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Cabinet tomorrow should give mandate to Najib to summon emergency Parliament to defend national sovereignty and protect security of Sabahans and security forces personnel

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat fully support all necessary measures in the Sabah Sulu crisis to defend the honour and sovereignty of the nation and to protect the security and safety of the people of Sabah and the security forces personnel.

The Sabah Sulu crisis is no partisan issue but affects the national sovereignty and security of the people of Sabah and the security forces personnel stationed in the state, and for this reason, all Malaysians, political parties and coalitions must rise above their differences to take a common position to advance the national cause and the people’s fundamental rights to peace, safety and livelihood.

It is for this reason that immediately after the Lahad Datu shootout last Friday, where two police commandoes were killed, the DAP leadership called on all Malaysians to rally as one people to face the Sabah Sulu crisis. Continue reading “Cabinet tomorrow should give mandate to Najib to summon emergency Parliament to defend national sovereignty and protect security of Sabahans and security forces personnel”

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37-Day Countdown to 13GE – For second consecutive year, not a single Malaysian university ranked in top 400 of Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-2013

This is another body-blow for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak just before the long-awaited 13th General Elections as it highlights the failure of Najib’s national transformation agenda to restore national unity, achieve excellence and regain international competitiveness from its slew of initiatives like the “1Malaysia, People First, Performance Now” programme, the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) with seven National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) and a host of impossible-to-remember acronyms from the alphabet-soup reform measures .

In Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2012-2013, for the second consecutive year, not a single Malaysian university is included in its 400 Top World University rankings.

The THE World University Rankings 2012-2013 is a sad but salutary warning to Malaysians about the four-year failure of Najib’s transformation programmes, with Malaysia completely excluded from the Asia-Pacific phenomenon highlighted by the THE World University Rankings 2012-2013 on the “the rise of Asia-Pacific Universities”. Continue reading “37-Day Countdown to 13GE – For second consecutive year, not a single Malaysian university ranked in top 400 of Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-2013”

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Fighter jets bomb Kg Tanduo, villagers flee area

Live Reports
Malaysiakini
8:22AM Mar 5, 2013

The operation to remove the foreign intruders from Kg Tanduo, where more than 100 gunmen have holed up for three weeks began at 7am today.

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LIVE REPORTS

10.17am: Quoting a report from ANC News Channel, InterAksyon.com reports that bombs were being dropped about a kilometer away from where Azzimudie Kiram and his men were located.

Leader Azzimudie says his group could not yet determine if the bombs were meant to target them or their followers, but they remained safe and secure and were ready to fight back.

Meanwhile in Manila, a group of protesters have arrived at the Malaysia embassy to condemn the attack.

10.15am: Azzimudie Kiram, leader of the intruders, vents his anger at the Philippine government in a radio interview with InterAksyon.com, the online news portal of Philippine TV channel TV5.

“The government is ordering the arrest of our companions even if we haven’t done anything bad,” he said. “It’s like we aren’t Filipinos.”

Meanwhile, Abraham Idjarani, spokesperson of the sultanate, tells radio station dzBB that Azzimudie had phoned to inform them of the start of the assault.

“There is nothing to be done about that now,” Idjirani said in a separate interview with AFP.

He stressed that Azzimudie’s earlier announcement that they will fight to the end remains.

“We are not intruders. They (Malaysians) are the ones occupying our ancestral land,” he says.

10.09am: Police have set up a checkpoint on the main road in Tanjung Labian, which is about 5km from the site of hostilities. No one are allowed into the area.

The sounds of bombings have stopped in the last one hour. It is unclear whether ground troops have moved in as Kampung Tanduo has been off-limit to journalists since the stand-off began.

10.05am: In Manila, a team of police and journalists are gathering outside the Malaysian embassy. They are expecting a group of protesters to arrive there.

9.55am: Azzimudie Kiram confirmed during an interview with ABS-CBN’s dzMM radio that Malaysian forces are using fighter jets in the latest attack on their position in Lahad Datu.

The royal army’s leader also expressed his disappointment over Philippine President Benigno Aquino’s position on the crisis.

He said that the governments of Malaysia and the Philippines has obviously stopped listening to their calls for a peaceful resolution of the standoff. Continue reading “Fighter jets bomb Kg Tanduo, villagers flee area”

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Why are our troops still on the defensive?

― Hussaini Abdul Karim
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 04, 2013

MARCH 4 ― Based on the reports and images as shown in our mainstream newspapers on the standoff between our troops and the armed Sulu group at Kampong Tanduo, many things seem to be wrong.

Firstly, while there are some members of the troops who were seen to be donning bullet-proof vests, none were wearing helmets. Some were seen wearing long-sleeved tee-shirts and standard ‘soft’ headgear, bandanas and some were not even wearing any headgear at all, especially the members of the VAT 69. Many were also seen not wearing bullet-proof vests. This is most surprising and wrong.

We are not cowboys on horses fighting against Red Indians armed with arrows, spears and axes!

Malaysian soldiers guarding the area were, however, seen wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests.

Mind you, unprotected bodies and unprotected heads aren’t bullet proof!

Secondly, there doesn’t seem to be any trenches and bunkers with sandbags to protect troops who are keeping watch and who came into contact with the enemy, resulting in eight already dead. Soldiers taking defensive positions must be dug in, whether in bunkers or trenches. They should not be taking up positions where they can be seen and shot at.

What I wrote above is basic modern warfare tactics, and in the standoff at Semporna, even these basics are not followed.

I was a soldier before and I do know something about basic modern warfare tactics. Continue reading “Why are our troops still on the defensive?”

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Of instant websites, anonymous emails and political mudslinging

The Malaysian Insider
Mar 04, 2013

MARCH 4 — As the country enters the home stretch before Election 2013, many Malaysians have been receiving emails from people with strange sounding names like Abrihim Malawaki.

Using anonymous names much like those in the infamous letters from so-called former Nigerian military generals imploring us to help them unlock millions of dollars, these letters provide links instead to equally anonymous websites set up overnight to attack Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

While there is nothing wrong with criticising Anwar and the opposition parties, the anonymous nature of these emails and the websites being promoted raises serious questions about their credibility and who is behind the attacks.

This strategy of demonisng Anwar bears striking resemblance to the one employed against him in the international media in a campaign that was apparently funded by the Malaysian government.

Last week, it was revealed that Putrajaya’s media strategist APCO Worldwide covertly financed international media reports in a campaign against Anwar after Election 2008, filings to the United States Department of Justice had revealed. Continue reading “Of instant websites, anonymous emails and political mudslinging”

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Worried over security crisis, but Sabahans warn against stereotyping Filipinos

By Ida Lim
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 05, 2013

File photo of police commandos on alert where the armed Filipino militants are holding up in a plantation outside Lahad Datu. — Reuters picKUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — While worried about their safety as armed foreigners roam the Sabah east coast, Sabahans have warned against stereotyping the thousands of Filipinos living in the Borneo state.

Followers of a claimant to the Sulu sultanate’s throne landed in Lahad Datu on February 9 to revive their claim to Sabah but clashes with police have left eight Malaysian policemen and 20 militants dead over the weekend.

“Yes. Too much chaos. I can’t take it. I just want Sabah to be peaceful again. No more bloodshed. But at the same time, I don’t want our leaders to make decisions without thinking,” 26-year-old Sabahan Audrey W. told The Malaysian Insider.

She had a lot of unanswered questions over the armed rebels who had set foot three-weeks ago in Kampung Tanduo, a village about 130km from Lahad Datu, asking: “How did they land in Sabah? Who allowed them?”

But she also pointed out that a number of Filipinos in the Borneo state have lived happily and were friendly with the locals for decades without problems.

“My parents are serving in a church where there are a lot of Filipinos and Indonesians members, church goers. My parents have been working so closely with them. They are very friendly and helpful and generous, giving people,” said Audrey, who works in a law firm in the state capital Kota Kinabalu.

“However there are a lot of Filipinos in Sabah. If they really want to retaliate or rise up, it’s actually quite scary. Most Sabahans are fearful for their safety,” she said.

Esther Chin, 23, also from Kota Kinabalu, appeared puzzled when commenting on the self-proclaimed followers of the Sultanate of Sulu who are now claiming that Sabah belongs to them, saying she did not understand why they suddenly wanted to “rise up”. Continue reading “Worried over security crisis, but Sabahans warn against stereotyping Filipinos”

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The real fuss is the Sabah crisis

― Abdul Samad Sulaiman
The Malaysian Insider
March 04, 2013

MARCH 4 ― What a show we had today at the National Monument. Bet it was the first time the likes of Rahim Noor, Samsuri Arshad and other former IGPs have even graced the place of fallen heroes in recent years!

The jokers have no standing to comment on Sabah or, for that matter, anywhere in Malaysia. While they were enjoying the “perks” of the top job, Sabah was being flooded by illegals and recipients of Project IC.

Did Rahim and his so-called patriots kick up a fuss about the acts of high treason in giving away Malaysian citizenships to people who did not qualify ― people who today hold Sabahans at ransom in their own state?

Did any of them resign in protest when the Mahathir administration opened our borders wantonly?

No, they didn’t. And now they shed crocodile tears for the loss of real heroes, and they are falling over themselves to score some points with the government by feigning indignation at that lightweight, Tian Chua.

Tian Chua may be stupid and callous, but he did not kill Malaysian policemen. Continue reading “The real fuss is the Sabah crisis”