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Bersih 4 Rally – The whole world is watching and Malaysia must not fail the global test of human rights, democracy and good governance so as not to head towards a rogue and failed state

The whole world is watching Malaysia on August 29 and 30.

Malaysia must not fail the global best of human rights, democracy and good governance so as not to head towards a rogue and failed state.

Malaysians should have had enough of bad news in the past weeks and months, with the Malaysian ringgit becoming “shringgit”, sinking to a 17-year-low to 4.2680 to a US dollar at 10.17 am today, and taken off notice boards of money-changers overseas with the notation “P.O.A.” or “price on application” because of its extreme volatility.

Malaysia’s foreign exchange reserves fell 19% since the start of the year, dipping below the US$100 billion for the first time last month since 2010, falling to US$94.5 billion on August 14 from US$96.7 billion on July 31.

The Kuala Lumpur stock market has also crashed.

Capital outflows from the country are accelerating, to three times the size of capital investments in the country in Q1.

These are not the only woes Malaysia is facing, as there is a multiple crisis of confidence affecting not just the economy, but also about good governance and democracy in Malaysia.

The Police should end all the semantics about the legality or otherwise of Bersih 4 overnight rally on August 29/30, and be guided by Suhakam which had stressed that the police have no power to ban any peaceful gathering and must instead protect the participants. Continue reading “Bersih 4 Rally – The whole world is watching and Malaysia must not fail the global test of human rights, democracy and good governance so as not to head towards a rogue and failed state”

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Call for emergency Parliament in first week of September on three issues: (I) Economic, Political and Governance Crisis; (ii) fill PAC vacancies; and (iii) whether nation needs new PM and new Government

More and more voices are being raised expressing grave concern about the state of Malaysian economy, governance and democracy.

Today, among those who have spoken range from the Sultan of Johor; the nation’s top banker and brother of the Prime Minister, CIMB group chairman Datuk Nazir Razak and former Cabinet Minster who was Minister for Trade and Industry for more than two decades from 1987-2008, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz.

Sultan Ibrahim Ismail Iskandar of Johor called on the federal government to resolve the instability facing the country as well as the falling ringgit.

He said that the “unstable political and economic situation“ the country is in now is a major issue which has to be dealt with immediately.
He said Putrajaya should not fool the rakyat by whitewashing the problems faced by the country.

Nazir voiced concern over the economy due to the ringgit freefall and said “people in power should stop saying ‘stupid things’ in order to help the economy”.

Rafidah questioned whether Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s acceptance of RM2.6 billion, said to be from a Middle Eastern donor, has opened Umno to being manipulated by foreigners. Continue reading “Call for emergency Parliament in first week of September on three issues: (I) Economic, Political and Governance Crisis; (ii) fill PAC vacancies; and (iii) whether nation needs new PM and new Government”

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The Unfortunate Case of Malaysia’s Prime Minister

Greg Lopez
Forbes
Aug 25, 2015

The feeling that Malaysia is now in an abyss is real. Malaysians fear terrible things are happening to them and their country because of poor leadership. The man who – rightly or wrongly – will be blamed for all of Malaysia’s woes will unfortunately be the current prime minister.

In June this year, the minister responsible for transforming the Malaysian economy – Idris Jala – in an open letter to Bloomberg , complained that he hardly recognised the country that Bloomberg columnist William Pesek was writing about. In the open letter, Idris Jala provided a robust rebuttal to William Pesek’s derisive commentary on Malaysia.

Last week, Prime Minister Najib Razak was compelled to assert that Malaysia is not a failed state as public outrage reached a crescendo. Some even suggested that Malaysia is heading towards both a dictatorship and a failed state. Najib Razak countered with statistics and examples. Continue reading “The Unfortunate Case of Malaysia’s Prime Minister”