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Pengajaran daripada kes Zacharevic untuk pihak berkuasa – semakin besar tekanan diberikan oleh pihak berkuasa tanpa sebab yang munasabah, semakin panas reaksi orang ramai

Keratan gambar grafiti “jenayah tinggi” oleh seniman jalanan kelahiran Lithuania Ernest Zacharevic kini bukan saja boleh dilihat di Johor Baru malah juga di beberapa tempat lain dalam negara ini.

Menurut laporan, keratan berkenaan mula muncul di Kuala Lumpur dan Rawang dan tidak lama lagi ia tentu boleh dilihat di seluruh negara.

Ini pengajaran buat semua pihak berkuasa – semakin besar tekanan diberikan oleh pihak berkuasa tanpa sebab yang munasabah, semakin panas reaksi orang ramai.

Zacharevic boleh berterimakasih kepada beberapa pihak berkuasa, khususnya Majlis Bandaraya Johor Baru dan Kerajaan Negeri Johor kerana berkat tindakan mereka ke atas mural “jenayah tinggi” beliau di JB, namanya masyhur bukan hanya di JB, Johor, dan Malaysia, malah juga di peringkat dunia dalam zaman maklumat yang memungkinkan sesuatu berita disebarkan dengan cepat dalam dunia tanpa batas.
Continue reading “Pengajaran daripada kes Zacharevic untuk pihak berkuasa – semakin besar tekanan diberikan oleh pihak berkuasa tanpa sebab yang munasabah, semakin panas reaksi orang ramai”

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How Tengku Razaleigh saved the construction industry: Practicing the 10 Golden Political Principles

Koon Yew Yin
21st Nov. 2013

The Perak Academy has invited Tengku Razaleigh to give a talk in Ipoh on the 23rd Nov. 2013 and he wishes to talk about ‘The economic reality in Malaysia today’. Many of you will remember that Tengku was here about a year ago to launch my book ‘Malaysia: A Road Map For Achieving Vision 2020’. Previous to this occasion, the Perak Academy also invited him and he talked about his 10 golden political principles on which I wrote and published an article.

Although I am not a politician, I have long been an admirer of Tengku Razaleigh. In the last two years I have tried to draw the attention of the public on several occasions to his stand in Malaysian politics which I believe contains values and principles that are superior to the manifestos and principles of other leading politicians in the country.

Key amongst what are Tengku’s “Ten Golden Political Principles” to ensure the survival and progress of the nation in the difficult years ahead is the need for all political parties to include in their constitutional objectives the equality of citizenship as provided for in the Federal Constitution. He has also emphasized that political parties must not propagate economic or political policies that discriminate against any citizen and called on all parties to include and uphold constitutional democracy and the separation of powers as a fundamental principle.

He has also insisted that it shall be the duty of all political parties to adhere to the objective of public service and to refrain from involvement in business, and to ensure the separation of business from political parties. Continue reading “How Tengku Razaleigh saved the construction industry: Practicing the 10 Golden Political Principles”

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What Good Things Has the Govt Done for Malaysians?

By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
22nd Nov 2013

I wanted to write something positive about the Federal Government. But I could think of only two good things that it has done in the last few months.

One of them – making English a must-pass subject at the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations starting in 2016 – I had written about at length before. The other is the introduction of financial education in the school curriculum starting next year with Primary 3 students and in 2017 for secondary schools.

This is a welcome move by the Education Ministry, although it is being done with the collaboration of Bank Negara, which seems to have initiated the idea. I wish we had this when I was in school; it would have helped me understand money and what to do with it. This is something important to learn from young, and I’m happy for our young that they will soon be getting that benefit.

If I had learned how to save, invest, manage my finances and plan for the future, I might not have squandered the money I earned in my youth. I could be owning numerous units of property now or earning substantial revenue from investing in businesses. Today, I wouldn’t still have to slog to eke out a living.

So much for that. But for my project, I figured that if I wrote only about this good thing being done for our young, I might manage just one-quarter the length of an article. That would be too short. But I did want to write something positive. So what could I do? Continue reading “What Good Things Has the Govt Done for Malaysians?”

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Ulama vs Erdogans frame does not capture all of it

Terence Netto
Malaysiakini
Nov 21, 2013

COMMENT Predictions as to which side – the ulama or the professionals – will triumph in tomorrow’s party elections in PAS do sometimes miss the point that lasting victory for either side is dependent on how that side fares in managing the political realities that occur on their watch.

The PAS elector has over the years been known to be a pretty empirical sort who is not afraid to relegate or promote within the party hierarchy candidates who respectively are seen to flounder or flourish amid the challenges they face.

The PAS elector is a meritocrat and so is apt to vote up or down candidates who from their standpoint have done well or not done so well for the party.

This rule does not translate easily in application such that using it one can predict that the twice-defeated parliamentary candidate Mohamad Sabu (left), the incumbent deputy president, won’t fare well against challenger, Nik Amar Nik Abdullah, the newly elevated deputy menteri besar of Kelantan, in the contest for the No 2 position in PAS.

The contest is said to be the prime one in determining whether the ulama or the professionals are in control of the Islamic party but even that would be too sweeping a conclusion.

If one has to hazard a guess as to the preferences of the general PAS elector, it would be that he would want as people to lead the party candidates who can make the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, succeed enough to convince the Malaysian electorate that they should given the keys to Putrajaya. Continue reading “Ulama vs Erdogans frame does not capture all of it”

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Moody’s has given us a good mood… but is it sustainable?

– Ramon Navaratnam
The Malaysian Insider
November 21, 2013

After the earlier cautious Fitch Rating Report on Malaysia’s sovereign credit outlook, the Moody’s Investors Service’s upgrading of our credit outlook from “stable to positive”, uplifts our mood on our country’s economic prospects.

Yes Moody’s has given us a good mood on our economic prospects. But unfortunately the question lingers as to whether this feel good mood, about our sovereign credit and economic outlook, can be sustained and for how long?

The upgrading had been due to the positive and bold promises made in Budget 2014 Speech by Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak. His speech has obviously made an impact on Moody’s. Continue reading “Moody’s has given us a good mood… but is it sustainable?”

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Should Penang Island control its population growth?

by Richard Loh
22nd November 2013

Since Pakatan Rakyat rules Penang many are comparing the Island with Singapore or Hong Kong but do not realised that both Singapore and Hong Kong are governments by itself with no hindrance/control by a Federal or central government. Though Hong Kong may now be influenced by China one way or another after 1997.

Also since then various NGOs are openly voicing their opinions or objections to how the state government runs the state especially in developments and the infrastructures.

They are very much concerned with the hills, the seas and beaches and rivers, forests, park land and cultural aspects which they term as ‘The Commons’. The article in Anil Netto’s blog titled Corporate predators eyeing ‘the Commons’ prompted me to write and ask the pertinent question “Should Penang Island control its population growth?” Continue reading “Should Penang Island control its population growth?”