Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Fill our Motherland with the colours of unity
- Nik Nazmi charged for Kelana Jaya rally
- Tale of a busload full of Bangladeshi voters
- Cabinet, gerrymandering and size does matter
- Sarawak Dams to Flood 2,300 km2 of Rainforests, Displace Tens of Thousands of Natives
- Najib's Survival Cabinet
- MCA may return to cabinet, say NGOs
- Rafizi says Pakatan to press for EC reform ‘in court, in the streets, in Parliament’
- Curse of Australia's silent pervasive racism
- Wan Azizah told to make way for Azmin
- In the aftermath of May 5th (part 13)
- Should I leave Islam if I am not happy?
- Chua thanks Najib for respecting MCA's wish
- Anwar sukar terima takdir Tuhan
- Red Bean Army hard at work spreading rumors
- Haris: Street rally will go on
- ‘Racial polarisation no surprise’
- Dayaks bitter over cabinet choices
- Analysts: Umno-heavy Cabinet reflects Najib’s party polls focus, could affect reforms
- Najib looks set to stay
- Another May 13 in the offing?
- GE13: How BN lost the battle of perception
- BN urged to improve cyber strategy
- Kuasa Melayu takkan hilang sampai bila-bila
- In the Malay Press: Anwar should step down, says Umno leaders
- Tindak Malaysia demands the EC Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Secretary resign to take ...
| Fill our Motherland with the colours of unity Posted: 16 May 2013 01:20 PM PDT
I feel sad that this country does not accept me, but I feel sadder for my children who will still have to face the same. Kee Thuan Chye "On this date, we are embarking on a move to recolour the nation's historical canvas with colours of unity. This is our motherland. From this day on, no one can tell the Chinese to go back to China or the Indians to go back to India." This is the best, the most positive, people-unifying statement to come out in decades. And it did not come from a leader of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN). It came from 20 civil society groups, led by Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) headed by Badrul Hisham Shaharin and student group Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM) headed by Safwan Anang, as they marked May 13, the tragic day in 1969 when racial riots broke out and drove the races apart, with a call for an end to racism. A teacher told me that when she read the statement reported in a newspaper, she burst into tears. It was particularly emotional for her because she had personally experienced being told to go back to China. This was about 30 years ago when she had newly arrived in Kuala Lumpur from a small town up north, and was riding in a taxi. As she tried to explain to the taxi driver where she wanted to go in halting Malay, the man was repulsed by her lack of fluency in the national language. He bluntly told her to go back to China. The remark shocked and humiliated her, but she was too afraid to say anything. Since then, she has lived with the wound without hope of healing. The decades that followed made it worse – as politicians of the ruling party played the race card to divide and rule, as the media reported more incidents of Chinese being told to go back to China and Indians to go back to India. As if they were not citizens of the country. As if they were merely tenants in the home they helped to build. Even today, although the 13th general election is over, the silly season is still going strong as pro-BN figures, including a former judge and the Perak Mufti, make statements that are overtly racist and divisive. Speaking at a forum last week, former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Noor Abdullah accused the Chinese of betraying the Malays because they largely rejected BN. He said they were plotting to seize political power. He said, threateningly, "When the Malays are betrayed, there is a backlash and the Chinese must bear the consequences of such a backlash." He called for the Malays and Bumiputeras to have a two-thirds presence in key sectors like education, the civil service and business. "Arrange it in such a way that from today, every business will have a 67 per cent share ready to be taken up by Malays," he urged. He also called for the terms "Chinese" and "Indian" to be abolished and replaced with "non-Malays" and "non-Bumiputeras". Disdainfully, he regarded the Orang Asli as "our cousins" and the Sabah and Sarawak Bumiputeras as "our relatives" while the others "are just our neighbours because they came to menumpang (squat) here". This is divisive and akin to calling the Chinese and Indians pendatang (immigrants), another derogatory reference they have had to suffer. It echoes the insult former Penang Umno leader Ahmad Ismail inflicted on these communities after BN's electoral debacle in 2008. Now, in the wake of BN's worse performance this time, Mohd Noor appears to be an Ahmad Ismail clone. The only difference is that he's not a politician, but it's still not acceptable. Politician or no, his vindictive tone contrasts starkly with that of SAMM, SMM and like-minded organisations. But more than that, Mohd Noor is patently wrong in concluding that Chinese rejection of BN amounts to a betrayal of the Malays. You can only betray a party to whom you owe loyalty. And in a democracy, you don't owe loyalty to any party unless you are a member of that party. And even then, you are still a citizen in your own right so you can vote against your own party if you think it has not been doing a good job. You are entitled to vote for a rival party that you think can deliver good governance. More important, BN does not own the country or the government. It is merely the government of the day. You owe your allegiance to your country, not to BN. So all that talk of betrayal is utterly misleading. Read more at: http://news.malaysia.msn.com/elections/fill-our-motherland-with-the-colours-of-unity |
| Nik Nazmi charged for Kelana Jaya rally Posted: 16 May 2013 01:04 PM PDT
The PKR leader was charged at the Sessions Court under the Peaceful Assembly Act for failing to give sufficient notice before holding a rally. G Vinod and K Pragalath,FMT PKR communications director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad was charged at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court today, under Section 9 (1) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2011 (PAA), for failing to give the police sufficient notice before holding the rally at the Kelana Jaya Stadium last week. Nik Nazmi is the first person to be charged in relation to the rally as the police are in the midst of questioning others, including speakers at the rally which was called to highlight the alleged electoral fraud. The case was heard before judge Rohana Ayub while the prosecution was done by Deputy Public Prosecutor Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah. Nik Nazmi, who is also Seri Setia state assemblyman, was charged under the PAA for failing to give the police a minimum 10 days notice before holding the rally at the Kelana Jaya Stadium on May 8. If convicted, Nik Nazmi could be fined up to RM10,000, which could disqualify him from public office. Speaking at a press conference later, the PKR leader said that many other leaders who participated in the rally last week may also be charged soon in an attempt to silence the opposition. "In the summonses provided to me last night, there was a sheet that included the names of other Pakatan leaders who gave speeches on the day. "I'm not sure whether they will be charged but that is the signal I'm getting from the statements made by the Selangor police chief (Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah)," he said. Calling it a harassment against Pakatan leaders, Nik Nazmi said that charge was unconstitutional as the Federal Constitution allows Malaysians to assemble peacefully. "All the rallies held by Pakatan were peaceful and patriotic. It shows that we have done no wrong," he said. 'Bad start for IGP, Home Minister' On related matter, Nik Nazmi's defence counsel, Eric Paulsen, said that he would challenge the constitutionality of the PAA in High Court soon. He also alleged that the charge against Nik Nazmi was done in bad faith and was against public policy. "Although the charge only involves a fine but I can see the authorities are trying to turn this into a sort of a traffic offence. "So everytime you don't give proper notice, the person gets fined. I'm sure many other Barisan Nasional supporters hold rallies without giving proper notice but we don't see them getting charged," said Paulsen.
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| Tale of a busload full of Bangladeshi voters Posted: 16 May 2013 12:54 PM PDT
Anas Zubedy A friend's family friend owns a tour company. Here's their story.
Read more at: http://letusaddvalue.blogspot.com/2013/05/tale-of-busload-full-of-bangladeshi.html
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| Cabinet, gerrymandering and size does matter Posted: 16 May 2013 12:45 PM PDT
Selangor, Penang and KL voters, despite paying the bulk of federal taxes, are comprehensively denied to have their MPs being elected as ministers and deputy ministers Up to 40% of the ministers and deputy ministers are from constituencies which have less than 40 thousand voters Lee Wee Tak Najib has unveiled his latest cabinet line up. Much will be spoken about whether it can delivera nd transform (into what?),whether under-represented communities would be even more marginalised etc. Those are the hot issues but this blog post would look at the cabinet merely on number of votes, vis-a-vis the pending re-delineation exercise due end of the year. Up to 40% of the ministers and deputy ministers are from constituencies which have less than 40 thousand voters  Most developed states are marginalized in the ministerial portfolio allocation even 7 positions were given to senators(hence "non-winnable" candidates not selected to stand for contest in GE) hence by bypassing the scrutiny of rakyat, denying the power of ballot box and an insult to other candidates, both from Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional themselves.  Above: Selangor, Penang and KL voters, despite paying the bulk of federal taxes, are comprehensively denied to have their MPs being elected as ministers and deputy ministers Top 10 smallest Ministers constituencies merely emphasize the dismal and significantly unfair consequence of gerrymandering. We will have 8 ministers and 2 deputy ministers whose constituencies consist of less than 29,000 voters  To put the issue in context, the 10 parliament constituencies above are easily dwarfed by state assembly seats won by newbie lady candidates; selected examples as follow:-  The above 3 choices were chose to compare against the candidacy and legitimacy of the Women, Family and Community Development Minister who hails from a constituency size of 27,416, a total which is much lower than the winning majority in Damansara Utara ADUN, let alone votes obtained or size of the DUN constituency. Prime Minister Department has evolved significantly since the last decade and notably since the Najib administration whereby the size of the ministry and budget it commanded grew rapidly, even exceeding most other agencies. It also boast of 6 ministers hence the ministry with the most ambiguous and obscure terms of reference to the general public have the following 6 ministers; mostly from smallish constituencies and of course Klang Valley is unrepresented. Read more at: http://wangsamajuformalaysia.blogspot.com/2013/05/cabinet-gerrymandering-and-size-does.html |
| Sarawak Dams to Flood 2,300 km2 of Rainforests, Displace Tens of Thousands of Natives Posted: 16 May 2013 12:40 PM PDT
30,000 to 50,000 indigenous people to pay the price for Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's excessive dam plans in Malaysian Borneo Bruno Manser Fonds (KUCHING, SARAWAK / MALAYSIA) A new map released by the Bruno Manser Fund ahead of the International Hydropower Association's World Congress in Kuching, Sarawak, is showing the massive detrimental effect of the Malaysian state's dam plans on indigenous peoples and the Borneo rainforest. According to calculations by the Swiss Bruno Manser Fund, the dams, if realized, would flood over 2,300 km2 of tropical rainforests and native lands. This corresponds to one and a half times the area of Greater London. Sarawak Energy, the state's power monopolist, is planning to realize the dams by 2020. They would directly and indirectly affect at least 235 indigenous settlements with an estimated population of between 30'000 and 50'000 people. The eleven dams, of which two have already been completed and one is currently under construction, would have an installed capacity of 7165 MW – seven times the current peak demand. According to the Sarawak state government, the dams should produce the power for new energy-intensive industries. Ciritics, however, are saying that the dam frenzy would mainly benefit companies linked to the family of the Sarawak Chief Minister, such as Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS). CMS holds a monopoly over cement production in the East Malaysian state. One of CMS' largest shareholders is the late wife of Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud. Four years after her death in 2009, Lejla Taib is still the registered owner of 11.48% of the company's shares. A high resolution version of the Sarawak dams map can be downloaded from: http://stop-corruption-dams.com/resources/2013_05_17_Sarawak_Dams.pdf |
| Posted: 16 May 2013 12:33 PM PDT
Malaysian PM turns to old foe's allies for help John Berthelsen, Asia Sentinel Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has appointed what amounts to a survival cabinet, turning to allies of former foe Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to fend off intra-party challenges in the wake of the May 5 election, in which the opposition actually won the popular vote but was thwarted from taking power by gerrymandered constituencies. Some of the appointments represent a sharp about-turn by Najib from the policies of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and the deputy prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, whom an outraged Mahathir is said to be attempting to goad into trying to push out Najib immediately as prime minister and head of the United Malays National Organization instead of waiting until the October party Annual General Assembly. Although the opposition has pointed to the appointments of Shahidan Kassim and Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor as indications of Mahathir's clout, the opposite seems to be true. In addition to facing internal rebellion for the Barisan Nasional's relatively poor showing in the May 5 polls from the conservative, Malay nationalist wing of Umno, Najib has also borne the brunt of almost daily rallies and demonstrations as the shock troops of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim charge that the election was stolen from his Pakatan Rakyat coalition with a mix of gerrymandering, ghost voters, outright theft of ballots and other electoral misuses. An estimated 30,000 protesters turned out in light rain in Johor Wednesday night, following rallies of up to an estimated by supporters at 90,000 each in four cities earlier.Two individuals particularly have drawn Mahathir's fire. They are Khairy Jamaluddin, former Prime Minister Badawi's son in law. Mahathir helped to drive the former premier from power following a relative electoral debacle in 2008 that cost the Barisan Nasional, or ruling national coalition, its two-third parliamentary majority for the first time in history. The other is Mohamad Nazri Abdul Aziz, who Mahathir dubbed Badawi's "hatchet man" and who has openly accused Mahathir of racism. Khairy, 37, was a charter member of the so-called "fourth floor boys," for their location in Badawi's government offices --relatively young, media-savvy ethnic Malay cadres with good business skills whom Mahathir accused of using their links to Badawi to influence government and UMNO decisions. Khairy has remained a bete noir of the Mahathir wing because of his espousal of moderate racial politics, publicly going to churches and temples that were desecrated by Malay nationalists two years ago. In the wholesale bloodletting that accompanied Badawi's fall from power, Khairy was one of the few who survived all attempts to dislodge him, even edging out Mahathir's son Mukhriz to become head of the Youth Wing of UMNO. He was named Youth and Sports minister yesterday by Najib. Mohamad Nazri Abdul Aziz is if anything an even bigger foe of the Mahathir wing than Khairy. Mahathir, a party insider said, pulled out all the stops to try to prevent his appointment. He earned the octogenarian former prime minister's ire for calling him a "bloody racist" because of Mahathir's support for what Nazri said was a government program indoctrinating racist sentiments on the part of civil servants and public university students. Badawi's former law minister, Nazri was dropped in a cabinet reshuffle. In complete opposition to Muhyiddin, he came out in defense of Najib's 1Malaysia policy, saying he was a Malaysian first and a Malay second. Muhyiddin has repeatedly said Malays come first. "(Mahathir) made a last ditch effort to block Nazri but Najib went ahead anyway," a well-wired source said. "Najib realizes he needs Khairy and (Badawi's) support in case the Mahathir and Muhyiddin forces move against him in party polls in October or November this year." Read more at: http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5421&Itemid=178
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| MCA may return to cabinet, say NGOs Posted: 16 May 2013 12:22 PM PDT
(FMT) - KLSCAH and Dong Zong say the more crucial question is whether the party can reinvent itself. The exclusion of MCA representatives from the federal cabinet may not be permanent, but the issue is secondary to the question of whether the party can reinvent itself to stay relevant to contemporary politics, according to two NGO leaders. Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) chief executive officer Tang Ah Chai and Dong Zong deputy president Chow Siew Hon told FMT the second largest BN component party might make its way back to the government soon, although it has been excluded from the new cabinet unveiled on Wednesday. Tang said MCA's return to the cabinet might happen as soon as it completes party elections slated for the end of the year. He said the new leadership could opt to revoke the pledge made by current president Dr Chua Soi Lek on not accepting any government position. "But the biggest challenge that lies with MCA is they that are without a clear direction," he added. "They hold in hand plenty of resources, for example huge party assets, millions of party members and solid grassroots organisations. But after being hit with the political tsunami in 2008, they appear to have no idea what to do." Chow also said the Chinese might support MCA's return to the cabinet if it could show them that it could reinvent itself. The only two Chinese appointed to the new cabinet are Transparency-International Malaysia chief Paul Low, who is now a minister in the Prime Minister's Department, and Parti Bersatu Sabah's Mary Yap, Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Learning. Tang said Malaysian Chinese seemed to have accepted the reality that they lack representation in the cabinet. "Contrasting with the situation after the 1969 election, when there was a sense of anxiety over the non-appointment of Chinese representative in the cabinet, this time the Chinese community seems okay with it," he said. "That is because the younger generations are embracing diversity and multiracial politics. They are looking out for the authorities to avoid using skin colour as the benchmark for policies. "Besides, there is a perception that MCA failed to perform to a satisfactory level even when they had 10 ministers and deputy ministers before. "They more or less did Umno's bidding. So it makes no difference whether this time they are there or not." Read more at: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/05/17/mca-may-return-to-cabinet-say-ngos/ |
| Rafizi says Pakatan to press for EC reform ‘in court, in the streets, in Parliament’ Posted: 16 May 2013 12:20 PM PDT
(TMI) - Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will continue to pressure the government for the Election Commission (EC) to be completely reformed if Malaysia wants to see a clean election the next time around, said PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli. Speaking at a forum on the facts behind PR's win in popular votes for Election 2013 here last night, Rafizi (picture) said the only way was to continuously fight and apply pressure so that the EC will be completely overhauled and replaced with people who are fair and who believe in clean elections. "We need the whole EC to be completely reformed, where the chairman down to all its officers are replaced by new officers that are approved by PR and the public to ensure their impartiality," he said. He said it was only after the EC was fully reformed that re-elections be held for seats that are proven to have irregularities and fraud, especially the 30 marginal seats. He told the audience of several hundreds at Komtar that PKR has already assembled a team to probe electoral fraud into several parliamentary and state seats and once enough evidence was gathered, election petitions would be filed. "We have been told that to file a petition, it would cost up to RM50,000 for each petition per seat and that means the 27 seats we are currently investigating could cost us close to RM1.5 million if we were to file petitions," he said. He said this was why the party has to conduct thorough investigations and scrutinise all irregularities on top of gathering enough resources to file the petitions. |
| Curse of Australia's silent pervasive racism Posted: 16 May 2013 12:13 PM PDT
The most insidious racism is just so ingrained it's involuntary. It's about the fact no one responsible for the decision even saw the existence of the problem. Waleed Aly, The Age As opening lines in letters go, ''I find you deeply offensive'' is pretty direct. Fair enough. I suspect lots of people do. It's a natural consequence of media work. But then my anonymous correspondent decided to explain why: ''You are foreign, you shall always be so. Piss off back to whatever Middle Eastern sink hole you blew in here from.'' There's nothing surprising about this. There's nothing even particularly rare about it. Some version of that letter arrives every few months or so. This one was particularly unvarnished - complete with references to my wife and ''half caste kids'' and cheerful threats of the inevitable return of the White Australia policy - but the message hardly varies: this isn't my country and my public presence is unwelcome, either because I'm a Muslim, or because in some racially determinable way not a ''real'' Australian. I've been accused of everything from taking elocution lessons, to changing the spelling of my name to appear deceptively Australian before I unleash some Trojan conspiracy. Apparently Aly is roughly equivalent to Smith. They're onto me. I have almost no emotional reaction to this kind of goonish racism. It's simply too ridiculous to engage me. In fact, I'd completely forgotten about this most recent letter until racist ranting hit the headlines this week following yet another racist diatribe on a Sydney bus that was captured and posted to YouTube. It's at least the third such case in about four months. Hence the fresh round of debate on Australian racism that always seems to follow the same unedifying pattern. First comes the shock, as though such incidents reveal something we never knew existed. Then comes the argument over whether or not Australia is a racist country. To be frank, I don't know what the argument means. Every country has racism. Precisely how much do you need before a country itself is racist? Is it a matter of essence or degree? Do we judge it by surveying legislation, newspapers or behaviour on public transport? And even if we can answer those questions, then what? That argument is a dead end. It's more about a condemnatory label than the substance and nature of Australian racism. The real question isn't about which adjective describes us. It's about how best to identify and respond to the racism we inevitably harbour. Debating the meaning of the occasional racist tirade doesn't help answer that. It's just not that helpful to take extreme individual behaviour as the starting point on an issue like this. Sure, it's troubling. Sure, it's more common than we like to admit. Sure, it's a problem. But it's not the problem.
The racism that really matters in Australia isn't the high-level, weapons-grade derangement that winds its way via YouTube into the news. The truth is we can't compete with Europe for hardcore white nationalism or the US for white supremacist movements. We can't compete with Asia or the Middle East for the maintenance of an explicit, institutionalised and sometimes codified racial hierarchy. Our racial and religious minorities aren't having their communities torched (though the occasional building has been firebombed), and our handful of far-right politicians aren't leading political parties that attract 20 per cent of the vote. No, our real problem is the subterranean racism that goes largely unremarked upon and that we seem unable even to detect. Like the racism revealed by an Australian National University study, which found you're significantly less likely to get a job interview if you have a non-European name. The researchers sent fake CVs in response to job advertisements, changing only the name of the applicant. It turns out that if you're surname is Chinese, you have to apply for 68 per cent more jobs to get the same number of interviews as a Anglo-Australian. If you're Middle Eastern, it's 64 per cent. If you're indigenous, 35 per cent.
Read more at: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/curse-of-australias-silent-pervasive-racism-20130404-2h9i1.html
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| Wan Azizah told to make way for Azmin Posted: 16 May 2013 04:18 AM PDT
(Malaysian Digest) - A former aide to PKR women's wing chief Zuraida Kamaruddin, Mohd Fareez Kamal Intidzam, has urged Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail not to defend the party presidency and make way for deputy president Azmin Ali. "The PKR machinery in Selangor headed by Azmin has managed to retain the state with a bigger majority in this general election. Following Azmin's strong showing, Dr Wan Azizah should not seek re-election in the coming party polls," he said in a statement yesterday.
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| In the aftermath of May 5th (part 13) Posted: 15 May 2013 08:51 PM PDT While Barisan Nasional was confident it is guaranteed no less than 130 parliamentary seats -- with 145 as an achievable target -- Pakatan Rakyat, in turn, was equally confident it could win 135 parliamentary seats -- the worst-case scenario being at least 120 seats. And, just like Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Rakyat, too, did its maths and had a basis for this confidence. THE CORRIDORS OF POWER Raja Petra Kamarudin
The jury is now in. A post mortem has been done on the performance of both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional in the recent general election on 5th May 2013 and this is what the jury has decided. Both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional made tactical blunders that cost them seats. No doubt Barisan Nasional won 133 parliamentary seats, which is higher than Pakatan Rakyat's 89. However, the worst-case scenario for Barisan Nasional was 130 while the best-case scenario was 145. And Barisan Nasional's war room had hoped to at least duplicate the 140 seats they won in 2008 even if they cannot touch the best-case scenario of 145. The differential in Barisan Nasional's seven or so parliamentary seats came basically from the Chinese-majority constituencies. Barisan Nasional felt that at best it could garner at least 10% of the Chinese vote. So all it needed to do was to get an additional 5% to make this 15%. Then, with the increase in Malay and Indians votes, they can get close to 140 parliamentary seats. Barisan Nasional was shocked that it not only did not get the 10% of the Chinese vote it thought it would, or increase this by another 5% that it hoped could happen, the Chinese vote was as low as 2-3%. This stunned Barisan Nasional to speechlessness. Barisan Nasional's strategy was to break the war into a few battles with different generals for each battle. The 31 parliamentary seats in Sarawak would be left to Taib Mahmud to manage. The 26 parliamentary seats in Sabah/Labuan would be left to Musa Aman to manage. Pusat would not interfere in those two East Malaysian states. Then the 165 parliamentary seats in West Malaysia would be divided into rural and urban. The rural seats would be fought on the ground via perjumpaan kelompok, ceramah and rapat umum while the urban seats would be fought on the Internet via the social media and Blogs. Barisan Nasional now admits that while the battle in Sarawak, Sabah and the rural areas of West Malaysia were to a certain degree successful, they failed in the urban battle on the Internet and in the social media. They admit that Pakatan Rakyat was just too good for them and they underestimated the opposition's strength. And this is going to be Khairy Jamaluddins' job for the next five years, to win the battle of the hearts and minds of the youth, the Internet- and social media-savvy population of Malaysia. How he is going to achieve this would, of course, be something we find out later. However, by calling Bloggers monkeys would certainly not be one of the strategies to adopt. While Barisan Nasional was confident it is guaranteed no less than 130 parliamentary seats -- with 145 as an achievable target -- Pakatan Rakyat, in turn, was equally confident it could win 135 parliamentary seats -- the worst-case scenario being at least 120 seats. And, just like Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Rakyat, too, did its maths and had a basis for this confidence. And that was why Anwar Ibrahim dared issue the promise that if Pakatan Rakyat does not win the election he would retire and go back to teaching. He was confident he would not need to carry out this promise. This reminds me of Samy Vellu's promise during the Lunas by-election in November 2000 where he said that if MIC does not win he will never go back to Kuala Lumpur. Well, MIC lost and Samy quietly sneaked back to Kuala Lumpur. Barisan Nasional found out the hard way regarding Pakatan Rakyat's strength in psywar and in the Internet war. Even before the election, Pakatan Rakyat's cyber troopers already said the 5th May 2013 general election was going to be the mother of all battles plus the dirtiest election in Malaysian history. The fact they said the same thing in 2008, 2004, 1999, and so on, escaped many people's attention. Every general election, according to the opposition, is the mother of all battles plus the dirtiest election in history. Yet every election (except in 2004) the opposition does better and better. Ah, yes, but if there had not been any cheating then they would have done even better still. This was well planted in the minds of many Malaysians and Barisan Nasional failed to counter that argument. Hence Pakatan Rakyat won the hearts and minds of the urban voters while Barisan Nasional lost. Then, as early as 7.00pm on Polling Day, even as the votes were still being counted and no one really knew the full result yet, Anwar announced that he had already won the election. Again, Barisan Nasional did not counter this and, again, Pakatan Rakyat won that round. Then Pakatan Rakyat announced that there were blackouts all over Malaysia plus extra ballot boxes were being brought into the counting centres. And that was why at 7.00pm Pakatan Rakyat won the election but three or four hours later Barisan Nasional won instead. And, yet again, Barisan Nasional did not counter this and, yet again, Pakatan Rakyat won that round. The fact that the counting centres that had blackouts plus extra ballot boxes smuggled into them were never named escaped many people's attention. And none of the Pakatan Rakyat PACA ever came forward to name the counting centres that they were on duty at when all this happened. Then Anwar announces that his exit from politics and his retirement will have to be put on hold since he does not accept the election results. He also said he will campaign non-stop all over Malaysia until he gets what he wants. He did not, however, say exactly what he wants. Does he want certain seats (he said Pakatan Rakyat had won 30 seats, which were 'stolen') to get declared null and void and for new elections to be held for those seats? Does he want the Election Commission to 'call off' the entire election and hold a new general election? In that case, what will happen to Penang, Selangor and Kelantan where Pakatan Rakyat has already been sworn in as the government? Would the Pakatan Rakyat governments of these states all resign and would new elections be held in those states as well? Pakatan Rakyat never explained and Barisan Nasional never asked or countered. So one more round for Pakatan Rakyat! Barisan Nasional is so sloppy. No wonder they lost the urban vote. Maybe that is where Khairy should look for the monkeys -- amongst the Umno cyber troopers. Aiyoh! Send them for training lah. The DAP cyber troopers make them look like fools.
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| Should I leave Islam if I am not happy? Posted: 15 May 2013 06:50 PM PDT
Okay, I am also not happy with some Muslims, even some Muftis for that matter. I think they are very intolerant, unreasonable and narrow-minded. What are you going to now tell me? You are going to tell me, "If you are not happy with some Muslims then you can leave Islam," is it? Is this the way you think? NO HOLDS BARRED Raja Petra Kamarudin
New Malaysian home minister tells unhappy Malaysians to emigrate (Straits Times, Singapore) - Malaysia's newly-appointed Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has reportedly said that Malaysians who are unhappy with the country's political system should leave the country, stressing that loyal citizens should respect the rule of law. Malaysian news website fz.com reported on Thursday that in his first opinion piece printed in the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia daily since receiving the portfolio on Wednesday, Mr Ahmad Zahid wrote that the illegal gatherings held across the country by opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition was a form of escapism and the denial of the fact that it failed to take control of Putrajaya. "Malaysia inherited the political system from the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries also use the first past the post system where political parties contesting in the election will only have one representative in each constituency with the principle of a simple majority of votes," he said in a column. He said opposition leaders, especially those from Parti Keadilan Rakyat and the Democratic Action Party, had been "irresponsible" in confusing young Chinese voters and their followers who are "politically blind" to dress in black to protest against the result of the 13th general election which they believed went in their favour, going by the popular vote. ******************************************** Zahid Hamidi, the one-time Umno Youth Leader, was Anwar Ibrahim's 'Ghurkha' (hatchet man or assassin) whose job was to try to bring down Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. And the manner he was supposed to do this was to reveal the list of Dr Mahathir cronies who had benefited or had become rich from the Prime Minister's patronage. One thing they did not take into consideration, though, is that Dr Mahathir is better at this game than Anwar is. Dr Mahathir then released the names of Anwar cronies and family members who had also benefited and had become rich from the patronage of the Deputy Prime Minister. Checkmate! Zahid Hamidi came out looking like the village idiot that he is. Now Zahid, yet again, is looking like a village idiot by telling those who are unhappy with Malaysia's political system to leave the country and migrate to another country. Actually, I did just that. I was so pissed with the manner in which Malaysia's Federal Court handled (or mishandled) the Attorney General's appeal against my release from detention without trial by the Shah Alam High Court that I left the country. I then challenged the Malaysian government to file their appeal in a UK court and see whether they can fuck around in the UK like they can in Malaysia. The Malaysian government then met up with the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur to explore the possibility of getting me kicked out of the UK or to extradite me. The British High Commission then summoned my lawyers to their office to get further details about the case against me, which they then sent to the Home Office in the UK. After studying my case, the Malaysian government was told to go screw itself (though in more diplomatic words). And to add insult to injury, which is certainly kebetulan (by chance), a few months later the UK abolished both the sedition and criminal defamation laws (the two other cases against me). And because you need to pass the 'dual criminality test' before you can apply for extradition that more or less killed the other two cases against me as well. So, three strikes, and the Malaysian government lost. Boy someone upstairs sure loves me. Anyway, I digress. Now Zahid, the newly appointed Home Minister, in his maiden announcement, is asking those who are unhappy with Malaysia's political system to leave Malaysia for greener pastures. Hah! That is the first thing he does on taking office -- ask Malaysians to leave Malaysia if they are unhappy. I wonder what the next five years is going to be like with him heading that Ministry. Hello, brader! Malaysians are not unhappy with the political system lah. Malaysians are unhappy with the ABUSE of the system. And that means two different things lah. Not happy with the abuse of the system does not mean not happy with the system. Aiyoh! Zahid, you are beginning to sound like Pakatan Rakyat people. When I say I am unhappy with SOME people in Pakatan Rakyat they interpret this as I am not happy with Pakatan Rakyat and instead am happy with Barisan Nasional. The Pakatan Rakyat people, just like you, think that if you are not happy with some people that means you are not happy with everything under the sun. Alamak, Zahid! Pakatan Rakyat people are supposed to be stupid so we can forgive them for being like that. But you, Zahid, are a Minister. Janganlah otak macam tu! Okay, I am also not happy with some Muslims, even some Muftis for that matter. I think they are very intolerant, unreasonable and narrow-minded. What are you going to now tell me? You are going to tell me, "If you are not happy with some Muslims then you can leave Islam," is it? Is this the way you think? I am also not happy with the Arabs and I think they are giving Islam a bad name. So are you going to tell me to leave Islam and become a Christian? The problem is I am not happy with some of the Christians as well. So what do I do? I got it! Then I become an atheist. But even if I become an atheist people are still not happy. They tell me you must support one or the other (Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat). You cannot NOT support both. That is not allowed. So, if not happy with some Muslims then must become a Christian, cannot become an atheist. If not happy with some people in Pakatan Rakyat then must join Barisan Nasional, cannot become apolitical. If not happy with the abuse of Malaysia's system then must become a British citizen, cannot remain in Malaysia. But what happens if Britain won't grant you citizenship? Live on a boat in the North Sea, is it? I thought only DAP Chinese supporters think like this. It seems Umno Malays also have the same mindset. No wonder DAP is the reverse side of the same coin called Umno.
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| Chua thanks Najib for respecting MCA's wish Posted: 15 May 2013 03:40 PM PDT
(NST) - MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek yesterday thanked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for respecting the party's wish not to be included in the new cabinet line-up following its dismal performance in the recent polls. Dr Chua had conveyed the message in a Twitter posting after Najib announced the new cabinet. "MCA did not submit any name for cabinet post. We thank the PM for respecting the MCA resolution passed in AGM (annual general meeting) for not accepting any government posts," tweeted Chua."The most challenging part is to reach out to all races for greater unity in order to counter the divisive politics of the PR (opposition coalition)," he added. Dr Chua also congratulated the newly appointed ministers and deputy ministers, whom he believed would bring new input to the cabinet. MCA won only seven out of the 37 parliamentary seats and 11 of the 90 state seats it contested nationwide in the 13th General Election. |
| Anwar sukar terima takdir Tuhan Posted: 15 May 2013 03:37 PM PDT
Tanpa disedarinya, orang mula sangsi tentang Anwar yang selama ini mempergunakan ayat Quran dan hadis bagi mengaburi mata rakyat, terutama orang Melayu apabila terang-terang cuba menentang perjalanan takdir. Dalam keghairahan memetik kata-kata Abul Ala Al-Maududi, Yusof Qardawi, Anwar terlupa kata-kata Kahlil Gibran, "Manusia tidak boleh mengubah takdir sebagaimana bintang di cakerawala tidak boleh mengubah orbitnya." Yusof Harun, Sinar Harian Ketika orang lain menikmati saat-saat suka-duka sebagai pesara setelah bersara dari perkhidmatan awam ataupun pencen dari pekerjaan di sektor swasta, tidak ada siapa di antara kita yang menduga bahawa seorang lelaki yang berusia 55 tahun dari Kubang Pasu dilantik menjadi PM Malaysia ke-4.
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| Red Bean Army hard at work spreading rumors Posted: 15 May 2013 03:23 PM PDT
(Malaysian Digest) - The 'Red Bean Army', a group of cybertroopers believed to be funded by DAP has been hard at work spreading rumors on the internet alleging the government has increased the prices of basic goods like petrol, cooking oil, cooking gas, sugar and flour in a bid to further fuel the public's anger towards the ruling government. According to a few online blogs, the rumors were spread mainly on social networking sites, namely Facebook and Twitter and has made many internet users angry at Barisan Nasional (BN) making them believe the Opposition coalition (Pakatan Rakyat) would have been a better option in ruling the federal government.
This picture showing a price hike of the White Gardenia bread is untrue; according to Gardenia the tag on the left is from a different Gardenia product, sliced Sandwich Bun (Burger bun). Pic: Gardenia's Blog Meanwhile, another blog, The Flying Kick, claims that several shops have taken to increasing prices after the recent 13th general election (GE13) in an attempt to sabotage the ruling government.
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| Haris: Street rally will go on Posted: 15 May 2013 03:07 PM PDT
It does not hinge on Pakatan Rakyat's support, says ABU's Haris Ibrahim. Alyaa Azhar, FMT Anything But Umno (ABU) spokesperson Haris Ibrahim said that a street rally against the Barisan Nasional federal government will go on with or without Pakatan Rakyat's support. When asked if he will call off the rally following Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's objection to it, he said: "This is not Pakatan Rakyat's initiative, rather, it is the rakyat's initiative." "The rally is not hinged on Pakatan's support. The latest announcement by Anwar yesterday that Pakatan does not condone streets rallis has no bearing on our initiative," he said. Haris, however, said that no date has been set for the street rally. Social activist Hishamuddin Rais echoed Haris' view by saying that the decision to go on with the street rally will be taken by the rakyat and not Pakatan Rakyat. Haris told a forum on Monday that pro-Pakatan NGOs would topple the BN federal government through massive street rallies in protest of irregularities during the 13th general election. "We will take to the streets and take over Putrajaya. If we really want to overthrow them, there is no other way. Democracy does not work. "The people cannot wait anymore. We don't want to wait another five years. We will take the streets," he said. "The proposal has never been submitted to us, it has never been discussed by Pakatan. Those are the views of some NGOs," said Anwar yesterday. DAP chairman Karpal Singh said his party too, rejected the call for street protests to overthrow the BN government. While he commended Haris for opposing violent demonstrations, Karpal warned that a street protest may cause unrest if it was not handled properly. Police on the other hand, have warned against holding a street rally and said they will take preventive measures ahead of the event. Outgoing Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar said the statements by the organisers on the rallies were dangerous and provocative. "Nobody should try to change the government through undemocratic means. "It must be done only through democratic means. Let the people make their choice through the voting system," he said.
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| ‘Racial polarisation no surprise’ Posted: 15 May 2013 02:31 PM PDT
It has been with us a long while and we should admit that it is a potent factor in Malaysian politics, says Chandra Muzzafar. Lisa J. Ariffin, FMT Political analysts are not surprised with the country's distinct racial polarisation following the results of the recent 13th general election (GE13). Political scientist Chandra Muzzafar said that there has always been "a certain degree of polarisation" throughout history, however, in Malaysa, this was made more distinct in GE13. "Ethnic consciousness has always been strong in society so it should not surprise us. People sometimes attribute to political parties based on ethnicity," he said. "It has been with us a long while and we should admit that it is a potent factor in Malaysian politics," he added. Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) associate professor James Gomez said the re-emergence of racial polarisation "shows that Malaysia is unable to evolve politics into a more policy-centered approach". "There was a positive indication in the run up to the election where different parties put out their manifestos which were very much policy-centered," he said. "But soon it degenerated from a policy-centered approach and now after all the race-based talks, we have lost the plot. It has just gotten worse," he added. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) associate professor Andrew Aeria agreed that racial polarisation "certainly exists within Malaysian society". He accused ruling Barisan Nasion of making it worse by "not making much effort in closing the ethnic and religious divides". "Fanning ethnic supremacist positions has only made ethnic/religious relations worse," he said. "In contrast, Pakatan Rakyat has achieved much more in closing this ethnic and religious divide." Aeria further described Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as a "lame-duck, wishy-washy PM" who "continues to pander and appease the racist fringes of Umno and BN". "The racism that has emerged post-GE13 is reprehensible," he said. Anwar has been giving false hopes Chandra believed "false perceptions" that the Chinese were "marginalised" by Umno-BN played a key factor in determining the Chinese vote. "These are all false perceptions that have become widespread. It was effectively built up, especially after the 2008 general election when DAP did well," he said. Chandra pointed out that the Chinese dominated the upper strata of the Malaysian economy and those at the bottom were mostly of other races. He added that in terms of politics, "Chinese participation is quite remarkable".
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| Dayaks bitter over cabinet choices Posted: 15 May 2013 02:25 PM PDT The Sabah Kadazandusun Murut Welfare and Education Association however described "as historic" the appointment of three full ministers from the community. (FMT) - KUCHING: The much anticipated "stronger" representations by Sarawak's loyal Dayak community in the new federal cabinet turned out to be a major disappointment. In fact local Dayak majority parties Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Sarawak Democratic Party (SPDP) have questioned the rationale behind Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's decision to handover a large chunk of cabinet positions to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB). A SPDP insider in a text message even went so far as to ask if Najib had hoped to mask the fact that he had fewer peninsular-based Umno members on his cabinet compared to before. "Look at the (cabinet) list, PBB/Sabah 'Malays' all over place," read the message. Sarawak Barisan Nasional pact comprising PBB, PRS, SPDP and Chinese-majority Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP) delivered 25 of 31 parliamentary seats to Najib's push for a new term in office in the 13th general election. Sabah BN comprising Umno, MCA, Gerakan, LDP, Upko, PBS and PBRS gave federal BN 22 seats. But yesterday's announcement of cabinet positions showed he had little regard especially for his Dayak-majority party partners – PRS and SPDP, who fought hard battles and delivered 100%. Collectively PRS and SPDP delivered to Najib 10 parliamentary seats. Of the 11 Sarawak ministers appointed, seven were from PBB. Among them were four full ministers – Douglas Uggah Embas, Fadillah Yusof, Rohani Abdul Karim, Nancy Shukri, and three deputies, Dr James Dawos Mamit, Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, and Alexander Nanta Linggi. Said a deeply disappointed PRS president James Masing last night: "Something is wrong somewhere. "Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu was given four ministers (57%), PRS one minister (33%), SUPP (100%), while SPDP has zero%. "Where is the fairness?" "Politics normally is not kind to the losers, but (Najib must) reward those who win, " he added. He said PRS's ministerial appointments did not commensurate with the party's contribution to BN's win. PRS, which won all the six seats it contested, had expected to be rewarded with one full minister and two deputy ministers and so did SPDP which delivered all four parlaimentary constituencies. But instead Najib promoted the PRS' former rural and regional development deputy minister Joseph Entulu to a minister in the Prime Minister's Department and retained Julau MP Joseph Salang Gandum as the deputy minister of tourism. But Salang, who had served nine years as a deputy minister, has declined the cabinet post. According to sources close to Salang, putting him in the tourism ministry would not help empower the rural Dayak community. Previously Salang was the deputy minister of information and communications and culture, and during his tenure had worked hard to ensure better internet accessibility in rural Sarawak. Entulu on his part is a "reluctant" minister. According to Masing, he had to persuade Entulu to accept the position, adding that he had failed in his bid to get Salang to stay. Said Masing: "The allocations doen't make sense. Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) won one seat, yet it is given one full minister. I can't understand the promotion of Richard Riot. The party won one out of seven seats it contested. "That is 100% accommodation to a party which performed badly in the recently concluded general election. Why? "While Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) has 100% delivery yet it got zero appointment, " he said.
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| Analysts: Umno-heavy Cabinet reflects Najib’s party polls focus, could affect reforms Posted: 15 May 2013 02:02 PM PDT
"Well definitely he is seeking re-election this year and that will be reflected in his Umno Cabinet line-up. You can see him strategising for re-election but how is he to do that leaves a question mark because most of them are just old-timers," he said, adding that the names announced have been in government for a very long time, even if not at Putrajaya's highest decision-making level." By Amin Iskandar, Debra Chong and Syed Jaymal Zahiid, TMI Umno's domination of the 2013 Cabinet shows Datuk Seri Najib Razak's desire to shore up his personal support ahead of party polls but at the expense of the prime minister's national reform measures, several observers say. While the pundits hold grave reservations over the large number of veterans in the 32-man Cabinet, they said Najib deserves a chance to prove he can deliver on his promised government and economic transformation agenda once he has secured his party presidency. The Umno president had cast 17 of his party colleagues in ministerial positions when naming members of his Cabinet yesterday. Of the line-up, most were old government hands being switched around or promoted with the exception of new faces Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan. Universiti Putra Malaysia political scientist Prof Jayum A. Jawan was sceptical about the changes that Najib could make with what the don branded a "conservative" Cabinet. "I don't see a real power-sharing here. The positions of power are all held by Umno like Finance, Home Affairs and Defence," he said. "Well definitely he is seeking re-election this year and that will be reflected in his Umno Cabinet line-up. You can see him strategising for re-election but how is he to do that leaves a question mark because most of them are just old-timers," he said, adding that the names announced have been in government for a very long time, even if not at Putrajaya's highest decision-making level." Like the other pundits, Jayum viewed Khairy's inclusion as a positive step towards getting youth support, but noted the move was unlikely to be sufficient to parry a possible challenge in the party polls. "Some people in Umno are already saying that Najib would not see a smooth re-election and that there are some people that will likely challenge him," he said. But such an Umno-studded cast was "clever", according to William Case, a professor in Asian and International Studies at the University of Hong Kong. "My take is that while many critics are dismissing the Cabinet as made up most of old hacks, I see it as more mixed, possibly in clever ways, as it includes Najib's personal supporters, reformers, and nativists," he told The Malaysian Insider in an emailed response yesterday. There has been speculation that Najib, 59, is likely to face a challenge to his presidency from within Umno in the party ballot due this year for failing to return BN's two-thirds supermajority in the May 5 general election despite improving the Malay party's number of federal seats to 88.
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| Posted: 15 May 2013 01:41 PM PDT
Why would Umno want to rid itself of a leader who won an unwinnable election for Barisan Nasional? Almost two million Chinese voted for Pakatan – largely for DAP really. They voted for DAP in the hope that Pakatan will form government, and that DAP will have effective control of that government. This is NOT what you or I think but this is what a vast majority of the Malays think. It is irrelevant whether it was Umno that put that thought in their mind or whether they worked it out for themselves. CT Ali, FMT If Pakatan Rakyat expects Najib Tun Razak to accept defeat at the polls graciously, why don't they graciously accept his victory at the very same polls? The 13th general election is a done deal. A 44 seat margin win is emphatic! The loss or gain of a few marginal seats would not have made a difference to the final outcome of this 13th general election. This is not an election where the popular vote of the people determine who should form government. When Pakatan submitted itself to the electoral process, it must do so in its entirety. This means accepting that the party with a simple majority will form government – an anomaly that would have applied equally to Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat. That it favoured Barisan Nasional is moot. This is a separate issue of rampant gerrymandering to be addressed later. There are also concerns about voting irregularities and we know that Pakatan faced significant restrictions on access to the media but there is a process to resolve those vexing issues of voting irregularities and that process, however tainted, should start now while BN goes on with the business of government. The allegations that the Election Commission conducted itself with dishonor by doing the bidding of its political master is an issue to be addressed at a more opportune time – not now! In the final analysis there are enough people who believe that BN has done a satisfactory job and deserve another term in government. Will Pakatan and Anwar Ibrahim be magnanimous in defeat and proceed with the next business at hand – that of assisting the authorities to investigate any irregularities in the 13th general election, and start its onerous duties as the Opposition to a weakened and bloodied BN government? In the end there is no gain for BN as they lost eight seats to Pakatan, but give Najib credit for taking BN through a harrowing 13th general election. Why would Umno want to rid itself of a leader who won an unwinnable election for Barisan Nasional? It was an election that was Pakatan's to lose. And lose it they did! The elephant in the room that Pakatan refused to acknowledge was the race factor. This is not about whether you or I are mature enough to NOT make race a factor. We have already established the fact that we do not want race and religion to be a factor in determining the manner in which each and every one of us will be treated by our government. Meritocracy should rule the day. Unfortunately the reality is that a critical mass within the Malaysian population will make race and religion their criteria in deciding who should govern Malaysia. Almost two million Chinese voted for Pakatan – largely for DAP really. They voted for DAP in the hope that Pakatan will form government, and that DAP will have effective control of that government. This is NOT what you or I think but this is what a vast majority of the Malays think. It is irrelevant whether it was Umno that put that thought in their mind or whether they worked it out for themselves. That is what the critical mass within the Malay community thought would happen if Pakatan won the election – and guess what they did to counter that possibility? They voted for Umno. Yes Lim Kit Siang won the battle in Gelang Patah but Pakatan did not win the war against BN. Kit Siang going into Gelang Patah was exactly what Umno needed to get the Malays on side – and they had the DAP to thank for it. DAP spooked the Malays into voting for Umno. The big losers The biggest loser of the 13th general election was MCA and PAS. Najib had nothing to do with MCA being rejected by the Chinese. MCA leaders did it all by themselves without any help from anybody.
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| Posted: 15 May 2013 01:36 PM PDT
For the sake of this country, the writer hopes his entire analysis is rubbish, and that he will be proven absolutely wrong and a pessimistic idiot. Before moving on let me just clarify that this analysis is not meant to monger fear or accuse the government of anything. It is a hypothesis based on my historical analysis of post-election trends in Malaysia, and as with all hypotheses, is unproven and certainly not set in stone. By Ong Kar Jin, FMT May 13 has arrived and passed with no major incidents. For many Malaysians who sit uneasily with the date, there is a culpable sense of relief. However, is the threat of a nationwide disturbance over? Is it possible still in this day and age for something on the scale of the May 13 riots to reoccur? Before moving on let me just clarify that this analysis is not meant to monger fear or accuse the government of anything. It is a hypothesis based on my historical analysis of post-election trends in Malaysia, and as with all hypotheses, is unproven and certainly not set in stone. This article seeks to analyse and answer two main questions: How possible is it to have some sort of disturbance that will spark unrest? What form might it take? Through a careful examination of past incidences of civil unrest in Malaysia, three incidents in particular stand out for their scale, their impact on the political narrative of Malaysia, and their nature. The three incidents I speak of are the May 13, 1969 riots, the 1987-1988 Operation Lalang and judicial crisis, and the 1998 sacking of Anwar Ibrahim and the subsequent Reformasi movement. In considering the events leading up to, during and following the events, three key traits stand out. Firstly and perhaps most importantly, all three incidences have taken place in the foreground of internal Umno struggles. In Dr Kua Kia Soong's thesis of May 13, he posits that the riots were in fact a coup d'état initiated by the ascendant Malay capitalist class under Razak to replace the Malay aristocratic class lead by Tunku Abdul Rahman. The validity of Kua's statement is subject to debate, but the swift and stunning reversal of fortunes that Tunku Abdul Rahman suffered cannot be discounted as coincidence. Even if the riots were not facilitated by the top leadership of the right wing of Umno, Razak certainly made full use of the opportunity to grab the reins of government. Recently, Gerakan veteran Dr Goh Cheng Teik and ex-Umno strongman Mohd Tamrin Abdul Ghafar came out to clarify that May 13 was indeed an internal coup orchestrated by irate Umno members against Rahman. The 1987-1988 Operation Lalang also had similar internal rumblings. In fact, the judicial crisis roots lay in the dismissal of Umno as an illegal organisation due to complaints from Tengku Razaleigh's Umno Team B. The same goes for the mass arrests that followed the Reformasi movement. Again, it was an inside Umno fight between then deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Time and time again, Umno leaders especially those from the right wing have shown that they are more than willing to externalize internal struggles to distract people from the real issues and to eliminate opposition. Come this October, Umno internal elections will be held, and it will be a titanic clash between the reformers under Najib Tun Razak and the Mahathirists under Muhyiddin Yassin's tutelage. The first shots have already been fired by Mahathir, calling Najib's performance a "disappointment" and openly stating before elections that given a slim victory Najib should give way to deputy Muhyiddin. Need for consolidation of power The second trait is a need for constitutional/ law changing. As we all know, the last time Umno was in government with a minority of the popular vote was in 1969. Post-1969, constitutional amendments made the EC beholden to Barisan Nasional and various laws such as the Sedition Act were strengthened. Similarly, in 1988 the threat from the Semangat 46' coalition formed posed enough of a threat to the Umno hegemony of power that the Mahathir felt was necessary to cripple the judiciary and rob it of its independence. These changes in law to consolidate Umno dominance have however often been met with significant opposition. It is because of the backlash that comes with these changes in the institutions and dilution of the rule of law that such exercises have needed to be preceded by mass arrests/ unrest preventing any coordinated response. The Reformasi movement of 1998 was rife with similar arrests, but with a firm 76.56% of seats, BN could comfortably continue its gerrymandering, mal-apportionment exercises. One must also bear in mind that due to 1998 being led by Anwaristas, it took on a different nature. At the end of this year, there will be a re-delineation exercise that threatens to entrench BN firmly in power, no matter what the popular vote turns out to be in GE14. Civil society, opposition politicians and proactive citizens have already begun raising awareness of the exercise. The rakyat, especially urban folk, are acutely aware of their rights and attendance at rallies such as the May 8 Kelana Jaya rally have shown that from here on escalation of civil action can be only grow. It would require a major distraction on an unprecedented scale to divert attention away from the re-delineation exercise. Incitement of racial sentiments The third trait that has preceded such incidents is the exacerbation (or in some cases manufacturing) of racial sentiments. This has largely been the domain of the government-controlled mainstream media. In 1969, the mainstream media reported Labour Party processions as shouting "Malai-si!" and provoking the Malays. However, such accounts are doubted and are contradictory to the foreign press accounts that reported the procession as a show of "discipline" and "genuine restraint". In 1988, Utusan Malaysia blew the issue of Chinese educationists out of proportion. What followed were the mass arrests of not just prominent members of Dong Zong but also of activists and opposition politicians. In 1999, BN blew up fears of Islamisation, loss of non-Malay rights etc to secure a win despite losing the popular vote of Malays to the Barisan Alternatif. Now the racist rhetoric has reached an all-time high. From Utusan Malaysia's "Apa Lagi Cina Mahu" (What More Do The Chinese Want?) , an ex-judge's warning of backlash against the Chinese, to PM Najib's "Chinese Tsunami", all Umno media seems to be blasting out racism at every avenue.
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| GE13: How BN lost the battle of perception Posted: 15 May 2013 01:30 PM PDT
For the 13th GE, the Opposition set out a strategy of portraying BN administration as a corrupt, evil, racist and inept government while seeking to position and elevate PR as Apostles of good governance, anti-racism, anti-corruption, democracy, equality and human rights. To support their campaign, PR came up with the catchy war cry of "UBAH" and the grammatically awkward and incorrect "Ini Kali lah". FMT LETTER: From Calvin Sankaran, via e-mail To an objective and intelligent observer of our divisive and highly charged political scenario, the result of our 13th General Election wouldn't have come as a surprise. The deep fault lines across ethnic lines, the anti-establishment mood prevalent among the educated urban populace and political leaning of social media-influenced youths were all there to see even to amateur watchers of the Malaysian sociopolitical landscape. Even without the benefit of opinion surveys and statistical analysis, the mood of the electorate was quite easily discernable and election result predictable. The real surprise was to see the surprise expressed by the leaders and strategists of the ruling coalition of Barisan Nasional (BN) over the result. So what had contributed to the worst ever result for BN? Was this due BN's internal problems and weaknesses or contributed by externally-driven factors? As with most problems in life and business, it is my belief this result was a combination of a complex mix of both internal and external factors. However, it is also true that the root causes can be categorisCalvin Sankaraned to a few key reasons and a long list of minor ones. In analysing and searching for key root causes, we need to look at the demographics of groups that BN had received lowest level of support – the Chinese, urban middle/upper middle class and the youths. Based on my analysis the root causes for lower level of support from these demographics can be pinpointed to two key reasons. One – Pakatan's highly damaging political campaign and two, BN's lack of effective strategies and countermeasures to respond to and neutralise this Pakatan's hate propaganda. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had famously defined politics as the art of the possible. While this was probably true 300 years ago, however in this Age of Information, politics is the War of Perception. It doesn't matter how you have performed, the core principles and philosophy you believe in, your capability and capacity to deliver promises, personal and party credibility or even the rationality and deliverability of your manifesto. The only thing that matters is the perception about you that exists in the minds of the masses. If you succeed in implanting a positive perception of you, from then onward you own the electorate's collective psyche. For they will only see and hear what they want to see and hear – irrespective of the persuasiveness of argument and the strengths of facts to the contrary. To these people, truth is defined as news reports and facts that confirms and reinforces the pre-existing perception that has been deeply ingrained into their consciousness. Anything that doesn't is automatically rejected as propaganda and lies. For the 13th GE, the Opposition set out a strategy of portraying BN administration as a corrupt, evil, racist and inept government while seeking to position and elevate PR as Apostles of good governance, anti-racism, anti-corruption, democracy, equality and human rights. To support their campaign, PR came up with the catchy war cry of "UBAH" and the grammatically awkward and incorrect "Ini Kali lah". That many Malaysians, including those from highly educated and upper middle class background, were completely taken in by PR's campaign and voted for the Opposition is an excellent illustration that politics is indeed the War of Perception. So how did PR managed to infiltrate such completely false notions into the collective psyche of these voters? The strategy and tactics of Pakatan in waging this War of Perception are not difficult to analyse or understand for these have been deployed, tested, fine-tuned and proven in numerous political battlefields by political master strategists such as Hitler, Goebbels, Lenin, Stalin, Osama Bin Laden and Machiavelli. To implant negative perception of BN in the minds of electorate, PR propagandists spread lies and half-lies and made outrageous, vicious charges to inflame emotions and propagate hatred. It was irrelevant these accusations and rumors were irrational or completely unsupported by reason or facts. What mattered was the constant and consistent barrage of attack using simple but repetitive lines of attack – BN as euphemism for corruption, racism and mismanagement. This initially started in the PR-owned or friendly news portals where these accusations were machine gunned on daily and non stop basis. Knowing that most people only skim the headlines and do not bother to read the contents, these news portals skillfully presented news with highly misleading headlines while burying the truth deep into the stories. The fundamental journalistic and ethical principle of presenting both sides of story was completely ignored. Even when presented with denials by BN, their statements were published late, given low prominence and/or placed in such way that it was easy for readers to miss it. The latest and most sinister mode of attack is the use of social media – truly the Wild, Wild West frontier of the Internet – and the mobile network (SMS/MMS/WhatsApp). Some of the most vicious and dangerous accusations and rumours were spread via Social Media and SMS/MMS/WhatsApp. Another interesting aspect of Pakatan's campaign is the extensive outsourcing of political hate campaign to (ostensibly independent) NGOs to accord a semblance of respectability and deniability in case things go wrong. Many of these NGOs are either closely allied or formed solely to further Pakatan's political objectives. No sane person would consider NGOs such as Bersih, ABU, Bar Council, Merdeka Center, REFSA, NIAT, Pemantau, SMM, ANAK, Tindak Malaysia, CIJ, Himpunan Hijau, WAMI, Aliran, Penang Watch, NIAT, MoCS, KOMAS, SABM, MIBA, Suaram, etc., as even remotely independent or objective.
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| BN urged to improve cyber strategy Posted: 15 May 2013 01:25 PM PDT
An academic says the ruling coalition is still lagging in the perception war. Athi Shankar, FMT Barisan Nasional needs to beef up its cyber team to beat Pakatan Rakyat in the game of shaping public opinion, a political analyst has suggested. Sivamurugan Pandian, an associate professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia, said social media proved to be the decisive battleground in the campaign for the 13th general election, adding that Pakatan had the upper hand. "BN surely lagged behind in social media like portal mails, tweets, Facebook, blogs and YouTube," he said. He cautioned BN against overdependence on the conventional mainstream media and warned that it would face big problems in the next election if it failed to improve on its social media networking and strategies. "It's time for BN to learn to battle out in social media," he said. He acknowledged that BN had improved in its cyber strategies since the 2008 election, but not well enough to beat Pakatan in the game. "BN needs to be more on the offensive," he said. To illustrate the skill of Pakatan cyber troopers, he cited their treatment of the controversy surrounding Perkasa vice-president Zulkifli Noordin, who was BN's defeated candidate for the Shah Alam parliamentary seat. He said those troopers effectively played up an old video recording of Zulkifli insulting Indians and Hindus in a religious discourse. He noted that the video was already online when Zulkifli was still a PKR member but the troopers had skilfully used it to create the impression that BN was in the habit on nurturing racism. Consequently, he added, the Zulkifli factor was a major cause of BN's loss of Indian votes in Selangor and other urban areas.
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| Kuasa Melayu takkan hilang sampai bila-bila Posted: 15 May 2013 01:14 PM PDT Ahli Parlimen DAP-Bukit Bendera Zairil Khir Johari berkata, perkara itu dilihat berdasarkan tiga perkara utama. Jamilah Kamarudin, FMT Hak keistimewaan orang Melayu dijamin takkan terhapus sampai bila-bila sekalipun DAP menjadi kuasa terbesar memerintah di peringkat Pusat. Ahli Parlimen DAP-Bukit Bendera Zairil Khir Johari berkata, perkara itu dilihat berdasarkan tiga perkara utama. Pertama, dari segi demografik menunjukkan komposisi masyarakat Melayu adalah majoriti di Malaysia dan semakin berkembang, namun tidak bagi masyarakat Cina yang semakin mengecil. Keduanya, menurut Zairil hak kaum Melayu dilindungi oleh undang-undang yang termaktub dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan dan tidak boleh dicabar oleh mana-mana pihak. "Selain itu ada kuasa Raja-Raja Melayu yang menjadi pelindung bagi memastikan hak keistimewaan Melayu terus terjamin," katanya. Beliau berkata demikian dalam sidang media selepas menjadi panel forum Wacana Sinar Harian Siri 20: Pasca PRU 13: Ke Mana Haluan Politik Melayu di Kompleks Karangkraf di sini semalam. Perlu optimis Sementara itu, Ahli Majlis Tertinggi Umno Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah menolak dakwaan wujudnya fenomena 'tsunami' pengundi masyarakat Cina semasa Pilihan Raya Umum (PRU) ke-13 pada 5 Mei lalu seperti yang digambarkan Barisan Nasional (BN). Sebaliknya, beliau menegaskan BN perlu optimis dan menerima perubahan tersebut, bukannya bersikap tuding jari serta cuba meniupkan api perkauman. "BN perlu minta maaf atas kesilapan masa lalu dan (berjanji) tidak akan ulangi kesilapan. "Kemudian baru boleh mulakan kehadapan dengan cara urus tadbir baru, dan perlakuan itu harus bentuknya baru," katanya. Bekas Timbalan Menteri Pengajian Tinggi itu berkata, untuk kekal relevan Umno mesti terus melakukan transformasi bagi menjamin kelangsungan bangsa Melayu. "Kalau tidak semasa PRU nanti Umno akan kalah lagi teruk," katanya.
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| In the Malay Press: Anwar should step down, says Umno leaders Posted: 15 May 2013 01:04 PM PDT
by Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani, fz.com In Sinar Harian today, Umno leaders called on Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to fulfil his promise of leaving politics if he failed to win Putrajaya in the 13th general election. Former Umno Masjid Tanah member of parliament, Datuk Abu Seman Yusop, told the Malay daily that Anwar was still dreaming of becoming the prime minister and was willing to do anything to realise that goal. "He (Anwar) had previously said he will step down if he fails to win but until now he is still the leader of Pakatan Rakyat (PR). "He should actually fulfil his promise but I see what he is doing today is more due to his personal interest than the rakyat's," he said. Abu Seman said Anwar is purposely creating discord in the society because he cannot accept that he failed to win the federal government. Abu Seman stressed Anwar must stop making allegations of election fraud and must instead provide concrete evidence supporting his claims. Puteri Umno chief and Papar MP, Datuk Rosnah Rashid Shirlin, added Anwar must accept the voice of the majority. She also accused PR of hypocrisy and questioned why the Federal Opposition was willing to accept the decision in states that they won.
The poll done by The Edge "PR is seen practicing selective democracy when they refused to accept the decision on the federal government but are willing to accept the decision on seats they won and quickly form their state governments," she said. Rosnah said PR leaders must take responsibility for anything that happens from the street demonstrations, adding that their actions will cause national disunity. Utusan Malaysia also reported that Anwar's political career should have ended following GE13. Former PKR youth information bureau secretary, Nordin Ahmad, told Utusan said the national polls have shown that the public want Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over Anwar. |
| Tindak Malaysia demands the EC Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Secretary resign to take ... Posted: 15 May 2013 12:58 PM PDT To mislead the people and squander millions of Ringgit (more than RM 6 million) of public funds to procure 'indelible' ink that cannot serve its function as indelible ink is, we believe, a criminal breach of trust. PY Wong Election Commission's Ajaran Sesat is seen from the way it is prepared to mislead the rakyat about the use of indelible ink. Here is the response from PY Wong (for the Chinese press, 黄炳耀), founder of Tindak Malaysia: It was reported by The Malaysian Insider (http://bit.ly/TMIIndelibleInk) that EC Chairman Abdul Aziz had announced in Dec 2011 that the EC would use silver nitrate indelible ink for the general elections. Indonesian Election Watchdog, ANFREL, stated that silver nitrate up to 4% concentration was safe and that Indonesia spent US 2.7 million to buy 1,149,890 bottles of indelible ink for 574,945 polling stations (2 bottles per station) in the Indonesian Presidential Election, 2009. http://bit.ly/1011c46 ANFREL Bangkok explained that the indelible ink needed 30 seconds to dry and can last up to 4 days. http://bit.ly/AnfrelBKKIndelibleInk Then India's EC on 29th Sept 2011 warned that ink used on voters will be easily removable if poor quality indelible ink is used. http://bit.ly/IndelibleInkIndianEC Silver nitrate will stain the skin and the nail, making the stain indelible. While the stain on the skin commonly last up to 3 days, depending on the concentration of silver nitrate used, the stain on the nail will last until the nail grows out. We invite the public to examine their nails to see if there is any stain there. If not, you know that silver nitrate was not used as promised. Then what ink did the EC really use? The function of the indelible ink is a check to prevent double voting. Because there are concerns that advanced voters vote more than once using their police/military authority cards and their personal Identity Cards, the indelible ink is to alert the Election Commission clerks and the polling agents of people voting twice. In most countries, ink is applied after voting. We recommended this repeatedly to the EC. This is in contrast to the EC's insistence on marking before voting. This will create risk of dirtying the voting slips thereby delaying the voting process and creating confusion as to the validity of the ballot paper. Now that we have found that the ink was not indelible as promised, the EC has come up with all sorts of excuses:
But the worry was never about voting twice in the same polling station. No voter is that stupid. The worry is about a voter using another MyKad to vote elsewhere undetected because the ink on the finger has been removed. Now here's an even more ridiculous excuse by the Deputy EC Chairman. http://bit.ly/TheStarIndelibleInk Their audacity is incredible!
That is 10 bottles per station! Five times the quantity used by Indonesia. It is outrageous that after years reminding them to have an open procurement process to avoid problems, they got into the exact problems we feared – indelible ink that did not work and purchased at horrendous cost. This cannot be allowed to go on! Tindak Malaysia demands that the Election Commission chairman and his team resign en bloc to allow a total revamp of the Election Commission. To mislead the people and squander millions of Ringgit (more than RM 6 million) of public funds to procure 'indelible' ink that cannot serve its function as indelible ink is, we believe, a criminal breach of trust. A number of police reports have been lodged against the Election Commission, and Tindak Malaysia hereby urge the Royal Malaysia Police and the MACC to investigate Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof (chairman), Wan Ahmad Wan Omar (deputy chairman) and Kamaruddin Baria (secretary) Tindak Malaysia also urge the EC to explain why the ink could be removed so easily instead of pointing fingers on the public for proving that the ink is removable. For once, can the EC come clean? Did they use indelible ink or not? |
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