Posted on

Parti baharu bukan kumpulan terbuang

A Shukur Harun
The Malaysian Insider
30 June 2015

Selepas dikalahkan dengan cara paling hina di muktamar PAS baru-baru ini, golongan progresif dan sederhana dalam parti itu merancang menubuhkan sebuah parti baharu lepas Hari Raya Aidilfitri sebagai memenuhi harapan baharu rakyat Malaysia.

Penubuhan parti ini juga untuk meneruskan legasi perjuangan Allahyaram Datuk Fadzil Mohd Noor dan Allahyarham Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat yang sangat terbuka dan demokratik.

Kumpulan ini mulanya bernama Kumpulan 18 (G18) kini dinamakan “Kumpulan Harapan Baharu” kerana jumlahnya bertambah.

Ia memang berhak mendakwa sebagai pewaris perjuangan kedua-dua tokoh yang amat disayangi majoriti rakyat Malaysia itu.
Ini kerana, golongan progresif ini sangat serasi dengan metodologi perjuangan dua tokoh tersebut iaitu menjadikan PAS parti yang inklusif, tidak jumud dan ekstrem, menyebabkan PAS diterima pelbagai kaum dan agama, meskipun ia tetap memperjuangkan Islam.

Atas inisiatif mereka dan disokong oleh pelbagai badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) serta masyarakat sivil, mereka merancang menubuhkan parti baharu, di mana buat sementara ini dipanggil G18 – mengambil sempena 18 tokoh yang dikalahkan itu. Nama rasmi parti baharu itu akan diumumkan sempena pelancarannya beberapa minggu lagi. Continue reading “Parti baharu bukan kumpulan terbuang”

Posted on

Khalid warns PAS’ growing trend of exclusiveness

Malaysiakini
Jun 30, 2015

PAS will be seen as theocratic and autocratic if it continues to be exclusive by recruiting members only from among religious studies graduates, warned Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad.

In his latest blog posted today, the professional faction leader cautioned the growing trend of exclusiveness, which rejects non-ulama members.

He said this contradicted with the teachings and attitude of late spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, who emphasised the cooperation of ulama and professionals in the party.

Such exclusive attitude will cause the community to stay away from the Islamic party, Khalid cautioned.

As a consequence, PAS will fail in its duty as a political party, which should be open and act fairly to all parties, he added. Continue reading “Khalid warns PAS’ growing trend of exclusiveness”

Posted on

Is Shabery prepared to have a debate with Tony Pua on TV on 1MDB to gauge whether Pua has popular support for his sterling role in demanding accountability and transparency in the 1MDB scandal?

The UMNO/Barisan Nasional agenda to remove DAP MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua from Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearings on the 1MDB scandal is still on stream and seeking to gather greater support, enlisting Ministerial endorsement after the campaign opener by Prime Minister’s choice lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and former Cabinet Minister and PAC Chairman Datuk Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad.

This is why the Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Shabery Cheek has waded into the 1MDB/PAC controversy to spearhead the UMNO/BN guerrilla campaign and tactics demanding that Pua be removed from the PAC hearings on the 1MDB scandal.

Shabery claimed that by his outspokenness on the 1MDB scandal, Pua had “not only shamed the PAC, but also the parliamentary system itself and was no longer qualified to sit in the PAC”.

Shabery was quite hysterical when he charged: “He (Pua) makes biased statements, he should be ashamed, his party should be ashamed, his supporters and those associated with him should also feel ashamed.”

Shabery has indeed made a sorry spectacle of himself.

It is Shabery who should be thoroughly ashamed, and UMNO/BN and the Cabinet who should feel ashamed, for his hysteria and spearheading the UMNO/BN guerrilla campaign and tactics to remove Pua from PAC hearings on 1MDB scandal. Continue reading “Is Shabery prepared to have a debate with Tony Pua on TV on 1MDB to gauge whether Pua has popular support for his sterling role in demanding accountability and transparency in the 1MDB scandal?”

Posted on

PAS now a ‘closed group’, says Faiz Fadzil

By Hafiz Yatim and Yap Jia Hee
Malaysiakini
Jun 30, 2015

INTERVIEW Although the struggle of PAS is still centred around Islam, the party now has deviated from what was envisioned by its late president Fadzil Noor.

Faiz Fadzil, the fifth child of Fadzil – who passed away suddenly in 2002 – said the openness advocated by his father has resulted in the party entering the mainstream of politics in the country.

“Now PAS is backward, closed. I believe my father, if he was here, would not be happy.

“I remember the statement of my late father during the PAS muktamar of 2000 or 2001. He said PAS had to be open and cooperate with other political parties as we cannot do it alone.

“By doing this, it would not put PAS outside the orbit of the Islamic struggle but we should not narrow Islam to only focus on hudud,” Faiz said in an interview with Malaysiakini last week.

The strategy adopted by PAS now, following the election of the conservative ulama group as party leaders, has taken the party backwards, to where it was in the 1970s and 1980s, Faiz, 38, said.

PAS was now ‘a closed group’ following the muktamar and the party elections held early this month. Continue reading “PAS now a ‘closed group’, says Faiz Fadzil”

Posted on

MACC should do soul-searching why its credibility on war against corruption in high political places is zero and explain why it has failed to land a single shark in the past six years

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should come out of its cushy air-conditioned offices and go to the ground and do a soul-searching why its credibility on the war against corruption in high political places is zero, whether the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, the MARA property corruption scandal blowing up in Melbourne or the recent Wall Street Journal expose that 1MDB funds were used to bankroll Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s campaign in the 13th general elections.

It is a reflection of the MACC’s utter lack of credibility and impotence as far as fighting corruption in high political places is concerned that 10 days after the Wall Street Journal report (June 19) on electoral abuses and corruption in the 13th General Elections, several NGOs, led by Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0), Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) and Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) had to gather at the MACC to demand action by the anti-corruption agency yesterday.

What have the MACC officials been doing in the past 10 days over the WSJ report?

Just twiddling thumbs?

Have MACC officers called in the officers and personnel from 1MDB, Genting Plantations and Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YRIM) in the past 10 days to begin investigations arising from the Wall Street Journal report?

Has the MACC opened a file to investigate whether Najib as Prime Minister had misused his position and channel funds from 1MDB to bankroll his 13GE campaign?

Or has absolutely nothing been done on the Wall Street Journal report in the past 10 days? Continue reading “MACC should do soul-searching why its credibility on war against corruption in high political places is zero and explain why it has failed to land a single shark in the past six years”

Posted on

PAS is past. Masa untuk PR2.0

– Riesya H.
The Malaysian Insider
29 June 2015

Ditakdirkan negara kita dijajah Belanda (dan bukan British), dan sistem pilihan raya kita semacam sistem di Indonesia, negara kita ini bukan lagi milik Umno/Barisan Nasional. Tetapi sudah menjadi milik rakyat. Pakatan Rakyat (dengan undi popular 5.6 juta), jauh meninggalkan BN (Cuma 5.2juta). Congak mudahnya, BN Cuma layak menerima 105 kerusi. Selebihnya adalah kerusi milik rakyat. PR.

Tapi, apakan daya. Kata P.Ramlee, “cubaaan!!”

Perlu direkodkan, dari 5.6juta undi PR, sejumlah 1.8juta adalah undi pemula. Orang yang pertama kali mengundi PR. Orang yang mempertaruhkan harapan demi masa depan yang baru. Orang yang teruja dengan slogan “ini kali lah”. Continue reading “PAS is past. Masa untuk PR2.0”

Posted on

Malaysians owe debt of eternal gratitude to Wan Junaidi who resolved week-long mystery about allegations of Justo’s 1MDB “tampered emails” – no evidence whatsoever but just “logical assumption”!

Malaysians owe the Deputy Home Minister, Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar a debt of eternal gratitude for he has resolved a mystery which had vexed thinking Malaysians for a week – the allegations of about 1MDB “tampered emails” which surfaced after the arrest of Swiss national and former PetroSaudi International (PSI) IT executive, Xavier Andre Justo at a house in Koh Samui, Thailand the previous Monday (June 22).

Type in “1MDB tampered email” in Google search and there will be scores of news report about the allegations about “tampered emails” associated with the 1MDB scandal – all a week-old vintage after Justo’s arrest.

For months and years since the surfacing of the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, nobody had ever raised the issue of “tampered emails”.

Even after shocking expose four months ago when the whistleblower website Sarawak Report in its article “Heist of the Century” of Feb. 28 announced that together with London Sunday Times, they have completed an in-depth investigation into “thousands of documents and emails” relating to the transactions by 1MDB, including its initial joint venture with the little-known oil company PetroSaudi International from 2009, nobody had breathed a word about “tampered emails”.

Even the police report lodged in the United Kingdom at the London Police’s National Fraud and Cyber Crime Report Centre by PSI on March 1 was not about “tampered emails” but about confidential emails and servers had been hacked into and the contents made public.

Why did the issue of “tampered emails” burst into the public domain and only after the arrest of Justo, but only in Malaysia but not elsewhere in the world and not even in Thailand where Justo was arrested for blackmail – with one Minister after another assuming that it is Gospel truth and threatening action against the media and all and sundry who spoke up on the 1MDB scandal? Continue reading “Malaysians owe debt of eternal gratitude to Wan Junaidi who resolved week-long mystery about allegations of Justo’s 1MDB “tampered emails” – no evidence whatsoever but just “logical assumption”!”

Posted on

A new RM17.8 bil twist in 1MDB ‘guarantee’

P. GUNASEGARAM
KiniBiz
JUNE 29, 2015

TIGERTALK

Tony Pua and 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) are in dispute over whether there’s a government guarantee or not over US$4.71 bil (RM17.8 bil) IPIC loans to the latter. But taking off the semantics and just maintaining the meaning shows Pua is clearly right.

Latest developments at self-styled strategic development company 1MDB indicates yet again that it is not fully forthcoming on the problems that are affecting it, in this case a loan and guarantee arrangement between 1MDB and Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and its subsidiary Aabar Investments PJS involving US$4.5 billion (RM17 billion).

MP Tony Pua first highlighted this referring to a London Stock Exchange (LSE) statement by IPIC on changes to its debt settlement arrangements with IPIC. Presumably, since IPIC is an international borrower whose debts are listed on the LSE, it had to make those disclosures to the exchange.

That IPIC statement clearly sets out obligations under the debt settlement agreement. Essentially, the terms covered were as follows:

*on 4 June 2015, IPIC provided US$1 billion to 1MDB for it to immediately settle some liabilities. On the same day IPIC assumed obligations to pay (on an interim basis) all interest due under two IPIC guaranteed 1MDB financings amounting to US$3.5 billion.

*by 30 June 2016, about a year from now, IPIC is to have received a transfer of assets representing the RM1 billion cash payment, the US$3.5 billion debt and any debt forgiveness.

*Upon the completion of the transfer of assets, IPIC will directly assume liability for all payment obligations under the US$3.5 billion debt and forgive certain financial obligations of the 1MDB Group to the IPIC Group.

*Finally, 1MDB and MOF (Ministry of Finance) have agreed to perform the obligations in the binding term sheet and to indemnify IPIC and Aabar for any non-performance, and vice versa. IPIC has met the US1 billion cash payment and will meet the interim interest payments under the US$3.5 billion debt from existing liquidity available.

From the fourth condition, it emerged clearly that the MOF now also assumes liability together with 1MDB for transferring the necessary assets to IPIC. Continue reading “A new RM17.8 bil twist in 1MDB ‘guarantee’”

Posted on

‘Conservatives reverting PAS to a kampung party’

Malaysiakini
Jun 29, 2015

The “narrow minded” in PAS today have undone all the hard work undertaken by former party president Fadzil Noor to raise the status of the party from its provincial roots.

So said PAS leader Khalid Samad on his blog today, in a lament that alleged conservative elements are destroying efforts to make the party inclusive and relevant to the national political and Islamic scene.

“Unfortunately, the attitude of openness that was shown by the late Fadzil Noor isn’t being perpetuated by the narrow minded.

“Allegations of ‘infiltration’ (by external parties), ‘wanting to grab power’ and ‘grand design’ are often mentioned by those who disagree with (Fadzil’s) approach,” said Khalid, who is Shah Alam MP.

Relating the achievements of Fadzil and how the latter built up the party by engaging with and through the help of outside parties such as Islamic NGOs and civil society, Khalid said the latest developments in the party were steps backwards.

“Today this narrow-minded attitude has regained control of most of the leadership of PAS, as it had been before the days of Fadzil. Continue reading “‘Conservatives reverting PAS to a kampung party’”