Month: September 2013

M. Bakri Musa
23.9.2013

Najib’s glaring leadership deficiencies have now been glaringly exposed. Malaysia deserves better. His performance has not been up to par even when compared to his lackluster predecessor. If under Abdullah Badawi Malaysia had the modernity of Manhattan but the mentality of Mogadishu, under Najib, Malaysia risks degenerating, period.

Najib is not terribly bright or introspective. Like a little child, he always hunger for approval. He is also severely “charimastically-challenged.” A leader could survive or even thrive despite having one or two of these flaws, but to be cursed with all three is fatal.

All his adult years Najib has depended entirely on government paychecks. No surprise then that his worldview is narrowly circumscribed. His solution to every problem is to distribute government checks, well exemplified by his many “1-Malaysia” handouts. His recent Majlis Ekonomi Bumiputra was no exception; likewise its hefty price tag. Continue reading “Najib’s Leadership Deficiencies Undermine Malaysia’s Future”

– The Malaysian Insider
September 22, 2013

Utusan Malaysia’s Sunday edition today carried an opinion piece lashing out at The Malaysian Insider for its reportage of the Malay newspaper, saying it goes against national aspirations.For good measure, it defined the aspirations as Malay issues and the official religion, Islam.

And it went on a litany of issues from the Allah issue to the late Communist Party of Malaya secretary-general Chin Peng and how the authorities should take action including suspending the portal’s permit.

Let’s make a few things clear.

Utusan’s narrow racial interest is not akin to the larger and wider Malaysian interest.

This is a nation which is 50 years old and it is for all Malaysians, not just a racial subset.

One cannot use the name Malaysia in its masthead and just champion a single race and call it a national aspiration. One cannot then say anyone having a contrary opinion is a traitor to a national cause. Continue reading “Utusan and national aspiration”

by Jennifer Gomez
The Malaysian Insider
September 23, 2013

DAP national adviser Lim Kit Siang fired the first salvo when Parliament’s new session began today, saying that the government transformation programmes had failed and that the new Bumiputera agenda went against the grain of the New Economic Model which hinged on merit and not based on race.

He said this after Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Razali Ibrahim responded to a question from Lenggong Member of Parliament Datuk Shamsul Anuar Nasarah to state the achievements of the transformation programmes.

Lim pointed out that the new Bumiputera agenda only benefitted a select few “Umnoputras” when there were many other Bumiputeras and non-Bumis who lived below the poverty line and needed government assistance.

“Isn’t this evidence that the government programmes have failed?” Lim, the Gelang Patah MP, asked.

He questioned whether Umno leaders were willing to pledge that they were Malaysian first and Malay second. Continue reading “First day back, Kit Siang targets new Bumi agenda, says only for Umnoputras”

by Ida Lim
Malay Mail Online
September 22, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — At the end of a five-day tribunal hearing on election irregularities, Bersih’s co-chair Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said the National Registration Department (NRD) needs to be shaken up as well as help clean up the voter registration roll.

When going through Bersih’s demands and recommendations during the hearing, Ambiga repeated the election watchdog’s long-standing complaint that the Election Commission (EC) had failed to take steps to clear the country’s electoral roll of discrepancies.

Ambiga acknowledged the EC’s stand that it was limited to only registering voters based on the identity cards issued by the NRD, even as electoral reform groups have voiced suspicion that foreigners had obtained citizenship through dubious means.

“That’s why it’s not just a question of electoral roll, it’s so intrinsically tied up – the identity card and the election commission.

“The JPN needs a shake-up as well,” she said when testifying as the last witness today, referring to the NRD by its Malay initials. Continue reading “At tribunal’s end, Ambiga says NRD needs ‘shake-up’”

M Kulasegaran
Malaysiakini
Sep 22, 2013

MP SPEAKS I had heard about the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) secretary-general Chin Peng from a young age. For as long as I can remember, Chin Peng has been associated with the town of Sitiawan, but it was his career as a guerrilla fighter drew me to him.

I, too, hail from Sitiawan where I was born a good many years after Chin Peng emerged on the west coast of Perak in 1924. Marxists might disagree, but a sense of geographical solidarity may be just as strong as class solidarity.

I had wanted to meet with Chin Peng since the time I first heard about him. Being from a rubber tapping family, I was drawn to read quite a lot about him and his struggles.

Rubber was the mainstay of the Malayan economy but rubber tappers were poor and communist ideology was sympathetic to those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Hence I had an interest in the fighter who was from my hometown of Sitiawan and in how his career worked out in history.

My curiosity was gratified with the publication of Chin Peng’s memoirs, ‘My Side of History’, which was published in 2003. I devoured the book and remembered striking aspects of the story. Continue reading “Chin Peng deserves his place of rest”

P Gunasegaram
Malaysiakini
Sep 20, 2013

QUESTION TIME The recent RM30 billion package (although I am not sure how it works out to that) for bumiputera economic empowerment is certainly not something that will help or have any kind of impact on the vast majority of bumiputeras who form 67 percent of the population.

Just think of that figure for a moment. Nearly seven out of ten people in the country are bumiputeras. Help everyone in the country who needs it and you help the bumiputera community the most. More on that later.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s plans to economically empower bumiputeras will not help the ordinary bumiputera because he is not the one who owns shares, or will become a major entrepreneur, or live off government contracts. That affects only the rich bumiputeras.

Realistically, the economic empowerment programme is a thinly disguised ruse to help those who continue to live off the government through patronage and corruption. And in this case this is the Umno elite and many of them are likely to be among the 150,000 delegates who will vote in Umno’s forthcoming general assembly.

It’s another form of vote buying.

So what will help ALL bumiputeras and especially those who are in the poor and middle classes and thereby help bridge the income gap between bumiputeras on the one side and Chinese and Indians on the other?

For that, you simply go back to the basics. Here are are 10 things we can identify immediately. If the government had been doing this without respite and full sincerity for the last 56 years from independence we would long ago have become a developed a country, even far surpassing that of our southern neighbour Singapore which has no natural resources to speak of.

1. Raise school education levels

In the haste to increase Malay usage and hire more Malay teachers into the education system after 1970, educational quality dropped in national schools. Until today this is a major problem because of poor quality of teachers (entry standards were foolishly dropped) and lowering examination standards to favour bumiputera students. Continue reading “10 ways to really help bumis”

– Clive Kessler
The Malaysian Insider
September 22, 2013

“In a public tribunal, many air grouses over Election 2013,” your recent TMI headline trumpets.

Malaysian journalistic usage, with its verbal idiosyncrasies, is sometimes strange.

Even stranger is the fact that those who seek to offer an alternative approach, or speak in a different voice, often (and unthinkingly, so it seems) adopt the language of the dominant press.

They, and here now including The Malaysian Insider, do so without recognizing the hidden assumptions and attitudes, the insidious implications, that are built into those all too familiar “mainstream” usages.

Malaysians love to speak of “woes”.

A woe is a disaster that descends without discernible cause, mysteriously, and without anyone being responsible. Since they exclude human agency, the word’s connotations are exculpatory.

To call some systemic failure (of public utilities or services) a “woe” is to imply that it is a mysterious affliction, a metaphysical conundrum, for which nobody is, or may be held, accountable.

Whose interests does this implication, neatly smuggled unawares by the word “woe” into a reader’s response to the reported facts, serve? Continue reading “A “grouse” about TMI’s “woeful” usage”

by V. Anbalagan and Jennifer Gomez
The Malaysian Insider
September 21, 2013

A couple that lives in the same house in Johor has been “separated” by the Election Commission and told to vote in different constituencies, the Bersih People’s Tribunal was told today.

The couple, identified as Mr and Mrs Ong, was represented by a family member, G.S. Ong. He said that before the delineation exercise in 2003, they had lived in Kg Abdullah, Segamat, for over 40 years and came under the parliamentary constituency of Segamat (P125).

After 2003, however, Mr Ong was asked to vote in Segamat, which was reorganised to become P140, while Mrs Ong was designated to vote in a newly-created constituency named Sekijang (P141).

G.S.Ong said he felt sorry for the couple who could not vote together.

“What this shows is that the Election Commission is so powerful it can ‘divorce couples’ and this has happened to many couples and families in Kampung Abdullah,” G.S. Ong said. Continue reading ““One bed, two constituencies” because Election Commission “separated” husband and wife, Tribunal told”

– Izmil Amri Ismail
The Malaysian Insider/Roketkini.com
September 20, 2013

Ya, berapa nilai Melayu dalam DAP? Lebih spesifik, berapa nilai politisi Melayu dalam DAP? Sekupang, dua kupang, atau lima kupang? Atau adakah lebih daripada itu? Siapa yang menentukan nilai; dan kalau pun nilai itu boleh ditentukan, bagaimana caranya?

Untung sebenarnya DAP ditakdirkan untuk mengadakan pemilihan semula. Dengan kemenangan besar DAP sebagai sebahagian daripada koalisi Pakatan Rakyat pada PRU-13, 5 Mei lalu, pasti ramai personaliti yang ingin menyendeng dan bermesra dengan parti ini. Parti yang sebelum PRU-13 dilihat sebagai sebuah parti Cina dan tidak begitu mesra Melayu.

Dengan kemenangan tiga wakil rakyat Melayu pada PRU agak susah untuk musuh politik DAP menggunakan hujah ‘parti Cina’. Arakian maka semakin galaklah sekalian Melayu untuk kian mampir dan mengikut serta dalam perjuangan DAP.

Ini adalah perkembangan yang amat sihat dan membanggakan. Jenuh sungguh parti itu berusaha bagi menarik minat Melayu menyertai parti serta menjenamakan DAP sebagai sebuah parti berbilang kaum. Penyertaan kian ramai orang Melayu ke dalam DAP kini sudah bukan lagi bahan berita. Sudah jadi perkara biasa. Continue reading “Berapa nilai Melayu dalam DAP?”

Malaysiakini
Sep 21, 2013

Former inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor warned that Malaysia will become a laughing stock if the government adamantly refuses to allow Chin Peng’s remains to be brought into the country.

“There is a hue and cry from the public not to even allow his ashes (back into Malaysia). My God… This is stretching the argument a bit too far. It’s a bit naive I think.

“If the government – the authorities – succumb to this public pressure not to allow Chin Peng’s ashes to be brought back, I think, we are making Malaysia a laughing stock to the whole world,” he said in an interview aired on BFM yesterday. Continue reading “‘Barring Chin Peng’s ashes makes us laughing stock’”

by Dr. Chen Man Hin
21.9.2013

The Malaysian government’s continued refusal to allow the remains of deceased Chin Peng to be buried in his home town in Malaysia is a blot on the humanity of Umno leaders.

The reason for their stubborn refusal was that Chin Peng caused the death of thousands of Malay police personnel in the guerrilla war from 1948 to 1989.

It is not true that Chin Ping killed them in cold blood. There was a guerrilla war going on at that time.

Chin Peng was the leader of the Malayan Liberation Front, which was part of the world communist movement.

It is relevant to point out that there was another guerrilla war going on in Vietnam from 1955 to 1975, between the Vietnam National Liberation Front and the American army in Vietnam, with war casualties running into tens of thousands for the Americans and hundreds of thousands for the Vietnamese. Continue reading “Insurgency war from 1948 to 1989 a war between ideologies not race”

By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
21.9.2013

The pettiness of the Government has not been so clearly exposed as it is now over the issue of whether the former Communist leader Chin Peng’s ashes should be allowed into Malaysia to be buried in the land he loved and fought for. Even the police – who should have better things to look out for like the increasing incidences of crime – are putting out alerts to prevent the ashes from being brought back from Thailand, where he died. As if these ashes were lethal and could, by some preternatural means, maim the Malaysian populace.

Imagine this. Police personnel stationed at every entry point into Malaysia from Thailand, including at airports, going through the bags of everyone coming in. As if they have nothing better to do. But then, for all we know, the ashes might have been sent to someone in, say, Indonesia instead, and this person comes into Malaysia with it, unchecked. How stupid can it get?

Meanwhile, the authorities still quibble over the trivia that Chin Peng was not Malaysian because he could not produce the necessary documents to prove he was so, but it seems more likely that they did not want to let him return, full stop. Continue reading “Chin Peng Deserves a Place in His Country”

By Jose Mario Dolor De Vega
Free Malaysia Today
September 21, 2013

A democratic society seeks to unleash the creativity of all its citizens and to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of its most gifted and dedicated, not otherwise.

COMMENT

I refer to the utterly insightful and undeniably powerful essay of Jeswan Kaur, ‘Pak Samad isn’t the problem here’, published in FMT on Sept 8.

I beg the indulgence of the reader and may I be allowed to add a few words of concurrence and to explicate my own take on the whole matter.

According to the National Cultural Policy of the Australian government, the role of the artist is as follows:

“A democratic society seeks to unleash the creativity of all its citizens and to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of its most gifted and dedicated. The value of creativity is something that is increasingly recognised and valued. Creativity is an essential attribute in an increasing number of occupations.

“The most gifted artists, however, take the ability to imagine, adapt, empathise and collaborate to another level through training, practice, discipline and courage. The extraordinary achievements that come when the most gifted individuals combine capacity and skill is something we recognise.”

From this description, we can deduce that artists are creative people and that their creativity is necessary for the development of one’s society. Further said, creativity is something that must be recognized and valued by the said society that produced the artist. Continue reading “Pak Samad – always the people’s artist”

by Aerie Rahman
The Malay Mail Online
September 16, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 16 — The framers of our Constitution envisaged Malaya as a nation infused with lofty values. They wanted a secular nation with Islamic characteristics. Provisions were made within this sacred document to safeguard individual liberty.

Equality is enshrined but tempered with Article 153 to reflect the social realities of Malaya. However, the original intention was to make this article temporary and subject to review – which was not to be.

These are the fundamental values that Malaya shared with any other progressive nation: liberty, equality and secularism. Continue reading “Cry, My Beloved Malaysia”

by Teresa Kok
fz.com
Sep 20, 2013

Yesterday (Sept 19), a RoS ( Registrar of Societies) spokesman was reported in The Star as saying that DAP has failed to deliver to the Registrar of Societies (ROS) original letters from the 500 delegates who were allegedly unable to participate in last year’s party polls.

The spokesman said it has been a month since the DAP leadership claimed to have the letters that will help clear the air on allegations that 753 delegates were denied of their right to vote but DAP has yet to submit them.

I want to first ask a question which reflects the indignant sentiment of many DAP members and supporters – “What more does RoS want?”

When RoS directed the DAP to hold fresh Central Executive Committee’s (CEC) election, does it not mean that he has completed the investigations into complaints against the party, despite the fact that the complaints are baseless and malicious?

By asking for the letters, is the RoS saying that the department has not completed its investigation? Then why was the instruction to DAP to order a fresh CEC election? Continue reading “What more does RoS want?”

By Elizabeth Zachariah
The Malaysian Insider
September 20, 2013

Broken promises, deplorable living conditions and threats have spurred six Orang Asli from villages in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, to travel for at least 12 hours to Kuala Lumpur to testify in the Bersih People’s Tribunal.

Norman a/l Kong took two hours from his village – Kampung Pos Senderut – to the nearest tarred road, for a bus, then another eight hours from the road to KL while Kampung Regang’s Sani a/l Sobang took longer.

They are one of hundreds of villagers from deep within Kuala Lipis, which comes under the Cameron Highlands constituency, who are disheartened with the lack of amenities that were promised to them time and time again by the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates before every general election.

Worse, the villagers claim that they were “threatened” and “forced” to vote for BN. Continue reading “Fed-up of broken promises, threats, Orang Asli men speak their mind at Tribunal”

Zan Azlee
The Malaysian Insider
September 20, 2013

My colleague, Dzulfitri Yusop, a fellow journalist, asked me yesterday if I could make one positive statement about Umno or name one positive member of Umno.

I laughed. Too many people like to assume that I am anti-establishment just for the sake of being anti-establishment all of the time without being rational.

So I thought really hard to come up with a positive statement to show that I was not one of those ABU (Asalkan Bukan Umno, or Anything But Umno) people. We have to always keep an open mind, right?

Quite some time passed by and I still could not think of anything positive to say about the party aside from it being formed in my home state of Johor. Continue reading “One positive statement regarding Umno please”

Kapil Sethi
The Malay Mail Online
September 19, 2013

SEPT 19 — Enforcement officers attempt to demolish parts of a Hindu shrine. The row over the use of the word Allah intensifies. Sermons proclaim that the social contract is non-negotiable. More travellers die in express buses. A headmistress in Shah Alam asks her Chinese pupils to go back to China. The prime minister hopes that Utusan Malaysia continues to prosper. It comes to light that some schools are installing CCTVs in toilets.

Rewind to approximately three years ago. A temple is to be relocated. People bring a cow’s head and desecrate it. A High Court judgement allows Christians to use the word Allah and a firestorm erupts. The NEM is revealed, roundly criticised for diluting the social contract and promptly shelved. More travellers die in express buses. A headmistress in Johor asks her Chinese pupils to go back to China. Utusan Malaysia continues its rhetoric. There are calls in Terengganu for 1 Malaysia toilets to be used by both sexes.

While it looks like that in addition to road safety and privacy, in the area of race and religious relations there is no change, in reality it points to a deterioration rather than stasis. Instead of broad social cohesion punctuated by a few incidents of chauvinism, the situation seems to be turning on its head.

Instead of a gradual levelling of the playing field and an emphasis on merit and needs over communal privilege given the steady economic rise of Malaysia, what is being witnessed is growing stridency in asserting the permanence of majority privileges fuelling rising discontent among the minority.

But is this deterioration in race and religious relations in Malaysia mirrored elsewhere? Are the economy and public policy impacted by this, even the wider political system? Continue reading “Déjà vu”

by Lee Shi-Ian
The Malaysian Insider
September 19, 2013

The Royal Commission of Inquiry on Sabah’s illegal immigrants problem today heard from Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that indiscriminate issuance of Malaysian identity cards had begun during the time of second Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

Anwar, the Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 until his dramatic sacking in 1998, Ibrahim, told the Inquiry that between 1972 and 1984, there was an influx of refugees fleeing fighting in the southern Philippines.

The refugees were granted identity cards indiscriminately between 1979 and 1990, said Anwar, who said a special task force was formed by the National Security Council for this purpose.

“The task force is still active today,” he said. Continue reading “Anwar tells of special task force to issue ICs to foreigners in Sabah”

by KJ John
Malaysiakini
Sep 17, 2013

I was touched and moved by Marina Mahathir’s excellent treatise on the value of human dignity in her most recent column in The Star. Hers related to our school system. That motivated me to share my own experience and that of my two sons in our school system.

My experience of abuse

First my own experience given that I am now already 63 years old. Yes, when I was in Form Two, in the Ibrahim Secondary School of Sungai Petani, one afternoon, my friend Gobalkrishnan and I went to play basketball in our school. We borrowed the school basketball which was kept by the canteen operator after signing our names in the book.

While we were making hoop shots a younger student in school uniform came and asked to take the basketball for his class because his teacher wanted the ball for his PE class. We said no, as we had borrowed and signed for it.

After a while the class teacher turned up with the same boy and asked for the ball; I said the same thing that we had signed up for the ball to play. He slapped me across the face and threw the ball at my friend’s head. Then they walked away with our ball! Continue reading “A matter of human dignity”