Day: February 11, 2014

I have addressed three Open Letters to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the Cabinet before three Cabinet meetings in January last month urging the end of national drift and loss of leadership and direction in the past nine months since the 13th general elections last May.

I also appealed to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to accept the olive branch offered by the Pakatan Rakyat leadership “to love and save Malaysia” by preserving and promoting national unity, harmony and tolerance in the country and to ensure that no nefarious and treacherous plot to cause racial chaos and religious conflagration could succeed in Malaysia.

After the January 29 Cabinet meeting, Najib announced a Cabinet green light for a Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat Leaders’ Summit on national reconciliation and national consensus, claiming that he had first mooted the idea of national reconciliation after the last general election but various parties were not responsive to his appeals to come together.

For the past six months, Pakatan Rakyat leaders have been urging for Barisan Nastional/Pakatan Rakyat talks on national reconciliation and national consensus in view of the unprecedented slew of major national crises faced by the country, including the quintuplet of national crisis covering nation building and national unity, economic, educational, security and anti-corruption. The PR leadership never proposed the idea of “national unity” government. Continue reading “Is Najib and Cabinet really seriously about national reconciliation and national consensus rising above partisan differences to end national drift and loss of leadership and direction?”

I applaud the Malaysian Bar Council President Christopher Leong’s bold, righteous and forthright statement declaring that government inaction against a group of protestors that slaughtered chickens and smeared its blood on banners of politicians’ faces last week is tantamount to authorities ignoring threats to public order.

Leong said the incident, whereby banners featuring the faces of several DAP and PKR leaders’ were smeared with blood and propositions were made to the public to slap Seputeh MP Teresa Kok was dangerous as it also made references to the May 13, 1969 racial riots.

The Bar Council said the actions carried out by the group, which dubbed itself Council of Islamic NGOs, can be viewed as an “incitement and a threat to public order”.

“It is wholly irresponsible of the authorities not to take immediate and firm action.”

This episode is in fact the blackest mark for the Najib administration as far as police professionalism and the upholding the rule of law is concerned – worse than the “fairy tale” concocted by the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar about the “grenade-plot to topple the elected government” at Dataran Merdeka on 2014 New Year’s Eve because of a peaceful gathering to protest price hikes or the equally preposterous allegation by the government that the Bersih 3.0 rally on April 28, 2012 was a coup attempt to overthrow the government using “salt” and “mineral water bottles”! Continue reading “Cabinet meeting tomorrow must repudiate and reprimand Zahid and IGP for failure in their duties to uphold the rule of law and embracing, instead, the law of the jungle”

We are gathered here tonight on the 111th birth anniversary of Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman, to discuss the legacy of the founder Prime Minister of the country.

Tunku had always wanted to be remembered as the “happiest Prime Minister” of a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysia, but if he is alive today, he would probably be the saddest person in the country.

For the past nine months since the 13th general elections in May last year, the country has been afflicted by a quintuplet of national crisis the magnitude of which had never been experienced by the country in over half a decade of nationhood – nation building and national unity; economic as reflected in the unchecked rise in prices and the increasing hardships of the low-income groups; educational with the unchecked decline in educational standards; security in terms of the safety of Malaysian citizens, investors and visitors; and good governance particularly in the losing war against corruption.

Never before has the country been more polarised both racial and religious as in the past nine months – because of a combination of two factors, a rudderless and directionless administration of Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and a systematic and relentless campaign by an irresponsible and reckless group who are prepared to destabilise the country by ceaseless incitement of racial and religious hatred, conflict and tension to create the conditions for another May 13 racial riots.

I believe that the overwhelming majority of Malaysians, whether in DAP, PKR or PAS in Pakatan Rakyat, or in Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the other component parties in Barisan Nasional, do not want another May 13 riots in the country as they want, like Tunku Abdul Rahman, love, peace, harmony and prosperity to prevail in Malaysia. Continue reading “Call on all moderates in Malaysia, whether BN or PR, to unite and isolate extremists and traitors of the country who want to foment racial chaos and religious conflagration through incessant incitement of racial and religious hatred, conflict and tension”

The Malaysian Insider
February 11, 2014
Lord Bobo

Ask Lord Bobo is a weekly column by LoyarBurok where all your profound, abstruse, erudite, hermetic, recondite, sagacious, and other thesaurus-described queries are answered. Free Your Mind!

Lord Bobo, why is our police force so impotent and useless? Some thugs can get together and do the most vile and inciteful things towards Teresa Kok because of a silly satire video, and our police are nowhere to be seen. What’s going on? Do you think her video deserves this reaction? (Duit Kopi, via email.)

We’ll deal with the second question first – whether Teresa Kok’s video deserves the outrage some people have expressed towards it.

Lord Bobo is a fan of satire and comedy, and as you may have noticed, we are also strong advocates for freedom of expression. Satire, as a form of political protest, is naturally aimed to provoke and agitate. Teresa Kok has successfully done so and Lord Bobo congratulates her for achieving the intended result.

The Malaysian public may be unfamiliar with this, but the right to freedom of expression allows citizens to criticise politicians. Levelling criticisms against politicians is crucial in any healthy, liberal, democracy – what more when Malaysia the best democracy in the world.

Some people may not have enjoyed the video. Some people may have found it not at all entertaining or funny. That’s their right, of course. They also have the right to express what they think about the video.

However, that does not mean that Teresa Kok loses her right to make and distribute that video, or that the government or the police should step in to censor it or punish her. Continue reading “Malaysia’s impotent, useless police force”

The Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud is set to step down by the end of this month, after almost 33 years at the helm of the state.

I will expect the new Sarawak Chief Minister, whether the PBB deputy president Abang Johari Openg, PBB senior vice president Awang Tengah Ali Hassan or PBB information chief Adenan Satem to opt for early state general elections to seek a new mandate from the Sarawak voters instead of heading the Sarawak state government for 12 to 18 months before holding new polls.

Opting for early state polls will give the new Sarawak Chief Minister the advantage of starting on a comparatively new slate, promising to heed the calls for change and improvements after almost 33 years of Taib Mahmud rule, which would not be available if the new Sarawak Chief Minister goes to polls after 12 or 18 months in office when he will have to campaign on his own record.

For this reason, the Sarawak DAP and Pakatan Rakyat must gird itself to be ready to face the 11th Sarawak state general elections any time after the present state assembly has completed three years after April 16, 2014. Continue reading “11th Sarawak state general elections may be held any time after the present state assembly has completed three years on April 16, 2014”

by Eileen Ng
The Malaysian Insider
February 11, 2014

Had Tunku Abdul Rahman been still around, he would have been disappointed with the elements that are trying to divide Malaysia and its people.

The nation’s first prime minister had considered himself to be the happiest premier in the world, but had he been alive today, he would be Malaysia’s saddest man due to the raging racial religious tensions.

With his legacy of unity being threatened, speakers at a forum held to commemorate Tunku’s 111th birthday last night in Kajang said there is a need to secure his legacy to ensure the nation remains united.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said Tunku wanted peace, love and harmony, which he lamented seemed to be in short supply in recent months.

“Never before has Malaysia been so divided and polarised, with the last eight to nine months being the worst. Today’s forum is for us to think of what we have lost in our 56 years of nation building.

“Tunku would want to see a united country. Is Malaysia more united or divided now? Has the issue of race and religion become more polarising?” he said at the forum in last night.

The veteran politician noted that during Tunku’s time, there was certain civic and gentle chivalry that seemed to have gone down the gutters today. Continue reading “What would Tunku Abdul Rahman do in light of raging racial tensions?”

by Eileen Ng
The Malaysian Insider
February 11, 2014

Malaysians must band together for a “peaceful resistance” against ongoing racial and religious strife facing the country, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan (pic) said last night when recalling founding prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman’s legacy for Malaysia.

The former co-chair of electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 said those who want to fight racism and bigotry must unite and stand together with the oppressed. Malaysia’s political mercury spiked in the past few months with a church attacked with a firebomb over the Allah issue and threats against an opposition lawmaker over a satirical video clip.

“How do we stop groups who are bent on dividing us? When they speak the language of racism and bigotry, we must respond with the language of unity and togetherness.

“When they speak the language of ignorance, we must speak the language of knowledge. When they attack our brothers and sisters, we must defend them.

“We must respond from a position of knowledge if we see such ignorance. When they create fear, we must respond with courage, when they divide, we must unite.

“We must make this message loud and clear – the more you divide us, the more we will unite,” Ambiga said to applause from the audience at the Tunku Abdul Rahman legacy forum in Kajang. Continue reading “Malaysians must form ‘peaceful resistance’ against racial and religious strife, says Ambiga”