Day: January 31, 2012

Stephanie Sta Maria | January 31, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

KUALA LUMPUR: Cuepacs has set up an action committee as its latest step in its fight against the Public Service New Remuneration Scheme (SBPA).

A 15-member team, led by Cuepacs deputy president, Azih Muda, will present a paper on its recommendations to Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak, by early March.

These recommendations were compiled during a two-day workshop on SBPA which was attended by all Cuepacs officials.

Cuepacs president, Omar Osman, told the media this afternoon that the paper would be based on the five items that Cuepacs has already submitted for review by the SBPA task force.

“The prime minister introduced the SBPA in the hope that it would be better than the Malaysian Remuneration Scheme (SSM) but instead it is the worst scheme we have ever seen,” he said. Continue reading “Cuepacs steps up fight against new scheme”

— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 31, 2012

31 JAN — Kawan kawan saya dalam Umno bercakap mengenai rasa cemas bila kerajaan yang di pimpin oleh Umno menabur wang begitu banyak kepada rakyat. Bayaran RM100, RM200, dan sekarang ini RM500 sedang rancak di jalankan. Tapi apa yang hendak di risaukan? Bukankah ini hasil pejuangan Umno dan bukti Umno dan BN amat perihatin kepada rakyat?

Mereka bertanya kepada saya, bayaran2 ini, adakah ianya meningkatkan peluang Umno dan kerajaan BN menang? Saya cakap sudah tentu ia meningkat peluang- peluang untuk rakyat merasa sakit hati. Bila rakyat sakit hati, bertambah ramailah musuh2 Umno.

Hah? Macam mana itu berlaku? Saya menyatakan bahawa dalam hal beri memberi ini, Umno selalu menghadapi masaalah. Siapa yang menentukan siapa dapat RM100, RM200 dan RM500? Selalunya yang menentukan ialah ketua kampung.

Ketua kampung punya keutamaan ialah menyenaraikan adik beradik, saudara-saudara terdekat, dan geng-geng yang sebulu dengan mereka. Golongan yang terpinggir ramai daripada yang dapat imbuhan. Ini memang resam sesetangah ketua kampong. Semasa saya jadi ADUN dahulu, saya mempunyai masaalah dengan ketua-ketua kampung yang seperti inilah juga — yang jadi pagar yang memakan padi.

Kalau buka kawasan pembesaran kampung, lot-lot tanah di sapu mereka dan keluarga mereka sendiri. Kalau ada rumah rakyat, rumah PPRT, sanak saudara di dahulukan. Bahkan lot-lot tanah di beri kepada suku-sakat mereka yang tidak pun tinggal dalam kawasan pemberian tanah.

Apabila saham Felcra di beri oleh kerajaan, yang sepatutnya di beri kepada kepala keluarga, pemimpin kampung mendesak di beri kepada anggota isi rumah. Kalau keluarganya ada lima orang, mereka mahu saham Felcra di beri kepada ke lima-lima ahli keluarganya. Apa akan jadi bila perkara seperti ini di biarkan? Ianya bermakna lima ketua keluarga yang lain di nafikan peluang untuk dapat saham Felcra.

Nah, sekarang perkara yang serupa berlaku apabila pentadbiran Najib Razak membayar wang kepada rakyat. Ramai orang menerima wang tersebut tapi bilangan yang di nafikan hak untuk menikmati rezeki dari Najib Razak juga kian bertambah. Continue reading “Umno parti rasuah”

Just before the Chinese New Year, the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek gave an interview where he blamed the Barisan Nasional government, “particularly embattled minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abd Jalil”, for the “poor handling” of the RM330 million “cattle condo” scandal, causing the public to perceive the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) project as “real rotten”.

If the MCA President is right, then the four MCA Ministers must also bear full responsibility as they have allowed the RM330 million “cattle condo” to drag on for three months in the public limelight, with the relentless expose of one abuse of power and misuse of public funds after another, without any rebuttal and providing no light whatsoever “at the end of the tunnel”!

In fact, as it is more than six months since the completion and submission to the government of the Auditor-General’s Report 2010 in early July last year which led to the expose of the “terrible mess” of the NFC scandal, Malaysians are entitled to an explanation why the Cabinet (including the four MCA Ministers) had been sleeping on their jobs to get to the very bottom of the NFC scandal?

In view of the MCA President’s statement blaming the “rotten mess” of the NFC scandal on Barisan Nasional’s “poor handling”, are the four MCA Ministers prepared to make amends for their ministerial cowardice and irresponsibility by speaking up in first post-Chinese New Year Cabinet meeting for full public transparency and accountability for the RM330 million “cattle condo” scandal? Continue reading “4 MCA Ministers should make amends for their ministerial cowardice/irresponsibility by speaking up in first post-CNY Cabinet meeting for full public transparency and accountability for the RM330 million “cattle condo” scandal”

by Moaz Nair
Malaysia Chronicle
30 January 2012

Some UMNO leaders and the nuisance-to-society Perkasa apparently still belong to the old school of thoughts that race and religion can be used to gain votes from the Malays. More often than not, they prefer to sow hatred among races in the country to achieve their selfish goals.

The new educated or enlightened Malay race – New Malays (Melayu Baru) do not auspiciously subscribe to this divisive politics or racial and religious rhetoric of UMNO or Perkasa anymore. The New Malays see race, religion and the country as a whole from an entirely different political perspective. They seem to spurn politics based on shallow discourse relating to race and religion. They have a bigger ambition for the country to see it develop with people of all races having a fair share of the economic pie.

Some irrelevant Malay politicians belonging to the old school of thoughts are wasting their precious time organising public speeches trying to delude the Malays into thinking that non-Malays are a threat to them or that Christianity is a threat to the Malays and the religion of Islam in this country. When these bigots sense that they are not getting the crowd to their numb sermons – as the people are not interested in their story telling – they resort to their friendly media to pad the events. They fail to realise that the majority of Malays are at ease living together with other races and seeing the many religions being practised in peace. There are many more Malays working, studying in Christian countries without fear that they will be converted to Christianity. Many Malays have even left this country for good after having hatred for UMNO’s approach to politics.

In truth, the New Malays in the country will not fall to UMNO’s bilk that DAP is a threat to the Malay race, Islam and the royalty. The country and its political parties have evolved for many years. DAP is today perceived by the New Malays as a party for all Malaysians. Never in the history of DAP’s party manifesto has it shown any predisposition towards the Malays, Islam or the royalty. Continue reading “Malays have no qualms about joining DAP: Only Umno says they have”

by Liew Chin Tong
The Rocket
30 January, 2012

Not many of us remembered that Barisan Nasional survived and thrived electorally for an extended period from 1991 to 2005 as a result of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s grand compromise in the form of Vision 2020.

Coercive tools and undemocratic means like security power to arrest legitimate political opponents without trial, legal and financial controls over mass media, and a distorted electoral system, have helped BN to remain in power, becoming the current longest serving elected government in the world.
The Alliance formula and the beginning of “Malay First” hegemony

BN’s predecessor the Alliance’s formula was to win half of the votes of all ethnic groups. Being the sole coalition with multi-ethnic representation at all levels, the strategy paid off well in 1959 and 1964.

But the Alliance also pursued a small-government-do-very-little approach, resulting in rising inequality. It eventually resulted in an increased support for the opposition among members of all ethnic groups, including Malays, in 1969.

Contrary to the popular belief that only Chinese supported the opposition in the 1969 election, the Malays played their part too. Dr. Mahathir lost his Kota Setar Selatan seat as well as the defeats of other UMNO bigwigs demonstrated that there were substantial Malay swing against the Alliance.

Post-1969, Tun Razak’s formula strived to achieve a 70 percent Malay electoral support for BN. Non-Malay support was considered non-essential in such formula. All policies under the new arrangement, symbolised by the New Economic Policy, were geared towards that goal.

The “Malay first” strategy served UMNO well until the 1990 general election when the Malay votes were split after the formation of Semangat 46, led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and other former senior UMNO leaders. Continue reading “Dissecting Mahathir’s grand design”

S Thayaparan | Jan 30, 2012
Malaysiakini

COMMENT

Umno’s interaction with “multiracial parties” has so far been with Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR – ostensibly a multiracial party but for the most part, an organisation filled with ship-jumping Umno rejects – and the Islamic PAS, often used as a bogeyman by Umno to keep the non-Muslims in line.

That Umno considers PKR a threat to its power has more to do with the fact that it was always perceived to be the third moderate way of the Malay polity and not for any multiracial reasons.

Umno is fighting a battle on two fronts, against vocal liberal Malay voices of PKR and the more religious tones from PAS.

In both these cases, the fight for the Malay soul is confined within the Malay community and the non-Malays have been collateral damage in the ongoing shadow war that will determine the fate of this country.

So it should come as no surprise that Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin (left) is concerned over the possible influx of moderate Malay voices into the routinely demonised DAP.

If more Malays enter this political party, the Malay vote will be further fractured into a diverse range of political aspirations that don’t neatly fit in the bigoted ethnocentric agenda of the ruling Umno regime.

If the point of the Umno game is to limit the choices of the Malay population then any attempt to provide avenues for different forms of political expressions is a threat to the natural order of their reality.

There can be no plurality of voices when it comes to expressing Islam. Anything which is a threat to Malay unity, which should be read as Umno hegemony, should be shot down in a hail of racial, religious or cultural bullets. Continue reading “The fracturing of the Malay community (2)”

— Mohd Ikhram Merican
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 30, 2012

JAN 30 — Dear Tun Dr M,

Many years ago, in 1986 or ‘87, I can’t remember the exact year, I had the pleasure of meeting you in a private family dinner. You were the guest of honour and I was a very young boy, excited to be in the vicinity of your towering presence. I had many things I wanted to say to you and when I walked up to where you were seated I could only manage one rhetorical question.

You were very kind. Although in the midst of conversation with my uncles, you stopped and gave me, a little boy, a few minutes of your time. I spoke to the prime minister. It was my two minutes of fame.

For the better part of my life you have been the prime minister of Malaysia. In all those years, I saw you as the best prime minister Malaysia has ever had. Sadly, I’m not so sure anymore. I don’t despise you or loathe you but I question your rationale for a good many things. There are so many issues that I would like to raise with you. It is near impossible to cover everything here but let me start with your latest blog post titled “Kaitan Bangsa Dengan Bisnes”. The Malaysian Insider reported this with the headline, “Dr M: Scrapping race-based policies will lead to chaos.”

I find it hard to believe that scrapping race-based policies will lead to chaos. The status quo is more detrimental to the country in the long run. The existing race-based policies have done little to improve the plight of the Malays. In fact it has created a class divide between the Malay haves and have-nots. This WILL split the Malays because severe class inequalities have caused revolutions, even in singular nations.

You believe not everyone has equal capabilities and some people must be given special consideration in business and other areas based on their race. This is an argument that neither makes sense nor justifies special considerations. Let me elaborate. Would you allow an aspiring surgeon to become one via special considerations, even if he is inherently bad at it? And would you trust your life under the knife with this person? This is what you propose.

Allow me to provide a further example. UiTM was founded in 1956 (as Dewan Latihan Rida) to facilitate the creation of Bumiputera professionals. Fifty-six years later, it ranks among the last in the QS World University Rankings. While it is the largest university in Malaysia, and has admittedly created many graduates, it has done little to create world-class professionals. Continue reading “Open letter to Dr M”