Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- India is a democracy and it will grow too
- Confirmed ... Incompetent Clueless Khazanah to cannibalise MAS for Tony F
- Is Shafie Apdal the hidden hand behind KDM Malaysia?
- Perasaan takut boleh hilang sebentar dengan berbagai-bagai cara
- Only Airline owners can make money, others are prohibited!
- Ex-minister supports re-investigation into air crash
- UMNO General Assembly: Beating the drums for another May 13
- Who’s talking cock about India and China?
- PR mesti ingat: 'The darkest part of the night is just before dawn'
- Malaysia – Assembling the Peaceful Assembly Act
- 2 futher views on the 2011 UMNO General Assembly
- An imaginary address to malapportionment
- Rakyat Voices 3: Firewall Your Vote
- Najib’s Transformation Programme in fighting corruption a major wash-out
- Who lied – Najib/Muhyiddin or Chua Soi Lek? Or all three?
- The UMNO General Assembly 2011
- Liberal, Muslim, feminist, and comfortable
- Will PR be better than BN?
- Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #91
- Richer Than The Queen! Top TV Coverage In Canada, As Taibs’ Wealth is Exposed
- Race-based ideology and Islam: The Malaysian enigma
- Why does Umno fear DAP so?
- Taib’s Timber Connections – More Business Links To Top Tycoons
- UMNO- dari Modal Insan ke Modal Lembu dan kemaraan Fascime UMNO
- Malaysia’s Militant Headache
- Mahathir Wrong on India
- Umno will never change: A blessing M’sia now has a two-party system
- Are you sure Malaysia is still a democracy?
- UMNO - Yang boleh memerintah hanyalah AKU, yang boleh menjamin kehidupan kamu adalah AKU... ...
- A GLC director’s ‘politics of hatred’ in ‘Airport Spring’
- Keeping It In The Family! – How Taib ‘The Godfather’ Corruptly Controls CMS
- Umno’s Cow Dung, No wonder fall in graft index
| India is a democracy and it will grow too Posted: 06 Dec 2011 09:27 AM PST Once upon a time in the not-too-distant past, this correspondent admired medical doctor Mahathir Mohamad who was the longest serving Prime Minister of Malaysia for 22 years. Not any longer. Not after his stupid — yes, there is no other word more appropriate — remarks on democracy and development while speaking in New Delhi on December 2. He may be described as the architect of modern Malaysia and a man under whose stewardship, this southeast Asian country became an economic powerhouse. But, at the age of 86, the doctor seems to have clearly lost the plot. Most visitors to Kuala Lumpur are greatly impressed by its environs, its famous twin skyscrapers, the Petronas Towers, not to mention the apparently super-efficient manner in which everything seems to be administered. Unlike the chaos and anarchy that any visitor encounters on Indian streets, Kuala Lumpur is an orderly study in contrast. During a visit to that country more than two decades ago in 1990, one met a person of Indian origin, a humble waiter named after Subhash Chandra Bose, who mentioned to me that Malaysia's tranquil surface was deceptive, that the country's leadership was not just paternalistic but authoritarian and, what is worse, also racist. When I reproduced his views in an article published here, a representative of the Malaysian high commission was most upset at what I had written and wrote an angry rejoinder to the editor of the magazine that had employed me. Malaysia has indeed become more economically affluent, but its Bhumiputra (or "sons of the soil") policy is clearly biased in favour of the influential Malay community to the exclusion of others (including Indians of Tamil origin). For decades, Dr Mahathir and his followers have ruthlessly suppressed voices of dissent within his own political party and in the Opposition. Even then, one could not help but admire a man who spoke in such an articulate manner at international conferences about the manner in which the developed West had exploited the developing East. One thought he had become more than a worthy successor of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter and her son, all of whom had ranted against the depredations that decisions by governments in advanced capitalist societies inflicted on the poorer parts of the planet we live in. Dr Mahathir's famous fulminations came as a refreshing breath of fresh air at a time when India's political leaders were bending over backwards to appease the North and who had made "non-alignment" a dirty phrase in popular discourse. Malaysia's former Prime Minister, on the other hand, was an outspoken critic of American policies although the US was Malaysia's biggest trading partner, foreign investor and provider of military training. It is said that in 1998, the then US vice-president, Al Gore, left an international conference of the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference held in Kuala Lumpur in a huff after Dr Mahathir sarcastically remarked that "among nations suffering economic crises, we continue to hear calls for democracy, calls for reform, in many languages…" (This was a time when Dr Mahathir had clamped down hard on Anwar Ibrahim, his one-time deputy who became his bitter political opponent.)
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| Confirmed ... Incompetent Clueless Khazanah to cannibalise MAS for Tony F Posted: 06 Dec 2011 08:33 AM PST Yesterday afternon, a close friend of mine came to visit. This friend used to work for someone who was together with Azman and Dato Danny Yusof in Binafikir. He said: "Gathering from my conversation with him, Azman is just an analyst and talks like a researcher. Danny just a geeky accountant. Adding to that, this blogger had been told by a high level source that the Wide Unbundling of Asset proposal (WAU) by Binafikir was never their's. One can suspiciously speculate that Tan Sri Nor Mohamad Yakcop may have got hold of the proposal and extended a copy to them. Azman, Danny, Khazanah and some of the Tingkat 4 are Nor Yakcop's corporate boys.
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| Is Shafie Apdal the hidden hand behind KDM Malaysia? Posted: 06 Dec 2011 07:27 AM PST Sabahans often accuse their politicians of being short-sighted. Judging by the rhetoric's, lobbying, mudslinging, conniving and scheming by the principal parties, we are actually looking at least as far into the future as the 13th General Elections, parliamentary and state polls, which must be held before 2013. If you ask me the most interesting part of this coming election is the shadow-boxing within the Barisan National in Sabah. Some UMNO leaders in Sabah namely Shafie Apdal is vying for the chief minister's chair– not for today but definitely for tomorrow. It is a bit silly to accuse — as Senator Chin Su Phin the Deputy President of LDP who with his President VK Liew has done — Musa Aman for being 'opportunistic' about the alliance with the Gerakan Party and for appointing Dr Yee Moh Chai of PBS as the new Deputy Chief Minister. To set the record straight, Musa Aman a fair man, has always has been loyal to UMNO and the Barisan National. Musa Aman has stayed loyal and calm despite being accused by all sorts of things by LDP, even the UMNO chaps associated with Shafie Apdal are doing the same, hitting him under the belt. In spite of all these never once has Musa Aman lost his cool. That loyalty — or political necessity — was also strong enough to withstand the disappointments of being accused and attacked by the his own UMNO fellows like Shafie Apdal using proxies like Senator Chin and VK Liew and now even KDM Malaysia trying to undermine him. Of course now after the story about VK Liew's shenanigans with his Rungus staff and the police report in Kota Marudu which came out in Malaysia Today website, things have cool down and now VK Liew is throwing heaps of praises on Musa Aman. Whatever other adjective you may use of Musa Aman he has proved anything but 'opportunistic'. Given this 10-year history why is Shafie Apdal now eyeing Musa Aman so warily? The simple answer is that Shafie Apdal believes that UMNO shall be a real contender for power come the 13th GE. Shafie also believes that, in the absence of a towering figure such as Musa Aman, the leadership of the Sabah BN may be up for grabs. Finally, Shafie Apdal also knows that he is — again Musa Aman apart — probably the most visible face of UMNO Sabah and he thinks and he gives the impression that he has got Najib Tun Razak's blessings to replace Musa Aman. I doubt this very much because Najib Tun Razak openly acknowledges that Musa Aman is doing a fantastic job in Sabah. In the ordinary course of events Musa Aman would probably be the clear front-runner. He is by far the best chief minister Sabah has ever seen, articulate, workaholic and has propelled his state ahead of the rest when it comes to development, and has won every electoral challenge thrown at him — Parliament polls or state assembly polls since taking over in 2003. Now let's look at KDM Malaysia and see how Shafie Apdal's hidden tentacles has come into play.
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| Perasaan takut boleh hilang sebentar dengan berbagai-bagai cara Posted: 06 Dec 2011 07:24 AM PST Tetapi saya hanya hendak membuat satu cerita semasa saya membesar di kampung saya yang jauh dipedalaman semasa itu. Sekarang kampung saya sudah tidak jauh ke pedalaman lagi, malah boleh menembusi perjalanan ke Jelebu, Bahau dan Kuala Pilah dengan senang.
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| Only Airline owners can make money, others are prohibited! Posted: 06 Dec 2011 07:21 AM PST I see some bloggers are now ganging to demonize Tony F. I support them. But I am also somewhat bemused. Some of these writers met up with Azman Mokhtar and Danny at an appointed place sometime ago. The purpose of the arranged meeting was to allow Azman Mokhtar and Danny explained what they have done. To me it's simple. What they have done is an unpatriotic act to dismember and cannibalize MAS so that AA alone can prosper. While doing that they make money. It was a sting for some people to make tons of money. I was also invited to come. But because of the presence of some right wing and morbid bigots, I declined the invitation. Also, I may have been watching the Godfather movie too many times. I remember the Don saying to his son (played by Pacino) to remember that the first person to arrange a meeting between the Corleone family with the other Mafia families, is the traitor! Some of us are sanctimonious hypocrites about this thing. When Khazanah came out with the idea of aligning shareholders in the infamous share swap we were all singing praises. But some of us were also able to see the end game. I have written a number of articles about this. I even mocked Bung Mokhtar and his friends who lambasted Azman Mokhtar and Tony F but stopped short of mentioning the other member of the troika because he is the brother of the PM. When I last met the banker, I told him directly that he what he was doing is downright unethical. Hamman, the minister during Paharoh's time did consulting work only for the Pharoah. The modern Hamman does consulting work for both Paharoah and Moses. We hunt with the dogs and run with the hare. Despite that, I am not going to take away my admiration that the guy is a workaholic and a good banker. He doesn't shun away from meeting up and explain his actions. Whether the listener chooses to believe or not is a separate matter and is irrelevant to him. But as far as MAS is concerned, I am less merciful about his role. The whole thing, (this slipped from his own mouth) was planned as early as 2 years ago. Where? While rowing on the rivers Cherwell or Thames in Oxford? Vacationing at the Lake Districts? When I asked the Oracle last time about the MAS-AA deal, he immediately said it's an insider trading case. Pure and simple. MAS has to pay more to acquire 10% of AA's share while MAS own shares dropped. Tony F and friend got MAS shares on the cheap. Investors holding AA shares saw their value dropped just after the so called merger. After the transaction was finished, MAS shares got up again. Tony F and Friend then were able to make another round of financial killing when the shares they got cheap, now went up. So when Tony F the consummate marketer and bull-shitter carried out his guerrilla tactics by putting up posters( stickers) all over the place denouncing MAHB's decision to raise airport taxes and so forth- it was actually a simple issue of muscling in. No need to say Tony F bites the finger of his master of whipping the master. These descriptions made his actions looked as a respectable exercise. There was even a more pathetic dog lapping gesture- imploring the CEO of Asia X to please not call us names. We are hurt you know, because we supported Tony F all the way. See? We are starting to cry. The real issue here is this and Azman Mokhtar and his band of financial re engineers countenanced this- that the only people who can make money nowadays in Malaysia are the owners of Air Asia. Other people cannot make money too. I am not going to defend the bosses of MAHB. If they are weak and can't put their foot down, they are not worth defending. If they are inefficient as bosses of GLCs normally are, remove them. Bashir or no Bashir. Give them the boot. They should be let off to greener pastures. Show us la- you have the balls to compete and defend your turf. You have a piece of asset that you can capitalize on- the airport and all the services therein. If you have to invest in the best automated system in baggage handling and all other things such as buying tickets by placing your hand phone over reading-machines, you invest in all these things because you can make people pay for all these conveniences. The problem is you are not using the material between your ears to the fullest. And I am not taking about your bulbous noses! Azman mokhtar will now have a new case to present the PM perhaps through his main backer- the CIMB Boss. Since the people at MAHB don't know how to run airports maybe in the interest of efficiency, we allow Tony F to make his own airport. Or allow his to acquire shares in MAHB. You will complete the vicious circle them. From airlines to airports. Better still- make the airport in a god forsaken place- or a far flung place- Tebedu or Gua Musang, just construct a few shed with zinc roofs and people walk across an open field, no tarmac even, no aerobridges, no baggage handling machines, no cargo handling and everyone can fly. Everyone lugs their baggage and cargo themselves. That will lower costs. The MAHB can make money through baggage fees and cargo handling. While these items stay on the premises of the airports, airport owners have the right to make money. If they raise the fees unnecessarily, the consumers will vote them out. Now, when these are on the planes, the plane owners make money. Here the case is, plane owners can make money and want to, airport owners cannot. Plane owners know baggage fees and cargo handling are significant contributors to the income of their companies. These are even described as gushing streams by Tony F. Maybe in private, they are described as squirting streams. The problem is Tony F doesn't want Malaysian Airports Holdings Bhd to be part of that "gushing stream". Only AA wants monopoly over the squirting sources of revenue. Otherwise plane owners only make money on top of the charges levied by airport owners and Tony F knows that that each cent added to "his" "gushing stream" means an additional burden on passengers who are then likely to revolt against all charges. This could in turn lead to a forced scaling back of charges, causing the "gushing stream" to weaken, possibly to a point where AirAsia cash flows will be adversely affected. When Tony F launches his guerrilla tactics, how are people taking that? Perhaps that feeling is best represented by a short e mail to me, sent by a person using the name of JL.
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| Ex-minister supports re-investigation into air crash Posted: 05 Dec 2011 05:05 PM PST Datuk Conrad Mojuntin said by doing so, the incident would be put to rest and all those people who had unfortunately died in the air crash would be able to rest in peace. Mojuntin, 63, was testifying before Justice Dato' Abdul Rahman Sebli in the on-going hearing of a RM50 million suit brought by Tan Sri Harris Salleh against Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Datuk Yong Teck Lee and the party, for allegedly insinuating that he (Harris) was involved in causing the plane crash.
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| UMNO General Assembly: Beating the drums for another May 13 Posted: 05 Dec 2011 09:43 AM PST Optimistic observers who had hoped that the party would live up to its rhetoric of being a mature and transformed party of moderation – at least for the duration of this publicly viewed occasion – were disappointed. The collective breast beating led by the party president and deputy president – on the greatness and goodness of the party compared with the weaknesses and evilness of the opposition – was quite unprecedented in the history of the party's general assemblies. The attacks against PAS, PKR and especially the DAP during the meeting have only just begun. Can we expect it to continue with greater viciousness and spitefulness as UMNO leaders fan out into the grassroots to campaign in the next few months leading to the elections? What should be of concern is not just the running down and bad mouthing of the opposition. This has been the norm in past assemblies, especially those leading up to the elections. What is new and unexpected is the vitriol and venom directed openly and without inhibition at opposition parties and their leaders. In many speeches made at the assembly, there appears a concerted attempt at inciting racial and religious emotions and issues and exploiting Malay insecurities with imagined and wildly exaggerated threats of the looming new dawn of non-Malay and Christian dominance for Malaysia should the party fail to win the coming elections. The many socio-economic and political challenges facing the community and nation – many arising from bad governance, abuse of power, and corrupt practices practiced or condoned by the party and its coalition partners during the decades of Barisan rule – received little mention or attention. UMNO's Ultimate Game Changer The question which arises now is whether the party is laying the ground work – deliberately or inadvertently – for the game-changing political development sought after by hard line UMNO leaders in case the coming election results do not go UMNO's way. This game changer is a repetition of the 1969 May 13 racial riots. In his opening address to the assembly, it is notable that amongst the developments listed by the Prime Minister, Najib Razak as influencing the party he referred to the 1969 racial riots as one of the party's eleven game changers in its past and current history. What is regrettable is the way in which he appears to condone the racial violence that resulted in authoritarian rule and the suspension of Parliament, and pins the blame for this darkest event in our history squarely on the opposition. "Let us never be negligent because there are some among the opposition leaders who are stoking flames and slogans to belittle the Malays so that there will be a 13th May". The PM as the responsible leader of our nation must clarify this statement and allay the anxieties and fears of our citizenry and voters on the possible recurrence of racial violence. He and his Deputy President must never give the impression to Malaysians and to UMNO supporters especially that they are seeking to fan or are condoning extremist sentiments in any way whatsoever. The oblique warning by the prime minister that there is a possibility of another recurrence of racial violence may not have been apparent to political analysts, drowned by the assembly proceedings and verbiage. However, that this potential game changing option is being contemplated in high circles is beyond doubt. May 13 was sparked off as a result of election results in which the opposition parties denied the UMNO-led Alliance their customary two-thirds majority in Parliament. Should the coming election fail to deliver the expected victory for UMNO, are we to expect hard-line UMNO leaders to resist the handing over of power peacefully and to agitate for power by other means? Ominously, the scapegoat for any new outbreak of racial and religious violence has already been identified – not UMNO extremists but those on the other side of the political fence.
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| Who’s talking cock about India and China? Posted: 05 Dec 2011 09:12 AM PST Last week in India, he sneered at democracy as the cause of India's growth being slower than China's (a communist country). His people used to say that back in the 1990s too: NST group editor A Kadir Jasin wrote a Sunday column saying that democracy was not good for development, just look at China. Here's my very simplistic explanation of why India has been slower than China. Simplistic explanations are Mahathir's favourite tool: the more simplistic, the more clever he sounds. Why China is ahead of India in development
1. China started earlier — economic reforms 13 years before India. 2. They switched from a Soviet-style command economy to a free market economy. With a 13-year head start, of course they would be ahead of India (all things being equal). But Mahathir (I am not a dictator) Mohamad did not take the trouble to tell you that. Instead he told India they had "too much" democracy, and that they should have more power at the centre and less power in the state so that they could develop faster.
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| PR mesti ingat: 'The darkest part of the night is just before dawn' Posted: 05 Dec 2011 08:19 AM PST Seperti biasa agenda Melayu menjadi isu yang terbesar seperti perhimpunan-perhimpunan sejak UMNO mula berkecai selama lebih dua dekad yang lalu. Isu agenda Melayu ini pada saya hanyalah merupakan umpan yang ampuh untuk memerangkap orang Melayu untuk dipergunakan bagi pemimpin-pemimpin parti yang sentiasa lapar kepada kuasa tetapi tidak bertanggungjawab kepada rakyat yang memberi mandat itu.
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| Malaysia – Assembling the Peaceful Assembly Act Posted: 05 Dec 2011 08:06 AM PST When Prime Minister Najib Razak announced on Malaysia Day this year his government's plan to annul three of the four Proclamations of Emergency (those of 1966, 1969 and 1977) and the Emergency Ordinances made under them, replace the Internal Security Act 1960 with a more enlightened anti-terrorism law, and review or abolish laws inconsistent with the constitutional right to freedom of speech, assembly and association, many people dared to hope that his UMNO-led Barisan Nasional government had finally appreciated the magnitude of public disapproval, manifest in the reduced majority for UMNO in the March 2008 election, and the massive assembly of citizens rallying on July 9 this year to support Bersih 2.0's campaign for clean and fair elections, to choose but two of many examples. Hearing or reading his speech, and in the aftermath, as the Attorney-General's Chambers began low-key and invitation-only consultations on law reform, people indeed allowed themselves to hope that UMNO really meant that it would work towards "creating […]a Malaysia that practices a functional and inclusive democracy where public peace and prosperity is preserved in accordance with the supremacy of the constitution, rule of law and respect for basic human rights and individual rights".[1] Yet when the Peaceful Assembly Bill was tabled in Parliament on 22 November 2011, that hope was replaced by bitter disappointment or outright cynicism, since it was apparent that the new law was in many ways worse than the old, despite the fact that it is modelled closely – but with telling differences – upon Queensland's relatively progressive Peaceful Assembly Act 1992. Under the previous law regulating assemblies, which is currently being repealed (sections 27-27C of the Police Act 1967), any rally or march that took place without a police permit was unlawful, and organisers of, and participants in, an unlawful assembly, or people who disobeyed police directions in relation to the gathering, could be fined between 2,000-10,000 ringgit (approximately AUD $626 – $3,130), and jailed for up to one year. Police discretion to refuse a permit was more or less unfettered (the "security of Malaysia" and "disturbance of the peace" often being generously construed by the police), and there were no limitations upon the conditions police could place on a permit once granted. In other words, the freedom of assembly guaranteed in article 10 of the Federal Constitution has long been severely curtailed by a statute that was arguably unconstitutional because it all but negated the right it purported to regulate, as critics such as human rights NGOs Suaram and Aliran, and the National Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) have repeatedly pointed out. The Peaceful Assembly Bill, once it comes into force, will replace these sections of the Police Act with a more detailed, but even more restrictive, set of provisions. It might more aptly be called the Prevention of Assembly Bill. For example, only Malaysian citizens – and so not the more than 2 million foreign workers, refugees and asylum seekers currently resident in the country – can participate in an assembly. Moreover, organisers must be at least 21 years of age, and participants 15 years of age or older. No such restrictions existed in the Police Act. Moreover this age restriction sits oddly alongside the noises the government is making about winding back the constraints the University and University Colleges Act 1971 places upon students participating in politics. Street protests, defined as marches or rallies to advance a cause, rather than static gatherings, are now prohibited (although, confusingly, processions are allowed), whereas previously they were permissible. Section 4, which purports to set out the right to organise and participate in an assembly, in fact itemizes restrictions and completely fails to refer to, or in any way recognise, the entrenched constitutional basis of the right, or the purpose of the Act to further and protect, rather than diminish, the right. This is in stark contrast with the Queensland law, which commences the parallel section (section 5) with a clear recognition that 'a person has the right to assemble peacefully with others in a public place' and that 'the right is subject only to such restrictions as are necessary and reasonable in a democratic society' and in the interests of public order, safety, and protection of the rights and freedoms of others. In place of the application for a permit required by the Police Act, the Peaceful Assembly Bill requires advance written notice of the intended assembly to be given to the police, including precise information about time, duration, location, purpose, and identity of the organisers and all speakers, and the police have an almost unlimited discretion to impose conditions and restrictions. The PM's assertion that the Bill abolishes the requirement for prior police permission is thus not accurate – it only does so for gatherings that are already 'private' such as weddings, funerals, family occasions and the general meetings of societies (Schedule 3), or those to be held at places designated by the Minister. If the police do not impose conditions in response to the notification, it would appear that the assembly is deemed to be authorised. This is one of the few positive aspects of the Bill. Amongst the factors that the police may consider are 'cultural or religious sensitivity' and 'the concerns and objections of persons who have interests' (defined to mean people who own property, live, work or carry on a business in the vicinity of the proposed assembly). While the list of factors is mostly based on section 11 of the fairly benign Queensland Act, one difference in application between the two is likely to be grounded in the lamentable and well-documented readiness of the Malaysian police to entertain the complaints and often outlandish allegations of right-wing pressure groups, such as Perkasa and similar ethno-supremacist organizations, that their religious or race 'sensitivities' are offended by the expression of alternative views. Police refusal to allow Seksualiti Merdeka to hold its annual gathering is a recent case in point. Another significant difference is with the role of the courts. Whereas aggrieved Queenslanders may apply to a Magistrates Court to expedite an application, and the police must seek a court order to prohibit an assembly – thus interposing an independent layer of review between citizens and the executive – Malaysians are directed to appeal from the police to the relevant Minister, in other words from the executive to the executive, without any court oversight. (It may, however, be possible to seek judicial review of the Minister's decision, since, unusually for a Malaysian statute, the Peaceful Assembly Bill does not oust the jurisdiction of the court.) Apart from the prohibition on street marches, the Peaceful Assembly Bill also forbids public assemblies within 50 meters of a 'prohibited place,' itemized in the First Schedule to include utilities and petrol stations, fire stations, hospitals, schools, places of worship, airports, docks, bridges and piers, and railways. Furthermore the Minister may gazette additional places, thereby extending the prohibition. Likewise, the Minister may gazette certain areas as 'designated assembly places', a provision presumably designed to corral protestors into out-of-the-way sporting arenas or similar venues. Obvious anomalies aside, such as the apparent prohibition on members of a faith group holding an assembly in the vicinity of their own place of worship, it would appear from the extensive list of prohibited sites that it will be extremely difficult to hold a public assembly in an urban area. Organizers and participants have extensive responsibilities to abide by all these requirements, and are liable for penalties of up to 20,000 ringgit (approximately AUD $6, 260) for non-compliance, double the Police Act penalties (although it seems that imprisonment has been dropped). Furthermore, the police may without warrant arrest any person failing to comply with a restriction or condition, and may also order the assembly to disperse if it becomes a street protest, encroaches on a prohibited area, or the participants fail to comply with stated conditions. In doing this, police may 'use all reasonable force.' In sum, the Bill does nothing to curtail the potential for arbitrary exercise of police powers, but much to enable it. Aside from the obvious defects in the text of the Bill, what does this law 'reform' exercise, and the reactions it provoked, reveal about law and law-making in Malaysia? In the deficit column, we can place the irresolution, amounting to double-speak, of the government. Prime Minister Najib promised better alignment of Malaysian laws with both Malaysian constitutional foundations and international human rights principles (although, as lawyer Eric Choo pointed out, there are important discrepancies between the undertakings PM Najib made in the official Bahasa Malaysia text of his Malaysia Day speech and the English translation authorised by the PM's office[2]), and yet the Bill manifestly does no such thing, as local commentators (such as Bersih 2.0,[3] Aliran,[4] The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST)[5] and the Bar Council[6]) and international observers (such as LawAsia[7] and the Asian Human Rights Commission[8]) observed. There is simply no reference to, or recognition of, human rights standards and principles for freedom of speech, assembly and association, either as they are expressed in article 10 of the Malaysian Constitution or in international instruments, let alone a harmonization of Malaysian law with constitutional and human rights principles. Indeed, as Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim stated in Parliament during the brief debate on the Bill,[9] citizens of Zimbabwe and Myanmar currently have greater protection of their freedom of assembly than do Malaysians. The PM promised a 'functional and inclusive democracy', but the government did not undertake meaningful consultation before the Bill was first tabled (the Bar Council, which was consulted, was appalled at how few of its recommendations were incorporated); and, despite howls of public protest once the content of the Bill was first revealed, the government refused to establish a parliamentary select committee to consider amendments, but rather bulldozed the legislation through the lower house 7 days after it was first introduced, and with only minor tinkering to shorten some of the notification and response timelines. The Bill was passed in the absence of the opposition MPs who had walked out in protest at the limited time allowed them to debate the amendments. This haste, too, is not uncommon in Malaysian law-making.
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| 2 futher views on the 2011 UMNO General Assembly Posted: 05 Dec 2011 07:55 AM PST I think Sak has written a great piece here - an outpouring from the heart straight from the mind. His are the things the Umno GA 2011 should have deliberated instead of spewing nonsense and hatred bereft of intelligence, integrity and standard and also insulting on the grace of our Malays. If anything, Umno has shown not just our rakyat but also the whole world how low-class are their delegates. Just wait for another set of wikileaks to reinforce the conclusion. Even others with third-world mentalities will be embarrassed - because here we have the extremely well-fed and well-dressed talking cock and expecting the rakyat to agree with them just because they are on stage punching their fists, putting on their false and hawing show, and creating yet another bogeyman to channel attention away from their corruptions and abuse of power that continue to form the bulwark of issues that is destroying the future of the young. Incidentally this deflection tactic is a hallmark of that black mamba cobra. Just think of it - three thousand empty-headed and self-deluded hyenas and jokers wanting to run this country of 28 million for another five years in the same way they have been running it into the ground all the past years, and then asking to be trusted and supported again so that they can whip up another opiate of spin while ripping off the rakyat who will have to settle for an economy with a rm400 plus Billion debt that will grow unabated because in his calculations Keynes couldn't imagine the rapaciousness and gross stupidity of an animal called Umno. Why didn't a single Umno delegate tell Najib that politics is not a game so how can he talk about game-changer? And if in responding to his call to Umno leaders to "do the right thing" by resigning as unwinnable candidates they were to tell him "you first, show the way", will his answer be any different from that by Mahathir in the twenty-two years he had messed up the institutions while holding on to his seat and spinning about bersih cekap dan amanah? Why didn't a single Umno delegate ask Muhyiddin whether Nazri would have labelled his speech 'racist' eight times and call for his immediate censure in parliament? And if he cannot answer that, why didn't a single Umno delegate ask Muhyiddin about Mohamed Rahmat's exposure that Mahathir's cronies tried to acquire villagers land at 80 sen psf so that they could resell at 1,780 sen psf for the Second Link - in Johor? (http://is.gd/HtOsts) why didn't a single Umno delegate ask Nazri whether he agrees with his PDRM saying the lawyers march to parliament was illegal when the last one checked, lawyers are the ones defining what is legal for the police? Why didn't a single Umno delegate ask Shahrizat how she can wear the tudung and look pious comforting women but evade an explanation how her family can get such a large grant in all but name out of the rakyats' pocket so that they can spend on condos, land, limousine and trips, presumably everything needed to breed cows so that the rakyat won't have to think it's all karma from beheading one cow in Shah Alam? Why didn't a single Umno delegate ask Khairy why he is still trying to bullshit his way through? Let's not waste any more time on this kid with an attitude unbefitting a youth leader, let alone that of a future prime minister, unless the entry requirements sink below those required to be a juvenile smart alec. And, why didn't a single Umno delegate ask one Mr. cyber magoo somewhere here what did he mean by saying "Umno's back in business"? Isn't that revealing too much of the real standard operating procedure of Umno - all for one, but one for money, power, privileges and double standards? Add diamonds, hermes bags, cayennes, lusty travels overseas and what not, and you can say it will be easier to push a camel through the eye of a needle enroute to heaven. The frivolities of this recent circus show reveal in no uncertain terms how Umno has been destroying this country. They're not leaders. They're zombies stoned on reckless power-mongering and double standards not only for laws of the land, but also for its policies, procedures and procurements. In much the same way the Auditor-General's curling report has nuked Najib's feel-good Annual Budget 2012, this Umno General Assembly has completely nuked and debunked Umno's standing before the eyes and ears of all sensible, moderate, thinking and upstanding rakyat of the country. We all know why Umno was shocked by the results of the last general elections. It had been overweeningly confident that each race would only vote for its own party. Doesn't that mindset reflect racism in the first place? And what actually happened? The rakyat voted for other races. Now what will Muhyiddin say next were he to find out that many Malays had voted for DAP in GE12? That they are racists as well by dint of supporting what he has labeled without foundation as a racist party? If that is not enough, how will he advise his constituents who are gainfully employed by organizations run by people who support DAP? That they should resign from their jobs because he is Umno incarnate? The mindset of forgettable jokers like these is locked in some hoary past that remains the only thing they think they can still use to scare the rakyat because they realize without that false scare, the rakyat will immediately see through them and their party as irrelevant. Our society is on a painful but healing path away from the racism started by that black mamba cobra. Why try to stop the rakyat from healing amongst ourselves so that we can help one another with brotherly goodwill that doesn't have to be propped up by artificial crap policies used by Umno to secretly funnel rakyat funds to the accounts of their own puerile and corrupt putras and puteris? Want to talk next about keeping our Malay culture and language? Fine - after everyone uses the language exclusively, how does one go about next to acquire the very knowledge to dig all out of the casket-sized hole the young have been deposited in? How will they be able to interact confidently with the rest of the world - on its own terms - so that they can contribute to the world-class standards this country has needed - since at least three decades ago? How? By the tail of the Pekan or Pagoh cow? Which one? OneMalaysian has also written a polished comment which bears careful appreciation.
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| An imaginary address to malapportionment Posted: 04 Dec 2011 11:04 PM PST
Inspired by Mr. Ng's call, I did some number crunching over the weekend. And I found a near prefect "75% - 25%" rule at work. Total number of registered voters for GE2008 was 10,923,140 (that would include people above 100 years old voters as well as phantom voters as well) and the total number of parliamentary seats is 222. In order to truly reflect 1 voice 1 vote a parliamentary constituency should be made up to 49,199 (ie. 10,923,140 divided by 222) or round up to 50,000 voters per seat. As the 75% - 25% rule is at work, you will note that # 75% of the parliamentary constituencies have registered voters below 50,000 # 25% of the parliamentary constituencies have registered voters above 50,000 Of the 75% constituencies with less than 50,000 registered voters – 75% of the seats are won by BN (remaining 25% go to PR) Of the 75% constituencies with more than 50,000 voters – 75% of the seats are won by PR (remaining 25% go to BN)  If you look at the top 24 seats, you will find 79% of the seats are won by PR with majority many times over total registered voters of Putrajaya (a mere 6,608 with 5,416 turned out to vote – just fill up stadium hoki Tun Razak whose capacity is 5,000)  So what if I play with the number of voters in Selangor in an imaginary re-delineation exercise? Working with 50,000 voters per constituency, with a 15% tolerance factor as proposed by Bersih: · The 15% tolerance range dictate that an average constituency size should consist of between 42,500 to 57,500 number of registered voters · For example, if you look at Kelana Jaya, PJ Utara dan Selatan, Subang and Shah Alam, total number of registered voters there is 389,206 – given 9 seats, the average number of voters per seat should be 43,243 within the range of the above range, instead of the present 5 seats only. · The above would be similar to size of certain BN seats such as Tawau (42,560 registered voters), Kota Belud (43,071), Kuala Pilah (42,328), Alor Gajah( 54,097) and Jempol (53,478). · Number of seats in Selangor should be increased from the present 22 seats (5 seats to BN and 17 seats to PR) to 32. Base on present seats ratio as well as voting trend BN would have circa 20% of the seats; the revised parliamentary seats should be 7 to BN and 25 to PR.  * before certain people jump on me, yes it is purely a numerical exercise but in reality there are a lot of other factors to determine boundaries but not withstanding that, the general picture should look like above and not like now! Read more at: http://wangsamajuformalaysia.blogspot.com/2011/12/imaginary-address-to-malapportionment.html |
| Rakyat Voices 3: Firewall Your Vote Posted: 04 Dec 2011 06:53 PM PST The Election terrain is not flat, that much we know - Putrajaya has just over 6,000 voters, Kapar 112,000 or 17 Parliamentary seats difference between the two. Much has been reported of late about the suspicions over tampered electoral rolls, sudden spikes in the number of voters in certain constitutencies, and shifting forms of phantom votes. Those are issues being battled at the institutional level. What about us as individuals, what can we do? More importantly, on Election Day, how do you ensure your vote gets a safe passage all the way into the final count? This Saturday, learn about your rights as a voter under the Election Laws. Tindak Malaysia, a voter's rights advocacy group, will present important facts about the General Elections and the pitfalls which may come in your way as a voter. What's fact and what's myth?
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| Najib’s Transformation Programme in fighting corruption a major wash-out Posted: 04 Dec 2011 10:13 AM PST The TI-M statement is incorrect. In fact, Malaysia's 2011 TI CPI ranking is the worst in 17 years since the introduction of TI's annual CPI in 1995. In the nine years from 1995 to 2003, Tun Dr. Mahathir as Prime Minister saw Malaysia's TI CPI score stuck in the narrow groove between 4.8 in 2000 to 5.32 in 1996 while the CPI ranking fell 14 places from No. 23 in 1995 to No. 37 in 2003. (10 is highly clean while 0 is highly corrupt) In the five-year premiership of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia's TI CPI ranking fell 10 places from 37 in 2003 to 47 placing in 2008, while the CPI score stuck between 5.0 to 5.1. In his 2 ½ years as Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak presided over the worst TI CPI ranking and score for Malaysia on many fronts, viz:
There was no mention or reference to the worsening TI CPI ranking and worst TI CPI 2011 score for Malaysia by anyone, whether leader or delegate, in the UMNO General Assembly, although the results were announced on the same day as the UMNO Presidential Speech by Najib Razak last Thursday.
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| Who lied – Najib/Muhyiddin or Chua Soi Lek? Or all three? Posted: 04 Dec 2011 10:11 AM PST When these lies and poison failed to achieve the desired public and political impact with the approach of the 13th General Elections, UMNO strategists became more irresponsible, reckless and desperate. In the past week, these lies and poison became the staple diet of UMNO leaders in the meetings preparatory to and during the sessions proper of the 65th UMNO General Assembly, with the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, in their capacities as UMNO President and UMNO Deputy President giving their personal stamp of approval by adopting and retailing these lies and poison to sway votes in favour of UMNO in the coming polls. Culminating in Muhyiddin and Najib, one UMNO leader after another in the past week have taken to the public pulpit in a carefully-orchestrated campaign to demonise the DAP and frighten Malay voters with the lies that the Malays will lose their rights and power should Pakatan Rakyat win more federal seats in the next general election, or in the words of the UMNO information chief Datuk Ahmad Maslan, "the Malay language will be lost, say goodbye to the Malay Sultans, Say goodbye to Islam because they (DAP) are agents of Christianisation". Muhyiddin was completely unabashed in playing the race card when he falsely accused the DAP of being anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers, even telling the lie that the DAP's agenda is to establish a Republic in Malaysia. Muhyiddin made history as the only Deputy Prime Minister in the world who was caught out telling a bare-faced lie, for he had been completely silent to my challenge to him to substantiate his allegation that the DAP wanted to abolish the constitutional monarchy and establish a Republic. I had publicly said that Muhyiddin's "despicable, irresponsible, incendiary and seditious" allegation that the DAP's agenda is to form a republic is completely founded on a lie, particularly his rhetorical question to buttress his allegation: "If not, do they dare to suggest the prime minister's position be selected based solely on elections and without being chosen by the Yang di Pertuan Agong? What is the meaning of this?" (Muhyiddin quote)
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| The UMNO General Assembly 2011 Posted: 04 Dec 2011 09:51 AM PST At the moment I am more interested to write about the recently concluded UMNO GA2011. Some people thought I treated the GA as a nonevent. Of course it wasn't. It wasn't a congregation of minds meeting to discuss how the real Malay agenda of uplifting them, their economics, and their future are being discussed. It wasn't that event. It was just an event allowing mediocre and uncultured minds to let out their own frustrations and sense of absolute fear. UMNO fears for its future. It was speaking about the UMNO agenda. Not Malay agenda. For those reasons- we must do the exact opposite. Deny these so called Malay leaders a chance to concentrate power. Its power which they shall apply to the misfortune of the majority of Malays and to the misfortune of this country. Give us power bellowed Najib because we want to continue with the agenda? Why wasn't the agenda, whatever it is, debated in that GA? Give us power intoned KJ so that the nikmat or tidings we enjoy with having power is kept. Nikmat to do what? To pillage and plunder? Instead it's an event of love fest and blood fest. This delegate loves Najib. That delegate says more about how Najib is the savior and all that. The agenda of the GA was actually to whip delegates into frenzy about how to defend UMNO and defend the life as the leaders and UMNO warlords have always known. It's the life of the leeching aristocrat feeding off the fears and hopes of the silent Malay majority. It's a life of living a lie pretending to fight for the interests of the majority and the interests of the nation. When KJ said that we have to defend UMNO because of tidings ( nikmat) that comes along with having power- that's the real weltanschauung of UMNO. That's its real raison-detre. UMNO exists to secure power so that through power they can do all the bad- corruption, pillage and plunder of the nation's wealth. As far as the Malay agenda is concerned, yes, the GA2011 is a non-event. It wasn't worth my mental effort to exert. Let me ask you why the real big issues are not and never discussed? Why do UMNO leaders have this self-conceited idea that it is when we, good people like ourselves hold power we can do more good that those evil in DAP, PAS and PKR and whoever else. The answer to this seeming paradox is this. I find it a pleasure repeating the seminal ideals of Milton Friedman in his preface to Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. In the passages which I marked with highlighter:-
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| Liberal, Muslim, feminist, and comfortable Posted: 04 Dec 2011 08:45 AM PST But controversy surrounds Marina also because of her lineage — she is the eldest child of Malaysia's longest serving and controversial Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. In this exclusive interview with The Nut Graph in Kuala Lumpur on 23 March 2010, Marina talks about her childhood, her roots, and the Malaysia she wants to see in the future. The first version of this interview was published exclusively in Volume 1 of Found in Malaysia. TNG: When and where were you born? Marina Mahathir: I was born in Alor Setar, in 1957. I am just two months older than the country. [I was born in the] Alor Setar General Hospital and so were all my siblings. We used to live in Jalan Maxwell. At the back [were] the padi fields and the railway road. We lived [in the government quarters] until I was 10. We [then] moved to Jitra, [and we lived in government quarters] because [my mum] was the civil servant; my dad went into private practice quite early. In 1968 or 1969, we moved into our own house in Titi Gajah. Did the violence of 13 May 1969 touch Alor Setar? As far as I recall there were no riots. But there was fear. I remember the elections. I remember asking my dad, "So, did you win?" And he said, "No, I lost." And I couldn't believe it, because at that time he ran in Kota Setar Selatan. He lost to (former PAS chief) Haji Yusuf Rawa, who happens to be my mum's cousin, [but] not a first cousin.  Std 1A at St Nicholas Convent: Marina (second row, third from right), Standard One A at St Nicholas Convent, 1964 So you are related to PAS central committee member Muhajid Yusof Rawa? Yes. But it's not like we've ever met lah. On my mum's side, my grandfather is Rawanese. He came from Sumatera. We still have relatives in Sumatera. In 1968, our first overseas holiday was to Medan. A couple of years ago, after the tsunami, [my parents] went to Medan and visited all these relatives as well. My mum is very keen on all this, and she will keep track. So you can trace your ancestry on your mum's side. This is the million ringgit question: What about your dad's side? We don't know. My dad had these two older sisters whom he was very close to. The second sister, Mak Bibi, had a very good memory [about] all sorts of family connections. But unfortunately, she passed away first. The older sister — she's 10 years older than my dad, who is the youngest — was hard of hearing. She passed away last year.  Marina Mahathir giving a talk (1998) But there is a Malabari connection on your dad's side? Well, actually this was news to me recently. I have another aunt, [a close family friend] who is not directly related, [who] once told me where the family came from. I was quite young, so I didn't really take note. But it formed the impression in my mind that we must have come from the Eastern coast of India. But I never checked it out. It was only when I went for this aunt's funeral that I asked my cousins where they thought we came from. And that was the first time the word Kerala came up. I looked it up and I thought, "Eh, that's funny — it's on the Western coast [of India]." […] But then with ports, what does it matter? You get on a boat and then you go. And there are a lot of Keralans here — Hindus, Muslims and Christians — so there is a long connection between Kerala and here. So it's possible [to trace], but I wouldn't know where to start. Because this would be my dad's grandfather, my great-grandfather Tok Iskandar. […] Iskandar came over and married a local woman and had my grandfather, Mohamad, and at least one other female sibling…my father's auntie. So, I only know of one sibling [of my grandfather's]. But we don't know what happened to my great-grandfather, or our great-grandmother. Nobody knows her name. It's all [because of] very poorly kept records, or nobody thought of [keeping records]. So all these people who keep saying my grandfather's name was Iskandar Kutty — we don't know where that comes from. We've never heard the name. How does that make you feel, though, the way detractors discredit your dad by pulling this out? Many would consider it racist. Of course it is. And I think that's why he's so sensitive about it, because it [questions] his Malay-ness. I had this ex-schoolmate who used think it was funny, who still thinks it's funny, to make jokes and tease us for being keling. So it's a sensitive thing, because you're subjected to so much racism. [But] when I went back for my aunt's funeral, I looked at everyone around and it was quite clear that we all have sub-continental origins. My grandfather's mother was Malay, and he was brought up by her. And then he married a Malay, my grandmother, who is a Wan. Wans were palace[-connected], so that Wan side is well-documented. My dad's mum was Wan Tempahwan. Was Alor Setar very cosmopolitan [when you were growing up]? We had a mixed group of friends. My first best friend when I was in kindergarten was Ann Wong, who lived across the road. [I also went to] a convent [school]. A lot of Malays didn't want to send their daughters there, because takut jadi Kristian, kan? So in my class, I think there were no more than four Malay girls at any one time. When I was in Form Four, I went off to TKC (Tunku Kurshiah College). In Form Five, I sent a postcard back to my old school: "Good luck for MCE (Malaysian Certificate of Education), hope to see you all here." And that was a big faux pas, because obviously I wasn't going to be seeing the Chinese ones there. So apparently I upset a lot of people. But I really didn't think of it in that way. How has all of this, including the faux pas, shaped the kind of Malaysian you are today? I'm very sad. I don't understand all this segregation. I went through it when [convent schools were] English medium, and I know, for instance, that there was no attempt to convert anyone either way. At first I didn't want to go to TKC because it was single-race. And my dad got a bit upset about that. But [in the end] it was quite good in one thing. You know, early impressions can really get into your head. I had grown up with the impression that Malay [Malaysians] were not clever. I used to get first or second, but there's the impression that others are cleverer than you. So when I went to TKC, I saw Malay girls who had gotten 7As, 8As. Adakah? It really did something to your head. It's possible [to achieve this] — we're not genetically backward. So the positive aspect of that was good. The other idea I grew up with was that girls were not as clever as boys. It's only when I went to Sultan Abdul Hamid College (SAHC) — briefly in Form Four before going to TKC and then in Lower Six — that I realised that not all boys are smart. So sometimes you need this change of environment to open up the world for you. In TKC, I was exposed to a whole variety of Malays — all classes and all type of faces. The hitam legam and the putih melepak. The Mat Salleh type pun ada. It was quite diverse.
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| Posted: 04 Dec 2011 08:32 AM PST That's no different from the public criticisms against the Barisan Nasional (BN) government over its Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011, which was passed by the BN-controlled Dewan Rakyat on 29 Nov 2011. Or is there a difference? Not just between the two political coalitions but also between how each understands basic human rights? Additionally, what does it all mean for us as citizens? International standards lacking The Penang FOI law has been criticised for not adopting internationally-accepted standards in guaranteeing freedom of information. For example, the law does not provide for proactive routine publications of information held by the government. Indeed, this is actually something that some government agencies under the BN federal government, such as the Statistics Department, the Department of Environment, and the Communications and Multimedia Commission are already practising. Six civil society groups have also pointed out that the Penang law has removed a clause that stipulates a penalty for any information officer who destroys, alters or withholds information or if she or he intentionally denies access to information. "Such a preventive clause is standard inclusion in most freedom of information bills worldwide, including the Selangor Freedom of Information Enactment," the groups said in a statement. The lack of internationally-recognised standards is also apparent in the BN's Peaceful Assembly Bill. Among others, the Bill, which has now been passed despite public objections, prohibits street protests. And as we already know, it also prohibits the participation of children in rallies, places too much power in the hands of the police and too many restrictions on rally organisers. What's the difference? So, what's the difference, from a human rights perspective, of having either a BN or a PR coalition in government? The difference, if I may venture to argue, is that with at least the PR governments of Selangor and Penang, there is some inkling about what human rights is about. The fact is, even though both the Selangor and Penang FOI enactments are imperfect and fall short of civil society groups' expectations, the new laws were enacted to improve transparency. Citizens in Selangor and Penang now have recourse to a FOI law within the state. Prior to this, any information including about air quality, the causes for landslides, and water concession agreements could be and has been kept from public scrutiny under the federal government's Official Secrets Act. Conversely at the federal level, the replacement of Section 27 of the Police Act with the Peaceful Assembly Bill is meant to make things worse. No matter if the federal government denies it repeatedly. For example, the Bill prohibits "street protests" when these kinds of protests are already legally recognised in Section 27 of the Police Act.
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| Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #91 Posted: 04 Dec 2011 07:43 AM PST The first were the large and entrenched foreign-owned corporations (usually British) that essentially corralled the major sectors (the "commanding heights"), from plantations and mining to manufacturing and banking. Through their sheer size and well-established network, these companies ensured that their dominance was never threatened. They neither welcomed nor tolerated new entrants and competitors. The second group was made up of ethnic Chinese and Indian "mom and pop" retailers and sundry merchants. Their enterprises were small family affairs. They too protected their economic turf ferociously. They effectively controlled their domain through their clan organizations, often using extralegal means to enforce their code. The "triad" organizations of secret societies are manifestations of this phenomenon. Between the ethnic retailers and the major colonial corporations, the economy of Malaysia was essentially "locked up." They imposed stiff and insurmountable barriers to new entrants. In short, despite the government's commitment to a free market, the economy was far from being free. The game was rigged. Had there been enterprising and competent Malays, they would have been effectively shut out. Even a super entrepreneur like Ted Turner or someone with a Harvard MBA would have a tough time cracking in an honest way such a closed and rigged system. Much had been written in the past on the supposed lack of business acumen of Malays. The residuum of that thinking still exists today. Had a careful analysis been done, the fault would lay more with the prevailing economic system. It had all the trappings of a free market but the reality was far different. As a result the system actually perpetrated and aggravated existing inequalities while protecting the prevailing monopolies and monopsonies. Apart from the ensuing inter racial hostilities, such inequities also retarded economic growth. This was not unique to Malaysia. Forty years later the Harvard economist Robert Barro empirically showed that such high levels of inequality, especially in a poor country, reduce economic growth. Perversely, in rich countries like America, such inequities encourage growth. In the 1960s Malaysia was a poor country. Tunku's misguided strategy and his denial of the aggravating inequities culminated in the country's worse race riots of 1969. Tunku's knowledge of free enterprise was gleaned only from the lecture halls and libraries of Cambridge; he had no real life experience of the free market. His entire career before entering politics was in the civil service. Fortunately for Malaysia, Tun Razak, Tunku's successor, intuitively knew what Barro and other economists would later discover. He ignored the conventional wisdom and intervened in the economy aggressively through his New Economic Policy. This massive social engineering initiative upended the entire economic and business scene in Malaysia, effectively leveling the economic playing field. His interventionist policies resulted in Malaysia becoming more of a true free market. Tun Razak's interventions succeeded because he did not take the economy away from free enterprise system and free market rather he pushed it towards those goals. As a consequent, the nation is far better of today than it was a generation ago. Thus many of the criticisms leveled at the free enterprise system are in reality criticisms of highly controlled economy that are masquerading or having the veneer of a free market. There are of course valid criticisms and imperfections of the free market. By appealing to the lowest common denominator (that is, the most profitable), capitalism threatens traditional values and indirectly also our freedom. American mass media, being commercial enterprises, depend on advertising for their revenue; the higher the ratings, the bigger the revenue. Thus programs that offend one's sensibilities continue to be aired because they garner high ratings. This coarsening of mass culture through the media may encourage some to argue for government intervention. However I prefer a market solution first, as illustrated by the following example. A few years ago one of the popular comedy shows wanted to break new grounds. The producers wanted to "out" the hostess's homosexuality by showing her kissing her lesbian lover. An outraged public led by some church leaders initiated a mass boycott of not only the station but also the show's sponsors. It was very effective; the series was terminated and the star dumped.
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| Richer Than The Queen! Top TV Coverage In Canada, As Taibs’ Wealth is Exposed Posted: 04 Dec 2011 05:57 AM PST During a prime-time slot aired on Saturday night's 16X9 programme, investigative reporter Sean O'Shea focused on the massive property portfolio that has been developed in Ottawa, London and the US under the name of Jamilah Taib, the Chief Minister's oldest daughter [see 'Family Trees' 16X9 Global TV]
This means that for the first time the questions about the money laundering of Taib's corrupt kickbacks have been publicly raised in North America. In response Sean (Hisham) Murray, Jamilah's husband, threatened Sarawak Report. he stated "Jamilah and I find these statements about ourselves and our business false, highly defamatory and very damaging." However, the couple refused to be interviewed by the programme. Devastating report on the Taib family's company ownerships The show was aired just before the publication of a separate, devastating 'blacklist' of Taib family companies by Switzerland's Bruno Manswer Foundation, now available online. BMF's Stop Timber Corruption Report lays out extensive research into the Taib family's company ownerships in Sarawak, Malaysia and elsewhere. It establishes that Taib and his immediate family (his children, siblings and cousin Hamed Sepawi) have beneficial shares in more than 400 companies in Malaysia alone. In many of these companies they also act as the controlling directors. The Taibs also have a further 80 companies in 25 countries across the world including Australia, the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Jersey, Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands, Fiji, Cayman Islands, Indonesia, India, Jersey, Saudi Arabia, Labuan, Cambodia, Brunei, China, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam ! Richer than the Queen – assets of at least one and a half billion US dollars !
BMF acknowledges that this research only covers publicly available information from Malaysia's Register of Companies and other official company registers. This means it is likely to represent just a fraction of the Taibs' actual wealth. However, by calculating just the share values of 14 of the major companies on this list, they have estimated a total worth of one and a half billion US dollars (4.6 billion Malaysian ringgit). Not counting their more hidden wealth, this puts the Taib family firmly into the category of one of the richest families in the world and makes them far richer than the Queen of England (whose assets are a mere half billion pounds). Proceeds of corruption Given that it can be clearly demonstrated that the majority of these Taib family companies have made their wealth from the receipt of contracts from the Sarawak State Government and land grants from the Sarawak State Government, it is impossible to deny that this wealth has come from the proceeds of corruption by Taib, who is Chief Minister, Finance Minister and Planning Minister of the Sarawak State Government!
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| Race-based ideology and Islam: The Malaysian enigma Posted: 04 Dec 2011 05:51 AM PST UMNO's Deputy President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin further affirmed this race-based ideology by saying that "it is vital" to protect "Malay political power."[2] He justified such ideology by painting the picture that the interest of the Malay race, given its demography in the country, dictates the well being of the whole nation. "[W]hen we talk about Malay interest it does not mean we are racist because the largest group in the Malaysian society whether you like it or not is still Malays, Bumiputeras and Muslims."[3] Seeing 'Malays', 'Bumiputeras', and 'Muslims' being juxtaposed next to each other certainly stirs up curiosity as to what actually has the third group (Muslims) to do with the other two:
It is common understanding among theologians and scholars of comparative religions that Islam promotes racial equality. One of the clearest indications of this is in the fact that Allah's Prophets consist of individuals from different races. There is no distinction made among them:
Not all of these messengers are Arab, yet all are considered equally authoritative. There is simply no relevance to their prophethood whether they came from the Jewish, Arabian, or any other race. Besides the Prophets, there are also Qur'anic teachings concerning equality of humankind:
Here, the Islamic Scripture teaches that all ethnic groups are created in the same way, and bear close ties to one another. Reflecting on this, Abd-al'Aziz 'Abd-al-Qadir Kamil, Professor at the University of Cairo and Minister of Waqfs and Azhar Affairs of Al-Azhar University, commented that: "God […] commands us to fear two things: God and 'the wombs' (al-arham). 'The wombs' refers here to the human bond that links all men, however remote they may be from each other in space or time, and however unlike they may be in language and colour, and however much they may differ in economic or social position. We are charged to fear God's commands, and this applies first and foremost to the observation of human brotherhood on the widest scale…"[4] At another place of the Qur'an, we find similar teaching:
Although it is commonly interpreted that this passage is talking about race, some said that it actually refers to 'tribes' and not 'race'. Responding to this, Paul A. Hardy, who lectured on Islamic thoughts at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the Universityof London, remarked that there is no difference between tribe and race in this passage. He pointed out two early Islamic commentators—the eighth century C.E. Sufyan ath-Thawri and the tenth century C.E. Tabari—who understood this verse as reference to genealogy.[5] In other words, this verse is indeed referring to race. It describes the creation of the various ethnic groups with their own genealogy. No race or genealogical lineage is declared superior or should be favoured than others. The only superiority is that of piety, between those who are loyal to Allah and those who are not—Not between those who are Malay and non-Malay, Bumiputeras or non-Bumiputeras. Besides, this verse also states that the diversity of races is intended for mutual learning ("that you may know one another"). The instruction to cultivate multi-racial learning is understood by Hardy as "a motivating force for mutual love."[6] If this is followed, then this further undermines the ideology that one race is or should be more favoured than others. Turning to the Hadith, we find in Prophet Muhammad's Farewell Sermon his conviction of racial equality: "All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action."[7] The Prophet has a deep sense of racial impartiality. Probably this is the reason why he condemned those who claim supremacy over others because of their ancestral-racial lineage:
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| Posted: 04 Dec 2011 05:44 AM PST The torrent of abuse that the DAP drew from speakers, both prominent and obscure, at the ongoing Umno general assembly testifies to this reality of leaders or parties weighing in the political balance in ways disproportionate to their strength in terms of membership or representation in legislatures. Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin (left), expected to be menteri besar of Johor after the general election, acknowledged this reality when he speculated on the reasons why speakers at the Umno assembly targeted the DAP with special venom. Deputy Prime Minister and deputy president of Umno Muhyiddin Yassin led the way in his address to the youth and women wings of the party where he branded the DAP as anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-royals.
Umno's protection of royals has been proven to be expedient rather than principled. Nevertheless, Muhyiddin had no hesitation in inducting them into the trinity of DAP's alleged abjurations because that way, it would make the opposition party especially worthy of Malay opprobrium. Muhyiddin's strictures set the cue for the rest of Umno to engage in a round of DAP-bashing the like of which has seldom been seen before in Malaysia's race-warped politics. Subterranean fear Though Khaled offered reasons for the DAP-centred ire of Umno delegates – that the party is seen, realistically or imaginarily, as the dominant force in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition and that its partners, PAS and PKR, are viewed by Umno as beatable – he only touched the surface of the fears that Umno harbours towards the DAP.
In sum, he has been a success in the last three-and-a-half years of his tenure and, if things continue the way it promises, his success would be more undeniable and would resound throughout the country. That would only do more good to the idea that a DAP-fueled Pakatan would not be what Umno want Malays to think it would, which is that is a disaster for the Malays, their religion and rulers. The dispelling of that fear scares Umno stiff – for good reason.
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| Taib’s Timber Connections – More Business Links To Top Tycoons Posted: 03 Dec 2011 11:19 AM PST Instead they are helping the loggers tear down Penan blockades to protect their native lands. "The whole world should know that we have given the logging companies four warnings already", Penan leaders (above) announced last week, after their blockade had been ripped down by the logging companies, backed by the police for the 4th time in a week.
Mental illness of greed Why are these gentle people being forced into such a perilous stand by this assault on their very existence and the remaining few trees left standing in Sarawak's Borneo Jungle? The reason lies with the terrible sickness of mind that now afflicts the Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. As we have demonstrated time and again on this site, Taib has run all the logging, plantations and exports from the state purely for his own enrichment. The land has been destroyed and the people are far worse off than before. Extremely valuable trees and resources have been plundered with the excuse of a 'development' that has never happened. Now Taib promises that his latest mega-project, SCORE, will provide the promised wealth to his people that logging and oil palm have failed to do. It will not. In fact, it can already be demonstrated that this entire project is also purely designed to push more public money (or worse, borrowed money) through companies run by his own family mafia. WTK – criminal conflicts of interest
Sarawak Report has already demonstrated the extensive links between Samling and Taib family concerns. All the crony timber tycoons have had to bribe heavily for their favoured status and permits from Taib to continue their psychopathic destruction of the jungle. We can now reveal how WTK's own shareholder lists expose the extensive and corrupted Taib family interests in that company. As major shareholders this means the Taibs benefit every time WTK cuts down a tree thanks to a permit from Taib. This is why it is a criminal conflict of interest for Taib to issue such permits (without tender) to companies where his close family are major shareholders. Marjaharta again To begin with the company Marjaharta, the main shareholder in CMS, which we demonstrated is controlled and to all purposes owned by Taib himself, has also been a major shareholder in WTK. Marjaharta started out 'belonging' to Taib's brother Onn Mahmud, but was then handed to Taib's sons in 2003 when Taib and Onn quarrelled. It has now been handed on again and put in the hands of Taib's daughters Jamilah and Hannifah! Jamilah has stated that she is just "a passive investor in Sarawak", yet Majaharta is investing in WTK which is actively destroying the rainforest. Another of the main shareholders in WTK has been Taib's other brother Tufail. Tufail remains the Director of one of WTK's subsidiaries Song Logging Company. We have already exposed how Tufail Mahmud was given shares in another major logging company Sanyan, which he attempted to conceal under proxies at the time that huge timber concessions were being granted by Taib to the company.
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| UMNO- dari Modal Insan ke Modal Lembu dan kemaraan Fascime UMNO Posted: 03 Dec 2011 09:48 AM PST Sebaliknya, ucapan yang berapi api dari pemimpin biasa sehinga pemimpin besar UMNO di dengar sebagai jeritan nyaring dan kasar pemimpin2 dari sebuah parti yang lebih mirip kepada kumpulan yang di pimpin oleh Benito Mussolini. Ini suara dari parti fasis! Ini pandangan saya mengenai PAU 2011. Ramai sudah pulang ke kampong halaman. Peniaga pun buat cheap sale saat akhir. Mungkin ada yang masih tingal di Kuala Lumpur sebab pemimpin mereka sudah bayar bilik dan beri duit belanja. Ini kelaziman para perwakilan. Apa sebetulnya yang mahu di cerna selama PAU 2011? Fikiran besar dan pengucapan yang bertanggung jawab? Pengucapan yang mengutamakan kesejahteraan negara keseluruhan nya? Tidak ada benda2 ini. Yang ada yang di cernakan ialah perkara perkara yang menyeramkan orang Melayu. Para perwakilan UMNO yang di sifatkan sebagai askar barisan depan UMNO di tanam dengan rasa cemas dan ketakutan. Orang Melayu terancam, mereka tidak selamat, harta benda mereka akan di rampas, kuasa mereka akan hilang, lambang2 budaya Melayu seperti insitusi raja akan di basmikan dan seumpamanya. Apa objektif cara ini? Pengawalan dan pengekangan keatas minda bangsa Melayu melalui cerita seram dan takut adalah cara sebuah parti yang fasis ( fascist) mengekalkan sokongan dan kuasa. Ia bukan amalan parti yang demokratik. Inilah yang sekarang terjadi keatas UMNO. The rise of UMNO fascism. Perkara yang paling di fikirkan oleh pimpinan UMNO ialah sama ada para perwakilan yang bermukim selama 4-5 hari di KL akan membawa api semangat yang di nyalakan selama mereka berkampung disini. Bolehkah rasa cemas yang di cipta selama 4-5 hari tersebut dan cerita2 yang menyeramkan mengenai ancaman terhadap bangsa Melayu, agama mereka dan rasa benci yang di di tanam, dapat mengekalkan momentum askar2 barisan depan UMNO tersebut? Pengekalan rangsangan emosi tersebut amat penting kepada pimpinan UMNO. Jika api rasa cemas, terancam dan marah jadi pudar, UMNO akan berada dalam bahaya. Jika perasaan itu terus membuak buak, maka UMNO ada peluang terus hidup.
Apakah yang akan di lakukan supaya perasaan tersebut di kekalkan? UMNO ada Ahmad Maslan untuk menentukan program menanam rasa benci dan sieged mentality Melayu berterusan. Maslan akan menjaja kesana sini bagaimana Islam terancam, orang Melayu berduyun duyun di kristiankan.
Kesemua alatan media pandang dengar dan penulisan akan di gembelingkan untuk menanam rasa benci , cemas dan ketakutan di kalangan orang Melayu. Dalam bulan2 yang akan datang, kita akan lihat pimpinan UMNO akan menjadi lebih bingung, bernada bermusushan dan rasis. Semua pemimpin UMNO akan mengatakan orang Melayu berada dalam bahaya dan terancam. Musuh orang Melayu, bangsa bangsa lain di ketuai oleh komrad Guang Eng and Kit Siang, di sokong oleh Mulla Hadi dan Ayatullah Nik dengan kerjasama dari gayboy Anwar Ibrahim semua sedang berkonspirasi mengambil alih kuasa orang Melayu, merampas segala hak, menghapuskan budaya Melayu dan memurtadkan orang Melayu. Semua wanita akan di paksa membeli coli RM 26 ribu, lembu2 di hantar mendiami One Menerung, atau the Troika di ibu kota. Untuk mengelak ini semua, UMNO mesti mengekalkan kuasa mutlak bagi pihak orang Melayu!. Kita akan lancarkan projek2 raksasa untuk meningkatkan kemajuan ekonomi. Kita akan agihkan projek2 tersebut sesame sendiri supaya ianya kekal di kalangan baka UMNO yang tulin. Apa ini semua? Ini cara kuasa fasis mengekalkan kuasa dan bukan cara negara yang bercakap besar mengenai mengujudkan demokrasi yang terbaik di dunia. Tapi apa sebenarnya bermain di benak para perwakilan dan para penyokong UMNO yang datang berkelana dan bermukim di ibu kota seminggu yang lalu? Ada mereka fikirkan dan kisahkan apa yang di bahas dalam dewan? Rasa nya mereka tak kisah pun. Beli belah saat akhir lagi penting. Malam akhir di ibu kota, mesti di manfaatkan semaksima mungkin. Tahun depan, kalau ada rezeki, boleh jadi perwakilan lagi. Kalau UMNO tidak jadi kerajaan, PAU mesti di adakan. Masa itu perwakilan akan korbankan mereka yang di anggap telah menyebabkan kekalahan UMNO.
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| Posted: 03 Dec 2011 06:28 AM PST It's also a favorite stop over for pirates, smugglers, mercenaries, illegal workers and the Darul Islam movement, whose roots can be traced back to Indonesia's independence almost 65 years ago. Since then, Darul Islam has spawned a litany of Muslim militant groups like Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Most who pass through continue on, but some stay to stock-up on supplies, reload and plan for another day as authorities found out when 13 suspected terrorists were arrested in Tawau last month under the Internal Security Act. Among them were seven Malaysians, five Indonesians and a Filipino, all of whom were initially labeled as suspected members of JI and alleged to be gathering weapons and bomb making material from The Philippines to be used against the Singaporean Embassy in Jakarta. "The arrests…raise fresh concerns over the threat of a terrorist attack utilizing small arms and targeting foreigners," says Todd Elliott, a security analyst with Jakarta-based Concord Consulting. He also says that according to his sources, it was likely not the first time the Umar group had attempted to smuggle firearms into Indonesia from the southern Philippines, allegedly with the assistance of corrupt Philippines police officers and Umar's son, who is said to be a member of the Abu Sayyaf Group. Other plans included a plot to kidnap a police officer to exchange for other militants under detention and to "start activities that would be harmful to the country." The arrests and pending prosecutions have landed the authorities in an unwanted political mess.Local journalists and analysts have been warned not to speculate, and religious parties like PAS have been urged not politicize the arrests. Rights groups, meanwhile, are disturbed the police used the ISA to make the arrests after Prime Minister Najib Razak announced he would repeal the widely loathed law. The Sabah branch of the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) reacted strongly, saying all 13 were members or supporters and called on police to either release or charge them.Under the ISA, police can detain indefinitely without reason. PAS was rebuked for admitting foreigners to a Malaysian political party with Chai Kim Sen, Youth Secretary General of the Chinese dominated MCA, saying it "should be left to the police to decide whether the persons arrested are missionaries or terrorists." "The security of our country is at stake here…PAS and its allies in Pakatan Rakyat should not politicize the issue further by making up lies and distorting the truth," he added, referring to opposition groups.
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| Posted: 03 Dec 2011 06:26 AM PST There's little question that under his authoritarian tutelage, Malaysia was transformed from a largely plantation economy to an Asian "tiger" economy. His rule also saw a substantial reduction in overall poverty and through an affirmative action program on behalf of the majority Malay population, a significant improvement in their economic lot. There's no gainsaying his achievements in Malaysia. However, India's policymakers can safely ignore his advice about the need for placing constraints on democracy to boost economic growth. First, while authoritarianism may have worked well in Malaysia, it has produced rather unhappy results in many other parts of the world including in various resource-rich states. For example, Nigeria is awash in petroleum and other natural resources. However, authoritarian regimes have neither promoted growth or equity. Second, Malaysia has a total population under 30 million. Only a small handful of Indian states have a population less than that of Malaysia. Consequently, someone needs to remind him that scale does matter. Third, India did briefly experiment with authoritarianism under Indira Gandhi. The results were far from exemplary and resulted in her ouster the moment she chose to hold elections. Contrary to Mr. Mahathir, democracy isn't India's problem. The problem that plagues India is the inefficacy of its institutions. India's policymakers would be wise to safely ignore his counsel and instead focus their attention on making India's existing institutions more responsive to the vast and crying needs of its citizenry. http://the-diplomat.com/indian-decade/2011/12/03/mahathir-wrong-on-india/
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| Umno will never change: A blessing M’sia now has a two-party system Posted: 03 Dec 2011 06:06 AM PST This is a big letdown on their part. They are obviously on a defensive mode –- shielding the many issues affecting their leaders – personal, corruption and incompetency –- thinking that the delegates are 'village fools' who have come to listen to their side of the stories. They have under-rated the intelligence of the delegates and the people at large. One delegate from Johore snapped: "We are talking the same old stories. We want to be defensive on everything even though we have done many wrongs. We are not admitting all our wrongdoings. We just don't want to admit our mistakes. This is not the way for UMNO to win the Malay hearts. The people are not happy with many things going on in the country." The unpopular Youth leader To most of the delegates, the present UMNO AGM is more of the usual rhetoric – race, religion and the perceived or tenuous 'threats' of other races to the Malays and their rights and privileges. They forget that like the Malays, the non-Malays too have their rights and privileges in this country. The AGM seems to imprudently use the race platform to sock the Opposition on personal issues that their own leaders are worse at. They choose to deny interpolating on their leaders' wrongdoings but act like spotless saints preaching on the stage to 'mesmerize' the delegates into thinking that UMNO is 'God' and others are devils. Many in the audience though are not convinced with their daft rhetoric. The unpopular Youth leader and his team, as customary, had all the uncouth words for the Opposition and the marginalized 'social groups' in society. The people just could not understand why they should despise others using lexis like 'pondan', 'anak haram' and 'bapok'. What have these 'socially ostracised' people done to harm UMNO Youth? Could this be the product of ill breeding on UMNO Youth's part? The dim-witted Chief himself is trying hard to impress the top leadership but, unfortunately, in a very rough and ready manner. Little does he realise that his future and his chance of climbing up the political ladder in UMNO is already bleak. A delegate from Kedah had this to say of him: "If he were to contest for the same post again, he would lose." They yap on Malay survival thinking that only UMNO could represent the Malays. They fail to realise that PAS has become a more popular party among the young and educated Malays. They woof at the Chinese considering them as a big threat to the Malays when they themselves are working with MCA and Gerakan Chinese parties. Just because a Chinese from DAP is helming a thriving Penang they try to bilk the delegates into thinking that soon a Chinese will eye for the prime minister's post. UMNO will never underscore the fact that Penang never had a chief minister other than a Chinese since Merdeka. Thus, all the hue and cry at the AGM is just a hypocrisy. Helps make the Opposition stronger The delegates at the AGM will prefer not to touch on money politics, corruption, financial leakages at all levels of governance and management, the poor state of the country's economy, the feudal mindset of the Malays and the many social problems faced by the Malay race. These, startlingly, are not central to party leaders and delegates. They prefer to adopt to worthless rhetoric tinged with emotions and hatred for others. By bashing the Opposition is not going to drag UMNO out from quicksand. It only helps make the Opposition stronger. The rhetoric on Chinese threats on Malay power is not going to sell either. Malaysians in general realise that no Chinese or Indian is interested in becoming the prime minister of the country. It is not the solemn ambition of any non-Malay in this country to become the prime Minister. Their heartfelt aspiration is to see a serene Malaysia for all the people to cherish. Let an accomplished and righteous Malay lead them. A delegate from Melaka had this to say: " We should have spent more time debating on how to resolve the many social problems facing the Malays rather than condemning the Opposition or the Chinese. By attacking the Opposition we are actually giving credits and more sympathy for them using our platform." Only one state headed by Chinese UMNO AGM is again used to offend the non-Malays. An Indian Muslim Youth leader of UMNO from Penang bleated with hot air, despising the Chief Minister (CM) of Penang with all the disparaging words he has picked up from his parents. He must have forgotten that Penang was also under a Chinese CM since Merdeka and there has not been a slightest whinge on this issue before this. Why the yelping and bellowing now when the majority Muslims in Penang are comfortable with the present State Government? UMNO is indeed giving the wrong impression to the people that the Chinese will take over the country if UMNO is weak This is a weird and unfounded theory by UMNO rumour mongers and it has offended the Chinese who MCA and Gerakan are trying hard to woo for UMNO. UMNO is bound to lose more votes in the coming general election for this irrational statement by its nutty leaders. UMNO is ignoring the fact that Malaysia is what it is now in terms of economic development hugely due to the diligent Chinese. The illustrious city landscapes in the country are Chinese contributions to the nation. The economy of the country is flourishing immeasurably due to the assiduous Chinese. The Chinese do not disguise themselves to become 'Malays' or UMNO members to achieve economic progress. This is unlike what the people on the ground observe is happening within UMNO. UMNO is now taken over by pseudo-Malays disguising themselves as the 'Indigenous' people. This, supposedly, is more of a threat to the real Malays and the Indigenous than the unpretentious Chinese or Indians. The next general election will most probably see the Opposition taking over the government with a simple majority. UMNO or the Malays have nothing to fret about. The country will still see only one state headed by a Chinese CM and that is in Penang. Penang has been traditionally headed by a Chinese and the progress of the state goes well without saying. All other Malaysian states – in all probability – will be headed by Malay CMs or Menteri Besar. So in this circumstances, will there be any difference between Barisan and the Opposition political status quo in the country? The only difference will be that the Opposition would, by all accounts, be more competent, responsible and transparent in governance of the country, as already seen in the present four states controlled by them. The modern Malays are aware of this. Thus UMNO's inane rhetoric on the Chinese or DAP threat does not carry weight at all. This publicity stunt by UMNO will make them lose more votes to the Opposition in the next general election. They have failed to grasp the fact that DAP to PAS and PKR is more or less analogous to what MCA and Gerakan are to UMNO; PAS and PKR will be akin to UMNO –- representing the majority Malays. A delegate from Sabah rightly said: "When we are politically wrong we need to have it corrected and diligently find solutions to ensure that the other races are not offended. A two-party system augurs well for the country. This is a wake-up call for all parties. The best party will be the people's choice."
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| Are you sure Malaysia is still a democracy? Posted: 03 Dec 2011 06:04 AM PST To measure success, there has to be a bench mark or a comparison to a similar situation elsewhere; we cannot compare Malaysia with Malaysia, it will prove nothing. However today, Malaysia is at crossroads in almost every aspect of our daily lives and activities; social, religious, economy, education and politics. Which nation should be compared to Malaysia at this point of time as the situation is much worse than that expected? Lest, readers should jump on Singapore – it is in a league in a league of its own. A popular 'dictatorship' is indeed a real rarity. So, let's compare Malaysia with Russia, which has just only experienced democracy in 1990. Russia has also experienced turmoil, upheavals, revolutions and has also been bailed out twice – once by the USA to the tune of about USD1 billion to stabilize the rouble in 1996, and another by the IMF and Japan amounting to USD 22.6 billion in 1998 under President Boris Yeltsin. These bailouts were necessary to prevent the Russian economic meltdown which would have affected the world's economy. Snap shots of early post perestroika Russia compared with Malaysia today Immediately after communism was rejected by the Russians with the fall and disintegration of the USSR in 1990 under Mikhail Gorbachev with his perestroika, the country turned chaotic without a coherent system of running the country. But it is a norm during the transition period for any mass changes or revolution. Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak too has his own version of change – the Economic Transformation Program. In Gorbachev's Russia, those in power were the same people from the Communist party but in different clothes. The most peculiar aspect of the Russian problem was the mafiya who got things done for the authorities; in fact they controlled the authorities. They are the big criminals, the ones called vory v zakone – thieves in law! They have their mafiya lieutenants, the brodyagi – pit bulls – to harass any stubborn citizens. Our Polis Di Raja Malaysia and the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission have apparently been acting that way too. Anyway, the pitbulls and the mafiya had the most advanced weapons, cars and all the good things in life that money could buy. The local government was so corrupt that fake items sold by street vendors were often of better quality then those supplied by government outlets. By the way, this has some similarity to Najib's Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia or KR1M products! Still, capitalism had arrived in Russia, wrapped in hope and glory. At that time though, it didn't seem as if it had come to save Russia, but to finish it off instead. The word "demokrad" grew to have two meanings; the first was obvious, the second was thief. Russia was then from its own citizens' point of view the vorovskoi mir – or thieves' world, and in which runs the krugovye poruki or family circle. This sounds quite familiar to the Shahrizat Jalil-family run NFC in Gemas but more so in terms of what the UMNO-BN government has done with our funds and resources thus far as one big family, helping themselves without being invited and often without permission. With capitalism, more foreigners continued to come to Russia and to be Russian is to be suspicious of foreigners. Look at what has happened in Malaysia – forreign workers fare better than many of the poorer Malaysians! The ordinary Russian citizens lamented, "It is one thing to be poor when you are building something. It is another thing to be poor so that some rich thief can get richer". Isn't the situation in Malaysia the same as this? Present day Russia Anyhow, that was before. The present day Russia has been able to get back its greatness, well at least it is much better off anyway, so much so that the Russian president was recently able to tell NATO-US that Russia would boost its strike nuclear capabilities if NATO refuses to cooperate with Moscow in the European missiles defense project. Contrast with Malaysia, who cannot even fire a single missile used by the RMAF fighter jets unless the US gave the password. This fact was admitted to by Mahathir not too long ago. We can't even control our borders against the tide of illegal immigrants marching in. A report in EUobserver in September this year that Russia is also in a position to help bail out another Eurozone economy. Eurozone member Cyprus is set to join Greece, Ireland and Portugal by seeking external aid to prop up its finances. But unlike the EU and IMF bail-out packages, its loans are to come from Russia with "no strings attached". In November, Reuters reported that Russia led a second USD 440 million bailout fund for Belarus part of a USD 3.0 billion package. Malaysia, on the other hand, may soon also be on the list of those who need bailing out. But by whom, is the question? The IMF? Won't it impose the strictest conditions with so many strings attached? Russia has also been able to tap its natural resources for development and its oil and gas are being supplied to almost all of the east European countries and many other natural resources are still waiting to be tapped. As for Malaysia's own natural resources – well, put it this way. We can't even get some decent discount although the country is a net exporter of oil!
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| UMNO - Yang boleh memerintah hanyalah AKU, yang boleh menjamin kehidupan kamu adalah AKU... ... Posted: 02 Dec 2011 10:46 PM PST Dalam pada itu pimpinan tertinggi menggunakan segala tenaga dan fikiran untuk membelasah pihak yang tidak mahu mengikut telunjuk mereka. Siapa sahaja yang tidak sebulu dengan UMNO atau pun BN, bermacam-macam nama di gunakan mereka untuk melabelkan seseorang yang tidak bersama mereka. Yang paling kuat sekali ialah TS Muhyiddin Yassin yang memanggil orang itu pembelot dan pengkhianat, seolah-olah mereka itu bukannya pengkhianat kepada bangsa dan negara mereka.Elok kita kupas sedikit tentang isu pembelot ini. Siapakah pembelot itu dalam konteks politik dan kenegaraan? Apa kah yang di lakukan oleh seseorang itu untuk boleh di labelkan sebagai pembelot? Definasi pembelot ini sangat luas jika dipandang dari sudut makronya. Tetapi biar kita berbahas dalam konteks politik pilihanraya yang hampir tiba ini. Pembelot dan pengkhianat negara boleh ditafsirkan sebagai sesiapa yang melakukan kejahatan kepada negara. Apa pula perkara-perkara yang dianggap jahat yang dilakukan kepada negara? Perkara-perkaranya banyak. Rasuah merupakan pembelotan terbesar kepada negara. Perasuah itu adalah pengkhianat, apatah lagi kalau dilakukan oleh mereka yang telah diberikan tanggungjawab untuk menjaga harta benda rakyat melalui pilihanraya. Perbuatan rasuah itu adalah satu dosa besar kepada negara. Dalam kejadian rasuah ianya melibatkan wang rakyat dan sesiapa yang menerima wang rasuah itu, ia adalah satu kegiatan mencuri. Mencuri wang rakyat adalah pengkhianat negara. Se sebuah negara yang baik, negara itu mesti berjuang untuk bersatu padu dan mempunyai tahap 'national unity' yang tinggi. Jika pemimpin-pemimpin terutamanya yang sedang memerintah bercakap dan bertindak dengan tujuan untuk memecah belahkan rakyat bagi mengambil kesempatan untuk mendapat undi dan sokongan dalam kekeliruan itu, pemimpin-pemimpin seperti ini adalah pengkhianat negara. Berkata-kata untuk memecah belahkan perhubungan baik di antara rakyat berbilang kaum itu merupakan pengkhianatan yang tidak terperi tahapnya kerana jika berlaku perpecahan itu yang bertanggungjawab adalah individu pemimpin atau parti yang melakukannya. Mereka yang melaga-lagakan rakyat yang berlainan agama dan kepercayaan itu juga merupakan pengkhianatan kepada rakyat dan negara. Kegiatan ini sedang giat dilakukan oleh pihak tertentu untuk menaikkan suhu perpecahan di antara rakyat yang berlainan agama bagi kepentingan politik untuk mempertahankan kuasa. DAP yang hampir kesemua ahlinya beragama Buddha, di tuduh mengkristiankan orang Melayu Islam. Semuanya ini adalah pengkhianatan kepada negara kerana ia boleh mencetuskan pergaduhan di antara rakyat yang berbilang agama dan kepercayaan.
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| A GLC director’s ‘politics of hatred’ in ‘Airport Spring’ Posted: 02 Dec 2011 06:27 AM PST  Unbecoming of a director of GLC rubbishing KSU of MOT in social media Then, in a campaign against MAHB's increase of airport tax, Fernandes did the sticker thing at AirAsia's home for the past six year, the low cost carrier terminal (LCCT).
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| Keeping It In The Family! – How Taib ‘The Godfather’ Corruptly Controls CMS Posted: 01 Dec 2011 08:40 AM PST To the contrary, we can name him as the 'Godfather' who blatantly controls most of the shares in Sarawak's largest public company, CMS. We can also show that he has further manipulated that power to produce maximum wealth for himself and his family, by ensuring that CMS does as much of its business as possible with other family firms. This practice is against stock exchange rules, because it is at the expense of other shareholders and the wider public. Mafia-style business boss This matter is all the more disgraceful, because CMS is a conglomerate that Taib himself created by privatising key assets that used to belong to the State of Sarawak. As Finance Minister and Chief Minister he caused valuable state interests like PPES, Steel Industries Sarawak and PCMS to be sold for knock down prices to CMS and then engineered extraordinary 'share-swaps' with cheap companies belonging to his own family members. This enabled the Taibs to take control of the majority of CMS shares by 1996! CMS continues to make its huge income from state monopolies and the massive public contracts handed to it (without proper open tendering) by Taib himself. By these means he has blatantly exploited his political power to enormously enrich himself.
Thus, although the Chief Minister has admitted it would be corrupt for him and his family to be involved in Sarawak business, our revelations show that this is exactly what he does on a massive scale through CMS, exploiting his political role to act as the mafia business boss of the State. Passing around the shares – and the top jobs! Our most recent revelations are based on the publicly recorded movement of shares within CMS. These show how huge chunks of the company have been passed round Taib's close family members, providing only one feasible explanation, which is that it is Taib himself who is controlling their ownership. To all intents and purposes, therefore, he created the company and he IS the owner! To cement this control over the company, Taib has also made sure that his family members occupy all the key management roles. However, again he has shifted round these positions between close family members, once more revealing the pattern of ultimate control by him. Onn Mahmud
Public documents show how in the early years, while his children were still students, the largest shareholder and main Director of CMS was Taib's brother Onn Mahmud. Onn was Taib's original key business proxy in Sarawak and abroad, until the brothers fell out in 2003. His name can also be found on all the documents relating to property companies linked to Taib's children in Canada and the US and also to Taib related companies in Hong Kong. According to research available at the London School of Economics, Onn acquired the family's first 27% stake in the publicly-owned CMS in 1989 for an undisclosed sum. This followed a shadowy deal with the Sabah Economic Development Corporation, which was reported as a 'share swop' between Sabah and Sarawak, but turned out to be a private acquisition by Onn (the Sarawak's Chief Minister's brother). According to CMS records, by April 2002 Onn, as Director and Group Chairman, owned over 30% of CMS shares. At that time Taib's two sons Sulaiman and Abu Bekir (Deputy Group Chairman and Group Executive Director) also owned a further 12% each.
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| Umno’s Cow Dung, No wonder fall in graft index Posted: 01 Dec 2011 08:30 AM PST Khalid was seen to be doing "Umno-putra service" by suddenly making the comment that critics said was meant to assure Umno members that Women's Chief Shahrizat Jalil and her family were innocent of any graft in the cattle livestock project. Khalid's remarks and Umno's strident defense of Shahrizat comes smack in the face of another sharp decline in the internationally-followed Corruption Perception Index. Malaysia fell to 60th position from 56 last year, and the result marked the third straight year of worsening on the widely-followed graft index. "It is suspicious that on all days, Khalid would choose to reveal the progress of the police investigation on NFC today when the Umno AGM goes into full swing. It shows that Umno is still abusing the institutions especially the police to do their dirty work for them," PKR vice president Tian Chua toldMalaysia Chronicle. "As for the CPI, it is a real warning. Umno is dragging down the country. It is the source of the greatest corruption and its refusal to admit it and put a stop to it will bankrupt us all. It is not the Pakatan, as Muhyiddin claims, which is trying to accuse the BN of wrongdoing. The CPI results speak for themselves. The index is is managed by Transparency International, which is a well established organization. "But to the Umno elite, there is corruption everywhere except in their party. Malaysians especially Malays must reject this sort of mentality and they must reject Umno for their own sakes. Till now, Umno defends Shahrizat and uses the police to make excuses for them and then lie to everyone that they are not guilty. It just shows how corrupt and immoral they have become." 74 people interviewed According to Khalid, the police have so far interviewed over 74 people in connection with the probe, including Shahrizat's family although she herself has not been asked to give a statement. "However, we are still continuing our investigation into the issue and will call the minister to record her statement if the need arises," said Khalid. The project was awarded to Sharizat's husband and children in 2006 and the Auditor-General has warned that the project was in a "mess" and could downspiral even further. Shahrizat has denied any involvement in the scandal, saying NFC had "nothing to do with me" although few Malaysians would ever believe her family – which has no track record in cattle breeding – could have won the project without her influence. PKR leaders have led the charge on NFC, which was launched to enable everyday Malaysians to buy beef at affordable prices. However, a shocking trail of revelations show that instead of using the RM250 million soft loan to set up satellite cattle farms and structure an effective distribution and supply chain, Shahrizat's family allegedly bought two super luxury condos in Bangsar for RM6.9 million each, gave a RM3 million discount to a family-own firm, bought a Mercedes CLS350 and residential land in Putrajaya worth some RM3.3 million, channeled half a million ringgit to a family firm in Singapore, as well as paid huge sums to a tour agency for alleged family holidays. Shahrizat's husbang Salleh Ibrahim has not denied the transactions occured, but insisted there was no corruption and that all the deals had the approval of NFC. However, critics point out that it did not make sense for a pilot livestock breeding project to plumb for plush condos, a super-high-end Merc and upmarket residential land – not mention why were discounts given and holidays charged to public money.
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This trinity of the DAP's alleged antipathies sums up what Umno construes as its raison d'etat, although given what had happened as recently as two decades ago, Umno cannot really be said to be for the royals.
Left unspoken is the subterranean fear that in Lim Guan Eng (right in photo) at least, the DAP may have a leader that ordinary Malays would eventually acknowledge as worthy of support for reasons that help explain Umno's slumping popularity: he has run a frugal and clean government in Penang enabling the administration to adopt the welfare aspects of a social democracy that are bound to impact beneficently on poor Malays; and he is presiding over an impressive revival of the state's industry through increased FDIs.
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