Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Replace Your Priorities In The Budget Or You Will Soon Be Replaced!
- Something is not right at all!
- No Malaysian university in Times Higher Education (THE) 400 Top World University Ranking 2011/12
- Tax reliefs: Hidden subsidies that favour the rich
- Grassroots Support The Key To Forming The Next Government
- The Pinnacle of Human Stupidity - The Darwin Awards
- The Bersih Truth Hurts
- Malaysia In The Next Era
- Maybe UMNO should court HINDRAF
- Freedom House Calls For Release of Egyptian Blogger
| Replace Your Priorities In The Budget Or You Will Soon Be Replaced! Posted: 07 Oct 2011 06:49 PM PDT By Teo Nie Ching Najib Razak took two hours to deliver his Budget speech in Parliament yesterday - his longest speech ever since he was appointed as the PM of Malaysia. As expected, the goodies and sweeteners made the headlines in all the mainstream media but beneath the surface, the real extent of the Government's practice of cronyism and misplaced priorities is revealed. In the 2011 Budget tabled in October 2010, Najib announced a five-year freeze on toll rates on four highways owned by PLUS Expressways and in January this year, Najib again told us that several toll operations have been restructured following a review of transportation costs aimed at easing the people's burden. But the truth is, the compensation paid out to toll concessionaires has increased from RM200 million in 2011 to RM343 million, amounting to an increase of 71.5%! Therefore Najib's so-called grand transformation and restructuring plan is nothing but a scam as the Government is simply passing on the financial burden of motorists to all taxpayers in Malaysia. In Budget 2012, Najib also announced that all primary and secondary school fees will be abolished, beginning with the 2012 school term and RM1 billion will be allocated for the betterment of school premises. But what he conveniently chose not to mention in his speech was that the Federal Government's total development expenditure for education and training has been reduced from RM12 billion (2010) to RM8.5 billion - slashed by nearly 30%. As a direct consequence, there is less allocation for building new schools. According to the guidelines set out by the Department of Town and Country Planning, Peninsula Malaysia, in areas with a population of 7,500, a primary school should be built while a secondary school should be built in areas with a population of 15,000. In line with this ratio, we need 9 new secondary schools and 18 primary schools by the year 2015 in the areas that fall under the authority of Majlis Perbadanan Kajang. That's not all, our country needs more special education institutions for disabled children. Currently there are 21 special education institutions for the disabled in Singapore but there are only 32 in Malaysia despite the fact that Malaysia is approximately 500 times larger than our southern neighbour. I find it even more disturbing that the Federal Government's total development expenditure for defence has increased from RM2.6 billion to RM3.6 billion. Malaysia does not face any immediate threats to its national security. BN should review its priorities, failing which its position as the Government of Malaysia could soon be replaced.
TEO NIE CHING is MP for Serdang |
| Something is not right at all! Posted: 06 Oct 2011 11:24 PM PDT
J. Ong Prior to the presentation of the 2012 Budget by the PM in the Dewan Rakyat, Najib had a closed door meeting with his top aides of the Finance Ministry and the presence of Bank Negara Governor and the Chief Secretary to the Government. What we do not understand is what the f**k is the pseudo "First Lady" Rosmah among the attendees? She has no locus standi to be there, except if she wanted first-hand knowledge of the Budget, which is supposed to be confidential until and unless it has been presented to the Parliament. She wants to make sure her own pet projects are safely there, as she does not trust her husband's words! Is she telling us that she rank pari pasu with the other top cats, or even higher? No previous Finance Minister had their wife around during such private previews before Budget is presented. Not even Tun Dr Siti Hasmah. This woman is definitely going to cause the downfall of Najib and nullify all the hard work of Najib walking around among the Rakyat recently. UMNO insiders will not tolerate such behavior by Rosmah, and before Mahathir blows his trumpet of disapproval, I am beating Dr Mahathir to the gun, this time. **************************************************** NAJIB CHECKS ON FINAL 2012 BUDGET PREPARATIONS Najib, who is Finance Minister, spent about one hour at the ministry, during which he also chaired a closed-door meeting with senior ministry officials. Present were his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, Deputy Finance Ministers Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussin and Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai. Treasury Secretary-General Tan Sri Dr Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan as well as Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz were also present. Najib is scheduled to table Malaysia''s 2012 Budget at the Dewan Rakyat at 4pm. In remarks made ahead of the event, the prime minister said that it would be a transformational budget for all Malaysians in line with the concept of 1Malaysia: People First, Performance Now.
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| No Malaysian university in Times Higher Education (THE) 400 Top World University Ranking 2011/12 Posted: 06 Oct 2011 10:08 AM PDT By Lim Kit Siang The release today of the Times Higher Education (THE) 400 Top World University Ranking 2011/12, where not a single Malaysian university is included, has punctured the elation and euphoria just two months ago over the QS 200 World University Rankings 2011/12 which saw University of Malaya making it to the top 200 Top Universities moving 40 places to 167 compared to 2010. In the QS World University Rankings 2011/12, four other Malaysian universities slid down the rankings – University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) ranked 279 this year compared to 263 in 2010; Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) ranked 335 (309 last year); Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) ranked 358 (319 last year) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) at between 401 and 450 (365 last year). But in the just-released THE 400 Top World University Ranking 2011/12, none of the Malaysian universities made it into the placings. For the first time, Harvard (with Stanford) is at number two, failing to take the top spot in the list's eight-year history – with California Institute for Technology named the best university in the world. The rest of the Top Ten spots are Oxford (4), Princeton (5), Cambridge (6), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (70), Imperial College London (8), Chicago (9) and California (Berkeley) (10). The top Asian universities in the THE World University Ranking 2011/12 are: 30 – University of Tokyo (Japan) 34 – University of Hong Kong (HK) 40 – National University of Singapore (Singapore) 49 - Peking University (China) 52 – Kyoto University (Japan) 53 - Pohang University of Science and Technology (S.Korea) 62 - Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Hong Kong) 71 – Tsinghua University (China) 94 - Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (South Korea) 108 – Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) 119 – Osaka University (Japan) 120 – Tohoku University (Japan) 124 – Seoul National University (South Korea) 151 – Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong) 154 – National Taiwan University (Taiwan) 169 – Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) 192 – University of Science and Technology of China (China) 193 – City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong) Worth noting is that while not a single Malaysian university made it into the Times Higher Education (THE) 400 Top World Universities, Thailand through Mahidol University is ranked in the final category between 351-400. |
| Tax reliefs: Hidden subsidies that favour the rich Posted: 05 Oct 2011 05:53 PM PDT Tax reliefs are a very regressive form of government subsidies to the taxpayers. The richer the taxpayer, the more subsidies she receives from the government. Thus it is unfair and inequitable, writes Subramaniam Pillay. In the past couple of years, there has been a lot of talk on subsidy rationalisation i.e. the removal of subsidies for basic items like cooking oil, sugar, flour and petrol. The argument is that it subsidises the poor as well as the rich; it is unfair to provide subsidies for the rich, so we must eliminate the subsidies and let market forces work. Many of these subsidies help the poor and the rich equally. For example, if a family consumes 5kg of cooking oil per month, they get the same subsidy regardless of their wealth and income. Usually, consumption of basic food items does not increase with increasing wealth and income. However, there is a large hidden subsidy which favours the rich over the poor that has been conveniently forgotten. And this comes in the form of the various tax reliefs offered to taxpayers. In this week, before the 2012 budget is announced, there have been numerous calls to increase the tax relief for various items including premiums for medical insurance, educational insurance and life insurance. Tax reliefs are is a very regressive form of government subsidies to the taxpayers. The richer the taxpayer, the more subsidy she gets from the government. Thus it is unfair and inequitable. Tax relief for purchase of books Let us illustrate this with an example. Currently, there is a tax relief of RM1000 for the purchase of books and magazines that is available to all taxpayers. Ostensibly, this is to encourage the reading habit among Malaysians. A high-income earner who is at the top tax bracket will pay a marginal tax rate of 26 per cent i.e. for every extra ringgit she earns, she will pay 26 sen income tax. On the flip side, every ringgit of tax relief that she claims will reduce her income tax by 26 sen. If she now buys books and magazines worth RM1000 for herself or her children, she can claim the full relief and lower her tax bill by RM260. In other words, this high-income person is getting a government subsidy of RM260 to purchase books. Now let us take the case of Mr X, the average citizen of Malaysia whose income is so low that he does not pay taxes. (It has been reported that only 1.7m residents have tax files with IRB which means the remaining 12m-15m working adults are either earning too little to pay income tax or evading paying income tax!) If Mr X now buys RM1000 worth of books to improve his and his children's knowledge to enable them to have a better life in the future, he receives no subsidy as he is not entitled to any tax relief. If Ms Y, a middle income Malaysian has a marginal tax rate of 12 per cent, she will get a subsidy of only RM120 for the RM1000 worth of books she buys. The irony is that it is the families in the lower-income group who need the books more as it will enable them to earn a better income in the future. They need the book subsidy more than the rich. But our tax relief system rewards the rich more than the poor thus widening the income and wealth disparity in this country.
Tax relief for medical insurance premiums An even more unfair tax relief is the one offered for purchase of medical insurance. Using the same reasoning as above, the government is subsidising the rich with 26 per cent of the cost of the medical insurance premium while the poor will be unable to even think of buying medical insurance as they cannot afford it. This subsidy should rightly be diverted to the health care budget so that the public sector health care system can do a better job in terms of delivering quality health care on a consistent basis. The beneficiaries of this medical insurance tax relief (or subsidy as it should be correctly labelled) are not only the high-income taxpayers but also the private medical insurance companies and the profit-seeking private hospital sector.
Why are tax reliefs popular? Given this glaring inequity and unfairness of the tax relief system, why is it popular in many countries? The beneficiaries are well educated and vocal enough to influence politicians to give these reliefs. Industry groups which benefit from these reliefs (e.g. insurance companies, private hospitals, and private education providers) are also powerful lobbies in many countries. The poor on the other hand are voiceless and their welfare is usually neglected. For example, few top leaders in all segments of our society use public hospitals; in fact many go abroad for medical treatment, so they don't see the need for consistently high quality health care from government hospitals which most Malaysians have no choice but to use. Another reason is that the subsidy in the form of tax relief is revenue foregone and not visible directly; it is not recorded anywhere in the government's income and expenditure accounts. On the other hand, a subsidy for cooking oil turns up as an expenditure item in the accounts. So when the government thinks of tightening its belt, it tends to focus on how to cut spending and not how to enhance revenue by removing all these indirect subsidies which favour the rich more than the poor. It is also easier to quantify direct subsidies whereas revenue foregone through tax reliefs is more difficult to estimate and is thus less visible. Given these reasons, it is not going to be easy to get rid of the unjust and massive inequitable subsidy that occurs through tax reliefs in our government budgets.
Dr Subramaniam Pillay is an economist who has just retired from academia. He is also a member of the executive committee of Aliran.
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| Grassroots Support The Key To Forming The Next Government Posted: 05 Oct 2011 05:51 PM PDT By LH Chew Really, the battle for the hearts and minds of the Malaysian voters come GE13 is not the educated and internet-savvy voters but in the grassroots, deep in the kampungs, new villages and estates. The Sarawak state election held a while back proved that statement. And I am sure our Pakatan Rakyat brothers and sisters knew that. No amount of mud-slinging and korek would unseat the BN government. The BN machinery is just too slick working effectively in the rural areas. If you think about it, this is actually the reverse in Thailand where the elites and educated and urbanites worked hard to exclude the parties that have the support from the rural population (the have-nots) from forming the government. Your guess is as good as mine, eventually, the elites and internet-savvy still have to give way to the grassroots. The recently completed Singapore elections also proved this point. It was touted as an internet election with young voters reading up on the alternative media before deciding who to vote but alas, it was the mainstream media that won, according to a survey conducted jointly by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and Nanyang Technological University (see link to the story http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20111005-303216.html). That is the reality in Malaysia and those who are internet-savvy can be easily counted with our ten fingers versus the masses in the kampungs, new villages and estates. BN knew this is where the battle will be fought and won and they knew this is one of the main oppositions' weaknesses. As for me, like many of you, I would like to see reforms, hopefully by voting in a new government. Unfortunately, facts are not on our side. I wonder if our pakciks, makciks, ah peks, ah sohs, aunties, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers ever know what is Pakatan Rakyat because to many of them, they only swear by the dacing symbol.
The opposition parties have to unite and go to the grounds, not squabbling who is going to be the Prime Minister and whether hudud is the way to go. They need to take a leaf from the Workers Party in Singapore where their party members worked the grounds for many years in one of the areas they contested despite losing in several elections and eventually they won it in last year's election, along the way knocking out one of the most prominent Cabinet minister. And now this party is working on a long term plan to replace the PAP government. Well, you can laugh at it. At least they are already working on that plan. It is a tough journey and whether BN can be voted out, depends on how organized the opposition parties are.
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| The Pinnacle of Human Stupidity - The Darwin Awards Posted: 05 Oct 2011 05:46 PM PDT I was thinking, luckily no Malaysian has ever won this award before, so we must be smarter than this, at least. By Socrates It's that time again. The DARWIN Awards are out. The annual honour is given to the persons who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out. This year's winner was a real rocket scientist ... HONESTLY! Read on ... and remember that each and every one of these is a TRUE STORY!!! And the nominees were: Semifinalist #2 Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low altitude when another plane approached. It appears that they Semifinalist #3 A 22-year-old Reston, VA, man was found dead after he tried to use octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70-foot rail road trestle. Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast-food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink Park, jumped and hit the pavement. Warren Carmichael, a police Semifinalist #4 A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems that he and a friend were playing a game of catch, using the Semifinalist #5 Employees in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed the smell of a gas leak. Sensibly, management And now, for the winner of this year's Darwin Award Award: An amateur rocket scientist had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off, actually a solid-fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra 'push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to the car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO! The facts as best could be determined are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit the JATO ignition at a distance of approximately The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20 -25 seconds. The driver, and soon-to-be pilot, would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, causing him to become irrelevant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in Epilogue: PEOPLE LIKE THIS WALK AMONG US, AND THEY ARE ALLOWED TO HAVE KIDS AND VOTE!! Certainly, I shall put forward Malaysia as a candidate for the Darwin Award if there is no change in the government after the GE13. To |
| Posted: 05 Oct 2011 10:30 AM PDT By Douglas Tan via Malaysian Digest While our Prime Minister receives accolades from most quarters for the repeal of archaic acts such as the Banishment Act 1959 and the Restricted Residence Act 1993, questions must be asked about when the true reforms would be made. Only now has Najib Razak instructed the Attorney-General to draft the two pieces of alternative legislation to the Internal Security Act (ISA), and he has continued to chide the opposition for claiming to be the champions of the repeal of the act. Clearly, the Prime Minister has not come prepared by announcing that the ISA would be abolished without having anything prepared to replace it. The circus does not stop there. The Medical Device Authority act gives the police the authority to seize any medical devices as evidence with the approval of the Health Minister. In our system where Ministerial authority for criminal matters should be diminished, the wide scope of the act shows that this Barisan Nasional (BN) government is as authoritarian as ever, and has no intention to change. Question Time was intriguing as it forced Ministers to come clean with the information behind their recent actions. Actions are not without consequences, and as it transpires, the justification given for their actions are nothing short of laughable. No rally has been publicized as much as Bersih 2.0, branded by the mainstream media as the July 9th illegal rally. Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has been put under an enormous amount of scrutiny as to how the event was handled, and now the spotlight has been redirected at him as he attempts to explain the actions taken and the cost. As we all now know, there were over 11,000 police personnel at a cost in excess of RM2 million borne by the taxpayers. This enormous figure compared with their official claims that only 6,000 people turned up for the rally and that almost 1,700 people were arrested smacks of inefficiency and waste in itself! Or could it be that there were really 50,000 on the ground that day and the police presence and cost was a proportional response to keep public order? The Home Ministry can argue about the facts, but when it comes to footing the bill, it becomes difficult to justify the sheer cost of it all. Repealing the ISA would make Malaysia the best democracy in the world, chimes the Prime Minister, but the Home Minister continues to deem Bersih as an illegal organization as they intended to "overthrow the government". This line of reasoning is a result of paranoia rather than fact. The intent was to reform the electoral system, not to overthrow the government! This is not a justification, rather just a convenient, albeit farfetched, explanation to defend the indefensible. Finally, Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai once again has egg on his face. After his public denial that no teargas or chemical laced water was shot at Tung Shin Hospital, the Home Ministry report conceding that the police has breached their own Standard Operating Procedures is a massive slap on the face. After all the fuss about Lim Guan Eng apologizing for his gaff about Johor security, can we also expect an apology from the Health Minister? Or shall we expect more excuses, and the same holier-than-thou hypocrisy that we are used to? Either way, BN have displayed their true colors yet again by failing to walk the talk. With these half-hearted measures taken to reforms, they are asking for punishment from the Rakyat in the looming General Elections. |
| Posted: 04 Oct 2011 01:23 PM PDT By LH Chew Sometimes it makes me wonder if we really have the guts to take the first step to make the change. We like to lament how bad things are, how the government took us for a ride, how innocent people who simply wants to see reforms were 'terrorised', the corruption, the money leakage, and all sorts of ills, yet we still want to stick with BN election after election. Yes, BN had ruled for more than 50 years, and we have been eating the same set of dishes for that long, should we not have a different taste now? Previously, I wrote in my article 'A New Dawn In Malaysia, Hopefully' which was published in Malaysia Today last December and I mentioned if we voted an alternative government into place and they do not perform as what the rakyat expected, we can always kick them out in the next election. But if we do not even try, will you see any changes? If there is no change, there is no change. Sure, changes come with risks, as it has been proven in many other countries when they changed the government, but if we do not take risks, do you expect your life is going to improve? There is no such thing as a free lunch and we know that. Take Taiwan for example. It was ruled by KMT for more than 50 years and the people voted for a change in government in 2000. Unfortunately what they got was a miserable 8 years under the rule of the new government. The new government became even more corrupt and they abused their power more than the previous government. But the civil service did improve and the civil servants for once really became a 'servant' to the people, they became more polite and humble. After experimenting with an alternative government, Taiwan decided to vote back KMT because during those 8 years in the wilderness, the KMT transformed and reformed and listen more to the people. In other words, they suddenly became more people-friendly. We need to keep ourselves in mind that there is no such thing as a perfect government and we cannot expect when we are given a drumstick, we want the whole chicken. With a reformed KMT back in power, there was less turmoil in the society and the economy did get going and the peoples' lives did see improvement. So, if our Pakatan Rakyat brothers and sisters claim they can do a better job than the BN government, let them try. If they do not live up to what they said they can do, we will simply kick them out in the next election. But we first must bite the bullet and let them form the government. What is the point of complaining about the state of affairs if we continue voting in the BN government. If we do so, then we should just shut up and take all these unpleasantness in our stride. We have already read in the alternative media, the exposures related to abuses of power that were swept under the carpet and selective prosecution. We want all these 'crooks' to see the light of the day. We want a fairer society. But if we keep sticking with the BN government, we are not sure if we can see some remedies to these ills. Indeed Pakatan Rakyat do have some good people in their line-up and hopefully when they form the government, they will live up to their expectations. Yes, there were many 'kataks' too as back in 2008, Pakatan Rakyat just grab any live bodies to stand for them but these unworthy members should have been weeded out when they jumped ship. We want to see those who remained in Pakatan Rakyat prove their worth. So, hopefully come GE13, we can all wake up to a new government. Let us not just talk about it, just do it! |
| Maybe UMNO should court HINDRAF Posted: 04 Oct 2011 01:10 PM PDT PR had a free ride under the HINDRAF banner for GE12 and yet today they won't even engage with them. People are not blind and they do understand what racism is. By Jakun Malaysia With the election on the horizon, everyone seems to be wary of the direction of the nation with the usual politicing taking centre field. The public who seems to know everything that happens around us which ends up in kedai kopi gossip seems to read too much into the gimmickry both by UMNO and PR. The showdown comes and goes and nothing changes for the general public in terms of policies or the betterment of the society. UMNO, having castigated HINDRAF with anything and everything that they could find under the advice of their mandores was eventually brought down in GE12 with unexpected loses in the election. They even went to the extent of legalising and inaugurating the superficial political movement that calls itself MMS within a month of its application although MIC would have naturally been against it. Imagine how desperate UMNO was? As far as PPP is concerned, it is a shade of its originators, the Seenivasagam brothers, so it does not even deserve a mention like other Indian-based parties like IPF and god knows how many more Indian party splinters. Let's look at Sabah & Sarawak; you have four different parties in each respective state being a part of the coalition with guaranteed either parliamentary or state seats. Looking into the decision-makers in West Malaysia which is definitely multicultural, official coalition partners with some chicken feed by the UMNO supremos are only MCA, MIC, GERAKAN & PPP. Now you have twenty-one other officially registered parties and one unregistered party ie (HRP). Naturally, you can guess whose affliance the leaders of these parties are fed except for PSM. You don't see them much in public until election time. PR thinks with its three (3) parties they have the cat in a bag although if not for the uprise of HINDRAF they would be standing high and dry like what happened in 1990 & 1999. PR had a free ride under the HINDRAF banner for GE12 and yet today they won't even engage with them. People are not blind and they do understand what racism is. UMNO may have committed atrocities, courtesy of Dr Mahathir in the past, but they had their brothers in arms ie the rest of the elite and cari makan middleclass non-Malays who equally neglect the poorer brethren of their society. I don't know whether UMNO has learnt its lesson, but I can see that they are trying to make amends like accepting a superficial party like MMS into their fold and approving PSM and KITA. Maybe UMNO wants to make a change, maybe it was misdirected by their mandores like how PR is, who knows, when it is a bread and butter issue for the society?
In semblance to Suqiu, if many would remember, their demand was similar to HINDRAF back in 1999 but naturally eclipsed by the one and only Dr Mahathir after inflicting fear and favor in exchange. Fortunately HINDRAF is immune to fear and favor, and that carried the spirit of consciousness for the community and the torch is still there after 4 years by its spirited followers. If PR thinks that this is not relevant, then I think it is high time UMNO makes an attempt to engage HINDRAF and lay down a blueprint if they feel that even after 54 years of faults and errors through their mandores, they have the humility to ensure they are the best movement to ensure the progress of its people irrespective of origin. |
| Freedom House Calls For Release of Egyptian Blogger Posted: 03 Oct 2011 06:39 AM PDT
On the eve of his appeal hearing, Freedom House condemns the unjust imprisonment of Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad and calls for his immediate release. Mr. Sanad was sentenced to three years in prison as a result of his criticism of the military's brutal treatment of protestors. During his trial, he was accused of spreading false information and insulting the military. He was convicted in a summary procedure without the presence of a lawyer or the ability to contact his family. Makail Nabil began a hunger strike in August to protest his imprisonment and intends to continue this strike until he dies or is released. "Mikael's trial and hasty imprisonment by a military tribunal on charges of insulting the armed forces is a violation of his right to due process as well as a betrayal of the principles of democracy the Egyptian military claims it wants to uphold," said Charles Dunne, Freedom House's senior program manager for MENA. "The appeal hearing on October 4 is a clear opportunity for Egypt's ruling military council to set right a gross injustice." Egyptians have been the victims of an increasing crackdown on public debate, including the reinstatement of the Ministry of Information, a ministry that does not exist in most democracies and is viewed as restrictive by many activists. At least 12,000 civilians have been tried in military courts since February 2011, according to Human Rights Watch. Bloggers, journalists and those critical of the military have been arrested and restrictions have been placed on publication or broadcast of information or opinion about the military. In August 2011, activist and blogger Asmaa Mahfouz was arrested and charged with inciting violence against the military for her social networking posts. Egypt is ranked Not Free in Freedom in the World 2011, Freedom House's survey of political rights and civil liberties, and Not Free in Freedom of the Press 2011. For more information on Egypt, visit: Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports democratic change, monitors the status of freedom around the world, and advocates for democracy and human rights.
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