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No more “May 13” spectre – now its “May 7” spectre!

Thousands of Malaysians from all races and religions are gathered here tonight on the 40th anniversary of the traumatic May 13 riots in 1969 to send out a clear and unmistakable message – that after the March 8 “political tsunami” last year, Malaysians have put the 40-year spectre of “May 13” behind them as the new haunting image is the “May 7” Day of Infamy of the Perak Speaker V. Sivakumar physically dragged out of the Assembly.

This is an image which has instilled such fear in the Barisan Nasional that it has banned television stations from playing video footages of the “May 7” Day of Infamy in the Perak State Assembly – which will be as effective as the book-burning orgies of tyrants of olden ages.

Barisan Nasional leaders do not seem to realize that while they can ban television stations and mainstream media from reproducing the horrifying images of the Perak Speaker being physically dragged out of the Assembly, in Speaker robes and Speaker chair, there is no way to wipe out the pictures from the minds of Malaysians, for the pictures and video footages can be played in every home and in fact are already viewed and disseminated worldwide through the Internet.
Continue reading “No more “May 13” spectre – now its “May 7” spectre!”

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Perak crisis has become national crisis – PR leaders meeting today

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has said that Pakatan Rakyat must not set terms or conditions if it wants to talk about the co-operation to resolve the Perak political crisis.

As I said in my speech at the public forum “From May 13 to 1Malaysia – The Future of Malaysian Nation Building” at the Petaling Jaya Civic Centre last night, Pakatan Rakyat leaders will meet today and this subject will be top on the agenda.

On Saturday, while travelling between Kangar and Alor Star, I received news that the remaining three Hindraf leaders, DAP Selangor State Assemblyman Kota Alam Shah, P. Uthayakumar and K. Vasanthakumar, had been sent off from Kamunting Detention Centre for release under the Internal Security Act.

In a media conference in Alor Setar at about 4.30 pm, I said that the time had come for Najib to have a summit meeting with Pakatan Rakyat leaders to resolve the protracted Perak constitutional crisis and political stalemate.

I said that the release of the Hindraf leaders by themselves were not adequate measures to restore public confidence in key national institutions in the country, especially when the Perak constitutional crisis had become a Malaysian political crisis undermining national confidence in the key national institutions and impairing Malaysia’s international image and competitiveness.
Continue reading “Perak crisis has become national crisis – PR leaders meeting today”

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A million May 13s

By Farish A. Noor

AND so once again, we are on the cusp of the fateful day of 13 May. Tomorrow, we will be joined together in a state of national mourning over the passing of what many have described as Malaysia’s golden years.

Year in, year out, Malaysians are reminded of the tragic events of 13 May 1969, and made to repent for the sins of our forefathers and foremothers. Like a restless ghost, we cannot get past this date without a sense of foreboding and the fear that one day, the past will revisit the present in no uncertain terms.

To add to our fear, the country’s leaders (though they tend to be those on one side of the political fence) are wont to resurrect May 1969 whenever it suits them most, and to frame the event in a decidedly jaundiced aspect. We are told time and again that to demand political freedom, the right to speak, the right to believe, the right to love, will lead us down the path that ends in the impasse of communal bloodshed and violence.

But does it and will it?
Continue reading “A million May 13s”

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A number 1BlackMalaysia day indeed

by Beth Yahp
Malaysiakini
May 7, 09

Yesterday I was hoping against hope that everything I know about the current political culture in Malaysia would today be proved wrong.

I’d hoped that democratic ‘due process’ would indeed take place in the Perak state assembly—and its environs—and that it would be upheld by lawmakers, police, civil servants, and the courts of justice who purportedly serve the Malaysian people who put them in office and, directly or indirectly, continue to pay their salaries.

Instead, what I’ve watched unfolding today is a scene directly from a police state: barbed wire cordoning off a democratic house of assembly; activists, lawmakers and ordinary rakyat being intimidated and arrested like criminals, because apparently it’s now a crime to wear black and have breakfast in the vicinity of the one place where your voice as a citizen is supposed to be heard. Fairly and freely. Continue reading “A number 1BlackMalaysia day indeed”

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Preamble to a Penanti proclamation

by Azly Rahman

Two scores and ten years ago, our forefathers and foremothers brought forth in this kampong the plan for a just republic that never materialised. We argued and waged peace for a republic of virtue but instead were given a warmongering State of Denial.

We toiled to establish a kingdom of peace and tolerance but saw instead the evolution of a dictatorship of plutocracy and totalitarianism. We have become ‘It’ in our journey towards the ‘Thou’. The “I” in us has gone astray, intoxicated by the “it-ness” of things.

Two scores and ten years ago, we thought we had Independence – given on a silver platter by a dying imperial power. But what we got was a state that evolved out of ketuanan Melayu. We wanted Liberty but we got Plutocracy.

Two scores and ten years later we are seeing a country divided, sub-divided, and further sub-divided into tribes and post-industrial tribes. The politics of race have strengthened and inspired the few to plunder and patronise the many. We are seeing chaos disguised in the name of consensus. Continue reading “Preamble to a Penanti proclamation”

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Cabinet must send out clear signal tomorrow that it stands by its “common religion” decision on baby Prasana Diksa case – not to be defied with impunity

At its first meeting last Wednesday, the Najib Cabinet commendably took a policy decision as a result of the Indira Ghandi case, where her three children Tevi Darsiny 12, Karan Dinish 11 and year-old Prasana Diksa were converted by her husband K. Pathmanathan, now known as Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah without her consent.

The Cabinet decided that the civil marriage has to be settled by the civil court and the religion of their children be the common religion at the time their parents were married at civil law.

The Cabinet also decided that the year-old baby daughter, Prasana Diksa, forcibly taken away by the father for more than a month although she was still being breastfed by Indira, should be returned to the mother.

Nazri said that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic Affairs, Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom, had been tasked to resolve the Indira Ghandi case amicably and to return Prasana Diksa to the mother.

Last Friday, the Ipoh High Court also granted to Indira Ghandi an interim custody order for her three children, ordering Pathmanathan/Ridzuan to return Prasana to his wife and the police to provide assistance to Indira with regards to this.

However, a week after the Cabinet decision and 96 hours after the Ipoh High Court orders, Indira Ghandi, who had caused the Cabinet to come out with a policy decision to end controversial conversion cases which create not only gross injustices in trampling on parental rights and destroying family integrity but also cause deep divisions in our multi-racial and multi-religious nation, is still pining for her year-old baby girl as Pathmanathan/Ridzuan and Prasana seem to have disappeared altogether. Continue reading “Cabinet must send out clear signal tomorrow that it stands by its “common religion” decision on baby Prasana Diksa case – not to be defied with impunity”

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Help find my one-year-old daughter, pleads mum

Malaysiakini | S Pathmawathy | Apr 27, 09 5:02pm

Five thousand missing persons posters have been printed to help find Muslim convert, K Patmanathan, and his one-year-old daughter Prasana Diksa.

wanted Patmanathan

Last week, the Ipoh High Court granted M Indira Ghandi the custody of all her three children, who were converted by their father without her knowledge on April 12, pending the full custody hearing on May 12.

As the older children – Tevi Darsiny, 12 and Karan Dinesh, 11 – were in the care of their mother from the beginning, the court ordered that the youngest child which is in her father’s care to be returned to the mother.

However, despite the court order to return the toddler, the father, who has since the conversion assumed the name Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, has gone missing.

Continue reading “Help find my one-year-old daughter, pleads mum”

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Whereabouts of year-old baby girl Prasana Diksa shapes up to be first major test of Najib’s “Performance Now” motto

When Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced “Performance Now” as one of the three mottos of his government’s overarching philosophy, he would have realized that it would be put to a test early in his premiership.

Najib should have been realistic enough to know that he would not enjoy the luxury of a political honeymoon of “The First 100 Days”, but it is unlikely that he expected it to come under a major test immediately after his first three weeks as Prime Minister and in the form of a year-old baby girl Prasana Diksa.

In Ipoh, kindergarten teacher M. Indira Ghandi’s vigil for the return of her daughter, Prasana Diksa, who is still being breastfed, is coming to 48 hours since the Ipoh High Court judgment on Friday granting her interim custody of her three children, Tevi Darsiny, 12, Karan Dinish 11 and Prasana Diksa; a restraining order against her husband K. Pathmanathan, who has assumed the name Mohd Redzuan Abdullah after conversion to Islam, until full custody hearing on May 12; ordered the husband to surrender Prasana to the mother and a mandamus to the police to assist Indira in the matter. Continue reading “Whereabouts of year-old baby girl Prasana Diksa shapes up to be first major test of Najib’s “Performance Now” motto”

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How long has Indira to wait for return of her year-old baby?

Ipoh kindergarten teacher M. Indira Ghandi has kept an overnight vigil at the Ipoh Police Headquarters waiting for her year-old baby Prasana Diksa to be returned to her.

Yesterday, the Ipoh High Court granted her interim custody of her three children, Tevi Darsiny, 12, Karan Dinish 11 and Prasana Diksa; a restraining order against her husband K. Pathmanathan, who has assumed the name Mohd Redzuan Abdullah after conversion to Islam, until full custody hearing on May 12; ordered the husband to surrender Prasana to the mother and a mandamus to the police to assist Indira in the matter.

How long more will Indira have to wait and keep up the vigil at the Ipoh Police Headquarters until her baby daughter who is still being breastfed is returned to her?

Prasana was forcibly taken away from her by her father, who forcibly converted the three children to Islam without her knowledge or consent.

Although the Cabinet has taken a decision that children of divorced parents be brought up in the common religion at the time of marriage when one parent converts to another religion, Indira is still waiting for the return of Prasana Diksa.

Thursday’s Sun carried a report entitled “IAIS chief says conversion of children to Islam ‘un-Islamic’”, viz: Continue reading “How long has Indira to wait for return of her year-old baby?”

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Tsu Koon/Subra – Have you heard of “Performance Now”?

Have all Cabinet Ministers assimilated, internalized and understood the new Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s overarching philosophy encapsulated in the slogan “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now”?

There are at least three Cabinet Ministers who clearly have not.

This is why there could be such a New Straits Times report (never mind the bad English) below: Continue reading “Tsu Koon/Subra – Have you heard of “Performance Now”?”

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BN biggest “ethnic prison” – why Najib Cabinet failed 1st KPI over Utusan’s inflammatory “Bangkitlah Melayu” headline

Nobody doubts that if the Chinese and Tamil press had yesterday published on their front page the headlines “Chinese Arise” and “Indians Arise” respectively like Utusan Malaysia’s front-page headline “Bangkitlah Melayu”, followed by a report calling for greater unity among the race to face the other races, this will be a major and instant agenda in yesterday’s first meeting of the Najib Cabinet meeting followed by dire consequences for the Chinese and Tamil newspapers concerned.

No Minister will raise any objection that stern and immediate action be taken against the Chinese and Tamil papers for publishing such inflammatory and racist material, especially as it would be making a complete mockery of the overarching philosophy of the new Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced only 12 days earlier.

Why then the double standards by the Najib Cabinet as the chauvinistic and inflammatory Utusan Malaysia front-page headline and report were not raised at all at yesterday’s meeting?

After the Cabinet meeting yesterday, Najib called on Malaysians to break away from being in an “ethnic prison” and to think as one. Continue reading “BN biggest “ethnic prison” – why Najib Cabinet failed 1st KPI over Utusan’s inflammatory “Bangkitlah Melayu” headline”

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“1Malaysia” means “Arise Malaysians” or “Arise Malays”, “Arise Chinese”, “Arise Indians”,”Arise Kadazans”, “Arise Ibans”?

Although the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” is the overarching philosophy of his premiership, the two following headlines of two newspapers today illustrate the two extremes of interpretation of his “1Malaysia”:

1. “Najib – I am Prime Minister of all communities. Urges people to break race barriers to foster unity.” – Sin Chew Daily headline (p 3) of Najib’s Vasakhi speech at Tait Khalsa Diwan in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

2. “Bangkitlah Melayu – Bersatu hadapi tuntuan kaum lain yang semakin terlaluan” – Utusan Malaysia front-page headline which carried the following three quotes on the front-page:

• “Dalam keadaan sekarang ini, orang Melayu berhadapan banyak cabaran semasa dan kita perlu mencari cara untuk memastikan kaum itu tidak berpecah-belah” – Syed Anuar Syed Mohamad, Timbalan Presiden Gabungan Pelajar Melayu Continue reading ““1Malaysia” means “Arise Malaysians” or “Arise Malays”, “Arise Chinese”, “Arise Indians”,”Arise Kadazans”, “Arise Ibans”?”

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Muhyiddin’s remarks shows BN still does not get it

By Dr Toh Kin Woon
In MalaysianInsider

APRIL 14 – In a recent interview with the Malay language Mingguan Malaysia, our country’s newly minted Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, claimed that he was at a loss as to why the Chinese voters failed to support the Barisan Nasional in the recent by-elections for both the parliamentary seat of Bukit Gantang and the state constituency of Bukit Selambau, despite the BN pouring millions to the Chinese schools.

He further suggested that perhaps Malaysian Chinese wanted to play the role of kingmakers in elections.

I find these statements by the DPM distasteful and an insult, not just to the Malaysian Chinese community, but to all Malaysians.

This latest outburst also manifests either a total lack of understanding of the demands of the electorate of all ethnic groups on the part of Umno, or an inability on its part to respond with progressive measures, or both. Continue reading “Muhyiddin’s remarks shows BN still does not get it”