Category: Articles

By Erna Mahyuni | The Malaysian Insider

MARCH 6 — To paint the Sabah situation as “virtuous Sabah natives” against “invading foreign terrorists” is far too simplistic.

The reality is as complex as Sabah’s political landscape, enmeshed in history and complicated by the notion of statehood.

Farish Noor explains the complicated history of the various people of North Borneo and the Philippines in his column where he says:

“In the midst of the chest-thumping, saber-rattling jingoism and hyper-nationalism we see rising in both Philippines and Malaysia today, we ought to take a step back and look at ourselves honestly in the face.”

Historically the people of Sabah are a complex mix. With the formation of countries and borders, people who are connected by history and blood are now separated by that thing we call “citizenship.”

Sabah artist Yee I-Lan sums up that divide in one of the pictures from her “Sulu stories” series.

Of the subjects in the photo, Yee says: “One carries Malaysian identity, the other Filipino. They come from the same sea and place and knowledge.”

But while we must acknowledge history, we have to address present realities. Continue reading “Sabah: Mahathir’s failed attempt at social engineering”

by Goh Keat Peng

My mind and heart is so weighed down by that tragic end of a life merely beginning and so harshly and cruelly snuffed out by wicked grown-ups. How can this be allowed to happen?

The sudden loss of life in unexpected circumstances is always tragic. Especially when it happens to a precious child. In this case a mere six-year old boy. His only crime was to have left the relative safety of the family car to seek parental help for a younger crying sibling. JUST LIKE THAT.

Once more we as part of the human race is plunged into regrets, self-doubts, anguish, a gnawing inconsolable sorrow. Probably the most terrible of human feelings.

This is a time for SOUL-SEARCHING. For each of us. Where each of us is reminded of our own fears, our own sense of guilt, our own lapses, our own anxieties, our own self-examination… Continue reading “An Inconsolable Sorrow”

By Lucius Goon | The Malaysian Insider

OCT 21 — The Chinese are scared about hudud and have become wary of the DAP’s marriage with PAS, says Chua Soi Lek.

The Malays dislike DAP, says Najib Razak.

So I say: what is the problem, then?

The coming elections should be a walkover with an easy victory for Barisan Nasional. No reason for Najib and BN to lose sleep because the rakyat are with the BN.

Or at least that should be the case if what has been said by BN leaders at the MCA AGM is truthful. Continue reading “Why so much fear?”

By P. Ramakrishnan
September 08, 2012 | The Malaysian Insider

SEPT 8 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s warning that the country may never see a Barisan Nasional (BN) government again if Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is voted into Putrajaya, would provoke the response, “Good riddance to bad rubbish!” from many Malaysians who are totally fed up with BN rule.

After 55 years of BN rule, it is time to say, “Enough is enough! It’s time to go!!”

Dr Mahathir should stop whining that the federal opposition would do “everything possible” to stay in power forever if they were to form the next government.

What’s wrong with that, Tun?

Didn’t you do that, Tun, to stay in power forever? Why is it when you did “everything possible” to cling on to power, it was the proper thing to do but it is utterly wrong now for others to aspire to, as you did.

Didn’t you refuse our beloved Tunku Abdul Rahman, the honest Tun Hussein Onn, the fearless Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and others admission into Umno Baru so that you could remain in power forever without any opposition from within the party? Continue reading “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, Dr M”

By Pak Sako
September 07, 2012

SEPT 7 ― The prime minister proposes to measure national development based on both a “happiness index of the people” and per capita income. He correctly conceded that increases in the people’s income do not necessarily result in increases in their happiness.

But spoken rhetoric aside, his words need to be measured against what his government is implementing right now.

This can be done by referring to the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and its New Economic Model (NEM).

These are the government’s blueprint and flowchart for economic development in the near term.

Examining all thirteen chapters and 471 pages of the ETP handbook or “roadmap” obtained from its official website, nowhere are the words “happiness” and “happiness index” to be found. Continue reading “PM’s ‘happiness’ plan conflicts with his ETP”

By Aspan Alias
September 08, 2012 | The Malaysian Insider

Cebisan fakta yang saya tulis tentang Umno sejak dua hari yang lepas, susah untuk Umno memahaminya. Dalam Umno hanya seorang sahaja ahli yang bekerja keras, iaitu Najib, Presidennya sekarang. Penjelajahan Najib keseluruh negara telah membelanjakan wang rakyat ratusan juta ringgit. Di sini Umno juga terlupa yang rakyat sedang memerhatikan tindakan pimpinan Umno dalam usaha mendapatkan mandat dalam PRU kali ini. Akhir-akhir ini Dr Mahthir sahaja yang keluar untuk menyokong Najib habis-habisan seorang sahabat saya berseloroh, “sokongan Mahathir itu ada makna tu!”

Dalam dua posting saya yang terdahulu, saya telah melepaskan apa yang ada tersimpan di dalam jiwa saya dan orang-orang yang sama pemikiran seperti saya memahaminya. Seperti biasa orang-orang Umno tidak akan faham sampai bila-bila.

Dalam keadaan yang tidak menentu Umno sendiri tidak dapat meyakinkan partinya sendiri yang mereka akan berjaya mengekalkan kuasa di Putrajaya. Dr Mahathir kali ini bekerja keras untuk mempertahankan Umno, parti yang beliau tubuhkan dan juga parti yang beliau sendiri mengakui sebagai sebuah pertubuhan yang telah busuk sampai ke ususnya. Continue reading “Kalau Dr M sokong Najib…”

By Sakmongkol AK47
September 07, 2012 | The Malaysian Insider

SEPT 7 — A close Umno friend asked me this question: if PR takes over, wouldn’t it lead to DAP dominance over PR? Wouldn’t the Chinese be in control? Just take the example of Nizar when he became MB of Perak by courtesy of the DAP. He gave out land to the Chinese because the DAP must have pressured him to.

The DAP has become the favourite bogeyman that must be attacked from all possible angles. Lim Kit Siang was behind the May 13 incident, ignoring the records which showed that Kit Siang was in Sabah at that time. Lim Guan Eng, who was eight years old at that time, was also instrumental in creating the racial clashes. The DAP has never detached itself as a proxy to Singapore’s PAP. The list of wrongs is seemingly bottomless. And now, a spectre is haunting Malaysia. The DAP shall dominate a PR government.

I have long wanted to answer this anxiety. Apparently this is the propaganda being sold by Umno leaders all over the country. It’s simply called scare mongering. It indicates that Umno is scared. Barisan Nasional’s other component party members, which are essentially stooges of Umno, are now irrelevant. It has also shown that Umno now realises it can lose power.

Let us dispel the myths before we answer as to what Nizar has actually done. Continue reading “Will DAP dominate PR?”

By Aspan Alias
15 Ogos |The Malaysian Insider

Setakat ini belum ada apa-apa tindakan pihak kerajaan terhadap pihak yang memfatwakan DAP sebagi parti untuk ‘kafir harbi’. Sikap kerajaan membiarkan perkara ini terus menerus di sebut oleh pihak tertentu yang ‘desperate’ ini, membawa tanggapan yang pihak kerajaan BN hari ini tidak prihatin terhadap sensiviti rakyat berbilang kaum dan agama dalam negara ini.

Tidak ada sesiapa berhak untuk melebelkan pihak yang menyokong dan bermuafakat dengan DAP bagi kebaikan negara menggelarkan mereka sebagai kafir. DAP merupakan sebuah parti politik yang terdaftar secara halal dengan pendaftaran pertubuhan dan parti itu telah menjunjung segala peruntukan yang tertulis di dalam perlembagaan negara. Hanya pihak Umno sahaja yang cuba menafikannya.

Ulamak sesat yang memberikan fatwa itu wajar di ambil tindakan kerana ia merupakan satu tindakan memecah belahkan rakyat berbilang agama dan kaum dan ini merupakan tentangan secara ‘direct’ terhadap agama suci kita. Memecah belahkan masyarakat merupakan tindakan yang tercemar dari pandangan agama suci kita, kerana kita di tuntut untuk saling menghormati diantara semua puak dan bangsa serta agama.
Continue reading “Siapa kafir harbi?”

— Jacob Sinnathamby
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 07, 2012

JULY 7 — How often have you heard this statement? Those who do evil and wicked things in Malaysia seem to prosper but the good-intentioned are jailed, demonised and subject to continuous harassment by the mainstream media and authorities.

Or this line? It is so unfair that the crooked politicians can get away with anything.

These statements are often then followed with a burst of anger and frustration, and a despairing rant about how little we can do to bring the wicked to justice and bring about change in Malaysia.

But there is no reason to despair. I am a Catholic and I also sometimes find myself wallowing in the cycle of “nothing can be done”. Continue reading “We shall overcome”

Azrul Mohd Khalib
The Malaysian Insider
July , 2012

I was quite disappointed to read of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s prediction that the upcoming general election would be more focussed on race and ethnic issues than ever before.

I think you are wrong, Dr M. Speaking as a product of your policies and far-sightedness in the creation of a Vision 2020 generation, I am happy to inform you, Dr M, that you have actually wildly succeeded in pushing us towards the formation of a more united, integrated and mature democratic Malaysian society (remember the Vision 2020 concept document?).

Through the programmes put in place under your leadership, the opportunities for education and learning provided by your administration, and through the shared experiences, heartache and pain that we have had over the past three decades, you have much to be responsible for the current state of affairs which resulted in the evolution of our people.

And the evolution is a good one. When you look at the young people today below the age of 35, there is much to be proud of. We used to gripe about how apathetic Malaysians in general were about the state of the country, how they often took for granted that which they are able to benefit from, and did not really want to participate in the political process. Well, things, as you well know, certainly have changed. Continue reading “Dr M, you are wrong”

Dr Kamal Amzan
The Malaysian Insider

JULY 4 — Some say DAP is an ally of the PAP. Even if it is true, so what?

Yes, I am aware that PAP championed Malaysian Malaysia back in the 1960s, and was blamed for Singapore’s expulsion from the Federation of Malaysia. I also understand the politically correct term now is not Malaysian Malaysia, but instead a totally different, not straightforward meaning, not fully embraced concept of 1 Malaysia.

I am also very well aware that PAP led a Chinese-majority republic as opposed to an Umno-led majority Malay Malaysia.

Now, why is that a problem to us? Why did one newspaper dedicated its last weekly column to painting a racist picture of PAP, also insinuating a repeat of August 1965 in Penang?

Okay, first let us assume that PAP is racist and DAP is also racist by association, but which political party here isn’t? 1 Malaysia Barisan Nasional or the Muslim-Malay majority PAS who is bent on implementing hudud? Or perhaps MCA, MIC? Continue reading “Enough with the conspiracy theories”

Oleh Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
July 02, 2012

2 JULAI — Sesiapa pun, apabila dalam keadaan lemah dan tidak sihat akan mudah merasa miskin di jiwa dan memandang semua dikelilingnya dengan perasaan takut. Memang ramai orang takut kerana “creativity”nya sendiri. Dikampung-kampung hingga sampai masa kini masih ada yang takut kepada setengah pokok yang rimbun kerana kononnya pokok itu berhantu. Oleh kerana terlalu percaya yang pohon rimbun itu berhantu maka akhirnya hantu itu akan timbul.

Kita lupa yang jika kita masih berbentuk Muhamad (mim ha mim dal) tidak ada apa elemen yang lain boleh mengatasi kita. Tetapi apabila kita lemah maka yang tidak berhantu itu pun dianggapnya ada hantu. Hantu dan syaitan itu sebenarnya takut dan tidak akan dapat mengatasi kita kerana kita adalah makhluk yang secantik-cantik kejadian. Manusia itu lebih mulia dari malaikat tetapi oleh kerana ada manusia yang lemah jiwanya maka yang mereka tidak sepatutnya takut pun mereka akan takut.

Dalam politik pun begitu juga. Umno sekarang amat takut jika ditewaskan oleh pembangkang dalam pilihanraya untuk menguasai kerajaan persekutuan. Rasa takutnya begitu jelas dan menonjol sehinggakan media yang menyokongnya seperti Utusan Malaysia mencari jalan untuk membantu BN dengan menulis perkara-perkara yang berunsur menakut-nakutkan rakyat. Awang Selamat dalam tulisannya semalam menulis tentang PAP Singapura yang kononya berkait rapat dengan DAP. Continue reading “Awang Selamat terus menghasut”

Comment By Kee Thuan Chye
Free Malaysia Today
July 3, 2012

SINGAPORE’s ruling party, the People’s Action Party (PAP), is conniving the downfall of the Barisan Nasional government in Malaysia, and it’s doing it through its local proxy, the Democratic Action Party (DAP).

This is the most preposterous thing anyone has heard about what could happen at our upcoming 13th general election. The leaders of the PAP must be rolling on the floor with laughter.

That this piece of nonsense came out of Utusan Malaysia truly speaks badly of the Umno-owned newspaper. It is bandied about without any shred of evidence to support it. Instead, it comes with a wild allegation that the PAP has been waiting 48 years to achieve its “dream” in Peninsular Malaysia.

What “dream”? What would it benefit the PAP to see the fall of BN? And after that, what?

Whoever wrote that article (under the pseudonym of Awang Selamat) has no sense of logic. If Pakatan Rakyat wins the 13th general election, does it mean the DAP can invite the PAP to come into Peninsular Malaysia? It’s that easy, is it? The DAP’s coalition partners, PAS and PKR, would welcome the PAP with open arms? Continue reading “Awang Selamat gets an ‘F’”

— Art Harun
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 12, 2012

JUNE 12 — I quite like the way people in authority attempt to solve various problems in Malaysia.

A long time ago, safety helmets were made compulsory for every motorcyclist and pillion rider. Thereafter, some smarty-pants wore helmets with visors to rob banks. Although I was still in school at that time, I remember the so-called solution which our authority came up with to solve that problem. They simply banned helmets with visors. Problem solved, right?

Many years ago there were concerns over deaths caused by accidents involving water-scooters on Penang beaches. Of course, before everybody could finish saying “water-scooters”, I remember some hot-shots proposed that water-scooters be banned. Fortunately that did not happen.

Baby dumping? Oh well, that’s easy. Ban, among others, Valentine’s Day celebration. Continue reading “Let’s ban ‘em all!”

– Greg Felker
New Mandala
May 26th, 2012

Credibility and the search for a new developmental model

In comparative politics the word “regime” refers to the formal and informal institutions by which political power is acquired and exercised. In political economy, a regime refers to an enduring combination of “socio-economic alliances, political-economic institutions, and a public-policy profile” (Pempel 1998: 20). In the case of Malaysia, the Barisan Nasional (BN) regime’s durability in the former, political sense has been closely associated with a particular sort political economy, or regime in the second sense. Despite significant changes over the years, Malaysia’s hegemonic-party political system, centered on United Malays National Organisaion’s (UMNO) dominance, has since the early 1970s practiced a form of developmentalism that has shaped Malaysian society in profound ways. As the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) understands, its challenge to the BN’s national political monopoly is inescapably a contest about Malaysia’s economic development model, as well. To what extent, and in what ways, does the prospect of change in Malaysia’s political regime imply a change in the country’s pattern of development?

Contemporary debates make clear the close connection between political contestation and economic policy choices. Indeed, one of the UMNO-led government’s vulnerabilities is a sense, growing in recent years, that the Malaysian development miracle has wavered and, for large segments of the population, inadequately fulfilled its promise of a steadily improving quality of life. The notion of the “middle-income trap”, first popularised in a global context by Geoffrey Garret in 2004, quickly became a frame for discussions of possible policy reform within Malaysia and among foreign observers. Two themes have been prominent in these discussions. One is the issue of the quality of governance as this affects broader economic efficiency and productivity. Second is the mooted necessity of a broad liberalisation of restrictions and regulations to enable greater flexibility and entrepreneurial dynamism. In both areas, the opposition and pro-reform civil society organisations have made telling critiques of the incumbent leadership. For its part, Najib Razak’s administration has launched a series of reform initiatives under the New Economic Model (NEM) that speak to the same concerns about governance and the structural challenges to Malaysia’s continued economic development. This dimension of the new competitiveness in Malaysia’s politics adds programmatic substance to a political tableau in which mass protest, scandal, and cultural controversies have comprised much of the drama. Continue reading “Malaysia after regime change”

By Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
May 19, 2012

MAY 19 — It offends UMNO that Malays choose to join DAP. Why does the action of Malays joining another legitimate political party which is not UMNO, induce that feeling? It springs from arrogance and political xenophobia. UMNO is the chauvinist party that sees people who reject it ( for whatever reasons they choose) as a betrayal to UMNO. That is what offends UMNO actually. They can’t understand why people can be `disloyal’ to UMNO. UMNO expects Malays to be loyal to it- but what principles and values does it offer that can sustain the much desired loyalty?

UMNO arrogantly believes that an UMNO Malay is the only Malay. So it offends UMNO to see Malays abandon UMNO as though, the Malay has converted into another race. UMNO is fast adopting the Hassan Aqidah Ali mentality.

Next it offends UMNO not being able to see an exodus of other Malays from DAP. Suddenly UMNO has credited Tunku Aziz with some extraordinary attributes that must without fail, encourage other Malays to leave DAP. Alas, Tunku Abdul Aziz is alone. UMNO’s hope that Tunku Aziz’s action can serve as the catalyst prompting other Malays in DAP to do likewise crumbles. Indeed, Tunku Aziz’s action reinforces the determination of Malays who joined DAP to stay put despite his U-turn. Continue reading “Tunku Aziz’s exit from DAP”

— Clive Kessler
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 01, 2012

FEB 1 — Part 1: The personal quest

Now back in Sydney yet again, after two more months in Malaysia, I sigh from both exhaustion and relief.

Exhaustion, since as I age I find it ever more punishing physically just to get around Kuala Lumpur and keep up with things there.

… And relief. Relief since I am here at home spared the daily onslaught of anguish and stress that is my lot there, as I contemplate Malaysia’s future and prospects “from within”: from the midst, or at the least from my vantage point close on the sidelines, of the nation’s current travails.

I enjoy here, in short, some of the pleasure of a little distance from it all, some blissful detachment.

But it is a guilty pleasure, an enjoyment that makes me feel uneasy. Why?

As I now think, from afar, about how exercised and agitated and concerned I become about Malaysia’s current situation and trajectory — especially as I contemplate Malaysia’s current situation and prospects from “inside” or “close up” there — I pose a challenge to myself. A basic question. Continue reading “Malaysia: Why do I care?”

— Art Harun
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 20, 2012

JAN 20 — The establishment, nourishment, protection and subsequent embellishment by any government of entities (corporate or otherwise) with monopolistic businesses and/or preferential treatment signal the rise of what I would term as totalitarian economy.

A totalitarian economy operates and behaves in manners not unlike a totalitarian or absolutist state. By its very nature, it feeds off compulsion and force, disallows and even destroys competition and gives no option nor choice to the consumers. It is beyond scrutiny as it is not answerable to any entity, let alone the very consumers which it aims to supply.

As a result of the totalitarian and absolutist approach, this economy owes little, if at all, affinity to the concepts of fairness and justness.

It is like a black hole. It swallows everything which is in its way. It then grows bigger. And bigger.

The only difference is that, unlike the real black holes, a totalitarian economy only grows bigger within the confines of the parameters defined by its own creators. Throw this economy into unchartered territory, the real capitalist would just laugh its head off. With a mere snap of the capitalist’s finger, this totalitarian economy would be history.

That is not surprising. As a result of the constant nourishment, protection and forced embellishment of this economics absolutism/totalitarianism, such economy knows not how to compete. Its supernova-like explosive birth and subsequent growth deprives it of the ability to learn and to grow organically. This totally underdeveloped creature — underdeveloped in the sense that it is bereft of the elements which would ensure its vibrancy and survival in unchartered territories — has no defence mechanism nor the ability to adapt to changes within its surrounding, preferring to coil within the comfort of its mother’s lap. Continue reading “A totalitarian/absolutist economy”

Thomas L. Friedman | January 05, 2012
The Jakarta Globe

Two things struck me about the Republican presidential candidate debates leading up to the Iowa caucuses. One is how entertaining they were. The other is how disconnected they were from the biggest trends shaping the job market of the 21st century. What if the 2012 campaign were actually about the world in which we’re living and how we adapt to it? What would the candidates be talking about?

Surely at or near the top of that list would be the tightening merger between globalization and the latest information technology revolution. The IT revolution is giving individuals more and more cheap tools of innovation, collaboration and creativity — thanks to hand-held computers, social networks and “the cloud,” which stores powerful applications that anyone can download.

And the globalization side of this revolution is integrating more and more of these empowered people into ecosystems, where they can innovate and manufacture more products and services that make people’s lives more healthy, educated, entertained, productive and comfortable.

The best of these ecosystems will be cities and towns that combine a university, an educated populace, a dynamic business community and the fastest broadband connections on earth. These will be the job factories of the future. The countries that thrive will be those that build more of these towns that make possible “high-performance knowledge exchange and generation,” explains Blair Levin, who runs the Aspen Institute’s Gig.U project, a consortium of 37 university communities working to promote private investment in next-generation ecosystems. Continue reading “Wire Up, or Miss Out on Tomorrow’s Jobs”

by Azmi Sharom
Wednesday, 30 November 2011

The scene is a small terrace house, somewhere in Kelana Jaya. Ten year old Mary and her younger brother Timothy approach their father who is sitting in the living room flossing his teeth after a large meal.

“Papa, Timmy and I would like to tell you something”

“Oh, really, both of you want to gather together and say something?”

“Yes, we think it is a very important issue and we would like to express ourselves to the whole family”.

“I see, so you want to assemble peacefully. You are not going to get violent are you?”

“Of course not Papa!” Continue reading “An Assembly Tale”