Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Skandal AES: Syarikat Ditubuh Lepas Dapat Kontrak AES
- Selangor Land Grab by BN
- Police Budget formula helps BN to remain in Government more than it helps prevent crime
- Do Your Job Right, PTPTN
- Nation-building or undermining?
- Bruno Manser Fund report slams plans for 50 new dams in Malaysian Borneo
- Treat every victim equally
- Give us power over our own land, says orang asli
- Unveiled Syrian Facebook post stirs women's rights debate
- Book Launch and Forum: Prelude to the Post-Lee Kuan Yew Era
- 'Sorry Anwar, Australia can't help you'
- Kazakhstan in legal move to ban opposition parties and media
- Tony Fernandes is a thief, claims MP
- Who's going to be our alternative PM?
- Azmin: I’m loyal to the Mentri Besar
- Umno is ‘rakyat’, not wrong to acquire public land, says Kuang rep
- There is change and there is change
- Perlis Raja Muda urges curbs on liberalism
- ‘No change to PAS hate politics’
- Tat: DAP will lose the election because of Teresa
- MCA on slippery slope in KL
- ‘HK chief prosecutor’s statement damning’
- ‘Can you expect thieves to arrest themselves?’
- ‘Affirmative action for Malays dangerous’
- Australia is Malaysia's last hope: Xenophon
- Too big for its britches
- Pakatan rep wants Liu to resign over Batu Caves condo controversy
- Isn’t it better not to have a religion?
- Samy Vellu implicated in alleged land grab in Selangor
- It is not really ABU after all
- PAS Ulama: Pakatan cannot ignore views expressed during muktamar
- I challenge Hisham to a debate
- Hudud-leaning Hadi won’t do in Sabah
- Divided PAS spells trouble for Pakatan
- Have we become a fascist state?
- Rafizi to meet HK’s anti-corruption officials tomorrow
- Hadi for PM? Here’s what he really said …
- To PAS: Whither your direction?
- Ronnie diminta letak jawatan jika gagal tangani isu kondominium
- History Lesson, My Version
- Parents question the credibility of the Government in its decision to abolish PPSMI
- Malaysians overseas will be allowed to vote
- The ugly side of the Chinese
- Hudud a dream, says Seng Giaw
- Guan Eng: We follow PR consensus that Anwar is prime minister
- BN must explain rise of apostasy
- Hindraf is with Karpal on hudud, Islamic state
- Analysts: Hadi as PM is a moot issue
- Hadi as PM: Is Najib responsible?
- Doubts over PAS in Putrajaya
| Skandal AES: Syarikat Ditubuh Lepas Dapat Kontrak AES Posted: 21 Nov 2012 12:07 PM PST
Butiran pada pendaftaran syarikat itu menunjukkan syarikat berkenaan memperoleh kontrak tersebut sebelum syarikat itu didaftarkan lagi. YB Drs. Khalil Idham Lim MP Pokok Sena, Datuk Mahfuz Omar mendakwa kontraktor Sistem Penguatkuasaan Automatik (AES) hanya mendaftarkan syarikat tersebut selepas memperoleh kontrak untuk memasang sistem itu. Read more at: http://www.idhamlim.com/2012/11/skandal-aes-syarikat-ditubuh-lepas.html |
| Posted: 21 Nov 2012 11:59 AM PST
Despite all attempts at "transforming" UMNO and Barisan Nasional to be "people first", and all the rhetoric on accountability and integrity under the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak's Government Transformation Programme, UMNO leaders still regard the tax-payers' monies as their own. After all "UMNO is rakyat" and hence there is nothing wrong with UMNO robbing what belongs to the rakyat. Tony Pua It did not come as a shock to anybody when DAP State Assemblyman for Sekinchan, Ng Swee Lim exposed on Tuesday that Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties secured at least 24 pieces of valuable land from the state government while they were in power between 2000 to 2008. These pieces of land which are mostly in commercial areas, amounting to 34.5 acres were "sold" to UMNO, MCA, MIC and Gerakan for a pitiful RM1 per square feet. What is perhaps more surprising is that such information was somehow kept under wraps for such a long time after they lost their hold on power. But what is most shocking is the response by Selangor UMNO Information Chief Abdul Shukor Idrus, who is also the state assemblyman for Kuang who argued that "what's wrong with giving the land to UMNO" as reward for the "contributions by UMNO in fighting for indepedence and developing this country". His response to Ng during the sitting as recorded in the Hansard was "…Kalau dipandangkan jasa UMNO menuntut kemerdekaan dan akhirnya Sekinchan (Ng) boleh jadi lawa macam ni, kalau tak kerana UMNO menuntut kemerdekaan dan memajukan negari ini, saya ingat Sekinchan (Ng) pakai baju daun sekarang ini… apa halnya kalau diberi kepada UMNO" Abdul Shukor attempted to control the fallout with a press conference yesterday (Wednesday), only to dig a deeper hole for UMNO and himself. He tried to justify that "UMNO is rakyat" and hence there's absolutely nothing wrong in giving state land to an "organisation that represents 400,000 people". The above proves that despite all attempts at "transforming" UMNO and Barisan Nasional to be "people first", and all the rhetoric on accountability and integrity under the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak's Government Transformation Programme, UMNO leaders still regard the tax-payers' monies as their own. After all "UMNO is rakyat" and hence there is nothing wrong with UMNO robbing what belongs to the rakyat. UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders clearly has no moral sense of right and wrong, and are completely uneducated in the ability to differentiate between what belongs to the government/people as opposed to what belongs to the political parties. The response by UMNO leaders tells Selangorians that if UMNO were to be elected back into power in the coming general election, then they will continue to rape the state by carving out valuable pieces of state land to be alienated to UMNO, MCA, MIC and Gerakan at dirt cheap prices. Datuk Seri Najib Razak, as the Selangor UMNO Chief who had declared that Selangor must be "returned" to BN "at all costs" must state his stand on the land grab by the coalition he leads. Does the Prime Minister also condone the land grab exercises and agree with his Selangor UMNO Information Chief? Or does Datuk Seri Najib hold the "transformed" belief that such blatant land grab by BN is corrupt, an abuse of power and a serious breach of the people's trust? If Datuk Seri Najib wants Malaysians to believe that BN has really "transformed" and can be trusted, then he must declare that such land grab exercises by BN component parties must not only be banned, all land that has previously been alienated to them on the cheap, must be returned to the state. Otherwise, Datuk Seri Najib Razak will be exposed as a "transformation" fraud – where it talks about integrity, transparency and accountability on the one hand but continues to allow his party and coalition to rob the rakyat blind on the other.
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| Police Budget formula helps BN to remain in Government more than it helps prevent crime Posted: 21 Nov 2012 11:56 AM PST
DAP MP for Bukit Bendera Liew Chin Tong
As Parliament concludes the debate on Budget 2013 this afternoon with the debate on allocation to the Home Ministry, it is very sad to note that budgetary figures of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 show that the Barisan Nasional government is more interested in using the police to maintain power than to fight crime.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak became Prime Minister in April 2009 and Budget 2010 was his first budget. Since then Najib has full power to change the course of history and hence should take full responsibility for the crime situation in the country.
In the context of the heightened crime situation nationally, it is high time for the nation to examine the priorities of the police through its budgetary arrangements.
It is important to note that the police force executes the policies of ruling politicians. There is no point to blame the police for misplaced priorities. Ultimately, the policy directions of the police reflect the choices made by the ruling government.
The Police Force was given an allocation of RM 4.5 billion in 2010, RM 5.8 billion in 2011, RM 6.3 billion in 2012 and RM6.5 billion for 2013 respectively. There is an increase of RM 1.8 billion or 44% between 2010 and 2013. (Budget 2013 documents show that actual spending in 2012 will reach RM6.78 billion, beyond the original budgeted RM6.3 billion).
Consistently in the past four years, the criminal investigation department receives only 8% of the total allocation.
Management and logistics jointly consume 59% of allocation in 2010, 55% in 2011 and 2012 and 54% in 2013.
Internal Security and Public Order category's share of allocation is 22% in 2010, 25% in 2011, 27% in 2012 and 28% in 2013.
Indeed, Internal Security and Public Order category increased its allocation from RM975 million in 2010 to RM1.46 billion in 2011, RM1.68 billion in 2012 and RM1.79 billion in 2013.
Between 2010 and 2013, allocation given to Internal Security and Public Order increased by 84% while the total financial allocation for the police increased by 44% during the period.
While Internal Security and Public Order includes the traffic police and border patrol, the bulk of allocation goes to police units that deal with the security of the government than the security of the people, such as the paramilitary unit General Operations Force, as well as Federal Reserve Unit and other categories of riot police.
Likewise, Intelligence (in particular Special Branch) receives 6% of the allocation. A spy agency like the Special Branch is not needed in a democracy.
Elaborating on the roles of "Intelligence", Budget 2013 says that it is "to safeguard the security of the nation by gathering intelligence through secret and open means on communist, subversive and extremist elements and (shielding the nation) from intelligence and spying of local and foreign threats." Two decades after the Hatyai Accord, it is comical to target the communists, even more so in view of Umno's recent exchange partnership with the Chinese Communist Party.
The budgetary figures on the police during Najib's premiership speak for itself. The government is more interested to maintain power through the police than to fight crime.
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| Posted: 21 Nov 2012 11:52 AM PST
Kee Thuan Chye It's unbelievable how lackadaisical the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) is in collecting loan payments. These, after all, constitute the rakyat's money, and it is the responsibility of the corporation to be accountable for it. And yet its chief executive officer, Agos Cholan, can say, in an interview with Malaysiakini, that it tells its debtors to pay whatever they can. Whatever they can! What kind of an attitude is that? Isn't it encouraging defaulters? Is PTPTN not concerned about getting back the money because the money belongs to others? Is it plainly incompetent? Is it poorly run? If so, it reflects badly on the government we have. In fact, the least the Government could do now is crack the whip on the people heading PTPTN to ensure that they do their job well, and if they don't, it should have them replaced. After all, we are talking about huge sums of money being loaned out. As it is, the total amount stands at RM45.41 billion, and by the end of the year, it will reach RM50 billion. That's not small pickings. It's money that could be used for the good of the rakyat – a lot of good. If some of it is not recovered when the loans are due, more money will have to be pumped into the fund. Where will that money come from? Of course, we can say that PTPTN money is for the good cause of higher education so it might be all right if the recipients don't pay back or take their time to do so, but a loan is a loan. Its terms and conditions have to be respected. If you tak berani tanggung, you shouldn't take a loan. You can't say afterwards that paying back will cause you to be in debt. You should know what you'll be in for. Of course, if the Government decides to scrap PTPTN and write off the loans, that's a totally different matter. But until that happens, the loan agreement is sacrosanct. Even for a scholarship, there is usually the condition of the recipient being bonded by employment to the Government after graduation, which he or she must respect. If they renege, they must pay back in cash. But more than the issue of money, what is important to consider here is that this is not the way to run a government agency. By not doing its job the way it should, PTPTN is showing a bad example of government operations. As for Agos Cholan, the things he said in the interview reflect an unseemly attitude. If he brings that to bear in his job, he should seriously reconsider his position. He said PTPTN wants to do things "the nice way", i.e. it refuses to come down hard on debtors. How could he say that? It's not the role of PTPTN to be "nice". How could he also say, "So far, we have been quite nice and moderate. We advertise in newspapers, on billboards and hold awareness campaigns to tell the people, 'Pay back lah'". That sounds utterly unprofessional. And of course if PTPTN puts it that way, nobody's going to pay lah. So perhaps we could say, "Agos Cholan should step down lah." He said 130,000 or so debtors have been blacklisted, and of these, only 20 percent have started paying back. "The rest have not come forward yet. We are still waiting," he added. Still waiting? If creditors were to just wait for their debtors to come to them, they'd be out of business in a flash! Sure, PTPTN is not a commercial enterprise or a profit-making organization, but it is a trustee of the rakyat's resources. PTPTN should be proactive instead and go after the debtors. But wait! There is a problem. According to sources quoted by Malaysiakini, many of the students to whom PTPTN gave out loans cannot be traced. This is incredulous. It reeks of incompetency of the highest order. Keeping track of one's debtors is the most basic of functions. Otherwise, how can you ensure getting back your money? So how could PTPTN be so lax about keeping proper records and updating them continually? Agos Cholan is a former banker; he should know better than most people that you can't lend money and later lose contact with the people you lent it to. What's his excuse? Apparently, PTPTN's database suffered a disaster when it was converted into electronic data under a system that didn't work well and was then tinkered with under a different system that made it worse. It is now being rebuilt based on the first system, "running on an old engine". The process has of course cost a lot of money – and a lot of misplacement of data. And "running on an old engine" doesn't sound like a good prospect. Agos admits that there was a time when PTPTN couldn't justify RM5 billion worth of loans – "we didn't know who took out loans or who has paid; the numbers weren't there". This sounds harrowing when so much money is at stake. But he assures us that "it has all been rectified". Rectifying it is one thing; using it to spring to action to recover the money is another. Agos eschews using debt collection agencies because he's worried they might "not be professional enough". How about using the legal recourse? After all, there is no excuse for the debtors not to pay. When they signed the loan agreement, they knew what they were in for and they agreed to the terms. So those who have not been paying need to be jolted into honoring those terms. Indeed, if a few debtors were to be hauled to court on this account, it might spook other defaulters into paying up. But one suspects that PTPTN's reluctance to enforce legal compliance stems from a fear of offending its loan recipients. These are the youths who will be voting at the upcoming general election. The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) would be worried about losing their votes. Especially with Pakatan Rakyat pledging, if it captures Putrajaya, to write off PTPTN loans and provide free tertiary education. Furthermore, the 'Occupy Dataran' campout staged by university students in April to call for the loans to be scrapped has added pressure on BN. Be that as it may, the BN government will not endear itself to the rakyat if it is seen to be incompetent, inefficient and cavalier about the people's resources. It might end up being rejected instead. In any case, nothing beats doing a job right. If PTPTN cannot do its job right, the Government will be held accountable. Then no amount of appeasing the young voters will be of help to the BN cause. The point of reckoning may ironically be the ballot box.
* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the bestselling book No More Bullshit, Please, We're All Malaysians, available in bookstores together with its Malay translation, Jangan Kelentong Lagi, Kita Semua Orang Malaysia.
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| Nation-building or undermining? Posted: 21 Nov 2012 11:49 AM PST
In an open letter to the Prime Minister, P Ramakrishnan takes to task Najib's cakap-tak-serupa-bikin rhetoric. My dear PM, You sounded like a great statesman when you urged Malaysians "to disregard political difference and work toward nation-building". That was simply fantastic! It was very heart-warming to hear you say, "We must build the nation together. Irrespective of the political differences that we have, at the end of the day this country is ours." That was simply unbelievable! How we wish that you really meant what you said. If that was your philosophy, by now you would have been proclaimed as the greatest Prime Minister this country has ever had. If that had happened, you need not now scramble around the country desperately trying to get the Barisan Nasional returned to power. If you had put this rhetoric into practice, this country would have moved forward in leaps and bounds, astounding the rest of the world. We would have achieved so much during your three and a half years of premiership that would have helped you to walk through the coming 13th General Election without a sweat. But when we assess you and try to match you with what you said at the launch of the Genovasi Challenge in Kuala Lumpur on 14 October 2012, we are gravely disappointed. You come across as a hollow politician who is not capable of living up to your words. If you truly meant that "at the end of the day this country is ours" why is it that a vast majority of citizens are not made to feel that way? Why do you tolerate and refuse to take to task those narrow-minded Umno petty politicians and Perkasa poison-spewing ultras who refer to the rest of the citizens as 'pendatang'? This is as much the country of the ordinary citizens and they have as much right as these name-calling despicable and loud-mouthed politicians who claim sole ownership to this right. If you truly meant that "we must build the nation together", why is it others are not given their chance to contribute as well? Why is it that those outside the Barisan Nasional circle are excluded and denied their legitimate right to voice their opinions and articulate their policies and promises? Why do you punish those had voted for the Opposition by denying their MPs and state assembly members the allocations that you lavishly make available to your BN MPs and assembly members? Aren't these elected opposition representatives also citizens of this country? Don't the voters who elected these opposition representative have the same voting rights to choose whoever they prefer – just like those who elected the BN MPs and assembly members – without being punished for their choice? Why then this discrimination? What has party affiliation to do with the democratic process and the benefits that are due to the citizens? And yet, hypocritically you declare, "We must build the nation together." How do we do that when you don't reach out to the others; when you completely shut them off and punish them? You don't even bother to consult the Leader of the Opposition before introducing new Bills to parliament as is done in mature democracies. You don't give sufficient time for citizens to comment on these policies that are bound to impact them in various ways. Very often you rush through these Bills with super speed and with very little debate. How do we build this nation together? It has always been only your way and no other way! If there is no room for inclusion or co-operation, how then do we work together? "Irrespective of the political differences that we have, at the end of the day this country is ours," you say. But how is it that others are not allowed to work together with you for the common good of the nation? Why are you so divisive in your policy and approach? You have done nothing to stop Utusan from spreading its venom and lies. You have never reprimanded them or replaced the editorial staff responsible for creating discord and hatred. They seem to have a field day. How do we "disregard political differences and work toward nation-building" when we are constantly bombarded with vile and vicious and divisive commentaries without any let up? How is that those who disagree with or who have different views from you are hardly given the space to operate democratically? They have to contend with the police and the hooligans who turn up to disrupt Opposition events and activities. How do we "build the nation together…. Irrespective of the political differences that we have"? How do we bring the various communities together and strengthen our national unity for the good of the country when the entire fabric of BN policy is racial? It is never based on justice irrespective of ethnicity – it is always based on racial quotas and racial handouts. It is a policy designed to keep the poor and the helpless dependent on the BN charity and not to rescue them from their poverty to lead a life of dignity. That is how the BN has thrived as a saviour of the rakyat for more than half a century, deluding the people that they don't have a life and hope beyond the BN. But you are not partial even to all the Malays even though you claim to represent the Malays. You only look after the cronies and the elites in Umno. When the Malays don't belong to these groupings, they don't get any benefits. But Umno will always speak in the name of the Malay community as if it is the benefactor of all Malays. The reality is that the Malays in Pas are almost completely ignored when it comes to receiving benefits; the Malays in Parti Keadilan Rakyat are treated as enemies. They get hardly any goodies. How do we work together? How do we believe you when you say "at the end of the day this country is ours"? Do we all equally have a share in the wealth of this nation? In spite of the much touted BR1M magic that you introduced, in spite of the greatly proclaimed 1Malaysia delusion that you created, Malaysians are not brimming with joy! If after more than half a century of nationhood, we can't rise above our racial identities and political differences and work together as citizens of this country then we have failed ourselves miserably. For this the BN must be solely held responsible. It is their divisive policies that have kept us apart and never brought us together. The BN policy has failed this country and its people. They are not capable of any alternative policy that will benefit every citizen. The wealth of the nation really has not been equally distributed among the people – only cronies and certain leaders at the top have harvested benefits beyond the wildest dreams of the ordinary, common man. The BN's so-called nation-building efforts have not yielded the results this country deserves. We have to turn to an alternative policy to achieve this and this opportunity will be available at the 13th General Election. P Ramakrishnan is the immediate past president of Aliran |
| Bruno Manser Fund report slams plans for 50 new dams in Malaysian Borneo Posted: 21 Nov 2012 11:47 AM PST Sarawak's indigenous people to pay the price for US$ 105 billion industrialization scheme (KUCHING, MALAYSIA) Tens of thousands of indigenous people from the rainforests of Borneo are facing forced displacement from their traditional lands on the basis of hydropower plans drawn up by the state government of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo. A report released today by the Bruno Manser Fund entitled "Sold Down the River. How Sarawak Dam Plans Compromise the Future of Malaysia's Indigenous Peoples" examines the dam plans that form part of SCORE, Southeast Asia's most ambitious and most expensive energy project, with planned investments of up to US$ 105 billion by 2030. Cultural genocide Under the guise of "development", the Sarawak state government under Chief Minister Taib Mahmud is planning to virtually dam all the rivers in the state's interior, irrespective of the social and environmental implications. The dam plans, which are being pushed ahead under a cloak of secrecy, constitute the core element of the so-called Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy, SCORE. If implemented, they would entail the cultural genocide of a significant part of Sarawak's rich indigenous culture. Indigenous cultures from Sarawak's interior, such as the Kayan, Kenyah, Penan and Kelabit, are likely to face extinction if the dam plans are implemented in full. But the dams are also likely to have serious negative repercussions on downstream Iban and Bidayuh communities. For centuries, the rivers of Borneo have been the lifeline of Sarawak's indigenous people. The planned Baram dam alone is estimated to be displacing 20,000 Borneo natives and flooding over 40,000 hectares of rainforests and farmlands. A first series of 12 dams is currently being implemented by Sarawak Energy, the state's power monopolist. The report stresses the fact that Sarawak is already confronted with a power excess: the current peak demand in Sarawak is around 1000 megawatts (MW) and is thus far less than the power that can be produced by the recently completed Bakun dam alone, which, with a capacity of 2400 MW, is Asia's largest dam outside China. Foreign corporate actors' pact with the devil The Bruno Manser Fund report discloses that many companies involved in the dam plans are closely linked to the family of Sarawak's long-term Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and to Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS), the flagship of the Taib family's business empire. Taib is currently under investigation for corruption by Malaysia's corruption watchdog, MACC. In order to benefit from the strong investments linked to the Sarawak dam plans, foreign corporate actors, such as Australia's Hydro Tasmania, Snowy Mountains Engineering Company (SMEC), GHD, the US consultant MWH Global, Norway's Norconsult, Germany's Fichtner and construction companies such as China's Three Gorges Corporation and Sinohydro have concluded a "pact with the devil" and are assisting the Taib government with its momentous dam projects. Key managerial positions within Sarawak Energy, the implementing agency of the dams, are held by foreigners, such as by the Norwegian CEO Torstein Dale Sjøtveit and by the Australian dam project director Andrew Pattle, who has been seconded by Hydro Tasmania. Funding agencies behind the Sarawak dam plans include Malaysian banks, such as RHB Bank, EON Bank and AmInvestment Bank, as well as Kuwait Finance House and Kenanga Investment Bank, which is a joint venture between the Taib family's Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS) and Deutsche Bank. Bruno Manser Fund calling for a moratorium The Sarawak state government and Sarawak Energy as the implementing agency are facing increasing opposition from the affected communities against their excessive dam plans. Representatives of SAVE Rivers, a Sarawak network set up to fight the Taib government's dam plans, are currently embarking on a tour through Australia. The "Hydro Tasmania out of Sarawak" tour is aimed at increasing the pressure on publicly-owned Hydro Tasmania, one of the most important corporate actors involved in the Sarawak dam plans. The Bruno Manser Fund is calling for a moratorium on all Sarawak dam construction and for an independent external review of the Bakun, Bengoh and Batang Ai dams. Sarawak Energy is asked to sack its chairman, Hamed Abdul Sepawi, the cousin of Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, and to provide full transparency of its finances, contracts and funders. Foreign corporate actors are asked to shun SCORE, as any involvement in the Taib government's hydropower program is inextricably linked to corruption, environmental damage and human rights violations. The full report entitled "Sold Down the River. How Sarawak Dam Plans Compromise the Future of Malaysia's Indigenous Peoples" is now available online at:http://www.stop-corruption-dams.org/resources/ For daily updates on the "Hydro Tasmania out of Sarawak tour", please consult: http://www.savesarawakrivers.com
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| Posted: 21 Nov 2012 11:41 AM PST
Do we only care when Muslims are attacked and not when people of other faiths face the same oppression? Marina Mahathir We should all, regardless of religion, protest at every act of aggression towards anyone because only then can we have any credibility. AS conflict once again erupts in Palestine, I am confronted with questions about our responses to the conflict. Why is it that Malaysian Muslims are always quick to condemn Israeli aggression in Palestine, especially towards Gaza and slow to condemn similar aggression elsewhere? It's a question well worth thinking about. Why have we been quick to voice loud protests about Palestine and begin fund-raising for relief work there, and so much slower to condemn the aggressors in the Syrian conflict, or in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and many other countries in the world? Do we only care when Muslims are attacked and not when people of other faiths face the same oppression? Palestine has perhaps a special place in the hearts of Muslims because of the position of Jerusalem as the third most important city for us after Mecca and Medina. It's also probably the longest ongoing conflict in the world and regularly features in the news. Whether you sympathise or not, you cannot escape news about Palestine, most of which is violent and depressing. But the most misunderstood thing about the Palestinian conflict, by both Muslims and non-Muslims, is that it is a religious war. Many people tend to forget that Palestinians are not all Muslims. About 4% of Palestinians living mostly in the West Bank and 10% of those living in Israel are Christian. They make up about 1% of the population of Gaza. The majority of Christian Palestinians, however, now live outside Palestine because, like their Muslim neighbours, they were forced to emigrate and into refugee camps when their lands were given to Israel in 1948. Many people do not realise for example, that Dr Hanan Ashrawy, the articulate spokesman for the late Yasser Arafat, is in fact a Christian. That fact, that in 1948 Palestinians were forced out of their land by an exodus of Jews from Europe, is essentially what the conflict is all about. If immigrants from elsewhere take over land from people who have lived there for thousands of years, then it is bound to create conflict. Most conflicts around the world are about land and space, rather than about faith. And when that original source of conflict is further exacerbated by more grabbing of land as well as other forms of discrimination in education, housing and jobs, then the conflict will not only continue but will escalate. When we look at things this way, then we can see the same pattern in other parts of the world. In places like Kashmir, southern Thailand, Sri Lanka, southern Philippines, the roots of conflict are similar. In Africa, colonial-era division of land cuts across traditional tribal lands, making people of the same tribes citizens of different countries. The most useful way to look at these conflicts is to view them from a human rights angle. If a wrong is perpetuated on one people, then it must also hold true for all others. Therefore, if we show support for Palestinians because their land has been taken away from them, then we must surely show support for all other people whose lands have been taken away from them. At the same time, if we show support for all other people who are subjected to violence from far superior forces, then we must surely show support for the Gazans right now, facing daily pummeling from Israeli jets and drones. And unless we truly believe that all people should face such violence by doing absolutely nothing, then we should look with some sympathy at those who throw rocks and dispatch rockets in retaliation against much superior firepower. The point is that there cannot be double standards on human rights. The support for Palestine from Muslims comes at least partly from a belief that nobody else cares about them. As the many demonstrations around the world show, this is not true. There are Israelis and non-Zionist Jews who have protested against the attacks on Gaza. But we should all, regardless of religion, protest at every act of aggression towards anyone because only then can we have any credibility. Thus while we might protest about American drones killing civilians in Afghanistan, we should also protest at the attempted murder of a teenage Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, for simply wanting to go to school. What is more, we should be offering solutions for lasting peace, instead of complaining and shouting slogans that we know ultimately will do little beyond making us feel good. How does it help the Gazans if we go and burn a few foreign flags and then go off to gossip about local politics at the nearest nasi lemak stall?
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| Give us power over our own land, says orang asli Posted: 21 Nov 2012 11:39 AM PST
(The Sun Daily) - An orang asli spokesman from Tasik Chini, Pahang, proposed today for the community to be given more power to administer the ancestral lands which they have been calling 'home' for generations. Tasik Chini action committee chairman Ismail Muhammad, speaking on behalf of some 5,000 orang asli from the Jakun tribe, said this could be done if the government enact a law which not only recognised the community's right to their lands, but also to prevent "rampant destruction" of natural resources which surround the areas. "As long as the power (to govern) is left in the hands of politicians, I do not see when there will be an end to (logging and mining) activities, which negatively affects our livelihood," said Ismail. "We can scream and shout to the heavens, but as long as there is no law (which gives power), nothing will change," said Ismail during the launch of Transparency-International Malaysia (TI-M)'s documentary on Tasik Chini here yesterday. The 37-minute documentary titled "Hacking at Harmony: Tasik Chini and Ecosystem on the Brink" was produced as part of TI-M's Forest Governance Integrity Programme, in collaboration with NGOs, local communities and government agencies. Aimed at addressing issues and challenges on forest governance, Tasik Chini was selected as a pilot site for the programme, following concerns over the degradation of Malaysia's only Unesco Biosphere Reserve. Widespread commercial activities on sites which borders several orang asli villages around Tasik Chini has since caused the once clear blue water to turn murky brown, destroying its once famed lotuses and various fishes - a main source of livelihood for the community. Peninsula Malaysia Orang Asli Network representative Shafie Dris also claimed that the people in power are largely "ignorant" of demands made by the community. "The perception is that we are demanding for large acres of lands ... In fact, all we want is for the government to recognise the rights to our ancestral lands, where we have been residing for generations, and will continue to do so for generations to come," said Shafie. Tenaganita programme officer Katrina Mariamauv meanwhile noted that comments made by the orang asli representatives reflected the "urgency" felt by the people over a need to protect their lands from rampant development. "While awareness raising (initiatives) are crucial and important, but the time for action is right now!" she said. Mariamauv called for the parties benefiting from the "destruction" of natural resources to be made accountable for their actions. Speaking at a press conference, TI-M secretary general Josie Fernandez said the official documentary will also be distributed to policy-makers in hope of inspiring positive change. Fernandez earlier chaired a forum on threatened forest sites in Malaysia which saw two speakers elaborating on impacts of rampant logging and commercial development to the Segari Melintang forest reserve in Perak, as well as the Tranum forest reserve in Pahang. |
| Unveiled Syrian Facebook post stirs women's rights debate Posted: 21 Nov 2012 11:36 AM PST
(BBC News) - Among the dozens of Facebook groups spawned by the Syrian uprising, a page supporting women's rights has suddenly received a wave of attention, because of an image posted there by one of its followers. The picture was of 21-year-old Dana Bakdounis, without the veil she had grown up wearing - and it polarised opinion. Dana Bakdounis has been brought up in conservative Saudi Arabia, but it was as a reaction against conformity that she first removed her veil in August 2011. "The veil did not suit me, but I had to wear it because of my family, and the society," she says. "I did not understand why my hair was covered. I wanted to feel the beauty of the world… I wanted to feel the sun and air." By then, she was already following The Uprising of Women in the Arab World page on Facebook. With nearly 70,000 members, it has become a forum for debate on women's rights and gender roles in the Arab world. Women, and men, from non-Arab backgrounds also comment on its photos. On 21 October, Dana decided to do something for the page, and for oppressed women and girls around the Arab world by posting a photo of herself. Looking right into the lens, her short-shorn hair in full view, she held an ID picture of her previously veiled self, along with a note that read: "The first thing I felt when I took off my veil" and "I'm with the uprising of women in the Arab world because, for 20 years, I wasn't allowed to feel the wind in my hair and [on] my body". The image proved hugely controversial, attracting over 1,600 likes, nearly 600 shares, and more than 250 comments. Dana has received much support, and while many of her friends have un-friended her, many more have sent friend requests. Some previously veiled women have even posted copycat pictures in support, and the Twitter hashtag #WindtoDana has been created as a channel through which to express solidarity. 'Brave girl'She has also received hundreds of messages of derision, along with threats.
Her mother, with whom relations have cooled because of her disapproval of her daughter's actions, received a death threat against Dana's life.The debate is growing more nuanced. One woman comments that opposition to the veil is misplaced, saying instead "our fight should be for equality in society… that's what we should be fighting for; when a veiled woman is refused a job because she covers! Take pride in your veil women, it's a blessing!""Everything has changed for me since I took my veil off," says Dana. Read more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20315531
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| Book Launch and Forum: Prelude to the Post-Lee Kuan Yew Era Posted: 21 Nov 2012 11:25 AM PST
Date: Saturday 24 Nov 2012 Books Smokescreens & Mirrors by Tan Wah Piow Escape from the Lion's Paw edited by Teo Soh Lung & Low Yit Leng These two books on Singapore will be launched by Mr Tan Yew Sing & Dr Kua Kia Soong
Followed by a panel discussion: Prelude to the Post-Lee Kuan Yew Era Dr G Raman is a well respected Singapore tax and commercial lawyer with over 40 years practice behind him. In the 1970s he gallantly served as the legal advisor to the student unions at the University and Polytechnic which were under attack by the authorities. G Raman was himself detained without trial in 1977 by Lee Kuan Yew. Despite his years of suffering under repression, he remains a sharp critic of the PAP government. Mr Tan Wah Piow is former student leader who fell on the wrong side of politics in Singapore. He was jailed in 1975. In 1976 he went into exile in the UK, where he now practices law. In 1987 Singapore accused him of being a "marxist" mastermind, an allegation he refutes in his book Smokescreens & Mirrors. Tan calls for a campaign to restart, rejuvenate and reclaim the Constitution. Dr Wong Chin Huat is a political scientist by training. He serves as a steering committee member of Bersih 2.0 He campaigns for electoral reform and civil and political rights. He also writes political commentaries. for The Nut Graph, Selangor Times, Malaysiakini amongst others.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tan Wah Piow, the author of Smokescreens & Mirrors, will be in Kuala Lumpur to launch the book on the 24th November. Smokescreens & Mirrors is not only a powerful rebuttal of the Singapore government's allegations against him in 1987 as the "Mastermind of a Marxist Plot" to overthrow the PAP, it is, in the words of one Singaporean reviewer: Smokescreens, however, is not simply a historical analysis of the political machinations that took place in 1987. It closes in the present with a call to action: Tan pushes for a re-examination of Operation Spectrum as "an initial education process to mobilise public opinion to Restart, Rejuvenate and Reclaim the Constitution" (p.72, capitals his). He establishes the foundation of his arguments upon the Singapore Constitution, which he avers "has to be the first point of reference in any political debate where liberties are at stake" (p.30). G. Raman states in his foreword that "the book contains Wah Piow's agenda for a true democratic society in Singapore". Smokescreens is thus polemical – and openly so. In Escape from the Lion's Paw edited by Teo Soh Lung and Low Yit Leng, Wah Piow published his long awaited account of his escapade from Singapore in 1976. The chapter The Making of an Outlaw is a mini-autobiography of this former student leader who was thrown into prison in 1975 following a fabricated charge. Immediately following his release, he had to devise his escape routes to avoid being inducted into the military. It became an enormous blow to the authorities when he managed to escape from the the Lion's Paw, and and sought political asylum in the United Kingdom where he now resides and has his own legal practice. His citizenship was revoked in 1987. This book also carries stories of escapades published for the first time of other dissidents who had to flee from LKY's iron-fist rule, among them, the late Francis Khoo and Wah Piow's colleagues during the University days, Tsui Hon Kwong from Hong Kong and ex-detainee, Ms Tang Fong Har. These two books are published this year in Singapore to coincide with the 25 anniversary of the infamous Operation Spectrum in 1987. At the time 22 social activists, lawyers, journalists and church workers were detained without trial. Many Singaporeans till today do not believe in the PAP government's claim of a Marxist Plot, and despite the lapse of time, the issue continues to haunt the political credibility of the regime, and a lingering embarrassment to the more liberal elements within the ruling PAP. Dr G Raman has been a practising lawyer in Singapore since 1969. His doctorate thesis is titled "Law as an Instrument of Social Change in Singapore". It deals with how the PAP used law to perpetuate its hegemony in Singapore. Raman was the legal adviser to the University of Singapore Students' Union in 1969 and later in 1974. He represented one of the two workers charged with its student leader, Tan Wah Piow on the trumped-up charge of rioting in 1974. He was detained for more than a year in February 1977 for alleged subversive activities under the Internal Security Act. Author of a book on probate practice in Singapore and Malaysia, Raman has contributed articles to the Journal of Contemporary Asia and other local publications." In the Forward to Smokescreens & Mirrors, G Raman wrote: The call for the revamp of the way politics are managed in Singapore is inevitable, and this is becoming more pressing especially after the 2010 general elections and the 2011 Presidential Elections when the ruling PAP, though still safely in power, nevertheless suffered strategic defeats in public perception as a party which could do no wrong. The speakers will address these issues in Prelude to the Post-Lee Kuan Yew Era.
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| 'Sorry Anwar, Australia can't help you' Posted: 21 Nov 2012 01:11 AM PST
CARR: Australia is not the election authority for Malaysia. (Bernama) - Australia cannot and will not influence how Malaysia's elections are run despite a personal plea for help from Malaysian Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, said Australian Foreign Minister Senator Bob Carr. Anwar had reportedly written to Senator Carr asking for Australia to help ensure that the next Malaysian general election, most probably to be held early next year, was free of fraud and corruption. Anwar had reportedly told Carr he had uncovered evidence of fraudulent voter registration and other anomalies in the run-up to the polls. He had also questioned the independence of the electoral commission and claimed that the opposition was being excluded from the media. But Senator Carr said the Malaysian elections were a matter for the Malaysian people. "It's very hard for Australia to do anything about how they're run, as hard as it would be for Malaysia or another government to have a say in how Australian elections are run," he told ABC radio. "We're not the election authority for Malaysia." Carr said Australia wanted to see free and fair elections in every country. He said Anwar personally raised the concerns directly with him during a recent visit to Malaysia. Carr also poured cold water on the specific proposal of Australia sending election monitors to Malaysia, saying the Malaysian government would have to ask for the measure. He dismissed the suggestion that Canberra was reluctant to act because it wanted to maintain good relations with (Malaysian Prime Minister) Najib's government, with which it was still negotiating an asylum seeker swap deal. In an interview with ABC Radio on Wednesday, Anwar said he was concerned the election, which must be held by next June, would be rigged, and would have a large number of people eligible to vote but who would not be allowed to vote. Others far too young to vote, between age two and 12, were also on the rolls, he said. Anwar also claimed that the opposition had been denied access to the mainstream media. Anwar had discussed his concerns with former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd and sent a note to Carr seeking Australian assistance, saying Australia supported free and fair elections in Iraq, Afghanistan and Myanmar, and yet it was silent on Malaysia.
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| Kazakhstan in legal move to ban opposition parties and media Posted: 20 Nov 2012 09:04 PM PST
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev speaks to the media during a celebration to mark Kazakhstan People's Unity Day in Almaty (reuters_tickers) ALMATY (Reuters) - The Central Asian state of Kazakhstan has moved to ban two opposition movements critical of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and to close dozens of opposition media outlets for "propagating extremism". In a step the opposition denounced as an attack on dissent in the oil-exporting former Soviet republic, prosecutors linked their request to last month's jailing of Vladimir Kozlov, leader of the unregistered Alga! or "Forward!" party. Kozlov was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years for trying to rally workers in a failed attempt to topple the government. After his trial, the United States accused Kazakhstan of using its justice system "to silence opposition voices". Nazarbayev, 72, has run Central Asia's most successful economy and largest oil producer for more than two decades, but has tolerated little dissent as he has pursued market reforms and attracted more than $150 billion in foreign investment. As well as leading Alga!, Kozlov, a fierce critic of Nazarbayev, was leader of the country's unofficial Halyk Maidany, or People's Front movement, which tried to unite groups with specific grievances against the government. He was found guilty of colluding with fugitive anti-government billionaire Mukhtar Ablyazov and of orchestrating dissent among striking oilmen in the prelude to riots last December that killed 15 people and dented Kazakhstan's reputation for stability. Nurdaulet Suindikov, a spokesman for the prosecutor-general's office, on Wednesday accused the two opposition movements Kozlov led and various media outlets of "propagating extremism". "Kozlov's sentence established that the activity of the unregistered Alga! and Halyk Maidany movements, as well as the activity of a number of mass media outlets, was extremist," he said. Suindikov said prosecutors in Kazakhstan's commercial capital, Almaty, had asked a court to ban the two movements as well as the media outlets. KAZAKHSTAN'S BIN LADEN? Suindikov said prosecutors were seeking the closure of eight newspapers and 23 Internet sites that operated under the umbrella of the Respublika publisher, as well as the Vzglyad newspaper and its Internet sites. Kazakhstan's marginalized opposition enjoys little support among voters. The country has never held an election that Western monitors have deemed fair, but Nazarbayev is popular in the country of 17 million for presiding over relative stability. Oksana Makushina, deputy editor-in-chief of the Golos Respubliki newspaper - part of the Respublika group - said her publication would try to get round any court order. "They may close the paper in legal form, but given the presence of the Internet, it is hard to do so in reality," she told Reuters. "We will continue fighting, unless we are put in a prison cell next to Kozlov." Mikhail Sizov, another leader of the Alga! party, said he believed Kozlov's imprisonment for his part in the Zhanaozen riots was the beginning of a wider campaign to destroy the entire opposition movement in Kazakhstan. "There is virtually an undeclared war going on between Mukhtar Ablyazov and Nursultan Nazarbayev," Sizov told Reuters. The satellite TV channel K+ and the Internet portals run by Stan TV are among the media outlets targeted by prosecutors. State TV ran a documentary this week that identified Ablyazov as the financial backer of both channels. Baurzhan Musirov, director of Almaty-based Stan Productions, which runs the Stan.KZ portal, denied it was financed by Ablyazov. Ablyazov has been on the run since February, when he was sentenced to 22 months in prison for contempt of court in Britain, where he had earlier received political asylum. His whereabouts are unknown. A theoretical physics graduate who built a fortune by snapping up banking and media assets in the 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed, Ablyazov has said he fell out with Nazarbayev after campaigning for a change of government. He has failed to appear in a vast fraud case being heard in Britain, where his former bank, state-owned BTA, has brought nine charges against Ablyazov and his allies. In the same case, BTA has frozen assets worth around $6 billion. Kazakh political analyst Aidos Sarym said he believed the current campaign against the opposition was aimed at presenting Ablyazov as a "home-grown Bin Laden" or Kazakh version of the late al Qaeda leader.
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| Tony Fernandes is a thief, claims MP Posted: 20 Nov 2012 08:46 PM PST
(The Malay Mail) - Barisan Nasional's fiery Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin called businessman Tan Sri Tony Fernandes (pic) a "penyagak" (thief) in the Dewan Rakyat today. The outspoken MP, known for heckling opposition MPs and for being one of the louder voices in the House, was speaking during the Transport Ministry's wrap up during the committee stage of the ministry's Budget 2013 debate when he made his distaste for Fernandes and AirAsia known. "We all know that Tony Fernandes is a penyagak (thief). He will want 100 per cent profit in everything. He invests in everything, even sports," Bung said, while discussing the issue of whether the low cost airline would shift its operations to KLIA2 once the government completes its construction in April next year.
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| Who's going to be our alternative PM? Posted: 20 Nov 2012 08:38 PM PST Under the Westminster-style political system, different political parties can forge an alliance and form the government, but then such an alliance must have an explicit shadow prime minister and a set of mutually agreed policies, which must be laid bare in front of the voters before the election. Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily Before a voter casts his ballot, he has to first find out what will happen after he drops the paper into the ballot box. No one is willing to cast his vote without a clear picture in his head, and then surrenders his fate to the Almighty. For example, if he is inclined to vote for Pakatan, he has to find out who will the Pakatan administration's prime minister be, if the opposition pact were to win the general election. Will he be Anwar Ibrahim or Hadi Awang? He also wants to know what Pakatan's core policies are. Is it going to go ahead with the hudud law? Unfortunately, Pakatan's leaders do not seem to visualise this. The PAS congress wanted Hadi to be the prime minister. Hadi said, "It doesn't really matter whether I am the prime minister or a fisherman." He somewhat changed his tone the following day, "The proposal is welcome. It's going to be awesome becoming the PM!" Whether he prefers to be a fisherman or PM, Hadi has to get his mind set. Well, to be a fisherman, Hadi has the whole boundless sea to himself but to be a PM, he will have the destiny of 28 million Malaysians tied to him, not a job that he should consider based on his mood or the 'feel good" factor. Lim Guan Eng meanwhile responded to the proposal: "DAP is not agreeable to the proposal. We want Anwar to be our PM." And then Anwar said, "I have no problem having Hadi as our PM." Someone concluded, "Let the leader of the party winning the most seats be the PM." So, DAP has the chance! Theoretically, a party that clinches more than 38 seats will easily become the biggest component in the Pakatan government. The choice of PM is not a small matter that anyone can trifle with. It will very much spell the destination of the voters' ballots, and most probably the future of Pakatan Rakyat. Anwar Ibrahim, Hadi Awang or Lim Kit Siang. To different voters, this couldn't have been a more difficult choice. If Anwar is chosen as the PM-in-waiting but then it is Hadi that later takes the helm, the consequences could be grave. In a similar manner, the implementation or non-implementation of hudud law could also be galaxies away for conservative Muslims, liberal Muslims and non-Muslims. Calls for hudud law resonated in the recent PAS congress. Hadi said, "The hudud law is never stalled. Everything will go according to democratic procedures." DAP rushed to put out the fire: "Stay calm! This is not going to happen!" This puts the voters in a dilemma. Hudud or no hudud, get the thing straight! It's better to get the true picture before the election than swallowing the consequences later. Moreover, with more and more non-Muslims now lending their support to the hudud law, there is no need for such secretiveness. For the sake of Pakatan Rakyat so that its alternative administration line-up would win the faith of voters, it is absolutely necessary for the opposition pact to get two things clear: Who is your choice of PM? Are your policies consistent and persistent? On top of that, Pakatan has to also make sure that it really has in place a comprehensive and binding mechanism to choose a capable and acceptable prime minister to implement open and moderate policies. Under the Westminster-style political system, different political parties can forge an alliance and form the government, but then such an alliance must have an explicit shadow prime minister and a set of mutually agreed policies, which must be laid bare in front of the voters before the election. This is the most fundamental obligation political parties or alliances have towards the voters.
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| Azmin: I’m loyal to the Mentri Besar Posted: 20 Nov 2012 08:32 PM PST
(The Malaysian Insider) - PKR deputy president Azmin Ali said today that he has no intention of becoming the Selangor Mentri Besar, and pledged his loyalty to the Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. "Let it be put on record, today November 21, that I am loyal to our Mentri Besar (Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim)," Azmin said, in a reply to Taman Templer assemblyman Datuk Subahan Kamal in the state assembly here. Subahan had asked earlier whether the Bukit Antarabangsa assemblyman thought that he could do a better job as the Selangor MB. In his speech, Azmin had claimed that the Minister of Agriculture Datuk Seri Minister Noh Omar was lobbying to become the next Selangor MB by flinging wild allegations about the Selangor Economic Development Corporation (PKNS). Noh had last week accused Worldwide Holdings Berhad, a subsidiary of PKNS, of selling RM150 million-worth of shares to a non-bumiputera company. In October, Azmin had told Sinar Harian that Khalid is likely to be made a Cabinet minister if Pakatan Rakyat (PR) wins the general election, thus vacating the post. This remark had sparked speculation as to whether Azmin was after the post, but the remark was dismissed by Pakatan leaders as Azmin's personal view which had not been discussed with the leadership. Sacked Selangor executive councillor Datuk Hasan Ali also had alleged in March that Azmin's attacks on him were an attempt to topple the Selangor MB. He said that it is widely "understood" that Azmin had been trying to oust Khalid, an allegation that the Gombak MP had strenuously denied. Hasan said the Selangor PKR chief was trying to 'kill two birds with one stone': "It is likely true that the mentri besar is the first bird and Hasan Ali is the second."
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| Umno is ‘rakyat’, not wrong to acquire public land, says Kuang rep Posted: 20 Nov 2012 08:29 PM PST
Zurairi AR, The Malaysian Insider A Selangor assemblyman denied today that Umno had abused its political ties to grab state land meant for the public, as the party represented the people. All 24 plots of land in Selangor — alleged to have been acquired by Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties and former MIC President Datuk Seri Samy Vellu while they were in the ruling coalition — were meant for public amenities like multi-purpose halls and kindergartens, said Umno state lawmaker for Kuang, Abdul Shukur Idrus. "Umno is 'rakyat'... Umno represents 400,000 'rakyat' in Selangor. (The land plots) were not for an individual. They're for an organisation with many members. "Can't Umno receive land for the use of the people?" he asked, in response to backbenchers from the ruling Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact in the Selangor legislative assembly who had yesterday accused BN parties of being involved in a land grab when still in power. The allegation was said to involve 24 plots of public land in seven out of nine districts in the country's wealthiest state, which were acquired by the branches and divisions of Umno, MCA, MIC and Gerakan between 2000 and 2008. Each plot of land measures up to seven acres and has a collective total area of around 33.5 acres, mostly in commercial areas. Of the 24 plots, 15 are now owned by Umno branches or divisions, with six of them going to Umno Sungai Besar division, which was led by former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Khir Toyo. MCA holds five plots, MIC three and Gerakan one. Datuk Seri Samy Vellu , together with an S Subramaniam and the late Tan Sri SOK Ubaidullah, who was one of MIC's founders, are named as the trustees for a 2,832 square metre plot in Kuala Selangor. The biggest plot in the list is a seven-acre piece of land in Klang, which is owned by the Umno Kota Raja division, followed by a 6.5-acre plot in Batu 14, Puchong, which is owned by the Umno Puchong division. Sekinchan assemblyman Ng Suee Lim had challenged the BN component parties to return the land to the public to prove that they really have the interests of the people at heart. "They have to prove that they are true fighters who are sincere to the people ... not give empty talk ... fighting for the people, but then grab their land," he said yesterday.
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| There is change and there is change Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:21 PM PST
By the way, I attended one Umno gathering in PJ back in 2008 and one Umno member stood up to propose that Umno makes peace with Anwar Ibrahim. Almost the entire hall booed him. The 'security guards' then grabbed this chap by the neck, dragged him outside, and kicked the daylights out of him. He was beaten up good and proper. THE CORRIDORS OF POWER Raja Petra Kamarudin Let's not be carried away just because some unknown young politicians wanted to be recognised as candidates for the coming general elections got emotional and raised some issues, which will need the approval of the three component parties in Pakatan Rakyat. PAS was an unknown party running a backward state and just with the help of DAP and PKR is sitting in the position that they should be grateful for. They have a common leader in Anwar who has gone through trials and tribulations that no other leader has been through. He may not be perfect but the question is who is? He has held this coalition together that it has become a formidable force that has woken up the political minds of the public. Today, it is where it is because of this one leader. So suddenly there are some ungrateful young politicians who have not made any sacrifices raise issues, which in the first place should not have been raised at all. Are they for real or Trojan horses put to create a rift within the coalition. We have a long way to go put this country at level and there is much work to be done rather than create a division at this crucial stage. We should be discussing ways to improve the quality, financial, educational aspects of the average Malaysian life. – Comment posted by 'bobby brown' ************************************** That was a comment by a reader going by the name of 'bobby brown' posted in Malaysia Today. I have only slightly edited the bad grammar but other than that no changes have been made to that comment -- other than the editing of the grammatical mistakes. That is one example of many similar comments made over the last few days. Even Oon Yeoh said in The Sun today, "The answer quite simply, is that PAS has a tendency to become too big for its britches. It exhibited such behaviour after the 1999 General Election, where it did quite well, and now it's exhibiting such tendencies again." Before I comment on that issue, however, I would like to touch on the following news report: Kota Alam Shah assemblyman M. Manoharan's call to fellow DAP assemblyman Ronnie Liu (DAP-Pandamaran) to resign if he failed to address the condominium project in Batu Caves shows all is not well in Selangor DAP. I am actually quite surprised that Manoharan wants Ronnie Liu's head. I thought Pakatan Rakyat said that Barisan Nasional was the one who approved that housing project in Batu Caves. Is Manoharan saying that it was not Barisan Nasional but Pakatan Rakyat that is the culprit -- and Ronnie Liu in particular? This would mean Manoharan is contradicting what his party said and I was made to understand that DAP does not allow its leaders to contradict their own party -- as the Tunku Aziz Tunku Ibrahim episode has proven. So who approved the Batu Caves project? Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat? And if it was Barisan Nasional then why must Ronnie Liu resign? I remember relating a story a couple of years ago about Ronnie Liu, 'Bangsar' Bala, my wife Marina, I, and a fifth person, going to Manoharan's house to meet his wife when he was in Kamunting under ISA detention. The purpose of that visit was to ask Manoharan's wife to send a message to the five Hindraf ISA detainees that we want them to contest the March 2008 general election. We suggested that they contest parliament seats because the Indian cause is a national issue and it would be better that the problems facing the Indians be raised in Parliament. Ronnie even indicated that he was prepared to 'vacate' his seat if Manoharan or any of the other four Hindraf detainees wanted that seat. In other words, Ronnie was prepared to give way to Manoharan if need be. Not many politicians would be prepared to sacrifice their own political career for the benefit of someone else. Ronnie, however, was prepared to do that and that is why I am his loyal friend. He has shown that he is not in politics for personal gain and is prepared to sacrifice himself for the sake of the party. Anyway, back to the posting by 'bobby brown'. "We should be discussing ways to improve the quality, financial, educational aspects of the average Malaysian life," said 'bobby brown'. I suppose what he means by that statement is we should be focusing on how to make Malaysia a better country. And I would agree with that. However, we must first come to an agreement on the definition of 'better'. 'Better' can mean different things to different people. For example, a company that was 'in the red' last year to the tune of RM250 million can be said to have done better this year when it reduces these loses to just RM150 million. Next year it does even better when the losses get reduced to just RM80 million. By the fifth year it does even better (the best performance in five years) when it breaks even, although it still does not make any money. So what does 'better' mean? And how would we translate that to a better Malaysia? Does 'better' mean there are still blatant and rampant corruption and abuse of power but not as bad as before? Does 'better' mean there are still blatant and rampant racism, discrimination and political persecution but not as bad as before? Does 'better' mean only 5,000 Malaysians died in traffic accidents this year compared to 6,000 Malaysians the year before? Does 'better' mean now only 100 people die in police custody compared to 180 people in the past? Let me put it another way: does 'better' mean now your spouse commits adultery only once a month compared to every week before this? Why should you tolerate your spouse committing adultery even once a year? How can you consider your spouse committing adultery once a month as 'better' than once a week? What is 'better' for you may not be 'better' for me. If all you mean by 'better' is the degree of transgressions, and you are prepared to accept lesser incidences over larger incidences as 'better', then we clearly do not share the same ideals. Would someone who murdered just one person be better than someone who murdered ten people? Would not even one murder make that person a murderer? There is no such thing as a 'worse' murderer and a 'better' murderer. Either way you still hang. And herein lies the problem. You are looking at how bad Barisan Nasional or Umno are and anything lesser than that you are prepared to compromise and accept. We all talk about change. We all aspire for change. We all fight for change. But we are yet to agree on that definition of change. And this is why we are always in disagreement. While we agree that change is required, we cannot agree on what is meant by 'change'. This next paragraph is aimed at just Muslims so non-Muslims can skip this paragraph if they wish to. Let's say that a Muslim never prays or fasts and lives a life of sin that includes drinking, gambling and adultery. Then, one day, this Muslim starts praying once in a while on Fridays and fasts a couple of days a year during the month of Ramadhan. However, this person still drinks, gambles and indulges in adultery. Does this make that person a 'better ' Muslim or is that person still a bad Muslim? I know the answer to that so no need to reply to my question. In short, there is no such thing as a better Muslim. There are no degrees of Muslims. A Muslim is someone who abides to and follows the rules laid down in Islam. You just cannot be a little bit pregnant. So what is my interpretation of a better Malaysia? My interpretation of a better Malaysia is a society that can tolerate dissenting or opposing views. And that is my main beef with Barisan Nasional and Umno. No, my main beef with Barisan Nasional and Umno is not the arrogance, racism, persecution, abuse of power, corruption, violation of fundamental liberties and civil rights, etc., that they perpetuate Those, to me, are merely the symptoms of another disease. Those are not the causes of the disease. Those are signs that there is a disease. And this 'disease' is we do not have freedom of thought, freedom of choice, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of information, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and so on. And because of all these lacks of freedoms, we end up with rampant and blatant arrogance, racism, persecution, abuse of power, corruption, violation of fundamental liberties and civil rights, etc. And this is what many of you do not understand. You look at the symptoms of the disease and you try to cure the symptoms. I look at the cause of the disease and attack the cause of that disease. And if we can eliminate the cause then the symptoms will automatically disappear. I have written about this next point before but allow me to repeat what I said. 200 years ago, Napoleon Bonaparte attacked the 'disease' that was plaguing Europe. Around 35 years after that, society began to change. Then, roughly another 35 years later, the whole of Europe changed and what we see today in Europe is the result of that change. So Napoleon did not try to cure the symptoms of the disease. He attacked the cause of that disease. In time, changes happened and the symptoms of the disease disappeared. I know I am repeating what I have written many times before. But how do I not keep repeating myself when after saying it so many times you still do not get it? Even people like Haris Ibrahim (Sam) cannot understand what I am saying. And he is a lawyer, too, mind you. Yet even he cannot understand what I am trying to say. He, too, like many of you, go by the adage that a duck swims, you swim, so you must be a duck. You do not support ABU. So, if you do not support ABU, then you must be supporting Umno. In the first place, did I ever say I do not support ABU? What I did say is that just shouting ABU is not enough. It has to be more than just that. Kicking out Umno will do no bloody good if the problem is not Umno but the culture that breed organisations like Umno. We can get rid of Umno but that will not get rid of the problem. And the problem is the way we think and do things. Let me go back to what 'bobby brown' and Oon Yeoh commented. One delegate during the PAS general assembly last week said that he felt Tok Guru Abdul Hadi Awang should become the prime minister if Pakatan Rakyat gets to form the next federal government. And then all hell broke loose. This was the opinion of just ONE delegate from amongst more than one million PAS members. One man from ONE MILLION said this and the party DID NOT adopt that proposal as one of its Resolutions. In other words, PAS allowed that delegate to speak but they did not adopt what he said. And in spite of that everyone whacks the whole party as if the party had committed a cardinal sin. Are you saying that the party should not have allowed him to speak? Are you saying that they should have switched off the microphone and shout at him to sit down? Are you saying that they should do what MIC does -- get the security guards to drag him outside and beat him up? By the way, I attended one Umno gathering in PJ back in 2008 and one Umno member stood up to propose that Umno makes peace with Anwar Ibrahim. Almost the entire hall booed him. The 'security guards' then grabbed this chap by the neck, dragged him outside, and kicked the daylights out of him. He was beaten up good and proper. And that is why we don't want Umno. They do not respect freedom of thought and freedom of opinion/expression. But then you want PAS to do the same thing. So what ABU are you talking about when you want to be just like Umno? We have to be better than that. If we are going to be just like Umno then why would the voters want to kick Umno out? We have to make it clear that we will not compromise on violations of our freedom of thought, freedom of choice, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of information, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and so on. Currently, I find that many, if not most, of the opposition leaders and supporters do not respect freedom of thought, freedom of choice, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of information, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and so on. And this is my beef with the ABU-screamers. My interpretation of ABU is CHANGE. Your interpretation of ABU is Anwar Ibrahim and only Anwar Ibrahim must become the prime minister. Even the 'liberal' Oon Yeoh thinks like this. Even the 'liberal' Oon Yeoh does not tolerate freedom of thought, freedom of choice, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of information, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and so on. So, yes, I support ABU. But my ABU is politik baru, budaya baru, Malaysia baru, Melayu baru, etc. Your ABU is old wine in a new bottle. So you can fight for your ABU your way and I will fight for my ABU my way. You can walk if you want. I will swim. But we are both going the same direction. And just because a duck also swims does not make me a duck -- just like just because a monkey also walks does not make you a monkey. Or does it? By the way, 'bobby brown', PAS is the second largest party in Malaysia in terms of membership. There are more PAS members than DAP and PKR members combined. Pakatan Rakyat needs PAS more than PAS needs Pakatan Rakyat. So stop being pompous and condescending. "PAS was an unknown party running a backward state and just with the help of DAP and PKR is sitting in the position that they should be grateful for," konon. You sound just like Umno. This is how Umno normally talks. So what ABU are you talking about when you ape Umno in everything that it does and say? East Coast Malays will call this gong telajak. Go find out what this means from your Malay friends, if you happen to have any.
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| Perlis Raja Muda urges curbs on liberalism Posted: 20 Nov 2012 04:04 PM PST
(Bernama) - The Raja Muda of Perlis, Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail, said efforts must be made to contain liberalism and stop it from engulfing the younger generation. He said its unrestricted spread, whether planned or otherwise, was dangerous and could change the country's character and foundation nurtured since independence. Speaking at the launch of the book "Ucapan Dasar Presiden Gabungan Pelajar Melayu Semenanjung (GPMS) Kebangsaan Sepanjang Zaman" and the launch of the "One Student, One Licence" programme, here last night, Tuanku Syed Faizuddin said he hoped that GPMS (Federation of Peninsular Malaysia Malay Students Associations) and its more than 400,000 members nationwide could play a role in containing its spread. "GPMS needs ideas and new initiatives to ensure that the education agenda remains relevant and the younger generation can create a strong self identity in efforts to face the situation," he said. Meanwhile, GPMS president Jais Abdul Karim, when approached, said the 225-page book contains a collection of the speeches delivered by GPMS presidents since the federation was established in 1948.
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| ‘No change to PAS hate politics’ Posted: 20 Nov 2012 03:31 PM PST
(The Star) - PAS' consistency in belittling the faith of its Muslim political opponents shows that it lacks legitimacy as reformers, said Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein. He said despite the party's claims of being an agent of change and reform, there was no change to PAS' long-standing approach of spreading the politics of hate. "In the past they labelled our former leaders with names such as pig farmer or pharaoh. They called us infidels and said we won't go to heaven after we die. "What they are doing today by calling us murtad (apostate) is the same as what they have always done, yet they still shout about change and reform," Hishammuddin told reporters at his office here yesterday. PAS spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat recently said that Umno has rejected Islam. "Umno has not only rejected Islam. It also mocked Islam and rejected ulama and this makes them heretics. Even if a Tok Guru wearing serban - whether he be bearded or not - he has committed apostasy as long as he has rejected Islam in his heart," Nik Aziz said at the end of the recent PAS muktamar. PAS also organised a special prayer at Stadium Mohamad IV in Kota Baru last Friday to pray for the destruction of Umno and Barisan Nasional for alleged cruelties that included denying Kelantan oil royalties. Hishammuddin said the latest attacks on Umno, when the party was praying for the people in Gaza, showed that PAS' only concern was politics. He said the only thing that had changed in PAS was its inability to censor its partners in Pakatan Rakyat when they raised sensitive issues regarding Islam, including DAP's continued rejection of hudud and the recent controversial comments by PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar on religious freedom for Muslims. "When their Pakatan partners raise these issues they keep quiet. But then they would label and accuse Umno in an attempt to divert public attention," said Hishammuddin.
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| Tat: DAP will lose the election because of Teresa Posted: 20 Nov 2012 03:24 PM PST
(The Kuala Lumpur Post) - Ex-DAP leader Tan Tuan Tat claimed that the party's state leadership under Teresa Kok will be a liability and will jeopardise the party's chance to be re-elected in the next General Election (GE). The former Selangor DAP auditor said that the party's state leaders have failed to live up to their positions to unite and strengthen the party, instead clinging to power by postponing the state elections which were scheduled for earlier this year. "Most members have become disenchanted and disillusioned by the incompetency, inefficiency and multiple standards shown by these leaders who think they won (the previous GE) because they are popular amongst grassroots members and the public. "The public and tax payers gave them a chance to change for better governance but apparently DAP Selangor has failed (to fulfil their obligations)," Tan said during a press conference. Citing the example of the low turnout at the DAP Selangor convention last month, Tan said it was due to the shenanigans of state leaders. "You think she's doing anything for Selangor? She couldn't even solve problems such as floods, rubbish, vice activities, complaints of corruptions, but instead, she swept it under the carpet," Tan said. Tan, who is also a former DAP Sungai Pelek Parliament Liaison Committee member, pointed out that a lot of grassroots members were frustrated with the way Kok handled the party. "Kok refused to admit her weak leadership and non-commitment to the grassroots members," he said. "She is no longer fighting for the people, but made a mockery of socialist concepts of equality and fairness for all and is more like a capitalist in nature for personal aggrandisement," Tan concluded. According to The Star's Joceline Tan, the poor turnout at the Selangor DAP convention was a missed opportunity to rally the troops to defend the premier state against a hungry opposition. "Of the 1,153 delegates, only 311 or 27% showed up for the annual meeting. The minimum quorum is 25% and party leaders were left struggling to explain the numbers," she wrote. "Kok did not appreciate the questions raised about the low turnout and she attempted to brush it off in a rather casual manner, attributing it to some delegates being "lazy," the rainy weather and that delegates had activities in their constituencies," Joceline said. According to blogger Shen Yee Aun, Kok is a failed leader since she holds too many posts in the state government and government-linked companies (GLCs). "Kok is wearing too many hats for being an Exco (Selangor Senior State Executive Councillor for Investment, Industry & Trade, SA (State Assemblywoman for Kinrara), MP (Member of Parliament for Seputeh) and also the Chairman of Selangor DAP," Shen said. - "She earns at least RM 40,000 a month but it seems she fails to strengthen Selangor DAP with her weak leadership as the leader of Selangor DAP," the blogger added. Meanwhile,due to these numerous positions, Kok was the first one to show her disagreement over DAP national chairman Karpal Singh's suggestion of 'one candidate, one proposal.
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| Posted: 20 Nov 2012 03:16 PM PST Hope is about all it has left in trying to better its 2008 performance. There are 11 parliament seats in Kuala Lumpur, and BN traditionally lets MCA contest for five of them, namely Wangsa Maju, Bukit Bintang, Seputeh, Cheras and Bandar Tun Razak. It scored zero in the last election. Stanley Koh, FMT Most pundits would agree that for the coming general election, MCA has little hope of doing any better than it did in 2008, especially in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. There are 11 parliament seats in Kuala Lumpur, and BN traditionally lets MCA contest for five of them, namely Wangsa Maju, Bukit Bintang, Seputeh, Cheras and Bandar Tun Razak. It scored zero in the last election. Indeed, MCA's popularity in Kuala Lumpur has been on the downslide since the mid-1980s. The last time it saw any glory was when Tan Koon Swan was helming its Federal Territory liaison office. Tan carried out a host of impressive community and party projects and tirelessly dedicated himself to serving his constituents in Damansara, the seat that he had snatched from DAP in 1982. Two years later, however, MCA plunged into a crisis over allegations of phantom membership. The ensuing quarrels eventually led to Tan's expulsion. However, he made a comeback and became party president in November 1985. But his legal troubles in Singapore persuaded him to resign about a year later. It has since been downhill for MCA in Kuala Lumpur and only the most idealistic supporter would hold on to any hope of a political reincarnation through the 13th general election. If there is any glimpse of hope at all, it would be in Wangsa Maju, where in 2008 the party's Yew Teong Look lost by only 150 votes to Wee Choo Keong, who contested on a PKR ticket. But insiders say Yew has fallen out of favour with the top MCA leadership and that this state of affairs has been worsened by reports that he is not on good terms with local Umno officials. Chances are he will be left out of the candidates' list. Swap in Kepong MCA apparently wants to position a new and probably young candidate in Kepong in the hope that the novelty would contribute to a change in its fortune. Bukit Bintang also looks like a lost cause for MCA, especially with the resignation of its division chief there, Lee Chong Meng, who has joined PKR. In 2008, DAP's Fong Kui Lin won the seat with a majority of 14,277. There is even less hope in the other DAP strongholds of Seputeh and Cheras. These parliament seats are likely to remain with Pakatan Rakyat regardless of the candidates the opposition pact decides to field.
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| ‘HK chief prosecutor’s statement damning’ Posted: 20 Nov 2012 03:07 PM PST
Kevin Zervos has indicated that there was a conspiracy to cover up the RM40 million "political donations" case by Malaysian authorities, says PKR's strategic director. Teoh El Sen, FMT The statement yesterday by Hong Kong's chief public prosecutor points to a conspiracy by Malaysian authorities to cover up and halt investigations against Sabah chief minister Musa Aman and timber tycoon Michael Chia over the RM40 million "political donations" case, claimed PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli today. Rafizi said it also gives an impression that the Malaysian authorities – either the Attorney-General's chambers, the MACC or both – had supplied inaccurate information to Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), and in turn had tarnished the investigations. Rafazi was referring to FMT's exclusive interview with Hong Kong's Director of Public Prosecutions, Kevin Zervos, who yesterday said that Hong Kong authorities were ready to re-open the case if there was fresh evidence. Zervos said that previous evidence ICAC received from Malaysia indicated that the funds were "political donation", but expressed openness in delving into the "true nature" of the money. "When it was the Malaysian authorities who told the ICAC that the fund was a political donation, it confirms rumours that the ICAC was forced to halt investigations because they were unable to get full cooperation of Malaysian authorities," alleged Rafizi in a statement. "Furthermore, the statement by Zervos is more serious as it gives the impression that Malaysian authorities, either the MACC, AG's chambers or both are conspiring to stop investigations against Musa and Chia by giving inaccurate information, without a transparent and independent investigation." Rafizi said that he also concluded from Zervos's statement that Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz was not forthright in Parliament when he said that the ICAC had halted investigations because Hong Kong authorities had found that the money was political contributions to Sabah Umno. "Nazri never told Parliament that the ICAC had to stop investigations because Malaysian authorities had informed them that the RM40 million was a political donation," he said. MACC must reveal the truth Rafizi said he was sure the Malaysian authorities never handed proof or evidence that the RM40 million was a political contribution obtained legally. He urged Parliament to consider taking action against Nazri for what can be considered an attempt to mislead the House. "He implied that the RM40 million in political donation to Umno was a conclusion of ICAC and not supplied by Malaysian authorities," said Rafizi. He also demanded that MACC chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed reveal the truth to Parliament. "I welcome the Hong Kong chief prosecutor's statement that he is willing to reopen the case. PKR will gather such evidences so that an investigation can be started by the ICAC." Yesterday, Rafizi said he would be travelling to Hong Kong meet with the ICAC Operations Review Committee as well as politicians there. He will be accompanied by PKR MPs William Leong (Selayang) and Hee Loy Sian (Petaling Jaya Selatan) and state assemblyman Chang Li Kang (Teja). The trip is to find out if the Malaysian government stonewalled ICAC's investigation of timber tycoon Chia, who was carrying the RM40 million, and to seek a re-opening of the 2008 case.
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| ‘Can you expect thieves to arrest themselves?’ Posted: 20 Nov 2012 03:02 PM PST A Sabah-based activist has accused Upko of pussyfooting around the illegal immigrant issue. Joseph Bingkasan, FMT KOTA KINABALU: The author of a book 'Lest We Forget' that chronicled the 'acquisition' of Sabah by Umno-linked authorities, who re-engineered the demographics of the state, is surprised that local leaders are now downplaying the facts. Expressing his concern, Dr Chong Eng Leong said he was worried that even a hardline local Barisan Nasional coalition component was backing away from the controversial issue after years of championing it. Chong is particularly incensed that state assembly representative Donald Mojuntin, the son of the late Peter Mojuntin who is lionised as a defender of Sabah's rights, was now choosing to limit the fallout from a widely acknowledged illegal act. He accused Mojuntin, from the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) party, who was formerly a parliamentarian of manipulating for personal reasons a pivotal issue in state and national politics. Mojuntin has also riled independents with his conciliatory stand on other sensitive Sabah-centric issues notably the date of the formation of Malaysia. Chong said Mojuntin's recent statement "let's not waste time and effort to over-politicise it" when speaking about the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah, was self-serving. "I am sure Donald (Mojuntin) and Upko know that hundreds of thousands of foreign migrants are in the Sabah electoral rolls – they decide which political party to govern us. Isn't this problem a political issue, Donald?" asked Chong who is now with PKR and known for his stance on immigration reform. He said the coalition partners appeared confused over their stand on the issue with Upko president Bernard Dompok once saying that internal upheavals and the strained relationship between state and federal governments had hampered efforts to resolve the problem. Chong's book gives a detailed insight of the audacious re-creation of Sabah's ethnic and religious makeup of the state to tilt the balance of political power in favour of the ruling BN coalition and Umno in particular. He pointed out that though the Umno-led coalition had been governing Sabah since 1994, repeated calls by Sabah BN members for a royal inquiry since 1996 had not been entertained until this year and even then reluctantly and with limitations. "Isn't this political? Donald (Mojuntin) also said the RCI has no power nor manpower to take action on its findings and recommendations as this belongs to relevant bodies like police, immigration and the NRD," noted Chong. Immigration, police, NRD involved Chong said that by stating this, Mojuntin was conveniently ignoring the fact that during in the Likas election petition hearing in 1999, witnesses testified under oath that the meetings, chaired by the late Megat Junid, the deputy home minister at the time, discussed how ICs could be given to foreigners in Sabah and these meetings "involved immigration, NRD and top guns from Bukit Aman". "Can you expect the thieves to arrest themselves? "My research on this issue since the late 90's is to let us Sabahans (be) aware of this treacherous deed done by the federal government – Dompok knew the modus operandi as he had heard the testimonies from public and briefings by NRD when he was the chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity in 2006." He said that Dompok is now urging the public to come forward and help the RCI to set things right but asked since he himself knew the modus operandi, would Dompok come forward to testify.
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| ‘Affirmative action for Malays dangerous’ Posted: 20 Nov 2012 02:52 PM PST Malays are the only race in the world with both political power and affirmative action, a human rights organisation noted at a forum here. Anisah Shukry, FMT Affirmative action for the Malays is dangerous as they are the majority group in Malaysia and already hold political power, a human rights organisation said last night. Jerald Joseph, the executive director of Dignity International, pointed out that Malaysia was the only country which implemented affirmative action for a majority group. "Malays in this country are the majority; they have political power. So with affirmative action, you actually double Malay power," said Joseph at the forum 'Multiculturalism Rhetorics: A breeding ground for racism?' As a result of this, he said, affirmative action provided discounts and aids for even the wealthy Malay at the expense of the truly needy, who comprised all races. "The slogan 'Malaysia Truly Asia' is truly rhetoric; Malaysians cannot even find common ground in Malaysia, nor demand similar rights and services," said Joseph. "Article 153 of the Federal Constitution should be dismantled, so that only those who truly need special privileges can access it." He was referring to a provision in the Federal Constitution which grants the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia responsibility for safeguarding the special position of Malays and natives of any of the states of Sabah and Sarawak. Article 153 specifies ways to do this, such as establishing quotas for entry into the civil service, public scholarships and public education. But Joseph noted that the government was likely to drag its legs when it came to amending provisions that he said were related to human rights. "It's ironic that the government has no problems changing the constitution when it suits their interests. "But when its related to human rights, then they talk about the sanctity of the constitution. "But the Malaysian constitution belongs to all of us Malaysians. So no one should stop us from discussing it," said Joseph.
'Trying to turn everyone into Malays' Co-panelist Mutuma Rutere, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, appeared to agree with Joseph's views on affirmative action. "The government should not allocate resources based on ethnic group, but instead they could perhaps distribute it based on the place of residence. "Instead of fighting for the rights of our own group, we should be fighting for the rights of everyone," Rutere stressed. Also present at the forum was Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa, the director of the Islamic Renaissance Front, who highlighted the government's attempts to promote "the Malay supremacy agenda."
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| Australia is Malaysia's last hope: Xenophon Posted: 20 Nov 2012 11:34 AM PST
Anwar Ibrahim's letter asking for Australia's help was handed to independent Senator Nick Xenophon when he was in Malaysia on a recent trip. He says Australia is Malaysia's last, best hope for free and fair elections. Listen at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-21/australia-is-malaysias-last-hope-xenophon/4383438?section=act TONY EASTLEY: Anwar Ibrahim's letter asking for Australia's help was handed to independent Senator Nick Xenophon when he was in Malaysia on a recent trip. Mr Xenophon spoke last night in the Senate about the letter. Senator Xenophon says Australia is Malaysia's last and best hope for free and fair elections. He's speaking here with our chief political correspondent Sabra Lane. NICK XENOPHON: Anwar Ibrahim wrote the letter in front of me last Friday in Kuala Lumpur. It really is a desperate plea for help. He really sees Australia as Malaysia's last, best hope to ensure that there are free and fair elections there. There are very serious concerns that what is occurring in Malaysia could see the wholesale rorting, the wholesale electoral fraud of the upcoming Malaysian general elections. And the implications for Malaysia, for the region I think are quite significant. SABRA LANE: And you've seen evidence of this rorting? NICK XENOPHON: When I was part of an international observer group last April the information that we were given indicates that the electoral roles appear to be quite irregular. I spoke to a former senior member of the military who told me that members of the military, that soldiers of lower ranks are basically stood over and told how to vote. That can't be in any way fair. It can't be in any way a secret ballot. SABRA LANE: What do you think Bob Carr and Australia should do? NICK XENOPHON: I think the very least we could do is to offer support to ensure that the elections are free and fair, to offer the services and the expertise of the Australian Electoral Commission, for there to be a parliamentary delegation to go to Malaysia now as a matter of urgency in the lead-up to the poll to look into these claims of the electoral rolls being fixed, to ensure that the voting process is fair. And to look at other fundamental issues such as the opposition parties not being able to have access to the mainstream media, to newspapers and television, to radio, not being able to even advertise during election periods. That is quite extraordinary. SABRA LANE: The Federal Government has its hopes still pinned on the so-called Malaysia swap deal - swapping asylum seekers. Do you think Australia is prepared to step up on Malaysia's elections, given that that deal is still yet to be enacted? NICK XENOPHON: I think some of the Malaysian opposition fear that that could constrain Australia's approach in terms of the up-coming Malaysian elections, but that really shouldn't be a consideration. It would be an act of gross cowardice on the part of Australia to be holding back its concerns on free and fair elections in Malaysia as a result of the people swap deal. SABRA LANE: On the issue of asylum seekers, you reluctantly backed the Government's legislation to recommence offshore processing, saying that if it stopped people from making a dangerous journey then all MPs had to eat some humble pie. What's your reaction to Amnesty International's visit to Nauru? It says conditions are completely unacceptable there and that those conditions are responsible for a terrible spiral of self harm and suicide attempts. NICK XENOPHON: Well it's very disturbing. I supported reluctantly a tough policy in order to deter people making a dangerous boat journey to prevent more people drowning at sea. But there's a distinction between supporting a policy that is tough and one that turns out to be cruel. And I think it's very important that those concerns be addressed. TONY EASTLEY: The independent Senator Nick Xenophon speaking to Sabra Lane. A spokesman for Senator Carr says the Foreign Minister received Mr Anwar's letter on Monday and he will consider it and respond shortly. Senator Carr's office says the Minister discussed the issue of "free and fair elections" with Mr Ibrahim on the phone during his visit to Kuala Lumpur earlier this month. |
| Posted: 20 Nov 2012 11:24 AM PST
In observing the mood of the PAS delegates at the recent general assembly, one can't help but feel that if PAS were to do well in the polls, it would indeed demand for Hadi Awang to become the prime minister. And as I mentioned earlier, I suspect this is not something most supporters of PR, especially the non-Muslims and the progressive Muslims, would be comfortable with. Oon Yeoh, The Sun I'VE OFTEN said that Barisan Nasional is its own worst enemy. Time and again, it has shown a remarkable deftness in shooting own goals. But BN has no monopoly on damaging itself. Like BN, Pakatan Rakyat is often its own worst enemy. The issue that consistently trips it up is hudud. The scenario is familiar. Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad would challenge PAS on the issue of hudud. PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz would declare it's the party's goal to implement hudud. DAP chairman Karpal Singh would say, "Over my dead body" or something to that effect. Meanwhile, PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim would dither and say something that's neither here nor there. The way this plays out over and over again, like a broken record, is farcical. And so, I expected to see another round of it during the 58th PAS Muktamar in Kota Baru. Surely, hudud is going to be the hot topic. But I was wrong. The big news is that PAS wants its president Hadi Awang to become the prime minister should Pakatan Rakyat win the general election. This caught everyone off guard because until then, nobody had ever mooted that notion. All along, it was generally assumed that PR's prime-minister-in-waiting was Anwar. This latest development could be cause for concern for non-Muslims and moderate Muslims alike, who until now threw their support behind PR because they assumed it would be led by Anwar. Would those same people vote for PR if the prospective prime minister is Hadi Awang? I've got no surveys to back me up on this but I'm pretty sure if Anwar was not available, such voters would much rather have Lim Guan Eng as prime minister. The thing is, DAP is not pushing for Lim to become the prime minister. Lim himself has said that he is "not qualified" to become prime minister, despite the fact that DAP has the biggest number of MPs in Parliament and that Lim is widely admired for his stewardship of Penang. If DAP is not pushing for its leader to helm the top spot in a PR government, why is PAS doing so? If the argument is that PAS is an absolutely critical component of PR, and that the coalition cannot possibly capture Putrajaya without it, the same can also be said of DAP and PKR. The truth is, all three parties need each other if they hope to take over the federal government. The answer quite simply, is that PAS has a tendency to become too big for its britches. It exhibited such behaviour after the 1999 General Election, where it did quite well, and now it's exhibiting such tendencies again. In observing the mood of the PAS delegates at the recent general assembly, one can't help but feel that if PAS were to do well in the polls, it would indeed demand for Hadi Awang to become the prime minister. And as I mentioned earlier, I suspect this is not something most supporters of PR, especially the non-Muslims and the progressive Muslims, would be comfortable with. In a scenario where PR wins the general election, the best configuration would be to have a similar kind of win ratio that the three parties currently have. That is, a situation where DAP has the most number of MPs, followed by PKR in second place and PAS third. That way, DAP, as the numerically-dominant party, can give way to PKR and support Anwar as the leader of the coalition (as it does now). Meanwhile, PAS, in third place, would not be in a position to insist that it should have everything its way. What about PKR as the dominant party, with DAP second and PAS third? That's still a better configuration than having PAS in the top position, but it would allow PKR to become overly dominant in much the way that Umno is dominant in the BN. Look at what has become of MCA and MIC in such a scenario. So, if PR were to win power, it should be with roughly the same ratio of MPs as is the case now otherwise those who voted for PR could be in for a rude shock.
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| Pakatan rep wants Liu to resign over Batu Caves condo controversy Posted: 20 Nov 2012 12:38 AM PST
(The Star) - State Local Government committee chairman Ronnie Liu has been challenged to resign if he is not able to stop the controversial 29-storey condominium project in Batu Caves. The dare came from his Pakatan Rakyat ally, Kota Raja assemblyman M Manoharan, at the state assembly sitting on Tuesday. "The temple is a national heritage. It is obvious that the people do not want the project or any other projects to be build next to the temple complex. "Therefore, if the project is not scrapped, will you resign?" Manoharan said in a supplementary question. Liu replied saying resignation should not be the issue. "What is important is that the project must be stopped and the state (government) is doing its best." "There is a lot to consider. For instance, the project cannot be scrapped as more than 60% of the units had been sold. "If the project is stopped, the state and federal government will have to compensate the developer," he said. Liu pointed out that the federal government also had the power to stop the project by revoking the developer's advertising license and sales permit.
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| Isn’t it better not to have a religion? Posted: 19 Nov 2012 06:39 PM PST
But what a shame indeed! Because Sia Ka Tian refuses to follow Muhammad, the Muslims say he is going to hell, and because Sia Ka Tian refuses to follow Jesus, the Christians say he is going to hell, although he did something not many of the two billion Muslims and Christians would have done -- return RM3 million that he found accidentally left in his taxi. NO HOLDS BARRED Raja Petra Kamarudin Singapore cabbie returns US$900,000 to Thai couple (AFP) - SINGAPORE: A Singaporean taxi driver has been heralded as a hero after he returned Sg$1.1 million (US$900,000) in cash to a vacationing Thai couple who left the money in his cab. Sia Ka Tian, 70, was shocked to find the money in a black paper bag on the back seat on Monday after he dropped the couple off at a shopping centre. "When I saw the money, I thought, trouble is here. I was sure there was at least $200,000 in the bag," the Straits Times quoted the 31-year veteran in the taxi business as saying. But when he brought the money to transport company ComfortDelGro's lost-and-found office, his stunned colleagues counted Sg$1.1 million in thousand-dollar bills. "The money is unimportant to me. It doesn't belong to me, so how can I use it?" he told the newspaper. The Thai couple reported the loss to the transport company and Sia was waiting for them when they arrived to claim the money. The report did not say what the couple were doing with that large sum. The driver received an undisclosed cash reward from the grateful couple, whose names have been withheld, and the company also plans to give him an award for good service. "Finding one million dollars in cash is not an everyday affair and in fact, we wonder how many people would have possibly been tempted" to pocket it, company spokeswoman Tammy Tan told AFP. "We are immensely proud of him and are glad that the passengers recovered their money.' It was the second most valuable item returned by a cabbie working for the company. In 2009, another taxi driver returned fives kilos of gold bars worth Sg$377,000. *************************************** His name is Sia Ka Tian and he works as a taxi driver in Singapore. I assume he is not a proud Muslim because his name is not Muhammad Sia bin Abdullah. I also assume he is not a proud Christian because his name is not Alexander Sia. Judging by his name, he must be a pagan idol-worshipper whom both the Muslims and Christians say is going to end up in hell for 'not believing in the truth'. Sia Ka Tian discovered about RM3 million accidentally left in his taxi and he went and returned the money to the rightful owner. Not many of the two billion or so Muslims and Christians would have done this. In fact, you are more likely to be robbed or cheated, or your pocket picked or bag snatched, in one of the Muslim or Christian countries. You face more risk of becoming the victim of crooks when praying in front of the Ka'bah in Mekah or at the Vatican in Rome. Some people have even been stabbed and killed during a purse-cutting crime gone wrong at these two 'holy' sites. But what a shame indeed! Because Sia Ka Tian refuses to follow Muhammad, the Muslims say he is going to hell, and because Sia Ka Tian refuses to follow Jesus, the Christians say he is going to hell, although he did something not many of the two billion Muslims and Christians would have done -- return RM3 million that he found accidentally left in his taxi. Sia Ka Tian did exactly what Islam and Christianity says people must do. But Sia Ka Tian is neither Muslim nor Christian. Hence what he did does not count. He will still not earn a place in paradise and instead will be sent to hell because he refuses to follow Prophet Muhammad or Jesus Christ. You should listen to how the Muslims and Christians talk. If you listen to them talk you will know what you need to do to avoid hell and to get into paradise. But that is all they do -- they talk. They don't really practice what they say. People who practice what the Muslims and Christians say are people like Sia Ka Tian who did the proper Muslim-Christian thing. Nevertheless, he is still going to end up in hell. It is nice to be able to follow a religion where you can talk without having to practice what you preach and still get to go to heaven while others like Sia Ka Tian who do the right thing get sent to hell. Hidup Islam! Hidup Christianity! Hidup Munafiq! Mampus kafir! |
| Samy Vellu implicated in alleged land grab in Selangor Posted: 19 Nov 2012 06:03 PM PST
Zurairi AR, The Malaysian Insider Selangor backbenchers today accused Barisan Nasional component parties and former MIC President Datuk Seri Samy Vellu of allegedly being involved in land grabs when BN was still in power in the state. The allegation involves 24 plots of public land in seven out of nine districts in Selangor, which were acquired by branches and divisions of Umno, MCA, MIC and Gerakan between 2000 and 2008 when the state government was administered by BN. Sekinchan assemblyman Ng Suee Lim challenged the BN component parties to return the land to the public to prove that they really have the interests of the people at heart. "They have to prove that they are true fighters who are sincere to the people ... not give empty talk ... fighting for the people, but then grab their land," he said. Each plot of land measures up to seven acres and has a collective total area of around 33.5 acres, mostly in commercial areas. The plots were allegedly sold for only RM1 per square foot — amounting to around RM1.5 million in total — despite being worth at least RM20 million collectively on the market, Ng said. "All of them are high value properties ... after Umno, MCA, MIC and Gerakan obtained the land, they would immediately enter joint-ventures (to develop them) or sell them off for tens of thousands or millions of profit," accused Ng. Of the 24 plots, 15 are now owned by Umno branches or divisions, with six of them going to Umno Sungai Besar division, which was led by former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Khir Toyo. "This shows that Umno is the king of land robbers," Sri Muda assemblyman Shuhaimi Shafiei said. MCA holds five plots, MIC three and Gerakan one. Datuk Seri Samy Vellu, together with an S Subramaniam and the late Tan Sri SOK Ubaidullah, who was one of MIC's founders, are named as the trustees for a 2,832 square metre plot in Kuala Selangor. The biggest plot in the list is a seven-acre piece of land in Klang, which is owned by the Umno Kota Raja division, followed by a 6.5-acre plot in Batu 14, Puchong, which is owned by the Umno Puchong division.
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| It is not really ABU after all Posted: 19 Nov 2012 05:08 PM PST
As much as the Abu-screamers and Pakatan Fan Club (PFC) members say that all they want is to see change after 55 years of an Umno-led government, this is not really true. It is not just about change at all. It is about change with certain terms and conditions attached that are favourable to certain personal interests of the so-called propagators of change. NO HOLDS BARRED Raja Petra Kamarudin Not too long ago I wrote a satire about a Muslim ordering food in a Chinese restaurant. The chap starts off by telling the waiter he is a Muslim and hence he does not eat pork. Okay, anything but pork, replies the waiter. So try the chicken. Ah, hold on, but the chicken must be halal, the customer reminds the waiter. Has the chicken been properly slaughtered? No, it has not, so it is not halal. Okay, why not order the fish instead? The fish is definitely halal. Ah, yes, but how are you going to cook the fish? Will you be cooking it in the same pots and pans that you cook the non-halal food? But of course, the restaurant has only one kitchen. Oh, in that case he cannot order the fish as well. Oh well, he might as well just order the raw vegetables then. That would be the safest. Okay, says the waiter, so it is not just anything but pork. It is also anything but chicken that is not halal. It is also anything but fish that is cooked in the same pots and pans as the non-halal food. In short, it is not anything but pork. It is nothing except just vegetables. So why say anything but pork when you mean it must be more than just anything but pork? And the last few days have been very entertaining for me to prove that it is not anything but pork. In this case we are, of course, talking about anything but Umno or ABU. As much as the Abu-screamers and Pakatan Fan Club (PFC) members say that all they want is to see change after 55 years of an Umno-led government, this is not really true. It is not just about change at all. It is about change with certain terms and conditions attached that are favourable to certain personal interests of the so-called propagators of change. I am all for change. After all, I have been speaking about change for 35 years since 1977 when many of you were still breast-feeding (and some of the childish comments posted in Malaysia Today indicate that some of you may still be breast-feeding). What I am not for is hidden agendas and using change as the camouflage to conceal this hidden agenda. All we want is change. All we want is ABU or anything but Umno. Okay, I can buy that. We just want change. We just do not want Umno to run the country any longer. We will accept anything expect Umno. Okay, say the opposition wins 120 seats in Parliament (which means Barisan Nasional would have won only 102 seats) and 60 of those seats are won by PAS, as they hope and plan to do (which means DAP and PKR combined won the balance 60). Then, say, from the 60 that DAP and PKR win, DAP wins 32 and PKR 28. This would mean PAS would nominate the Prime Minister from Pakatan Rakyat and PAS wants Tok Guru Abdul Hadi Awang to become the Prime Minister. Oh, but Hadi Awang is not acceptable. It must be Anwar Ibrahim and only Anwar Ibrahim who becomes the Prime Minister. PAS leaders are not suitable or good enough. They are not intelligent enough. They can't even speak English the Winston Churchill way. PAS leaders are more suited for the kampong, not for the international stage. PAS leaders will never be able to run the country. They can't even run the state properly. So that means it is not ABU then. It is anything but Umno plus anything but PAS leaders as Prime Minister. Okay, say PAS wins 60 seats in Parliament and from the 28 PKR seats, 15 of them are Muslim candidates. Then the 60 PAS Members of Parliament, the 15 PKR Members of Parliament, and, say, another 50 Umno Members of Parliament unite to propose the implementation of Hudud. Since the total comes to 125 that gives them a majority in Parliament. Can we accept that since we say we respect the majority view? No way can we accept Hudud even if the majority votes in favour of it. Those are barbaric laws from the Dark Ages. Those are stupid beliefs of people who are living in the past. Malaysia is a Secular country so we want to retain the Secular system. No way can we accept an Islamic State or the implementation of that part of the Sharia called Hudud. So that means it is not ABU then. It is anything but Umno, anything but PAS leaders as Prime Minister, anything but Islamic State, plus anything but Hudud. If we manage to kick out the Umno-led government and Pakatan Rakyat takes over the federal government can we agree to a standardised education system with only Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction? This would mean vernacular schools or mother-tongue education will be abolished. No way we can agree to that. So that means it is not ABU then. It is anything but Umno, anything but PAS leaders as Prime Minister, anything but Islamic State, anything but Hudud, plus anything but the standardisation of the education system. And the list goes on -- Article 153, the New Economic Policy, race-based quotas, etc. All these, too, are not accepted alongside Umno, PAS leaders as Prime Minister, an Islamic State, Hudud, the standardisation of the education system, and much more. So it is not really that simple after all. This is not just about ABU or anything but Umno. This is not about change and about seeing the end of 55 years of an Umno-led government. This is about many other things as well which we do not want. So why lie to the voters? You actually want a package deal and the package includes many other things -- including allowing Muslims the freedom to leave Islam to become Christians or whatever if they want to. You even treat apostasy as part of the ABU campaign. And don't deny it because I have been reading the so many comments that you posted. Just be honest with what you are seeking. You are not just seeking change. You are not just seeking the end of the 55-year-old Umno-led government. You have many, many things up your sleeve. And all we need to do is to propose Tok Guru Abdul Hadi Awang as Prime Minister to see you reveal your true intentions. And do you honestly believe that the Malay voters, in particular those from the Malay heartland, will go along with this? As Tan Seng Giaw said: dream on. Let me share a little secret with you. Many Malays also do not support the idea of an Islamic State or the implementation of Hudud. If they did then the predominantly Malay voters from Terengganu would not have given the state back to Umno in 2004 and again in 2008. In fact, PAS almost lost Kelantan as well in 2004. What the Malays resent, however, is to see the non-Malays whack Islam. Even those Malays who do not pray or fast and/or who drink and/or gamble cannot tahan to see the non-Malays whack Islam. And many of these people will vote Umno not because they support Umno but because they are pissed with the way the Pakatan Rakyat supporters vilify Islam. So Islam is outdated, is it? Islam is from the Dark Ages, is it? Islam is silly, is it? Well, you may be partly right about the mindset of some (or even many) of the Muslims. I too have been whacking the Muslims for a long time in case you have not noticed. But the Muslims are not the only ones like this. All those who believe in God and who follow a religion are the same. This stupidity is not exclusive to Muslims. Even the very highly educated and extremely intelligence Christians believe in stupid things -- like Virgin Mary appearing on hospital windows. In the first place, did Virgin Mary even exist or is she a myth like King Arthur? And how do they know what Virgin Mary looks like? Did anyone see her photograph to know that the image on the hospital window is that of Virgin Mary? How do they know it is not the image of Maid Marian, Robin Hood's girlfriend? So don't be too quick in whacking Muslims and in calling them all sorts of nasty names. First of all, that is going to result in Pakatan Rakyat losing the Muslim support. Secondly, what you think of Muslims I too think of Christians who believe in silly things. The Bible says there is only one God and then you go and pray to another God called Mary. ***************************************** The window pane with a purported image of the Virgin Mary was today removed from a hospital in Subang Jaya and handed over to the Catholic Church, as was previously agreed. "Sime Darby Medical Centre Subang Jaya (SDMC SJ) has removed and handed over two window panes from the North Tower of the hospital complex to the Catholic Church. "One of the panes has on it marks that some claim resemble artistic depictions of Mary, the Mother of Jesus," the Sime Darby Group said in a statement today. Last Tuesday, the hospital had agreed to give to the Catholic Church several glass window panes from its building that has been drawing devout Catholics and curious visitors after word of the apparition's appearance spread. It was also said that the glass panel will be moved to the Marian Church of Our Lady Lourdes in Klang. "The removal of the window panes was carried out by professionals with due care, safety and caution exercised throughout the process, which started at 10am and ended without incident at 11.35am," Sime Darby Group said. According to the company, leaders and parishioners of the Subang Jaya Catholic church were present at the hospital during the removal of the panes. A hospital official confirmed that the glass panels have already been safely delivered to the Marian Church of Our Lady Lourdes in Klang. "Yes, they have already opened it and displayed it," the official told The Malaysian Insider, saying that the panels were delivered around noon today. In the same statement by the Sime Darby Group, the hospital thanked its patients and staff for their "patience", as well as the Catholic Church and enforcement authorities for their "support and kind understanding". "SDMC SJ would like to thank its patients and their families, residents in the vicinity of the hospital and all its staff for their patience over the last two weeks. "SDMC SJ would also like to thank the Church, the Royal Malaysian Police, Rela officers and the public for their support and kind understanding during this period," it said. The image had last week continued to attract a crowd to the hospital eager to catch a glimpse of the image before it was moved, with many of them praying and singing hymns as well as lighting candles. The image, said to be that of the Virgin Mary whom Catholics revere as the Mother of God, was reported to have first been spotted two weeks ago and has been captured on camera and reproduced on social media including Facebook where it went viral. This is believed to be the first reported sighting of an image of the Virgin Mary in Malaysia. The phenomenon has been reported elsewhere around the world. Some witnesses have also said they could make out a second image forming on another glass pane below the vertical row housing the apparition of Mary. According to them, the second image resembled Jesus Christ on the crucifix. The Catholic Church said it will withhold comment until the image has been tested and verified by theologians and church authorities, a process that will take time. |
| PAS Ulama: Pakatan cannot ignore views expressed during muktamar Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:57 PM PST
(The Star) - The PAS Ulama wing has stepped up its call for their party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to be the Prime Minister if Pakatan Rakyat wins in the coming polls. The wing said Pakatan Rakyat could not ignore the views of PAS' one million members. "If PAS wins the most number of seats, naturally members expect the candidate to be picked from PAS. "However, Pakatan has yet to make a collective decision on the candidate for the top post if the coalition succeeds in capturing Putrajaya. The party has to abide by the decision," said Ulama Council vice-chief Datuk Dr Mahfodz Mohamed yesterday in response to objections from DAP leaders over Abdul Hadi as Prime Minister if the coalition comes to power. Ousted PAS leader Datuk Dr Hassan Ali warned that there would be a revolt in PAS if the Opposition parties reject Abdul Hadi when PAS wins the most number of seats in the election. "If Pakatan truly practises democracy, it should listen to the voice of the majority, and not the voice of a few top leaders in the Opposition," he added. PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu said the final decision would be made by the Pakatan leadership. "It is too early to broach the subject, as we must win first. What if Abdul Hadi and Anwar lose in the election? "Then perhaps even I can be the Prime Minister," he said. Meanwhile, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said it had always been Pakatan's stand that the candidate for the Prime Minister's post would be the Opposition Leader. "We stick by what has been agreed," he told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday. DAP chairman Karpal Singh said Abdul Hadi should stick to the consensus that Anwar be appointed Prime Minister if Pakatan comes to power. "PAS should do likewise without being told because the position has been accepted all along," he said in a telephone interview yesterday. He said Anwar was the most qualified and acceptable person to take on the role because he had the experience in government administration as the former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister. In KUALA TERENGGANU, state PAS commissioner Abdul Wahid Endut said Abdul Hadi was the best choice for the Prime Minister's post because he has no moral issues to contend with. "In the Islamic point of view, there's no one better," he said. However, Abdul Wahid said such hopes largely depended on the outcome of the general election. "We should focus on winning the election first. If PAS wins the majority of seats, he would be the logical choice," he added.
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| I challenge Hisham to a debate Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:41 PM PST
FMT LETTER: From Gobind Singh Deo, via e-mail I challenge Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein to a debate over what more could be done to make police stations safer for members of the public so as to avoid further recurrences of incidents such as deaths, assault and rape of detainees in police custody. The minister seems clueless as to how he can further improve the police force, especially in light of the rape of an Indonesian woman by three officers in a police station in Prai recently. It is worrying to read his response to a call for him to resign as Home Minister over the case, saying, "We have already ensured that they are brought to court. What else can we do? This is our country's system." Such a statement by the Home Minister in such a situation does not inspire an ounce of confidence. It also doesn't help that the minister further failed to take a position on the implementation of the IPCMC, which would perhaps offer some hope to the nation that the government is serious about complaints against the police and how such complaints are to be dealt with. The minister's cold responses to complaints against the force shows how out of touch he is with what the real issues are and what needs to be done to solve the problem. I think he just doesn't know what's going on or understand what is happening around him. He should learn from cases in the past where people have died, have been abused and have been raped in custody. He should learn from the deaths of Kugan, Teoh Beng Hock and Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed. These were cases in which allegations of brutality were raised and inquiries were held. All of them point to weaknesses in measures which currently exist in police stations or places where individuals are taken for questioning when suspected of having committed offences. The Teoh Beng Hock RCI went so far as to recommend broad changes to be made in order to make these places more secure so as to avoid such incidents from occurring again in future. The Home Minister does not seem to have understood anything at all from all this. And what of cases in which police officers are accused of rape and abuse of women and young girls in police stations? In 2008, a police officer, was charged at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court for raping a 17-year- old student and forcing her to perform oral sex on him in the Putra Heights police station. The trial saw the victim describe how she and her boyfriend were stopped by a police patrol car at 6am on June 18 that year and taken back to the police station. At the police station she and her boyfriend were taken to separate rooms for questioning. There, she was raped and forced to perform oral sex on the officer. In her police report, the victim alleged that the officer told her not to be afraid as he had seen many other girls like her previously. No action was taken until the matter was raised in Parliament and exposed in the press. And now we have a case in which three officers are alleged to have raped an Indonesian maid in a police station. The three have been charged swiftly, but not until after the matter was highlighted in the press and demonstrations were held both here and in Indonesia, which even saw the burning of our national flag. How does the minister have the stomach to say "what else can we do? This is our country's system" in light of all this? This is not what we expect from the Home Minister in a situation as pressing as this. The question is how do you make the police more accountable for their actions? How do you put a stop to it? How do you make senior officers and even the government more responsible for incidents like these so as to ensure that officers are not motivated to break laws in pursuit of their own agenda and there are no more assaults, rapes and deaths in police custody? This is where the minister's response is seriously lacking. He should tell us, what has he done to make police stations safer since becoming Home Minister? How has he as minister reduced "opportunity" for such incidents from happening in police stations?
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| Hudud-leaning Hadi won’t do in Sabah Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:36 PM PST Abdul Hadi Awang's 'willingness' to be the prime minister has rekindled a previous controversial call he made for a 'unity government' with Umno. Anwar was acquitted of his Sodomy II charge in January 2012, and while PKR was immediately jubilant, its coalition partners in Pakatan Rakyat – PAS and DAP – were wary, waiting for the "catch". Many thought the "catch" was in the appeal the government filed but that was rejected. Pushparani Thilaganathan, FMT Late last year there were speculations filtering out of Umno corridors in Kuala Lumpur that emissaries of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim were in "negotiation" over the latter and his daughter Nurul Izzah's future. Whispers then were linked to the imminent outcome of Anwar's Sodomy II and rumours were that Anwar was being asked to "leave" politics "temporarily" and the "powers-that-be" would allow Nurul to grow (politically). The comment at that time was: "Najib has no personal angst against Anwar… but if he [Anwar] wants a future [Nurul Izzah]; he [Anwar] must go". It just seemed like random speculation last year as during the very same period there were also talks of Najib and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah "ironing out details". Talk was that Razaleigh would have his own "independent" team contesting in the 13th general election. Much has happened since. Anwar was acquitted of his Sodomy II charge in January 2012, and while PKR was immediately jubilant, its coalition partners in Pakatan Rakyat – PAS and DAP – were wary, waiting for the "catch". Many thought the "catch" was in the appeal the government filed but that was rejected. The months in-between have been a volley of exposures by PKR's young turks with BN on the defence. Nurul Izzah, too, has come under some heavy criticism, the latest potshots came for defending religious freedom. Amidst the cacophony of disclosures and criticism from both sides, Najib has made an unprecedented number of visits to Sabah. With its 25-plus one (Labuan) parliamentary seats, Sabah is crucial to Najib's personal future. Talk is rife that deals are being struck here with individuals on the outside who are "federal friendly". Sabah is also crucial to Anwar. And he, too, has struck deals; among them with former Upko deputy chairman Wilfred Bumburing, a devout Christian whose platform Angkatan Perpaduan Sabah (APS) aims to "lead" the Christian Kadazandusun community. Sabah, like Sarawak, has a large Christian community. But unlike in Sarawak, in Sabah many are closet Christians mostly due to fear. PAS may not be significant in Sabah but one cannot discount the impact of its president Abdul Hadi Awang's headlining "I welcome being elected as the prime minister" statement on Sunday in Kelantan. Hadi supported 'unity government' call Hudud-leaning Hadi's "willingness" to be prime minister will not resonate well in Sabah where Christianity has been a victim of Umno's "Islamisation" policy dating back to the 1970s. If popular political blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin's posting on Monday is any measure, then PAS is sure of its position in Peninsular Malaysia and couldn't care less how its partners – DAP and PKR – and allies fare in Sabah in the coming election. According to Raja Petra, if PAS wins 60 seats and DAP and PKR collectively have 60 seats, then "PAS will have a say on who should be prime minister" within the opposition block. "Hence it is not impossible for Abdul Hadi to become the prime minister if PAS wins more seats than PKR and DAP," noted Raja Petra. At the closing of PAS' annual muktamar (national conference) in Kelantan on Sunday, Hadi had publicly conceded to a delegate's call that he accepts the position of prime minister if the opposition coalition wins the 13th general election. His "willingness" has reminded observers of a call he made, together with Nasharudin Mat Isa and Hasan Ali, post-2008 general election for a unity government with Umno. Hadi's call took many members by surprise and was a clear indication that PAS under his leadership was willing to compromise.
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| Divided PAS spells trouble for Pakatan Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:29 PM PST PAS has been 'penetrated' by elements with 'foreign' ideologies while its only 'national' policy is the implementation of hudud in Malaysia. Which ever way Pakatan is heading, there is one obvious element: the loose coalition is experiencing the hardships of building and creating a true "rainbow" union. And this is probably due to the resistance within the Pakatan coalition itself, while the Barisan National hard-hitting "pro-Malay" campaigns could be an added disincentive. Ali Cordoba, FMT Is PAS in a riddle? Or has it turned into a "maze-runner", lost in a battlefield where survival is only for the fittest? The fact remains that rise of the "extremist" voices within PAS is a negative element for Pakatan Rakyat. These are only two of the major woes of the Pakatan opposition, which is on a historic march to conquer Putrajaya. However, this path is rigged with troubles, which Pakatan is expected to quash well before the next general election. Which ever way Pakatan is heading, there is one obvious element: the loose coalition is experiencing the hardships of building and creating a true "rainbow" union. And this is probably due to the resistance within the Pakatan coalition itself, while the Barisan National hard-hitting "pro-Malay" campaigns could be an added disincentive. The hardships faced by PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim to build a "rainbow" coalition will surely haunt the new regime in Putrajaya, but once victory is achieved, it is certain Pakatan will overcome these woes and impose itself. While the division within PAS reflects the division among the Malay-Muslim majority in Malaysia, the DAP is enjoying the support of a large majority of the Chinese community. This is creating an imbalance that has given more room to the BN to feel cozy in its "Malay First" diatribes. And this is a significant observation since Pakatan needs a majority of the Malay community to win the 13th general election, but it has an agenda that does not satisfy half of PAS. And by extension this agenda does not satisfy a section of the Malays altogether, but it has cemented the second largest community's – the Chinese community – support for Pakatan. A divided PAS PAS today is an embarrassment with the divided leadership and this shows how PAS is a divided party from the top to its grassroots level. The division within the PAS reflects a "maligned" situation that clashes with the agenda set by Pakatan, that is, a fair, just and equitable Malaysia. Does PAS really have to bring the support of the "extreme" right Malays to impose its views in Pakatan or is the party going to be more comfortable within the BN, divided as it is? It is clear that PAS is plagued by the fact that it is a "state-based party" (jaguh kampung) with a largely divided leadership on both political and religious issues. PAS has also been "penetrated" by elements with "foreign" ideologies while its only "national" policy is the implementation of Islamic laws in Malaysia. Its clashes with Pakatan's agenda for concrete changes in Malaysia can be a turn-off to a fringe of the "non-Muslim" voters if the issue is pressed upon by the "divided" PAS leadership. It is clear at this stage that the Pakatan leadership does not want to get involved in the morass created by the "Malay" supremacy claims, which is apparently getting some support from pro-Umno PAS leaders. Would it be to Pakatan's advantage to deal a direct blow to the group of "ultras" within its ranks? Or should Pakatan wait until the election is over to impose its will? The fear of losing may have bogged down the Pakatan leadership in its decision-making process, with regard to the sensitivity of Malay-Muslim voters. This hesitation to decide on the "ultras" will have a negative effect on Pakatan. It will cause a large number of the voters on the fence to either decide to continue voting for the BN or to abstain in the election. PAS will have to take the blame for this failure to win the hearts and minds of the fence-sitters. The vote bank of the fence-sitting Malaysians will be crucial to win more seats for Pakatan and defeat the BN. It will be a double jeopardy to Pakatan in the end since a divided PAS leadership, giving the wrong signal to the population, is not the only problem it is facing while a hesitant Pakatan will not convince the undecided voters.
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| Have we become a fascist state? Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:23 PM PST Our state apparatus and its servants have become mere robots working on command of the ruling party to ensure freedom to opine is controlled if not stifled altogether It can be said that due to the education system that we have, the entrants into the police force today are of very low quality. Most of these entrants believe that by securing a job with the police and being in uniform, they are untouchable. Most are very lowly educated, most have very little knowledge of English, all they can converse in is in the national language. By P Dev Anand Pillai, FMT I wonder now which writer will be picked up for airing his opinions in public all for the betterment of Malaysians and most of all to have a thinking public which is known not to be a reading society. Though the police may have acted on the orders of their political masters i.e. the top civil servants in the home ministry who would have signaled their displeasure to the Inspector General of Police after having read the article, the police themselves have become a shame to their institution and the nation as a whole. Despite having a better educated force, we still see many officers taking orders from their superiors which makes them look like fools when they execute such orders. Have we become a fascist state that criticising national policies and the way in which the nation is run has become so dangerous that writers and publishers have become the latest targets of the police? Perhaps God may have seen what happened to Malaysiakini when the police came a calling, and that in the following days a huge disgraceful incident had happened in Prai, Penang where three policemen were accused of raping an Indonesian domestic helper who was caught without having her original passport which was being withheld by the agency which had brought her here. Instead of disciplining their own, our police force seem interested in ensuring that the freedom to opine is controlled if not stifled altogether. It can be said that due to the education system that we have, the entrants into the police force today are of very low quality. Most of these entrants believe that by securing a job with the police and being in uniform, they are untouchable. Most are very lowly educated, most have very little knowledge of English, all they can converse in is in the national language. The ones that are English speaking are usually kept as aides to the higher ranked officers who speak very little English but need to put up a good public relation stunt to show the world that they are able and highly educated policemen. Now with the secondment of Rela guards as police personnel, it makes the matter even worse. Amongst the lower strata of the Indian community who have now become urban slum and ghetto dwellers, a job with the police force is like a calling from God. They feel that it will be better to join the devil instead of getting killed by the devil all the time. So, with pleasure many will be glad to see their daughters and sons in the blue uniform although what they do is just sit around in pondoks waiting for that gullible Indon, Bangla, Burmese or Indian worker to pass by. Most don't mind that all their children will be learning is the art of corruption and how to perfect it whilst enjoying a salary from the public purse and to top it all, a pension at the end of the day. Gone are the days when we had Indian and Chinese officers whose names would be enough to put fear into the slime balls of the underworld. What we are left with today is a batch of Indian and Chinese officers who see the police force as another means of perfecting the art of patronage so that they can be as decorated as it is allowable for a non Malay in the police force. This mental state has spread to all spheres of the current regime's administration, after the DAP took power in Penang. Suddenly the Chinese in the DAP have become ultra Chinese who "hate" Malays. But when these same Chinese were in the opposition, no mention was made of this so called ultra-ism then. So what can be gained from this is, as long as compliant Chinese in the MCA are sharing the "leased out" power which is on the benevolence of Umno, all will be fine but if the DAP takes power, the Chinese there will be termed as ultras. This fear and mental state in the Malays will never be eradicated until and unless they themselves brave the challenges and come out of the mental stranglehold of the state. When queried by the press on the rape case by the police personnel, the home minister says that all has been done to bring them to justice and questions, "What else can be done?". In mature democracies, the home minister's resignation will be called for and if it is not forthcoming, public pressure will mount. If we are really to become the best democracy in the world as espoused by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, accountability shall be paramount when it comes to public office. But as usual in our administration, all we have for a term of office by this current federal government is slogans, slogans and nothing but slogans. It should have been 'People Last and What Performance?' instead of 'People First and Performance Now!' We have to learn to differ and respect the right to opine if we are serious in seeing this country not become another province of Indonesia in the future, or some backwater state of South Asia where a system of governance which is more of a system of preferences based on race instead of need and a system which does not bother about accountability that has failed miserably, leaving us far behind our other South Asian neighbours. To do that we need to show this government which has now become more of a regime because of the way in which the state apparatus and its servants (civil servants) have become more of robots working on command of the ruling party instead of going in tandem with the General Orders of Civil Service no matter which party comes to power. There is no more time to be given to rectify mistakes. Mistakes should have been rectified a long time ago. We are on the verge of being a failed state. People have got to know that only when we agree to disagree can we sow the best minds which, in turn will help us lead this country to greater heights in the future especially in Southeast Asia where our neighbours are far ahead of us.
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| Rafizi to meet HK’s anti-corruption officials tomorrow Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:20 PM PST The PKR whistleblower will meet with Hong Kong anti-corruption officials and politicians tomorrow over the RM40 million Michael Chia scandal. Patrick Lee, FMT PKR whistleblower Rafizi Ramli will travel to Hong Kong tomorrow as part of his quest to find answers over the alleged RM40 million Sabah Umno scandal. He said that the two-day trip will see him, PKR MPs William Leong (Selayang) and Hee Loy Sian (Petaling Jaya Selatan) and state assemblyman Chang Li Kang (Teja) meet with the Independent Commissions Against Corruption's (ICAC) Operations Review Committee (ORC). "The review committee can direct the ICAC to divulge certain information…We are going to get to the bottom of this," he told reporters at the National Oversight and Whistleblowers centre. Rafizi said that the committee, which was made out of ICAC-independent members, had the power to get the ICAC to take another look into closed investigations. Additionally, he and the PKR lawmakers would also meet with Hong Kong Legislative Council opposition members, including Leung Kwok-Heung (League of Social Democrats), James To Kun-Sun (Democratic Party), Raymond Wong Yuk-Man (People's Power) and Civic Party leaders. According to him, the trip, which would see him return to KL on Friday, had two objectives: to query if the ICAC's investigation of timber tycoon Michael Chia was stonewalled by the Malaysian government, and to re-open the 2008 case. In 2008, Chia was supposedly caught by ICAC officers for trying to smuggle RM40 million in Singapore dollars to Malaysia. In October this year, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz told Parliament that Chia had never been arrested, clearing him of corruption. This prompted Rafizi to reveal that Nazri's family had been using a RM459,000 Hummer vehicle that Chia owned, leaving the PKR strategic director to wonder if Nazri was in fact linked money-wise to the timber tycoon. Previously, the PKR leader also alleged that ICAC's investigation had been dropped after three years because of a supposed lack of cooperation by the Malaysian government.
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| Hadi for PM? Here’s what he really said … Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:04 PM PST
The Star has been going to town with Pas president Hadi Awang's purported ambition to become Prime Minister. So I contacted Pas central working committee member Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad to find out what was happening. Anil Netto It is not difficult to understand why The Star is playing this up. The MCA paper obviously wants to unnerve those who might be concerned about Pas leading a new federal government. Dzul sizes up what Hadi really meant. "I was there when he touched on the subject," says Dzul, "and I was listening carefully to every word he said. "When Hadi welcomed the proposal by the ulama wing chief, he was talking in jest in a cynical way. 'Syiok sahaja,' he said. "But he immediately added, if Islam was upheld, he would be willing to die the next day. Read more at: http://anilnetto.com/malaysian-politics/malaysian-elections/hadi-for-pm-heres-what-he-really-said/ |
| To PAS: Whither your direction? Posted: 19 Nov 2012 01:58 PM PST
Kim Quek
The just ended PAS annual general conference (Muktamar) has landed Pakatan Rakyat into trouble waters again. What started off on the right footing with Hadi Awang's presidential address that reflects PAS as a matured partner in solidarity and harmony with Pakatan Rakyat in hot pursuit of Putrajaya has ended in near disaster.
On the first day of the main conference on Friday,Nov 16, Hadi gave much cheers to the entire Pakatan Rakyat alliance and its supporters with a speech that hammers on common agenda and and centered on issues conducive to winning the electoral battle ahead. Even delegates debating Hadi's speech largely skirted the controversial issues of Hudud and Islamic State that could potentially disrupt unity within the Pakatan alliance.
However, this politically pragmatic approach has caused unease with the conservatives, who were disturbed by the lack of mention of implementing Hudud and other Islamic agenda, and construed such trend as deviation from PAS' original struggle which was to realize an Islamic state.
Spearheaded by the Ulamas and the Youth wing, the conservatives mounted a fight back that culminated in delegates vowing to work towards a resounding electoral success that would allow PAS to assume the leading role in the Pakatan Alliance with Hadi as prime minister. Such clamour eventually won the apparent approval of the assembly with Hadi tacitly going along with such ideas.
Little did the delegates at that hour of jubilation realize that such an ending to the Muktamar has sent a shock wave through the Chinese community, with which I am in close contact.
The first thoughts that come to their minds are notions of a PAS-dominated government with Hadi as prime minister in the post-Barisan Nasional era.
What follow are uneasy thoughts associated with a country veering towards Islamisation, things like restriction to alcohol and pork consumption and entertainment, and general conformity to Islamic practices such as gender segregation, dress codes in public places, etc. Above all these is the implementation of the much feared but little understood Hudud and the Islamic legal system, with all its vague implications. In short, such a new Pakatan rule is envisaged to adversely alter their present way of life.
Accuracy aside, these are common perceptions and initial reflexes of many in the Chinese community.
Needless to say, the electoral backlash to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in general and to PAS in particular is predictable.
Many a common Chinese PR-supporters must have been jolted into reflection and self-doubts:
• Am I in the right track in voting PR to power? • What if PAS really becomes the dominant political force with its leader as Prime Minister? • What if the country is transforming into an Islamic state?
These thoughts and doubts, if allowed to nurture and no doubt inflamed by relentless BN propaganda, will culminate in the ultimate question:
To take risk with PR which may lead to Islamisation of our way of life
OR
To keep the status quo, which no doubt is unpalatable with all its evils of racialism, corruption and abuse of power, but undeniably familiar or even comfortable (to some), having been ruled by such a political power for ages?
My bet is that a sizable portion of this electorate will prefer to remain in the comfort zone which is ruled by "the devil we know".
But of course, those well informed of current politics will remain steadfast in their determination to support PR, knowing that the chances of Islamisation in the foreseeable future are slim. This is because the Pakatan alliance works on consensus, and DAP and PKR would continue to want Anwar Ibrahim to take the premiership in a triumvirate, where PAS is unlikely to predominate.
And yet, there is the third camp of current Chinese PR-supporters, who would take the cautious approach of continuing to support PR, but will vote in such a way that PAS will not become dominant. This would mean that these voters, while continuing to vote for PKR and DAP, will refrain from voting for a PAS candidate to avoid PAS becoming dominant.
Thus PAS will become the first casualty in such an electoral backlash triggered by the Muktamar. Many PAS candidates, who may otherwise be able to squeeze through due to overwhelming Chinese support, would now be felled by BN.
Under this scenario, PKR and DAP may not suffer as much as PAS, but their hopes of reaching Putrajaya will be similarly dashed, as any electoral set-back of this size to any of the partners will prove to be fatal to the alliance's chances of winning a simple majority in such a tight race.
My estimation is that three quarter of Chinese are currently supporting PR, discounting the adverse impact of the Muktamar. On this level of Chinese support, PR will win in the next poll, unless electoral frauds far exceed those of the last election in 2008.
My sincere advice to all those who yearn to see real changes taking place in this country is to recognize the reality that this is a multi-racial country with Malays forming ony slightly above 50% of the population. It is hence totally unrealistic to force Islamisation on such a country without multi-racial consent.
There is only one future for this country, and that is the government and the people's full acceptance of multi-culturalism and happy co-existence of religions under a governance that practices universal values of justice and equality.
To those exuberant Muktamar delegates who champion PAS as the new ruler with its leader as PM, I urge them to give serious thoughts to the hard truth that they can only have ONE of the following two options:
EITHER to rule the country in equal and equitable partnership with PKR and DAP on the currently agreed common agenda
OR
To continue to force the pace of Islamisation without the expressed consent of other races, in which case, all the three partners of PR will continue to remain in the opposition for God knows how long.
The clock for the next election is ticking, and it is now up to the wisdom of the leaders of Pakatan Rakyat to undo the damage in the shortest possible time.
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| Ronnie diminta letak jawatan jika gagal tangani isu kondominium Posted: 19 Nov 2012 01:58 PM PST
(Bernama) - Anggota Exco kerajaan negeri Selangor Ronnie Liu Thian Kiew hari ini dicabar supaya meletak jawatan sekiranya tidak dapat menangani isu projek kondominium berdekatan Batu Caves yang mendapat bantahan keras daripada pelbagai pihak. Anggota Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Kota Alam Shah M.Manoharan berkata projek pembinaan kondominium 29 tingkat itu yang dirancang dibina berhampiran bukit batu kapur, dilihat menjejaskan kawasan dan penduduk di sekitarnya. "Adakah Yang Berhormat Pandamaran bersedia meletak jawatan sekiranya projek kondominium ini tidak dapat dibatalkan kerana ia dilihat mengancam agama Hindu dan struktur kuil Batu Caves berumur 100 tahun," katanya ketika mengemukakan soalan tambahan kepada Ronnie Liu (DAP-Pandamaran) pada persidangan Dewan Undangan Negeri Selangor di sini. Ronnie Liu yang juga Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Tetap Kerajaan Tempatan, Kajian dan Penyelidikan negeri berkata isu letak jawatan tidak timbul sebab kerajaan negeri telah pun mengeluarkan arahan untuk memberhentikan sementara projek pembinaan itu dan satu jawatankuasa bebas ditubuhkan bagi mengkaji kelulusan projek. Katanya kajian awal pihaknya mendapati pemaju projek kondominium itu tidak mematuhi syarat-syarat tertentu yang ditetapkan dalam kelulusan pembangunan dan kerajaan negeri mempunyai hak memberhenti ataupun membatalkan projek itu tetapi perlu dibuat secara profesional. Ronnie Liu berkata projek kondominium itu mendapat permit penjualan pengiklanan dan sebanyak 60 peratus daripada sejumlah 400 unit rumah telah dijual. Projek pembinaan kondominium itu mendapat perhatian apabila Jawatankuasa Kuil Sri Subramaniam Swamy Devasthanam Batu Caves melakukan bantahan terhadap projek berkenaan yang didakwa akan menjejaskan pemandangan dan struktur kuil berkenaan. Justeru kerajaan Selangor mengarahkan pemaju untuk menghentikan pembinaan kondominium itu untuk memberi laluan kepada siasatan dijalankan.
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| Posted: 19 Nov 2012 01:48 PM PST
Dump Islam, go for Science. It is difficult, but it will bring you enlightenment. You will bow lower than a Muslim when you KNOW how powerful the God of The Universe is. Mad Scientist (In reply to Zack on the Sultans) Dear Zack, The answer to your question is this short essay I am writing for you below. Your question was: "if adat resam and religion was so taboo a subject to even talk about openly let alone to promulgate to a Malay person let alone to a Malay Sultan, what made our Sultans at that time to suddenly allow the preaching of this new religion (Islam) and to even embrace it wholeheartedly and in doing so, to have all his subjects also simultaneously embrace not only this new religion but its traditions too?" 2. Item (1) is not really an Issue, yet. What is the real problem is that these missionaries Arabs taught only the legal aspects of Islam, not the science and plentiful medical advances, not the philosophy. Perhaps they themselves did not know or perhaps they were selfish and did not want to impart too much knowledge. Whatever the reason, the Islam that came to the shores of Malaya is the primitive backward retarded version, meant exclusively for ruling. 3. The Ruler at the time, or Sultan chose Islam and decreed that everyone should follow suit as a demonstration of power, as a change of governing method, and as a clear advantageous religion to use for ruling. The majority Malays simply followed. If you went against the Sultan in those days, I cannot imagine what would happen to you. Even today we can see how one person at least got visits from the police for saying something about a certain Sultan. Thus Malays became Muslims. 4. Hence, what made the Sultan change religion is the influence and teachings of these Arab Missionaries. Our history books revealed how the Malays were impressed by these Arab Muslims, praying by the seaside. They wonder what religion the Arabs were. Such statement indicates the Malays were already impressed, hence the Arab Missionaries must have had an easy time with their "dakwah" effort. 5. Note also in history these Arabs were successful traders and became rich trading in our Spices to Europeans who needed them. This was before the British and other Europeans found out where the Spices came from and refused to buy and pay the exorbitant prices the Arabs were charging them. All this you can verify from historical records and books. 6. When the British came, they studied our Malay system and concluded the Sultan is the best person to deal with. To cut a long story short, by way of agreements with the Sultans, the British got Penang, Singapore, Port Dickson, and perhaps the entire Malaya under their influence, and kept the Sultans as ruler for the Malays, as they know the Sultans have a good grip on the Malays and the Malays need their Sultans, until today. It can be argued that the British are very clever occupants of Malaya. The Malays got their Sultans and Political Power while the British got the loot, which of course they shared with the Sultans. 7. Islamic Medical science and other Sciences, of which there is plentiful and very advanced, relatively speaking, never reached the shores of Malaya, perhaps never allowed to. Many million of Muslims do not even know the word camera comes from the Arab word "kamar" which means room (as in dark room for photography) and the word alcohol comes from none other than Al-Kohl, the discoverer of well, alcohol! I am going to end this essay with a simple solution for Muslims. Dump Islam, go for Science. It is difficult, but it will bring you enlightenment. You will bow lower than a Muslim when you KNOW how powerful the God of The Universe is. As for God, it is a personal choice. I choose to hang on to my belief in God, and am thus a Deist, not an Atheist. Some may prefer Atheism. Some prefer to be Gay. Whatever makes you happy! written by zack, November 13, 2012 03:00:10 Dear RPK, In the wake of the current news surrounding the notion that there shall be no compulsion in religion, i have a question that i have been meaning to ask for quite some time. We love our Sultans, there is no doubt about that. We love our Sultans to the extent that what the Sultans believe is what we believe and it goes to the issue of religion also, in so far as the Malays are concerned. Religion and adat resam went hand in hand from the old days and was strictly adhered to so much so that it was taboo for anyone to question it. It was a fact from the earliest of times in our country that trying to take a Malay out from his religion or his adat resam was out of the question. In this context we immediately think about Islam being the religion of the Malays. But history tells us that the Sultans used to be Hindu and all Malays at that time were also Hindu and the adat resam that was practiced was in all probability the Hindu adat resam. This perhaps explains why our bersanding and majlis berinai and baju melayu bear much resemblance to Hindu traditions. Then all of a sudden, well at least that is how the History books put it, the Sultans embraced Islam and every single Malay person followed suit without question. My question is, if adat resam and religion was so taboo a subject to even talk about openly let alone to promulgate to a Malay person let alone to a Malay Sultan, what made our Sultans at that time to suddenly allow the preaching of this new religion (Islam) and to even embrace it wholeheartedly and in doing so, to have all his subjects also simultaneously embrace not only this new religion but its traditions too? p.s. please do not post this question if you view it offensive. apart from seeking some clarifications, i certainly do not intend any publication which may be offensive to any person.
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| Parents question the credibility of the Government in its decision to abolish PPSMI Posted: 19 Nov 2012 01:37 PM PST
Shamsudin Hamid, Coordinator Concerned Parents Selangor Representing over 12,000 active members of the Concerned Parents Selangor (CPS), we participated in the dialogue on the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB) held recently at the Sunway Convention Centre. At the end of the session, when participants were invited to present their views; we raised several questions on the rationale for the abolishing of PPSMI, and the reasons why certain matters pertaining to it are left out of the MEB. It was indeed most disappointing and shocking when the Dialogue Session Chairman by way of an answer gave a terse one sentence reply - "PPSMI telah digantikan oleh MBMMBI, itu sahaja saya boleh katakan". It was as if the issue raised was a taboo subject, and it gives rise to the assumption that government servants especially from the Ministry of Education (MOE) are prohibited from talking about it. The fact that the MEB mentioned PPSMI in only about three sentences, gives credence to this assumption. After referring to several recent public letters on the issue notably: "Continue PPSMI for greater good of nation" (Star Oct.17), "We need confirmation" (Star Oct.22), "Is the abolition of PPSMI truly justified" (Star Oct.28), "PPSMI advocates disappointed" (Star Nov.6), "Stop politicising teaching of English" (Star Nov.8); and the knowledge of our members' opinions on the matter, we can only conclude that the MOE have not been transparent in its undertakings. Worse, we parents believe that the credibility of the MOE is truly questionable when we consider the sequence of events from July 2009 when PPSMI was abolished until today. This sequence of events are: 1. The decision to abolish PPSMI in July 2009 was made suddenly without prior consultation with stakeholders or interested parties. It lacked transparency as reported in the UNESCO report. It was also made after demonstrations by 'Malay language nationalists' (headed by Samad Said) lion against the use of English in the study of science and mathematics. Hence the true motive behind the decision to suddenly abolish PPSMI is open to question. 2. On instructions of the MOE, school PIBGs were not allowed to discuss or deliberate on the matter. Schools which persisted in raising the issue were punished. A case in point is the SRK Assunta in Petaling Jaya which for 51 years acted as a feeder school for SMK Assunta. In Nov. 2009, PIBGs of both SRK Assunta 1 and 2 persisted in having EGMs to vote on the matter whereby by secret ballot, 93% of parents voted for the continuation of PPSMI. Consequently, on specific instructions of the Pejabat Pelajaran Daerah (PPD) Petaling, the majority of students were not allowed to go to SMK Assunta after Std. 6 but dispersed to various other schools in the district without parents given time to appeal. It was only after a spontaneous demonstration by affected parents which was covered by NTV7 1pm News on the same day, was the instructions rescinded by the PPD.(http://thestar.com/news/educ). 3. More than half a million parents voted for the continuation of PPSMI in online surveys conducted by PAGE KL and Penang, Che Det's portal and the MOEs website itself. This fact has never been acknowledged nor taken into consideration in the NEB (Source: News reports and the website portals themselves.) 4. A similar fate befell the thousands of individual letters appealing for the reinstatement of PPSMI sent from all over the country. (http://staronline/news/visuals) 5. In Nov.2011, the MOE stated that in September, it had conducted a survey in schools nationwide to determine the efficacy and results of PPSMI. They announced that based on the statistics obtained, PPSMI had failed in its objectives. Only some selective statistics were made public as justification. Alluding to the OSA, the complete survey reports and statistics were not made available for scrutiny by the public. However in September 2012 a series of reports and statistics were published by PAGE (Parents Action Group on Education), which totally disproves the earlier MOE claims of PPSMI having failed. (Sunday Star 23 Sept.PAGE sources: Malaysia Educational Statistics 2009, 2011 and 2012, EPRD, MOE and the Millennium Goals at 2010). 6. The pledges given by the MOE for a 'soft landing' to parents who opted that their children continue learning science and mathematics in English, have not been fully fulfilled. 7. Due to demands from parent groups, MOE had beginning late 2011 until early 2012, appointed various private panels and think-tanks to provide views on PPSMI. Amongst others, were the Education Review Panel headed by Tan Sri Dzulkifly Abdul Razak and comprised of eminent personalities from the private sector. The National Education Dialogue Panel headed by Tan Sri Wan Zahid Noordin. It was reported that the consensus arrived by these panels were all generally in favour for the reinstatement of PPSMI in essence. The big question mark here is whether the inputs of these panels were taken into consideration in drafting the MEB. 8. The Korean foreign consultant to the MEB panel who was a former education minister in his country, perhaps in deference to the DPM had failed to mention one significant fact. Even if he had, it was not mentioned in the MEB or perhaps even deliberately omitted. The fact of the matter is that not long after PPSMI was introduced in Malaysia under the administration of Tun Dr Mahathir, the Korean government invited top educationists from a prominent institute of higher learning here in Malaysia to advise and instruct the Korean MOE on the implementation of PPSMI there. It is still in practice today. 9. There is a parallel national education system under the Ministry of Rural Development whose Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM), offer 'O' and 'A' level courses under the UK General Certificate of Education (GCE) syllabus; which provides the teaching of Maths and Science in English. MRSM whose student intake is limited to bumiputra students especially from rural areas, is perceived as being discriminatory towards non bumiputra parents whose only wish is to have their children continue learning the said subjects in English. Rightly or wrongly, this perception is real and worse, it has transformed into a general anti government stance by non bumiputra parents especially those from the urban areas. 10. Recently the Hon. Minister of Education announced certain incentives like a tax break, book subsidies and a grant or loan be given to parents whose children opts to study science. Question here is if the whole matter has been well planned in the first place, why was it not mentioned in the MEB. Or was the announcement made to assuage the disquiet of parents who recently raised the issue of the MOE plans to achieve a 60% intake of science stream students in schools. From the above summary of events, one can only conclude that the MOEs' credibility in carrying out its responsibilities as the prime mover in transforming the country's education (and social) landscape, is severely questioned. The fact that the whole education issue has been politicised by certain quarters within the government and without, cannot be denied. This whole episode simply does not augur well for the openness and the 'listening to the rakyat' credo that the government is promoting.
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| Malaysians overseas will be allowed to vote Posted: 18 Nov 2012 06:19 PM PST
Pakatan Rakyat MPs were also promised by the Election Commission that Rela officers would remain as normal voters. G Vinod, FMT The Election Commission (EC) today promised to get the Parliament to gazette regulations to allow Malaysians overseas to vote in the next general election. DAP MP Anthony Loke said this at a press conference held at the Parliament lobby today. Also present were PKR MPs Fuziah Salleh and Nurul Izzah Anwar. This was revealed to the parliamentarians by the EC is a meeting held at the Parliament secretariat room. The meeting was chaired by EC chairman Abdul Aziz Yusof and his deputy Wan Ahmad Wan Omar. The nearly three hours meeting was attended by about 50 MPs from both sides of the political divide. Loke, who is Rasah MP, said he was glad by the assurance given by the EC. However, he also reminded the electoral body that they had only two weeks to gazette the required regulations. "I told them that they only have two weeks. The next parliamentary session will be held only after the 13th general election," he said. Loke added that Abdul Aziz also promised that military and police officers would be called for advanced voting, instead of being postal voters, for the general election except for those serving overseas and at the borders. "He also assured that Rela officers will not be postal voters and categorised as normal voters," he said. On related matter, Fuziah said that Pakatan leaders were concerned over some reports that Rela officers may be turned into postal voters and Abdul Aziz's assurance was timely. The Kuantan MP said that a parliamentary constituency would have between 8,000 and 10,000 Rela members, which could affect an area's electoral results.
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| Posted: 18 Nov 2012 05:37 PM PST
The Malaysian police know I live in Manchester. Malaysians in the UK know I live in Manchester. Malaysians in Australia, New Zealand, the US, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc., know I live in Manchester. The Malaysian High Commission in London and the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur know I live in Manchester. Only Victor Lim alone thinks I live in Dr Mahathir's apartment in London. He knows that but he does not know what the address is or whether Dr Mahathir really does own an apartment in London. NO HOLDS BARRED Raja Petra Kamarudin The right to choose Lim Sue Goan, Sin Chew Daily The most valuable part of a democratic and pluralistic society is the right to choose. Everyone can choose to support anything they think is right. The United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) rally scheduled on November 25 with the objective to pressure the government is a choice of struggle. The United Chinese School Teachers Association (Jiao Zong) and the Federation of Chinese Associations of Malaysia (Hua Zong) have the right not to participate and choose to correct the unreasonable content in the National Education Blueprint preliminary report through communication and follow-up. Similar to anti-environment movements, some people chose to take part in the 300km Kuantan-KL Green Walk. Their persistence and perseverance has won respect and admiration. In politics, people also have the right to choose whether to change the government, strengthen the two-party-system or maintain the status quo. Changing the government is an ideal and it can hardly become a reality if only a small number of people are supporting it. Therefore, the ruling and alternative coalitions must convey their political programmes and policies to the public through various platforms, including mass assemblies and annual general assemblies to fight for more support. To me, the Pakatan Rakyat's performance has not yet reached my personal demand. However, as I believe that democracy requires checks and balances, I support the two-party system. If the majority supports the two-party system, it is possible to bring a major change. In a democratic country, everyone has the right to choose based on his/her own judgement and cognitive thinking. Therefore, it is not necessary for others to be so nervous or intimidate them into changing their stand. Many people are confused about the meaning of democracy due to the intense political struggle. Some people are excessively fanatical to the extent of slandering and labelling those who have made a different choice. French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher Voltaire said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Who can still remember the words? Many people have instead lost their magnanimity and tolerance and attack whoever say something unpleasant. Democracy should never be like this. All people make mistakes, regardless of how just they claimed themselves are. Calling themselves just does not mean that they cannot be criticised and corrected. The BN has indeed made many mistakes and there is much room for improvement. Similarly, the Pakatan Rakyat state governments also have many inadequacies in governance. Being overly emotional has caused everyone unable to see the reality clearly. Back to the Dong Zong rally, it is a peaceful civil demonstration and it is not necessary to label it as an "anti-government" movement. Adopting the path of dialogue to fight is not "heinous crime" either. Why can't the Chinese organisations work together to achieve the same goal since all of them are serving the Chinese community? Without tolerance and the sense of balance, it could end up following the path of politics, namely people categorise those who are not called friends as enemies. Most Chinese affairs are of voluntary or conscience nature. If it evolves into a life-and-death game, the Chinese community will first collapse before the winner of the political game is decided. Life was boring and monotonic in the past when people were not granted the right to choose. It is good to have choice. But choices also bring us confusion and distress. As the general election is approaching, people become more and more impetuous. We must first calm down to avoid being diverted by "choices". ******************************************** The day Najib outfoxed all Malaysians… Victor Lim, Free Malaysia Today Now, wasn't it Daim who predicted that five states would fall prior to the 2008 political tsunami? And it was correct – Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor and Kelantan. And who and where this prediction was first publicised? Raja Petra Kamarudin's (RPK's) Malaysia-Today (MT) news portal. Malaysians who have been following RPK's writings were shocked, when after the 2008 general election, he began associating himself with Mahathir – meeting his sifu (master) in his Petronas twin-tower office. Many could not understand or believe how RPK, who was so vocal against BN-Umno and one of the pioneers of the Free Anwar Reformasi Movement, could make such an about turn. Many MT readers are still puzzled and cannot believe what was happening and why RPK's writings started to slant towards Umno. However, RPK's slant is now cautiously back to the Opposition, championing the need to change? What's going on? Simple! The cyber mercenary writer is financially backed by Mahathir and Daim. In 2008, Mahathir and Daim's common political pest was Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. So, RPK's mission was to destabilise and erode support for Umno and Abdullah. It worked wonderfully, and as they say, the rest is history. Now, Mahathir and Daim's common political enemy is Najib. And do you now see the similar strategic political attacks from Mahathir and RPK? If you still don't believe that Mahathir and Daim are RPK's sponsors, then you give me the answers to the following questions: * RPK was the one who came up with the damning statutory declaration that implicated Najib and his wife, Rosmah, in the murder of Mongolian interpreter Altantuya Shaariibuu and the link to the Scorpene submarines' graft allegations. Why? * RPK was picked up by police and then charged. But after he was released on bail, how the hell did such a high profile political figure leave the country undetected? * Who had the power and influence to facilitate his (RPK's) migration? This was what I posted about RPK on Sept 10, 2012. Talk is spreading like wild fire in Malaysia that the famous or infamous cyber operator, depending on which side of the political divide you stand, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, or more popularly referred to as RPK, is residing in an apartment in London belonging to the racist former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed. RPK can feel free to clarify or attack me as we believe in freedom of speech and democracy, don't we? ******************************************** When the issue favours the Chinese cause, they will scream democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, the right to choose, agree to disagree, and so on. However, if it does not favour the Chinese cause, they will scream you are a turncoat, traitor, Trojan horse, frog, mole, you have been bought, and much more. That is the ugly side of the Chinese. Freedom means freedom to agree with me, not freedom to disagree with me. To people like Victor Lim, if you say or write anything that is perceived as pro-government, then this means you have been paid to do so. What about those who say or write something perceived as pro-opposition? Does this not also mean you have been paid to do so? No! It does not. That just means you are noble. Those who support the opposition are noble. And if you do not support the opposition that can only mean one thing -- you support the government. It is like religion. Either you are a Muslim or you are a Christian. And if you are not a Christian then you must surely be a Muslim. That is the only logical explanation. To Victor Lim, your very action of not supporting the opposition is 'evidence' you have been paid. Using that same yardstick as 'proof of guilt', we will have to assume that Victor Lim is also a paid writer and his master must surely be Tian Chua. Can we, therefore, accept whatever Victor Lim says as the truth? Paid writers like Victor Lim would definitely lie through their teeth. Victor Lim says he believes in democracy and freedom of speech. But when I exercise my democratic right of freedom of speech he vilifies me. The Malays call this bikin tak serupa cakap. Is this a Chinese cultural thing or what? Is this the best the so-called 5,000 years of Chinese 'civilisation' can produce? You appear puzzled as to why very few Malays trust the Chinese. Well, that's because the Malays know that bikin tak serupa cakap type of people just cannot be trusted. Probably 50 or more Malaysians have come to my house in Manchester, many of them Malaysians from Malaysia. Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, Zaid Ibrahim, Mat Sabu, Saari Sungib, and many more have all been to my house -- some even spent the night at my house. There are many more Malaysians from London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Reading, Scotland -- in fact, from almost every city in the UK -- who have visited me in Manchester. Yet Victor Lim says: Raja Petra Kamaruddin, or more popularly referred to as RPK, is residing in an apartment in London belonging to the racist former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed. And he can't even get the spelling of my name right. It is Raja Petra Kamarudin and not Raja Petra Kamaruddin. And what Free Anwar Reformasi Movement is Victor Lim talking about? Clearly Victor Lim tembak only. There is so such movement called Free Anwar Reformasi Movement. This is a fabrication by Victor Lim. Anyway, what is the address of Dr Mahathir's apartment? Does Dr Mahathir even own an apartment in London in the first place? And when did I move in to that apartment? So you see, Victor Lim is bullshitting because I have never lived in London (at least not since 1956), never mind in whose apartment in London. I have been living in Manchester since the day I arrived. In fact, my family has been living in Manchester for 11 years now, since 2001, eight years before I came over. The Malaysian police know I live in Manchester. Malaysians in the UK know I live in Manchester. Malaysians in Australia, New Zealand, the US, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc., know I live in Manchester. The Malaysian High Commission in London and the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur know I live in Manchester. Only Victor Lim alone thinks I live in Dr Mahathir's apartment in London. He knows that but he does not know what the address is or whether Dr Mahathir really does own an apartment in London. Can you see how they lie? And to these types of people lying comes under the category of freedom of speech. But if you were to reply to that lie, that is not considered freedom of speech. Freedom of speech means they can say things about you but you can't say things about them. Budaya apa ni? Budaya 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation ke? Victor Lim also said: Malaysians who have been following RPK's writings were shocked, when after the 2008 general election, he began associating himself with Mahathir – meeting his sifu (master) in his Petronas twin-tower office. That is another lie. I started 'associating' with Dr Mahathir back in 2006 when Malaysia Today organised a dialogue session with the ex-Prime Minister in the Kelab Century Paradise on 24th June 2006. (I even uploaded the video recordings onto the Internet). And you can read the text of Dr Mahathir's speech here: http://kasitarukaje.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/teks-ucapan-tun-dr-mahathir-mohamad.html In fact, in the 2006 PKR annual general assembly in Penang, Azmin Ali whacked me in his speech. And Anwar Ibrahim sat there on stage smirking like the cat that had swallowed the canary as Azmin Ali whacked me for 'bersekongkong dengan Dr Mahathir Mohamed'. Hence, if you want to accuse me of 'collaborating' with Dr Mahathir then this collaboration started more than six years ago and two years before the 2008 general election. And if I had collaborated with Dr Mahathir more than six years ago and two years before the 2008 general election, how can I be a turncoat? A turncoat is someone who changes sides. I never changed sides after the 2008 general election. I have been with Dr Mahathir since two years BEFORE the 2008 general election. And do you know what? Many PAS and DAP leaders -- and many of them top leaders at that, too -- also attended that 24th June 2006 dialogue with Dr Mahathir. Even the ex-PKR Deputy President turned up. So what have you got to say about all those PAS, DAP and PKR leaders who attended that dialogue with Dr Mahathir organised by Malaysia Today at the Kelab Century Paradise on 24th June 2006? In the Kota Bharu dialogue the following month, the Kelantan Menteri Besar, Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat, attended the session and shared the stage with Dr Mahathir. He also attended the dinner in honour of Dr Mahathir that same night. Nik Aziz felt he needed to play host to the ex-Prime Minister since he (Nik Aziz) is, after, all the Menteri Besar of Kelantan. Maybe the Pakatan Rakyat supporters should learn how to tell the truth for once. You accuse Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, NST, The Star, TV3, RTM, etc. of lying. But what difference are the opposition supporters? You are as blatant in your lying as the people you accuse of lying. And why do you not respond, point-by-point, to the issues I have raised? I have been raising many issues since the mid-1990s -- ever since I first started writing for Harakah in 1997 and I first launched my own website in 1994. What I am saying now is what I have been saying for the last 18 years. What am I saying now that I did not say back in the 1990s? If I am wrong then rebut me with what you think is the truth. But you don't do that. Instead of replying, you just hurl allegations against me and totally ignore what I say. And the only 'rebuttal' thus far is just a plain denial. Denial is no defence. If it is then Najib Tun Razak never met Altantuya Shaariibuu since he has denied meeting her. In short, you know what I say is correct and you know there is no way you can rebut what I say. Hence you ignore what I say and do not reply to it and instead make all sorts of allegations, which are very far from the truth. This is just like those Umno blogs that say I live in London and that one day I was so drunk I fell into a monsoon drain. Many kampong-minded Umno supporters who have never been to London and do not know that the UK does not have a monsoon season and London does not have monsoon drains will, of course, believe this story. These opposition diehards are just the reverse of the same coin called Umno. They are all cut from the same cloth. Their doctrine is: you are free to agree with me but God help you if you say something that I don't like. Oh, by the way, take a look at the picture below. Today, some people in PAS are saying that they want Tok Guru Abdul Hadi Awang instead of Anwar Ibrahim to be the Prime Minister of Malaysia if Pakatan Rakyat wins the next general election. I already 'said' this four years ago. And if you can't interpret what that picture means then you are dumber than I thought. |
| Posted: 18 Nov 2012 03:25 PM PST
DAP vice-chairman criticises politicians for continuing to raise issue 'despite futulity of it' (The Malay Mail) - PAS's vision of implementing hudud is as good as building castles in the air. DAP national vice-chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw said the notion of implementing hudud law in Malaysia was "pure politics, nothing else". "In order to implement it, you need a two-thirds majority in Parliament and then only can the Constitution be amended," he told reporters after addressing a crowd at Kepong Baru from the party's new election campaigning vehicle, the "Dream Machine". "Are you sure you can get the two-thirds majority? I say, dream on." Tan said all religions, including Islam, did not espouse their followers to force their beliefs upon other people, and the matter of institutionalising Islamic law should be treated as such. He criticised politicians for continuously raising the matter despite the futility of it. "You know it cannot be done, why talk about it?" he said. PAS had previously called for the implementation of hudud law, and the Opposition's victory in several states after the 2008 general election had only served to bolster its claims. However, several key leaders within DAP have opposed the idea. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak had said implementing hudud law was not feasible in a multi-ethnic country like Malaysia but had yet to reveal Umno's stand on the issue. On another matter, DAP is planning to increase the number of vehicles to be used for campaigning in the lead up to the elections. Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, who was present at the event, said DAP had one 22-wheeler truck, called the "Dream Machine", that will be used for campaigning. However, to meet popular demand, the party is planning to use another two 22-wheeler trucks for campaigning. "We have received too many requests from people for us to make more visits to their constituencies," he said. Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng and Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun were also present at the event. Lim said the "Dream Machine" will spend at least a day in each state.
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| Guan Eng: We follow PR consensus that Anwar is prime minister Posted: 18 Nov 2012 02:32 PM PST
(The Star) - The DAP is sticking with the consensus made by the Pakatan Rakyat that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim be Prime Minister if the coalition wins in the general election. DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said it has always been Pakatan's stand that the candidate for prime minister should be the Opposition Leader. "As far as DAP is concerned and based on what Pakatan had agreed, we go by the consensus and the choice for prime minister is Anwar." "We stick by what has been agreed all along," he told reporters when at the Parliament lobby. On PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang's statement that he welcomed calls that he be made prime minister, Lim said: "He has the freedom of expression and right to say it." Hadi told reporters after the party's congress over the weekend that he was thrilled to be prime minister. The Ulama and Muslimat wings of the party also reiterated their demands for Hadi to lead the nation.
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| BN must explain rise of apostasy Posted: 18 Nov 2012 02:19 PM PST This ongoing Nurul Izzah bashing has exposed the true weaknesses of the Barisan Nasional regime. The onus is purely on the ruling coalition to explain to the nation in general what has happened under its rule and how "100,000 Muslims" became "apostates" today. Amir Ali, FMT The recent spate of criticism against Nurul Izzah Anwar, the daughter of PKR de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, on the issue of religious freedom and the comments she made on the matter are at times hilarious and otherwise "fishy". According to the mainstream media (MSM), the MP for Lembah Pantai has breached an "Islamic" principle in calling for the "freedom" of religion of Muslims who want to leave Islam. And for that, she deserved jail or a severe sentence that would cripple her political career. With this in mind, the "witch-hunters" are rubbing their hands at the prospects of hitting hard at PKR as the party that supports "apostasy", hence a party that is against Malays, Islam and peace in the country. Let's take a look at the realities in Malaysia, when it comes to murtad or "apostasy". There's no denying that there exist Malays who have left Islam and left the country altogether, thus taking the "freedom of religion" into their own hands. There is also no denying that there are attempts by some forces, be they local or foreign, to champion the case of "apostates" in Malaysia. These are prominent on the Internet and a simple search of "murtad" in Malaysia will reveal the extent of the discussions and the number of forums regarding the issue. There are also reports by high-level personalities in Malaysia that "apostasy" has reached an alarming level in the country. It is reported by some blogs such as sebaikbaikcahaya.com that there are 100,000 murtads in Malaysia and the number is rising. In the 1990s, some political figures who were in the opposition but have since climbed onto the Barisan National bandwagon indicated there were at least 5,000 cases of murtad in Malaysia. There is thus an undeniable increase in the number of Muslims who are leaving their faith. Attacking Nurul Izzah on her comments is easy for the BN and Umno. However, the responsibility as it is inscribed in Islam, rests with the people who are running the country. It is not the responsibility of the "opposition" which incidentally is also not to be blamed for the rise in murtad in Malaysia. The onus is purely on the ruling coalition to explain to the nation in general what has happened under its rule and how "100,000 Muslims" became "apostates" today. The focus on Nurul Izzah is simply another political gimmick by the BN to divert attention from Janji Di-Capati which is the slogan used by the Pakatan Rakyat to debunk Janji Ditepati. The opposition PKR and the PAS have no real reason to promote "apostasy" among Muslims. Hence, it is not possible to finger-point the opposition or its member Nurul Izzah on the matter. The constant attacks on Nurul Izzah is altogether a desperate act by a regime that has failed in its "defence" of Islam as it has claimed this as its "success story". Thus, there is no way for the "rakyat" to believe that the opposition has a "hidden agenda" in promoting murtad in the country. Nevertheless, deep within the Malay community, there are concerns that many among them who do not observe the rites and rituals of Islam are claiming to be "Bumiputeras". And these "lost folks" who are not really "Muslims" in their heart, are getting the benefits reserved for Malay-Muslims. The question many are asking is whether there should be a clear distinction between the "true, Malay-Muslims" and the "apostates" who are surviving under the disguise of being "Muslims".
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| Hindraf is with Karpal on hudud, Islamic state Posted: 18 Nov 2012 02:15 PM PST Hindraf Makkal Sakti feels that more Pakatan Rakyat leaders must speak up against PAS' extreme Islamist stand (FMT) - DAP chairman Karpal Singh is the lone voice against PAS' Islamist stand and this does not auger well for the non-Muslims in the country. Hindraf Makkal Sakti feels that when other Pakatan Rakyat leaders do not speak up againt PAS, the right of non-Muslims will be pushed aside if the coalition comes into power. Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy said DAP and PKR leaders' silence raised suspicions that they would not defend the rights of over 12 million non-Muslim citizens if PAS pushed for an Islamic state. He said their silence suggested that MCA theory of PAS to establish Islamic theocracy by amending the Federal Constitution with the help of all Muslim MPs from Pakatan and Barisan Nasional could be right. "Will PKR and Umno MPs vote against PAS Islamist initiatives? It is a million dollar question that only time will answer," the Hindraf leader told FMT here today. He said Hindraf like many other concerned NGOs were baffled on why others in DAP and PKR, especially non-Muslim leaders like Lim Kit Siang and his son Guan Eng, were silent on this issue. "Just imagine if there was no Karpal, no one in Pakatan would be voicing out against PAS.The DAP supremo is the only leader defending non-Muslim rights. Right thinking citizens should back him. He critised PAS of being fanatical in establishing an Islamic state and introducing hudud law, pointing out that an Islamist agenda was unconstitutional and would rock the very foundation of formation of Malaysia in 1963. He reminded that freedom of religion and, absolute protection of rights of natives to their own land, religion, culture and custom were among main conditions agreed upon by all parties when Malaysia was formed with merger of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore.
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| Analysts: Hadi as PM is a moot issue Posted: 18 Nov 2012 02:13 PM PST Pundits shrug of calls at PAS muktamar as having little importance. Patrick Lee, FMT Political pundits attach little importance to calls for PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang to become Malaysia's next prime minister. At least four prominent analysts seem agreed that it will not affect Pakatan Rakyat's solidarity. They said the opposition alliance had firmly decided on Anwar Ibrahim's premiership even if some PAS members were averse to the idea. "This will not cause a rift in Pakatan because its leadership has formally agreed that Anwar will be picked as PM," said James Chin, a professor at Monash University. Chin was referring to the repeated endorsement of Abdul Hadi as premier-in-waiting during last weekend's PAS muktamar. Delegates who made the call included those of PAS's Ulama wing. Independent analyst Khoo Kay Peng said the PAS leader was never in the running for the prime minister's position. "I don't think this will be taken seriously, unless it is endorsed by the highest of PAS's leadership," he said. Furthermore, he added, Abdul Hadi might not make a better PM than Anwar, given their large differences in experience and international image. He noted that Anwar had held various ministerial posts, including that of deputy prime minister. Denison Jayasooria, a research fellow at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, said having a well-balanced federal cabinet was more important than deciding who should be PM. He also advised Pakatan to focus more on a comprehensive policy direction rather than on the PM's position. Universiti Malaya's Azmi Sharom said the question was premature and would not matter if Pakatan were to lose the coming general election. He pointed out that a potential PM needed first to win a seat, win the confidence of the majority of Parliament and have the endorsement of the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong. He said that there was no way, at present, of knowing whether either Anwar or Abdul Hadi would win a seat in the 13th general election.
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| Hadi as PM: Is Najib responsible? Posted: 18 Nov 2012 02:06 PM PST Was there a 'deal' between Anwar Ibrahim and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak over Sodomy II; leading to the PAS dilemma over Anwar? Teoh El Sen, FMT Firebrand blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin has suggested that there may have been a 'deal' between Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim prior to the latter's acquittal in the Sodomy II charge in January this year. In his latest posting "Does ABU equal to Anwar-for-PM?", Raja Petra said that about a month before Anwar was acquitted, there was already news filtering out from Umno that Anwar would be freed, adding that the information came from 'high-ups' in Umno and was told to him by lawyer-activist Haris Ibrahim. "Sam [Haris] received from his contacts in Umno that Anwar would be acquitted from the 'Sodomy 2' charge. The information that Sam received was that Najib had made a deal with Anwar. However, it was not too clear what type of deal it was," wrote Raja Petra. He said that Anwar's acquittal would 'more or less confirm' that the latter had turned "Umno Trojan horse". Raja Petra also referred to the latest statements by the PAS Ulama and Muslimat wings' supporting party president Abdul Hadi Awang to be made prime minister, saying that this may have been in response to Anwar's unexpected acquittal. "We were not the only ones caught gasping by Anwar's acquittal. PAS, too, could not accept Anwar as prime minister. But for them to renounce Anwar would have been 'bad politics'. However, if Anwar were convicted for Sodomy 2, then the problem would solve itself. "Due to Anwar's conviction for Sodomy 2, he would be disqualified from becoming prime minister even if Pakatan Rakyat wins enough seats to form the next federal government," he wrote. "If Anwar had been convicted for Sodomy 2, it would have been considered 'good politics', said Raja Petra. According to Raja Petra, jailing Anwar would have had a adverse effect on Barisan Nasiona (BN). "The sympathy factor would be high and Anwar could be 'marketed' as a martyr and a victim of injustice. Having Anwar in jail would benefit the opposition a great deal. "Plus it would solve the additional problem of not having him as the Prime Minister in the event Pakatan Rakyat gets to form the federal government," he said. Was acquittal an independent decision? Raja Petra said PM Najib may have realised that acquitting Anwar worked better for BN than putting him in jail. "Najib, too, knew that PAS did not want Anwar as prime minister. Hence the prime minister would be doing PAS a favour by putting Anwar in jail. "But if Anwar were to be acquitted, then PAS would face a dilemma. Do they (PAS) keep quiet and accept Anwar as prime minister or do they openly declare that they cannot accept Anwar as prime minister?" "Was Anwar's acquittal an independent decision by the judge or was the judge's decision to acquit Anwar a brilliant political move by Najib to drive a wedge between PAS and PKR (plus also now between PAS and DAP it seems)?"
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| Posted: 18 Nov 2012 10:23 AM PST
Joceline Tan, The Star The trouble is that none among the second echelon has that X-factor needed to lead the party. The current top ulama leadership dates back to the early years of PAS. They have aged and some are sickly. PAS' final muktamar before the mother of all battles ended on a note that left doubts as to whether the party is ready for prime-time politics. ABU Kassim Abdullah is the most witty man in PAS. The Kedah-born permanent chairman of PAS has the ability to make everyone, including the stern-faced Datuk Seri Hadi Awang, laugh out loud at his cheeky remarks and pantun on stage. His jokes sometimes bite and poke at PAS leaders, but he never offends. Some of the ladies in the Muslimat wing complain he makes too many jokes about men with more than one wife and big families, but they still laugh along. He is unapologetic because he has two wives and many children and grandchildren. No one can do it quite like him and PAS members say it is a God-given talent. His hair has turned grey and his goatee looks unkempt, but Abu Kassim's humourous personality was one of the few familiar things at the muktamar this year. PAS is basically on unfamiliar territory. It is part of a coalition that has never been this close to power. Yet, many in the party are unsure whether the purity of the party's Islamic agenda is being compromised. After three days of political speeches, delegates are going home with their heads filled with conflicting messages. On the one hand, they are told to downplay contentious issues like hudud law and the Islamic State as they prepare to face the general election. On the other hand, there are leaders cautioning the party not to stray from its origins as an Islamic party. One delegate even asked: "What good is winning Putrajaya if it means that we have to forego our Islamic goal?" The calls from the floor insisting that Hadi is the best candidate for prime minister is an indication that people in the party are not sure whether the Pakatan Rakyat set-up will respect the party's Islamic State principles. Deputy Dewan Ulama chief Datuk Dr Mahfodz Omar assured members that Hadi will become the prime minister if PAS wins the most seats. Just because those who spoke at the muktamar did not attack Karpal Singh for opposing hudud does not mean that people in the party are not angry with DAP. They are just as furious about DAP as they are about MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek. It is quite evident that the rank and file, especially those in the rural heartland, are still uncomfortable about DAP and PKR. Much of the exuberence about the Pakatan set-up come from the leaders, especially those who will be contesting seats, or as secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali puts it, those eyeing stalls to do business in the pasar malam. Mustafa has likened the general election to a pasar malam and the candidates as traders trying to win as many customers as they could. These would-be candidates are the ones most eager for the party to foster closer ties with Pakatan. Read more at: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/11/19/nation/12338871&sec=nation
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