Day: December 23, 2014

-Dr Azmi Sharom
Rakyat Times
22 December 2014

Ah, Awang Selamat.

One can always depend on you to say the most ridiculous things.

Today, I read that this ‘person’ (in reality the collective editorial voice of that paragon of journalistic virtue: Utusan Malaysia) wants the 25 Eminent Malays investigated.

Their backgrounds and lifestyles should be put under the microscope, they say.

I guess this is so that the erstwhile ‘newspaper’ can find out any “dirt” on the 25 and then they will be able to dish it out with orgasmic glee.

In this way they can detract from the fact that respectable individuals, who are essentially conservative people who have served the nation all their working lives, and who I am sure would be happy to spend their retirement in peace with their grandchildren, have felt that this country is in such a poor state that even they have to say something about it. Continue reading “Finding ‘dirt’ on the 25 is dirty, to say the least”

The December 29 Kelantan State Assembly special sitting to implement hudud will be a point of no return for both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat.

The stand of the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn were crystal clear, that hudud laws are at variance with Malaysia’s Constitution that Malaysia is a secular state.

This was also the position of the other MCA and MIC founding fathers of the nation, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V.T. Sambanthan – as well as Tun Dr. Lim Chong Eu who was the second MCA President in 1958 and subsequently left MCA and became the second President of Gerakan from 1969 – 1980.

Indisputably, this was also the position of all the founding fathers of Malaysia from Sabah and Sarawak.

If the Kelantan UMNO Assemblymen are allowed to vote in support of the proposal to implement hudud at the Kelantan State Assembly special sitting on Dec. 29, the whole character and basis of Barisan Nasional would have undergone its most radical transformation in the history of the ruling government coalition in the country.
Continue reading “December 29 Kelantan State Assembly special sitting to implement hudud will be a point of no return for both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat”

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) has gone full circle.

It was met with skepticism from the public when the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the setting up of the RCI, taking seven long months from the Cabinet decision on 8th Feb. 2012 to set it up for the RCI to be appointed with its eight-point terms of reference.

But high hopes were raised that the RCIIIS would not be a “white-wash” when the RCI conducted its public hearings from January to September 2014, with explosive testimonies from some of the 211 witnesses, confirming long-held negative public perceptions that the influx of illegal immigrants in Sabah and the issue of hundreds of thousands of fake identity cards and voting rights particularly under “Project IC” was part of a political conspiracy to change the political demography in Sabah, reducing native Sabahans into strangers in their own land.

When the Report of the RCIIIS was finally made public on Dec. 3, after being put in the cold-storage for more than six months after submission to the Yang di Pertuan Agong on May 14, 2014, public disbelief, dismay and disquiet enveloped Sabahans – with “dashed hopes” and the return of even deeper skepticism. Continue reading “RCIIIS gone full circle – from skepticism of the public when announced, to high hopes raised during public hearings, to dashed hopes and back to even deeper skepticism after RCIIIS Report”

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malay Mail Online
December 23, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 ― A public and intractable row over hudud is raising questions over the viability of Pakatan Rakyat (PR), but Barisan Nasional (BN) faces equally awkward problems despite its calmer surface, according to several political analysts.

They believe that while PR’s public disagreements ― especially between DAP and PAS ― could affect the pact’s future, the disputes were reflective of the equal footing the two parties have along with PKR.

The same cannot be said of BN where Umno stands above and apart from the rest of its coalition partners, the analysts added, citing issues such as Malay rights and even the same Islamic penal code that is giving PR such grief.

BN’s apparent calm was the result of Umno asserting its dominance and political agenda at the expense of the ruling coalition’s weaker component parties. Continue reading “Despite Pakatan’s hudud row, grass not greener on BN’s side, analysts say”

– J.D. Lovrenciear
The Malaysian Insider
22 December 2014

The year 2014 is soon going to be left behind as we gear up, joining the world for another year of hope. We will join billions around the globe come January 1, 2015, with hopeful hearts in prayer and as we celebrate with joy our determination to end pain and drown fears.

For Malaysians, 2014 was indeed a painful year punctured with fears as hopes and joys kept swaying and wilting in the rage of race and religion battles that hogged the media every other day.

2014 was also a year where political parties put their survival above happiness, peace, tolerance and acceptance. It was one of “it is our way or no way”. Continue reading “New Year’s resolution: are all Malaysians ready to stand up for it?”