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Call on newly-appointed Minister for Higher Education Idris Jusoh to advise university administrators to respect the intellectual freedom of students and stop treating them as children as Malaysia aspires to university academic excellence

I call on the newly-appointed Minister for Higher Education, Datuk Idris Jusoh to advise university administrators in the country to respect the intellectual freedom of students and to stop treating them as children if Malaysia truly aspires to achieve university academic excellence in the world.

Idris should advise Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) to withdraw the suspension of two students, Hanif Mahpa and Afiqah Zulkifli for organising a forum on the goods and services tax (GST) and inviting a Member of Parliament and PKR vice president Rafizi Ramli to the forum last May. Continue reading “Call on newly-appointed Minister for Higher Education Idris Jusoh to advise university administrators to respect the intellectual freedom of students and stop treating them as children as Malaysia aspires to university academic excellence”

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Anwar Ibrahim should be released to take part in “Save Malaysia” National Summit which should focus on change of policies and not change of Prime Minister to prevent Malaysia becoming a rogue and failed state

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should be released to take part in a
“Save Malaysia” National Summit involving all political parties, NGOs and national elders as the real challenge confronting Malaysia today is to prevent the nation from becoming a rogue and failed state and not about the change of the Prime Minister. It is about the change of national policies.

Malaysia has clearly lost our way since the nation’s Merdeka 58 year ago and the formation of Malaysia 52 years ago, and a “Save Malaysia” National Summit involving all political parties, NGOs and national elders like former Prime Ministers like Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah, former Deputy Prime Ministers like Tun Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, political and NGO veterans like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, Datuk Seri Daniel Tajem, Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, Rev Paul Tan and others is the best way to return to our bearings and what is the best medicine for the country to take at present.

Compare the achievements of Malaysia and Singapore after 50 years of separation, and Malaysian leaders cannot continue to belabor under the denial syndrome that everything in Malaysia is fine, when the country is sliding down the slippery slope of collapse of good governance, worsening corruption, losing out in the international competitiveness race for a robust economy and educated citizenry, accompanied by the most worrying national division caused the worst racial and religious polarization in the past few years.

A “Save Malaysia” National Summit pooling the talents, expertise, resources and experience of patriotic Malaysians should be able to come out with a blueprint to halt Malaysia from hurtling towards a rogue and failed state, and set the national direction to become a showcase to the world of an economically successful and political vibrant plural society, where democracy, rule of law and human rights are examples for the rest of region if not the world. Continue reading “Anwar Ibrahim should be released to take part in “Save Malaysia” National Summit which should focus on change of policies and not change of Prime Minister to prevent Malaysia becoming a rogue and failed state”

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Police arrests and investigations under Section 124B in the current crackdown against the Ministerial assurances when the law was passed in Parliament that this section will only be used against those who used “violent and unconstitutional means”

Until a month ago, nobody has heard of Section 124B but in the past few weeks, Section 124B of the Penal Code has forced itself into public consciousness as the new monstrous weapon which the Najib administration is using to launch a major crackdown and usher a new Dark Age in Malaysia.

How many people have been arrested or investigated under Section 124B of the Penal Code.

I do not know, but it is safe to say that never have so many people been arrested or investigated under Section 124B of the Penal Code on “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” which can send a person to jail for a maximum of 20 years – and all these police arrests and investigations are against the ministerial assurances given to Parliament in 2012 when the new law was enacted that it would only be used against those who carry out “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” by “violent and unconstitutional means”.

When pressed in Parliament on why Section 124B had not spelt out clearly that Section 124B only referred to “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” by “violent and unconstitutional means”, the then de facto Law Minister, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz claimed that this is understood and even referred to Oxford Dictionary that “activities detrimental to Parliamentary Democracy” means “by violent and unconstitutional means”.

When Nazri presented the Penal Code amendment of the new Section 124B, Parliament was in fact given to understand that it was meant to tackle terrorism previously covered by the already repealed Internal Security Act. Continue reading “Police arrests and investigations under Section 124B in the current crackdown against the Ministerial assurances when the law was passed in Parliament that this section will only be used against those who used “violent and unconstitutional means””