Day: June 2, 2013

Even before the settling down of the public furore over the death of N. Dhamendran, who according to a preliminary post-mortem report was defencelessly beaten to death while handcuffed sustaining 52 marks of injury throughout his body, ranging from head to toe, the country has been shocked with the news of a third death under police custody in eleven days.

P. Karuna Nithi was found unconscious by policemen on duty at the Tampin police lock-up at around 6.30 p.m. Saturday and pronounced dead by paramedics from the Tampin hospital who arrived on the scene.

With the third police custody death in 11 days, the police should stop gallivanting with Umno/BN fair tales like the fictitious DAP-funded “Red Bean Army” of 2,000 to 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget ranging from RM100 million to RM1 billion in the past six years, but to get down to business to focus all resources to roll back the wave of crime and fear of crime and restore public confidence by checking police indiscipline and ending cases of deaths under police custody.

The public has no confidence in any internal police investigation into deaths in police custody, even if it is a special committee headed by the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, and this is why the time has come to revive the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) proposed by eight years ago by the Police Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by former Chief Justice Tun Dzaiddin and former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar and established under the premiership of Tun Abdullah. Continue reading “With third police custody death in 11 days, police should stop gallivanting with UMNO/BN fairy tales like “Red Bean Army” but get down to business to focus all resources to roll back the wave of crime and fear of crime as well as check police indiscipline to end deaths in police custody”

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak gave another beautiful speech yesterday congratulating Yang di Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah on his birthday at Istana Negara, the latest in his four-year series of beautiful speeches since he first became Prime Minister in April 2009.

The 13th General Elections on May 5, where he became the first Prime Minister to poll an even worse electoral result than his predecessor when seeking a mandate of his own and scraping through to victory on a minority vote, should be salutary lesson to Najib that it is not good enough to deliver beautiful speeches if he is unwilling or incapable of “ walking the talk” of his many promises and pledges.

In his speech yesterday, Najib said the Barisan Nasional government is “the umbrella of all Malaysians” but in the first month after the 13th General Elections, Najib has yet to prove that he is Prime Minister of 100% Malaysians and not just 47% of the electorate who voted for him and the Barisan Nasional on May 5.

Najib has yet to live down his disastrous judgment immediately after the results of the 13GE by blaming the Chinese tsunami for the outcome, when it was clearly a Malaysian, urban, semi-urban and youth tsunami!

One of the most encouraging and even inspiring aspects of the 13GE is the failure of the race and religious politics and blandishments of the UMNO/BN “War Room” strategy, with Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region, age or gender coming together to support the Pakatan Rakyat call for an end to the politics of race, corruption, cronyism, abuses of power and all forms of injustices. Continue reading “Najib must prove he is Prime Minister of 100% Malaysians and not just 47% of electorate who voted for him and Barisan Nasional in 13GE”

The Malaysian Insider
Jun 02, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — Most of Malaysia’s mainstream newspapers appear to have taken a hit since the May 5 general election for perceived biased reporting, Singapore’s the Straits Times (ST) said today.

The broadsheet cited the examples of Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia and MCA-owned The Star newspaper.

“Star is in a dilemma of trying to be independent and yet pressured to boost BN’s image,” Shaharuddin Badaruddin, a political analyst at Universiti Teknologi Mara, was quoted as saying to the ST.

The Star is the largest English-language daily in Malaysia, averaging audited sales of 290,000 copies daily between January and June last year.

Umno’s network of media outlets is wide, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based Centre for Independent Journalism.

Via proxies, Umno controls Media Prima, which publishes the New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Harian Metro. It also owns the Utusan Group, which publishes Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo!

The ST said Utusan Malaysia has been accused of biased reporting for years, and its circulation has fallen from 213,000 in 2006 to between 170,000 and 180,000 last year. Continue reading “Straits Times: Credibility of Malaysia’s mainstream newspapers at stake”

P Gunasegaram
Malaysiakini
May 31, 2013

QUESTION TIME The reactions to the elections by Barisan Nasional and Umno in particular and related organisations is nothing short of shocking. It reflects an alarming and regressive move towards hardline stances which are blatantly racist and with complete disregard to what the election results themselves indicate the electorate wants.

Considering that the majority of voters were against BN and by implication Umno, the stance towards needless toughness and the callous appeal to base racial hatred will only alienate the BN from the public who have clearly indicated they want change for the better and which have by and large rejected race itself as an issue.

It reflects a belligerent, biased, boorish and childish response to election results by influential quarters, including ministers, a former prominent judge, Utusan Malaysia editors and others who have successfully drowned out a few reasonable voices within Umno and hijacked the so-called reconciliation process post-elections.

Persisting with these actions has not only put paid to the reconciliation process but unnecessarily raised tensions among all people. This may have been the intention of those who raised these issues in such a manner in the hope of keeping themselves and their ilk in power by perpetuating fear.

But in the end, those who play with fire are likely to burn themselves. Malaysians are already aware that the race card is repeatedly played to trump all manner of ills facing Malaysia, and especially Umno and BN patronage, corruption and cronyism which lead to a plethora of social ills.

If Umno goes on along this line and if the government machinery, including the police, continue to selectively prosecute only those opposed to them, they can expect a severe backlash from the electorate five or less years down the line. Continue reading “Regressive polls reactions”

by Tommy Thomas
Malaysiakini
Jun 1, 2013

COMMENT The first task that Najib Abdul Razak faced upon being sworn in as prime minister on May 6, 2013 after leading the BN to victory in the 13th general election, was to form the cabinet.

Constitutionally, the prime minister does not have a free hand in his choice of cabinet ministers. Article 43(2)(b) of the federal constitution provides that cabinet members shall be “members of either House of Parliament”.

Traditionally, the cabinet is dominated by members elected by the people to serve in the Dewan Rakyat. However, prime ministers often do appoint a few cabinet members from the Senate (Dewan Negara).

It is important to keep in mind that unless a person is a member of either House of Parliament, he cannot be a cabinet member. This is consistent with the position in other parliamentary democracies.

Further, our deputy ministers and parliamentary secretaries also have to be parliamentarians, as per Articles 43A(1) and 43B(1) of our federal constitution. Only political secretaries are exempt from this strict requirement.

It was therefore shocking to note the statement made by Paul Low on May 24 that he has not yet been sworn in as a senator. Yet he “purportedly” took the oath of office as a cabinet minister before the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on May 16.

Article 43(6) of the constitution reads: “Before a Minister exercises the functions of his office, he shall take and subscribe in the presence of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong the oath of the office and allegiance and the oath of secrecy set out in the Sixth Schedule.”

The oath of office and allegiance that Low had to take under the Sixth Schedule of the constitution reads: “I, ……., having been appointed as a member of the Senate, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully discharge my duties as such to the best of my ability, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Malaysia, and will preserve, protect and defend its constitution.”

One other cabinet minister (Abdul Wahid Omar) and three deputy ministers who have not been appointed senators also took their oath of office before His Majesty on May 16.

All these appointments are plainly and clearly unconstitutional.

If they uttered the words stated above in taking their oath of office before the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, they told an untruth because none of these five men had been appointed as a senator prior to becoming a minister or deputy minister. Continue reading “A constitutional blunder by Najib”

by Tota
Aliran
1 June 2013

The rural people who lack information due to poor internet and social media penetration are victims of Umno’s religious and political propaganda, observes Tota.

Immediately after winning a slim majority to form a minority government, Najib claimed that the voters in the urban and semi-urban areas had been duped good and proper by the Opposition. Just imagine, the intelligent, the better-educated and better informed being duped wholesale!

On the other hand, the rural people who lack information owing to poor internet and social media penetration and who are victims of Umno’s religious and political propaganda are the ones said to be choosing wisely by voting for the BN. Some have said that Umno has indeed become a “parti kampung”.

In 1999, when a large member of Malays deserted Umno, a deranged ex-PM said that the rural people voted with their heads while the urbanists voted with their hearts, meaning guided by their emotions. History has repeated itself.

Below I provide concrete evidence of how Umno has successfully duped the poor Malay rakyat in the last 56 years from Dr M Bakri Musa’s book “Liberating the Malay mind”. Here are a few excerpts:
Continue reading “How Umno has successfully duped the Malay rakyat”