Day: January 20, 2013

By Martin Jalleh

— Uncle Nick
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 20, 2013

JAN 20 — Finally, the true colours of our esteemed Dr M are revealed.
At a recent forum, Dr M was reported to have touted his idea of what a strong government is and is not. He was quoted to have said that a strong government must be brave to use force and that being liberal is a weakness. He attributed the loss of the two thirds majority by the BN government to the lack of confidence the citizens had towards the then BN leadership.

He also lamented the fact that the power of the BN government is being destroyed because of weak leadership. The fact is that the source of power of a government lies with the citizens, not with a political party. No political party has hereditary rights to govern – 55 years in government notwithstanding. When it comes to the power to govern, the citizens giveth and the citizens taketh. The citizens rightly have the expectation that the power so giveth must be exercised for the citizens’ betterment. Most of all, the power must be exercise wisely, or the citizens have every right to taketh it away.

Of course, government leaders have to be daring. But daring to do what is the big question. Surely it is not daring to do things that are unjust, not accountable, fraudulent or downright criminal. When they do that, they no longer deserve the confidence of the citizens and with it, the right to govern.

Dr M seemed to suggest that the current government leadership is afraid of its people. Frankly, I’d rather have a government that is ‘afraid’ of its people than one that rides roughshod over its people. As long as a government has the strength of its conviction to do the right things by its people and be accountable for its action, fear does not come into the equation. Continue reading “The true colours of Dr M”

— CL Tang
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 20, 2013

JAN 20 — I read with incredulity Wong Chun Wai’s mournful assessment of the state of political discourse in Malaysia, “The lost middle ground” (The Sunday Star, 20th January 2013). Commenting on the recent episode where a panellist berated a student for her political views at a local university and the subsequent harsh responses in cyberspace, he commented,” we are incapable of articulating our points in a persuasive and rational manner, preferring to shout, as in a ceramah, or to talk down, in the big brother/sister know best” attitude.”

As the editor-in-chief of the largest circulated English newspaper in Malaysia, Wong should re-examine whether he has played a role in the decline of healthy political discussions among Malaysians, and whether The Star has been equally guilty of “talking down” to its readers.

In just a week where we had the KL112 event to the recent shocking revelations from the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) where there are alleged conspiracies of votes in exchange for citizenships, if one examines the manner in which the Star covered the issues, one would conclude that it was not news per se, but spins slanted in favour of the government.

In the KL112 event and similarly in the previous Bersih 3.0 event, where hundreds of thousands of Malaysian defied the veiled threats of government intimidation, The Star’s reports and editorials was so one-sided that the last shred of responsible journalism was dropped. When an undergraduate tweeted, “Dear #KL112 supporters, if you don’t like Malaysia, you can get out of Malaysia….” The Star exclaimed that “a Twitter star…. is born” under the headlines, “Twitter sensation unfazed by brickbats in cyberspace” (The Star, Jan 14th 2013). And here Wong has the audacity to reprimand Sharifah Zobra Jabeen, the protagonist in the “Listen, listen listen” fiasco for insinuating those who do not like Malaysia to leave the country! Continue reading “The Lost Middle Ground”

By Dr. Lim Teck Ghee | Sunday, 20 January 2013 11:03
CPI

The pro-Umno author and blogger Syed Akbar Ali, in a post critiquing the Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in Sabah, has argued that it would not be out of place to have a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate why one million immigrants who were mostly Chinese and Indians were given citizenship in Malaya in the 1950s (see his post of 17 Jan 2013).

According to him, “surely there must be at least five million Malays on the Peninsula today who may be wondering why or how that particular incident happened? Were they consulted? Was there a public referendum?”

He also asserted that “Let’s not argue about the fairness. Let’s have a RCI first on the issue – how and why 1.0 million Chinese and Indians (including my mamak gang of course) were given citizenship.”

He may have made his proposal provocatively or tongue-in-cheek but a variant of it has appeared as one of the lines of defence used by the former prime minister in justifying the distribution of identity cards to foreigners and their registration as voters in Sabah. According to Dr Mahathir Mohamed , “One should also look back and remember that Tunku Abdul Rahman was worse than me, he gave one million to citizenships to people who are not qualified and not even tested”.
Continue reading “RCI proceedings: Facing up to the truth of where Malaysians come from”

By Martin Jalleh

The fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Malaysia for 22 years from 1981-2003, continues to cast a dark shadow on the politics and future of Malaysia – long after his retirement ten years ago.

Yesterday, Mahathir made the ridiculous proposal for a royal commission of inquiry into the granting of citizenship of one million foreign immigrants in the Federation of Malaya before Merdeka, two days after Mahathir asserted that what he did in Project IC or Project M in Sabah was “lawful”, and that Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman “had done worse by giving citizenship to one million unqualified people in peninsula Malaysia” before Merdeka.

Mahathir even rhetorically asked: “Why is it when he does it, it is not wrong, and when I do it, it’s wrong”.

In one fell swoop, Mahathir had smeared the memory and good name not only of Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, but all the Umno/Alliance leaders involved in the Merdeka struggle, including Tun Razak, Tun Ismail, Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Tun Sambanthan.

It is utterly shocking that three days have passed without a single voice from the UMNO/MCA/MIC leadership to defend Tunku, Tun Razak, Tun Ismail, Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Tun Sambanthan.

I myself find it most unbelievable that after the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting on Thursday night, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak could mention with seeming agreement and approval Mahathir’s claim about Tunku giving citizenship to one million Chinese – which was why I called on Najib yesterday to clear the name not only of Tunku, but also Tun Razak and the one million citizens of Merdeka generation from Mahathir’s defamation. Continue reading “81-Day Countdown to 13GE: Don’t allow Mahathir to divert attention from central problem before Sabah RCI, illegally legalising illegal immigrants in Sabah during 22-year Mahathir era which could range from 1.5 million to 1.9 million, with his ridiculous call for RCI on one million pre-Merdeka citizenship”