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Keeping faith with Hindraf and Waytha Moorthy
Will DAP become another MCA?
Kebebasan Media 10 Minit: Sebuah Janji Ditepati?
Taib, Can You Hear the Deafening Silence All Around You?

Keeping faith with Hindraf and Waytha Moorthy

Posted: 28 Mar 2013 04:43 PM PDT

A small group of supporters were also there early that morning, including some who had made the long trek from Kedah to express their support for him and the Hindraf struggle. I noticed that many thousands of mainly Indian supporters had signed the guest book (of supporters visiting him) and was glad to add my name to the list, late though I was in my visit.

He was in a frail and weakened condition when he received us. This was to be expected as he has been struggling with various longstanding health problems even prior to undertaking the hunger strike. Abstention from food for such a long period would take a heavy toll on the wellbeing of even a person in the best of health.

It seemed to me on that day that he was dangerously close to, if not already, exceeding the limits of human endurance in the prolonged fast. However his spirit was undiminished and his mental faculties were as sharp as ever.

We had a fruitful conversation on the importance of Hindraf's struggle for not only Indians but the whole country. I emerged from the meeting with even stronger feelings of admiration for his steely determination to stay the course in his pursuit of equality, human rights and justice for his community – a cause applicable to all small minorities in the country whose futures and fates are of little or no interest to Umno and its coterie of entrenched business and other elite groups that have cornered most of our nation's wealth and power.

I had not intended to write about my meeting with him as it was meant to be an act of private solidarity. However, I am impelled to write about it now for two reasons.

The first is to call upon fellow Malaysians to rally around the Hindraf cause. If not because of their concern at the way the Indian poor have been marginalized and compassion for the hundreds of thousands of Indian poor families systematically excluded from access to the prerequisites of a decent livelihood, then at least in recognition of the courage of the movement.

Hindraf and its supporters had been the first civil society organization to openly challenge and fight the odious scourge of racism. It is a struggle in which Hindraf and Waytha have stood apart from the rest of the country in not mincing words and in their readiness to stand for their principles and rights, and if necessary even to endure cracked skulls and spilled blood.

Unfortunately most Malaysians have a short or incomplete memory when it comes to recognition of the individuals and groups that have sacrificed much to ensure a better country for all of us.

Our political amnesia stems from several causes. Some are externally induced such as the official and mainstream mass media and other collaborationist-inclined interest groups ignoring or obliterating the facts on key and sensitive events and issues. Others are internally generated and arise from a culture of cynicism and disbelief in the nobility or goodness of others, and in the promotion of the self as a better being than others.

Hindraf has fallen foul not only of the official and BN propaganda machine but it has also now been demonized in the alternative internet media by cynics who feel that Hindraf's call to the political parties to support its blueprint – as a pre-condition for its political support in the coming elections – is a betrayal of the reform movement.

To Malaysians prone to or suffering from political amnesia on the meaning and importance of the Hindraf struggle for a truly democratic country, I hope you can visit the Hindraf website ( http://www.hindraf.org/news-statements/927-13-0307-01.html) and spend some time browsing it before you write off the movement.

If surfing is not your inclination, at least let us be reminded of what Hindraf and its leaders have had to endure as narrated in this recent piece of writing of Waytha:

READ MORE HERE

Will DAP become another MCA?

Posted: 28 Mar 2013 04:38 PM PDT

For an Ayer Itam Chinese family, as for many Penang Chinese and Indian families, we support DAP because it has been the voice of those who saw/see themselves as the marginalized, disenfranchised, and (thus) aggrieved.

Yes, some Chinese in Malaysia have become extremely rich under the Perikatan-BN government, while many (being typical overseas Chinese) just got on with their livelihood and lives, even comfortably, though quite a few (the unseen) scrapped by day after day.

The general fact is that there's no chronic poverty for the Chinese in Malaya (I'm going to restrict my comments to the Peninsula); please read my qualification in the word 'general' which means there have been a few cases of utter poverty as in the case of 2 fallen by the wayside but we cannot deny these were the exceptions.

Chinese slums in Penang
though the residents don't starve

On my assertion that in general there is no chronic poverty in Malaysia (or at least Peninsula Malaysia) I have no doubt some Indians would disagree most vociferously. I accept their arguments, though I have attempted to trace the cause behind the rather stark difference in the fate of Chinese and Indian Malaysians in general, in an earlier post Marginalization of Indians - the true story.

When I wrote that post, I believe I was in many ways influenced by an essay I read as an HSC student, one written by (I think, 'twas years ago) Dr Ramakrishnan on the difference between Chinese and Indian attitudes, in which he epitomised the former as adhering to the Confucian advice of 'revering the gods but keeping them at a distance' while he lamented that in every aspects of an Indian life, religion (and its sanctified caste system) was deeply entrenched, and full of obstructing 'sacred cows'.

Anyway, overseas Chinese have been required by survival to be pragmatic. In fact pragmatism would by necessity have to be a fundamental overseas Chinese doctrine.

Thus some Chinese (and indeed some Indians) seeing the DAP as the voice of the marginalized, disenfranchised and aggrieved, while at the same time wishing to remain pragmatic, came up with what has jokingly been referred to as the 'Penang Strategy', that of electing and sending DAP MPs to Parliament to 'make mucho noise' for their rights on education and associated issues such as schools, scholarships, recognition of degrees, etc, while electing BN ADUNs wakakaka for Penang's economic and infrastructural development.

In other words, continue with the daily necessity of '3 bowls of rice' while hoping for the best possible outcome in educational opportunities, for as I have so often written, education has been a central pillar of Chinese culture for thousands of years.

Hmmm, I wonder where in Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs would the Chinese obsession for good standard and higher education be placed, as opposed to sex addiction, wakakaka.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Thus until the 2008 political tsunami, just as an example, courageous Khalsa warrior, Bhai Karpal Singh (more popularly known as the Lion of Gelugor or in earlier times, the Tiger of Jelutong) and equally courageous Uncle Lim would be sent off to Parliament to raise hell over rights and governance issues because MCA, MIC and Gerakan parliamentarians would be obsequiously dumb, while despised Koh Tsu Koon continued to be elected as an ADUN in the expectation of him becoming Penang's CM, at least in name, for Penang's domestic developments.

Some UMNO hotheads in Penang had from time to time demanded the CM post for an UMNO man because it was the BN party with the most number of ADUNs in Penang (but only because it had cleverly 'divided & conquered' MCA and Gerakan). But Putrajaya (and before that, KL) knew the appointment of an UMNO man as CM would undoubtedly alienate the Chinese voters as well as MCA and Gerakan in Penang to an extent the two Chinese based parties - and let's not pretend Gerakan is not 99.9% Chinese - might (a loud UMNO gasp here) combine to outnumber UMNO ADUNs just to ensure a Chinese is CM Penang.

A Chinese being CM Penang has never been an issue for UMNO but a combined MCA-Gerakan would be disastrous for its deeper strategy of keeping the two BN Chinese based parties divided and enervated, so as to continue being meek and compliant subordinates.

Yes, UMNO don't fancy a MCA that's too strong, arrogant or/and defiant as it saw in Lim Chong Eu (when he was MCA president), Lee San Choon, Lee Kim Sai, Tan Koon Swan and Ong Tee Keat (the last may be embraced by a desperate Najib for GE-13, only because of his personal popularity in Pandan).

The preferred type of Chinese partner UMNO love are people like Koh Tsu Koon and Liow 'my beloved PM' Tiong LIE, wakakaka.

There was already an unwelcome precedent in Chinese political parties and NGOs converging in political thoughts and meeting at the Hainanese Association Building just beside the Thean Hou Temple in KL on 11 October 1987.

Thean Hou Temple seen by Mahathir as Shaolin? wakakaka

The meeting was organized by Dong Jiao Zong (the association of Chinese school teachers and trustees) to protest against a policy of UMNO Education Minister, a man by the name of Anwar Ibrahim wakakaka, for what they perceived as a surreptitious move to undermine vernacular education in his ministry's move to send about 100 non-Chinese educated principals to Chinese vernacular schools.

As mentioned, because education has always been a central pillar of Chinese culture, all Chinese based parties in Malaysia then, namely, MCA and Gerakan and other Chinese based parties (SUPP?), and those dependent on Chinese support, DAP, had no choice but to participate in the Dong Jiao Zong organized meeting if they wished to survive politically. All in all, the attendance at that gathering was 2000 strong.

Action saw Newtonian's reaction, with a young Najib as UMNO Youth Chief's voicing his jaguh-ness to bathe his keris with Chinese blood becoming today's political legend, much as he may wish to forget about it.

Posted: 27 Mar 2013 02:01 PM PDT

Yang memeranjatkan badan pemikir Kajian Politik untuk Perubahan (KPRU) bukan keputusan rejim pemerintah membenarkan wakil parti oposisi menampirkan diri selama 10 minit di depan kaca televisyen, tetapi tawaran sekadar 10 minit untuk pembentangan sebuah dokumen penting yang melibatkan pembangunan negara pada masa depan.

Apakah kebebasan 10 minit dapat menjamin akses rakyat kepada maklumat sebegitu penting supaya sebagai pengundi, seseorang warganegara dapat membuat penilaian berpandukan akses kepada pelbagai maklumat secara keseluruhan?

Sesungguhnya, "kebebasan 10 minit" menyifatkan secara tepat kawalan terhadap media di Malaysia selama ini. Oleh sebab kawalan media arus perdana ketat sekali, kebebasan 10 minit sudah dianggap sebagai pengkurniaan yang sebegitu tinggi dan rakyat yang dahagakan kepelbagaian maklumat harus berterima kasih kepada pihak kerajaan. Mesipun berada di era internet, tidak memeranjatkan jika sekiranya pentadbiran Datuk Seri Najib Razak mencorakkan kebebasan 10 minit sebagai pencapaian di bawah retorik kempen Janji Ditepati.

Apabila diimbas kembali, pasca pindaan No.2 Akta Keterangan diluluskan, kegelapan dunia siber atau internet blackouttelah dijalankan, penentangan oleh warga Malaysia dan warga dunia siber disuarakan sementara manifesto Pakatan Rakyat (PAKATAN) 2013 menjamin kebebasan bersuara dan kebebasan media diterbitkan. Apakah kerana kebimbangan pentadbiran Najib kepada penentangan berulang warganegara, pentadbiran beliau telah secara senyap mewartakan pindaan Akta Keterangan? Dan pada 31 Julai 2012, pindaan akta tersebut telahpun mula beroperasi.[1]

Kebebasan bersuara dalam negara menukik pasca pindaan Akta Keterangan. Begitu juga kedudukan Malaysia di tangga Indeks Kebebasan Media 2013 yang menjunam kepada 145 daripada tangga 124 pada tahun 2011/2012.

Graf 1 menunjukkan ketidaktentuan Malaysia dalam memastikan media dan hak bersuara adalah bebas daripada sebarang pengaruh luar khususnya pengaruh politik. Era pasca kelulusan pindaan Akta Keterangan melihatkan bukan sahaja kehilangan kepercayaan warganegara kepada perlindungan hak yang terkandung dalam Perlembagaan negara, ianya juga merupakan suatu indikasi bahawa politik mendahului hak asasi warganegara Malaysia. Dan ianya dapat dilihat bahawa pasca pentadbiran Najib, kebebasan media Malaysia sebenarnya bertambah teruk walaupun dikatakan sebaliknya oleh pentadbiran beliau.

Pasca pindaan Akta Keterangan melihatkan Malaysia jatuh 21 tangga daripada 124 kepada 145. Tahun 2006 mencatatkan kedudukan yang paling tinggi iaitu pada tangga 92. Pasca tahun 2006, kedudukan Malaysia melihatkan kejatuhan dan kejatuhan yang paling tidak membanggakan adalah pada tahun 2013. Walaupun Najib mengeluarkan kenyataan bahawa pindaan Akta Keterangan adalah untuk melindungi rakyat[2], warganegara Malaysia tidak lagi mudah terpedaya dengan retorik beliau.

Malah, pada Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat atau KL112 yang diadakan di Stadium Merdeka pada 1 Januari 2013, hanya satu-satunya akhbar arus perdana berbahasa Melayu Sinar Harian yang memberikan laporan berita positif mengenai perhimpunan tersebut. Laporan berita bertarikh 12 Januari 2013[3] bertajuk #KL112: Tahniah semua! Berjaya menangkis pendapat bahawa media berbahasa Melayu (tidak termasuk organ parti politik seperti Harakah dan Suara Keadilan) mampu melaporkan berita daripada sudut pendapat berlainan termasuk pihak oposisi dan bukannya hanya berteraskan pendapat rejim pemerintah.

Malah, laporan berita pada hari tersebut juga mengalami kegelapan media atau media blackout terutamanya oleh akhbar pemilikan kerajaan. Akhbar berbahasa Melayu seperti Berita Harian tidak melaporkan apa-apa mengenai perhimpunan tersebut, akhbar berita Utusan Malaysia menerbitkan laporan berita negatif, begitu juga akhbar berita The Star dan New Straits Times (NST) pula melaporkan berita negatif mengenai perhimpunan, penganjur serta peserta perhimpunan tersebut, sementara akhbar berita berbahasa Cina memberikan laporan terperinci mengenai perhimpunan tersebut.[4]

Maju ke hadapan pada laporan berita dalam media arus perdana mengenai pencerobohan di Sabah, Malaysia telah dikecam oleh beberapa pihak, termasuklah daripada badan antarabangsa kerana tidak menghormati kebebasan media mengenai pencerobohan di Sabah.

Taib, Can You Hear the Deafening Silence All Around You?

Posted: 26 Mar 2013 11:52 AM PDT

The whole of Sarawak is in uproar, coffee-shops and secluded private rooms in expensive restaurants are bustling with the talk of "tax evasions" and "squatters", BN's Dayak leaders are dumbfounded and have lost their tongues (and dare we hope silently fuming at the audacity of some cousins of the Chief Minister?), the rest of the country is asking questions and the spin-doctors from BN are in overdrive trying to shift the blame. What a week!

Besides fingering his cousins, Taib has also pointed the finger at Anwar Ibrahim, suggesting that the Opposition Leader has worked with Global Witness to "frame" him. So Taib, are you saying that Uncle Rahman Yakub sat down with Anwar Ibrahim and the environmental chaps from Global Witness and concocted this complicated story to "frame" you?

Alvin Chong, who is one of the legal representatives of the Lands and Survey Department, substantiated all that the sisters had said and more. His cock-sure confidence caught on camera was an award winning Oscar performance. Then there is the Hii family. The Hii family representative, lawyer Huang, admitted more than he should have. Best Supporting Actor award goes to him, if we are to believe the spin doctors.

So why would these lawyers want to "frame" the hands that feed them, kill the golden goose that lays the golden eggs and destroy their respective reputations all at the same time? Were all these different people, political opponents and NGOs and cronies and cousins and lawyers working together to "frame" Taib? Would it not be simpler to just accept the truth which is that his cousins, the lawyers and the businessmen were all indiscreet towards a person they thought they were doing a business deal with and in their bloated over-confidence spilled the fat beans, lifted the lid on Taib's Pandora's Box and opened his platinum coated can of worms?

My simple mind says YES. My political mind which attempts to deconstruct Machiavellian plots says MOST DEFINITELY YES.

Now that the whole world knows and Taib and his lawyers are desperately trying to pick up the pieces as they go into crisis management mode, one cannot but be intrigued by the apparent lack of public support that other Barisan Nasional leaders are expected to show him. Should they not be closing ranks and falling over themselves to come to his defence?

In the past, sycophants would be competing with one another to come up with the most credible counter-spin to protect their lord and master, but a week has come and gone and all we hear is TOTAL SILENCE. Except for some yelps from insignificant politicos and the youth wing of PBB condemning reports on the internet (and not an outright defence of their Chief Minister, mind you) in the last two days.

Where is Taib's Chief Political Secretary, the ever-faithful Karim Hamzah? Is it not his first duty and responsibility to immediately rally the troops and sound the trumpet and lead the charge and demonise Global Witness in every newspaper in Sarawak? Not a squeak from him.

Where is Awang Tengah, the supposed right hand man and heir apparent? Well, he did squeak a bit today in the Star but in no way was his whimper an outright rebuttal of the exposé and in defence of the Old Man; just a passing comment on how foreign NGOs are not to be trusted and how Sarawak will be re-forested. Political analysts would read his statement as more a personal defence, almost like a manifesto promising Sarawakians that under his watch, Sarawak would be re-forested.

Where is Jabu, the most loyal Dayak devotee there has ever been and ever will be of the 'beloved' Old Man? Absolute silence from Jabu of all people? What has this self-proclaimed 'Paramount Chief' of the Dayak has to say about being called a squatter by his beloved's cousins?

Both factions in SUPP are also withholding their tongues. Smart.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Jumaat, 29 Mac 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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