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Najib’s denial syndrome worst of all six Malaysian Prime Ministers when he could regard Singapore and Swiss crackdowns on multibillion ringgit 1MDB embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption as “a problem of noise”

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s denial syndrome is the worst of all six Malaysian Prime Ministers when he could regard Singapore and Swiss crackdown on multibillion ringgit 1MDB embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption as “a problem of noise”.

Replying to a question on what his government was doing to re-establish the trust of investors at a panel discussion at a World Economic Forum meeting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, Najib said the overall trajectory for Malaysia and the rest of Southeast Asia was positive, and he pointed to the long-term trend of rising foreign investment in his country as an expression of confidence.

He said: “The problem is a problem of perception, the problem is a problem of noise. The noise level is rather high, I admit it. But it belies the strong fundamentals and commitment [of] the Malaysian government to continued reforms.”

The Prime Minister cannot be more wrong, and he must be told in no uncertain terms that his premiership is now a liability and no more an asset to foreign investors weighing their options about their investments in Malaysia – unless he can come clean on the various financial and mismanagement scandals haunting and hounding the country for over a year. Continue reading “Najib’s denial syndrome worst of all six Malaysian Prime Ministers when he could regard Singapore and Swiss crackdowns on multibillion ringgit 1MDB embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption as “a problem of noise””

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48-hour ultimatum to Liew and Mah to requisition for emergency BN Supreme Council meeting to resolve week-long spat over Azalina’s Ministerial motion in Parliament to fast-track Hadi’s bill or Malaysians have to conclude that the MCA and Gerakan Presidents were privy to Najib-Hadi plot

I am giving the MCA President Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and the Gerakan President Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong a 48-hour ultimatum to requisition for an emergency Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting to resolve the week-long spat caused by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Azalina Said Othman for her Ministerial motion in Parliament last Thursday to fast-track the Hadi’s Hudud Bill or Malaysians have to conclude that both the MCA and Gerakan Presidents were privy to the Najib-Hadi plot.

There can be no other reason for Liow or Mak not to requisition for an emergency BN Supreme Council meeting to resolve the BN spat over Azalina’s Ministerial motion, when Azalina had acted in violation of the consensus reached by all Barisan Nasional leaders on the same issue in March 2015 as well as the reaffirmation by Cabinet at its meeting on 20th May 2015 of a fundamental Barisan Nasional stand, whether through formal or informal discussion by Cabinet Ministers.

Furthermore, a BN Supreme Council meeting emergency meeting to reaffirm the Barisan Nasional stand not only of the BN leaders in March 15 last year, but of all UMNO Prime Ministers in Malaysia since Merdeka on the secular basis of the Malaysian Constitution, would have ended the BN spat on the Hadi bill without creating any artificial national crisis in polarizing Malaysians into Muslims and non-Muslims and distract the country from the real national issues in the country – whether Malaysia’s social and economic crisis over the nation’s first global financial crisis like the RM55 billion 1MDB and Najib’s RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega crisis, losing economic competitiveness, fall in educational excellence in our educational institutions or growing economic inequality and injustices in the country.

If the agenda is not to resolve the Barisan Nasional spat over Azalina’s Ministerial motion but to allow the artificial national crisis over Hadi’s hudud bill to fester and ferment in particular during the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections, seeking in the process to make hudud the main issue in the two by-elections, then I can understand Liow and Mak’s refusal to requisition an emergency meeting of Barisan Nasional Supreme Council to end the controversy. Continue reading “48-hour ultimatum to Liew and Mah to requisition for emergency BN Supreme Council meeting to resolve week-long spat over Azalina’s Ministerial motion in Parliament to fast-track Hadi’s bill or Malaysians have to conclude that the MCA and Gerakan Presidents were privy to Najib-Hadi plot”

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The Myth of The Islamic State

by Bakri Musa
2nd June 2016

Emory University’s Professor Abdullahi An-Naim was recently in Malaysia and commented on the current hudud controversy triggered by PAS leader Abdul Hadi’s private member’s bill in Parliament. I re-post my earlier book review of An-Naim’s “The Myth of the Islamic State” that appeared in October 19, 2008:

The Myth of The Islamic State

Book Review: Islam And The Secular State: Negotiating The Future of Shari’a, by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naim
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
324 pp, Indexed, US $35.00, 2008.

Every so often I would read a book that would profoundly affect me. I have yet however, to get two such books written by the same author, that is, until now.

In 1990 I came across a paperback, Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law, by Abdullahi A. An-Naim. I do not remember what prompted me to browse through let alone buy the book. Its cover design was nondescript, and neither its author nor publisher (University of Syracuse Press) was exactly well known. But bought the book I did, after scanning only a few pages.

Despite being only 255 pages, it took me awhile to finish it. I have read it over many times since. It is not that An-Naim’s prose is dense (far from it!) rather that the ideas he expounds are breathtakingly refreshing. They also appeal to my intellectual understanding of my faith.

That book resurrected my faith in Islam. Brought up under the traditional teachings of my village Imam, I had difficulty reconciling that with the worldview inculcated in me through my Western liberal education. The certitudes that had comforted me as a youngster were becoming increasingly less so as an adult. Continue reading “The Myth of The Islamic State”