Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Hindraf providing CPR for Indians
Ini Kali Lah, if toothless MACC acts -- Taib Memang Kena!
Will Najib stay and battle or leave?
Indians: A lost cause?
Stop the Buku Jingga lie
GE13 – Make the right choice
When the Fog of War lifts on Lahad Datu Standoff!
Political suicide or stroke of genius?
Abolishing NEP: The Most Serious Omission in PR Manifesto

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 03:32 PM PDT

Wealthy, middle class, and educated Indians must find ways to help Hindraf solve the problem of working class Indians.

By Suguman Narayanan, FMT

The best analogy that I can provide to illustrate the situation of working class Indians is that of a man who just experienced a heart attack. When someone suffers a heart attack, he or his family will channel all resources to saving his or her life, other concerns become secondary, at least for the moment.

That is exactly what Hindraf is doing—providing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) for working class Indians. Can Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat see themselves doing anything like this?

In the past, some Indians have fought for Indian rights. Some went unnoticed while others gave up half way because of fear or were bought-over.

Today one man took it beyond limits never experienced before. One man decided to sacrifice his life for the cause.

That man spent five years away from home, lonely and cold in a little cramped apartment. He could not watch his kid growing up. How many of us are willing to be physically separated from our spouses and kids?

This man took the challenge. He never gave up. Today he has decided to give his life for the cause. He is no other than Hindraf chairperson, P Waythamoorthy, who is currently staging a hunger strike.

The strike is in its 10th day and is fast taking a toll on his health. Soon his organs will fail!

Hindraf is merely asking for the minimum. The request for a RM4.5 billion budget to solve immediate problems faced by Indians may seem like a huge amount.

If you read the Hindraf Blueprint, you will realise that the demands are extremely minimal. For instance when RM4.5 billion is spread across 57 years (due to 57 years of neglect), it amounts to RM79 million a year.

The annual national budget of the federal government is RM250 billion. Can you honestly say that what Hindraf is asking for is excessive– hardly 2% of the annual national budget.

It is not about race

Is what Hindraf asking for unreasonable? I do not need to elaborate on what this means compared to the enormous amounts spent elsewhere. It's a no-brainer.

Now, is it unreasonable for Hindraf chairperson Waythamoorthy staging a hunger strike? Is it too much to demand for a 1.8% budget for a community of 8% (The percentage of Indians in Malaysia could probably be larger than 8%)?

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 01:02 PM PDT

Taib survived the 1987 elections and at least seven million hectares of timber concessions allegedly came to be controlled subsequently by Taib's family, henchmen and cronies (of which no less than five million hectares came under the domination of the top five robber baron timber lords who had reimbursed the state government money used for the elections).

Joe Fernandez

The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) has been uncharacteristically quick to say that they will look into video reports apparently implicating long-serving Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud in allegedly shady land deals which, from all accounts, have resulted in considerable lost revenues to the state and Federal coffers while virtually robbing the affected kampung folks of their Native land. http://bit.ly/16ESEVU

http://www.globalwitness.org/insideshadowstate/

The Global Witness's investigative reporting has turned up evidence on film which the authorities will be unable to ignore or sweep this time – Radio Free Sarawak is already going to town with the expose video -- under the carpet:

(1) that Taib abused his considerable powers in illegally seizing land from the Natives and allocating them to family members, among others, for only a modest premium payable to the state government;

(2) that such land was subsequently sold by his family members and/or others to certain other parties for hefty sums;

(3) that only 10 per cent of the purchase price was allegedly paid in Sarawak and the rest in Singapore where a "China Wall" helps to evade the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) in Malaysia;

(4) that documents were reportedly "falsified" by the lawyers involved – created is the word used -- to show that the lands were held majority by a simple villager picked at random but only on paper. In fact such properties were majority owned by foreigners, an infringement of the laws in Malaysia. If the lands seized were state land occupied by squatters, as claimed by Taib's cousins in the video, why the need to register in the name of a simple villager?; and

(5) that Taib allegedly received kickbacks indirectly from such deals.

Singapore will have to probe Global Witness video expose

The MACC cannot ignore that tax evasion for one is a serious offence and that the state government too may have lost in terms of premiums. All these revenues lost would have to be recovered.

The police and the state government too would have to probe that landowners lost their properties in the said deals.

There's also the issue of circumvention of the laws on locals having majority ownership of land. These lands, now in the hands of plantation companies, would have to be returned by the Court and/or the state government to its rightful owners. The companies can only go after whoever misled them into purchasing the said lands. However, they themselves are guilty of circumventing land ownership laws and being a party to tax evasion.

The authorities in Sarawak and Singapore, the latter priding itself on having a squeaky clean reputation, have to bring in the two Taib cousins, the lawyer, another party, all featured in the Global Witness video evidence, and other parties named by these suspects.

Already, the Sarawak Bar has publicly pledged to investigate the lawyers and/or lawyers featured/named in the Global Witness video.

Taib made cousin Norah MP showing no feud with Rahman

Taib will have to be roped in for his statement and the Government Departments concerned investigated and Abdul Rahman Yakub, Taib's predecessor maternal uncle, called in as a material witness known to the errant parties.

Taib, in his defence, pointed to his widely-publicised "estranged relationship" with his uncle and implied that he couldn't therefore be handing out favours to his cousins, Rahman's children, also his mortal enemies.

Taib appears to be blaming Rahman for the Global Witness report. That theory doesn't hold water unless everything featured in the Global Witness video was play acting in a giant conspiracy of sorts against Taib and in the process thereby implicating themselves in criminal wrong-doing.

Yet, there are credible reports based on documents that at the height of the so-called feud, Taib was busy giving out and/or renewing timber concessions to his cousins, the daughters of Rahman.

One daughter, cousin Norah Abdul Rahman, is now even tipped to take over from Taib as Chief Minister, according to Rahman apologists.

How did Norah become Tanjung Manis MP if there's a feud between Taib and Rahman, as the Chief Minister claims? Tanjung Manis is the Halal Hub of Sarawak.

Rahman laid out the plunder of Sarawak plan for Taib

The 1987 Ming Court Affair, cited by Taib apologists in his defence, was not the result of any so-called feud between Taib and Rahman.

The Ming Court Affair - I was there -- was the result of the Malays in the Bumiputera wing of Taib's Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) rebelling against him for not doing enough for the Malay economy (read PBB Malays). The wing includes Muslim Melanau, Taib's community after his Christian Melanau grandfather converted to Islam. The Sarawak Malays are mainly Bidayuh living along the coast of the 1st Division and mainly Iban living along the coasts of the other Divisions who converted to Islam several hundred years ago.

The Pesaka wing is Dayak including non-Muslim Melanau.

Between 1981 and 1987, Taib had evidently managed to antagonize PBB rebel members by one-sidedly supporting and giving contracts and concessions to a new group of crony capitalists who were mostly Foochow Chinese, from or close to the Sarawak United People's Party (Supp), and mainly involved in the timber and construction industries.

Ironically, it was his uncle who had started this trend, to become Chief Minister in 1970. He had to depend on the support of Supp and thereby thwart the James Wong-led Sarawak National Party's (Snap) attempt to come back to power in the state.

Rahman bought time for Taib to call for snap elections

The PBB rebels made the cardinal mistake of consulting Rahman on their plans to throw out his nephew by introducing a no confidence motion against him in the state assembly.

Rahman, to buy time for his nephew and thereby arousing the suspicions of quite a few rebels, suggested that they be led by him and meet secretly at the Ming Court Hotel in Kuala Lumpur to plan their moves properly. In the meantime, it emerged that Rahman quickly tipped off Taib who got the Governor's consent to dissolve the state assembly for a snap election and thereby stave off the no confidence motion. The rebels, growing uneasy in KL, wanted to return quickly to Kuching but Rahman kept stringing them along to buy time.

The rebels under the label Permas, joined by Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) led by Leo Moggie Anak Irok, felt betrayed by Rahman but had to put on a brave front in public. Privately, they were kicking themselves since they were far away from the state assembly in Kuching where they had planned to introduce the no confidence motion against Taib. There was no reason for them to assemble in KL for any meeting.

Taib obtained 28 seats in the snap election that followed, while the Opposition managed a credible 20 i.e. PBDS 15 and Permas 5.

Taib was saved by the seats of Supp, a party which he subsequently tried to neutralise by inviting PBDS to return to the state Barisan Nasional (BN).

Taib's road to wealth unlimited with 1987 state election

After the elections, Permas leader Nor Tahir's house in Satok, Kuching, was raided by Federal authorities who found and confiscated more than RM90 million in unaccounted for cash. Nor Tahir was a former Forestry Minister, a post taken over by Taib. Nor Tahir passed away not long after that of an apparent heart attack.

It appears that some RM150 million of state government money shifted out from Bank Utama after nomination day and may have been used by PBB to fund his election campaign. One deal allegedly struck was that five timber barons would each pay fork out RM30 million, to reimburse the RM 150 million, if BN won the elections. In return they would not only get to keep the concessions they already had but they would also be given many more - and Taib would also make much more, the RM30 million each being just a small down-payment.

Taib may have to step down before 13th General Election

The so-called feud between Taib and Rahman, the Ming Court Affair revealed, was a sandiwara (drama) to identify their political enemies and eliminate them. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad himself once openly referred to the so-called Taib-Rahman feud as a sandiwara. The Democratic Action Party (Dap) and the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) are beating the drums of war on this theme in the wake of the Global Witness expose video.

Many Malays, caught up in the so-called Taib-Rahman feud, were eliminated by this sandiwara.

Now the karmic cycle has turned full circle, and Taib once again faces the grim prospect of yet another MACC probe against him.

It won't be that easy for him this time to get off Scott free as there are many names, including family, implicated with him from Sarawak to Singapore and beyond. If he's innocent, what about the others involved including family?

Heads will have to roll after Global Witness video expose

If the others are found guilty, how can he be innocent since everything, advertently or inadvertently, began with him approving the land deals at stake?

There's every possibility that Taib would have to step down as Chief Minister if the 13th General Elections are further delayed. He has once again, as in the 2011 state election when the BN lost several seats to Dap, PKR and an independent, become a hot potato and a definite political liability.

MACC, the Sarawak state government, and the Singapore authorities would not need too much time to get to the bottom of the matter and bring charges against all the errant parties.

The results of the Sarawak Bar Council probe are expected to be known within a matter of weeks.

Joe Fernandez is a mature student of law and an educationist, among others, who loves to write especially Submissions for Clients wishing to Act in Person. He feels compelled, as a semi-retired journalist, to put pen to paper -- or rather the fingers to the computer keyboard -- whenever something doesn't quite jell with his weltanschauung (worldview). He shuttles between points in the Golden Heart of Borneo formed by the Sabah west coast, Labuan, Brunei, northern Sarawak and the watershed region in Borneo where three nations meet.

Will Najib stay and battle or leave?

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 12:53 PM PDT

Is the Lahad Datu incident a planned disturbance to allow Najib to declare a temporary state of emergency to enable him to clamp down on the opposition leaders?

Awang Abdillah, Free Malaysia Today

Umno was caught off guard when the people punished it in the 12th general election. The disastrous results of the 2008 general election alarmed former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The 2008 results showed that the opposition may be able to unseat the Umno-led government in the 13th general election, propelled by people's power.

This reality is playing itself out in the latest political developments engulfing Najib.

In Sabah, the people there are very dissatisfied with the federal government policies, especially on the issue of large numbers of foreigners being given instant Malaysian ICs.

Even with the instant ICs, there is no assurance that these foreigners would vote for Umno-Barisan Nasional in the coming polls.

In which case the much vaunted BN fixed-deposits of Sabah voters – locals and Filipinos – alike are now ready to punish Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his Umno.

In Sarawak, with Taib Mahmud still at the helm, the political scenario could turn fluid where the BN component parties would adopt a wait-and-see approach, depending on the outcome of the election.

The Chinese voters are ever ready to punish Najib and Taib by voting out Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP). The natives may jump on the bandwagon to vote in Pakatan Rakyat in a number of constituencies.

In Peninsular Malaysia, the BN component parties, especially Gerakan and MCA, are as good as dead.

Within Umno there are two factions trying to outdo one another.

Planned disturbances?

Come election time, there would be acts of sabotage and counter-sabotage against candidates of both factions.

The Chinese, Indian and Malay voters are ready to punish Najib, Umno, Mahathir and his Perkasa.

Najib, as such, is being engulfed by uncertainties and threats of people's punishment.

He has to prepare a contingency plan that will empower him to clip the opposition's wings. This will probably be carried out in between the dissolution of Parliament and the election dates.

Once the dates are announced many believe Najib may deploy the false flag tactic by creating superficial controlled disturbances in certain parts of the country and blame them on the opposition.

This is just an excuse to declare a temporary state of emergency to enable him to clamp down on the opposition leaders and subsequently lift it.

These Najib-hatched "incidents" would give him an excuse to declare a state of emergency later – thereby suspending polling temporarily – accuse and consequently arrest the Pakatan leaders.

Because Najib is now so hard-pressed, he may choose the general election date with a two-pronged strategy: remind the Malays to stay united under Umno or lose political power; and scare the other communities of race riots unless they support the BN.

Indians: A lost cause?

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 12:50 PM PDT

They'll have to decide if they want stick to the tsunami they helped create in 2008 or revert to BN which is still treating them unfairly after 55 years.

Ali Cordoba, Free Malaysia Today

The third largest community in Peninsular Malaysia is the Indian community, but it is one of the least protected and is the community that suffered the worst forms of ostracism and racism in the country. Will this change with Pakatan Rakyat in power?

Grouped under the MIC, the Indians have seen very little light at the end of the tunnel so much so that they were forced to pursue their own quest for recognition and assimilation as Malaysians. Many of the stories we hear about the Indians in Malaysia are as heart-breaking as the Tamil and Hindi movies on the silver screens in local cinemas.

While these Bollywood movies almost always end with a hero rising and establishing justice and equality, in Malaysia the stories end with jail terms, deaths in custody or in joblessness. Do Malaysian Indians need a national hero who would brave the vagaries of life and politics to represent and fight for them?

The Hindraf promoters would tell you they are, like other Indians, ostracised and bullied due to their brave attempts at representing Indians on the political scene.

A typical conversation between a new "Malaysian" from a western African nation and an Indian staff in a bank, ends with the Indian woman asserting that her rights and freedom are not guaranteed in Malaysia. She would politely inform the African man that her fate was even worse than the migrants who flood the country every year.

Migrants better off

Indonesian migrants will be granted ICs (red or blue) in the long run while Nigerians and Western Africans are now being granted long-term visas and/or Permanent Residence status – which is the red IC – while Indians are still struggling to get ICs.

While the West African man protested that he was jobless despite having a long-term "spouse" visa, the Indian woman retorted that she managed to get a job only after lobbying some politicians.

She added that she was not working in a sane or fair environment, where some of her colleagues would at times behave like bullies or show disdain for her colour and creed.

It was never safe for an Indian, man or woman, she added, to hold a job in Malaysia because of the ostracism against Indians and people of her pigmentation, which she would insist included the Africans and even other Muslims who are not Malays.

Despite the odds, the resilient Indian community has survived and remains ever hopeful. It wants a greater and fairer share of the economic pie. It wants equality, more freedom and recognition of its rights in the country.

Most young Indians do not understand that in a deal made in the 1950s and consolidated in the 1960s, the non-Malays were relegated to either "second or third class" citizens. The Indians fell into the latter category.

They had to struggle at all levels of society to get better jobs, better education and the freedom to be who they want without prejudice. From the days of VT Sambanthan, the fifth president of the MIC and one of the founding fathers of Malaysia, the lot of the Indians has not really improved

Gone are the days when the Alleycats dominated the Malaysian music charts, gone are the local Indian heroes in the local television programmes, and the innuendo continues. There's no great Indian political leader left in the country, perhaps due to desertion of the Indian cause.

Or is it that, with the stringent Malay-Chinese dominance, the Indians are being sidelined for good in local politics, thus affecting the community's quest for survival in modern Malaysia?

Just like the Malays and the Chinese, Indians in Malaysia are politically divided. Under Sambanthan, there was strong unity of the Indians under the MIC banner and this led them to support the BN for ages.

Until the formation of Hindraf, it was impossible to tell whether the Indians would support an opposition party or group, but in 2008 the Indians took a drastic step. The vast majority voted in favour of Pakatan.

That move appears to have backfired somewhat with BN acting adamantly against pro-opposition faces. Did this vote for the opposition cause a fall-off in favours for Indians within the BN?

Did the BN go on to sideline the Indians by cutting off job opportunities for them and giving them to migrants from India and Nepal, for example? Or is it that the Indians are fed up with low level jobs?

In a country where the Indians have to question whether they have the "right" to fight for their own welfare and whether they have enough freedom to speak and vote for whomever they want, the future for them does not seem bright.

Stop the Buku Jingga lie

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 07:12 PM PDT

Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy pens his political thoughts while on his 11th day of hunger strike.

By P Waythamoorthy, FMT

Today is the 11th day of my hunger viratham (hunger strike). I continue to feel weaker with each passing day.

The variety of visitors is broadening. Among the visitors yesterday were several politicians. I would like to thank all the politicians who visited me to show their concerns for my condition during my viratham.

However what I would also like to tell all my politician friends is that the time spent in coming all the way to the temple in Rawang to visit me probably is better spent in lobbying within their respective political parties to get their bosses to endorse the Hindrag Blueprint.

This is the best way for them to show concern. The condition for my going off the hunger strike is very clear:

The Malaysian government led by Najib Tun Razak must endorse Hindraf's 5-Year Blueprint in a binding manner to commit to a plan of implementation of all the six proposals in the blueprint as long as they remain the government,

The government-in-waiting of the Pakatan Rakyat led by Anwar Ibrahim must endorse the blueprint in a binding manner and commit to its implementation, should they be forming the next federal government.

My request to my politician friends is to help us to realize the blueprint.

Today I would like to lay out some of my thoughts on Pakatan's Buku Jingga and Hindraf's Blueprint.

It is a lie to say that the Buku Jingga covers Hindraf blueprint proposals.

Xavier's photo opportunity visit

I would like to make mention of an incident with one PKR politician Dr Xavier Jeyakumar who visited me yesterday.

When asked by one of the other visiting wellwisher as to why Pakatan was reluctant to sign the blueprint, he replied with a question of his own: "Why should we sign your blueprint when it is all in our Buku Jingga?"

The wellwisher then requested Xavier to show where exactly the Buku Jingga covered the Hindraf blueprint proposals. She got silence for the answer.

We were left wondering if Xavier had made that long trip just to convince me to drop our demands for the blueprint endorsement because Pakatan had it all covered.

Isn't it making a mockery of my basic purpose for the hunger strike, which Xavier made an occasion of, to visit?

He being a professional politician just came for the photo opportunity, that is all. If he really felt as he answered, then there clearly was no other purpose for his visit.

In any case, I would like to make it very clear that the Buku Jingga consists of the Common Policy Platform of the parties representing the Chinese interests and a section of the Malays and the Pakatan Agenda which covers eight broad areas and a 100 day action plan.

In all these, what you get other than broad statements of intent are some targets. There is no serious discussion in the Buku Jingga about the plans for realising any of these.

Another great lie

The Buku Jingga broad statements and goals just cannot cover the specific proposals of Hindraf's blueprint. It is apples and oranges.

Pakatan politicians have to stop lumping together what is logically incompatible. It is a lie. There is no way any Pakatan politician can answer the lady yesterday to show where the blueprint proposals are covered in the Buku Jingga. They are not!

The NEP had the stated goal of poverty eradication and economic restructuring so as to eliminate the identification of ethnicity with economic function. The NEP policy document much like the Buku Jingga stated their intentions in these kinds of broad statements, but then we all know how much of a lie the NEP had become.

It became a vehicle for hijacking the national resource – sapu bersih. In fact NEP was initiated in 1970, just the time the massive displacement of the Indian plantation workers began.

Instead of eradicating poverty for the Indian plantation workers, they were pushed deeper into a poverty trap by the development plans arising from the NEP. RM1.1 trillion were spent in the 10 development plans in the name of NEP.

How much of that went to eradicating poverty among the displaced estate workers?

READ MORE HERE

GE13 – Make the right choice

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 04:44 PM PDT

The choice at GE13, to me, is clear. A new government will assuredly give us reform.

By Kee Thuan Chye

Voters, you have to decide soon. The 13th general election has to be held at the latest within two months of April 28, when the current government's term expires. It may even be called next month if Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has the gumption for it.

Meanwhile, if you haven't decided yet which coalition – Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat – should win federal power for the next five years, consider this.

After 55 years of ruling this country, where has BN got us?

The country is more divided than ever. We have been polarised on racial and religious lines for decades, but now we are divided by political leanings as well.

What about our economic progress?

According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates, Malaysia's GDP per capita based on the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) methodology amounted in 1980 to US$2,331. South Korea's was lower at US$2,302, and Taiwan's was slightly higher at US$3,571.

But in 2011, South Korea's figure rose to US$31,220 (an increase of 1,255%), Taiwan's to US$37,716 (up 956%), while Malaysia's stood at US$16,240 (up 596%).

What happened? How did South Korea overtake us and in 2011 record a figure that is double that of ours?

Some people say the GDP (PPP) per capita is not so comprehensive, so let's look at per capita income instead.

In 2011, South Korea's per capita income was US$22,424 and Taiwan's was US$20,083. How much was Malaysia's? US$9,656. Again, half that of South Korea's, and also Taiwan's.

Najib pledges to make us a high-income nation with a per capita income of US$15,000 in 2020. By that time, what do you think the per capita incomes of South Korea and Taiwan would be? Furthermore, would US$15,000 still qualify as high income then?

By the way, our neighbour, Singapore, that used to be part of Malaysia, has a per capita income of US$46,241, which is almost five times ours. And they don't have natural resources like we do.

In the last few years, the government has hardly been talking of making Malaysia an advanced nation, which is the goal of Vision 2020, tabled in 1991. It has been more than 20 years since, enough time to consolidate efforts to attain the goal, but we are apparently not near it. The talk these days is only about becoming a high-income nation instead. That's not the same as becoming an advanced nation.

Corrupt practices and economic leakages

Clearly, wastage, leakages, imprudent government spending and, above all, corruption have retarded our growth. And the problem is compounded by the ruling party itself being mired in corruption.

Is BN therefore likely to address this issue in a serious and concerted manner? Has it been doing so, apart from hauling in a few culprits from time to time?

Shouldn't we bring in a new government that is not so entrenched in this system of corrupt practices and economic leakages?

If we should, the 13th general election may be the only time to do it. Because if BN wins again, it is likely to gerrymander the electoral boundaries afterwards to its advantage and make it even harder for the opposition to win future general elections. In which case BN will be ruling Malaysia for many more years to come.

Would it then be likely to bring reform? Or would it rather continue to maintain the status quo to ensure it holds on to power and reap the rewards of being in government?

However, if the opposition coalition, Pakatan, were to win, what would be the biggest benefit to Malaysians? I think it would be the concretisation of the reality that a two-coalition system can work and is here to stay.

And isn't this what we need? If not for the March 8, 2008, electoral result, would we be feeling as important as we do today as the people who decide who should govern us? Would we be feeling that our votes do count? Would the government be listening to us as much?

A two-coalition system provides for a stronger opposition, and this is always good for applying pressure on the ruling party to do what is right and what is of benefit to the rakyat. When BN had its two-thirds majority, it enjoyed a monopoly. It could push anybody aside and any laws through Parliament. It could be arrogant. Even now, it still is but less so.

Do you think that if BN were not voted out come GE13 so that it would experience what it's like to be in the opposition, it would be able to reform itself in order to serve the people better rather than its own interests?

Look at Umno, the biggest party in the BN coalition. It is dominated by warlords – big ones and small ones. To them, losing their fiefdom is losing almost everything.

Holding office, even a relatively small one, opens the door to potential riches for the office holder and his supporters. The bigger the office, of course the greater the wealth. He will therefore not want to give it up.

That is why Umno's leaders are going around appealing to the party's members not to sabotage candidates selected to stand at GE13; the leaders know that those who are deprived of the opportunity will be envious of those who supplanted them, and they will be motivated to seek revenge against the latter.

This may be cutting off their noses to spite their faces because the act of sabotage can result in a defeat for the Umno candidate and therefore the party, but they don't care.

The point is, they lost their chance to stand – and with it their passport to wealth, like the extra percentage they load onto the costs of public projects to line their own pockets with or the kickbacks they get for giving approvals.

Their supporters, who will also lose out in terms of influence, business opportunities, etc, will go along with their act of sabotage. Why else is our prime minister merely half-hearted in weeding out corruption? Because it's too deeply rooted within his own party.

So how can we continue to give our votes to such a party or its coalition partners, like the MCA, the MIC, Gerakan, PBB, PBS, etc?

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 12:55 PM PDT

Patriotism in Sabah begins with Sabah and does not end with Malaysia.

Joe Fernandez

We have not heard the last of the Lahad Datu Standoff if it degenerates, as it appears more than likely now, into prolonged guerrilla warfare as in the southern Philippines, but perhaps more low-key.

There's a huge security vacuum in Sabah.

Witness the fact that 1.7 million foreigners, mostly illegal immigrants, flooded into Sabahby 2005 alone to dwarf the 1.5 million local population as Putrajaya looked the other way in a wink wink relationship with rogue elements. It's unprecedented in world history.

An estimated 800,000 of the foreigners including illegal immigrants are Suluks, many with MyKads which in the absence of state government sanction as the initiating party on a case by case basis, they are not entitled to obtain and not eligible to hold in Sabah. They may be matched in number only by the Bugis from Sulawesi in Indonesia. There's no love lost between these two large immigrant groups, the local Suluks in particular in the east coast having a strong sense of proprietorship, but that's another story.

Nature, according to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, abhors a vacuum. (Aristotle was a student of Plato, a Greek philosopher, and a teacher of the Macedonian Alexander the Great who became King of the Greeks. Plato, in turn, was a student of Greek philosopher Socrates.)

The reasons for Lahad Datu, given the fog of war, may keep changing during the course of such a conflict.

The first casualty in a war is the truth.

Beheadings, mutilations a Public Relations disaster of highest magnitude

However, to accuse Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim of having a sinister hand in Sabah and Sulu is a simplistic notion, if not cheap politics of hitting below the belt, which will not camouflage Putrajaya's sins in Borneo and the southern Philippines. It will not cover up the fact that the Administration has blood on its hands on both sides of the Sulu Sea. Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) vice president Tian Chua was right to imply Putrajaya's bloody hands in his numerous statements reported recently on Sabah.

It cannot be denied that the current security situation in Sabah was created solely by Putrajaya which is responsible for the matter.

For starters, they dillydallied for three weeks in an act of extreme weakness if not desperation and to play politics with the issue because security in Sabah until recent days was under the Prime Minister's Department -- so more illegal immigrants can come in and enter the Electoral Rolls -- and not under the Police or Armed Forces.

Who trained the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and gave them safe havens inSabah? MNLF leader Nur Misuari's recent statement on these issues must be taken seriously as he, more than Putrajaya, gets the benefit of the doubt in a balance of probabilities.

By the same token, we don't know whether the Sulu terrorists admitted to carrying out beheadings and other mutilations in Sabah during the on-going Lahad Datu Standoff. The Suluks have more to lose for such dastardly acts, if true. It would be a Public Relations disaster of the highest magnitude; play into Putrajaya's already bloodied hands, and turned the local population against them.

The truth, as usual, may be somewhere in between.

There may be rogue elements involved, if not on one side, then the other.

Or, it could be a distasteful display by the population within that specific locality for any number of reasons.

We can only await a special Parliamentary session on the crisis, a Royal Commission of Inquiry or a White Paper with bated breaths. Meanwhile, Tian Chua's sedition case should be stayed and not be used for cheap politics by the Najib Administration.

Malaysia has no stomach for war in Sabah after southern Philippines

In a reversal of the high stakes cheapo war game played for so long in southernPhilippines by Malaysia, Sulu "terrorists" in Sabah or from Sulu -- or freedom fighters in their language -- will have safe havens in the southern Philippines if the flare-up in Sabahcontinues. They will also have access to arms, men and material from the MNLF and its breakaway Abu Sayaff, noted for its kidnappings along the east coast of Sabah.

Malaysia will have no stomach for such a war after being allegedly engaged, overtly and covertly, in the long-simmering conflict in the southern Philippines.

If push comes to shove, and if there are no "beheadings" and similar atrocities on the part of the militants, the people of Sabah will not back Malaysia in a war against the Suluks, whether in Sabah or from Sulu. Put it down to their historical grievances over the unfinished business of Malaysia in Sabah and Sarawak and their ties to the Suluks. The Suluks, if they take advantage of the widespread anti-Malaysia feeling in Sabah and Sarawak, will be like the fish swimming in a sea of popular support. Patriotism in Sabah begins with Sabah and does not end with Malaysia.

The "heirs" know that possession is nine-tenths of the law when it comes to the negotiating table for a diplomatic and political solution. Even so, the Suluks in Sabah or from Sulu would have to unconditionally surrender any territory seized when the country (Sabah) regains its independence.

Defunct Sulu Sultanate no leg to stand on in Sabah

The "heirs" of the defunct Sulu Sultanate -- citing marginalisation and disenfranchisement -- may grab at least Felda Sahabat centred around the Tungku Township in Lahad Datu, this being part of the territory in the Sabah east coast which covers the waterways where Sulu used to extort tolls from the terrified traffic along them. This would force The Issue on Sabah & Sarawak: the UN would have to address the fact that No Referendum was held in Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Malaya on Malaysia. Already, the UN has offered in the wake of Lahad Datu to intervene in Sabah.

The Cobbold Commission in 1962 was not a Referendum but a sampling of community leaders. Ironically, only the Suluk and Bajau communities polled agreed to Malaysia. The others, including the Orang Asal, were against the idea of Malaysia in Borneo to facilitate on demographic grounds the merger between Chinese majority Singapore and non-Malay majority Malaya.

Singapore held a Yes or No Vote on independence through merger with Malaya viaMalaysia.

Brunei stayed out of Malaysia at the 11th hour largely because of a rebellion in the sultanate against the idea of Malaysia.

The defunct Sulu Sultanate, of course, does not have a leg to stand on in Sabah or parts of it.

It has no private property rights to Sabah or any part of it.

It cannot claim sovereignty over Sabah.

Suluk marginalisation, disenfranchisement does not equate Sabah claim

All the "heirs' have is the 1939 Mackasie Ruling of the High Court of Borneo which recognises their right to collect RM 5, 300 per annum collectively from the Sabah Government. This is a token or fragment of history having largely only symbolic significance.

The defunct Sulu Sultanate's so-called transfer of sovereignty over Sabah not so long ago to the Philippines Government by Power of Attorney -- now expired -- is a nullity from the very beginning in international law.

The sovereignty of Sabah rests with its people.

The Sulu Sultanate died out, recorded the Madrid Protocols of 1877 and 1885, when its last Sultan died without leaving a male heir. Spain which was ruling the Philippines gave up all or any territorial claims in North Borneo under the Protocols with the United Kingdom and Germany. Read:

http://www.lawnet.sabah.gov.my/Lawnet/SabahLaws/Treaties/Protocol%28Madrid%29.pdf

The Suluks in Sabah, claiming marginalisation and disenfranchisement since 1963, given the continuing influx of Bugis illegal immigrants in particular and Usno being deregistered to make way for Umno, is another matter altogether. This cannot be related to the so-called Sabah claim.

Sabah became British colony after World War II

The Brunei Sultanate has denied giving any part of Sabah to the Sulu Sultanate.

Read:
http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/special-reports/54937-sabah-and-the-sulu-claims
http://www.bt.com.bn/golden-legacy/2013/03/07/sabah-and-sulu-claims

The entire land area of Sabah belongs to or potentially belongs to the Orang Asal under Adat as Native Customary Right (NCR).

Adat and the Orang Asal came long before the Sulu Sultanate's "Agreement" with the British North Borneo Chartered Company which obtained a Crown Charter from the Queen of England to rule Sabah on her behalf.

Sabah was never conquered in a battle or war by any party except by the Japanese during World War II, and this too was an unprovoked war in Sabah and therefore amounted to war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Japanese in Sabah were "defeated" by the British and subsequently surrendered.

So, by a legitimate Act of Surrender, War and Conquest, Sabah became British Territoryuntil it was returned to the Orang Asal and other Sabahans on 31 Aug, 1963 by self-determination. Even so, the Colonial Office in London agreed to purchase Sabah from the British North Borneo Chartered Company for 1.2 million pounds sterling.

Sarawak independent for 150 years under a Rajah

Malaysia (Malaya) does not have leg to stand on either in Sabah or Sarawak. Sabah and Sarawak, two independent countries, were dragged by the Malayan and British Governments against their will into Malaysia on 16 Sept 1963.

Sarawak became independent on 22 July, 1963 after a brief period of British colonial rule after World War 11 during which the Japanese occupied the country. Sarawak was an independent country under a Rajah for over 150 years before the Japanese marched in.

In an interview with Veronica Pedrosa of al Jazeera on Sun 17 Mar, 2013 at his home in Mindanao, Nur Misuari -- tagged the original Muslim rebel by the station -- said Malaysiahad no right to be in Sabah and Sarawak. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2013/03/201331421944766446.htm

l
He challenged Malaysia to appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and prove its case on Sabah and Sarawak.

He said that Malaysia was a colonial occupying power in Sabah and Sarawak and accused it of using the MNLF-breakaway Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as an instrument of its colonial policies.

He said peace would only come to the southern Philippines when Malaysia is removed from the equation. He expects MNLF-Manila peace talks to resume sometime this month in Jakarta.

On Sabah and Sarawak, Nur Misuari hinted that Malaysia "will be inviting some crisis" if it does not end the colonial occupation of these countries.

The chickens are coming home to roost

Even so, pending UN intervention; the Registrar of Societies (ROS) should allow the registration of Usno to pacify the Suluks in Sabah.

It should also rule that the parti parti Malaya have no business being in Sabah andSarawak. This is a violation of the 1963 Malaysia Agreement, one of the many constitutional documents making up the unwritten Constitution of Malaysia. It would become clear once the fog of war lifts that the presence of such parties in Sabah is among the reasons, albeit indirectly, for the Lahad Datu Standoff.

The chickens are also coming home to roost after the Election Commission, on the directive of a self-serving Putrajaya, naively divided the Electoral Rolls in Sabah as composed of Muslim Bumiputera, non-Muslim Bumiputera, Chinese and others.

The so-called Muslim Bumiputera on the Electoral Rolls is packed with illegal immigrants at the expense of local Muslims.

The non-Muslim Bumiputera category tries to drive a wedge between the majority Christian Orang Asal and minority Muslim Orang Asal when they are related to each other.

Khamis, 21 Mac 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

0 ulasan:

Catat Ulasan