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Do we really need the IPCMC?

― Nicholas Chan
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 05, 2013

JUNE 5 ― The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) recently rose to infamy due to the occurrence of a slew of death in custody cases in Malaysia, once again rallying public outcry for the setting up of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC). Minister in charge of Integrity and Corruption Paul Low was quick to tout the EAIC as if it were the IPCMC we never had, reportedly saying we don’t need another independent police oversight body because the EAIC is actually the IPCMC.

This is a gross mistruth as the powers of the EAIC and the IPCMC as mooted by the Royal Commission chaired by former Chief Justice Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah are different. The truth is, the EAIC is more of a watered down version of the IPCMC, a “reform” legacy that is kindly attributed to the retired Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, although by the time the legislation that enables the Commission to be form is gazetted, he had already stepped down.

No doubt both Commissions are mooted for the same vision of curbing police misconduct and upholding their accountability towards the public, Dzaiddin’s version of it speaks more drastically of the need to keep our police force in check as the Royal Commission report had described the force as “brutal, inept and the most corrupt among the government departments”. Continue reading “Do we really need the IPCMC?”

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Utusan Malaysia stands head and shoulders above all media, not only in Malaysia but worldwide, as champion serial liar as the centrepiece of the well-funded DDD Brigade to demolish and destroy DAP

I must congratulate the editorial chiefs of Utusan Malaysia – the official mouthpiece of UMNO – for achieving something no other media in Malaysia could ever achieve. In fact, it will not be easy to find international competitors for Utusan Malaysia in the whole wide world of global journalism.

Undoubtedly, Utusan Malaysia stands head and shoulders above all media, not only in Malaysia but world-wide, as the champion serial liar as the centrepiece of the Demolish/Destroy DAP (DDD) Brigade in the 13GE.

During the past eight months it was the centrepiece of the DDD Brigade, Utusan Malaysia outdid itself in the volume, venom and venality of the lies and falsehoods it had been spewing in the past – like the front-page Utusan Malaysia lie in May 2011 that DAP wanted to create a Christian Malaysia!

But as the centrepiece of the DDD Brigade to demolish and destroy the DAP, Utusan Malaysia had broken all records in the number and viciousness of the lies and falsehoods it had packed into the Utusan pages (as well as New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Star) in the past eight months.

For this malevolent objective, Utusan has recruited and trained an army of serial liars, who are prepared to tell lies without batting an eyelid – even from the aristocratic rank! Continue reading “Utusan Malaysia stands head and shoulders above all media, not only in Malaysia but worldwide, as champion serial liar as the centrepiece of the well-funded DDD Brigade to demolish and destroy DAP”

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DAP has every reason to be very afraid

Malaysiakini
9:52AM Jun 5, 2013

YOURSAY ‘Asking why is DAP so scared of deregistration is akin to asking an Indian why he is scared of being killed in a police lock-up.’

Zahid: Why is DAP so scared of deregistration?

Hello: Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claims the government is not threatening DAP with de-registration, but his methodology implies he is about to do so.

DAP has every right to be afraid, not because of the threatened de-registration, but the abuse of the investigation procedures in the manner the Registrar of Societies (ROS) is going about it. Continue reading “DAP has every reason to be very afraid”

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Will the Cabinet today decide or dilly-dally on IPCMC?

All eyes are on the Cabinet this morning – will the Cabinet decide or dilly-dally on the issue of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC)?

The issue of IPCMC was first proposed by the Dzaiddin Royal Royal Police Commission eight years ago in 2005 as the most important of its 125 recommendations to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional and world-class police force, with even the Prime Minister at the time, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi publicly pledging to implement the IPCMC recommendation.

It was the then UMNO Youth leader, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein, who later became Home Minister, who led the opposition to the establishment of the IPCMC, teaming up with the then police leadership to force Abdullah to backtrack and finally scuttle the IPCMC proposal. Instead an ineffective Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) was substituted.

Did the new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi, who was a Deputy Minister in the first Abdullah administration 2004-2008, support or oppose the IPCMC at the time.

The IPCMC was one effective proposal to address the high rate of deaths in police custody, with 80 cases from January 2000 to December 2004, or an annual average of 16 deaths in police custody in those five years – which was regarded as unacceptably high.

Unfortunately, the scandal of deaths in police custody have worsened after the Dzaiddin Report. The rate of deaths in police custody has increased albeit slightly in the eight and a half years since the IPCMC Report – with 141 deaths from January 2005 to May 2013 (with three deaths in just 11 days in the first month after the 13th general elections on May 5) or a higher annual average of 16.6 deaths since the Dzaiddin RCI report. Continue reading “Will the Cabinet today decide or dilly-dally on IPCMC?”

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Are the police exempt from the law?

P Ramakrishnan
Aliran
4 June 2013

Hardcore criminals are treated harshly as they should be according to the law. The full force of the law lands on them mercilessly. This is not only to punish them as they deserve to be but also to serve as a deterrent to would be criminals.

But why then does the same law fail to act against hardcore police criminals who cause death in custody? Why doesn’t the law land on them as determinedly as it does when it concerns citizens?

This selective action definitely demoralises the public and causes loss of confidence in the police. Malaysians ask with justification whether the police are a law unto themselves? Why does the long arm of the law fail to haul them up and punish them without any reservation when they are guilty of heinous crimes?

The mounting deaths under troubling circumstances are a source of worry to all law-respecting Malaysians, who are devastated that Indian Malaysian detainees, according to their perception, are dying like flies in the lockups. This perception is not without justification when facts are viewed objectively. Within 11 days three Indians have died in police custody under circumstances requiring no less than a Royal Commission of Inquiry to get to the bottom of these worrying deaths. Continue reading “Are the police exempt from the law?”

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It has started – or has it not?

The Writest Thing by Mohsin Abdullah
fz.com
Jun 04, 2013

OUT of the blue, Johor Umno leader Datuk Puad Zarkashi came up and said the two top posts in Umno should not be contested when the party holds its elections later this year.

The call by Puad was carried by Umno-linked newspaper Berita Harian. And the former minister gave all the whys.

That call raised many an eyebrow. Was there any talk of contest for the top two posts in the first place, to warrant Puad to come up with such a call?

And as if right on cue, a few days after Puad’s call, Negeri Sembilan Umno passed a no contest resolution for the post of president and deputy president. The reason being to strengthen Umno in preparation for GE14.

Of course, post-GE13 talk has been centred on Datuk Seri Najib Razak – whether he would be “safe” to continue as Umno president and PM. Whether he would be challenged in Umno polls.

Meanwhile, Najib himself is open to being challenged, saying: “We are a democratic party – we have to accept Umno’s openness unlike certain other parties.” Continue reading “It has started – or has it not?”

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Dr M: Umno attracting fewer talented leaders

by Sean Augustin
fz.com
Jun 04, 2013

Umno’s decreasing capable leaders have had negative consequences on the party and the government, writes former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his blog.

In a critical blog posting entitled Umno, then and now, the former prime minister said that unlike in the past, the party attracts fewer selfless and capable leaders, who instead tended to join its political rivals.

This, he said, resulted in fewer eligible candidates in a general election, while promising members fielded as parachute candidates for seats would be defeated.

Mahathir said the impact of having fewer talented people in the party was that it leads to a government made up of incapable people.

He said current leaders, from the division leaders up, are reluctant to allow new talents to come in, fearing they could pose a threat to their positions. Continue reading “Dr M: Umno attracting fewer talented leaders”

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Deaths in police custody have worsened since Dzaiddin RCI Report – Six MPs on PR parliamentary task force on IPCMC

I welcome the undertaking by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Paul Low to raise the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) proposal at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow, although the value of such an undertaking suffers serious detraction when Low refused to say if he would support its formation.

The country does not need a Minister acting as super-postman in Cabinet just to raise a particular proposal brought to him but an ardent advocate who is prepared to fight tooth and nail for the proposal to be adopted by the Cabinet.

Does Low considers himself as a super-postman or an ardent advocate of IPCMC at the Cabinet tomorrow?

It does not speak very much for the integrity which Low is supposed to infuse in the Najib administration when he himself is not prepared to state his stand on IPCMC. Continue reading “Deaths in police custody have worsened since Dzaiddin RCI Report – Six MPs on PR parliamentary task force on IPCMC”

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Well-funded Umno/BN Demonise/Destroy DAP (DDD) Brigade formed eight months before Parliament dissolution an abject failure

Further inquiries have shown that the well-funded UMNO/BN conspiracy to demonise and destroy the DAP (the DDD Brigade) has a central high command and was hatched as far back as September last year or some eight months before the dissolution of Parliament in April and not just three months in January as earlier thought.

The spawning of the outrageous allegation of a fictitious DAP-funded “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget of RM100 million to RM1 billion in the past six years is just one of tasks of this secretive but well-funded “DDD” Brigade.

Other tasks of the “DDD” Brigade through spewing sheer lies and falsehoods include:

• Foment internal distrust, conflict and strife in DAP;

• Demonise and destroy public confidence, credibility and integrity of DAP leaders;

• Paint the image of DAP as a Chinese chauvinist party which is anti-Malay and anti-Indian;

• After the 16th DAP Congress on Dec. 15, 2013, SPEARHEAD a three-prong campaign involving party members, former party activists and outsiders to demand deregistration of DAP on the spurious ground of party election irregularities.

Continue reading “Well-funded Umno/BN Demonise/Destroy DAP (DDD) Brigade formed eight months before Parliament dissolution an abject failure”

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Sekiranya Najib mahu menang perang persepsi, pentadbirannya harus berhenti mencipta Malaysia yang Kafkaesque

Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak semalam memberitahu perhimpunan pertama dengan petugas Jabatan Perdana Menteri selepas Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13 bahawa kerajaan perlu meningkatkan usaha untuk menangani persepsi negatif dan memberi amaran kepada penjawat awam supaya tidak leka dengan berlebihan bermain politik.

Sekiranya Najib mahu memenangi perang persepsi, pentadbirannya harus berhenti mencipta Malaysia yang Kafkaesque.

Dinamakan sempena penulis Franz Kafka, “Kafkaesque” digunakan untuk menggambarkan apa saja yang tidak masuk akal, tiada warna dan tiada titik rujukan. Ia menggambarkan sesuatu yang sangat rumit tanpa sebab, terutamanya merujuk kepada birokrasi.

Karakter Kafkaesque pemerintahan Najib ditonjolkan melalui ucapannya semalam, memberi amaran kepada penjawat awam supaya tidak dilekakan dengan berlebihan bermain politik sedangkan sesetengah penjawat awam sememangnya bersalah berlebihan bermain politik atas perintah tuan politik mereka pada bulan pertama selepas pilihan raya umum. Continue reading “Sekiranya Najib mahu menang perang persepsi, pentadbirannya harus berhenti mencipta Malaysia yang Kafkaesque”

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If Najib wants to win the war of perception, his administration should stop creating a Kafkaesque Malaysia

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday told the first morning assembly with staff of the Prime Minister’s Department after the 13th General Election that the government must intensify efforts to address negative perceptions and cautioned civil servants against being distracted by excessive politicking.

If Najib wants to win the war of perception, his administration should stop creating a Kafkaesque Malaysia.

Named after the author Franz Kafka, “Kafkaesque” is typically used to describe anything that makes no sense, has no colours and has no points of reference. It describes something that is horribly complicated for no reason, usually in reference to bureaucracy.

The Kafkaesque character of the Najib premiership is immediately highlighted by his speech yesterday, warning civil servants against being distracted by excessive politicking when some civil servants have been guilty exactly of excessive politicking at the behest of their political masters in the first month after the 13th general elections. Continue reading “If Najib wants to win the war of perception, his administration should stop creating a Kafkaesque Malaysia”

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Protecting our streets

Tricia Yeoh
The Sun
30 May 2013

LAST week was the very first time I experienced crime personally in the country, despite having written about it as a policy issue. Parked on the side of the road in a housing estate in Section 5, Petaling Jaya, I made the mistake of leaving my laptop bag on the passenger seat while chatting on the phone.

A motorbike with two riders came by, smashed the side window, opened my car door, and rode off having stolen my laptop and handphone, to my great distress.

That very night, 18 protesters were arrested by the police after failing to disperse at a candlelight vigil for student activist Adam Adli outside the Jinjang police station.

While I very much commend the efforts of the officer and inspector who dealt with my case efficiently, it must be noted that there is a gross discrepancy between what the public sees as efforts to combat street crime versus that of conducting rampant arrests.

Over the last few years, a number of groups have been formed to increase awareness and offer solutions to overcome crime, such as Safer Malaysia, Malaysian Mothers against Crime, as well as similar proposals made by think-tanks such as Research for Social Advancement. Continue reading “Protecting our streets”

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Siasatan awal menunjukkan bahawa satu konspirasi yang didanai UMNO telah dilancarkan UMNO tiga bulan sebelum pembubaran Parlimen untuk memburuk-burukkan DAP, yang turut melahirkan dakwaan dongeng 3,000 tentera siber “Red Bean Army” yang didanai DAP

Siasatan awal menunjukkan bahawa satu konspirasi yang didanai UMNO telah dilancarkan UMNO tiga bulan sebelum pembubaran Parlimen pada 3 April untuk memburuk-burukkan DAP, yang turut melahirkan dakwaan dongeng 3,000 tentera siber “Red Bean Army” yang didanai DAP kononnya dengan bajet setinggi RM100 juta sehingga RM1 bilion sepanjang enam tahun lalu bagi tujuan pembunuhan karakter pemimpin UMNO/BN di ruang siber.

Penyebar utama pembohongan mengenai “Red Bean Army”  adalah media cetak milik/dikuasai UMNO/BN, termasuk Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian dan The Star, baik sebelum mahupun selepas Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13 pada 5 Mei.

Dakwaan tidak berasas yang disebarkan dan dilontarkan oleh Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian dan Star hendaklah tercatat dalam sejarah sebagai titik paling hina mereka dalam melacurkan kerjaya kewartawanan disebabkan dasar pertimbangan dan objektif mereka bukanlah fakta dan kebenaran, yang sepatutnya menjadi pegangan bidang kewartawanan.

Bagaimana mereka yang kononnya digelar wartawan kepada Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian dan Star yang bersekongkol mencipta penipuan tentang 3,000 tentera siber “Red Beans Army” didanai DAP yang hanya wujud dalam imaginasi liar mereka mampu berbangga sebagai wartawan yang jujur, menegakkan kebenaran dan takutkan Tuhan? Continue reading “Siasatan awal menunjukkan bahawa satu konspirasi yang didanai UMNO telah dilancarkan UMNO tiga bulan sebelum pembubaran Parlimen untuk memburuk-burukkan DAP, yang turut melahirkan dakwaan dongeng 3,000 tentera siber “Red Bean Army” yang didanai DAP”

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Malaysia’s pendrive man denies links to ‘Red Bean Army’ fabrication

By Ida Lim
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 03, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — A Malaysian entrepreneur has denied accusations that he is funding or linked to the “Red Bean Army”, a “cybertrooper” group named by Umno’s Utusan Malaysia as being allegedly financed by the DAP to attack the government via social media.

Taiwan-based Pua Khein Seng, whose company Phison Electronics Corp was behind the world’s first single-chip USB pendrive, has rebutted what he described as a fabricated report in Utusan Malaysia last week and has not ruled out legal action against the Umno-owned newspaper.

“Firstly, this is a fabricated, baseless and malicious allegation and I honestly do not know how I should respond since it is an unfounded accusation,” Pua said in a statement that was read out by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today.

Pua, who was reportedly campaigning for DAP leaders in Johor during the recent general election, said he is ready to provide co-operation to those probing allegations on the online group of cybertroopers.

“Secondly, I hereby urge the authorities who are investigating this allegation to contact me as soon as possible for the truth to be revealed. I will fully co-operate with the authorities.

“I will not hesitate to take legal action against Utusan Malaysia when the investigations are completed by the authorities,” the Phison chief executive officer wrote in the brief statement. Continue reading “Malaysia’s pendrive man denies links to ‘Red Bean Army’ fabrication”

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Preliminary inquiry showed that a well-funded Umno/BN conspiracy was hatched 3 months before dissolution of Parliament to demonise DAP, which also spawned the outrageous allegations of a fictitious DAP-funded “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers

Preliminary inquiry showed that a well-funded Umno/BN conspiracy was hatched three months before the dissolution of Parliament on April 3 to demonise the DAP, which also spawned the outrageous allegations of a fictitious DAP-funded “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers purportedly with a budget of RM100 million to RM1 billion in the past six years to character-assassinate UMNO/BN leaders on the cyberspace.

The main purveyors of the lies about the “Red Bean Army” are the UMNO/BN owned/controlled print media, which include Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Star, both before and after the 13th General Elections on May 5.

The baseless allegations purveyed and perpetrated by Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Star must go down in their history as the lowest points they had ever plumbed in prostituting the journalistic profession for the basest of considerations and objectives completely nothing to do with facts and truth, which should be the staples of journalism.

How can so-called journalists in Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Star who had a hand in spewing the lies about the DAP-funded “Red Beans Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers which only exist in their wildest imaginations ever hold their heads high as honest, upright and God-fearing journalists? Continue reading “Preliminary inquiry showed that a well-funded Umno/BN conspiracy was hatched 3 months before dissolution of Parliament to demonise DAP, which also spawned the outrageous allegations of a fictitious DAP-funded “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers”

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Some things don’t change

– The Malaysian Insider
Jun 02, 2013

JUNE 2 – The elections have come and gone, but some things have not

changed, namely:

* The arrogance of Umno

Just listen to Datuk Seri Musa Aman, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and Datuk Seri Salleh Keruak justify the Sabah state government’s decision to block the entry of Nurul Izzah into the state and it becomes clear that Umno men still have disdain for the will of the people.

Nurul Izzah is an elected MP and senior member of the Opposition and yet she is treated like a criminal/terrorist/illegal immigrant. Why? Because arrogance and hubris is in the Umno man’s DNA.

Musa says that there is a need to preserve the peace and stability of Sabah. He forgot to mention: the need to keep in place a corrupted system where the rich and connected enrich themselves and flood the state with illegal immigrants.

These Umno politicians allowed hundreds of thousands of illegals to enter Sabah and compromise national security and they speak of having the interest of the state at heart. Continue reading “Some things don’t change”

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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

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”

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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 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”

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Straits Times: Credibility of Malaysia’s mainstream newspapers at stake

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”

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Regressive polls reactions

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”