Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Soon, Reformasi will fade
- GST: Opposition playing it up to the hilt
- Restricted residence for politicians
- A policeman’s work is never done
| Posted: 30 May 2013 02:46 PM PDT
Hafiz Noor Shams, TMI The wisdom of our age has it that young adults are more likely than not to vote against Barisan Nasional. A survey carried out by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research backs this up. In a report it published on May 3, the poll agency found out that Malaysians in their twenties and thirties preferred Pakatan Rakyat to BN by a significant margin. In contrast, support for BN was the strongest among those aged 50 or older. In a country where the median age is younger than 30 years old, that offers some hints about the political future of the country. While that is so, nothing guarantees that wisdom will last for too long. The generational divergence Malaysia is witnessing now has a lot to do with the political turmoil of the late 1990s. The sacking of Anwar Ibrahim as the deputy prime minister and the subsequent events that followed made a lasting impression on the minds of these young Malaysians who then were still in school, in university or new to the labour market. Whether it was about Anwar or about a larger sense of justice — that something was extremely wrong — they were moved by the event. These Malaysians are also the largest age cohorts that Malaysia has ever seen yet. It is not merely a coincident that BN comes under intense political pressure exactly when these generations are maturing and exercising their political muscles. Each generation has an episode which defines their political belief and partly, their worldview. Those above 50 years old now remember the old Umno and hold dearly onto those nostalgias. Future young Malaysians, those in their teenage years and even younger, will no doubt have their very own episode. Unlike the others however, these new young Malaysians have their book wide opened and its pages unwritten yet. There has not been any big wake-me-up moment for them so far. One thing is certain though. Time has the power to make society forget the past. The old old generation will disappear into the background, hopefully bringing with them the ghost of May 13, among others. The old new generation — the young adults of today — will have their political views at the new bedrock of Malaysian society. The new new generations will challenge the prevailing views, as youth always do all around the world. These new young Malaysians will not remember the events of 1998 because they will never experience it. It is much like how young adults today do not remember the events of 1988 when the old Umno was disbanded and the judiciary came under assault by the Mahathir administration. It is the exact reason why many young Malaysians today are not swayed by May 13 and scaremongering opportunists who fuel their sad career on racist politics.
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| GST: Opposition playing it up to the hilt Posted: 30 May 2013 01:42 PM PDT
The opposition is merely scoring political points in their tooth and nail bashing of the goods and services tax (GST). By Habhajan Singh, FMT On the government side, there is some level of paralysis. It seems to lack clarity and the gumption to take this tax plan to the rakyat. It has been sitting on the drawing board for years, almost on the verge of festering. Members of the federal opposition, on the other hand, have been having a field day with the GST, playing up the issue to the hilt. It was a hot potato during the just concluded 13th General Election (GE13). The opposition lawmakers seem ever on the lookout for opportunities to pounce on the political leaders from the other side of the Parliament divide. The latest incident came less than a fortnight after the nation went to the polls on May 5. The spark came from a mere citing of an example by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Idris Jala. Speaking at a post-election forum on May 17, Idris was driving home the point on revenue collection. GST is basically a consumption tax that would generate revenue for the national coffers. In doing so, he cited, for discussion purposes, the current Singapore GST rate of 7%. Not that the government is about to slap a 7% GST rate for our long-delayed GST plan. At that rate, the government's revenue would be somewhere in the range of RM27 billion, he estimated. Jala's "latest revelation" was supposed to have let the cat out of the bag, according to DAP political education director and Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong. "Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had repeatedly warned that Barisan Nasional's (BN) return to government in the GE13 would mean a higher tax burden for the man on the street, especially through the introduction of the GST, seen as BN's method to balance the subsidy heavy budget," he wrote in a statement dated May 18, the very day after Jala's session. The previous administration had been dithering on GST simply because they feared its impact as they move into the polls. As it was, BN was preparing for a tough battle. So, they would have argued, why add to their woes by implementing an unpopular GST plan before the polls. During GE13, many of us would have received text messages and emails opposing the GST. When I received a Whatsapp message on GST from a former banker, I decided to check his views on GST. "Are you suggesting that Malaysia does not implement the GST? As you know, we are about the few nations in the world which have yet to do it," I shot back an enquiry.
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| Restricted residence for politicians Posted: 30 May 2013 01:38 PM PDT
The swift action to bar Nurul Izzah from Sabah shows Musa Aman has kept his promise and taken the first steps to put Sabah on the right footing. (FMT) - KOTA KINABALU: Kudos to Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman as he's finally got his priorities right. Politicians, particularly women opposition MPs, are a dangerous lot and all should be barred from entering the state. Nurul Izzah Anwar, that hulking, terrifyingly homicidal MP for Lembah Pantai, is the first one to feel his righteous rage and rightly so. The audacity of the woman. What was she thinking? That she could just waltz into Sabah to celebrate Kaamatan with the locals in the spirit of 1Malaysia? Where did she get such ideas? We completely agree with Musa here insofar as his thoughts about politicians go. Now if he could only take that extra step and apply the same thinking to himself and his colleagues in his Umno-led Barisan Nasional government too, paradise would be at hand. But let's not begrudge him his first kill. First things first; start with the opposition MPs and then move on to the millions of Malaysians, those troublemakers, who voted for them. And while he's at it, he should suspend the landing rights of AirAsia and any airline that has abused the privilege of being allowed to fly to Sabah by permitting any of the over 51% of opposition voters and sympathisers to travel on their aircraft. That will teach them to mess with us. Later perhaps Musa could follow up by welcoming as true Malaysians those who entered Sabah illegally … whoops, done that already. Perhaps the land set aside at the waterfront for an over-a-billion ringgit convention centre could be used instead for a squatter colony to house them. Nurul, the daughter of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, could never have known when she was stopped by Immigration Department officials at the arrival gate of the Kota Kinabalu low-cost terminal and deported that she was opening up a whole new vista for Sabah. The surprised look on her face when she was given her marching orders at the terminal gave her away. Apparently she didn't know she was on a secret list of people who are to be given the VIP-quick-turnaround treatment by the state government. Yes, yes, the state authorities were on their toes all right as the flight carrying this subversive extremist landed. Like a crack team of commandos, they turned her around and sent her back to where she came from on the next available aircraft. Talk about prompt, efficient government service – here's an example for all you naysayers. Lead the way, Musa No, she wasn't frog-marched to the aircraft – a method of carrying a resisting person in which each limb is held by one person and the victim is carried horizontally and face downwards – which would have been quite a sight, but rather left calmly still wearing her most dangerous weapon – her smile.
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| A policeman’s work is never done Posted: 30 May 2013 10:42 AM PDT
IT'S certainly not a good time to be a policeman. Even before the new Home Minister and the new Inspector-General of Police can get comfortable with their new chairs, the police are becoming the news – for all the wrong reasons. Dorairaj Nadason, The Star Two deaths in custody and three robberies involving relatives of VIPs, even the Inspector-General of Police himself, show that the police have their work cut out for them to gain the people's trust. IT'S certainly not a good time to be a policeman. Even before the new Home Minister and the new Inspector-General of Police can get comfortable with their new chairs, the police are becoming the news – for all the wrong reasons. There have been two deaths in custody – both involving Indians. Given the history of the community and the police, that's really bad news. First, N. Dharmendran was murdered – and even the police accept the fact that he was battered to death in the lock-up. How does that happen? Isn't a police lock-up a safe place to be? How much do we know of the Standard Operating Procedures of the police? Most of us have only been to police stations to report snatch thefts or robberies, we would never know what the cops do with suspects kept in lock-ups. Is it common for suspects to be beaten up? Do all and sundry help in the beating up? Or is the task delegated to one police officer? Or are they not supposed to beat up the suspects? The conditions that led to Dharmendran's death – there have been claims that his ears and legs were stapled – have raised many questions. He may have been a suspect in a shooting case and I have little sympathy for criminals, but wasn't he still a suspect and not a convicted criminal? After his death, four policemen were transferred to desk duties. Not suspended indefinitely, or arrested and remanded – just transferred to desk duties. Is that kid gloves or what? And now comes news of another death in the lock-up. He may have been a drug dependent but Jamesh Ramesh was as much a human being as you and I. He was found dead in a lock-up in Penang, hours after being arrested. I was in Penang, my hometown, when the news broke. And there was quite a buzz there about the number of people dying in lock-ups. It's now seven this year alone. Given the fact that a lawsuit by the family of another dead detainee, S. Kugan, against the former Selangor CPO is also coming to its climax, these current deaths certainly have jangled the nerves. The Selangor CPO in that lawsuit is now the IGP. Days after he took office as IGP, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar's relative was robbed. Armed men rushed into her house, tied up the children and walked off with some RM30,000 in loot. According to reports, the home of a relative of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was also robbed. Not very comforting news, is it? Now, another minister's daughter has fallen victim to snatch thieves, losing RM8,000 to thieves while out shopping. It's not all bad news, though. These high-profile thefts may yet push the police to act tough, and to get the bad guys before they can even act. The police are planning a crime prevention department, one that will get down to the ground and get cracking. Not investigating crimes, but preventing them, according to Khalid. The details are sketchy at best, but the IGP has promised to get it to work as soon as possible, with a top-notch officer in charge. Like so many others, he says crime in the country is more perception than fact. The statistics, he says, show that street crime is on the decline. There have been fewer cases each year. Perception or deception, people see what they see. The mushrooming of gated communities speaks for itself. People fear that crime is on the rise. The Star ran a poll on policing just after the new IGP clocked in and one of the main things that Malaysians wanted to see were cops on the beat. And to have cops on bikes patrolling the streets as a warning to snatch thieves. To be able to see policemen more often than mat rempit. We have many of these bike squads now but, sadly, I have yet to see one in action. In London, you probably would not be able to go on a 10-minute walk without seeing a policeman on his beat, or just standing there with his truncheon around the corner. And the sirens ring almost incessantly. In Paris, all you need to do is walk on one of those cobbled streets, and you will likely have a cop with a shrill whistle on your tail, telling you to get off the road and onto the pavement. The policemen, or security personnel, are almost everywhere. That's not to say crime does not happen in these countries. It does. But having the policemen – or security personnel – around at all times can help deter crimes. And what better way to prevent crime than to deter it? Over to you, Tan Sri Khalid. > The writer, who can be contacted at raj@the star.com.my lives in a crime-prone area, where motorcycle thefts and snatch thefts occur frequently, even just across the road from the local police pondok.
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