Day: May 18, 2013

By M.M. Pereira | MAY 18, 2013
The Malaysian Insider

MAY 18 — A few days before the historic 505, the then caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said: “The victor or loser of this 13th general election will not be BN or PR. It will be Malaysia, its people and our children.” Immediately after the official results were announced, he blamed the loss of BN seats on a “Chinese tsunami”.

In my view, these statements not only reflect Najib’s arrogance but also his shallow understanding of the democratic process and how disconnected he is with what is happening at the grassroots. And he continues to insult our intelligence!

Today we see Malaysians from diverse ethnic backgrounds manifesting their unity of purpose with so much pride, confidence and optimism, taking ownership of their country and their destiny. They are ready to take risks to secure the future they desire.
Continue reading “GE13: We are already the winners!”

DAP will lodge an official complaint to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) of violation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Guarantee of “No Internet Censorship” since dissolution of the last Parliament last month, causing blockade to several DAP sites.

It is clear that for this period, Malaysian internet users, particularly visitors to Pakatan Rakyat websites and others deemed unfriendly to Barisan Nasional have been put under surveillance, censorship, filtering and blockade without their knowledge – which is a gross violation of the MSC Guarantee of “No Internet Censorship”.

The recent Internet censorship and filtering on Malaysian Internet users are both unprecedented and sinister, as they are designed to filter specific websites, facebook accounts, youtube videos and live video streaming.

The filtering of the specific content and websites are designed to sabotage and cause annoyances to Malaysian Internet users by preventing the sites from loading immediately. And more seriously it denies Malaysians a source of information when the censored site/video could not load.

Independent in-depth technical study of the effects of filtering and censorship, such as that posted on a popular Malaysia’s Internet forum by rizvanrp on May 1 (https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2794929) have been verified by separate independent tests carried out by the DAP IT Manager, Goh Kheng Teong, viz: the MSC guarantee of “No Internet Censorship” had been violated since the dissolution of the previous Parliament in early April.
Continue reading “DAP will lodge official complaint to MCMC of violation of MSC Guarantee of “No Internet Censorship” since dissolution of last Parliament last month, causing blockade to several DAP sites”

by Aliran on 15 May 2013

Life under the coconut shell is no longer sustainable. It is time to open our minds and challenge our preconceived notions, says Tota.

The general election is over. A allegedly fraudulent electoral system and a highly tainted electoral roll has once again ensured a BN victory, albeit a hollow one with less than 48 per cent of the popular vote.

Over a long period of 56 years, Umno has played havoc with the Malay mind through crippling political and religious propaganda. In this election, the educated, intelligent and well-informed Malay in the urban and semi-urban areas have toppled the proverbial coconut shell that Umno kept them trapped under and come out to realise that there is a wondrous political world outside!

As predicted by well-known surgeon and writer Dr M Bakri Musa in his book “Liberating the Malay mind”, Umno needs a scapegoat. The “hantu” pendatang, the Chinese bogeyman, has been resurrected once again to serve their purpose. No one has analysed the Malay dilemma more clearly and expressed it more succinctly than Dr M Bakri Musa. I quote below a few excepts from his book about what Umno has done to the Malay mind: Continue reading “Umno’s unpardonable sins against the Malay rakyat”

Malaysia NOWORNEVER
Letters

Ironically, Ahmad Zahid’s irresponsible statement, personal or otherwise, is only helping to distance more Malaysians from Umno-led Barisan Nasional, and enhance support for Pakatan Rakyat.

His statement reminds one of fall-out from the ‘keris’ remark prior to GE08, and the ‘Chinese tsunami’ so-called reason for dwindling support for Umno-led BN in GE13.

Such are the stuff that DAP and PR will do well to document for future use to win support from all true Malaysians regardless of race or religious beliefs. Continue reading “Ahmad Zahid’s irresponsi​ble statement helps to distance more Malaysians from Umno-led Barisan Nasional”

by Allan CF Goh

Are Chinese “entitled to equality”?

Is voting against the ruling party a “betrayal”?

The logic and argument of non-entitlement of equality of non-Malay citizens are groundless. As usual, when discussion of this nature begins, the race bogey is raised. May 13 is resurrected. Emotions replace reasons. Everything becomes racist.

An increasing number of educated, thinking Malaysians, cutting across the racial lines, do not accept this tunnel-vision.

The ‘Chinese’ whom some wanted to be deprived of equality are born in Malaysia, raised here, and most likely will die here. This is our country, and our home, too. Let us never doubt that. Most of the Malaysian Chinese families were here long before Malaya’s merdeka. The same applies to Sabah and Sarawak. Many families have history stretching nearly a hundred years. How many instant ‘Malays’ can honestly make that claim? Continue reading “Equality & Betrayal”

by Lee Kok Hwee
Letters

I read with great disappointment and utter disgust that our government ministers can say such things.

Are they suppose to Malaysian Ministers or just umno ministers?

Just because they are appointed by virtue of our current parliamentary system as Home minister does not give him any right to tell us where we live etc.

Unless he is thinking along the lines of a totalitarian society which incidentally has bitten the dust! Continue reading “Malaysian ministers – 52 % to migrate?”

I call on the Singapore authorities to give Malaysians who have violated the Singapore laws for activities in the island republic in connection with the Malaysian 13GE a second chance like they have given to former Johor Mentri Besar, Datuk Ghani Othman.

It has been reported that the Singapore authorities have initiated the revocation of the work pass of one of the 21 Malaysians involved in the May 8 and 11 illegal gatherings at Merlion Park in Singapore and that the authorities had also cancelle3d the visit passes of another two of them.

As for the remaining 18 persons, a Singapore Police Force (SPF) statement said their work passes would be reviewed upon completion of further investigations.

The Singapore authorities have also said that Datuk Seri Ghani Othman had not campaigned and had therefore committed no offence when visiting Singapore in the final days of the 13GE campaign period.

I commend the Singapore authorities for bending backwards to accommodate Ghani, saying that the former Johor Mentri Besar was not campaigning in Singapore although it was obvious to all that the very objective of Ghani’s visit to Singapore was to canvass for votes from Malaysians either working or staying in Singapore – believed to number some 400,000.
Continue reading “Call on Singapore authorities to give Malaysians who have violated the Singapore laws a second chance like former Johor Mentri Besar Ghani Othman”

The Battle of Gelang Patah was the opening shot of the Battle of the Malaysian Dream to unite Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region in a common national vision and destiny to build a great, democratic, free, safe, green competitive and prosperous nation for all Malaysian citizens.

In my 47 years in politics, I have always regarded myself as a Malaysian first and last. I have never regarded myself purely as a Chinese, but as a Malaysian of Chinese ethnic descent whose loyalty is unswervingly to the Malaysian nation, having common cause with all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region to build a better Malaysia for all Malaysians.

I am therefore utterly shocked to hear former Court of Appeal judge, Mohd Noor Abdullah, delivering what I have described as the most racist and seditious speech in 44 years at the forum titled “GE13 post-mortem Muslim leadership and survival” on Sunday castigating Chinese for being “Chinese first” and overriding their Malaysian identity.

Mohd Noor cannot be more wrong in taking the cue of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who claimed that the outcome of the 13GE was a “Chinese tsunami” when in fact it was a Malaysian and urban tsunami.
Continue reading “Let 526 DAP Gelang Patah victory thanksgiving dinner be a historic “first step in thousand-miles journey” to realize Malaysian Dream by creating a Malaysian Dream Movement for all Malaysians”

by Goh Keat Peng

There is a saying which is often at the tip of our tongue: “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” Which is to say there are times when friends do seem to behave like our worst enemies.

But at times, the reverse could be equally true: with enemies like these who needs friends!

Let me hasten to say that I don’t consider those with whom I may disagree politically as my enemies. If there are no two teams, you won’t have a football match. If there are not at least two sides, we won’t have an elections. Continue reading “With ‘enemies’ like this…”

by P Ramakrishnan
Aliran

Was there an agreement before the general election? Did Chinese Malaysians actually promise the BN their votes ahead of time, asks P Ramakrishnan.

Discredited politicians are trying to denigrate the Chinese by accusing them of betrayal. What betrayal are they talking about? Do they indeed know what they are talking about?

When you talk of betrayal, it means going back on one’s word. It means dishonouring a solemn pledge.

For this to take place there must have been a clear understanding and undertaking between two parties. In this case it would be the Barisan Nasional and the Chinese community reaching an understanding and pledging to vote in a mutually acceptable manner with regard to GE13. Continue reading “What betrayal?”

by Ravinder Singh
The Malaysian Insider
MAY 16, 2013

The myth about multi-stream schools being obstacles to unity keeps on being bandied about by racists who cannot see, or rather refuse to see, the wood for the trees.

The latest call for the banning of vernacular schools was by no less a personality than the pro-chancellor of Universiti Technology Mara (UiTM), Tan Sri Dr Abdul Rahman Arshad, at a GE13 post-mortem forum “Muslim Leadership and Survival” organised by the Federation of Peninsula Malay Students (GPMS) and the UiTM Alumni Association. This imagined, simplistic solution to improving race relations has been shot out by many people — politicians, academicians, administrators, etc — over the years.

It’s amazing how people in important positions try to shove their perceptions, or even falsehoods, on the masses by making them appear like facts. If there are listeners who believe these people, it is simply because the listeners have no knowledge of the issue at hand and so they think these important people surely know best. But do they? Continue reading “The myth about vernacular schools being obstacles to unity”

K Temoc
Malaysiakini
May 17, 2013

Sometimes I wonder whether democracy is the best political system for Malaysia. Indeed sometimes I wonder whether we Malaysians deserve the privilege to use (or more likely, misuse) the label of democracy to describe our political system.

No doubt democracy has never been perfect where even in its birthplace, the Athenians denied their womenfolk the facilities of democracy and even kept slaves. But notwithstanding its imperfections, modern democracy has provided everyone with a voice in the society he or she lives in. But in Malaysia, seemingly, poor democracy has gotten the raw end of the deal as we Malaysians continue to blaspheme its hallowed premise.

We have our newly-minted home affairs minister telling the federal opposition to migrate elsewhere if they are not happy with the outcome of the 13th general election, forgetting that it is their democratic rights to voice their dissatisfaction. But obviously, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi didn’t think so.

But worse than the minister, we have a former judge, Mohd Noor Abdullah, a so-called learned man of law, hurling very seditious rants at the Chinese, warning them to prepare for a backlash from the Malays for their alleged “betrayal” against the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) in GE13.

It was not so much his racist hate speech against the Chinese that flabbergasted me; it was not so much his seditious threats against the Chinese that filled me with great dismay; it was his use of the term “betrayal against Barisan Nasional (BN)” which he accused the Chinese of, that shocked me. Continue reading “It’s BN reps who should be ‘grateful’ to voters”

The Malaysian Insider
May 17, 2013

MAY 17 — There is much more that is expected from Transparency International (TI) chief Datuk Paul Low now that he is a minister in the Najib administration.

That Malaysia’s fight to eliminate corruption and be transparent about contracts becomes a reality rather than just a plan or target under its transformation programme.

For too long, there has been criticisms that Putrajaya is not doing enough to fight graft despite setting up corruption courts or beefing up the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Their record has been spotty at best, prosecuting the so-called small fries rather than the big fish.

Low put it succinctly when he told The Malaysian Insider today, “It’s very easy to be critical…what is the other alternative? Shout from outside? From TI, be an armchair critic? I cannot do it alone…I’m a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department. That gives me stature.”

But Low better up his game, instead of already repeating the Putrajaya mantra that ministers declaring their assets to the Prime Minister and the MACC is sufficient rather than making a public declaration. Continue reading “Low better up the anti-graft fight”