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PAS’s folly – awareness and containment

By Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
Mar 20, 2015

COMMENT In the introduction of the Kelantan hudud bill its architect declared that those who question whether the legislation would bring in equal justice are “liars and immoral”.

This unbecoming language is what one expects of a fanatic dictator, rather than a genuine democratic leader. It speaks to the decay in the political fabric of Malaysia that is coming from leaders, who have lost the plot in having a national consciousness and the broader decline taking place in democratic governance. Given the passage of the Kelantan hudud bill, what are the likely political implications that will evolve from this measure?

Some political parties will begin the politics of containment, while others will fan division and will continue to use hudud for political gains. As of now, it is important to remember that no hudud measure will take effect. They are all measures on paper.

With respect to those who favour these measures, on many levels hudud does not holistically reflect the ideas of justice embodied in Islam or any faith for that matter and brings to light serious questions about fairness and administration of the rule of law for all of Malaysia’s citizens.

The stoning, chopping and whipping urged in the enactments are now threats over the public without adequate protections; they make up the politics of fear that has been deeply engrained in the Malaysian political landscape.

No implementation does not mean that there measures are not unimportant. Quite the contrary. The people of Kelantan in particular will be hurt economically by the bill, as its leaders across the political divide failed them in thinking holistically about their development. Continue reading “PAS’s folly – awareness and containment”

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PAS’s hudud folly – it’s not chosen by all

By Bridget Welsh | 2:56PM Mar 18, 2015
Malaysiakini

The introduction of the hudud amendments today in Kelantan have yet another origin beyond democratic dynamics within the party. They are based on a calculated effort to win votes, namely to strengthen the support of PAS’s core supporters and to strengthen the position of PAS vis-à-vis the coalition partners inside Pakatan.

Ironically, the hudud measures do neither, and potentially undermine the party’s standing as a national party and within its own electoral base. In this second piece, I lay out how misguided the revitalized hudud initiative is for a political party whose stated aim is to hold national power.

Over-reacting to Umno pressure

In the defensive mode of the PAS party leadership, the party have been responding to others rather than setting its own course. The most effective actor influencing PAS has been Umno. Opting for offensive attacks, Umno has successfully convinced PAS that is it losing ground among Muslims. Continue reading “PAS’s hudud folly – it’s not chosen by all”

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PAS’s hudud folly – a political putsch

By Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
Mar 17, 2015

COMMENT Tomorrow the Islamist party PAS is scheduled to introduce ‘minor’ amendments to the hudud legislation it introduced in Kelantan in 1993.

The bill cannot be implemented as the constitution currently prevents the legislation from having effect. Although limited in scope, the move nevertheless will have significant consequences as it brings to the fore political dynamics within the party and showcases how the PAS would govern.

At its core, the amendment introduction is a political exercise aimed at shoring up a Kelantan PAS state government that has lost its moral authority with the passing of respected leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat and in the wake of devastating floods where the state government proved to be completely ineffectual.

This process of introducing the amendments and the political implications signal that the current conservative ulama leadership of PAS is apparently no longer meaningfully interested in democratic principles and holding national power.

This action of moving to strengthen hudud if fully realised will have negative electoral implications even within Kelantan itself.

To say that this a folly is perhaps an understatement, as it potentially marks a turning point for PAS as a trusted and viable party in national government. This is the first article of a three part series that looks at this issue. Continue reading “PAS’s hudud folly – a political putsch”

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IGP’s misguided war against PR leaders/NGO activists when he should declare war on IS

Secondly, the IGP’s misguided war against PR leaders and NGO activists when he should have declared war on Islamic State, which is misleading Malaysian Muslims to join them Iraq and Syria to commit atrocities like beheadings, public stonings and mass massacres.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal in its opinion piece titled “Malaysia’s Creeping Authoritarianism” following more police crackdown marked by the arrest of two MPs, referred to 19 Islamic State supporters who had been arrested for plotting attacks around Kuala Lumpur last year.

Up to now, Malaysians have not been told the full story of the 19 Islamic State supporters who had been arrested for plotting attacks around Kuala Lumpur last year, but the twitter trigger-happy IGP seemed to be more pre-occupied with his “war” against PR leaders and NGO activists, who only wanted to expand the democratic space for Malaysians to qualify as a fully developed nation in 2020. than the serious war waged by Islamic State in Malaysia. Continue reading “IGP’s misguided war against PR leaders/NGO activists when he should declare war on IS”

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Hudud sebagai tukul

oleh Liew Chin Tong
Roketkini
17 Mac 2015

Kisah sebenar di sebalik langkah hudud Kelantan

Tukul dihayun untuk menimbulkan retak antara dua parti. Di Malaysia, pelaksanaan undang-undang jenayah Islam atau hudud adalah tukul yang dicipta untuk memecah-belahkan Pakatan Rakyat dan sekaligus mengukuhkan kedudukan anasir pro-UMNO dalam PAS serta melemahkan para pemimpin parti itu yang pro-Pakatan Rakyat.

Saya sememangnya seorang pemimpin DAP, namun makalah ini saya tulis sebagai seorang mantan ahli akademik yang telah mengabdikan masa empat tahun daripada usia muda untuk memahami dinamika dalaman PAS sedekad setengah yang lalu. Sejak itu saya telah menerbitkan beberapa karya akademik berkenaan subjek ini. Continue reading “Hudud sebagai tukul”

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Tiada siapa menentang kepimpinan ulama

A Shukur Harun
The Malaysian Insider
17 March 2015

Muktamar PAS ke-61 pada Jun ini akan menentukan segalanya, sama ada parti itu mampu melakukan perubahan atau terus menjadi parti yang terbuka.

Ini perlu difikirkan semua pihak, terutamanya perwakilan yang menentukan pemimpin yang akan menerajui PAS pada masa depan. Adakah pemimpin dipilih itu mahu melakukan perubahan dan terus menjadi parti yang terbuka atau mungkin berundur ke belakang dan menjadi tertutup?

Dalam pada itu, orang di luar PAS – terutama dalam kalangan Pakatan Rakyat (PR) iaitu PKR dan DAP – akan memerhatikan keputusan muktamar Jun ini, sama ada PAS akan terus mengeratkan hubungan dengan Pakatan Rakyat atau semakin menjauhkan diri.

Sesungguhnya tidak dapat dinafikan, di dalam PAS sudah terbahagi kepada 2 golongan, iaitu golongan konservatif yang tidak bersedia melakukan perubahan dan golongan progresif dan mahukan perubahan. Continue reading “Tiada siapa menentang kepimpinan ulama”

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The die seems to be cast – the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Common Policy Framework (CPF) will be broken by PAS Kelantan and no one in the national PAS leadership is prepared, capable or has the power to remind PAS Kelantan State Government to honour the PR CPF

The die seems to be cast, with the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Common Policy Framework (CPF) set to be broken by PAS Kelantan in the Kelantan State Assembly on Wednesday.

The Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah has reiterated almost everyday that against the decision of the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council on March 12, the PAS Kelantan State Government is going ahead with the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment.

It is would appear that no one in the national PAS leadership is prepared, capable or have the power to remind the PAS Kelantan State Government that it should honour the PR Common Policy Framework.

If hudud had been a hot controversial issue in the 13th General Election on May 5, 2013, the UMNO/Barisan Nasional coalition would not only have regained its two-thirds parliamentary majority, Pakatan Rakyat would have lost Selangor apart from Kedah, and Johore would have reverted as an invincible UMNO/Barisan Nasional “fixed-deposit” state. Continue reading “The die seems to be cast – the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Common Policy Framework (CPF) will be broken by PAS Kelantan and no one in the national PAS leadership is prepared, capable or has the power to remind PAS Kelantan State Government to honour the PR CPF”

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PAS, MCA, Gerakan all falling into UMNO trap to use “UG” to divide, destabilize and destroy Pakatan Rakyat as well as to save UMNO from being voted out office in Putrajaya in the 14GE

The reiteration of the PAS Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah that PAS would table the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Bill “without any amendment, regardless of DAP’s view” in the Kelantan State Assembly on Wednesday, 18th March 2015, would be pushing the seven-year-old Pakatan Rakyat to breaking point.

It is not just the DAP views, but if the decisions made at the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council, represented by the top leaders of DAP, PKR and PAS, including the latest PR Leadership Council meeting of March 12, 2015, are repeatedly disregarded or violated, then the present format of Pakatan Rakyat cannot function or continue.

This will be a great pity, for it will mark the triumph of UMNO conspirators who have been trying their utmost in the past seven years to use the bait of “UG” (unity government between UMNO and PAS) and in the past year the additional bait of “hudud implementation in Kelantan” to achieve their objective to divide, destabilize and destroy the most formidable coalition challenge to be faced by UMNO/BN – the Pakatan Rakyat of DAP, PKR and PAS – as well as to save UMNO from being voted out of office in Putrajaya in the 14GE.

The writing on the wall is unmistakable. Continue reading “PAS, MCA, Gerakan all falling into UMNO trap to use “UG” to divide, destabilize and destroy Pakatan Rakyat as well as to save UMNO from being voted out office in Putrajaya in the 14GE”

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UMNO’s “Unity Government” plotters now celebrating for they believe they will be able to achieve a major breakthrough for their seven-year-old conspiracy in four days’ time

UMNO’s “UG” (Unity Government between UMNO and PAS) plotters are now celebrating for they believe they will be able to achieve a major breakthrough for their seven-year conspiracy in four days’ time.

Although UMNO’s “UG” conspirators hatched their plot immediately after the 12th General Elections in 2008, they could not make any headway, although over the years, the UMNO “UG” plotters have refined their game and overcome one obstacle after another.

The UMNO “UG” plot had right from the beginning involved the highest UMNO levels – like the present and former UMNO Presidents and Prime Ministers – and a very high-level meeting was held in the first few months after the 12th General Elections but plotters came away empty-handed.

The “UG” plotters found the obstacles quite impregnable, especially in the steely, principled and consistent opposition of the late Mursyidul Am PAS, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.

In fact, when the “UG” concept was revived again over the Selangor Mentri Besar crisis in the third quarter of last year, there was an article in The Malaysian Insider entitled: “Jangan cakap soal gabung PAS – UMNO selagi Nik Aziz ada, kata penganalisis”, quoting a political analyst who said it was better not to discuss it as it was impossible so long Nik Aziz was still alive. Continue reading “UMNO’s “Unity Government” plotters now celebrating for they believe they will be able to achieve a major breakthrough for their seven-year-old conspiracy in four days’ time”

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Moving forward – a simple formula for Pakatan

By Stephen Ng
Malaysiakini
Mar 13, 2015

COMMENT With the current stalemate within the Pakatan Rakyat coalition as a result of having to deal with PAS president Hadi Awang and the ulama faction of PAS, there is only one way forward for Pakatan.

The solution may be found in a simple formula, which can work only when it is agreed upon by all Pakatan supporters.

After all, faced with the possibility of a split in the near future, Pakatan Rakyat may not have too many options to choose from if it seeks to offer a united front to go for the final push in the next general election.

History teaches us that the moment the three component parties parted ways in Barisan Alternatif, there is no way for the opposition to offer a strong challenge against Umno/Barisan Nasional in the elections.

BN strategists have been working doubly hard at splitting the Pakatan votes. By now, Pakatan leaders should have realised that whenever there is a three-cornered fight, Umno’s odds to win the seat become 2:1.

Given that scenario, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim would have gone to jail in vain, and for a nation in birthpangs, all hopes for a better Malaysia that Pakatan sought to offer would be dashed against the rocks.

Every Malaysian’s dream to have a two-party system would be dissipated by the next general election. Before that happens, Pakatan leaders would do well to discuss their strategies and forge ahead amidst the current challenges. Continue reading “Moving forward – a simple formula for Pakatan”

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Pakatan Rakyat leaders must be vigilant on the watch-out for UMNO/BN agent provocateurs who are trying to wreak maximum damage to destabilise, divide and destroy Pakatan Rakyat unity to distract attention from mounting UMNO/BN woes

Pakatan Rakyat leaders must be vigilant on the watch-out for UMNO/BN agent provocateurs who are trying to wreak maximum damage to destabilise, divide and destroy Pakatan Rakyat unity to distract attention from mounting UMNO/BN woes.

The responsibility of UMNO/BN agent provocateurs for the recent assaults on PAS leaders, like PAS MP Dr. Hatta Ramli and Dr. Dzukefly Ahmad have not and cannot be ruled out – which is why Pakatan Raykat leaders should be very careful about what they say and do in public.

It is very unfortunate that the Kelantan PAS Deputy Mentri Besar and Deputy Commissioner (I) Datuk Mohd Amar Abdullah had adopted such a negative attitude as to say that the door was closed to DAP in its bid to stop PAS from bringing its hudud Bill to the Kelantan State Assembly, and that there will be no more talk with DAP, claiming that he had explained the reasons behind the Kelantan hudud amendment to DAP’s top leaders at least four times.

He even asked: “What more do they want?”
Continue reading “Pakatan Rakyat leaders must be vigilant on the watch-out for UMNO/BN agent provocateurs who are trying to wreak maximum damage to destabilise, divide and destroy Pakatan Rakyat unity to distract attention from mounting UMNO/BN woes”

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As amendment bill to the 1993 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code has not yet been presented to Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council for study, suggest deferment of any presentation to Kelantan State Assembly this month

Overnight, the political position of Datuk Seri Najib Razak seemed to have undergone a sea-change for the worse, particularly with the London Sunday Times report on Sunday, March 1, 2015 that its joint in-depth investigations into the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal with Sarawak Report website had been completed and they had obtained access to thousands of documents and emails relating to 1MDB, including its initial joint venture with the little known oil company PetroSaudi International from 2009.

As the news portal Asian Sentinel as aptly headlined its report, “Emails Blow Malaysia’s 1MDB Fund Wide Open”, the joint investigations by Sunday Times London and Sarawak Report had foiled abrupt attempts by 1MDB at the end last year to call in all of its computers, employee laptops and servers to wipe them clean of all emails.

This evening, in an email interview with Malaysiakini, Sarawak Report editor and founder Clare Rewcastle Brown confirmed that she is in possession of “thousands documents” on the dealings of 1MDB and businessman Taek Jho Low’s role in the 1MDB which were neither “forged nor hacked” material.

Although these are body blows to Najib politically, he remains a paradox of being a very weak Prime Minister whose major policy initiatives had all been dismal failures but a strong UMNO President largely because no strong UMNO contender has emerged to threaten his position – unlike his predecessor Tun Abdullah Badawi who was both a weak Prime Minister as well as a weak UMNO President, setting the stage for his easy replacement.

However, the political dynamics and disequilibrium both inside UMNO and outside will increase in intensity, focusing immediate attention not only on the forthcoming national UMNO Divisional Meeting on March 8 but also on the Kelantan State Assembly scheduled to meet on March 18.

The greater the political pressures on Najib arising from a host of political, economic, financial and family scandals, the more Machiavellian UMNO leaders and strategists will be to distract public attention from their political woes, which means the doubling up of plots and conspiracies to try to destabilize, divide and destroy PAS and Pakatan Rakyat as promoting “UG” (Unity Government between UMNO and PAS) and the false lure of Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen offering support to Kelantan PAS for hudud implementation in the Kelantan State Assembly this month. Continue reading “As amendment bill to the 1993 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code has not yet been presented to Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council for study, suggest deferment of any presentation to Kelantan State Assembly this month”

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Hudud: Umno has trapped and shackled Pas

— P Ramakrishnan
The Malay Mail Online
March 2, 2015

MARCH 2 — No one dreamt that Pas would be easily enticed to cooperate with Umno. But Umno has its hidden agenda to break up Pakatan Rakyat in order to weaken the opposition.

It has promised to support Pas when the hudud bill is tabled on 18 March in the Kelantan state assembly. This is being taken as support for hudud — which is utterly fallacious.

What choice has Umno in this issue? Can it vote against the Pas hudud bill? It cannot! It has to prove to the Malays that it is for hudud. It would be suicidal for Umno not to vote with Pas. There are no two ways about it for Umno.

It is merely hoodwinking Pas into thinking that it is helping the Islamist party to implement hudud in Kelantan.

Umno’s strategy is meant not only to weaken Pakatan Rakyat by successfully creating dissension within the coalition, it has an ulterior motive as well. It is also to drive away non-Malay support for Pas, which was given freely on the basis of Pakatan’s agreed common platform. Continue reading “Hudud: Umno has trapped and shackled Pas”

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PAS-Umno unity: A bait and a bullet

Zurairi AR
The Malay Mail Online
March 1, 2015

MARCH 1 — Last week, Umno decided to not contest in the Chempaka by-election for the sake of “Muslim unity.” The seat fell vacant after the death of PAS spiritual adviser Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.

Deservedly, the suggestion was lauded by PAS information chief Mahfuz Omar not only with open arms, but with a cynical suggestion for Umno to just abstain from any future elections to end politicking and social schism, insisting that Malaysia would end up “more peaceful” afterwards.

Since when has Umno cared about “unity” in any sense? In the decades it has ruled the country, Umno has unashamedly leaned on divisive racial politics and policies.

Increasingly in recent years, Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) have even condoned divisive and incendiary remarks and actions of people friendly to them, doing nothing to quell racial and religious schisms but instead perpetuating them.

Umno is only showing its true colours. It has little interest in “national unity”, caring more about just “Muslim unity.” Continue reading “PAS-Umno unity: A bait and a bullet”

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Pakatan Rakyat’s disintegration would mean Umno rules by default

― Liew Chin Tong
The Malay Mail Online
FEBRUARY 27, 2015

FEBRUARY 27 ― The potential disintegration of Pakatan Rakyat would mean Umno can continue its 60-year rule without challenge from a credible alternative or replacement. Umno has ruled the country since the first Federal Election on July 27, 1955.

The 2008 and 2013 elections have clearly shown that Malaysia is now in a 50-50 two-coalition competition, as far as elections are concerned. Yet the ruling coalition led by Umno is trying very hard to turn the clock back to a time when it was the sole power holder.

To turn the clock back, redelineation of electoral boundaries is high on the agenda of Umno leaders and the Election Commission. A constitutional amendment with two-thirds majority approval is required to increase the number of parliamentary seats. But Barisan Nasional has only 134 seats, which is 14 seats away from the two-thirds threshold.

So how can Umno do this? Continue reading “Pakatan Rakyat’s disintegration would mean Umno rules by default”

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UMNO decision to stay out of Chempaka by-election welcome but it should be forerunner to promote a virtuous cycle of national unity and reconciliation

The decision announced by the UMNO President and Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak after the UMNO Supreme Council meeting last night that UMNO will stay out of the Chempaka state by-election in Kelantan is most welcome although not for the reasons given.

Najib said that the decision was for the sake of Muslim “unity” as well as to allow the federal government to focus on its flood relief, rehabilitation and reparation works still in progress.

It is sad that 58 years after Merdeka, and six years after the launching of his 1Malaysia signature policy, Najib has retreated to talk about Muslim unity instead of Malaysian unity.

The UMNO decision to stay out of Chempaka by-election should be a forerunner to promote a virtuous circle of moderation, tolerance, national unity and reconciliation, after a most prolonged, cacophonous and divisive period where the rhetoric of hate, intolerance, extremism and bigotry whether of race or religion, have held sway in the public domain raising disturbing questions about the future of Malaysia. Continue reading “UMNO decision to stay out of Chempaka by-election welcome but it should be forerunner to promote a virtuous cycle of national unity and reconciliation”

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Let MCA and Gerakan Presidents explain whether MCA and Gerakan had agreed to Kelantan UMNO Assemblymen supporting PAS’s hudud legislation in Kelantan State Assembly next month as part of the UMNO strategy to break up Pakatan Rakyat?

The MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and the Gerakan President, Datuk Mak Siew Keong should explain whether MCA and Gerakan had agreed to Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen supporting PAS’ hudud legislation for implementation in the Kelantan State Assembly next month as part of the UMNO strategy to break up Pakatan Rakyat?

Suspicion of such an agreement has been caused by three developments:

• firstly, the sudden increase in the number of speeches and statements by all levels of MCA and Gerakan leaders on this issue in the past few days;

• secondly, the sudden two-hour meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council last Friday night within 24 hours of the death of Tok Guru Nik Aziz on the night of Thursday, 12th February, necessitating the holding of a by-election in the Chempaka state constituency; and

• thirdly a statement by a UMNO Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Deputy Umno Youth leader Razali Ismail on Tuesday, 17th February that “despite the death of PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, UMNO will continue to support the Islamic party on the implementation of hudud in Kelantan”.

So is the stage set for a “big drama” from the Barisan Nasional component parties for next month’s Kelantan State Assembly, with Kelantan UMNO State Assemblmen voting in support of hudud implementation in Kelantan but ignored by MCA and Gerakan leaders and publicists who will concentrate on their attacks on the DAP and PKR for “selling out the rights of the non-Muslims in Malaysia” because of PAS Kelantan State Assemblymen and women voting for implementation of hudud in Kelantan?

In the uproar and din of multi-party attacks and counter-attacks, accusations and counter-accusations, the inability of the Kelantan State Assembly to implement hudud unless Parliament authorizes it will be temporarily forgotten. Continue reading “Let MCA and Gerakan Presidents explain whether MCA and Gerakan had agreed to Kelantan UMNO Assemblymen supporting PAS’s hudud legislation in Kelantan State Assembly next month as part of the UMNO strategy to break up Pakatan Rakyat?”

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Remembering ‘Tok Guru’

— Clive Kessler
The Malaysian Insider
February 16, 2015

FEBRUARY 16 — We go back a long way together, Tok Guru and I.

To the beginning, each of us after his own prior apprenticeship, of our ensuing public careers in our closely intertwined fields of work.

Two synchronous starts

His work, that is, of pursuing and exemplifying an identifiably “traditional” and committed Islamic life within the modern political world; and mine — born of a conviction, held against the grain and bias of prevalent academic attitudes at the time, that efforts such as that of Nik Aziz to “make Islam real in modern political life” needed to be understood — as a scholarly analyst of and commentator upon such things.

I was convinced that the new, and newly assertive, politics of Islam within, and even against, the modern world had to be studied, not dismissed as a mere relic of an earlier, now waning pre-modern political era. He, on his part, believed that that kind of Islamic politics needed to be pursued and deepened. Both of us took the matter seriously, and each of us was committed to his own part of that task.

The two parts were complementary, but not symmetrically so. His side of the challenge did not need me or mine; my part made sense, and could only exist, in relation to his.

Our careers came together as they began. As we began those two public journeys and careers, he as a noted Islamist politician and I as a student and observer of Islamic politics, in Kelantan in 1967. Continue reading “Remembering ‘Tok Guru’”

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Call on all Pakatan Rakyat leaders, including PAS President Hadi Awang, to focus single-mindedly on how to save Pakatan Rakyat and discourage efforts and elements within our ranks who are prepared to destabilize and even destroy PR

In my Chinese New Year Message on 17th February, I had said that many issues will jostle as the top Malaysian concerns and conversational topics during the Chinese New Year.

This is the third day of the Chinese New Year, and I confess that I had expected Anwar’s conviction and five-year jail sentence for Sodomy II by the Federal Court and his fourth incarceration in his 47-year political struggle as the No. 1 conversation topic of all Malaysians in the Chinese New Year.

I was however wrong, for another issue caught up and gained an edge over Anwar’s conviction and 5-year jail sentence to compete for the No. 1 Chinese New Year top conversation topic – another Federal Court decision concerning a nine-year-matter, the heinous murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu and the blowing up of her body with military C4 explosives in the Shah Alam bushes on Oct. 19, 2006.

On the day I issued my Chinese New Year Message on 17th February, Sirul Azhar, one of the two convicted murderers of Altantunya who had absconded and is seeking asylum in Australia, told Malaysiakini that he was mulling over the possibility of “telling all” about the Altantuya murder as he was only acting “under orders”.

The fast-paced five-day developments of the Altantuya murder case from the Sirul perspective, threatening to reveal “all” in a video conference from Australia tomorrow (Monday) morning, catapulted the issue into a greater cause celebre during the Chinese New Year family re-unions, get-togethers, discussions and coffee-shop talks than the Anwar case – although both these cases were unchallenged as the two top-most first and second conversation topics in the Chinese New Year.

These two high-profile cases highlighted a common defect in our system of governance – a deep rot in the leadership of the 130,000 strong police establishment in not allowing the men and women in blue to act efficiently, independently and professionally to uphold what is right and lawful rather to be subverted to glorify “might is right”’ and the shocking lack of commitment and quality of performance by the political leadership and public service to provide good governance.

I am thoroughly shocked and outraged at the failure of our system of administration of justice in both these high-profile cases in keeping with the maxim to ensure that “justice is not only done, but seen to be done”.

There were several burning issues which qualify to be described as the concerns and top conversation topics of all Malaysians on the occasion of the Chinese New Year of the Goat in the past few days, and among those competing for the second tier level of the Chinese New Year concerns and top conversation topics are: Continue reading “Call on all Pakatan Rakyat leaders, including PAS President Hadi Awang, to focus single-mindedly on how to save Pakatan Rakyat and discourage efforts and elements within our ranks who are prepared to destabilize and even destroy PR”

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DAP’s SSS (Support Sympathy Solidarity) Anwar Ceramah has 3SAVE objectives – to save Anwar from prison, to save Pakatan Rakyat from disintegration and to save Malaysia from becoming a “failed state”

This is the third DAP SSS (Support Sympathy Solidarity) Anwar Ibrahim Ceramah, the first in Taman Cheras Jaya in Selangor on Sunday and the second at the Han Chiang School Hall in Penang last night.

DAP proposes to organize hundreds of SSS Anwar ceramahs, vigils, gatherings and events throughout the country in the next three years before the 14th General Elections with 3Save objectives – firstly, to save Anwar from prison, secondly to save Pakatan Rakyat from disintegration and thirdly, to save Malaysia from becoming a “failed state”.

Anwar has exhausted the judicial process and lost out when the Federal Court returned a shocking 5-0 unanimous decision to dismiss Anwar’s appeal, as even the most pessimistic about Anwar’s chances believing that he would lose in the Federal Court appeal had expected either a 3-2 verdict or at worst a 4-1 decision.

Everybody was floored by the unanimous 5-0 decision. There were not only no dissenting judgment, there was no other judgment from the five-member Federal Court quorum, apart from the single judgment by the Chief Justice, Tun Arifin Zakaria!

Anwar may have lost in the courts of the Malaysian judiciary, but he has won two battles in the first week of his five-year jail sentence – firstly, the court of public opinion in Malaysia and secondly, the court of international opinion, as it will not be easy to find another Federal Court judgment in the past two decades which had met with such instant universal condemnation, not only inside the country but also outside. Continue reading “DAP’s SSS (Support Sympathy Solidarity) Anwar Ceramah has 3SAVE objectives – to save Anwar from prison, to save Pakatan Rakyat from disintegration and to save Malaysia from becoming a “failed state””