Category: Parliament

I have today sent an urgent fax to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi asking for a meeting with DAP MPs and leaders on pressing sensitive issues of national unity, religion, family and human rights highlighted by recent heart-rending controversies like the Subashini, Revathi and Marimuthu cases.

There are great and increasing concerns in our plural society about inter-religious tolerance and harmony as illustrated by the recent week-long prayers by Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Taoists to seek divine intervention to spread awareness of the importance of upholding the fundamental provisions of the Malaysian Constitution with regard to Article 11 on freedom of religion and Article 4 on the Constitution as the supreme law of Malaysia.

In a written reply to the DAP MP for Ipoh Barat, M. Kulasegaran on Wednesday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Nazri Aziz said that the Prime Minister had an open attitude and discussed matters of religion with religious-based non-governmental bodies. It is in this spirit that we are asking for this meeting with the Prime Minister.

Ever since the founding of the nation, Bapa Malaysia and the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, set the example of an open, tolerant and accommodative attitude on religious rights and sensitivities which had spared the multi-religious country from religious conflict, discord and even misunderstanding in the best part of half-a-century of nationhood.

If Tunku Abdul Rahman is still alive, I am sure he will be the first to be very distressed by the spate of heart-rending cases affecting religion which split up families — in the Marimutu case, the couple had been married for 21 years with seven children – apart from causing inter-religious strain and national disunity as well as giving Malaysia a bad name internationally. Continue reading “Subashini, Revathi, Marimuthu cases – Tunku will be most distressed if he is still alive”

Another din and pandemonium in Parliament this morning during question time simply because Barisan Nasional (BN) Ministers and MPs cannot stand hard questions.

The original question was from a BN Sabah MP, Edmund Chong Ket Wah (Batu Sapi) who asked the Higher Education Minister “to state that out of the 20 local public institutions of higher learning, how many are listed on the Academic Ranking of World Top 500 Universities”.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Higher Education Ministry, Datuk Dr. Adham Baba gave a tepid and colourless reply, who dared not address the problem of higher education in the country, failing to mention a single international university ranking.

This was followed by two supplementary questions by BN MPs which only enabled Adham to skirt the problem of decline and fall of academic quality of Malaysian universities.

In my supplementary question, I said that while Adham had said that Malaysia will use the National University of Singapore as a benchmark for public universities in the country, I pointed out that the University of Malaya had started out at par with the University of Singapore until the seventies in terms of international recognition for academic excellence and university quality.

However, Malaysia has slipped back to the international academic backwaters, as illustrated by the following international rankings: Continue reading “Another din and pandemonium in Parliament because BN Ministers/MPs cannot stand “hard” questions”

The Sun is the only English and Bahasa Malaysia newspaper to report my questioning the Education Minister and UMNO Youth leader, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussin for his infamous keris-wielding in Parliament yesterday.

Hishammuddin was answering the query during Question Time on “the effectiveness of Students’ Integration for Unity programme since it was put into practice and whether the programme has achieved its objective”.

I had prefaced my supplementary question with the observation that Hishammuddin was “well-known” for his keris-wielding incidents in the context of extremist and communal demands in utter disregard of the rights and sensitivities of all races in a plural nation to the extent that he had been asked when he was going to use the keris, forfeiting his credibility and legitimacy as a symbol of national integration; and whether he would apologise for the keris-wielding incidents.

This set off a pandemonium in Parliament with Umno MPs creating a din to drown out my question, leading me to observe that UMNO MPs dared to defend the “keris-wielding” in the context of extremist and communal demands but dared not be questioned on the rightness of their actions in Parliament. Continue reading “Hishammuddin’s keris-wielding disqualifies him as a symbol of national integration”

My worst fears have been confirmed — the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi does not read letters sent to him or get a briefing on them and these letters disappear into the “black hole” of the Prime Minister’s Department.

When Abdullah was asked yesterday about a Japan Times report which allegedly implicated Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Taib Mahmud in a 1.1 billion yen (RM32 million) timber export kickbacks, he said no formal reports had been presented to him.
However, he said, he had asked the ACA to investigate the matter.

This is most shocking indeed as it was exactly a week ago that I had sent him an urgent letter to draw his attention to the Japan Times report asking him to personally reply in Parliament on Monday in the winding-up on the Royal Address debate in view of the recent snowballing of serious corruption allegations against high-profile leaders in his administration.

If the Prime Minister does not read and is not bothered to get briefed about an urgent letter from the Parliamentary Opposition Leader on serious corruption allegations against high-profile leaders in his administration appearing in the international media, gravely undermining Malaysia’s image and international competitiveness, who will expect the Prime Minister to have time for anyone who send him letters, petitions or appeals as their hope of last resort for justice? Continue reading “My worst fears confirmed – Abdullah does not read letters sent to him”

The “war” between the Internal Security Ministry and the Police is definitely more warlike than the “all-out war against crime” or the earlier “all-out war against corruption” announced by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The “all-out wars” against crime and corruption were just empty rhetoric but the “war” between the Internal Security Ministry and the Police have already sent sparks flying all over the country.

However, on a day when Malaysians are thoroughly disgusted and ashamed to read in the media of the RM200 million havoc at the grandiose Immigration Department headquarters at Putrajaya, where a burst pipe caused a torrent of thousands of litres of water flooding seven storeys of the building, forcing its closure and the evacuation of over 1,000 people thronging the immigration counters and the 600 immigration officers, the people are not amused at all by the ugly spectacle of the “cat-and-dog” fight between Internal Security Ministry and the Police.

Both incidents are disgraceful testimony that public service culture, standards and benchmarks have plummeted drastically in the 41-month premiership of Abdullah, with the “First-World Infrastructure, Third-World Mentality” Malaysian malaise becoming even more deeply-rooted and terminal instead of it being eradicated and replaced with a “First-World Infrastructure, First-World Mentality” mindset and ethos. Continue reading “Crime escalation – public spat between de facto Police Minister and Police”

Two days after the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi made the call for an “all-out war against crime”, Malaysians were shaken by the revelation that there had been a 40% surge in the crime rate in Kuala Lumpur, the Federal Capital this year.

Why did crime in Kuala Lumpur surge 40% in the first three months of this year when the Police had been talking about a “zero crime” objective for the Federal capital only last November?

Malaysians can still remember reading news reports in November last year of police boasts that “there are virtually no more cases of snatch theft and wayside robbery in several crime-prone areas in the city, including the golden triangle” in Kuala Lumpur — attributed to the presence of senior police officers in patrolling the streets.

Why is the effect of the new police strategy to reduce crimes not only so short-lived but clearly counter-productive as evident from the 40% increase in Kuala Lumpur’s crime rate in the first three months of year?

Have the senior police officers been pulled out of patrolling the streets, which had been given so much publicity as the new strategy to increase police presence to fight crime? Continue reading “Why 40% surge in crime after police talk of “zero crime” in KL only last November?”

A question many MPs, reporters and observers have been asking is why the Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu went berserk in Parliament yesterday when there was no cause or provocation whatsoever.

In his answer during question time, Samy Vellu had lamented that his Ministry was only a “tool” of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), which was the final decision-maker on tolls and concessions but his Ministry was made to be the scapegoat for all toll hikes.

In my supplementary question I had followed up logically on Samy Vellu’s complaint, saying that if the Works Ministry was a mere “tool” of the EPU and not the deciding authority on tolls and concessions, then the Minister in charge of EPU should be in Parliament to answer questions on the subject and not Samy Vellu — and that person would be the Prime Minister who has authority over EPU but who is absent from Parliament most of the time This is fully in accordance with the principles of Ministerial responsibility and parliamentary responsibility.

At this innocent and valid question, Samy Vellu blew his top, screaming that I had gone “150% out of topic”, that I was “playing political games” and being a very irresponsible Opposition, that he had never heard of a country where the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers and Deputy Ministers had to attend Parliament sittings “from morning till night”!

I also have not heard of a country where the PM, DPM, ministers and deputy ministers have to attend Parliament “from morning till night”. This was just a red herring by Samy Vellu as I had never raised it as an issue.

Nobody is asking for a PM, DPM, Ministers and Deputy Ministers who are in Parliament “morning and night”, but we also do not want a PM, DPM, Ministers and Deputy Ministers who abdicate and abscond from their parliamentary responsibilities to answer and accountable to MPs for the policies and failures of their Ministries.

Samy Vellu had panicked somewhat for he had given an answer which had invited a supplementary question which had raised the issue of the poor parliamentary attendance record of the Prime Minister, who is shaping up to be the worst of all five Prime Ministers in attending to his parliamentary duties — becoming not only an absentee Prime Minister but also absentee Finance Minister and absentee Internal Security Minister during parliamentary meetings. Continue reading “Two reasons why Samy Vellu went berserk in Parliament yesterday”

I have today sent an urgent letter to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to personally reply in Parliament on Monday in the winding-up on the Royal Address debate on high-profile corruption allegations in his administration.

I also drew his attention to the Japan Times report last Thursday, which I described as “the latest instance of more and more adverse international reports about corruption in Malaysia, such as the adverse rankings given to the country by the corruption surveys of the Transparency International and the Political and Economic Risks Consultancy (PERC)” which warrant urgent action by Abdullah to salvage his reform agenda and pledge, in particular to make ant-corruption campaign the top priority of his administration.

The Japan Times report of March 29, 2007 referred to 1.1 billion yen (RM32 million) timber export kickbacks involving companies connected to Sarawak Chief Minister, Tan Sri Taib Mahmud and his family.

The Japan Times report is reproduced as follows:

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Wood carriers allegedly hid 1.1 billion yen income
Kyodo News

Nine Japanese shipping companies that transport lumber from Sarawak, Malaysia, allegedly failed to report some 1.1 billion yen of income in total during a period of up to seven years through last March, sources said Wednesday, alleging the money constituted kickbacks to Sarawak officials via a Hong Kong agent.

Such tax irregularities have occurred as the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau determined the companies’ remuneration payments to Regent Star, a Hong Kong agent, which has a connection with Chief Minister of Sarawak Taib Mahmud and his family, were rebates, not legitimate expenses, the sources said.

Although the Hong Kong agency did very little in the way of substantive work, the shipping companies are believed to have used rebates as a lubricant to facilitate their lumber trade, the sources added. Continue reading “Another high-profile corruption allegation – Sarawak CM re 1.1 billion yen timber export kickbacks”

The “babi” invective by an UMNO MP in Parliament yesterday is a most sad and shocking reflection that 50 years after Merdeka, there are Umno political leaders who are still very deeply-ingrained in communal thinking and prejudices, making them poor models of a Bangsa Malaysia.

I admit that I had lost my cool when I was badgered and heckled the whole afternoon yesterday when I had sought clarifications during the Ministerial winding-up of the debate on the Royal Address.

The badgering from Barisan Nasional MPs had started when I sought clarification from the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on integrity issues concerning the award of contracts in the national service training programme, the mega-commission scandals in defence purchases such as US$100 million for Sukhoi jets from Russia and US$120 million for submarine from France and it continued when I had sought clarification from the Deputy Internal Security Minister, Datuk Johari Baharun, whether on the serious corruption allegations which had been made against the Deputy Minister in the “freedom for sale” scandal, the most basic failure in police reform when police still refused to accept police reports or the issue of abuse of detention-without-trial powers under the Emergency Ordinance.

When BN MPs from Umno, MCA and Gerakan continued to try to drown out my attempts to seek clarification from Johari, I lost my patience and told BN MPs who did not want to listen to the clarifications which were public interest issues to “mampus” and leave the House. Continue reading ““Babi” invective in Parliament – sad reflection on failure of 50 yrs of nation-building”

The inability of the Prime Minister to announce the new Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general is proof that Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor would have been given a fourth extension as ACA chief if not for the serious corruption allegations made against him by former Sabah ACA director and whistleblower Mohamad Ramli Abdul Manan.

I would have been the first to welcome Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s statement that the new ACA director-general would be announced as soon as possible if the delay to immediately fill the vacancy following the termination of Zulkipli’s contract last Saturday is because the Prime Minister is adopting a new and more consultative process for the appointment of key posts like the ACA chief such as consulting the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity and representative stakeholder organizations and NGOs concerned about national integrity..

However, there are no signs that the delay in the appointment of a new ACA chief is because the Prime Minister is adopting a more transparent and consultative process in the appointment process but because he was caught totally off-guard and unprepared to fill the post as it has become completely untenable to extend Zulkipli’s term when Zulkipli had plunged the ACA and the country into the greatest integrity crisis in the nation’s history.

Although Zulkipli had claimed that his appointment on secondment as ACA director-general and extension of his contract three times showed that the Prime Minister had confidence in him, Zulkipli’s repeated extension as ACA chief will probably go down as one of the biggest failures of Abdullah’s premiership — when a new ACA director-general should have been selected when Zulkipli’s appointment first ended under his premiership on March 31, 2004.

How could Abdullah be serious about his pledge when he became Prime Minister and during the 2004 general election to make anti-corruption the top priority of his administration and a major difference with the previous Mahathir administration when he leaves untouched the person who had headed the ACA with such lacklustre record for the last two years of the 22-year Mahathir premiership? Continue reading “Corruption allegations against Zulkipli and Johari – table White Paper in Parliament”

An hour before midnight, Bernama released the news from the Prime Minister’s Office “Zulkipli’s Contract As ACA Chief Not Extended”.

The decision not to renew Zulkipli’s contract as Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general, which ends today, has saved the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from a “firestorm” of nation-wide protest and international ridicule which would have immediately exploded in his face if Zulkipli’s contract as ACA chief had been further extended — a grave consequence which I had taken pains to serve public warning in my media statement yesterday morning.

In fact, no ACA director-general apart from Zulkipli had brought greater disrepute and odium to the anti-corruption agency in its 40-year history — with Malaysians questioning for the first time its very integrity apart from its ineffectiveness and impotence when dealing with corruption involving the “big political fishes”.

It reflects poorly on the lack of political will of the Prime Minister in his pledge to give top priority in his administration to the campaign against corruption that Zulkipli was allowed in the past month to continue to helm the ACA in the face of serious corruption allegations made against him by former Sabah ACA director Mohamad Ramli Manan when he should have been asked to go on leave to protect the public image and integrity of ACA.

Zulkipli’s credibility and integrity suffered a serious dent when he backed out of his earlier public commitment to appear before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity (PSCI) as he had nothing to hide, raising questions as to what are the things he could not say and reveal to the PSCI about ACA’s integrity, commitment and sense of purpose to wipe out corruption.

The close-to-midnight statement from the Prime Minister’s Office is however a great disappointment. Continue reading “Consult PSCI on appointment of new ACA DG”

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity (PSCI) will be asked on Tuesday to review the “on/off/on/off hearing of Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor and whistleblower/former ACA Sabah director Mohamed Ramli Abdul Manan.

This follows the latest development where Ramli’s counsel, M. Manoharan, had given assurance that the issue of sub judice at the PSCI hearings for Zulkipli and Ramli does not arise as the serious allegations of corruption against Zulkipli has no bearing on Ramli’s civil suits against the ACA chief. The civil suit involved non-payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities.

As for the corruption trial of former minister Tan Sri Kasitah Gaddam, both Zulkipli and Ramli are not material witnesses.

Furthermore, the Ramli civil suit could take years to be decided while the Kasitah trial is still in the prosecution stage.

As the PSCI is meeting in Parliament on Tuesday in its continuing inquiry into the Sabah Project I/C scandal, I will raise the letter from Ramli’s counsel and his request for an early date for a hearing for deliberation and decision.

There is now even more compelling reasons why the PSCI should neither flinch nor hesitate from holding hearings for Zulkipli and Ramli if the Select Committee is to remain true to its terms of reference to uphold and promote national integrity. Continue reading “PSCI hearing for Zulkipli/Ramli – review on Tuesday”

On Tuesday, Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Paduka Rafidah Aziz, gave a 21-page reply to questions on the Malaysia-US FTA talks and developments.

Rafidah said that the sovereign right of the government to make and implement certain national policies for the interests of the rakyat and country is one of the fundamental issues that are non-negotiable for Malaysia in any bilateral FTA.

Malaysian sovereignty

I want to raise 3 matters of vital public importance that are on the negotiation list.

First is the issue of the mandatory labelling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and products containing GMOs. The Biosafety Bill that has passed the first reading in this House is necessary to safeguard public health and the environment. An important provision is the one that requires mandatory labelling, and we understand that Draft regulations for labelling of genetically modified food are ready and notified to the WTO. For consumers who may have allergenic reactions to certain GM products or have religious reasons to reject such products labelling is essential.

I raise this because the US Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) Act expressly states that labelling of biotechnology products is a practice that should be eliminated as it decreases US export opportunities when consumers choose not to consume GM food.

The US Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and the AMCHAM Malaysia/US Chamber of Commerce have opposed mandatory labelling of genetically modified products or foods in their public submissions to the US Trade Representative. In particular, AMCHAM Malaysia/US Chamber of Commerce state that such labelling “should be firmly opposed by the U.S. in the FTA Negotiations”.

Many countries (such as Japan, China and many European countries, and even Australia which signed an FTA with the US) already require mandatory labelling. This is consistent with the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade which states that “technical regulations shall not be more trade-restrictive than necessary to fulfil a legitimate objective”.

The legitimate objectives include “national security requirements,
prevention of deceptive practices, protection of human health or safety, animal or plant life or health, or the environment” (emphasis added). The prevention of deceptive practices includes product information and labelling, so it is clearly within our sovereign right to have mandatory labelling of GMOs and GM products.

Under the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the joint WHO/FAO body regulating international food standards, the Committee on Food Labelling has been discussing a global standard for mandatory GM food labelling. The draft standard on GM labelling has support from a majority of the Committee, including Malaysia.

Is this one of the areas of national sovereignty that will be non-negotiable?
Continue reading “Malaysia-US FTA – Questions for Rafidah”

Fourthly, on an independent judiciary — Malaysia was held in high international esteem until the 1988 judicial crisis, and the nation has not fully recovered from the trauma and fall-outs of the successive series of judicial crisis for the ensuing 15 years. How to restore full public confidence in the system of justice in the country?

The answer by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Nazri Aziz to Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Glugor) yesterday that the government has no plans to set up a Judicial Commission for the appointment of judges is most deplorable.

What is even more shocking is that this is also the view of the Chief Justice, Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim who had likened the proposal for an independent judicial commission on appointment and promotion of judges as akin to nudity rather than transparency. Such comment by the higher judicial officer in the land is most ill-advised, in poor taste and reflect badly on the office of Chief Justice.

Ahmad Fairuz may be unhappy with the proposal of an independent judicial commission to oversee the selection and promotion of judges, but he should realize that this proposal pre-dates his appointment to the top judicial post in the land and meant to enhance public confidence in the system of justice and in that context, there is nothing personal against any personal holder of the office.

Ahmad Fairuz should not have questioned the motives of those who had made the proposal, such as the Bar Council and several prominent lawyers, posing the rhetorical question: “Are we to allow whoever has cases in court and who lost to decide on the fate of judges?” He ignores the support of retired judges for the proposal.

It is absolutely wrong and inapt to categorise the proposal of an independent Judicial Commission as an exercise in nudity rather than transparency, especially when this judicial reform had been adopted by other countries such as Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Continue reading “Why still no Chief Judge of Malaya after 2 1/2 months?”

Thirdly, on international competitiveness.

The Royal Address quoted the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2006 where Malaysia’s position has improved from 28th place in 2005 to 23rd place in 2006.

Since last month, the government has tried to generate a “feel good” atmosphere among the people with the message that good economic times are back.

Parliament was told that since 3rd January 2007, the Bursa Malaysia Composite Index has been recording an encouraging performance and exceeded 1,200 points, a level which has not been reached since the Asian currency crisis in July 1997. There was the record 2006 trade volume breaching RM1 trillion. We are told that in 2006, “total investments in the country remained strong, reaching its highest level in the history of our nation”.

On February 13, International Trade and Industry Minister, Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz announced that Malaysia is back on the global investment map, with a record RM46 billion investments in 1,077 approved manufacturing projects last year by local and foreign investors — a 48 per cent jump from the RM31 billion invested in 2005. This was made up of RM20.2 billion of foreign investments and RM25.8 billion in local investments.

Is the government right that Malaysia is “out of the woods”, dispelling the gloomy news in the past few months that Malaysia is in danger of dropping out from the radar of foreign investors because of increasing lack of international competitiveness, whether in efficiency of public service, quality of education, good governance, transparency and integrity?

The United Nations Conference Trade and Development (Unctad) World Investment Report 2006 last October revealed unflattering figures about Malaysia for the year 2005, viz: Continue reading “Musa Hitam’s merit call for IDR to attract FDIs – extend to whole country”

Secondly, on Inter-religious relations today and the past 50 years. In the first two decades of nationhood, the government sponsored the establishment of a Inter-Religious Council headed by a Cabinet Minister to promote inter-religious dialogue, understanding and goodwill. Today, a very similar proposal, the Inter-Faith Council, is regarded as highly sensitive and intolerable by the government-of-the day. What has gone wrong?

It is most regrettable that despite six requests in the past nine months, the Prime Minister has refused to meet the Article 11 coalition of 11 civil society groups to uphold the Federal Constitution as the supreme law of the land — or even to give any response.

Why is the Prime Minister who preaches inter-religious dialogue in international conferences adopting such a hostile attitude to Article 11 and domestic inter-religious dialogue?

Non-Muslim concerns about religious freedom as entrenched in Article 11 have been re-ignited by the latest Court of Appeal judgment in the R. Subashini case.

Just like the S. Shamala case in 2004, the Hindu women found they could not seek legal remedy in the civil courts to protect their rights after their husbands converted to Islam and unilaterally converted their children.
Continue reading “PM – address cumulative Article 11 concerns”

It is most ironical and tragic that the government’s nation-building objectives had come under a cloud on the occasion of the nation’s 50th Merdeka anniversary — whether the Barisan Nasional government is still committed or has abandoned the objective of creating a Bangsa Malaysia.

After the denunciation of the Bangsa Malaysia concept and objective by the Johore Mentri Besar, Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman at a Umno Johore conference in early November last year – a run-up to the “fire-and-brimstone” Umno and Umno Youth general assemblies the following week — the Federal and State Governments appear to have distanced themselves from the Bangsa Malaysia objective.

Let us not forget history. The Bangsa Malaysia concept was proclaimed in Vision 2020 in 1991 with the objective that it be achieved within three decades in 2020 with the emergence of a people entirely Malaysian in perspective, transcending ethnic, religious and cultural differences

This was how Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who proclaimed Viksion 2020, explained the Bangsa Malaysia concept at the time:
This is the report from the Star (Sept. 11, 1995), which carried the front-page headline “ESCHEW ETHNICITY’, with a secondary headline of “PM: Be proud of being Malaysians”:

“Kuala Lumpur – Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysians should reduce their strong sense of ethnicity in order to achieve Bangsa Malaysia.

“He said citizens should be proud of being Malaysians and work together instead of being preoccupied with ethnic origin.

“‘Bangsa Malaysia means people who are able to identify themselves with the country, speak Bahasa Malaysia and accept the Constitution,’ he said at a dialogue with the Malaysian Students Executive Council of the United Kingdom here yesterday.

“The Prime Minister said to realise the goal of Bangsa Malaysia, the people should start accepting each other as they are, regardless of race and religion.

” Dr. Mahathir said certain quarters may condemn him for wanting to achieve Bangsa Malaysia and not struggling for the Malay cause as he did during his early years in politics.

“He said when he was fighting for the Malay cause per se, he was young and his thoughts were that of an inexperienced politician. Continue reading ““Bangsa Malaysia” – has it been abandoned by Cabinet, UMNO and BN?”

This year is a the 50th Merdeka Anniversary for the nation.

There are two ways to celebrate the half-century of nationhood – in a lavish expenditure of public funds in fireworks, extravaganzas and pageantry or to celebrate it in a meaningful manner to instill greater national solidarity and sense of purpose in the nation’s journey to achieve a Bangsa Malaysia and a fully developed nation status.

Parliament, as the highest political forum in the land, should set the national example to celebrate the half-century of our nationhood in a meaningful manner, with Malaysians regardless of race, religion, class or political beliefs standing up for fair, just and progressive nation-building policies to create towering Malaysians and to stop Malaysia’s loss of international competitiveness.

The most meaningful way to celebrate the country’s half-century of nationhood is to seek a national consensus as to what had gone wrong with nation-building and how we can learn from the mistakes and failures of the past decades so that we can be more successful in the next 50 years, in particular on the following issues:

Firstly, National unity — why after nearly five decades of nationhood, race relations in Malaysia is “not good, fragile and brittle”, as publicly admitted by the Prime Minister recently. Racial and religious polarization have never been more serious today than in the past five decades.

The introduction of the national service training programme in 2004 is testimony of the failure of the national education system to create national unity in the country — and this is no surprise when the Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein is the very symbol and cause of such polarization with his racist keris-wielding histrionics at Umno general assemblies. Continue reading “National service programme and Hisham’s keris-wielding”

The third front where I had hoped would be special mention of new policy initiatives in the Royal Address is in connection with Abdullah’s pledge to lead an open, accountable and transparent administration — in particular a firm government commitment to introduce a Freedom of Information Act to replace the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and the removal of the OSA and declassification of all privatization contracts, whether toll contracts, power and water concessions, to put them in the public domain for the scrutiny of the Malaysian public.

The Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu was recently very incensed and hurt. He appeared on the front page of New Sunday Times (Feb. 25, 2007) with blaring headlines: “‘Works Minister, still smarting over being accused of ‘going for blood’, says… ‘I’m no Dracula'”.

Samy Vellu accused me of calling him a Dracula.

He said: “Lim Kit Siang said I was going for blood. He was indirectly saying I’m a Dracula. Only a Dracula goes for blood. A man and politician of his age and experience should be more cultured when he talks about other people.”

I said he was “bloodthirsty” and I stand by what I said. But I never said he is Dracula. If he is a Dracula, then it is his own self-description!

Let me state in this House that “Dracula” had never entered my mind when in my statement of 3rd February I had demanded to know why Samy Vellu was “suddenly so ‘bloodthirsty’ as to want four Opposition leaders, namely Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and Tian Chua of PKR, Ronnie Liu of DAP and Dr. Hatta Ramli (PAS) jailed for at least a year under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for revealing that the government had guaranteed profits to Litrak in the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP) concession agreement?” Continue reading “Trend of greater official secrecy under Pak Lah government”

The second front where I had hoped there new policy initiatives would be announced in the Royal Address is on police reform and in particular to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) with the announcement that the bill for its formation would be taken through all three readings in the current meeting of Parliament in view of the worsening crime index as well as repeated blows to public confidence in the ability of the police to implement the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission to become an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service to combat crime, uphold law and order and respect human rights.

The crime index in the country has worsened from 156,315 cases in 2003 to 226,836 cases in 2006 — a sharp rise of 45.1% in the past three years when the police force had set the target of reducing the crime index by five per cent each year!
In the past three years, violent crime had skyrocketed by 85.8 per cent from 22,790 cases in 2003 to 42,343 cases in 2006, with rape cases registering the highest increase of 65.5 per cent — reaching an average of 6.7 women raped daily in 2006 compared to an average of four women raped daily in 2003. In 2003, an average of 1.5 persons were murdered daily; but in 2006, this has increased to an average of 1.65 persons murdered daily.

I want to remind the Prime Minister of his pledge 40 months ago that one of his top priorities would be to reduce crime to restore to Malaysians their fundamental right to be free from crime and the fear of crime, whether in the streets, public places or the privacy of their homes? Today, Malaysians feel even more unsafe from crime than when he became Prime Minister.

Abdullah had been the Minister in charge of police for the past seven years and it is time he take full personal responsibility for the worsening crime situation in the country by providing personal leadership in the campaign to reduce crime — starting by ending all the procrastinations in the establishment of the IPCMC to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional and world-class Police Service. Continue reading “40 months as PM – Malaysians even more unsafe from crime”