Day: February 26, 2014

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”