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Is it out of selfish political interests that Liow Tiong Lai and the MCA’s 7/11 team of elected representatives are so protective of Najib’s twin RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” scandals?

MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai should explain why the MCA’s 7/11 team of elected representatives (seven MPs and 11 State Assemblymen) successful in the 13th General Election are so protective of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s twin RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” scandals.

Is the MCA’s over-protectiveness of Najib’s financial scandals a shield actually to protect the selfish political interests of the MCA leaders and to fob off any demands to cut down the number Ministerial and deputy ministerial posts given to MCA?

As it is, MCA already has three Ministers and four deputy Ministers (although three of the deputy ministers are senators).

As MCA President, Liow should explain why the MCA team in government had been completely silent and passive as far as the issues and principles of accountability, transparency and good governance are concerned.

Good examples are Najib’s RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” scandals. Continue reading “Is it out of selfish political interests that Liow Tiong Lai and the MCA’s 7/11 team of elected representatives are so protective of Najib’s twin RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” scandals?”

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What the Red Shirt rally was really about

— Ooi Kee Beng
The Malay Mail Online
September 28, 2015

SEPTEMBER 28 — Following the Red Shirt rally in Kuala Lumpur on Sept 16, discussions have been rife that the embattled government of Prime Minister Najib Razak was “playing the race card” to bolster support and to distract the public — especially its Malay supporters — from distressing issues at hand.

It is true that the demonstration was a purely Malay rally, but what is essential to note is that while the initial impulse to organise it came from people who were undoubtedly trying to highlight and deepen the racial divide, by the time the event did take place, much of that had been deftly turned into a show of support for the beleaguered Prime Minister by his staunchest followers.

In the end, few incidents took place and the riot police did not have much trouble keeping at bay rowdy demonstrators, who were symbolically trying to get into the city’s Chinatown.

This is an important point to highlight: The racialising did not spread. Continue reading “What the Red Shirt rally was really about”

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Timeline: The twists and turns in the tale of 1MDB

Saheli Roy Choudhury | Special to CNBC
Monday, 21 Sep 2015 | 11:03 PM ET

For Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak, the hits keep coming.

Just as the capital Kuala Lumpur settles down following a fraught rally last week, at which riot police turned water cannons on supporters of the PM, top U.S. media outlets, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and the New York Times (NYT), have reported yet more scandalous allegations about the country’s sovereign wealth fund.

The 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) has been in the limelight for months, amid allegations of false auditing, huge debt and, more recently, financial fraud, with alleged links to Najib himself. (The PM has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. His office has yet to respond to a request for comment on the latest developments.)

For outsiders, the twists and turns surrounding 1MDB can be dizzying. So, as the action heats up, here is a handy timeline of the events you should know about:

2008 – 1MDB is launched in the Malaysian state of Terengganu, with the aim of promoting long-term, sustainable economic development.

2009 – Najib expands the fund’s operation nationally, with himself as chairman of the fund’s advisory board.

2010 – Tony Pua, an MP with Malaysia’s biggest opposition party, questions Najib on the fund’s 425 million ringgit ($99.7 million*) profit, the Malaysian Insider reports. Pua asked the Najib to explain whether the paper profits were a result of transferring other government assets to 1MDB.
Continue reading “Timeline: The twists and turns in the tale of 1MDB”

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Three questions Najib should explain to the Malaysian diaspora during his visit to United Nations and New York whether Malays and Islam in Malaysia are under threat and how to Save Malaysia

There are three questions which the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najb Razak should explain to the Malaysian Diaspora during his 10-day visit to the United Nations and New York.

Najib will be having high-tea with the Malaysian diaspora at the Malaysian Permanent Representative Office in New York as part of the government’s outreach programme with overseas Malaysians who are residing, studying and working in the United States.

These three questions are highlighted by Malaysian patriot and leading NGO and human rights advocate, Zainah Anwar in her article in her regular column in Star newspaper entitled “Questions to ponder” on July 26, 2015.

I recently read Zainah’s original and unedited article, which posed these three questions in an even more succinct and eloquent manner.

Zainah started her article worrying about the nation’s future, and the opening paragraphs in her original and unedited article were as follows:

“I am beginning to feel as if this country and its rakyat are being crushed and pummelled by wrecking balls. The wrecking ball of race and religion, of insatiable greed, of desperation to stay in power, of never-ending sense of entitlements, of unpunished crimes and abuses, of ideology over rational thinking, justice, and fair play.

“These concerns are nothing new. What’s new is the breathtaking scale, the endlessness of it all, and the shamelessness with which the perpetrators display their unscrupulous, destructive and criminal behaviour, in words and deeds.

“The seeds of this rot were sown a long time ago. A party that has been in dominant power for over 50 years breeds its own seeds of destruction. For too long, too many of its leaders and party apparatchiks have been getting away with all manner of transgressions that they believe they are immune to any form of retribution.”

Zainah said she was in Geneva in early July and “UN officials and activists I met were all asking what was happening to Malaysia”.

Continue reading “Three questions Najib should explain to the Malaysian diaspora during his visit to United Nations and New York whether Malays and Islam in Malaysia are under threat and how to Save Malaysia”