(Joint Media Statement by DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng, DAP Life Advisor Dr. Chen Man Hin and DAP Parliamentary Leader, Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 15th December 2011)
On Tuesday, 13th December 2011, the DAP Central Executive Committee entrusted a three-man committee to resolve the differences between the DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh and DAP Penang Deputy Chairman and Penang Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. P. Ramasamy.
On Wednesday, 14th December 2011, Makkal Oosai Chief Editor M. Rajan issued a correction on its 28th Nov. 2011 news report, admitting its mistake and making clear that its 28th November 2011 report about DAP candidatures for the next general elections had not originated from Ramasamy and expressing sadness that its news report had been the cause of the public controversy between Karpal and Ramasamy.
Hoping that the differences could be resolved as soon as possible, the Makkal Oosai chief editor paid tribute to the leadership qualities of Karpal and Ramasamy and wrote:
“Untuk kita, Karpal Singh dan Professor Ramasamy adalah pemimpin yang terpenting. Karpal Singh adalah pejuang dalam barisan pembangkang yang amat disanjungi di negara kita. Beliau telah melalui banyak penderitaan dan dugaan. Beliau berpegang teguh kepada prinsip parti dan berjuang sehingga masuk ke penjara.
“Seperti itu juga, pemberian jawatan Timbalan Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang kepada seorang India adalah sejarah dalam politik negara kita. Pada pilihanraya lepas, Professor Ramasamy telah memenangi DUN dan Parlimen di Penang dan menjadi Timbalan Ketua Menteri. Beliau juga memberikan khidmat yang baik kepada masyarakat India Pulau Pinang dengan jawatan sebagai Timbalan Ketua Menteri tersebut.”
DAP leaders, including Karpal and Ramasamy, are conscious of the high expectations and great trust of the people in the DAP leadership to create a new political landscape in the imminent 13th general elections, particularly in bringing about a genuine two-coalition system in national politics by effecting a change of federal power in Putrajaya for the first time in 54 years of independent nationhood.
Taking into account the Tamil Oosai clarification and mindful of the great concerns of the people over the unity, cohesion and solidarity of the DAP leadership, Karpal, Ramasamy and the DAP Central Executive Committee have decided to move forward as one solid and committed political team to complete the final preparations for the challenges of the 13th GE expected in the next few months.
We will address and resolve internal differences using party channels to strengthen party unity, solidarity and cohesion so that we can single-mindedly ensure that DAP and Pakatan Rakyat can take on and defeat UMNO and Barisan Nasional in the 13th general elections.
by Loh on Wednesday, 14 December 2011 – 2:18 pm
///“Umno is reverting back its age old policy of Malay agenda which has enabled it to maintain its traditional support base in the past. But Pakatan has not done enough to alleviate these Malay fears despite how untruthful it is. ” Nurul Izzah Anwar told The Malaysian Insider “Our message needs to be carefully catered to address Malay fears stemming from the use of politics of fear and race that the Umno-BN is currently using against us ”.///– Nurul Izzah Anwar
Nurul Anwar should sit back and think again the statement she has made. As a politician, perhaps an opportunistic one, that statement makes perfect sense, since one has to be elected to be able to serve. That was what UMNO did when it wanted to be elected. It is like taking opium, UMNO gets addicted.
UMNO has made politics the most rewarding, in material term, economic activity in the country, and by the way UMNO brainwashes Malays into worshiping wealth the smartest Malays are in UMNO. Once in it Malay politicians lose aspiration to do what is good for the country never mind the race, which is an invented one anyway. UMNO politicians are addicted to pursuing the single most elementary strategy to be in power. They claim to protect race and religion and now the Rulers.
Let us examine how ridiculous the claims being made by UMNO.
The Rulers are the descendants of those most able, who were during their time the leaders, against any enemies, and they protected the people. That was how they became king. Are UMNO leaders suggesting that the descendants are weak, if they had to face similar enemies? It is ridiculous to suggest the position of the Rulers is at risk in a country that practices rule of law and the Rulers. How would the status of the Rulers be in danger when the rule of law is maintained? UMNO indeed demonstrated how they demonized the Rulers in the past, but UMNO is now instilling fear into Malays that once UMNO lost power, the reigning government would follow UMNO’s footsteps. UMNO is a failed organization and people do not look up to its work.
Religion is a personal matter, and UMNO tries to make religion a community asset. No religion in the world needs protection as it is a personal choice for persons who care to practice it, or even when others choose not to. Seven billion humans on earth living in over 200 countries are practicing different religions. Islam is practiced by 1.5 billion in almost all countries in the world. Would all Muslims cease to practice Islam? If it did, could the 15 million Muslims in the country revive it? To worry about the disappearing of one’s religion is like worrying about the end of the world. It would be more useful to tune one’s mind to practicing the religion than to defend it. The deeds of the followers are the best guarantee to the propagation of the religion than the bellicose stand employed by them.
Do Malays need protection as a race, granted that it is defined as those who habitually practice the Malay (undefined as it describes what it supposes to be) culture and who practice Islamic religion and who speak the Malay language now Bahasa Malaysia? If a race is to survive, it means that the reproduction rate of the people in that race should exceed 2.2%. Malays reproduction rate has surpassed all other races in the country. Thus, Malays need no protection from the government.
If protection is taken to mean that as humans, Malays should be given safety net so that the society would be able to prevent the less able bodies from dying out of poverty, then that protection is applicable to all persons who are living in the country. Hence protection should be given to all races.
UMNO’s definition of protection for the Malays originates from Article 153. Prof. Benjamin Bowling of Kings College London wrote in connection with institutional racism and religious freedom in Malaysia the following:
Quote
The Article [Article 153 of the Malaysian constitution] was initially intended to be reviewed 15 years after independence (1957), however it has become a permanent feature. In subsequent amendments to the Constitutions, Article 153 was entrenched further which requires the consent of the Malay Rulers before it could be amended.
Malaysia has all the hallmarks of a racist and religious extreme state on the following foundation;
a) The Federal Constitution basically establishes 2 classes of citizens, vide Article 153, the root of the racist system.
b) The State sanctions racist and religious extreme laws and policies
c) The State controls the Government Administration through one racial and religious group
d) The State channels most funds for economic/education/social development programs and licenses, permits etc., to one race
e) The State controls Religious freedom to the disadvantage of non-Muslims, imposes of Muslim religious laws on non- Muslims and extends the jurisdiction of the Syaria Courts onto non-Muslims.
f) The State sponsors violence and threats of violence both directly and indirectly (outsourced) on the citizens to create fear among the non-Malay non-Muslims.
g) The State sanctions draconian, punitive laws and gives blank cheques to the Police to make arbitrary arrests of dissenters.
h) The State explicitly and implicitly declares that the Malays are the masters (Malay Supremacy) and the sons of soil.
Ethnic composition of Malaysia : Malays 53.3%, Chinese 26.0%, indigenous 11.8%, Indians 7.7%, others 1.2%. Religions: Islam (60.4%), Buddhism (19.2%), Christianity (9.1%), Hinduism (6.3%), other/none (5.0%). – US Department of State 2011
Unquote
It was unfair to blame May 13 on Tunku for not looking after Malays interests when Tunku’s deputy Tun Razak went beyond the intention of article 153 to make FELDA scheme in pre-1969 days, the project exclusively for Malays. Prof. Bowling said of FELDA as follows:
Quote
What started as a modest land development agency in 1956 today has become a giant scheme which manages an area of 2 million acres and encompasses more than 530,000 people. FELDA’s main role is to open up new land areas for agriculture and relocation of low income and landless rural inhabitants. This program has become an almost entirely Malay Muslim development program. There is a systematic and wholesale exclusion of Non-Malays from this program.
Unquote
In 1969, there were about 3 million Malays in Peninsular. Among them 530,000 received direct assistance from the government to be part-owners of FELDA-estates. Thus 18% of Malays receive direct assistance from the government. There were then 3 million Chinese, 800K Indians, and with the remaining 2.47 million Malays who had not benefited directly from scheme FELDA. They have benefited from the spillovers as Muhyiddin put it 40 years later.
By 1969 when FELDA scheme have turned the plantation of 2 million acres into mature rubber and palm oil land, FELDA estate should be worth as much as rubber and palm oil estates collectively owned by the foreigners and the locals combined. Foreigners were said to have held 45% of equity share in the country, and plantation should have been valued for 15 to 20%. Thus the ownership of estate-like FELDA, benefiting only Malay settlers and funded by the government should have been worth 15-20%. Yet government statistics claimed that Malays owned 1.43% of corporate capital in the country in its justification to launch NEP. It is clear that the government since 1970 has not included FELDA in the computation of equity share capital. It has also excluded other relevant figures in the statistics to prove that the equity share of 30% target has not been achieved.
Since the advent of NEP and especially after Mamakthir’s invention of negotiated contract, the protection of Malays have now been elevated to protecting them from the laws of the country. Malays who have the right connection are free to plunder the country with impunity. Anwar is seen to stop the corrupt practices and has therefore become the prime target of rule by law, together with trump up charges.
Based on the original spirit of Article 153, Malays are placed in the special position out of need. The Malay leaders in particular the late Tun Dr Ismail said he was pleasantly surprised that non-Malay leaders agreed to article 153 without reservation. Tun Ismail said that Malays when no longer in need would on their initiative give up on the special position, out of pride. UMNO wants the special position to continue, without a care about the pride of the community. Nurul Azzah Anwar should re-read history to appreciate the raison d’etres for Article 153, and its time frame. It is bad to compete with UMNO on dividing the country by race through capitalizing on the wordings in the constitution; UMNO turns the intention to give assistance to the needy groups into an entitlement. The basis of entitlement has been advanced by UMNO as race and religion, as if there is a recognized hierarchy now that UMNO can at will invoke tyranny of the majority!
NEP is not a law. It is not provided in the constitution, and indeed it is against the constitution. UMNO practices it as UMNO’s manifesto. PKR obviously does not have to adopt it. To do so would turn Pakatan Rakyat into a temporary choice for the people to dismiss UMNO. Indeed while the world is moving against racism, Malaysia should re-examine what harms racism has caused the country.
If the new government is to faithfully follow Article 153 of the constitution it has to observe the requirements that Agong has to safeguard the legitimate interests of other communities in accordance to the provision of the said Article. Clearly UMNO has ignored and deprived the legitimate interests of non-Malay communities. To faithfully purse this Article, actively, there would be a need to immediately replace a certain percentage of Malays in the civil services by other races. That applies also to employment in other government institutions. That would cause upheavals. But clearly UMNO policy at racism should stop.
The proper course of action would be to begin henceforth a system of equal treatment for all races based on norms accepted in any country not pursuing institutionalized racism. Meritocracy is the alternative and should be practised. Compassion should cover all citizens irrespective of characteristics by birth or by choice. Thus, the government after UMNO should be based on equal citizenships. Malaysians should have a shared destiny. All regulations taking race and religion as the criteria in government policies and regulations should be repealed.
UMNO talks about fighting for the race, which Najib accepts as Malay, anybody who is a member of UMNO. UMNO is more like a gang where the senior members get a larger share of largeese to junior members, and they together share the spoils, albeit unevenly, plundered by the gang leaders from the country. UMNO allows non-member Malays to get ‘spillover’ benefits, to lure them to ensure UMNO’s perpetual rule. Even Nurul Izzah Anwar cannot deny that she benefited from UMNO’s racist policy; but on balance Nurul and other non-UMNOputras would have gotten more benefits had the nation not been plundered by UMNOputras. As NEP and its implementation are notorious and widely known foreigners do view the success of Malays with suspect. That was why a former Vice Chancellor of University Malaya declared that she was in her position not because she was Malay. That denial is futile. The misconception would only go away with Article 153, in time.
After 54 years of independence, three and half times the life-span allowed to article 153, the parties which had not based its strength on racism should not begin to do so. However PKR tries, Perkasa and Pekida would not support it. It is morally wrong to practice racism and PKR would come out second best even if it tries.
This augurs well for the Pakatan and showed political maturity in DAP’s leaders. Always focus on the BIG picture i.e. the Rakyat & GE 13 and put aside personal egos.
Common Sense has prevails for the good of DAP.
Prof Rama should, as a political Novice, be very Careful when speaking ‘Openly’ as the MSM n BN cybertroopers are lurking at every corner.
Keep up the Good Fight-‘May the Force be with YOU!’
That is a childish performance by those two old guys.
Sad to see Karpal …can easily lead to a quarrel with a nobody in DAP.
United we stand, divided we fall
A united PR is for the good of all
To achieve the goal of BN’s departure
To give Malaysia a better future
Vast majority Malaysians are supporting change of government….seeing PR parties are much better than BN.
Lets hope no PR parties leaders make Malaysians sick of their arrogance and childishness.
///DAP leaders, including Karpal and Ramasamy, are conscious of the high expectations and great trust of the people in the DAP leadership to create a new political landscape in the imminent 13th general elections….///
Absolutely true! As fervent DAP supporters we do not want to see division in the party, which brings our hope of a new political landscape to nought.
Silly little storm in a teacup.
Now that the family tiff is over and the ill winds have dissipated, let’s just focus on the macro project – the downfall of UMNO and BN.
Oftentimes, after a period of recovery from a fracture, the structure becomes stronger.
PR will overcome, PR will overcome some day ……..GE 13.
Oosai Ooze-sai. But this shows two senile old man also don’t bother to pick up the phone to clarify with each other before public spat. Both also from same party. Now can we get on with umno/bn bashing.
Warlords n godfathers NO TALK 2 each other 1 what, hi-yah, chop smash crash