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The Distracting Bilateral Issue of Maids

By M. Bakri Musa

It is telling of the state of development for both Indonesia and Malaysia that when their two leaders met recently, the key topic was Indonesian maids. Malaysia wishes to import more while Indonesia wants better working conditions for its workers in Malaysia.

I would have expected the two to discuss such consequential issues as jointly developing the region as a tourism destination to rival the Caribbean, harnessing the power of satellite and wireless communication to leapfrog the development of both countries, or perhaps conducting joint maritime research for both ecological and economic purposes. Alas, none of that!

It is reflective of the abysmal state of human development in Indonesia that maids are its major “export.” Likewise, it reflects the perverted status symbol of Malaysians that they consider having a maid as a necessity for a “luxurious” lifestyle.
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Call for convening of all-party conference to condemn the Israeli attack on Freedom Flotilla, killing at least 15, on a humanitarian aid-and-medicine mission to Gaza

(Media Statement in Kota Kinabalu on Monday, 31st May 2010)

DAP calls for the convening of an all-party conference to condemn the Israeli attacks on Freedom Flotilla, killing at least 15, on a humanitarian aid-and-medicine mission to Gaza.

There can be no conceivable excuse for the use of lethal force by the Israelis against against the mercy mission to Gaza, which is a clear breach of international law on international waters.

It is most horrifying that Malaysian lives could be lost.

The all-party conference, which should be convened within 24 hours, should express the anger and outrage of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation at the atrocity committed by the Israeli forces against the unarmed Flotilla and civilians and demand an international tribunal for such crimes against humanity.

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Oil sovereignty: Why Sarawak not consulted?

Malaysia Mirror | Wednesday, 05 May 2010

KUCHING – The question of sovereignty concerning the state of Sarawak and the oil-rich Blocks L and M, which were signed away to Brunei, was raised by DAP state assemblyman for Bukit Assek Wong Ho Leng on Tuesday.

In a media statement, Wong, who is DAP Sarawak chairperson, questioned the role of the Sarawak government on this issue and why the Federal government did not consult the state government.

Wong called for a detailed explanation from the state government as to whether it was aware of such “trades” involving Limbang and Blocks L and M.

He said the state government needs to clarify immediately whether it has neglected the interest of Sarawakians by giving up the jurisdiction on the two disputed oil-rich blocks to the Federal government.
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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”

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What did Malaysia gain from Najib’s meeting with President Obama and visit to Washington apart from a photo op and new image projection at home?

Eight years ago, when the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad wanted to wangle a meeting with United States President Bush in the White House, lobbyist Jack Abramov had to be tapped and it cost RM4.6 million.

Eight years later, to wangle a meeting with United States President Barack Obama for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, RM77 million had to be spent to engage publicity consultancy agency APCO.

Let me ask a straightforward question: What did Malaysia get from the US side in the trip of the Malaysian Prime Minister to the United States? Thus far there does not appear to have been much apart from the 40 minute conversation with Obama and some other meetings with US officials. Perhaps the most direct benefit was in terms of a photo op and image projection at home in Malaysia.

Washington Post today in its report about the nuclear summit and about Obama seeking global help in sanctioning, as this to say:

“Obama also met Monday with Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia. As a condition for Najib attending the summit, the Obama administration demanded that the Malaysian government adopt stricter import and export controls to prevent the country from being used as a transshipment point for smuggled nuclear materials and technology, officials said. “
Continue reading “What did Malaysia gain from Najib’s meeting with President Obama and visit to Washington apart from a photo op and new image projection at home?”

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Call on Najib to appear before Parliament when he returns to face MPs on his visit to United States

I have received the following assessment of a Malaysian in Washington on the visit of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, which raises many important questions.

The following is the assessment:

Assessment of a Malaysian in Washington on Najib’s visit to US

It is difficult indeed to make any serious assessment as there has been hardly anything substantive on the subject in the US media. All we have is what the Malaysian media are reporting. That said let me share some thoughts for what they are worth.

My reading is that much is being made of this visit. First and foremost, the Ambassador aided and abetted by the Malaysian media that is in tow, is painting a picture that is very sparing of the truth. For instance, they have made out that Najib was only one of two Asian leaders that met with Obama – the other being Hu Jintao. The truth was that Manmohan Singh and Gilani, the PMs of India and Pakistan , were there individually for sessions of between an hour and half and two. It would appear the Malaysian spinmeisters have redefined the borders of Asia in a revision of geography with the sub-continent not being part of Asia. Perhaps this is the input provided by the experts of APCO! Then there is the business of lunch with Vice President Biden – if our news media are to be believed, then Najib was the sole guest. The truth is stranger as he was one of a dozen leaders who lunched at the VP’s residence according to the NY Times.
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DAP wants government to explain APCO’s RM76m bill

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 — The DAP wants the Barisan Nasional (BN) government to explain why RM76.8 million (US$24.2 million) was paid to APCO Worldwide, the public relations consultancy engaged by the Najib administration.

DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang told reporters here in Parliament that a proper explanation was needed on why such an exorbitant amount of money was paid to the consultancy firm.

“A proper explanation should be given, at least at the committee stage (of the 2010 Supplementary Bill).”

“Why are millions being spent just for the purpose of the Prime Minister and the 1 Malaysia concept?” said Lim.

The government paid RM76.8 million to APCO Worldwide, the international public relations consultancy linked by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders to Israel, for its services from last July until June this year.
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Najib’s launching of Malaysia-United States (Congressional) Caucus on April 14 should be deferred until there is full Malaysian parliamentary representation including PR MPs

The launching of the Malaysia-United States (Congressional) Caucus by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on April 14 should be deferred until there is full Malaysian parliamentary representation including from Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Nazri Aziz was insulting the intelligence of Parliament and the country when he gave a nonsense justification yesterday for the Prime Minister’s decision to bring two independent Members of Parliament to the United States for the launch of the Malaysia-United States (Congressional) Caucus in his forthcoming trip to Washing to meet US President Obama.

As I said in Parliament yesterday, I congratulated the two “independent” MPs, Datuk Seri Zahrain Hashim (Bayan Baru) and Zulkifli Noordin (Kulim-Bandar Baharu). Continue reading “Najib’s launching of Malaysia-United States (Congressional) Caucus on April 14 should be deferred until there is full Malaysian parliamentary representation including PR MPs”

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Speak Out for Anwar Ibrahim’s Sake

By Paul Martin, former prime minister of Canada.
The Globe and Mail

Anwar Ibrahim is a former deputy prime minister of Malaysia. After having differences of opinion with prime minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1998, he was removed from office, charged with sodomy and corruption – charges condemned worldwide as an attempt to remove him from politics – and imprisoned for six years. After his release in 2004, he became the leader of a coalition of opposition parties that is successfully challenging the ruling coalition’s power. Mr. Anwar has now been charged again with sodomy, a charge that has again been condemned worldwide.

I have known Mr. Anwar well since the period when we each served as finance ministers for our respective countries. He is deeply committed to democracy, justice and the rule of law. And I have watched with horror how he has been treated in Malaysia because of that commitment. His initial imprisonment was seen worldwide as politically motivated. Amnesty International regarded him as a prisoner of conscience, jailed for the non-violent expression of his political opinion. After his release in 2004, he redoubled his campaign, attracting thousands to his public rallies, with the result that the historic 2008 election returned an unprecedented number of opposition candidates to Parliament. He now poses a threat to the government in the next national elections, expected in 2013 – the real reason for the latest charge.
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Government should stop waste of public funds which end up in greater national embarrassments like the “strangest” cloak-and-dagger CSIS seminar featuring Nazri in Washington yesterday

Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman should give an assurance that the government would stop waste of public funds which end up in greater national embarrassments like the “strangest” cloak-and-dagger Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) seminar “Governance and Rule of Law in Malaysia” featuring the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in Washington yesterday.

I agree with the former United States Ambassador to Malaysia John R Mallot who had described the seminar as the “strangest” he had attended in Washington DC. The reasons for such an appellation would include:

  1. Seminar Panellists – Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail and former Chief Justice and now head of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisory panel Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad who were billed to appear with Minister in Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz never showed up. Nazri told the seminar he did not know where the two were in Washington.

    The presence of the Abdul Gani and Hamid would have reinforced criticisms of the lack of progress in judicial and institutional reforms to restore international confidence in the independence and integrity of key national institutions. This is why I had publicly gone on record to criticize Abdul Gani’s participation at the CSIS seminar as his first duty is to carry out the duties of the Attorney-General independently and professionally to ensure national and international confidence in the administration of justice rather than to join in government’s international roadshows to win foreign hearts and minds that there is the just rule of law and a truly independent judiciary in Malaysia.

    2. Continue reading “Government should stop waste of public funds which end up in greater national embarrassments like the “strangest” cloak-and-dagger CSIS seminar featuring Nazri in Washington yesterday”

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A Failed Mission in Washington DC

by Raja Petra Kamaruddin in Washington DC

It was a strange scene at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington on Wednesday morning.  When the seminar on Governance & Rule of Law in Malaysia began, only one of the speakers came into the room, Nazri Abdul Aziz.

Attorney-General Gani Patail and former Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Mohamed were somehow nowhere to be seen. And in good Malaysian fashion, the seminar started 10 minutes late.

The seminar’s chairman, Ernest Bower, looked tired and nervous, saying that he had received a number of e-mails expressing concern that the seminar would not be balanced. He said that he wants a dialogue on important issues. Therefore he also has invited the opposition to speak at CSIS. He hopes they will accept.

Ernest Bower then shocked the audience of about 40 people by saying that the session was ‘off the record’. The flyer announcing the seminar never said it was an off the record session. It doesn’t matter though. The session was so boring there is very little to report anyway.
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Malaysian Circus goes to Washington

by Martin Jalleh

For a little more than a month in 2010 Umno has gone full steam with its scare tactics, saber-rattling tricks, silly threats and sinister theatrics. Now it is all set to take the Malaysian (political) circus to the US and to show Uncle Sam a far “superior” sample of democracy and governance.

The trip is by courtesy of Apco Worldwide, a global PR firm, employed by the government to resuscitate, redeem, and re-engineer the PM’s flagging image at about RM20 million. The firm has allegedly offered similar services to dictators and corrupt leaders worldwide. They must feel very at home here in dealing with the “most corrupt institution in the country”.

But why is Umno off to the US with its best circus clowns to impress the US when they just told those lowdown politicians in Down Under that to Umno it is a no-no to interfere in the affairs of Bolehland? Why waste the people’s money and be bothered about what the US thinks of us? Alas, the answer to such a mystery belongs only to those who can go the lowest.
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Why Australian MPs protested the Anwar trial

By Michael Danby | The Malaysian Insider

FEB 21 — Last week saw an unusual event in Australian politics: backbench members of Parliament from both sides took a foreign affairs initiative, independent of their party leaderships.

Sixty Members and Senators — Labor, Liberal, Green and independent — signed a letter which was presented to the Malaysian High Commissioner protesting against the current trial of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim on charges of “sodomy.”

The letter was signed by, among others, Laurie Ferguson, Malcolm Turnbull, Greg Hunt, Bob Brown, Nick Xenophon, Duncan Kerr, Deputy Speaker Anna Burke, Jennie George, Gary Gray and Mark Dreyfus QC.

It followed a speech which I gave in the House of Representatives on Feb 3, in which I drew the House’s attention to the 2nd Sodomy trial in Kuala Lumpur of Anwar Ibrahim.

I’m very grateful to all the Members and Senators who signed the letter. I can’t recall another backbench initiative like this in recent times.
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Mahathir and Avatar

Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad would have created an “international incident” between Malaysia and the United States if he is still Prime Minister with his post-Avatar view that the 911 attacks in the United States that killed nearly 3,000 was staged as an excuse” to mount attacks on the Muslim world”.

It is a reflection of Mahathir’s continuing “heft” in the Malaysian government although he had stepped down as Prime Minister more than five years ago and the corollary weakness of the Najib premiership that Mahathir could still cause enormous embarrassment to the country with such a conspiracy theory of the 911 terrorist attacks.

Why was Mahathir inspired to embrace the conspiracy theory that the 911 attacks in the United States was staged to fan a world-wide war of Islamophobila just because of the technical wizardry of James Camerons’ “Avatar”, when there had been many other Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters with landmark visual-effects (VFX) scenes even during his years as Prime Minister?

This reminds me of two episodes.
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Our failed migrant labour policy

By Tunku Aziz

Corruption and gross inefficiency make for a lethal concoction. In Malaysia everything that goes wrong is traceable to either one or both of these factors, and we Malaysians do not have far to cast our eye to see examples of enforcement that have gone awry.

Everywhere we go in Malaysia, in urban centres as well as remote rural hamlets, we see foreigners in our midst toiling away day and night at jobs that Malaysians won’t touch with a long barge pole.

It is clear that these people, the overwhelming majority are illegal, are performing a useful economic function, and it is equally obvious that we cannot do without them, such is their penetration into virtually every aspect of Malaysian life. Why, then, don’t we look the problem in the face and do something right by both the country and these illegals who are here for the long haul?
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Indonesia, we are not your whipping boy

By Tunku Aziz

The Javanese have done it again. They have burned our national flag.

Many years ago, I was interviewed in London by BBC Radio 2 as part of a series on the great languages of the world. I was asked about some significant differences between Bahasa Indonesia and our own Bahasa Melayu. I feigned ignorance about the existence of a language called Bahasa Indonesia. I said what Indonesia claimed as its language is really Bahasa Melayu.

They had no choice but to use Bahasa Melayu, the lingua franca of the Malay world to communicate among themselves because they never had a common language to begin with. Malay is undoubtedly the basis of their language. So, if we do what they in Indonesia do so well, we should be burning their flag every day because they have purloined our national language.

An excessive display of nationalistic zeal is generally considered “ugly” in civilised societies. The Indonesians by their actions have reduced themselves into sad figures of ridicule and fun. Their claim, and not for the first time, that we have infringed their “cultural copyrights” is totally absurd. They now have got it into their heads that we should stop singing our national anthem because the tune was Indonesian. What else next? Stop eating satay and wearing kain batik because these are Indonesian?
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Injecting Reason Back Into Indonesia-Malaysia Relations

By Farish A. Noor

It would appear as if Reason and Rationality have gone on holiday in Southeast Asia recently: In Malaysia a group of angry residents who wished to protest against the construction of a Hindu temple in their neighborhood decided to demonstrate their anger by marching to the government offices in Selangor with a severed cow’s head, a gesture that was guaranteed to offend the sensibility of pious Hindus who regard the cow as a sacred animal. In Indonesia a misunderstanding over a tourism ad commissioned from a non-Malaysian company has angered scores of Indonesians, simply because it mistakenly featured a scene from a Balinese pendet dance which the Indonesians regard as being exclusively theirs: The net result being a new round of anti-Malaysian protests leading to local vigilante groups harrassing tourists in Jakarta and going out into the streets to ‘sweep’ the country of Malaysians.

In both Malaysia and Indonesia, tempers seem to be rising out of control and for all the wrong reasons. Making matters worse is the fact that in both countries these mob actions are neither accidental nor unavoidable. Mobs do not form themselves and move into the streets for no reason; vigilante groups do not miraculously form themselves out of this air without funding and political support.
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Umno must abandon old politics and work together with Singapore to bring about prosperity and progress for Malaysia and Singapore

By Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP Life Advisor

PM Najib wants more development for Johore and Malaysia by improving relationships with Singapore. His proposal to build a third bridge to link South East Johore with Changi of Singapore was meant to bring economic development for South East Johore and Singapore.

Umno insisted that selling land to Singapore was akin to giving up Malaysia’s sovereignty. This is ridiculous.

Umno should be aware that large quantities of sand and quarry stone have been sold to Singapore for many years. Yet we have not lost our sovereignty.

Umno must realise that the rural population of South Johore – in particular both South East and South West Johore are still quite poor Continue reading “Umno must abandon old politics and work together with Singapore to bring about prosperity and progress for Malaysia and Singapore”

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Policy changes to be made to expand and strengthen Malaysian-China relationship

By Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP Life advisor

From a poor communist country has been transformed into the fourth richest country in the world after USA, Japan and Germany, the man who started the phenomenal change was Deng Xiao Peng who introduced liberal and modernisation policies.

Although it still keep its communist ideology, China now intend to be friends with the whole world. She has won friends with the West, the developed countries and has given large financial handouts to the poor countries of the world. Her diplomacy offensive as a friend of the world has won tremendous appeal.

Malaysia ostensibly also adopt a policy of being a friend to the whole world, and PM Najib’s visit to China tomorrow is meant to expand and strengthen Malaysia-China relationship.
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