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Once docile Sarawak native villagers turning anti-BN activists

by Sheridan Mahavera
The Malaysian Insider
2 November 2015

Iban farmer Jimmy Saban did not care much about politics until the day government men, some of them armed with guns, came to take away the land that’s been in his clan and family for generations.

Saban is one of the growing numbers of unassuming farmers, foragers and peasants who are now anti-Barisan Nasional activists, and whose fervent talks against the Sarawak government could be a factor in the coming state elections.

What distinguishes 61-year-old Saban from the middle-class, urbanised opposition activist is that he is a farmer, just like those he speaks to.

Most importantly, he has seen first-hand how tribes people lose their lands in shady deals by private companies who are often backed by the state authorities.

Saban’s story of how tribal lands are still being unscrupulously taken away counters the narrative that is being churned out by chief minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem’s administration and that of the federal BN. Continue reading “Once docile Sarawak native villagers turning anti-BN activists”

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DAP winning hearts and minds in Sarawak’s remotest areas

by Sheridan Mahavera
The Malaysian Insider
31 October 2015

In the villages of Peninsular Malaysia, the DAP still gets a bad rap, but in an increasing number of out-of-the-way places in Sarawak, the opposition party has been received with open arms.

On September 27, it completed a water supply project for Kampung Long Luping in Lawas, a little Orang Ulu hamlet close to the Indonesian border in central Kalimantan.

This comes just months before the Sarawak state elections, which have to be held on or before September 20, 2016. Continue reading “DAP winning hearts and minds in Sarawak’s remotest areas”

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As 2020 deadline looms, Malaysian students fail to shine in science

by Boo Su-Lyn
The Malay Mail Online
November 2, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 ― Less than 13 per cent of those who sat for the Form 3 PT3 examination last year scored at least a C in both science and mathematics, Putrajaya has revealed, despite Malaysia’s aim to achieve developed nation status in less than five years.

The Education Ministry also said that the average percentage of secondary school students who qualified for the science stream, based on their results of the previous Form 3 PMR examination, only hovered around 30 per cent over the past 10 years, though Malaysia has been aiming for a 60:40 ratio of science/ technical/vocational and arts students since 1970.

“The most probable reason for this could be the new format for the PT3 science and maths papers,” Education director-general Datuk Seri Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof told Malay Mail Online in a recent email interview, in explaining the PT3 science and maths results.

“There were very few multiple choice questions which most students are very familiar with; and the test items demand a lot of thinking on the part of the students to gauge their understanding of the subject matter rather than regurgitating rote-learned concepts.

“It does not encourage teaching to the test and teachers need to engage the students in the learning process by asking more higher-order thinking questions. It is hoped that this kind of format will encourage the students to learn meaningfully and in future, the PT3 results will become better,” he added. Continue reading “As 2020 deadline looms, Malaysian students fail to shine in science”

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Mr Speaker, Sir: Nobody buys your story

P. Ramakrishnan
Aliran
1st Nov 2015

On 22 October 2015, the Speaker of Parliament, Pandikar Amin Mulia, claimed that he did not suspend Kit Siang – MPs did. Thinking Malaysians did not believe him. He must have been aware of it. As a result, he returned to the same topic to explain himself further and differently. Nobody believed him in the first instance and therefore there was a need to explain this unconvincing tale twice.

Exactly a week later, on 29 October 2015, he claimed that Parliament punished Kit Siang – not him. This time around he fared no better. Nobody bought his story. He was not only confusing he was also unconvincing!

He can come up with any number of versions to this shameful episode but he will not be absolved from the fact that he played a central role to Kit Siang’s suspension. Continue reading “Mr Speaker, Sir: Nobody buys your story”

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Barisan Nasional MPs in the PAC who have been beneficiaries in the RM2.6 billion Najib “donation” scandal should declare their pecuniary interests and withdraw from participation in any PAC discussion, decision or investigation into the twin mega scandals on 1MDB and RM2.6 billion ‘donation”

Former MCA President, Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek has made startling revelations about the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal in his personal banking accounts before the 13th General Election.

Malaysiakini yesterday reported the former MCA President as throwing some light on where some of the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal bank accounts had gone to.

Chua recollected how Najib had in a BN Supreme Council meeting before the 13th general election made an “unprecedented pledge to fund BN component parties”. Continue reading “Barisan Nasional MPs in the PAC who have been beneficiaries in the RM2.6 billion Najib “donation” scandal should declare their pecuniary interests and withdraw from participation in any PAC discussion, decision or investigation into the twin mega scandals on 1MDB and RM2.6 billion ‘donation””

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What makes Lim Kit Siang run?

By Kee Thuan Chye
Malaysiakini
30 Oct 2015

‘Defying the Odds’ is an odd book. It can’t seem to decide whether to be a biography of Opposition powerhouse Lim Kit Siang, a showcase for his key speeches and letters or a view of Malaysian politics through Kit Siang’s lenses and from two vantage points, i.e. May 13, 1969, and March 8, 2008, two of the watershed moments of the country’s political history.

In the middle of it is an interview with Kit Siang done by the book’s author, Ooi Kee Beng, but it’s not one that is done specially for this book, which makes its appearance all the more odd. It has been culled from another, an earlier book titled ‘The Right to Differ: A Biographical Sketch of Lim Kit Siang’ (published in 2011), which is a lengthy interview Ooi did with Kit Siang, interspersed with the Kit Siang’s letters, statements and speeches and the same photos as those of the current book.

In the original context, the interview explored and revealed a bit of Kit Siang’s life and much of his political struggle, which would have been apt there, but in ‘Defying the Odds’, it merely repeats many of the facts and issues already presented in this book’s earlier chapters. It makes ‘Defying the Odds’ appear chheong hei (Cantonese, meaning long-winded) saying again what has been said a few times before.

On the whole, the book might have worked better if presented throughout in the narrative mode, which is what Ooi (photo) employs nicely in the first chapter, ‘Heading for Jail’. Continue reading “What makes Lim Kit Siang run?”

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Support for the call by G25 Group of Eminent Malays for the separation of the powers of the Attorney-General as legal adviser to the government and that of Public Prosecutor to ensure that political influence is not brought to bear on prosecutorial decisions

The call by the G25 Group of Eminent Malays for the transfer of the prosecutorial powers of the Attorney-General to an independent office of the Director of Public Prosecutions deserves support and action by Parliament.

The G25 Group statement said:

“There is a fundamental conflict of interest in the functions and powers of the AG, which enables him to take action against national interests.

“It is poor governance that the AG is the legal adviser for the government of Malaysia and also the final arbiter on decisions to prosecute.”

The conflict-of-interest and the subordination of national interest to sectional and political interests that can arise as the result of the Attorney-General being vested with these two functions and powers has been most vividly and dramatically highlighted by investigations into the two mega-scandals of 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion “donation” in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal banking accounts – resulting in the shocking sacking of the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail on July 28 amidst controversy that the Attorney-General’s Chambers was preparing to charge the Prime Minister Najib for corruption in connection with the 1MDB scandal, the dissolution of the multi-agency Special Task Force into the 1MDB scandal and the three-month stoppage of Public Accounts Committee from continuing its 1MDB investigations. Continue reading “Support for the call by G25 Group of Eminent Malays for the separation of the powers of the Attorney-General as legal adviser to the government and that of Public Prosecutor to ensure that political influence is not brought to bear on prosecutorial decisions”