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Bumi, not booming

The Economist
Sep 28th 2013 | KUALA LUMPUR

Politics in Malaysia – The ruling party returns to its old habits of race-based handouts

THE United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) is the dominant party in the coalition that has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957. Only now, however, is it parading its democratic credentials, so far as its internal appointments go. Nominations have just closed for elections to a broad range of party posts, to be decided in the middle of October by 146,000-odd party delegates at local level. Previously, a mere 2,600 members, those who attended the party’s convention, had a say. UMNO’s boosters claim that these new elections will restore vim to an ageing organisation. They say it will make it the most genuinely democratic party in the country. Not bad for an outfit with a past reputation as a ruthless political machine.

Yet what might be therapeutic for UMNO could prove the reverse for Malaysia. For what has emerged during the electoral process is that the so-called “warlords” who run the party are determined to shift the country in a conservative, indeed reactionary, direction. They want to reassert the supremacy of ethnic Malays. Continue reading “Bumi, not booming”

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Kit Siang sues Utusan over claims of CEC manipulation

by Melissa Chi
The Malay Mail Online
September 27, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang filed a lawsuit today against Utusan Melayu over an article alleging he had manipulated the party’s central executive committee (CEC) election — the same day its newspaper Utusan Malaysia printed an apology to the party’s leaders over another article.

His lawyer, Gobind Singh Deo told reporters that the Umno mouthpiece was libelous in an article published on August 18 this year.

“The article in which Utusan used repeated information from the alleged book which quotes one Father Augustus Chen, which we say don’t exist.

“We challenge Utusan to come up with proof to show that Father Augustus Chen exist and to also prove that the allegations that he had made in respect to the 753 delegates did not get notice, proof that, and also the allegation in respect to the fact that there was 500 or more phantom voters from Penang,” he said after the High Court dismissed the bid for injunction against DAP polls.

The 16-page booklet surfaced in Penang sometime last month, claiming irregularities and vote manipulation allegedly to place cronies of both Kit Siang and his son, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, on the powerful CEC, among other allegations. Continue reading “Kit Siang sues Utusan over claims of CEC manipulation”

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Malaysia one of the most corrupt nations, survey shows

by Jennifer Gomez
The Malaysian Insider
September 27, 2013

Malaysia has been ranked as one of the most corrupt nations and listed as a country which is most likely to take shortcuts to meet targets when economic times are tough, according to a recent survey by Ernst & Young, signalling that the government’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) has failed in its role to transform the economy.

Malaysia, along with China, has the highest levels of bribery and corruption anywhere in the world, according to the latest report, Asia-Pacific Fraud Survey Report Series 2013.

This year’s survey polled 681 executives in China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea.

About half of the 681 executives polled on their perception of fraud felt that China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam were the worst in bribery and corruption. Continue reading “Malaysia one of the most corrupt nations, survey shows”