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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”

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Tribute to Ho Kay Tat and shame to Liow Tiong Lai

The publisher and Group CEO of The Edge Media Group, Ho Kay Tat put it very bluntly that when faced with evidence that what was supposed to be a joint venture that will bring economic benefits to the country turned out to be nothing more than a scheme to scam billions of ringgit from Malaysia by a small group of Malaysians and their foreign partners, the Edge Media Group had two choices:

1) Drop the matter like a hot potato and walk away, or

2) Get hold of everything so that the truth can be uncovered.

To their eternal credit as well as the gratitude of all decent and honest Malaysians who want to be able to hold their heads high in a country where ethical, moral and religious values are not just meant for the pulpits but are the compass of everyday living, the Edge decided to pursue the truth. Continue reading “Tribute to Ho Kay Tat and shame to Liow Tiong Lai”

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We could not walk away on finding out about the scheme to cheat Malaysia of billions of ringgit

The Malaysian Insider
21 July 2015

The Edge had reported extensively on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in 2013 and 2014 as it emerged that the government-owned entity had run into financial difficulties.

Information was, however, scarce and limited because its annual audited financial reports were consistently late.

Our journalists have met various contacts and pored through whatever available information they could get hold of in search of the truth.

Early this year, we were told someone was willing to share information that will shed light on 1MDB’s joint-venture with PetroSaudi International. We were not told who he was before we met him.

This person, whom we shall not name, showed us thousands and thousands of emails and document attachments. Continue reading “We could not walk away on finding out about the scheme to cheat Malaysia of billions of ringgit”

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“Aye” to Rahman’s new appointment as BN strategic communications director as he has made more than half-dozen strategic errors in six days – at least one a day!

I say “aye” to Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s new appointment as Barisan Nasional strategic communications director as he has made more than half-dozen strategic errors in six days – a most admirable rate of one strategic mistake a day.

It will not be easy to find such a bull in a China shop on both sides of the political divide, and it’s a real boon that he has becoming BN strategic communications director.

Just to enumerate half-dozen strategic errors chalked up by the newly-minted BN strategic communications director in his six days in office:

1. To regard former Sarawak journalist Lester Melanyi as a “god-send” not only to end Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s intractable woes from the long-standing 1MBD scandal but an excellent occasion for him to “debut” as Najib’s new right-hand man replacing Jarjis Jamaluddin and Lim Kok Wing. Rahman broke the first rule in failing to check on Lester’s antecedents. Within 48 hours, he acknowledged Lester’s dubious character, which was why he could pen the infamous description “it takes a scum to know another scum”, defaming in the process not only Sarawak Report’s Clare Brown but also the Sarawak leaders of Barisan Nasional and even the Prime Minister himself. Continue reading ““Aye” to Rahman’s new appointment as BN strategic communications director as he has made more than half-dozen strategic errors in six days – at least one a day!”

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Will Cabinet tomorrow discuss the violation of Malaysia’s Bill of Guarantee to the world of “No Internet censorship” in blocking access to Sarawak Report or no Minister would dare to express disagreement?

Will the Cabinet tomorrow discuss the violation of Malaysia’s 17-year Bill of Guarantee to the world of “No Internet censorship” in blocking access to Sarawak Report website or no Minister would dare to express disagreement?

In fact, it is not only the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is under a “cloud” with regard to his commitment to the principles of accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance (which are supposed to be the foundation principles of his highly-hyped National Transformation Programme), the integrity of the entire Cabinet is also under question.

This will be the first time in Malaysian history that the integrity of the entire Cabinet has come under a cloud.

Yesterday, I asked the newly-minted Barisan Nasional strategic communication director and Minister for Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan whether he could “declare publicly that he and UMNO Sabah had not received a single sen from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal accounts in AmBank for the 13th General Election campaign”, referring in particular to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report of July 2 that Malaysian government investigators have found US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) deposited into the Prime Minister’s personal bank accounts in March 2013 just before the dissolution of Parliament and the holding of the 13th General Election.

It is no surprise that there is thunderous silence from Abdul Rahman on this question.

In fact, this question should also be directed to all Ministers in the Cabinet.

Can every Cabinet Ministers declare whether or not he or she had received any funding from Najib through the Prime Minister’s personal accounts in AmBank for the 13th General Election campaigning, and if so, to state the amount and whether the Cabinet Ministers concerned would not participate in any Cabinet discussion or decision relating to the WSJ report on July 2 and 1MDB scandal, in view of their conflict-of-interest position? Continue reading “Will Cabinet tomorrow discuss the violation of Malaysia’s Bill of Guarantee to the world of “No Internet censorship” in blocking access to Sarawak Report or no Minister would dare to express disagreement?”

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Keris waving: A decade later

— Liew Chin Tong
The Malay Mail Online
July 20, 2015

JULY 20 — A decade ago on 20th July 2005, the then Umno Youth chief Hishammudin Hussein gave his infamous keris-wielding speech during the Umno Youth General Assembly, in a gesture that has come to symbolise Umno’s turn to right-wing politics since then.

His act of Keris waving is arguably the image that defined the last decade of Malaysian politics. Coupled together with Umno’s right turn, it paved the way for Umno’s dramatic decline.

The Keris waving act was part of the push to the right by certain groups within Umno during the 2005 Umno General Assembly.

The resolution of the said General Assembly was the introduction of a “Malay Agenda” and the reintroduction of the New Economic Policy, which had been downplayed in the early 1990s .

The keris waving act and Umno’s right turn did not gain Umno much new Malay support as the Malay middle ground dislikes harsh and extreme acts. Continue reading “Keris waving: A decade later”

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GHB is not PAS 2.0

— L.S. Yap
The Malay Mail Online
July 20, 2015

JULY 20 — The fear that the new Islamic-leaning party Gabungan Harapan Baru (GHB) will be another religious party advocating theocracy is unfounded. There is a tendency amongst secularists to resort to fear mongering to skew the direction of national politics. The story is a familiar one: the participation of the religious political parties will pave the way for the degeneration of our democracy into a religious theocracy.

However, these fears are built on the assumption that the GHB and PAS can be simplistically banded together as Islamic parties for Malays. This is an unhelpful generalisation, with the dangerous potential to obfuscate rather than elucidate.

While PAS can be said to be principally a religious movement with its participation in democracy an instrument to achieving its objectives, GHB is a political party with religion to provide it with legitimacy. Politics is employed by PAS to give greater force to its religious movement, whereas religion is carefully used to legitimise the political mission of GHB.

In other words, religion is the raison de’etre of PAS, while the democratic wishes of its members, not religion, is the primary concern of GHB. Nowhere is this more clear from the top down and bottom up party structure of PAS and GHB respectively. Continue reading “GHB is not PAS 2.0”

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Menjawab mereka yang skeptikal isu parti baru

Khalid Samad
Malaysiakini
20 Jul 2015

Kebelakangan ini saya banyak ‘terbaca’ tulisan seorang yang bernama Fathi Aris Omar. Tulisannya telah ‘diwhatsappkan’ kepada saya oleh seorang kenalan yang meminta saya memberi komen balas.

Jarang saya berminat untuk respon tulisan orang yang tidak saya kenali, tetapi setelah membaca beberapa tulisannya, saya merasakan ada keperluan untuk saya respon bukan sahaja kepada beliau tetapi kepada mereka yang turut berfikiran skeptikal seperti beliau. Continue reading “Menjawab mereka yang skeptikal isu parti baru”

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Art Harun: Sarawak Report ban is laughable and tragic

FMT Reporters | July 20, 2015

Lawyer takes aim at Najib and says the PM prefers to shoot the messenger rather than probe the wrongdoings he has been accused of

PETALING JAYA: The decision by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block access to the Sarawak Report (SR) website on the grounds of national security and public order is both laughable and tragic, said lawyer and human rights activist Art Harun.

In a blog posting where he goes at the prime minister and the government with guns blazing, Art accused Najib Razak of preferring to “shoot the messenger” and asked, “Has that (the ban) got to do with the immediate witch-hunting by our authorities against those who dare publish ‘facts’ rather than investigating the wrong-doings that are so apparent from those facts?”

He was referring to the expose by the Sarawak Report and The Wall Street Journal that USD700 million of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds had found its way into the private bank accounts of Najib. Continue reading “Art Harun: Sarawak Report ban is laughable and tragic”

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I never realise that we may have a Cabinet Minister who is a “world beater” in having the world’s lowest IQ for Ministers

I never realise that we may have a Cabinet Minister who is a “world-beater” in having the lowest IQ for Ministers in the world.

This thought struck me when I was told about the New Straits Times report today entitled “’Can DAP deny Pua’s alleged links to Justo?’”

The NST report reads:

“Lim Kit Siang and the DAP leadership have been challenged to deny Tony Pua’s involvement with former PetroSaudi International Ltd former executive Xavier Andre Justo.

“’Can Lim Kit Siang and DAP leadership deny that Tony Pua (DAP Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament) has nothing to do with Justo and not involved in any way?

“”Yes or no?’ Barisan Nasional strategic communication director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan posted on Twitter yesterday.”

I am completely befuddled.

I thought Pua could not be clearer when he answered Rahman who asked the first time early this month whether the DAP MP for PJ Utara had met Justo. Continue reading “I never realise that we may have a Cabinet Minister who is a “world beater” in having the world’s lowest IQ for Ministers”

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For his best self-interest, Najib should immediately direct MCMC to stop blocking access to Sarawak Report or he is transforming 1MDB scandal from a local into an international scandal of first magnitude

What a Hari Raya “gift” from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak – blocking access to the Sarawak Report website and overnight undergoing three transformations for Malaysia’s “Father of Transformation”, viz:

• Transforming the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal and the posts on the Sarawak Report website from a local scandal into an international scandal of the first magnitude;

• Transforming Najib from a Nothing2Hide to Everything2Hide Prime Minister, all in a matter of 45 days from June 5, 2015 – the date of Najib‘s ill-fated and aborted 1MDB “Nothing2Hide” forum at Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur.

• Transforming Najib from the most Internet-savvy Prime Minister of Malaysia into Malaysia’s most frightened-of-Internet Prime Minister, even violating Tun Mahathir and the Malaysian Government’s 17-year-old Bill of Guarantee of “No Censorship of Internet”.to the world.

Continue reading “For his best self-interest, Najib should immediately direct MCMC to stop blocking access to Sarawak Report or he is transforming 1MDB scandal from a local into an international scandal of first magnitude”

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Citizen Nades – Come clean on issues

R. Nadeswaran
Sun
19 July 2015

IN the course of a career spanning over four decades, this writer had the opportunity to meet gang leaders, thieves, drug addicts, rapists and even a murderer. The man who painted the now-demolished Pudu Prison wall – a man convicted for a drug offence – was a regular visitor to the office after his release.

There were also encounters with another “elitist” group including con-sultans, spin-doctors, lobbyists and even bag carriers and cowherds with bags of money masquerading as middlemen.

Like the undertaker who sees everyone as a potential client, the journalist views most people as a source of information. Thus, there is this need to associate with people from varying backgrounds. Information from these sources, which has to be verified, can sometimes lead to a big story.

From a legal standpoint, it is not an offence to meet anyone. Having a coffee or a beer with any of them is no less than having a tete-a-tete with a minister or a senior government official. The principle that “I have a right to choose whom I want to associate with” comes into play.

Therefore, there seems to be a witch-hunt of sorts for those who met former Petro-Saudi official Xavier Justo, now in custody in Thailand. Continue reading “Citizen Nades – Come clean on issues”

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Joining New Hope Movement hardest decision of my life, says Mujahid

by Looi Sue-Chern
The Malaysian Insider
19 July 2015

PAS MP Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa made the hardest decision of his life when he launched the New Hope Movement (GHB) with other progressive leaders from the party earlier this week.

The turning point in his political life is likely to see him leave the Islamist party and become a founding member of a new political organisation with his “purged” colleagues.

“It is the most difficult decision of my life. I was born and bred in the politics of PAS. My mother was pregnant with me when my father campaigned in Perlis in 1964.

“When I was born on October 25 that year, my father had to find a name that reflected the challenges he went through. So he named me Mujahid, which means a fighter who doesn’t give up.

“I have to live up to my name with the difficulties I face. It has made me who I am,” the 50-year-old told The Malaysian Insider. Continue reading “Joining New Hope Movement hardest decision of my life, says Mujahid”

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Thoughts At The End of Ramadan – On Being A Muslim

M. Bakri Musa
www.bakrimusa.com

A Muslim is one who subscribes to the five pillars of our faith – attests to the oneness of Allah and Prophet Muhammad, s.a.w., as His Last Messenger (shahadah); prays five times a day; fasts during Ramadan; gives zakat; and conditions permitting, undertakes the Hajj.

Significant for its absence is any explicit reference to the Koran, the complete and final guide from God “for all mankind, at all times, and till the end of time.”

The essence of the Koran is Al-amr bi ‘l-ma’ruf wa ‘n-nahy ani ‘l-munkar. It is referred to many times in the text. The approximate translation is, “Command good and forbid evil;” or in Malay, “Biasakan yang baik, jauhi yang jahat.” Succinct and elegant in both languages as it is in the original classical Arabic!

As this central message is not one of the five pillars of our faith, no surprise then that it is frequently missed by the masses. It is also often lost in the thick tomes of religious scholars, erudite sermons of bedecked ulamas, and frenzied jingoisms of zealous jihadists.

Enlightened scholars of yore had suggested that the Koran’s essence be the sixth pillar, after and presumably below Hajj. That did not gain traction. Continue reading “Thoughts At The End of Ramadan – On Being A Muslim”

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Pakatan Rakyat would have been wiped out in the 14GE if it had contested the next polls in total disregard of the violation of the PR Common Policy Framework by one of the component parties

Three 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 more overwhelming as it was nearly four-fold 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. Continue reading “Pakatan Rakyat would have been wiped out in the 14GE if it had contested the next polls in total disregard of the violation of the PR Common Policy Framework by one of the component parties”