Posted on

Kirby warns CHOGM at ‘watershed’ moment

Sabra Lane reported this story on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 12:30:00
The World Today
ABC

ELEANOR HALL: Australia’s representative on the panel looking at how to revamp the Commonwealth is the former High Court justice Michael Kirby.

He spoke to our chief political correspondent, Sabra Lane.

MICHAEL KIRBY: Unfortunately it hasn’t been released to be available to citizens but it is all there and it is 116 unanimous recommendations and I do hope it will receive very careful attentions at a critical moment.

SABRA LANE: Are you worried that because the report hasn’t been released publicly that the Commonwealth is under pressure to water down what you’ve recommended, especially on things like the proposed commissioner for democracy and the rule of law and human rights?

It is known that there is a fair amount of activity happening behind the scenes for the Commonwealth not to go ahead with that.

MICHAEL KIRBY: Well, I’m not worried in the sense that I’ve discharged my duty by performing the working on the group and putting our recommendation forward now in the orderly way these things happen. It is left to the politicians to decide what should be done.

There has to be more visible action by the Commonwealth that you just can’t espouse great principles and then do nothing when they are under threat, that the machinery of the Commonwealth has to work more quickly and more visibly and that secret diplomacy is sometimes useful but it isn’t the whole picture. Continue reading “Kirby warns CHOGM at ‘watershed’ moment”

Posted on

Kedah-Kelantan pipeline carrot for Umno men, claims US cable

By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 29, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — A leaked US diplomatic cable issued in 2007 said that Malaysia’s RM21 billion trans-peninsula oil pipeline was likely launched as a means to reward Umno loyalists with lucrative contracts if Kelantan’s PAS government fell in Election 2008.

The cable pointed out that no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports were prepared nor economic viability studies conducted for the project as ecological risks were not a major concern to the then Abdullah administration.

“Domestic politics may be a bigger driver for the project than the potential economic payoff,” said the cable, leaked by whistleblower site WikiLeaks and published by the Malaysia Today news portal today.

It said the government viewed the pipeline, which was to run from Kedah to Kelantan, as an opportunity to reward Umno supporters “regardless of whether or not the project makes long-term sense”.

“The refinery and pipeline in Bachok would be seen as a potential Umno deliverable and might just tip the balance in a PAS-controlled state shortly before the election,” the cable said.

It added that such order of business for major projects in Malaysia was “typical”. Continue reading “Kedah-Kelantan pipeline carrot for Umno men, claims US cable”

Posted on

Beware of false prophets

— Jacob Sinnathamby
The Malaysian Insider

SEPT 27 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak certainly talks a good game. It is election season and he needs to win big so everything goes.

Today he talks about how Bumiputera quotas need to go, eventually. No one knows when this eventually will be because as we all know the Umno-hijacked New Economic Policy was extended under pressure from the Umno beneficiaries.

Najib is not the first Umno president to talk about removing quotas or taking away the crutches from Bumiputeras.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Abdullah Badawi both mentioned this when they wanted to show Malaysians that they were enlightened leaders and when they were fishing for support from non-Malays before elections.

Needless to say all their “good intentions” never materialised. Once they got the votes, they promptly forgot about taking away the quotas and instead fortified the distortions in the system. Continue reading “Beware of false prophets”

Posted on

Pak Lah and Najib: Same old, same old

— The Malaysian Insider
Sep 21, 2011

SEPT 21 — It is really amusing how former leaders labour to protect a legacy or image, many times even more strenuously than when they were occupying the hot seat at Putrajaya.

Look at Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad; when he was in power for 22 years, he did not care if Malaysians and his critics called him a dictator or autocrat or “Mahafiraun”.

But since yielding the reins, he has attempted to rewrite history by suggesting that it was the police who ordered the arrests of over 100 people under Ops Lalang and that he was tolerant, open-minded, transparent, etc.

Now comes the turn of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. He has come “alive” since his replacement Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced on Thursday plans to abolish the Internal Security Act (ISA) and other laws enacted, propped up or abused by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government. Continue reading “Pak Lah and Najib: Same old, same old”

Posted on

Bumis ‘typically’ sold government contracts for cars, houses, leaked study reveals

The Malaysian Insider
Sep 20, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 — An unpublished Works Ministry study found that Bumiputera contractors as a rule sold their government contracts to buy luxury cars and houses apart from misusing payments received from the Treasury, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The cable, revealed by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, comes just after Putrajaya agreed to allocate RM8 billion worth of contracts in the country’s most expensive infrastructure project, the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), which initially set strict rules for its contractors.

The US diplomatic cable quoted a Works Ministry source as saying the “Study on Bumiputera Contractor Leakage” was the result of feedback from various industry sources on failed and successful projects. The report was used by then-Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (picture) to castigate failing Bumiputera businessmen in February 2007.

“The current system of awarding lucrative government contracts to Bumis provides them with a strong economic incentive to simply act as agents, turning over as many projects as possible and taking a cut before handing each one off to a competent non-Bumi implementer.

“This ‘Bumi agent’ system is firmly entrenched in Malaysia. Any effort to make reforms is likely to be resisted not only by well-established Bumis, but also by the non-Bumi implementers who have built up a network of well-oiled agent partnership,” the US Embassy concluded in the report published by the Malaysia-Today news portal. Continue reading “Bumis ‘typically’ sold government contracts for cars, houses, leaked study reveals”

Posted on

Pak Lah warns Najib of internal resistance to reforms

By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 19, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today that Datuk Seri Najib Razak should expect hardliners in Barisan Nasional (BN) to resist his plans to repeal the Internal Security Act (ISA) and other security laws because they want to maintain the old ways to silence critics.

The former prime minister, who was conferred Universiti Malaysia Kelantan’s first honorary doctorate today, said in his acceptance speech that his own efforts to implement reforms were “opposed not just by those outside but also those from within.”

“There are hardliners who want to maintain the old system, controlling the flow of information and using laws to silence the public. Najib may face the same challenges I did before. The job of a reformist is not easy.

“I hope there will not be those that oppose silently, ‘seperti gunting dalam lipatan’, as the policy that (Najib) wants to create with the repeal of the ISA will benefit the public and the nation in the long term,” Abdullah said, using the Malay idiom that refers to internal saboteurs. Continue reading “Pak Lah warns Najib of internal resistance to reforms”

Posted on

Slide began before Bersih

— Lucius Goon
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 12, 2011

SEPT 12 — Sorry but I don’t buy this attempt to blame the slide in the prime minister’s rating to his mishandling of Bersih 2.0 rally.

What happened on July 9 and the twisting and turning of words after that by the PM (I offered the stadium and no I didn’t and yes I did) is just symptomatic of an administration which lost its direction and a leader who is afraid of his own shadow.

Long before Bersih happened, the country was in a drift towards worsening race ties, upsurge in the power of the right wing and flip-flops in policy reforms. Sad to say but Najib has become Abdullah Ahmad Badawi: good with slogans and rhetoric but very elastic with implementation.

Abdullah had Islam Hadhari and Najib has 1 Malaysia but under the umbrella of those two “concepts” is the same rubbish which has been stinking up Malaysia since the Mahathir administration: corruption by politicians, worsening race relations, abuse of powers, widening gap between the haves and have-nots, talent drain, inflated privatisation contracts, cronyism and nepotism and a complete hijacking of the Bumiputera agenda by Umno politicians and the decaying state of institutions. Continue reading “Slide began before Bersih”

Posted on

Malaysia stumbling

Eric Ellis
TheAge
Australia
September 23, 2010

ONE of Australia’s key partners in Asia is struggling. Given the way its leaders have taunted Australia over the years, schadenfreude at its plight would be understandable. But this should be resisted, for if Malaysia stumbles, the effects may ripple across the region.

Erstwhile sponsor of the Carlton Football Club, a cash cow for the Australian education sector, Australia’s 10th largest trading partner and a champion of ”Asian values” – whatever they are – Malaysia seems to be brimming with sky-is-falling Chicken Littles. And their analyses are alarmist; ”failed state”, ”deep pit”, ”national decay”, ”ocean-going corruption”, ”useless mega-projects”.

While some of these could be used to describe the Delhi Commonwealth Games – a massive undertaking Malaysia successfully pulled off 12 years ago by the way – it is about a country oft-regarded as an Asian success, whose rampant economy inspired a cockiness among its leaders to take racially tinged potshots at the ”decadent and immoral” West, and at Australia in particular.

And then there was the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to demonise, indeed anyone its mercurial then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad didn’t like on any given day. And there was 23 years of it, the Mahathir monopoly on Malaysian power.

So what’s prompted such painful hand-wringing from a tigerish economy that likes to boast how it ditched traditional models to virtually promise endless riches? The answer is some of the nastiest foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics an Asian economy has served up in a generation. Continue reading “Malaysia stumbling”

Posted on

Call on Najib to release a full chronological order on the events resulting in the ceding of Malaysian sovereignty to Blocks L and M to Brunei and the position of Brunei’s territorial claim to Limbang

The statements by Wisma Putra, Petronas, the Prime Minister Dauk Seri Najib Razak and former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi all have one common purpose – to avoid answering two important questions:

  1. When and why Malaysia ceded away Malaysian sovereignty to two oil and gas-rich offshore areas in South China Sea, namely Block L and Block M, in favour of Brunei; and

  2. Whether and if so, when Brunei had surrendered its territorial claim of sovereignty to Limbang and recognized full Malaysian sovereignty instead.

Although Wisma Putra, Petronas, Najib and Abdullah know fully well that their statements would be scrutinized for answers to these two most important questions, all their verbiage have one common thrust to avoid answer to these two questions.

This can only raise suspicions to crisis point.
Continue reading “Call on Najib to release a full chronological order on the events resulting in the ceding of Malaysian sovereignty to Blocks L and M to Brunei and the position of Brunei’s territorial claim to Limbang”

Posted on

Abdullah should explain whether he had signed off US$100 billion (RM320 billion) worth of oil rights to resolve Brunei’s claims to Limbang a month before he stepped down as Prime Minister and why

Former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah should explain whether he had signed off US$100 billion (RM320 billion) worth of oil rights to resolve Brunei’s claims to Limbang a month before he stepped down as Prime Minister in March last year and why.

The disclosure by former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir that there had been such a deal is most shocking and even outrageous, demonstrating how gravely good governance had deteriorated after Merdeka in 1957, as this is something Abdullah’s predecessors as Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein and even Tun Mahathir himself, would not have done without proper consent of Cabinet, Parliament and the Malaysian people.

Malaysians would have continued to be kept in the dark of this deal if not for Mahathir’s latest blog entry “Malaysia’s Generosity” yesterday where he disclosed that Malaysia had lost a substantial oil producing offshore area in the South China Sea, namely Block L and Block M. Continue reading “Abdullah should explain whether he had signed off US$100 billion (RM320 billion) worth of oil rights to resolve Brunei’s claims to Limbang a month before he stepped down as Prime Minister and why”

Posted on

Repentance in retirement : The Badawi baffle

By Augustine Anthony

A very interesting behavioural pattern is emerging amongst the Malaysian politicians whilst in power and when they are no longer in power. Even prime ministers are not spared.

In Malaysia there are many repressive laws, legislations and stifling administrative procedures that are archaic and unworkable in a modern democratic system of governance.

Often we witness politicians within the ruling government, when called upon to state their views on these laws, governmental directives and administrative procedures, either support it openly or maintain a puzzling silence.

No matter what degree of public outcry, the response is akin to “you shout as much as you can, I am in power and I will decide the way I want it” seems to be the trend in response.

But once they find place in retirement, their views become somewhat perplexingly inconsistent to their earlier views. Suddenly they are now champions of human rights and fundamental liberties.
Continue reading “Repentance in retirement : The Badawi baffle”

Posted on

1 Malaysia: A cruel joke?

by Tunku Aziz | The Malaysian Insider

APRIL 27 – It never ceases to amaze me how simple and trusting we Malaysians are.

We have heard all these promises before. Pak Lah, the Mr Clean and Mr Nice Guy of Malaysian politics proclaimed his great mission of fighting corruption after 22 years of unprincipled and largely unaccountable governance under Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

We lapped it all up, initially at any rate, and believed every word the spin doctors spewed out about Abdullah Badawi.

It was not too difficult a job for Abdullah Badawi, or anyone else for that matter, after Mahathir, to look ethically spotless, clean and pure as the driven snow.

Badawi, with his religious credentials, gave every appearance of being the reformer that this country had been praying for. Alas, his leadership proved a total let-down for Malaysia.

What began as a journey full of hope and promise turned very quickly into a national nightmare. Abdullah, who skippered the good ship MALAYSIA, was in truth an incompetent and inept rating playing at being Admiral of the Fleet.
Continue reading “1 Malaysia: A cruel joke?”

Posted on

Pak Lah’s “kick at the pack of snapping hyenas around him”

Politics enters turbulent waters as prime minister retires
By Jonathan Manthorpe
Vancouver Sun
March 30, 2009

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is known as a courteous gentleman, ill-fitted for the brutal and violent world of his country’s politics.

But even the tolerant and spiritual Abdullah could not resist a kick at the pack of snapping hyenas around him when he retired last week after nearly six years as everyone’s fall guy.

Unless, he warned, the United Malays National organization (UMNO), the party that has dominated government since independence from Britain in 1957, stops silencing its critics, jailing its opponents and discriminating against minorities, it is on the fast track to political oblivion.

It was a harsh judgement, but a just and alarming one for a country which until recently has been seen as one of the great economic and political success stories of Southeast Asia. Continue reading “Pak Lah’s “kick at the pack of snapping hyenas around him””

Posted on

Islam “more repressive….narrow and parochial”

I was struck by one Q & A in Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s final interview as Prime Minister on 31st March 2009, as published by The Star yesterday, viz;

Q: You talked about progress Muslims made in earlier years and how we must emulate their efforts. But we must examine the Islam practised then. It was so free, lots of freedom to research, to think and implement. When you introduced Islam Hadhari, I thought this would bring it back to that era. But under you, Islam has gone to be more repressive. Just look at the lectures given by the ustaz on RTM1, they are so narrow and parochial.

A: It is a big problem – overseas the idea is welcome. Even Indonesia. But here it is all in a mess. Because we are fighting each other politically. Some PAS members do not like the idea. It is a battle that goes on. Changing of the mind. To do anything like that is not easy.

I have given myself that role. When I talk about democracy and freedom of discourse, it is not an easy job to do. But you have to allow people to enjoy it.

When people like it, the freedom, they think it is very nice. But I would have managed it better. I think up to now, nobody can silence the papers anymore. I don’t like the word takut (scared). Takut is not the way. Being reasonable is very important as well as being correct. Scaring does not work.

No denial whatsoever from Abdullah that under his Islam Hadhari, “Islam has gone to be more repressive…so narrow and parochial”. Continue reading “Islam “more repressive….narrow and parochial””

Posted on

May There Be Many More Such Encounters!

by M. Bakri Musa

I congratulate Ustaz Sheikh Mahmud for bringing Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim together recently for a luncheon honoring Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. I also applaud Anwar and Abdullah for their very public display of civility towards each other on that occasion.

Along the same vein, I am pleased to see on the last day of the UMNO General Assembly Tun Mahathir and Abdullah Badawi shaking hands. Despite the many harsh exchanges between them recently, at least they could still manage a brief show of courtesy. Supporters and commentators may read many things on that, but the fact they could bury their personal differences even if only momentarily is praiseworthy enough.

Such public gestures of cordiality and mutual respect are sadly lacking in our society today. As with everything else, we could only change that if we have some very visible examples set by our leaders. We can do without such obscene displays as when a supposedly “Honorable Member” calling the Deputy Prime Minister a murderer in the hallowed hall of Parliament, or the Minister of Education branding the leader of the Opposition “a traitor to Malays!” Splendid example for our school children!

I wish academics as well as heads of NGOs, think tanks, and professional bodies would emulate Sheikh Mahmud. They too should bring together our leaders to discuss issues that deeply affect us in settings other than the political arena. Continue reading “May There Be Many More Such Encounters!”

Posted on

Umno – buffetted by winds of change

by Tunku Abdul Aziz
26 March 2009
MALAYSIAN INSIDER 4

A monolithic organisation is by definition slow to change. This description fits UMNO like a glove. As it lumbered into its 59th annual party conference, the collective mood of the general assembly was much less confident than it had ever been in its history.

There was really nothing to celebrate, certainly not the succession of Najib with all that huge and unsavoury media attention he is attracting internationally. Even here in Malaysia, where standards of public morality and ethics are much less vigorously applied to those in high office, there is a real feeling of queasiness and unease that Najib appears to be so cavalier about the critical need to clear his name against what he protests are unsubstantiated allegations of impropriety. Continue reading “Umno – buffetted by winds of change”

Posted on

M vs Pak Lah (Round 2) – Mahathirism vindicated, set to be dominant force in Najib premiership

Although Mahathir triumphalism was checked in Round One of the “M vs Pak Lah” battle in the elections for Umno Youth and Wanita leaders on Thursday, with the outgoing Prime Minister getting the upperhand, Round Two of the “M vs Pak Lah” battle for the top Umno posts yesterday saw Mahathirism vindicated and set to be the dominant force in the new Najib premiership.

With Abdullah’s proxy, Mohd Ali Rustam disqualified from the contest, Muhyiddin Yassin was elected Umno Deputy President with 1,575 votes, defeating Muhammad Muhammad Taib with 916 votes.

The three elected Umno Vice Presidents are Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (1,592 votes), Hishammuddin Husein (1,515 votes) and Mohd Shafie Apdal (1,445 votes).

Abdullah’s farewell speech to wean UMNO from the scourge of money politics and corruption did not go down well at all with the Umno delegates, as he was repeatedly booed when he spoke against “greedy and avaricious” Umno members who created “the negative perception that Umno is a corrupt party” and Umno members who “expect positions and projects”, “titles and awards”, “material fulfillment” while “the spirit of sacrifice, the spirit of struggle, the spirit of serving the people and country is fast fading away”! Continue reading “M vs Pak Lah (Round 2) – Mahathirism vindicated, set to be dominant force in Najib premiership”

Posted on

UMNO power-crazy? Yes, says Pak Lah…

Is Umno power-crazy?

I had said in Parliament (video) that if Umno is not power-crazy (gila kuasa), it would not have suffered the shattering defeat in the political tsunami in the last general election of March 8, 2008.

For speaking truth to power, I was suspended from Parliament yesterday.

Now, outgoing UMNO President and Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has admitted as much that Umno is power-crazy.

In fact, he even gave five illustrations of Umno being so power-crazed as to create a crisis of credibility and erosion of public trust in Umno.

According to Abdullah, the five factors resulting in Umno becoming power-crazy are as follows: Continue reading “UMNO power-crazy? Yes, says Pak Lah…”

Posted on

Abdullah’s warning against return of Mahathirism – Will Najib scotch talk of imminent ISA arrest of Anwar?

In his farewell Umno Presidential speech today, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi confirms his image as a basically decent and humble person who unfortunately could not translate his good instincts into government policy, measures and actions resulting in his being prematurely and ignominiously forced out by his own party and becoming the shortest-serving Prime Minister of the country.

Why is this so?

The fault cannot be borne by Abdullah alone, but must be on the shoulders of the rest of Umno and Barisan Nasional leaderships, for failing to give Abdullah the necessary support, and in many cases, for actively sabotaging him in the past five years to frustrate Abdullah from walking the talk of long overdue national reforms.

As a result, Abdullah could not even salvage and accomplish the minimalist legacy of reform he had hoped to leave behind before stepping down as Prime Minister – when the last of the trio of his final reform legislative programme, the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) Bill, had to be again deferred although it was meant to be the “crown jewel” of Abdullah’s last parliamentary meeting lasting 22 days from Feb. 16 which ended yesterday.

Even the first two of the trio of his minimalist reform legislation – the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) Act and the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) Act – have proved to be great disappointments and letdowns, but Abdullah seemed to have abandoned whatever is left of his reformist zeal in his last three months in office. Continue reading “Abdullah’s warning against return of Mahathirism – Will Najib scotch talk of imminent ISA arrest of Anwar?”

Posted on

Wow! MCA Minister and Deputy Minister publicly telling the “lame-duck” PM and UMNO President to buzz off!

It was only last October that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi denied that “UMNO is big bully in Barisan Nasional” when he spoke at the MCA General Assembly.

This makes it all the more unusual the spectacle of a MCA Minister and Deputy Minister publicly tell the “lameduck” Prime Minister and UMNO President to “buzz off” as evident from the following news reports:

(1) New Sunday Times (8.3.09) – “PM: Resolve language issue before it gets out of hand” –

KUALA LUMPUR: The prime minister wants the Education Ministry to decide quickly whether Science and Mathematics should continue to be taught in English.

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the contentious issue should be resolved before it got out of hand.

“This issue has become bigger and more sensitive. I hope the ministry will make a decision on the matter fast.

“If not, the issue will become even bigger and the pressure from non-governmental organisations will continue,” he said after launching a fantasy novel written by 13-year-old Adam Umemoto titled Dragonfire Hammer. Continue reading “Wow! MCA Minister and Deputy Minister publicly telling the “lame-duck” PM and UMNO President to buzz off!”