Day: October 8, 2012

— Qiu Yaofeng
The Malaysian Insider
Oct 08, 2012

OCT 8 — The deputy prime minister said at the weekend that Malaysia’s gains in the Corruption Barometer (CB) over the previous two years showed Putrajaya’s fight against graft was paying off.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin noted that 49 per cent of Malaysians polled in 2011 by Transparency International (TI) thought that the government’s efforts to stamp out corruption were “effective”, up from 28 per cent in 2009.

But the Umno No. 2 conveniently forgot to mention that the proportion of those who responded positively rose by only one percentage point from 2010 to 2011.

So even if the poll were accepted at face value, this suggests Barisan Nasional’s (BN) anti-graft campaign has hit a brick wall, at least as far as the voting public is concerned.

But what is even more underwhelming is the fact that getting 49 per cent of the respondents to say the government has made the right moves is actually not an improvement at all. Continue reading “Corruption: The more things change…”

By M. Bakri Musa | October 7th, 2012
www.bakrimusa.com

Fourth of Five Parts: Roar of An Elephant, Baby of a Mouse

[In the first three parts I critiqued the Blueprint’s recommendations; specifically its failure to recognize the diversity within our school system and thus the need to have targeted programs, the challenge of recruiting quality teachers, and the link between efficiency efficacy, and quality. In this Part Four, I discuss the major areas the report ignores.]

Education Blueprint 2013-2025 lacks clear authorship. The document carries forewords by Najib, Muhyyiddin, and the ministry’s Secretary-General as well as its Director General, while the Appendix credits a long list of those involved in this “robust, comprehensive, and collaborative effort,” but the Blueprint itself is unsigned.

It is also impossible to tell who actually is in charge of this whole reform effort. According to the complicated box-chart diagram, the entire endeavor was anchored in a 12-member “Project Management Office” (PMO) that reported to the Ministry’s Director-General as well as to an 11-member “Project Taskforce” that in turn reported to Muhyyiddin. Both the PMO and Taskforce are manned exclusively by ministry officials. Then there are the local and international panels of experts.
Continue reading “The Havoc Education Reform Inflicts: Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (Part 4 of 5)”

By Lee Long Hui | 1:54PM Oct 8, 2012
Malaysiakini

Two Christian leaders quoted by Utusan Malaysia as having criticised the Penang chief minister, have slammed the report as a “complete lie”.

Lutheran Evangelical Church bishop Solomon Rajah and former Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) president Thomas Philips (right) said their words had been taken out of context in the report headlined ‘Church is not a place for politics’.

They have demanded a retraction of the report published in the Sunday edition, Mingguan Malaysia, and a public apology from the Umno-owned Utusan in its next edition.
Continue reading “‘Utusan lied about church ticking off Penang CM’”

— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Oct 08, 2012

8 OKT — Dr Mahathir semalam bercakap lagi dan menambahkan keyakinan ramai yang beliau tidak lagi berasa senang melihat kejatuhan Umno dan BN. Jika BN jatuh beliaulah orang yang paling merasakan panasnya dan ini merupakan satu igauan bagi beliau.

Beliau tidak pernah menyangka yang suatu hari nanti beliau akan tertekan dengan keadaan politik ciptaan beliau sendiri. Beliau tidak pernah menyangka yang suatu hari nanti rakyat akan membuka mata dan politik selepas itu akan menjadi mimpi ngeri bagi beliau.

Selama ini beliau merasakan beliau boleh melakukan apa sahaja terhadap politik dan rakyat negara ini. Beliau tidak pernah menyangka yang pada suatu hari selepas beliau meletakkan jawatan dan bersara dari kerajaan pimpinannya akan datang isu-isu yang menjadikan parti dan kerajaan pimpinannya akan dibelakangkan oleh rakyat semua kaum.

Berbagai cara beliau untuk mempertahankan kejatuhan Umno yang beliau tubuhkan itu. Menuduh semua orang bertanggungjawab di sana sini terutamanya pihak pembangkang. Dr Mahathir bukan sahaja mengutuk pembangkang untuk memalingkan rakyat mengarahkan kesalahan kepada beliau malahan beliau menumpukan masa dan waktunya untuk menuduh Abdullah Ahmad Badawi pemimpin yang beliau pilih sendiri untuk menggantikannya.

Semua orang salah kecuali beliau dan keluarga beliau. Dr Mahathirlah pemimpin yang bergaduh dengan semua pihak semasa beliau memegang kuasa beliau seorang sahajalah yang betul. Orang lainnya semuanya tidak betul. Orang lain semuanya anti Melayu. Hanya beliau sahajalah pejuang Melayu. Orang yang benar-benar Melayu tidak memperjuangkan Melayu tetapi mereka yang menjadi Melayu “by choice” memperjuangkan hak Melayu. Itu kepercayaan Dr Mahathir. Continue reading “Sendiri yang tak pandai, salahkan Soros pula”

Reuters/The Malaysian Insider
Oct 08, 2012

KOTA KINABALU, Oct 8 — Housewife Fawziah Abdul wants to thank former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for making her a citizen 10 years after she illegally slipped into Borneo from the southern Philippines in search of a better life.

The 50-year-old lives on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, where her tin-roofed shack jostles for space with more than 1,000 others in a slum where children play beside heaps of rubbish.

She is hopeful that her three children will get a new home and identity cards if she votes for the government again.

With a general election due within seven months, the 13-party ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is banking on Sabah and neighbouring Sarawak to prolong its 55-year grip on power.

But its support in the two Borneo states, which account for a quarter of Parliament seats, is showing signs of slipping. Continue reading “Migrants, church may end BN’s Borneo vote bank”