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Rocky to lead media onslaught against Najib?
What is this country coming to?
Of people, the choices we make, and our ability to affect the future.
The Fearless Deputy

Rocky to lead media onslaught against Najib?

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 10:14 PM PDT

He's planning a new blog… he's planning a new web site…

Now a new blog fingers Rocky as leading an online media onslaught against Najib Tun Razak, the Umno president, whose precarious hold on the prime ministership looks even more tenuous day by day.

Rocky had risen to prominence by using his blog and his network of blogger and journalist friends to campaign against the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi government and the New Straits Times.

When Abdullah was ousted and Najib took over a year later Rocky appeared to have become the voice of the new power establishment, with close ties to the new Najib appointees at the NSTP group.

He made a loudly proclaimed return to the Malay Mail where he had once worked (and supervised its collapse as a free afternoon paper) before being pushed upstairs as editorial adviser after Redberry, primarily an outdoor advertising company, took control of the Malay Mail, Malaysian Reserve, a financial daily, and Bernama TV media sales.

Now Rocky's out on the loose — and some say he's gunning for Najib.

The latest is this posting at a new blog, Cat Out Of the Bag

READ MORE HERE

What is this country coming to?

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 08:13 PM PDT

First, they arrested 30 Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members, including MP for Sungai Siput Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, and are now investigating them for resurrecting Communism and waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. While on their way to a Bersih roadshow in Penang, they were arrested in Kepala Batas and found to have in their possession T-shirts bearing faces of Chin Peng and Rashid Maidin. They have been remanded for seven days.

Communism? That's crazy talk. The Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) is long dead and gone. Chin Peng and Rashid Maidin are geriatrics. The party disbanded in 1989 after signing a peace treaty with the Malaysian Government, and its members were allowed to reside in Malaysia if they chose to do so. After 22 years of its being defunct and virtually forgotten, why is Communism still a threat today?

And if it were – by some stretch of the imagination – are we to believe that this threat is manifest in these 30 PSM members among whom 14 are women, the oldest aged 64?

A friend of mine who was at the court in Penang when the 30 were brought in told me they were just "a motley crew" of people who didn't look like they would carry a stick to fight, much less wage war against the Agong. "When I saw that, my faith in the system hit rock-bottom," he said.

Kumar doesn't deserve this

"And to see Jeyakumar in handcuffs was too much," he added. "He alone is worth many of our people in power put together. Top scorer in exams, a doctor, a man who has dedicated his life to helping poor people – he doesn't deserve this."

Like my friend, I too knew Jeyakumar while at school. He was one year my junior at the Penang Free School, and I remember him well as a thoughtful, gentle person. He was soft-spoken, cerebral, and humble despite his well-to-do background.

I find it hard to believe that someone like him would wage war against the Agong. Only someone stupid or deranged would consider doing that. He might be a socialist, but that's a far cry from being a Communist. Don't the police and the Government know the difference? To all intents and purposes, he is probably someone who transcends labels and merely cares for the poor.

And why remand him and the others for a week? The High Court has since upheld this decision and said it is correct. Justice Zamani A Rahim said the case was serious. "It involves the security of the country, of everyone – you and me and our children." These 30 people are so dangerous that they are a threat to us and our children?

Reading a poem can be seditious?

Case number 2: Sasterawan Negara (National Laureate) A Samad Said was called in by the police and told he was being investigated for sedition because he had read part of a poem at the Bersih launch on June 19.

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 12:14 PM PDT

They spend millions in military spending, go into war frequently and all the while, the economy is in dire straits, needing infusions, and the stock markets and banks are having multiple crisis one after another, in a race to the bottom and decimating the savings and living standards of ordinary people all over the world.

We may live in different countries, with different cultures. But doesn't everyone wants a better living standards, to enjoy life and hopes for a bright future for our family and friends? We can all learn lessons in the happenings around the world because we live in a connected world. What happens in another country and place can happen right here in front of our eyes and at our doorsteps.

Many in the society thinks that it does not matter. As long as it does not affect their earning and spending power, many would happily leave the politicians and leaders to their antics and treat them as mere theatrics. The majority of the people couldn't care less. "It's politics! I don't want anything to do with it". We can practically smell the fear, disgusts and indifference in the reply.

But when hardship falls upon the people, it is natural that everything is government's fault. It is they who steers the country, we say.

Wait a minute. Who gave them the mandate? Yes. It is you. Me. Every single eligible voter (yes, it includes each and everyone that did not vote, you were given a say in the future and you chose to ignore it. By letting others make a choice for you, you made your choice too. So if things go wrong, blame yourself).

It is politics. And it matters. It matters because the government we elect will set economic policies, pass laws, design the education systems for our children, and provide public services for us while we, in turn pay taxes to the government. As the government is appointed and paid for by the people, it is thus, accountable to the people in all it's actions.

Everything the government touches affects us. The economic policy will determine whether we are resilient and can withstand economic crises, whether our laws will encourage business friendly environment to encourage entrepreneurship and investors to come and invest here to create a vibrant economy and improve the earnings and living standards of the people. Bad policy will results in our being left behind as the world progress, brain drain as our people seeks greener pastures elsewhere and lower living standards as our purchasing power erodes.

'But i did not vote for the government!' we say. Well, majority wins. Try harder the next round.

'It is unfair! They cheat! They lie! We are being oppressed! We will never win!'. Yes, it may be so. We read the details being exposed by concerned and responsible citizens with evidence to boot. We get angry. We get upset. We vent our frustration and anger in the blogsphere. And we try every election to vote in our representative of choice. Our passion and fervour in pursuing accountability, justice, and our constitutional rights are misconstrued as being extreme by the main stream media and a majority of people who has yet to hear both sides of the story to make an opinion.

READ MORE HERE.

The Fearless Deputy

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 11:15 AM PDT

Najib recently made another sensible decision to accommodate – or at least to recognise – some of the concerns raised by Bersih. He has decided that a Parliamentary Select Committee should look into the many complaints in the way elections are being conducted in our country. Not surprisingly, his Deputy quickly reminded him that very little was wrong with the process. It just needed a little "tweaking", Muhyiddin said.

Now this is not the first time that a Minister in the Cabinet has openly challenged a PM in Malaysia. It happened even in the most recent administration before this one: when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was PM (this was soon after the 2008 General Election), Muhyiddin called on him to step down. He used the phrase "peralihan kepimpinan" — change of leadership. And he did so not once but many times. It was a sorry sight to hear Pak Lah telling Muhyiddin "sabar lah". Be patient.

Muhyiddin was probably emboldened by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, who joined the fray and openly discredited and ridiculed the man he himself had endorsed to lead the country. I believe had Pak Lah reshuffled his cabinet post 2008 to show that the Cabinet was his, he would still be PM today. Sure enough, they took him out soon after.

In the Westminster system of Government, the PM is always the real power. The Cabinet are his advisors. This is why it's normal for Prime Ministers in other Westminster-based countries to reshuffle their Cabinets whenever they feel that effective government will be compromised without such a change. The Prime Minister is responsible, as head of the ruling party, to make sure that the right policies are implemented. In an ideal situation, the Ministers serve to advise the PM on how these policies should be executed, and they bear responsibility for this.

READ MORE HERE.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Sabtu, 20 Ogos 2011

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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