Month: October 2012

Wishing Malaysian Muslims a happy and meaningful Hari Raya Haji!

Syed Jaymal Zahiid | October 24, 2012 Free Malaysia Today

The former premier said this is because the Malays are no longer the kingmakers and are now reduced to being ‘beggars’ in their own land.

KUALA LUMPUR: Dr Mahathir Mohamad today called the Najib administration “weak” and said it will not entertain the concerns of the Malays, especially its business community, as they are no longer the country’s kingmakers.

The former premier said the division among the country’s majority electorate has made them fragile and forced the present government to depend on the support of “others” in an apparent reference to the non-Malays.

This is the second time Mahathir had openly called Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s government “frail”, saying it is forced to make key concessions to non-Malay demands in the hope of winning their support in the upcoming national polls.

“I do not believe this government will take your demands seriously,” he told the 2012 Malay Economic Congress held here.

“This is because we [the Malays] no longer hold anymore political power… we have become a beggar in our own country,” he added. Continue reading “Dr M: ‘Weak’ Najib won’t heed Malay concerns”

Has the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek turned MCA into “Malaysian Charlatans Party” by keeping quiet on the hudud answer given by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom in Parliament on Tuesday, exposing the utter hypocrisy of the MCA campaign on hudud in the past two years?

Yesterday, in my media statement “UMNO/MCA’s ‘Devil’s Compact’ confirmed by Mahathir within 24 hours”, I had posed the question to Chua and the MCA leadership whether Jamil’s parliamentary reply “if hudud laws are implemented in Malaysia, they will not have any implications on non-Muslims” represented the stand of MCA in Cabinet and BN, “and if not, what are they going to do about it”.

There has been no answer but only thunderous silence!

How can this be the case when in the past two years, Chua had been leading his coterie of MCA Ministers and Deputy Ministers up and down the country with only one campaign theme – that it is a “lie” that hudud laws will not affect non-Muslims. Continue reading “Has Chua Soi Lek turned MCA into Malaysian Charlatans Party by keeping quiet on Jamil’s parliamentary answer on hudud?”

by Nigel Aw & Lu Wei Hoong
Malaysiakini
Oct 21, 2012

Over four years after MCA suffered its worst electoral debacle since the formation of BN, the party at its annual general assembly meeting today appeared to have confidently settled on its agenda ahead of the national polls that must be called by early next year.

Following the charged anti-Pakatan and particularly anti-DAP rhetoric of its Youth and Women wings’ AGMs yesterday, the main AGM today was carefully crafted from beginning to end as a rallying cry before a general election described as the party’s “life and death” battle.

From breaking its decade-long tradition of white uniforms in favour of BN’s blue tees, to political banners decorating the MCA headquarters, the message in the words of MCA president Chua Soi Lek was simple: “We are ready for war.”

Chua during his closing remarks said, “In the over 20 years of AGMs that I have attended, this is the first time I have seen so many people remaining in this hall.”

The lucky draw and souvenirs for those who stayed back and the pouring rain outside may have helped to retain over 1,000 delegates of the 1,689 who attended today, but it was still a commendable achievement for any political party’s AGM and reflects the careful planning behind the gathering. Continue reading “Has MCA’s soul searching taken it full circle?”

— Clive Kessler
The Malaysian Insider
Oct 25, 2012

OCT 25 — The infliction of the hudud punishments will not affect, or have any impact upon, non-Muslims, the minister has sought to assure everybody ( “Hudud will not impact non-Muslims, minister says”, The Malaysian Insider, October 24).

Just consider for a moment.

The state will inflict the hudud punishments on some of its citizens. On their bodies, and brutally.

Since it will be acting as the state, and not as some instrument of private punishment or vengeful enforcement, it will be doing so in the name of all of its citizens. That is what, by definition, modern states are.

So all of the state’s citizens, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, will be complicit in, and will share moral responsibility for, the infliction of those punishments.

And, as a result, their nature as “moral agents” will be transformed by that complicity, by their dragooned participation in and shared authorship of those mandatory stonings, amputations and the like.

Yet the minister says that these non-Muslim citizens will be in no way affected, or “impacted.”

It is an assurance that is entirely unconvincing. One that is patently inadequate, ill-founded and wrong. Continue reading “Ministerial moral insight: A brief comment”

Toffee Rodrigo | October 25, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

According to Muhyiddin Yassin’s camp, campaigning in December will give BN a strategic advantage, given that the middle-class and Christians will be distracted.

COMMENT

Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin’s boys want the general election this year. They are pushing Muhyiddin to pressure Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to dissolve Parliament by Nov 30.

Muhyiddin’s supporters feel Nov 30 should be the latest date, or else Umno and Barisan Nasional will be in trouble.

According to them, campaigning in December will give BN a strategic advantage.

The strategic advantage they are talking about is in East Malaysia. A December poll, they believe, will give the Christians (read opposition) less time to campaign, they will be busy with Christmas and have little time to dwell on politics.

And this will be good for the BN as far as Sarawak is concerned as the natives will be also too busy with the festivities to seek out the alternative media. They will thus depend on the propaganda dished out by the government-controlled mass media especially the radio and TV.

In West Malaysia, the middle class, which is seen to be anti-establishment, will be busy taking holidays. Many of them may not be around even to vote if the election is called in December.

And this is what BN needs to win back states like Selangor and Penang. Continue reading “Muhyiddin’s boys target Nov 30”

S Thayaparan
Malaysiakini
Oct 24, 2012

“Sometimes… it’s better for a man just to walk away.
But if you can’t walk away?
I guess that’s when it’s tough.” – Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman)

COMMENT

MCA president Chua Soi Lek may think that everyone has a role to play in this coming “war”, which is the upcoming general election, but the only role the MCA is going to play is that of cannon fodder in the ultimate showdown between Umno and their arch nemesis Anwar Ibrahim.

I get it. I really do. Malaysians are constantly being told to be grateful. Each community has been brainwashed into thinking they should be grateful for different reasons but above all their gratitude should be directed at Barisan National.

The opposition thinks that non-Malay Malaysians have woken up but the reality is that the MIC and MCA fell asleep on the job. Dereliction of duty when it came to the communal interests of the non-Malays at the expense of Umno hegemony is what has caused the downfall of these component parties. That and of course the infighting, corruption and hubris of being the only game in town.

What is really destroying the MCA is not the propaganda of the DAP but the acceptance by a large voting demographic of the Chinese community that no representation in the government is better than MCA representation. Continue reading “MCA’s long day’s journey into night”

Dr Lim Teck Ghee
CPI

The response by Research for Social Advancement (Refsa) institute to my note is disappointing. It provides little value added to the current knowledge on subsidies in Malaysia; repeats various motherhood statements about the need to rein in subsidies and selectively focuses on so-called various ivory tower statements that they have detected in my note to triumphantly declare victory.

The major contention in my note is necessary to repeat:

It is necessary to remind the REFSA-IDEAS team that subsidies have an important role to play in providing a safety net for vulnerable groups. They help bring down the cost of living as well as enable access to health, education, transport and other necessities.

They are a necessary burden in a highly skewed capitalist economy such as Malaysia’s where the lower classes of labour do not get the fair remuneration that they are entitled to or deserve. Continue reading “Refsa on subsidies: Still off the mark”

Yesterday, I publicly said that MCA and UMNO leaders have reached a “Devil’s Compact” for each side to tell the most blatant lies and falsehoods to frighten Chinese and Malay voters respectively in their desperate belief that such politics of hate and duplicity is the only way to stampede Chinese and Malay voters to vote for Barisan Nasional in the 13th General Election.

I had expected MCA and UMNO leaders and their propagandists to embark on prolonged polemics to deny the existence of such an unholy compact and to throw up all sorts of “red herrings” to distract attention from the “Devil’s Compact”.

What I least expected was for my expose of UMNO/MCA’s “Devil’s Compact” to be confirmed within 24 hours in a most authoritative fashion and in a manner completely disarming and stripping the MCA and UMNO leaders and propagandists bare of their wiles and hypocrisies.

There is only one person who could perform such a feat – Tun Dr. Mahathir and this was exactly what he did yesterday. Continue reading “UMNO/MCA “Devil’s Compact” confirmed by Mahathir within 24 hours”

by Dr Chris Anthony
23rd October 2012

MCA’s 59th annual general assembly began with high spirits and hopes. Adopting the motto “MCA can deliver” and “Battle without fear”, the delegates tried their best to put up a brave front and display great confidence of victory in the coming most crucial and decisive 13GE. But to many Malaysians who are following the political developments in the country, it was nothing but a great ‘sandiwara’ to try and regain MCA’s rapidly losing support among the Chinese.

There were three excesses that we witnessed at the just concluded MCA General Assembly which goes to show how desperate and jittery the party is with the approaching 13GE which many believe could give a fatal blow to the 63 year old second largest component in the BN,resulting in its demise.These were :

1.Excessive praise for Najib to the extent of idolizing him as though he is the de facto MCA president and savior of the party in the coming crucial 13GE.

2. Excessive attacks on the Pakatan Rakyat for its alledged “failures” in the states under its rule which showed the deep- seated fear for the opposition. People on the ground, including MCA members themselves, especially in Penang and to a certain extent Selangor know the ability of the Pakatan governments in administering the states under their care.

3.Excessive anti-Hudud and anti-Islamic state rhetoric to create fear among Chinese in particular and the non-Muslims in general. The MCA president went to the extent of saying that under the Hudud laws imposed in the Islamic state set up by Pakatan, the Muslims will be permitted to rape non-Muslim women.

Continue reading “The final nail to its coffin?”

By Kee Thuan Chye
Malaysiakini
Oct 23, 2012

I tell you, it’s tough laa being a minister these days.

We have to take so much shit. From the media, from Facebook, from bloggers, from the Opposition. It was so different when Mahathir was PM. Nobody dared to question any minister then. Nobody wrote a word to criticise. But now …

And it’s not like we make that much money. Our salary is nothing compared to Singapore. Some more, the people don’t appreciate it. They think we are getting kickbacks left, right and centre.

This recent case over Musa Aman getting RM40 million … it’s not him, the money was for Umno. Political donation. What’s wrong with that? PM Najib already said it’s proper. But people still want to make trouble and call it money laundering. Just because Michael Chia got stopped when he was bringing the money out from Hong Kong. Continue reading “Lament of a Stressed-out Minister”

Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Oct 22, 2012

The election chest is empty, chaos threatens BN, the overseas bolt-holes paid for with taxpayers’ money look increasingly inviting to corrupt politicians and Malaysians no longer feel that the government is on their side.

(With apologies to the composer of the popular children’s song below)

There’s a hole in the budget, dear Rosmah, dear Rosmah,
There’s a hole in the budget, dear Rosmah, a hole.
Then mend it, dear Najib, dear Najib, dear Najib,
Then mend it, dear Najib, dear Najib, mend it.

With what shall I mend it, dear Rosmah, dear Rosmah?
With what shall I mend it, dear Rosmah, with what?
With an AES, dear Najib, dear Najib, dear Najib,
With an AES, dear Najib, dear Najib, with an AES.

There’s a hole in my budget, dear Rosmah, dear Rosmah,
There’s a hole in my budget, dear Rosmah, a hole.
Use your head, then! dear Najib, dear Najib, dear Najib,
Use your head, then! dear Najib, dear Najib, use your head!

With former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad taking potshots at him from the fringes and many in his own coalition undermining him, isn’t it time someone put Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak out of his misery?

Few in his party consider him a capable leader and it does appear as if Najib is the only one who believes that he is up to the job. Either this prime minister has hidden talents, or we are blind to his abilities. Continue reading “Bankrupt Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M)”

— Jaleel Hameed
The Malaysian Insider
Oct 23, 2012

OCT 23 — Tan Sri Sanusi Junid’s revelation today about Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s economic policy is shocking. How can any Malaysian government base its policy on Hitlerian Germany’s anti-Jew measures? How can it equate non-Malays to Jews, to be sidelined economically in the pursuit of a richer Malay community?

And why have non-Malays, no less citizens of Malaysia, become enemies of the Barisan Nasional (BN) under Dr Mahathir? Is the current government also following Dr Mahathir’s line and think the non-Malays should be ostracised?

Come, sirs in Putrajaya, pray tell? Are we really a country that uses race like Hitler when conducting business? That anyone who isn’t Malay shouldn’t be allowed to compete or must be handicapped to ensure the Malays progress further?

Sir, what does that make the Malays? We are a race that have competed and can compete with the world but you, yes you in BN, sir, make us look so unworthy that we need policies to make sure we can do well. Continue reading “Why are non-Malays enemies of BN?”

By Zurairi AR
The Malaysian Insider
Oct 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today blamed Jews for “creating problems for us,” and pointed out that while his economic policies may have been interpreted as anti-Semitic it was actually to help develop Malaysia.

This morning, former Cabinet minister Tan Sri Sanusi Junid said Dr Mahathir’s policies when he was prime minister were inspired by Germany’s past policy of limiting Jewish financial influence to help the Malays but they were later thwarted by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Sanusi told a Malay economic forum that Dr Mahathir and former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin were hoping that Malays would control the economy but when they saw progress was slow, they decided to follow the German example of not granting banking licences to Jews, in their treatment of Chinese interests.

“The problem is that they (Jews) were the ones who created problems for us and the world because they disobeyed international law and got away with it,” Dr M said in a press conference this afternoon.

He also pointed out that he won the general election in 1999 because non-Malays supported him, while Malays refused to since they thought his treatment of Anwar was unfair. Continue reading “Dr M defends policies, says Jews created problems”

By Lee Wei Lian
The Malaysian Insider
Oct 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was inspired by Germany’s past policy of limiting Jewish financial influence to help the Malays but it was later thwarted by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, former Cabinet minister Tan Sri Sanusi Junid said today.

Sanusi told a Malay economic forum that Dr Mahathir and former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin were hoping that Malays would control the economy but when they saw progress was slow, they decided to follow the German example of not granting banking licences to Jews.

But the plan failed when Anwar became finance minister and approved two banking licences to non-Malay banking groups — Alliance Bank and Hong Leong Bank.

“We thought that if we can’t control the economy, we would follow Germany,” Sanusi said at the Malay Economic Congress here. “In Germany banking licences are not given to the Jews.” Continue reading “Germany’s past anti-Jew policy inspired Dr M’s banking reforms, says Sanusi”

My first reaction to the speech by the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek at the MCA 59th Annual General Assembly on Sunday is one of outrage that so much lies and falsehoods could be crammed into a single speech.

Just three examples of such lies and falsehoods spouted by Chua on Sunday:

1. “DAP has succeeded in convincing non-Mulsims that PAS’ hudud will reduce crime and corruption in the country. This is another big lie. Of the 11 countries that practice hudud, eight are regarded as the most corrupted and they are also recognized as unstable and unsafe countries.”

2. “UBAH is for :- U for Untuk, B for Bentuk, A for Agama and H for Hudud ala PAS. CHANGE, would mean :-C = Choose H = Hudud A = At N = Next G = General E = Election”

3. “It (DAP) will continue to mislead, give false hope to the Chinese that if the Chinese vote DAP, they are empowered to be kingmaker in the country”

Chua is desperately trying to convince himself and Malaysians that DAP is championing PAS’ hudud to the extent of arguing that it will “reduce crime and corruption” in Malaysia and turning the 13 General Election into a referendum for “hudud ala PAS”.

Chua is right. This is a “big lie”, but a big lie perpetrated by Chua himself and not by the DAP. Continue reading “MCA and UMNO leaders’ “devil’s compact” for each side to tell the most blatant lies and falsehoods to frighten Chinese and Malay voters respectively”

Stanley Koh | October 23, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

The writing was all over the wall at Dewan San Choon last weekend.

COMMENT

If anyone still needs to be convinced that MCA is in its death throes, then the loud talk, the sabre rattling and the tasteless pomp at its 59th annual general assembly should do the trick.

The weekend meeting gave unmistakable signs that MCA is in denial about its loss of relevance as a political organisation representing Malaysian Chinese and its inability to regain their support.

All this became evident the moment Deputy President Liow Tiong Lai opened his mouth last Saturday to address the party’s youth wing. He profusely thanked Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for “wooing back” Chinese support to “Barisan Nasional and MCA” through his transformation programme.

Liow’s tone embarrassed many delegates to the assembly. Some were heard whispering that it was a virtual admission that the party was now so impotent and so lacking in good leadership that it had to depend on Umno for its lifeline.

President Dr Chua Soi Lek, who spoke on Sunday, was even more sycophantic. After his usual attack against Pakatan Rakyat, including unsubstantiated remarks about the failure of Pakatan-rule states, he proceeded to pour praise upon Najib, to the point of mistakenly describing him as a “democratically elected leader”. He even tried to show a fondness for abbreviations and acronyms, which Najib is known for. Continue reading “Sure signs of MCA’s terminal disease”

By Martin Jalleh

Karen Arukesamy and Hemananthani Sivanandam at the Dewan Rakyat
The Sun
22 October 2012

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 22, 2012): The country’s first prime minister, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, had openly declared that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as its official religion, the Dewan was told today.

“I can give documents and proof to show that the former prime ministers of the country have declared Malaysia as a secular state and not an Islamic state,” DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) said when rebutting Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz’s statement that Malaysia is not a secular state.

Quoting The Star of Feb 9, 1983, Lim said the Tunku had reportedly said: “Don’t make Malaysia an Islamic state” in his speech on his 80th birthday on Feb 8, 1983.

“It was a huge function, which was attended by all the Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, including the current prime minister (Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak).

“The Star frontpage on Feb 9, 1983 read: ‘The Tunku turns 80 – Don’t make Malaysia an Islamic state: Tunku’.

“On Feb 13, 1983, Tun Hussein Onn, who became the third prime minister, on his birthday, gave his full support to Tunku’s statement as reported in The Star: ‘Hussein says no to Islamic state’,” Lim added.

Citing further from pre-Constitution documents, Lim said all the documents clearly indicate that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as the official religion, but not an Islamic state. Continue reading “Kit Siang: Former PMs declared Malaysia a secular state”

By Debra Chong and Ida Lim
The Malaysian Insider
October 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Malaysia is and has always been a secular state even though not expressly stated in the Federal Constitution because the country’s supreme law and founding document is secular, several law experts say as debate continues to storm over the mainly Muslim nation’s status.

The legal pundits refuted minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s remarks in Parliament yesterday that Malaysia is not a secular state because it had never been declared or endorsed as such and is wholly absent in the Constitution though he stopped short of labelling the country an Islamic state.

“It’s absolutely untrue,” said Tommy Thomas, regarded as one of the country’s foremost authorities on constitutional law.

“To me, to say that Malaysia is not a secular state because the Federal Constitution does not say so is a real, oversimplistic argument. Just like the Federal Constitution does not say Malaysia is an Islamic state,” he told The Malaysian Insider last night.

The veteran lawyer, who had studied the subject and presented an essay debunking Malaysia as an Islamic state at the Malaysian Law Conference seven years ago, said his research had shown that the country’s forefathers and the legal experts who helped draft the Constitution had intended the country remain secular even as it acknowledged the individual Malay state Rulers’ rights and power over religious matters which, he pointed out, was for the most part ceremonial. Continue reading “Malaysia a secular state contrary to Nazri’s remarks, say law experts”