Posted on

No, Neo-Colonialism is Never the Answer

By Farish A. Noor

I recently had a conversation with an Indonesian political analyst in Singapore, where I am currently based. In the course of our discussion about the state of Indonesian politics, he let slip a statement that I felt terribly uncomfortable with. While lamenting the state of Indonesia’s convoluted politics, he opined thus: “I wonder if Indonesia’s problems could be solved if we allowed a foreign government to run our country?”

Now, talk like this usually sends shivers up my spine. We will recall that up to the late 1990s, it even became fashionable to talk about the necessity for the re-colonisation of Africa. This sort of nonsense was all the rage in some American political magazines and journals, and of course this neo-colonial bile was dressed up in the discourse of altruism and universal humanism, as if the colonisation of any country was an altruistic act between fellow human concerned about the fate of others. Never mind the fact that the ones doing the colonising would be the same Western powers and the ones being colonised would be the same hapless denizens of the Third World. Continue reading “No, Neo-Colonialism is Never the Answer”

Posted on

Najib as David Copperfield

Speaker: No debate on Najib’s stimulus package
By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 – Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia has ruled that economic stimulus plan announced in Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s address to Parliament yesterday are not amendments to the 2009 Budget but measures to tackle the economic crisis.

Pandikar Amin said the RM7 billion stimulus package was derived from savings in fuel subsidy and not an additional allocation and it was clear that the amount was not part of the Budget.

“It is not an additional Budget. There is no change to the Budget tabled at the policy level and no change to any figures to projections made in any documents. This is the response if necessary due to the economic downturn,” Pandikar Amin told Dewan Rakyat.

He said the members would be debating the Budget tabled by then Finance Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Aug 29. Continue reading “Najib as David Copperfield”

Posted on

A rare parliamentary sight not seen for decades – eight UMNO Ministers queuing up in Parliament till 11.30 pm last night to reply

A rare parliamentary sight in Parliament for decades – eight Umno Ministers queuing up in Parliament till 11.30 pm yesterday to take their turn to reply in the 2009 Budget debate yesterday.

Clearly, my Sunday speech to the DAP Kuala Lumpur Convention castigating Umno Ministers for neglecting their parliamentary, Cabinet and national responsibilities because of the protracted Umno party elections and suggesting that they take five-month leave so as to ensure that the people and country do not suffer because of their party politicking when Malaysia faces the worst global economic crisis in 80 years has hit home and taken instantaneous effect.

On Thursday, two Umno Ministers, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein played truant from their Ministerial duties when they were absent in the winding-up of their Ministries, passing the buck to their deputy ministers.

If Hamid and Hishammuddin think that their deputy ministers were equal to them and could reply of behalf of their Ministries as effectively as they themselves could, then it is time they resign and give way to their two deputies to become full ministers! Continue reading “A rare parliamentary sight not seen for decades – eight UMNO Ministers queuing up in Parliament till 11.30 pm last night to reply”

Posted on

Azmi’s unilateral rush as PAC Chairman to whitewash Eurocoper helicopter deal fiasco

Public Accounts Committee Chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid has provided the most eloquent testimony why there is a Commonwealth parliamentary convention that a senior Opposition parliamentarian should be head of the PAC (and why a Minister who has just stepped down from the Cabinet should not head the PAC) if the parliamentary watchdog committee is not to be bullied or overawed by the Executive to rubber-stamp or whitewash controversial government decisions like the RM1.6 billion 12 Couger EC725 Eurocopter deal fiasco.

Yesterday, Azmi announced that the PAC had cleared the government of any procedural abuse in the RM1.604 billion Eurocopter helicopter deal and that the deal “was done in accordance with procedures”.

Is Azmi aware that his announcement clearing the government of any procedural abuse in the helicopter tender process has created consternation, disbelief and dismay among right-thinking Malaysians and undermined public confidence in the institution of Parliament for it runs counter to the clear and grave procedural abuse in the tender process requiring physical evaluation and in this case, test flights of the helicopters shorted-listed?

How can Azmi claim on the one hand that there is no procedural abuse in the tender process and yet in the next breath admit to the fact that there was the grave procedural abuse of no physical evaluation and test flight of the helicopters concerned? Continue reading “Azmi’s unilateral rush as PAC Chairman to whitewash Eurocoper helicopter deal fiasco”

Posted on

Are MCMC/Ministry dumb or just subservient to Telekom Malaysia?

“Are MCMC/Ministry dumb or just subservient to Telekom Malaysia?”

This is the question I posed to the Minister for Energy, Water and Communications Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor in Parliament at close to 11 pm last night when winding up the debate on behalf of his Ministry on the 2009 Budget debate.

I had queried Shaziman on why Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) was awarded the RM11.3 billion HSBB (High Speed Broadband) project, subsidised with RM2.4 billion of taxpayers’ money, when there was an alternative proposal by HSBT (High Speed Broadband Technology Sdn Bhd) offering to build a similar network without any subsidy?

I also challenged the government’s rationale in awarding the HSBB to Telekom when Telekom must bear the greatest responsibility for Malaysia’s failure to become a broadband power, left far behind in the past decade by other countries when Malaysia had started on an equal broadband footing with them.

South Korea has now a broadband penetration rate of 93 per cent and Hong Kong at 30 per cent, as compared to Malaysia’s 13 per cent (Shaziman corrected me and claimed that Malaysia’s broadband penetration rate is now 17%) which includes Malaysia’s most extraordinary “low broadband speed”! Continue reading “Are MCMC/Ministry dumb or just subservient to Telekom Malaysia?”

Posted on

Three Higher Education Ministers in 4 years while universities continue plunge in international rankings and losing out to Indonesia after left behind by Singapore/Thailand

Three Higher Education Ministers in four years while Malaysian universities continue the plunge in international university rankings – this is the second consecutive year Malaysia is excluded from the Times Higher Education Supplement’s (THES-QS) World’s Top 200 Universities.

Are these two matters inter-related?

This is the question I posed to the third Higher Education Minister in four years, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin in Parliament this morning when he replied during the winding-up of the 2009 Budget debate, but as expected, he could not throw any light on the conundrum.

It is a sad reflection of the “paradigm shift” in university quality and excellence in Malaysia that while the first two Higher Education Ministers (Datuk Dr. Shafie Salleh and Datuk Dr. Mustapha Mohamed) talked about how to defend Malaysian university rankings in the Top 200 World Universities, Khaled spoke with pride this morning at the inclusion of Malaysian universities in the Top 500 world universities! Continue reading “Three Higher Education Ministers in 4 years while universities continue plunge in international rankings and losing out to Indonesia after left behind by Singapore/Thailand”

Posted on

Are Nuris “flying coffins”?

Are Nuris “flying coffins”? If not, why not just upgrade them for a few hundred million ringgit, a small fraction of the cost as compared to the billion-ringgit purchase of Cougar EC725 Eurocopters, which are 40-year-old Cougars in any event?

This is one important question which the Public Accounts Committee should probe, answer and report to Parliament by before the end of the month in its current inquiry into the billion-ringgit Cougar EC725 Eurocopter deal fiasco.

The Deputy Defence Minister, Datuk Abu Seman Yusop, in his winding-up on behalf of the Defence Ministry in the 2009 Budget debate on Thursday, was not only unable to rebut allegations concerning very grave issues about propriety, accountability and professionalism in the decision-making process in the tender for the helicopters to replace the Nuris , but reinforced concerns of unprofessional and below-par leadership running the Defence Ministry.

This raises the even more vital question whether Malaysian defence and security as well as the lives and welfare of the armed services personnel are really in safe and trustworthy hands and the topmost priority of those in the highest echelons of the Defence Ministry.

This is apparent from the video (embedded below) of the parliamentary grilling of Abu Seman by Pakatan Rakyat MPs in Parliament on Thursday. Continue reading “Are Nuris “flying coffins”?”

Posted on

Irene Fernandez: The Best or Worst of Malaysia?

by Suzette Standring
November 2008
Huffington Post

It is a textbook case of laws being used to crush critics of governmental operations. Malaysia may be 9,296 miles from the United States, but the theme of authorities seeking to silence protest is a universal one. Thus when such a bell tolls, it can toll for thee.

The criminal appeal of Irene Fernandez, age 62, begins (Oct. 28-30) at the Criminal High Court in Kuala Lumpur. It is the longest running legal attempt in Malaysian history to punish a bearer of bad news. In August 1995, Fernandez made public her report, Abuses, Torture and Dehumanised Treatment of Migrant Workers at Detention Centres. It was based on interviews with 300 detainees, each of whom Fernandez spoke with in her role as director and co-founder of Tenaganita, a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Kuala Lumpur that has worked to protect the rights of foreign workers since 1991.

She gave voice to bloodied and abused immigrants held in centers pending deportation. Unspeakable filth, dehydration and rape of children were part of her documented report. In 2003 she was convicted of “maliciously publishing false news,” under Section 8A(2) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act (1984) – even though the Malaysian government did admit to 46 detention-center related deaths. Continue reading “Irene Fernandez: The Best or Worst of Malaysia?”

Posted on

New politics of “Beyond NEP”

I am still recovering from my shock in Parliament on Thursday night when the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Amirsham Aziz former CEO of Maybank, pleaded ignorance when I asked him whether he agreed that the New Economic Policy (NEP) cannot be equated with Article 153 of the Constitution. Amirsham claimed that he was no expert on constitutional law!

It is outrageous that after more than half-a-century of nationhood, Barisan Nasional (BN) Ministers and leaders cannot or dare not answer a simple question – whether they agree that the NEP cannot be equated with Article 153 on special provision for Malays and the bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak.

As I argued in Parliament when I posed the question to Amirsham, if NEP is equated with Article 153, then Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak would be guilty of challenging Article 153 and Malay special rights when he told Bloomberg recently that “all the elements of NEP” would be phased out in stages, adding “If we do not change, the people will change us”.

The NEP had been a divisive instrument in nation-building, even more so today, as it is being used to benefit rich and privileged Umnoputras rather than the poor bumiputras. Continue reading “New politics of “Beyond NEP””

Posted on

UMNO continuing to behave like big bully of MCA and Gerakan in Parliament as well as PRS

It was only less than a fortnight ago that the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi made it as the theme in his opening speech at the 55th MCA General Assembly that “UMNO is not a ‘Bully Party’ or many component parties would have left BN by now” and even asking:

“Do you think Ka Ting allows himself to be bullied? You think (MIC president) Samy (Vellu) can be bullied? You think (Gerakan president Dr. Koh) Tsu Koon wants to be bullied?”

I don’t want to answer Abdullah’s question as the best people to answer are the Malaysian people. All I can say is that Abdullah will be very surprised by the answers from the people if he really believes that Umno is not a “bully party” in Barisan Nasional.

Those who follow the recent parliamentary proceedings cannot escape the conclusion that Umno’s “bully” mentality vis-à-vis the other Barisan Nasional component parties are still very alive and unrepentant, as evidenced from the merciless way Umno MPs flayed the MCA Deputy Minister for National Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage, Teng Boon Soon and the Gerakan Wanita chief and Deputy Information Minister Datuk Tan Lian Hoe – with a NST headline “DEWAN RAKYAT: Lian Hoe gets another roasting” – and nobody in MCA and Gerakan in Parliament dared to come to their defence apart from DAP and Pakatan Rakyat MPs! How pathetic! Continue reading “UMNO continuing to behave like big bully of MCA and Gerakan in Parliament as well as PRS”

Posted on

UMNO Ministers – take 5-month Cabinet leave for party election campaign instead of neglecting national duties

Umno Ministers are neglecting and abdicating their Cabinet and national responsibilities to gird the country to face the worst global economic crisis in 80 years because of protracted Umno party election politicking.

This could be seen from the absence of two Umno Ministers from Parliament during the winding-up of their Ministries on Thursday, namely Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

This is most shocking and irresponsible, as both Hamid and Hishammuddin are responsible for important Ministries at this critical stage when the country is faced with a crisis of competitiveness – a safe and low-crime society where citizens, investors and tourists are not increasingly worried about personal or property security as well as having an education system which could nurture a creative culture of talents for the country to climb up the competitiveness ladder with a core group of highly-educated and competent people in all areas of the economy. Continue reading “UMNO Ministers – take 5-month Cabinet leave for party election campaign instead of neglecting national duties”

Posted on

NEP cannot be equated with Article 153

A call for the review of NEP is not a call for the review of Article 153 or attack on Malay special rights. This is because NEP cannot be equated with Article 153.

This argument on the differences between Article 153 and the NEP surfaced in Parliament on Wednesday, October 29th October 2008 in exchanges during the winding-up debate on the 2009 Budget involving two Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Abdullah and Senator Datuk Amirsham Aziz, as illustrated by the videos here.

Posted on

Even more imperative Najib submit himself to RCI to clear him of all allegations from murder to corruption

Shah Alam High Court judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yasin yesterday acquitted political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda of the charge of abetment in the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu on October 19, 2006 on the ground that no evidence was adduced by the prosecution to contradict or challenge the exculpatory parts of Razak’s affidavit in his earlier unsuccessful bail application.

The judge said: “In the absence of the rebuttal evidence against the statements, coupled with the fact that there is no legal onus for Razak to rebut any statutory presumptions, there is clearly no reason for the statements to be ignored and rejected”.

Most Malaysians are baffled by the very technical reason for the acquittal.

While it would not be right for anyone to prejudge the guilt or innocence of any person in the murder of Altantuya, the fact of the abominable and heinous murder of the Mongolian translator, shot twice in the head in a jungle clearing in Shah Alam and blown up with C4 explosives available only to the military, setting off political, diplomatic and international reverberations that have not subsided , is a fact that cannot be extinguished. Continue reading “Even more imperative Najib submit himself to RCI to clear him of all allegations from murder to corruption”

Posted on

Eurocopter inquiry – PAC should summon Najib

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should summon Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to its Eurocopter hearing and not just call up civil servants as he is the Defence Minister at the time of the critical decision-making before the ministerial swap with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Sept. 17 and who must bear final responsibility to Parliament for the Eurocopter deal.

The PAC postponed its second-day inquiry into the Eurcopter deal on Thursday because the Finance Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Dr. Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah did not turn up to testify.

The PAC is right in demanding that the highest-ranking officer from the Finance Ministry should appear before it to testify, and Wan Abdul Aziz is setting a bad example of civil service leadership and guilty of contempt of Parliament in claiming that he was “busy with other duties”!

What is the nature of Wan Abdul Aziz’s “busy with other duties” that he is prepared to commit parliamentary contempt by not appearing before the PAC when summoned?

However, why is the PAC not summoning Najib to testify and justify the extraordinary billion-ringgit 12 Cougar EC725 Eurocopters procurement – as in other “first-world Commonwealth Parliaments”, the appearance of the Minister concerned would have been the first item of such PAC inquiry?! Continue reading “Eurocopter inquiry – PAC should summon Najib”

Posted on

Chor Chee Heung – another deputy minister who did not know what he was answering in Parliament?

Yesterday, Parliament was presented with the spectacle of a Deputy Minister winding up on behalf of his Ministry in the 2009 Budget debate when he was totally out of his depths – Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Abu Seman Yusop on the current controversy over the billion-ringgit 12 Cougar EC725 Eurocopters.

As a result, both the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had to subsequently make supplementary statements outside the House to salvage the damage caused by Abu Seman in his “atrocious” parliamentary performance.

Immediately after lunch break yesterday, I had stood up in Parliament to ask Abu Seman the reason for three different sets of figures for the Eurocopter deal, firstly, RM1.604 billion he mentioned in the House; secondly, the RM1.1 billion cited by the Defence Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Abu Bakar Abdullah as reported in the media on 17th October 2008; and thirdly, the RM1.67 billion given by the Prime Minister-cum-Defence Minister on Tuesday, October 29, 2008.

When I had first pointed out the difference in the deputy minister’s figures with the Defence Ministry secretary-general, Abu Seman was clearly caught by surprise and I had to ask him whether he read newspapers last Saturday which reported Abu Bakar’s statement.

On the three sets of different figures, Abu Seman tried to wriggle out of the question by claiming that foreign exchange fluctuations factored in the differences in figure. Continue reading “Chor Chee Heung – another deputy minister who did not know what he was answering in Parliament?”

Posted on

PAC Chairman Azmi – out to whitewash Eurocopter deal or get to bottom of new defence scandal

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Datuk Azmi Khalid has confirmed my worst fears about his suitability as head of the parliamentary watchdog committee as he had undermined his own credibility by claiming that the technical aspects of the billion-ringgit Cougar EC725 Eurocopters were “above board” and “professionally carried out” when the two-hour parliamentary debate on the subject yesterday proved completely otherwise.

The Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Abu Seman Yusop admitted in Parliament yesterday that the Eurocopter deal was sealed without conducting physical evaluation on the helicopters – no test flights were done nor were there any factory visits.

Outraged, I rose up in the House to flay the government for trifling with the lives and safety of RMAF personnel who would have to use the helicopters, by failing to comply with its own tender requirements for the helicopters to replace the Nuris, which clearly stipulated that the short-listed aircraft bidders would have to undergo stringent documentary as well as physical evaluation.

In response to my query, Abu Seman said three of the seven bidders for the international open tender for the utility helicopters capable of search and rescue and capable of being upgraded to combat search and rescue aircraft had been short-listed but he refused to name the three aircrafts concerned.

This is clearly a gross defect amounting to criminal negligence in the technical aspects of the Eurocopter selection, getting Malaysia into the Guinness Book of Records and making us the laughing stock of the world as a country which procures expensive and sophisticated aircrafts without any test flight or physical evaluation – despite this being clearly stipulated as one vital criteria in the tender process! Continue reading “PAC Chairman Azmi – out to whitewash Eurocopter deal or get to bottom of new defence scandal”

Posted on

Race And Islam

By Farish A. Noor

It is odd, to say the least, that after more than fourteen centuries there remain some people who claim to be Muslims but who still have not internalised the universal values of Islam. Odder still that there remain those who on the one hand can embrace Islam’s universal claim of brotherhood (and sisterhood), but still cannot get around to understanding the simple idea that Islam and racism do not mix.

Evidence of such discrepancies can be found pretty much everywhere these days: It has, sadly, become the normative cultural norm in so many Muslim societies today that those who are fair are better off and given the privileges that they feel is the natural right of all light-skinned people. It is also interesting to note that Muslims tend to rejoice whenever a white American or European converts to Islam, but seem less enthusiastic in their recognition of the fact that thousands of Africans and Asians are converting to Islam every year.

Furthermore when it comes to governance and politics, it remains painfully clear that some Muslims still place blood and race above competency and merit till today; and that despite their profession of faith they remain embedded in the stagnant mode of racialised thinking that operates on the basis that some races are better than others.

One such case has popped up recently in multi-culti Malaysia, where a row was sparked off by the nomination of a Chinese woman – Low Siew Moi – as the head of a state institution linked to the economic management and development of the state of Selangor, the PKNS. Despite the fact that Low Siew Moi was selected by the Chief Minister of the state, Tan Sri Khalid, on the basis of merit; some quarters chose to publicly disagree with her appointment on the grounds that the Malay-Muslims of the state would object to the appointment. But objection on what grounds? On the basis that she is a Chinese woman? Continue reading “Race And Islam”

Posted on

Eurocopter deal – shameful episode in Parliament

Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusof was literally grilled in Parliament for over two hours over the billion-ringgit 12 Cougar EC725 Europter helicopters deal as he was totally at sea and unable to answer the most elementary of questions, such as

(i) Why three sets of different figures for the 12 Cougar helicopter deal – RM1.1 billion given by Defence Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Abu Bakar Abdullah; RM1.67 billion given by the Prime Minister-cum-Defence Minister; and RM1.604 billion stated by Abu Seman Yusof in Parliament today;

(ii) Why no physical evaluation or test flights for the short-listed helicopters; or as I said in Parlaiment, getting Malaysia into the Guinness Book of Records as probably the only government in the world to order sophisticated and expensive aircrafts without any test flight although such physical evaluation for the short-listed tenderers was one of the conditions specified in the tender docunment.

Abu Seman was dumbstruck when asked both questions and was unable to give any sensible reply. It was a most shameful episode in Parliament.

It has to be left to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to try to immediately repair the damage created by the deputy Defence Minister by answering these two questions outside Parliament, as in the following report Continue reading “Eurocopter deal – shameful episode in Parliament”