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Umno is rotten to the core – it seems!

By P. Ramakrishnan
Aliran
18th January 2013

The cat is out of the bag – at last! Tun Mahathir and all his cohorts from his era cannot plead ignorance or amnesia. It is out in the open how they cheated and stole elections to remain in power.

Shamelessly they plotted and subverted the democratic process in their greed to remain in power. What they did is tantamount to treason.

They stole our elections and cheated our voters. They made a mockery of our elections and the democratic process consciously and deliberately.

To think that this diabolical scheme was hatched by people from the Prime Minister’s Department, the Home Ministry, the National Registration Department, the Election Commission, etc. It clearly establishes the fact that there was massive official fraud to ensure the two thirds majority, win the election and fool the public that the Barisan Nasional came into power through legitimate means.

To think that two of the then PM’s closest confidantes – Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin, Mahathir’s political secretary, and Megat Junid Megat Ayub, the deputy home minister under Mahathir – were actively involved in cheating and stealing elections exposes the very possibility that one can remain as prime minister in Malaysia not only for 22 years but forever! Continue reading “Umno is rotten to the core – it seems!”

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The Ugly 1Malaysian Muslim Woman

By Mariam Mokhtar | January 18, 2013
Free Malaysia Today

Umno seems to have a lot of people who open their mouths and put their feet straight into them. That is why few will sympathise with Sharifah Zohra Jabeen, the president of Suara Wanita 1Malaysia (SW1M) who has gone into hiding and is attempting to restore her reputation after she delivered a knockout blow to Umno.

Perhaps, she deserves a tinge of sympathy for having an out-of-body experience; the moment she opened her mouth, all credibility left her body.

Incidentally, from where does SW1M get its funding? Is it the taxpayer or does the money come from abroad?

Incredibly, the other members of her little known organisation are just as blind, and do not think Sharifah’s behavior was appalling. Can anything be clearer?

It is Sharifah’s snobbery and aggression which the rakyat identifies with Umno. Her lack of humility prevented her from apologising for her poor conduct. She is too arrogant to admit that she was wrong and her decision to go into hiding because she says she is being “blackmailed”, shows her cowardice and guilt. Her decision to prolong the issue and not deal decisively and immediately with it, has made her look even more conceited.
Continue reading “The Ugly 1Malaysian Muslim Woman”

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Orang Melayu perlu merdekakan jiwa dan minda

— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 18, 2013

18 JAN — Kita sudah sampai ke penghujung penggal pilihanraya dan pemilihan itu akan diadakan dalam beberapa minggu sahaja lagi. Kali ini merupakan pilihanraya yang berkeadaan yang paling rumit dan mencabar bagi BN dan masa yang paling baik bagi Pakatan Rakyat untuk menunjukkan mereka (PR) sebagai “coalition” alternatif yang akan menjadi pengganti kepada pemerintahan BN. Umno sudah dianggap terlalu usang oleh sebahagian besar rakyat negara ini.

Tanda yang paling jelas Umno itu usang ialah ketidak-mampuan untuk mengubah keadaan dan persepsi buruk rakyat terhadap parti itu dengan keseluruhan kepimpinannya. Banyak pihak telah mengkritik dan memberikan pandangan yang berbagai-bagai untuk memperbaiki parti itu tetapi Umno tetap dengan sikap dan perangai yang sama tanpa ada tanda-tanda untuk berubah kepada kebaikan.

Segala kesalahan moral dan jenayah yang dilakukan oleh Umno dan BN selama ini tetap terus berlaku dan rakyat sudah tiada pilihan selain dari melakukan yang drastik terhadap parti pemerintah itu. Betul lah kata setengah pendapat orang, keadaan ini adalah kehendak yang “natural” dan ianya berlaku kepada semua parti-parti dan pertubuhan siasah yang sudah lama dan usang dimana-mana.

Ahli-ahli serta penyokong-penyokong tegar Umno masih dalam sindrom penafian dan masih bertegas mengatakan Umno akan menang dan ada yang mengatakan yang parti itu akan mendapat sokongan 2/3 dalam Dewan Parlimen kali ini. Tetapi hakikatnya tindakan mereka hanyalah untuk menyedapkan hati mereka sahaja kerana keadaan sebenarnya adalah di sebaliknya. Continue reading “Orang Melayu perlu merdekakan jiwa dan minda”

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83-Day Countdown to 13GE: Mahathir’s “Listen, Listen, Listen!” exhortation and the question – What is to be done when a former PM had committed treason when in power?

It was pure, pristine, undiluted Mahathirism – the perverted illogic, falsehood-coated assertions and brazen dishonesty.

Recently, the Sharifah-Bawani video clips made the “Listen, listen, listen!” diatribe infamous nationwide, but the real “Listen, listen, listen!” maestro is none other than Mahathir, who yesterday treated Malaysians to a classic “Listen, listen, listen” exposition, a decade after he stepped down as Prime Minister for 22 years but demonstrating he is still unequalled as an exponent of this black art.

Mahathir was responding to the revelations at the Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants on Project IC (also known of Project M) and the “IC receipts-for-votes” and “citizenship-for-votes” scams in Sabah in the nineties, but he had overreached himself as for the first time in 14 years he had to admit to the existence of the nefarious and treasonous Project IC or Project M not only to subvert the electoral process but also the sovereignty of Sabah and Malaysia.

Mahathir had until yesterday strenuously denied the existence of Project IC or Project M since the public surfacing of the allegations about it in the Likas election petition in 1999, but yesterday, when pressed by the media if he was saying the Project IC was lawful, Mahathir said: “Yes, it is lawful.”

If the Project IC or Project M was lawful, giving ICs and citizenships to foreigners “within the law”, why was it necessary for Mahathir to deny it and to hide it from the people of Sabah and Malaysia for over a decade?

Furthermore, why was it necessary for Mahathir to try to defame Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, by claiming that the first Prime Minister had done worse by giving citizenship to one million unqualified people in peninsular Malaysia, asking: “Why is it when he does it, it is not wrong, and when I do it, it’s wrong?” Continue reading “83-Day Countdown to 13GE: Mahathir’s “Listen, Listen, Listen!” exhortation and the question – What is to be done when a former PM had committed treason when in power?”

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Pengiraan Detik 84 Hari ke PRU13: Mahathir patut selamanya tutup mulut sekiranya beliau tidak bersedia untuk secara sukarela tampil di hadapan RCIII Sabah untuk membersihkan tuduhan bahawa beliau adalah pengkhianat dengan memberikan Kad Pengenalan dan hak mengundi kepada pendatang asing semata-mata untuk mempertahankan kuasa politik UMNO

Timbalan Presiden Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Azmin Ali telah memanggil mantan Perdana Menteri Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad pengkhianat negara berikutan pendedahan di Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja Pendatang Tanpa Izin (RCIII) berkenaan perancangan “kewarganegaraan untuk undian” di Sabah sekitar tahun sembilan puluhan.

Semalam, beberapa bekas pegawai Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) memberitahu RCI di Kota Kinabalu bahawa mereka diarahkan bagi memudahcara pendatang tanpa izin untuk mengundi ketika 1990-an dan membantu menaikkan kerajaan negeri yang mesra BN.

Operasi ini termasuklah antaranya mengeluarkan resit kad pengenalan (KP) pengundi yang sememangnya wujud kepada pendatang tanpa izin untuk mengeluarkan kad pengenalan biru kepada pendatang tanpa izin yang tidak layak – juga dikenali sebagai Projek IC atau Projek M yang mana “M” bermaksud Mahathir.

Dua orang paling rapat dan orang kanan Mahathir ketika itu telah dilibatkan oleh saksi di hadapan RCI dalam penipuan kewarganegaraan-untuk-undian di Sabah – Megat Junid Megat Ayub, Timbalan Menteri Dalam Negeri Mahathir, yang juga Menteri Dalam Negeri serta Aziz Shamsuddin, setiausaha politik Mahathir. Megat Junid kemudiannya menjadi Menteri Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Kepenggunaan sementara Aziz Shamsuddin kemudiannya menyertai Kabinet sebagai Menteri Kemajuan Luar Bandar Dan Wilayah. Continue reading “Pengiraan Detik 84 Hari ke PRU13: Mahathir patut selamanya tutup mulut sekiranya beliau tidak bersedia untuk secara sukarela tampil di hadapan RCIII Sabah untuk membersihkan tuduhan bahawa beliau adalah pengkhianat dengan memberikan Kad Pengenalan dan hak mengundi kepada pendatang asing semata-mata untuk mempertahankan kuasa politik UMNO”

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Getting Malaysian citizenship cheaply

– The Malaysian Insider
January 17, 2013

JAN 17 – Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today explained why citizenship was given to illegal immigrants in Sabah, an issue being investigated by a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI).

Dr Mahathir said the process was within the law as the immigrants had been in Sabah for decades and spoke Bahasa Melayu.

“When I was prime minister, I was in power to determine the implementation of government policies.

“The government received foreigners to be citizens if (they) fulfilled certain conditions, furthermore those who are there are not one, two days but already 20 to 30 years and they speak in Bahasa Melayu, have the right to be Malaysians,” he said at a press conference here.

“So the problem is when there are people who are tidak senang (unhappy) when there are some who become Malaysians although those individuals have already long resided in Malaysia, that is what causes problems.”

That defence is weak, especially when those who have testified at the RCI say they were ordered to issue citizenship and receipts for blue or citizen’s identity cards.

An official accused the late former deputy home affairs minister Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayub of ordering the National Registration Department (NRD)’s Sabah branch to issue temporary documents to allow immigrants to vote in a 1994 state election.

But what is most shocking is the attempt to draw parallel between his government’s action and those of Malaysia’s founding prime minister, Al-Marhum Tunku Abdul Rahman Al-Haj. Continue reading “Getting Malaysian citizenship cheaply”

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Dr M admits citizenships given out in Sabah, says nothing illegal

By Ida Lim
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 17, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today admitted that citizenships were given to foreigners in Sabah, but stressed that it was “within the law”.

The former prime minister was asked to comment on the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Sabah’s illegal immigrants issue.

“When I was prime minister, I was in power to determine the implementation of government policies.

“The government received foreigners to be citizens if (they) fulfilled certain conditions, furthermore those who are there are not one, two days but already 20 to 30 years and they speak in Bahasa Melayu, have the right to be Malaysians,” Dr Mahathir (picture) said at a press conference here.

“So the problem is when there are people who are tidak senang (unhappy) when there are some who become Malaysians although those individuals have already long resided in Malaysia, that is what causes problems.”

Throughout the press conference, he repeatedly stressed that the giving of citizenships to foreigners was “within the law”. Continue reading “Dr M admits citizenships given out in Sabah, says nothing illegal”

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Why I will vote Pakatan

by KJ John
Malaysiakini
Jan 15, 2013

In 2007, I wrote a column entitled, ‘Why I will not vote for BN’. No one then really took me seriously, although I was told that MCA circulated that column during the MCA central committee meeting. Even later, a representative of the then chief secretary told me, but after the fact, that the man was not too happy with my column either.

My retort: Well, he could have easily called me to understand my reasons and explanations, if he was interested to listen. If they could listen, then the government maybe could have addressed those reasons well before the general election. Finally, PM Najib Abdul Razak is trying, but is it too late?

This time around, allow me to state positively why I have no choice but to still vote for Pakatan Rakyat again. I will record three reasons in this column. Neither is this because I love BN any less, it is just that given our real choices and options, the unknown angel is better than that of the known devil.

My first reason is the ‘Allah’ issue and how it has been so badly handled by the BN government, and why they need to better understand the real issues about the true and real etymology of the ‘Allah’ word. My good friend and fellow writer to Malaysiakini, Bob Teoh, has documented the core issues quite well for all those interested to know the truths about this word. His book is entitled, Allah: More than just a Word.

I will not explain all the reasons involved here, which the High Court judgment by Lau Bee Lan has argued rather well. Citizens should read this judgment before talking about this issue. Continue reading “Why I will vote Pakatan”

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84-Day Countdown to 13GE: Mahathir should forever shut up if he is not prepared to volunteer to appear before the Sabah RCIII to clear allegations that he is traitor for giving ICs and voting rights to foreigners just to shore up UMNO’s political power

The Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Deputy President, Azmin Ali has called former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad a traitor to the country following revelations at the Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants (RCIII) of “citizenship-for-votes” schemes in Sabah in the nineties.

Yesterday, several former National Registration Department (NRD) officers told the RCI in Kota Kinabalu that they were instructed to facilitate immigrants to vote during the 1990s and help install a BN-friendly state government.

These operations ranged from issuing identity card (IC) receipts of existing voters to immigrants to issuing blue identity cards to unqualified immigrants – also known as Project IC or Project M where “M” stood for Mahathir.

Two of Mahathir’s closest confidantes and right-hand men at the time have been implicated by witnesses before the RCI in the citizenship-for-votes scam in Sabah – the late Megat Junid Megat Ayub, Deputy Home Minister to Mahathir, who was also Home Minister and Aziz Shamsuddin, Mahathir political secretary. Megat Junid went on to become Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs while Aziz Shamsuddin later joined the Cabinet as Minister of Rural and Regional Development. Continue reading “84-Day Countdown to 13GE: Mahathir should forever shut up if he is not prepared to volunteer to appear before the Sabah RCIII to clear allegations that he is traitor for giving ICs and voting rights to foreigners just to shore up UMNO’s political power”

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Lesson from ‘listen, listen, listen’

by Azly Rahman
Malaysiakini
Jan 17, 2012

As a student of Cultural-Philosophical Studies with a passion in radical educational change framed within the context of cybernating-hypermodern societies such as Malaysia, I see the “Bawani-Zohra Affair” as emblematic of a nation gone berserk on the issue of freedom of speech and the culture of dialogue and public discourse.

We are in an ‘amuck-latah’ mood. The nation, at least in cyberspace, is furious (amuck) of what happened, and the protagonist of the propaganda machine fumbled big-time (latah) assuming that the teaching techniques of the “top-down, humiliate-first, no-apologies later” of many a Biro Tata Negara speaker can still be deployed unreservedly onto university students at the time when amateur videos can go viral, when tweets can flow like a tsunami, and when Facebook pages can be created in a fraction of seconds.

That’s the mistaken assumption – that the Frankenstein called “social media technology” will also not run amuck helping those silenced to have their poetic justice, and those humiliated to become an honourable being raised to the level of stardom, overnight.

It is said that at times, you do not need to find the revolution – for the revolution will find you. The revolution found both Bawani and Zohra in such an ‘absurd’ way, such as in many of the plots of French surrealist dramas like Eugene Ionesco’s rhinoceros running wild on the city streets, and Kafka’s character moving from desolation to awareness in “Metamorphosis”.

The timing was perfect, like that storm brewing right after the almost-a-million Malaysian march to take over Putrajaya; after the Deepak drama which was over-played, overdosing even the older folks; after the successes of all those Bersih rallies, and many other watersheds upon watersheds of consciousness-raising events, and ultimately, after the last hurrah circa GE13 – all these ripened the relevance of the fateful “Bawani-Zohra” rendezvous.

Hence, Malaysians saw not only an explosion of anger, but one that fuelled tremendous amounts of creative products, mainly in the realm of multimedia (music videos, Facebook and Internet posters, audio and video materials, and the production of other forms of creative artifacts inspired by the mantra “listen-listen-listen…”). Continue reading “Lesson from ‘listen, listen, listen’”

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Pengiraan Detik 85 Hari ke PRU13: Najib – Listen, Listen, Listen!

Fenomena terbaru di internet apabila klip video teguran “Listen, listen, listen!” seorang aktivis 1Malaysia, Sharifah Zohra Jabeen kepada pelajar tahun dua undang-undang Bawani KS tersebar luas mencerminkan dua kegagalan dasar paling penting Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak sepanjang empat tahun menjadi perdana menteri:

  • Pertama, program “transformasinya”, sama ada kerajaan, ekonomi, politik, pendidikan atau sosial yang semuanya bersandarkan prinsip ”Era kerajaan tahu semua telah berlalu”.
  • Kedua, dasar 1Malaysia beliau untuk mewujudkan Malaysia yang mana rakyatnya melihat diri mereka rakyat Malaysia dahulu kemudian barulah kaum, agama, tempat atau latar belakang ekonomi.

Sekiranya pelbagai program transformasi Najib berharap untuk berjaya, ia haruslah bersandarkan komunikasi dan dialog dua hala antara pemerintah dengan yang diperintah dan bukannya “Listen, listen, listen!” secara satu hala dipaksakan ke atas yang diperintah oleh pemerintah.

Najib dan kerajaan UMNO/BN bersedia untuk “Listen, listen, listen”?

Jelas sekali tidak. Jika benar bersedia untuk mendengar pastinya Ketua Ekonomi Bank Islam, Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin pasti tidak akan digantung berikutan laporan media berkenaan pembentangannya di Regional Outlook Forum Singapura Khamis lepas yang meramalkan kemenangan tipis Pakatan Rakyat dalam pilihan raya ke-13. Continue reading “Pengiraan Detik 85 Hari ke PRU13: Najib – Listen, Listen, Listen!”

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Pengiraan Detik 86 Hari ke PRU13: PR tidak perlu bermain permainan menaikkan nama sendiri dengan menjatuhkan orang lain bersama BN kerana KL112 tanpa ragu lagi adalah peransang semangat untuk UBAH dalam PRU13 yang semakin hampir dan PR cuma perlu bergerak terus

Selepas tergamam dan membisu pada hari Sabtu sesudah berlangsungnya perhimpunan KL112 yang bersejarah melihatkan ratusan ribu rakyat Malaysia daripada berbilang kaum, agama dan tempat berada di Stadium Merdeka, dan juga membisu sepanjang hari Ahad, pemimpin UMNO/Barisan Nasional telah memapu bersuara kembali dan kelam-kabut mahu meminimakan gelombang politik yang terhasil daripada KL112.

Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak jelas kelihatan tertekan dengan kejayaan dan kemananan KL112 sehingga menumpang nama terhadap kejayaan perhimpunan mega Pakatan Rakyat sewaktu menjadi tuan rumah Malam Penghargaan Media perhimpunan agung UMNO 2012.

Selepas berbincang dengan strategis beliau sepanjang hari Ahad untuk mengira kos politik kepada UMNO/BN terutamanya bagi PRU13, Najib kembali dan mengisytiharkan secara terbuka semalam bahawa KL112 menunjukkan kejayaan reformasi politik dan kerajaan yang beliau telah lakukan sejak menjadi Perdana Menteri selama empat tahun.

Najib dilihat mengelak untuk menerangkan mengapa perhimpunan Bersih 2.0 dan Bersih 3.0 yang diadakan juga semasa beliau menyandang jawatan perdana menteri menjadi tragedi polis dan kerajaan BN, memandangkan KL112 telah membuktikan tanpa ragu bahawa rakyat Malaysia adalah manusia yang cintakan keamanan yang hanya mahu melaksanakan hak mereka untuk berhimpun dan meluahkan secara bebas serta kedua-dua perhimpunan Bersih 2.0 dan Bersih 3.0 boleh menjadi model antarabangsa perhimpunan aman jika tidak kerana kesombongan dan tekanan daripada polis serta kerajaan. Continue reading “Pengiraan Detik 86 Hari ke PRU13: PR tidak perlu bermain permainan menaikkan nama sendiri dengan menjatuhkan orang lain bersama BN kerana KL112 tanpa ragu lagi adalah peransang semangat untuk UBAH dalam PRU13 yang semakin hampir dan PR cuma perlu bergerak terus”

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RCIII in Sabah – Integrity of Election Commission and National Registration Dept? (4)

‘We gave Muslim foreigners IDs to vote’
Free Malaysia Today
FMT Staff | January 16, 2013

Sabah NRD director tells the RCI that he was personally instructed by Megat Junid Megat Ayub to recruit new voters.

KOTA KINABALU: A former National Registration Department (NRD) officer told an inquiry here that he took part in a project to give foreigners here identity cards so that they could vote in an election in the 1990s.

Mohd Nasir Sugip, who was detained under the now repealed Internal Security Act (ISA), told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) he was part of a top secret operation dubbed ‘Ops Durian Buruk’ (Operation Rotten Durian) on the instruction of his bosses in the department.

He claimed the operation ran from 1992 to 1995 and said the instruction to furnish the foreigners with identity cards so that they could vote came from the state Election Commission (EC).

“At that time, Sabah SPR director Wan Ahmad handed over a list of 16,000 names to be made into ‘bumiputera Islam’ voters.

“My boss, Sabah NRD director Ramli Kamarudin, then verbally told me to execute this project,” he said.

Mohd Nasir said three other individuals were present when the instruction was issued but their names could not be immediately ascertained.

He said he followed the instructions given to him and recruited other officers at the district level for the operation.

Based on a list of names provided by the EC, foreigners were issued with new identity card numbers that contained their date of birth, photographs and names and all were mostly from Sandakan, Tawau, Sempoerna and other parts of the state, he said.

“The list consisted of Filipinos and Indonesians who were Muslim and aged above 21 years,” Mohd Nasir told the inquiry. Continue reading “RCIII in Sabah – Integrity of Election Commission and National Registration Dept? (4)”

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RCIII in Sabah – Integrity of Election Commission and National Registration Dept? (3)

‘NRD’s G17 processed over 100k blue ICs for foreigners’
Nigel Aw
Malaysiakini
7:22PM Jan 16, 2013

A special unit dubbed G17 operated out of the Sabah National Registration Department (NRD) headquarters in Kota Kinabalu beginning 1990 and was responsible for processing the application forms for some 100,000 blue identity cards for immigrants, the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on immigrants in Sabah was told today.

Kee Dzulkifly Kee Abdul Jalil, who was part of the unit, said he was tasked to write down the names and numbers on the blue identity cards that was then done manually before they were shipped to Kuala Lumpur.

“I wrote down the names according to what is in the application forms that were given to us,” he said, adding that the unit processed an estimated 100,000 such identity cards.

Furthermore, he said his unit was also responsible for issuing letters of approval for birth certificates, which he estimated the unit had produced some 200,000 for the children of immigrants.

“This approval letter would allow them to get hospitals or district office to issue them with a birth certificate,” he said. He admitted to being paid RM80,000 for his work. Continue reading “RCIII in Sabah – Integrity of Election Commission and National Registration Dept? (3)”

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RCIII in Sabah – Integrity of Election Commission and National Registration Dept? (2)

Dr M’s right-hand men implicated in Sabah IC scam
Nigel Aw
Malaysiakini

Two of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s closest confidantes were today implicated by witnesses testifying before the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into the alleged citizenship-for-votes scam in Sabah.

A former Sabah National Registration Department (NRD) officer testified that he and the others stayed at the house of Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin (right), who was then Mahathir’s political secretary, when they were roped in to issue blue identity cards to the immigrants.

Yakup Damsah, who was then Tamparuli NRD chief, told the RCI that he and the other NRD officers were flown from Sabah to Kuala Lumpur, from where they worked out of Aziz’s house in Kampung Pandan.

“After receiving instructions from then-Sabah NRD chief Abdul Rauf Sani, we were ordered to go to KL and were placed at Pak Aziz Shamsuddin’s residence in Kampung Pandan,” Yakup said.

He said they were tasked to sign the identity cards that were to be issued to the immigrants, which were subsequently laminated at the NRD headquarters in Petaling Jaya and shipped to the Kota Kinabalu NRD for distribution. Continue reading “RCIII in Sabah – Integrity of Election Commission and National Registration Dept? (2)”

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RCIII in Sabah – Integrity of Election Commission and National Registration Dept?

(1) Ex-NRD man says ordered by Megat Junid to let immigrants vote
UPDATED @ 06:21:55 16-01-2013
By Boo Su-Lyn
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 16, 2013

KOTA KINABALU, Jan 16 — A former National Registration Department (NRD) official accused the late Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayub of ordering him to issue NRD receipts enabling illegal immigrants in Sabah to vote in the 1994 state election.

Former Sabah NRD director Ramli Kamarudin said Megat Junid, then the deputy home affairs minister, had told him that the NRD receipts were to match the names and IC numbers of registered voters.

“We gave them (immigrants) RM20,” Ramli told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants here today.

“We teach them how to vote. We gather them in a house. We send them by bus to the polling stations. Then we send them back and we collect the receipts. The receipts are just for voting. We did not give them identity cards,” he added.

Ramli said that about 200 NRD receipts were issued in five or six state constituencies each in Sabah that were considered “black spots that were difficult for the government to win.”

“One area maybe 400,” he said.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister who was in power from 1981 to 2003, has been accused of spearheading the so-called “Project IC”, in which citizenships were allegedly given to immigrants in exchange for their votes. Continue reading “RCIII in Sabah – Integrity of Election Commission and National Registration Dept?”

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85-Day Countdown to 13GE: Najib – Listen, Listen, Listen!

The latest Malaysian Internet phenomenon when the video clips of “Listen, listen, listen!” diatribe of a 1Malaysia activist, Sharifah Zohra Jabeen rebuking second-year law student Bawani KS went viral is in fact a reflection of the double failure of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s two most important policies in his four-year premiership:

• Firstly, his “transformation” programmes, whether government, economic, political, educational or social which are all predicated on the principle that “The era where the government knows best is over”.

• Secondly, his signature 1Malaysia policy to create a Malaysia where every Malaysian perceives himself or herself as Malaysian first and by race, religion, geographical region or socio-economic background second.

If Najib’s various transformation programmes are to have any hope of success, they must be based on a two-way communication and dialogue between the government and the governed and not on a “Listen, listen, listen!” one-way traffic imposed by the government on the governed.

Is Najib and the UMNO/BN government prepared to “Listen, listen, listen”?

Clearly not so. Or the chief economist of Bank Islam, Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin would not have been suspended following media reports on a presentation he made at the Regional Outlook Forum in Singapore last Thursday predicting a narrow victory for Pakatan Rakyat in the 13th general elections. Continue reading “85-Day Countdown to 13GE: Najib – Listen, Listen, Listen!”

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Dengarlah (Listen)

— Izham Ismail
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 15, 2013

15 JAN — Semalam, kita digemparkan oleh sebuah video yang disebarkan di YouTube, memaparkan perjalanan sebuah forum yang diadakan di Universiti Utara Malaysia. Forum tersebut bertajuk “Seiringkah Mahasiswa dan Politik” dan perkara yang mengejutkan adalah tindakan panel forum terbabit, Saudari Sharifah Zohrah Jabeen yang memberi respon kepada pertanyaan pelajar UUM, Bawani dengan cara yang agak keterlaluan.

Berikutan daripada video ini, pelbagai reaksi telah diberikan oleh semua pihak terutamanya para mahasiswa. Majoriti mahasiswa merasakan bahawa perkara seperti ini tidak seharusnya berlaku apatah lagi tujuan forum tersebut diadakan adalah untuk menjadi medium interaksi dalam kalangan mahasiswa dan ahli panel berhubung isu-isu politik. Malah, selaku Presiden Suara Wanita 1 Malaysia, sebuah NGO, tindakan tersebut sememangnya tidak boleh diterima dan secara peribadi, saya masih tercari-cari rasional saudari Sharifah bertindak sedemikian.

Saya tidak mahu mengulas dengan lebih terperinci tentang intipati kenyataan Saudari Sharifah kerana saya percaya, semua sahabat mahasiswa sudahpun menonton video ini dan mendengar dengan jelas “hujah” yang diberikan oleh Saudari Sharifah. Perkara yang ingin saya tekankan adalah berkenaan soal integriti Saudari Sharifah yang saya kira tidak menggambarkan profesionalisme yang sepatutnya, sesuai dengan status beliau selaku seorang Presiden.

Saya percaya dan sentiasa akan percaya, semua orang mempunyai hak untuk menyatakan apa yang dirasai. Segala firasat, teori, pandangan mahupun kritikan sewajarnya diberikan ruang yang adil untuk disalur dan dikongsi. Apatah lagi, dengan adanya forum sebegini, soalan-soalan “panas” memang merupakan sesuatu yang pasti dan atas sebab itulah, ahli panel perlu bijak menangani.

Selaku mahasiswa, kami sentiasa mempunyai aspirasi yang tersendiri. Biarpun kami mungkin berbeza ideologi sesama sendiri, bernaung di bawah berlainan panji, waima menjadi ahli fikir neutralisasi, ada perkara yang kami kongsi merentas seluruh universiti. Kami berkongsi bahawa hak mahasiswa itu perlu dibela, suara mahasiswa itu perlu dijaga, malah hati, maruah dan pendirian mahasiswa itu perlu diutama. Atas dasar inilah, pelbagai forum atau debat dilaksanakan di peringkat universiti agar medium ini diangkat sebagai saluran idea mahasiswa sekaligus menjunjung semangat demokrasi.

Namun, sayangnya hal ini seolah-olah tidak difahami oleh Saudari Sharifah. Continue reading “Dengarlah (Listen)”