for Malaysia
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Utusan Malaysia headlines: Hishammuddin “Isu Kristian: Ada kebenaran”.”Saya tahu apa yg sebenar berlaku” – Ahli DAP Mohd Razali Abdul Rahman
Hisham (nose-drag CSL) is single-handedly re-igniting Utusan Christian Msia bogey which Najib tried 2put 2rest though most one-sidedly.
What remedy when it is Home Minister who play politics n pose greatest threat 2national harmony security w irresponsible stmts actions?
AB Sulaiman | May 11, 11
Malaysiakini
A friend had lent me Mahathir Mohamad’s memoir ‘A Doctor in the House’ to read. This was followed with the request for me to review it. I have read it but would decline his request for its review.
I have a reason for this refusal. It is that Barry Wain (the author of ‘Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times’) has already made one such authoritative and well-reasoned review in Malaysiakini (April 4, 2011). Any additional attempt on my part would be sheer duplication.
Instead I’d now highlight one major point raised by Wain in his review and use it to ‘review’ Mahathir’s memoir.
It is that Wain claims that Mahathir has used facts mixed with fiction in his writing to become a mixture of both, a ‘faction’. Wain cites the case of the construction of the North-South Expressway of a Mahathir faction and I quote: Continue reading “Mahathir’s thinking legacy”
Susan Loone | May 10, 11
Malaysiakini
Two Penang Umno assemblypersons said today they do not believe last Saturday’s front page report in Utusan Malaysia that DAP and a group of Christian pastors were plotting to establish the country as a Christian state.
During the tabling of a motion to bar the Umno-owned news daily from covering the next state assembly sittings, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had asked Hilmi Yahya (BN-Teluk Bahang) if he believed the report.
Lim, who tabled the motion against Utusan over a report on Nov 11 last year on the renovation cost of his official residence, went on to condemn the Malay daily for frequently raising sensitive issues to cause divisions among the different races in the country.
Hilmi had earlier admitted that Umno may be Utusan’s biggest shareholder, but it may not necessarily condone everything the newspaper does.
He said Utusan, like any other newspaper, was a business entity and prone to sensationalising its articles to increase readership. Continue reading “Two Penang Umno reps don’t buy Utusan report”
Syed Jaymal Zahiid | May 10, 2011
Free Malaysia Today
A check by FMT showed all posts on the issue have been removed or deleted from the pro-Umno blog.
KUALA LUMPUR: The blogger responsible for Utusan Malaysia’s Malaysian Christian conspiracy report, marahku.blogspot.com, appeared to have deleted all posts related to the allegation amid escalating racial tension between the country’s Christian and conservative Muslim communities.
A check by FMT showed all posts on the issue have been removed or deleted from the pro-Umno blog just as Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein revealed that nine police reports had been lodged against Utusan and those behind the allegation.
The removal of the postings has triggered questions over the veracity of its allegations as seen on the ongoing debate on the microblogging site Twitter.
Pro-Umno Twitter users were also seen questioning the reasons behind the removal: Continue reading “Blogger behind Christian Malaysia report deletes posts?”
RK Anand
Free Malaysia Today
May 10, 2011
In an interview with the Vatican Radio, the Herald’s editor Father Lawrence Andrew says the government is stirring up a controversy to revive Muslim support.
KUALA LUMPUR: The allegation of a Christian coup being planned is an attempt by the Umno-led government to stir up controversy to revive Muslim support, said the editor of Catholic weekly, Herald.
Speaking to the Vatican Radio, Father Lawrence Andrew claimed that the government felt that it was losing the popularity it once commanded.
“Because they are losing popularity, they will enjoy some uneasiness that will create confusion – that will create fear – in the people,” he said.
He said the allegation was absurd, pointing out that Christians made up less than 10% of the population. Continue reading “Umno’s Christian plot to bag Muslim votes’”
Malaysiakini
May 9, 11
Beginning tomorrow, sugar will cost RM2.30 per kilo, up RM0.20, announced the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry today.
This is the fourth time sugar prices had increased since Jan 1 last year when it was priced at RM1.65 per kilo.
Prior to that, sugar prices were maintained at RM1.45 for a long period. This marks a 58.6 percent increase in less than one-and-a-half years.
According to the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, by increasing the price of sugar by RM0.20 tomorrow, the government stands to make a saving of RM116.6 million. Continue reading “Sugar price up RM0.20”
By Susan Loone
May 7, 2011
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has expressed outrage over a front-page report today headlined ‘Malaysia Negara Kristian?’ (Malaysia a Christian state?) in Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia.
Lim turned his guns on the Malay daily for the false report which was based on a couple of pro-Umno blogs and accused Utusan of planning to “set 1Malaysia on fire” by playing up racial and religious sentiments.
According to Lim, the newspaper was playing a dangerous game by front-paging an article without verifying the allegations featured in anonymous blogs such as Bigdog.com and Marahku.com.
“Utusan wants to set 1Malaysia on fire… it is the most evil (jahat) and dangerous element in our country right now,” decried an angry Lim at a press conference in Penang today.
“I have asked my party leaders to lodge a police report on the matter. How can a lie be on the front page of a newspaper?” Continue reading “Utusan wants to set 1 Malaysia on fire, decries Lim”
By June Rubis
May 05, 2011
We stand separated by an iron gate.
Concerned villagers and relatives of Numpang Suntai are quietly gathered outside the gates of the Simunjan magistrate’s court. The rest of us, carefully picked by the police, are standing on the grounds of the court with his lawyers.
The day is February 16, 2011, and Numpang is on trial for criminal intimidation. He, along with five tuais rumah (Iban longhouse chiefs) and a prominent land rights activist, Nicholas Mujah, were previously arrested and detained a few months prior on suspicion of burning down a timber camp that stood on their native customary land.
The man of the hour stands quietly in the rain in solidarity with his supporters who came far and wide to be by his side. So does lawyer Edmund Bon who refused to step inside court grounds.
I had taken Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan pass the iron gate because she wanted to discuss with the lawyers regarding Numpang’s case. My job was done, and I stood uncertainly with the heavily-armed police and lawyers, wanting to be on the other side of the gate. Continue reading “Behind the iron gates”
Malaysiakini
Apr 26, 11
More than 100 Ibans stormed the Sibu headquarters of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) yesterday, demanding the balance of RM400 a person as their reward promised for backing a party candidate who won in the recent state election, an election watchdog has revealed.
Sibu Election Watch (SEW) in a press statement released in the Sarawak town late yesterday evening said the Ibans were upset that they did not get the “balance”, despite being promised by SUPP election agents as well as the tuai rumah (longhouse headman) before polling day.
The incident was first reported by the web portal Sarawak Indigenous Community News and tweeted by DAP Sarawak chairman and Bukit Assek assemblyperson Wong Ho Leng (left), who was present at the site yesterday.
Soon after the news broke out, SEW sent two representatives to the Sibu SUPP headquarters to check out the situation.
Its probe, SEW said, showed that the Ibans were promised an upfront payment of RM100 before voting day on April 16 and if the SUPP candidate won, they would each be paid another RM400 after the election.
SEW said its representatives have witnessed Ibans from at least two longhouses being paid the “balance” of RM400 each.
The election watch said the Ibans were from Rumah Chandi, Rumah Pasang and Rumah Ujang. Continue reading “Ibans storm SUPP office asking ‘election reward’”
By Sholto Byrnes
Sunday, 24 April 2011
The Independent
Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s opposition leader, tomorrow faces the resumption of one of the less edifying cases to have been heard amid the colonnaded formality of the Kuala Lumpur High Court: his trial for allegedly sodomising a 25-year-old aide named Saiful Bukhari.
It is not the only scandal with which the former deputy prime minister, whose dismissal and first trial for sodomy made world headlines more than a decade ago, is dealing.
The man once feted as Newsweek’s “Asian of the Year”, whose supporters include Al Gore, the former US vice-president, and Paul Wolfowitz, a former World Bank president, is also accused of being the star of a 21-minute sex tape featuring a Chinese prostitute (by way of variation, female), a clip of which was briefly posted on YouTube.
But these are only two instances of the sexually related incidents that fill the country’s papers and gossip sites every day. So numerous are stories of physical misdemeanours in this conservative, Muslim-majority but essentially easygoing country that the question is being asked: are Malaysians obsessed with sex?
Within the past few days, it has emerged that the education department in the eastern state of Terengganu has set up a boot camp to which it has sent 66 schoolboys to deal with their “effeminate tendencies”.
“The severity of the symptoms vary. We understand that some people end up as homosexual,” said the department’s director, Razali Daud, “but we will do our best to limit the number. If left unchecked, it could become a problem for them, their families and society.” Continue reading “Sex scandals obsess Malaysia: the country with a one-track mind”
by Martin Jalleh
Christians of Sarawak, your hour has come! May you have the courage to respond to the clarion call of leading the charge of change in your State and country.
May your vote convince the PM that the religious freedom of Christians and other faiths cannot rest merely on his sudden goodwill conveyed at cordial, congenial and courteous close-door meetings.
May your choice reflect the earnest prayer of Christians that the government honor and respect our basic constitutional rights, and not subject them to changes according to political expediency of the moment.
May your courage bring to the fore the problems related to religious harmony which the BN Government has created or is complicit to, its conceited responses and ad-hoc solutions which contradict its very own policies!
The challenge before you goes far beyond that of the recent Bible controversy. It is to express distinctly to the PM the deep disappointment and discontent of Christians being discriminated against over the years. Continue reading “Christians of Sarawak, be a Catalyst of Change!”
Daniel Wagner
The Huffington Post
March 17, 2011
Japan’s first week of this crisis has revealed to the world what many Japan watchers have known for many years — that it was woefully unprepared to deal with an inevitable severe earthquake and its repercussions.
TEPCO (the Tokyo Electric Power Company) and the Japanese government have unfortunately fulfilled the expectations of many who are familiar with their histories addressing crises, in which they have proven either inept or purposely misleading in delivering trustworthy information to the public. To proclaim, as one Japanese minister did last weekend, that the amount of radiation released at that time was equivalent to a CAT scan was simply absurd. We should not have expected more from TEPCO, which has in previous instances delivered purposely misleading information. But the Japanese government had an opportunity to shine in managing this crisis; it has regrettably fallen fall short of the mark.
Had TEPCO and the government either had a handle on what was occurring at the Fukushima nuclear complex, or been honest and forthright in reporting what was occurring, they might have put themselves in a position to reach out for international assistance more rapidly, and the events over the past week at the complex may not necessarily have unfolded as they have.
U.S. government officials have expressed alarm at how this ordeal has been handled and envision a possible ‘dead zone’ in Northeast Japan for decades. We could see a scenario in which a large swathe of northeast Japan becomes permanently uninhabitable. Were that to occur, the impact on the Japanese economy would clearly be severe and would preclude the idea of rebuilding areas impacted by the quake and tsunami. As bad as that would be, the impact on companies expecting to participate in the rebuilding effort would be unwelcome, and the anticipated ‘bounce’ in global share prices as a result of spending an anticipated $200 billion to rebuild the area would prove to be premature, since it may not happen at all. Continue reading “Japan’s Unsavory Options”
This was not the only poem composed by Michael.
A fortnight earlier he had emailed me from Canberra the following acrostic on my 70th birthday. (Learnt a new word. acrostic: a poem or other composition in which certain letters in each line form a word or words. – Concise Oxford Dictionary)
Lim Kit Siang MP
Long has been the struggle
In your just journey of Life
Moving ever so slowly but surelyKnowing that the elusive end
Is well worth every sacrifice
To achieve the ultimate aim ofSaving the nation’s soul from
Insidious intolerance
And leading it increasingly towards a
New national harmony
Graced by a Malaysian majorityMay this materialise in your lifetime, so
Press on, press on, as you see the finish line!
Michael did not bring along his wife but he brought Judith’s 100 hours of labour of love – a cross-stitch of the Chinese character “Longevity”. Thanks Judith. Most appreciated. Continue reading “70 and looking forward to more democratic breakthroughs (2)”
Turned 70 yesterday. Humbled and overwhelmed by the avalanche of well wishes and greetings by Malaysians, from all parts of the country and abroad, whether in person as at the 70th birthday reception at the Equatorial Hotel Penang on Saturday (Feb. 19) organized by my family (happy to learn that many numbers-cognosenti made money as the winning numbers in yesterday’s 3D and 1+3D were 219 and 0219) or through sms, email, facebook, twitter, blogs or through the forums provided by online media like Malaysiakini, The Malaysian Insider, Malaysia Chronicle, Free Malaysia Today, etc.
Pleasantly surprised from the greetings that I share the same birthday with at least two others – firstly, with the hot online media columnist Mariam Moktar who said in her email: Continue reading “70 and looking forward to more democratic breakthroughs (1)”
Breaking Views
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 19, 2011
FEB 19 — After a long journey in your political career, weathering the often rough and tumble of Malaysian politics, you somehow managed to survive and carve a popular name, an icon among your admirers and a ‘political bug’, so to speak, among your opponents.
So, you are now 70 years of age — not too young but not too old either — to go on treading the political journey.
You have consistently upheld and stood your ground on matters relating to the fundamental rights of all the rakyat, irrespective of race, to free and responsible speech, the rights to enjoy a just and fair distribution of the economic and social wealth of the nation, and to political, judicial and legal justice.
You have consistently and courageously spoken up against the corruption and the various misdeeds and defaults of the government and demanded actions, both in Parliament as well as outside it, despite the possible reprisals, the threats and even possible punitive actions that might be taken against you, which in fact you have suffered in the past.
But you have not kept your silence; you continue to grow bigger and speak even louder.
In the end, it seems to me you are the winner because, despite what your opponents say about you, as long as you know and believe what you stand for is good for the poeple and the country, you are on the right path. Continue reading “Dear Kit — Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah”
Rummaging through some old boxes, I came across this editorial which I wrote in the Form III class magazine “Light” (Vol. 2 – Nov. 1957) in Batu Pahat High School:
“During the past few years, the spirit of Malayan nationalism was aroused to such an extent that Malaya was granted Independence and a new nation was born.
“This grand and memorable achievement of Independence was only made possible through the united efforts of the various communities in the country.
“Now Malaya has become a young nation and she is taking her rightful place and her part of responsibility in this strifefuld world. She must accept and overcome all challenges and, one day, be counted among the greatest of the great. However, the great men of today who hold the steering-wheel of the country cannot be with us always.
“We, the youths of today, are the leaders of tgomorrow, who will take the helm and navigate the Ship of State to Utopia or Doom. We must now prepare ourselves to ‘serve to lead’. Let us not while away our time in meaningless pastimes and waste away precious moments. Say not that time is abundant, for,
‘Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though strong and brave,
Still, like muffled drums are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.’
Continue reading “TQ to you all for the 70th birthday well-wishes”
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
New York Times
January 8 2011
If there’s a human face on Rising China, it belongs not to some Politburo chief, not to an Internet tycoon, but to a quiet, mild-mannered teenage girl named Hou Yifan.
Ms. Hou (whose name is pronounced Ho Ee-fahn) is an astonishing phenomenon: at 16, she is the new women’s world chess champion, the youngest person, male or female, ever to win a world championship. And she reflects the way China — by investing heavily in education and human capital, particularly in young women — is increasingly having an outsize impact on every aspect of the world.
Napoleon is famously said to have declared, “When China wakes, it will shake the world.” That is becoming true even in spheres that China historically has had little connection with, like chess, basketball, rare earth minerals, cyber warfare, space exploration and nuclear research. Continue reading “China Rises, and Checkmates”
Daily Mail
7.1.2011
Thousands of dead turtle doves rained down on roofs and cars in an Italian town in the latest in a growing spate of mass animal deaths across the globe.
Residents in Faenza described the birds falling to the ground like ‘little Christmas balls’ with strange blue stains on their beaks.
Initial tests on up to 8,000 of the doves indicated that the blue stain could have been caused by poisoning or hypoxia.
A witness told www.examiner.com: ‘We have no idea why this happened all of a sudden.
‘The doves just started falling one-by-one then in groups of 10s and 20s.’
Hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, is known to cause confusion and illness in animals. It is also a common precursor to altitude sickness.
Experts said results from tests on the doves will not be available for at least a week.
They said that cold weather could have caused the birds’ deaths as the flock was swept into a high-altitude wind storm before falling to the earth. Continue reading “Mystery of mass animal death epidemic deepens”
Wishing Happy Deepavali to all Malaysian Indians.
Despite obstacles and setbacks, the battle of good against evil and light against darkness must be unremitting and unceasing.
Take courage for the night is darkest before dawn