Month: December 2012

Tiada apa untuk diraikan tetapi banyak sebab untuk dikesalkan terhadap Indeks Persepsi Rasuah (CPI) Transparency International (TI) 2012 yang meletakkan kedudukan Malaysia di tempat ke-54 berbanding tempat ke-60 negara paling kurang rasuah tahun lepas

Jumlah negara yang dinilai dalam CPI TI 2012 tekah dikurangkan daripada 183 negara tahun lepas kepada 176 negara tahun ini dan TI telah menggunakan metodologi baru, TI juga menyatakan yang mata CPI 2012 tidak boleh dibandingkan dengan mata pada tahun 2011 atau mana-mana penilaian sebelumnya. Perbandingan antara tahun hanya boleh dilakukan bermula 2012 sebagai asas untuk tahun-tahun berikutnya.

Mengikut metodologi baru, mata CPI adalah pada skala 0-100 dengan 0=tanggapan rasuah tahap tertinggi dan 100=tanggapan rasuah tahap terendah berbanding mata 0 hingga 10 pada mata CPI sebelum ini.

Sungguhpun mata CPI TI 2012 Malaysia adalah 49 daripada 100 tidak boleh dibandingkan dengan mata CPI TI sepanjang 17 tahun lalu daripada 1995 hingga 2011, satu hakikat yang tidak dapat dielakkan adalah Malaysia telah tewas dalam usaha membanteras rasuah sepanjang dekad-dekad sebelumnya, yang melihat kedudukan CPI TI Malaysia jatuh ke kedudukan terendah tempat ke-60 tahun lepas berbanding tempat ke-23 pada 1995, dan mata CPI menjunam ke 4.3 tahun lepas berbanding 5.32 pada tahun 1996.
Continue reading “Tiada apa untuk diraikan tetapi banyak sebab untuk dikesalkan terhadap Indeks Persepsi Rasuah Transparency International 2012 yang meletakkan kedudukan Malaysia di tempat ke-54 berbanding tempat ke-60 negara paling kurang rasuah tahun lepas”

By LIZ GOOCH
New York Times
December 3, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR — Bathed in a sea of the party’s signature red, the headquarters of the United Malays National Organization swarmed with thousands of party faithful last week, eager to hear from their leader as the clock ticked toward Malaysia’s next election.

UMNO, the largest party in the National Front coalition, which has governed Malaysia for more than half a century, is preparing to contest what many analysts predict is likely to be its toughest election yet.

Vowing that the government would fight for every vote, Najib Razak, the prime minister of Malaysia and president of the party, said Thursday that it would be “no ordinary election.”

“It will be the defining point for the destiny of the people and country,” he said during a spirited speech to flag-waving party members at the UMNO General Assembly in Kuala Lumpur.

With the wounds inflicted by the opposition during the last elections still fresh in the minds of party members, the next election, which must be held by June, will mark the first time Mr. Najib will seek a mandate from voters.

Observers say he will confront an influx of unpredictable young voters and a stronger opposition, setting the stage for a tight race. Continue reading “For Malaysia’s Governing Party,’ Defining Point’ Is Near”

Stanley Koh | December 6, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

Nothing substantive came out of the recent Umno assembly.

COMMENT

Many followers of the news must be relieved now that the silliest season of the year is over.

Umno delegates spent five days at their annual meeting straining their throats with meaningless rhetoric, noisy battle cries and hilarious claims about their party’s importance in the life of the nation.

They even risked blasphemy. An unwritten resolution of the meeting is that the morally challenged party is God’s own. Umno’s founding fathers must have turned in their graves.

Some of us might have excused the criminal waste of time, newsprint and airwave if only a fraction of the delegates had made some intelligent observations about the current state of Malaysian democracy or questioned how far Umno had gone in president Najib Tun Razak’s transformation programme.

But this is what we have come to expect from Umno since it became Umno Baru in 1988. And it has only gotten worse with time.

Can Umno continue to survive in the rapidly changing Malaysian political landscape, where even schoolchildren can see through the hollowness of its rhetoric? Can this self-proclaimed protector of the Malay race and religion withstand the demands of a generation awakening to the call for justice, human rights and the rule of law? Continue reading “A 5-day orgy of sound and fury”

by Koon Yew Yin
7th December 2012

The biggest losers will be the Malays

As the countdown to the elections begins to take place in earnest, we are getting more and more calls from desperate and irresponsible politicians drawing attention to the possibility of a repetition of the infamous May 13 violence if the election results should go against the expectations of various political parties and interests.

The fact that these calls are directed towards the Bumiputra component of our population, are expressed in the national language, and are widely carried in the Malay mass media and internet world makes me suspicious of the intentions of these politicians who claim that they are simply doing Malaysians a favour by warning of the backlash should the election outcome not bring about a continuation of the present power structure.

To my mind, these politicians are not only applying crude pressure on the Malay electorate to vote for them but they are also blatantly revealing their trump card – that violence, chaos and political instability will automatically erupt in the event that the opposition parties win the elections.

This blackmailing of our electorate as well as incitement of disruptive and hooligan elements in our society is totally unacceptable. Various groups such as academicians and individual politicians from the opposition have spoken up against such fear mongering in the recent past. However, not enough has been done by members of the business community and other professional organizations to speak out against these warnings and threats although they will be the main losers should another May 13 episode takes place.

Much more needs to be done by key stakeholders to condemn the individuals and organizations making these threats as the risk of them becoming self-fulfilling prophesies increases by the day. Continue reading “Discourage rather than encourage a repetition of May 13”

By Kee Thuan Chye
Malaysian Digest
6th December 2012

Three men in a coffeeshop with nothing much to do.

DOGOL: Hey, Ragang, you think Sabah will fall to the Opposition this coming GE?

RAGANG: I don’t know.

LUNCHAI: You don’t know? You Sabahan and you don’t know?

RAGANG: I not God.

DOGOL: Umno is now praying to God to win the GE. Najib told the members at their general assembly last week, better pray hard!

LUNCHAI: As if God will side any political party.

DOGOL: God does not take sides, so to call on God to help Umno and BN win is itself ungodly.

LUNCHAI: Hahaha! You’re right! Continue reading “Can BN Lose Sabah? Boleh Bah Kalau …”

— Alan Wong
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 06, 2012
DEC 6 — I was reading about the recently concluded Hay Festival of Literature and Arts in the Bangla Academy at Dhaka and the protesters who felt the event, which focuses on English literature, shouldn’t be hosted at the venue.

Though the protesters in Bangladesh had better reasons to object in comparison, the planners of Hay in Dhaka:

“…went to great lengths to ensure due homage to local culture and history, as the opening ceremony presented classical Indian dances performed to Bangla poems, and ended with a jatra, a form of folk dance-drama. Out of 41 panels, at least 15 were in Bangla, and the stage was taken by four times as many Bangladeshi writers as foreign ones. The Bangla panels found equal room for new poets, like Trimita Chakma, who writes in the minority Chakma language. And the event marked the time at Hay that women outnumbered men on stage.”

Closer to home, there’s the Singapore Writers Festival, which began in 1986. Before anybody starts talking up the lack of local culture there, just look at these names.

Which is probably why I felt the podcast about the George Town Literary Festival devoted too much time on the grouses of an allegedly “fed-up Penangite”. Continue reading “From one ‘Penangite’ to another”

— Kunjuraman Karuppan
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 06, 2012

DEC 6 — You get worried about the old country sometimes. From rather nonsensical statements made by so-called authorities to unquestioning reporters, one gets the feeling that most of Malaysia is mediocre, and stupid.

The latest is a course on avoiding corruption for parliamentarians by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers next year, says PEMANDU director D. Ravindran.

While you are at it, Mr Ravindran, how about a course for those in the august Dewan Rakyat to stop lying or using foul language. Perhaps even potty training?

What, these MPs are kids is it? They are stupid? They don’t know right from wrong? How hard is it to stop corruption? Stop taking money for favours. Stop doing favours that will give advantage to one party over another.

How hard is that, Mr Ravindran, that you are quoted as saying the following by a news portal, “So, for the first time, we are going to teach our parliamentarians what is right to take and what is not right to take.”

I mean, if the MPs don’t know what constitutes corruption, then Malaysia is in a lot of trouble. Then the MACC has been useless, and is that what you are saying, Mr Ravindran? Continue reading “Avoiding corruption course for MPs? Nonsense”

In the recently released Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2012, Malaysia’s ranking improved from 60 out of 183 countries in 2011 to 54 out of 176 countries in 2012.

While Malaysians may take some comfort in this temporary arrest in Malaysia’s steady decline in our CPI ranking, one must keep in mind that this ranking of 54 is still worse than Malaysia’s ranking of 43 out of 179 countries in 2007 and far worse than the ranking of 33 out of 102 countries in 2002 (See Table 1 below).

Table 1: Malaysia’s CPI ranking, score and total number of countries in sample, 2001 to 2012

Year	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Ranking	36	33	37	39	39	44	43	47	56	56	60	54
Score	5	4.9	5.2	5	5.1	5	5.1	5.1	4.5	4.4	4.3	49
Total No. of Countries	91	102	133	145	158	163	179	180	180	178	183	176

Indeed, one should not take too much comfort in the fact that Malaysia improved in the ranking because it overtook ‘luminaries’ of ‘clean’ government such as Jordan, Namibia, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Indeed, many developing countries that have far lower per capita GDP compared to Malaysia continues to do better than us in the CPI rankings including Rwanda (50), Bhutan (33) and Botswana (30), not to mention the newly industrialized economies (NIEs) in Asia namely South Korea (45), Taiwan (37), Hong Kong (14) and Singapore (5). Continue reading “Malaysia’s CPI Rank has improved from 60 out of 183 countries in 2011 to 54 out of 176 countries in 2012 but three main thrusts of the Fighting Corruption NKRA still have gaping holes”

On the way to Yong Peng from Kuala Lumpur tonight, I came across the news report that the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers will hold a course on avoiding corruption for parliamentarians next year.

The Pemandu director D Ravindran, who is in charge of the anti-corruption section of the National Key Results Areas (NKRA), is quoted as saying:

“The Government Transformation Plan 2.0 (GTP 2.0) has the commitment of both the MACC chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamad and the AG (Abdul Gani Patail), who will both be conducting the course for our lawmakers.

“So, for the first time, we are going to teach our parliamentarians what is right to take and what is not right to take.”

Speaking on the sidelines of the launching of the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index 2012, Ravindran said the course would include information on what constitutes corruption, and the codes of conduct and best practices to avoid it.

The MACC and the AG’s Chamber should not be barking up the wrong trees as they should know where the priorities in fighting corruption, especially grand corruption, should lie.

Let me tell MACC and the AG’s Chambers that the urgent priority in the battle against graft in Malaysia is for MACC and AG’s Chambers to conduct a course on corruption for the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, Mentris Besar and Chief Ministers particularly Sarawak and Sabah as well as top government officers including the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail himself, if Malaysia is serious in its war against “grand corruption”. Continue reading “Urgent priority for MACC and AG’s Chambers to conduct course on corruption for PM, DPM, Cabinet Ministers, MBs and CMs particularly Sarawak and Sabah and top government officers including AG himself if Malaysia is serious in war against “grand corruption””

There is no reason to celebrate but many grounds to rue over Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2012 which ranked Malaysia 54th as compared to 60th last year as least corrupt country in the world.

The total number of countries assessed in the TI CPI 2012 have been reduced from 183 countries last year to 176 countries this year and TI has used a new methodology, declaring that country scores of the CPI 2012 cannot be compared against those of 2011 or previous editions.Year to year comparisons will be possible from 2012 as the baseline year for subsequent years.

Under the new methodology, the the CPI score will be on a scale of 0-100 where a 0=highest level of perceived corruption and 100 = lowest level of perceived corruption as compared to the previous CPI score from 0 to 10.

Although Malaysia’s 2012 TI CPI score of 49 out of 100 cannot be compared with the past TI CPI scores of the past 17 years from 1995 to 2011, one inescapable fact is that Malaysia has been fighting a losing battle against corruption in the past decades, which saw Malaysia’s TI CPI ranking falling to the lowest level of 60th place last year as compared to 23rd ranking in 1995, and the CPI score plunging to an unprecedented low of 4.3 last year as compared to the highest score of 5.32 achieved in 1996.
Continue reading “No reason to celebrate but many grounds to rue over Transparency International 2012 Corruption Perception Index which ranked Malaysia 54th as compared to 60th last year as least corrupt country in the world”

By Martin Jalleh

By CPI | 05 December 2012 11:39

CPI Introduction

The following below is an account of public flogging under an Islamic system in Pakistan. It is an eyewitness’s description which should provide pause for those who want to see Islamic norms prevail in our judicial system.

However, it should be noted that even under our present British-derived justice system, flogging or ‘judicial caning’ as it is sometimes kindly described, is also widely practiced in Malaysia though it is done in the privacy of the prison compound rather than in public as is the Islamic practice.

Although the number of judicial canings is not known, it is believed to run into the thousands and is especially inflicted on what are deemed to be serious offenders such as drugs traffickers and offenders of unnatural sex crimes, e.g. sodomy.
Continue reading “Public spectacle of whipping penalty becomes circus for the masses”

― Ooi Kee Beng
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 05, 2012

DEC 5 ― As Umno general assemblies go, the one held last week was rather tame in its rhetoric. It was certainly memorable for its lack of vitriolic language.

And it was expectedly so ― therein lies its significance.

Things were quite different back in the days before 2008, when ethnocentric exhortations were run of the mill, and Umno Youth was the amplifier of racial extremist voices. This year, showing party unity was the order of the day.

Much of the credit must go to the fact that Malaysia today has a surprisingly stable two-party system in place. As we know, such a competitive structure has a strong moderating effect on extremist voices, be they racial or religious. After all, gaining the middle ground is how electoral victories are won. Continue reading “From now on, it’s a Malay vs Malay contest”

Perhimpunan Agung UMNO ke-66 yang melabuhkan tirainya baru-baru ini hanya menggariskan satu hakikat yang tidak dapat dielakkan tentang politik Malaysia – bahawa UMNO tidak mampu untuk berubah melainkan mereka dihantar ke bangku Pembangkang pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13.

Pegundi Malaysia akan memberikan UMNO dan negara bantuan yang sangat besar dengan menghantar UMNO ke bangku Pembangkang kerana itu bukan sahaja akan mencipta keadaan yang sesuai sebelum sebarang proses “transformasi” dapat berjalan di dalam UMNO, tetapi juga akan mewujudkan asas yang lebih kukuh dan kuat untuk proses demokrasi berpalimen yang lebuh matang dengan menginstitusikan sistem dua perikatan dan peralihan kuasa yang aman melalui proses demokratik.

Tanpa “batu asas” ini, Malaysia tidak langsung dapat bercakap tentang menjadi “demokrasi terbaik dunia” sepertimana yang telah didakwa oleh Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Dalam ucapan dasar presiden, Najib berkata:

“Pilihanraya inilah yang akan mencorakkan rupawajah Malaysia hari esok untuk ditinggalkan pada anak-anak kita. Antara sebuah Malaysia yang maju berteraskan nilai serta matlamat dikongsi bersama, atau, Malaysia yang mundur terpisah oleh tembok ghaib dipalit rasa prasangka dan prejudis.”
Continue reading “UMNO tidak mampu untuk berubah melainkan mereka dihantar ke bangku Pembangkang pada PRU13”

Presiden UMNO dan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak di dalam ucapan penggulungannya pada Perhimpunan Agung UMNO ke-66 menyeru ahli UMNO untuk berkerja lebih keras bagi meyakinkan rakyat untuk menyokong Barisan Nasional kerana undi untuk DAP bermakna mengundi penindasan orang Melayu.

Akan tetapi ini sangat bercanggahan dengan apa yang pemimpin MCA seperti Presiden MCA Datuk Dr. Chua Soi Lek katakan kepada orang cina seantero negara, bahawa undi untuk DAP bermakna mengundi untuk penindasan orang Cina.

Jelas apabila Najib mengatakan mengundi DAP adalah mengundi penindasan orang Melayu sementara Chua Soi Lek mengisytiharkan mengundi DAP mengmengundi penindasan orang Cina, bermakna telah tiba masanya untuk menyelamatkan daripada kerajaan /UMNO/BN yang tidak jujur, penuh tipu daya, tidak berprinsip dan tidak bermoral.

Wibawa dan legitimasi apakah yang dimiliki perikatan seperti Barisan Nasional yang sanggup membuat tipu daya dan ketidakjujuran, menanam penipuan dan pembohongan bagia memastikan mereka kekal berkuasa, tetapi mengakui bahawa mereka mempunyai kelayakan dan moral untuk memerintah Malaysia yang berbilang kaum, berbilang bahasa, berbilang agama dan berbilang budaya walhal sebenarnya mereka giat memecahbelahkan kaum dan agama di Malaysia?
Continue reading “Apabila Najib mengatakan mengundi DAP bermakna mengundi penindasan orang Melayu, sementara Chua Soi Lek mengisytiharkan yang undi itu adalah bagi penindasan orang Cina, sudah tiba masanya untuk menyelamatkan Malaysia daripada kerajaan /UMNO/BN yang tidak jujur, penuh tipu daya, tidak berprinsip dan tidak bermoral”

The recently concluded and highly-choreographed 66th UMNO General Assembly has only served to underline one inescapable fact of Malaysian political life – that UMNO is incapable of change unless it is sent to the Opposition benches in the 13th General Elections.

Malaysian voters will do UMNO and the country a great national service by dispatching UMNO to the Opposition benches for they will not only be creating the necessary conditions before any “transformation” can be effected in UMNO, but also laying a firmer and more solid basis for greater maturity of the parliamentary democratic process by institutionalizing the two-coalition system and the peaceful alternation and transition of power through the democratic process.

Without these “building blocks”, Malaysia cannot even talk about wanting to be the “world’s best democracy” as had been claimed by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Continue reading “UMNO is incapable of change unless it is sent to the Opposition benches in the 13GE”

By Martin Jalleh

— Sarjen Rossem
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 04, 2012

DEC 4 — There might be a need to order more popcorn, seeing that two former top cops are feuding openly in public. I refer to today’s The Malaysian Insider report on Datuk Ramli Yusuff and Tan Sri Musa Hassan.

Both speak about political interference and their revelations point to one real fact. That the Polis Di Raja Malaysia is in shambles.

Ramli accuses his one-time colleague of fixing evidence and mixing with underworld figures. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Can we believe such fanciful tales?

These revelations are all the more ironic and distressing at a time when public confidence in the police is already at a low due to the apparently rising spate of crime around the country. Continue reading “Police shenanigans”

By Martin Jalleh

Perhimpunan Agung ke-66 “perang” UMNO baru sahaja berakhir dengan penuh keyakinan dan tawa gembira, apabila Setiausaha Agung UMNO Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor dan pemimpin UMNO yang lain mengisytiharkan bahawa UMNO bukan sahaja bakal menang pada pilihan raya umum akan datang, tetapi akan memenangi kembali majoriti dua pertiga dan keempat-empat negeri Pakatan termasuklah Kelantan dan Pulau Pinang.

Walau bagaimanapun, manusia hanya merancang, Tuhan yang akan menentukan”.

Kemungkinan untuk Barisan Nasional mendapatkan kembali keempat-empat negeri Pakatan Rakyat iaitu Pulau Pinang, Kelantan, Selangor dan Kedah atau menyekat kemaraan Pakatan Rakyat untuk memenangi semula Kerajaan Negeri Perak tidak harus ditolak sepenuhnya. Continue reading “Perkara paling mengecewakan daripada Najib pada Perhimpunan Agung UMNO – kegagalan mengisytiharkan perang ke atas rasuah”