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Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

The Tangled Mess of 68 Ministers and Deputies
Malaysia’s GPS for General Election-13
Meet Abdul Rahman Kasim, the man behind the Muslim-Christian ‘cake’ diplomacy
A Psychotic-Islamic preacher?
Private to sponsor Psy to Penang
BN invited Psy
Malaysia: Stop Forced Returns to China
Are the RM8 billion Highways the Solution to Penang's Traffic/Congestion Problem?
Malay politics and Ramleeology
Langkawi's road to environmental shame?
Would winds of change usher in hudud?
LAAA... BUKAN NAJIB SORANG YANG PAKAI BAJU CINA MATI, CINA YANG MASIH HIDUP PUN PAKAI BAJU CINA ...

The Tangled Mess of 68 Ministers and Deputies

Posted: 05 Feb 2013 12:04 PM PST

The more the messier. Researchers have found that performance of national governments declines as Cabinets grow larger. Parkinson of Parkinson's Law fame noted that it is critical for Cabinets to have less than 21 ministers if decision-making is to be efficient.

Our government shamelessly defies the 'law' with a whopping 30 ministers and 38 deputies. We ordinary citizens pay the price for its 'disobedience'. A recent example is the AES (Automated Enforcement System) fiasco. The Transport Ministry installed cameras to catch speedsters on the road. Quite incredibly, though, it had obviously not consulted the Home Ministry, because the traffic cops said they would continue to run their own speed-trap operations, including at locations near the AES cameras. An even bigger farce broke out when the Attorney-General ended up freezing AES summons trials due to questions on its legality. When government ministers and agencies collide, more taxpayers' funds would have to be wasted to sort out the disarray.

How can our government not turn into a circus of chaos when the Prime Minister alone juggles "more than 28 Cabinet committees"? There are so many Cabinet committees that even Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong had to admit that he can't count them all. And the Cabinet mess is such that even a simple matter like traffic enforcement gets jammed.

There is hope for us if the government slims down. Read Cabinet and Parliamentary Rebalancing (Part 2): The tangled mass of 68 Ministers and Deputies on how our bloated Cabinet can be trimmed to a svelte 16 ministries and 18 ministers, in order to facilitate communication and cross-disciplinary cooperation for the benefit of Malaysians.

Malaysia’s GPS for General Election-13

Posted: 05 Feb 2013 11:07 AM PST

Come Malaysia's general election No 13, how lucky will we be to have the entire nation bold enough to experiment with radical changes, a mega-trend, a paradigm shift, and the will to even replace the blue ocean in which sharks and piranhas battle against each other in a seemingly calm sea of change?

So – are Malaysians ready with a global positioning system that will leave behind that ancient regime calloused with the will to use religion, ethnicity, and race to cling on to power fast waning? As the Malaysian election approaches, people are talking about 'the new politics', 'sustainable capitalism', 'new economic model', 'radical multiculturalism', 'politics of moderation'.

What are these? Are they merely another set of rhetoric, or are they signifiers to a new world of Malaysian political-economic realism? After fifty years of a Rostowian and Friedmanian developmentalist agenda – that we adopt and have a difficult time understanding, and yet we imitate – we are faced with a brand new old question: where do we go from here?

The most enduring model of national development is one that returns power to the people; development of the people, by the people, for the people, that is participatory, transformative, inclusive of the alienated, marginalised, powerless, and peoples of diverse cultures, prioritises needs over greed and wants; one that will help develop the citizens into thinking, feeling, and visioning beings – as happy citizens of a just republic.
Maybe we need a radically new architecture of the Malaysian mind, of deconstructionism of politics entirely, of de-schooling society, demilitarisation of youth, diversification of public administration, redefinition of needs versus wants, destruction of the old order, rewriting of history, re-imagining of economics, reconstructing social philosophy, reinterpreting religion, etc.

What we have been seeing is a top-down developmental agenda sugar-coated with rhetoric of progress that is meaningless essentially, as development projects are created to satisfy the insatiable greed of robber barons who come in different colors and from different ethnic groups. That's what we have as a gift of Independence. We are given bread and circuses to make us happy.

Damaged on the inside

The problem with Malaysia is that the regime has been obsessed with the one-dimensionality of the ideology of development, out of the lack of critical sensibility and other perspectives in development, who profit from the developmental agenda, who has adopted the model of unsustainable capitalism throughout the decades.
A regime that designs an educational system based on a narrow understanding of the philosophies of education and the idea of schooling as social reproduction, that lets culture-industry dominate and decimate the cultures of the indigenous people, that allows hypocrisy to reign the implementation of the rule of law, that silences dissenting views that speak for the poor and the marginalised, that pay lip service to the issue of 'brain drain', and many more. We have a system damaged on the inside.

While in many advanced countries politics is public service and the rich get into politics to help the poor, in Malaysia the poor get into politics to get rich and make the poor poorer, becoming a public disservice. This is the culture of pathetic politics.

Meet Abdul Rahman Kasim, the man behind the Muslim-Christian ‘cake’ diplomacy

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 12:23 PM PST

You may have read about Tok Guru Nik Aziz handing over a cake to Bishop Sebastian Francis during their recent Penang meeting, which was held at 6.30pm. Nik Aziz was only told by his aides at 4.00pm that day that the meeting had been confirmed. So where did they find a mouth-watering cake at such short notice with words inscribed at such short notice.

Enter Abdul Rahman Kasim, the Mr Fix-it with a booming voice and an equally hearty laugh, who has been instrumental in setting up appointments for talks and dialogues between Pas and churches in the northern region.

After all, what do you give a Bishop as a momento during such a meeting to help sweeten ties? It was Abdul Rahman who had ordered the cakes even before the meeting – and an earlier one for a previous meeting between Mujahid Yusof Rawa with the bishop – well before the meetings at taken place. Indeed, it was Abdul Rahman who sent out the initial feelers to set up the meeting between Tok Guru and Bishop Sebastian.

Tok Guru presents Bishop Sebastian with a mouth-watering cake: Where did the cake come from?

The Langkawi-born Rahman is the Tasik Gelugor Pas information chief and the point-man in sending out feelers to Catholic churches in the northern region. He is a familiar face whenever the Pas head of inter-religious dialogue, Mujahid Yusof Rawa or Dzulkefly Ahmad, conducts these dialogue sessions with parishioners of churches.

Rahman, 56, worked for a decade at the Royal Malaysian Air Force base in Butterworth before turning to business as a chicken seller in a local market – an honest living if there was one – for the past two decades.

Today, he is trying to sell the idea of Muslims and Christians talking to one another. "I feel compelled to do so, because during my parents' generation we had much better ties. I am experienced that growing up. But today, we are more polarised and I am doing my part to promote closer ties among people of different faiths."

Abdul Rahman (far left) at the recent Tok Guru-Bishop Sebastian meeting

But why is he focusing on the churches? Abdul Rahman is clear about the reason: "We have so much in common especially a shared Abrahamic tradition; so it is a good place to start."

A Psychotic-Islamic preacher?

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 03:06 AM PST

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EXCERPT:

Public anger has gripped Saudi Arabia after a prominent preacher who raped and beat to death his 5-year-old daughter was sentenced to a few months in jail and a $50,000 fine – known as 'blood money' – to compensate the victim's relatives.

According to Islamic law, the 'blood money' can be paid in lieu of the death penalty. The preacher's fine was reportedly half the usual amount because the victim was a girl.

Saudi preacher Fayhan Ghamdi, a frequent guest on Muslim TV networks, confessed to using cables and a cane to inflict the injuries, AFP reported, quoting activists from the group 'Women to Drive.'
Ghamdi reportedly doubted that his daughter, Lama Ghamdi, was a virgin, and forced her to undergo a medical inspection.

In December 2011, Lama was admitted to hospital with multiple injuries, including a crushed skull, broken ribs and left arm, and extensive bruising and burns, according to the activist group. Hospital worker Randa Kaleeb said that the girl's back was broken, and that she had been raped "everywhere."

READ MORE HERE

Private to sponsor Psy to Penang

Posted: 03 Feb 2013 01:05 PM PST

"Even the preparations and food for the celebration are sponsored by several local companies," Oh told The Malaysian Insider.

"We have prepared food for 50,000 people but we expect more will turn up to watch Psy's performance," he said.

The K-pop star whose real name is Park Jae-Sang, is set to perform on February 11 at the Han Chiang school grounds, significant for being the grounds that launched the DAP to overwhelming victory in Election 2008.

Psy was reported by local entertainment news portal Redcarpet to have asked a Malaysian concert promoter for US$750,000 (RM2.3 million) for a possible appearance in Kuala Lumpur last year.

"DAP and Pakatan Rakyat want to say and spin that BN spent government's money worth RM2.3 million to RM3 million on Psy," a Penang BN official told The Malaysian Insider.

"This is factually incorrect as Psy's visit as a guest of the Penang CNY Open House event was arranged and sponsored by Mega Ultimate, an event organising firm. No government or taxpayers funds are involved."

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Psy's presence could only raise the profile of Penang and Malaysia, which would help boost tourism.

But look here:

BN invited Psy

Posted: 03 Feb 2013 11:30 AM PST

How many homes in Sabah & Sarawak could be lighted with this amount of money? How many Malaysians could get free education if these money were put to good use? Is the priority of our current government right?

Malaysia: Stop Forced Returns to China

Posted: 03 Feb 2013 11:23 AM PST

Malaysia's secret forced return to China of six Uighurs with pending asylum claims on December 31, 2012, was a grave violation of international law, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Malaysian government today.

An upcoming February 5 visit to Malaysia by Jia Qinglin, a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee, will provide Malaysian authorities with an opportunity to publicly state that they will uphold legal protections for refugees.

"While Malaysians were celebrating the New Year, their government was forcibly returning Uighur asylum seekers to a dangerously uncertain fate in China." said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. "The government has an obligation to explain how this happened, China's role, and the steps being taken to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Credible sources told Human Rights Watch that the six Uighur men returned to China on December 31 had been detained earlier in 2012 allegedly for attempting to leave Malaysia on false passports. While in detention, they were registered with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and were permitted to proceed with refugee status determination (RSD) interviews. Although all six had asylum claims being reviewed, Malaysian police clandestinely transferred the men in late December into the custody of Chinese authorities, who escorted them from Malaysia to China on a chartered flight.

Read the letter to the Malaysian government at: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/01/letter-malaysian-prime-minister-concerning-forced-return-uighurs

Are the RM8 billion Highways the Solution to Penang's Traffic/Congestion Problem?

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 07:17 PM PST

He said the state executive council has decided to award a company the tender to construct four major traffic roads in Penang.

He did not name the company but it is known that the massive undertaking, costing a whopping RM8 billion will begin in 2015.

"If we had control, we would want the best. But in this case, even if we had our own money, we cannot do it. What do we do then? We have proposed four major road projects for the most congested roads," he said.

The four proposed projects involves the 4.2km Gurney Drive-Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu expressway, 4.6km Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu-Bandar Baru Air Itam bypass (four-lanes), 6.5km Penang-Butterworth Tunnel and a 12km road connecting Tanjung Bungah and Teluk Bahang (four lanes).

"Since the federal government does not want to give us public transport, we will built alternative roads.

"If we had control, we would want the best. But in this case, even if we had our own money, we cannot do it. What do we do then? We have proposed four major road projects for the most congested roads," he said.

The four proposed projects involves the 4.2km Gurney Drive-Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu expressway, 4.6km Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu-Bandar Baru Air Itam bypass (four-lanes), 6.5km Penang-Butterworth Tunnel and a 12km road connecting Tanjung Bungah and Teluk Bahang (four lanes).

On the island's on-going traffic woes, Lim lamented that Penang has no control over public transport as it comes under the federal administration.

There are several issues that must be addressed before the Penang State Government embarks on the projects:

READ MORE HERE

Malay politics and Ramleeology

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 02:49 PM PST

My last column on Malaysia in the 70s was an enjoyable piece of journaling and from the numerous comments I read from all the blogs that carry it - my own blog Between Cybernetics and Existentialism, my Facebook page, Malaysia Today, etc - I feel that there was a time when a good Malaysian spirit was about to be forged.

This was that sense of a historical block, until May 13, 1969 came, of course; whether it was orchestrated or a victory campaign that went wrong we are beginning to find out, as alternative accounts of it continue to be written.

After languishing in sweet memories of the 70s, I next thought of the 60s; the time when I was growing up in Johor Baru and how the kampong and the city and the school I went to became my "global classrooms".

My fond memories always go back to a "multicultural Malaysia I knew - especially how I owed my interest in learning and insatiable urge to acquire knowledge through the selfless work of my teachers - Malay, Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, and even my Peace Corps American teachers.

Without them, I would not have been able to write honestly about the need not just to "tolerate" other cultures but to learn from each one of them, embrace the dynamics of each, and to bring out the universality of the values, and next to design good learning systems and environments that will nurture these differences into commonalities and to hybridise the wisdom we will acquire.

This is what has been lacking in our education system - critical sensibility and the embracing of the idea of "cultural action for freedom", as the Brazilian educational philosopher Paulo Freire would say.

A P Ramlee movie

Of late, too, I have been watching P Ramlee movies - reminiscing my childhood days as well with my memory of the black and white television, that "machine to call upon far away vision" (tele + vision), or on a more theoretical basis, anthropologists of technology would call "a fantasy-machine in the garden" and in this case, a "TV in a peaceful kampong".

I watched and "read closely" Malaysia's great humanist-social-philosopher P Ramlee's, classic of the 60s Pendekar Bujang Lapok.
I found something interesting in there worthy, in fact, of a full-blown dissertation on the anthropology of the Malays. Here is what I discovered about the first 17 minutes of it:

There is an intellectual framework in "reading" this movie; one that could be a hybrid of political-economy of development and underdevelopment (see the work of the Dependenistas/Dependency Theorists of the 70s), World-Systems Theory, Marx's idea of "technological determinism", i.e. technology as the shaper of social relations of production (see my dissertation Thesis on Cyberjaya, on the origin of Cyberjaya and the concluding discussion on Marx and technology and culture), semiotics of power, as in the notion of "habitus" (see Pierre Bourdieu's work on "symbolic power") and a study of post-colonialism emblematic in the work of Albert Memmi's Colonizer and the Colonized, Frantz Fanon's Black Skin White Masks, and others in the genre of psychological studies of oppression.

Ramleeology as method

Syed Hussein Al Attas's work is also instructive of a framework in looking at the idea of how the image of the native is constructed, as lazy, obedient, and imbued with "bebalism" and "tolol-ism " (feudalistic Malay idiocy and moronism); constructed by the rich and land-owning class that drew inspiration from "divide and rule" - from the British colonials.

READ MORE HERE

Langkawi's road to environmental shame?

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 02:35 PM PST

Environmentalists are concerned over a road project, currently being built along Pantai Kok's rainforest-covered hill which they said is "sacrificing" century-old trees as well as marine lives along the island's shores.

Naturalist Irshad Mobarak said the road project is actually along a forest on a limestone hill which is also close to a mangrove forest and a popular tourist spot.

In an interview with The Mole Irshad said: "Langkawi has many rare species which is only seen in this part of the world and it will go extinct if the island is overdeveloped."

"The island's biodiversity is amazing and eco-tourism is what draws tourists to the island. Islands work by different rules, if a habitat is lost, species will decline, " he said.

Meanwhile, a source who lives and work on the island said the estimated cost of the road project is RM22 million and stretches about 1.2km long.

The project which started about a month ago is said to be built as a short cut to enable tourist to get to a nearby resort.

The source also said there were no proper signage's to indicate that the area was under construction.

Read more at: http://www.mole.my/content/road-works-stretching-12km-affecting-pantai-koks-ecotourism

Would winds of change usher in hudud?

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 04:24 AM PST

Is there any way possible for the Barisan National to snatch victory from Pakatan Rakyat in the upcoming general election? This is the question being asked by all and sundry in the country.

Nevertheless, a large number of organisations and nations across the globe see change as an inevitable thing in Malaysia, and would welcome a Pakatan victory.

Among them is Hamas whose top-most leaders are allies of Anwar Ibrahim.

During the entire Pakatan campaign in 2012, Anwar displayed images of the Hamas leaders in meetings with Egyptian scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qardawi, with Anwar himself at the centre of attention.

These images, applauded by the local folks all over Peninsular Malaysia and in Borneo, show the close relationship the Hamas leadership has with Anwar.

And suddenly, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak jumps onto the Hamas bandwagon and gets himself meddled in a diplomatic row with Al-Fatah. Yet, the surprise visit – surely arranged by some organisations acting as public relations and image polisher of the Malaysian prime minister – has had some reverberations.

The presence of PAS Syura Council member Ustaz Nasharuddin Mat Esa, since then ejected from the party, speaks for itself.

Was the trip to Gaza an attempt to gain the sympathy of local Islamic NGOs? Or was it an attempt to discuss future plans for the pro-Umno PAS members?

It would be stupid to dismiss the possibility of talks between Umno and PAS members. It is clear that a PAS member who joins an Umno prime minister's trip is either a toad or simply a negotiator.

Was it not expected that PAS would dismiss Nasharuddin after this display of love for the prime minister?

However, many observers believe the Malaysian prime minister's visit to Gaza, where he praised the Hamas movement, was not a simple visit. Despite the apparent diplomatic faux pas, there is more than support for Gaza in the visit.

This was certainly an attempt to reach Sheikh Yusuf, the mentor of Anwar. And do we care to know why?

Persistent rumours

Recently, Najib, with the syariah in mind, spoke of Southeast Asian Muslims leading a sort of Islamic revival movement. This was at the Nusantara seminar titled "Islam in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Hopes". The speech was read by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Jamil Khir Baharom.

Hudud has been the bone of contention between PAS and Umno in their talks for a future "Muslim-led" government.

At this stage, the BN has surrendered to almost all the demands made by the opposition. This includes getting rid of one of its most powerful tools, and that is the Internal Security Act (ISA).

While the pro-Mahathir groups are calling to reinstate the ISA, it is almost certain the draconian act is history.

Moreover, there is still room for talks between the parties in power and the strong opposition coalition. After the good showing of the DAP in Sarawak in the 2011 state election, there were talks of offers being made for the latter to join the BN.

There are persistent rumours in Malaysia that the government is thinking of taking in the opposition members in its Cabinet. Or that there will be a caretaker government that will be under the prime minister with opposition members joining in.

Such a caretaker government should naturally be in place after the dissolution of Parliament, anytime soon in Malaysia.

A caretaker government, if it is in place, will have no "emergency" powers to reinstate the ISA to please some Umno members.

Nevertheless, it will have the power to offer to the opposition one of the two possible scenarios:

1. The formation of a government of national unity in which the leadership will be under Umno with a large number of the opposition members in the government.

2. Throw the gauntlet to PAS with hudud or Islamic syariah laws made official in the states run by PAS.

The first possibility seems remote, since the ruling coalition will never allow Anwar to be a member of the Cabinet. This will be due to the outright opposition by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who promised Anwar will never be a minister or prime minister.

Posted: 01 Feb 2013 03:31 PM PST

Malah salah satu daripada komen tersebut turut memberi pautan sebuah laman webwww.yingruixiang.com, sebuah syarikat di China yang pakar dalam menyediakan pakaian dan kelengkapan untuk upacara kematian China.

Oklah, link www.yingruixiang.com PengundiBaharu tak boleh buka kerana keluar mesej berikut:"HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.". Kita selidik link lain untuk kepastian.

Kalau diamati link http://shop65217672.taobao.com/ sepertimana yang dilampirkan oleh Tiery Harry II menunjukkan baju yang dikata hampir sama dengan apa yang dipakai oleh Datuk Seri Najib itu sememangnya dijual bersama dengan alatan kematian seperti Keranda DLL.

Berikut adalah paparan website tersebut:

TETAPI,

kita mahu tahu juga adakah pakaian orang yang di bulatkan dibawah ini memakai baju tradisional cina atau baju cina mati? Corak, warna dan fashion hampir sama.

Untuk lebih jelas boleh klik: http://revertedmuslim.blogspot.com/2011/08/pertanyaan-fb-kajian-masyarakat-cina.html

Dan apa yang aku bertambah pelik,

jika benarlah dakwaan bahawa Najib pakai baju cina mati, adakah mereka-mereka ini juga memakai baju cina mati dan bukan Baju tradisional cina...

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Rabu, 6 Februari 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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