Day: January 21, 2014

By Kee Thuan Chye
news.malaysia.msn.com
21 Jan 2014

It’s disturbing, to say the least. Street protests staged by Umno and/or groups affiliated to or inspired by it invariably espouse the threat of violence and express racial venom. The most recent ones, held on January 18 and 19 in Penang, are further indications of this trend.

These were staged to protest against Lee Khai Loon, the PKR state assemblyman of Machang Bubok, for publicly mocking Prime Minister Najib Razak’s statement about the drop in price of kangkung. But the proceedings turned ugly when race was made into an issue when it was never one in the first place.

To begin with, Lee’s satirical flashmob on January 16, which culminated in his stuffing kangkung into the mouth of an effigy of Najib, was not a racial act. It was instead an act that summed up public disgust for the prime minister’s apparent failure to empathise with the rakyat, who are struggling with the problem of rising costs. Many Malaysians indeed blame the Government for contributing to the rise because it cut petrol and sugar subsidies and raised electricity tariffs.

On top of that, Najib made the extra howler of saying that although the price of kangkung has come down, the people do not praise the Government for it, but when prices go up, they are quick to blame the Government. For that, he was widely condemned. And on social media, he was satirised as well. Even the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) picked up the story. Continue reading “Shut the Mouths that Threaten May 13”

– Lim Teck Ghee
CPI/The Malaysian Insider
January 21, 2014

In early 2011, I provided a paper to the United Nations system in Malaysia on various scenarios facing the country, giving special emphasis to the impact of political and economic issues on social development. In it, I explored three scenarios:

• A best case one where the government can achieve its goals and targets as set out in various government documents,

• A midway scenario where targets are partially achieved, and

• A worst case scenario where targets are mostly not achieved and where the economic, political and social situation deteriorates significantly over the medium-term.

Unfortunately, the worst case scenario is becoming a reality. Excerpts from the report below identify the key steps and processes leading to the establishment of an autocratic ethnocracy which would be a huge step backwards for the country.

It is still not too late for the Prime Minister and other leaders, especially from the BN and Umno, to lead the country away from the worst case scenario outlined in the paper.

But time is running out. Continue reading “Can Malaysia step back from the brink?”

Yesterday, the extremist group Perkasa claimed the “kangkung furore” can result in a repeat of the May 13 racial riots if it continues to be played up, claiming that the issue has become racial and is against Malaysia’s multi-racial society.

A Perkasa spokesman said many people are seen as disrespecting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib on this issue.

He said: “The May 13th incident may repeat itself if people want it to happen again. If the kangkung issue goes too far, it is not impossible that it might.”

Can there be a repeat of the May 13, 1969 riots?

Yes, if extremists and intolerant groups and element are allowed to continue and even to escalate their campaign of incitement of racial and religious hatred, tension and conflict using lies and falsehoods without immediate action by the authorities to put an end to such irresponsible, inflammatory, incendiary and seditious spewing and incitement of racial and religious hatred, tension and conflict in our plural society. Continue reading “Time for all Malaysians to separate patriots who want an united peaceful, harmonious and prosperous Malaysia from traitors who want to create another May 13 by inciting racial and religious hatred, tension and conflict through lies and falsehoods”

by Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
Jan 14, 2014

Prime Minister Najib Razak is wrong to blame Malaysians for the country’s standing in comparison to Japan and South Korea. He says Malaysia is not as developed and economically advanced as those two countries are because Malaysians lack strong will and fighting spirit.

This is bullshit.

He should instead blame his own party, Umno, and its partners in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. If it were not for the New Economic Policy (NEP) and its continued existence to this day, almost a quarter-century past its original termination date of 1990, we would not be in the state we’re in now.

The NEP made us economically less competitive. Investors were reluctant to put money into ventures for which they had to yield 30 per cent share to partners who brought hardly anything to the table.

The NEP triggered a massive brain drain that is now recognised as one of the factors weakening our hopes of becoming an advanced nation. Continue reading “Najib Wrong to Blame Malaysians”