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Official arrogance will bring Najib down

Jeswan Kaur | September 13, 2011
Free Malaysia Today

When he took over as prime minister, Najib Tun Razak said he will listen to the people but his officers have turned a deaf ear to the promise with their arrogance.

COMMENT

In 2009, when Najib Tun Razak took over the country’s affairs from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, he promised the rakyat that his government would be all ears. But two years down the road it appears that the promise was just lip service.

One such example of refusing to listen to the rakyat was displayed through the insensitive remark by the Federal Territories and Urban Well-Being Minister Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal.

In February this year, Raja Nong Chik had admonished the Bukit Jalil estate workers who turned to him for help in trying to avoid being evicted from their homes. The minister told the residents that they should be contented with the Little India project when they wanted to negotiate compensation. Continue reading “Official arrogance will bring Najib down”

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Freeing the Malays and Muslims from religious mind control

— Pak Sako
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 12, 2011

SEPT 12 — There appears to be a Malay-Islamic Inquisition in Malaysia.

It does not involve burnings at the stake.

It comes as ostracism at school, the workplace and in the community for failing to comply with rigid parameters. Not wearing a headscarf is frowned upon. Transgenders are institutional pariahs.

Religious arrogance and zealotry are norms. Muslim leaders can assuredly rebuff equal partnership on inter-religious discussion panels. The Islamic moral police is free to raid churches and insult the Malay person’s dignity and autonomy.

Refusal to play along with another community’s passion for its customs is condemned as chauvinistic or unconstitutional — the fate of elected representatives in Sarawak who chose the customary suit and tie over expensive uniforms and songkoks for a state assembly opening.

Closing the gap with South Korea or Singapore at the top of quality-of-life indicators such as the UN Human Development Index is a minor national concern. Continue reading “Freeing the Malays and Muslims from religious mind control”

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Toying with history again in Malaysia

-Farish A. Noor
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 12, 2011

SEPT 12 — In all honesty, I really have many other things to do than waste my time commenting on what has to be one of the most inane and counter-productive debates in Malaysian politics today. Yet as the tide of silliness gains strength all around us, I feel it necessary to add my two-sen’s worth to this debate before I get back to my real work which happens to be teaching and research, so here it goes…

It appears that some academics in Malaysia now claim that Malaya (as it was then called) was never colonised by the British after all — or at least that the Malay kingdoms were never colonies in the fullest sense of the word, but rather protectorates. This is, literally, correct and it has to be said that the legal-political status of these states was precisely that: protectorates rather than colonies. But we need to raise some crucial questions at this point in order to flesh out the debate a little further, and try to understand how and why such an arrangement came about in the first place.

Firstly, it ought to be noted that the use of the term “protectorate” rather than “colony” offered (then, in the 19th century) a fig-leaf of respectability to what can only be described as a mad scramble for power and domination by the British who were not satisfied with the acquisition of their outright colonies in Penang, Dindings, Malacca and Singapore. Continue reading “Toying with history again in Malaysia”

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Slide began before Bersih

— Lucius Goon
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 12, 2011

SEPT 12 — Sorry but I don’t buy this attempt to blame the slide in the prime minister’s rating to his mishandling of Bersih 2.0 rally.

What happened on July 9 and the twisting and turning of words after that by the PM (I offered the stadium and no I didn’t and yes I did) is just symptomatic of an administration which lost its direction and a leader who is afraid of his own shadow.

Long before Bersih happened, the country was in a drift towards worsening race ties, upsurge in the power of the right wing and flip-flops in policy reforms. Sad to say but Najib has become Abdullah Ahmad Badawi: good with slogans and rhetoric but very elastic with implementation.

Abdullah had Islam Hadhari and Najib has 1 Malaysia but under the umbrella of those two “concepts” is the same rubbish which has been stinking up Malaysia since the Mahathir administration: corruption by politicians, worsening race relations, abuse of powers, widening gap between the haves and have-nots, talent drain, inflated privatisation contracts, cronyism and nepotism and a complete hijacking of the Bumiputera agenda by Umno politicians and the decaying state of institutions. Continue reading “Slide began before Bersih”

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Mat Zain: Musa, Gani duped Dr M into sacking Anwar

By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysia Insider
Sep 12, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — A former senior police officer today claimed that Tan Sri Musa Hassan and Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had fabricated evidence against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, leading to his sacking from government by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1998.

Former city criminal investigation chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim claimed in an open letter to the Inspector-General of Police today that Musa, who was then Bukit Aman’s assistant criminal investigation chief, had stolen Anwar’s DNA to ensure that the sacked deputy prime minister would be convicted of sodomy.

“I believe this happened because Tun was given information or a briefing that was manipulated and misleading,” said the policeman who led the 1998 probe into the black eye inflicted on Anwar by then police chief Tan Sri Rahim Noor.

Mat Zain based his claim on “documentary evidence and statements that I have and are within my knowledge” as well as Dr Mahathir’s memoirs that were released earlier this year. Continue reading “Mat Zain: Musa, Gani duped Dr M into sacking Anwar”

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Revision of M’sian history should not be one-sided

By Sulok Tawie | 11 September 2011
The Sun Daily

KUCHING (Sept 11, 2011): Sarawak Teachers’ Union president William Ghani Bina said today that any revision of the school’s history textbook must be to correct the one-sided history on the formation of Malaysia.

“It is important that the new history textbook highlight the correct version of the formation of Malaysia,” he said when commenting on a statement by Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin that the history syllabus for schools was to be revised following a disclosure of new findings.

Ghani noted that the formation of Malaysia had not been put into the right perspective as it did not indicate clearly how Malaysia was formed.
Continue reading “Revision of M’sian history should not be one-sided”

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Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #82

By M. Bakri Musa

Chapter 9: Islam in Malay Life

Reform in Islam

Educating Ulamas on Modern Economics

By educating Muslims generally and the ulama in particular on such modern and useful concepts of economics, and replacing such loaded terms as interest and insurance with the morally neutral terms as rewards on savings and risk sharing, we would channel the natural propensity for Malays to save even more. This in turn would encourage other productivity-enhancing economic activities.
Continue reading “Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #82”

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PM’s blame game

— The Malaysian Insider
Sep 10, 2011

SEPT 10 — So far the only people not blamed for the mishandling of the Bersih 2.0 rally are Al-Qaeda, Chin Peng, Kermit the Frog and Ayah Pin.

You get the drift, right. It seems that the order to turn Kuala Lumpur into a war zone and treat ordinary Malaysians like criminals was everybody’s fault but that of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

In the short time following the rally on July 9, Najib’s operatives and aides spent considerable time convincing journalists and pundits that he was all for offering Bersih organisers the use of a stadium but was persuaded otherwise by

a) Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein;

b) Information Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim;

c) Deputy IGP Datuk Seri Khalid Abu Bakar;

d) Datuk Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa; and

e) Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhiyiddin Yassin Continue reading “PM’s blame game”

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Religious issues hurting Najib’s chances

The Malaysian Insider
Sep 11, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11 — A raid on a church by Muslim authorities has raised religious tension in Malaysia and could cost Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak votes in an election set for 2013 but which many expect to come much earlier.

The raid has sparked an angry verbal battle between Christians and the majority Muslims, forcing Najib to seek what may be an elusive peace between the ethnic Malays and minorities, both of which believe the government isn’t doing enough to safeguard their rights.

Conservative Muslims want the government to crack down on what they say is growing boldness by Christians to try to convert Muslims, which is an offence in Malaysia, while ethnic minorities worry their rights are being eroded.

Analysts say Najib is caught in a bind and will have to tread extremely carefully to avoid being seen as favouring either side in his efforts to mediate. Continue reading “Religious issues hurting Najib’s chances”

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Lip service laced with poison

— Douglas Tan
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 11, 2011

SEPT 11 — Ever since I was young, my father has taught me that when you tell lies, it is far more difficult to remain consistent. You have to tell a lie to cover up the original lie, and you also have to remember what the original lie was in the first place.

I believe that once you enter into politics, you should know that the truth always catches up on you, and when you begin to flip-flop, people will hold it against you.

Right now, consumers across the nation using pre paid mobiles will experience a six per cent government tax now charged directly to them. The BN government cried out that the telcos should absorb the cost, but as a government supposedly committed to putting the people first, passing the buck back to the finance ministry agreement places their sincerity to actively manage our cost of living into serious question.

During the whole Bersih fiasco, Najib had promised a stadium for the rally to be held, despite the fact that Bersih is an outlawed entity that happened to have an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. Continue reading “Lip service laced with poison”

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Nazir: Transform or risk Middle East-style upheaval

By Aidila Razak
Sep 10, 11 | Malaysiakini

The time for opaque deals and unflinching public support is over for Asian governments, and failing to realize this could lead the region down the path of the Middle East.

Saying this at the Malaysia-China Trade Investment International Conference 2011 in Serdang today, CIMB chief executive Nazir Abdul Razak said this is because today the world demands transparency from governments.

“Faced with such an awesome game-changer, governments, especially in the East find that they can no longer operate under the hierarchal paradigms of the past, where decisions are made behind closed doors and executed with unquestioning public support.

“Governments here will have to adopt greater openness, more debate and increased transparency,” he said. Continue reading “Nazir: Transform or risk Middle East-style upheaval”

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Penang’s economy buzzing again

By Carolyn Hong, Malaysia Bureau Chief
Sep 10, 2011 in http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/

GEORGETOWN (Penang): On a small table in the office of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng sit half a dozen gold-coloured cats.

They were gifts, and a reminder of his much-cherished Cat principles – Competency, Accountability and Transparency.

Mr Lim, now in his fourth year leading one of Malaysia’s wealthiest states, is convinced that those principles have guided the recent revival of Penang’s fortunes.

He has much to shout about. Under the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government, Penang received the lion’s share of foreign investments in Malaysia last year, for the first time in the country’s history. It also had the third-highest number of tourists, and raked in two-thirds of the country’s earnings in medical tourism. Continue reading “Penang’s economy buzzing again”

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Constitutional question: Judges let natives down

by Hafiz Yatim
Malaysiakini
Sep 9, 11

A law professor said Chief Justice Zaki Azmi and Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Richard Malanjum, could have abdicated their oath of office by their refusal to interpret the question of law posed to them.

The question posed before the court was “whether section 5(3) and (4) of the Sarawak Land Code relating to the extinguishment of native customary rights are ultra vires Article 5 (Right to life) and Article 13 (right to property) of the Federal Constitution.”

Islamic International University professor Abdul Aziz Bari said by refusing to deal with the constitutionality issue, the Federal court has abdicated its duty.

“Under the Federal Constitution, the Federal Court which is the highest court of the land is essentially the constitutional court of the country; the main tribunal whose major duty is to take care of the constitution,” he said. Continue reading “Constitutional question: Judges let natives down”

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Anything But Umno

— Ali Kadir
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 10, 2011

SEPT 10 — Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK), the blogger, is right. We don’t know if Pakatan Rakyat will be able to govern our beloved country responsibly or walk the talk.

But we do know that they will not be worse than the plundering and blundering hordes of Umno. I say Umno and not BN because in reality the BN component parties such as the MCA, MIC, etc are subsidiaries of Umno. They may have a different flag, motto and even president but their mission statement is to be subservient to Umno.

The elections are around the corner. How do we know that? Simple, the clamour for allocations and funds is getting louder in Umno. Soon, we will be asked to make a choice and by my reckoning the choice is clear: Anything But Umno.

Just let us examine what these Umno types have done to our country. I have no doubt that the likes of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Dr Ismail, Hussein Onn, Tan Siew Sin were men of integrity and served the rakyat. Continue reading “Anything But Umno”

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Judicial independence and justice

Lim Sue Goan
The Malaysian Insider
September 09, 2011

SEPT 9 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s recent visit to the Palace of Justice has triggered a dispute as some claimed that the visit could jeopardise the independence of the judiciary. However, I am more interested in the remarks made by retiring Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi.

He said that the government had allocated RM130 million to upgrade court facilities and it was normal for the prime minister to see how the money was spent. Also, the more people the more transparent it was and there was nothing to be kept in the dark. It would not affect judges’ independent judgment.

The judiciary needs money to operate and the bill is paid by the government. Then how could we be sure that the judiciary would not lose its independence for government funding?

Judiciary independence is a universal value. According to the Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary adopted by the Seventh United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders held in Milan from August 26 to September 6, 1985, “it is the duty of each Member State to provide adequate resources to enable the judiciary to properly perform its functions”.

Most countries and regions such as the US, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan separated the expenses of the judiciary and included it in the central budget. Many countries also have a court expense budget which is planned by a court expense budget committee formed by courts or judges. There are also judges who participate in a court expense budget team and the Finance Ministry has no right to delete or seize a court expense budget and funding. Continue reading “Judicial independence and justice”

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The haze and the malaise

Ethnic politics makes Malaysia’s transition to a contested democracy fraught and ugly

Sep 10th 2011
Banyan | The Economist

SKYSCRAPERS and lampposts in Kuala Lumpur are still festooned with flags left over from independence day festivities at the end of August. Fittingly, this week they were shrouded in the annual “haze” of smog from forest fires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Malaysia’s politicians are not in the mood to celebrate nationhood and unity. Rather, with an election in the offing, everything is a chance for political point-scoring.

That includes independence itself. One huge banner in the centre of the capital shows the country’s six prime ministers since the British left in 1957, with the incumbent, Najib Razak, in the foreground, gazing into a visionary future. All six hailed from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which has led the “Barisan Nasional” (BN) coalition government ever since 1957. Some opposition politicians now complain that the official narrative of Malaysia’s history ignores the role of non-UMNO freedom fighters. Since the most recent general election, in March 2008, the opposition has had a real chance of winning power. For the first time since independence in 1957, the BN lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament that allowed it to amend the constitution on its own. No longer a one-coalition state, the opposition argues, Malaysia has to rethink its own history.
Continue reading “The haze and the malaise”

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Malaysian procurement system riddled with corruption, says US cable

The Malaysian Insider
Sep 09, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — The seedy and allegedly corrupt side of Malaysia’s defence procurement has been laid bare in a US embassy cable, with startling revelations on how Umno politicians, agents, civil servants and military officials receive 30 per cent “commission” on deals.

In a note on the opaque procurement system here revealed by whistleblower site Wikileaks, the US embassy noted that American companies operating here had three main complaints about the system: the lack of transparency, outright corruption, and Bumiputera requirements.

The undated cable sent during the Abdullah administration between 2004 and 2009 also noted that many government tenders do not follow procurement rules.

A US aerospace executive told the US embassy here defence deals were done through shadowy agreements with no tendering process. For example, the then-Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s (picture) sister-in-law arranged a US$400 million (RM1.2 billion) contract to buy military cargo aircraft from Airbus.

The deal was announced following Abdullah’s return from a trip to France. Continue reading “Malaysian procurement system riddled with corruption, says US cable”

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Putrajaya says ‘good faith’ shown despite lack of MRT land guarantee

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 08, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 — The government today insisted that it had shown “good faith”, contrary to opposition accusation, by agreeing to meet and negotiate with Jalan Sultan traders.

The traders’ lots are under risk of being forced-acquisitioned for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (KVMRT) project. The government has refused to guarantee the return the land to traders once the project is completed, which the opposition says is insincere.

Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar brushed off the accusations today, and maintained that the government had shown “good faith’ by agreeing to discuss and meet with affected Jalan Sultan traders.

“(Although) we cannot give our guarantee, we have shown our good faith in negotiating with them and looking into that possibility,” he said.

“I think we have been fair, looked into all sides, after we have acquired there is a next process . A process of application, legal process…stratum titles. It’s good we never give empty promises. But we have made possibility for engagement, we are very sincere about this,” Syed Hamid (picture) told reporters here. Continue reading “Putrajaya says ‘good faith’ shown despite lack of MRT land guarantee”

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The making of a hero out of our own stupidity

By Mohd Arshad Raji
September 5, 2011

I received this distressing email from a colleague regarding the death of Bernama’s cameraman Noramfaizul Mohd Nor who was shot while on UMNO Putra’s humanitarian mission in famine stricken Somalia. For those Malaysian soldiers that had served Somalia during the troubled period of the early 90’s would know the dangers fronting them, and UMNO Putra’s humanitarian mission in that god forsaken failed state is to my mind a total waste of time and effort. Noramfaizul’s death was in vain and there is no denying this, and to declare Noramfaizul’s a hero now is the making of UMNO Putra’s own stupidity. Continue reading “The making of a hero out of our own stupidity”

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No MRT land return guarantee shows bad faith, says DAP

By Yow Hong Chieh
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 07, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 — DAP has accused Putrajaya of bad faith for not guaranteeing the return of land acquired for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (KVMRT) project even while admitting that the wholesale acquisition was done for the sake of convenience.

DAP publicity chief Tony Pua said expediency was no reason to abuse the law and jeopardise landowners’ rights, particularly since the National Land Code 1965 had been amended in 1990 to allow underground land to be acquired without affecting surface property.

The “convoluted” explanation from the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) yesterday justifying the government’s decision to acquire land in toto in spite of these existing legal provisions showed that acquisition was little more than a land grab, he alleged.

“All the various untenable excuses being raised leads only to a single possible conclusion — the land acquisition exercises proposed in Chinatown, Bukit Bintang and other prime locations are nothing but poorly masked attempts at profiteering and land grab,” Pua said in a statement today.

“They are in breach of the spirit of the Land Acquisition Act 1960 where the government is only to acquire private land, and only that which is necessary for public use and benefit, and not for profit.” Continue reading “No MRT land return guarantee shows bad faith, says DAP”