| Marina Mahathir and Bersih 2.0 Posted: 21 Jul 2011 10:33 AM PDT Is Marina Mahathir a genuine righteous person who will take on UMNO and her father in the interest of the Rakyat or is she merely a Mahathir strategy to crush Bersih from within? By Ken It appears that Datuk Marina Mahathir is preparing herself to join Ambiga and other Bersih leaders, as can be gleaned from her articles in the Star, Malaysiakini (see "Gov't feels threatened, says Marina" 18 Jul 2011), etc. about her "heroic" participation in Bersih 2.0. However, while it appears that she supports Bersih 2.0, her actions and non-actions cast significant doubts on this matter. Yes, she joined many others in criticizing the police and the UMNO government of their crackdown and threats before Bersih 2.0. If she was so committed to Bersih 2.0, why didn't she, a prominent supposedly human rights activist, play an active role in Bersih 2.0? After all, Ambiga had invited everyone to join Bersih 2.0, given its noble cause. It was clear to all that Bersih 2.0 would happen and that the UMNO government and police would suppress it violently with tear gas, water cannon, assault and arrests at the least. Ambiga and many thousands of others braved these threats against their personal safety in the interest of the nation and made Bersih 2.0 happen. There were a few prominent personalities who saw what was happening and wanted to ensure that they could continue to lay claim to championing democracy and human rights by positioning themselves in the march where they would be safe. It appears that this is the case with Marina Mahathir. If Marina had not written those articles, would we have known that she, a prominent personality, was in Bersih 2.0? If she had really believed in the ideals of Bersih 2.0, she should have been in the front on that date to face the tear gas, water cannon and police violence. If she had been there, would the police have been brave enough to direct all that violence towards the crowd led by her, knowing that they would meet the wrath of her father, the ever-powerful Tun Dr.Mahathir, who is very close to her? Writing about the event AFTER it has happened is for journalists and bloggers. People claiming to be champions and leaders must go beyond writing and act. Marina Mahathir did not act when the opportunity presented itself. While Marina has become particularly vocal lately on Bersih 2.0, Tun Dr. Mahathir, who is always ready to comment on any happening in the country or outside, has been relatively quiet, except for some light comments before the event and illogical comments after the event about Bersih 2.0 being a Malay vs non-Malay matter. Numerous people are praising Marina Mahathir for being very vocal, even if it is after Bersih 2.0, with some claiming that she is a righteous person, a great leader and a potential PM. It looks like that Datuk Marina Mahathir is ready to enter active politics in the light of growing support from Bersih supporters as well as UMNO/BN members who would surely not want to displease Tun Dr. Mahathir, knowing the Tun's powers and influence. What is also strange is that some individuals such as Mathias Chang who are closely associated with Tun Dr Mahathir (the advisor and brains behind Perkasa) have also become very critical of the UMNO government's handling of Bersih 2.0 (see Malaysia Today's "Barisan Nasional's sledge-hammer reaction to the Bersih Rally on 9th July 2011"), thereby lending further credence to Marina's active championing of Bersih. And to ensure that Marina's "efforts" with regards to Bersih 2.0 are not overlooked or ignored, harsh critics have emerged to present illogical arguments which put Marina in good light. An example is Wong Sai Kim's letter, "Open letter to Marina Mahathir's take on Bersih 2.0" in Malaysiakini (21 Jul 2011). Such an eloquently comprehensive letter should have been directed at Ambiga or Bersish 2.0, but Wong has chosen to direct it at Marina Mahathir. Why? If Bersih is successful, UMNO's fall is inevitable. If UMNO goes down, it will not just be Najib who will fall but also many, many others including Tun Dr Mahathir and his family and friends. With so much at stake, Bersih must be crushed and all possible strategies must be deployed. Is Marina Mahathir a genuine righteous person who will take on UMNO and her father in the interest of the Rakyat or is she merely a Mahathir strategy to crush Bersih from within? Her actions, and not mere words, will provide the answer. |
| A lie has robbed their freedom Posted: 21 Jul 2011 10:29 AM PDT
By P Ramakrishnan (President, Aliran) A lie has robbed six Malaysians of their precious freedom. For three weeks they have been locked up and put away unfairly and unjustly. Not a shred of evidence has been unearthed so far to justify their detention. Not an iota of proof has been disclosed to date to convince sceptical Malaysians that the action of the police has been honourable. A lie that robs innocent Malaysians of their human rights discredits the police beyond repair. A lie that denies access to lawyers for the detained six denigrates the rule of law and disgraces the Barisan Nasional government for not observing the principles of decency, truth and honesty. With this kind of unethical behavior, with this kind of human rights violations, does Malaysia deserve to occupy a seat in the United Nations Human Rights Council? This is a question that has to be asked by all justice-respecting Malaysians. This question has to be raised by the international community that voted in Malaysia for a place in the Human Rights Council. Please search your conscience and demand an answer. With each passing day, the BN's crime becomes unpardonable; with each passing day, it loses its credibility. No one believes that the government has done the right thing; no one believes that the government has done this in the interest of the nation. The common consensus among Malaysians is that the BN government has acted in a selfish manner to safeguard its self interest. When it comes to the preservation of the BN's hold on power, it throws caution to the winds, it sacrifices ethics and resorts to brute strength to hold on to power. Recently we witnessed how it conducted itself with regard to the Bersih "Walk for Democracy" rally, deploying the police to act harshly and cruelly. Even the sanctity of the grounds of a hospital was not spared or respected. The welfare of the hospital patients was callously ignored when the police went after the protesters seeking refuge in the hospital grounds. Back to Jeyakumar and his five companions. First they were charged with "waging war against the King". This charge within seven days collapsed as sheer nonsense and evaporated into thin air – but they were deprived of seven days of freedom in isolation. Then, they were released but in a show of mockery to the rule of law, they were immediately arrested and detained under the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance 1969 and whisked off to Bukit Aman, where they are being kept in solitary confinement. The intense interrogation and the long hours of questioning have taken a toll on Jeyakumar. For a person with a heart ailment, it is dangerously causing him a lot of stress and torment. He has had to be hospitalised twice within the span of two weeks. Third, in spite of the fact that he was first charged with treason and later with being a threat to the nation, he wasn't investigated for this. What they were interested in was to find out about the Bersih rally and related information. This irrevocably confirms the lie that Kumar and his companions were neither traitors to the nation nor a threat to the country. There are no moral grounds whatsoever to justify their continued detention. The BN's saving grace would be to release them unconditionally and immediately. Our plea is, don't perpetuate the lie. |
| Enough is enough. The PSM 6 must be released. Posted: 21 Jul 2011 10:23 AM PDT  Member of Parliament Dr M.Jeyakumar Please join us tomorrow afternoon and rally for their release. Date: Friday, 22 July
Time: 3.00pm
Venue: Ibu Pejabat PDRM, Bukit Aman
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121511867942164 If there is a case that exemplifies the third world basket case mentality of Malaysia's criminal justice system – this should be it. Perhaps universities around the world can use this as a case study on how state institutions like the police, judiciary, AG's Chambers can have all the infrastructures, resources, training, personnel, public relations, catchy mottos and Facebook pages they require but without accountability, transparency and checks and balances – they count for nothing. How else can you contextualise the fabricated "waging war" charges against the 30 PSM members based on some communist-inspired T-shirts and PSM literature? How else can you explain the excessive remand order from Sessions Court judge Amernudin Ahmad and affirmed by High Court judge Zamani Abdul Rahim? One wonders whether judges who attended the recent Commonwealth Magistrates' and Judges' Conference 2011 in Kuala Lumpur had a good laugh while listening to the PM's speech stating that Malaysia is committed to safeguarding and ensuring the continued independence of the judiciary. We certainly did! On 2 July, after being in detention for a week, 6 PSM leaders including Member of Parliament Dr. M. Jeyakumar were re-arrested and detained without trial under the Emergency Ordinance – this time for purportedly being the movers and shakers of Bersih 2.0. In the 37 affidavits filed in reply to the habeas corpus application fixed for hearing on 22 July at the KL High Court, no mention at all was made about waging war, Communism, Chin Peng, Rashid Maidin and other made up stories as alleged earlier. How dumb are these police and AG's Chambers officers? The movers and shakers of Bersih 2.0 are…get ready for this, the Bersih 2.0 Steering Committee! Their names can be found at Bersih's website – www.bersih.org (click on About BERSIH 2.0) and at the end of their press releases. And now apparently the AG's Chambers are trying to seek for an adjournment for tomorrow's hearing. Read more at: http://www.lawyersforliberty.org/2011/07/enough-is-enough-the-psm-6-must-be-released/ |
| Penyingkiran Timbalan Pengurus Besar (Pendidikan) Yayasan Selangor Posted: 21 Jul 2011 10:10 AM PDT Ilham telah mengarahkan supaya surat perpindahan Datin Sabariah dikeluarkan dengan segera. Ilham juga mengarahkan supaya semua aset milik Yayasan Selangor yang ada pada Datin Sabariah diambil semula. Datin Sabariah telah menyerahkan semua aset pada hari yang sama, 29 Oktober 2010. By Steffan Datin Sabariah Ahmad merupakan seorang kakitangan tetap Yayasan Selangor dan akan bersara wajib bila mencapai umur 55 tahun pada penghujung 2011. Beliau merupakan isteri kepada mantan Pengurus Besar Yayasan Selangor, Dato' Zurkarnain A. Rahman (1998-2000). Datin Sabariah dinaikkan jawatan sebagai Timbalan Pengurus Besar (Pendidikan) dengan tempoh percubaan selama enam bulan yang bermula dari 1 hb. Ogos 2010. Pada hari Jumaat 29 Oktober 2010, Pengurus Besar Yayasan Selangor, Ilham Marzuki telah berjumpa semua kakitangan di surau Menara Yayasan Selangor. Ilham membaca surat layang yang dihantar kepada ketua isteri beliau. Isteri Ilham bekerja di Jabatan Perancangan Ekonomi (EPU) di Putrajaya. Ilham mengesahkan KEBENARAN bahwa (a) dia, Ilham Marzuki adalah ahli PAS yang suka menyebut kata-kata lucah seperti pundek, pukimak, kongkek, babi dan (b) Timbalan Pengurus Besar (Pengurusan), Mohd Saifulruddin bin Sulaiman adalah seorang samseng setinggan yang memiliki banyak kereta. Di akhir perjumpaan itu, Ilham memberitahu kakitangan yang hadir bahwa penulis surat tersebut dilahirkan di Melaka dan dibesarkan di Johor. Orang-orang lama Yayasan membuat kesimpulan bahawa Datin Sabariah, Timbalan Pengurus Besar (Pendidikan) adalah orang dimaksudkan oleh Ilham. Selesai perjumpaan itu, Ilham telah mengarahkan supaya surat perpindahan Datin Sabariah dikeluarkan dengan segera. Ilham juga mengarahkan supaya semua aset milik Yayasan Selangor yang ada pada Datin Sabariah diambil semula. Datin Sabariah telah menyerahkan semua aset pada hari yang sama, 29 Oktober 2010. Surat perpindahan menyebut bahawa Datin Sabariah ditukar ke Bahagian Sumber Manusia SUK pada 1 November 2010. Pejabat SUK mempersoalkan perpindahan mendadak Datin Sabariah kerana lazimnya sebarang proses penempatan pegawai dari anak syarikat hendaklah dimulakan dengan permohonan rasmi dari Pengurus Besar anak syarikat kepada Pejabat SUK/Menteri Besar. Alasan yang diberikan oleh Ilham ialah Datin Sabariah tidak mampu menjalankan tugas-tugas sebagai Timbalan Pengurus Besar (Pendidikan) dengan memuaskan. Datin Sabariah telah diturunkan pangkat dan gaji dan elaun-elaun sebagai Timbalan Pengurus Besar telahpun ditarik balik. Semasa ditempatkan di Bhg Sumber Manusia SUK, Datin Sabariah telah cuba untuk mendapatkan bantuan Setiausaha Politik MB, Puan Faekah dan MB sendiri untuk dipindahkan balik ke pejabat beliau di Yayasan Selangor, Petaling Jaya. Malangnya beliau tidak mendapat layanan yang sewajarnya. Pada 1 Disember 2010 Datin Sabariah telah menulis surat kepada MB Selangor menyatakan ketidakpuasaan hati beliau terhadap tindakan memindahkan beliau ke SUK tanpa sebarang alasan yang munasabah. Di dalam surat berkenaan Datin Sabariah telah memberi tempoh kepada MB untuk memindahkan beliau kembali ke jawatan Timbalan Pengurus Besar (Pendidikan) atau bersedia untuk menghadapi tindakan perundangan. Datin Sabariah diarah pulang ke Yayasan Selangor tetap tidak dibenarkan kembali ke Pejabat Timbalan Pengurus Besar (Pendidikan) di Menara Yayasan Selangor, PJ. Sebaliknya beliau ditempatkan di Asrama Yayasan Selangor, Kuala Lumpur. Datin Sabariah telah meletakkan jawatan pada pertengahan Disember 2010 dan membuat aduan kepada Jabatan Perhubungan Perusahaan Negeri Selangor. Kes beliau telah didengar pada bulan Mac 2011. Sehingga kini masih belum ada sebarang keputusan muktamad dicapai. |
| Malaysia’s Political Awakening: A Call for US Leadership Posted: 21 Jul 2011 08:08 AM PDT 
On elections, the US Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices declares that Malaysian opposition parties are unable to compete on equal terms with the governing UMNO-dominated coalition because of restrictions on campaigning and freedom of assembly and association. by John R. Malott, Asia Pacific Bulletin A Malaysian recently wrote to me, "Most Americans don't know or even care where Malaysia is." Even among the so-called foreign policy elite, little attention is paid to Malaysia. There are few American academics who specialize in domestic Malaysian politics, and except for hosting visits by senior Malaysian leaders, think tanks and universities hold few Malaysia-themed programs. US newspaper and magazine reports are few, with most articles focusing on tourism and the delights of Malaysian cuisine. As a result, there is a tendency among Americans to hold an idealized (and outdated) image of Malaysia as a successful multi-racial and multi-religious paradise, an Asian economic dynamo, and a stable and moderate Muslim democracy. As a result of this deficit of informed analysis of Malaysia, there has been a failure to notice the internal political and economic changes unfolding within Malaysia over the past few years. The reality today, as one Australian expert puts it, is that the situation is the "most fluid and dangerous" in Malaysia's history. The Events of July 9 – A Date for the History Books Because of this attention shortfall, the events of July 9, 2011 came as a surprise. On that day, tens of thousands of Malaysians—who have been ranked on Hofstede's Power Distance Index as the most submissive to authority of any people in the world—chose to defy their government and join a "Walk for Democracy." They heeded the call of Bersih 2.0, a coalition of 62 non-governmental organizations that calls for free and fair elections. In the days before the rally, the Malaysian government cracked down. It rounded up 200 leaders associated with the movement, claiming that they were "waging war against the King" and planning to overthrow the government. It declared both the Bersih coalition and the planned rally illegal, and in a truly bizarre action, it declared the color yellow—Bersih's signature color—illegal. Malaysian citizens were arrested for possessing Bersih literature or wearing yellow T-shirts. The police established roadblocks around the city and banned 91 Bersih and opposition leaders from entering the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. By the morning of July 9, the city was in total lockdown. Then something remarkable happened. As Ambiga Sreenevasan, the distinguished attorney who leads Bersih put it, the Malaysian people showed that they no longer would be intimidated by their government. They chose to march, knowing that they would be met by tear gas, chemical-laced water cannon, and police batons. Even after Bersih's leadership was arrested, Malaysians of all ages, races and religions continued their "Walk for Democracy" through the streets of Kuala Lumpur. They locked arms, they sang their national anthem and "We Shall Overcome," they blew bubbles and carried flowers. They were peaceful. The only muscle seen that day was the heavy hand of the police. Human Rights Watch later called the use of force excessive, the 1,670 arrests unwarranted, and the police attacks on marchers unprovoked. This repression by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his government drew international condemnation, and it also put a lie to Najib's two-year effort to portray himself as a modern, liberal-minded leader. More importantly, and of greater concern to Najib and his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party—the main party that has ruled Malaysia continuously since independence in 1957—is that it awakened a new generation of Malaysians. It is too soon to know whether the movement for electoral reform and the establishment of true democracy in Malaysia will be sustained. If it is, then July 9 will be remembered as a turning point in Malaysia's history. Just How Free and Democratic is Malaysia? Why should a government be so afraid of a call for fair elections? Like his predecessors, Najib claims that demonstrations will lead to chaos, even though the right of assembly is guaranteed by the nation's constitution and is commonplace in any true democracy. As for free and fair elections, Najib says that Malaysia already has them; if not, then opposition parties would not have achieved the gains they made in the 2008 elections, when they received 47% of the popular vote and took control of five states. Opposition parties counter that if elections truly were fair and free, they would form the government and not the UMNO-led coalition. Political rhetoric aside, Malaysia's electoral system has been analyzed by academics in Australia, Malaysia, the United States, and elsewhere. In addition, the state of Malaysia's political freedom has been assessed by many international groups. The Economist Intelligence Unit, for example, labels Malaysia a "flawed democracy" in its Democracy Index. Freedom House says that Malaysia is only "partly free." Reporters Without Borders places Malaysia 141st out of the 178 countries in its Press Freedom Index. On elections, the US Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices declares that Malaysian opposition parties are unable to compete on equal terms with the governing UMNO-dominated coalition because of restrictions on campaigning and freedom of assembly and association. "News of the opposition," the report says, is "tightly restricted and reported in a biased fashion." Academics point to the Election Commission's gerrymandering, which creates highly imbalanced districts that favor the ruling party, where the number of voters per electoral district can range from 7,000 to over 100,000. Over the years there have been numerous credible reports of the use of phantom voters, stuffed ballot boxes, vote-buying, and abuse of government resources to attract votes. In Sarawak's state elections this past April, Prime Minister Najib was caught on video, blatantly telling a village gathering that his government would give them US$1.5 million for a local project, but only if they elected his candidate. What Should Be Done? Malaysia's government may assert otherwise, but the evidence is overwhelmingly on Bersih's side. Malaysia is not a full democracy, and its elections are neither free nor fair. Malaysian citizens have awakened to that fact. Now the world's democracies need to stand on the right side of Malaysia's future. The United States has a multitude of interests in Malaysia, one of which is to help strengthen democracy and the rule of law. Human rights groups have condemned what they call the US Government's "lukewarm" response to the events of July 9. This is a moment when the United States, which named Bersih's leader Ambiga Sreenevasan an International Woman of Courage in 2009, can show the same courage and make a difference in the life of a nation. John R. Malott was the US Ambassador to Malaysia, 1995-1998, and continues to follow developments in that country closely. The Asia Pacific Bulletin (APB) series is published by the East-West Center, which promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. Established by the US Congress in 1960, the Center serves as a resource for information and analysis on critical issues of common concern, bringing people together to exchange views, build expertise, and develop policy options. |
| WIKILEAKS: MALAYSIA'S POLITICAL CRISIS Posted: 21 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT 
The ruling elite maintains control over the security apparatus through party stalwarts who run the security institutions, mainly the police but also the military. We believe the military will remain loyal to legitimate leadership and is not a likely tool to overturn an elected, royally-approved and Malay-led government from either the ruling or opposition side. The police, on the other hand, follow orders from the ruling party. THE CORRIDORS OF POWER Raja Petra Kamarudin 
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 KUALA LUMPUR 000644 SIPDIS FOR EAP AND INR SINGAPORE - PASS TO ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/22/2028 TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, KDEM, KJUS, MY SUBJECT: MALAYSIA'S POLITICAL CRISIS REF: A. KUALA LUMPUR 609 - UMNO RESISTS REFORM B. KUALA LUMPUR 160 - ELECTION SHOCK Classified By: AMBASSADOR JAMES R. KEITH, FOR REASON 1.4 (B AND D). Summary and Introduction 1. (C) The next four weeks will be a telling period in the history of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) rule in Malaysia. For the first time in its fifty-year dominance, UMNO is faced with a multi-racial opposition alliance that has some credible prospect for forming the next government. To date, it appears the ruling party finds this situation intolerable. UMNO leaders, united behind but also in a sense using Prime Minister (PM) Abdullah, have made it clear that they are willing to blacken Malaysia's reputation to ensure the end to opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's political challenge. The coming Parliamentary session in the latter half of August is the next likely setting for a showdown, and could precipitate another arrest of Anwar if he is deemed to be doing to well politically between now and then. Conversely, if the ruling party concludes it has him boxed in UMNO may be content to use short-term measures such as judicial restraining orders and the like to prevent him from addressing and attracting a national audience. 2. (C) We should continue to speak out publicly in support of the rule of law, taking care not to undermine our principled position by being perceived to be too close to the opposition. If the authorities escalate their rhetoric in anticipation of another arrest of Anwar, we will need to adjust accordingly. If, on the other hand, the ruling party restrains itself from arresting Anwar again in August, we will want to consider our longer-term approach to a period of prolonged uncertainty. For the time being, we should continue to press hard the bilateral initiatives currently underway as these are tied directly to profound U.S. interests and support the development of a more transparent and accountable set of systems in Malaysian government and society. As we begin to develop our public diplomacy programs for the coming fiscal year, we will seek to give pride of place to the rule of law. End Summary and Introduction. What does UMNO want? 3. (C) The ruling party wants to stay in power indefinitely, and that means Anwar and the multi-racial opposition front he is leading must fail. At least so far, there is scant evidence of a more thoughtful and forward-looking analysis within UMNO. In fact, the ruling party could find some common ground with the opposition if it were willing to countenance gradual development of a two-party system of checks and balances. Instead, the ruling party defines national security primarily as a matter of protecting UMNO's superiority and ensuring that "people power," or a level electoral playing field, cannot become the opposition's means of toppling the ruling party. How is UMNO getting what it wants? 4. (C) The ruling party is relying primarily on its own party structure and the embedded system of carrots and sticks to keep party membership in line. As in other one-party states, the party is seen opportunistically as a mechanism for personal advancement and enrichment. There is an ideological component, in terms of Malay supremacy, but that is in practice a matter of institutionalized opportunism. In good times UMNO can maintain control by distributing power and money to get what it wants. In bad times, it uses the stick, and for now that means intimidation. The ruling elite maintains control over the security apparatus through party stalwarts who run the security institutions, mainly the police but also the military. We believe the military will remain loyal to legitimate leadership and is not a likely tool to overturn an elected, royally-approved and Malay-led government from either the ruling or opposition side. The police, on the other hand, follow orders from the ruling party. The "commando-style" arrest of Anwar last week, the roadblocks and security checks throughout the city of Kuala Lumpur, the recent arrest of blogger Raja Petra, intimidation of Sabah politicians, and the authorities' strident rhetoric are all part of a broad message to the Malaysian people that they had better not stand in UMNO's path. In today's Malaysia, one can get along by going along (and of course one can go farther as a Malay rather than a Chinese or Indian), but it is also true that one can be run over. We only have anecdotal evidence for this, but the sad spiral into past patterns may have become the predicate for some middle and upper class Malaysians who have the option of emigrating. Rather than wait to be run over, it is far preferable to get out of the game. What happened to post-election reforms? 5. (C) It is deja vu all over again. Just as in Abdullah's first term, characterized by lofty rhetoric in support of political reform but virtually no action, after the March elections Abdullah's prominent reform initiatives seem to have evaporated into nothing (ref A). Despite strong popular support for political reform, there is evidently even stronger opposition to reform within the ruling party. Those who have the most to lose through reform are the same ruling elites, including Abdullah's own circle, who must be persuaded to allow reform to happen. It would take strong leadership to push that sort of initiative through the party structure, perhaps going over the heads of party elites and enlisting the support of the masses. Abdullah doesn't seem to have that kind of leadership in him, even if that were his goal. 6. (C) Instead, the ruling party seems intent on sustaining the patina of reform without actually undertaking any step that might genuinely involve systemic change or weakening of executive power. For example, against the backdrop of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's arrest, last week the government arrested a number of immigration officials for corruption. These men are to be forgiven for wondering, "why me?" Of all who might be prosecuted, including the most senior leaders or their families, why these relative small fry? Through their sacrifice UMNO can claim action against corruption without actually doing much of anything. What does Anwar want? 7. (C) This question is not as easily answered as one might think. For the short term, he wants to be Prime Minister. First and foremost Anwar is a pragmatist, as evidenced by his ability to yoke together in an opposition front the Islamist party (PAS) and the Chinese. What are his firm guiding principles? What are the limits of his ability to compromise or accommodate? We are not sure. It was clear, for example, that he tolerated PAS's use of America as a political foil during the recent campaign season, and opposition foreign policy announcements on Mideast issues since the election have tended to follow PAS lines. But broadly speaking, he wants political liberalization and he can be expected to be an ardent supporter of the rule of law and a market economy, given his personal history. Malaysian foreign policy might not change as much as we would like to think under and Anwar government, especially in areas relating to Islam and the Middle East in which PAS will have an important say. 8. (C) For now, we may have to content ourselves with identifying what Anwar does not want. He does not want to be boxed in and made irrelevant by UMNO, or jailed. Anwar currently speaks in terms of "becoming Prime Minister or going to jail," as an either/or proposition. At age 61, he does not want to let slip what may be his last, best chance to lead the Malaysian government. He also does not want arch-nemesis DPM Najib Tun Razak to become Prime Minister, as Anwar believes Najib is much more likely than Abdullah to use harsh authoritarian measures to stop him and the Opposition. What will happen in the months ahead and what should we do? 9. (C) UMNO will try to keep Anwar on the defensive and prevent him from winning defections to his opposition front from the ruling party's coalition. The loose coalition of UMNO loyalists who seem to have banded together around Abdullah will likely try to limit the cost of each step they feel they must take to contain and eventually eradicate Anwar's influence. If they can preserve the status quo without putting Anwar in jail on the sodomy charge perhaps they will do so, content to keep it as a ready tactic to deploy against him whenever necessary. If Anwar is unwilling to remain boxed in by that tactic, and history suggests precisely this outcome, the authorities seem entirely prepared to put him in jail for a longer period of time. The government has taken a strong stand against popular street demonstrations, hoping to prevent Anwar from developing the kind of national popular response that will be necessary to create an environment in which he can win converts from the ruling party coalition. 10. (C) The skirmishing around these objectives will continue throughout July and August, and we can expect the opposition to seek to up the ante the closer we get to the Parliamentary session in the latter half of August. The initiative rests with Anwar. If he goes quiet, his political hopes fade and his personal freedom is more secure in the coming weeks; over a longer period Anwar sees himself as vulnerable to jailing or government action unless he removes himself from politics. The greater his political success, the greater a threat he is to UMNO, and the more his personal freedom becomes problematic. 11. (C) We need to continue to speak with authority from Washington and this Embassy in support of the broad principles underlying the debate in Malaysia. We should avoid undermining our principled position, and the opposition parties themselves, by appearing too close to the personalities involved, especially Anwar. Publicly, our words should continue to revolve around universal values, the criticality of the rule of law to every dimension of our bilateral relationship and Malaysia's political and economic success. 12. (C) Privately, we will want to underline the futility of the Malaysian effort to deny the political nature of the crisis before them. Whatever they believe about the "facts" of the sodomy case, at this point the ruling party has no chance of success in conveying to the Malaysian or international audience that this is merely a case of one citizen's charge against another. The authorities themselves betray that fiction on a daily basis in the pages of the domestic press, and barely one in ten Malaysians are buying into the party line a survey tells us. UMNO leaders may fail to grasp the consequences of upping the ante; they hear what we are saying, but do not understand sufficiently well how difficult it will be for them to overcome the shadows they are casting on the country. They no doubt thought they were choosing the more palatable path in using the criminal law, and thus the sodomy charge, rather than detaining Anwar as a matter of national security under the Internal Security Act. But contrary to their intent, many in the international community will take this as escalation. Now the criminal law is laid bare as a political tool, just as useful to the ruling party as the national security law. What is the long-term horizon for bilateral ties? 13. (C) Most of our relationship already hews tightly to the principle of mutual benefit. Our liaison, law enforcement, military, and commercial ties are well developed and tied directly to key national interests on both sides. Regardless of the heat of the rhetoric between us, I would expect Malaysia to seek to preserve the core relationships it has with us. With regard to the political dimension of our policy, Malaysia already has a less than inspiring record at the UN and is keen to preserve its options with the likes of the Nonaligned Movement. It may not be possible for Malaysia to become less helpful in international political areas identified with the United States, and it is unlikely to retreat in areas that are primarily multilateral (peacekeeping, for example). The biggest costs to us over the long term if Malaysia continues to undermine its own legal system are precisely in the domestic legal arena. 14. (C) Much of the promise of our bilateral ties is rooted in the notion of a transition towards a thriving civil society and robust rule of law in Malaysia. We wish to expand our export control and non-proliferation cooperation with Malaysia, for example. It is neither in our interest nor Malaysia's for this country to become increasingly a place where smugglers can do good business. Thwarting such a development (or rolling it back) requires a sophisticated set of export control laws and robust enforcement by a strong and secure government, not one struggling to justify itself to its citizens. Despite the local paranoia about U.S. intervention in internal affairs, our influence is actually being brought to bear to support and promote precisely those objectives that most Malaysians want for their own benefit. 15. (C) If the authorities are able to get through the next several months without doing fatal damage to the rule of law in Malaysia, I hope the public diplomacy dimension of our bilateral ties will take on a decidedly more legal and judicial cast. We should push ahead with our FTA talks if possible because that serves both our own economic interests as well as the broader goal of establishing more transparent and accountable systems in this country. In addition, to try to bring public focus to the centrality of the rule of law in our ties, we might want to organize visits in the short and medium term by a Supreme Court Justice, the Attorney General, and representatives of the American Bar Association. We will also review our international visitor program and other people-to-people exchanges in the coming fiscal year to ensure a central focus on the rule of law. My speeches and those of my staff will put the rule of law at the center. 16. (C) We will continue to monitor closely the situation for signs that more robust policy responses are needed. In the meantime, we should continue to exploit every opportunity for authoritative bilateral exchange to ensure we have done all we can to open Malaysian leaders' eyes to the international costs of efforts that diminish the rule of law. KEITH |
| Ahmad Sarbani’s death: the lies and deceptions by the MACC (part 9) Posted: 21 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT |
| DSAI...I think therefore I write Posted: 20 Jul 2011 09:59 PM PDT 
STEADYAKU47 Kemana kita pergi sekarang? Where do we go from here? The chatter from those that do read what I have written these last few weeks on DSAI is mixed….but in the majority gunning for me lock stock and barrel. Them are the breaks when you dare to put your thoughts into the public domain…but I am not moved either way. Back up a bit and let us think….or to be more exact..let me think and as I think I will put my thoughts on paper…you read and you think! Do I write for money? Yes! I will write for a magazine, for newspaper for anybody if the money is right and if what I am told to write is something I want to write about. …understand this….I cannot write to order. I cannot keep hantaming Najib and BN/UMNO if I have nothing to write about. You guys are not stupid – you can read and work out in your head if what I write if true or false, right or wrong, lies or truth. And I am referring to the majority of you. There will always be a few who will insists that a Biduan and Banduan are one and the same thing – and there is even one who has insisted that I have a brother by the name of Katib! But that is the world we live in…what I hope to do is to "talk" to those of you who wants to listen to what I have to say...and I will give you the courtesy to listening to you back. As I have said earlier – I cannot write bad about Najib if I have nothing bad to write about him….and again "bad" is subjective. Anything is subjective depending on which side of the fence you are standing on. But you and I know that you cannot play Rugby with a Soccer ball. Nor can you play tennis with a badminton racket. Here in Australia the Prime Minister Julia Gillard lives in the Prime Minister residence with her partner – not a husband – but a partner. To all intents and purpose, he is her official "husband" – going on official visits and any state functions. This kind of arrangement will never be tolerated in Malaysia. In Malaysia too if you are a Muslim you cannot be found eating in public during Ramadan. I think you get my drift – if you profess to be a Muslim, which Anwar does – what he does in his private and public life must conform to the Islamic way of things. Just because UMNO leaders have indulged in unislamic activities does not make it okay for other Muslim leaders to do so! Just because UMNO had indulged in corruption, nepotism and serious abuse of their position in public office should not in any way allow us to even shut one eye to any failings of anyone if that someone is aspiring to be a leader in Malaysia. If we do so, for whatever reason, we run the risk of allowing that leader to second guess us as to what he can and cannot do in government. You want to know what it is that I have to tell about Anwar that you do not know? You know that he was part and parcel of that corrupt and arrogant UMNO when he was in UMNO. But do you know how corrupt and how arrogant Anwar was then? You know that he has been accused of sodomy – not once but twice. Do any of you know for sure that he did commit sodomy? He has been accused by the 3 Datuks of having sex with a prostitute. Do any of you know for sure whether he did or did not do so? 99.999% of you simply have no clue of the real truth…but that does not prevent you from jumping to Anwar's defence! Of course Anwar has been unfairly reviled, harassed and accused of so many things by UMNO. So has Najib, so has Mahathir and Pak Lah. The truth is known to so few and it is only when the few tell their story that the 99.999% will know the real story. The real story about Anwar is still to be told. READ MORE HERE |
| Stop making more wrong turns, BN told Posted: 20 Jul 2011 09:16 PM PDT 
MIC central working committee member S Vell Paari tells BN to stop dumping salt into the July 9 wound. (Free Malaysia Today) - Barisan Nasional should stop making one wrong turn after another with regard to the Bersih 2.0 rally, said MIC central working committee member S Vell Paari. Expressing regret over the harsh reaction to the rally from the onset, he warned that the July 9 episode had left a gaping wound and it was counter productive for BN to continue dumping salt into it. "Let us put aside Bersih 2.0′s call for electoral reforms, what is also needed is a total reformation in BN, where its leaders should learn to handle a crisis in a more diplomatic manner instead of using tear gas and water cannons to silence dissenting views," he told FMT. Vell Paari noted that Bersih 2.0 had a bone to pick with the Election Commission, but the unwarranted actions and threats from the authorities made it seem that the coalition was against BN. Commenting on the Tung Shin Hospital incident, he said the police should apologise if it had fired tear gas into the compound and not attempt to skirt around the issue when there were many videos and photographs to back the claim. "Sometimes in a tensed situation, there is a possibility that an overzealous policeman may make a mistake, and the police should just admit this instead of going into denial mode," he said. The game has changed Vell Paari said that the game of politics in Malaysia had changed tremendously over the years, but the politicians in BN still refused to adapt and held on to antiquated strategies. "We cannot operate like how we did 10 or 20 years ago, everyone has access to information, almost everyone is walking around with a smart phone – with just a click of the button, information comes pouring. "In order to argue its case, BN must engage its opponents and critics on the same wavelength and not invoke security laws, deploy the police or ban T-shirts," he added. Concurring with Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, Vell Paari said the six Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) leaders held under the Emergency Ordinance should be released. "Their continued detention will only make things worse for BN and the repercussions will be felt in the next general election," he added. READ MORE HERE |
| Teoh’s sister: My brother was murdered Posted: 20 Jul 2011 09:04 PM PDT 
Teoh Beng Hock's family rejects the RCI findings that he committed suicide and will consider a judicial review. (Free Malaysia Today) - The family of Teoh Beng Hock said today that they rejected the findings of the Royal Commission Inquiry (RCI) that Teoh had committed suicide due to aggressive interrogation techniques by three Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers. Teoh's sister Teoh Lee Lan told reporters that the family cannot accept the report's conclusion that her brother had been driven to suicide, saying that her brother was not a weak individual. "We cannot accept the (RCI's) conclusion… that he was driven to suicide. That is not an answer to us," she said . The clearly distraught and angry Lee Lan said that RCI report still failed to provide answers. Although it had pointed to bad interrogation techniques, it fell short of stating that Teoh was murdered. "(The report) showed that he was badly tortured. But did they prove that Beng Hock was murdered? These RCI finding shows how bad MACC procedure is. (But) it did not tell us what really happened to Beng Hock,"she said. "It is not an answer for us. We will continue to fight for justice." Lee Lan, who was reduced to tears during the press conference, said that her brother was not weak. Minister in the Prime Minister's department Nazri Abdul Aziz said earlier that the RCI conclusion was also supported by forensic psychiatrist Dr Paul Mullen, who was engaged by the Bar Council. Mullen had said that Teoh's risk of committing suicide soared drastically due to the long hours of aggressive interrogation. Lee Lan also said that the MACC had killed her sibling, quoting many eye-witnesses who have recounted their experiences during RCI proceedings. "They killed him. This fact we know," she said adamantly. Lee Lan also slammed the government saying: "The RCI report merely tell us that the government doesn't want to bear the responsibility. They used some improper manner, but nobody tells who should bear the responsibility." "We will not compromise, we will go nationwide and tell all that you are an irresponsible government." 'Time needed to study report' Meanwhile, family lawyer, Karpal Singh, said that more time was need in order to study the report carefully before deciding on the next course of action. He added that they will most likely decide on the matter next week. Asked if any legal criminal charges can be taken against the three MACC interrogators, Karpal said that the focus should instead be on the RCI conclusion that Teoh had committed suicide. READ MORE HERE |
| Veterans to attend Amanah launch Posted: 20 Jul 2011 08:53 PM PDT 
Haris Ibrahim of MCLM will also be attending the AMANAH launch Former ministers and elected reps are expected to dominate the inauguration of Tengku Razaleigh's NGO (Free Malaysia Today) - The launch of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's Angkatan Amanah Merdeka tomorrow is expected to draw some political veterans, including former MCA president Ong Tee Keat and former MIC deputy president S Subramaniam. Others who may attend are former minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, Penang Malays Association president Yusoff Latiff and a few leaders from Sabah and Sarawak. But sources said the crowd would be dominated by members of Mubarak, the association of former elected representatives. Kita president Zaid Ibrahim has confirmed his attendance, saying he supported Tengku Razaleigh's initiative "one hundred percent" and that the new NGO would be a palliative against the current politicking that had turned the country into a "combat zone". It is learnt that not many prominent leaders from either Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat would attend. PAS vice-president Husam Musa said some PAS members might attend, not necessarily to join Amanah, but to give it moral support because the party and the NGO upheld similar principles. Invitations were sent through SMS last night. One of the recipients was Kelantan opposition leader Alwi Che Ahmad, but he told FMT the launch conflicted with another event he had to attend. Meanwhile, individuals close to Tengku Razaleigh have dismissed speculation that he intended to quit Umno, saying he still believed that the party could be reformed from within. READ MORE HERE |
| Aggressive Interrogation? How Aggressive? Posted: 20 Jul 2011 08:37 PM PDT 
MASTERWORDSMITH-UNPLUGGED The Royal Commission of Inquiry ruled that political aide Teoh Beng Hock committed suicide due to the aggressive questioning by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officials. "Having considered all the evidence in its entirety, we found that Teoh was driven to commit suicide by the aggressive, relentless, oppressive and unscrupulous interrogation to which he was subjected by certain officers of the MACC who were involved in the ongoing operation by the Selangor MACC on the night of the July 15 (2009) into the morning of the 16th," the report said.
The 124-page report said that Teoh's frame of mind after hours of interrogation would have been "almost a mental and physical wreck" and the only way out was by "jumping out of the window".
"By the fourth or final stage of the interrogation was over, TBH would have been almost a mental and physical wreck. When (Selangor MACC officer) Ashraf (Mohd Yunos) fetched him a glass of water, Teoh was said to have sat up very slowly.
"These intense stages of interrogation must have created serious doubts in Teoh's mind as regards his actions in relation to his duties as (Selangor exco) Ean's (Yong Hian Wah) political secretary.
"Signing his name but affixing Ean's seal, the absence of at least three quotations before awarding of a project or programme, the alleged kickbacks to the DAP, the direct awards of projects and fixing prices to goods required for projects also weighed heavily on his mind," the report stated.
The report stated other contributing factors which caused Teoh to be in an imbalance state of mind were sleep deprivation, an uncomfortable and unfamiliar environment as well as being held in custody for a long time. READ MORE HERE |
| If it’s nonsense then explain Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:30 PM PDT 
By saying that what I wrote about the Sarbaini death is nonsense does not explain his death. What I wrote might be nonsense but Shafee Abdullah does not explain how Sarbaini died. And if he did not commit suicide and neither was he murdered, then how did he end up dead on the ground floor? NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) lawyer has dismissed as nonsense the claims of Raja Petra Kamarudin regarding the death of Customs officer Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed.
Datuk Seri Shafee Abdullah told The Malaysian Insider that most of the witnesses and forensic experts in the ongoing coroner's inquest into how the Selangor Customs assistant director fell to his death at the Kuala Lumpur MACC office on April 6 have so far ruled out both suicide and homicide.
"Raja Petra is talking nonsense. I believe this allegation will not affect the inquest. He is history," Shafee said of the Malaysia Today news portal editor. *************************************
In April 1982, the State Assemblyman for Tampin, Negeri Sembilan, Datuk Mohd Taha Talib, was found shot dead. The then Culture, Youth and Sports Minister, Datuk Mokhtar Hashim, was arrested and later convicted in connection with the murder.
The bullet that killed Taha Talib came from Mokhtar Hashim's gun. And Mokhtar Hashim could not explain how come his gun was used to commit the murder and if it was not him then who pulled the trigger?
There was of course a witness, one of the people involved in the murder. And since he fingered Mokhtar Hashim and Mokhtar Hashim could not rebut that allegation then he must surely have been the one who pulled the trigger. After all, it was his gun.
In 1999, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was convicted of corruption (and later sodomy) because, according to the judge, he failed to convince the court of his innocence. So, since he could not prove his innocence, it must be assumed he is guilty.
Yes, according to the law, one is innocent until proven guilty. However, in high profile cases, it appears like one is guilty unless one can prove one's innocence. Was that not what I too was subjected to?
I was twice detained under the Internal Security Act, in 2001 and 2008, because there was a suspicion I may be guilty of a crime. While in the Kamunting Detention Center I was brought before the Review Board so that I can argue my case and convince the Board that my detention was not justified. If I failed to do that then I would be detained without trial indefinitely.
In other words, the government says you are guilty. Convince us, the Review Board, you are not.
I was further charged for various crimes and was made to face trial. In the four charges that I faced, the truth of the matter is not material to the charge. The court only needs to establish whether I did what I was alleged to have done. Whether what I did was based on the truth or lies is not important. Even if it were the truth I would still be guilty and would be sent to jail.
This is how the game has been played all along. You are not innocent until proven guilty. You are guilty if you can't prove your innocence. You are not guilty only if you lied. You are guilty even if you tell the truth.
This was what Mokhtar Hashim, Anwar Ibrahim, I, as well as many other people, have been subjected to. Have they changed the rules of the game since then? I did not make the rules. I am just playing by their rules.
It is so convenient for Shafee Abdullah to brush of what I said as nonsense. Was Mokhtar Hashim able to brush off the murder allegation as nonsense by saying, "Just because it is my gun does not mean I shot Taha Talib."?
Was Anwar Ibrahim able to brush of the allegation of corruption and sodomy as nonsense by saying, "You don't have evidence of any crime being committed other than the testimony of one witness who admitted under oath that he had been coached by the police as to what to say and who confessed under oath that he was never sodomised."?
Was I able to brush off the many allegations against me as nonsense when they detained me without trial and denied me the right to defend myself in a trial in an open court?
By saying that what I wrote about the Sarbaini death is nonsense does not explain his death. What I wrote might be nonsense but Shafee Abdullah does not explain how Sarbaini died. And if he did not commit suicide and neither was he murdered, then how did he end up dead on the ground floor?
That needs explaining. So, if what I wrote is nonsense, then how did Sarbaini die? Explain that.
And while we are at it maybe Shafee Abdullah can explain all these other 'nonsense' as well.
What happened to about 22 hours of CCTV recordings at the MACC Jalan Cochrane office that have suddenly disappeared? And why by coincidence these 22 hours of erased recordings happens to have been the time that Sarbaini visited the MACC KL office?
How did Altantuya Shaariibuu's immigration records disappear?
Who were the two army officers (Pegawai ATM) who entered Najib's house midnight the night Altantuya was murdered and left again at dawn? Why are the full details (names and IC numbers) of those who enter and leave Najib's house recorded but the details of these two army officers have been left vague?
What was the motive that Sirul and Azilah had in killing Altantuya when they both did not know her?
Sirul and Azilah said they were paid RM100,000 to kill Altantuya. In that case, since they admitted to being paid to kill her, have they revealed who paid them? And if the police were able to extract the motive from them (meaning they were motivated by money) how come the police can't go all the way and also extract the name of the person who paid them?
The Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said that the exchanges of text messages between himself and Shafee Abdullah are 'personal'. However, these exchanges of text messages implicate both Najib and Shafee Abdullah in a conspiracy to assist Razak Baginda in the Altantuya murder trial. And Razak did escape. So maybe Shafee Abdullah can also explain this 'nonsense'.
Aiyah, cukuplah. I can go on and on and list hundreds of 'nonsense' that have gone unexplained. All these may be nonsense. Then again, they may not be. But as long as they remain unexplained then we shall have to do what the court said in convicting Mokhtar Hashim and Anwar Ibrahim: since you have failed to convince us of your innocence then we shall have to assume you are guilty.
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| Teoh committed suicide due to aggressive questioning by MACC officials, says RCI Posted: 20 Jul 2011 04:40 PM PDT 
(New Straits Times) - The Royal Commission of Inquiry to look into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock found that he committed suicide due to aggressive questioning by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) officials.
Following is the conclusion of the 124-page report released today: "Conclusion We recognise that the MACC is necessary as an instrument of society in furthering its desire to eradicate corruption in all its multifaceted forms. To this end, the MACC was created and given wide-ranging powers to make it effective in achieving society's aim.
However, the conferment of extensive powers on the MACC without the necessary checks and balances will inevitably result in those powers being abused. Such abuse becomes difficult to prove as the only witnesses would most likely be those officers whose conduct is being investigated. As we have stated, the investigation into this will bring in its wake the inherent and harsh realities of meeting "a blue wall of science' basde on brotherhood ties among those officers.
The characteristics of this "blue wall of silence" came amply into play in the present case as evidenced by the untruths spouted by the MACC officers to cover up the nefarious activities that took place on the 15th and the 16th. This clinging to brotherhood ties by those officers has resulted in our facing extreme difficulties in gathering evidence to arrive at the truth. But what is most saddening and regrettable is that the operation that the Selangor MACC embarked upon led to the death of TBH, a promising young man in the prime of life who had everything to look forward to. His family was robbed of a son and brother, his fiancee of a husband and his then unborn child of a father. We can feel the pain and anguish that they must have suffered and continue to suffer as a result of the callous machinations and attitudes of the MACC officers who were involved in the operation. We express our heartflet sympathies on the loss that the family of TBH and his fiancee and son have had to bear and continue to bear. We can only hope that time will assuage their plan.
It has been said another context that custodial death is perhaps one the worst crimes in a civilised society governed by the rule of law. We are of the view that the bulwarks of the rule of law have to be strengtened to eliminated any form of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment whether it occurs during investigation, interrogation or otherwise by a law-enforcement agency such as the MACC.
Abuses can be prevented if those entrusted with authority to enforce laws ensure that the laws are executed fairly, objectively and with justice foremost in mind. Otherwise society will suffer. The officers of the MACC should in fact be the guardians of the MACC Act and be persons of impeccable character and integrity who exercise their powers with an even hand, a steady eye and an unswerving allegiance to justice for the generation of public confidence in the MACC, together with the checks and balances proposed by us in place so that what had happened in this case will hopefully not recur. As for what did happen, we have made our findings in this report and we therefore leave it to the relevant authorities to take the necessary action.
We are most conscious of the fact that an anti-corruption body such as the MACC is indispensable in a democracy such as ours. Our findings and recommendations in this report are therefore directed at the individual officers involved and are not meant to be an excoriation of the MACC as a whole per se. The recommendations are intended to improve and rebuilt the MACC as a well-respected institution. We have every confidence that the MACC will rise to the challenge and will become a shining example of a law-enforcement agency to be emulated by others in the world." |
| AP Exclusive: Anwar confident of Malaysia poll win Posted: 20 Jul 2011 04:25 PM PDT 
Many among the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities have become strong opposition supporters in recent years, mainly because of complaints that the National Front discriminates against them in affirmative action policies that benefit Malays in business, housing, education and other sectors. EILEEN NG - Associated Press Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his three-party alliance could win general elections widely expected next year because its support has risen after a government crackdown on a rally for electoral reforms. Anwar said in an interview that the recent opposition-backed demonstration had stirred public anger and greater political awareness over allegations of electoral fraud and the government's refusal to allow large-scale street protests. Police fired tear gas and detained more than 1,600 people on July 9 when at least 20,000 Malaysians defied government warnings by marching in Kuala Lumpur to demand more transparency in election laws. "We have gained new momentum," Anwar told AP. "If we can sustain and increase this level of support ... there are huge possibilities we can make it, we will win" the next elections. Anwar's alliance captured slightly more than one-third of Parliament seats in 2008 polls, the worst electoral result for the long-ruling National Front since independence from Britain in 1957. Anwar said he expects Prime Minister Najib Razak to hold early elections before the government's mandate expires in mid-2013. Most analysts predict Najib will seek a fresh mandate early next year amid signs of a strengthening economy. Najib has invested heavily in what the government calls an "economic transformation plan" since he took office in April 2009. But Anwar said that "other than slogans, there have been no changes." "People are clearly clamoring for justice and democratic rule. The ruling clique is in the last stages of resisting at all cost but I don't think they can withstand the onslaught of the people and also the historical reality. Even the most authoritarian rule in the Middle East is changing," Anwar said. He said his alliance is in much better shape compared to 2008 and has demonstrated strong leadership in four states that it wrested from the National Front in 2008. But he added that the opposition faces a struggle for support among the ethnic Malay Muslim majority in rural parts of Malaysia. Many among the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities have become strong opposition supporters in recent years, mainly because of complaints that the National Front discriminates against them in affirmative action policies that benefit Malays in business, housing, education and other sectors. "We need to focus on the rural heartland, we need to go down to the ground and talk to" Malays, Anwar said. The opposition leader stressed that he won't let his ongoing sodomy trial distract him too much. Anwar, 63, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of sodomizing a 25-year-old former male aide in 2008. He claims the charge is politically motivated but the government denies it. "I don't like the idea of being sent to jail again but some of my friends said it may help the cause," he said, laughing. "I have decided to stay and fight, to endure the consequences." It is Anwar's second time being embroiled in a sex trial. He lost his post as deputy premier in 1998 after being charged with sodomizing his family's ex-driver and abusing his power to cover up his actions — both of which he denied. He was freed in 2004 after six years of imprisonment when a court overturned the sodomy conviction. |
| Malaysia should do away with outdated laws Posted: 20 Jul 2011 04:20 PM PDT 
Malaysia still has the Internal Security Act 1960 -- which allows for the detention without trial of people deemed to be threats to national se-curity -- for more than half a century. M Veera Pandiyan, The Star The phrase "the law is an ass" is attributed to Charles Dickens. It originates from Oliver Twist after the character Mr Bumble is told: "The law supposes that your wife acts under your direction". What one of the foremost classical writers of English literature actually wrote was: "If the law supposes that, the law is an ass, an idiot." No, he wasn't using grammar akin to the Manglish being taught in our schools today. It was just that the rules of the language were not quite defined during his era. But as then as in now, many laws can be described as asinine. They have become meaningless through the passage of time but are still in force and have become subjects of ridicule. In the United States for example, incestuous marriages are not deemed illegitimate in the southern state of Alabama. Another law in Mississippi states that if one is a parent to two illegitimate children, he or she can be jailed for at least a month. In New York, adultery is still a crime and one can be fined US$25 for flirting. It is illegal for a woman to be on the street wearing body-hugging clothes but she can go topless in public, provided she is not doing it for any business. In Denver, Colorado, the law states that dog catchers must notify dogs of impounding by posting for three consecutive days, a notice on a tree in the city park. Apparently it is also unlawful to lend one's vacuum cleaner to a next-door neighbour. More than eight women are not allowed to live in the same house in the state of Tennessee because that would constitute a brothel, while Encyclopaedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a formula for making beer at home. In President Barack Obama's home state of Illinois, it is now illegal to wear sagging pants. A new law requires pants to be "secured at the waist to prevent the pants from falling below the hips, causing exposure to the person or the person's undergarments." And there are many comical laws still in force in the United Kingdom. For example, it is illegal to die in Britain's Houses of Parliament and sticking a postage stamp bearing the Queen upside down is deemed an act of treason. In Liverpool, where footballers and fans tend to strip off their shirts in celebration of goals, it is illegal for a woman to be topless -- unless she is a clerk in a shop selling tropical fish. As for the outdated legislation in Malaysia, they are anything but funny. We still have too many laws that allow for detention without trial, contravening the fundamental principles of human rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and other international conventions. Malaysia still has the Internal Security Act 1960 -- which allows for the detention without trial of people deemed to be threats to national se-curity -- for more than half a century. For the record, the ISA has not been used against political opponents since Najib Tun Razak took over as Prime Minister on April 3, 2009. But it remains in force, despite calls for its repeal by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), the Association for the Pro-motion of Human Rights (Proham), the Bar Council, politicians and civil society organisations. So do other equally outmoded and detestable edicts such as the Emer-gency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance 1969, the Re-stricted Residence Act 1933, Pre-vention of Crime Act 1959 and the Banishment Act 1959. Under the EO, detainees can be held for 60 days with a possible extension of two years or more without trial. In 2005, the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police affirmed that the EO violates international human rights and called for its repeal, saying that it had "outlived its purpose and facilitated the abuse of fundamental liberties". The detention of six Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) leaders, including Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar under the EO since July 2 for "allegedly being involved with foreign and subversive elements", has again fuelled suspicions of such misuse. The six were among 30 arrested on June 25 for allegedly supporting Bersih 2.0 and possessing T-shirts with faces of communist leaders on them. At a time when public confidence in the police and credibility in the rule of law are being questioned, the continued detention of Dr Jeyaku-mar under the EO can only result in more rancour against the Government. Dr Jeyakumar, the giant killer who thrashed Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) supremo S. Samy Vellu in 2008, may be an unwavering socialist committed to his cause, but he certainly does not fit the image of a dangerous or subversive element. Enough Malaysians, including his colleagues in the medical fraternity have vouched for his humility and integrity, his selfless passion to help the poor and his peaceful approach to politics. It's really a bit of a stretch to associate Dr Jeyakumar with intending to "wage war against the King" and instigating the overthrow of the Government. But if the authorities indeed have any such proof, they should charge him and the others using existing criminal laws. In the bigger picture, Malaysia as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, is not only expected to meet the principles of human rights but also be seen to be respecting and upholding the rights of its people. Malaysians deserve to be free from laws that breach basic standards. |
| Jewish group slams Utusan for sowing anti-Semitic hatred Posted: 20 Jul 2011 04:10 PM PDT 
A global Jewish organisation says that the paper's allegations were 'preposterous' and 'offensive' and only serves to perpetuate anti-Semitic sentiments. (Free Malaysia Today) - A global Jewish organisation has hit out at the Utusan Malaysia newspaper for propagating anti-Semitic hatred. The paper had claimed in its editorial that the Bersih 2.0 rally was an opportunity for Jews to infiltrate into Malaysia's national affairs. B'nai B'rith International, a Jewish humanitarian organisation, called the allegation "preposterous" and "offensive" and which only serves to perpetuate an anti-Semitic attitude. "Though no specific plot was mentioned in the editorial, the accusation of a possible Jewish interference in Malaysia's internal affairs is an outlandish claim that promotes anti-Semitic attitudes," said a statement on its website. It added that that this claim was "especially harmful" as spreading such messages in a government-backed paper only lends more legitimacy to such arguments. "As many Malaysians rely on government-backed media outlets for news and information, this destructive claim is likely to be the only information some citizens receive on this issue," it added. On July 18, Utusan had carried an editorial linking the Bersih 2.0 rally to pro-Jewish groups. It said that supporting the demonstration can assist the alleged motive of "pro-foreign parties who are trying to control the country". It further cautioned: "Muslims and Malaysians should not allow any party especially Jews from interfering in the affairs of this country." Prior to the July 9 rally, the Malay daily had also carried headlines linking Bersih 2.0 – which had staged the rally demanding for clean and fair elections – with Communism and being funded by international Christian organisations. READ MORE HERE |
| Arrest warrants for July 9 VIPs Posted: 20 Jul 2011 04:00 PM PDT 
A Berita Harian report claims that the police have applied for 13 arrest warrants, but a PKR leader says there is no basis for this and demands an apology. (Free Malaysia Today) - The police have applied for arrest warrants to haul in 13 individuals, including Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and national laureate A Samad Said, in connection with the Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9. Berita Harian reported that among the luminaries on the list were Anwar's daughter, PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, PAS vice-president Husam Musa, PKR MP R Sivarasa, PAS MP Hatta Ramli, Bersih 2.0 steering committee members Haris Ibrahim and Wong Chin Huat, PKR leaders Latheefa Koya and Badrul Hisham Shaharin as well as former Perak Speaker V Sivakumar. The list also contained the name of PAS Titiwangsa MP Dr Lo' Lo' Ghazali but she had passed away on Sunday. Umno Youth exco member Reezal Merican Naina Merican was also on the list for failing to turn up at the Dang Wangi police headquarters to assist investigation. Berita Harian reported that the Kuala Lumpur police had submitted their findings to Bukit Aman, which stated that the 13 failed to assist in investigations and that applications were submitted for arrest warrants. Previously, the police recorded statements from Bersih 2.0 chairperson S Ambiga, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, his deputy Mohamad Sabu, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, Putera 1Malaysia Club chairperson Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and Anwar's youngest daughter, Nurul Iman.
'IGP, newspaper must apologise'
Meanwhile, PKR vice-president and lawyer N Surendran said there was no basis to seek the arrest warrants. He also dismissed the claim that Anwar, Samad, Husam, Sivarasa, Nurul, Hatta and Latheefa had been called for questioning but failed to turn up on July 11. "We are surprised by this threat of issuance of warrants of arrest. We confirm that none of the persons mentioned above received any notification from the police to attend questioning. Based on this, we also believe none of the other persons mentioned had received notification," he said. READ MORE HERE |
| RPK claims proof Sarbaini did not take bribes Posted: 20 Jul 2011 03:25 PM PDT 
(The Malaysian Insider) - Raja Petra Kamarudin today continued his attacks against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), this time producing what appears to be a cautioned statement by Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed where he allegedly stated that he had never received any bribes as a Customs officer. The fugitive blogger posted on his Malaysia Today website what appears to be Ahmad Sarbaini's cautioned statement under section 53(3) of the 2009 MACC Act. The document contained supposed details of the Customs officer's personal and family assets where he stated that he and his family owned three cars and three houses. Ahmad Sarbaini, 56, who was attached to the Port Klang Customs office, was found dead on a badminton court on the first floor of the MACC building in Cheras here on April 6. He had been remanded on March 29 following an MACC-led swoop on a Customs syndicate that it said was responsible for at least RM3 billion in unpaid taxes, resulting in the arrest of 62 officers. "I can confirm that all the time I have worked in Customs I have not met anyone by the name of Chooi from Top Freight and Shipping (M) Sdn Bhd. As far as I can remember I only recognise Top Mark officials who deal with me regarding imports and exports… (one of them) is called Firdaus. "In all my dealings with Firdaus I have never been offered any imbuhan (additional profit) related to Customs," read the document allegedly signed by Ahmad Sarbaini. According to the document, MACC investigators had asked Ahmad Sarbaini to verify whether he had approved and signed three Customs forms labelled B18101007861, B18104010782 and B18111013743. The document suggests that the late Customs officer had confirmed that his seal was used but could not at the time verify whether the signature belonged to him as there have been cases of "forgery" in the past. Raja Petra had also recently alleged Ahmad Sarbaini fell accidentally from the third-floor pantry window of the Kuala Lumpur MACC office after being forced onto the ledge by a senior MACC investigator. READ MORE HERE |
| Concentration and Dilution Posted: 20 Jul 2011 01:03 PM PDT By batsman This is not an article on chemistry, neither is it a diatribe against over-weight people. It is actually an attempt to extract something worthwhile out of the sickening mind numbing AAS episode. RPK has challenged NTR regarding his think tank before (Saya sokong Najib). Now that NTR has committed self-strangulation and is besieged as predicted by RPK, it is time to demonstrate the process of how such demises come about. Everything has an optimum size beyond which there will be negative growth or a fundamental transformation of essence (any bapa transformasi worth his salt should know this). Take Murdoch's empire for example. It has grown so large and unwieldy that a simple matter of trusting the wrong people caused his giant empire to wobble dangerously (or so he claims). NTR's boys in his think tank may dress smartly, act smartly and talk smartly but may not be smart after all. In fact UMNO's empire has grown so unwieldy that vile brain dead twits like AAS may be seeing some opportunity to make themselves famous and are trying to jump on the think tank band wagon and gain some brownie points. UMNO is so fat and overweight that it is coming apart at the seams. Concentration has its benefits. For example, if you try to take on an angry elephant without any leverage, you are likely to be squashed. However, if an elephant grows to the size of a whale, it will just be delicious blubber without the need for much effort to bring it down (whatever Hollywood tries to portray about monsters). That is why there are no land giants the size of whales anymore. Some businesses grow so big that it takes enormous effort and brains just to hold it together. This is why some executives of large businesses are paid so much money. Unfortunately, these people are also expected to grow the empire even bigger. Not all people can do this. Most create spectacularly negative results by their efforts – such as the people Murdoch claims to have trusted. Eventually things just get out of hand and collapse under the weight of oversized entities. UMNO's empire will suffer this fate. The concentration of power is so great that it cannot be held together by smart toy boys in any think tank anymore. For example, a simple order to control Bersih 2.0 has resulted in the now infamous over-reaction that has resounded across the whole world. One can expect more and more such usage of the sledge hammer to control irritating flies until the whole edifice is destroyed in an orgy of abuse of power. More and more AASs, MACC-type officers, policemen with vicious temperaments and AIs will turn crawl out from the rotting and festering dung heap. This is one of reasons the US has an anti-trust law, not just the obvious one that monopoly is unfair and inherently anti-competition. Bersih 2.0 is just calling for reforms i.e. dilution of absolute power. If it fails, Malaysia is doomed under UMNO – crushed and suffocated by its massive weight. |
| Bersih 2.0 rally – a basketful of faux pas by BN Government, before during after and still ... Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:57 PM PDT 
By Lim Kit Siang
If someone had been assigned beforehand to a special task to script the worst-possible scenarios for the Najib administration in relation to the July 9 Bersih 2.0 peaceful rally for fair and free elections, nobody could be so creative as to pre-plan the basketful of faux pas committed by the Barisan Nasional government before, during and after "709" and still ongoing. Before The basketful of faux pax before 709 included: 1. Arbitrary declaration of Bersih 2.0 as unlawful. 2. Ban on Bersih T-shirts and paraphernalia, to include even yellow T-shirts, coupled with indiscriminate arrests. 3. Police and government disrespect to the Yang di Pertuan Agong who had met with Bersih 2.0 leaders and suggested a compromise of a stadium rally instead of a march – accepted by Bersih 2.0 but reneged by the authorities. 4. Police roadblocks causing infernal traffic congestions in and out of Kuala Lumpur and police lockdown of the federal capital on 709, alienating the general public. 5. Intemperate, extremist threats of counter-demonstrations and racial riots, even another May 13 by Umno Youth and Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali. 6. Abuse of court process in securing an ex parte injunction to ban 91 Bersih and Pakatan Rakyat leaders and activists from key areas in KL on 709. 7. Baseless invective and vicious campaign to demonise Bersih leaders, particularly Bersih Chairperson S. Ambiga, with wild and reckless charges to incite religious and racial hatred and tension. 8. Daily incitement of hate and campaign of lies by BN msm, both printed and electronic, particularly Utusan Malaysia. 9. Gross abuse of power in the arrest of PSM MP Dr. Michael Jeyakumar and other PSM activists first on the ridiculous charges of "waging war against the Agong" and "reviving communism" and later on EO detention-without-trial for being Bersih activists. 10. Refusal/failure of the Election Commission to respond to Bersih 2.0's eight demands for free, fair and clean elections. During 1. High-handed police action of mass arrests and individual cases of police violence and brutality. 2. Causing death of Baharuddin Ahmad. 3. Criminal police landrover ramming of PAS Deputy President Mat Sabu on motor-bike. 4. Reckless and indiscriminate firing of tear gas without notice and into KL sentral tunnel – an enclosed space – heedless of the safety of the Bersih and Pakatan Rakyat leaders and the public. 5. Wanton and criminal firing of tear gas and chemically-laced water cannon into Tung Shin Hospital grounds. After 1. Najib's fire-breathing speech to 6,000 UMNO leaders the morning after 709. 2. Further plunge in public credibility with police and Umno leaders disputing that 50,000 people had gathered in support of Bersih 2.0 rally, with IGP claiming that it was only 6,000, upped to 10,000 by Hishammuddin with Najib later topping it to 15,000 in London! READ MORE HERE. |
| French lawyer probing Altantuya-linked 'kickbacks' is in town Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:53 PM PDT 
(Harakah Daily) - KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 20: French rights lawyer William Bourdon is in town, ready to push local political temperature even higher when he speaks at three events under rights group Suaram's latest project 'Ops Scorpene'. Bourdon's arrival is part of Suaram's efforts to seek a closure to the murder case of Altantuya Shariibuu, the Mongolian who had an affair with Abdul Razak Baginda, a close aide of Najib Razak, who was found brutally murdered in November 2006.
The trial concluded two years ago with the conviction of two close security personnel whose faces were carefully concealed by the police from media glare up to the last day when they were handed out the death sentence. Questions however remain on the motive of her murder, as well as several claims and counter claims on Najib's alleged personal involvement.
Central to these was the RM7.3 billion purchase of two French 'Scorpene' submarines. It was claimed that Altantuya's murder had to do with unpaid kickbacks owed to her. This, according to a private detective hired by Razak Baginda, was a reason why Altantuya had been hounding Razak at his office in the days leading to her brutal murder. Perimekar is said to be linked to Razak Baginda and his wife Mazlinda, who is one of its directors The purchase contract was signed by the Malaysian government in 2002 with French DCNS and Spanish Navantia, through direct negotiation undertaken by Perimekar, a company linked to Razak Baginda, who left for Britain soon after he was acquitted of the murder charge. This and the fact that Perimekar was only set up in 2001 fanned speculation that it was the middleman to receive kickbacks from Malaysia and France.
On 23 December 2009, Suaram through its networks in France linked up with leading human rights lawyers there to file a complaint with the French judicial system, in the hope that a preliminary investigation could be launched on the submarines sale.
The action was to enable revelation of facts behind the murder of Altantuya, as well as her role in the purchase deal leading to her murder, the motive of which the lengthy murder trial had failed to establish.
READ MORE HERE |
| How did I get a MyKad?, fumes cheated investor Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:48 PM PDT  By Queville To, FMT KOTA KINABALU: A puzzled Taiwanese businessman, Lin Yun Chun, wants the police and the relevant authority to investigate how and when a MyKad was issued in his name. "I have never applied to the National Registration Department (NRD) for the MyKad. I do not read English and Bahasa Malaysia. "I do not know how the MyKad was issued in my name, with different birth dates from my passport. "I purchased all my properties in Sabah using my Taiwan passport. "I urge the police and the relevant authority to investigate how and when the MyKad was issued in my name," he said in a statement issued through his representative Chia Chiew Pui. Chia, who holds power of attorney for Lin, lodged a police report here yesterday. He is seeking police assistance to investigate how a MyKad was issued in his name. Lin said he had always travelled to Sabah with his Taiwanese passport. He said his visits to Sabah was always either on a tourist or business visa. "The last time I traveled to Sabah was in 2000. I was on a tourist visa and then (they) granted (me a) business visa. "When my visa expired sometime in July 2000, the relevant authorities such as the Industrial Development Department and the Chief Minister's Department recommended to the Sabah Immigration to extend a one year business visa to me as an investor," he explained. Falsified documents He said this latest twist of event was not isolated but was in fact an addition to the multiple falsifications of documents by unscrupulous persons leading to the wrong issuance of copies of his title deeds which saw the exchange of hands of his properties. Lin said that he had been away from Sabah from 2000 to 2009 because of illness and had only discovered the fraud on returning here in August 2009. "When I returned, I was shocked that my properties had changed to third parties by way of falsified documentations. "I am still holding all the original title deeds to these properties. "How could I be selling my properties without surrendering my original titles to the lawyer preparing the sales and purchase agreement?" he said. Lin also dismissed 'as baseless and wrongful' allegation that he received RM800,000 for the sale of his house in Tangung Aru and or other properties via Chia. "I have never appointed anyone to sell my house or properties using power of attorney," he stressed. READ MORE HERE. |
| Cops to attack Bersih with clips for brutality probe, claims Utusan Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:44 PM PDT By Yow Hong Chieh, The Malaysian Insider KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — Investigators tasked with looking into Bersih police brutality claims will instead use video evidence collected during the probe to attack the credibility of protesters, according to an Utusan Malaysia report today. Police sources told the Malay daily several videos found on pro-opposition blogs were found to have been tampered in an effort to damage public perception of the police and discredit the authorities. Investigators are also said to have a video showing a protester allegedly waiting for police to arrive to provoke them and can be heard saying: "If they (the police) don't come, we (protesters) failed." Police said on Tuesday that the internal probe into alleged police brutality will study videos and pictures taken at the rally, and take statements from protesters, police on duty that day and the general public. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar revealed the same day that the probe was nearly done and gave an assurance that the findings would be revealed to the public "very soon". Ismail also promised the media police will hold a special video screening at Bukit Aman police headquarters featuring relevant recordings of the rally once investigations have been completed. The Malaysian Insider reported yesterday, however, that Bersih organisers and independent observers have yet to be called by police for statements or evidence. The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition has been put on the defensive over the Bersih rally for the past week as the international community, from Singapore to the UK, criticised the government's handling of the public dissent. READ MORE HERE. |
| Malaysian Money – £3 Billion Yacht ! Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:41 PM PDT  By Sarawak Report According to the UK's Mail newspaper an 'anonymous Malaysian businessman' has purchased a yacht priced at £3 BILLION pounds. This amounts to nearly $5 BILLION dollars and indeed RM14.5 BILLION ! The purchaser of this record-busting toy is clearly reluctant to answer questions such as: How much tax have you paid? How much have you contributed to helping alleviate poverty? Or, indeed, how did you earn so much money in the first place? So, they have remained anonymous. Platinum-lined walls! - but so what? But, we can deduce that they have an amazing level of wealth and that they think an appropriate way to spend it is towards their occasional gratification when enjoying a yacht trip. Given the poverty of so many people in Malaysia and also the questions over how Malaysia's natural wealth in terms of oil and timber have been requisitioned and distributed, it is a shocking judgement for a rich person to make. If you want to enjoy an occasional sea picnic does your boat really have to be a gold-plated, platinum-line yacht ? Might there not be another more worthy recipient for such money and might it not be more gratifying to use such wealth to benefit your community? READ MORE HERE. |
| Voter Registration in Kuching, Sarawak Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:39 PM PDT 
DAP Socialist Youth will organise a voters registration this Friday 22/07/2011 at One Jaya Complex at Jalan Song from 7.30pm - 10.00p.m and on Sunday 24/07/2011 at Kenyalang Park Market from 7am till 10am. For those who have not registered as a voter yet, please hurry up! The deadline will fall on 13-Sept-2011. Meaning if you register after 13-Sept-2011, then you will NOT be qualified to vote in the coming election if GE is early of next year. Hurry up, please spread the news to your friends and family!
For more information, please contact Andrew Sim at 0168799606 or Awang Saifeluddin at 0168899149. |
| Shafee: Raja Petra’s Sarbaini claims nonsense Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:29 PM PDT By Syed Mu'az Syed Putra, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) lawyer has dismissed as nonsense the claims of Raja Petra Kamarudin regarding the death of Customs officer Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed. Datuk Seri Shafee Abdullah told The Malaysian Insider that most of the witnesses and forensic experts in the ongoing coroner's inquest into how the Selangor Customs assistant director fell to his death at the Kuala Lumpur MACC office on April 6 have so far ruled out both suicide and homicide. "Raja Petra is talking nonsense. I believe this allegation will not affect the inquest. He is history," Shafee (picture) said of the Malaysia Today news portal editor. Raja Petra had alleged on his website yesterday that Ahmad Sarbaini fell accidentally from the third-floor pantry window of the Kuala Lumpur MACC office after being forced onto the ledge by a senior MACC investigator. The popular blogger claimed the investigator was incensed that the Customs man wanted to retract his earlier confession, allegedly obtained under duress, and punished Ahmad Sarbaini by making him stand on the ledge. He further claimed that the MACC investigator convened a "conference" with his colleagues to "brainstorm and concoct the most plausible story" to protect their careers. "Raja Petra has nothing left to talk about, no credibility and not even accepted by the opposition," Shafee said. The high-profile lawyer said it was impossible for Ahmad Sarbaini to stand on the window itself as claimed by Raja Petra. "If Raja Petra can do it, then I want to see him try," he said. Up to yesterday, Raja Petra had written a seven-part series on Malaysia Today alleging that Ahmad Sarbaini death was caused by the anti-graft body's officers. READ MORE HERE |
| My Bersih 2.0 Story : Trapped, Ambushed and Gassed Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:25 PM PDT By Fadiah Nadwa Binti Fikri
On 7 July 2011, while I was lazing around at home after work, I got a call from my friend, N Surendran saying that my name was on the list of 91 individuals who were restricted from entering Kuala Lumpur on 9 July 2011. Nothing surprising. It was just that I couldn't wrap my mind around the paranoia displayed by the government over a planned peaceful assembly to demand for clean and fair elections. This whole scare tactic definitely was funnier than any comedy show I'd ever watched on TV.
It was 9 July 2011, the day plethora of right thinking Malaysians and I had been waiting for. It felt like waking up to Aidilfitri morning. Serenity filled the air. Peaceful. I packed my bag. Salt, checked. A bottle of water, checked. My friends, Latheefa Koya, Eric Paulsen and Renuka Balasubramaniam and I went to KL Hilton to meet with the rest of the group.
When I got into the room, I saw Bersih leaders, Ambiga Sreenevasan, Maria Chin Abdullah, Wong Chin Huat, Haris Ibrahim and Zaid Kamarudin, all getting ready to lead the march. I also saw Pakatan Rakyat leaders, Anwar Ibrahim, Wan Azizah, Lim Kit Siang, Hadi Awang, Tian Chua, William Leong, Nurul Izzah and our respected national laureate, Pak Samad Said, standing firm next to Bersih leaders, to give their undivided support to the cause.
I looked at my watch, it was 1.30pm. After finishing our Zohor prayers, we put our yellow Bersih t shirts on. The room was filled with laughter, the worrying thoughts on the highhandedness of the police in dealing with this planned peaceful assembly seemed to fade away for a little while. I could feel the strong conviction to freedom, freedom to march on, to assemble peaceably to demand for free and fair elections. We couldn't wait to meet with the rest of right thinking Malaysians so that we could walk together to Merdeka Stadium on this historic, most awaited day.
We started marching on, we held each other's arms so tightly. We chanted "Bersih!Bersih!Bersih!".A strange feeling suddenly embraced me. A pleasant strange feeling. I believed this was what solidarity, strength and conviction felt like.
I was holding Wan Azizah'z right arm. Nurul Nuha was holding my left arm. As we were walking, I could feel more hands were holding my arms, the hands of amazing people I hardly knew. When I looked around, all I could see was police. My heart was beating so fast, in between the chanting and the thought that all of us would not make it to Merdeka Stadium as it was almost certain that we would be arrested, judging from the heavy police presence around us. From KL Hilton we proceeded to KL Sentral train station. At this juncture I kept asking myself why we weren't arrested yet. The police were there, surrounding us, waiting and watching our single move. I just ignored the question that was lingering on my mind. From KL Sentral train station, we had to go down the escalator to the underpass to reach the main road.
After going down the escalator, we then walked through the dark and confined underpass. Suddenly I heard the wail of police siren behind us, there was a police truck that was trying to pass. We stopped and gave way to the police truck. We then continued walking.
As we were still walking in the underpass, people in the forefront abruptly stopped. It was puzzling as to what was happening. I saw Anwar Ibrahim turning around and asking the people who were standing in the back to step back. I was still puzzled as to what was happening at that particular moment. In a split second, I saw the dark and confined underpass filled with tear gas. I couldn't breathe. My eyes were all teary. Everyone was coughing. Panic struck. I kept asking myself these questions. "Why did they fire the tear gas directly at us while we were still in the confined underpass? Why didn't they arrest us right before we headed for the underpass? Could this be a trap?". |
| Applying Prospect Theory to Ending Affirmative Action Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:16 PM PDT 
By making affirmative action part of our culture and character, we have made it difficult to critically examine it. No matter how noble in intention and beneficial the results, any scrutiny would be viewed as an attack on our values, character and heritage. M. Bakri Musa www.bakrimusa.com bakrimusa@juno.comAn insight of cognitive psychology (that sub-discipline dealing with mental processes like thinking and decision making) is that humans are far removed from the ideal of a rational self-interested Homo economicus (Economic man) when making decisions, contrary to the core assumption of traditional economics. Two factors weigh heavily when we make decisions, given a set of alternatives. One, we are loss averse; that is, we magnify the value of a potential loss and minimize the potential gain even if the two are quantitatively the same. The other is that how those alternatives are framed very much influences our decision. Although these insights refer to individual decision-making processes, nonetheless they can be extrapolated to the societal level, on how we collectively make decisions. This has relevance to the central wrenching issue dividing our Malay community today, on whether to continue or do away with affirmative action. The example (minus the intricate mathematics and fancy graphs) used to illustrate the Prospect Theory (as this new insight is called) is the potential epidemic of an Asian disease hitting America that is expected to kill 600 people. When asked to choose between an intervention that would save 200 people and another that would have a 1/3 probability that 600 people would be saved with 2/3 probability that no one would, most would approve the first. Both propositions state exactly the same thing. The first however, framed it more positively with the element of undue certainty thrown in. There are other variations on the same theme. Thus we willingly drive across town to save $5 on a $15 calculator but not on a $125 suit. The savings are the same – $5 in both cases – but what decides is the framing. Never mind that you spend $10 on gas to drive across town! Marketers make full use of these insights of cognitive psychology when advertising their products. Thus the grabbing banners: "Fifty percent savings!" Returning to the difficult issue of affirmative action, we have made it unduly contentious as we have framed it unwisely. One, we have stated it as taking away special privileges, and being risk averse, we rightly reject that. Two, we have framed special privileges as being part of our character, our right by virtue of being the indigenous people. We forget that affirmative action was instituted for the explicit purpose of overcoming disadvantages we suffered under colonialism. Those privileges were meant to jumpstart our development so we could be on par with the rest of the community. New Frame of Reference We can deal with the issue of special privileges more effectively and less acrimoniously by tapping the wisdom of modern cognitive psychology. First, we must reframe the discussion differently, away from privileges and the taking away of them, to the more general but pertinent issue of enhancing Malay competitiveness; and second, we must amplify the benefits and minimize or lessen the loss of doing away with these crutches. By making affirmative action part of our culture and character, we have made it difficult to critically examine it. No matter how noble in intention and beneficial the results, any scrutiny would be viewed as an attack on our values, character and heritage. Those are formidable obstacles. Instead we should focus not on special privileges per se but on how to prepare our people for this new highly competitive economy. Indeed I would specifically eschew any talk of doing away with special privileges; all that does is to inflame passions and further polarize us. Once we are competitive, then the need for special privileges would simply melt away. Then we can talk of about ending them more rationally as they would have become irrelevant in the lives of most Malays. What made affirmative action so highly effective at its inception was its emphasis on education and rural development. Under Tun Razak, schools were literally mushrooming in the villages, bringing both development and education. I vividly recall that in the seven-mile bus ride from home to my high school in town, there were no fewer than seven primary schools being built! In the afternoon when the children were finished, those schools would still be full, this time with adults attending literacy classes. The emphasis on rural development made great sense; the overwhelming majority of Malays then were rural dwellers. Under FELDA, massive land development schemes were initiated, with mass relocations of landless kampong folks, an internal migration of sorts, so they could begin a new life away from the stifling atmosphere of their old villages. Its sterling success in mass relocating poor people remains the only shining example in the world up to this day. Today the noble mission of FELDA has been hijacked, the entity itself being "corporatized," another government-linked company (GLC). Tell me, how does the building of a RM 670 million headquarters in the glittering part of KL make those FELDA settlers in Ulu Pahang more competitive? Headquarters are nothing but expensive overhead. Likewise, I fail to see how FELDA's plantations abroad would help the poor people back in my kampong. The same query could be posed on the billions spent on GLCs. Najib, like his predecessor Abdullah, cannot find a GLC he does not love. He and we accept that because those expenditures are being framed as furthering NEP and not on the more pertinent issue of making Malays competitive. Had we done that, then obviously those funds would be better off diverted to making schools in FELDA settlements have the best facilities and teachers, as well as making sure that those settlers have electricity and potable water. Maximize The Gain, Minimize The Loss The other insight is of risk aversion. For us to favor a decision, we have to be convinced that the promised gains would vastly outweigh the potential loss, and that the majority would benefit and the loss suffered by the minority, preferably a minority we (the majority) are not enamored with. If we dispense with inflated contracts to UMNO cronies and instead get the best price through competitive bidding, then we could build two schools for the price of one. Even if that contract were to be won by a non-Malay or even a foreigner, the benefits would fall on the hundreds more Malay families whose children would now have safer and better schools. The losers would be the handful of UMNO-connected "contractors" and Ali Baba "entrepreneurs." Again, many more gainers with far fewer losers! Besides, those losers are the types we have difficulty identifying or sympathizing with. Similarly with the billions spent on GLCs; again if we divert those resources to improving our schools and universities by recruiting superior teachers and professors from abroad, thousands would benefit. The losers would be few, those has-been politicians and near-retirement civil servants seeking cushy corporate jobs. Again, those are the people we do not readily sympathize or identify with. I advocate this in my forthcoming book, Liberating the Malay Mind. Sell all those GLCs including and especially such jewels as Petronas and MAS, and put the proceeds in a professionally-managed trust fund with the returns to be used exclusively for education and improving the lives of our urban and rural poor. To me, it is far more important to train young Malays to be pilots, airline mechanics, geologists and petroleum engineers than to own an airline or oil company. One big benefit to selling those GLCs would be the elimination of a major source of undue lobbying and influence peddling by politicians and senior civil servants. Currently they, especially the near-retirement civil servants, are preoccupied with ingratiating themselves to their political superiors in the hope securing a coveted chairmanship of a GLC on retirement from government service. With that no longer an option, these civil servants would then be emboldened to challenge their political superiors should they embark on some silly policies. Were that to happen, we would have a far superior civil service, and the whole country would benefit. Another benefit to ridding these GLCs is that those highly accomplished Malays presently in Petronas and Khazanah would be free to sell their talents to the highest bidder and then be appropriately compensated. Right now they are being unfairly taken advantage of, in fact seduced by such silly sentiments as national service and misguided notions of patriotism. As for those less talented who infest the many money-losing GLCs, well, those companies were not created to be public work projects for them. The other reality to the discussions on special privileges is this. If today we were to embark on a policy to enhance Malay competitiveness, assuming that it is highly effective, it would take a while for its results to be apparent. Further, we do not know or can predict specific potential winners except for the amorphous "Malay masses" and the aggregate results. Hence there will be no one to lobby or vigorously advocate for the changes. On the other hand, if we were to terminate affirmative action today, the losers would feel the loss right away. Not being saints, they will fight it; they will immediately be on the streets protesting, as those in Perkasa are doing. That is predictable. This dilemma is the greatest challenge facing policymakers everywhere, especially in a democratic society. China does not have that problem. Thus it would take an extraordinarily enlightened and farsighted leader to achieve this, someone focused on the long term and not on the next election. Such leaders are also the ones most likely to tap the wisdom of others, including that of behavioral economists and cognitive psychologists. Unfortunately for Malaysians, Malays specifically, our current leaders are content parroting the latest buzzwords of those disciplines, while their long-term strategy never extends beyond the next party elections. Self-interested they very much are, rational they are not. |
| Makna dan Tanda 9 Julai Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:07 PM PDT 
DARI JELEBU Hishamuddin Rais Untuk saya bukan 6 ribu, bukan 60 ribu atau bukan 600 ribu warga yang turun ke jalan pada 9 Julai untuk dijadikan ukuran. Untuk saya angka ini bukan persoalan. Kalau pun hanya 6 orang yang turun pada 9 Julai yang lalu – saya anggap ini adalah satu kemenangan. Kenapa saya berkata seemikian? Dalam pensejarahan, setiap negara bangsa akan wujud satu tarikh untuk diingati dan dikongsi bersama. Warga Palestin mengingati Nakba atau Malapetaka pada 15 Mei setiap tahun. Pada tarikh ini Israel telah diwujudkan. Pada tarikh ini juga tanah-tanah warga Palestin mula di rampas oleh kaum Zionis.
Semenanjung Tanah Melayu menyambut Hari Malapetaka ialah pada 31 Ogos setiap tahun. Malapetaka menimpa Tanah Melayu ditarikh ini apabila British mengaggihkan kuasa pentabiran tanah Melayu kepada United Malay National Organisation. Malapetaka ini sedang sama-sama kita rasakan.
Tetapi apa sangkut pautnya Malapetaka ini dengan tarikh 9 Julai? Bukankah pada 9 Julai yang baru lepas hanyalah hari Perhimpunan Bersih? Untuk memahami 9 Julai ini saya akan bawa kembali kepada surah surah sejarah agar para pembaca yang budiman akan dapat memahami makna dan tanda tarikh dan haribulan ini.
Saya bawa kembali para pembaca ke zaman Julius Ceaser dan kerjaaan Rom. Di Utara Itali ada sebatang sungai bernama Rubicon yang airnya berlumpur merah. Sungai ini telah dijadikan garis sempadan. Kerajaan Rom telah membuat perundangan bahawa tidak ada sesiapa pun boleh melintasi Sungai Rubicon ini dengan membawa bala tentera.
Pada tahun 49 Sebelum Masehi, Julius Ceaser telah melintasi Sungai Rubicon dengan membawa satu ketumbukan bala tentera menuju ke arah kota Rom. Menyeberangi Sungai Rubicon memberi makna bahawa tidak ada lagi jalan pulang melainkan mengambil kota Rom. Tetapi 9 Julai kita dahulu lebih dari ini.
Kini biar saya bawa pula ke zaman sesudah Perang Dunia Pertama. Pada tahun-tahun 30'an kerajaan Peranchis telah mendirikan tembok-tembok pertahanan di sempadan Perachis/German. Tembok dan kubu-kubu pertahanan ini di panggil Garis Maginot – ini nama menteri pertahanan Peranchis sebelum Perang Dunia Kedua. Garis ini cukup kukuh - dengan kubu-kubu batu, tembok yang lengkap dipersenjatai dan pengkalan askar yang stratejik – di atur disepanjang Garis Maginot.
Apabila Perang Dunia Kedua pecah, Hitler telah mula menyerang Peranchis. Kubu-kubu di Garis Maginot pada awalnya kelihatan kukuh dan mustahil untuk soldadu German menerbus masuk ke Peranchis. Tetapi pada 10 Mei 1940 Garis Maginot ini ditembusi oleh soldadu Hitler. Pada 14 Jun 1940 Peranchis jatuh ke tangan Nazi. Tetapi 9 Julai kita dahulu lebih dari ini.
Biar saya bawa pula para pembaca yang budiman ke tahun 711 – di zaman kegemilangan tamadun Arab. Pada 29 April 711 Tariq ibni Ziyad panglima perang dari Moroko telah berjaya menyeberang Laut Tengah dan memasuki Semenanjung Ibera. Sesampai di pantai selatan Laut Tengah, Tariq telah membakar semua kapal-kapal yang membawa bala tenteranya.
Tariq ibni Ziyad telah menerangkan pada bala tenteranya bahawa di hadapan mereka terbentang luas negara Sepanyol yang subur dan menjanjikan untuk diambil. Di belakang mereka ialah Moroko. Tetapi mereka tidak memiliki pilihan kerana semua kapal untuk pulang telah dibakar. Hanya satu pilihan - untuk terus mara dan menawan Sepanyol. Tetapi 9 Julai dahulu lebih dari ini.
Sekarang mari kita sesama melihat kembali pensejarahan 9 Julai. Apabila Bersih mengumumkan 9 Julai sebagai Hari Perhimpunan dengan 8 Tuntutan – saya rasa tidak bagitu ramai yang ambil pot. Ada komen yang mengatakan kempen Bersih 2007 dahulu lebih baik kerana masa berkempen agak panjang. Kali ini masanya singkat. Pasti tidak ada sokongan. Ada yang mengatakan bahawa Rosmah dan Najib ini amat popular dan susah untuk digelincirkan. Ada pula yang memberi komen bahawa tunjuk perasaan ini bukan budaya kita.
Semua hujah-hujah ini menjadi hampeh apabila Mat Sabu dipilih untuk menjadi Timbalan Presiden Pas. Semua suasana politik berubah. Perubahan mendadak berlaku apabila Mat Sabu membuat kenyataan terbuka bahawa sebagai Timbalan Presiden Pas , dia akan memastikan 300,000 ahli Parti Pas turun ke jalan raya pada 9 Julai. Kenyataan Mat Sabu ini terus menaikkan berat badan Rosmah Mansor sebanyak tiga kilo.
Biar saya terangkan sejelas mungkin disini. Semua daulah yang zalim - untuk meneruskan kuasa - akan menakut-nakutkan warganya. Ini adalah teknik dan stratiji yang diguna pakai oleh semua pemerintah - raja, emperor, ratu, presiden atau perdana menteri – semua menggunakan 'takut' sebagai alat. Warga negara yang takut akan menjadi bodoh. Warga yang bodoh tidak berani bersuara. Warga yang takut dan bodoh amat senang untuk ditambat dan dijadikan kuli batak.
Apa yang telah dilakukan oleh Rosmah dan Najib ialah mengarahkan sepupunya Hishammuddin Hussein untuk menakut-nakutkan rakyat. Yang menjadi barua untuk menakut-nakutkan orang ramai ini ialah Timbalan Ketua Polis. Lihat bagaimana pada satu ketika warna kuning untuk – kasut, payung, baju – telah diistiharkan sebagai warna haram untuk dipakai. Ini contoh terbaik gerak kerja saekor barua.
Tidak cukup dengan tangkapan Polis, rakyat juga cuba ditakut-takutkan dengan kehadiran para pesilat yang memiliki ilmu kebal dan ilmu ghaib. Untuk terus menakut-nakutkan orang ramai tetiba kita melihat kemunculan berita dimana polis dan tentera telah mengadakan latihan bersama. Tidak cukup dengan berita ini ada sepanduk yang tertera dengan tulisan besar dalam empat bahasa termasuk tulisan jawi : Jika Tidak Berundur Kami Akan Tembak.
Taktik untuk menakutkan orang ramai ini dinaikkan lagi suhunya dengan kemunculan Perkasa dengan juruhebohnya Ibrahim Ali. Setiap hari tanpa henti-henti Ibrahim Ali telah berleter dan berheboh dengan segala macam berita yang bertujuan untuk mengancam dan menakut-nakutkan orang ramai dari turun ke jalan raya.
Dalam masa yang sama saban hari media milik United Malay National Organisation telah mengeluarkan dua bentuk berita. Satu berita-berita yang berniat untuk mengancam warga agar jangan berani turun ke jalan raya. Satu lagi berita untuk memburuk-burukan dan memperlekeh Bersih.
Tidak cukup dengan semua ini , 6 ahli Parti Sosialis Malaysia telah ditahan. Kali ini dengan menggunakan Akta Darurat. Entah macam mana – putar dan belit – Rosmah, Najib and sepupunya telah memintal lidah untuk menipu orang ramai. Sepupu Najib telah berkata bahawa 6 anggota PSM ini ingin melawan Agong.
Ya Ampon. Lawak ini menjadi seram apabila kita diberitahu bahawa hanya Dr Jeya seorang sahaja yang tahu dimana rumah Agong dan pernah melihat rupa muka Agong. Ini kerana Dr Jeya seorang ahli Parlimen dan Agong telah beberapa kali datang ke Parlimen. Yang lima lagi ini, saya difahamlan hanyalah aktivis PSM yang rata-rata tidak tahu sangat tentang jalan-jalan di Kuala Lumpur. Malah mereka berlima ini mungkin tidak dapat membezakan muka Agong dengan muka Dugong. Jauh sekali nak melawan Agong.
Dibelakang semua huh hah huha hah ini ada pula perang saraf yang disebarkan oleh 'desas bin desus'. Ada cerita tetang tangkapan ISA, tentang askar akan ambil alih negara dan kesah penangkapan beramai-ramai ala Operasi Lalang. Cerita peglipur lara dari Desas bin Desus ini sebenarnya adalah sebahagian dari pernah saraf yang tersusun untuk menakut-nakutkan orang ramai.
Apa yang terjadi pada 9 Julai?
Untuk saya bukan 6 ribu, bukan 60 ribu atau bukan 600 ribu warga yang turun ke jalan pada 9 Julai untuk dijadikan ukuran. Untuk saya angka ini bukan persoalan. Kalau pun hanya 6 orang yang turun pada 9 Julai yang lalu – saya anggap ini adalah satu kemenangan. Kenapa saya berkata seemikian?
Mungkin ramai yang tidak sedar. Mungkin ramai yang belum faham lagi. Apa yang terjadi pada 9 Julai dahulu ialah kita warga negara Malaysia telah melintasi Garis Takut. Garis Takut ini adalah sebahagian dari garis saikoloji yang telah dipasang apabila Malapetaka 31 Ogos dihimpapkan kepada kita semua. Read more at: http://tukartiub.blogspot.com/2011/07/anak-muda-segala-bangsa-melakar-sejarah.html?zx=7830bc5a91740552 |
| Voter Registration at Rumah Anak Bangsa Malaysia this weekend Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:05 PM PDT
Come register as a voter this weekend and next weekend at Rumah Anak Bangsa Malaysia (RABM) from 2-4pm. Details below:
Date:
23-24 July (Saturday & Sunday)
Time: 2-4pm Venue: Rumah Anak Bangsa Malaysia,
66 Lorong Setiabistari 1,
Bukit Damansara (GoogleMap link here)
If you're already a registered voter, you can drive all your friends and family who are not yet a voter to RABM this weekend! |
| GLOBAL BERSIH 2.0 - Awakening of the Malaysian Diaspora Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:58 AM PDT In every location, the local authorities were most helpful, some even suggesting more impactful vantage points to gather at. Sadly, at almost every location, representatives of Malaysian authorities took photos and videos and tried to record the names of participants. By Global BERSIH 2.0 Starting from spontaneous expressions of patriotism at a few international locations where Malaysians were residents in fairly significant numbers, the desire to show support for the Bersih 2.0 'Walk for Electoral Reform' in Kuala Lumpur sprouted into a worldwide event that spanned most of the major time zones. New Zealand started the day rolling followed by rallies happening in several Australian, Asian and European cities. The ripple then spread across the Atlantic Ocean, to cities in North America, ending the historical day at the West Coast cities of Los Angeles, Portland and San Francisco. Indeed the sun did not quite set on Bersih 2.0. The sun decidedly shone down it's warm yellow rays on Bersih 2.0 participants everywhere, especially in places with chilly winds. But quite the contrary, if not ironic, back in in Kuala Lumpur, as rally participants were doused with stinging tear-gas and chemical-laced water, the skies opened up, washing everything clean! This occasion proved to be a new paradigm for Malaysians, especially the youth. They were experiencing Unity in Diversity, a concept few imagined was possible. Optimists estimate that some 50,000 Malaysians had gathered together without regard to ethnic origin or religious leaning. This was a Malaysia dreams were made of. Elsewhere in the world, the outpouring of patriotism was just as impressive. Malaysians were united as one, in foreign lands. In places where Malaysians had existing committees and who met up regularly, organising a rally was pretty straightforward. But in some cities, rookies who had never even attended a rally before stepped up and asked how they could organise one. The results were most gratifying, as the numbers below show... City (attendance): Wellington (10), Auckland (35), Christchurch (15), Brisbane (100), Sydney (500), Canberra (40), Hobart (30), Melbourne (1000), Adelaide (150), Osaka (14), Seoul (35), Suzhou (20), Taipei (300), Shenzen (20), Hong Kong (80), Perth (120), Singapore Online(63), Singapore Picnic (200), Dubai (40), Cairo (100), Istanbul (2),Stockholm (10), Graz, Austria (2), Zurich (42), Geneva (12), Paris (30), London (450), Glasgow (30), Belfast (25), Dublin (60), Cork (14), Limerick (11), New York City (130), Ottawa (11), Washington DC (50), Chicago (35), Los Angeles (85), Portland, OR (14), San Francisco (120) Total attendance for all 38 locations = 4003 participants. Cities are sequenced according to longitude. Apart from these heart-warming numbers of participants in these locations, there were unconfirmed reports in the social network site, Facebook, of people in other locations such as Cambodia, Jerusalem, Frankfurt... also standing up to be counted. But in the absence of verifiable sources, we have to leave those claims open. The organisers in Singapore, aware of the restrictions on public gatherings posed by the Singapore authorities, quite cleverly decided to do an online show of their love for Malaysia and their support for the Bersih 2.0 campaign. However, there were some folks who decided to gather informally for a picnic at a popular park. We have reported the numbers of both these gatherings. Sympathy rallies were also held in Manila, Bangkok and Jakarta but we have not included those attendance numbers. The Steering Committee of GLOBAL BERSIH 2.0 would like to thank all participants for the tremendous support extended towards the call for Free and Fair Elections and Real Democracy in Malaysia. Through your actions, that some may deem indirect or small, you have provided irrefutable proof that Diaspora Malaysians still hold Malaysia dearly in your hearts and would return if you could. You have staked your claim to having a part to play in what happens at home. Despite the excessive use of force encountered by the Bersih 2.0 Walkers in Kuala Lumpur, all the locations elsewhere proved that peaceful demonstrations are a part and parcel of the democratic process and can be managed effectively with minimal impact on non-participants. This is testimony to the maturity of Malaysians in their ability to participate fully in a vibrant democracy. Authorities should take cognizance of this and allow the political evolution of Malaysia to proceed naturally. The myriad of global locations displayed banners and posters, with participants wearing YELLOW - t-shirts, scarves, ribbons... In some locations loud hailers were used to address the crowd while in other more cosy locations, participants took turns to read and discuss the 8 demands. A Samad Said's almost-banned poem was read, memoranda and posters were signed, catchy phrases were chanted and the Negaraku was sung with fervour. Many locations also called for the immediate release of the 6 detained under Emergency Ordinance without legal recourse. In every location, the local authorities were most helpful, some even suggesting more impactful vantage points to gather at. Sadly, at almost every location, representatives of Malaysian authorities took photos and videos and tried to record the names of participants. Carnival atmosphere aside, the most significant impact of Global Bersih 2.0 is the realisation that has dawned upon many Diaspora Malaysians that you are not alone in your love of and concern for your mother country. You met and interacted, many for the first time, with others like yourselves living relatively near to where you live. This has sparked the desire on the part of many to remain in contact with each other and continue to come together for activities that can help improve your nation. The Steering Committee of GLOBAL BERSIH 2.0 proposes to extend the ongoing domestic activities of Bersih 2.0 by promoting the following activities internationally. The first three of these will be carried out by those interested participating locations while the next three will be coordinated by the Steering Committee. - Yellow Saturday movements - gathering in any public places, dressed in yellow or carrying out any activities involving the colour yellow;
- Public events to explain the 8 points and broaden understanding of what Bersih 2.0 seeks to accomplish;
- Photo exhibitions and video shows, again to broaden general understanding of the realities at home;
- Lobbying with sympathetic NGOs and friendly governments to seek the release of the 6 persons still detained under the Emergency Ordinance;
- An international petition pushing for the first 4 demands of Bersih 2.0 to be implemented within 3 months and for full disclosure on any amendments made to the electoral process; and
- Promotion of the MyOverseasVote campaign to enable Malaysians to register and vote from wherever they happen to be resident.
Global Bersih 2.0 is a turning point in the relationship of Diaspora Malaysians with your mother country. Many of you showed that you were willing to cast aside your fears and contribute towards making our land the better country it can be. Those committed, let us bring our skills and resources to bear to help rebuild our nation and fulfil the promise of potential it showed when it was first born 54 years ago. Let us work together to make Malaysia the great model nation it was meant to be. Steering Committee Global BERSIH 2.0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bertitik tolak dari semangat patriotisme, rakyat Malaysia di seluruh dunia telah bangkit dan menyokong perhimpunan Bersih 2.0 di Kuala Lumpur pada 9 Julai 2011. Mereka berhimpun beramai-ramai menganjurkan perhimpunan solidariti Bersih 2.0 di lokasi masing-masing. Gelombang Bersih 2.0 telah bermula di New Zealand dan seterusnya diikuti bandar-bandar utama di Australia, Asia dan Eropah, akhirnya merentasi Lautan Atlantik tiba di bandar-bandar utama di Amerika Utara termasuk Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, Portland dan San Francisco. Sinaran matahari terpancar terang di atas peserta-peserta Bersih 2.0 di pelbagai lokasi terutamanya tempat yang bermusim panas. Di Kuala Lumpur pula peserta perhimpunan ditembak gas pemedih mata dan meriam air kimia, hanya diselamatkan bila hujan turun dan membersihkan segalanya! Saat ini merupakan paradigma baru bagi rakyat Malaysia, terutamanya golongan anak muda. Mereka telah mengenali 'Perpaduan dalam Kepelbagaian', suatu konsep yang tidak terbayang sebelum Bersih 2.0. Ada pihak menganggarkan bahawa kira-kira 50,000 rakyat Malaysia telah berkumpul bersama tanpa mengira asal-usul etnik atau agama dan ini merupakan suatu impian yang diidam-idamkan sebelum ini. Sementara itu, rakyat Malaysia di beberapa lokasi seluruh dunia berkumpul dan menunjukkan semangat patriotisme yang amat mengkagumkan. Bagi lokasi di mana rakyat Malaysia telahpun menubuhkan jawatankuasa dan bertemu berkali-kali, perhimpunan Bersih 2.0 telah dianjurkan tanpa banyak rintangan. Namun di sesetengah lokasi, mereka yang tidak pernah menyertai perhimpunan sebelum ini telah mengambil langkah pertama untuk menganjurkan perhimpunan. Hasil segala usaha ini amat memberangsangkan. Jumlah kehadiran adalah seperti berikut: Kotaraya (kehadiran): Wellington (10), Auckland (35), Christchurch (15), Brisbane (100), Sydney (500), Canberra (40), Hobart (30), Melbourne (1000), Adelaide (150), Osaka (14), Seoul (35), Suzhou (20), Taipei (300), Shenzen (20), Hong Kong (80), Perth (120), Singapura Online (63), Singapura Picnic (200), Dubai (40), Kaherah (100), Istanbul (2), Stockholm (10), Graz, Austria (2), Zurich (42), Geneva (12), Paris (30), London (450), Glasgow (30), Belfast (25), Dublin (60), Cork (14), Limerick (11), New York City (130), Ottawa (11), Washington DC (50), Chicago (35), Los Angeles (85), Portland, OR (14), San Francisco (120) Jumlah kehadiran untuk semua 38 lokasi = 4003 peserta. Urutan bandar-bandar mengikut longitud. Selain daripada bilangan kehadiran di lokasi di atas, beberapa laporan rangkaian sosial seperti Facebook, melapurkan ada juga perhimpunan di lokasi-lokasi lain seperti Kemboja, Jerusalem, Frankfurt dll. Tetapi tanpa sumber yang dapat disahkan, perhimpunan2 tersebut tidak diambil kira. Penganjur di Singapura, berhadapan dengan sekatan ke atas perhimpunan awam yang ditimbulkan oleh pihak berkuasa Singapura, mengambil keputusan menunjukkan rasa cinta mereka kepada Ibu Pertiwi dan sokongan mereka terhadap kempen 2.0 Bersih dengan cara online. Walau bagaimanapun, terdapat beberapa orang yang memutuskan untuk berkumpul sambil berkelah di taman popular. Kami telah melaporkan kedua-dua jumlah hadiran. Perhimpunan simpati juga telah diadakan di Manila, Bangkok dan Jakarta tetapi kita tidak juga mengambil kira kehadiran ini. Jawatankuasa Pemandu GLOBAL BERSIH 2.0 mengucapkan ribuan terima kasih kepada semua peserta atas sokongan anda kepada sahutan untuk Pilihanraya Bebas dan Adil dan Demokrasi tulen di Malaysia. Melalui tindakan anda dalam beberapa cara, anda telah menunjukkan bukti yang tidak dapat disangkal bahawa Rakyat Diaspora Malaysia masih memegang Malaysia dengan kesayangan dalam hati anda dan akan kembali jika anda boleh. Anda telah mempertaruhkan tuntutan anda untuk memainkan peranan dalam apa yang berlaku di negeri asal. Walaupun perkasaran yang berlebihan dihadapi oleh Pejalan Bersih 2.0 di Kuala Lumpur, semua lokasi di tempat lain membuktikan bahawa demonstrasi aman adalah sebahagian daripada proses demokrasi dan boleh diuruskan dengan berkesan tanpa kesulitan kepada pihak lain. Ini adalah bukti kematangan rakyat Malaysia dalam kebolehan mereka untuk menyertai sepenuhnya dalam demokrasi yang aktif. Pihak atasan harus memahami tentang ini dan membenarkan evolusi politik Malaysia tanpa halangan. Pelbagai lokasi global mempamerkan kain rentang dan poster, dengan peserta yang memakai KUNING - kemeja-t, tudung, reben dll. Di sesetengah lokasi pembesar suara digunakan untuk menangani orang ramai manakala di lokasi lain yang berkurang hadirin, para peserta membaca dan membincangkan 8 tuntutan. Puisi A Samad Said yang hampir diharamkan dibaca, memorandum dan poster ditandatangani, frasa menarik melaungkan dan Negaraku dinyanyikan dengan semangat. Banyak lokasi juga memanggil untuk pembebasan serta-merta 6 orang tahanan di bawah Ordinan Darurat walaupun mereka tidak melanggarkan undang-undang. Dalam setiap lokasi, pihak berkuasa tempatan membantu para peserta, malah ada yang mencadangkan lokasi yang lebih berkesan untuk berkumpul.. Malangnya, di hampir setiap lokasi, wakil-wakil pihak berkuasa Malaysia telah mengambil gambar dan video dan cuba merekodkan nama-nama peserta. Lebih daripada suasana gembira di perhimpunan tersebut, kesan yang paling ketara dengan Bersih 2.0 Sedunia ialah kesedaran bahawa banyaknya Rakyat Diaspora Malaysia dan anda tidak keseorangan dalam percintaan dan kebimbangan atas Ibu Pertiwi. Anda telah bertemu dan berinteraksi, kebanyakannya buat kali pertama, dengan orang lain seperti anda sendiri yang hidup agak berhampiran tempat tinggal anda. Ini telah mencetuskan keinginan untuk kekal dalam hubungan supaya menjalankan aktiviti-aktiviti yang membantu memperbaiki keadaan negara kita. Jawatankuasa Pemandu BERSIH 2.0 Sedunia bercadang untuk meluaskan aktiviti-aktiviti Bersih 2.0 berterusan dalam negeri dengan menggalakkan aktiviti-aktiviti berikut di peringkat antarabangsa. Aktiviti pertama hingga ketiga ini akan dijalankan oleh lokasi yang berminat mengambil bahagian manakala keempat hingga keenam akan diselaraskan oleh Jawatankuasa Pemandu. Pergerakan Sabtu Kuning - berkumpul di mana-mana tempat awam, berpakaian kuning atau menjalankan apa-apa aktiviti yang melibatkan warna kuning; Acara awam untuk menjelaskan 8 tuntutan dan meluaskan pemahaman tujuan Bersih 2.0 Pameran foto dan tayangan video, sekali lagi untuk meluaskan pemahaman umum realiti di Malaysia; Melobi dengan badan-badan NGO dan juga kerajaan yang bersimpati untuk mendapatkan pembebasan 6 orang yang masih ditahan di bawah Ordinan Darurat; Sesuatu petisyen antarabangsa yang mendesak untuk 4 tuntutan pertama Bersih 2.0 untuk dilaksanakan dalam tempoh 3 bulan dan untuk pendedahan penuh mengenai apa-apa pindaan yang dibuat kepada proses pilihan raya; Promosi kempen MyOverseasVote bagi membolehkan rakyat Malaysia untuk mendaftar dan mengundi dari mana-mana jua mereka bermastautin.
Bersih 2.0 Sedunia adalah titik perubahan di dalam hubungan Rakyat Diaspora Malaysia dengan negeri anda. Ramai daripada anda menunjukkan bahawa anda bersedia untuk membuang kebimbangan anda dan menyumbang ke arah menjadikan tanah air kita negara yang lebih baik sejauhmana yang boleh. Mereka yang berkomitmen, marilah kita membawa kemahiran dan sumber-sumber kita tanggung untuk membantu membina semula negara kita dan memenuhi janji potensi yang ia menunjukkan apabila ia dilahirkan 54 tahun yang lalu. Mari kita bekerja bersama-sama untuk menjadikan Malaysia negara contoh yang hebat. Jawatankuasa Pemandu BERSIH 2.0 Sedunia |
| “The last of the Mohicans.” Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:55 AM PDT By Being Vernon This morning a group of us visited the residence of the late Datuk Amar James Wong Kim Min to pay our last respects to a great statesman. I was touched to see Datuk Amar's favourite hat placed atop his casket.
YB Baru Bian, N70 Ba' Kelalan, signing the register. Until Sunday, Datuk Amar was the last man living who was a signatory to the formation of our nation Malaysia. He was a founding father of our nation. Let us NEVER forget that. He was, as Datuk Michael Bong (Datuk Amar's brother-in-law) put it, "the last of the Mohicans."
I was also touched when Datuk Michael Bong mentioned that my late grandfather, Ivory Kedit Ipa, was one of the founders of SNAP. He is correct. SNAP was founded and constituted in granddad's home in Lintang Park all those years ago. It was my father, Albert Rumpang Kedit, who carried the newly written constitution of SNAP from Seria (Brunei) to Kuching for the protem committee to endorse. So yes, my family has a long history in SNAP.
But my grandfather would not have approved of how the current leadership of SNAP has allowed a once glorious party to become the sham that it is today. Such pity. Perhaps I should join SNAP and resurrect the ideals that granddad and his fellow founders subscribed to?
And then at lunch I read in the Borneo Post a comment (click HERE to read) by that fellow Mr. Mawan, who never ceases to amaze me with his churning out of insensitive statements. He said, "There is a possibility that the state's first deputy chief minister would be given a posthumous award. He may no longer be around but recognition may possibly be granted." Twice, Mr. Mawan qualifies himself. Twice!
Firstly, why wait until the man is gone to honour him? Honours are best bestowed when the person being honoured can receive and enjoy the honour himself, not posthumously when he is gone. All this while, was the government blind to his achievements? Did it take for him to pass away before the government finally recognises that within their midst was a mountain of a man? Read more at: http://beingvernon.blogspot.com/2011/07/last-of-mohicans.html |
| And the prince makes his move… Posted: 20 Jul 2011 05:46 AM PDT 
Tengku Razaleigh's Amanah has sent the speculation mills into overdrive. Has the prince given up on Umno? Or will he now lead the third force? (Free Malaysia Today) - The new organisation set up by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah may signal the Kelantan prince's disenchantment with Umno, suggested a prominent blogger. He also believes that the veteran politician will not defend his Gua Musang parliamentary seat under the Barisan Nasional ticket. In his blog MSOMalaysia, Mohd Sayuti Omar said Razaleigh's Amanah (Angkatan Amanah Merdeka) reflected his frustration towards Umno and that the latter no longer believes he can reform the party from within. "The question is what is the purpose of Amanah? "Will it move to support Umno or go against Umno? Will Amanah that is said to be based on the legacy of Tunku Abdul Rahman forge cooperation with the opposition in the coming election? "The logic is Razaleigh will not be enthusiastic about leading the NGO if it is not to repair Umno… (but) he has given thought about his future and has lost confidence in Umno. I can see from this that he will not contest under the BN ticket anymore," he added. Amanah to lead third force? Amanah, to be launched this Friday, aims to rekindle the spirit of unity, justice and good governance as espoused by the country's founding fathers which Razaleigh said is the duty of Umno to preserve. The Gua Musang MP, however, has been critical towards the ruling party and made statements that Umno has deviated from its original struggle and is now corrupt. The setting up of Amanah is seen as a platform to pursue this objective while some observers claim that the NGO may potentially be the leading platform for a third force given Razaleigh's calibre as a respected politician. A news report quoted Amanah central committee and PAS member Wan Saiful Wan Jan as saying that the NGO will have "prominent leaders" on its committee. It is understood that the 15-20 member committee will also include leaders from BN as well as Pakatan Rakyat. "You might be surprised when you see who is in the committee," Wan Saiful said. 'Those who lost faith in Najib' Commenting on the composition of the committee, Sayuti said while there are no details, he is however confident that it will include Umno politicians who have lost faith in the party's struggle. "It will also comprise ex-top civil servants who no longer believe in Umno's struggle and the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. "Who are they (members of the committee)? There are a few Umno veterans with Razaleigh and his loyal supporters. It also includes the children of Umno leaders who no longer believe in Umno, which has gone astray from its original struggle," added the blogger. Razaleigh was touted as the best candidate to lead the country next to his former Umno comrade, current Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, and was said to be in talks with Pakatan over such a prospect, but he denied the speculation. READ MORE HERE |
| MB S’gor: Konsert MTV tetap diteruskan Posted: 20 Jul 2011 05:42 AM PDT 
Namun pihak penganjur perlu mematuhi garis panduan yang ketat termasuklah tidak membenarkan sebarang penjualan dan penggunaan alkohol dan rokok. (Free Malaysia Today) - Menteri Besar Selangor Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim berkata penganjuran konsert MTV World Stage Live di I-City pada 24 Julai ini tetap diteruskan walaupun menerima bantahan daripada penduduk dan PAS. Namun Abdul Khalid menegaskan pihak penganjur perlu mematuhi garis panduan yang ketat termasuklah tidak membenarkan sebarang penjualan dan penggunaan alkohol dan rokok sepanjang konsert berlangsung. "Kita merasakan aktiviti yang menarik di negeri ini kita akan galakkan, tetapi mesti dengan tertib serta sesuai dengan imej Shah Alam. "Dengan penganjuran konsert MTV ini menunjukkan Shah Alam mula dikenali diperingkat antarabangsa," katanya. Pada Jun lalu, Ahli Parlimen Shah Alam Khalid Samad yang mewakili persatuan penduduk Seksyen 7 Shah Alam menyerahkan satu memorandum yang membantah penganjuran konsert itu kepada Menteri Besar dan menggesa beliau membatalkan penganjuran konsert tersebut. Kenyataan Khalid Samad turut disokong oleh Ketua Dewan Pemuda PAS Pusat, Nasruddin Hassan Tantawi yang mendakwa pengajuran konsert tersebut memberi kesan negatif kepada penyerapan budaya kuning daripada luar dan ia tidak sesuai bagi golongan belia kerana Shah alam merupakan tempat tinggal ramai pelajar universiti. Bersikap terbuka Mengulas lanjut mengenai bantahan itu, Abdul Khalid berkata kerajaan negeri bersikap terbuka dan menyambut baik memorandum tersebut. Namun kerajaan negeri katanya akan memastikan penganjuran konsert itu tidak mengganggu aktiviti pelancongan dan golongan belia di negeri ini. "Kita menerima dan menghayati memorandum tersebut. Kita merasakan mereka (PAS) khuatir tentang kesan pengaruh budaya Barat dalam kehidupan belia di sini, tetapi kita perlu menerima perbezaan dan keadaan dengan terbuka," katanya. Beliau berjanji kerajaan negeri akan memastikan konsert tersebut berjalan dengan penuh tertib tanpa mencemarkan cara hidup masyarakat Islam di negeri itu. READ MORE HERE |
| Ahmad Sarbani’s death: the lies and deceptions by the MACC (part 8) Posted: 20 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT |
| Dear Ahmad Azman Saaiya Posted: 19 Jul 2011 06:46 PM PDT My dear brother Ahmad Azman Saaiya, I can only surmise that MCKK has failed you terribly and what the founding fathers hoped MCKK would achieve has been lost on you. How MCKK failed you so miserably is beyond me and if this is what MCKK has produced, demonstrated by your comments, then I can only conclude that an MCKK education has been wasted on you at a great loss to the taxpayers. NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin Dear Ahmad Azman Saaiya,
I am addressing you as a fellow Budak Kolej, the only way I should. I trust, therefore, you will take what I write in the spirit it was written, a letter from one brother to another.
It has always been our college tradition that we are all brothers and nothing should come between us, whether differences in politics or religion. There are some Budak Kolej who are very pious to a fault and others who live their lives that would make even Satan blush.
Nevertheless, we always live and let live and to each his own. We do not pass judgment or moralise. And we certainly do not demonstrate self-righteousness and adopt a holier than thou attitude.
And in that spirit Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, one of the more illustrious of Budak Kolej, visited me three times in Manchester over the last two years. Tan Sri regards me as a Budak Kolej first and an enemy of Umno second.
That is the spirit of Budak Kolej as demonstrated by your Umno brethren, Tan Sri Sanusi Junid.
Ahmad Azman, let me take you on a trip down memory lane and talk about Sir Richard James Wilkinson, the son of a British Consul in Greece who was born in 1867 at Salonika, Greece.
Wilkinson was educated at Trinity College in Cambridge. He was multilingual and commanded a few languages, which include French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and later, Bahasa Melayu and Hokkien.
Wilkinson's career started in 1889 as a cadet after joining the Straits Settlements Civil Service. His other posts while serving in the Straits Settlements were:
* 1896 – 1898 Acting Director of Education, Penang
* 1898 – 1900 Acting Inspector General of Schools in the Straits Settlements, Singapore
* 1902 – 1903 Transferred to Dindings, Perak
* 1903 – 1906 Acting Inspector of Schools for the Federated Malay States
* 1906 – 1910 Secretary General to the British Resident (EW) Birch in Perak
* 1910 – 1911 British Resident, Negeri Sembilan
* 1911 – 1916 Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements, Singapore
Now, why am I talking about Wilkinson? Well, first of all, because his legacy includes the establishment of the Malay Training College in Malacca in 1900, which was eventually succeeded in 1922 by the Sultan Idris Training College (SITC) at Tanjung Malim. However, more importantly, at least to you and me, would be in 1905 he founded the Malay Residential School, later to be called the Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK), the school that you and I received our education.
One very important point to note, Ahmad Azman, and which all Budak Kolej are very proud to remind everyone, is that Wilkinson described the type of education we would need as follows:
"…..one that would produce a vigorous and intelligent race of young men who will be in touch with modern progress but not out of touch with old traditions; who will be liberally educated but not educated out of sympathy with their own families and people; who will be manly and not effeminate, strong-minded but not strong willed, acknowledging a duty to others instead of being a law unto themselves and who will be fit to do something in the world instead of settling down into fops, spendthrifts or drones".
E.W. Birch, the British Resident of Perak from 1904-1910 and a member of the MCKK Board of Governors, being public school educated himself, moulded MCKK along the lines of British public schools such as Eton and Harrow -- where leaders such as Churchill and Nehru passed through.
Birch wanted to ensure that MCKK would adapt the public school ethos of character development and noblesse oblige where people of high social position should behave nobly towards others.
My dear brother Ahmad Azman Saaiya, I can only surmise that MCKK has failed you terribly and what the founding fathers hoped MCKK would achieve has been lost on you. How MCKK failed you so miserably is beyond me and if this is what MCKK has produced, demonstrated by your comments (read here: (http://malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/letterssurat/42207-letter-from-an-old-boy-mckk-and-umno-member), then I can only conclude that an MCKK education has been wasted on you at a great loss to the taxpayers. |
| Is Bersih the death knell of tyranny? Posted: 19 Jul 2011 05:09 PM PDT  By N H Chan The picture on the front page of the Sunday Star, 10 July 2011 spoke louder than words. It showed the huge crowd of peaceful but bold Bersih supporters flying in the face of the cowardly might of the police who were decked out in full riot paraphernalia. They must be daunted by the sea of placid, mostly young, people facing them. Those in the front rows were seated on the road and those at the back were standing. All were unarmed and none were menacing the police. They were all peaceful demonstrators who were trying to put across to the imbeciles in power the people's right to peaceful assembly and to show that they were united in their call for a clean and incorrupt general election. The BN regime may say anything they like but the fact that the common people could come out in large numbers in silent protest only goes to show that the regime has lost its credibility. The regime and its underlings the police behaved as expected of tyrants – typical of all bullies they were afraid of their own shadow – they saw the ghosts of the insurgency of Chin Peng and the CPM (Communist Party of Malaya) being revived; see the Sun of Friday, July 8, 2011 where the former Perak chief police officer and Special Branch commander Yuen Yet Leng gave his thoughts to Maria J. Das in an interview. He said: If you are going to sport a picture of Chin Peng on your t-shirt, you are only asking for trouble. How do you expect the police not to take action? I agree with what the Special Branch had done. This problem has been thrown in the police's lap and involves national security and public order. The CPM has the same ideology as … Mao Zedong who believed that the highest form of struggle is an armed struggle, and not a political struggle. He must be joking! I am astounded by the man's naivety. I think he is still living in the past which is a pity for one of our country's heroes (but then I also have the same problem, I could remember the past vividly but I could not remember what I said or promised yesterday). He was the CPO Perak when I was a Judicial Commissioner in Ipoh back then in 1970. He was one policeman I have admired for his dedication to make Ipoh safe from criminals. He brought down the crime rate in Ipoh. I remember the occasion when he told me that at a police road block at Simpang Pulai which is on the outskirts of Ipoh, the police had arrested the occupants of a car when they found weapons for committing armed robbery hidden in its boot. On interrogation they admitted they were en route to Penang because it was perilous for them to commit the crime in Ipoh as there was a fierce Chinese judge there. To be fair I must also point out that Mr Yuen was supportive of the reason for the people's negative perception of the police. For example: Das: … many people question why the police seem to act against only certain parties, while others who make seditious comments and threats get away. Won't the public equate this with police persecution? Yes and no. The police usually back the effort of the incumbent government of the day so long as it acts by the rule of law, but they need to be more courageous to act when supporters of the government go too far. When they are hesitant, they are bound to be accused of being unfair. Being balanced will earn the police some respect. He also said: … there is nothing wrong with Bersih 2's demands and the incumbent government must hear the genuine worries of the people. They need to pry things apart and deal with people who are sincere with their concerns. Then legitimate complaints can be looked into. … the timing is such that there appears to be a united front against the government, and this frightens them. Returning to the hullabaloo of the police on the involvement of national security and public order, don't they know, as all of us already know, that communism as an ideology had collapsed with the fall of the Berlin wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union? There is no more threat from any idea of communist expansionism from Chinese communists as China has turn to capitalism and has prospered as the world's second largest economy next to America. It is true that China is still being governed by an oligarchic regime. One must be a member of the communist party to form the government because it is the ruling party as China is a one party totalitarian state, just as Malaysia has also become an oligarchy with the Umno led Barisan Nasional remaining in power for some 54 years. To say that this country is a democracy is laughable. Democracy has become an anachronism in Malaysia. As in China the ruling BN coalition will not tolerate dissent in any form as the Bersih episode on 9 July 2011 had graphically exposed to us common folk that the police have used excessive physical force to quell the rally of peaceful protestors who were only asking for the reformation of the electoral system to a fairer and incorrupt one – so that when the crowd was heard to have shouted "reformasi" it did not mean that they were for the opposition party PKR. We have read about police brutality against peaceful demonstrators from eyewitnesses account in loyarburok and in Malaysiakini and we also see them in graphic detail as the incidents of the use of excessive force by the police on the hapless protestors were recorded live on mobile phones by those who were there for all the world to see on Youtube. Yet in the Star, Monday 18 July 2011, the deputy prime minister Muhyiddin said that what had emerged through the alternative media and YouTube were scenes that seem to show the police had acted in a cruel manner. "What was not shown were prior scenes where the police were provoked and taunted", he said. Obviously the deputy prime minister has never heard of the well known proverb, 'sticks and stones will break my bones but words can never hurt me'. In any case, a policeman should be patient and tolerant when conducting crowd control. They should try to defuse the anger instead of being short tempered and responding with unequal force. However, I think the negative public perception of the police in this respect will be difficult to erase. In any case, one notices the glaring difference in the integrity of the government in the UK and ours. In the hacking scandal involving the News of the World and the London police we do not see the prime minister or the home minister or any minister coming out to defend the police. Instead they were embarrassed and concerned so much so that an emergency session of parliament was called. Even Britain's police chief had to resign. On the other hand, in Malaysia, we have the deputy prime minister Muhyiddin coming out in defence of the police when in fact he should be concerned and should suggest an investigation into the heavy handed conduct of the police in handling the crowd. In this country we throw integrity to the wind! Even our police chief did not resign – the fact that in some areas the police had responded and reacted with unequal force should have made him responsible as a commander. The police have justified their hash crackdown on the peaceful demonstrators of Bersih for the reason of national security and public order. But as I have explained above any prospect of a revival of a communist insurgency in this country is a myth. To say that the CPM has the same ideology as Mao Zedong (whose idealogy should have died with him) who believed that the highest form of struggle is an armed struggle and, therefore, there is every danger of an armed insurrection being revived in this country is an unjustifiable assumption in this day and age. Only imbeciles could have imagined that! That is why I say these people are afraid of their own shadow. If you are afraid of your own shadow then you must be a coward. You are also a coward, if not a madman, if you donned your suit of armour like Don Quixote who battled imaginary dragons in the form of windmills or riot gear ready to do battle with unarmed and peaceful street protestors to quell a whimsical or imaginary insurrection in the farcical interest of national security and public order. To be fair, it is reported in the Star, Wednesday 13 July 2011 under the headline No plans to hold another Bersih that the Bar Council has said something nice about some policemen: The Bar Council thanked Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar for allowing the council's monitoring teams to observe the rally and for acknowledging the council's impartiality in conducting the observation exercise. "Many of our monitors noted a significant number of police officers were polite towards the leaders of the public rallies, participants and the monitoring team," council president Lim Chee Wee said … However, the council said unnecessary physical force was used in some instances. I suppose not all policemen are the bad guys. There are some decent ones still around. Just as there are some decent Umno guys around like the chief of Umno Youth Khairy Jamaluddin who has shown magnanimity to Ambiga. When we leave matters to the younger generation we do not find animosity and recrimination. They are prepared to talk and discuss on how the country's electoral system could be reformed. Bravo and I salute them. Next, there is this pithy assessment from the Star, Thursday 14 July 2011 by Baradan Kuppusamy: Awakening the young voters The Bersih 2.0 rally was a success by some measure because Pakatan Rakyat supporters braved police restrictions, roadblocks and barbed wire to gather in the city centre calling on the Government to institute electoral reform. There eight-point demand included issues that the opposition had been campaigning on for many years, like a clean electoral roll, reforming postal voting and a minimum of 21 days campaigning. These are fundamentals of a basic election system in a democratic society and few citizens would find these objectionable. Saturday's rally, therefore, had an unprecedented impact on society at large and on the election system While Saturday's rally was smaller in size compared to Bersih's first rally in November 2007, the effects were the same – the awakening of young people to political action to rally for a basic right in defiance of the police. The rally proved its point that a large number of Malaysians can gather, despite police action, and march peacefully. The message of Bersih is unequivocal, the people, especially the young people, of this country have been awakened and are no longer afraid of being intimidated by a bullying police force and they will take political action to rally for their basic rights in defiance of the police who they know are the minions of the avaricious people who are greedy for power. For after all, the awakened young people are only exercising their universal right of assembly that has been endorsed by the United Nations as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says that "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association". For after all the Bersih demands are not outrageous nor are they extravagant or unusual – most are matters that the opposition has been canvassing in Parliament perennially. As the writer of the above article has said, "These are fundamentals of a basic election system in a democratic society and few citizens would find these objectionable". Yet the Bersih movement and those who support them are being suppressed by those people who are clinging on to power and their minions the police force. Decent and normally law abiding citizens are suppressed just for voicing out their grouses for electoral reforms. The answer is plain for all to see. When we, the people, see our elected representatives failed us in Parliament; when our grouses or grievances have fallen on deaf ears in Parliament where the majority is the errant BN coalition which has been clinging on to power for more than half a century; when all else failed in the legislative process, the common people of this country have no other choice but to resort to political action of their own and the only avenue that is available which can carry their massage across most effectively is to rally for their cause even to the extent of open defiance of police action against them. Strange as it may seem, the powers that be seemed to have missed the point. The point is that the Bersih movement does not belong to or support the opposition or any political party. It is an apolitical movement. But it supports democracy which is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. When a government does not listen to the people's grouses and does not take action on them then it is not a government for the people. And a government which is not for the people is not a democratic government, it is a dictatorship. The message of Bersih, which is in fact the people's message, is loud and clear – we, the people of this country, do not want a dictatorship! Since we do not want a dictatorship, at the next general election we will vote the dictators out of office and replace them with a new coalition even to the extent of voting in the opposition. And if the new order were to fail the people too, then we will replace them at another election. And finally if any of our political parties were still to fail us again then, as a last resort, we may have to vote only for individuals who are for the people and who are incorruptible. There must be plenty of suitable candidates to choose from for our representation in Parliament from the Bersih movement itself. Like Ambiga I do not have the stomach for politics in this country. There are much braver souls around. Having said all that, one may still ask, what is the point then for a street demonstration albeit a peaceful one? The point is to bring out the people's dissatisfaction and their grouse for a clean and incorrupt government. The multitude's belief is that the only way to attain their goal is for a clean and incorrupt forthcoming general election. And when that had fallen on deaf ears the only avenue left for the people to voice their discontent is to rally in an orderly and peaceful demonstration like the Bersih walk to Stadium Merdeka although they never made it there as they were blocked by the police. Now that you know what is at stake, my dear readers, you can go straight to Loyarburok.com to read about how the police have used excessive force on the peaceful demonstrators. In particular, do read this article "Ambushed like Animals, I Had to Walk-Crawl". Here is an excerpt: There was no sense of danger because the police had so far let us go ahead. Sure, we all knew that eventually they would arrest the BERSIH and political leaders but we had no clue of how inhumane it was going to be. When we found ourselves manoeuvred into the tunnel, we started running as fast as we could. Even if we had never imagined that we would be tear-gassed in the tunnel, there was that imminent danger. I was in the middle of the crowd when I reached the end of the tunnel, relieved to be out of the ominous place. But by then, there was screaming because the FRU had started shooting tear gas straight towards at us. I saw it with my own eyes, the FRU was aiming directly at the people, and not over our heads. The message was clear to me: to hurt and maim as many as possible, even though these were peaceful demonstrators, many of whom are respected political leaders of our country. It was only after that I had heard that Anwar Ibrahim and his bodyguard were badly hurt for being shot at, along with another PAS politician who was in front of the crowd. After reading this you should also read the other articles about the Bersih rally in loyarburok. After you have read all those articles in loyarburok, do you want to support Bersih? We should not be afraid of threats and coercion anymore. Bersih is not a society or association or club. There is no subscription or membership. You don't have to join it. It is a movement and whenever there is an outcry by the people we can show our support for the movement by voting out the incumbent government of the day at the next election. We have the power of the people. You don't have to be loyal to any political party. Always be ready to tell those in government that they are our servants who should serve the people. We, the people, have put them there and we the people can remove them in the next election. Any government must be for the people. It is not to be a government for those in authority or in power. That kind of attitude among those who governed us will no longer be tolerated by the people who had put them there in the first place. Shortly stated, we do not want a dictatorship at all. It is democracy that the people want and that means the government must always be for the people. A government for the people does not incarcerate its citizens without a trial or on trump up charges or use draconian laws to terrorize and overawe its citizens or to stifle dissent. A government for the people are not intolerant of the people's grouses. A government for the people does not shoot tear gas cylinders directly at peaceful demonstrators nor would it use physical force on them — they should not copy the violent methods used by the dictators of the Middle East on their own people. I could go on and on. But I think you have got the picture. |
| Letter from an Old Boy MCKK and Umno Member Posted: 19 Jul 2011 04:17 PM PDT 
Siapa nak kahwin dengan anak Raja Petra dipersilakan. Kahwin sebelum nikah pun okay. Bapak mentua tak marah. Kalau tak nak pakai anak Petra, pakai bapak dia pun ok. 
Ahmad Azman Saaiya (Old Boy MCKK and Umno Member) Anak Petra dah graduate. Baju nampak lurah dendam lagi. Takpe bapak dia memang mereng nak buat macamana. Siapa nak kahwin dengan anak Raja Petra dipersilakan. Kahwin sebelum nikah pun okay. Bapak mentua tak marah. Cuma syarat nak jadi menantu Petra kena pandai fitnah, pusing fakta semaksima mungkin dan perasan nak jadi kuasa ketiga dalam politik Malaysia. Oh lupa...pastikan anda takde telur macam Petra. Lepas fitnah cabut lari lintang pukang. Damn right Pete, membujur lalu melintang pukang. Kalau tak nak pakai anak Petra, pakai bapak dia pun okay. |
| Najib, the Queen and the Pope Posted: 19 Jul 2011 02:09 PM PDT (The Diplomat) Marrying the demands of international diplomacy with the political realities of home is a tough ask for most countries and their foreign ministries. The two can be a difficult fit, as Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has found out all too well. Some back home seem determined to provide an unwanted backdrop for his whistle-stop European tour designed to shore-up his country's vastly improving relations with the West and bring in some much needed foreign investment. However, echoes of the Bersih movement and their demands for electoral reform have dogged Najib and his entourage from London to Rome, while the prime minister's own supporters have provided the nastiest thorn in his political side with wild and unsubstantiated claims of unwanted foreign meddling in domestic affairs. Much of the initial fault lies with Najib. He declared the July 9 Bersih rallies in Kuala Lumpur and across the country illegal and failed to muzzle his own party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), and fringe elements threatening what should have been a simple and peaceful march. The police moved in with a heavy hand. Protesters were baton charged, tear gassed and beaten. People wearing yellow, the colour synonymous with the Bersih movement were arrested. Najib defended the police action, deeming it necessary to keep the peace while attempting to demonize what was as much a mums and dads rally calling for clean elections as an opposition attempt to topple the government. Playing to a home audience, his government quickly blamed prejudices in the international media for the negative portrayal that made headlines around the world, and Najib was probably hoping the mess would be quietly forgotten as he packed his bags for England. No such luck. Supporters of Bersih, which means clean in Malay, in London booed Najib as he went to Downing Street for lunch with his British counterpart David Cameron. He and First Lady Rosmah Mansor later met with the Queen, who surprised all by wearing yellow against a backdrop of yellow flowers. The choice of outfit from such an astute and experienced head of state was widely interpreted as a sympathetic sign of support for Bersih, although the Queen's dress sense seemed to escape the attention of fashionistas on state-linked newspapers in Malaysia. Read more at: http://the-diplomat.com/asean-beat/2011/07/19/najib-the-queen-and-the-pope/ |
| The changing media terrain Posted: 19 Jul 2011 12:07 PM PDT  By Karim Raslan, The Star A FASCINATING special section in last week's The Economist magazine explores the new media terrain post – Tahrir Square (in Cairo). As we now know, social media can be instrumental in toppling governments. Unfortunately, our leaders seem to have equated Malaysia with the Middle East – not realising that the conditions on the ground are totally different. Indeed, paranoia seems to have clouded the judgment of perfectly intelligent people. The magazine's analysis is all the more telling given the global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's highly embarrassing and value-destroying, phone-tapping debacle in the United Kingdom. The Economist outlines the extraordinary expansion and radical democratisation of the news industry as technology up-ends traditional business models. They argue that the global news industry is in the midst of a dramatic transformation – something that we in Malaysia are also experiencing. However, the survey begins by describing how the news was generated and then circulated centuries ago. In the era before the advent of newspapers, people exchanged news face-to-face at coffeeshops, warungs and markets. As a result, genuine news was mixed with gossip. Inaccuracies abounded and individuals were left to determine for themselves the relative veracity of what they were hearing. Obviously this is the tukang cerita's kind of world – an environment where the truth is in short supply and charlatans are poised at every corner. Anyhow, according to The Economist the news industry is facing a surprising return to the past. However, the random market gossip has been replaced by a torrent of chatter emanating from social media – from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In short, the volume is phenomenal. It is also loud, vociferous and intensely personal. The wall of noise will end up fracturing the public debate as a mass of disparate voices swamp the mainstream media. This will be matched by a challenge to the traditional media. Nonetheless, The Economist dates the rise of the newspaper industry to the launch of The Sun newspaper in New York in 1822. Combining advertising and objective journalism, The Sun was to reach an unprecedented 15,000 circulation within just two years – giving birth to an entire industry. Of course the subsequent travails of the newspaper industry have differed from country to country, reflecting underlying cultures. The Internet has had its most dramatic impact on British and American newspapers, all of which have been affected in circulation and revenue whereas German and Japanese titles haven't been badly mauled. Interestingly, there is still growth in newspaper circulation in emerging markets in India, Brazil and Indonesia. Another major exception to the overall negative trend in newspaper circulation is the general success of local media – newspapers with deep community roots that work hard at reporting and representing the various voices on the ground such as Sin Chew Daily and Sinar Harian. From a political perspective, the industrialisation of news-gathering resulted in the centralisation of influence. Those who owned newspapers quickly became very powerful with men such as William Hearst, Beaverbrook and indeed Rupert Murdoch trading favours with politicians and other businessmen. Understandably, politicians disliked and distrusted these powerful individuals and in many cases they did their utmost to curb their reach. However, in countries such as Malaysia, with our draconian newspaper licensing regulations, the balance of power is tilted very clearly in favour of the authorities. At the same time the actual control and ownership of newspaper titles by political parties and their allies was a major source of Barisan Nasional's lock on power. But times change. We are now presented with a very curious and unique scenario in Malaysia. We have a media that is split in the middle – with the mainstream (conventional) media supporting Barisan and the web-based predominantly supporting Pakatan. A relaxation of government controls will boost newspaper credibility immediately but tragically this is an unlikely eventuality. Denied access to the mainstream media, Pakatan politicians are being forced to learn how to navigate the new and increasingly complex media terrain. They've become leaner and meaner. By way of comparison, (with the exception of Khairy Jamaluddin who switches through all media formats, relentlessly pushing his agenda like any ambitious politician), Barisan figures prefer to stick to the mainstream media. As such they aren't learning how to manage the new challenges. |
| Nazri’s Nonsense! Posted: 19 Jul 2011 01:37 AM PDT  "Although the EO was enacted and came into power as a measure to curb communist resurgency in 1948 to 1960, and also for a brief state of emergency following the May 13, 1969 racial riot, it was retained to ensure that such incidents do not recur." At times, Minister in the Prime Minister Department, Nazri Abdul Aziz, is capable of making very profound statements and at other times he excels in uttering the most pitiful and pathetic! Below are some of his comments on the continued unjust detention of six Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members (taken from the Malaysian Insider and Malaysikini today). It has been adapted into a conversational form so that the reader can easily detect where and when the Minister's intellect deserted him. (NAZ= Nazri Abdul Aziz; MP: Member of the Public) NAZ: "The six were suspected of reviving Communist ideology which had been banned in Malaysia." MP: Till today police have not been able to provide any evidence to prove that they are right in their suspicion which itself is very suspect. NAZ: "Putrajaya will not tolerate attempts to "deify" the (Communist) ideology." MP: The public will not tolerate Putrajaya's and Umno's attempts to "deify" itself and play God. NAZ: "Even though the Emergency is over, the EO is still in existence, so it's up to the police!" MP: Create an "emergency" you mean, so that they can keep on using the EO? NAZ: "Although the EO was enacted and came into power as a measure to curb communist resurgency in 1948 to 1960, and also for a brief state of emergency following the May 13, 1969 racial riot, it was retained to ensure that such incidents do not recur." MP: There is still no proof that "such incidents" have occurred. And if we were to follow your logic we must as well retain all the laws of yesterday to prevent the recurrence of past threats! NAZ: "Communism, though banned in Malaysia, is not dead as seen by some PSM people... Rashid Maidin, it's still alive." MP: Again, you have no evidence of this, none whatsoever. Umno's tradition of creating imaginary threats and bogeymen which it inherited from the colonial master is still alive! NAZ: "The PSM detention was wholly a "security" issue"." MP: Yes, Umno's and Putrajaya's "security"! You fellows have become really very insecure! NAZ: The police were entitled to use whatever law necessary to ensure the nation's safety. MP: "At times we feel safer without the police!" NAZ: "It's not wrong for them to take action under the EO and it's not wrong for them to take action under existing laws." MP: Yes, even the police have to follow law and order – Umno's law and the Minister's orders! NAZ: "We don't tolerate this because... how to explain to soldiers and soldiers' families they died for nothing?" MP: How do we explain to the soldiers and soldiers' families that a desperate and conscienceless Minister made use of their deaths to justify his silly arguments and to ensure that his party would not die! Our soldiers who have gone before us must be smiling right now for they know that one day the Minister will only drown in his own arguments which hold no water! |
| Malaysia's Sub Scandal Resurfaces Posted: 19 Jul 2011 01:30 AM PDT 
French prosecutors edge closer to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak The French prosecutors are not expected to investigate Altantuya's death as such. Instead, they are following the case on the basis that it is illegal to pay or take kickbacks in France. If the €114 million is found to be a kickback, the French prosecutors can act, Bourdon said. John Berthelsen, Asia Sentinel The noose could be tightening on one of Malaysia's greatest military procurement scandals, the US$1 billion purchase of French-built Scorpène submarines commissioned by then-Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak in 2002. The latest developments come at a time when Najib, as prime minister, has been touring Europe, meeting with Queen Elizabeth and Pope Benedict XVI in an effort to repair an image battered by an ugly crackdown on July 9 against tens of thousands of protesters asking for reforms of Malaysia's electoral system, which is regarded as rigged to keep the ruling national coalitoin in power.
The scandal allegedly involves French politicians, the giant state-owned DCNS defense contractor and politicians and military procurement units across the world. The scandal netted a company owned by Najib's close friend Abdul Razak Baginda, €114 million in "commissions," according to testimony in Malaysia's Parliament. Some of the money is rumored to have been kicked back to French and Malaysian politicians.
French investigators have been poring over DCNS records for months in connection with the larger scandal. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has declined to investigate the scandal, maintaining that the giant commission was payment for legitimate services.
"It is likely that in September we should have access to the first police conclusions from all the investigations that have taken place over the last 18 months," Paris-based lawyer William Bourdon told Asia Sentinel Tuesday. "We know that the police seem to have obtained quite crucial documents."
Bourdon, the leader of a team of lawyers investigating the case, is to visit Kuala Lumpur on July 20 to confer with Suaram, the NGO that has filed a complaint with French authorities over the scandal. The question in France is whether under French law an NGO can act as a complainant. That will be decided in coming days by a French judge, Bourdon said. He added that he is confident that he will succeed.
For years, Malaysian authorities have been trying to keep the scandal under the carpet. The matter broke into the open in 2006, however, with the gruesome murder of Mongolian translator and party girl Altantuya Shaariibuu, who had served as a translator for part of the submarine deal. She had been shot in the head and her body was blown up with military explosives, Her last words, according to a confession by one of her killers, was that she was pregnant. The fact that her body was blown up has led to suspicions that the killers were trying to hide evidence of who the father might be.
The French prosecutors are not expected to investigate Altantuya's death as such. Instead, they are following the case on the basis that it is illegal to pay or take kickbacks in France. If the €114 million is found to be a kickback, the French prosecutors can act, Bourdon said.
According to Altantuya's final letter, which was found in a hotel room after her death, she was supposed to have received a US$500,000 fee for her work. After a whirlwind courtship in which she was given thousands of dollars and whisked off to Paris and other destinations by Razak Baginda, who is married, according to testimony, Altantuya was jilted by and ended up in front of his Kuala Lumpur house, calling him a "bastard" and demanding that he come out to face her. Shortly after that, a sedan full of Malaysian police officers pulled up and took her away. She was never seen alive again. In the letter left behind at her death, she said she had been blackmailing Razak Baginda, at that time a well-connected political analyst.
Two of Najib's bodyguards have been convicted and sentenced to death for her murder. Abdul Razak Baginda was acquitted in a trial seemingly held to make sure top government officials' names would not come out. He fled to the UK and has not been back to Malaysia since. French investigators have been going through the state-owned DCN's records for months. In France, the scandal has major implications. Tied to the global sales of weaponry have been deaths and scandal not only in Malaysia but in Pakistan, Taiwan and France itself. Allegations of kickbacks being examined by French prosecutors go clear up to former French President Jacques Chirac, former Prime Ministers Dominique de Villipin and Edouard Balladur and the country's current president, Nicholas Sarkozy in addition to an unknown number current and former French defense executives. Military procurement officials in Taiwan, India, Chile and Brazil may be involved, in addition to Malaysia. READ MORE HERE |
| Taken to the cleaners Posted: 19 Jul 2011 01:15 AM PDT 
Political affray in Malaysia An overzealous government response to an opposition rally None of this bodes well for Malaysia. The heavy-handed police tactics have provoked a lot of anger; the government has conceded an official investigation into claims of police brutality. In one instance (caught on film), police seemed to fire tear gas and water cannon into a hospital where protesters were sheltering from a baton charge. The Economist MALAYSIA is one of South-East Asia's stabler nations; but a rally in Kuala Lumpur on July 9th in demand of electoral reform turned surprisingly nasty, leading to the arrest of more than 1,600 people. The police fired tear gas and water cannon into the crowd, and one man died of a heart attack. All those arrested were released fairly quickly, but Amnesty International, a London-based human-rights group, called it "the worst campaign of repression in the country for years". The government's reaction showed a lot of nervousness about how much opposition it can tolerate. In fact the crackdown started a few weeks ago after "Bersih 2.0" announced that it was going to stage the rally. Bersih, also known as The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, is a loose alliance of NGOs and activists (bersih means "clean"). It argues that all candidates should be given access to the mainstream media and that indelible ink should be used to stop people voting more than once. It all sounds uncontroversial, but not to the government. Bersih was declared illegal on July 1st and about 200 activists were rounded up. The march itself was then banned, although the authorities offered Bersih a stadium to meet in—and then withdrew the offer. Perhaps the government was looking back nervously to the first Bersih march, in 2007. On that occasion, too, thousands protested against the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition government and demanded reform. Subsequently, in the 2008 general election, the BN lost its largest share of votes since 1957 when it started ruling the country after the British left. The current prime minister, Najib Razak, deputy prime minister in 2007 before taking over the top job in an internal party coup, must have feared that the second Bersih rally might be a similar portent. He has to hold an election before 2013, but wants to do so earlier to win his own mandate. Opposition politicians were quick to join Bersih. The pre-eminent leader of the opposition, Anwar Ibrahim, was shoved to the ground and injured in the affray. None of this bodes well for Malaysia. The heavy-handed police tactics have provoked a lot of anger; the government has conceded an official investigation into claims of police brutality. In one instance (caught on film), police seemed to fire tear gas and water cannon into a hospital where protesters were sheltering from a baton charge. Few old laws were left untouched in the attempt to round up suspects before the march. It was reported that 30 people arrested in Penang were investigated under Section 122 of the Penal Code for the charge of waging war against the king. Dragging in the constitutional monarch, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, seemed particularly desperate, reminiscent of the abuse of the monarchy's position in neighbouring Thailand. On the eve of the rally, the king came out with a statement reminding everyone that "street demonstrations bring more bad than good, although the original intention is good." Mr Najib defended the police and accused the marchers of sowing chaos. Dismissing the motives of Bersih, he cast it as a desperate attempt by Mr Anwar to grab power. The immediate upshot is that Mr Najib may choose to delay calling for an election for some time, to let things settle down. He presumably hopes that if he waits long enough, people will have forgotten about this ugly incident. But the longer-term effects are hard to judge. It might also help to unite a fractious opposition against what they portray as an assault on democracy. |
| WIKILEAKS: ANWAR IMPLICATES DPM NAJIB IN MURDER CASE Posted: 19 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT A private investigator's legal deposition, revealed by Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on July 3, implicates Deputy Prime Minister Najib in the high-profile Altantuya murder case. The deposition, based primarily on statements reportedly made by Altantuya and murder defendant Razak Baginda, indicates that Najib had an affair with Altantuya, Altantuya assisted Najib in the controversial purchase of French submarines, and Najib attempted to intervene on Razak Baginda's behalf at the time of his arrest. THE CORRIDORS OF POWER Raja Petra Kamarudin
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUALA LUMPUR 000572 SIPDIS FOR EAP/MTS AND INR E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/03/2028 TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PINR, MARR, KDEM, KJUS, MY SUBJECT: ANWAR IMPLICATES DPM NAJIB IN MURDER CASE REF: A. KUALA LUMPUR 570 - GOM DELIVERS PROTEST TO USG B. KUALA LUMPUR 563 - ANWAR ON OFFENSIVE C. KUALA LUMPUR 557 - ANWAR TAKES REFUGE D. KUALA LUMPUR 73 - PROSECUTOR DOWNBEAT ON MURDER CASE E. 07 KUALA LUMPUR 291 Classified By: Political Section Chief Mark D. Clark, reason 1.4 (b and d). Summary 1. (C) A private investigator's legal deposition, revealed by Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on July 3, implicates Deputy Prime Minister Najib in the high-profile Altantuya murder case. The deposition, based primarily on statements reportedly made by Altantuya and murder defendant Razak Baginda, indicates that Najib had an affair with Altantuya, Altantuya assisted Najib in the controversial purchase of French submarines, and Najib attempted to intervene on Razak Baginda's behalf at the time of his arrest. The investigator claims that this information was suppressed by police and ignored by prosecutors. Anwar's revelation of this information comes as he launches a political offensive following recent sodomy allegations, which he believes were instigated by Najib. Meanwhile, Anwar and the Opposition coalition are set to begin a series of nationwide rallies, including a major gathering on July 6 near Kuala Lumpur. The national police chief announced the military would join the police in tackling illegal assemblies in an emergency situation, a role the military last played during the 1969 politically-inspired race riots. Najib and the government of Prime Minister Abdullah will need to respond, both to Anwar's explosive revelations, but also to the Opposition leader's political offensive, including plans to hold nationwide rallies. End Summary. Explosive Revelations 2. (SBU) On July 3, as the next step in his energized political offensive, former DPM and de facto opposition coalition leader Anwar Ibrahim released a statutory declaration (similar to a deposition in the U.S. system), made by private investigator P. Balasubramaniam on July 1, linking Deputy Prime Minister Najib to murder victim Altantuya Shaariibuu (ref e) and implicating Najib in efforts to subvert the investigation of the case. (Najib's advisor Razak Baginda and two members of Najib's security detail are currently on trial for murder in this case.) Anwar produced the explosive affidavit during a press conference on July 3, with Balasubramaniam standing by his side. 3. (SBU) Balasubramaniam bases his statement on conversations he had with Razak Baginda and with Altantuya; on events he witnessed acting as Razak Baginda's investigator; and his experiences under arrest and in the courtroom at the opening stage of the murder trial. Among other things, the affidavit includes the following damaging allegations against Najib and others: -- Najib and Altantuya had an affair and that Najib introduced her to Baginda. (Note: Najib has repeatedly denied knowing Altantuya. End note.) -- Najib, along with Razak Baginda, was with Altantuya in Paris in connection with the negotiations for the purchase of French submarines, and that Altantuya believed she was due $500,000 for her services. -- Najib asked Razak Baginda to take care of Altantuya, as Najib did not want Altantuya harassing him. -- Najib, in a text message, told Razak Baginda he would meet with Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan to resolve the issue of Razak Baginda's impending arrest for murder. -- Police omitted the above information that Balasubramaniam provided during his seven-day interrogation regarding the murder, and that prosecutors never addressed any questions to him during his court appearances. 4. (SBU) Anwar stated it was evident the police and prosecution team, especially IGP Musa Hassan and Attorney General Abdul Gani manipulated the case to protect the DPM and hide any linkages of the DPM to Altantuya. He declared that the declaration further confirmed a clear and consistent pattern of manipulation of the criminal justice system since 1998. Anwar continued by saying he is worried the IGP and AG will again manipulate evidence and statements during the probe into alleged sodomy charges against Anwar (ref A - C). 5. (SBU) Anwar's incendiary revelations follow a statutory declaration by controversial blogger Raja Petra in which he alleged that Najib's wife, Rosmah, was present at scene of Altantuya's murder. In addition, on July 1 Anwar publicly accused Najib and Rosmah for being behind the current sodomy allegations against Anwar, which is now under police investigation. Taking the Campaign Against Najib on the road 6. (SBU) On another front, Anwar starts a nationwide tour with a rally in Penang on July 5 followed by an appearance at a rally in Shah Alam on July 6. The Opposition hope to use the Shah Alam rally, originally intended as a protest against the fuel price hikes, as a show of support for their cause against the government. Anwar and other Peoples Alliance (opposition coalition) leaders are urging their supporters to attend and hope for a massive turnout (a minimum of 50,000 people) in order to send a message to the government and add credibility to Anwar's claims that he can bring down the government through the defection of enough government MPs by his announced target of September 16. Police-Military Joint Exercise to Maintain Public Order 7. (C) At a joint press conference between the Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan and Armed Forces Chief Abdul Aziz Zainal on July 2, Musa Hassan stated that the cooperation between the security forces is crucial because political parties, NGOs, and individuals were organizing more illegal assemblies. They announced the police and armed forces began a joint training exercise to maintain crowd control and public order. Musa said the police and military would work together to tackle illegal assemblies only if absolutely necessary and in the event of a declared emergency. The tabletop command post exercise began July 2 is expected to run until July 7. Another joint exercise is planned in September (coinciding with the deadline Anwar set to bring down the ruling government). The last time joint police and military force was used to maintain public order was during the politically motivated 1969 race riots. In 1974, a contingent of rangers was deployed to university campuses to control student protests (coincidentally led by then student activist Anwar Ibrahim). Police chief Musa Hassan stated use of military forces during a public disturbance would only take place after consultation with the Home Ministry and Defense Ministry. A senior military staff member told the DATT that the military is not anxious to take on police roles, but is closely watching events. Comment 8. (C) Anwar and Najib have entered a very high stakes political game. The risks to both men are tremendous, and not limited to their political careers. Najib will be damaged by the latest serious allegations, coming on the heels of other statements implicating him and his wife in the murder, and the existing widespread public belief that the ongoing Altantuya murder trial has been the subject of political manipulation. Najib and the government of Prime Minister Abdullah will need to respond, both to Anwar's explosive revelations, but also to the Opposition leader's political offensive, including plans to hold nationwide rallies. KEITH |
| Ahmad Sarbani’s death: the lies and deceptions by the MACC (part 7) Posted: 19 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT Nervously, Ahmad Sarbaini climbed onto the windowsill as ordered by Mohd Fauzi who continued taunting and abusing him with insults. Sheikh Niza merely looked on. In that split second, Ahmad Sarbaini's belt got stuck on the outer part of the window and he lost his balance and his life. And, horror of horrors, what happened to Teoh Beng Hock happened to Ahmad Sarbaini when he fell to his death onto the badminton court below. NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin THE TIME HAS COME TO EXPOSE THE KILLERS OF AHMAD SARBAINI MOHAMED D Day: 6th April On the morning of 6th April 2011, Ahmad Sarbaini went to the Subang mosque for his dawn (Subuh) prayers. There, he met his good friend, Azman, and told him that he would be amending his earlier statement given to the MACC. In retrospect, he thought that would not be a problem because he had come to regard Sheikh Niza as a friend. By 8.30 am, Ahmad Sarbaini was already at the KL MACC office. Within minutes, he was speaking to Sheikh Niza who was eager to record a further Cautioned Statement from Ahmad Sarbaini. Sheikh Niza panicked when Ahmad Sarbaini told him he wished to retract his earlier confession as it was procured through fraud and deceit. Of course, Sheikh Niza hit the roof and stated clearly that it was absolutely impossible! Ahmad Sarbaini was upset and became agitated when Sheikh Niza rejected his request outright. He pleaded desperately with Sheikh Niza and explained that he had misunderstood what the confession was about. However, Sheikh Niza flatly dismissed him and told him to report the matter to KUS Mohd Fauzi. Then Sheikh Niza made Ahmad Sarbaini wait while he discussed this crucial turn of events with Mohd Fauzi. By then, Sheikh Niza's tone was beginning to sound ominous to Ahmad Sarbaini. As expected, Mohd Fauzi flipped when he was told that Ahmad Sarbaini wanted to retract his earlier statement. He warned Sheikh Niza that this would ruin both their careers as their HQ was already over the moon about Ahmad Sarbaini's 'extracted confession'. Since IO Abd Ghani was sceptical when he first saw the confession, Mohd Fauzi then asked if he had spoken to Ahmad Sarbaini about this confession. Abd Ghani was approaching retirement age and had been disillusioned when despite his seniority, bypassed for promotion and with the recent happenings in the MACC. Hence, the ambitious Mohd Fauzi -- who by now had become IO Abd Ghani's superior was stricken with fear that IO Abd Ghani might jeopardise the investigation as Ketua Unit Siasatan (KUS). The cause of death KUS Mohd Fauzi directed Abd Ghani to track down Wan Zainal while he and Sheikh Niza would 'straighten out' Ahmad Sarbaini. Sheikh Niza was also ordered to seize Ahmad Sarbaini's mobile phone. Sheikh Niza brought Ahmad Sarbaini to KUS Mohd Fauzi's office, which was next door to the pantry (remember what happened to Teoh Beng Hock). Here, he was verbally abused. KUS Mohd Fauzi called Ahmad Sarbaini a disgrace to the Royal Malaysian Customs, that he was not fit to wear their uniform. Rather shaken up, Ahmad Sarbaini pleaded for pity and a drink of water. Shockingly, they brought Ahmad Sarbaini to the pantry. Incredibly, as punishment for attempting to retract his 'confession', Mohd Fauzi ordered him to climb out of the window and forced him to stand on the ledge. KUS Mohd Fauzi wanted Ahmad Sarbaini to ponder and reflect on his actions while standing on the edge as "orang macam kau ni lebih baik mati dari hidup menyusahkan orang lain". Nervously, Ahmad Sarbaini climbed onto the windowsill as ordered by Mohd Fauzi who continued taunting and abusing him with insults. Sheikh Niza merely looked on. In that split second, Ahmad Sarbaini's belt got stuck on the outer part of the window and he lost his balance and his life. And, horror of horrors, what happened to Teoh Beng Hock happened to Ahmad Sarbaini when he fell to his death onto the badminton court below. KUS Mohd Fauzi was in a dizzy panic when what was supposed to be a threat had now turned fatal. He feared his career and future went up in smoke the moment Ahmad Sarbaini lost his balance. In shock and panic, he ran from the pantry back to his room. Sheikh Niza immediately ran downstairs to the lobby in a state of shock and disbelief. He was at the verge of tears, regretting this tragic death. Concocting a story Without further delay, KUS Mohd Fauzi called everyone into his room to brainstorm and to concoct the most plausible story. Abd Ghani, Henrietta, Khalid, Kamal and also Sheikh Niza finally agreed the best storyline was that Ahmad Sarbaini had committed suicide as he was depressed that his confession could not be retracted.The Director, Hj Mohd Yusof, was also brought into the loop and the approval from HQ sought. The script seemed good enough for a press conference that would be called by Dato' Mustafar Ali later that day. That would be the storyline they would all narrate to anyone asking about the death. And that would be the same story they would give when making the 911 phone call to the Police and in summoning an ambulance. And that was also why not one of these officers went downstairs to confirm whether the dead man on the badminton court was indeed Ahmad Sarbaini. They already knew who was lying dead on the badminton court. They did not need to go downstairs to verify the identity of the dead person. They all admitted that immediately upon discovering the dead body, they huddled into KUS Mohd Fauzi's room for a 'conference'. They would later rehearse this script over and over again and say that they were too afraid and were in a state of shock. To ensure that there was no evidence as to what really happened, they erased the CCTV recordings. That was why the police audio-visual forensics analyst, ASP Fauziah Che Mat, told the Coroner that the CCTV recordings had been tampered with. According to ASP Fauziah, more than 22 hours of recordings from the three-dozen CCTV cameras in the building were 'interrupted by someone who has expertise in using CCTVs' by 'changing of operation on the set, manually'. 
ASP Fauziah: very definite that the CCTV at KL MACC's office were tampered by an expert Concealing the true cause of death However, after running this story past that brilliant legal mind, Dato Seri Mohd Shafee Abdullah, MACC was told that the suicide story would not go down well with the Malaysian public. Firstly, another suicide theory would be too close to the Teoh Beng Hock 'suicide'. Secondly, other than the 'confession', there was no other evidence of Ahmad Sarbaini's involvement in any corrupt activities. Confessions are mostly procured through torture and intimidation. Without any tangible evidence, the story would not be plausible. The Police collaborated with the MACC in their attempt to conceal the real cause of Ahmad Sarbaini's death. The scratch marks on Ahmad Sarbaini's belt and the paint stains on his pants would be used as 'evidence' to explain that he was trying to make a hasty escape by jumping onto the roof from the pantry. Unfortunately, the Coroner had visited the site and anyone who has been to that building would know that jumping onto that roof would lead nowhere. As such, that could not ever have been an escape route! The Killers and the Conspirators We now know the identities of Ahmad Sarbaini's killers and conspirators. It is for the Coroner to make that finding of the cause of death and thereafter for AG Gani Patail as the Public Prosecutor to charge these people. In the meantime, to do justice to this poor deceased man and his family, let it be known that other than the so-called 'confession' -- which was obtained through deception and threats -- there is no evidence to show that the late Ahmad Sarbaini was involved in any corrupt practices. All of the MACC witnesses have admitted that fact in court during the Inquest. Also, the MACC's own investigations and audit on his and his family's assets did not disclose any extraordinary wealth -- as what we may have found in recent disclosures of the assets of our politicians and leaders. So let us allow the soul of Ahmad Sarbaini to rest in peace and offer his grief-stricken widow some respite and respect. 
GRIEF-STRICKEN: Ahamad sarbani's wife, Marziah TO BE CONTINUED ADDENDUM Ahmad Sarbani's death: the lies and deceptions by the MACC (part 1) http://malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/no-holds-barred/40947-ahmad-sarbanis-death-the-lies-and-deceptions-by-the-macc-part-1 Ahmad Sarbani's death: the lies and deceptions by the MACC (part 2) http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/no-holds-barred/40949-ahmad-sarbanis-death-the-lies-and-deceptions-by-the-macc-part-2 Ahmad Sarbani's death: the lies and deceptions by the MACC (part 3) http://malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/no-holds-barred/40951-ahmad-sarbanis-death-the-lies-and-deceptions-by-the-macc-part-3 Ahmad Sarbani's death: the lies and deceptions by the MACC (part 4) http://malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/no-holds-barred/40952-ahmad-sarbanis-death-the-lies-and-deceptions-by-the-macc-part-4 Ahmad Sarbani's death: the lies and deceptions by the MACC (part 5) http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/no-holds-barred/42134-ahmad-sarbanis-death-the-lies-and-deceptions-by-the-macc-part-5 Ahmad Sarbani's death: the lies and deceptions by the MACC (part 6) http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/no-holds-barred/42153-ahmad-sarbanis-death-the-lies-and-deceptions-by-the-macc-part-6 |
| My daughter Sara graduated today with a B.A. in Marketing Communications Posted: 19 Jul 2011 12:52 AM PDT |
| Let’s focus Posted: 18 Jul 2011 05:41 PM PDT Let's accept one fact. Umno is the problem. And the problem can never become the solution. And if Ku Li thinks that the solution to the problem is to reform Umno, then he is barking up the wrong tree. And this would mean AMANAH is going to fail. NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin On Friday, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (Ku Li) is going to launch a new movement called Angkatan Amanah Merdeka (AMANAH), according to Free Malaysia Today (you can read the full news coverage below).
Some are probably going to say that this is in response to the 9th July 2011 BERSIH rally or that the success of BERSIH has inspired certain people into making this move. Now, before anyone jumps to conclusions, AMANAH was actually in the cards since last year and was an idea that was not only a long time in making but also a long time in waiting.
However, just as BERSIH has been accused of being a vehicle or tool of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (or of Anwar Ibrahim), so will AMANAH be accused of being a vehicle or tool of Umno (or of Ku Li). This is mainly because of the personalities behind, or perceived to be behind, the movement (in BERSIH's case it is 'perceived to be behind').
Ku Li is probably one of the last of the better people in Umno. I would be quite prepared to follow Ku Li. But I would find it difficult to follow him if he remains in Umno.
And that is the problem I am facing.
In his hati kecik (small heart), Ku Li wants to reform Umno. He still believes that Umno can be reformed. But I do not share this view. The only way Umno can be reformed would be to kick it out of office and let it remain a decade or two as an opposition party. Only then will it see the need to reform.
It will reform only because it wants to get back into power.
To be fair, Ku Li is not holding any senior party position in Umno. But that does not mean he is no longer significant to Umno. There are still many people in Umno who look up to him and place hopes in him in bringing reforms to Umno, although that group may be a minority rather than a majority.
Ku Li is never going to become the President of Umno. And this means he is not going to become the Prime Minister either if he is trying to do that as the President of Umno.
If Ku Li is hoping that by reforming Umno this can ensure he becomes the President of the party, and therefore the Prime Minister of Malaysia, then his perjuangan (struggle) will be seen as very narrow indeed. And he is going to face the same problem that Anwar Ibrahim is facing -- in that people view his perjuangan as being about becoming the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Ku Li has to decide whether what he is doing is about reforming Umno or about reforming the country. And he also has to decide whether what he is doing is about serving the rakyat or about serving his own interest (to become Prime Minister).
This is the criticism that Anwar is facing. And it is going to be the same criticism that Ku Li is going to face as well. This is inevitable.
How is Ku Li going to convince everyone that AMANAH is not about Umno and what he is doing is not about ensuring he becomes Prime Minister? This is the task ahead of him. This is the obstacle Anwar is facing and is going to be the obstacle that Ku Li will face as well.
In the meanwhile, I am prepared to give Ku Li the benefit of the doubt unless proven otherwise. We shall support AMANAH until it is proven that AMANAH is not about the rakyat's agenda but about a personal agenda.
Ku Li, however, will need to do some hard selling. Is he prepared to go all the way by even resigning from Umno to prove that this is not about Umno or about his personal quest to become Prime Minister?
Let's accept one fact. Umno is the problem. And the problem can never become the solution. And if Ku Li thinks that the solution to the problem is to reform Umno, then he is barking up the wrong tree. And this would mean AMANAH is going to fail. ***********************************
Ku Li wants to rekindle spirit of founding fathers
Syed Jaymal Zahiid, Free Malaysia Today
Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah will launch a new group to rekindle spirit of national unity.
KUALA LUMPUR: Respected Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, popularly known as Ku Li, is set to launch his new outfit Angkatan Amanah Merdeka (Amanah) aimed at nurturing unity as espoused by the country's founding fathers.
Amid a more racially divided Malaysia, Amanah said in a statement today the group bids "to reaffirm, inculcate and re-ignite the sense of togetherness and true family spirit that prevailed among all Malaysians during the time of our common struggle for national independence".
It also said it wants to rekindle the legacy, promise and ideals of Bapa Malaysia and the founding fathers so that all Malaysians may live together as members of a truly just, fair, progressive, united and happy nation community.
Its other objectives are:
* To earnestly acknowledge, affirm and respect the sovereignty of the constituent states of the Malaysian Federation, consistent with the principles of federalism, democratic principles and in the true spirit of the Federal Constitution.
* To ensure that our national institutions respect and uphold the rule of law, democratic principles, rights and universal values.
* To support a government and administration that is transparent and accountable, truly competent, efficient, free of corruption and cronyism, clean and honest, fair and trustworthy, and that will be fully able to serve its functions and meet its responsibilities, freely and fairly; an administration that will always be mindful of the rights and interests of the people in whose name and cause it is appointed to serve.
* To promote the socio-economic well-being of the people, so that all Malaysians may enjoy truly advanced, progressive, fair and equitable lives – individually upholding filial piety and other noble values and collectively joined together in sincere family kinship as members of our national community and as stakeholders in our common national destiny.
* To support an economic policy that will help achieve and sustain a high standard of living for the people, based on the principle of justice, fairness and balance, consistent with the constitution and under a stable monetary condition.
Razaleigh, who is the group's founding president, will deliver his keynote speech on Friday at the Memorial Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra here.
The Kelantan prince, said to be the "last statesman", has been very critical towards his own party Umno, the Malay linchpin in the Barisan Nasional.
He has often called for Umno, whose image is badly tarnished by its racial politics, to return to the party's original struggles – the guardian of all races in the country.
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| WIKILEAKS: BLOGGER ALLEGES DPM'S WIFE AT MURDER SCENE Posted: 17 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT Controversial internet journalist Raja Petra voluntarily completed a sworn statement ("statutory declaration") at a Malaysian court on June 18, in which he affirmed that he was "reliably informed" Deputy Prime Minister Najib's wife Rosmah Mansor, together with her aide Norhayati and acting Colonel Aziz Buyong (Norhayati's husband), were present at the scene of the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibbu in October 2006. THE CORRIDORS OF POWER Raja Petra Kamarudin
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUALA LUMPUR 000529 SIPDIS FOR EAP/MTS AND INR E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/23/2028 TAGS: PGOV, PINR, KJUS, KDEM, MY SUBJECT: BLOGGER ALLEGES DPM'S WIFE AT MURDER SCENE REF: KUALA LUMPUR 335 - SEDITION CHARGES AGAINST BLOGGER Classified By: Political Section Chief Mark D. Clark, reason 1.4 (b and d). Summary 1. (C) Controversial internet journalist Raja Petra executed a sworn statement on June 18 to the effect that Deputy Prime Minister Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor, was at the scene of the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibbu in October 2006, and that PM Abdullah and a Royal received information to that effect. While the mainstream press has shied away from printing Rosmah's name, Kuala Lumpur is abuzz with this latest explosive allegation. PM Abdullah has thus far remained silent, while the national police chief and Attorney General said they would investigate. Raja Petra, who faces sedition charges for earlier claims, informed us that the Attorney General's Office filed a police report on the matter, and he expected to be called in for questioning soon. While the latest allegations of Rosmah's presence at the murder seem implausible, they nevertheless will have resonance with a Malaysian public that does not have confidence in the integrity of the Altantuya murder investigation. Continued public attention to such reports also could damage Najib's front-runner status as PM Abdullah's successor. End Summary. Rosmah at Murder Scene, PM Has Report 2. (U) Controversial internet journalist Raja Petra voluntarily completed a sworn statement ("statutory declaration") at a Malaysian court on June 18, in which he affirmed that he was "reliably informed" Deputy Prime Minister Najib's wife Rosmah Mansor, together with her aide Norhayati and acting Colonel Aziz Buyong (Norhayati's husband), were present at the scene of the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibbu in October 2006. Raja Petra also stated that military intelligence provided a report with this information to Prime Minister Abdullah, which was subsequently given to Abdullah's son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin "for safe-keeping," and that one of Malaysia's traditional rulers also was briefed on the matter. Raja Petra did not reveal the source of this information. Raja Petra remains indicted for sedition for his earlier internet reports that implied DPM Najib and wife Rosmah were connected to the on-going Altantuya murder case (ref A). 3. (SBU) Internet reports of Raja Petra's declaration emerged on June 20, and the full text became available on his Malaysia Today website. Some of Malaysia's mainstream media briefly reported Raja Petra's new allegations, but carefully avoided identifying Rosmah Mansor as the "prominent VIP" named in his statement. An aide to Najib reportedly described the statement as "mind-boggling." Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan told reporters the police would look into the "highly inflammatory" allegations, and could take action against Raja Petra if they were found to be untrue, while Attorney General Abdul Gani Patil stated his office would look "seriously" into the matter. Heavy Buzz in Parliament 4. (C) As members of Parliament gathered June 23 for the opening of the second parliamentary session, Raja Petra's story competed with speculation of a no-confidence vote against PM Abdullah for the attention of lawmakers. Opposition MPs, parliamentary watchers, and journalists who spoke with us at Parliament all remarked that Raja Petra had put himself at great risk, and therefore they speculated that he must have some evidence in hand. If this is a bluff, "it will cost him and his family," one MP remarked. Prominent opposition MP Lim Kit Siang said he was troubled that the PM had kept quiet about the allegations. Later on June 23, Kit Siang introduced an emergency parliamentary motion to discuss Raja Petra's statement. The Parliament Speaker is required to accept or reject on an emergency motion within 24 hours. Raja Petra Ready for Police 5. (C) We spoke briefly with Raja Petra and his wife Marina on June 23. They related that the AGO had filed a police report regarding the affidavit. A seemingly confident Raja Petra said, "I am ready and eagerly waiting for the police to question me," and took exception to the threatening tone of IGP Musa's remarks. He also implied he had further evidence to implicate DPM Najib and his wife, and asked rhetorically what action the police would take "if the allegations are true." Comment 6. (C) Putting aside the question of Najib's links to the case, the allegation that Najib's wife would be present at the Altantuya murder scene strikes us as very implausible, though fully in keeping with Raja Petra's sometimes wild and highly emotional reporting. The Malaysian public and political elite, however, have no confidence in the integrity of the government's investigation into the 2006 murder of Altantuya. The government's inept and gruelingly slow prosecution of the case against DPM Najib's former advisor Razak Baginda and two soldiers from Najib's security detail, and the authorities' decision early on to limit the scope of the investigation to exclude any further links with DPM Najib, have sent clear signals of political interference. Against this backdrop, most Malaysians will believe there is at least some truth in Raja Petra's affidavit. Amidst the leadership struggle within the ruling UMNO party, emerging fractures in the National Front coalition, and maneuvering for a no-confidence vote against PM Abdullah, the latest allegations add to the nation's sense of political turmoil. Continued public focus on such allegations also could harm Najib's front-runner status as PM Abdullah's successor. KEITH |
| WIKILEAKS: UNPRECEDENTED SEDITION CHARGES AGAINST BLOGGER Posted: 14 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT Raja Petra was charged after posting an article on his website on April 25 entitled 'Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell' that implied that DPM Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor were connected to the 2006 murder of a young Mongolian interpreter, Altantuya Shaaribuu. He also accused PM Abdullah of holding on to evidence that implicates his deputy in order to keep Najib in line. THE CORRIDORS OF POWER Raja Petra Kamarudin
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUALA LUMPUR 000355 SIPDIS FOR EAP/MTS AND DRL - JANE KIM E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/18/2018 TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PINR, KDEM, KPAO, MY SUBJECT: UNPRECEDENTED SEDITION CHARGES AGAINST BLOGGER REF: A. A) KL 130 - PRESS STIFLED IN ALTANTUYA TRIAL B. B) KL 73 - PROSECUTOR DOWNBEAT ON ALTANTUYA CASE C. C) 2007 KL 291 )RAZAK BAGINDA CASE Classified By: Political Section Chief Mark D. Clark for reasons 1.4 (b and d). 1. (C) Summary. For the first time, Malaysian authorities have resorted to a colonial-era law to bring sedition charges against a blogger and the author of a comment on an internet web site. Blogger and veteran anti-government activist Raja Petra Kamarudin touched a sensitive nerve in implying that DPM Najib Tun Razak and his wife were connected to 2006 murder of a young Mongolian interpreter, Altantuya Shaaribuu (reftels). He also accused PM Abdullah of holding on to evidence that implicates his deputy to keep Najib in line. Visiting EAP DAS Marciel raised the issue with Deputy Home Minister Wan Farid on May 6, and Wan Farid indicated the proceedings against Raja Petra should be a warning to other bloggers. The Raja Petra case will continue to keep public focus on the Altantuya case and allegations of Najib's involvement. Prosecuting a blogger for sedition also complicates Prime Minister Abdullah's efforts to be seen as a reformer. End summary. Colonial-era Sedition Act utilized 2. (SBU) On May 6 Malaysian Police charged blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin and Syed Ali Akhbar, who posted a comment on Raja Petra's website, with sedition. This is the first time Section 4(1)(c) of the Sedition Act (enacted by British colonial authorities in 1948) has been used in response to material appearing on the internet. The Section reads, 'Any person who prints, publishes, sells, offers for sale, distributes or reproduces any seditious publication' can be charged with sedition. If found guilty, Raja Petra and Syed Ali could be jailed for a maximum of three years and/or face a fine of up to USD1,600. Syed Ali was released on bail after pleading not guilty and the court fixed June 10 to hear submissions by the defense and prosecution on a preliminary objection raised by the defense, which claimed that the charge was groundless. Raja Petra initially refused to post bail and was remanded at the Sungai Buloh prison, but on May 8 he changed his stance and he was scheduled to be released on bail May 9. His trial is fixed for October 6-10. 3. (SBU) Another prominent blogger described Raja Petra's action to poloffs as a gambit to not only generate publicity for himself but also for his news portal Malaysia Today (www.malaysia-today.net). The local blogger community as a whole has reacted with outrage to what is seen as a threat to the free exchange of ideas on the internet. The Malaysian Bar Council called on the authorities to withdraw the charges against Raja Petra and Syed Ali, describing the relevant section of the Sedition Act as a draconian, archaic and repressive legislation that has long outlived any perceived utility it might ever have had. A number of prominent civil society groups issued a statement characterizing Raja Petra's arrest as politically motivated and aimed at silencing principled and uncompromising voice speaking against the abuse of power, including those stemming from the highest level of government and authority. 4. (C) DPM Najib publicly denied that the arrests were politically motivated or an indication of government intentions to crack down on internet sites. Visiting EAP DAS Scot Marciel raised the case with Deputy Home Minister Wan Farid on May 6 and questioned why the government was using sedition charges in such a case. Wan Farid said bloggers could not be allowed to accuse people of murder and not back up such claims. "You can't just (post) anything on the internet," and not expect consequences, indicating this was a warning to other bloggers. The government would proceed with the case in court, Wan Farid said. Raja Petra a thorn in UMNO's side 5. (SBU) Raja Petra was charged after posting an article on his website on April 25 entitled 'Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell' that implied that DPM Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor were connected to the 2006 murder of a young Mongolian interpreter, Altantuya Shaaribuu. He also accused PM Abdullah of holding on to evidence that implicates his deputy in order to keep Najib in line. Two police officers from the security detail of DPM Najib have been charged for killing Altantuya, while Abdul Razak Baginda, a close associate of DPM Najib, was charged with abetting the murder. The murder trial that began in June 2007 has been dragging along for nearly a year, giving rise to suggestions of deliberate delays for political reasons (Ref A ). 6. (SBU) This is not the first time Raja Petra, a cousin of the current Sultan of Selangor, has challenged the ruling establishment. He was one of the key leaders of the reformasi movement launched in September 1998 by former DPM Anwar. In 2000 he became the Director of the Free Anwar Campaign (FAC) and founded the FAC website that regularly posted articles criticizing the government. In 2001 he was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and held for 52 days before being released unconditionally, reportedly due to pressure from his uncle the then King, the late Sultan of Selangor. In July 2007 he was detained, questioned and released after UMNO Information Chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib filed a police report against him for allegedly insulting the King and Islam. 7. (SBU) Raja Petra launched Malaysia Today in August 2004 "to test how far Malaysia under its new Prime Minister (PM Abdullah) can honor, respect and tolerate free speech." The blog grew to an average of 1.5 million hits a day and was voted one of the top ten websites by local internet users in 2007. One reporter describes it as Malaysia's answer to the U.S. Drudge Report, a news aggregation site, dedicated to entertaining tales of political intrigue. In meetings with poloffs, Raja Petra has nevertheless insisted that all of his reports are backed by hard evidence. 8. (SBU) UMNO leaders have blamed internet media and bloggers, in particular Raja Petra, as contributing to the BN's setback in the March election. Raja Petra agreed, telling reporters on May 6, they lost in the election because of the internet war. Malaysia Today was one of the culprits. He added that his defense team would prove there was no case against him and that it was a matter of political persecution. One sympathetic academic described the action against Raja Petra as the return to sledgehammer rule by UMNO, but added recalcitrant bloggers like Raja Petra threaten UMNO's survival, because the ruling party has failed to find a formula for countering its internet critics. Syed Akhbar Ali: Easy to Impress the Malays 9. (SBU) In Syed Akhbar Ali's case, the author was belatedly charged for posting a comment in June 2007 on a Raja Petra authored Malaysia Today piece alleging strong links between Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan and a major organized crime syndicate. Raja Petra had written that the syndicate protected by the IGP was involved in prostitution, drugs, and illegal gambling. In his comment, titled Easy to Impress the Malays, Akhbar used crude language in maintaining that massage centers are mushrooming in the city due to the sudden increase in Arab visitors, and in a similar vein went on to make some scurrilous comments about the Arabs and Islam, and the naivety of Malays in accepting Arab ideas. Comment 10. (C) In another indication of the growing influence of internet media, both DPM Najib and his wife have been compelled to go public in responding to Raja Petra's report, maintaining that the allegations are unfounded and unfair. The Raja Petra case will continue to keep public attention on the Altantuya murder and on allegations of Najib's involvement in the crime at a time when Prime Minister Abdullah has announced Najib as his eventual successor. Prosecuting a blogger for sedition complicates Prime Minister Abdullah's efforts to be seen as a reformer and will further boost the profile of Malaysia's anti-government internet activists. KEITH |
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
