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A royal rebuke for Umno, says Aussie don

By Stephanie Sta Maria
July 6, 201 | Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: Bersih earned a spot on Australia’s airwaves today with an Australian sociologist describing the royal intervention as a “rebuke” to Umno and the government and an acknowledgement of the organisation’s legitimacy.

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Abidin issued a statement on Monday saying street demonstrations would do more harm than good.

This prompted Bersih to request an audience with him, which he granted with rare speed yesterday. Bersih afterwards announced its decision to move the rally off the streets and into a stadium. Continue reading “A royal rebuke for Umno, says Aussie don”

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Despite royal audience, Hisham says Bersih still illegal

By Shannon Teoh | July 06, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

PUTRAJAYA, July 6 — Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein insisted today that Bersih is still outlawed, saying that neither an audience with the King nor relocating the July 9 rally to a stadium could turn the electoral reforms movement legal.

However, the home minister said that Bersih could still apply for a permit for the July 9 gathering using “other methods.”

“No, they are still banned, still illegal. Nobody can be above the law. Just because Tuanku met them, doesn’t mean they are no longer illegal,” he said, referring to the audience granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to Bersih yesterday, after which it accepted the stadium offer.
Continue reading “Despite royal audience, Hisham says Bersih still illegal”

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Bersih and the fall of reason

By Art Harun
July 06, 2011

JULY 6 — “I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.” ~ Thomas Paine

The events unfolding before our eyes in the past few weeks say a lot about us as a collection of individuals; as a society and as a people. What is clear, however, is the sad fact that when we are faced with adversity, we tend to lose our head and retreat into the same old dark and cold cave of emotions, of irrationality and of convenient rhetoric. Continue reading “Bersih and the fall of reason”

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Malaysia: A police state

By Tommy Thomas
July 06, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JULY 6 — Death Threats. Bomb Threats. Warning on Revocation of Citizenship. Preventive detention. Arrest of hundreds for wearing Yellow T-Shirts. Banning of Organisations. Prohibition of Peaceful Marches.

Is one describing Burma? Or Zimbabwe? No: this is Malaysia in July 2011, in its 54th year of independence.

Has paranoia gripped the decision-making elite in Kuala Lumpur? But for its grave repercussions, one would have to laugh at the disproportionate overreaction and incompetence of government agencies in recent weeks. Continue reading “Malaysia: A police state”

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Bersih and the inane responses

By Sakmongkol AK47
July 06, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JULY 6 — This present government has developed one distinguishing characteristic not unlike the previous administration. If the previous administration was maligned as being uninspiring and sleeping through its job, this present government isn’t that far from being similarly aspersed. How so?

It has shown it has a knack of being inept at handling small shocks to the system. Many of us for example are not supporters of Anwar Ibrahim, but the manner the government handles the Anwar affairs — whether it’s the sodomy 2 charge or the recent video clip showing a person resembling Anwar in a sexual tryst, the administration has shown its ineptness and incompetence. Continue reading “Bersih and the inane responses”

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Bersih 2.0: A long march to freedom

By Keruah Usit
Jul 6, 11 | MalaysiaKini

ANTIDOTE The new sanitised Bersih 2.0 rally is now purer and whiter. Thanks to the Agong’s intervention, the rally for free and fair elections will be confined to a stadium.

This change of scene will make the rally easier to control, from premier Najib Abdul Razak’s point of view. It will also dampen some of the supporters’ enthusiasm.

Being hemmed in, demonstrators will inevitably curb some of their long suppressed drive to show their defiance of the ruling coalition and its faithful enforcers in the police force. Continue reading “Bersih 2.0: A long march to freedom”

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Hishammuddin and Police should respect and uphold the YDPA intervention by full co-operation with Bersih

The Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and the police should respect and uphold the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s wise and just intervention in the Bersih 2.0 impasse by full co-operation with Bersih to make the July 9 Bersih 2.0 stadium rally a peaceful and orderly one as well as end all harassment against persons for wearing Bersih T-shirt and other paraphernalia and release all such items seized in past 10 days.

Hishammuddin and the police should pay special heed to advice by the Yang di Pertuan Agong in his special statement on Sunday where he said: Continue reading “Hishammuddin and Police should respect and uphold the YDPA intervention by full co-operation with Bersih”

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Will ‘fortress BN’ fall?

By Sheridan Mahavera | July 06, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

Are you satisfied with the current Johor govt?KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — It may be known as Barisan Nasional’s (BN) fixed deposit in the Malay peninsula, but a recent straw poll showed that more than 30 per cent of Johoreans want Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in charge of the state and country.

Though this is low compared with other states, it could be a bellwether of how ordinary folk all over the country feel towards the ruling coalition.

Except for the 2008 elections, Johoreans have always given BN near-unquestioning support. Even as the DAP and PAS won the most number of seats of any non-BN party in that year (six state and one parliament), some of their candidates also lost their election deposits campaigning in south-eastern Johor.
Continue reading “Will ‘fortress BN’ fall?”

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The economics of compassion

by Erna Mahyuni
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 06, 2011

JULY 6 — The ETP is meaningless. Or at least it is to the man on the street. “Where do they get the numbers from?” a fellow I know asks me. The only numbers that mean anything to him right now are the prices of his food.

His shi cha (iced Chinese tea) and his chap fan (mixed rice) cost more these days while he isn’t earning more. And that is the reality for most Malaysians as we find prices rising while our incomes remain flat.

If the middle-class are feeling the pinch, what more those in the lower-income bracket? While the government spends millions on labs that are supposed to fix whatever problems we have, the poor remain poor.

I get angry when those who know nothing of poverty claim that with hard work, anyone can buy what they want or be who they want to be. Poverty is called a trap for a reason. It is easier to fall out of wealth than to come into it. And for those already poor or born into poverty, the odds are against them from the start. Continue reading “The economics of compassion”

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Vague principles, contradictory policies

by Hafiz Noor Shams
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 06, 2011

JULY 6 — Some ideas are vague for a reason. In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the majority is afraid of commitment and responsibilities. It is simply impractical to have clear opinions or positions. Consistency arising from those opinions and positions is a barrier to success. One has to be pragmatic to be successful. Vagueness allows such pragmatism. To put it bluntly, it creates contradictions.

That is not too far off from the truth in our world. That is not too far off from the political culture in Malaysia. There are vague positions and from those ambiguities, contradictions.

1 Malaysia is an example. Despite all efforts to explain it by far too many sides, 1 Malaysia is still an ambiguous concept. It appeals to the idea of inclusiveness and equality, yet those with distaste for these very liberal ideas are the ones promoting it. There are of course true blue egalitarians within Barisan Nasional who are also promoting 1 Malaysia but when both racialists and egalitarians are able to appeal to 1 Malaysia in contradictory terms, the concept itself cannot escape the accusation of being ambiguous. Continue reading “Vague principles, contradictory policies”

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Ten conditions for Umno

by Bahaman Abdullah
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 05, 2011

JULY 5 — Since Ibrahim Ali is so fond of giving everyone ultimatums (the latest being to MCA, Gerakan and Ambiga Sreenivasan), I suggest we give Umno and Najib Razak a list of 10 conditions to be met if he wants the support of urban Malaysia.

1) Distance yourself publicly from Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa. Failure to do so will be taken as a sign that all the garbage from Ibrahim is endorsed by the Umno president and his kuncu-kuncu.

2) Stop using divide and rule tactics to keep Malaysians apart. The only reason why BN worried about Bersih is that this election reform movement appears to have brought Malaysians of different races and religious groups together.

3) Tackle corruption and start by investigating cabinet ministers, senior politicians for living way, way beyond their means. Continue reading “Ten conditions for Umno”

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History’s lessons

by Karim Raslan
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 05, 2011

JULY 5 — Malaysian contemporary history has started to loop back on itself. Instead of going forward and progressing, we are going backwards, repeating the past: Sodomy 1 and Sodomy 2, Bersih 1 and Bersih 2.

There are those who would argue that the political missteps have little impact on our economy. I would disagree. In order for the Malaysian economy to grow further and move to the next level, we need a political transformation — we need an injection of transparency, accountability and the dynamism that comes from an open society.

Sadly, the forces of darkness are too powerful and entrenched. As such much of the flow of domestic capital and human resource overseas is directly attributable to the government’s determination to reject change.

When talk of Bersih 2.0 first surfaced a few weeks ago, I remember thinking it was a total waste of time. To my mind, the civil society agenda had been sidelined by widespread concerns over galloping inflation and rising prices. Continue reading “History’s lessons”

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Bersih 2.0: Winners and losers

The Malaysian Insider
Jul 05, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 — So it is settled, after weeks of harassment and thuggish behaviour by the government, the people for free and fair elections will gather in a stadium on July 9.

This episode has once again demonstrated how fractious and divided Malaysia is with enlightened and liberal Malaysia on one side and almost facist powers on the other.

Some individuals emerge from this episode with reputations intact, others with image destroyed forever. The Malaysian Insider gives our take on the winners and losers.

Winners

• The organisers of Bersih: let’s be honest, until a few weeks ago this was a movement at the periphery of most Malaysians. Okay, so some 100,000 people would have marched on the streets on KL. But thanks to the government’s blanket arrests, use of draconian laws and decision to behave like a repressive regime, Bersih became a buzzword. Much to the government’s chagrin, everyone has forgotten about Datuk T, all the wonderful projects under the ETP. Today, people remember Bersih as the people fighting for clean and fair elections, and the Barisan Nasional (BN) government as the people frightened of free and fair elections. Continue reading “Bersih 2.0: Winners and losers”

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Police – stand down apparatus of repression, decriminalize Bersih T-shirts so that tens of thousands can be printed

The Yang di Pertuan Agong’s wise and just intervention resulting in agreement for a July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally in a stadium has saved the day for Malaysia, sparing her the infamy and ignominy inside the country and worldwide at the farce of a democratic government treating a peaceful rally for free, fair and clean elections as a grave national threat even greater than one ever posed by terrorists or enemies of the country in the nation’s history.

Equally important, Malaysia is also spared the international embarrassment of her credentials and qualifications as a member of the UN Human Rights Council questioned or even censured by other countries because of a most egregious crackdown on the most basic and fundamental of human rights in Malaysia.

Several steps must be taken immediately to return the country to the course of sanity, good and common sense abandoned by the government in the past ten days.

As a first step, the Police should immediately stand down its apparatus of repression in the past two weeks, when the police abandoned and abdicated its first task to keep the people and country safe from criminals by going on a nation-wide mobilization against imaginary foes in the form of Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9. Continue reading “Police – stand down apparatus of repression, decriminalize Bersih T-shirts so that tens of thousands can be printed”

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Bersih 2.0 accepts stadium offer for rally

By Joseph Sipalan & Abdul Rahim Sabri
Jul 5, 11 | MalaysiaKini

Following a meeting with the Agong this afternoon, Bersih 2.0 chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan said the NGO coalition has agreed to hold its rally in a stadium.

Met outside the national palace after an audience with Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin at Istana Negara, Ambiga said the coalition “will cooperate with the government and accept their offer to have the event in a stadium”.

“Therefore, the rally on the street will not take place.” Continue reading “Bersih 2.0 accepts stadium offer for rally”

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Pakatan willing to accept Najib’s stadium offer

By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 05, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties today declared themselves “open” to Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s offer to allow Bersih 2.0 to hold its July 9 rally in a stadium.

In a statement signed by PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar and DAP national organising secretary Teresa Kok, the pact said the agreement had been reached following several discussions among party leaders.

“We would like to record our stand that all three parties are open to the prime minister’s office as long as it respects the people’s right to assemble peacefully as enshrined under the Federal Constitution,” they said.

They added that Bersih 2.0’s demands for electoral reform should stay as the main objective of the rally, pointing out that such reforms were needed urgently before the 13th general election. Continue reading “Pakatan willing to accept Najib’s stadium offer”

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Bersih: Grave concern over the deepening political crisis

Press statement by concerned academicians on the Bersih march (KUALA LUMPUR, 5 July 2011)

We, the undersigned academicians, wish to express our concern at the deepening political crisis in the country. It is unfortunate that such a crisis is emerging out of a legitimate campaign, initiated by a large number of non-governmental organizations, to institute reforms through their campaign, Bersih, to ensure the conduct of truly free and fair elections in Malaysia.  Since the pursuit of such a campaign is undeniably noble, and timely, we are extremely perturbed that the government has resorted to harsh measures and use of draconian legislation to prevent the organizers from mounting a public rally.

We see the need for the leaders of Bersih to persist with dialogue with the bodies responsible for overseeing free and fair elections.  However, we also appreciate the argument by the campaign’s leaders that such an assembly is necessary since discussions have long taken place, with little progress – thus the need for the government to take serious heed of the campaign’s recommendations for free and fair elections for which there is considerable support from the country’s citizenry. Continue reading “Bersih: Grave concern over the deepening political crisis”

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Taking people for fools

By Eric Loo
Jul 4, 11 | MalaysiaKini

Each time I log in to non-mainstream media to catch up on news in Malaysia, I see the same old stories about how bad things have become since the 1980s – from financial scandals and systemic corruption to institutional discrimination and dill heads running the country. My reactions have become passé.

Each time I come home, friends and kin tell more stories about how bleak they see their future as being. Once, these were mere stories and theories we shared over mugs of teh tarik during the pre-Internet days when the government-controlled media was our main source of political news. Continue reading “Taking people for fools”

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Bring about a healthy democracy

By Kee Thuan Chye
Jul 5, 11 | MalaysiaKini

The King has issued a statement on the developments surrounding the proposed Bersih 2.0 rally for free and fair elections. What do we make of it?

It is quite clear that he is not in favour of the rally proceeding on July 9, although he does say that the original intentions of street demonstrations can be good. This, read together with his acknowledgement of “the political fervour of a section of the people to bring about a healthy democracy (menyuburkan demokrasi) in our country”, indicates he is not condemning Bersih 2.0.

He is aware that the people are involved (even though it constitutes “a section”), and what they desire is something positive, i.e. menyuburkan demokrasi. Continue reading “Bring about a healthy democracy”

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Now what, Mr Prime Minister

by Lucius Goon
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 04, 2011

JULY 4 — Unbelievable. Incredible. Astounding. These should be the headlines in the lamestream media following Prime Minister Najib Razak’s u-turn on the Bersih rally on July 9.

It now transpires that he says that Bersih organisers can go ahead and have their gathering in a stadium.

“We are willing to provide a stadium for them to rally but why choose to protest in the streets.

“The government is not against them rallying in a stadium from morning until night. Just don’t hold street protest as it is very risky to the nation,” Najib was quoted as saying by The Malaysian Insider today.

This after he called respected lawyer Ambiga Sreenivasan an enemy of Islam and allowed his government to demonise her and others as enemies of the state.

This after his cousin, Hishammuddin Hussein declared Bersih an illegal organisation and encouraged the police to round up anyone wearing a yellow Bersih T-shirt. Continue reading “Now what, Mr Prime Minister”