Month: August 2014

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim cannot hide behind the Selangor Sultan but must come forward as an honest, honourable and accountable political leader to explain why he deliberately misled the Sultan on August 11 that he still commanded the majority in the Selangor State Assembly when this was not the case.

It is pointless for Khalid to pass the buck and suggest that those accusing him of misleading the Selangor Sultan to write to the ruler himself for an explanation.

The question is not an explanation from the Sultan but an explanation from him as the issue is not whether the Sultan was satisfied on August 11 that Khalid had the confidence of the majority of the Selangor Assembly representatives but why Khalid had made false representation to the Sultan that he had the majority support in the state assembly when clearly he did not have it.

Is Khalid seriously suggesting that after he was sacked as a member by PKR on 9th August, he still commanded support of the majority in the Selangor State Assembly? Continue reading “Khalid cannot hide behind the Selangor Sultan but must come forward as an honest, honourable and accountable political leader to explain why he deliberately misled the Sultan on August 11 that he still commanded the majority in the Selangor state assembly when this was not the case”

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim should have gracefully and honourably resigned as Selangor Mentri Besar when he was sacked as a member of PKR last Saturday (August 9), as his appointment as Selangor MB stemmed from the trust and mandate given to him by PKR and the Pakatan Rakyat coalition after the 13th General Elections last May, and once this mandate was withdrawn by PKR by his expulsion from the party, his continued tenure as Selangor Mentri Besar became completely untenable.

Article 53(6) of the Selangor Constitution is very clear as it states: “If the Mentri Besar ceases to command the confidence of the majority of the Legislative Assembly, then, unless at his request His Highness dissolves the Legislative Assembly, he shall tender the resignation of the State Executive Council.”

The only way for Khalid to continue as Selangor Mentri Besar under these circumstances – although it would have been a dishonourable and unethical act – was for him to establish that he still commanded the support of the majority in the State Assembly despite his expulsion from PKR and to make such a representation to the Sultan of Selangor.

But Khalid misled the Sultan of Selangor in the royal audience on Monday that he still commanded the majority in the State Assembly when clearly this was not the case – and Khalid dared not undertake any verification from the Selangor State Assembly members before meeting the Sultan of Selangor, knowing fully well that he would not be able to demonstrate that he enjoyed the majority support among the State Assembly members. Continue reading “Khalid’s bluff called that he still commanded majority support in Selangor State Assembly after expulsion from PKR last Saturday”

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim had committed the grave wrong on Monday of misleading the Selangor Sultan into believing that he still commanded the majority of the Selangor State Assembly members after being sacked as a PKR member last Saturday, when Khalid knew that this was not the case.

Before his audience with the Sultan on Monday, , Khalid was duty and honour-bound, whether morally, politically and constitutionally, to verify that he still commanded the support of the majority of the State Assembly members to continue as Mentri Besar before making any representation to the Sultan that he still commanded the majority of the State Assembly, so that he would not be guilty of the grave wrong of misleading the Sultan as he had done on Monday.

But despite of being in the midst of a political crisis from being sacked as a member of PKR, Khalid never tried to verify from the Selangor State Assembly representatives, particularly from the 43 Pakatan Rakyat State Assembly persons from PKR, DAP and PAS who had given him the mandate to be the Pakatan Rakyat Mentri Besar of Selangor after the 2013 General Elections, whether he still commanded their support simply because he knew that he could not get such a majority support.

This is one major consequence of the declaration by 30 of the 56 Selangor State Assembly representatives today (15 from DAP, 13 from PKR and 2 from PAS) that they have lost confidence in Khalid as Selangor Mentri Besar and support Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah as the new Selangor Mentri Besar. Continue reading “Khalid has committed the grave wrong on Monday of misleading the Selangor Sultan into believing that he still commanded the majority of the state assembly when he knew that this was not the case”

It is unbelievable that Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim could claim that the Selangor government is not a Pakatan government after he himself had said, both in the Selangor State Assembly and outside, for six-and-a-half years that it is a Pakatan Rakyat state government.

But what is even more unbelievable is Khalid’s ridiculous claim that the Selangor government is not a Pakatan government is endorsed by the four PAS Excos who appeared with Khalid in the media conference today – after condoning and endorsing Khalid’s arbitrary sacking of five Pakatan Rakyat Exco members from DAP and PKR by attending the Exco meeting.

Would the four PAS Excos be elected as Selangor State Assemblymen in the first place if they had not represented Pakatan Rakyat in the 2013 general elections? Continue reading “Quo Vadis, Pakatan Rakyat?”

The meeting of the PAS national leadership on August 17 will have a critical bearing on the future of the six-year-old three-party coalition Pakatan Rakyat.

However, the August 17 meeting of PAS may be upstaged by what happens in the next 24 hours in the Selangor Mentri Besar crisis which may set the seal for the irretrievable break-up of Pakatan Rakyat.

The break-up of Pakatan Rakyat will cause consternation and even despair among Malaysians over the betrayal of their high hopes that change has finally come to Malaysia after more than half a century of political stagnation and even regresson but welcomed as a boon and relief by Umno/BN leaders and apparatchiks as a “salvation” to spare them from political rejection and repudiation in the country.

This is the reason why the Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO Deputy President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, had been so fast in declaring unconditional support of 12 UMNO/Barisan Nasional State Assembly representatives in Selangor to Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim as Mentri Besar of Selangor although he has lost the mandate of Parti Keadilan Rakyat and Pakatan Rakyat to continue as Selangor Mentri Besar. Continue reading “What happens in the next 24 hours in the Selangor MB crisis may upstage the August 17 PAS leadership meeting and set the seal for the irretrievable break-up of Pakatan Rakyat”

Nik Nazmi
The Malaysian Insider
12 August 2014

PKR has sacked the menteri besar of Selangor, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, from the party.

This has caused a great deal of shock to many.

Everybody – whether it was my relatives over Hari Raya, constituents at mamak stalls or my friends over WhatsApp – wanted to know why we wanted him out.

Quite a number were critical and this was not surprising.

Having known and worked with Khalid for some time, I personally found the deterioration of his relationship with the party and his removal very sad.

Nevertheless, PKR has made the right decision.

Khalid had to be removed from the party.

He must also be made to leave the MB’s position. Continue reading “Why Khalid must go”

With the declaration by the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that the 12 Barisan Nasional Selangor Assembly representatives will give its unconditional support to Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to continue as the Selangor Mentri Besar, it is urgent and imperative for immediate clarity of stand of all 43 Pakatan Rakyat Selangor Assembly representatives from PKR, DAP and PAS on the issue.

Time is of the essence following the rapid pace of developments of the political situation in Selangor and the country, and all processes of political decision-making have no choice but to be accelerated if Pakatan Rakyat is not to be seen as incapable of responding to fast and high-speed political changes.

There is nothing more unprincipled or dishonourable than to reduce the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor Mentri Besar crisis into a game of numbers when the greatest challenge facing PAS, PKR and DAP leaders is to restore the badly-damaged public trust and confidence in the Pakatan Rakyat through a reaffirmation of the PR common policy platform and principles of justice, freedom, accountability, transparency and good governance as the basis of new politics in Malaysia.

It is most repugnant and obnoxious for anyone to try to fish in the troubled waters of the PR Selangor MB crisis by entertaining the proposition that Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim join PAS or DAP so that PAS or DAP can lay a claim to the post of Selangor Mentri Besar, even with Khalid continuing as Selangor Mentri Besar.

No self-respecting political party or political leader would ever consider such a dishonourable proposition which would be the final straw to destroy all public credibility in the Pakatan Rakyat and I am most gratified that all the three Pakatan Rakyat component parties of PAS, PKR and DAP have reaffirmed their commitment to Pakatan Rakyat after the expulsion of Khalid from PKR yesterday. Continue reading “Nothing more unprincipled or dishonourable than to reduce the PR Selangor MB crisis into a game of numbers when the greatest challenge is to restore public trust and confidence in Pakatan Rakyat”

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar, failed big time in Johor Bahru on Tuesday when he tried to explain the rationale for the astronomical, unconscionable and unjust 480% causeway toll hike at the Johor causeway from August 1.

All he could say was that the decision to increase the Johor causeway toll at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex at the Sultan Iskandar Building in JB was made after a two-year study following the government’s decision not to impose toll at the Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL).

Wahid said toll collection at the EDL by its concessionaire, Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) was supposed to have started in 2012, and the government is paying the concessionaire RM11 million a month in compensation.

After a two-year study, it was decided that there was no requirement for the government to take over the EDL.

Wahid has not given any rationale or reason whatsoever to justify the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak breaking two public and solemn pledges to the people of Johor Bahru in 2012, viz “No toll charges for non-users of EDL” and “No toll for EDL”! Continue reading “Najib must personally speak up and explain why he had reneged on two specific promises of “no toll charges for non-users of EDL” and “No toll for EDL” and whether future Prime Ministerial pledges are any more credible and believable!”

By ANDY PASZTOR
Wall Street Journal
Aug. 7, 2014

WASHINGTON—U.S. pilot union leaders alleged that federal agencies failed to promptly assess and publicize potential threats posed to airliners flying over eastern Ukraine before the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 last month.

The criticism comes as several federal agencies have begun in recent days to look at possible improvements to the process for identifying and responding to significant threats to civilian aircraft, people familiar with the talks said.

It isn’t clear what changes are being discussed, and officials of the Federal Aviation Administration and intelligence agencies declined to comment on the discussions.

In a speech and separate interview on Wednesday, Lee Moak, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, asserted that U.S. and other governments didn’t properly fulfill their “duty to warn” airlines about the possible hazards of flying over areas where fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists raged on the ground.

Flight 17 was “a watershed event” and was “uniquely different” from other airliners brought down by hostile fire in earlier decades, Mr. Moak said in the interview. As a result of what occurred over Ukraine last month, he said, “the federal government has to come up with a dynamic process” to alert airlines about such future threats.

When intelligence is available about flying over hostile airspace, he added, “there has to be a timely process to notify” the industry, and then carriers have to more effectively share information between themselves.
Continue reading “Pilots Say U.S. Failed to Assess Ukraine Threat”

Nur Jazlan
The Malaysian Insider
8 August 2014

Kenyataan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar, Selasa lalu, mengenai kajian untuk menaikkan kadar tol Tambak Johor pada 1 Ogos, sudah dilakukan sejak dua tahun lalu bagi menampung kos pembinaan Lebuhraya Penyuraian Timur (EDL) sebenarnya, membuktikan betapa kerajaan terus ‘berahsia’ kepada rakyat.

Pada masa sama kenyataan menteri yang bertanggungjawab untuk Unit Perancang Ekonomi (EPU) itu mengesahkan segala telahan dan andaian rakyat Johor selatan sebelum ini, mengenai kenaikan kadar tol Tambak Johor adalah untuk menampung pembinaan EDL yang siap sepenuhnya pada 2012.

Bagaimanapun, timbul pula persoalan mengapa syarikat MRCB yang diberikan konsesi membina EDL tidak dibenarkan mengutip tol pada lebuh raya sepanjang 8 kilometer itu? Sedangkan menjadi amalan dalam konsesi lebuh raya di negara ini, syarikat yang membina lebuh raya boleh mengenakan tol kepada penggunanya. Continue reading “Putrajaya salah strategi isu kenaikan tol Tambak Johor: Bahagian 2”

By Jane Arraf, Correspondent
AUGUST 7, 2014
Christian Science Monitor

Tens of thousands of Yazidis have taken refuge on a mountain in Sinjar province after Islamic State fighters overran their town and other areas, pushing out Kurdish paramilitary forces.

BAGHDAD — Sunni Arab militants in northern Iraq are hunting down and killing large numbers of minority Yazidis, acts which amount to genocide, according to a senior United Nations official.

On Sunday, fighters from the self-declared Islamic State overran the city of Sinjar, part of a widening offensive that on Thursday saw IS take control of other Christian and Yzedi towns on the Nineveh plains. According to UN officials and Yazidi elders, the militants have killed hundreds of Yazidis, a secretive faith with pre-Islamic roots. Others have been taken as slaves. Tens of thousands have taken refuge on Sinjar Mountain, their traditional refuge over centuries of persecution, and are appealing for emergency aid.

Unlike Christians, who have been told they must either pay a religious tax or convert to Islam to avoid death, the Yazidis are considered by Sunni militants to be infidels who deserve extermination.

“We believe that what they have done may be classified as genocide and a crime against humanity,” Gyorgy Busztin, the deputy special representative in Iraq of the UN secretary general, tells the Christian Science Monitor. “Regrettably the information indicates that they are not even given the choice of life or conversion but they are being treated as a group to be eliminated from the face of the earth.” Continue reading “Islamic State persecution of Yazidi minority amounts to genocide, UN says”

Ahad 10 Ogos 2014 bukanlah sangat hari penentu bagi Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim sebagai Menteri Besar Selangor, bahkan sebenarnya hari penentuan bagi Pakatan Rakyat yang berusia enam tahun sama ada ia mampu untuk terus menjadi simbol aspirasi dan harapan rakyat Malaysia ke arah perubahan politik demi membawa politik baru dengan keadilan, kebebasan, akauntabiliti, ketelusan, urustadbir yang baik, perpaduan dan keharmonian rakyat Malaysia menggantikan hegemoni, korupsi dan ketidakadilan yang diamalkan Umno.

Majlis Pimpinan Pakatan Rakyat dalam mesyuaratnya pada 23 Julai 2014, dengan melibatkan pimpinan daripada ketiga-tiga parti komponen PAS, PKR dan DAP, telah memutuskan dua perkara:

i) Menukar-ganti Menteri Besar Selangor Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim; dan

ii) PAS dan DAP akan mengadakan mesyuarat di peringkat jawatankuasa pusat masing-masing untuk memutuskan mengenai pencalonan PKR untuk meletakkan Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Ismail sebagai Menteri Besar Selangor yang baru. Continue reading “10 Ogos bukan hari penentu bagi Khalid, tetapi hari penentu Pakatan Rakyat”

Sunday, August 10, 2014 is not so much D-Day for Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim as Selangor Mentri Besar but D-Day for the six-year old Pakatan Rakyat whether it could continue to embody the hopes and aspirations of Malaysians for political change to usher in the new politics of justice, freedom, accountability, transparency, good governance, Malaysian unity and harmony after decades of UMNO hegemony, corruption and injustices.

The Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council at its meeting on July 23, 2014 with the participation of leaders from all three PR component parties of PAS, PKR and DAP, agreed on two things:

(i) The change and replacement of Selangor Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim; and

(ii) PAS and DAP to convene meetings of their respective Central Committees to decide on the PKR nomination of Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Ismail as the new Selangor Mentri Besar. Continue reading “August 10 is not D-Day for Khalid but D-Day for Pakatan Rakyat”

– Lim Chee Wee
The Malaysian Insider
5 August 2014

Recent attempts to question the authorities’ purported inaction over cases involving non-Muslims’ alleged disrespect for Islam will only heighten racial tension. This is most irresponsible and unnecessary at a time when we can do with more goodwill among the different races.

On Sunday, Mingguan Malaysia in a column by Awang Selamat and Federal Territory Umno Youth chief, Mohd Razlan Muhammad Rafii had suggested that the authorities practiced selective prosecution by not acting against those who had insulted Islam. The argument was that Islamic preacher Shahul Hamid was swiftly picked up for questioning after a video of him insulting Hindus went viral on social media. Meanwhile, two individuals who had made disparaging remarks about Islam are still on the loose. Continue reading “On authorities’ alleged selective prosecution”

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should visit Johor Bahru to explain the reasons why he had broken two solemn EDL (Eastern Dispersal Link) pledges to the people of Johor in 2002 – “No toll charges for those who don’t use EDL” and “No toll on EDL”.

Najib made the first pledge of “No toll charges for those who don’t use the EDL” at the 10,000-People 1Malaysia Dinner in Johor Bahru on March 9, 2012 which was also attended by the then Johor Mentri Besar, Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, and then MCA President Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek and the then Gerakan President Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon.

Najib said that the matter was discussed at a recent meeting of the National Economic Consultative Council which was attended by representatives from the Johor state government.

Najib made the second pledge of “No toll on EDL” six months later in Parliament in September 2012.

As Prime Minister of a government whose motto and slogan is “People’s First, Performance Now”, Najib cannot take his public pledges lightly and must go out of his way to explain and justify flagrant breaches of his public pledges. Continue reading “Najib should visit Johor Bahru to explain the reasons why he had broken two solemn EDL pledges to people of Johor – “no toll charges for motorists who don’t use EDL” and “No toll on EDL””

Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
August 4, 2014

The WikiLeaks ‘RM5 banknote gagging order’ has revealed that we cannot look to the West (read Australia) for an example of a nation which upholds democratic values, rule of law and a free press. Similarly, Malaysians cannot look to some men, principally Malay men in Umno Baru, as role models for equality, fairness and justice.

Last month, an Umno Baru constitutional law ‘expert’ said that PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail could not become menteri besar because her menstruation was an “obstacle which would prevent her from accompanying the sultan, at functions”.

A few decades ago, when working in the petroleum industry, some men tried to discourage women with comments such as, “How can you go offshore, or climb ladders? Your clothing is an ‘obstacle’.”

These men had not heard of overalls. In their opinion, high-flying women were either stenographers or shop assistants. Things have not progressed much, in Malaysia.

Perhaps, Umno Baru men are trapped in a time warp, in which women are subservient and docile. Do they hanker for the good old days when a woman was a maid at home, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom? We are not living in an Islamic caliphate nor are we living in the dark ages.

Umno Baru lawyer Mohd Hafarizam Harun, Umno Baru Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) lecturer Shamrahayu Abdul Aziz forget how they arrived in this world. For nine months, women carry a foetus, suffer weeks of morning sickness, have eating and sleeping problems, to climax in the pain of delivery. Continue reading “Do Umno Baru men fear women?”

— Koon Yew Yin
The Malay Mail Online
August 2, 2014

AUGUST 2 — The World Bank has procurement guidelines which all the borrowers of Bank funding have to follow. The guidelines include the system of calling tenders. It is a system which has helped to prevent corruption even in the most corrupted countries in the world.

Malaysians are getting fed up with the government’s failure to reform the tender system as well as to check corruption and abuse which is costing us billions of ringgit annually, and bleeding the country’s finances dry.

Although the Government has appointed a minister, Paul Low, to take charge of the implementation of transparency in the government, it is clear that he is getting nowhere. Senator Paul Low has claimed that he is highly motivated in promoting and implementing new transparency procedures in order to curb corruption and cronyism. Well, being motivated is one thing but running around in circles and establishing another layer of bureaucratic smoke and mirrors has been the main outcome of the Minister’s more than one year in office. Continue reading “Follow the World Bank procurement guidelines to prevent corruption and abuse”

It is the height of irony that Utusan Malaysia is complaining about selective prosecution and investigation when the UMNO-owned daily has been the biggest beneficiary of such criminal oversight and abuses of power by various enforcement agencies particularly the police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers as Utusan continues to enjoy both “immunity and impunity” for a series of seditious articles inciting racial and religious hatred and tensions in the country in recent years.

Now Utusan alleges that non-Muslims are becoming blatant in demeaning Islam because authorities are not pursuing them with the same vigour applied to Malays.

Utusan Malaysia further alleges that “the eagerness of non-Muslims to insult Islam can no longer be ignored” because of the “hesitance or fear on the part of the authorities to punish non-Malays for such activity”.

This is utter bunkum. Continue reading “Height of irony Utusan Malaysia complaining about selective prosecution and investigation when it has been the major beneficiary enjoying immunity and impunity for series of seditious articles inciting racial and religious hatred and tensions in the country in recent years”

The sudden imposition of the 480% Johore causeway toll hikes is absurd, presumptuous and preposterous, giving Datuk Seri Najib Razak a bad name as a Prime Minister whose word is not his bond.

ABSURD because the astronomical, unreasonable and unconscionable toll hikes clearly for the Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL) are being imposed on the majority of the thousands of vehicles and the 200,000 people crossing the Johor causeway daily who do not use the EDL for them to reach the Johor Bahru Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ).

Isn’t it absurd that the majority of daily vehicles and commuters of the Johor causeway who do not use EDl are being penalized in having to pay the unfair and astronomical causeway toll hikes for upkeep and maintenance of EDL?

Can the Federal or State government cite another instance in the country where vehicular traffic using one highway or access have to pay toll for another highway that they are not using?

Is the reason why there is no full and proper consultation before the Johor causeway toll hikes are implemented because those in authority realize the height of absurdity of such an imposition, and they have no confidence in facing the legitimate and righteous wrath of those who are made victims of such bureaucratic absurdity – having to pay toll hikes for the EDL when they are not using the EDL? Continue reading “480% Johore causeway toll hikes absurd, presumptuous and preposterous – giving Najib a bad name as a Prime Minister whose word is not his bond”