Posted on

One Lim Kit Siang can be suspended from Parliament for six months, but let tens and hundreds of thousands and even millions of Malaysians stand up and declare “I am also Lim Kit Siang” to ask the same question: “Najib, Mana RM2.6 billion?”

I thank the DAP in Nibong Tebal for this “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang and Mana RM2.6 billion?” ceramah and the large crowd tonight despite intermittent rain which shows the nation-wide concern transcending race, religion, region or even politics about government accountability, transparency and good governance – especially over Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals.

The message central to the nation-wide “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang & Mana RM2.6 billion?” campaign is to let the Prime Minister know that one Lim Kit Siang can be suspended from Parliament for six months, but tens and hundreds of thousands and even millions of Malaysians will rise up and declare “I am also Lim Kit Siang” to ask the same question: “Najib, Mana RM2.6 billion?”

Leaders of over 20 Asian-Pacific leaders are in South-east Asia for the Asian Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Summit in the Philippines and the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur to exchange views about the future of the region and the world, but there is one thing that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib has outclassed all the world leaders from the Asia-Pacific region, whether President Xi Jingping of China, President Barack Obama of the United States, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia or President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

No other leader in APEC, ASEAN or in the Asia-Pacific region would have RM2.6 billion in his personal banking account, and what is worse, refusing to explain where the RM2.6 billion came from and to whom the RM2.6 billion went to, although Najib claims full commitment to the principles of accountability, transparency and good governance. Continue reading “One Lim Kit Siang can be suspended from Parliament for six months, but let tens and hundreds of thousands and even millions of Malaysians stand up and declare “I am also Lim Kit Siang” to ask the same question: “Najib, Mana RM2.6 billion?””

Posted on

Five ways for Members of Parliament to send a clear and unmistakable message to the world that they do not want to a “cari makan” PAC or a “cari makan” PAC Chairman and to redeem the esteem, integrity, honour and good name of Malaysian Parliament

There are five ways for Members of Parliament from both sides of the House to send a clear and unmistakable message to the world that they do not want a “cari makan” Public Accounts Committee or a “cari makan” PAC Chairman and to redeem the esteem, integrity, honour and good name of Malaysian Parliament.

Without these five measures, Members of Parliament from Malaysia will be the butt of jokes at international conferences as “cari makan” MPs – whether at Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) conferences, International Parliamentary Union (IPU) gatherings or other international meetings, whether directly in their face or from their backs.

These five measures are:

1. Sack Datuk Hasan Arifin as PAC Chairman if Hasan does not have the humility and good sense to realise that he had committed an inexcusable and unpardonable parliamentary sin when he said that he had to “cari makan” as the reason why the PAC will not summon Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to its 1MDB investigations, and compounding his egregrious mistake by blaming the media for it instead of apologizing and owning up to his faux pax. This is a classic example of a public office holder mistaking his personal idiosyncrasy as a public imperative, the start on the road of corruption of public responsibilities for personal or private gain. Continue reading “Five ways for Members of Parliament to send a clear and unmistakable message to the world that they do not want to a “cari makan” PAC or a “cari makan” PAC Chairman and to redeem the esteem, integrity, honour and good name of Malaysian Parliament”

Posted on

Hotel Attack in Mali Is a Setback in Fight Against Extremism

By DIONNE SEARCEY, ADAM NOSSITER, CARLOTTA GALL and SOMINI SENGUPTA
New York Times
NOV. 21, 2015

BAMAKO, Mali — The terrorists chose carefully: There are nearly always French, Russian and even a few American visitors to be found in the hotel restaurant, around the pool, in the health club or on the thin black-leather sofas of the glass-fronted lobby, now shattered by gunfire.

With its marble floors, open atrium and lipstick-red lounge, the Radisson Blu Hotel served as a lifeline to the world, a gathering place where diplomats, contractors and others doing business in Mali, one of the poorest countries on earth, could all be found.

Now, bullet holes pockmark the walls and blood is pooled on stairs. The hotel, once a symbol of the international presence in a country trying to emerge from years of upheaval, is the site of a massacre in which terrorists killed 19 people, storming in at breakfast on Friday as terrified diners sprinted into an elevator whose doors did not close in time to save them. Continue reading “Hotel Attack in Mali Is a Setback in Fight Against Extremism”

Posted on

Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

by Kamel Daoud
New York Times
NOV. 20, 2015

Black Daesh, white Daesh.

The former slits throats, kills, stones, cuts off hands, destroys humanity’s common heritage and despises archaeology, women and non-Muslims.

The latter is better dressed and neater but does the same things.

The Islamic State; Saudi Arabia.

In its struggle against terrorism, the West wages war on one, but shakes hands with the other.

This is a mechanism of denial, and denial has a price: preserving the famous strategic alliance with Saudi Arabia at the risk of forgetting that the kingdom also relies on an alliance with a religious clergy that produces, legitimizes, spreads, preaches and defends Wahhabism, the ultra-puritanical form of Islam that Daesh feeds on. Continue reading “Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It”