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A stirring of discontent

— Christine SK Lai
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 13, 2012

NEW DELHI, Nov 13 ― The blurb on Facebook was catchy. “Come experience the Ubah Dream Machine”.

There were some interesting names bandied about, though no big-time personalities apparently. That suited me fine actually, because I didn’t fancy stomaching political ra-ra-ra speeches. I wanted to hear from ordinary folks like myself.

So for the first time in my 52 years of being a Malaysian citizen, I attended a “ceramah umum”.

It was awful timing, actually. Saturday nights are for enjoying with family and frens, partying, R-n-R stuff. Who would want to come and hang out at a car-park listening to more of the same-same things that have been said umpteen times already?

Add to that the unkind weather which literally washed out the whole idea of an open air gathering, and any smart event organiser will conclude it’s bound to be a PR disaster on your hands.

But I went anyway, more out of curiosity than anything else, since personally I am not a die-hard of any political party.

I didn’t expect any crowd as the rain was a real dampener, and indeed as I looked across to the car park grounds, it was miserably empty. Continue reading “A stirring of discontent”

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What is wrong with Najib’s promise of “no Batu Caves condo if BN regains Selangor”?

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak today promised to scrap the controversial condominium project located next to the Batu Caves temple complex if BN retakes Selangor.

The immediate reaction of fair-minded and reasonable Malaysians is not one of outright welcome but the feeling that something is wrong or just not right with Najib’s promise.

Lets hear your response to Najib’s promise.

I have put up two tweets, viz:

1. What perfidy – after BN approving it in 2007! http://goo.gl/9v1Jg PM: S’gor BN 2scrap Batu Caves condo if we win – Koh Jun Lin (Mkini)

2. No apology 4BN approving it 2007? http://goo.gl/qyt66 Najib promises Indians no Batu Caves condo if BN regains Selangor – by Ida Lim (TMI)

I will issue a statement tomorrow. Continue reading “What is wrong with Najib’s promise of “no Batu Caves condo if BN regains Selangor”?”

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The truth shall set us free

– May Chee
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 13, 2012

NOV 13 – This is 2012. We live in Malaysia, purportedly progressive, modern and the best democracy in the world. We want to trail the Guinness World Records in everything we do, even weddings. Yet, we are deemed unable to think for ourselves and when some of us can, we are threatened with legal action from the powers-that-be. We have been a people for almost half a century; we are not primitive nomads threatened with destruction in a pagan environment. How can anyone, living in today’s reality, think that by wiping out dissent or an alternative way of thinking can protect one’s faith or interests?

How can those of us who write, whether we are supporters or detractors of causes or personalities, commenting on current affairs or for that matter, anything at all, be threatened with such absurdity? How can we continue to flourish as the best democracy in the world if we have to live in a climate of fear? How do we progress as a people if we do not have freedom of thought and speech, among others?

Are the powers-that-be in touch with reality or not? I thought someone said that he would listen to his people. If he did, he would know that the responsibility of thinking and deciding for oneself cannot be entrusted to another, what’s more in progressive, modern and democratic Malaysia. As a liberated people, we cannot be fearful of taking initiatives, especially those that are for the larger good. As liberated people, we cannot expect everything from civic or religious authorities. That could cause us to sink as a people or suffer political tyranny for is it not a dictator who would uses propaganda to convince his people that he is indispensable? Continue reading “The truth shall set us free”

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Sabah voters will be the “kingmakers” in the 13GE to decide who will form the Federal Government in Putrajaya and who will be the Prime Minister of Malaysia

After my latest visit to Sabah and three-day “DAP UBAH tour” of Papar (Kg Tamui), Kota Belud ( Kg Nahaba), Inanam, Matunggung (Kg. Pinaurat) and Kudat, with Sabah DAP leaders, it is clear that the Pakatan Rakyat Sabah’s RM7.28 billion Alternative Budget 2013 announced last month has “hit the marks” and put intense pressure on the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman and the Barisan Nasional Sabah leaders.

For instance, Musa was reported in the Sabah newspapers on Friday of handing over funds totaling RM30.9 million to 140 non-Islamic religious bodies and 266 schools including Chinese independent and missions schools in the state – made up of RM18 million to religious bodies including churches, Chinese temples and other non-Muslim places of worship and RM12.9 million to the schools.

Although Musa said that “the large allocation for non-Islamic religious bodies was reflective of the Barisan Nasional government’s commitment in upholding religious freedom in the country”, it was clearly in response though weak and inadequate to the fourth of five thrusts of Pakatan Rakyat Sabah’s Alternative Budget 2003 on “Empowering Local Communities”.

However the Sabah BN government has fallen far short of what the PR Sabah Alternative Budget proposed.
Continue reading “Sabah voters will be the “kingmakers” in the 13GE to decide who will form the Federal Government in Putrajaya and who will be the Prime Minister of Malaysia”

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Kalau terasa akan kalah, biarkan sahaja Parlimen terbubar dengan sendirinya

― Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 13, 2012

13 Nov ― Ada dua perkara yang saya hendak sentuh sekali gus hari ini. Yang pertamanya ialah tentang program UMNO Seremban yang mengadakan majlis parti di Kem Tentera Sikamat, Seremban, dan yang kedua ialah isu Himpunan Rakyat 1Malaysia yang dianjurkan oleh UMNO dan BN melalui penganjuran oleh beberapa NGO pada 24 hb November ini.

Saya tidak berapa perasan bila program itu diadakan tetapi yang nyata ada jemputan Dato’ Ishak Ismail kepada semua penduduk Sikamat untuk mereka hadir di majlis anjuran beliau di dalam kem Rejimen Ke-4, Artileri Di- Raja, Sikamat dan ini amat memeranjatkan banyak pihak kerana ia dibenarkan oleh pemerintah Kem tersebut untuk UMNO mengadakan majlis politik itu.

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Menteri Pertahanan, yang berucap dalam majlis itu sepatutnya memberikan penjelasan kenapa UMNO mengheret tentera dalam politik dan jika tentera menjadi aktif dalam politik ini merupakan petanda buruk akan melanda negara dan tidak siapa akan dapat mengenali politik yang sebenarnya dalam tempoh yang terdekat ini. Ini merupakan satu fenomena baru di dalam UMNO dan ini hanya menunjukkan betapa terdesaknya parti yang telah memerintah negara sejak merdeka itu.

Jika tentera digiatkan dalam politik maka kita sudah tidak ada lagi sistem politik yang betul dan ia akan hanya membawa negara kepada keadaan dan situasi yang mana rakyat tidak akan tahu lagi yang mana satu sistem yang betul sebagai sebuah negara demokrasi kerana semua sistem dan tata cara bernegara itu sudah berkecamuk dan tidak menentu lagi. Anak-anak muda tidak akan lagi tahu siapa yang sepatutnya bergiat dan siapa yang sepatutnya duduk di tengah-tengah dengan ‘magnanimous’ kerana setiap rakyat sudah tidak tahu lagi yang mana yang sepatutnya mereka lakukan dan yang mana yang tidak boleh dan beretika untuk dilakukan.

Oleh kerana keadaan ini sudah mula berlaku ia sepatutnya menjadi pengukur kepada kemampuan untuk mempertahankan sistem demokrasi negara ini. Maka tidak boleh kita biarkan perkara seperti ini berlaku justeru pilihanraya inilah sebaik-baik masa untuk memperbetulkan apa yang tidak kena dalam negara kita ini. Continue reading “Kalau terasa akan kalah, biarkan sahaja Parlimen terbubar dengan sendirinya”

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Will Najib take a leaf from Hu Jintao and give prominence to the grave problem of corruption in Malaysia in his Umno Presidential Address at the Umno General Assembly at the end of the month?

China’s President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary-General Hu Jintao warned at the 18th CCP Congress over the weekend that corruption could trigger the collapse of the Party and the fall of the State.

Would the Prime Minister and Umno President Datuk Seri Najib Razak take a leaf from Hu Jintao and give prominence to the grave problem of corruption in Malaysia in his Umno Presidential Address at the Umno General Assembly?

There is in fact more reason for Najib than Hu Jintao to give priority to the grave problem of corruption as in the last two decades, China have been making measurable progress in the battle against corruption while the reverse is the case for Malaysia.

In the first year of the annual Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in 1995, China was ranked in the lowly position of No.40 out of 43 countries with a CPI score of 2.16.

In contrast, Malaysia was ranked No. 23 with CPI score of 5.28 – sixth for Asian-Pacific nations after New Zealand (No. 1 – CPI score 9.5), Singapore (No. 3 – 9.2), Australia (No. 7 – 8.8), Hong Kong (No. 17- 7.12) and Japan (No. 20 – 6.72).
Continue reading “Will Najib take a leaf from Hu Jintao and give prominence to the grave problem of corruption in Malaysia in his Umno Presidential Address at the Umno General Assembly at the end of the month?”

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Getting to the Bottom of the Automatic Enrichment Scandal (AES)

By Koon Yew Yin

Slowly but surely, the ugly side of the AES is emerging and revealing itself to be yet another scam of the Barisan regime. This one aimed at enrichment of a small group has been cleverly camouflaged in the name of public interest.

Fortunately, this time around the scope for undeserved enrichment is so overwhelming and the disregard for prudent principles of transparency and accountability so obvious that even some UMNO leaders are protesting. These late protestors from Barisan are way behind the curve on the issue and are jumping on the bandwagon of opposition political and public protest to prevent damage to their own election prospects but it is an indicator of how unacceptable the current AES proposal is. Continue reading “Getting to the Bottom of the Automatic Enrichment Scandal (AES)”

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Let Deepavali 2012 usher in a festival of light over darkness and the triumph of truth, freedom and justice over all forms of corruption, discrimination and exploitation

Let Deepavali 2012 usher in a festival of light over darkness and the triumph of truth, freedom and justice over all forms of corruption, discrimination and exploitation especially in the impending 13th general elections.

Fifty-five years after Merdeka in 1957, many Malaysians have been left out of the mainstream of developments with the fruits of growth and progress hijacked by a small group of privileged people and their cronies, while the large majority of Malaysians regardless of race, religion and territory have been marginalised and discriminated against.

Deepavali 2012 will be most meaningful if it set into motion a train of developments culminating in the 13GE where these historic injustices and inequalities, whether political, economic, educational, social, cultural and religious, are put right.

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Pakatan Rakyat’s 13GE call and objective is positive “Unite and Rule” unifying all races and religions while Umno and Barisan Nasional resort to the traditional polarising “Divide and Rule” tactics

For the first time in the nation’s history, voters in Sabah and Malaysia have become very impatient of waiting for the general elections as they have been waiting for more than two years for the most crucial and critical 13th General Elections.

Everywhere throughout Malaysia, whether in Sabah, Sarawak or the peninsular states, whether at ceramahs, dialogues or walkabouts, the question most frequently asked is: “When is the general elections?”

Although it has become the national guessing game for more than two years, only one man in the country has the answer – the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

But the greatest irony is that even Najib does not have the answer as he agonises for over two years on when to call for the 13th General Elections – not because of any high national consideration or reason of state but purely from the selfish standpoint of his own personal political survival.
Continue reading “Pakatan Rakyat’s 13GE call and objective is positive “Unite and Rule” unifying all races and religions while Umno and Barisan Nasional resort to the traditional polarising “Divide and Rule” tactics”

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Umno leaders cannot be more wrong as Umno’s biggest problem in 13GE is not the perception but the fact of their corruption

Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor cannot be more wrong in claiming that Umno’s biggest problem in the 13th General Election is the perception that it is a corrupt party.

The real problem is the corruption in the Umno leadership, which must bear the full responsibility for Malaysia’s worst ranking in the past 17 years of Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and losing out to more and more countries not only in the region, the Asia-Pacific but even to Islamic countries in the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in the fight against corruption.

When the TI CPI was first introduced in 1995, Malaysia was ranked No. 23. I can still remember the condemnation by the then Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who accused it as part of the Western “white men” conspiracy to demonise Asian countries as the global anti-corruption NGO was headquartered in Berlin.

What is most ironic is that in the months before he stepped down as Prime Minister in October 2003, he was singing a different tune, according legitimacy by giving his bessings to the annual TI CPI when he urged the country to aim to be among the top countries among the least corrupt nations in the annual TI CPI.

When Mahathir stepped down as Prime Minister, Malaysia’s ranking in 2003 had dropped from 23rd in 1995 to 37th position!
Continue reading “Umno leaders cannot be more wrong as Umno’s biggest problem in 13GE is not the perception but the fact of their corruption”

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Why I have nothing much to say at the moment (Part 2)

By Clive Kessler | November 09, 2012
The Malaysian Insider

NOV 9 — The challenge facing Umno/BN after the 2008 elections, I have suggested, was not to embrace ever more closely Ketuanan Melayu and to capitulate to its vociferous partisans. Instead, it was to make itself the champion of everything that Ketuanan Melayu was not.

The outcome of the 2008 elections had displayed for all to see the exhaustion, even collapse — after its long and strangely prolonged afterlife — of Malaysia’s second post-independence political “dispensation”, the “regime framework” that had been designed for the initially intended NEP era from 1970 to 1990.

The outcome made explicit and evident, above all, the repudiation by many non-Malays (and Malays too!) of the Ketuanan Melayu zealots’ definition of the Malaysian nation. That was a view which, with at least tacit Umno complicity, had been stridently promoted over the preceding years: a limitlessly expansionist view of the constitutional entrenchment of perpetual, and perpetually undiscussable, Malay political ascendancy.

The election results made it clear, above all to the Umno and its leaders, that a very large part of the nation’s non-Malay citizenry were no longer prepared to accept, and now unambiguously wished to repudiate, the “blood-and-soil” Malay nationalists’ insistence — contrary to the terms and spirit of the Merdeka agreements of 1957 — that all non-Malays were, and had from the very outset and perpetuity had been, incorporated into the nation as categorically subordinate.
Continue reading “Why I have nothing much to say at the moment (Part 2)”

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Why listen to discredited politicians?

By Lucius Goon | November 09, 2012
The Malaysian Insider

NOV 9 — What have Malaysians done to deserve discredited politicians like Shahrizat Jalil, Chua Soi Lek, Nazri Aziz, Mahathir Mohamad, Ibrahim Ali, Musa Aman, who still tell us anything or advise us on anything.

I mean, what moral standing, or for that matter any standing, does:

A) someone who shamelessly defends a family venture gone awry and then attempts to airbrush history;

B) someone who was a serial adulterer until being caught out.

C) someone whose defence of his son included industrial language and convoluted but ultimately unconvincing explanation of the political donation to Sabah Umno.
Continue reading “Why listen to discredited politicians?”

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Why I have nothing much to say at the moment (Part 1)

By Clive Kessler | November 07, 2012
UPDATED @ 07:04:27 AM 08-11-2012
The Malaysian Insider

People are kind.

They have been writing to ask how I am.

I have not said or written anything serious for weeks.

And they are beginning to wonder.

The “Phoney War” Interlude

“What is the problem?” they ask.

The problem, I reply, is not me. It’s the situation.

The situation?
Continue reading “Why I have nothing much to say at the moment (Part 1)”

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Hiring Discrimination in Peninsular Malaysia Study: A Half Finished Product

By Koon Yew Yin

Last week I received a copy of an email invitation to a joint seminar by two academics, one from University of Malaya and the other from Unversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The title of their talk was “Does race matter in getting an interview? A field experiment of hiring discrimination in Peninsular Malaysia.”.

As I have been an employer with over 40 years experience, the seminar topic intrigued me. Unfortunately I was not able to attend. Subsequently, I have been following the internet discussion generated by the seminar. This includes the recent letter from the two researchers requesting an apology from an online news site which reported on the seminar findings.

Is Racial Bigotry an Issue in Hiring?

According to the letter, the online website had through its headline “Malaysian employers practise racial bigotry, study shows” grossly misrepresented the study. Although the two academics conceded that the article “fairly accurately conveys our main findings and conclusions”, they were upset by the politically incorrect term “racial bigotry” used in the headline.
Continue reading “Hiring Discrimination in Peninsular Malaysia Study: A Half Finished Product”

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Obama’s victory of hope over hate

by Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
Nov 8, 2012

COMMENT

When the presidential election was finally called, the results confirmed what most people expected – Barack Obama was returned to office for another four years.

It was not quite the nail-biter the media hyped it up to be, but there certainly were moments of uncertainty and anxiety on both sides.

In terms of the popular vote, Obama’s margin was extremely slim, although the electoral college system gave him a comfortable margin as he picked up the key swing states, including Florida (where I voted).

The election had a record turnout as Americans took their right to vote seriously (with some queuing for hours) and the process carefully monitored by observers.

The US 2012 election offers some simple lessons on understanding electoral behaviour and what can deliver political victory in close contests. Continue reading “Obama’s victory of hope over hate”

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Secular or non-secular: What history tells us

— Art Harun
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 08, 2012

NOV 8 — Lately there has been a public discourse on whether Malaysia is a secular country or otherwise.

Let us take a break. And take a visit down memory lanes. Perhaps history might shed some lights on the issue.

To begin with, Article 3 (1) of our Federal Constitution provides as follows:

“Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation.”

Initially, when the Reid Commission was set to draft our Constitution, the Alliance (Umno, MIC and MCA) presented a 20 page memorandum to the Reid Commission. On Islam, the memo says:

“The religion of Malaysia shall be Islam. The observance of this principle shall not impose any disability on non-Muslim nationals professing and practising their own religion, and shall not imply that the State is not a secular State.”

After 118 meetings, the Reid Commission wrote its report in Rome and published it in February 1957. On the position of Islam, it says:

“We have considered the question whether there should be any statement in the Constitution to the effect that Islam should be the State religion. There was universal agreement that if any such provision were inserted it must be made clear that it would not in any way affect the civil rights of non-Muslims — ‘the religion of Malaysia shall be Islam. The observance of this principle shall not impose any disability on non-Muslim nationals professing and practising their own religion and shall not imply that the State is not a secular State’. Continue reading “Secular or non-secular: What history tells us”

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Rais: Deferment of Tanda Putera decided by cabinet

by Zulaikha Zulkifli
Malaysiakini
Nov 8, 2012

The decision to postpone the airing of the film Tanda Putera to next year was made by the cabinet, said Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim.

Rais said the decision was made after the cabinet ministers found that there were elements that are “inappropriate” to be screened.

“The cabinet has decided for the benefit of the people, that the official premiere of the film is postponed as it contains scenes that may cause conflicts.

“This is because it shows the tragedy of May 13 which is disputed by various parties,” he added.

He said this in reply to reporters after launching the state Himpunan Kasih Sayang at Kampung Puah Lembah this evening. Continue reading “Rais: Deferment of Tanda Putera decided by cabinet”