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Posted: 31 Jan 2013 04:21 PM PST

Malaysia Today editor blasts Umno for its distorted version of the country's history and debunks its claim of having fought for independence

To a stunned audience, Raja Petra claimed that the Malay nationalists and the Japanese had decided that the date for Merdeka would be Aug 17, 1945. This failed to materialise because of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the eventual Japanese surrender on Aug 15, 1945.

Mariam Mokhtar, FMT

CAMBRIDGE: Raja Petra Kamarudin debunked Umno's version of Malaysian history and detailed Tunku Abdul Rahman's sorrow at the destruction of his vision of a multiracial Malaysia, when he spoke at Cambridge University South East Asia Forum (CUSEAF), first Lent term event on Wednesday evening.

Within a stone's throw of the Tunku's alma mater, St Catherine's College Cambridge, Raja Petra told the audience of 90 people, comprising mainly students in their 20s that, "the Tunku used to say he was the happiest PM in the world, but in a later interview, said, 'I wish I had died earlier…living to this age and seeing my fellow Malayans killing one another. It saddens me. This is not what I planned for my country.'"

According to the Malaysia Today editor, the Tunku died a heartbroken man and neither spoke to, nor forgave the person whom he blamed as the architect of the mess – Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He drew a sharp contrast between the rallying call of "God, King and Country" used during the English Civil War, with Malaysia's version, which encompasses Ketuanan Melayu, "God, King and Racism".

Charting the birth of the nation and the route taken, as well as the real fighters for Merdeka, he criticised the version of history being taught in Malaysian schools which he called Umno propaganda, and lamented the lack of works by original historians like Swettenham, Wilkinson, or Winstedt.

"In our schools, the history of Malaya starts in 1946. This is when Umno was born. Umno also claimed to have fought for independence from the British."

Raja Petra rubbished Umno's claims that they had fought for independence.

"Umno did not fight anybody. The real fight started in 1941 when the Malay nationalists got together, Pak Sako, Mustapha Hussain and Ibrahim Yaacob. We also had Chinese nationalists like Chin Peng who wanted to fight for the independence of Malaya.

"The fact that he was a communist is secondary. Ibrahim Yaacob was a socialist. Shamsiah Fakeh, a communist. Pak Sako, who is today celebrated as one of the greatest Malay writers, was a socialist."

He recommended that the audience to read, "The Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain: 1910 to 1957: Malay nationalism before Umno" which details the journey of nationalism before the formation of Umno and how the Malay nationalists supported the Japanese to free the country from western imperialism.

Umno formed to resist Malayan Union

After WWII, he said that the British decided to educate the Malayans, in Britain, to groom them for independence. A bankrupted Britain needed to protect her economic interests in Malaya to help their country recover. The British also introduced the Malayan Union, in which the powers of the sultans would be reduced, thus diminishing the powers of the Malays.

"In 1946, Umno was formed not to fight for Merdeka but to resist the Malayan Union," said Raja Petra.

During the negotiations for Merdeka, the British wanted the Malays to persuade the non-Malays to join forces with them. "There was a trade off and so all non-Malays who happened to be in the country, were made citizens. The notion of "Pendatangs" stopped at the time of Merdeka. Merdeka was given to Malaya in 1957, for the Alliance party to administer, and not to Umno."

"With the new parliamentary set-up in 1959, the politicians started to mess things up. From 1959 to 1969, they played up various issues. One of the guilty people was Dr Mahathir, the author of 'The Malay Dilemma'."

Raja Petra blasted the propaganda aimed at the Tunku during May 13, the increase of religious intolerance, the resurgence of racism and talk of "pendatangs". He did not spare parties like PAS which felt that Malaysia was "not religious enough".

"Tunku felt that the country was messed up by Umno politicians who played politics using race and religion".

Reading an excerpt from the book he had earlier recommended, he said, "Mustapha was humiliated and labeled as "the Malay who brought the Japanese into Malaya" because he was negotiating with the Japanese for independence.

"Although Mustapha was already negotiating for Merdeka in 1945, Umno claimed that negotiations for Merdeka only took place in 1957. The 12 year difference is crucial.

"If Umno were to recognise that people like Mustapha Hussain, Pak Sako, Ibrahim Yaacob, as the real "pejuang Merdeka" or fighters for Merdeka, then Umno's legitimacy is gone.

"Umno cannot then claim they are the fighters of Merdeka anymore. They cannot then explain the history they have presented us, which is that Umno was formed in 1946 to fight for Merdeka. None of that happened."

BN and Opposition no different

Raja Petra said that certain people in Umno feared the Tunku's vision of Malaya; a more multiracial and less Islamic Malaya, and so they plotted to make the country more radical and ultra-religious. Their plans started in 1959, and they plotted continuously until the eruption of violence in 1969.

He regretted the entry of the "Young Turks" who grabbed power in 1969, which signaled the beginning of the end, for national unity. He said that from then on, both sides of the political fence played the 3Rs (race, religion, royalty), ketuanan Melayu, the NEP, Article 153 and continued the British policy of divide and rule.

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Human Rights Watch Report: Malaysia

Posted: 31 Jan 2013 11:50 AM PST

In a nationally televised speech on Malaysia Day in September 2011, Prime Minister Seri Najib Tun Razak called for a Malaysia "which practices functional and inclusive democracy, where peace and public order are safeguarded in line with the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law and respect for basic human rights and individual rights." However he added that there had to be "checks and balances … between national security and personal freedom," and ensuing reforms have favored security over internationally recognized human rights.

Parliamentary elections must be held no later than April 2013, and political tensions were already high in November with both the opposition and the government alleging engagement by their political opponents in election-related intimidation and violence.

Preventive Detention

In his September 2011 speech, Prime Minister Najib pledged to replace the notorious Internal Security Act (ISA), which permitted long-term detention without trial, and other rights-restricting legislation. The Banishment Act 1959 and the Restricted Residence Act 1933 were the first to be rescinded, followed by three emergency declarations and the emergency-related laws they made possible. One of the rescinded laws, the Emergency (Public Order and Crime Prevention) Ordinance 1969, had been regularly used to hold criminal suspects indefinitely without charge or trial.

The Security Offences (Special Measures) 2012 Act (SOSMA) replaced the ISA on July 31, 2012. On a positive note, SOSMA reduced initial detention without charge from 60 to no more than 28 days, and required that a suspect be charged in court or released thereafter. However, other provisions reduce human rights protections, including an overly broad definition of a security offense, allowing police rather than courts to authorize interception of communications during investigations, and permitting prosecutors to conceal the source of evidence and to keep the identities of witnesses secret, thereby preventing cross-examination. Even if a suspect is acquitted under SOSMA, the law permits a series of appeals, with bail disallowed, that could result in a suspect's indefinite detention. Malaysian authorities, using transitional authority at the time SOSMA replaced the ISA, still hold 27 ISA detainees.

Freedom of Assembly and Association

In 2012, the government continued to violate rights to free association and peaceful public assembly. While Prime Minister Najib agreed in September 2011 to review section 27 of the Police Act, which mandated police permits for public assemblies, the government hastily drafted and passed a replacement Peaceful Assembly Act on December 20, 2011.

The new law rescinded the requirement for a permit but also introduced major new restrictions, including a broad ban on "moving assemblies" of any kind. Static protests are also prohibited closer than 50 meters from many prohibited sites, making it virtually impossible to hold an assembly in an urban setting. Other restrictions include empowering the police to set assembly conditions such as time, place, and date after taking into consideration other groups' objections or "any inherent environmental factor." Police were also given the power to use all "reasonable force" to break up a protest.

City and federal officials sought to prevent an April 28 sit-in sponsored by Bersih 3.0, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections. They barred Bersih from using Dataram Merdeka (Independence Square) in central Kuala Lumpur and barricaded the area. Nevertheless, marchers numbering in the tens of thousands walked peacefully toward the barricaded square and when the announcement came that the rally was over began a peaceful dispersal. However, a small group breached the barricades. The police reacted with excessive force in what became a four-hour onslaught of tear gas, water cannon, and indiscriminate beatings and arrests.

On July 1, 2011, Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein declared Bersih an illegal organization under the Societies Act. On July 24, 2012, the Kuala Lumpur High Court overturned that decision, ruling that the original decision was "tainted with irrationality."

Freedom of Expression

Most major newspapers and television and radio stations remain controlled by media companies close to political parties in the government coalition. A recent amendment to the Evidence Act has raised fears that intermediary liability on the internet will further decrease freedom of expression. The provision creates a legal presumption that an owner, administrator, host, editor, or subscriber to a network service who has in their custody or control any computer from which any publication originates is presumed to have published or republished the content of the publication unless the contrary is proven.

The Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) retains its potency despite some reforms, such as ending the need to renew licenses annually and adding judicial oversight to what was the home minister's unchecked power to approve or reject license applications. New publications still require initial approval and licenses still may be arbitrarily revoked. Other means of control include calls from the ministry offering "advice" to editors and prison terms and fines for "maliciously" printing so-called false news. The home minister maintains absolute discretion over licensing of printing presses.

In 2012, Malaysian courts partially advanced the right of free expression. Malaysiakini, the largest online newspaper in Malaysia, had repeatedly and unsuccessfully applied to publish a daily print version. On October 1, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled the home minister's refusal was "improper and irrational" and the application should be resubmitted. In a significant statement contradicting the prevailing government view, the judge said that a license to publish was "a right, not a privilege." The attorney general's chambers and the Home Ministry appealed the court's decision.

Sisters in Islam, a local nongovernmental organization, also won a significant victory in July when the Court of Appeal dismissed a government appeal to overturn a 2010 High Court decision lifting the ban on Muslim Women and the Challenge of Islamic Extremism, a book of essays originally banned in 2008.

A civil court's decision that the arrest of political cartoonist Zunar under the Sedition Act and the PPPA in September 2012 was lawful had a more negative impact, reinforcing the unwillingness of printing presses, publishers, and bookstores to be associated with controversial books.

Police Abuses and Impunity

Human Rights Watch and local civil society groups have documented police abuses, including excessive use of force during arrests, suspicious deaths in custody, failure to adequately investigate such incidents and to hold accountable those responsible; and inadequate post-mortem inquiries and investigations. Victims of police violence reported few effective avenues for redress and decried an apparent culture of police impunity for mistreatment.

Fact File: The Selangor water crisis

Posted: 30 Jan 2013 04:06 PM PST

Tarani Palani and Stephanie Sta Maria, fz.com

THE latest water disruption due to breakdown of the Wangsa Maju water pump in late December has sparked a fresh round of finger pointing between Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) and the Selangor state government over the state's long-standing water issue.

The Selangor government once again questioned Syabas' capability to cater to the needs of over seven million people in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. Syabas on the other hand argued that the state has blocked essential funding to improve its piping and other important maintenance work, hence crippling its efforts to provide quality service. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has pledged to solve the water problem if BN wins back the state in the coming general election.

Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim announced on Jan 29 that the state government will take over all four water concessionaires – Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB), Syarikat Pengeluaran Air Sungai Selangor Holdings (Splash), Konsortium ABASS and Syabas – in 14 days. This will no doubt bring about another round of arguments on the matter.

fz.com gives the low-down on the issue by retracing the stalemate and details of the relevant parties in the infrastrctural problem that has no resolve in sight yet. In the meantime, the people suffer while the bickering continues.

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Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Jumaat, 1 Februari 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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