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Mat Zain says Najib risks losing Muslim support over Datuk T

By Clara Chooi | May 19, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — A retired senior police cop today warned Datuk Seri Najib Razak of a severe Muslim backlash if he failed to punish the “Datuk T” trio for “ridiculing” Islam when they attended a recent sumpah laknat ceremony in a mosque wearing bulletproof vests.

Former KL CID chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim said Najib could fault no one if he loses the confidence of the country’s Muslims by displaying his willingness to protect his “friends” at the expense of insulting Islam.
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Guan Eng: Act against JPA ‘Little Napoleans’

By Susan Loone | May 19, 11
Malaysiakini

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has condemned the Public Services Department (JPA) for failing to provide scholarships to deserving students, a mistake being continuously repeated.

Lim said the JPA, in disbursing its scholarships recently, ‘cannot get their act together’ as they failed to differentiate between top and second highest scorers.
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Why I work and stay overseas

By A Bumi | May 19, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

MAY 19 — I am a Malay working overseas. I find working in Malaysia unattractive due to the following reasons. I don’t want to belabour the points, so I list them down in point form:

Chinese chauvinism/racism

• Most private organisations including TMI are dominated by the Chinese and/or their political agenda.

• Chinese people have a tendency to assign negative stereotypes on other races (especially the Bumiputera races).
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Guan Eng renews call for Utusan censure

By Debra Chong | May 19, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein must punish Umno’s Utusan Malaysia for stirring racial tensions with its unsubstantiated Christian Malaysia report now that a reliable witness has spoken up, Lim Guan Eng said today.

The DAP secretary-general was referring to Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Datuk Paul Low’s version of events at a closed-door meeting in Penang two weeks ago that sparked the controversy.
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Living in my kind of country

By Kaycee | May 19, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

MAY 19 — In 1962 I left for Sydney to further my studies and returned in 1968 where I obtained my first middle management position as night manager of the Hotel Merlin Kuala Lumpur until the political turmoil in 1969 which I witnessed with much sadness.

After the riots, I left for Herefordshire in the UK and attended a hotel catering management course there and returned to a position at the Kartika Plaza Hotel, Jakarta in 1972. Subsequently after my sojourn in Jakarta I returned to Batu Ferringhi, Penang and was a pioneer management staff of the Casuarina Beach Hotel, running its entire food/beverage operations there.
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10 days in May (18)

Tweets @limkitsiang:-

TBH RCI- Y ShafeeAbdullah as counsel did not advise MACC 2admit responsibility 4TeohBengHock’s death as TBH was under MACC custody premises?

Then MACC shld fully co-operated w RCI 2establish actual circumstances of TBH death. No. MACC denied 2very end – with lies cover-ups.

What Shafie meant when said focus TBH’s death x on MACC blunders n referred 2OJ Simpson murder case? MACC want Shafie 2do a Simpson in RCI?
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PKR faces de-registration threat

By Shannon Teoh | May 19, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

PETALING JAYA, May 19 — PKR is facing de-registration after receiving a show-cause letter from the Registrar of Societies (RoS) alleging the party had violated its constitution.

The RoS said in its letter that PKR had sacked a member without the matter being heard by the party’s disciplinary board.

But the party said today that the clause in question did not exist in its constitution, and accused the RoS of acting in bad faith ahead of a general election that PKR said could be called as early as July.
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‘Leaving behind a toxic legacy for decades’

By G Vinod | May 19, 2011
Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: Two Australian environmental groups believe that the Lynas rare earth mine in Kuantan would leave a toxic legacy for decades.

The environmental groups – Friends of the Earth Australia and the Conservation Council of Western Australia – said that by not revealing the data before embarking on the project in Kuantan, company has something to hide.

The groups in a joint statement said they want the Kuantan project stopped until the company reveals its environmental assessment data of the site.
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1Malaysia: ‘Good slogan, poor product’

By Stephanie Sta Maria | May 19, 2011
Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: The endorsement of unity as the golden key to nation-building is an age-old practice that has not always produced the envisioned borderless society.

In the 1960s the military leaders of Burma promoted “Burmese nationalism”, but this ideal disintegrated when the ethnic Burmese majority sidelined the identities and interests of the other communities.

Thailand, too, fumbled with the unity baton as its political parties jostled for ownership of the unity concept while igoniring the plight of minority communities.
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Why I am thinking of leaving

The Malaysian Insider | We asked readers to tell us why they migrated… or are even thinking of migrating. This is one of the stories.

MAY 19 — I would like to tell you first-hand why I am thinking of migrating in the future:

The salary base of Malaysian employees are low.

I am a trainee for a foreign bank and urban poor as I earn less than RM3,000 a month; compared to my counterparts who are currently working overseas (merely as a waiter/ barista), their weekly salary is equivalent to what I earn in a month.

The living cost is getting higher.
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Reclaiming our truly Malaysian history

By Centre for Policy Initiatives

Introduction by CPI

Below is the first in the CPI series on ‘Reclaiming our truly Malaysian history’.

The post provides readers with information on the meeting held in Petaling Jaya on May 15 to launch the national campaign on reforming the history curriculum and textbooks.

During the next few weeks and months, CPI will feature analysis and contributions from scholars and educators on the history reform issue so that the public and government are made aware of and fully understand the ramifications of education – in this case, the history curriculum and textbooks – being used as a political football by the powers that be.
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Poor have no shield from subsidy cuts, says Pua

By Yow Hong Chieh | May 19, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — Subsidy cuts will widen the gulf between rich and poor in Malaysia if the Najib administration does not cushion the impact of price hikes on lower income groups, DAP publicity chief Tony Pua has said.

He said the lack of measures to lessen the burden on the bottom 40 per cent of income earners would only worsen the already-high level of income inequality in Malaysia, which, according to the World Bank, was among the highest in Asia and close to South American levels.

Pua said despite repeated price hikes to key items like sugar, petrol and diesel, the government had yet to fulfil its pledge to implement programmes like a cash rebate for motorcycles under 250cc and cars under 1,000cc as well as one for those hit by reductions in food subsidies.
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10 days in May (17)

Tweets @limkitsiang:-

Cabinet silence on Utusan “Christian Msia” bogey/Hisham condonation – thot of “Silence of the Lambs” not Hannibal horror film but metaphor

Cabinet let Najib down- exposes Global Movement of Moderates call empty rhetoric. Have BN Ministers read Nades’ article? http://ow.ly/4XSyI

Nades asked:”If PM advocate moderation tolerance acceptance Y voices extremism overpowered threatened what done achieved over past 50yrs?”

“Every rt-thinking Msian embrace PM’s wisdom prophetic words on moderation tolerance acceptance” except BN Cabinet – dare not launch MMoM
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No place in society for those who sow seeds of hatred

By R. Nadeswaran | 18 May 2011
The Sun

THE hallowed corridors of the renowned Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford University have been the scene of the entry of many luminaries whose speeches elucidated its audience.

Monday was no different when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak delivered his address. The packed hall had students, academicians, diplomats, businessmen both local and Malaysian, and even a disgraced politician.

Najib’s speech on moderation, peppered with quotes from the Quran, the Torah and even the Bible, went on to outline Malaysia’s success as a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural society.
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Of online privacy, PR snafus, and self-righteousness

By Edwin Yapp | May 19, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

MAY 19 — All’s fair in love and war, so says the age-old adage. But while this might be true in the old days, all’s not necessarily fair at all especially in the cyber age world.

Late last week, news broke that Facebook has owned up to hiring a public relations consultancy to expose supposed flaws in Google’s privacy practices. According to the Economist, numerous reports appeared stating that Burson-Marsteller, a public-relations company working for the social networking giant, has been urging bloggers and journalists to write scathing pieces about Google’s Social Circle.

Social Circle enables users to view information publicly available of other users who are connected to their Google Chat and Contacts, and includes data such as Facebook accounts, Twitter feeds and personal Web sites.
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Native festival lacks spirit

By Luke Rintod | May 18, 2011
Free Malaysia Today

KOTA BELUD: Sabah’s main local native festival, Tadau Kaamatan or Harvest Festival, was a shadow of its old self this year.

Decorated stalls that are normally put up by government agencies and private companies to exhibit and sell products were absent and uncollected garbage from the previous day was strewn around.

The district-level celebration in Kota Belud used to be attended by thousands of locals and tourists, but this year a mere 300 turned out for the drab affair.

If this is any indication, the once renowned festival that is marked for for its jolly drinking sessions, camaraderie and friendly competitions following the padi-harvesting season, is set for the state’s cultural dustbin!
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Murder most foul: The truth still eludes us

Comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers

‘For the two who were convicted of the crime – who has seen their faces? Are they in prison or are they relaxing outside their beach homes?’

Wikileaks releases cables on Najib and Altantuya

Ferdtan: There is nothing new in the Wikileaks cables that we do not know about – but it is nice to get it from an unbiased third party, US embassy’s political section chief Mark D Clark.

It gives credence to ‘gossip’ – and, it seems that these allegations must have some truth. Obviously the US embassy, being professional, must have done some basic investigations into the authencity of some of the allegations against PM Najib Razak before despatching their report to its head office in Washington DC.
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Longing For A Free Mind (Part 11 of 14)

By M. Bakri Musa

Q&A: Change, Corruption, and Talent Recruitment

Q1: We went through a momentous change, a political tsunami as it were, with the 2008 general elections, yet things have remained unchanged. What would it take to effect real change in our country?

A1: I understand and share your frustration. What will it take for our country to change for the better? I am certain that a few weeks ago the average Tunisians felt the same way as you do now; likewise the Egyptians, until just a few days ago. So do not despair, change will come. My hope is that when it arrives, we will be spared the fate now endured by the Tunisians and Egyptians.
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‘Tamil school problem still being ignored’

By Humayun Kabir | May 18, 2011
Free Malaysia Today

IPOH: Tamil schools that were closed because of poor enrolment are not being substituted with new ones in semi-rural and urban areas to cater to the Indian community, the DAP claimed.

Party national vice-chief M Kulasegaran said that nearly 60% of Indian parents preferred to send their children to Tamil schools rather than national schools.

He also said that in Perak, there are over 17,000 pupils studying in Tamil schools – 9,000 in national schools and over 1,500 in Chinese schools.

“Over 70% of the 134 Tamil schools in the state are located in former estates and about 80 of them have an enrolment of fewer than 100 pupils,” said Kulasegaran, who is also Ipoh Barat MP.
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Don’t give up on Malaysia

June Rubis
The Malaysian Insider
May 19, 2011

MAY 19 — Discovering the fresh corpse of an orangutan was probably the last straw. It had been shot several times and left to die on a riverbank. We discovered the corpse while paddling up a river in Batang Ai National Park.

Killing an orangutan, a totally protected animal, in Sarawak is an offence that could lead to two years’ imprisonment or a fine of RM30,000. Very few have been prosecuted for wildlife crimes in Sarawak, and the lack of prosecution or arrests does not necessarily mean that no crimes have been committed.
Continue reading “Don’t give up on Malaysia”