Month: February 2014

It is now one full month since the announcement by the Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be the Pakatan Rakyat candidate in the Kajang by-election which will be held in three weeks’ time on March 23, 2014.

In the past 31 days, political temperatures and election fervor had steadily mounted, with a whole slate of issues, national, state and local, being canvassed.

The Kajang by-election promises to be the “by-election of the century” in Malaysia, deciding not only on who will be the elected representative of the Selangor state assembly seat of Kajang, the political leadership in Selangor but most important of all, the political configuration of the federal centre of power in Putrajaya in the immediate future.

The by-election on March 23 will not only determine the future of Kajang and Selangor, but the future of Malaysia and her 30 million people – not only for 2014 but for the coming years and decades.

All the three Pakatan Rakyat parties of PKR, PAS and DAP must be fully united and inspired by the common goal of creating a new Malaysia where all her citizenry, regardless of race, religion or region, are united with one common vision for an united, harmonious, free, democratic, just, competitive, progressive and prosperous Malaysia. Continue reading “House divided cannot stand – Anwar’s real enemies in Kajang by-election are not independents, MCA or even UMNO but PR/PKR internal feuds and infighting”

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said during his by-election campaign in Kajang today that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is unfit to be Selangor Mentri Besar as he seems to be “clueless” about Selangor’s water deal with Putrajaya despite being the state economic advisor.

Anwar is the best person to respond to Muhyiddin’s allegation that Anwar is “clueless” on the Selangor water issue, but the Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Education Minister raises the important question whether he himself should resign as Education Minister as it is clear that Muhyiddin is quite clueless about education in Malaysia.

That Muhyiddin is quite clueless about education issues which come under his direct Ministerial responsibility is presently in full display, when he pleaded on Monday that he knew nothing about the mean, petty and punitive transfer to a rural school of the head of Suara Guru Masyarakat Malaysia (SGMM), Mohd Nor Izzat Mohd Johari, who had spearheaded the protest against the weaknesses in the implementation of the student-based assessment (SBA) system and Muhyiddin has remained in this limbo of cluelessness for the past five days. Continue reading “As Muhyiddin seems to be clueless about education in Malaysia, is he going to resign as Education Minister?”

The biggest mystery now in the Najib premiership is the National Reconciliation Plan (NRP) which he first announced after the Cabinet meeting on January 29 and which he blogged about a week ago on Feb. 25 as until then nobody has ever heard anything about such a NRP.

What is noteworthy is that no other Cabinet Minister, not even the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, who is entrusted with the specific portfolio of national integration and national unity, had ever breathed a word about the NRP, both before and after the Jan. 29 Cabinet meeting.

It would appear that nobody else in Cabinet and Government apart from Najib knows anything about the NRP.

There are two big questions about both the events of the Jan 29 Cabinet meeting and Najib’s blog post three days ago.

Firstly, about Najib’s first mention of the NRP on Jan. 29 in his post-Cabinet statement where he said that “at today’s cabinet meeting, the members had examined a plan to develop and promote an environment which was conducive to and would help promote national reconciliation through unity and consensus in the country” and his second mention of the NRP in his blog three days ago that the NRP will be unveiled and implemented over the next few months.

Why is Najib treating the NRP like a strip-tease show, unpeeling one piece of clothing after another, completely unwilling to make full public disclosure of the proposed NRP? Continue reading “Call on Najib to immediately clarify his blog-post that it is not a directive to bar the police, AG’s Chambers and all law-enforcement agencies from carrying out their duties to give no quarter to instigators and extremists incessantly inciting racial and religious animosities and hatred”

by Boo Su-Lyn
The Malay Mail Online
February 28, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — A study on the integrity of elections across the globe has rated Malaysia near the bottom of the pile, with the country’s general election last year coming in 66th out of 73 elections surveyed, just above Zimbabwe.

The findings of the Electoral Integrity Project (EIP), based at the University of Sydney and Harvard University, released this month shows that Malaysia’s 13th general election was perceived as having low levels of integrity, due to problematic electoral boundaries and election laws.

Cambodia ranked below Malaysia at 69th, while the only other Southeast Asian country on the list, the Philippines, ranked 47th, signalling moderate levels of electoral integrity. Continue reading “Election 2013 lacked integrity, study finds”

– Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
February 27, 2014

Why has Anwar’s decision to contest in Kajang caused so much upheaval inside the BN camp? More so in Umno? This is just a DUN seat. As Muhyidin says, when Anwar wins, at the most he can only be MB. Najib is still the PM.

Yes, why?

Umno says it’s protecting the people of Selangor. From what? Mahathir says no one is safe if Anwar is MB.

Hmmm – maybe. Perhaps there’s some truth in what Mahathir said. I did feel shivers down my spine when I participate in a talk with Anwar especially with my back facing him. Haha. I must remember to wear an iron chastity belt the next time. Umno people – please remember that too.

No one who has stolen from the state, no one who is corrupt, and no one who has emptied the treasury will be safe. My own uneasiness dissipates when I think that no treasury, no money is safe when Umno people are around. No public works are safe with Umno people around. These are dangerous people to be around, these Umno people. Continue reading “Kajang is on the way to Putrajaya”

by Dr. Janet Lee
The Malaysian Insider
February 27, 2014

I am Chinese. My husband is Indian. Both of us are qualified in the medical field and teach at local universities.

Recently, my husband’s contract was not renewed. His speciality is quite rare in the region. He was replaced by a younger person.

Of course, he was disappointed but felt new blood was needed to bring in the latest methods and medicines into the picture.

But here’s where things get very scary: the new person cannot string a sentence in English, in a profession where results have to be transmitted clearly to its end-users.

His former colleagues call at night and he does the work for them on the quiet, minus the fee, so that the patients will have a fighting chance!

You see, dear people in authority, the moral majority in this country are keeping us going. Selfless people who take the humiliation and abuse and to ensure that there is a sense of balance and sanity still operating at critical areas. Continue reading “The death of common sense”

The Najib administration prides itself on its efficiency and “People First, Performance Now” slogan, but almost a week have passed and the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has yet to countermand the mean, petty and punitive directive to transfer Mohd Nor Izzat Mohd Johari, head of Suara Guru Masyarakat Malaysia (SGMM) from Jerantut to a rural school for spearheading the protest against the weaknesses in the implementation of the student-based assessment (SBA) system.

Instead of thanking Nor Izzat for his contribution in forcing the Education Ministry to face up to the crisis faced by teachers as a result of dismally-conceived implementation of the SBA, resulting finally in the SBA system being put on hold last week, Muhyiddin is allowing the “Little Napoleons” in the Education Department a free hand to penalise Nor Izzat and other teachers for their courage and conviction in speaking up about the SBA weaknesses.

When Nor Izzat’s punitive transfer to a rural school with only 24 hours’ notice became public, Muhyiddin disclaimed responsibility, denying that he was involved in Nor Izzat’s transfer.

But what has Muhyiddin done in the past week to countermand Nor Izzat’s punitive transfer. Continue reading “Why Muhyiddin has not countermanded the mean, petty and punitive directive to transfer Nor Izzat from Jerantut to a rural school for spearheading the protest against the SBA weaknesses”

In his blogpost “A national reconciliation update”, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that the National Reconciliation Plan (NRP) “will be unveiled and implemented over the next few months” as a result of “months of quiet work”.

This is the second time that Najib has mentioned the National Reconciliation Plan.

The first time was after the Cabinet meeting of 29th January, when he announced that the Ministers had examined a National Reconciliation Plan “to develop and promote an environment which was conducive to and would help promote national reconciliation through unity and consensus in the country”.

He said the government’s National Reconciliation Plan would be based on four key thrusts, namely social, political, government and international relations and would be based on democratic principles.

Before January 29, nobody has ever heard of a National Reconciliation Plan.

Who drafted this National Reconciliation Plan and who had been consulted? This is still a great mystery up to now. Continue reading “Najib should make public the proposed National Reconciliation Plan (NRP) for public feedback and input before finalization so that it could be a more comprehensive and inclusive roadmap to restore national unity and consensus in the country”

The Malaysian Insider
February 26, 2014

So why is Tun Daim Zainuddin quaking?

Make no mistake, the former finance minister is worried. Worried enough that he keeps talking incessantly about Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Publicly, he dismisses the PKR de facto leader as a publicity hound, a man who craves the limelight and loves the next headline.

Publicly, he runs the opposition leader down as someone who has never been able to solve any problem.

Publicly, he says that Anwar’s move to contest a by-election in Kajang is a complete waste of public funds.

Apparently Daim’s fixation with Anwar continues in private discussions but behind closed doors, the tone is less dismissive, less condescending. Continue reading “In deriding Anwar, Daim shows Umno fear of losing Putrajaya sooner than later”

– Kennee Wong
The Malaysian Insider
February 26, 2014

Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak penned an article about the government’s new initiative for a more cohesive and united Malaysia.

Called the National Reconciliation Plan (NRP), it will be unveiled and implemented in the next few months and he has shared a bit of what is to come.

I cannot help but to wonder if the NRP will be another irresolute proposal that will have little consequence towards the improvement of our nation’s race and interfaith relations. Continue reading “Najib’s plan may turn out to be ‘Never Really Plan’”

– Ramon Navaratnam
The Malaysian Insider
February 26, 2014

I refer to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s well meaning advice to “just ignore extremists”.

With due respect sir, there are many Malaysians who will sincerely agree with me that this is not the way to deal with extremists.

Their inflammatory statements and worse still, dangerously provocative and evil acts, based on racial and religious hatred, must instead be nipped in the bud!

Their seditious statements and incendiary acts which undermine our fragile national unity have to be exposed, and those responsible from any quarter should be named, shamed, arrested and prosecuted. They have to be publicly exposed and harshly dealt with rather than inadvertently encouraged to do their dirty work stealthily, secretly, and without scrutiny from the rule of law!

Malaysians should not tolerate extremists and extreme acts of any kind in our multiracial, multi-religious and highly complicated and sensitive society. Continue reading “Extremists: Ignore them or isolate them?”

by Azly Rahman
Malaysiakini
Feb 22, 2014

Malaysia’s monopoly corporate crony capitalism, framed and flourishing ethnocentrically and laced with economic fascism continue to take root, fashioned after the ethos and eerie-ness of America’s Enron Corporation which was said to be too big to fail yet fell like a house of cards that turned into ashes after an internal combustion of a self-immolation.

It also brought down one of one of the world’s biggest accounting fraudsters and master of creative accounting – Arthur Anderson. This is a feature of the many a Wall Street-fashioned American corporation – grow bigger with bigger lies with the help of world-class lying accounting firms.

What will Malaysia see decades after the seeds of destruction have germinated out of the three-pronged policies of Malaysian-styled Reaganomics and Thatcherism and Marcos-Mugabeism of Malaysia Incorporated, Look East Policy, and Privatisation Policies. Or have we not seen the impact of these policies in terms of the growth of big businesses whose survival also lie in the political-economic patronage of race-based political parties? Continue reading “Enron-ising Malaysia”

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s recipe yesterday for national reconciliation, national unity and to help inspire Malaysians to respect and rec-connect with one another has been immediately put to the test today by another vitriolic article by Utusan Malaysia editor, Datuk Zaini Hassan in his article warning that a minister’s suggestion to remove “race” from official forms was the first step to convince Malays to surrender their bumiputera status and other privileges afforded to the community.

Najib proposed to Malaysians that “We don’t have to condemn them, just ignore them” as the best way to respond to the demands and vitriol of the instigators and extremists, adding: “Don’t give them the air time or the publicity” they crave.

The problem is that such vitriolic articles, inciting racial and religious animosities and hatred, is not the work of individuals but of the official newspaper of UMNO, the backbone of Barisan Nasional government, like the Utusan Malaysia editor’s article today entitled “Orang Melayu sudah tidak peduli dengan bangsa sendiri?” (Malays no longer care for their own race?) and is given full oxygen by the UMNO’s official media, and which will be given full dissemination in the UMNO/BN-controlled empire of printed, electronic and social media.

Is Najib seriously suggesting that Utusan Malaysia should be given a free hand to pump vitriol and stoke racial and religious animosities, including attack on a Cabinet Minister entrusted with the portfolio of national integration and unity – and that this is Najib’s way to national reconciliation and national unity in Malaysia? Continue reading “Is Najib seriously suggesting that Utusan Malaysia should be given a free hand to pump vitriol and stoke racial and religious animosities, including attack on a Cabinet Minister entrusted with the portfolio of national integration and unity?”

The Malay Mail Online
February 26, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 — A minister’s suggestion to remove “race” from official forms was the first step to convince Malays to surrender their Bumiputera benefits and other privileges afforded to the community, an Utusan Malaysia editor wrote today.

Alleging that the call by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup last week was the result of pressure from rights groups, Datuk Zaini Hassan warned the Malays that the efforts were opposition-driven to erode the community’s rights.

“Already there are voices that dare question the origins of the Malays. They claim that Malays are immigrants, just as they are immigrants. That we are all the same,” he wrote in an editorial piece titled “Orang Melayu sudah tidak peduli dengan bangsa sendiri?” (Malays no longer care for their own race?).

In it, he drew parallels between Kurup’s suggestion and the efforts by the Coalition of Malaysian NGOs (Comango) that was heading local human rights efforts in the recent Universal Periodic Review (UPR) under the auspices of the United Nations last year. Continue reading “After ‘race’, they will come for your privileges, Utusan editor tells Malays”

by Karim Raslan
The Star
February 25, 2014

Change in Malaysia has to be spearheaded by the Malay community, and with this leadership, comes responsibility.

MALAYSIANS are increasingly polarised – especially over race and religion.

At the same time we’ve also lost our sense of humour.

We’ve become dour, over-sensitive killjoys.

The spirit of Lat, Harith Iskandar and Jo Kukuthas has disappeared.

Now, everyone has the right to be proud of their culture and identity.

But we’re suffering today because we all think of ourselves as being “Malay”, “Chinese” or “Indian” before being Malaysian.

So how do we move forward? Continue reading “National reconciliation is the way forward”

by Elizabeth Zachariah
The Malaysian Insider
February 26, 2014

Teacher Mohd Nor Izzat Mohd Johari was warned that speaking up against the administration could cost him dearly.

His good friends cautioned him. So did his father, a teacher with 15 years’ experience.

“I am not doing this for personal glory,” the teacher caught in the middle of the school-based assessment (SBA) controversy, adding that he was doing this to champion the rights of his overburdened colleagues.

The 29-year-old, who heads the Suara Guru Masyarakat Malaysia (SGMM), is adamant about seeing an overhaul to SBA even if he loses his government job along the way.

“Yes, many of my teacher friends and even my father, who was a teacher, told me that action will be taken against me if I spoke up against the Education Ministry.

“And this was proven right recently,” he said, referring to the 24-hour transfer order he received three days ago.

He was transferred to a rural school some 80km away from his previous school in Jerantut, Pahang. Continue reading “Teacher in school assessment controversy warned, but says this is not for personal glory”

– Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
February 25, 2014

When Anwar Ibrahim announces he wants to contest in Kajang, the whole country erupted into a fit. Most affected is the BN side. They don’t know what to do and say. So they shoot at each other.

Ahmad Maslan, the 3.85 CGPA-man, announced that Umno will use Anwar’s sex issue as the main issue. I am sure at the very moment, Kajang inhabitants wake up in the morning to find packages containing various CDs on Anwar’s sexual encounters enclosed. That’s how Umno educate Malays.

Even Dr Mahathir has entered the fray; first by saying that Anwar is only fit to become the menteri besar. As usual his initial response developed into the typical Mahathir vitriol on his onetime protégé turned nemesis.

The whole political saga involving Anwar which sets the country into political turmoil was created in the first place by Mahathir. That is why Mahathir is attacking Anwar. Mahathir knows Anwar will eventually win. So he tries to delay the inevitable. Continue reading “Kajang and the Anwar-Mahathir showdown”

I was excited when I learned that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has today a blog post entitled “A national reconciliation update”, as I thought it would signal an end to the nine-month hiatus of government after the 13th general elections, with a Prime Minister who seems to be rudderless, leadershipless and directionless especially on the important agenda of nation-building and national unity.

I could not believe my eyes when I read Najib’s blog-post, because it does not inspire hope that there is going to be a new purposeful leadership to end the government drift in the past nine months with an inclusive vision of nation-building, but a recipe for Najib to abdicate his responsibility as Prime Minsiter in a plural society but still clinging to the perks of office!

What was Najib’s answer to the worst racial and religious polarisation in post-13GE compared to any other time in the nation’s 56-year history and which led the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) to warn only last week that the Najib administration’s failure to act swiftly when dealing with racial and religiously sensitive incidents could lead to “serious consequences”? Continue reading “Najib’s NRP is a recipe to abdicate his responsibility as Prime Minister in a plural society but still clinging to the perks of office”

― Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud
The Malaysian Insider
February 25, 2014

FEB 25 ― I never knew the importance of Rukunegara. It brought no meaning to myself and my friends in school, we memorised the Rukunegara after reciting it every Monday during school assemblies after a few weeks in Darjah Satu and we continued the same routine for years.

Rukunegara was even on the back of every notebooks we owned. Still, I was clueless as to why we had to raise our right hand and recite them every Monday during compulsory school assemblies and I never bothered to find out. I never read about it in books or in the newspapers, although I was a regular Utusan reader back in my teenage years, reading it at my neighbour’s house since my father only buys The Star (I never went a day without reading The Star back then). Our teachers never told us why we even had Rukunegara.

When I was reading law in UiTM, again Rukunegara was never mentioned. Although we can still recite it word by word, we never cared about it, never knew the importance of it, left alone to understand the history, the reason behind Rukunegara and why is it so important to instil the values of Rukunegara in every Malaysians. Even my favourite, patriotic, selfless, constitutional law lecturer never said anything about Rukunegara!

So what is Rukunegara is all about? Continue reading “Rukunegara”

Pakatan Rakyat comprising PAS, PKR and DAP representing Malaysians of all races, religions and regions, will spearhead campaign to save Malaysia from traitors who want to destroy Malaysia by incessant incitement of racial and religious hatred and tensions through lies and falsehoods

Malaysia after the 13th General Elections nine months ago in May last year is going through its most dangerous times in the nation’s history.

This is because there are in our midst irresponsible and reckless elements, whom I would even call traitors to the nation, who want to pit race against race, religion against religion, to destroy Malaysia by causing racial chaos or religious conflagration through the incessant incitement of racial and religious animosities, hatred, conflicts and tension spouting lies and falsehoods.

What makes the situation very dangerous is we have a government which seems to have lost it duty and political will to uphold the Constitution and be a government for all Malaysians and to act firmly against the merchants and vendors of hate. Continue reading “Pakatan Rakyat comprising PAS, PKR and DAP representing Malaysians of all races, religions and regions, will spearhead campaign to save Malaysia from traitors who want to destroy Malaysia by incessant incitement of racial and religious hatred and tensions through lies and falsehoods”