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Two conventions, two Americas. Seldom has the divide been greater

Michael Cohen
The Observer
Sunday 9 September 2012

Witnessing both conferences is to see anger from the Republicans and abiding hope from the Democrats

Over the past two weeks, both major American political parties held their nominating conventions – and that’s pretty much where the similarities end. After interminable speeches, cloying videos and occasional moments of rhetorical eloquence, the philosophical and tonal divide between them has never felt broader. Quite simply, Democrats and Republicans operate in two completely distinct realms, one that is defined by an attachment to reality and one that is increasingly detached from it.

If their three-day convention in Tampa is any indication, Republicans reside in a fantasy world where government plays no role but that of malevolence, where the free market is the salvation to all that ails this nation and where the country is locked in a Manichaean struggle between the forces of freedom and a failed, socialist interloper named Barack Obama.

It was a point driven home to me in Tampa when I overheard a Republican delegate declare in a sweet voice, reflecting more pity than anger: “There’s a communist living in the White House.”

For four decades, Republicans have relied on an undercurrent of white resentment toward social and economic change to maintain their pre-eminence in national politics. But with an African-American president and the country moving closer to “minority-majority” status, that dominance is slipping away and it feeds the sense of anger and desperation they tried to keep hidden in Tampa, but that all too often crept to the surface. Indeed, the entire Republican “you didn’t build that” attack against Obama (a line taken brazenly and dishonestly out of context) is reminiscent of decades of Republican talking points that sought to cast their party as the defender of hard-working Americans and the Democrats as the defender of dependency, particularly for poor minorities. Continue reading “Two conventions, two Americas. Seldom has the divide been greater”

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Patriotism

by Allan CF Goh
(A poem)

Patriotism is the lifelong love,
For one’s country and nation.
It expects the very best of us,
For its greatest progression.
It values a country’s achievements,
With a sincere devotion.

Patriotism will support the best
Efforts to build the nation.
It culls good values from all cultures,
Nurtures wisdom to fruition.
Policies that need the adjustments,
Are done with best attentions. Continue reading “Patriotism”

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Jabu gets a tongue-lashing

Joseph Tawie | November 24, 2011
Free Malaysia Today

A landowner has accused the deputy chief minister of twisting the truth over a joint-venture project.

KUCHING: A native customary right (NCR) landowner gave Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu Numpang a verbal slap yesterday for twisting the truth and claiming that the government was supportive of native rights.

Declining to be named, the landowner said he and many others were present during the “Kanowit incident” in 1996 which Jabu had referred to at the State Legislative Assembly sitting yesterday.

“We were there in 1996. We know about the joint-venture (JV) concept. We were cheated of our rightful dividends,” he said in reference to Jabu’s accusation that DAP was the stumbling block to poverty eradication programmes among the rural community.

Jabu, during his debate on the state’s 2012 budget yesterday, revisited the 1996 Kanowit incident and recalled that some 20 to 30 DAP members had objected to the government’s NCR joint-venture poverty eradication programmes to assist rural Sarawakians.

“In 1966, about 1,500 landowners turned up for the launching of the NCR joint-venture concept at the Dewan Suarah Kanowit. We then saw some 20 to 30 DAP members climbed on stage to protest against the programme,” said Jabu.

He also pointed out that Machang assemblyman Gramong Juna and Land Development Minister James Masing were also witnesses to the incident. Continue reading “Jabu gets a tongue-lashing”

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The Dayak tea party

by June Rubis
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 10, 2012

SEPT 10 ― It must have been a beautiful day for an outdoor tea party in West Kalimantan. It is the early 1980s when Borneo’s forests are still comparatively lush although the forests would have to struggle to survive an onslaught of slash-&-burn for commercial rubber plantations and wide-scale logging.

In the meantime, all is serene along the banks of the Kapuas River where the Javanese and Sumatran wives of managers of a rubber plantation wait for their guests to arrive.

The guests were the wives of local Dayak tribesmen, who upon arrival, gathered up all the food, and left, leaving their shocked hostesses in their wake.

The managers dismissed this as part of the “strange and difficult culture” of the Dayaks, while ignoring the fact that this behaviour was aberrant in Dayak culture and thus was a political statement of conflicting economic and political interests.

The Dayaks of the area were facing the loss of their forests and subsequently source of food, due to the appropriation of traditional lands for the rubber plantation. There were reports that the Dayaks were unhappy with the compensation received.

An eye for an eye, albeit a small victory of appropriating the plantation’s food, in protest of unfair appropriation of their native lands, one might say. Continue reading “The Dayak tea party”

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And we call this Merdeka?

By Rom Nain | 2:46PM Sep 6, 2012
Malaysiakini

At the rate this regime is going about dealing with its citizens, it could quite easily turn out to be the most despised one for a long, long time. There’s just no finesse, no class, in the way it handles things.

Granted, it is arguably an extension of previous regimes, but, at least with the one led for a long time by that doctor, there was no pretence at being a democracy.

With this Najib Abdul Razak pack, there’s constant bleating, especially by its media apparatchiks, about rakyat didahulukan (people first) and the accompanying mantra of ‘transparency’, ‘transformation’ and, of course, ‘reform’.

But, as we have seen, time and time again the regime does the exact opposite, riding roughshod over the requests of its citizens, bludgeoning many aside in a desperate attempt to cling on to power without integrity, without dignity.
Continue reading “And we call this Merdeka?”

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PAGE responds to NST interview with Deputy Prime Minister/Education Minister

By Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim, PAGE Chairman | September 10, 2012
The Malaysian Insider

Sept 10 — We read with interest NST’s Sunday Interview with the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) “Improving quality in all areas of education” (9 Sep 2012) in particular the response given to the question on the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English (PPSMI).

It appears that the DPM is more afraid that his ministry is seen as flip-flopping on the policy than its impact on our children and their future.

Although PAGE had representatives in most state dialogue sessions there were also even more supporters of the policy who are in favour of it to continue as an option, to be exact 250,000 online.

No doubt English proficiency is important, learning the scientific and mathematical knowledge, in its lingua franca which is English, our second language, should be capitalised on and not discouraged, a basic management strategy.

By abolishing the policy, the DPM is preventing many of our children from learning the knowledge in a language they are most comfortable with, a belief UNESCO has always advocated.
Continue reading “PAGE responds to NST interview with Deputy Prime Minister/Education Minister”

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Losing ground over FELDA

By Sakmongkol AK47 | September 10, 2012
The Malaysian Insider

SEPT 10 — What is happening to FELDA now, illustrates the state of our democracy under Umno. Settlers and employees got 200.6 million of the 2188.9 million shares to be sold.

The people representing the majority and overriding interest are the settlers and the employees. There are 112,635 settlers and 3835 employees. These represent directly the interest of FELDA people. They are the majority on whose backs and on whose name, this listing was supposed to be done for and benefits meant.

A question to FELDA people. Why get only 200.6 million out of the 2.188 billion shares offered and own the same from the 3.6482 billion of the enlarged share capital? That’s 5.5 per cent of the interest in FELDA. What Najib Razak and the government are doing to you is just cosmetics.
Continue reading “Losing ground over FELDA”

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Umno: Sumbat di sini, bocor di sana

By Aspan Alias | September 10, 2012
The Malaysian Insider

10 SEPT — “Ahli-ahli Umno yang didapati mensabotaj parti dalam pilihanraya nanti akan di singkirkan keahlian mereka. Mereka yang bekerja dan mengundi parti-parti pembangkang adalah mereka yang tidak setia dan Umno tidak memerlukan mereka”.

Itulah lebih kurang kata-kata Muhyiddin Yassin dua hari yang lepas semasa merasmikan perwakilan salah satu bahagian di Johor dua hari yang lepas..

Inilah sebenarnya masalah yang sedang dihadapi oleh Umno apabila menghadapi PRU yang akan datang. Masalah itu merupakan masalah yang terbesar yang Umno sedang hadapi dan jika Umno menumpukan mengkritik dan membidas DAP, PAS dan PKR, itu merupakan tumpuan dan “priority” yang salah yang dilakukan oleh Umno.

Parti-parti dalam Pakatan Rakyat itu hanyalah parti-parti yang halal dan bukannya menjadi kesalahan bagi sesiapa untuk mengundinya termasuklah ahli-ahli Umno sendiri seperti yang telah dilakukan oleh sebahagian besar ahli-ahli Umno dalam pilihanraya yang lalu.
Continue reading “Umno: Sumbat di sini, bocor di sana”