Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Welcome to freedom of expression; PR style!
- The Altantuya Mystery
- Keeping faith with Hindraf and Waytha Moorthy
- Will DAP become another MCA?
- Kebebasan Media 10 Minit: Sebuah Janji Ditepati?
| Welcome to freedom of expression; PR style! Posted: 29 Mar 2013 06:18 PM PDT I understand the sentiment, just like when non-Muslims tried to meddle in Islam and talk nonsense about the teachings. So, I don't really agree with what Zulkifli said. For a multiracial and multi-religious country like Malaysia, all parties should observe a lot of caution when making statements about other faiths and race. It has the potential to develop into a time bomb! However, this is the culture Pakatan Rakyat introduces - freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of everything. Since the stooges in PKR, DAP and PAS embarked on such freedoms, we cant help but let these things happen before our eyes. This is what PR promised in its general election manifesto, among others, and they can be rest assured that more people like Zulkifli will make use of this freedom - if Pakatan Rakyat wins the 13th general election. Zulkifli is not the person who started it. More than a year ago, a few non-Muslim politicians and NGO leaders whacked Islam and the mosque in their statements, inciting tit for tat when a few Muslim and Christian followers attacked mosques and churches. Who to blame? BN government? The Opposition? And what action can be taken against people like Zulkifli? We don't have anymore ISA to keep and correct such people. We are even scared to take action on them, afraid of religious reprisal among those who support them. So, where do we go from here? Let PR takes Putrajaya in the next national poll and enter a new social era of 'multi-freedom'?
| ||||||
| Posted: 29 Mar 2013 01:30 PM PDT OMINOUS WARNINGS FROM A MISSING FRENCH AGENT A fortnight before she disappeared (presumed murdered) Altantuya received a call from French born Miami based arms trafficker Jean Bernard Lasnaud warning her to keep her head low. Altantuya is understood to have communicated information about that call to her 'sister' and possibly to the late self proclaimed Private Investigator Balasubramaniam. Balasubramaniam corroborated that information about the Lasnaud Altantuya telephone conversation in a telephone discussion between himself and a Malaysian journalist in September of 2012. Jean Bernard Lasnaud was furious. He was in fact livid. Lasnaud who is widely believed to have been on the payroll of the French foreign intelligence service had a number of other irons in the fire and did not want Altantuya in her new life in Malaysia jeopardising his many opportunities in the trade with her loose talk about the French Malaysian deal. VANISHING AGENTS- A FRENCH SPECIALITY Now herein lies the mystery of Altantuya and Jean Bernard Lasnaud. Like Altantuya Jean Bernard Lasnaud had 'disappeared' according to the US government in 2002. No one has been able to locate Lasnaud since his disappearance from his Miami apartment office nor has anyone bothered to search for him. The FBI and Interpol both of whom had a vested interest in the safety and whereabouts of Lasnaud albeit for different reasons failed to follow up on his disappearance or to comment on it. Yet his name along with that of other arms dealers who have long 'disappeared' continue to surface whenever a good arms deal opportunity is to be had. Two of Jean Bernard Lasnaud's field agents (in a similar the role played by Altantuya) were mysteriously murdered for opening their mouths like Altantuya did. One of them an agent very much like Altantuya who went by the name of Estrada who had engineered a controversial deal with Bolivia was found murdered in mysterious circumstances with a bullet to the head in a flat in Buenos Aires. His death was ruled a suicide. It was not his gun. No suicide note nor any evidence of a failed deal. But such is the end for people involved in the world of arms traffickers. Altantuya had been in contact with two pro Pakatan journalists in Malaysia to whom she made several claims and disclosures about alleged government corruption in the arms deals in which Razak Baginda was supposedly the intermediary. An employee of the online portal Malaysia Kini is known to be one of them. Her relationship with the Malaysian Bar a key driver of the allegation that Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak ordered the murder of Altantuya went right up to the organizer of Bersih Ambiga Sreenivasan. Sreenivasan who has carefully kept a distance from any commentary on the story was betrayed by her former allies. At least according to Bersih and Pakatan insiders and the blogging prince Raja Petra Kamaruddin Sreenivasan was always in the thick of it. She is believed to have fuelled and fanned the flames of the theory that Najib and his wife were behind the killing of Altantuya. The mystery of the doctored photograph of Najib Razak with Altantuya was a scam engineered by a Malaysian Chinese blogger and member of parliament. Regardless the rumour mill is rife about its existence and authenticity. Malaysian bloggers belonging to the opposition continue to advance that theory fed by tall tales from the Malaysian Bar and the opposition. PUBLIC OFFICIAL DISCLOSURE REGISTER In Malaysia there are no requirements for parliamentarians, that includes the Prime Minister and all cabinet ministers and any public official to make disclosures about their private commercial interests or involvement in corporate and commercial affairs. Quite unlike many other countries especially in the west where such disclosures are mandatory to contain conflict of interest situations arising, Malaysia to this day does not have such a public official disclosure register. If it has one, disclosures are clearly not mandatory. Most of the information Altantuya disclosed to her journalist contacts were paid for by two parties. One of these, the proprietor of a leading daily in Malaysia. The other, a businessman closely connected to the Malaysian opposition. There was also a third party. She is the relative of a high profile well known politician. It is widely believed that it was this third person who encouraged French NGO involvement in investigating the Altantuya affair, the name by which this sordid affair has come to be known by. Read more at: http://takemon.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/the-altantuya-mystery/
| ||||||
| 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.
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:
| ||||||
| 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.
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.
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.
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.
| ||||||
| Kebebasan Media 10 Minit: Sebuah Janji Ditepati? 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. Read more at:http://kpru2010.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/kebebasan-media-10-minit-sebuah-janji-ditepati-4/
|
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.
| You are subscribed to email updates from Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan