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Umno akan terus gagal memperjuangkan Melayu

— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 28, 2012

28 MAC — Sejak saya mengambil keputusan menyertai pihak alternatif melalui Parti Tindakan Demokratik (DAP) banyak rakan-rakan yang datang menemui saya untuk bertanya berbagai-bagai persoalan tentang tindakan saya itu.

Rata-rata yang datang bertanya itu adalah dikalangan mereka yang telah berkawan dan bersahabat dengan saya sejak puluhan tahun dahulu. Rakan-rakan yang jauh bertanya kepada saya melalui emel dan talipon dan memahami saya setelah saya memberikan kefahaman yang sebetulnya.

Apa yang saya nampak mereka lebih bertanya kenapa saya memilih untuk tidak lagi bersama Umno. Jarang-jarang mereka bertanya kenapa pilih DAP kerana mereka juga memahami yang DAP itu adalah sebuah parti yang berpengalaman dan telah berusia hampir lima dekad lamanya.

Mereka memahami yang DAP telah melalui semua ujian dan dugaan untuk “survival” nya kerana tekanan dan momokan oleh pihak pemerintah terhadap parti itu tidak henti-henti dilakukan oleh pihak yang takut dengan perkembangan pengaruhnya, lebih-lebih lagi sejak akhir-akhir ini. Continue reading “Umno akan terus gagal memperjuangkan Melayu”

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Anwar: Christian threat is Umno propaganda

S Pathmawathy | Mar 28, 2012
Malaysiakini

Pakatan Rakyat condemned the latest move to instil fear of the threat of Christianisation in the country, blaming it as tactic by Umno to “frighten” the Muslim Malay majority.

“I want to state, the all mighty in Malaysia is Umno – Umno is in charge of religion, Umno is in charge of the finances – so if the allegations (of attempt to spread Christianity) is true, that means it is Umno that failed to strengthened the faith of the Muslims,” said opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

“What I can confirm is that this is nothing other than a disgusting political manoeuvre to use religion to frighten the people,” Anwar said.

Speaking at a press conference at Parliament today, Anwar pointed out that if a movement exists to threaten the faith of the Muslims, then there are adequate legal measures that can be taken for transgressing the law. Continue reading “Anwar: Christian threat is Umno propaganda”

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Pakatan promises to buy back MEX if voted to power

By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 28, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pledged today to buy back the part publicly-funded Maju Expressway (MEX) from its concessionaire should they wrest Putrajaya in the coming polls, claiming the move would save over RM4.6 billion in taxpayers’ money.

In a statement signed by representatives from all three PR parties – Rafizi Ramli (PKR), Tony Pua (DAP) and Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (PAS) — the leaders noted that it was one of PR’s Buku Jingga promises to restructure toll rates and the country’s many highway concession agreements, many of which they claim have over-benefitted Barisan Nasional (BN) cronies.

Speaking at a press conference in Parliament today, Pua, DAP’s publicity secretary, said it was more sensible for Putrajaya to buy back the highway with a maximum payment of RM400.9 million, instead of allowing Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd to profit from its sale.

He said that Maju Group executive chairman Tan Sri Abu Sahid Mohamed stands to make a clean profit of RM1.09 billion or 1,800 per cent of his initial investment of RM60 million from his sale of MEX to EP Manufacturing Bhd (EPMB) for RM1.7 billion.

“This profit is too high because the government has already used taxpayers’ money to fund 74 per cent of the highway’s construction cost,” he said.

This, added Pua, amounts to a whopping RM976.7 million. Continue reading “Pakatan promises to buy back MEX if voted to power”

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What have our schools become?

— Jahabar Sadiq
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 28, 2012

MARCH 28 — Last weekend, I went back to school for a memorial. This was the second time in three years that I visited St John’s Institution. While the memorial for Master Vincent Fernandez was sombre, it ended on an uplifting note when the school rally rang through the old school hall.

The school itself appeared to be a far cry from its glory days. The field was bare but the main building had ferns and other vegetation growing out of it, showing the neglect and lack of respect for the hardware required for the education of the young. I had no heart to even peek into any of the classroom for fear of further disappointment.

As it is, the school that has produced a list of top Malayans and Malaysians since 1904 no longer boasts of a hockey or football team that dominate the Kuala Lumpur school leagues. We can only take pride that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak studied there, as did his cousin Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, Selangor ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, Perak regent Raja Nazrin Shah and a whole lot more others.

But a school is more than bricks and mortar. The Johannians past and present can and will chip in, as they did previously, to make our alma mater as good as new again and put the green in the right place — the field, not the building.

However, who will put education or the software right? For instance, my colleagues reported today that the Johor education authorities are having a weekend seminar for religious teachers to reinforce the Islamic faith, to counter liberalism, pluralism and the threat of Christianisation. Continue reading “What have our schools become?”

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Thank you for making someone cry

by Goh Keat Peng

There are many ways to make someone cry.

Hit her or him and cause physical and emotional pain. Break her heart by letting her down. Disappoint her. Say untruthful things about her. Being unfair and unjust to her.

Yes many ways to bring unwelcome tears. In fact it takes just one person to cause untold harm to burst the tear bank.

But in Malaysia, in a small town, just the day before yesterday, a group of young men, UNIT AMAL of Pas (Islamic Party), did something so special, something not so common, to bring floods of unstoppable tears to someone dear to me! Continue reading “Thank you for making someone cry”