favor. Why should the deputy prime minister have to decide a simple matter like this? Is he not busy enough?
Continue reading “Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #48”

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An inspiring chronicle of change

by Jee Wan
Malaysiakini
Jan 9, 11

When we won the Asian Football Federation Suzuki Cup, our PM declared 31st December a public holiday, claiming to support the 1Malaysia concept of “People First, Performance Now”. Hurrah, hurrah.
But when our PM attended a Christmas celebration at the Catholic Church Archbishop residence, the PMO directive ordered the church officials to remove crucifixes and prohibit them from singing hymns and praying, saying it’s to protect the prime minister’s Islamic credentials.

Here we are shouting 1Malaysia this and 1Malaysia that, but know not how to respect the tradition, culture and beliefs of another religion? What message are we sending out to the public and the world at large? That we are still immature even after 53 years of independence?

That even our own leaders can’t walk the talk?

That’s just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. And our opinion would probably sound very biased to those who only read the mainstream media or who have been constantly reminded and instilled with fear of change.

But seriously; if we want to see improvement and real progress, we need to change. Change the way we think. Change the way we perceive things. Change for the better. Continue reading “An inspiring chronicle of change”