Category: Articles

By Joseph Tawie

The Broken Shield
Saturday, May 14

KUCHING: Two Sarawak Pakatan leaders today (14 May) demanded an immediate investigation to be taken against Chief Minister of Sarawak Abdul Taib Mahmud following reports by Sarawak Report that the President of Swiss Federation Micheline Calmy-Rey has revealed Taib’s assets in Switzerland.

Calmy-Rey has forwarded the information about Taib’s assets in Switzerland to its regulatory body FINMA (the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) for investigation.

The Swiss President said that Switzerland takes extremely seriously the concerns that have been raised internationally about Taib’s alleged profiteering from timber corruption and are unhappy that such assets may have been invested in Switzerland.

In a statement on the report, Sarawak PKR Chief Baru Bian said: “For the President of a foreign country to acknowledge that her government has begun investigation into Taib Mahmud’s assets is indeed an indictment on the credibility of the Chief Minister. Continue reading “Two Pakatan leaders demand immediate action against Taib”

By Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
May 15, 2011

There has been a sudden surge in Malay preference for ghost films recently. Perhaps the implications for this preference are more serious than just the indication of productivity of the artistic creativity that produced them. Let’s see the political implications.

When DS Najib addressed the UMNO hoi poloi, the UMNO lumpen-proletariat, the UMNO murba, I was sure he wanted his message to reach a wider audience.

In particular the Malay masses who have deserted UMNO in the 2008 elections. Even more so, the 1.5 million UMNO members who did not vote for UMNO candidates for various reasons. Najib’s call for unity is not made to a vacuous audience, this he must know.

I hope he doesn’t underestimate the discerning capabilities of the rural folks and UMNO members. UMNO members can no longer be divided into old and new UMNO. By old I mean those UMNO members who desire a return to the old UMNO. Continue reading “Malays and cerita cerita hantu”

by Goh Keat Peng

“… the top anchors at all the networks had scurried into the briefing room. Once there, they received a presidential scolding for their concern with ‘silliness.’ Obama began his five-minute statement with the complaint that he wouldn’t be able to get the networks to break into their regularly scheduled programming for a speech on policy proposals. “I know that there is going to be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest,” Obama said. “But I am speaking for the vast majority of the American people as well as for the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We have better stuff to do. I have got better stuff to do. We have got big problems to solve. We are not going to be able to do it if we are distracted, we are not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other … if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts, we are not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by side shows and carnival barkers.”

The New York Times editorial on this press conference was entitled, “A Certificate of embarrassment”. It says in part:
Continue reading ““WE HAVE BETTER STUFF TO DO””

7.00 am 18th April 2011- Changi Airport

Having spent a great 4 days in Singapore, I was happily settled in the limousine on my way to the airport. I had made a special effort to get up early to leave the hotel by 6.30am (the Limousine chauffeur Mr. Dean Ong was punctual on the dot) to be at the airport by 7.00am for my flight to Penang at 8.05 am.

As I was alighting I discovered to my horror I had left my laptop behind. Panic button activated! Mr. Dean made the decision for me by saying calmly “I will head back for it”.

I proceeded to check in at the SilkAir Counter but was advised against it as I had check in luggage and it would be troublesome if I were to change flight. Wait for confirmation of retrieval of laptop and whether it could be delivered in time for me to check in at 7.15 am latest.

Immediate priority was to contact Hotel (oh dear no telephone contact with me), so I proceeded to look for ‘ Information Counter”. I happened to sport a lady wearing an uniform (bright orangy red top and purple skirt ) and holding a tablet. She looks likely to be airport official. I approached her , told her my predicament and my need for the contact number of Marina Mandarin Hotel. She promptly access the internet, found what I wanted and connected me to the hotel using her handphone. (At this point I didn’t who she was.)

The Hotel staff was most professional and efficient and the person at the concierge knew exactly when I left the hotel in a white limousine (he even knew the car number plate!). I told him that I had left my laptop behind but I did not know where. He could look for it in the room, reception, restaurant and the concierge urgently and keep it with him for the chauffeur Mr. Dean Ong to collect it. There was no time to lose as I have to board the plane by 7.55 am at the latest. He agreed without a murmur and said he would try his best. Continue reading “An amazing experience in Singapore”

Hello Uncle Kit,

I would like to bring a very serious issue of fear among Malaysians. Having lived in Switzerland for almost 5 years now as a single female Chinese lady, I am able to walk on the streets in Europe (any cities) at midnight ALONE without the fear that someone will attack me any second. Last week a Malaysian friend who has been living in Petaling Jaya for years came for a visit. While she was here, we walked back to my apartment from the train station on foot around 10pm. She told me, she would not have walked on her own without me. She said, on the way, there’s a man sitting on the bench along the sidewalk and she thinks he could pose a danger to her life. As a matter of fact, I hardly notice there’s a man SITTING ON THE BENCH and what more to say how can it be possible that this man could be a threat. When i mentioned this to my Mainland Chinese friend, she asked me, is the security in Malaysia so bad that my Malaysian friend is always thinking any man or human around her can be a threat? How can it be possible the security in Malaysia is worse than mainland china?

While this could be due to individual personality, then it just struck me, what have we become as Malaysian? Are we always constantly living in FEAR? I think it’s getting ridiculously extreme, the level of our fear. How could it be possible that fear is part and parcel of our society? Is this a new Malaysian culture in Bolehland? When my brother was actively speaking out on Facebook about his dissatisfaction about issues in Kuching or generally in Malaysia (not sensitive issue, like racism, but more on what could be done better by the government in terms of administration and helping the people in needs), my mother actually asked him to stop writing them, in fear of offending the government and the risk of being arrested under ISA. I cannot agree with her why we should refrain from voicing out just because the government is not able to accept any form of criticism. Growing up, we were brainwashed in our education that ‘you shall not criticise the government, you must thank Dr M, you are blessed, we are the best country in the world’, but reality sets in and we are shattered from our ‘dreams’. Continue reading “Sarawak – Baby steps for Change”

By Hafiz Noor Shams
April 15, 2011

APRIL 15 — There is a common denominator to any kind of respectable democratic system. The side with the most votes generally wins. There lies the importance of inclusive politics in a diverse society typical in Malaysia.

It is not enough to appeal to only one specific community in a competitive democracy as a whole. There is always an extra vote somewhere outside of the community that can make a difference. The communal divides have to be crossed just because those who fail will lose the democratic competition.

One of those divides in this country is language. There is no doubt that this divide exists in Kuching.

I have been in the Sarawak capital for nearly two weeks now and I have been trailing the state election campaigns of the DAP very closely. This gives me the opportunity to observe the party’s strategies and operations firsthand with respect to the election.

Kuching of the south bank — Padungan, Pending, Kota Sentosa and Batu Kawa — are Chinese-majority areas. In two of those areas, the Chinese make up no less than 90 per cent of the total voters.

At the same time, it is inevitable for an impartial observer to conclude that the DAP is primarily a Chinese-based party. It is ethnically more diverse than any other political parties in Malaysia, with the exception of its Pakatan Rakyat partner PKR.

That does not negate its Chinese characteristic, however. This statement cannot be any further than the truth in Kuching, where its active membership reflects the demography of the city.

The composition of Kuching makes it only natural for Chinese to function as the primary language in the city. It is not a wonder that the DAP had used only Chinese for its political communication here in the past. There were not too many reasons for the local chapter to change. Continue reading “DAP’s tilt at inclusiveness”

By Hafiz Noor Shams

MARCH 31 — I am tired of politics revolving around personality. With it comes excessive feudal culture and ugly mudslinging all too frequently. One can never truly escape it but there are other issues of actual importance if one wants to escape the ugliness of it all. These other issues are the ones that truly affect our livelihood. These issues involve our jobs, our savings and our taxes, among others.

Until very recently, Malaysian politics was grazing at the level that makes politics a worthy field to match its name. From military procurement to the mass rail transit system and to nuclear power, things that matter took the limelight.

For a period, there was nuance in the political debate held in the public sphere. It was a breath of fresh air from the stale old stuff of race and religion.

One example that took public debates to the next level was Pakatan Rakyat’s Buku Jingga. Although I do not necessarily agree with some points, I can definitely appreciate how the Buku Jingga forced both sides of the divide to raise the level of debates beyond name-calling. That is the greatest contribution of Buku Jingga.

There were other matters running parallel to this. One was the sodomy trial involving Anwar Ibrahim and Saiful Bukhari Azlan, which is still ongoing of course. Ongoing or not, the issue is dead to me. I have lost interest in it.

What made it even more forgettable were the outrageous details. Listening or reading graphic descriptions associated with the trial created a sensation that I call sodomy fatigue.

Yes, there is a feeling that the system is being manipulated at Anwar’s expense. Yes, there is a feeling of injustice committed against Anwar. Yes, he is important. Yes, he has a significant role to play in instituting a competitive democratic system in the country. Continue reading “What’s important, and what’s not”

by Zairil Khir Johari

NB: This article was first published in the March 2011 issue of The Rocket.

“A new star rises in the eastern sky – a star of freedom for yet another Asian people. A new hope comes into being, a dream long cherished now materialises. It is freedom for the Malayan people and once this torch of freedom is lit let us hold it up high so that all around us will glow with radiant happiness. Let freedom be secured for all the law-abiding people. There shall be freedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom of want, freedom of association, freedom of assembly and freedom of movement.” – Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, 1957

The aspirations above were cast 54 years ago by the buoyant father of a fledgling nation. Were he alive today he would undoubtedly lament over the fact that we, his children, have collectively failed to live up to his ideals of nationhood. The torch that he lit is now all but extinguished.

Over the last five and a half decades, every basic tenet aforementioned has been compromised for the sake of political and economic expediency by a government intent on maintaining their stranglehold on power. But what’s worse, we let it happen.
Continue reading “When Change Beckons”