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Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli and Tong Kooi Ong looking at criminal charges which may sent them to jail for up to 20 years

The police have said that DAP MP for PJ Utara Tony Pua, PKR MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli and Edge Media Group owner Tong Kooi Ong are being investigated under Section 124 of the Penal Code.
A senior police source has confirmed with Malaysiakini that the three are being probed for alleged activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy.

Pua, Rafizi and Tong are looking at criminal charges which may sent them to jail for up to 20 years.

The offences of “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” are new-fangled offences in Sections 124B to 124N introduced by the Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2012 which was passed by Parliament in 2012, given the Royal Assent on 18th June 2012 and gazetted on 22nd June 2012. Continue reading “Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli and Tong Kooi Ong looking at criminal charges which may sent them to jail for up to 20 years”

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Seeking a meeting with Najib on establishment of Royal Commission of Truth and Reconciliation on the Low Yat Race Riot to ensure that there will be no recurrence of race riots because of petty crimes

I have written to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak seeking a meeting on the establishment of a Royal Commission of Truth and Reconciliation on Low Yat Race Riot to ensure that there will be no recurrence of race riots because of petty crime.

In my email to the Prime Minister, I also suggested that the terms of reference of the Royal Commission of Truth and Reconciliation on the Low Yat Race Riot should include the following seven items:

• How Malaysia can be a world model of a successful, united, peaceful and harmonious multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation;

• Whether the police could have acted pre-emptively to prevent the petty crime of mobile phone theft from being transformed into a race riot involving a few hundred people;
• The attack on journalists;

• The role of social media with Ministers blaming it as a main culprit of the Low Yat Mob Incident;

• Whether one major cause of the Low Yat riot was the incessant incitement of hatred as a result of irresponsible politics of race and religion in recent years.

• Whether the Low Yat Incident is proof of the failure of nation-building policies, particularly the Prime Minister’s 1Malaysia signature policy and decades of Biro Tata Negara’s “racist” courses.

• A blueprint to ensure that there will be recurrence of race riots from petty crimes, which is particularly important for a plural society like Malaysia.

Continue reading “Seeking a meeting with Najib on establishment of Royal Commission of Truth and Reconciliation on the Low Yat Race Riot to ensure that there will be no recurrence of race riots because of petty crimes”

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Puisi panjang harapan baru

A Shukur Harun
The Malaysian Insider
21 July 2015

Teman-temanku yang dikasihi

Petang itu aku berdiri di anjung masjid

Menyaksikan senja merah beransur hilang

Membawa pulang Ramadhan Kareem

Kutulis puisi ini dalam dakapan

Aidilfitri yang harum semerbak

Menebarkan kasih sayang sesama umat

Teman-temanku yang dikasihi

Detik yang lalu jangan ditangisi

Kerana ia bukan lagi bersama kita

“If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life”,

Your tears will prevent you

from seeing the stars,”

kata penyair dunia Rabindranath Tagore Continue reading “Puisi panjang harapan baru”

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The new coalition of Malaysian progressives – whether Pakatan Rakyat 2.0, New Pakatan Rakyat or Harapan Rakyat – will be sequel to 13GE battle in 14GE to rekindle hopes and aspirations of Malaysians for political change in Putrajaya

Five days ago, I posed the question whether PAS could lose Kelantan in the next 14th General Election.

I said that based on the 13th General Election performance, if there is a 4% swing of voters against PAS in Kelantan in the next poll, PAS will lose power in the state it had governed for 25 years since 1990.

Is a 4% swing in a state an unlikely happening?

In the 13th General Election in Kedah, PAS and Pakatan Rakyat lost the Kedah State Government because there was a 3.8% swing of the voters against PAS.

The voter swing against PAS was even greater and more overwhelming during the 2004 General Election in Terengganu, where there was a 15% swing of voters against PAS, sweeping out the Terengganu PAS State Government after only one term of Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi as the Terengganu Mentri Besar.

There is no doubt that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would have been wiped out in the next general election if Pakatan Rakyat had contested the next polls in total disregard of the violation of the PR Common Policy Framework by one of the component parties, with hudud as a controversial issue in the election campaign. Continue reading “The new coalition of Malaysian progressives – whether Pakatan Rakyat 2.0, New Pakatan Rakyat or Harapan Rakyat – will be sequel to 13GE battle in 14GE to rekindle hopes and aspirations of Malaysians for political change in Putrajaya”

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Is it really new hope?

– Wan Saiful Wan Jan
The Malaysian Insider
21 July 2015

This Raya week marks the beginning of a more concerted effort by some towering figures in PAS to set up a new political party.

Calling themselves Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB) or New Hope Movement, they have started a nationwide tour to speak to the public in all states across Malaysia.

The events in Kelantan and Perlis on Sunday received a very warm reception. Turnout was very good and people that I spoke too who attended the events were clearly excited.

PAS’s response to GHB is expected. They see it as a threat and they are painting GHB with bad light. This is sheer hypocrisy.

Various individuals in PAS, including their president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, have gone overboard to insult their former colleagues who lost in the party elections in June.

Hadi was even quoted to use words such as “barua” and “tolol” when referring to the GHB leaders, albeit without mentioning them directly. Continue reading “Is it really new hope?”

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What Europe should learn from Malaysia and other Asian crises

— William Pesek
Malay Mail Online
Tuesday July 21, 2015

JULY 21 — Asian leaders could be excused a degree of exasperation over the ongoing Greek mess. China’s slowdown and stock-market chaos are worry enough; the last thing the export-dependent region needs is a Europe in chaos. Worse, European leaders seem intent on misreading or ignoring lessons from Asia’s own brush with collapse.

Greece’s financial odyssey

Of course, the circumstances in 1997 were quite different. Where Greece is insolvent, Asia then was illiquid. As capital fled, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea suddenly couldn’t pay foreign-currency debts, much of it short-term. Still, there are at least three lessons officials in Athens and Brussels can learn from Asia’s post-crisis repairs.

One: The debate over austerity is a distraction. Pundits quarrelling over Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s motivations, or whether German Chancellor Angela Merkel has a heart, are missing the real issue: structural reform. Continue reading “What Europe should learn from Malaysia and other Asian crises”