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Malaysians can contribute to the international dialogue among Muslim and social democrats to draw on the values and principles of Islam and social democracy to establish a common core agenda for a free, just and good society

DAP’s contribution in the beginning of this series of dialogues among Muslim and social democrats have its genesis in the fact-finding visit by DAP MPs to Jordan and Egypt in April, followed by a visit to Tunisia and Turkey in October, last year.

It stems from the belief that Malaysians can contribute to the international dialogue among among Muslim and social democrats to draw on the values and principles of Islam and social democracy to establish a common core agenda for a free, just and good society.

It is recorded that during Prophet Mohammad’s time, there were about 5,000 people in pre-Islam Mecca and the first batch of Muslims numbered 60 – 70 people.

In pre-islam Medina, there were about 15,000 people. The ratio during the War of Badr in 623 AD had been given as 313 Muslims and 1,100 non-Muslims.

Today, over 1,400 years later, Islam is the second largest religion in the world with some 1.6 billion adherents, and is set to become the world’s largest religion by 2070, ending two millenniums of Christian dominance.

The question which must challenge mankind down the ages is how they could contribute to the development of knowledge and wisdom when Muslims could grow from a few thousand followers to 1.6 billion adherents in 1,400 years. Continue reading “Malaysians can contribute to the international dialogue among Muslim and social democrats to draw on the values and principles of Islam and social democracy to establish a common core agenda for a free, just and good society”

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I will be charged under the Sedition Act in the new repression against dissent

Just now, the DAP “giant killer” in the 1969 general election, 84-year-old Chan Fu King, who as bus-conductor defeated the MCA Health Minister, Dr. Ng Kam Poh, told us how during his term as MP for Teluk Anson (1969 -1974), MCA leaders including the then MCA Youth leader Lee San Choon (who went on to become the MCA President) tried to induce and seduce him to defect from the DAP to the MCA.

I am reminded of DAP’s darkest days after the DAP won 13 parliamentary and 31 State Assembly seats in DAP’s first general election outing in 1969, a result we had not expected as we only sought a modest breakthrough in Parliament and various State Assemblies to gird ourselves for a battle for next two to three decades to create a more democratic, just and better Malaysia for all Malaysians.

DAP’s unexpected electoral success was made use of by some irresponsible politicians to create the May 13, 1969 riots in Kuala Lumpur, and I myself was detained for the first time under the Internal Security Act when I returned to Subang from Kota Kinabalu, where I had gone over on May 13, 1969 itself to campaign for independent candidates in Sabah as polling in Sabah was scheduled to be held two weeks after the Peninsular Malaysia elections of May 10, 1969.
I remember vividly the prediction of the then Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Ismail, in 1972 that the DAP was “one foot in the grave”, forecasting an early end for the DAP.

Tun Ismail was not indulging in idle prediction, for looking back, it was clear that he was privy to a high-powered campaign to crush the DAP by a double pincer strategy to seduce DAP MPs and State Assemblymen to defect from DAP to MCA and Barisan Nasional, from a combination of money politics or intimation and politics of fear to use all the repressive powers at the command of the government.

As a result, during the first term of DAP in Parliament and the various State Assemblies after 1969, we suffered the worst attrition rate with some 30 to 40 per cent of DAP MPs and State Assemblymen finally succumbing either to the temptation of monetary and material inducements or the pressures of politics of fear and intimidation. Continue reading “I will be charged under the Sedition Act in the new repression against dissent”

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Sad and tragic that when the world increasingly regards Malaysia under Najib premiership is topping the world in corruption scandals, Najib is not taking proactive action to initiate full and independent investigations into the twin mega scandals but could only make the weak lamentation “Please dont’ think I’m a crook”

Malaysians find it sad and tragic that at a time when the world increasingly regards Malaysia under the Najib premiership is topping the world in corruption scandals, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is not taking pro-active action to initiate full, thorough and independent investigations into Najib’s twin mega scandals but could only make the weak lamentation: “Please don’t think I’m a crook”.

I have just seen the online news report of what the Prime Minister said in Kuantan this morning at a gathering of UMNO and Barisan Nasional members and leaders from 14 divisions in Pahang to express support for Najib, where Najib said: “Don’t think I am a crook, don’t think I steal the people’s property, I am the prime minister for the people.”

It is sad and tragic because this is the first time in the 59-year history of the nation that the Prime Minister of Malaysia (Najib is the sixth PM in the country) had to make such a pathetic protestation.

Secondly, Najib’s lament will do nothing to dispel the growing global perception that Malaysia under the Najib premiership is topping the world in corruption scandals – with the international TIME magazine just citing Malaysia as the second worst example of current global corruption, reinforcing recent adverse developments like Malaysia falling four places in Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2015 which was released in late January and being ranked No. 3 in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015” by the international website, foreignpolicy.com at the end of last year. Continue reading “Sad and tragic that when the world increasingly regards Malaysia under Najib premiership is topping the world in corruption scandals, Najib is not taking proactive action to initiate full and independent investigations into the twin mega scandals but could only make the weak lamentation “Please dont’ think I’m a crook””