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Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Azizan is not ready to let go yet
Why is the Arab world so easily offended?
Tanda Putera: Potrait of an apologist
Stop playing with people’s sentiments
Pakatan's political desanguination
Sept 16: A ‘Black Day’ for Sabah, Sarawak
A Strange World Of Skewed Perspectives And Ethnocentrism
Why is Malaysia trying to spot gay schoolchildren?
Guarding our reputation as food haven
Putrajaya: gays, sponges and stones
Stop spamming my phone, Raja Nong Chik!
Is it wrong to receive foreign funds?
Koon Swan saga: Will the truth emerge?

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 03:32 PM PDT

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak's fragile health and the rifts in his party are two key reasons why Kedah is likely to go along with the general election.

Joceline Tan, The Star

DATUK Seri Azizan Abdul Razak has been faithfully chairing the weekly state exco meetings since his discharge from the hospital a fortnight ago.

The Kedah Mentri Besar is also quite amused to find that the media entourage waiting for him after each Wednesday's meeting has been bigger than usual. He knows they are there not to ask about current issues but to have a close-up look at him and to assess his health situation.

His health is still a matter of much speculation mainly because there has been few details from his office.

Reporters have noticed that he is still on what looks like an "invalid's diet". While the other exco members at the meeting ate nasi lemak and kuih, Azizan had rice porridge with bits of fish, a sprinkling of chives and a dash of soya source.

The other thing was that whereas the post-exco press conferences used to be quickie affairs held in the lobby area, reporters are now ushered into the meeting room. Azizan said it would be more comfortable for the reporters to take down notes sitting down. But reporters suspect it is because the Mentri Besar's aides think he is not strong enough to stand and they prefer him seated.

Yesterday, Azizan had his most gruelling assignment. He spent three hours at Kolej Universiti Insaniah in Kuala Ketil where he also delivered a speech. But he did not really mind because the tertiary institution is his pet project. It was quite a grand affair, attended by the leading members of the Kedah royalty, including the King who is also the Sultan of Kedah.

Azizan is on the road to recovery. The concern of PAS leaders is whether he will recover in time for the general election.

The party has resigned itself to the fact that they will have to go with Azizan regardless of the state of his health. He had made it very plain that he does not intend to step aside nor is he keen to give way to an acting mentri besar. He saw how Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid took over from Datuk Seri Syed Razak Syed Zain after only three months as the acting mentri besar.

Azizan intends to go the full term. This is now the scenario in Kedah.

Azizan's administration, unlike his counterpart in Kelantan, has been non-committal about whether the state will go along with the general election or go solo like Selangor. He said he was still mulling about the option and would decide depending on when the election is called.

But few expect Kedah to go it alone, particularly not with the question mark over Azizan's health and given the rifts in the party caused by a botched attempt to oust him last year.

Moreover, the battle in Kedah will be largely a Malay fight. Malays make up 71% of the population in Kedah and PAS knows better than to take on the Umno machinery in a stand-alone election.

His aides have been rather touchy about photographers taking pictures of their boss. Shortly after Azizan reported for work, he was a little unsteady on his feet and had to be helped around. Press photographers were not allowed to take pictures of him holding on to his aides as he moved around.

One photographer who had waited outside the Mentri Besar's house, hoping for a picture of him leaving for the office after his hospital stay, was shooed away by a young bodyguard.

Azizan is a quick-witted man and has quite a sharp tongue but he has been in a more mellow mood following his illness. At the end of his first exco meeting, the first question was about his health. He flashed his laconic smile and told everyone they had eyes and they could see for themselves whether he looked well or otherwise.

Then, in his usual wit, he added: "I can still marry another one, don't put anyone eligible in front of me."

He was also aware that the pressure to appoint an acting mentri besar was now coming from outside the party, from people hoping to capitalise on his state of health. He told one reporter that these people should not "press their nose on other people's window"; it was his way of saying that they should mind their own business.

Besides, he added, Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat has had a history of poor health and is often in and out of hospital, yet there is no pressure for him to step aside.

Anyway, speculation has now shifted to who will succeed him as Mentri Besar after the general election.

The money is on state exco member Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah, a handsome engineer who has become Azizan's staunchest ally in the wake of last year's attempted coup. Although Datuk Taulan Mat Rasul is the second most senior state exco member after Azizan, he is older than Azizan and appointing him would not be seen as a succession.

Datuk Phahrolrazi Mohd Zawawi had been the early front-runner but his role in the failed coup had put him in Azizan's black books. Some are not sure whether Azizan will even retain him as a candidate.

People noticed that at the luncheon in conjunction with Kolej Universiti Insaniah convocation, Phahrolrazi was not at the VVIP table with the King who is said to enjoy playing golf with Phahrolrazi.

Azizan has said several times that he will lead the state as well as defend his Sungai Limau seat in the general election. But insiders say he is aware that he cannot go on as Mentri Besar after the polls and already has a candidate in mind.

Many people think it is Amiruddin but Kedah politics is very fluid at the moment and nothing is for sure including whether PAS will be returned to power in the state.

Why is the Arab world so easily offended?

Posted: 16 Sep 2012 03:39 PM PDT

Fouad Ajami, The Washington Post

MODERNITY requires the willingness to be offended. And as anti-American violence across the Middle East and beyond shows, that willingness is something the Arab world, the heartland of Islam, still lacks.

Time and again in recent years, as the outside world has battered the walls of Muslim lands and as Muslims have left their places of birth in search of greater opportunities in the Western world, modernity — with its sometimes distasteful but ultimately benign criticism of Islam — has sparked fatal protests. To understand why violence keeps erupting and to seek to prevent it, we must discern what fuels this sense of grievance.

There is an Arab pain and a volatility in the face of judgment by outsiders that stem from a deep and enduring sense of humiliation. A vast chasm separates the poor standing of Arabs in the world today from their history of greatness. In this context, their injured pride is easy to understand.

In the narrative of history transmitted to schoolchildren throughout the Arab world and reinforced by the media, religious scholars and laymen alike, Arabs were favored by divine providence. They had come out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century, carrying Islam from Morocco to faraway Indonesia. In the process, they overran the Byzantine and Persian empires, then crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to Iberia, and there they fashioned a brilliant civilization that stood as a rebuke to the intolerance of the European states to the north. Cordoba and Granada were adorned and exalted in the Arab imagination. Andalusia brought together all that the Arabs favored — poetry, glamorous courts, philosophers who debated the great issues of the day.

If Islam's rise was spectacular, its fall was swift and unsparing. This is the world that the great historian Bernard Lewis explored in his 2002 book "What Went Wrong?" The blessing of God, seen at work in the ascent of the Muslims, now appeared to desert them. The ruling caliphate, with its base in Baghdad, was torn asunder by a Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Soldiers of fortune from the Turkic Steppes sacked cities and left a legacy of military seizures of power that is still the bane of the Arabs. Little remained of their philosophy and literature, and after the Ottoman Turks overran Arab countries to their south in the 16th century, the Arabs seemed to exit history; they were now subjects of others.

The coming of the West to their world brought superior military, administrative and intellectual achievement into their midst — and the outsiders were unsparing in their judgments. They belittled the military prowess of the Arabs, and they were scandalized by the traditional treatment of women and the separation of the sexes that crippled Arab society.

Even as Arabs insist that their defects were inflicted on them by outsiders, they know their weaknesses. Younger Arabs today can be brittle and proud about their culture, yet deeply ashamed of what they see around them. They know that more than 300 million Arabs have fallen to economic stagnation and cultural decline. They know that the standing of Arab states along the measures that matter — political freedom, status of women, economic growth — is low. In the privacy of their own language, in daily chatter on the street, on blogs and in the media, and in works of art and fiction, they probe endlessly what befell them.

But woe to the outsider who ventures onto that explosive terrain. The assumption is that Westerners bear Arabs malice, that Western judgments are always slanted and cruel.

In the past half-century, Arabs, as well as Muslims in non-Arab lands, have felt the threat of an encircling civilization they can neither master nor reject. Migrants have left the burning grounds of Karachi, Cairo and Casablanca but have taken the fire of their faith with them. "Dish cities" have sprouted in the Muslim diasporas of Western Europe and North America. You can live in Stockholm and be sustained by a diet of al-Jazeera television.

We know the celebrated cases when modernity has agitated the pious. A little more than two decades ago, it was a writer of Muslim and Indian birth, Salman Rushdie, whose irreverent work of fiction, "The Satanic Verses," offended believers with its portrayal of Islam. That crisis began with book-burnings in Britain, later saw protests in Pakistan and culminated in Iran's ruling cleric, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issuing a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death in 1989. The protesters were not necessarily critics of fiction; all it took to offend was that Islam, the prophet Muhammad and his wives had become a writer's material. The confrontation laid bare the unease of Islam in the modern world.

The floodgates had opened. The clashes that followed defined the new terms of encounters between a politicized version of Islam — awakened to both power and vulnerability — and the West's culture of protecting and nurturing free speech. In 2004, a Moroccan Dutchman in his mid-20s, Mohammed Bouyeri, murdered filmmaker Theo van Goghon a busy Amsterdam street after van Gogh and a Somali-born politician made a short film about the abuse of women in Islamic culture.

Shortly afterward, trouble came to Denmark when a newspaper there published a dozen cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad; in one he wears a bomb-shaped turban, and another shows him as an assassin. The newspaper's culture editor had thought the exercise would merely draw attention to the restrictions on cultural freedom in Europe — but perhaps that was naive. After all, Muslim activists are on the lookout for such material. And Arab governments are eager to defend Islam. The Egyptian ambassador to Denmark encouraged a radical preacher of Palestinian birth living in Denmark and a young Lebanese agitator to fan the flames of the controversy.

But it was Syria that made the most of this opportunity. The regime asked the highest clerics to preach against the Danish government. The Danish embassies in Damascus and Beirut were sacked; there was a call to boycott Danish products. Denmark had been on the outer margins of Europe's Muslim diaspora. Now its peace and relative seclusion were punctured.

The storm that erupted this past week at the gates of American diplomatic outposts across the Muslim world is a piece of this history. As usual, it was easily ignited. The offending work, a 14-minute film trailer posted on YouTube in July, is offensive indeed. Billed as a trailer for "The Innocence of Muslims," a longer movie to come, it is at once vulgar and laughable. Its primitiveness should have consigned it to oblivion.

It was hard to track down the identities of those who made it. A Sam Bacile claimed authorship, said that he was an Israeli American and added that 100Jewish businessmen had backed the venture. This alone made it rankle even more — offending Muslims and implicating Jews at the same time. (In the meantime, no records could be found of Bacile, and the precise origins of the video remain murky.)

It is never hard to assemble a crowd of young protesters in the teeming cities of the Muslim world. American embassies and consulates are magnets for the disgruntled. It is inside those fortresses, the gullible believe, that rulers are made and unmade. Yet these same diplomatic outposts dispense coveted visas and a way out to the possibilities of the Western world. The young men who turned up at the U.S. Embassies this week came out of this deadly mix of attraction to American power and resentment of it. The attack in Benghazi, Libya, that took the lives of four American diplomats, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, appeared to be premeditated and unconnected to the film protests.

The ambivalence toward modernity that torments Muslims is unlikely to abate. The temptations of the West have alienated a younger generation from its elders. Men and women insist that they revere the faith as they seek to break out of its restrictions. Freedom of speech, granting license and protection to the irreverent, is cherished, protected and canonical in the Western tradition. Now Muslims who quarrel with offensive art are using their newfound freedoms to lash out against it.

These cultural contradictions do not lend themselves to the touch of outsiders. President George W. Bush believed that America's proximity to Arab dictatorships had begotten us the jihadists' enmity. His military campaign in Iraq became an attempt to reform that country and beyond. But Arabs rejected his interventionism and dismissed his "freedom agenda" as a cover for an unpopular war and for domination.

President Obama has taken a different approach. He was sure that his biography — the years he spent in Indonesia and his sympathy for the aspirations of Muslim lands — would help repair relations between America and the Islamic world. But he's been caught in the middle, conciliating the rulers while making grand promises to ordinary people. The revolt of the Iranian opposition in the summer of 2009 exposed the flaws of his approach. Then the Arab Spring played havoc with American policy. Since then, the Obama administration has not been able to decide whether it defends the status quo or the young people hell-bent on toppling the old order.

Cultural freedom is never absolute, of course, and the Western tradition itself, from the Athenians to the present, struggles mightily with the line between freedom and order. In the Muslim world, that struggle is more fierce and lasting, and it will show itself in far more than burnt flags and overrun embassies.

Tanda Putera: Potrait of an apologist

Posted: 16 Sep 2012 03:22 PM PDT

Suaram adviser Kua Kia Soong rebuts criticisms levelled against him by Tanda Putera director Shuhaimi Baba.

By Kua Kia Soong, FMT

At the outset, let me clarify that I am certainly not the director of Tanda Putera's (TP) "most vocal critic". Until this controversy started, I had never heard of this maker of Pontianak movies.

On the other hand, I am an ardent admirer of the late Yasmin Ahmad's classic Malaysian films through which Yasmin's truly multi-ethnic and prejudice-shattering humanity shines through.

Still, I was ready to give this director of TP the benefit of the doubt by appealing to any fibre of intellectual honesty in her body when I wrote my reply (Tanda Putera: Deconstructing Prejudice) to her unwarranted attacks on my credibility in her interview with FMT.

It appears my efforts have all been water off a duck's back.

Hapless victim with a blame frame

This controversy started I believe, when Lim Kit Siang rightly protested against images posted on TP's website and the outrageous allegations by some bloghead that the DAP leader had urinated against a flagpole at the time of the May 13 incident.

Such a blatant untruth and serious warping of history was explained away without heartfelt apologies by the TP director and I believe the loathsome images and comments were only taken down four weeks later after Kit Siang had made a strong protest.

We witness the same attempt by the TP director to blame others by claiming that "I did not refer to Kua when I pointed out that a writer published his work on May 13, 1969 but did not qualify he was not even in Malaysia during the incident. The credibility of that source is questionable."

Did the director of TP feel that there had been grievous harm done to the reputation of both Kit Siang and myself when these supposed "errors" were discovered? Did she demand that FMT make a correction and would she have bothered to make a correction if I had not protested against her scurrilous attacks on me? Or are we considered mere collateral damage in her mission to beatify the Umno leaders?

Who were the "hidden hands" behind May 13?

The director of TP has clearly fallen in with the "official" version that the May 13 Incident was a "spontaneous outbreak" of violence between "the Malays" and "the Chinese" after "the Malays" were provoked by "the Chinese".

In this official rendition, the victory parade by the opposition parties in 1969 is often compounded with an earlier demonstration by the Labour Party which had actually boycotted the 1969 general election because practically all their leaders had been incarcerated under the ISA.

Were these parades so provocative that they were the trigger for the pogrom? From the declassified documents at the British Archives, they were not. The British were more likely to be pro-Alliance rather than pro-Opposition since after all, the Alliance leaders were the local custodians of British interests in the Independence manoeuvres. But if the director of TP has credible local documents to the contrary, pray, produce them.

Malaysians in recent years are only too well aware of the manner in which the far-right fascists have been quick to stage violent actions against such civil society initiatives as Suqiu in 2000, the racial violence at Kampung Medan in 2001, the Article 11 Coalition in 2006, the even more recent cow head protest and the other recent fascist actions against the Penang state government.

Would the director of TP likewise conclude that these recent incidents by "the Malays" were similarly "justified" because they were provoked?

The well-known poet and writer, Said Zahari wrote his poem "Hidden Hands" when May 13 broke out and he was under ISA detention in Singapore. He wasn't even in the country! Still, he knew enough of the class nature of the ruling coalition to write this poem that is now the "soundtrack" of May 13.

To the evidence I produced of credible Malay intellectuals who did not find my book on May 13 "prejudiced against the Malays" as alleged in her interview with FMT, she says:

"No point going behind names like Subky and your 'Malay colleagues'. They don't bring validation. "

In fact, I only needed to point to one Malay intellectual to expose her own prejudices but I produced the highly respected (the late) Rustam Sani, Dr Syed Husin Ali, Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim, Dr Azmi Sharom and now, Said Zahari.

By the way, the PAS leader, Subky Latiff is also a renowned Malay journalist and an academic whose work I cited from "Southeast Asian Affairs", a respectable academic journal of the Institute of Southeast Asian Affairs, Singapore.

All of these citations she dismisses as "my Malay colleagues" who "don't bring validation". Apart from echoing the old trite official version of May 13 that has no credibility, she does not cite a single intellectual of note to back her official version.

But apparently, the director of TP has another theory, namely,

"What about the view that May 13 was a push for the Chinese radicals at that time to get rid of the Malays and take over power in Selangor because only one seat stood in the way? Was that a failed "coup detat"? Gerakan held on to that seat in favour of the Alliance."

Is the director of TP serious in posing that it was "the Chinese radicals" who had started the violence and that they were ready to take on Umno and the police and the army to achieve their objectives? So where is the evidence to back up this theory?

Declassify the Special Branch files on May 13

The only evidence we have is the fact that the violence started at the menteri besar's house. I based that on the declassified documents from the British Archives which happen to be the ONLY declassified documents available to researchers.

The director of TP betrays her ignorance of public records when she says:

"You blame the British for the things that didn't go your way, like this country not being a socialist country. But you stand by their records and declassified reports. I'm no stranger to the British public records library and I can say that British intelligence reports were known to also make mistakes. They are human. But some mistakes were not corrected and only done on hindsight."

Bob Dylan has a line that says: "If you don't underestimate me, I won't underestimate you…" A credible social scientist knows how to sieve information from public records regardless of whether they are Malaysian, British or American.

I too read the rags of the ruling coalition but that does not mean than I am incapable of sieving the information I want. I would be only too happy to join the director of TP in calling for the immediate declassifying of the documents on May 13, especially the Malaysian Special Branch reports.

If they show that the violence did not start at the menteri besar's residence but by "assorted bad elements" and "communists", I will be the first to retract my theory in the book.

Ultimately, if we really want to create a society "at peace with itself", we need to set up a Truth & Reconciliation Commission entrusted to encourage all witnesses including the police, army, hospital and Red Cross staff and families of victims to come forward to tell their story.

I made this abundantly clear in my article on "Deconstructing Prejudice". I do not see why a witness statement by my brother in law who was a professor at the university Hospital where some of the bodies were brought to should not be credible.

Everyone who witnessed the violence and deaths during May 13 should be welcome to give us their narratives at a Truth & Reconciliation Commission hearing.

It's class, stupid!

The director of TP fails to see that my thesis in "May 13: Declassified Documents…" was essentially that the actions of the emergent Malay state capitalist class against the Malay aristocratic class at the time amounted to a coup detat.

The historical personalities were significant in this analysis because of the class role they played. It is clear the director of TP is unfamiliar with social scientific usage when she asks: "Kua labelled Tun Razak as an 'ambitious Malay capitalist'. Is it because of the colour of his skin…!"

That label is her own coinage. My thesis in the book was that Tun Razak led the emergent Malay state capitalist class to power. They subsequently came to an accommodation with the local Chinese and Indian capitalists and they lived happily ever after with the formation of the Barisan Nasional.

Unfortunately, this cosy story came to a sobering end in the general election of 2008 when the rakyat finally got wise to the "bumiputeraist" fairy tale as being the ideology spun by the Umnoputras after May 13.

The director of TP may not know that class analysis in the academic corridors of our local universities uses similar designations. Social scientists are interested in ethnicity, not race which is Umno's strategy to divide Malaysians into "bumiputera" and "non-bumiputera". We can't really blame her since, as Roger Ebert, the film critic observes:

"Class is often invisible in the movies, and usually not the subject of films."

READ MORE HERE

Stop playing with people’s sentiments

Posted: 15 Sep 2012 02:32 PM PDT

The premier it seems has a soft spot for all things 11, leaving the rakyat puzzled yet again as to what really the prime minister is up to.

Jeswan Kaur, FMT

From the 55th Merdeka Day 'self-praise' to the teka-teki (guessing game) concerning the 13th general election, premier Najib Tun Razak seems to be savouring every second of calling the shots from Putrajaya, the nation's nerve centre.

Never before in history has a Merdeka Day celebration hinged on a desperate effort to gain political mileage as it did this year when the federal government decided to use the 'Janji Ditepati' slogan as the theme for the Aug 31 independence day celebration.

To the rakyat, such a theme was both beleaguering and confusing, making them wonder whether the Barisan Nasioanl-led government was even serious about commemorating the nation's most significant date.

Calls to re-consider the Merdeka Day theme sadly fell on deaf ears as Najib and his band of Cabinet ministers tried in vain to convince the rakyat that there was no better theme than 'Janji Ditepati' to celebrate the country's 55th independence.

Bemusing as it may be, the 'Janji Ditepati' is the BN government's election campaign theme was concocted to win the people's votes in view of the coming general election.

Going by the 'initiatives' laid out by Najib one after the other in an express way, there is no doubt that the strategy was simple – to impress the rakyat with the one aid after another, hoping it would pave the way for BN to squash its nemesis, the opposition Pakatan Rakyat in the 13th GE.

Then comes the clincher from Najib who dropped hint that the much speculated general election just might happen in November – and why November?

The premier it seems has a soft spot for all things 11, leaving the rakyat puzzled yet again as to what really the prime minister is up to, if relying on astrology is considered a must for Najib.

With his 'yes', then 'no' and 'yes' anwers to the GE, Najib has left the people in the doldrums, something only an irresponsible leader would do. But then responsibility has never been the premier's strength, has it?

Nation belongs to rakyat, not Najib and Co

If the premier amidst all protest dare make the country's 55th independence celebration a 'Najib affair', it will come as no surprise if the Budget 2013 is accorded the same fate, misusing and turning it into a 'general election' budget.

Looks like the 59-year-old Najib and his 'followers' have forgotten who really are the stake holders of the nation. The country does not belong to the prime minister and his cronies for them to act as they wish, paying no heed to the voices of the grassroots.

Impressing the rakyat with themes like 'Janji Ditepati' is not good enough. The assurance that the Barisan Nasional government cares has yet to shine through if seen from the demands made by electoral watchdog Bersih, which among others wants the Najib-led government to clean-up the electoral roll before the 13th GE takes place.

The question is, has the Election Commission started 'cleaning- up' the electoral roll or is it still awaiting orders? And should the general election take place in November, it is obvious that the electoral roll would be 'dirty' as ever or 'dirtier' still.

As PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar told FMT on the November general election speculation:

"We have been prepared since the beginning. The only thing we are not prepared for is the dirty electoral roll. We are not ready for that.

"We just want clean and fair management of the elections. Is the EC ready? There are many issues they must handle such as phantom voters, immigrants given citizenship, etc. "

It is not just the dirty electoral roll that begs notice. The issue of influx of immigrants in Sabah who apparently have been given blue identity MyKad in return for their vote for BN too is not being given due attention, in spite of Najib assuring the rakyat a Royal Commission of Inquiry would be set up to look into the issue.

November is just around the corner and with not much time on his hand, how does Najib intend to settle the many outstanding issues that have long been plaguing the nation's 'well-being'? How is he truly working at earning the rakyat's nambikei or trust?

A nation's general election cannot be held at the whims and fancies of its leader and for that matter based on a 'number' the leader has taken a fancy to.

But the scenario is otherwise in this country where its leader finds it such a pleasure calling the shots from his plush office and 'reaffirming' to the rakyat yet again that as far as power and control go, he is in charge.

READ MORE HERE

Pakatan's political desanguination

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 04:11 PM PDT

DEFERRING TACT: By deciding not to hold the Selangor state elections concurrently with the 13th general election, Pakatan Rakyat reveals an irredeemable loss of electoral support

Azmi Anshar, NST

IT IS the finality of mammalian anatomical trauma: if your skin or hide is pierced, you will haemorrhage blood, go into shock and pain before the consciousness implodes. Death by desanguination.

If you want to observe political desanguination, look to Pakatan Rakyat's hasty decision to not synchronise the Selangor elections with the 13th general election, which Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak should call within eight months.

Why the need to get ahead of yourself when nobody, except the prime minister, knows intimately the date of Parliament's dissolution, yet everybody is perceiving a November date.

The PKR supreme council must have been so mesmerised by the prime minister's tantalising hint that they ignored circumspection and immediately made that hasty decision.

Call it cold anxious sweat because PKR's axis buddies' reaction is cooler: the Kedah Pas and Penang DAP governments are prepared to wait at least until Parliament is dissolved, but the Kelantan Pas government is confidence personified, willing to bed on the same page as Najib.

Reading deep into the prime minister's penchant for favourite numbers, the media did some frenzied deciphering guesswork to cough out dates in November after considering the usual tell-tale signs of school holidays, haj season and season's greetings.

But what if the prime minister was messing around with people's obsession with general election appointments, knowing it would create a stir, especially among oppositionists whose quarterly predictions on election dates have been proven wrong for the past two years.

To be sure, Najib is not the one fixing nomination and polling dates, the Election Commission, with its unique sensibilities on charting polling dates, is.

PR's continued desanguination by unveiling a dubious trump card: dodgy electoral roll, ironically opposed to Kelantan Pas which seems satisfied with every roll rolled out, going on a red-hot winning streak since 1990.

The Election Commission, too, must feel like a broken record, valiantly defending its record and that of the veracity of the electoral polls against Pakatan's dogmatic stance that the electoral rolls are still dodgy.

Sure, niggling issues continue to dog the EC's pursuit to clean up the roll of dead or unaccounted voters, but the roll is clean, enough to precipitate the huge Opposition gains in 2008, which, by the way, were courtesy of a huge number of Umno voters resentful of the Abdullah administration that they voted for their dreaded rivals.

Try egging Pakatan leaders to acknowledge this fact and the response will be the cliched "people's power" and "political tsunami".

The electoral roll has been cursed to be a convenient opposition scapegoat that underwrote the Bersih protests to maskwhat would be Pakatan's inevitable losses, which accounts for all that troubling anxiety to defer state elections, especially in Selangor. By the same hastiness, Pakatan Rakyat has privately conceded the Dewan Rakyat to the BN, probably even saying adios to the two-thirds majority that was denied to the ruling coalition.

Whether it is November or the full term, whether Selangor will do it separately or simultaneously, the pressure and stretched resources will be the same for both sides.

But Pakatan Rakyat's final trump card, following killer problems called farcical free water, Talam, land disputes, will be "dying for a victory by sympathy", the final shape of its political desanguination.

Sept 16: A ‘Black Day’ for Sabah, Sarawak

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 03:18 PM PDT

Celebrating Malaysia Day tomorrow would be meaningless, hollow and empty unless the special rights and autonomy of Sabah and Sarawak are fulfilled.

Jeffrey Kitingan, FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Sept 16 could have been more than a historic day for Malaysia had the Malaysia Agreement, 1963, the promises, assurances and undertakings by the senior partner to the Federation had been fulfilled but, alas, this was not the case, thus making Sept 16 as a Black Day for Sabah and Sarawak.

Sabah's founding fathers of Malaysia had great hopes of and expectations for Malaysia. They were even prepared to sacrifice Sabah's new found independence in favour of a new federation in the hope that this partnership would bring far more (than) benefits, in terms of security, economic prosperity and development without compromising too much of their rights as a sovereign nation.

Little did they realise that 49 years later their hopes and expectations had become nightmares and shattered dreams to their children and grandchildren of Sabah. Far from being realised, the Malaysia Agreement, the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, the 20 Points as well as the assurances and undertakings were cast aside and ignored. In some cases, the contrary positions were implemented to the detriment of Sabah.

Worse, anyone raising them would be detained and punished under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA). These documents seemed only good for the archives (and not even good for display in museums) and the young generations will not learn about the true Malaysian History as this would not be taught in the schools.

Dr Mahathir himself, a powerful prime minister for 22 years warned this writer thus: "Jeffrey, don't teach the people what they don't know….!" before throwing him in jail under the ISA for raising the 20 Points and the Malaysia Agreement as the basis for federal-Sabah relationship.

This also explained why Malaysia Day, Sept 16, was never recognised or celebrated by the nation until 2010 when the new generation of Sabahans and Malaysians demanded its recognition and the federal government finally gave in under the weight of a strong opposition.

In Sabah, Sept 16 was marked as the official birthday of His Excellency, TYT Yang DiPertua Negeri, without any mention of it being Malaysia Day. It was officially forgotten and relegated to the archives. It is not even defined in the Federal Constitution.

One wonders what the motives of the Sabah BN leaders are when they all now rush to state that Malaysia Day is a historic day. Could it be because the general elections are to be held soon?

Duped by the powers that be

The young generation, who now have access to information, are now demanding for answers and not accepting blindly the twisted government propaganda. Why are we celebrating 55th year and not 49th year of Malaysian independence when Malaysia was only born on Sept 16, 1963?

Isn't Aug 31, 1957 Malayan independence? Why are Sabahans and Sarawakians asked to celebrate Malayan independence which has no relevance to them? It is also not right for the mainstream media to report that Malaysia was similar to the USA and gave the example of Hawaii joining USA in 1959 and still celebrate July 4 as its independence day.

Sabah never joined Malaysia or the Federation of Malaya and in fact the Federation of Malaya formed Malaysia with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore in 1963. There would have been no Malaysia without Sabah, Sarawak or Singapore. Some even asked whether the Malaysian federation was ever colonised and later given independence?

How is it possible for Malaysia to be colonised or to gain independence when Malaysia only existed from Sept 16, 1963? Discerning and curious Malaysians are now discovering that we have all been duped by the powers that be into believing their manipulated and twisted version of history.

The powers that be even want us to believe that their slogan 'Janji Ditepati' and 'Promises Fulfilled, People Prosper' despite knowing that the Malaysia Agreement 1963, the IGC Report, the 20 Points/18 Points are far from being 'ditepati' or fulfilled and have instead turned Sabah into the poorest state in Malaysia, their electoral 'fixed deposit' capitalising on foreign illegal immigrants to remain in power and controlling Sabah more or less as a Malayan colony and taking away its oil resources and revenue.

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:30 PM PDT

When a group of army veterans conducted butt exercises outside Ambiga's house, citing it as a democratic right, it angered many of the same people. On the other hand, many pro-government supporters defended the army veterans' actions but were angered by the youth who "defiled" pictures of Najib and his wife. What is the difference? Skewed perspective?

Mohd Ikhram Merican

I was delighted to read RPK's recent blog post entitled "It's Only Symbolic." Underlying his sarcasm is a problem that Malaysia, no, much of the whole world is succumbing to. It is a problem of skewed perspectives, ethnocentrism, and a lack of empathy.

In part, the global media, just like the Malaysian mainstream media has become a big propaganda tool that shapes how we think and how we react to our environment. On the other hand, we have become babies:

functioning by pure emotion, and
accepting wholesale anything and everything manufactured by the powers that be; governments, politicians (opposition and otherwise), religious bigots and "experts" included.

The result is a very divided world, and on a micro level, a divided Malaysia.

Is mooning and stepping on images of the Prime Minister and his wife publicly a democratic right? Certainly there are more dignified ways to express one's democratic right. Granted, criminal action against the perpetrators is harsh but it surprises me that a significant number of people condone this behavior as a democratic right. Is this how we want our youth to express themselves?

Our western education teaches us that we should respect the rights of every individual. A good portion of us will defend LGBT rights citing democratic principles and ideas such as "consenting adults" and "individual freedom". Yet, the same principles do not apply to people who practice polygamy with consensus between the wives. In this case, respecting individual freedoms do not apply. Skewed perspective?

In Malaysia, the political tsunami of 2008 has skewed perspectives to the extent that we are unable to look at issues with clarity. These days everything is divided along political lines. It is alright for Anwar Ibrahim to encourage party hopping but disgusting for Najib to do it. It is okay for hooligans to set-up stalls outside Ambiga's house but it is revolting for Malaysians to demand free and fair elections.

If we lack the maturity to be discerning and to stand united on issues affecting equity for all Malaysians regardless of political affiliation, then perhaps we are not ready for democracy.

Globally, the unfortunate events of 911 has also skewed perspectives. The fear of terrorist attacks have justified undemocratic laws and practices. America's war on terror has many a times flagrantly disregarded all the ideals that it was founded on. However, in the interest of public safety, the argument goes, it is sometimes necessary to disregard human rights and justice. If we applied reasoning, and empathy, we would see this for what it is – hogwash.

Thanks to technology, the world is now metaphorically smaller. We are a big global village. Yet, we have become very ethnocentric. Groups like Perkasa flourish in this side of the global village. And mind you, just because there are no official Chinese and Indian equivalents do not mean that extreme ethnocentrism is absent from the non-Malay population. I have American and European acquaintances who are no different either.

Ethnocentrism is the act of "judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one's own culture" (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism). The ethnocentric road does not lead to tolerance and understanding. It breeds contempt, feelings of superiority, and animosity.

The fact of the matter is that we are made up of different cultures, religions, and classes. In a smaller world, we are going to come into contact with a larger variety of people. If we are unable to shed our ethnocentric prejudices, it will be difficult to live peaceably wherever we may be.

It is sad that many of the mainstream religionists of my faith, Islam, offer no constructive solution to living in a plural society. It is equally sad that many non-Muslims choose to stereotype Muslims in general. But do we need "experts" to tell us how to live harmoniously? Is a social contract going to be the basis of how we "tolerate" one another? After 55 years of independence in Malaysia, is that the best we (from all races) can do – tolerate each other?

I would like to think that living harmoniously comes naturally to all of us. Look at little children. They could not care less about the religion, culture, or background of their friends. No one has to "teach" them how to co-exist. Perhaps we can unload all the social baggage we have accumulated by observing little children. Perhaps we should not have to wait for government and politicians to fix things. Perhaps the Malaysia and world we crave for is a choice we have to make, not by the ballot box alone, but by conscious effort on our part.

Most religions and cultures offer a common solution, one that the "experts" do not take pains to disseminate. It is referred to as the Golden Rule. You can find it in the Quran, the Bible, the Mahabharata, and Buddhism to name a few. It states, "One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself."

If we can take pains to live by this code, we would not need to wait for a Malaysia that respects all religions and races. If we could strictly adhere to this, the world would not be such a strange and divided place. Until we are willing to impose this rule on ourselves very strictly, we may not be that serious about a better Malaysia or a better world.

Why is Malaysia trying to spot gay schoolchildren?

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:26 PM PDT

'Lesbians are apparently easy to spot, as they like to 'hang out and sleep in the company of other girls'. So, um, all girls then.' Photograph: Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters

I knew I was different from the other boys (yes, zzz) when I was four or five, and actually realised I was a bona fide homosexual at the age of 10. I wasn't worried about the size of my handbag or about having sex, I was too busy crying myself to sleep, trying to change, wondering if my parents would abandon me and whether I should get married to a woman or just kill myself.

Matthew Todd (The Guardian)

So the Malaysian government has finally enlightened us all as to how to identify the gay child in your classroom. In an effort to "curb the problem of homosexuality", the Teacher's Foundation of Malaysia is holding seminars where parents are instructed on how to identify gay kids. Homosexual boys "may wear tight, light clothes and carry large handbags". Lesbians are apparently easy to spot, as they like to "hang out and sleep in the company of other girls". So, um, all girls then.

How can the Malaysian authorities be so stupid? All young gays know that large handbags are completely over. At International HQ, new recruits are instructed to be fashion forward. We had the baby Karl Lagerfeld look in the 80s, tiny combats and DM boots in the 90s, and the same decade's indie moment came when the Marilyn Manson look become popular (instead of just Marilyn). Now in 2012 we are going for the butch look. Clearly some baby gays are still into accessories but most gays will be wearing tracksuits and trying to look butch.

Of course, it is easy to scoff at Malaysia's frightening campaign (try looking for the gays like Gareth Thomas, you know, the ones who play rugby) but we in the UK are not in a position to take the moral high ground.

In the UK we seem unable to even countenance the idea that children may have some kind of burgeoning sexual orientation, and even worse, that a small number of them may be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Sssh, don't talk about it; you'll make them all start having sex!

I want to sneer at Malaysia for the mental torture they will be inflicting on kids (and their parents), but we all need to wake up to what therapist Dr Joe Kort calls the "covert cultural child abuse" that is being inflicted on all LGBT kids in every single classroom in every single school in the UK, the US and across the world.

Guarding our reputation as food haven

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:21 PM PDT

Phuah Ken Lim (NST) - PENANG is an undisputed food haven with a myriad of local delicacies in every nook and corner, especially in George Town. However, the influx of immigrants working as cooks have created doubts over our gastronomic reputation.

Many Malaysians who have held Penang as the top foodies' destination in the region, not because of some fancy restaurants but rather due to what the humble eateries and stalls that line the streets are serving, are now thinking twice.

This status as iconic local-food paradise is fast being lost as Penangites now rely more on foreign labour to help them cook.

Some hawker stall traders, not wanting their hands to be oily from stir-frying, have taken a back seat and even abandoned cooking altogether, preferring to just be cashiers.

Customers at food courts in Penang these days will likely be greeted by a worker with a thick foreign accent.

A Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer's remarks about foreigners replacing locals as cooks at a recent tourism forum has brought up the debate on whether local food standards still live up to their top billing.

Make no mistake, no one can deny the quality of Penang's most popular culinary delights like char kway teow, assam laksa, tar sau peah, rojak pasembur, nasi kandar and Hokkien mee, but there have also been talk that the food standards are waning.

Those foodies who have been hunting for authentic hawker food are able to testify to the decreasing presence of local cooks.

It is now common to see more non-Malaysians cooking at hawker centres and roadside eateries, making many wonder if the authenticity of local delicacies still exists.

Gone are the old days where the eateries were manned by the finest, often elderly, gourmet masters.

Tourists visiting the island with the intention of sampling authentic food have expressed their concern that foreign cooks have started replacing locals at new eateries, especially the food courts.

So let's put down our feet to bring back Penang's reputation for abundant superb, authentic hawkers' delights which the locals claim can't be duplicated elsewhere.

Since the island is synonymous with good food, there should be a concerted effort by hawkers and chefs to transfer their traditional culinary skills to their successors.

Perhaps a new generation of local cooks can be groomed in time to take over soon.

The problem is, many youngsters these days are reluctant to become cooks for a number of reasons. Maybe the unthinkable statement that Penang's food quality is arguably dropping will spur the young to buck up and learn straight from the masters.

Generally, many hawker food operators perfected their skills from their parents through observation, trials and testing.

Be it the Sisters' char kway teow in Jalan Macalister or the Jalan Burma prawn mee, these operators never attended any culinary courses prior to becoming experts.

This is what makes their food so unique, that the cooks have lived up to their billing despite their lack of formal training.

The locals certainly do not like to hear negative comments that their street food is no longer as good as it used to be. Certainly no one would want to let slip the coveted status Penang has as the favourite food destination in Malaysia and, perhaps, even the world.

Several people have been complaining that our street food is today over-hyped and overrated. Individual opinions do not reflect the overall consensus on Penang food, but the changing groundswell has started to cast doubts at the back of our minds.

Many say Malacca may be more famous for their Nyonya culture, but in terms of cooking, it is the Penang Nyonya flavours that capture the hearts and stomachs of many.

Penang's pride as the top food haven is at stake, and no effort must be spared in ensuring that this lofty standard placed on our local cuisine is maintained.

Putrajaya: gays, sponges and stones

Posted: 13 Sep 2012 03:50 PM PDT

When will Putrajaya realise that people who exhibit homosexual tendencies are human beings, too?

Mariam Mokhtar, FMT

Deep in the bowels of Putrajaya there exists a little known department that is out to drive the average Malaysian crazy. Yesterday, the latest plan of this department was revealed. It also gave us a tiny insight into how it works.

Under the guise of the Yayasan Guru Malaysia Bhd and the Putrajaya Consultative Council of Parents and Teachers Associations, a guideline was issued so that parents and teachers could detect homosexuality in schoolchildren and students.

The taxpayer should ask the government how much of the public's money was spent to fund this study, how long the study lasted, which experts were consulted, what criteria were used and how they arrived at their conclusions?

Instead of improving the standard of education, and its delivery, the Education Ministry has misplaced its priorities. When will Putrajaya realise that people who exhibit homosexual tendencies are human beings, too?

If the truth be known, and despite what Islam preaches, every other Malay family has a closet homosexual in its midst. Is society to deny them a right to live as respected members of the community?

For starters, the "guide" said that gays could be detected by their muscular bodies, and their propensity for wearing "V-necks" and sleeveless tops.

Have the people conducting this study been watching too many videos of Freddie Mercury and George Michael gyrating on stage, and been mesmerised by their rippling muscles and sleeveless tops?

Perhaps they have been side-tracked by Dolce & Gabbana handbags for men? They should spare a thought for the many men who go on the haj. Some of them claim that the best way to carry all their travel documents and other paraphernalia is in a handbag.

What about the many muscular teenagers who keep fit because they believe in a healthy lifestyle and like sports? The latest Putrajaya guide views them as potential homosexuals. Not all homosexuals have muscular bodies, like the celebrity who performed at Genting Highlands, recently.

Sportsmen and women wear sleeveless tops to reduce air resistance, to allow their skins to breath and they prefer clothes that will not hamper their movements. Under the new homosexual detection guidelines, wearing tight-fitting lycra is out. If our Olympic cyclists were students, they would be ostracised. What should sporty Malaysian students wear then? The jubah or hijab? If Pandelela were a man, would she be diving wearing a sarong?

One wonders what Abercrombie and Fitch, Burberry and Aquascutum have to say about the new guide? Will these designer labels suffer a drop in sales for their V-neck jumpers, sleeveless tops and handbags for men? After all, the offspring of Umno politicians and their cronies are the ones who are seen to frequent these stores, especially in London, where a number of them go to escape the claustrophobic Malaysian social mores.

Far removed from reality

V-neck jumpers form part of the school uniform for schoolchildren in UK where many Umno offspring go to study. Is this report indirectly saying that homosexual children linked to Umno are sent overseas to prevent them from being vilified?

The Putrajaya guide for detecting lesbians is just as laughable. The people who devised this study are far removed from reality and have excluded many known lesbian traits.

In Malaysian life, any Malay girl who "hangs out, sleeps and dines" with men would be hounded by the religious and moral police. So, under these rules, sleepovers with friends are disallowed.

In Malaysia, especially Malay society, the two sexes are deliberately kept apart. There is little chance for either sex to interact normally with each other. This hampers any mental, social and moral development, so girls do not know how to react with men.

When they go abroad to study, the girls are "liberated" from the strict confines of their upbringing and mingle with the other sex. Then they often go wild, like a dam that has broken. What will the Putrajaya guide make of that?

It was reported that during the unveiling of these guidelines, Deputy Education Minister Mohd Puad Zarkashi said: "The time has come for the LGBT issue to be discussed openly and not seen as a 'taboo'".

READ MORE HERE

Stop spamming my phone, Raja Nong Chik!

Posted: 13 Sep 2012 09:49 AM PDT

Zan Azlee (The Malaysian Insider)

If there is one thing that I hate to death, it is spam. Getting spam email is one of the most annoying things ever.

Even more annoying are spam SMSes... you know, the ones that tell you about cheap beer at various nightclubs or discounts at popular restaurants.

But recently, the most annoying spam SMSes I have received are from a certain politician and Cabinet minister who goes by the name of Raja Nong Chik.

It started when I decided to register to vote slightly less than a year ago. Registration went fine with no glitches (i.e. suddenly finding out I'm registered to vote in Sabah!)

My constituency, according to my IC address, is Lembah Pantai. As we know, the current MP in that area is PKR's Nurul Izzah Anwar.

Since I didn't vote in the last general election, I can't claim to have played a role in getting her into office.

And now that the 13th general election is coming up, rumour has it that Umno will be fielding Raja Nong Chik in Lembah Pantai.

Now right after I had registered to vote (at the Election Commission office in Shah Alam), I started receiving the SMSes.

The first one wished me Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha, signed off with "RAJA NONG CHIK."

I was quite shocked! I had only just registered a couple of weeks ago and now this Cabinet minister already had my mobile phone number.

I was about to cry "personal data theft!", but quickly restrained myself. Good thing I did because, apparently, there is no such law against that in Malaysia.

After that, it just went on and on. I started receiving New Year greetings, advice on how to spend my Ramadan and even an invitation for Lailatul Qadar prayers.

Last month, I even received an SMS that had the hash tags #MERDEKA55 and #JANJIDITEPATI! He could be using the same bot service as #YORAIS!

The last straw came last Tuesday. My iPhone blew out the fog-horn ring tone, indicating that an SMS had come in so I quickly checked my phone.

When I noticed it was from Raja Nong Chik, I just got annoyed. But what pushed me to the edge was the content of the SMS itself.

Is it wrong to receive foreign funds?

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 05:16 PM PDT

As for the scandal exposed by Suaram, the government can address it transparently. Making public the details of the Defence Ministry's military procurement can stop the alternative coalition from playing up the issue while proving to the public that no fraud is involved in military procurement.

Lim Sue Goan, Sin Chew Daily

Non-governmental organisations (NGO) are intermediaries promoting democracy and civil society and thus, sometimes they are in conflict with the government.

NGOs can educate the public about many issues, such as when the people lack the knowledge about environmental protection, they hold seminars and distribute leaflets to raise the people's awareness of it.

Vulnerable groups of the society also need the assistance of NGOs, including counseling, job searching and assistance applications. Some NGOs also defend human rights, women's right, legal rights or initiate various charity work, collecting forces in the society.

Many things are beyond the reach of the government or face the problem of lack resources, and thus, NGOs play a supporting role of helping the government to educate the people. With the efforts of a large number of social workers, a strong civil society playing the role of supervising the public authority can be built slowly.

Therefore, governments of democratic countries appreciate and recognise the contribution made by NGOs. This enables NGOs to stay active. For example, there are about 1.5 million NGOs in the US and their funds come from grants of the federal, state or local governments. Laws of the US do not prohibit NGOs from receiving funds from foreign countries, regardless of whether it is from a government or non-government organisation.

In non-democratic countries, however, NGOs always face with various constraints. Such as NGOs in China, they are required to provide a notarised copy of funding agreement to receive a foreign donation. And if they receive US$150,000 or above of foreign fund, they must first get a permission from the authority. Some organisations also said that they have long been annoyed by tax investigation officers. In addition, according to the Russian NGO Law, NGOs engaging in political activities that receive foreign funds will be regarded as "foreign agents" and should receive a mandatory investigation.

Back to the allegations that Suaram has been receiving funds from an American organisation linked to currency speculator George Soros, not only the German Ambassador to Malaysia is summoned, but the Registrar of Societies (RoS) also conducts a joint investigation with five government agencies.

The authorities might not be happy with Suaram for exposing the Scorpene submarine scandal or receiving funds from currency speculator George Soros. However, they should at least tell Suaram about under which provision it is being investigated. Is there a law prohibiting NGOs from receiving foreign funds? Anti-Money Laundering Act should be used against criminals, not civil society organisations.

Moreover, in addition to Suaram, there are many organisations registered as private limited companies instead of NGOs. The authority should clarify why it is difficult for civil society organisations to be registered as NGOs.

To become an advanced state, the government must first learn how to get along with NGOs. It must convince them, instead of suppress them.

Attacking NGOs will harm the government's credibility. If it is appropriately handled, NGOs can also become friends of the government.

Koon Swan saga: Will the truth emerge?

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 01:46 PM PDT

Was the former MCA president's political career cut short due to a hideous plan?

Was Koon Swan trapped in truth and emotional pain for the past 10 years despite instinctively knowing that one day, the truth would emerge just like the Chinese proverb, "shui luo shi chu" (when water recedes, the rock (truth) comes to light)?

Stanley Koh, FMT

The concept of history is often than not, taken for granted. Events which happened in the past seem to be separated by time and space like compartments, disconnected with the present.

Yet, the truth in history, seemingly buried in the capsule of time, can be stranger than fiction.

Take the illustrative example of former MCA president and reborn Christian Tan Koon Swan and his conviction over his involvement in the Pan El saga.

The truth is history can burn indeed through the pages in time.

For more than 10 years, Koon Swan could have prayed hard since his jail imprisonments in Singapore and Malaysia, seeking a truthful answer over his traumatic and painful experiences on the CBT charges in both Pan El and his role in the Malaysian Multi-Purposes Holding Berhad respectively.

His prayers were answered in 2010. Reportedly, the former chief prosecutor of Singapore, Glenn Knight at a seminar apologised for having wrongly prosecuted Koon Swan in the Pan El crisis in the mid-80s.

Koon Swan apparently had kept his silence on the matter until today.

Knight had apparently devoted a chapter of his publication, "Glenn Knight-The Prosecutor" narrating the Pan El debacle and Koon Swan's involvement.

According to press reports, Knight wrote, "…as Koon Swan was the head of MCA. I put a paper on his involvement in the Pan El saga but left it to my superiors to decide his fate as he was out of Singapore and in Malaysia."

Singapore decided to prosecute Koon Swan in late 1985 and he was found guilty which led to his two-year imprisonment there.

Upon his release, Koon Swan was re-arrested in late 1987 to face another set of charges by the Malaysian government over his involvement in the management of the Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd, the main investment arm of his party, MCA.

The light at end of the tunnel shone in 1996 in a similar CBT case where Singapore Chief Justice Yong Pung How concluded that Knight had charged Koon Swan under a wrong section for the offence and therefore, was wrong in law.

Knight wrote, "Chief Justice Yong was of the opinion that the section I charged Koon Swan with was wrong in law for we could not charge a person for stealing from a company because he was a director. It was not a breach of the law in that sense."

According to Knight, many people had asked if Yong's judgment could be used to set aside the conviction of Koon Swan but unfortunately jurisprudence in Singapore did not allow this though technically Koon Swan could still have been granted a pardon.

A conspiracy?

Much water has flowed under the bridge. Perhaps, Koon Swan has learnt to live in peace having reconciled with his traumatic and troubled past. Yet many of Koon Swan's political supporters even today still harbour the belief and perception that their leader was "politically" persecuted over the commercial CBT charges.

But there is no evidence to prove it was politically motivated. The truth was known only to those who had masterminded it and Koon Swan himself.

If there was conspiracy, Koon Swan had still kept his silence for more than two decades, 26 years to be exact.

As for the public, many especially the Chinese community still remember Koon Swan's predicament over the Pan El affair, shortly after his party election victory over the then acting MCA president Neo Yee Pan.

Conspiracy theorists including Koon Swan's staunch supporters speculated that Koon Swan could have been a victim of political persecution by certain high-powered Umno leaders at that time.

Could it be that Koon Swan was sternly reminded by certain Umno quarters not to contest against Yee Pan? The latter took over as acting president when Lee San Choon abruptly resigned in April and formally left the party in May 1983.

"San Choon's departure precipitated a savagely acrimonious power struggle within the party. His choice of his protégé and close ally, Yee Pan, as acting president met with the disapproval of an influential group of top-ranking leders led by Koon Swan, the architect of MCA-initiated economic reforms within the Chinese business community," wrote Dr Heng Pek Koon in her book, "Chinese Politics in Malaysia-A History of MCA".

Yee Pan using his presidential powers in expelling Koon Swan's 14 key supporters in various leadership levels and the membership phantom issue triggered a 20-month party crisis. The crisis ended following an extraordinary AGM and elections on Nov 11, 1985 which saw Koon Swan ushered in as the new president.

Sudaram Jomo wrote, "By late 1985, (soon after Koon Swan's victory), however he was involved in the Pan El scandal, which triggered stock market collapse in both Singapore and Malaysia, leading to his arrest in Singapore."

Following immediately on the heels of the arrest was another blow when two of his closest associates were implicated in a scandal involving 24 deposit-taking cooperatives (DTCs) and were charged in early 1987 with CBT in connection with the demise of a large MCA-sponsored saving cooperative, Komuda.

READ MORE HERE

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Selasa, 18 September 2012

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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