Month: January 2011

A Malaysian as top Singapore student for the third consecutive year should be important agenda of the Cabinet meeting tomorrow if the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is serious about the New Economic Model and the Economic Transformation Programme to give top priority to retain and attract talents to catalyse Malaysia’s economic transformation.

In Singapore’s GCE ‘O’ Level examinations results yesterday, a Malaysian, 16-year-old Chia Pei Yun, was the topscorer with 10A1s from the school-leaving examination.

Chia, from Kuala Lumpur, completed a hattrick for Malaysians and also her school, Convent CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School after following the footsteps of Selangor girls Lai Kai Rou and Haw Sue Sern.

Chia is a former student of Kuen Cheng Girls’ School in Kuala Lumpur.

The Cabinet tomorrow should be reminded of the dire warnings of the New Economic Model last March, which said:
Continue reading “Malaysian as top Singaporean student for third consecutive year should be important agenda of Cabinet meeting tomorrow”

CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ does it again
By Vimita Mohandas
channelnewsasia.com
10 January 2011

SINGAPORE: The 2010 GCE ‘O’ Level examination results were announced on Monday afternoon at the respective secondary schools of students who sat for the national exam last year.

The top student is CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School’s Chia Pei Yun, who scored 10 A1s. This is the third year the school has produced a top student in the ‘O’ Level exam.

But the Malaysian, on a Ministry of Education-ASEAN scholarship, said her learning journey wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.

English and Literature were her toughest subjects.

“I started reasonably early and over the whole year I put in some consistent work for every test that we got. In the end, it paid off. (Trying) to keep a relaxed mindset helps,” said Chia.

The avid music lover has set her heart on going to a junior college and intends to do some humanitarian work in the future. Continue reading “Top Singapore student again from Malaysia”

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”

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”

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”

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”

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”

by Stanley Koh
Free Malaysia Today
January 9, 2011

COMMENT

“There are no Malay rights since our Constitution holds dear that all persons are equal before the law and entitled to equal protection of the law without discrimination on the basis of race and religion.”
That was what the late Ghazali Shafie said in a speech at the National Unity Convention in May 2001.

He continued: “What perhaps has come to be regarded as special rights is the special position of the Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak under Article 153 (of the Federal Constitution). The change from ‘position’ to ‘rights’ is frightening. Who did that, I wonder?

“In a plural society like ours, if the leadership was not bold and sincere enough to take corrective measures so that there would be a level playing field, then the situation would indeed be bleak and our society would be a playground for those who wish us ill.”

Born in Kuala Lipis, Ghazali was 88 at the time of his death in January 2010. He had a distinguished career in politics and government.

Many bigots, opportunists and self-serving leaders of today will probably dismiss those remarks on the New Economic Policy as just one man’s opinion. If they are ignorant of history, they may even question his authority.

If Ghazali were alive and facing these critics, he would probably reply in these words, which were part of the speech at the 2001 convention: Continue reading “Malay Rights v Special Position”

Utusan Malaysia’s daily staple of lies and falsehoods to stoke communal poison and hatred, sowing distrust and national disunity, is the greatest disservice to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia slogan and nation-building.

Mingguan Malaysia today is again at its anti-national worst with its daily diet of lies and falsehoods to poison the political system and undermine the nation-building process when it made the completely wild and baseless charge in insinuating in its editorial that DAP is working towards the goal of making Malaysia a republic and the abolition of the system of Malay rulers.

In its Sunday editorial “Iktibar kemelut Selangor” by Awang Selamat, Mingguan Malaysia insinuated that the lesson to be learnt from the Selangor crisis is that Malaysia will end up a republic if PKR and DAP’s “rule of Selangor continues”, viz:

“Tetapi iktibar daripada kemelut di Selangor itu ialah jika PKR dan DAP memerintah, lagi banyak berlaku kemudaratan. Yang paling pasti, Malaysia akan berada di ambang republik.”

There is no need for me to reiterate the DAP’s public stand down the decades supporting the system of constitutional monarchy in Malaysia.

What Awang Selamat had insinuated are downright lies and falsehoods scraping the very bottom of gutter journalism. In seven paragraphs of “Iktibar kemelut Selangor”, Awang Selamat had told more than seven lies in its multiple objective to disseminate communal hatred and ill-will, even attempting to sow discord among the Pakatan Rakyat parties of PKR, DAP and PAS in the Selangor coalition government. Continue reading “Utusan Malaysia’s daily staple of lies and falsehoods to stoke communal poison and hatred the greatest disservice to Najib’s 1Malaysia slogan and nation-building”

By Tunku Abdul Aziz
8.1.2011

One of the crucial qualifications required of a politician, even one subsisting on the fringe of the magic circle such as I, is a capacity to develop a thick hide, quickly, to absorb, withstand and endure cheerfully the innuendos, aspersions and imputations of improper motives, that will assuredly come his way whatever he does, says or writes.

Although I am much the same person that I was before I made a conscious personal decision to throw in my lot with the DAP, I am today viewed with a degree of suspicion.

Some of my readers believe that I write as a party propagandist, yet others are of the view that I should refrain from commenting on the shortcomings of the Pakatan Rakyat, and worse, I should not say anything that might cast a shadow on my own party image.

I write as an independent columnist and comment on issues of the day as I see them, motivated not by sycophancy, as accused by a New Straits Times leader writer and others of his ilk or out of a misguided sense of loyalty to my own party, no matter what.

I despise anything that smacks of the putrid odour of decaying doctrinaire with its cultivated blindness to the importance of critical thinking. I am not a party political spin doctor. For that you must turn to APCO. Continue reading “A gun for hire I am not”

Daily Mail
7.1.2011

Thousands of dead turtle doves rained down on roofs and cars in an Italian town in the latest in a growing spate of mass animal deaths across the globe.

Residents in Faenza described the birds falling to the ground like ‘little Christmas balls’ with strange blue stains on their beaks.

Initial tests on up to 8,000 of the doves indicated that the blue stain could have been caused by poisoning or hypoxia.

A witness told www.examiner.com: ‘We have no idea why this happened all of a sudden.

‘The doves just started falling one-by-one then in groups of 10s and 20s.’

Hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, is known to cause confusion and illness in animals. It is also a common precursor to altitude sickness.

Experts said results from tests on the doves will not be available for at least a week.

They said that cold weather could have caused the birds’ deaths as the flock was swept into a high-altitude wind storm before falling to the earth. Continue reading “Mystery of mass animal death epidemic deepens”

More than 25 years ago, the term “heinous crime without criminals” referred to the first biggest financial scandal in the country, the RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal – when no one was held criminally responsible in the country for the financial malpractices, abuses of power and gross breach of criminal trust even though it claimed one innocent life, the cold-blooded murder of the young BMF Asst General Manager in Hong Kong, Jalil Ibrahim.

The Cabinet next week must ensure that Teoh Beng Hock’s mysterious death at Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Hqrs in Shah Alam 18 months ago on July 16, 2009 does not end up as a “heinous crime without criminals” following Wednesday’s Open Verdict of the inquest into Teoh’s death.

MCA President Datuk Dr. Chua Soi Lek has expressed full support for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s announcement on the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry, saying that the move showed that the Government was transparent and sensitive to the case.

This statement is testimony that the MCA President is completely insensitive to the sense of despair, outrage and consternation, felt not only by the bereaved and aggrieved members of the Teoh Beng Hock family that their 18-month agonizing wait for justice and closure had been in vain with the “Open Verdict” of the Teoh Beng Hock inquest, but that of the ordinary Malaysians as well.

Can Chua explain how the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry specifically excluded from investigating the cause of Teoh’s death but only confined to the investigation procedures of MACC could help in uncovering the cause of Teoh’s death – taking a further step in pursuing the inquest finding excluding suicide as the cause of Teoh’s death and the important finding of Teoh’s prefall neck injury? Continue reading “Cabinet next week must ensure Teoh Beng Hock’s death does not end up as “a heinous crime without criminals””

By Pauline Fan

Thank you, dear friends, for being here this evening to commemorate the life of my father, a man who touched so many not just by his tenacious commitment to social justice and through his incisive political writings, but also through his warm, radiant, playful personality. As my mother and sister have said, we have been deeply moved by the outpouring of love and support, the heartfelt condolences and tributes that have been offered to us during this difficult period. It brings us solace to know that Papa is remembered as a humanist, a patriot, and fighter for political freedom and human dignity. I know Papa would have been pleased to see so many of his friends and comrades here today, so many great men and women who have dedicated their strength, mind, and spirit to fight for a Malaysia for Malaysians.

Papa was a wellspring of strength, joy and laughter in our family. He loomed large in our lives; his presence was indelible, his charisma unmistakable. It is difficult for us to think of Papa as being absent from life, for he was always brimming with life. But in the weeks since his passing, I have come to know Papa differently, perhaps more completely, for the totality of one’s life is illuminated only in death. I know that Papa isn’t really absent at all, that he has simply transformed from ephemeral physical existence to a subtle, perennial presence in our lives. And if his spirit is felt among us more powerfully now than ever, it is because Papa lived and died by what he believed in – his uncompromising principles and deep-seated ideals.

The complex layers of Papa’s personal history have revealed themselves to me over time – from his activism with the National Union of Teachers in the 1960s to his years with the Democratic Action Party, to his tireless writing and activism outside formal politics. Papa’s fighting spirit was irrepressible; even in his hours of political defeat and isolation, he remained convinced that political change was both necessary and possible. Papa believed in people and principles, not in ideologies and systems. I think this is why he was so fascinated by history, the narrative of humanity itself. And he felt it his task, as a citizen and writer, to bear witness to history, to the triumphs and follies of his people, of his country and of his time. Continue reading ““Papa believed in people and principles, not in ideologies and systems” – A tribute to my father, Fan Yew Teng”

By Lilianne Fan

I was at my father’s side when he passed away peacefully on 7 December 2010, at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. He had been diagnosed with advanced cancer at the same hospital almost exactly a year ago. Finding words after the loss of one’s beloved father is one of the hardest things to do. And yet, our family has been receiving a healing river of words from near and far, from my father’s many friends and men and women whose lives he had touched through his life. These words have brought us comfort through our grief, and for this we are deeply grateful.

My father was a blessing, an inspiration and an absolute joy. He was deeply loving and devoted to our family. While he had a tendency to sometimes be protective as a father, he was also persistently provocative, incessantly reminding my sister and I to live boldly, to never be afraid of pushing boundaries in the name of our principles and dreams.

Since we were very young, Papa was our principal source of cultural exposure and civilizational education. He introduced us to the music of Edith Piaf and Om Kalsom, the writings of Rabindranath Tagore and Hannah Arendt. His mind was epic and encyclopedic, philosophical and poetic; his historical memory as impressive as his passion for justice was inextinguishable. The shelves, tables and floors of his bedroom and study were always overflowing with books, the walls adorned with portraits of his many heroes— Bertrand Russell, Frantz Fanon, Leo Tolstoy, George Orwell, and Nelson Mandela.

Papa’s deep humanism shaped us from an early age, as did the context into which our lives unfolded. Because he and my mother raised us in an intellectually-, politically- and socially-engaged household, we were exposed early on both to humanity’s creativity and promise, as well as the realities of oppression and injustice. Continue reading “Where the mind is without fear: A Tribute to my beloved father, FAN YEW TENG”

By Himanshu Bhatt
The Sun
Jan 7, 2011

GEORGE TOWN: The Malay Contractors Association of Malaysia, which has in the past accused Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s administration of marginalising Malay businesses, apologised to him today through a delegation to his office here.

The association’s deputy president Datuk Mohammed Fadzill Hassan, who headed the delegation of about a dozen members, personally tendered his apology to the state government.

He said they wished to cooperate and work along with the administration. Lim responded by describing the new outcome as a “positive turn of events”.

“I hope we can start a new relationship based on facts and not emotion,” he said.

Lim stressed that accusations that Malay contractors were sidelined under the current Pakatan Rakyat government were untrue.

“Malay contractors are able to perform very well, as most of those who have won contracts under the state’s open tender policy are Malays,” he said. Continue reading “Malay contractors association apologises to Guan Eng”

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and all the Barisan Nasional Ministers have not got the message – what the bereaved family and justice-loving Malaysians want is not just a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the investigation procedures and methods of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) but a Royal Commission of Inquiry to uncover the cause of the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock.

Both the volume and intensity of the call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into cause of Teoh Beng Hock’s mysterious death has increased many fold since the most unsatisfactory “Open Verdict” of the Teoh Beng Hock inquest on Wednesday.

Many Malaysians had in fact expected the worst as to whether Najib would honour his pledge to the Teoh Beng Hock family 18 months ago in July 2009 that “no stone will be left unturned” in finding out the real cause of Teoh’s death.

If Najib is sincere and serious that “no stone will be left unturned” to uncover why Teoh, who had gone to the MACC headquarters in Shah Alam as a healthy and idealistic political worker, happily looking forward to his impending marriage and unborn child, had ended up as corpse, flung out of the 14th floor of the MACC Headquarters on July 16, 2009, then the next natural and logical step to the “Open Verdict” returned by the TBH inquest would be for the Prime Minister to commission a Royal Commission of Inquiry to probe further into the cause of Teoh Beng Hock’s death following the inquest findings ruling out suicide and the very important testimony on Teoh’s pre-fall injury.
Continue reading “Malaysians want a RCI into the cause of Teoh Beng Hock mysterious death and not just a RCI into MACC’s investigation procedures”

by Keruah Usit
Malaysiakini
Jan 7, 11

Police detained four activists and confiscated ‘seditious’ CDs and VCDs containing video and audio recordings of TV Sarawak Bebas and Radio Free Sarawak late last night in Kuching and Miri in what appears to be coordinated arrests.

Kuching-based land rights activist and Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) secretary Nicholas Mujah and Miri-based land rights lawyer and activist Abun Sui Anyit were both detained by Kuching and Miri police respectively.

The duo had their statements taken by the police. The other two, who were arrested by police in Kuching but without their statements taken, were social activist Ong Boon Keong and Sadia staff Nikodemus Singgai.

Six Home Ministry officials and a team of Special Branch officers raided Sadia office just past midnight and confiscated about 1,200 of CDs and VCDs. Also confiscated were two compact disc burners and some promotional leaflets.

Mujah, Singgai and Ong were subsequently taken to the Satok police station in Kuching.

A few hours later, Mujah was transferred to the Home Ministry office in Kuching for questioning after the confiscated materials were recorded at the Satok police station.

He was told that he is being investigated under Section 6 of the Film Censorship Act. Continue reading “Sarawak activists, lawyer detained ahead of polls”

AB Sulaiman
Malaysiakini
Jan 6, 11

COMMENT

About a year and a bit ago, the Old Boys’ Association of the Royal Military College otherwise known as ‘Old Putras’ organised an evening of discourse.

The forum noted that the Malaysian people were fragmented, the economy at a virtual standstill, and democracy eroded by dictatorship, returning feudalism, and theocracy. Those present wanted to analyse the degeneration and like good citizens we were to come up with some solutions.

It was then that one speaker, Mohd Dahan if I remember correctly, who stood up to say, “Solve the Malay problem, and you solve the country’s problem.” Now we are in the first month of the second decade of the 21st century, the ring of truth in his statement still prevails.

But at this time, 53 years after independence and 10 years to becoming a high-income country, it appears we are still embedded deep in a long list of unsolved national problems, with many getting worse than before.

Here are but some of them: A restive and fragmented population, high migration rate, poor rate of growth, broken public institutions like education and the judiciary, high crime rate, degenerating personal and public morality, price increases, inflation, and a generally authoritative, intimidating and arrogant government. Our comparative indices with other countries like in areas of transparency, human rights, education, are all on the downward swing.

And corruption, the perennial social cancer, taking place at the highest possible level, involving amounts that would make Carlos Slim (currently the richest man in the world according to Forbes) and Bill Gates almost poor by comparison.

Hope lies eternal, so let’s see whether we can try to solve at least some of the national problems, by first solving some Malay problems, for this coming year.

But first, what exactly is the ‘Malay problem’? Continue reading “Malay problem root of nation’s problem”

Aidila Razak
Malaysiakini
Jan 6, 11

Malaysia has taken a slight tumble down the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2010 Democracy Index, slipping three places to number 71 out of 167 countries, with its overall score dropping from 6.36 points in 2008 to 6.19 last year.

This places Malaysia squarely in the “flawed democracy” category, along with 52 other countries that received overall scores of between 6 and 7.9 out of a maximum of 10 points.

Flawed democracies are countries that have “free and fair elections” and respect “basic civil liberties”, but face “problems such as infringements on media freedom”.

Such countries also have “significant weaknesses in other aspects of democracy, including problems in governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation”, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) index shows. Continue reading “Malaysia slips down Democracy Index”

The ending of the Teoh Beng Hock inquest in an “Open Verdict” 18 months after the tragedy outside the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Shah Alam has not only caused nation-wide consternation but validated the opposition to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s two-prong proposal in July 2009 to have first an inquest and after it, a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the procedural aspects of the MACC in carrying out investigations.

On 22nd July 2009, I had said:

“I am disappointed by the Cabinet decision on the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock.
“There will be no Royal Commission of Inquiry into the causes of Teoh’s death although an inquest would be held.

“A Royal Commission of Inquiry will be set up, but only to look into the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigative procedures and to determine if there were any human right violations when Teoh Beng Hock was being interrogated.
Continue reading “Inquest verdict ruling out suicide and on Beng Hock’s pre-fall injury an indictment of MACC and police and powerful ground for full-scale RCI into the actual causes of Teoh Beng Hock”