for Malaysia
– Murray Hunter
The Malaysian Insider
5 October 2015
The Malaysian government is trying to develop the country into an education hub.
Most universities seek awards of excellence and to get their institutions into the rankings.
However, even with these aspirations, Malaysia’s overall rankings have been slipping over the last decade, while many other universities within the region have been rising dramatically. Continue reading “Why there is no academic freedom in Malaysia”
Two former top Barisan Nasional leaders have openly called for Datuk Seri Najib Razak to step down as Prime Minister – Tun Mahathir, former longest-serving Prime Minister and UMNO President for 22 years and Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik, MCA’s former longest-serving President for 17 years.
Although the incumbent MCA Ministers, Wee Ka Siong and Ong Ka Chuan have in double-quick time dissociated the MCA leadership from Ling’s stand, there is no doubt that Mahathir and Ling’s call on Najib to step down as Prime Minister has struck a great resonance among the ordinary UMNO and MCA membership.
This support for the call on Najib to step down as Prime Minister will increase when Najib continues to be incapable of coming clean on the two mega scandals of the RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib’s personal banking accounts – compounded by Najib being the first Prime Minister or President not only in Asia but the world to be probed as a kleptocrat by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative 2010.
It is a matter of grave national concern that two weeks after the New York Times first reported about the Najib probe by US DOJ under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, neither the Prime Minister nor the Malaysian government could categorically come out with a denial. Continue reading “Can an UMNO/BN leader declare that Najib should step down as Prime Minister without being disciplined or sacked for breach of party discipline?”
by Boo Su-Lyn
Malay Mail Online
October 5, 2015
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 — Several Muslims say Islamic laws should not be used to regulate their personal lives in areas like sex, what they eat, or even what they read, after a publisher failed to challenge at the Federal Court a Shariah enactment used to seize a book on Islam.
Communications manager Ahmad Ariff Azmi, 27, who is currently living in Australia, noted that Muslims in Malaysia suffer from restrictions, such as identifying with alternative schools of thought as religious authorities only allow the practice of the Shafi’i school.
“I don’t think faith needs a regulatory authority,” Ahmad Ariff told Malay Mail Online, when asked if Shariah laws should not regulate areas like praying, drinking, dressing or having sex.
“There are too much politicking and corruption rife in Malaysian governance that can also be found with the individuals governing these religious institutions. It is Allah’s law; you as the individual have to self-regulate and interpret within yourself to what you think will please the Creator and ultimately gain your eternal salvation,” he added. Continue reading “For some Muslims, life in Malaysia is like living under a microscope”
Syerleena Abdul Rashid
Malaysiakini
2 Oct 2015
“Nak kena lempang macam itu,” those were the words Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Tajuddin Abdul Rahman uttered recently. The Pasir Salak MP articulated such bigoted statements as a response to China’s Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang visit to Petaling Street.
He warned further, “I want to warn the Chinese Malaysians, don’t think when you have a problem, you want to complain – just a little bit also complain – that there will be people to protect them.”
Two other BN component parties – MCA and Gerakan has since issued statements of their own; the former demanding an apology for singling out Malaysian Chinese and the latter threatening to deliver a “flying kick which is harder and longer than his hand”.
A politician of Tajuddin’s stature should have exuded some class in his response. No doubt, these are trying times but politics is about respecting the relationship between society and the government. Continue reading “Tajuddin should focus on his job, not make racist remarks”
Praba Ganesan
Malay Mail Online
October 1, 2015
OCT 1 — This is when they say the abyss stares back at you.
The purgatory which politicians outside Barisan Nasional (BN) are residing in presently is fossilising. How else can those bequeathed with political gifts — a slipping economy, GST squeezing the humour out of lower income homes, misfiring ministers and a prime minister facing heat missile after missile often from a predecessor — struggle? They seem to be buried by the weight of zero-expectation when they should be readying for the parade.
It should be Hari Raya daily in the opposition camp, but instead doubts fill their days and nights. Continue reading “Dear government in waiting”
The mounting pressure for action to be taken against Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, including open calls for his expulsion from UMNO, raises the question whether the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has lost confidence in Saifuddin as CEO of Global Movement of Moderates and is looking for a replacement for Saifuddin.
This is one of the items Najib should clarify today on his return from Expo Milano 2015.
At the beginning of his fourth speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Najib recounted how five years ago he had stood before the same assembly and called for a Global Movement – of Moderates of all religions and all countries – to marginalize extremists, reclaim the centre, and shape the agenda towards peace and pragmatism.
He said Malaysia had followed up his call with both practical action and by building intellectual capacity.
What has Malaysia to show in terms of the “practical action” and the building of “intellectual capacity” for a home-grown Movement of Moderates? Continue reading “Has Najib lost confidence in Saifuddin as CEO of Global Movement of Moderates and looking for a new candidate?”