Day: January 30, 2012

— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 30, 2012

30 JAN — Masalah yang dihadapi oleh parti pemerintah sekarang ini ialah perpecahan dalaman yang berlaku dari atas sehingga ke bawah. Perpecahan yang sangat serius ini bukan kepalang besarnya. Beberapa minggu lalu di Shah Alam Dr Mahathir Mohamad telah menyeru ahli-ahli Umno supaya menyokong calon Umno walaupun yang diturunkan oleh parti itu bukannya seorang ahli Umno.

Seruan Dr Mahathir ini sangat besar maknanya kepada seseorang yang berpolitik. Ia bermakna Umno memang sedang berada di dalam keadaan tenat sehinggakan ada tempat-tempat dan kawasan yang tidak ada seorang pun ahli Umno yang layak untuk diturunkan sebagai calon yang mendapat sokongan yang menyeluruh.

Dr Mahathir pula nampaknya sudah berubah lagi. Kali ini beliau menyokong parti, tidak seperti dalam PRU yang lalu di mana beliau meyokong calon dan tidak parti. Tetapi itu adalah tindakan yang tidak mengejutkan ramai sebab Dr Mahathir adalah seorang yang sentiasa “flip-flop” dalam perjuangan beliau.

Jadi benarlah pandangan saya selama ini yang Umno memang tidak ada kepimpinan di kalangan ahli-ahlinya. Jika seorang pemimpin yang digelar sebagai negarawan oleh penyokong-penyokong setianya itu, boleh menzahirkan kata-kata seruan seperti itu maka sah Umno memang sedang menghadapi masalah yang bertindih-tindih yang tidak dapat diselesaikan walaupun PRU akan diadakan tidak lama lagi. Continue reading “Mahal sungguh nak ‘maintain’ Umno ini”

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | January 30, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

Contrary to survey ratings, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is not as popular as people are made to believe, says Daim Zainuddin.

COMMENT

In the pre-2008 general election days, Umno leaders castigated and demeaned former economic adviser Daim Zainuddin, claiming he was senile and past his shelf life, and that he was way-off with his political predictions.

Then came the shocking loss. As prophesied by Daim, Barisan Nasional lost five states and barely managed to retain its two-thirds majority.

Now every Umno leader regards Daim as the Oracle of Delphi. More so, if they can persuade him to give encouraging, if not forced, optimism of Umno’s prospects in the 13th general election.

Sadly they are not going to get that.

Two Saturdays ago, I sat down with Daim’s alter ego, whom I call the Oracle of Syed Putra.

Although I directed my questions to the Oracle and he gave answers, readers must assume they are directed to and answered by Daim himself.

I asked the Oracle his assessment of the current political situation and of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

His response was somewhat startling, to say the least.

He said Najib “has simply lost the plot” on how to run and manage this country.

What about those polls and ratings about Najib being popular?

The Oracle said, “Surveyors and those surveyed can be paid to elicit the politically correct statements. No big deal.” Continue reading “Umno’s in trouble in Selangor”

Yesterday, when Utusan Malaysia accused DAP of being the world’s most racist political party, I did not know whether to laugh or to cry.

To laugh at the poverty of ideas and bankruptcy of journalistic principles of the Utusan editors or to cry at the lack of loyalty and patriotism of Utusan editors to an united, harmonious and successful multi-racial Malaysia!

What came to me immediately was the Greek saying: “Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad!”

The Utusan Malaysia charge was so ridiculous that I put the Utusan Malaysia item on my blog in verbatim, to let more people see the depths Utusan had sunk to from its early days when it was a great newspaper.

Only few days earlier, the MCA President Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek was in his stentorian best, spinning the tune that a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS and a victory for DAP in the next general elections is paving the road for PAS’ “days of glory”.

If Utusan Malaysia is right that DAP is the world’s most racist party, then Chua is wrong. If Chua is right, then Utusan must be wrong.
Continue reading “Utusan Malaysia or Chua Soi Lek – which of them lied? Answer: Both lied!”

By M. Bakri Musa

Chapter 12: A Prescription For Malaysia

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister

May 13, 2000

Dear Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, MBBS, SPMJ, DSDK, DP(Sarawak), DUPN, DKNS, SPCM, SPDK, SPNS, SSMT, DUK, DK(I), PIS, DK(Perlis), FICS(Hon), SSAP, DK(Kelantan):

I do hope that I have all your titles correct and honorifics up to date. It was so much easier in the old days when you were simply Dr. Mahathir! You seem invigorated lately by the West’s belated recognition of your considerable leadership qualities. While President Bush and others may have been slow in recognizing your talent, rest assured that for many Malaysians, your place in our history books is secure.
Continue reading “Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #98”

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will be one of the casualties of the RM330 million National Feedlot Centre (NFC)/National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) “cattle condo” scandal with Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid’s PAC Chairmanship remembered for his refusal to allow the PAC to investigate the scandal.

The Malaysian Insider report today quoting PAC members that there was no personal guarantee involved in the RM250 million government loan to NFCorp, giving rise to the question who is accountable to repay if the NFC project fails, has raised anew the issue why Azmi as PAC Chairman is single-handedly blocking the PAC from probing further into the “cattle condo” scandal highlighted after the Auditor-General’s Report 2010.

Azmi should reconsider his refusal to even convene a meeting of PAC to let the PAC members decide whether to proceed to conduct investigations into the “cattle condo” scandal or to suspend all PAC probes pending the outcome of police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigations – when PAC members well know that the Malaysian public have little confidence that much would come out of police and MACC investigations.

In fact, as a member of the Tun Abdullah Cabinet which approved controversial NFC project in 2006, Azmi should not take part in any PAC discussion and decision whether PAC should investigate the “cattle condo” scandal – although Azmi claimed he could not remember whether the Cabinet during his time had discussed the project. Continue reading “Azmi Khalid’s PAC Chairmanship will be remembered for his refusal to allow PAC to investigate the RM330 million NFC/NFCorp “cattle condo” scandal”

S Thayaparan | Jan 29, 2012
Malaysiakini

COMMENT Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin’s challenge to the DAP to provide figures on the number of Malays joining the ranks of this centre-left party, not to mention Professor Khoo Kay Kim’s rather jaundiced view of Malay leftist as “non-freedom fighters”, is further evidence of the party’s desperate need to define what it means to be Malay, both historically and in the present.

Umno’s continuing efforts at creating the perception of a monolithic Malay polity has veered from the insidiously sophisticated to the downright crude.

Every facet of Malay life as projected by the state’s media propaganda organs has been to present the image of the Malays as a unified voting block raging against the liberal foreign ideas of the DAP, the eroding Islamic ideals of PAS or the immorality of Anwar Ibrahim.

There is a reason why there is a state-sanctioned method of practicing Islam. There is a reason for the morality police. There is a reason for apostasy laws. There is a reason for marriage laws.

There is a reason why other religions are demonised. There is a reason why the Malay population has been indoctrinated to fear their fellow Malaysians. And the reason for this is simple.

What Umno desires, and has received for so many years, is total submission from the sizeable majority of the Malay population. Continue reading “Malay matters in the nation’s future”