Category: Muhyiddin Yassin

On 5th January 2015, I said “The strange case of the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi writing a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) vouching for the integrity of an alleged gambling kingpin has become ‘curiouser and curiouser’”.

I do not think anyone would have expected that ten days later, this strange case of Zahid’s letter to the FBI and the Zahid-Phua-Shafee-Khalid quadrilateral tangle would become “curiouser, curiouser and even more curiouser”!

There was first the attempted clarification by Zahid claiming that his infamous letter to the FBI vouching for the character of the alleged gambling kingpin Paul Phua Wei Seng – asserting that Phua was a national asset for having helped the Malaysian government on “projects affecting our national security” and pleading for Phua’s release as “we continue to call upon him to assist us from time to time and as such, we are eager for him to return to Malaysia” – was merely to confirm that the “14K triad” did not exist in the country.

As I said at the time, Zahid would have failed his comprehension test in school if he really believed what he said about his infamous letter to the FBI.

Furthermore, all who believed Zahid’s infamous letter to the FBI was merely to confirm that the “14K triad” did not exist in the country would have also failed their comprehension tests in school as well.

In fact, Zahid has raised more questions than answers. Continue reading “Malaysia’s international reputation has been sullied enough by Zahid’s infamous letter to FBI and Najib must step in to clean up the mess or he would be no different from “Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burns””

The Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyddin Yassin’s faux pas claiming that extremism had never existed among Muslims in Malaysia is of the same class as the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s faux pas giving praise and glorification of Islamic State terrorism last June.

Muhyiddin’s latest faux pas join’s the DPM’s host of infamous “quotes” like “I am Malay first, Malaysian second” and “Malaysian youngsters are receiving better education than children in the United States, Britain and Germany”.

If there are no extremists among Muslims in Malaysia, how come the Bukit Aman Special Counter Terrorism Division had arrested 51 persons suspected of being Malaysian militants.

Furthermore, why have the number of Muslim Malaysians fighting for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq gone up from 39 to 59 since October? Continue reading “Muhyiddin’s faux pas claiming that extremism had never existed among Muslims in Malaysia is of the same class as Najib’s first praise and glorification of Islamic State terrorism”

COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
13 January 2015

It took no fewer than 20 policemen to arrest Eric Paulsen last night, just hours after Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin asked for an investigation into the human rights lawyer’s tweet that religious authorities were promoting extremism through Friday prayer sermons.

And it took no less than the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to use the same Twitter microblogging network to announce Paulsen’s arrest – akin to revealing a major breakthrough in solving crime or arrest of kingpins.

Impressive, to say the least, considering that Paulsen was left unmolested when he lodged a report earlier yesterday over death threats following his tweet, which he had taken down after a barrage of criticism.

There was no move to arrest him then although the IGP had already said there would be a probe into the lawyer’s tweet under the Sedition Act. None. Like clockwork, action was only taken after the DPM commented on the matter.

What is even more impressive is that Paulsen had yet to be remanded for the federal police chief to send off a series of tweets on Paulsen’s opinion about Malaysia’s Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) sermons promoting extremism. Continue reading “When an opinion becomes a criminal matter”

Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, has belatedly answered the question I posed last Thursday: “Was the Home Minister’s infamous letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), vouching for the integrity of an alleged Malaysian gambling kingpin Paul Phua standing trial in Las Vegas, Nevada in direct contradiction to the police’s earlier communication with FBI, discussed at the Cabinet meeting yesterday？”

Five days after I had asked the question, Muhyiddin said in Cyberjaya that the Cabinet was not aware of Zahid’s letter to the United States authorities on the alleged gambling kingpin Phua and that the Cabinet “did not discuss” the matter beforehand.

He said any further elaboration of the matter would come after he had studied the issue at hand.

He also said he was not aware of the differing versions being aired about Phua’s case by the latter’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar.

My goodness, what type of a Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers do we have in Malaysia! Continue reading “The latest in the quadrilateral Zahid-Phua-Shafee-Khalid tangle – Muhyiddin’s sudden interest rather fishy”

— Koon Yew Yin
Malay Mail Online
NOVEMBER 24, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — Students of English literature, a subject which has unfortunately been abandoned by our Malay-centric schools, will remember these lines from Shakespeare’s famous play ”Macbeth”:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

These lines remind me of the coming UMNO General Assembly meeting.

Will this much hyped event be the last act of a very bad play, an idiot’s tale full of bombast and melodrama but without meaning? Continue reading “What to expect from Umno’s ‘sound and fury’ show”

The Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is not proud that University of Malaya is ranked No. 423 in the latest US News 500 Best Global Universities Ranking 2015 although it is the only Malaysian university ranked, because it confirms the lowly international academic position and repute not only of Malaysia’s premier university but also of other public universities in the country.

This is the reason for the “conspiracy of silence” in all the mainstream media in the past week since the publication of the new ranking for universities in the world last Tuesday, as if the new world universities ranking does not exist.

This is totally unlike countries which have received recognition for producing world-class universities as to be ranked in the Top 500 in the new ranking series by U.S. News & World Report, which published its first Global Universities Rankings online after producing the Best College in United States rankings for 30 years.

The new rankings of the top 500 global universities, based on their academic research performance and their global and regional reputations, come from 49 countries with 134 from United States, 42 from Germany, 38 from United Kingdom, with 90 from Asian countries, led by China with 27 universities, 17 from Japan, 11 from South Korea, 7 from Turkey, 5 each from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Israel, 4 from India, 3 from Iran, 2 from Singapore and one each from Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan. Continue reading “Muhyiddin not proud that UM is ranked No. 423 in latest US News 500 Best Global Universities Ranking 2015 although it is only Malaysian university ranked, because it confirms lowly international position of UM and Malaysian universities”

Congrats to the Barisan Nasional-owned/controlled mainstream mass media in achieving a world record in ignoring the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2014 for two consecutive days because not a single Malaysian university made it to the THE Top 400 Universities list for the fifth year in succession.

The THE Top 400 World University Rankings 2014 show a “power shift” from the United States and United Kingdom to the Far East.

While US and UK universities continue to dominate the THE World University Rankings 2014, they are starting to lose ground to East Asian rivals.

What should concern Malaysians is why this shift of higher education excellence from the West to the East has by-passed Malaysia.

Some 24 Asian universities are now in the top 200 compared with 20 a year earlier. This includes two listed in the top 25 – Tokyo University and the National University of Singapore.

In the top 400 universities list, 52 are from Asia, comprising Japan 12, China 12, South Korea 9, Hong Kong 6, Taiwan 6, India 4, Singapore 2, Thailand 1.

But there is not a single Malaysian University not only in the Top 200 but also in the Top 400 universities listed in the THE World University Rankings, not only for 2014 but for the entire five year THE World University Rankings series since 2010. Continue reading “Congrats to BN-owned/controlled “mainstream mass media” in achieving a world record in ignoring THE World University Rankings 2014 for two consecutive days because not a single Malaysian university made it to the Top 400 universities list for fifth year”

Today the media of all countries with higher education masterplans and strategies to take their people and economies to greater heights are focussing and debating the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2014, and the performance of their universities – with the exception of Malaysia.

Not a word in the Malaysian mainstream media owned or controlled by the Barisan Nasional parties about the THE World University Rankings 2014 and the dismal performance of Malaysian universities.

The reason is simple. For the fifth year in succession, since the launching of the THE World University Rankings in 2010, not a single university had made it into the THE Top 400 University Rankings.

The Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin maintains a conspicuous silence about the continued exclusion for the fifth year of Malaysian universities from the THE Top 400 Universities, just as he had continued to maintain a conspicuous, inelegant and infamous silence about Malaysia’s poor performance in the 2011 TIMSS (Trends in International Maths and Science Study) and 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) both of which fell during his term in the education ministry.

Muhyiddin is only good in eating sour grapes with regard to the ranking of Malaysian universities in international university rankings. Continue reading “What is Najib and Muhyiddin going to do about the crying shame and national disgrace that not a single Malaysian university could get into the THE Top 400 World University Rankings 2014?”

Malaysians woke up this morning to further and latest rebuttals to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister’s boasts of Malaysia as the “one of the world’s best education system” and “world’s best democracy”.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s boast that Malaysia has “one of the world’s best education system” was given a bloody nose by the report that Malaysian universities again failed to make the cut to this year’s Times Higher Education (THE) top 200 global rankings while Singapore’s National University (which shared the same beginnings with University of Malaya) leapt into the top 25 universities list.

The Malay Mail Online in its report “Malaysian universities not in top 200 global rankings, Singapore’s improves” said the latest index shows a significant drop for Malaysian universities from last year’s ranking.

Muhyiddin has been Education Minister for more than five years since 2009.

He should make a Ministerial statement when Parliament resumes next Tuesday on Oct. 7 why all efforts during year tenure as Education Minister for over five years have failed to restore Malaysia’s high international standing in university academic repute and excellence in the fifties and sixties – to the extent that for five consecutive years, none of the Malaysian universities had been able to be ranked among the THE Top 200 University Rankings. Continue reading “Latest rebuttals to the DPM and PM’s boasts of Malaysia as “world’s best democracy” and “world’s best education system””

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has reasons to feel very proud as he can claim chief credit for the Umno/BN victory in the Pengkalan Kubor by-election in Kelantan, winning with an even bigger majority than during the 13th general elections last May.

I don’t think there is another Cabinet Minister from outside Kelantan who had spent so many days and visited Tumpat so many times as Muhyiddin during the 13-day by-election campaign period.

But this by-election victory for BN/UMNO has come at a heavy price – Muhyiddin’s abdication of his responsibilities as Education Minister and in particular his duties and responsibilities to the future generation of Malaysians as since his return from the ASEAN Education Ministers’ Meeting in Vientianne, he headed immediately for Tumpat and his sole pre-occupation since then was to win a bigger victory for Umno/BN in Pengkalan Kubor by-election instead of personally dealing with the outrageous educational scandal in the leak of UPSR examination papers.

During this period, Muhyiddin had only time for one meeting in the Education Ministry on the leak of UPSR Science and English papers – on Sept. 15 when he chaired the special meeting to scrutinize the Standards Operating Procedures (SOPs) used for preparing the UPSR examination papers.

This special UPSR SOP meeting has become a great farce, as Muhyiddin did not appear to know at the meeting that there had been leaks of more UPSR papers including Maths and Tamil, and the UPSR pupils, their parents and the Malaysian public were not informed until Monday on Sept. 22 that the UPSR Maths and Tamil papers had leaked and UPSR pupils are required to resit for these two papers on Oct. 9. Continue reading “Muhyiddin should relinquish his portfolio as Education Minister as he had spearheaded the BN campaign and won the Pengkalan Kubor by-election in Kelantan at the expense of his duties to the future of 500,000 UPSR pupils”

DAP calls for the scrapping of the re-sitting of the UPSR English, Tamil and Maths papers as the 500,000 Std. 6 primary school pupils should not be made to suffer because of the shocking incompetence and lack of professionalism of the Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his Ministry.

It is the height of irresponsibility and gross negligence of the first magnitude that the Education Ministry took13 days to announce the leak in the UPSR Maths and Tamil papers and the requirement for UPSR pupils to resit for these two papers on Oct. 9.

The Education director-general Datuk Dr. Khair Mohamad Yusof announced on Monday that the date was fixed after the Examinations Syndicate confirmed on Sunday that the papers sat by the UPSR pupils on Sept. 10 were leaked.

What boggles the mind is that after the disgraceful leak of the UPSR Science and English papers on Sept. 10 and 11, which were discovered on the very same day itself, it has taken the Examinations Syndicate, the Education Ministry and the Education Minister almost a fortnight to discover that the UPSR Tamil and Maths had also been leaked.

If this is not incompetence and lack of professionalism of the first order, I do not know what would qualify to come under the rubric of these two terms. Continue reading “DAP call for scrapping of re-sitting of UPSR English, Tamil and Maths papers as the 500,000 primary school pupils should not be made to suffer because of the incompetence and lack of professionalism of the Education Minister and his Ministry”

The admission by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi that local tertiary institutions have become recruiting grounds for militants and that Dr. Mahmud Ahmad, senior lecturer with University of Malaya (UM)’s Department of Akidah and Islamic Thought, the Academy of Islamic Studies, was among five individuals wanted by the police for militant activities have catapulted Malaysian universities to unwanted national and international attention and publicity.

Instead of producing world-class universities in keeping with the Vision 2020 objective to achieve developed nation status, Malaysian universities have for the past decade been a national embarrassment, annually confirming the absence of world-class universities in Malaysia.

Malaysia was completely absent from the Times Higher Education World Rankings 2013-2014 for the world’s top 400 University.

For the second year running, Malaysia failed to get on the list of the 2014 Times Higher Education (THE) Top 100 Universities under 50 years old – although four Asian universities are ranked among the top 10 of the world’s young universities, two from South Korea, one from Hong Kong and one from Singapore. In Malaysia, all the public universities except for University of Malaya, are under 50 years old.

Malaysia was also excluded from the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014 for the Top 100 Universities, although 14 universities from Asia were included – five from Japan, two from Singapore, three from South Korea, one from China, two from Hong Kong and one from Taiwan. Continue reading “Muhyiddin should present to October Parliament a Higher Education Masterplan to produce at least two world-class universities by 2020 instead of allowing Malaysian universities to become recruiting grounds for terrorists for Islamic State (IS) war in Syria and Iraq”

I welcome the clarification by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin claiming that his May 13 remark at a Ramadan event in Pagoh last Friday was “manipulated”, denying that he was making any May 13 threat to non-Malays and non-Muslims as he had merely expressed fear that such clashes could happen if Malaysians do not preserve harmony.

Speaking in Kedah last night, Muhyiddin said it is not wrong to issue such reminders, which applies to both Malays and non-Malays.

I have said publicly that I would be the first to applaud Muhyiddin if he had spoken as Deputy Prime Minister of all Malaysians to all Malaysians on the imperative need to prevent a recurrence of May 13 racial riots and safeguard national unity in a multi-racial and multi-religious society so as to be a model of harmony and solidarity of a plural nation for the world, but this was not what he did.

If Muhyiddin’s Pagoh speech had been “”manipulated,” then the culprit is none other than Utusan Malaysia, the mouthpiece of Umno. Continue reading “Muhyiddin’s clarification most welcome although taken with a big pinch of salt – calls for BN-PR National Reconciliation Roundtable to check racial and religious polarisation and reach national consensus to end May 13 threats”

Ravinder Singh
The Malaysian Insider
8 July 2014

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has stirred up a hornet’s nest with his recent statement “it is not impossible for another race riot to occur again in the country”.

His colleagues are in open support of what he said, i.e. the statement is “a reminder to behave”.

Opposition politicians and many members of the public think otherwise, i.e. that it is a veiled threat to do a “May 13” unless the BN wins big in the next election.

So how should that “May 13” statement be read?

There are always two main parties to any communication – the message creators and the message receivers.

Messages can be straight to the point or have hidden meanings. The receivers of the messages can take them at face value or interpret them according to the orientation of their minds.

One person can make the message, but millions may be hearing or reading and interpreting it. Continue reading “DPM’s ‘May 13’ remark, threat or reminder?”

Who is the UMNO Youth leader, Khairy Jamaluddin trying to “rescue” in his naïve but self-serving statement accusing me of manipulating the May 13 remark by the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and sensationalising it into a threat – to save Muhyiddin or the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and Gerakan President, Datuk Mah Siew Keong?

I do not want to waste time on Khairy’s fling with sophistry, claiming that the Deputy Prime Minister’s May 13 remark was not a threat but a reminder to Malaysians to safeguard national unity.

I would be the first to applaud Muhyiddin if he had spoken as Deputy Prime Minister of all Malaysians to all Malaysians on the imperative need to safeguard national unity in a multi-racial and multi-religious society so as to be a model of harmony and solidarity of a plural nation for the world, but this was not what he did.

Instead, Muhyiddin was warning of another May 13 riots if ethnic relations continue to worsen because Malays and Islam were under siege (which was not only biased but baseless), saying: Continue reading “DAP and PR will not condone or tolerate any May 13 threat but we are prepared to fully co-operate with UMNO and BN to ensure there will not be another May 13 in Malaysia”

No one would expect the three new MCA/Gerakan Ministers will fail their make-or-break test in their first week in Cabinet.

Firstly, no one expected the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to put them in a bind by making his May 13 threat at a Ramadan event in Pagoh on Friday night.

Secondly, instead of reprimanding or at least dissociating themselves from the May 13 threat, both the MCA President Datuk Liow Tiong Lai and the Gerakan President Datuk Mah Siew Keong sought to sanitise Muhyiddin’s May 13 threat by describing it as a “reminder” to Malaysians to stand united.

Muhyiddin was of course not making any such reminder as his reference of another May 13 was solely in the context worsening ethnic relations arising from the Malays and Islam in Malaysia under increasing attack, painting a false picture of Malays and Islam under growing attack by non-Malays and non-Muslims, which is not only untrue but utterly irresponsible coming from a Deputy Prime Minister as there is no basis for such political scenario. Continue reading “No one would expect the three new MCA/Gerakan Ministers will fail their make-or-break test in their first week in Cabinet”

Abu Hassan Adam
Monday, July 7, 2014

Aku semacam tidak percaya kenyataan TS Muhyiddin Yasin mengenai kemungkinan Peristiwa13 Mei akan tercetus lagi. Aku terfikir takkanlah kenyataan sedemikian boleh terkeluar dari mulut seorang Timbalan Perdana Menteri. Ataupun berkemungkinan kenyataan beliau itu adalah ‘misquoted’ atau disalah tafsir oleh piha media tentang kenyataan beliau itu. Walaubagaimana pun apa salahnya bagi seseorang Timbalan Perdana Menteri memberikan peringatan kepada rakyat tentang bahaya sedemikian.

Tetapi persoalan yang agak memeningkan kepala aku (mungkin kepala aku seorang agaknya) ialah apakah mudah benar bagi masyarakat Malaysia yang kononnya telah mencapai suatu peradaban yang tinggi, boleh mencetuskan perbalahan kaum. Sejarah telah menunjukkan bahawa selepas peristiwa tahun 1969 itu tidak pernah wujud lagi perbalahan kaum yang sedemikian rupa. Maknanya sudah 45 tahun kita rakyat Malaysia sudah boleh hidup dalam keadaan aman dan damai, walaupun terdapat perbalahan-perbalahan kecil di sana sini. Itu biasalah….

TS Muhyiddin menggunakan rasional dan memberi amaran tentang keumngkinan berlakunya peristiwa pahit itu memandangkan “perbalahan kaum ketika ini sudah menjadi kebiasaan apabila satu kaum mengkritik kaum lain……..Sebab itu timbul pelbagai andaian apabila hubungan kaum sudah sampai ke tahap cetus ketegangan dan hubungan tidak baik. Ini boleh menyebabkan peristiwa tersebut dan saya tidak mahu sebut tarikh itu (13 Mei 1969).

Dalam sesebuah negara demokrasi seperti Malaysia ini kritik mengkeritik antara satu sama lain (ataupun antara satu kaum dengan kaum lain) adalah merupakan perkara biasa, apatah lagi dengan kemunculan media baru yang sudah tidak dapat dikawal dan dibendung ini. Aku tidak mempunyai statistik tertentu tetapi apa yang aku perhatikan yang menjadi bahan keritik media baru ialah mengenai rasuah dan penyelewengan yang dilakukan oleh pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO (BN) dan para pegawai kerajaan.

Walaupun seribu alasan diberikan oleh pihak kepimpinan negara mengenai sesuatu ‘penipuan’ yang dijalankan, namun pihak yang terlibat tidak boleh ‘melangsaikan’ persepsi rakyat tentang sesuatu isu itu. Misalnya walaupun diberikan berbagai hujah untuk ‘menghalalkan’ pemberian kontrek untuk membangunkan beberapa UITM baru-baru ini, rakyat tetap mempersoalakan kewajarannya.

Sebenarnya perpaduan kaum semakin kukuh kini berbanding dengan zaman sebelumnya. Yang melakukan kritikan yang berbagai-bagai melalui media sosial bukannya kaum bukan Melayu semata-mata tetapi kebanyakannya adalah terdiri dari cerdik pandai Melayu yang sudah tidak boleh ditipu dan dikelentong. Adalah salah sekiranya diandaikan bahawa yang menentang kepimpinan Melayu dalam UMNO itu hanya terdiri dari kaum bukan Melayu sahaja. Ramai juga orang Melayu yang menentang UMNO selagi UMNO tidak diperbetulkan. Continue reading “PERISTIWA 13 MEI TIDAK AKAN BERLAKU LAGI…….”

Is Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin playing the classic bait of threatening another May 13 to distract attention from his dismal failure as Education Minister in the latest violation of academic freedom in University of Malaya which jeopardizes the plan to restore its ranking as world’s Top 100 University?

Muhyiddin must answer this question for this is the first time in four decades that a Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister had threatened another May 13 riots – but will any Minister dare to ask Muhyiddin this question point-blank at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday?

Not the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, who had virtually defended Muhyiddin’s May 13 threat, describing it as a “reminder” for Malaysians not to take unity for granted.

Liow spoke about the efforts by our forefathers to build and unite the nation, but what he has forgotten is that our forefathers, whether Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin or Tun V.T. Sambathan would never have endorsed, condoned or sanitised a racial riot threat like the one issued by Muhyiddin in Pagoh on Friday night and would have demanded a retraction and apology if not resignation!

If all the Cabinet Ministers are like-minded as the MCA President, who could sanitize a “threat” of a racial riot as a “reminder”, then for the first time in the 57-year history of Malaysia, the nation has a Cabinet which is not fit or qualified to lead Malaysia’s multi-racial and multi-religious nation. Continue reading “Is Muhyiddin playing the classic bait of threatening another May 13 to distract attention from his dismal failure as Education Minister in the latest violation of academic freedom in University of Malaya jeopardizing plan to restore its ranking as world’s Top 100 University?”

The Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, is confessing the failure of the Barisan Nasional government’s nation-building policies under Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the past five years when he suggested “Another May 13 is not impossible” during a Ramadan event in Pagoh, Johore yesterday.

Najib’s failure will be all the more conspicuous as it would also mean the total failure of his 1Malaysia policy to create a Malaysia where Malaysians regard themselves as Malaysians first as their race, religion and region second – which had been publicly repudiated by Muhyiddin right from the beginning – and his Global Movement of Moderates campaign, both national and international, for “the voices of moderation to drown the voices of extremism”.

The UMNO mouthpiece, Utusan Malaysia, gave the headline “Tidak mustahil 13 Mei 1969 berulang – TPM” for Muhyiddin’s speech yesterday, where he said that ethnic tensions that were allowed to simmer would lead to unrest when the various communities start to eye each other with suspicion.

“Because of that there exist all kinds of assumptions when ethnic ties become strained and unhealthy. This can cause that event and I do not want to mention the particular date,” he was quoted as saying by Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia.

Muhyiddin did not mention the date specifically but Utusan Malaysia inserted May 13, 1969 to his quote in parentheses.

The first duty of any Federal government in Malaysia, whether Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, is to ensure that another May 13 is not possible in Malaysia, and a Malaysian federal government which allowed ethnic ties to deteriorate until the Deputy Prime Minister could publicly suggest that “another May 13 is not impossible” has lost all moral and political justification to continue to rule the country. Continue reading “Muhyiddin is confessing the failure of BN government’s nation-building polices under Najib past five years when he suggested “Another May 13 not impossible””

The person who should resign for the plight of higher education in Malaysia today is not Professor Datuk Dr. Mohamad Redzuan Othman as head of University of Malaya’s Centre for Democracy and Elections (UMcedel) and his removal as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in the university, or former deputy Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah as senior research fellow from University of Malaya, but Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as Education Minister.

What has Muhyiddin to show in more than a year as the powerful Education Minister gobbling up the former Ministry of Higher Education, in the field of tertiary education apart from the latest disgraceful episode of interference with and violation of academic freedom resulting in the resignations of Redzuan and Saifuddin from the University of Malaya?

It has become a heart-rending occasion for Malaysians whenever there is a publication of world university rankings, for it is not to find out how well Malaysian universities compare with the best in the world but how badly Malaysian universities fared in international university comparisons and benchmarkings. Continue reading “It is Muhyiddin who should resign as Education Minister and not the forced resignations of Prof Redzuan and Saifuddin from University of Malaya”