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Posted: 24 Jun 2011 06:02 PM PDT

By batsman

Many activists, bloggers and commenters believe very strongly that it is sufficient to have a 2-party political system as the target or objectives of the reform movement. Bersih 2.0's struggle proves beyond the shadow of the doubt that this is still insufficient.

UMNO knows this is insufficient. This is one of the reasons why UMNO is fighting with might and main as well as with dirty tricks to prevent Bersih 2.0 from getting a serious hearing. If Malaysians and Malaysian public opinion start to think that Bersih has a case, UMNO knows there is a very high likelihood that it will lose everything. This is why it will use dirty tricks and everything in its arsenal of legal and illegal tricks as well as it's cronies in the public service, religious institutions, NGOs and GLCs to prevent Bersih 2.0 from getting a serious hearing.

Why do I say this? Let me explain by using a very simple everyday example. Take a football match. Each side represents the 2-party political system. If this is all it takes then there is no need for a referee. Unfortunately football is no longer football without a referee.

Some people say that it is sufficient to have the voters as the referee. This is like saying the registered adult spectators of the football match can become the referee. At the end of the match, they can take a vote on which side won the match. This is as ridiculous as a football match without a referee. In all likelihood, even the end of the match will be in dispute and no one is sure when the match ended.

The only equivalent of a referee in terms of the 2-party political system is just, fair and uncorrupted laws and professionals who are neutral and without any bias who carry out such a set of just and fair laws honestly and with integrity. Spectators cannot be the referee unless they are football professionals or retired professionals. Most of them have not been adequately trained on the rules of the game and have no experience in being referees. Only an adequately trained and competent professional who has no interest in the outcome of the game is properly equipped for the job of being the referee.

If the referee has an interest in the outcome of the match, he is said to be biased. There are many ways to create this bias in a referee. One of the ways is with money, status and position. So those people with money, status and position are in a position to influence the referee. In the west, this is what happens in their 2-party political systems. The law, the media and public opinion is heavily biased towards those who have money, property and position.

The other way to influence a referee is to influence his values. If a referee can be turned into a racist, then in any match where one side comprise mainly black players and the other side is mainly white (say), the racist tendencies of the referee will ultimately manifest itself in the way he referees the game and calls his decisions.

In Malaysia both money and racism have corrupted our democratic institutions. This makes a 2-party system unworkable in the interests of democracy and in the long term interests of the country and the people. It has to be repaired and reformed to make sure it function properly to ensure the utmost freedom, fairness and democracy for as many Malaysians as possible.

Bersih 2.0 believes very strongly that the electoral system in Malaysia is broken and unable to function with honesty and integrity anymore. It has called for reforms. This is all it is asking for – the repair of a corrupted and dysfunctional electoral system and its institutions. It deserves a chance, don't you think?

Why Is The Bersih Rally Pronounced 'Illegal'?

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 03:20 PM PDT

By democracy4now

The mainstream press and the ruling politicians are sticking to the description of the Bersih march as `illegal' - but why `illegal'? This question is very important as it may be where rationality/argument/public choice-based democracy depart from arbitrary/capricious/discretionary/haphazard dictatorial rule!

So let us examine the likely `reasons' for making the Bersih `illegal'!

Does it affect the traffic? Many official functions involved closing of roads eg National Day procession. Traffics are diverted in pre-announced orderly way. There are some inconveniences-but few people will complain about it beyond a short period. So why can't the police re-direct traffic for Bersih march?

It will reduce business of the shops along the way? Affected they will be -some positively as there are more people dropping their cafe, restaurants, convenient shops etc. Surely some few shops may lose some business-just like what a rain may have caused. This may not be a really likely reason-of all reasons!

Then you have the `threat to national security' excuse which had been invoked often enough. Does it mean that there will be weapons used by the marchers? Does it mean that there are marchers who have proven tendency to use violence? The first Bersih march in 2007 disproved these suspicions. De-facto Minister Nazri's reported remark that there is no `peaceful' gathering in the Malaysian laws speak for itself. If we go by that interpretation surely all government gatherings should also be stopped-including the National Day procession! A derivative of that reason is: the official functions have police permit. But this is a circular argument-which does not excuse the giver of `permit' viz the police, from giving the reasons why a gathering is considered `illegal' while others are `legal'. When a police said that a gathering is `illegal' simply on account of lacking a police permit, it just means that the police had not provided the reason why they don't approve the permit for the gathering. If they had a good reason they should come out with it to sound more credible and convincing!

In addition there is also another smart sounding argument: demonstrations scare away foreign investors! The facts are: without so many demonstrations foreign investors are leaving Malaysia to other countries! Another fact: foreign investors come from democracies where peaceful protests are daily occurrences and they are going to other countries where there are also common occurrences of peaceful demonstrations! Freedom seems to attract FDI-not lack of it! Obviously some of those chambers of commerce people who regurgitate such arguments against public assembly are from the ruling parties who feel pressured by the issues brought up by the protestors!

Then the un-tendered reasons: is it because it is organised by the civil society and not endorsed by the ruling party? Apart from being discriminatory on political ground this excuse basically disrobe all the `reasons' above as mere naked excuses to suppress the citizens' rights to hold a gathering! The related reason that Opposition parties will be involved fall under the same excuse as there is no laws saying that Opposition parties cannot hang around a gathering organised by themselves or others. When the police hide behind their discretionary power to deny the public any credible reasons for them to exercise their power they actually degrade their credibility and professionalism because they open themselves to suspicion of pushing political agenda on behalf of the political bosses!

If Bersih is disapproved simply on political ground then the people are entitled to march without regards as their right to march is then similar to their right to vote freely. It is the people's rights to make their political choice freely-even though they may suffer the violence from the politicians who abuse their power over the police to get the police to attack their political challengers/opponents. The planned attacks on the marchers certainly is an abuse because the police will not be addressing violence from the people -who are peaceful, but create violence under the order of the ruling politicians! From the keeper of law and order the police would have been mis-directed to become a political lap-dog of the ruling politicians!

The PDRM are also part of the civil/public servants. As such they should act to serve the people-not the ruling politicians especially not as their political attack dogs. The voters didn't vote them to act this way. The ruling parties lack a legitimate basis to abuse the police who are also paid for by tax payers from all political persuasions. Only dictatorial regimes abuse the state security apparatus to attack its people and to protect not the national security but the security of the regime!

Compare to if you hire a security guard: if the guard start to beat you up for failing to heed his orders to you would you still want the security guards or their supervisor? While the ruling party could be used to assuming the role of the `supervisor' of the security guards of the nation their abuse is not something the people are ready to put up for too long!

At the end of the day the people do want the police to exercise their power on a rational transparent way. They should act on clearly spelt-out, non-discriminatory set of rules that are free of political manipulations. This is the kind of police force a democratic country would provide. Based on the performance of the police so far it is sad to say that we have a`regime protecting' police force than a people protecting security force. Their lack of transparency on their refusal to protect peacefully assembled citizens lose them respect. They deserved to be fired at the nearest opportune time-which could be when a more people friendly party take over from the dictatorial regime now!

KDM membership in Umno a moral surrender

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 12:24 PM PDT

By Daniel John Jambun

Datuk John Ambrose, the Umno head for Penampang, has claimed that the Umno KDM task force has been in existence from the very beginning of Umno in Sabah, initially led by Tan Sri Kasitah Gadam and Datuk John Ghani, and yet the state Sabah BN Youth Treasurer, Bahrul Razha Chuprat does not recognize it, hence insisting that the movement be endorsed by the coming Umno general assembly, saying "We, the youth leaders, need to know whether this KDM task force has been given the blessing by party President Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak.

And whether only a certain group of party leaders or all leaders can use it." Wait, who is supposed to endorse this, the Umno assembly or the umno president? Already, there is confusion about the matter in the state BN.

Interestingly, John Ambrose, trying to justify his membership in Umno, had implied that KDMs who are in Umno should no longer be seen as traitors to the KDM community. And so now there is suddenly a new interest to revive the Umno Sabah KDM task force to garner more support from the KDM people. As a move in this direction Umno gave away a token gift of RM50,000 to poor students in nine schools in Papar last month, with the nice rationale from the task force's Treasurer Datuk Peter Anthony that "There is nothing wrong in wanting to help those in need" – yes, especially if you have an axe to grind (LOL)! But then, is this money for poor students taken from the government's (the people's) coffer, from the Umno bank account, or from the private sector? If it is from the government why is it not distributed by the Papar's YBs under the state or federal budget, and why is this being doled out by Umno for Umno's campaign purpose? Has Umno the right to use the people's money for its own campaign? If it is from the private sector the Department of Inland Revenue should look into the account of this Santa Claus. I cannot help smelling a rat in the whole thing.

This sudden generousity by Umno through the KDM task force has raised several very important questions. Why this move to revive the task force suddenly after ruling Sabah for 17 years? Is Umno abandoning the BN spirit in Sabah, and now thinks that the KDM-based parties (PBS, Upko and PBRS) are no longer necessary for BN? Is Umno saying that these parties have failed to get the support of the KDMs for the BN, and now Umno is stepping in to get these KDMs to come into BN through Umno instead? Is Umno preparing to rule the state all by itself after getting the KDM support, and by that time it can say to PBS, Upko and PBRS that "Now, you can leave BN if you want!"? It looks like it. Umno has become so arrogant that it thinks it can rule the state all by itself soon, as indicated by its moves to ask for KDM and Chinese seats to be given to it in the next general election. Even Datuk Marcus Mojigoh had said, "Go ahead, take my seat!" and Tan Sri Joseph Kurup had threatened to reevaluate its position in BN if Umno insists on taking his sole and precious Pensiangan seat.

Does this mean Umno is trying to pinch away support from the KDM-based parties? But Umno itself had started whining recently accusing "other BN components" of pinching away its members! So is Umno saying it is alright for it to do this kind of thing to its fellow BN components but won't stand for it if the other components do the same to Umno? There is a name for that kind of attitude – hypocrisy!

Another issue to the whole thing is the matter of morale for the KDM community. Let's not forget what Umno does at every Umno general assembly. The number one emphasis is always for the future of the Malays – Malay this and Malay that – Malay future, Malay special rights, Malay privileges, Malay shares, Malay rulers, and of course, Malay superiority and supremacy. How does a KDM Umno member feel in the middle of those shouting and holding up of the kris during the general assemblies every year? Even just by watching the whole thing on TV, there is a whole lot of alienation and blatant discrimination against non-Malay members from Sabah in the whole tone of the assemblies. I can never forget the time Datuk John Ghani speaking with high spirit in one of the assemblies in his Kadazan costume because it was to incongruent and against the spirit of the KDMs. Datuk John, thankfully, has since withdrawn from the whole charade.

At one time Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek left the assembly hall saying, the whole thing did hurt his feelings. So far no KDM Umno leader had ever said anything about how they felt. I bet many are not happy, even ashamed of their own political struggle in Umno, but they are too cowardly to say it. Some may even try to psycho themselves into thinking that they are Malays. But we all know that the rationale of it all, even when using the "rumpun Melayu" rhetoric, KDMs are still KDMs, and Umno is still a Malay party from the Peninsular. Before independence there were no Malays in Sabah.

Let's us not forget that Umno was established for the cause of the Malay history and struggle, with the unending shout of "Hidup Melayu!" and "Takkan Melayu hilang di dunia!" At one time many people suggested that Umno be change to United Malaysia National Organisation but it was rejected outright by those who believe that, do or die, Umno must remain as a Malay vehicle forever. It is only inSabah that Umno has compromised on the terms of its membership by allowing non-Malays to become members (including Chinese!) all for political expedience. But the moment they step off the plane inKuala Lumpur, they become anomalies among the Malays, and seen only as political instruments (or traitors) for the conquest of the stubborn Land Below the Wind.

We can see that now, because of our own weaknesses, we are splintered into so many political parties. Our own leaders who were too corrupt and easily swayed could not even unite us under own political umbrellas. The Huguan Siou has been a failure and is no longer fighting for our future. If only he had focused solely on uniting the KDM and not got himself embroiled in politics by leading another KDM party, our fate would have a lot different.

Is it too late for a revival of a true Huguan Siou leadership? Maybe, maybe not, but PBS is too much in a dilemma today to do what is right, which is to sever its ties with Umno/BN once again and start a new revolution. This is all despite the fact that it was Umno who robbed power from PBS and thereafter caused so many of our problems in Sabah. It implemented the infamous Projek IC and caused a drastic increased our population within a few years, and worse, it made Sabah the poorest state in Malaysia.

Whatever the KDMs' excuse for being in Umno, we know very well that the arrangement will always lead to self-destruction for the community in the end. Many reason that "We need to move forward," but joining Umno is a moral defeat and surrender for us. History has proven it, but we never seem to learn anything from the hard and painful lessons.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Sabtu, 25 Jun 2011

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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