Rabu, 20 Mac 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News


With your head buried in the sand

Posted: 14 Mar 2013 08:30 AM PDT

I speak to Malays here in the UK -- professionals who work in the UK, say for the last 10 or 20 years, and whose children were born and now school in the UK -- and they still ask me whether what I am propagating is wise. Do you think we really should end the New Economic Policy (NEP) in favour of meritocracy? What will happen to the Malays if we do that? Won't we 'lose' the country to the Chinese?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Yesterday's article, Malaysia at the crossroads, is a most interesting experiment in comprehension. There were more than 100 comments and none answered the point of that whole article: which is, how is the opposition going to woo the Malay voters? That is what the whole article was about and which no one addressed.

I understand, and at times even appreciate, that readers are taking the opportunity to post comments merely to lepas geram (let off steam). They are not really interested in debating or to enter into any discourse. They just want to vent their anger and frustration.

It is like going to the gym to punch the punching ball because you are sexually frustrated and/or your job is a dead-end job with no real future. So you need to hit out at something. Some kick the cat, some punch a ball, and many of you post nasty comments in Malaysia Today.

The 2008 General Election is said to be a landmark for Malaysia's opposition. We would like to believe that a new political culture has emerged. Some say that, finally, the racial divide has been bridged and today people think as Malaysians and no longer as Malays, Chinese and Indians, or as one of the natives of East Malaysia.

Is this true? Many of you who post comments in Malaysia Today appear to think so. But what is the average age of those who post comments in Malaysia Today? 30? 35? 40? How many of you who post comments in Malaysia Today are 65 or 70? How many of you who post comments in Malaysia Today were born before the Second World War, or before Merdeka, or before 1970?

Okay, let us just look at Malaysians who live, work and/or study, say, in the UK. We have Malaysians here in the UK from all the races. UK is an advanced society. Racism is a crime in the UK and you can get sent to jail even for the mildest of racial slurs. If that same law was applied in Malaysia and was strictly enforced, probably 80% of Malaysians would end up in jail.

There are Malaysians who have lived in the UK for 20 years or more. Some were married in the UK and some even born in the UK. Hence these Malaysians in the UK should not have been exposed to Malaysian-style racism and should by now be insulated from racism.

But this is not so. Chinese mix with Chinese. Malays mix with Malays. In fact, most Malays in the UK only want to live in certain residential areas that are monopolised by their 'own kind' -- fellow Malays and in the absence of fellow Malays at least in areas which are predominantly Muslim. And don't tell me that the Chinese are not like that because if this were true then there would not be so many Chinatowns all over the world, the UK included.

I speak to Malays here in the UK -- professionals who work in the UK, say for the last 10 or 20 years, and whose children were born and now school in the UK -- and they still ask me whether what I am propagating is wise. Do you think we really should end the New Economic Policy (NEP) in favour of meritocracy? What will happen to the Malays if we do that? Won't we 'lose' the country to the Chinese?

Now, these are Malay professionals who are doing well in the UK not because of the NEP but because of merits. They got their positions not because of the colour of their skin but because they are qualified. Their children are in a local Mat Salleh school and are top of the class or at least in the top ten or top five.

You are doing well, I tell them. Are you doing well because the UK has an NEP and you got your job because you are Malay or because you are good at your job and/or qualified for the job? Your children are doing very well in school and can compete with the 'whites'. Is this because of the NEP or because they have brains?

They agree that the NEP has nothing to do with it. Maybe in the beginning it was because of the NEP -- and because of the NEP they managed to receive a good education. But from thereon it had nothing to do with the NEP. They compete on a level playing field and they excelled, as did their children in school, entirely on their own merits and with no handicap or advantages.

Okay, I tell them, in short, you are who you are has nothing to do with the NEP and the only benefit that you can see from the NEP is that you received an education. However, judging by how well your children are doing in school, even without the NEP you would still have made it in life just as long as you were allowed the opportunity of a good education.

In short, I ask them, if Malaysia did not have any NEP but had enough schools, colleges, universities, teachers, lecturers, etc., you would have still made it even without any quota system and the only reason you need a quota system is because of a shortage of educational facilities?

They agreed that that is correct.

So we do not need the NEP, right? We need more institutions of learning so that the quota system can end.

When I summed it up that way they hesitated. As logical as this argument may sound, they were not too sure. They still felt that removing or abolishing the NEP would not be good for the Malays.

My wife, Marina, would listen to this exchange and later, when we are alone, she would express her awe at the mind of these Malays. They live and work in the UK. They and their children are doing well. And they are doing well not because of the NEP. So they do not need the NEP. And yet they are not prepared to let go of the NEP in spite of the fact they do not need it.

That is how the mind of the Malay works. And these are Malays in the UK. What about Malays in Malaysia? Would they not also be thinking like this, or worse?

Earlier this year I gave a talk in Cambridge called For God, King and Racism (lifted from the saying 'For God, King and Country'). It was a one and half hour talk about the history of racism in Malaysia, mainly the 'three Rs' that I had written about before more than once -- race, religion, royalty.

As I had explained before, these are the concerns of the Malays -- even Malays who have lived/worked 20 years in the UK and who should, therefore, not be concerned about such matters. And Umno is aware of these concerns. And Umno knows how to play on these concerns to garner Malay support.

The non-Malays in the opposition, however -- many of you who post comments in Malaysia Today -- are not sensitive to these concerns. Instead you do the opposite. Rather than address these concerns you engage in Malay-, Islam-, and/or Royalty-bashing.

Do you really think this will ensure that the opposition is going to get Malay support?

Look at the results of the 2008 General Election. Look at where the seats that DAP won are. Look at where the seats that PAS won are. Look at where the seats that PKR won.

Is it merely a coincidence that the seats that DAP won were mostly in areas where the Chinese voters were more than 50% or the Malay voters were less 40%? Of course, there were some seats that DAP won where the Malay voters were higher than the Chinese voters, mainly in the cities or main towns, which were 'delivered' by PAS.

PAS won seats where the Malay voters were predominantly Malay while PKR did well in areas where it was about 50:50 Malay:non-Malay.

In short, the voting pattern was along racial lines. Race still very much determines how people vote. As much as we would like to believe that the 2008 General Election was a landmark election where Malaysians no longer voted along racial lines, this is not true.

Many of you who comment in Malaysia Today make the Malays saki hati (hurt the feelings of the Malays). Hell, even I saki hati with the DAP Chinese supporters and can no longer tahan the arrogance in your comments (in case you are too stupid to realise that). No, Umno did not win us over, as many of you allege. Instead, your foul mouths have sent us away. And this is the feeling of many Malays who voted Pakatan Rakyat in the last general election.

In 2008, many people screamed ABU (asal bukan Umno or anything but Umno). Today, these same people are screaming ABC (asal bukan Cina). Is this how you want to face the coming general election?

As I said earlier, many of you are in your 20s, 30s or 40s. Some of us who were born before the Second World War, before Merdeka, or before 1970 have seen what it was like in the old days. And what is frightening is that we seem to be seeing a repeat of that era. And yet even more frightening is that many of you just do not see this. And when we point this out and try to caution you that the situation is not at all healthy, you respond with allegations that we are serving Umno's agenda and are trying to play up the fear factor.

That is what is called denial syndrome.

 

The one-track mind

Posted: 12 Mar 2013 01:44 PM PDT

And that is the most important criteria to get Malaysian citizenship. And that is why many foreigners have been given Malaysian citizenship. So I don't know why many of you grumble and complain about the 'Projek IC' in Sabah. Maybe one million people have been given ICs. But then these people are exactly like you -- ignorant people who have no ability to think beyond the one-track. So why should they not be given Malaysian citizenship when they possess the brain of a Malaysian?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

After living in the East Coast of West Malaysia for 20 years from 1974-1994, and after interacting with the local 'natives' of Terengganu and Kelantan, you tend to develop a pretty good idea as to how their mind works.

Terengganu and Kelantan is predominantly Malay-Muslim with some areas comprising of 70%-90% farmers and fishermen. The people there are actually very nice and friendly although many of them harbour the wrong impression of the non-Malays/non-Muslims, mainly due to ignorance.

For example, they ('they' not necessarily meaning everyone but some: the degree or percentage not known, though, since I have not conducted any poll) think that the Chinese can live as husband and wife, although they may not be legally married, mainly because Chinese do not have any religion and hence, according to Chinese 'norms', this is not an immoral thing.

My wife, Marina, was shocked when one day a kampong woman told her this. Marina had to tell her that the Chinese, just like the Malays, do have a concept of morality and most of what is considered immoral for Malays is also immoral for Chinese. And this kampong woman was actually quite surprised that the Chinese, too, have moral values.

They also think that the Chinese businessmen and shopkeepers cheat due to the same reason -- meaning that the Chinese do not have any religion and hence they do not have any concept of heaven and hell where you later pay for the bad things that you do (or get rewarded for the good things that you do). This means it is in the Chinese character to be dishonest since they are not accountable for their actions in the Afterlife.

I suppose the manner in how you treat people from another community depends on how you perceive them and what you think of them. Hence if you think that the Chinese are 'immoral' and 'dishonest' only because they do not have any religion to guide them regarding right and wrong, then you accept the fact that you cannot expect the Chinese to be 'good' people but then you should not blame them also since they do not have the advantage of a religion to help guide them.

And this is the problem with how these people think. They think that morality and honesty are not part of the Chinese character not because the Chinese are bad people but because, to the Chinese, these concepts do not exist due to the absence of religion.

Can you see what ignorance can do to you? Part of the blame must certainly go to that person who is ignorant because it is your duty to get educated. However, the Chinese too need to also make themselves understood. And that is why I always write articles about the Malays and Islam. I feel many non-Malays/non-Muslims have misconceptions about the Malays and Islam mainly because they don't bother to find out (just like the Malays do not bother to find out about the non-Malays/non-Muslims).

One more thing about the Malays is that they believe very strongly in bomoh (witch doctors), black magic, good genies (jin), bad genies, evil spirits, tangkal (lucky charms), etc. Tangkal are supposed to make you invincible and bullets, knives, etc., would not be able to penetrate your body.

Maznah Ismail a.k.a. Mona Fendi (picture above) was supposed to be a specialist in tangkal that gives you invincibility. Unfortunately for her client, though, Pahang State Assemblyman Datuk Mazlan Idris, it did not work and when they conducted the test, the parang (machete) went deep into his skull and killed him (it was supposed to have bounced off his skull without leaving a scratch).

It seems some of those Filipino Muslim soldiers who infiltrated Sabah recently and who were shot dead had tangkal on their bodies as well -- although they did not quite work (since they were shot dead). Not quite an endorsement for those bomoh who manufactured those tangkal for the Filipino Muslim army. On some of those dead soldiers the tangkal was found between their legs. Maybe this was to make sure that they don't get their balls shot off.

Actually, Chinese, Indians and 'others' also believe in bomoh, tangkal, jin, black magic, and so on. When P.I. Balasubramanian suffered his heart attack a few days ago, they said that 'First Lady' Rosmah Mansor had used black magic on him. Hence he was supposed to be suffering from an attack of black magic. I am not sure whether they thought so before they discovered what was really wrong with him or whether they meant that the heart attack was due to black magic.

But don't laugh. As funny as it may sound, many people of all races do believe in such things. In fact, when Malays from Terengganu and Kelantan get sick the first thing that comes to mind is that someone must have employed a bomoh to put a spell on you. And they will go to their own bomoh for treatment.

I have known of cases where someone had aches and pains and went to a bomoh for treatment -- who confirmed the aches and pains was because some bad bomoh had put a spell on you. After many months or even years of treatment, the aches and pains would still not go away (and after paying the bomoh a tidy sum of money over all that time).

One day you can't bear the pain any longer and you go to a 'proper' doctor. The doctor then tells you that you are suffering from cancer. However, you should have done something about it earlier. Now it is too late and because of that you will be dead within six months, most likely over the next two months or so.

The bottom line is, if you had gone to the doctor instead of a bomoh you might have been saved. Now, because you wasted your time with the bomoh, it is too late and because of that you are going to die.

Sounds stupid does it not? But this is the way they think. They have a one-track mind. And this is because they are quite ignorant so they are incapable of thinking outside this one-track. Hence if anything goes wrong it can only be because of one thing -- black magic and the work of an evil bomoh.

Many if not most Malaysians have this same mentality. They too are ignorant and have a one-track mind. When something happens they can only think of one reason for this. They are incapable of imagining any other reason other than just this one reason.

For example, if someone disagrees with you or has a different opinion from you then this can only be due to one reason -- and that one reason is that that person has been bought. Your brain is not capable of imagining that there could actually be another reason for this. This is the same mindset as those who think that if your body has aches and pains then it must be because a bomoh has put a spell on you.

I suppose we can't expect everyone to have analytical skills and to have the ability to think beyond the one-track. If you are sick then it can only because of a bomoh using black magic. If someone disagrees with you then it can only be because he/she has been bought.

And that is the most important criteria to get Malaysian citizenship. And that is why many foreigners have been given Malaysian citizenship. So I don't know why many of you grumble and complain about the 'Projek IC' in Sabah. Maybe one million people have been given ICs. But then these people are exactly like you -- ignorant people who have no ability to think beyond the one-track. So why should they not be given Malaysian citizenship when they possess the brain of a Malaysian?

 

Heckling, mocking and debating

Posted: 10 Mar 2013 04:10 PM PDT

I detest hecklers. And that is what a few readers who comment in Malaysia Today are, hecklers. But they imagine themselves as philosophers who are making wise comments that are going to help change entire humankind for the better. And that is why of late I have been putting down these hecklers with my own responses to their silly heckling comments.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

There are people who do not understand the difference between heckling, mocking and debating. I suppose these are the types of people who also do not understand the difference between making love, screwing and raping. To these people, brutally grabbing a female and ravaging her against her will comes under the category of 'making love'.

Absolutely no class! Manners of country bumpkins!

But then I suppose we can't blame them. These people did not receive an education at good schools like the Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) or the Victoria Institution (VI) -- both schools that I went to. Many of them were schooled in obscure small towns that still had bucket latrines up to the 1960s or 1970s, or in kampong schools or vernacular/mother-tongue hole-in-the-wall schools.

You can take the village idiot out of the village but you can't take the village mentality out of the village idiot, as the saying goes. Hence you can send them to school but that does not necessarily mean they will receive an education. Education is not just about going to school. After all even monkeys can be taught tricks and then sent into space after being taught these tricks. Hence you may have gone to school but whether you are still a monkey is yet to be seen.

I detest hecklers. And that is what a few readers who comment in Malaysia Today are, hecklers. But they imagine themselves as philosophers who are making wise comments that are going to help change entire humankind for the better. And that is why of late I have been putting down these hecklers with my own responses to their silly heckling comments.

I remember an incident that happened about 30 years ago back in the early 1980s. Tan Sri Tan Kay Hock, the Chairman of Johan Holdings Berhad and George Kent (M) Bhd, took me (and our wives) for dinner at The Paddock in the (old) Kuala Lumpur Hilton. There was a comedian on stage and he was pretty good.

But we could not hear what the comedian was saying because there were two Malay chaps pissed-drunk at the table behind us who were heckling him. I noticed the manager, escorted by a security guard, going up to them to request them to tone down a bit because everyone was staring at them and were clearly quite upset with the disturbance. But these two pissed-drunk Malay chaps continued heckling the comedian until it came to a stage that he became quite flustered and did not know how to continue with his routine.

That was when I stood up and walked over to the table of these two very drunk hecklers and told them to shut the fuck up. The manager and security guard knew that the whole thing was about to turn ugly but before they could separate us one of the Malay chaps stood up and made a move towards me.

In that type of situation there is more room for talk. I punched the chap and he fell back into his chair quite stunned. For the rest of the night he remained very quiet and just 'enjoyed' the show. I think he must have been 'boiling' because after a while he came over to my table and demanded to know why I had punched him. The manager quickly grabbed him and pulled him back to his table before I could rearrange his face.

Well, okay, that was 30 years ago and I was still in my early 30s and hence quite darah panas (hot headed). Nevertheless, although I am not so fist-of-fury any longer, as I used to be, I still have zero tolerance for hecklers.

A few years ago (before the 2008 GE) I attended a debate between Umno Youth and PKR Youth at the PWTC. The Umno Youth and Puteri Umno members in the audience were very well behaved. The PKR Youth members, however, were heckling the Umno Youth debaters every time they stood up to debate.

The Umno Youth and Puteri Umno members did not do the same to the PKR Youth debaters when they stood up to debate. They Umno boys and girls behaved well and they allowed the PKR Youth debaters to say their piece without any interruptions. And even as the PKR Youth members heckled the Umno Youth debaters the Umno Youth debaters still smiled and continued in a civil manner without showing any signs of irritation.

The PKR Youth hecklers were sitting in the row right behind me (I was sitting next to Cikgu Bad so he can confirm this incident) so I could not hear the debate due to all the commotion. I turned to the PKR Youth chaps and told them to shut up and show some respect to the debaters. They kept quiet for a while and then continued heckling. I got so fed up I walked out of the hall although I wished I could just punch these hecklers in their faces.

Looking back now, I should have punched them in their faces because these people have now all joined Umno and are amongst the greatest critics of Pakatan Rakyat. And if I had known they would one day leave the opposition to join Umno I might have whacked them in the face to shut them up.

Anyway, as I said, Malaysia Today, too, has its share of hecklers who do not address, rebut or reply to the points in the article or report. They totally ignore the issues and instead just heckle. And these are the people I respond to with my sarcastic comments. It is not so much bringing myself down to their level but more to give them a taste of their own medicine. After all, I too can be nasty and post racist comments as well as they can.

But the most important thing, though, is that I put my name to my comments while they heckle under false identities without revealing who they are. And this is because they have not been properly educated and brought up like I have. I mean, they may have gone to school but they still demonstrate the mentality of their forefathers from the new villages, fishing villages, padi-fields, rubber estates, tin mines, and so on.

You can bring the descendants of people from the new villages, fishing villages, padi-fields, rubber estates and tin mines out of the new villages, fishing villages, padi-fields, rubber estates and tin mines, but you can never remove the new village, fishing village, padi-field, rubber estate and tin mine mentality from their brain.

Do I sound pompous? I hope so because I intended it to be so.

 

Why must I like Anwar?

Posted: 09 Mar 2013 04:02 PM PST

I know some of you like or maybe even love Anwar. I have no problems with that. But just because you like or love Anwar that does not mean I too must do so. And just because I do not like or love the same people that you do this does give you the right to vilify, disparage, mock and curse me.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

There are people who are of the opinion that if I am a reformist, if I am loyal to the cause, if I really wish to see change, then I should love Anwar Ibrahim and sing his praises. If I do not love Anwar, then I am not a reformist, I am not loyal to the cause, and I do not wish to see change.

Well, you have probably figured this out by now (and if you haven't then you are dumber than I thought) but I do not love Anwar Ibrahim. But that does not mean I hate him either. Not loving does not necessarily translate to hate. For example, I do not love Britney Spears's music. But that does not mean I hate her music either.

In fact, I rather like her slower numbers such as 'I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman', 'Born To Make You Happy', 'Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know', 'From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart', and so on. However, I would not regard her music as 'to die for', unlike Emile Sandé's song 'Clown', which I play every day, a few times a day. Now that is a song 'to die for' that gives me goose pimples (in fact, I'm listening to that song even as we speak).

My 'displeasure' with Anwar, if I may be permitted to call it that, started around August 2004. I was then the Director of the Free Anwar Campaign, which I headed for roughly five years of the six years that Anwar was in jail. And I funded it from my own pocket except for the RM1,000 that Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail gave me in 2000 and the RM2,000 that Anwar's brother, Rosli, gave me in 2002. That was all: RM3,000 in total from Anwar's family.

But that was not an issue. I was not doing all this for money anyway. Then, in August 2004, one of Anwar's lawyers, Pawanchik Merican, spoke to me to ask me how much I was receiving every month to run the Free Anwar Campaign. I replied that other than the RM3,000 I had received thus far, I was not receiving any money and that the cost to run the Free Anwar Campaign came from my own pocket.

Pawanchik was very upset when I told him this. He knew I was travelling all over the country campaigning not only for Anwar but also against the Internal Security Act. And he also knew that Anwar's people had raised a few million Ringgit in the name of the Free Anwar campaign. Hence he thought that the money actually went into financing the Free Anwar Campaign.

Pawanchik then informed me that he had visited Anwar in the Sungai Buloh Prison and had told Anwar about this but Anwar did not respond. He just kept quiet. Pawanchik then advised me to close down the Free Anwar Campaign to stop Anwar's people from using it to raise money.

I told Pawanchik I would only close down the Free Anwar Campaign once Anwar is free from prison and not a day earlier. Pawanchik replied that Anwar is going to remain in prison for at least another six years. So am I prepared to keep running the Free Anwar Campaign for another six years?

I told Pawanchik that Anwar was going to be released in another few weeks, after which I will then close down the Free Anwar Campaign. Pawanchik laughed and said that none of Anwar's many lawyers believed that he would be free in another few weeks. They were very confident that Anwar would spend no less than ten years in jail in total, maybe even 12 years.

I then wrote an article that Anwar would see freedom on 2nd September 2004 and one of Anwar's lawyers came to see me at my home in Sungai Buloh to scold me. And this lawyer told me that he is scolding me on Anwar's behalf because my article that Anwar would be freed on 2nd September 2004 is a lie and not true at all.

Anyway, I was right and Anwar and his lawyers were wrong. Anwar was freed on 2nd September 2004 as I had written. On that same day I put the Free Anwar Campaign to sleep and began to focus on Malaysia Today fulltime, which I had launched two weeks earlier on Friday, 13th August 2004.

On that day, 2nd September 2004, Anwar's lawyer (the one who had come to my house to scold me) phoned me and said that Anwar wanted to see me. I told him to go to hell. The next day, 3rd September 2004, Anwar's brother, Rosli (the chap who had given me RM2,000) phoned me and, again, told me that Anwar wanted to see me. And, again, I told him to go to hell.

On the third day, 4th September 2004, Dato' Kamarul Bahrin Abbas (the current MP for Teluk Kemang) phoned me and pleaded with me to come and see Anwar. Dato' told me that Anwar was leaving for Germany that same night and he wanted to see me before he leaves. I told Dato' that Anwar can leave for Germany and maybe I will see him when he returns. Dato' said Anwar wanted to see me before he leaves.

I felt bad because I have great respect for Dato' Kamarul, who was my boss in the party newspaper, Berita Keadilan, later changed to Seruan Keadilan. I asked my wife, Marina, what I should do and she replied that if I wanted to go and see Anwar then I will have walk there because she was not going to drive me. Finally Marina agreed to drive me as long as she can wait outside the house and not have to go into the house to also see Anwar.

I went to see Anwar that 4th September 2004 not because he wanted to see me but because I segan with Dato' Kamarul. Dato' Kamarul, in fact, was waiting outside the house when we arrived and he escorted me into Anwar's bedroom.

Anwar's first words to me were, "Allah, anak Raja ni, susah sungguh nak panggil datang jumpa."

I replied, "Why do you want to see me? After all you are not happy with me."

So you see, as early as back in August 2004 when I launched Malaysia Today and Anwar was spending his last fortnight in prison I had already 'washed my hands' of him. And I made that very clear by refusing to go and see him even when his lawyer and brother phoned me. I relented on the third day only because I wanted to 'give face' to Dato' Kamarul because I segan with him, my boss in the party newspaper. When I segan with someone I will give him/her face even if I am not happy doing what they request from me.

Hence I 'stayed' with Anwar not because I love Anwar but for the sake of Dato' Kamarul who I have great respect for.

In the 2008 general election, I campaigned for DAP, but not for Pakatan Rakyat. I declined all the invitations to speak at the PAS and PKR rallies/ceramah. I told them I would only speak at the DAP rallies. And I did, all the way to Penang.

Then they approached me and asked me to speak at Nurul Izzah's ceramah. At first I said 'no'. No PKR ceramahs. Then a friend pleaded with me to help Nurul. Because of this friend who I also segan, an Indian chap, I relented and said that only at Nurul's ceramah, but not at the other PKR ceramah -- exclusive for Nurul Izzah only. And until today I still support Nurul and even helped raise money for her (which I did last year).

I know some of you like or maybe even love Anwar. I have no problems with that. But just because you like or love Anwar that does not mean I too must do so. And just because I do not like or love the same people that you do this does give you the right to vilify, disparage, mock and curse me.

I love Tok Guru Abdul Hadi Awang and Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat. When I meet them I kiss their hands to demonstrate my love for them. Many of you, however, do not like these two PAS leaders. Some of you, in fact, hate them. But I do not vilify, disparage, mock and curse you because you do no like them or you hate them.

I like Karpal Singh. In fact, I have great respect for Karpal and his sons, Gobind in particular. Many of you do not like Karpal. Some of you even hate him and feel he should just retire and keep his mouth shut. But I do not vilify, disparage, mock and curse you because you do no like Karpal or you hate him.

I know some of you do not like Dato' Kamarul, the only person in Malaysia who can get me to go and see Anwar. But I do not vilify, disparage, mock and curse you because you do not like Dato' Kamarul or you hate him. In fact, I even know that some of you are going to sabotage Dato' Kamarul in the coming general election to make sure he loses his seat. But I still do not vilify, disparage, mock and curse you.

So, no, I have not 'turned' of late, as some of you allege. I already 'turned' -- if you wish to use that word -- back in August 2004 when I first launched Malaysia Today. Nothing has changed. In spite of that I still went to Penang to campaign and ceramah for Anwar during the 2008 Permatang Pauh by-election (and he did not even thank me for that). And when Anwar went to London a few times I travelled down to London to meet him at my own expense.

And let me share a secret with you. The more you vilify, disparage, mock and curse me because I do not love Anwar the more I am going to write articles and exposés uncomplimentary to Anwar just to teach you a lesson.

Nobody tells me whom I can and cannot love or like. And I will keep whacking until you get this through your thick head. And if you do not like that, tough, that is your problem, not mine.

 

I speak for God, konon

Posted: 08 Mar 2013 08:22 PM PST

"The Shi'ite influence from Iran exists here and there are attempts to spread it among the community. This represents a major problem not only to the education system but also the Muslim community, so I want immediate action to be taken to prevent the spread of such teachings," said Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Thorough study to identify, curb Shi'ite teachings: DPM

(Bernama) - The government will carry out a thorough study to identify Islamic religious teachers involved in the Shi'ite teachings to curb such activities so that Muslims in the country are not misled by such teachings.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said such a study needed to be carried out at several levels instead of just making presumptions.

"This includes studying the character of the teachers (involved in Shi'ite teachings), their methods of teaching, social activities and their involvement in such teachings. If they are really involved, they would be advised," he said.

He said this at the Northern Zone Conference of Islamic Religious Teachers, Ministry of Education at Universiti Sains Malaysia, here today which was attended by about 2,300 religious teachers.

Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, said this when responding to a question from a religious teacher from Kedah who wanted the government to take action on the growing incidence of religious teachers involved in Shi'ite teachings.

He said immediate action must also be taken as the Shi'ite teachings were contradictory to Islamic teachings in this country and could not be accepted particularly as they involved religious teachers.

He expressed concern if the Shi'ite teachings spread to students through lessons in school and the community because religious teachers had great influence in the society.

"The Shi'ite influence from Iran exists here and there are attempts to spread it among the community. This represents a major problem not only to the education system but also the Muslim community, so I want immediate action to be taken to prevent the spread of such teachings," he said.

Meanwhile in his speech, Muhyiddin said the Barisan Nasional (BN) government implemented numerous measures in empowering Islam including in the Islamic religious education system in schools, the creation of an international Islamic university and the implementation of Islamic banking and finance which had been recognised as the best in the world.

"All forms of progress and development implemented by the BN government are in line with the requirements of Islam as had been stated, 'Balanced Life in the Present World and Hereafter'," he said.

He said that it would not be able to implement policies pertaining to Islam if Malaysia did not have a government or administration that was committed to empowering and preserving the sanctity of the Islamic religion.

"Islamic education as the federal religion does not necessarily guarantee the implementation of Islamic policies if there is no commitment or determination on the part of the government that does not see the need for the sanctity of the Islamic religion to be preserved and the growth of Islam."

Muhyiddin said the federal government had given emphasis on raising the quality of Islamic teaching as it was important for the Muslims in Malaysia.

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I shudder when Malays foam at the mouth and scream about Al Qur'an, Al Hadith, Al Sunnah and Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah (Sunni, for short). Then they will say that a good Sunni will follow the teachings of Imam Ghazali and Imam Shafiee. Then they will conclude by saying that the Shi'ite are not true Muslims, they are deviant Muslims -- in fact, you should not even consider them Muslims at all -- and Malaysians who follow the teachings Shi'ite must be arrested and sent for religious rehabilitation.

And, in the past, many followers of Shi'ite teachings -- some of them lecturers and professors of various Malaysian universities -- have been arrested for this 'crime'. So, today, those Malays who follow Shi'ite teachings do so secretly to avoid arrest. They go 'underground' and become 'closet' followers of Shi'ism.

This is just like England of the 1500s when Catholics would also go underground and practice Catholicism secretly. If not they would be arrested, their property confiscated, and they would be tortured and then when they are half-dead would be burned alive at the stake like witches and warlocks.

100 years later, England went through a Civil War and one of the various reasons being that Charles I was suspected of being a Catholic sympathiser. The Puritans led by Oliver Cromwell wanted to eradicate the anti-Christ and heretic Catholics from English soil. They even banned Christmas and removed statues and crucifixes from churches, symbols of popish believes and papist religious deviation.

Today, Malaysia is going through what England went through 400-500 years ago. And Catholicism is replaced with Shi'ism. But in Malaysia they only arrest you and send you for religious rehabilitation. They do not burn you alive at the stake -- after being tortured an inch from death -- like they used to do in England four-five centuries ago.

I wonder why.

Do you know that the two famous imams of Sunni Islam -- Imam Ghazali and Imam Shafiee -- were students of Shi'ite scholars? And do you also know that the Hadith -- that the Sunnis say are compulsory to follow -- was written by Persians and not by scholars from Mekah and/or Medina. In fact, during the time of the four Caliphs of Medina, they banned Hadith. Omar was so outraged by false Hadith that he would flog anyone who wrote these Hadith.

Strange or not? We reject the Persian version of Islam but we follow the Hadith and Imams of Persia.

I wonder whether the Deputy Prime Minister is aware of this. Does he know that the so-called ulama' (religious scholars) have been hiding this fact from us. And because 99% of Malays are ignorant of Islam, they do not know this.

It is like the Protestants or Anglicans rejecting popish teachings and then they go and celebrate pagan Christmas every 25th December. Strange or not?

It looks like both Christians and Muslims are equally weird. Then they say that the Christians and Muslims follow the Abrahamic faith. But Abraham is the father of Judaism. Should not Christians and Muslims then be Jews?

Strange! Very strange indeed! They say this is called blind faith. I think it is more like blind rather than faith. And these people think they are all going to heaven and the rest of us are going to hell.

Strange! Very strange indeed! And do you know that Hudud is Jewish law. And the Christians allege that Jesus abrogated the Jewish law of Hudud while the Muslims claim it is Islamic law.

Strange! Very strange indeed!

 

The value of a Muslim oath

Posted: 07 Mar 2013 03:56 PM PST

The Malays/Muslims have just reduced the value of a Muslim oath to zero value. Can we any longer trust Malays/Muslims when they swear an oath in the name of Allah while holding a Qur'an? No wonder Malays/Muslims swear an oath of office and as soon as they are in office they resort to corruption and abuse of power and violate the trust the people have put in them.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

This is the photograph that Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail showed during the press conference that she held regarding Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan's sodomy allegation against Anwar Ibrahim. When the press asked Wan Azizah where she got the photograph from, she pointed to me standing at the back of the hall and told the reports to ask Raja Petra.

The reporters then rushed up to me to ask me my comments and I just smiled and responded with a 'no comment'. I just love keeping some things a mystery – such as from where I got that photograph.

At first Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's office denied the photograph and also denied that Saiful had ever been to meet the Prime Minister. Later, when I said that I have evidence that Saiful did visit Najib's office, they did a U-turn and admitted that he did go to Najibs office after all but merely to discuss a scholarship.

Hence allow me to gloat by saying that Malaysia Today broke the story first and even revealed the photograph.

But that is not the point of my article today. What I really want to talk about is that Malays (meaning Muslims as well) pride themselves on the sanctity of the Qur'an and the value of an oath of a Muslim.

In fact, in Surah An Nur (chapter 24) of the Qur'an, it stresses that in any allegation involving sexual misconduct (where the sentence is stoning to death just like the old Jewish laws) your oath can determine whether a person is put to death or is spared death.

In other words, another person's oath can result in you being put to death (by many people throwing stones at you) and/or your oath can spare you the terrible fate of being put to death (by many people throwing stones at you). So an oath is not a light thing. It is the difference between life and death.

And this is what Saiful had done -- he had taken an oath -- and also what Najib had done regarding his alleged involvement with Altantuya Shaariibuu -- he had also taken an oath that he had never met her or even knows her.

Today, Malaysians have learned that an oath of a Muslim has no value after all. An oath of a Muslim -- even when taken with a Qur'an over his/her head -- is as valuable as Japanese 'banana money'.

After this can we ever accept the oath of a Malay/Muslim? It appears like the oath of a Muslim, the most sacred word that a Muslim can ever give, is not worth the paper it is written on (pun intended).

The Malays/Muslims need to ponder on this. If from now on the non-Muslims mock a Muslim who swears in the name of Allah regarding this, that or the other, the Malays/Muslims should not feel offended and start making police reports that so-and-so has insulted Islam and threaten bloodshed and all that bullshit.

The Malays/Muslims have just reduced the value of a Muslim oath to zero value. Can we any longer trust Malays/Muslims when they swear an oath in the name of Allah while holding a Qur'an? No wonder Malays/Muslims swear an oath of office and as soon as they are in office they resort to corruption and abuse of power and violate the trust the people have put in them.

In short, Malays/Muslims cannot be trusted because the sacred oath of a Malay/Muslim is totally worthless. And a human whose sacred oath is worthless is lower than an animal. Are Muslims lower than animals then?

Yes, and trust me, after writing this article I have just closed the door to ever returning to Malaysia never mind whether Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional wins the coming general election.

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P.S.: By the way, I am inviting volunteers from both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat to become sub-editors of Malaysia Today -- at least for now until the coming general election. Your job will be to update/publish news items or articles every day, say about half a dozen or so a day per person.

The reason I am inviting volunteers from both sides of the political divide is so that we can get balanced reporting and views. Definitely the pro-Barisan people will publish pro-government items while the pro-Pakatan people will publish anti-government items. (You have absolute autonomy and can also write your own articles if you want to).

I will need you to verify your identity and political affiliation, of course, and if you respond fast enough maybe we can arrange a face-to-face meeting some time next week in a secret location in the Malaysian jungle to get the ball rolling. (So be prepared to 'disappear' for a whole day next week).

If you want Malaysia Today to be more balanced then this is your opportunity to do that. I am prepared to turn Malaysia Today into a 'public-owned' Blog and allow you to determine what gets published in Malaysia Today. Then you have no reason to say that Malaysia Today is biased. We want to be as balanced as we can but then you must help make this possible.

Any takers? You can contact me at petra_kamarudin@airpost.net

 

Irritated by beliefs

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 06:58 PM PST

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad once said that Malaysia is not ready to become a full democracy. Malaysia can only be a 'guided' democracy, as what Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore said. This means the people cannot be allowed to think, do and say whatever they like. Malaysians must be guided as to what they can think, do and say.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Some people believe that Muhammad is the final Prophet of God and that the only authentic holy book, the Qur'an, was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (which is the miracle of Prophet Muhammad) through Gabriel and that Muhammad flew up to God's Kingdom to receive the decree that humankind must pray five times a day (and where Muhammad also met Abraham, Moses and Jesus).

Many more people, however, think that this is all utter bullshit and probably the imagination of a demented person.

Some people believe that Jesus was of a virgin birth and is the Son of God and that he died for the sins of humankind and came back to life three days later and that if we accept Jesus as the saviour then our soul will be saved.

Many more people, however, think that this is all utter bullshit and probably the imagination of a demented person.

Some people believe that the Jews are God's chosen people who were led out of slavery by Moses who parted the Red Sea to allow them to escape the Pharaoh and that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments for all humankind to follow plus God gave humankind His laws of Hudud.

Many more people, however, think that this is all utter bullshit and probably the imagination of a demented person.

Some people believe that you can ignore or mistreat your parents and put them in old folks' homes when they become senile and a burden and then you go to their graves to pray when they die plus you must choose the graveyard properly for good luck and positive fung shui.

Many more people, however, think that this is all utter bullshit and probably the imagination of a demented person.

Some people believe that you should build statues and place shrines around trees and treat them as Gods and pray to them and that if you are bad you will be reincarnated as a pig or a dog but if you are good you will be reincarnated as a handsome/beautiful Bollywood movie star.

Many more people, however, think that this is all utter bullshit and probably the imagination of a demented person.

Nevertheless, however silly these beliefs may seem, most people are prepared to live and let live and allow you these beliefs without scolding, cursing, vilifying or disparaging you and will not call you stupid for believing these silly things. They are, after all, your beliefs and you are entitled to those beliefs even though these beliefs may sound insane.

Then, on top of that, there are people who believe that Malaysia is ready for a change of government and that the present government has ruled for too damn long and corruption, abuse of power, racism, an erosion of your fundamental liberties, etc., is so rampant and blatant because of that.

Many more people, however, think that this is all utter bullshit and probably the imagination of a demented person.

Then, on top of that, there are people who believe that it is futile to change governments because the new government we choose will be just as bad as the old government and that history has proven that countries that changed governments did not see any positive change and it was merely business as usual or old wine in a new bottle.

Many more people, however, think that this is all utter bullshit and probably the imagination of a demented person.

Nevertheless, while you may think that whether you change governments or you retain the present government is a matter of opinion and personal choice, most people will refuse to allow you this freedom of opinion and personal choice and they are not prepared to live and let live and allow you this belief without scolding, cursing, vilifying or disparaging you and call you stupid for believing these silly things.

Isn't it strange? When it comes to religion, most people think you are silly for having these silly beliefs but they will keep silent and allow you to continue being silly. When it comes to politics, however, most people think you are silly for having these silly beliefs but they will not keep silent and allow you to continue being silly.

In fact, religion is more irrational than politics. Nothing in religion can be proven and all religions work on the basis of the supernatural. Politics, however, can at least be argued supported by historical evidence. But while you are allowed your religious beliefs they will not allow you your political beliefs. They will scold, curse, vilify or disparage you if you take an opposite political stand but they do not do the same when you take an opposite religious stand.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad once said that Malaysia is not ready to become a full democracy. Malaysia can only be a 'guided' democracy, as what Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore said. This means the people cannot be allowed to think, do and say whatever they like. Malaysians must be guided as to what they can think, do and say.

When Dr Mahathir first said this I was flabbergasted. I thought that Dr Mahathir had become a raving lunatic and was talking absolute nonsense. What do you mean by 'guided' democracy? Isn't that like being slightly pregnant? Either you are or you are not.

Over time, however, I began to understand the 'logic' in that most illogical statement, in particular over the last five years since 2008. Of late we have been seeing the evil side of Malaysians. And the conduct of Malaysians over these last five years has proven that Malaysians can't be trusted with absolute democracy.

It is like giving a child a box of matches. Mostly likely the whole house will be burned to the ground. The Malays say, macam bagi bunga ke beruk, or, as the English would say: casting pearls before pigs.

"Never give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs. Otherwise, they will trample them with their feet and then turn around and attack you." (Matthew 7:6).

 

So what is our foreign policy?

Posted: 05 Mar 2013 04:45 PM PST

Israel did not create itself. Israel was created by the colonial powers that also engineered the destruction of the Ottoman Empire. And the Sykes–Picot Agreement plus the Balfour Declaration were what made Israel possible. And these countries not only created Israel but they propped it up as well and are still doing so. So why are we still friends with them when they are the culprits behind the problem we are facing called Israel?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

'Did PM know US consultants are Israel supporters?'

(Malaysiakini) - Is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's administration aware that the US consultants it hired to attack political rival Anwar Ibrahim are ardent supporters of the Israeli regime, asks PKR.

PKR communications director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said Najib must answer many questions pertaining to the engagement of former United States president George W Bush's speechwriter Joshua Trevino and other American bloggers, through Apco Worldwide and FBC Media, at the expense of taxpayers.

FBC Media and Apco are agencies hired by the Malaysian government to spruce up its image internationally.

"Is the government aware that many of the consultants hired are staunch and avid supporters of Israel, to the detriment of the Palestinians?" were among the questions Nik Nazmi posed in a statement today.

The same right-wing writers hired by the BN-led government, said Nik Nazmi, are also anti-Islam and have been criticising the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslims in the US.

He also wants the PM to explain why and how much more of the rakyat's money has been spent for propaganda, who else have been hired and who did the recruiting and coordination of the campaign, which are mainly slander attacks against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

He claimed that Trevino was behind the site Malaysiamatters.com, which carried articles aimed at discrediting Anwar to international audiences.

Pakatan had intended to ask the question in Parliament, said the PKR leader, though as it was clear that there will be no Parliament sitting convened, he said the onus is on Najib.

"We hope the PM will answer," said Nik Nazmi during a press conference in Petaling Jaya today.

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Some background to the Israel issue

On 16th May 1916, Britain and France concluded the Sykes–Picot Agreement, which proposed to divide the Middle East between them into spheres of influence, with "Palestine" as an international enclave.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement did not call for Arab sovereignty, but for the "suzerainty of an Arab chief" and "an international administration, the form of which is to be decided upon after consultation with Russia, and subsequently in consultation with the other allies, and the representatives of the Sherif of Mecca." Under the terms of that agreement, the Zionist Organisation needed to secure an agreement along the lines of the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement with the Sherif of Mecca.

On 2nd November 1917, the Balfour Declaration, a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild, made public the British support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration led the League of Nations to entrust the United Kingdom with the Palestine Mandate in 1922.

In that letter, Balfour promised British support for the Zionist programme of establishing a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. This pledge of support was made without consulting the indigenous Christian and Muslim inhabitants of Palestine, the Palestinian people. And it was made before British troops had even conquered the land.

Balfour, on behalf of Britain, promised Palestine – over which Britain had no legal right – to a people who did not even live there (of the very small community of Palestinian Jews in Palestine in 1917, very few were Zionists). And he did so with the worst of intentions: to discourage Jewish immigration to Britain. Lord Montagu, the only Jewish member of the Cabinet, opposed the declaration.

And yet, just two years earlier, Britain had committed herself to assisting the Arab nations in achieving their independence from the Ottoman Empire. Arab fighters all over the region, including thousands of Palestinians, fought for their freedom, allowing Britain to establish her mandate in Palestine.

From that moment, Palestine became the victim of colonial conspiracies. The Balfour Declaration helped to encourage Zionist immigration into Palestine and away from America and Western Europe.

Simultaneously, Britain suppressed Palestinian nationalism, which was exemplified by its crushing of the Arab revolt of 1936-1939 and the denial of the right of the Palestinian people to express their will through their own representation. In fact, Britain suppressed Palestinian political representation through a policy of systematic denial of Palestinian political rights.

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Okay, from the Malaysiakini report above, it appears like Pakatan Rakyat's -- or at least PKR's -- foreign policy is that anyone who is pro-Israel or is opposed to the 'Palestinian cause' must be treated as an enemy of Malaysia. What happens if I were to publicly express an anti-Hamas or a pro-Israel stance? Would that also make me an enemy of the country?

Israel is a 100-year old story. Sabah became part of Malaysia in 1963. So it is a 50-year old story. If the Muslims from the Philippines do not have any legal right in claiming Sabah as their territory because it is an 'old story', what legal right do Muslims from the Middle East have in claiming Israel (or the occupied lands) as their territory when it is an even older story? (And remember, the British created Sabah just like they did Israel).

Malaysia supports the Muslim claim over Israel because Malaysia is a Muslim country and Muslims are 'officially' anti-Jews. Hence we take the Muslim side against the Jews. Okay, say Dr Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan's 'Christian' STAR were to kick out the 'Muslim' Umno government in the coming general election, would we now take the side of the Muslims from the Philippines regarding their claim over Sabah?

For the sake of Islam we take the Muslim side against the Jews. For the sake of Islam will we also take the Muslim side (although from the Philippines) against the Christians (although from Malaysia)? In the Middle East we are 'guided' by religion. Will we also be guided by religion if the Umno 'Muslim' government of Sabah gets kicked out?

We, especially the opposition, must be very careful when we express our foreign policy. Just because some Americans happen to be Jews (and Jews who support Israel) we cannot use that as the justification to declare them the enemy of Malaysia. That can also be interpreted as taking a pro-Hamas stance. And that would mean we do not regard Hamas as a terrorist group even though women and children are blown up with bombs.

We now call the Muslim 'intruders' from the Philippines terrorists and criminals. This is what Malaysia and the Philippines announced today. Are those Muslims who are fighting the Palestinian cause also terrorists and criminals? In that case what business does the government and opposition have in dealing with them? Aren't we dealing with terrorists and criminals?

It is not wrong, of course, in taking a stand, even in an issue involving foreign policy. But we need to be clear and consistent in the reasons why we take such a stand. And those justifications must apply in all cases, not apply in one case but not in another.

If it is wrong for the Malaysian government to deal with Jews from America known to be pro-Israel, then it is also wrong to deal with others who are pro-Israel as well.

Israel did not create itself. Israel was created by the colonial powers that also engineered the destruction of the Ottoman Empire. And the Sykes–Picot Agreement plus the Balfour Declaration were what made Israel possible. And these countries not only created Israel but they propped it up as well and are still doing so. So why are we still friends with them when they are the culprits behind the problem we are facing called Israel?

It is strange how we choose our friends and enemies. We apply certain reasons as to why someone is our enemy and then sidestep that same reason in those we want as our friends.

So let me get this straight. Anyone who is pro-Israel is our enemy, even those American citizens -- some who happen to be Jews. I suppose then almost every country in Europe must now become our enemy and Malaysians should be asked to leave the UK, France, etc., immediately.

 

Preaching to the preacher

Posted: 23 Feb 2013 05:40 PM PST

Let me put it this way. Say for 35 years a Christian Evangelist knocks on your door every weekend to talk to you about Christ. And every weekend you curse that Christian and tell him to fuck off and then slam the door in his face. Sometimes you even let loose your dog on him and a couple of times he was actually bitten by your dog.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Amid mounting criticisms against Pas spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat for describing recipients of 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) as 'chickens and cattle', the party's information chief said the remarks were merely metaphors.

Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Mat said Nik Aziz's remarks should not be taken literally as they were merely a kiasan (metaphor).

"I hope readers should not take the remarks literally. He (Nik Aziz) was only trying to convey that giving out knowledge is more important than giving money as an aid," he said.

Using the Malay proverb 'umpama melepaskan anjing tersepit' (literally translated "to release a trapped dog" which means to help someone who is bound to be ungrateful), as an example, Tuan Ibrahim said the phrase did not equate a person to a dog.

********************************************

This is certainly a breath of fresh air. I was of the opinion that opposition people do not understand idioms, metaphors, similes, expressions, sayings, proverbs, maxims, axioms, adages, etc. This was when Tun Dr Mahathir talked about the devil you know and then everyone jumped and clapped with glee and said that Dr Mahathir admitted that Umno is a devil.

Locking the barn door after the horse has bolted, crying over spilt milk, a stitch in time saves nine, look before you leap, and so on, are not about horses, milk, sewing and jumping over hedges. These proverbs mean it is no use taking action after the event, regretting an action after the damage is done, taking action early can prevent more damage, and you need to contemplate your actions beforehand, respectively.

Anyway, it is good that opposition people are not bodoh-sombong but merely bodoh-sepat. Bodoh-sombong means bodoh tak boleh diajar while bodoh-sepat means pura-pura bodoh tapi sebenarynya cerdik.

We need cerdik Malaysians, especially Malaysians cerdik enough to fool you into thinking that they are stupid because if I can make you think I am stupid that means I am cleverer than you.

One reader commented that I am sometimes very brutal or abrasive in my comments-in-reply to comments posted by Malaysia Today readers. That is certainly true. I get very abrasive when readers post comments or questions to an issue that I have already replied to so many times before.

It is apparent that their comment is not sincere. After explaining a certain issue in a very cheong hei manner, sometimes running into three or four pages, they still post comments or questions about the same thing that has already been addressed in the past, not once but many times.

I mean, how many times do you want me to address that same issue? When I, yet again, reply to what you say, you will say that my article is boring and that I am repeating the same thing over and over again and that I do not have modal baru. But it is you who are raising a matter that has already been settled. So what do you expect me to do? Just delete your comment and then have you scream "Hypocrite! No freedom of speech! Why delete my comment?"

Anyway, one comment that I usually reply to in a very brutal manner is the '55 years of BN is enough! It is time for change! Vote ABU! Kick BN out!' rhetoric. I just can't stand those who post such comments. First of all it is because it is empty rhetoric. Secondly it is because so many people have already posted that comment so you are merely parroting the same thing countless times. But most important of all, thirdly, it is because you are attempting to preach to the preacher. And that is most sickening of all.

Let me put it this way. Say for 35 years a Christian Evangelist knocks on your door every weekend to talk to you about Christ. And every weekend you curse that Christian and tell him to fuck off and then slam the door in his face. Sometimes you even let loose your dog on him and a couple of times he was actually bitten by your dog.

Nevertheless, this Evangelist still very patiently keeps visiting you to try to convince you that your salvation is through Christ and you, as usual, curse him and tell him to go fuck his Christ. Finally, however, after 35 years, you convert to Christianity and the Evangelist praises the Lord that finally you have seen the light and have accepted Christ as your saviour.

Not long after you become a Christian, you suddenly turn into a fanatic. You scream that it is time for a new Christian crusade to be launched so that the infidel non-Christians can be exterminated and erased from the face of this earth. You say that Hitler who was a Christian was right in trying to exterminate the Jews who had killed Christ. Your only regret is that only 6 million Jews were killed. You only wished Hitler had succeeded in ridding the world of all the Jews.

Then you go to the Evangelist's house and knock on his door and start preaching Christianity to him. You shout and scream and call the Evangelist a coward for not taking up arms against the infidel non-Christians. The Middle East, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and so on, should be bombed, you argue. No non-Christians should be left alive.

The Evangelist does not agree and you accuse him of selling out. You allege that he has been bought. You vilify him and disparage him and call him a friend of Satan.

After months of haranguing and cursing, one day the Evangelist can take it no more he slaps your face and says that you are a disgrace to Christianity.

I feel just like that Evangelist. For 35 years I tried preaching to you. And each time you cursed me and chased me away and even set your dog on me. I was in fact bitten quite badly a few times. You called me all sorts of nasty names. You laughed at me. You even declared me a lunatic.

Then, one day, after 35 years since the 1970s, you suddenly saw the light. In 2008 you converted. And after you converted you started cursing me and said that I am a traitor to the cause.

Now you try to preach to me. You tell me what is good and what is bad. You forgot that for 35 years you acted like a bastard. Suddenly you are the chosen one and Christ came to you in your dream. You tell me about all the bad things that are going on. You refuse to admit that things are so bad mainly because you allowed them to become bad.

I remember, back in the mid-1990s, what the DAP Chinese supporters said to me in the late MGG Pillai's online forum, Sang Kancil. I remember how they ganged up on me and cursed me. I remember the nasty things they said to me. I remember being chased out of that forum and eventually I felt so hurt I did leave. I remember what happened in 1999 when I launched Kini (in Bahasa Malaysia) and The Malaysian (in English).

And today these are the same people who are claiming the moral high ground and with self-righteousness are trying to teach me what for 35 years I had tried to teach them and which they rejected.

Isn't life strange?

 

God, as opposed to religion

Posted: 22 Feb 2013 05:42 PM PST

Okay, back to the issue of Prophet Muhammad's marriage to Aisha when she was said to be just 6 years old or 9 years old or whatever. Of the many stories in Islam this appears to be the single most-favourite story that non-Muslims will raise to mock the Prophet and call him a paedophile, child rapist, pervert, criminal who would be sent to jail if he did that today, and so on.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Agnostic (noun)

1. A person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause and that the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.

2. A person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.

3. A person who holds neither of two opposing positions on a topic.

**************************************************

One or two readers posted comments today saying that my articles are boring or have become quite stale of late. That may be true. Education can sometimes be boring when you do not want to get educated or you feel you already know enough and do not need further education.

I do not think that I already know everything. I admit that there is still much I need to learn. And that was the reason why I signed up at Oxford University's Department of Continuing Education in 2011 plus I attended a few lectures in Oxford last year. I am currently on my third module and will be submitting my essay at the end of March.

Anyway, let me bore you, yet again, with another stale article. This article is not about God or about religion but I have titled it 'God, as opposed to religion' and I am going to make many references to God and religion.

Most simple-minded people -- and that would probably be more than half the readers of Malaysia Today -- think that the world is divided into those who believe in God (theists) and those who do not believe in God (atheists). They do not realise that there is a third group -- neither theist nor atheist -- who sit in between those two. And this group is called agnostics.

You can read the definition of agnostic at the top.

Before I go into the main thrust of my article, allow me, as usual, to digress -- in my normal cheong hei manner -- and address some of the comments posted in Malaysia Today over the last few weeks. This is merely a digression to make a short story long and is still not what I really want to talk about today.

One reader raised the issue of Prophet Muhammad's marriage to Aisha and said that this was what is reported in the Hadith.

Now, let's say I make certain references to the life of Jesus. And, let's also say, Christians disagree with my view and argue that my statement contradicts Christian beliefs. Then, say, I 'prove' to you that I am correct while you are wrong with quotes from the Gospel. You then ask me from which Gospel I am making this reference and I quote the Gospel of Barnabas.

You then argue that the Gospel of Barnabas may contain some remnants of earlier apocryphal works but it has never been canonised although it is about the same length as the four canonical gospels put together. I then counter by saying that the 'Gospel according to Barnabas' is mentioned in two early Christian lists of apocryphal works: the 6th-century Latin Decretum Gelasianumas well as the 7th-century Greek List of the Sixty Books. Hence it is authentic.

Okay, so what is my point here? Simple, my point is that I am telling you what a Christian should believe. You are a Christian while I am not. Yet I am telling you what is the correct Christianity and what is wrong Christianity. Should not you, a Christian, know better what you want to believe and do not want to believe? Who am I, a non-Christian, to teach you what is correct Christianity?

I would never presume to know Christianity better than you, a practicing Christian. And I would never attempt to teach you what is correct Christianity and what is wrong Christianity. Non-Muslims, however, presume they know Islam better than Muslims themselves and then will preach what is right Islam and what is wrong Islam.

Okay, back to the issue of Prophet Muhammad's marriage to Aisha when she was said to be just 6 years old or 9 years old or whatever. Of the many stories in Islam this appears to be the single most-favourite story that non-Muslims will raise to mock the Prophet and call him a paedophile, child rapist, pervert, criminal who would be sent to jail if he did that today, and so on.

Allow me to digress, yet again. Back in those days, and even up to 'modern' times, 'political marriages' were very common, even in the more 'civilised' Europe. Most political marriages would be between leaders or rulers to unite the different political factions or powers. Leaders or rulers did not marry for love. They married to strengthen their position and to gain political allies or to prevent other powers from turning enemy (once you are related by marriage you become friends).

Even in England and France the sons and daughters of Kings were married off to each other when they were still children. However, they would not be allowed to live as husband and wife until they reach the age of puberty, which could be 10 or 11. Hence they would have to live apart for a few years until then. And 'adulthood' would be when you reach puberty. In fact, at 13 you went to war and died for your country and at 19, if you were still single, you would be considered too old to get married. At 30 you would be an old man or woman.

Anyway, that was a mere digression. I am not trying to play the role of Muslim apologist here. I am bringing to your attention that the value system and traditions/customs in those days were different from today. Christians killed Jews in those days. Catholics killed Protestants and Protestants killed Catholics in those days.

Hell, the English Parliament even banned Christmas and ordered shops to stay open on 25th December, less than 400 years ago, because Christmas was considered a pagan festival and not the day to mark the birth of Christ. And, 1,000 years before that banning of Christmas, Prophet Muhammad was said to have entered into a political alliance with the most powerful warlord of Mekah by marrying his underage daughter.

But that is not really what I want to argue today. What I do want to argue is: where did this story come from? Is it in the Qur'an? No! It is from the Hadith. So, you argue, since it is from the Hadith, then it must be true and hence Prophet Muhammad was a paedophile.

Okay, let us rewind a bit. You are quoting from the Hadith and you are telling me that this is what my Hadith says and since I am a Muslim I must believe in this Hadith.

Now hold on a minute. Are all Christians Catholics? Aren't there many denominations of Christianity? Hence why do you assume that all Muslims believe in the same thing? You do not even bother to ask me what denomination Muslim I am and you shove down my throat your interpretation of Islam as if there is only one denomination of Islam. Can I insist that you believe in the Gospel of Barnabas and then pass judgment on you because you have 'deviated' from the teachings of Barnabas?

Not all Muslims believe in the Hadith. These people are normally unfairly called the anti-Hadith group. Actually they are not anti-Hadith as much as they hold to the Qur'an as God's true word and believe that all other 'holy books' other than the Qur'an are superfluous.

Then there are those who believe in some of the Hadith but not all of them. Further to that, there are those who believe in a different set of Hadith. Hence, on the issue of Hadith alone, there are so many different denominations of Muslims. So, when you quote the Hadith to a Muslim without knowing his of her position on Hadith, it is like quoting Barnabas to a Christian and assume that since he or she is a Christian then she or she must believe in Barnabas.

So far we are talking about Muslims and Christians. For sure Muslims and Christians are theists. And they believe not only in God but also in the religion of God (which means they are religionists as well). But what happens if you believe in God (or at least in some higher power that created us) but not in the religion of God? Then you would be an agnostic. You are neither Muslim nor Christian.

The arguments are normally between Muslims and Christians (even here in Malaysia Today). But you fail to see that there is a third group, a Third Force if you wish and if that can help you better understand the issue. And this third group thinks that both the Muslims and Christians are equally wrong.

Yes, there is a God. But there is no religion. God is the destination you wish to arrive at. Religion is merely one of those vehicles you use to arrive at that destination called God.

Okay, enough with all that religion bullshit. After three pages of talking cock let me get to the punch line. And the punch line is: there are two 'religions' called Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat quarrelling over whose 'God' is the true God, whose 'Prophet' is the genuine Prophet, and whose 'Holy Book' is the authentic Holy Book.

I then declare that I am not a religionist but an agnostic. And while I acknowledge the existence of God, I do not accept that religions came from God. I think that religions are manmade.

And then both sides of the religious divide call me a kafir, infidel, nonbeliever, unbeliever, disbeliever, doubter, heretic, apostate, heathen, pagan, and whatnot. They tell me that the only way to reach God is through their religion. And both sides claim that their religion is true while the other is false.

Nevertheless, while I still want God, I do not want corrupt religions where their followers do the opposite of what they say. Hence if you think that I am a kafir, infidel, nonbeliever, unbeliever, disbeliever, doubter, heretic, apostate, heathen, pagan, and whatnot; so be it. 

Lakum dinakum waliyadin (to you be your religion and to me my religion): Qur'an, Surah Al-Kafirun, 109:6

(Now, I bet most of you will be debating religion instead of the last five paragraphs of this article, which is the point I am really driving at).

 

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

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A big fat 'F' for Fail: The ETP has failed to meet its targets

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 01:32 PM PDT

http://refsa.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/PEMANDU-perception-manipulation.jpg 

Rather than address the core issues impeding growth, PEMANDU continues to practise perception manipulation and deception in its efforts to hoodwink Malaysians into believing it has reached or exceeded its targets. 

REFSA (Research for Social Advancement) 

This is a statement by not-for-profit research institute REFSA (Research for Social Advancement) released on Wednesday, 20 March 2013.

————-

PEMANDU perception manipulationWe are dismayed to find perception manipulation and deception still surrounds the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP). The mainstream media today is full of praise and claims of excellent performance and transformation. This is exactly the opposite of the true picture. Today, REFSA draws attention to 3 points:

  1. Real national income growth has been pedestrian at under 5% per year, well below the 6% targeted by the ETP. PEMANDU is manipulating perception by trumpeting nominal GNI (Gross National Income) numbers, which include inflation, and in US$, which are irrelevant to the vast majority of Malaysians;
  2. PEMANDU still cannot get its basic math and data right. It said (nominal) GNI per capita hit US$9,970 in 2012, but also said it was RM30,809 and the exchange rate was RM3.058:US$1. However, at that exchange rate, RM30,809 is equivalent to US$10,075. It is shocking that this high-powered unit cannot even get the basics correct;
  3. Based on Department of Statistics data, nominal GNI per capita grew an average of just 7.4% per year from 2009 to 2012, which is less than the 8.2% per year average growth rate registered from 2001 to 2010. PEMANDU and the ETP came into force in 2010. In short, the ETP and PEMANDU have failed to increase our GNI per capita above its long term growth trajectory. 

Failed: Reaching the target to grow national income by 6% per year

"Propelling Malaysia towards becoming a high-income developed nation" as promised by the ETP requires Gross National Income (GNI) to grow by 6% per year. PEMANDU [1] gave much prominence to this 6% per year growth target in its "A Roadmap for Malaysia" report that launched the ETP with much fanfare in 2010 [2].

However, the just published 2012 Annual Report of the ETP makes not a single reference to the fact that the ETP failed to meet this crucial 6% per year growth target last year. The fact is, real GNI grew by a pedestrian 4.3% in 2012 [3], well below PEMANDU's aspirations and even lower than the 4.9% recorded in 2011.

Whatever happened to the 6% growth target trumpeted by the ETP on its launch? 

6percent growth promise

Source:  Executive Summary, Economic Transformation Program – A Roadmap for Malaysia, 2010 (page 5).

Read more at: http://refsa.org/comment/a-big-fat-f-for-fail-the-etp-has-failed-to-meet-its-targets/

 

 

GTP - It's easy to improve when you're shit

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 01:24 PM PDT

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"I've improved by three spots compared with the mid-semester's class ranking," I thought while paddling, convincing myself: "I did better this time, Papa won't be mad."

 

Jonathan Fernandez 

THE longer I stared at it, the wider my smile grew. Soon enough the grin was ear to ear. "I did it!" the jubilant voice inside my head proclaimed.

 

After tucking the academic report card into my schoolbag, I hopped on my bicycle and excitedly headed home. "I've improved by three spots compared with the mid-semester's class ranking," I thought while paddling, convincing myself: "I did better this time, Papa won't be mad."

 

I had never cared how my mother would react. I was a mama's boy and I'm not at all ashamed. In fact poor Amma was as scared as me and my two younger siblings on "Report Card Day". All it would take was for any of us three to screw up and all of us would get a lashing, yes, even Amma – because she was "in-charge" of everything at home.

 

I slowed down as I approached the house. I then see a silver Honda Accord parked nicely in the shade of the old mango tree. My heart rate raced and something told me that it was not because of my Lance Armstrong antics.

 

Reality was creeping in, and it hit me: "Shit, Papa's home."

 

I unlock and unlatch the gate as quiet as I can, somewhat convinced that doing this was going to make any difference to the results on the card.

 

After parking my bicycle at the usual spot of the house compound, with a nonchalance Don Corleone would have been proud of, I stepped into the hall – where my brother and sister were already seated on the sofa with Papa flipping through their cards with a cane between his legs. Yes, he was shirtless, too. Because who wears a top when you're going to blow your top off, anyway, right?

 

All he needed to do was give me this piercing glare and my hand automatically, and a bit uncannily, reached out for my report card from my schoolbag. I pass it to him.

 

"What rubbish is this?" he asked with such a frightening calm. "Why are there so many Cs and Ds?" My legs were rooted; my body felt numb – all familiar sensations that I would feel all 26 times in my 13 years of schooling on the bi-annual report card days.

 

Desperately, I looked around ... Amma was nowhere to be seen. Siblings had come home earlier and would have gotten their share of the shelling already. Amma knew better than to stick around for Round Two.

She had probably been in the kitchen at that time in order to avoid being unfairly dragged into this mess.

I was left to fend for myself this time.

 

"Pa, look, I did better than last sem. Last time I finished 29th in class, this time I got No. 21."

 

If that was supposed to be my lifesaving excuse, then it failed big time and did the exact opposite. Until this day, I have never seen any face which had the "Do I look like I give a f***?" expression so obviously painted on it. Needless to say, he wasn't impressed, not a single bit.

 

Infuriated, he responds: "Don't ever give me that reason again. Anyone can improve once the person has hit rock-bottom. It's easy to do better when you're performing well below expectations.

 

"Next year you're going to sit for your PMR. You need to buck up and start fulfilling your potential ... because I know that despite how much your looks suggest it, you're actually not stupid. If you don't start changing, I'm sending you to a boarding school!" he threatened.

 

Papa had a point at that time, a point still applicable today. Papa should have a word with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his administration about their so-called improvements based on the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) report. The Pemandu results are sure to drive him up the wall.

 

Our Leaders and their followers need to know: All the glitter and promises galore cannot ...

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 01:19 PM PDT

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If anyone cries of an allegation – or even goes beyond all reasonable doubt to help unravel the
stink, our mainstream media takes the proverbial stance of 'see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil'.  
J. D. Lovrenciear 
As we inch to our probably, most fiercely-to-be-fought general elections, the exposes of corrupt deeds and intentions are heart-arresting.

Because one is innocent until proven guilty, all exposes remain as mere allegations until and unless due justice can ever be dispensed without fear or favor.

But ask any humble simpleton on the street, "Is Malaysia not corrupted?" and you better be forewarned for the surprised frown you will get.

What is mind-boggling however is the torrent of denials that cascade from the implicated crooks and the rebuttals of poison darts aimed at the whistle-blowers by the die-hard supporters.

It is either we have lost all sense and understanding of the true essence of patriotism or those who support suspicious crooks and 'alleged' nation-robbers  are just as guilty as they may be siphoning parasites on the branch of corruption and greed.

So how do we clean this nation and ensure a fair, democratic and equitable distribution of the nation's heavenly endowed resources and wealth so that all caring and hard-working Malaysians prosper and bask in the sunshine of progress and development?

As it is, already Malaysians are on the dole - this is despite the claims by the powers that be that Malaysia is registering very healthy growth rates!

The yardstick of sufferings brought about by corruption and greed is in the very grandiose and seemingly sensitively caring actions the PM of Malaysia is peddling.

Take the case of the cash hand outs by the BN-administered government. It makes a mockery of aid and assistance. RM500 per year works out to RM41.67 per month. That is a distasteful RM1.39 per day handout to the recipient. 

Holy of holies! What kind of beggars are Malaysians made out to be? Even a street bumpkin can stretch out his lazy hands and pocket a good RM30 to RM50 a day begging along Chow Kit, mate!

Then you have a coffee table book launched by the Who's Who of Malaysia with a categorical proclamation that it would do well for all Malaysians for a 100 - 200 years to come. And we clap our hands in jubilation, while corporations snap up hundreds of books – making it into the Malaysia Book of Records for sales!

And we proclaim that we may in all likelihood attain developed nation status well before the deadline of 2020?

You have a video expose on land grabs, and you cannot even hear a whisper from within the corridors of power?

Restricted ammunition was used to annihilate a sole, helpless fragile woman from a foreign land, and we are still waiting for justice to appease humanity?

Cows go missing but we have no qualms in singing "what's wrong in parking a half-million ringgit car in my porch"?

We let a water-village to mushroom over decades, and only now you hear of the need to place that large-scale dwelling under security vigilance?

Take a look at the way the many more whale-size court cases are being dragged at snail's pace within the Palace of Justice. If 'sandiwara' is not the right word then pray tell what is.

There was a time when we were led to believe that Malaysia is a corruption free nation. That was the time when we looked and jeered at our neighboring countries for all the sordid corrupt dealings. But today, we are at a point where our neighbors have fought well and are in the process of cleaning up the messes and putting transparent accountability on the table for all to view. Their media is the catalyst for that change.

But can we say the same for ourselves now?
 
If anyone cries of an allegation – or even goes beyond all reasonable doubt to help unravel the stink, our mainstream media takes the proverbial stance of 'see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil'.  

The on-line media on the other hand has been labeled as untrustworthy anyway by the powers that be.

And the authorities who are the vanguards of good conduct and law enforcement, will stand sheltered behind that often quoted statement that we cannot act until a report is lodged.

If we can get away by saying 'semua-nya ok' and that infamous edict, 'tutup satu mata'; if we can state without batting an eye, 'aiya, who is not corrupt lah'; when we accept the mantra of 'if he is doing it why I cannot eh?' – then let us face the truth squarely: When our neighboring nations make progress having won their battle fighting corruption and greed with a resolute, national will and conscience, we Malaysians may in all likelihood be sinking with the very yoke of patronizing this sin against an entire nation – past, present and future while the handful laugh all the way to the bank.

For as long as we are in denial, we are busted!

For as long as we sing that rhyme, 'we have delivered on our promises of grandeur and progress; we will deliver more' when we cannot even lift a convincing finger to arrest the very disease that is depriving Malaysians and reducing them to a point that they have to accept RM1.39 a day of handout, we need to know that we are losers.

Let truth be told: all the glitter and promises galore cannot whitewash the sins of corruption and greed. And it is that working rakyat who finally will have to pay that painful price.

 

Ini Kali Lah, if toothless MACC acts -- Taib Memang Kena!

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 01:02 PM PDT

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Taib survived the 1987 elections and at least seven million hectares of timber concessions allegedly came to be controlled subsequently by Taib's family, henchmen and cronies (of which no less than five million hectares came under the domination of the top five robber baron timber lords who had reimbursed the state government money used for the elections). 

Joe Fernandez

The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) has been uncharacteristically quick to say that they will look into video reports apparently implicating long-serving Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud in allegedly shady land deals which, from all accounts, have resulted in considerable lost revenues to the state and Federal coffers while virtually robbing the affected kampung folks of their Native land. http://bit.ly/16ESEVU

http://www.globalwitness.org/insideshadowstate/

The Global Witness's investigative reporting has turned up evidence on film which the authorities will be unable to ignore or sweep this time – Radio Free Sarawak is already going to town with the expose video -- under the carpet:

(1) that Taib abused his considerable powers in illegally seizing land from the Natives and allocating them to family members, among others, for only a modest premium payable to the state government;

(2) that such land was subsequently sold by his family members and/or others to certain other parties for hefty sums;

(3) that only 10 per cent of the purchase price was allegedly paid in Sarawak and the rest in Singapore where a "China Wall" helps to evade the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) in Malaysia;

(4) that documents were reportedly "falsified" by the lawyers involved – created is the word used -- to show that the lands were held majority by a simple villager picked at random but only on paper. In fact such properties were majority owned by foreigners, an infringement of the laws in Malaysia. If the lands seized were state land occupied by squatters, as claimed by Taib's cousins in the video, why the need to register in the name of a simple villager?; and

(5) that Taib allegedly received kickbacks indirectly from such deals.

 

Singapore will have to probe Global Witness video expose

The MACC cannot ignore that tax evasion for one is a serious offence and that the state government too may have lost in terms of premiums. All these revenues lost would have to be recovered.

The police and the state government too would have to probe that landowners lost their properties in the said deals.

There's also the issue of circumvention of the laws on locals having majority ownership of land. These lands, now in the hands of plantation companies, would have to be returned by the Court and/or the state government to its rightful owners. The companies can only go after whoever misled them into purchasing the said lands. However, they themselves are guilty of circumventing land ownership laws and being a party to tax evasion.

The authorities in Sarawak and Singapore, the latter priding itself on having a squeaky clean reputation, have to bring in the two Taib cousins, the lawyer, another party, all featured in the Global Witness video evidence, and other parties named by these suspects.

Already, the Sarawak Bar has publicly pledged to investigate the lawyers and/or lawyers featured/named in the Global Witness video.

 

Taib made cousin Norah MP showing no feud with Rahman

Taib will have to be roped in for his statement and the Government Departments concerned investigated and Abdul Rahman Yakub, Taib's predecessor maternal uncle, called in as a material witness known to the errant parties.

Taib, in his defence, pointed to his widely-publicised "estranged relationship" with his uncle and implied that he couldn't therefore be handing out favours to his cousins, Rahman's children, also his mortal enemies.

Taib appears to be blaming Rahman for the Global Witness report. That theory doesn't hold water unless everything featured in the Global Witness video was play acting in a giant conspiracy of sorts against Taib and in the process thereby implicating themselves in criminal wrong-doing.

Yet, there are credible reports based on documents that at the height of the so-called feud, Taib was busy giving out and/or renewing timber concessions to his cousins, the daughters of Rahman.

One daughter, cousin Norah Abdul Rahman, is now even tipped to take over from Taib as Chief Minister, according to Rahman apologists.

How did Norah become Tanjung Manis MP if there's a feud between Taib and Rahman, as the Chief Minister claims? Tanjung Manis is the Halal Hub of Sarawak.

 

Rahman laid out the plunder of Sarawak plan for Taib

The 1987 Ming Court Affair, cited by Taib apologists in his defence, was not the result of any so-called feud between Taib and Rahman.

The Ming Court Affair - I was there -- was the result of the Malays in the Bumiputera wing of Taib's Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) rebelling against him for not doing enough for the Malay economy (read PBB Malays). The wing includes Muslim Melanau, Taib's community after his Christian Melanau grandfather converted to Islam. The Sarawak Malays are mainly Bidayuh living along the coast of the 1st Division and mainly Iban living along the coasts of the other Divisions who converted to Islam several hundred years ago.

The Pesaka wing is Dayak including non-Muslim Melanau.

Between 1981 and 1987, Taib had evidently managed to antagonize PBB rebel members by one-sidedly supporting and giving contracts and concessions to a new group of crony capitalists who were mostly Foochow Chinese, from or close to the Sarawak United People's Party (Supp), and mainly involved in the timber and construction industries.

Ironically, it was his uncle who had started this trend, to become Chief Minister in 1970. He had to depend on the support of Supp and thereby thwart the James Wong-led Sarawak National Party's (Snap) attempt to come back to power in the state.

 

Rahman bought time for Taib to call for snap elections

The PBB rebels made the cardinal mistake of consulting Rahman on their plans to throw out his nephew by introducing a no confidence motion against him in the state assembly.

Rahman, to buy time for his nephew and thereby arousing the suspicions of quite a few rebels, suggested that they be led by him and meet secretly at the Ming Court Hotel in Kuala Lumpur to plan their moves properly. In the meantime, it emerged that Rahman quickly tipped off Taib who got the Governor's consent to dissolve the state assembly for a snap election and thereby stave off the no confidence motion. The rebels, growing uneasy in KL, wanted to return quickly to Kuching but Rahman kept stringing them along to buy time.

The rebels under the label Permas, joined by Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) led by Leo Moggie Anak Irok, felt betrayed by Rahman but had to put on a brave front in public. Privately, they were kicking themselves since they were far away from the state assembly in Kuching where they had planned to introduce the no confidence motion against Taib. There was no reason for them to assemble in KL for any meeting.

Taib obtained 28 seats in the snap election that followed, while the Opposition managed a credible 20 i.e. PBDS 15 and Permas 5.

Taib was saved by the seats of Supp, a party which he subsequently tried to neutralise by inviting PBDS to return to the state Barisan Nasional (BN).

 

Taib's road to wealth unlimited with 1987 state election

After the elections, Permas leader Nor Tahir's house in Satok, Kuching, was raided by Federal authorities who found and confiscated more than RM90 million in unaccounted for cash. Nor Tahir was a former Forestry Minister, a post taken over by Taib. Nor Tahir passed away not long after that of an apparent heart attack.

It appears that some RM150 million of state government money shifted out from Bank Utama after nomination day and may have been used by PBB to fund his election campaign. One deal allegedly struck was that five timber barons would each pay fork out RM30 million, to reimburse the RM 150 million, if BN won the elections. In return they would not only get to keep the concessions they already had but they would also be given many more - and Taib would also make much more, the RM30 million each being just a small down-payment.

Taib survived the 1987 elections and at least seven million hectares of timber concessions allegedly came to be controlled subsequently by Taib's family, henchmen and cronies (of which no less than five million hectares came under the domination of the top five robber baron timber lords who had reimbursed the state government money used for the elections).

 

Taib may have to step down before 13th General Election

The so-called feud between Taib and Rahman, the Ming Court Affair revealed, was a sandiwara (drama) to identify their political enemies and eliminate them. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad himself once openly referred to the so-called Taib-Rahman feud as a sandiwara. The Democratic Action Party (Dap) and the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) are beating the drums of war on this theme in the wake of the Global Witness expose video.

Many Malays, caught up in the so-called Taib-Rahman feud, were eliminated by this sandiwara.

Now the karmic cycle has turned full circle, and Taib once again faces the grim prospect of yet another MACC probe against him.

It won't be that easy for him this time to get off Scott free as there are many names, including family, implicated with him from Sarawak to Singapore and beyond. If he's innocent, what about the others involved including family?

 

Heads will have to roll after Global Witness video expose

If the others are found guilty, how can he be innocent since everything, advertently or inadvertently, began with him approving the land deals at stake?

There's every possibility that Taib would have to step down as Chief Minister if the 13th General Elections are further delayed. He has once again, as in the 2011 state election when the BN lost several seats to Dap, PKR and an independent, become a hot potato and a definite political liability.

MACC, the Sarawak state government, and the Singapore authorities would not need too much time to get to the bottom of the matter and bring charges against all the errant parties.

The results of the Sarawak Bar Council probe are expected to be known within a matter of weeks.

 

Joe Fernandez is a mature student of law and an educationist, among others, who loves to write especially Submissions for Clients wishing to Act in Person. He feels compelled, as a semi-retired journalist, to put pen to paper -- or rather the fingers to the computer keyboard -- whenever something doesn't quite jell with his weltanschauung (worldview). He shuttles between points in the Golden Heart of Borneo formed by the Sabah west coast, Labuan, Brunei, northern Sarawak and the watershed region in Borneo where three nations meet.

 

JOM Balik Undi – Join a Carpool

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 12:57 PM PDT

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Malaysians in Singapore, numbering between 300,000 and 500,000 according to various sources, have no choice but to brace themselves for the long journey home in order to vote in the GE13. Hence this initiative by BERSIH Singapore, to help ease the pain of the travel for the polling day.  

JOM Balik Undi 

It is totally outrageous when it became clear in Sep 2012 that the Election Commission has no intention whatsoever to implement overseas voting for Malaysians before the 13th General Elections, in contempt of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform (PSC). The EC Chairman and his Deputy have deliberately made empty promises to overseas Malaysians when in reality it has been thirteen months of inaction and deceit.

Malaysians in Singapore, numbering between 300,000 and 500,000 according to various sources, have no choice but to brace themselves for the long journey home in order to vote in the GE13. Hence this initiative by BERSIH Singapore, to help ease the pain of the travel for the polling day. Together we can make a better Malaysia!

WHAT IT IS

Basically we match Malaysians, who intend to drive home to vote and have empty seats, (the DRIVERS) with Malaysians who would benefit from the empty seats (the PASSENGERS).

For the DRIVERS, you can help making it possible for a few fellow Malaysians go back to vote while optionally have the passengers help you defray some of the transport costs.

For the PASSENGERS, you can go back to vote at zero or reduced transport cost with more flexible timing.

This service does only basic 'match-making', leaving the nitty-gritty (eg. exact pick-up timing and location) to the DRIVERS and the PASSENGERS to sort out between themselves. All we ask from you is to be nice with each other and honour the details you have submitted here.

Read more at: http://balikundi.bersihsingapore.com/carpool/ 

 

Will Najib stay and battle or leave?

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 12:53 PM PDT

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Is the Lahad Datu incident a planned disturbance to allow Najib to declare a temporary state of emergency to enable him to clamp down on the opposition leaders?

Awang Abdillah, Free Malaysia Today 

Umno was caught off guard when the people punished it in the 12th general election. The disastrous results of the 2008 general election alarmed former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The 2008 results showed that the opposition may be able to unseat the Umno-led government in the 13th general election, propelled by people's power.

This reality is playing itself out in the latest political developments engulfing Najib.

In Sabah, the people there are very dissatisfied with the federal government policies, especially on the issue of large numbers of foreigners being given instant Malaysian ICs.

Even with the instant ICs, there is no assurance that these foreigners would vote for Umno-Barisan Nasional in the coming polls.

In which case the much vaunted BN fixed-deposits of Sabah voters – locals and Filipinos – alike are now ready to punish Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his Umno.

In Sarawak, with Taib Mahmud still at the helm, the political scenario could turn fluid where the BN component parties would adopt a wait-and-see approach, depending on the outcome of the election.

The Chinese voters are ever ready to punish Najib and Taib by voting out Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP). The natives may jump on the bandwagon to vote in Pakatan Rakyat in a number of constituencies.

In Peninsular Malaysia, the BN component parties, especially Gerakan and MCA, are as good as dead.

Within Umno there are two factions trying to outdo one another.

Planned disturbances?

Come election time, there would be acts of sabotage and counter-sabotage against candidates of both factions.

The Chinese, Indian and Malay voters are ready to punish Najib, Umno, Mahathir and his Perkasa.

Najib, as such, is being engulfed by uncertainties and threats of people's punishment.

He has to prepare a contingency plan that will empower him to clip the opposition's wings. This will probably be carried out in between the dissolution of Parliament and the election dates.

Once the dates are announced many believe Najib may deploy the false flag tactic by creating superficial controlled disturbances in certain parts of the country and blame them on the opposition.

This is just an excuse to declare a temporary state of emergency to enable him to clamp down on the opposition leaders and subsequently lift it.

These Najib-hatched "incidents" would give him an excuse to declare a state of emergency later – thereby suspending polling temporarily – accuse and consequently arrest the Pakatan leaders.

Because Najib is now so hard-pressed, he may choose the general election date with a two-pronged strategy: remind the Malays to stay united under Umno or lose political power; and scare the other communities of race riots unless they support the BN.

Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/03/21/will-najib-stay-and-battle-or-leave/ 

Indians: A lost cause?

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 12:50 PM PDT

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They'll have to decide if they want stick to the tsunami they helped create in 2008 or revert to BN which is still treating them unfairly after 55 years.

Ali Cordoba, Free Malaysia Today 

The third largest community in Peninsular Malaysia is the Indian community, but it is one of the least protected and is the community that suffered the worst forms of ostracism and racism in the country. Will this change with Pakatan Rakyat in power?

Grouped under the MIC, the Indians have seen very little light at the end of the tunnel so much so that they were forced to pursue their own quest for recognition and assimilation as Malaysians. Many of the stories we hear about the Indians in Malaysia are as heart-breaking as the Tamil and Hindi movies on the silver screens in local cinemas.

While these Bollywood movies almost always end with a hero rising and establishing justice and equality, in Malaysia the stories end with jail terms, deaths in custody or in joblessness. Do Malaysian Indians need a national hero who would brave the vagaries of life and politics to represent and fight for them?

The Hindraf promoters would tell you they are, like other Indians, ostracised and bullied due to their brave attempts at representing Indians on the political scene.

A typical conversation between a new "Malaysian" from a western African nation and an Indian staff in a bank, ends with the Indian woman asserting that her rights and freedom are not guaranteed in Malaysia. She would politely inform the African man that her fate was even worse than the migrants who flood the country every year.

Migrants better off

Indonesian migrants will be granted ICs (red or blue) in the long run while Nigerians and Western Africans are now being granted long-term visas and/or Permanent Residence status – which is the red IC – while Indians are still struggling to get ICs.

While the West African man protested that he was jobless despite having a long-term "spouse" visa, the Indian woman retorted that she managed to get a job only after lobbying some politicians.

She added that she was not working in a sane or fair environment, where some of her colleagues would at times behave like bullies or show disdain for her colour and creed.

It was never safe for an Indian, man or woman, she added, to hold a job in Malaysia because of the ostracism against Indians and people of her pigmentation, which she would insist included the Africans and even other Muslims who are not Malays.

Despite the odds, the resilient Indian community has survived and remains ever hopeful. It wants a greater and fairer share of the economic pie. It wants equality, more freedom and recognition of its rights in the country.

Most young Indians do not understand that in a deal made in the 1950s and consolidated in the 1960s, the non-Malays were relegated to either "second or third class" citizens. The Indians fell into the latter category.

They had to struggle at all levels of society to get better jobs, better education and the freedom to be who they want without prejudice. From the days of VT Sambanthan, the fifth president of the MIC and one of the founding fathers of Malaysia, the lot of the Indians has not really improved

Gone are the days when the Alleycats dominated the Malaysian music charts, gone are the local Indian heroes in the local television programmes, and the innuendo continues. There's no great Indian political leader left in the country, perhaps due to desertion of the Indian cause.

Or is it that, with the stringent Malay-Chinese dominance, the Indians are being sidelined for good in local politics, thus affecting the community's quest for survival in modern Malaysia?

Just like the Malays and the Chinese, Indians in Malaysia are politically divided. Under Sambanthan, there was strong unity of the Indians under the MIC banner and this led them to support the BN for ages.

Until the formation of Hindraf, it was impossible to tell whether the Indians would support an opposition party or group, but in 2008 the Indians took a drastic step. The vast majority voted in favour of Pakatan.

That move appears to have backfired somewhat with BN acting adamantly against pro-opposition faces. Did this vote for the opposition cause a fall-off in favours for Indians within the BN?

Did the BN go on to sideline the Indians by cutting off job opportunities for them and giving them to migrants from India and Nepal, for example? Or is it that the Indians are fed up with low level jobs?

In a country where the Indians have to question whether they have the "right" to fight for their own welfare and whether they have enough freedom to speak and vote for whomever they want, the future for them does not seem bright.

Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/03/21/indians-a-lost-cause/ 

MCA - its final struggle

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 12:41 PM PDT

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Chua Soi Lek is prepared to destroy MCA by denying the party and their Chinese supporters the latter's preferred choice of candidate and thus their only likely MCA representative in a BN cabinet, all because he, Chua Soi Lek, personally fears Ong TK challenging his party position at some future stage.

KTemoc Konsiders 

Malaysiakini's Soi Lek to resign if Tee Keat fielded reported:

MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek is said to have told the party's central committee meeting yesterday that he would resign if the BN fields arch-rival Ong Tee Keat in the Pandan parliamentary constituency.

Quoting sources, China Press today reported that, apart from Ong, secretary-general Kong Cho Ha and vice-president Ng Yen Yen(right), are not on the list of MCA candidates for the impending general election.

Ong Ka Chuan, former secretary-general and elder brother of former president Ong Ka Ting, will not be asked to defend the Tanjung Malim parliamentary seat.

As for Chua himself, a minister before he stepped down in 2008 due to a sex scandal, the Chinese daily claimed that he will contest but that the seat has yet to be revealed.

Let's leave his threat to resign aside for a few seconds and assess the alleged intentions of MCA (meaning CSL) to drop Kong Cho Ha and Ng Yen Yen out in GE-13. I have to acknowledge these would be bloody wise moves as the two MCA ministers are smelling badly like decomposing rats in a sewer.

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can become tourist guide mah
wakakaka

Naturally the Ong brothers have been CSL's intra-party enemies so dropping Ong Ka Chuan is a no brainer in the same way as had been his publicly voiced decision, though by indirect inference, to drop Ong Tee Keat when he named Gary what's-his-name as the MCA choice for Pandan.

Internal party strife has been the malaise that has stricken MCA for eons, in a way unlike other political parties' internal strife, even that as acrimonious as UMNO's Mahathir (now Najib) versus Anwar. While other parties seem to emerged from their intra party struggles more or less without much loss of strength, MCA has through its regular fratricides become incrementally weaker and consequentially politically less relevant.

Chua Soi Lek has shown his mean spiritedness in taking action to marginalize Ong TK when the latter is the most popular MCA politician, probably the only one, among Chinese Malaysians.

 

Kit Siang's ambition

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 12:39 PM PDT

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(Sin Chew Daily) - Even though if Lim loses, he has passed the baton to his beloved son while his own political career has passed the peak. He has nothing to lose but will only gain a historical status. 

DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang has, after all, engaged in politics for half a century. He is indeed a daring veteran politician of Malaysia, just like Lian Po, a prominent military General of Zhao during the Warring States period of China.

Reputable Lian Po was an outstanding general who had fought in battles for decades. He was still ambitious even in his old age.

He was a semi-retired general when he was 70 years old. However, since there was no general to lead the troops to fight against Qin, someone actually suggested Lian Po. The emperor of Zhao frowned and asked, "Is the old Lian Po still able to eat?"

He then sent someone to find it out.

Lian Po knew that the emperor was trying to find out his condition, he thus invited the scout to stay for a meal. He ate a bucket of rice and ten pounds of meat in front of the scout and made a horse riding performance to prove that he was still very strong.

However, the scout was bribed by his political enemy. He told the emperor that Lian Po could still eat, but he went to release himself for three times during the meal.

The emperor then thought Lian Po was no longer capable and thus, he dared not to field him for the battle. Zhao was later defeated by Qin during the Battle of Changping.

Lim Kit Siang is as ambitious as Lian Po and he is more fortunate compared to Lian Po as he does not have to report to a superior like the emperor of Zhao. Although he is already 72 years old, he can still contest in the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat as he wishes.

He is outstanding enough to convince everyone.

Comparatively, Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would not lead the fight in Sabah while PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang would not contest in Pahang to expand the influence of PAS. Lim posses a significantly different vision and courage.

Lim wishes to lead the DAP to lay a bridgehead in Johor and expand the party's influence to the state. Although it is an old trick, the most important point is, it works.

The DAP cannot simply assign someone to lead the vanguard but must have a political star who can attract attention and gain voters' support.

Gelang Patah has been chosen as the fighting location while Johor will be the battlefield. Sentiments and election results of the whole state will be affected.

In particular, Johor is the last turf of the MCA. Today, however, the strong wind of anti-ruling in the Chinese community could even root out old trees.

If fact, it is a sure win strategy for the DAP, as well as for Lim himself.

Johor constituencies basically have balanced racial ratios. However, Gelang Getah has more Chinese voters, about 53% of the total voters. With DAP's momentum and Lim's charisma, it should not be a problem to gain 70% or even 80% of Chinese votes.

He can win the seat as long as the number of Malay and Indian votes is not lower than 25%.

Once the trend is set off in Gelang Patah, it could drive victory in other Johor constituencies, including Kulai, Kluang, Tanjung Piai, Pasir Gudang, Tebrau, Muar, Segamat and Bakri.

Even though if Lim loses, he has passed the baton to his beloved son while his own political career has passed the peak. He has nothing to lose but will only gain a historical status.

Although his eyesight and hearing have turned weak, certainly Lim, who has just celebrated his 72th birthday, still can eat well.

 

Covert video an attempt to meddle in Sarawak's politics - Wan Junaidi

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 12:33 PM PDT

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(Sin Chew Daily) - "What they are doing is not appropriate, underhanded, ungentlemanly, unethical and uncivilised. This kind of politics should not happen in Sarawak, we should use appropriate politics to cater to certain issues, not through a sting operation, covert recording and methods"

Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has described as unethical a covert video produced by Global Witness implicating Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and his family in alleged shady land deals.

Wan Junaidi said the posting of the video clip on YouTube by the London-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) was an attempt by a foreign group to meddle in the state's politics.

"What they are doing is not appropriate, underhanded, ungentlemanly, unethical and uncivilised. This kind of politics should not happen in Sarawak, we should use appropriate politics to cater to certain issues, not through a sting operation, covert recording and methods," he told Bernama, here, today.

The video clip, entitled "Inside Malaysia's Shadow State" which went viral, depicts Global Witness investigators posing as foreign investors recording snippets of their conversation with Taib's cousins, Norlia and Fatimah Tun Abdul Rahman, and lawyers under the pretext of purchasing Sarawak land for hefty profit.

Wan Junaidi said everyone was aware of the strained relationship between Abdul Taib and his cousin Norlia, whose logging concession was withdrawn by the state government in 1987 or 1988.

Norlia and Fatimah are daughters of former Sarawak chief minister Tun Abdul Rahman Ya'kub, who is Taib's uncle.


 

Future dim for PI Bala’s family

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 11:21 PM PDT

With Balasubramaniam's death, his wife and three children are now in dire financial state.

Anisah Shukry, FMT

The nation reeled in shock last week as private investigator P Balasubramaniam abruptly passed away, just days before declaring he would continue to seek justice for the murdered Altantuya Shaariibuu.

But as the shock wears off and Malaysians move on, his family is left picking up the pieces of a shattered life – a life already strained five years ago, when Balasubramaniam's declarations regarding the prime minister forced his family to flee the country.

Now, with Balasubramaniam dead, his wife, A Santamil Selvi, and three teenaged children are stranded in Malaysia with diminishing funds and a rapidly dimming future.

Funeral expenses, education fees and mortgages are weighing heavily on the widow's mind, who is currently homebound in accordance with Hindu tradition.

"I visited Bala's wife last night to talk about how her family was coping – she showed me her IOUs, how she is well in debt. She has even resorted to pawning the items she owns," Kelana Jaya MP Loh Gow Burne told reporters today.

"Unfortunately, despite Bala's sacrifice for the country, his family is now in serious trouble."

In a bid to keep the bereaved family afloat, Loh is now initiating a fund-raising campaign and is appealing to the public to donate any money they can spare for the widowed Santamil Selvi and her fatherless children.

"The priority is for Bala's children to be given the opportunity to finish their education, and to ensure that someone who sacrificed all he had for the nation, would not have his family left in poverty," said Loh.
Balasubramaniam's lawyer, Americk Singh Sidhu, said the funds would immediately be used to help Santamil Selvi and her children return to India, where they had been residing for the past five years.

"His children must go back to India as they have been schooling there for five years. It would be too difficult for them to adapt to the school system here, especially after all the trauma they recently went through," said Americk.

"The funds will also go towards basic requirements such as food, clothes, mortgage, education… Monthly expenditure can easily reach up to RM15,000," he added.

Urgent monetary woes

The lawyer dismissed rumours that Bala had received RM5 million for retracting his claims that Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor were linked to Altantuya's murder .

"If Bala had never revealed the truth, then maybe he would have got the RM5 million. But he stuck to his stance that the first statutory declaration was the truth, and the funding stopped," said Americk.

Americk also clarified that the RM750,000 businessman Deepak Jaikishan had given the family in 2008 had already run out as the family had no other source of income.

"Bala and his wife have not been working for five years. Because they are Malaysian citizens, they were not able to gain employment in India."

READ MORE HERE

 

MACC to ‘act accordingly’ on new video expose evidence, says director

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 09:44 PM PDT

By Zurairi AR and Mohd Farhan Darwis, TMI

Ongoing investigations against Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud will continue following new leads that have emerged, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) said today.

This follows a 16-minute covert video revealed by Global Witness (GW) implicating Taib (picture) and his family with shady land deals, which surfaced in the media yesterday.

"The investigation has been ongoing. With the new evidence that has emerged the MACC will act accordingly," its director of investigation Datuk Mustafa Ali told The Malaysian Insider by text message here.

The corruption watchdog had two years ago confirmed that they were investigating Taib over allegation of timber corruption.

"We are investigating Taib Mahmud and whatever our action is, we cannot reveal at this moment," MACC commissioner Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed was quoted as saying in June 2011.

Civil society groups had earlier today demanded an immediate response from Putrajaya and MACC, which they claimed had been toothless in probing the Sarawak chief minister over his alleged ill-gotten riches.

The group of civil society organisations had also asked for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the matter before the 13th general elections which are expected very soon.

"This is very terrible for Malaysia ... (We need) nothing less than RCI. We call the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to call an RCI to investigate this issue," Sarajun Hoda, a representative of reform movement Aliran.

Meanwhile, the Advocates Association of Sarawak (AAS) has indicated that they will investigate and act against the lawyer featured in the GW clip.

The Sarawak lawyer, identified as Alvin Chong, allegedly represented sisters Fatimah Abdul Rahman and Norlia Abdul Rahman who were recorded in the video describing potentially illegal deals.

Both are daughters of former state chief minister Tun Abdul Rahman Ya'akub and first cousins with the incumbent CM Taib.

"AAS will take appropriate action after due inquiry. One of the possible courses of action is to refer any complaints received on this matter to the Advocates Inquiry Committee," a spokesman from AAS told The Malaysian Insider.

READ MORE HERE

 

Conjecture, imagination and suspicion

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 08:56 PM PDT

Long before 1970, the Chinese, led by Siew Nim Chee, the economic adviser to Lim Goh Tong, approached the Finance Minister, Tan Siew Sin, to propose a sort of economic policy to help the Malays. The Chinese realised that sooner or later there would be turmoil in the country if the economic imbalance between the Chinese and the Malays were not addressed.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Yesterday's article, The Chinese and Indians screwed up, was a good experiment in readers' mentality, comprehension skills, and IQ level.

Firstly, I cut my normal 3-4-page article to just one page in response to some readers who complain that they cannot understand long articles. If they feel that a 3-4-page essay is too long to understand, imagine what they would say if I wrote a 200-page thesis. This thesis would probably be lost on most of them.

Apparently, even if the article is a short one-page article they still do not understand what I am saying, as most of the 146 comments have proven. Hence it is not the length of my articles that is at fault but the brain of the readers that is to be blamed. Short article or long article, they still do not understand what they read.

Secondly, yesterday's article was in response to the whining, moaning, bitching, grumbling, lamenting and complaining regarding the New Economic Policy (NEP). When I revealed what happened in 1982 and then what happened again in 1992, most readers were caught off-guard. They were not aware about the 1982 and 1992 episodes. However, not wanting to admit their ignorance, they started posting comments that were way off the mark.

And most of these comments were not based on facts or eyewitness accounts but were based on conjecture, assumptions, guessing and speculation. I was there in 1982 and 1992 and was involved with what happened. Those who posted comments were not, but they still posted comments as if they knew what happened for a fact.

Thirdly, everyone assumes that the failure of the NEP was solely and entirely the fault of Umno and the Malays. Now that I reveal that the Chinese and Indians had been given an opportunity to correct the faults in the NEP and even end it and replace it with something else, but they did not do so, the readers deviate from the issue and raise all sorts of lame excuses such as the fear of Operasi Lalang, about Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad being a dictator, that even if the Chinese and Indians speak up no one would listen, and so on.

Let me tell you something else that most of you are probably not aware of.

Long before 1970, the Chinese leaders, led by Siew Nim Chee, the economic adviser to Lim Goh Tong, approached the Finance Minister, Tan Siew Sin, to propose a sort of economic policy to help the Malays. The Chinese realised that sooner or later there would be turmoil in the country if the economic imbalance between the Chinese and the Malays were not addressed.

Siew Sin, however, did not take up the idea and when May 13 erupted in 1969, those Chinese who were in the know and who had tried to do something actually blamed Siew Sin for the race riots.

That's right, while you blame Umno and Tun Razak Hussein for May 13, the Chinese who had attempted to avoid such a thing as May 13 blamed Siew Sin for not listening and for not doing what the Chinese had proposed.

Ironical, don't you think so?

When Dr Mahathir took over as Prime Minister, he tried to get the Chinese to 'take over' the job of reducing the economic imbalance between the Malays and the Chinese so that the government could end the NEP in 1990. The Chinese, however, thought that this is not their job to nurture the Malays. Let the government worry about the Malays. Why should the Chinese worry about it?

The Bumiputera share of the 'corporate pie' in 1970 before the implementation of the NEP was just 1%. Hence the target was set at 30% although the Bumiputera population was 60%. By the time Dr Mahathir took over in 1981, the Bumiputera share had grown to 4% -- or 19% if you include the 15% share of the trust agencies and GLCs. By 1990, it still remained at the same level as in 1981. In short, it had stagnated mainly because of the economic slump of 1985-1987.

The main question and bone of contention then was can the 15% share of the trust agencies and GLCs be added to the 4% personal share of the Bumiputeras considering that the trust agencies and GLCs belong to the government and therefore to the nation? For example, does Petronas belong to the country or to the Malays?

That was one main disagreement between the Malays and the government. The government says that the Bumiputeras own 19% of the corporate pie while the Malays insist it was only 4% -- since what is owned by the nation does not belong to the Malays individually.

Nevertheless, while the argument was about whether it is 4% or 19%, whatever the case may be it was still short of the 30% target.

In 1991, the Malay Chamber of Commerce wanted to organise the Third Bumiputera Economic Congress to discuss the NEP. Dr Mahathir summoned the Committee to his office to inform us that the government will take over the organising of the Congress.

I was in that delegation to the PM's office and was appointed as the spokesman. I was told to protest the move by the government to 'hijack' the Congress. However, there were no two ways about it. The government will take over and there was to be no further discussion on the matter. Furthermore, we were told that the government was going to invite everyone to participate in the Congress.

When we were told this we protested. I stood up to argue that how can we call it the Bumiputera Congress when the non-Malays were going to be part of the Congress and would decide on what the new post-NEP policy was going to look like? But Dr Mahathir's decision was final. The government will be organising it and the non-Malays were going to be part of it. Accept that or the government will proceed without the involvement of the Malay Chamber of Commerce.

We were mad as hell but could not do anything about it. Clearly the Malay Chamber had lost its monopoly on the NEP. The non-Malays were now going to have a say in what happens post-NEP. And that was when many of us in the Malay Chamber swung over to Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's Semangat 46.

Dr Mahathir and Umno had 'abandoned' the Malays and had opened up the new policy post-NEP to the non-Malays. This was a betrayal of the Malay cause; the way we saw it then. And Dr Mahathir was no longer regarded as the trustee of the Malays.

Surprisingly, Dr Mahathir had 'given the non-Malays a knife' but they did not use it. Dr Mahathir was in the mood to end the NEP and replace it with something else. We did not know what that something else was going to look like but surely with the non-Malays having a say in what it was going to be could not be something favourable to the Malays.

But the non-Malays did not pick up the knife offered to them. Dr Mahathir was clearly very angry. His response was that the government had given us the opportunity to sort this out amongst ourselves and since we had failed to do that then we have given the government no choice but to unilaterally decide what the new post-NEP policy was going to look like.

In 1990, Barisan Nasional won only 53.4% of the votes and 70.55% of the Parliament seats (and lost Kelantan to PAS-Semangat 46).

In 1992, the Third Bumiputera Economic Congress was held.

In 1995, Barisan Nasional won 65.2% of the votes (the highest ever: even better than in the 'historical' 2004 general election) and 84.38% of the Parliament seats.

The 'message' from the 1995 election result was that the people were happy. Hence I decided to leave the Malay Chamber of Commerce. It was futile to continue if the people were happy with the government and all our effort regarding what to do with the NEP, or post-NEP, had gone to waste.

Now you know why I get very vocal and abrasive with people who shout and scream about the NEP. And don't even try to give excuses as to why all this happened. I know what happened. I was there. You were not. And all your comments and views are based on conjecture, assumptions, guessing and speculation.

 

Stop the Buku Jingga lie

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 07:12 PM PDT

Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy pens his political thoughts while on his 11th day of hunger strike.

By P Waythamoorthy, FMT

Today is the 11th day of my hunger viratham (hunger strike). I continue to feel weaker with each passing day.

The variety of visitors is broadening. Among the visitors yesterday were several politicians. I would like to thank all the politicians who visited me to show their concerns for my condition during my viratham.

However what I would also like to tell all my politician friends is that the time spent in coming all the way to the temple in Rawang to visit me probably is better spent in lobbying within their respective political parties to get their bosses to endorse the Hindrag Blueprint.

This is the best way for them to show concern. The condition for my going off the hunger strike is very clear:

  • The Malaysian government led by Najib Tun Razak must endorse Hindraf's 5-Year Blueprint in a binding manner to commit to a plan of implementation of all the six proposals in the blueprint as long as they remain the government,

or

  • The government-in-waiting of the Pakatan Rakyat led by Anwar Ibrahim must endorse the blueprint in a binding manner and commit to its implementation, should they be forming the next federal government.

My request to my politician friends is to help us to realize the blueprint.

Today I would like to lay out some of my thoughts on Pakatan's Buku Jingga and Hindraf's Blueprint.

It is a lie to say that the Buku Jingga covers Hindraf blueprint proposals.

Xavier's photo opportunity visit

I would like to make mention of an incident with one PKR politician Dr Xavier Jeyakumar who visited me yesterday.

When asked by one of the other visiting wellwisher as to why Pakatan was reluctant to sign the blueprint, he replied with a question of his own: "Why should we sign your blueprint when it is all in our Buku Jingga?"

The wellwisher then requested Xavier to show where exactly the Buku Jingga covered the Hindraf blueprint proposals. She got silence for the answer.

We were left wondering if Xavier had made that long trip just to convince me to drop our demands for the blueprint endorsement because Pakatan had it all covered.

Isn't it making a mockery of my basic purpose for the hunger strike, which Xavier made an occasion of, to visit?

He being a professional politician just came for the photo opportunity, that is all. If he really felt as he answered, then there clearly was no other purpose for his visit.

In any case, I would like to make it very clear that the Buku Jingga consists of the Common Policy Platform of the parties representing the Chinese interests and a section of the Malays and the Pakatan Agenda which covers eight broad areas and a 100 day action plan.

In all these, what you get other than broad statements of intent are some targets. There is no serious discussion in the Buku Jingga about the plans for realising any of these.

Another great lie

The Buku Jingga broad statements and goals just cannot cover the specific proposals of Hindraf's blueprint. It is apples and oranges.

Pakatan politicians have to stop lumping together what is logically incompatible. It is a lie. There is no way any Pakatan politician can answer the lady yesterday to show where the blueprint proposals are covered in the Buku Jingga. They are not!

The NEP had the stated goal of poverty eradication and economic restructuring so as to eliminate the identification of ethnicity with economic function. The NEP policy document much like the Buku Jingga stated their intentions in these kinds of broad statements, but then we all know how much of a lie the NEP had become.

It became a vehicle for hijacking the national resource – sapu bersih. In fact NEP was initiated in 1970, just the time the massive displacement of the Indian plantation workers began.

Instead of eradicating poverty for the Indian plantation workers, they were pushed deeper into a poverty trap by the development plans arising from the NEP. RM1.1 trillion were spent in the 10 development plans in the name of NEP.

How much of that went to eradicating poverty among the displaced estate workers?

READ MORE HERE

 

'Rulers are above politics'

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 07:05 PM PDT

Perak Regent Raja Dr Nazrin Shah (left) speaking at Istana Iskandariah in Kuala Kangsar yesterday. With him Raja Kecil Besar Perak Raja Datuk Seri Iskandar Dzulkarnain (centre) and Perak finance officer Datuk Ghazali Jalal.

ROYAL REMINDER: Do not drag palace into partisan politics, says Raja Dr Nazrin

(NST) - ALL parties and groups with political leanings have been reminded not to drag the palace into their partisan politics just to shore up their image.

Perak Regent Raja Dr Nazrin Shah issued the stern reminder following actions taken by certain political quarters who manipulated the content of his royal addresses and speeches to push their own political agenda.

Without naming anyone but pointing out that he had been informed that such manipulation had been taking place lately, he said the tone of his speeches was altered to imply that it was he who had delivered them.

"This was done to increase the influence of the political groups and degrade their opponents.

"The act gives an incorrect impression and can create misunderstanding among a large number of people as though I have directly expressed support for a certain group and derided the other group.

"Any act that links my name and person to gain political support can actually be deemed as having dragged the palace into partisan politics.

"This is improper and has breached manners of civility and prudent political order," he said in his address at Istana Iskandariah here yesterday.

He said this in his speech when officially launching "Meletak Kerja" (start of work) in conjunction with the upcoming Sultan Azlan Shah's 85th birthday celebrations at Istana Iskandariah.

He said political parties and groups should not desecrate the nation's cultural customs and traditions in the excitement of garnering political support.

"The royal ruler and the throne will remain above party politics, will be neutral and will not favour any political groups."

He pointed out that the same message was stressed in the Perak Royal Council's 151st meeting on March 12 where council members were reminded to be vigilant and careful with their words and actions so as not to misrepresent the role of the royal institution.

Council members had been reminded to reflect on their independent nature and not to be involved in programmes organised by political parties for their own political aims, he added.

"With the current political scenario becoming increasingly fragmented, council members need to be smarter and make intelligent interpretations so that the (Perak) royal institution and the (Perak Ruler's) council are able to maintain an independent image and stay above partisan politics.

"The ruler has never expressed support for or against any political parties.

"I have instructed council members instead to take on the role of wise men who can play the role of mediators to resolve problems within the community."


Umno, MCA yakin pengundi Cina pertahan BN di Johor

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 06:56 PM PDT

(Bernama) - Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed hanya menggeleng kepala tanpa mampu mengulas secara spontan apabila dimaklumkan bahawa pembangkang terutama DAP bercita-cita besar menawan 15 daripada 26 kerusi parlimen di Johor pada pilihan raya umum ke-13.

Berfikir sejenak, anggota Parlimen Pulai itu berkata DAP silap besar jika gagal memahami sikap unik masyarakat Cina di Johor yang berdiri teguh memberi sokongan kepada Barisan Nasional (BN) sejak sekian lama.

"Daripada satu kerusi (2008) kepada 15 kerusi parlimen? Saya tidak tahu dari mana mereka dapat benda ini (jangkaan kemenangan besar). Ia tidak realistik," kata Nur Jazlan, 47.

Terbaharu, penasihat DAP Lim Kit Siang diumumkan akan bertanding bagi kerusi Parlimen Gelang Patah, dan seterusnya mengepalai jentera pakatan pembangkang di Johor.

Tidak hairanlah veteran pembangkang berusia 73 tahun itu dikatakan begitu kerap berkunjung ke Johor.

Jika diikuti entri blognya baru-baru ini, beliau ada menyebut 15 kerusi parlimen yang menjadi fokus pembangkang di Johor - Bakri, Segamat, Tebrau,
Kluang, Kulai, Batu Pahat, Pulai, Johor Baharu, Penggerang, Semberong, Labis, Muar, Ledang, Simpang Renggam dan Gelang Patah.

Pada 2008, calon BN Tan Ah Eng mengalahkan calon Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Zaliha Mustafa di Gelang Patah dengan majoriti 8,851 undi setelah memperoleh 33,630 undi.

Nur Jazlan berkata BN tetap yakin dengan pengundi Cina.

Menurutnya, generasi terdahulu masyarakat Cina Johor dijemput oleh Sultan Johor pada akhir 1800-an untuk terlibat dalam aktiviti perniagaan dan
perdagangan di negeri ini.

"Mereka (masyarakat Cina Johor) tidak dibawa masuk ke negeri ini oleh British, berlainan dengan kawasan negara ini. Sebab itu mereka ada 'sense of
belonging' (semangat kekitaan) di Johor," katanya yang juga Pengerusi UDA Holdings.

Masyarakat Cina Johor, katanya, juga berintegrasi dengan kehidupan penduduk tempatan, menguatkan lagi sikap unik mereka berbanding rakan-rakan mereka di negeri lain.

"Sebenarnya DAP dan Pakatan Rakyat telah menghina masyarakat Cina Johor dengan menolak sikap dan pemikiran unik mereka," katanya.

Keyakinan Nur Jazlan berasas. Ketika BN tidak begitu cemerlang di negeri lain pada tahun 2008, BN cuma tewas kerusi parlimen di Bakri kepada calon DAP tetapi terus menjadi kubu kuat BN, menguasai 50 kerusi dewan undangan negeri (DUN) berbanding DAP (4) dan PAS (2).

Malah BN memperoleh majoriti lebih tinggi pada pilihan raya kecil di kerusi DUN Tenang pada Januari 2011, meskipun pilihan raya berlangsung pada musim banjir, apabila calonnya menang dengan majoriti 3,707 undi berbanding sebelumnya 2,492 undi, kedua-duanya menewaskan calon PAS.

Pemimpin parti-parti komponen BN Johor menyedari keghairahan pembangkang untuk menggempur benteng utama BN itu. Bagi mereka ia lebih merupakan perang psikologi menjelang pilihan raya.

Ketua Bahagian MCA Gelang Patah Jason Teoh juga bersetuju sikap unik masyarakat Cina Johor akan menggagalkan cita-cita besar DAP bersama sekutunya PKR dan PAS.

Teoh yang juga naib pengerusi MCA Negeri berkata, nafsu besar pembangkang untuk menguasai sebahagian besar daripada 26 kerusi parlimen di Johor pada pilihan raya umum ini tidak lebih hanya 'cakap-cakap kosong politik.'

"Itu satu kenyataan am daripada pembangkang yang tidak mempunyai bukti. Sebagai negeri kubu kuat BN, MCA Johor telah mengekalkan penyokong-penyokong tegar yang mengambil berat tentang parti," katanya.

Selain itu, pembangkang juga perlu mengambil kira fakta bahawa Johor merupakan negeri yang mempunyai anggota MCA paling ramai.

Teoh yang disebut-sebut sebagai bakal calon BN di kerusi panas Parlimen Gelang Patah berkata BN selama ini berjaya membela isu-isu yang dekat di
hati pengundi Cina seperti ekonomi, perniagaan, pendidikan dan keselamatan.

Anggota Parlimen Johor Baharu Tan Sri Shahrir Samad pula berkata tsunami politik yang terjadi pada PRU-12 yang menyaksikan pengundi Cina beralih kepada pembangkang telah lenyap hasil kerja keras kerajaan pimpinan BN.

DAP yang kini menganggap dirinya sebagai 'Taiko' dalam pakatan pembangkang, katanya, tidak lagi boleh bergantung kepada jangkaan tsunami politik 2008 akan berterusan.

"Keadaan sudah pun berubah (berbanding 2008) dan BN di Johor bukan duduk diam, kaku dengan keadaan yang dirasakan penting tetapi sebaliknya kami sudah merubah cara dan pendekatan kami."

"Ia (usaha keras BN Johor) telah berjalan sejak empat tahun lepas dan sebab itu kini kami sudah bersiap sedia untuk berdepan dengan pilihan raya umum," kata beliau.

Bagi Ketua Penerangan Umno Datuk Ahmad Maslan pula, selain tsunami politik 2008 telah lama berakhir, di Johor, kepimpinan BN berjaya menguruskan ekonomi dengan kebanjiran pelaburan serta mewujudkan peluang ekonomi yang cukup menarik untuk memenangi hati pengundi pada pilihan raya akan datang.

 

Dr Boo in tight spot over Kit Siang’s candidature

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 06:50 PM PDT

(Bernama) - DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang's decision to contest the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat and spearhead the party's Johor election machinery has been likened to a vote of no confidence against state DAP chairman Dr Boo Cheng Hau.

Gelang Patah Umno division head Datuk Abdul Aziz Sapian said Lim's candidature would cause dissatisfaction not only among Dr Boo's supporters in Gelang Patah, but also Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) members.

"It's clear that DAP top leaders have lost faith in Dr Boo to lead the state election machinery by sidelining him. The cracks in Johor DAP are worsening," Abdul Aziz told Bernama.

Kit Siang's candidature was confirmed by PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Skudai last night.

Abdul Aziz, who is also Nusajaya assemblyman, said PKR members would be angry for they had lost a seat they had been contesting in previous general elections.

"Dr Boo's supporters may not be able to accept the decision for their boss had been openly embarrassed," said Abdul Aziz, adding that this was the culmination of cold relationship between Dr Boo and Kit Siang and his son, Lim Guan Eng, who is DAP secretary-general.

Dr Boo, who is also Skudai assemblyman, had been eyeing for the Gelang Patah seat to unseat incumbent Member of Parliament Tan Ah Heng of Barisan Nasional who won by a majority of over 8,000 votes in 2008.

Dr Boo had been embroiled in an open verbal war with Johor PKR chairman Datuk Chua Jui Meng over the right to contest the Gelang Patah seat.

However, Dr Boo declined comment when asked about Kit Siang contesting in Gelang Patah.

 

MP Serdang dicabar saman Tan Tee Beng

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 06:46 PM PDT

(Bernama) - Anggota Parlimen Serdang Teo Nie Ching hari ini dicabar supaya mengambil tindakan guaman ke atas Anggota Parlimen Nibong Tebal Tan Tee Beng yang mendakwa Teo dan pembantu peribadinya terlibat dalam penyelewengan wang sewaan Pusat Perkhidmatan Anggota Parlimen Serdang.

Bekas juruaudit DAP cawangan Serdang Baru Yap Kon Min berkata pihaknya mahu Anggota Parlimen Serdang daripada DAP itu mengambil tindakan guaman terhadap Tan, juga daripada DAP, dalam tempoh tujuh hari mulai hari ini, dan jika tidak Teo mesti meletak jawatan sebagai Anggota Parlimen Serdang dengan segera.

Katanya ini berikutan sehingga kini, Teo tidak mengambil apa-apa tindakan guaman terhadap Tan sejak Anggota Parlimen Nibong Tebal itu membuat pendedahan perkara itu lapan bulan yang lepas.
   
"Sebagai seorang peguam, kata-katanya mesti dikotakan tetapi kata-katanya itu tak serupa bikin. Adakah dakwaan MP Tan itu benar?
   
"(Ini) Demi maruah MP Teo sendiri dan pengundi-pengundi di Serdang, demi polisi CAT (Cekap, Akauntabiliti dan Telus) kerajaan pakatan rakyat Selangor, khasnya parti DAP. Jangan malukan pengundi-pengundi di kawasan Serdang kerana wakil rakyatnya cakap tak serupa bikin," katanya kepada pemberita di sini hari ini.

Pada Jun tahun lepas, Tan mendedahkan Teo dan pembantu peribadinya, Chan Huan Guan terbabit dalam penyelewengan wang sewaan pusat khidmat berjumlah RM16,000 sejak 2009 hingga Jun 2011.
   
Teo, dalam sebuah akhbar berbahasa Cina, mendesak Tan supaya memohon maaf kepadanya yang jika tidak berbuat demikian, tindakan guaman akan diambil.
   
Teo telah menghantar Surat Tuntutan kepada Anggota Parlimen Nibong Tebal berhubung perkara itu yang turut meminta Tan menarik balik dakwaannya.
   
Bagaimanapun, Tan dalam satu sidang akhbar telah mengoyak surat itu dan terus mencabar Teo supaya mengambil tindakan guaman terhadapnya.

 

Anwar says may not defend Permatang Pauh seat

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 06:17 PM PDT

By Mohd Farhan Farwis and Emily Ding, TMI

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim may leave his Permatang Pauh seat and contest in Perak or Selangor instead.

"There is a likelihood, but it means… I haven't made a definite decision because there have been suggestions that I should go down to Perak or Selangor, and I'm weighing the possibility of going down to Perak," he said today, in response to media questions at a press conference in PKR's headquarters.

Anwar (picture) did not say, however, who would replace him in Permatang Pauh.

When asked whether PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar would replace him in his current constituency, he said: "She's focused on Lembah Pantai, why disturb her? Let (Datuk Raja) Nong Chik alone disturb her ok lah," he said.

Anwar also announced five PKR candidates who would contest in Sarawak.

They are Baru Bian in Limbang, Ali Biju in Saratok, Roland Engan in Barak, Abun Sui in Ulu Rejang, and Abang Zulkifli Abang Engkeh in Batang Lupar.

 

GE13: Big battle for the silver state

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 05:17 PM PDT

Barisan Nasional is going all out to retain Perak after ousting the Opposition from a short-lived victory.

The Star

PERAK remains a hot state in this general election and all eyes are on whether Barisan Nasional can continue its grip on the state.

The Opposition wrested the state in the 2008 polls with a combined number of 31 seats won by the DAP, PKR and PAS as against Barisan's 28 seats.

But their victory was shortlived after three assemblymen – Datuk Hee Yit Foong (DAP-Jelapang), Osman Mohd Jailu (PKR-Changkat Jering) and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (PKR-Behrang) – quit their respective parties and Barisan regained control of Perak in less than a year after a court battle.

While some political observers believe the anger over the power change has since subsided, the resentment towards the trio continues.

Jelapang is likely to go back to DAP and Hee's political shelf-life is essentially over.

But the scenario may be different in Behrang and Changkat Jering. With a weak PKR and the Malay rural vote returning to Barisan, the ruling party is set to take back the two seats.

The Opposition bench was further reduced to 27 seats in June 2010 when Malim Nawar assemblyman Keshvinder Singh, who won on a DAP ticket, quit the party to become another Barisan-friendly independent assemblyman.

Come nomination day, Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir and Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Husni Hanadzlah, who is Tambun MP, will be among the most-watched candidates.

There has been speculation that Dr Zambry will vacate his Pangkor state seat and move to the Federal level, while Husni will contest a state seat and take over as mentri besar.

Two parliamentary seats that will be watched are Ipoh Timur, where Lim Kit Siang is the incumbent, and Batu Gajah, now held by cili padi Fong Po Kuan.

Lim has moved to Johor and will contest the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat, and he is likely to take Fong with him.

Lim's transfer is taking away his party's focus in Perak but it will still be tough for Barisan to take back the two seats from DAP.

There are 59 state seats in Perak, and Umno is confident of winning up to 32 seats – impro­ving its tally by five from the previous polls.

The MCA, which fielded candidates in 16 seats in 2008, won only Chenderiang through Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon.

It hopes to retain this seat and regain four more – including Teja and Keshvinder's Malim Nawar, besides Kepayang.

Pokok Assam, which the DAP won, is said to be another seat where the MCA has a "fighting chance".

MCA president and state MCA chairman Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, with Dr Zambry's help, has resolved long-standing land issues that had plagued some 1,500 farmers, including ornamental fish breeders in the state. Many of them are in Teja and Malim Nawar.

The state government has also given 1,011ha of land to nine Chinese independent schools while Dr Mah is said to be instrumental in getting representatives from the school boards and the private sector to set up a joint venture in oil palm plantation.

The venture, the first of its kind in Malaysia, saw the schools jointly getting RM3mil a year for 30 years, beginning last year.

Meanwhile, the MCA has also set up a team to take care of the electorate in Malim Nawar. It is headed by Kampar MP Datuk Lee Chee Leong as the state seat comes under his parliamenatry constituency.

In Kepayang, Perak MCA secretary Datuk Tan Chin Meng continues to serve the people despite losing to little-known Loke Chee Yan of the DAP.

There is talk that Perak DAP secretary Nga Kor Ming has offered to stand in Kepayang but his bid has reportedly irked party colleague and Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran.

The state seat is within his parliamentary area and Kulasegaran is said to be eyeing it for his assistant,

Nga and Kulasegaran have not been on good terms with both men often seen attacking each other. In a way, they have paved the way for the MCA to increase its chances of winning Kepayang.

The MIC does not have any state seat in Perak but the MCA, in the Barisan spirit of cooperation, is said to be also willing to give it the Buntong seat if its ally has a winnable candidate.

Meanwhile, at parliamentary level, the MCA is confident of retaining Tanjung Malim, Kampar and Lumut while it also sees Gopeng, which it lost to the PKR's Dr Lee Boon Chye, as a winnable seat this time around.

In Gerik, incumbent MP Datuk Tan Lian Hoe from Gerakan is not certain if she will be fielded again there as there is talk that Umno also wants the seat.

In Beruas, where Perak DAP chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham is the incumbent, could also prove to be tough for Perak Gerakan chief Datuk Chang Ko Youn to oust him.

Political observers say the chances of the Gerakan winning any seat in this election is anything from slim to nil.

There are 24 parliamentary seats in Perak; with the Barisan holding 13 via Umno (eight), the MCA (three), Gerakan and MIC (one each). The other seats are held by the DAP (six), PKR (three) and PAS (two).

 

‘Kiram target of Malaysian hit squad’

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 05:09 PM PDT

The sultanate's spokesman says Malaysian commandos are in the Philippines to liquidate the Kiram family.

(Agencies) - MANILA: The Sulu Sultanate revealed an elaborate assassination plot against its leader, Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, and members of the royal family.

Abrahim Idjirani, spokesman of the sultanate, said a Malaysian colonel named Sunny Ng had entered the Philippines with four Malaysian commandos with a mission to liquidate the Kiram family and their supporters.

Speaking at the Kirams' residence in Taguig City, Idjirani said the Malaysian commandos have enlisted the help of the New People's Army recruits from Quezon to carry out the assassination.

The mission, Idjirani said, was relayed to them by a Filipino lawyer who was approached by Malaysian businessman named Kenneth Lee to talk to the Malaysian assassins.

The lawyer, whom Idjirani refused to name, previously worked as a legal counsel of Pastor Saycon, the sultanate's political adviser.

"In the light of this development, we would like to ask the government: Have we surrendered the sovereign control of our country that we allow a Malaysian hit squad to perform its terrorist acts in the Philippines?" Idjirani told reporters.

Idjirani said Ng's group met Saycon's former lawyer at the Genting Palace, a restaurant at the Resorts World in Pasay City around noon on Monday. The Malaysian squad stayed at the Maxim's Hotel, also located at Resorts World.

Ng had asked Lee to trace the home address of Sultan Kiram, who in turn contacted the lawyer.

"The lawyer told us that he is willing to confront the Malaysians and stand as witness against them in court," Idjirani said.

Kiram urged the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the military to investigate into the reported assassination plot by Malaysia.

"We have to call on the policemen and the NBI to investigate this matter. Unless they believe that we are foreigners, it's their responsibility to protect us because we are Filipinos," Kiram said.


 

Anwar mulls contesting in Perak

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 05:06 PM PDT

The opposition leader is considering moving out of his traditional stronghold in Penang in the coming general election.

G Vinod, FMT

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim may contest a parliamentary seat in Perak in the coming general election.

He said this when questioned on whether he would defend his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat in Penang.

"Some say I should go to Perak or Selangor but I am thinking of the former. But no decision has been made. I'm still considering it," said the PKR supremo.

However, Anwar dismissed speculation that he might move to Lembah Pantai, where his daughter Nurul Izzah is the incumbent MP.

"Let her stay in Lembah Pantai. Why would I want to disturb her? [Raja] Nong Chik [Federal Territories and Urban Well-Being Minister] is already disturbing her enough," he said, with a chuckle.

Earlier this week DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang was announced as the candidate for the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat in Johor, moving away from Ipoh Timur.

Anwar made the announcement when addressing a 10,000-strong crowd at a field near Sutera Mall, Skudai, for the 47th DAP party anniversary celebrations on Monday.

Speculations are rife that top guns from Pakatan Rakyat would be moved out from their strongholds to tough seats, in order to increase the chances of winning federal power.

Anwar has been the Permatang Pauh MP since his days in Umno until he was sacked from the party in 1998 and jailed on corruption charges.

Nevertheless, the constituents backed his wife, PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in three general elections until she relinquished the seat in 2008, to make way for Anwar.

He won back the seat with over 15,000 votes majority in the by-election.

Anwar also announced that Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian would be contesting for the Limbang parliamentary seat in the general election.

He also announced other candidates; Ali Biju ( Saratok), Roland Engan (Baram), Abun Sui (Hulu Rejang) and Abang Zulkifli (Batang Lupar)

"These are other people we have decided for now. We will announce on other candidates later on," said Anwar.

READ MORE HERE

 

‘Husam may lose in Putrajaya’

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 05:01 PM PDT

Malay daily Sinar Harian says the parliamentary seat is a BN stronghold and the potential PAS candidate must offer something substantial to win over urban Malay voters.

(FMT) - If PAS fields Husam Musa as its candidate for Putrajaya, chances are he would be doomed as Putrajaya is a Barisan Nasional stronghold, reported Malay daily Sinar Harian.

Husam is currently Kelantan state exco, Salor assemblyman and PAS vice-president. He was Kubang Kerian MP from 1999 to 2004.

Yesterday, Sinar Harian reported Husam's willingness to contest the Putrajaya parliamentary seat currently held by Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor who is also Umno secretary-general.

Jayum Jawan of the National Council of Professors, however, did not totally discount Husam's chances of winning as he is well-versed in issues affecting the middle class.

Jayum, who is deputy head of the council's politics, security and international affairs, said Husam is a man of integrity and stands a good chance if PAS and Pakatan Rakyat pick him for the seat.

"The urban Malay voters needs to be served with food for thought if PAS truly wants to capture Putrajaya parliamentary seat," said Jayum.

'Nizar's move not official'

Berita Harian, meanwhile, reported Perak PKR chairman Muhammad Nur Manuty's displeasure over PAS' move to announce Nizar Jamaluddin as a candidate for Changkat Jering.

Nur Manuty, who was named as candidate for Bagan Serai parliamentary seat, said that the decision to field Nizar in Changkat Jering was not the official stand of Pakatan.

READ MORE HERE

 

They want to frame me, says Taib

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 04:57 PM PDT

A video detailing the inner workings of a land deal along with ways to circumvent government policies has riled Chief Minister Taib Mahmud.

KUCHING: Against mounting speculations of a bid to oust him, a visibly angry Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud has dismissed as "naughty" a 16-minute covertly recorded documentary which included interviews with his estranged cousins – the Rahman sisters – and lawyers over a land deal.

Even as one of the lawyers in the video vehemently denied volunteering information, claiming that he was "trapped", Taib said the secret video was an attempt to "frame" him and that the "evidence" was subjective.

"You look at that [video]. I think it is a bit naughty of them to use their big power to blacken my name.

"They want to create something … [then] create something more credible. They are trying to frame people like me with evidence from [just] anybody… with evidence that can be interpreted [either way]… even you can say [to someone] 'you come [with me] I go [to] see chief minister but is it me [asking] or something … " Taib said in response to London-based NGO Global Witness' incriminating video, excerpts of which were aired over Al Jazeera on Monday.

In the video documentary, Global Witness posed as a foreign investor seeking to buy land for oil palm plantations in Sarawak.

The ensuing interviews, caught by a hidden camera, detailed how the sale process would be handled, how the natives will be dealt with, taxes avoided and how "personal kickbacks" would allegedly be paid to Taib.

But Taib has questioned the authenticity of the video and allegations that he had intermediaries working for him.

Said Taib: "Back in the 1980s, I was in charge of forestry… I made a public declaration and I said nobody is my intermediary because I don't believe in deals. Everything got to be done according to government procedure."

Asked if the video evidence was proof of corruption, Taib retorted: "OK. If that's what is so-called proof.

"[But] could it not be someone trying to promote themselves to become an agent to get favours from me? [In which case] it has nothing to do with me, right?"

'Easy' access to Taib

Neither admitting nor denying the allegations in the video, Taib continued to say that he had estranged ties with his uncle, former Sarawak chief minister Rahman Yakub, and his cousins.

In the tape, Rahman's daughters allegedly claimed they had "easy" access to Taib and that all land transactions were legitimate as it came via directives from the Chief Minister himself.

When asked about the women, Taib spewed: "Do you know that cousin?

"Did you find out what was the relationship between their father and me… is it friendly or not?

"We were fighting at one time. [Surely] that cousin cannot be my most trusted… but it's up to you."

Taib was referring to the 1987 attempt to oust him by Rahman. The bid was branded as the Ming Court Affair. Two years earlier, Taib had removed Rahman from the position of governor of Sarawak – which incidentally he gave Rahman – following a fissure between uncle and nephew over Rahman's "influence" over state matters such as land development permits, government contracts and timber licences.

With Rahman out of the way, Taib has lorded over Sarawak and its vast lands since. Much of Sarawak's rainforest has allegedly been deforested under the pretext of development, largely displacing the indigenous communities.

READ MORE HERE

 

Parliament dissolved? Not true

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 04:53 PM PDT

A SMS from an unknown source creates a stir that Parliament would be dissolved today.

(FMT) - A SMS message, claiming that Parliament has been dissolved today, created a buzz among Malaysians this afternoon warranting the Prime Minister's Office to dismiss it as a rumour.

"Khabar angin yg menyatakan Parlimen akan dibubarkan hari ini, oleh Perdana Menteri @NajibRazak, tidak benar sama sekali (the rumour that Parliament will be dissolved today by the Prime Minister is not true)," the Prime Minister's Office said in a Twitter message at about 1pm today.

This was followed by another Twitter message from the Prime Minister's press office stating: "Talk that the Parliament will be dissolved today allegedly by the Prime Minister is false."

The nation is eagerly waiting for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to dissolve Parliament to pave the way for the country's 13th general election.

Analysts, politicians and political pundits have all predicted the dates on the impending polls, with many saying that Parliament would be dissolved this month.

The current Parliament term ends on April 28. However, Najib is very unlikely to go the full stretch and is expected to call for election anytime now.

This morning, a SMS in Bahasa Melayu caused a stir that Parliament had been dissolved.

The SMS read: "Following is the full transcript of the Prime Minister's statement at a special press conference at the Prime Minister's Office, Putrajaya at 12.35 this afternoon;

"I wish to announce about the dissolution of Parliament, after having an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong today. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong has consented to the dissolution of Parliament effective today to pave way for the 13th general election.

"The Yang di-Pertuan Agong has signed the Parliament dissolution consent declaration. With that, state governments are also advised to dissolve their state assemblies effective today. The Election Commission has been informed of this development."

Below is the original text which was spread via SMS:

READ MORE HERE

 

GE13 – Make the right choice

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 04:44 PM PDT

The choice at GE13, to me, is clear. A new government will assuredly give us reform.

By Kee Thuan Chye

Voters, you have to decide soon. The 13th general election has to be held at the latest within two months of April 28, when the current government's term expires. It may even be called next month if Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has the gumption for it.

Meanwhile, if you haven't decided yet which coalition – Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat – should win federal power for the next five years, consider this.

After 55 years of ruling this country, where has BN got us?

The country is more divided than ever. We have been polarised on racial and religious lines for decades, but now we are divided by political leanings as well.

What about our economic progress?

According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates, Malaysia's GDP per capita based on the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) methodology amounted in 1980 to US$2,331. South Korea's was lower at US$2,302, and Taiwan's was slightly higher at US$3,571.

But in 2011, South Korea's figure rose to US$31,220 (an increase of 1,255%), Taiwan's to US$37,716 (up 956%), while Malaysia's stood at US$16,240 (up 596%).

What happened? How did South Korea overtake us and in 2011 record a figure that is double that of ours?

Some people say the GDP (PPP) per capita is not so comprehensive, so let's look at per capita income instead.

In 2011, South Korea's per capita income was US$22,424 and Taiwan's was US$20,083. How much was Malaysia's? US$9,656. Again, half that of South Korea's, and also Taiwan's.

Najib pledges to make us a high-income nation with a per capita income of US$15,000 in 2020. By that time, what do you think the per capita incomes of South Korea and Taiwan would be? Furthermore, would US$15,000 still qualify as high income then?

By the way, our neighbour, Singapore, that used to be part of Malaysia, has a per capita income of US$46,241, which is almost five times ours. And they don't have natural resources like we do.

In the last few years, the government has hardly been talking of making Malaysia an advanced nation, which is the goal of Vision 2020, tabled in 1991. It has been more than 20 years since, enough time to consolidate efforts to attain the goal, but we are apparently not near it. The talk these days is only about becoming a high-income nation instead. That's not the same as becoming an advanced nation.

Corrupt practices and economic leakages

Clearly, wastage, leakages, imprudent government spending and, above all, corruption have retarded our growth. And the problem is compounded by the ruling party itself being mired in corruption.

Is BN therefore likely to address this issue in a serious and concerted manner? Has it been doing so, apart from hauling in a few culprits from time to time?

Shouldn't we bring in a new government that is not so entrenched in this system of corrupt practices and economic leakages?

If we should, the 13th general election may be the only time to do it. Because if BN wins again, it is likely to gerrymander the electoral boundaries afterwards to its advantage and make it even harder for the opposition to win future general elections. In which case BN will be ruling Malaysia for many more years to come.

Would it then be likely to bring reform? Or would it rather continue to maintain the status quo to ensure it holds on to power and reap the rewards of being in government?

However, if the opposition coalition, Pakatan, were to win, what would be the biggest benefit to Malaysians? I think it would be the concretisation of the reality that a two-coalition system can work and is here to stay.

And isn't this what we need? If not for the March 8, 2008, electoral result, would we be feeling as important as we do today as the people who decide who should govern us? Would we be feeling that our votes do count? Would the government be listening to us as much?

A two-coalition system provides for a stronger opposition, and this is always good for applying pressure on the ruling party to do what is right and what is of benefit to the rakyat. When BN had its two-thirds majority, it enjoyed a monopoly. It could push anybody aside and any laws through Parliament. It could be arrogant. Even now, it still is but less so.

Do you think that if BN were not voted out come GE13 so that it would experience what it's like to be in the opposition, it would be able to reform itself in order to serve the people better rather than its own interests?

Look at Umno, the biggest party in the BN coalition. It is dominated by warlords – big ones and small ones. To them, losing their fiefdom is losing almost everything.

Holding office, even a relatively small one, opens the door to potential riches for the office holder and his supporters. The bigger the office, of course the greater the wealth. He will therefore not want to give it up.

That is why Umno's leaders are going around appealing to the party's members not to sabotage candidates selected to stand at GE13; the leaders know that those who are deprived of the opportunity will be envious of those who supplanted them, and they will be motivated to seek revenge against the latter.

This may be cutting off their noses to spite their faces because the act of sabotage can result in a defeat for the Umno candidate and therefore the party, but they don't care.

The point is, they lost their chance to stand – and with it their passport to wealth, like the extra percentage they load onto the costs of public projects to line their own pockets with or the kickbacks they get for giving approvals.

Their supporters, who will also lose out in terms of influence, business opportunities, etc, will go along with their act of sabotage. Why else is our prime minister merely half-hearted in weeding out corruption? Because it's too deeply rooted within his own party.

So how can we continue to give our votes to such a party or its coalition partners, like the MCA, the MIC, Gerakan, PBB, PBS, etc?

READ MORE HERE

 

Arkib buktikan Ketua Penceroboh Sulu sebenarnya rakyat Malaysia

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 01:27 PM PDT

http://www.keadilandaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/SenaraiKakitangan2-300x154.jpg 

(Keadilan Daily) - KEADILAN mendedahkan bukti secara dokumen yang menunjukkan Raja Muda Sulu, Agbimudin @ Azzimuddie Kiram yang mengetuai pencerobohan di Lahad Datu, Sabah sejak bulan lalu, sebenarnya rakyat Malaysia dan pernah menjadi kakitangan awam.

Pengarah Strategi KEADILAN, Rafizi Ramli berkata, ia dibuktikan melalui dokumen 'Senarai Kakitangan 1975, Perkhidmatan Awam Sabah' yang diperolehi dari Jabatan Arkib Negara Sabah.

SenaraiKakitangan2"Dari maklumat itu, disahkan bahawa Agbimudin tersenarai sebagai Pegawai Tadbir Muda di Pejabat Daerah Kudat bermula 1 Mac 1974 dengan gaji RM610 sebulan," katanya pada sidang media di ibu pejabat parti, hari ini.

Rafizi yang turut melampir salinan dokumen itu yang memiliki cop Arkib Negeri Sabah bertarikh 4 Oktober 1983, berkata, pendedahan itu mengesahkan hubung kait penceroboh  Sulu dengan projek IC yang melibatkan Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"Wujudnya tokoh dari kumpulan bersenjata ini di kalangan warganegara mengesahkan keresahan rakyat betapa pemberian kerakyatan untuk tujuan politik tanpa proses sah mengancam keselamatan negara," katanya.

Sebelum ini, media sosial terutama facebook kerap memapar pelbagai gambar individu yang dikaitkan dengan Kesultanan Sulu bersama-sama pimpinan Umno BN.

(Berita Lanjut Menyusul)

Short URLhttp://www.keadilandaily.com/?p=47872

 

Who or what is Malaysia’s most threatening enemy?

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 01:15 PM PDT

J. D. Lovrenciear 

The Lahad Datu 'intrusion' or 'invasion' or 'guerilla attack' (or whatever label you prefer to ascribe to the mess in Sabah) is not Malaysia's ultimate enemy.
The vested claims over Sabah do not make a foreign or neighboring nation or nations the threatening enemies of Malaysia.

The politicians who are now engaged on an over-drive mode to annihilate their opponents as we gingerly inch to a General Election not knowing when, are not the priority enemies of Malaysia.

The host of NGOs who are unearthing seemingly endless irregularities and creating more awareness among Malaysians are not the devastating enemies of Malaysia although often times we may be led to believe so by the masters of the nation.

The citizens who are getting involved in various protest marches demanding clean and fair elections, for example, are not the enemies of security and stability.

There was a time when we had real enemies from outside of the nation. In the bygone decades we witnessed the Communist threat and then followed by the Insurgency – these were the real enemies of Malaysia, coming in from outside of the sovereign borders of this young nation.

But today we are tethering on the edge of knowing there is truly an enemy of State. 

The expose by the Global Witness on how horrifying land deals (or land grabs, to be precise) are struck in Sarawak – implicating the Chief Minister and all those aligned under his canopy, provides an edifying lesson to all Malaysians. 

It is not about wheteher this expose is  a paralyzing truth or lie. In fact it is even beyond the confines of mere allegation given the content, presentation and the extensive coverage on the global media terrain.

That precious awakening is that Malaysia's real enemy is not from outside but an enemy who is tunneling its way east and west, north and south of the country right here from within.

The real enemy goes beyond individuals. It has well crossed beyond the walls of corporations and organizations too. 

That real enemy is corruption and greed.Corrupted and greedy individuals, corporations, organizations. Period.

Anything else is only the tip of the iceberg. denying this truth or down-playing it is akin to coating gloss to the rotting filth of decadent human greed.

What does the Tun Dr. Mahathir have to say about this recent red-hot expose by Global Witness? 

What do all his entourage of patronizing leaders as well as puppets have to say? 

What do the subservient followers of the UMNO Baru have to say? 

What do the BN component party leaders have to say?

Maybe Malaysians will be reprimanded for jumping the gun.

"Listen you silly, willy Malaysian citizens. 
Who is Global Witness? Do you know? They are our nation's enemies out to destroy Malaysia's progressive and transforming track record."

And if you persist in asking what really is going on in Sarawak, be ready for another lesson.

"Do not be sucked in by all these lies. The actors in the video posted by Global Witness are fake, look-alike artists on hire. And do you know who is behind all these?"

Who, ask the naïve Malaysians.

"Aiyaa, the opposition political parties lah. They are so desperate that they will lose in the GE-13 and so they have hired this 'apa nama – Global Witness' to come up with this video."

In the face of this expose there surfaces yet another truth -- for as long as there are no principle centered leaders, followers, professionals, congregations and organizations that can converge and emerge in solidarity to plug the corruption and greed on this Malaysian soil, the country remains susceptible to the irreversible damage that is being created by the enemy from within, i.e. the world's and humanity's worst enemy – corruption and greed.

Indeed the video by Global Witness is the mother of all exposes on the nation's state of greed and corruption.

Woe be thine, if we choose to find solace under that infamous statement so often heard from Malaysian politicians: Who isn't corrupted? Or how about: Even the USA is corrupted lah.

Yes, there is no utopia on earth. But the gravest sin against humanity is corruption and greed. 

And the greatest disgrace to humanity is to steal right under their innocent, unknowing eyes and return to society a pittance act of charity or a trumpeted CSR (corporate social responsibility) razzmatazz.

The bottom line is, no society can ever progress and remain sustained under uncontained corruption and blatant, widespread greed. It is only a matter of time before the entire nation sinks into the deep recesses of a distinct divide of rich and poor, on a ratio of 80:20, respectively.

 

Puluhan ribu risalah fitnah sedia diedar di Perak

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 01:03 PM PDT

http://cdn.harakahdaily.net/images/stories/2013_pic/mac/risalah%20fitnah.jpg 

Jawatankuasa Strategik dan Isu PAS Perak hari ini mendedahkan agenda jahat pihak tertentu dalam menghadapi PRU13 yang akan diadakan pada bila-bila masa.

Muhammad Faeez Azahar

Koordinatornya, Salman Saleh berkata, pihaknya mendapat banyak maklumat tentang kontena diseluruh negeri Perak yang membawa risalah berbaur fitnah.

Menurutnya, puluhan ribu risalah fitnah itu sudah siap dicetak dan dipercayai akan diedarkan kepada masyarakat pada pilihanraya nanti setelah mendapat arahan.

 

Katanya, risalah fitnah dalam bentuk buku kecil bertajuk "Drama Pecah Panggung; Box Office" itu ternyata merbahaya kerana ianya terkandung pelbagai fitnah yang bersifat perkauman dan penipuan.

Jelas Salman, risalah tersebut dianggap haram kerana tidak mempunyai terbitan daripada mana-mana pihak.

"Kami mengesyaki risalah tersebut dikeluarkan oleh pihak pro Umno-BN kerana ianya diedarkan bersama satu risalah berbentuk buku bertajuk 'Mengorak Negara Ke Hadapan" yang tertera dibelakang buku itu cetakan oleh Ibu Pejabat Barisan Nasional," katanya dalam satu sidang media di Pejabat PAS Perak, dekat sini hari ini.

Hadir sama ialah ahli jawatankuasanya, Salman Saleh, Hafez Sabri dan Safarizal Saleh.

Mengulas lanjut, beliau yang juga Setiausaha Jabatan Pilihanraya PAS Perak mendesak Kementerian Dalam Negeri dan pihak Polis merampas risalah haram itu kerana ianya bercanggah dengan undang-undang negara.

Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) juga katanya turut harus mengambil tindakan sewajarnya agar risalah tersebut tidak diedarkan dalam pilihanraya nanti.

"Kami desak pihak bertanggungjawab mengambil tindakan sewajarnya kerana cara kotor serta jijik ini menyalahi undang-undang dan akan memecah belahkan masyarakat di Negara ini," tegasnya lagi.

 

PKR claim Azzimuddie is Malaysian

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 12:59 PM PDT

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(fz.com) - In a shocking revelation, PKR has claimed that Raja Muda Azzimuddie Kiram, the self-proclaimed crown prince of Sulu and leader of the armed group that intruded into Sabah, is a Malaysian.

In a press conference today, PKR strategist Rafizi Ramli claimed Agbimudin @ Azzimuddie Kiram was a public officer at the district office of Kudat.

Azzimuddie Kiram had led his followers, who numbered around 200 and were armed, to Lahad Datu on Feb 9 and holed up in Kampung Tanduo.

Following three weeks of failed negotiations, the Malaysian government launched Ops Daulat offensive against the Sulu terrorists on March 5 after they killed eight policemen in Lahad Datu and Semporna on March 1 and 2.

The death toll currently stands at 10 Malaysian security forces (including two soldiers) and 63 terrorists.

More to follow at: http://fz.com/content/pkr-claim-azzimuddie-malaysian 

 

When the Fog of War lifts on Lahad Datu Standoff!

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 12:55 PM PDT

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Patriotism in Sabah begins with Sabah and does not end with Malaysia.
 
Joe Fernandez 
We have not heard the last of the Lahad Datu Standoff if it degenerates, as it appears more than likely now, into prolonged guerrilla warfare as in the southern Philippines, but perhaps more low-key.

There's a huge security vacuum in Sabah.
 
Witness the fact that 1.7 million foreigners, mostly illegal immigrants, flooded into Sabahby 2005 alone to dwarf the 1.5 million local population as Putrajaya looked the other way in a wink wink relationship with rogue elements. It's unprecedented in world history.
 
An estimated 800,000 of the foreigners including illegal immigrants are Suluks, many with MyKads which in the absence of state government sanction as the initiating party on a case by case basis, they are not entitled to obtain and not eligible to hold in Sabah. They may be matched in number only by the Bugis from Sulawesi in Indonesia. There's no love lost between these two large immigrant groups, the local Suluks in particular in the east coast having a strong sense of proprietorship, but that's another story.
 
Nature, according to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, abhors a vacuum. (Aristotle was a student of Plato, a Greek philosopher, and a teacher of the Macedonian Alexander the Great who became King of the Greeks. Plato, in turn, was a student of Greek philosopher Socrates.) 

The reasons for Lahad Datu, given the fog of war, may keep changing during the course of such a conflict. 

The first casualty in a war is the truth.
 
Beheadings, mutilations a Public Relations disaster of highest magnitude
 
However, to accuse Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim of having a sinister hand in Sabah and Sulu is a simplistic notion, if not cheap politics of hitting below the belt, which will not camouflage Putrajaya's sins in Borneo and the southern Philippines. It will not cover up the fact that the Administration has blood on its hands on both sides of the Sulu Sea. Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) vice president Tian Chua was right to imply Putrajaya's bloody hands in his numerous statements reported recently on Sabah.
 
It cannot be denied that the current security situation in Sabah was created solely by Putrajaya which is responsible for the matter.

For starters, they dillydallied for three weeks in an act of extreme weakness if not desperation and to play politics with the issue because security in Sabah until recent days was under the Prime Minister's Department -- so more illegal immigrants can come in and enter the Electoral Rolls -- and not under the Police or Armed Forces. 

Who trained the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and gave them safe havens inSabah? MNLF leader Nur Misuari's recent statement on these issues must be taken seriously as he, more than Putrajaya, gets the benefit of the doubt in a balance of probabilities.

By the same token, we don't know whether the Sulu terrorists admitted to carrying out beheadings and other mutilations in Sabah during the on-going Lahad Datu Standoff. The Suluks have more to lose for such dastardly acts, if true. It would be a Public Relations disaster of the highest magnitude; play into Putrajaya's already bloodied hands, and turned the local population against them.
 
The truth, as usual, may be somewhere in between.
 
There may be rogue elements involved, if not on one side, then the other.
 
Or, it could be a distasteful display by the population within that specific locality for any number of reasons.
 
We can only await a special Parliamentary session on the crisis, a Royal Commission of Inquiry or a White Paper with bated breaths. Meanwhile, Tian Chua's sedition case should be stayed and not be used for cheap politics by the Najib Administration.
 
Malaysia has no stomach for war in Sabah after southern Philippines
 
In a reversal of the high stakes cheapo war game played for so long in southernPhilippines by Malaysia, Sulu "terrorists" in Sabah or from Sulu -- or freedom fighters in their language -- will have safe havens in the southern Philippines if the flare-up in Sabahcontinues. They will also have access to arms, men and material from the MNLF and its breakaway Abu Sayaff, noted for its kidnappings along the east coast of Sabah. 

Malaysia will have no stomach for such a war after being allegedly engaged, overtly and covertly, in the long-simmering conflict in the southern Philippines.
 
If push comes to shove, and if there are no "beheadings" and similar atrocities on the part of the militants, the people of Sabah will not back Malaysia in a war against the Suluks, whether in Sabah or from Sulu. Put it down to their historical grievances over the unfinished business of Malaysia in Sabah and Sarawak and their ties to the Suluks. The Suluks, if they take advantage of the widespread anti-Malaysia feeling in Sabah and Sarawak, will be like the fish swimming in a sea of popular support. Patriotism in Sabah begins with Sabah and does not end with Malaysia.

The "heirs" know that possession is nine-tenths of the law when it comes to the negotiating table for a diplomatic and political solution. Even so, the Suluks in Sabah or from Sulu would have to unconditionally surrender any territory seized when the country (Sabah) regains its independence.
 
Defunct Sulu Sultanate no leg to stand on in Sabah
 
The "heirs" of the defunct Sulu Sultanate -- citing marginalisation and disenfranchisement -- may grab at least Felda Sahabat centred around the Tungku Township in Lahad Datu, this being part of the territory in the Sabah east coast which covers the waterways where Sulu used to extort tolls from the terrified traffic along them. This would force The Issue on Sabah & Sarawak: the UN would have to address the fact that No Referendum was held in Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Malaya on Malaysia. Already, the UN has offered in the wake of Lahad Datu to intervene in Sabah.

The Cobbold Commission in 1962 was not a Referendum but a sampling of community leaders. Ironically, only the Suluk and Bajau communities polled agreed to Malaysia. The others, including the Orang Asal, were against the idea of Malaysia in Borneo to facilitate on demographic grounds the merger between Chinese majority Singapore and non-Malay majority Malaya.

Singapore held a Yes or No Vote on independence through merger with Malaya viaMalaysia.

Brunei stayed out of Malaysia at the 11th hour largely because of a rebellion in the sultanate against the idea of Malaysia.

The defunct Sulu Sultanate, of course, does not have a leg to stand on in Sabah or parts of it.
 
It has no private property rights to Sabah or any part of it.
 
It cannot claim sovereignty over Sabah.
 
Suluk marginalisation, disenfranchisement does not equate Sabah claim
 
All the "heirs' have is the 1939 Mackasie Ruling of the High Court of Borneo which recognises their right to collect RM 5, 300 per annum collectively from the Sabah Government. This is a token or fragment of history having largely only symbolic significance.

The defunct Sulu Sultanate's so-called transfer of sovereignty over Sabah not so long ago to the Philippines Government by Power of Attorney -- now expired -- is a nullity from the very beginning in international law.  

The sovereignty of Sabah rests with its people. 

The Sulu Sultanate died out, recorded the Madrid Protocols of 1877 and 1885, when its last Sultan died without leaving a male heir. Spain which was ruling the Philippines gave up all or any territorial claims in North Borneo under the Protocols with the United Kingdom and Germany. Read:
 
http://www.lawnet.sabah.gov.my/Lawnet/SabahLaws/Treaties/Protocol%28Madrid%29.pdf

The Suluks in Sabah, claiming marginalisation and disenfranchisement since 1963, given the continuing influx of Bugis illegal immigrants in particular and Usno being deregistered to make way for Umno, is another matter altogether. This cannot be related to the so-called Sabah claim.
 
Sabah became British colony after World War II
 
The Brunei Sultanate has denied giving any part of Sabah to the Sulu Sultanate. 

Read: 
http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/special-reports/54937-sabah-and-the-sulu-claims 
http://www.bt.com.bn/golden-legacy/2013/03/07/sabah-and-sulu-claims 

The entire land area of Sabah belongs to or potentially belongs to the Orang Asal under Adat as Native Customary Right (NCR).

Adat and the Orang Asal came long before the Sulu Sultanate's "Agreement" with the British North Borneo Chartered Company which obtained a Crown Charter from the Queen of England to rule Sabah on her behalf.

Sabah was never conquered in a battle or war by any party except by the Japanese during World War II, and this too was an unprovoked war in Sabah and therefore amounted to war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Japanese in Sabah were "defeated" by the British and subsequently surrendered.

So, by a legitimate Act of Surrender, War and Conquest, Sabah became British Territoryuntil it was returned to the Orang Asal and other Sabahans on 31 Aug, 1963 by self-determination. Even so, the Colonial Office in London agreed to purchase Sabah from the British North Borneo Chartered Company for 1.2 million pounds sterling.
 
Sarawak independent for 150 years under a Rajah
 
Malaysia (Malaya) does not have leg to stand on either in Sabah or Sarawak. Sabah and Sarawak, two independent countries, were dragged by the Malayan and British Governments against their will into Malaysia on 16 Sept 1963. 

Sarawak became independent on 22 July, 1963 after a brief period of British colonial rule after World War 11 during which the Japanese occupied the country. Sarawak was an independent country under a Rajah for over 150 years before the Japanese marched in.
 
In an interview with Veronica Pedrosa of al Jazeera on Sun 17 Mar, 2013 at his home in Mindanao, Nur Misuari -- tagged the original Muslim rebel by the station -- said Malaysiahad no right to be in Sabah and Sarawak. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2013/03/201331421944766446.htm
l
He challenged Malaysia to appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and prove its case on Sabah and Sarawak. 

He said that Malaysia was a colonial occupying power in Sabah and Sarawak and accused it of using the MNLF-breakaway Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as an instrument of its colonial policies. 

He said peace would only come to the southern Philippines when Malaysia is removed from the equation.  He expects MNLF-Manila peace talks to resume sometime this month in Jakarta.

On Sabah and Sarawak, Nur Misuari hinted that Malaysia "will be inviting some crisis" if it does not end the colonial occupation of these countries.

The chickens are coming home to roost
 
Even so, pending UN intervention; the Registrar of Societies (ROS) should allow the registration of Usno to pacify the Suluks in Sabah. 

It should also rule that the parti parti Malaya have no business being in Sabah andSarawak. This is a violation of the 1963 Malaysia Agreement, one of the many constitutional documents making up the unwritten Constitution of Malaysia. It would become clear once the fog of war lifts that the presence of such parties in Sabah is among the reasons, albeit indirectly, for the Lahad Datu Standoff.

The chickens are also coming home to roost after the Election Commission, on the directive of a self-serving Putrajaya, naively divided the Electoral Rolls in Sabah as composed of Muslim Bumiputera, non-Muslim Bumiputera, Chinese and others. 

The so-called Muslim Bumiputera on the Electoral Rolls is packed with illegal immigrants at the expense of local Muslims.

The non-Muslim Bumiputera category tries to drive a wedge between the majority Christian Orang Asal and minority Muslim Orang Asal when they are related to each other.

 
Further Reading:
 
Joe Fernandez is a mature student of law and an educationist, among others, who loves to write especially Submissions for Clients wishing to Act in Person. He feels compelled, as a semi-retired journalist, to put pen to paper -- or rather the fingers to the computer keyboard -- whenever something doesn't quite jell with his weltanschauung (worldview). He shuttles between points in the Golden Heart of Borneo formed by the Sabah west coast, Labuan, Brunei, northern Sarawak and the watershed region in Borneo where three nations meet.              

 

Undercover sting exposes Malaysia land-grab

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 12:47 PM PDT

http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/218/330/mritems/Images/2011/4/16/20114167181657621_20.jpg 

Allegations of corruption get louder following secret tapes showing plunder of resource-rich Sarawak province.

Florence Looi, Aljazeera

Plantations and logging are ravaging Malaysia's majestic Borneo region and indigenous people who have lived for centuries here say they are increasingly being uprooted from their once-pristine lands. 

Watch Al Jazeera's video at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/03/2013318131755948174.html 

But as the timber and palm oil companies swarm over the rugged landscape of resplendent rivers and ancient rainforests, villagers in Long Napir in the country's biggest state Sarawak have vowed to thwart any further land-grabs.

The village is a settlement of longhouses, the traditional communal housing favoured by indigenous people in eastern Malaysia's Borneo island.

Under the Sarawak Land Law, indigenous people have rights over areas as long as they can prove they have lived in or used the lands prior to January 1, 1958.

But the surrounding ancient rainforests that are so essential to their traditional way of life is under threat because of logging and plantation companies. Over the past 30 years, Sarawak - one of the richest Malaysian states - has become one of the largest exporters of tropical timber.

Despite its wealth, profits have failed to trickle down, and the people here are some of the poorest in the country.

Long Napir villagers lay the blame for their plight squarely on one man: the state's powerful chief minister, Abdul Mahmud Taib, who is in charge of all land classification and the allocation of lucrative forestry and plantation licenses.

"He lives, the rest of us suffer," Tamin Sepuluh Ribu, a former village headman, told Al Jazeera. "We have no land to farm, our rivers have become muddy, there's hardly any fish left anymore."

'Coterie of cronies'

Global Witness, a non-governmental organisation working against environmental exploitation, has investigated and exposed the situation in remote eastern Malaysia.  

An undercover Global Witness investigator posing as an investor was offered several opportunities to purchase land in Sarawak by company officials linked to Chief Minister Taib. In each instance, the land in question was occupied by indigenous communities, who have valid claims to ownership rights under Malaysian law.

Global Witness said the indigenous areas were being sold by companies with close personal or political ties to the chief minister.

Taib has held the post since 1981, and has been repeatedly accused of corruption during his nearly 32-year rule.

The US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur noted in one cable released by WikiLeaks: "Chief Minister Taib Mahmud … doles out timber-cutting permits while patrolling the underdeveloped state using 14 helicopters, and his family's companies control much of the economy."

The American cable added that, "All major contracts and a significant portion of land to be converted to palm oil plantations [including on indigenous 'customary land rights' that the state government has refused to recognize] are given to these three companies."

People in Sarawak are "fed up" with Taib's administration, "seen as only enriching his family and a small coterie of cronies", it said.

Under investigation

Global Witness released a November 2012 report titled, "In the future, there will be no forests." 

"Taib's powerful executive position and personal responsibility for the issuance of lucrative logging and plantation licences has enabled him to systematically extract 'unofficial payments' from the state's timber tycoons for the enrichment of himself and his family," the report said.

Taib, meanwhile, denied the corruption allegations as "wholly untrue and malicious", said the report.

In 2011, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission launched an official investigation into Taib, which continues at present.

In secretly taped negotiations provided to Al Jazeera, the Global Witness investigator discussed buying land with company shareholders Fatimah Abdul Rahman and Norlia Abdul Rahman - Taib's first cousins. Fatimah admitted the parcel of land under discussion had been transferred to them by Chief Minister Taib.

"Yeah, he's the one who gave us the land. He's my cousin," Fatimah said, laughing.

In 2011, Taib gave his cousins 5,000 hectares of land for about $300,000 dollars, according to leaked land registry documents. Having secured agriculture and timber licences, they were trying to sell it a year later for more than $16mn.

Later, discussing the ease of receiving a forestry license, Fatimah told the Global Witness investigator: "The Land and Survey Department, they are the ones that issue this licence. Of course, this is from the CM's [Chief Minister's] directive, but I can speak to the CM very easily."

Fatimah and Norlia did not respond to Al Jazeera's requests for comment.

Read more at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/03/2013318131755948174.html 

 

Action against lawyer in Sarawak exposé clip, say advocates group

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 12:45 PM PDT

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/images/uploads/mugshots/taibmahmud540px2.jpg 

(The Malaysian Insider) - The Advocates Association of Sarawak (AAS) will investigate and act against the lawyer featured in a covert video by Global Witness (GW) implicating state Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and his family with shady land deals, said a spokesman.

The Sarawak lawyer, identified as Alvin Chong, allegedly represented sisters Fatimah Abdul Rahman and Norlia Abdul Rahman who were recorded in the video describing potentially illegal deals.

Both are daughters of former state chief minister Tun Abdul Rahman Ya'akub and first cousins with the incumbent CM Taib.

"AAS will take appropriate action after due inquiry. One of the possible courses of action is to refer any complaints received on this matter to the Advocates Inquiry Committee," a spokesman from AAS told The Malaysian Insider by text message.

The Advocates Inquiry Committee is an independent statutory body separate from AAS, consisting senior lawyers from the state appointed by the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak. The lawyers in both Borneo states are not under the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Bar, which only represents lawyers in the Malay peninsula.

The Malaysian Insider understands that complaints against AAS members can be lodged by the public or its members themselves.

Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/action-against-lawyer-in-sarawak-expose-clip-say-advocates-group/

 

Political suicide or stroke of genius?

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 12:42 PM PDT

http://fz.com/sites/default/files/styles/1_landscape_slider_photo/public/limkitsiang_johor_1.jpg 

Pakatan's decision to field Lim in Gelang Patah, Johor, analysts say, is to win all Chinese majority seats in the southern state.
 
Mohsin Abdullah, fz.com 
PAKATAN'S move in putting Lim Kit Siang to contest Gelang Patah is obvious. Political analysts say it's to win all Chinese majority seats in the state of Johor. Not only Gelang Patah. Using Lim's "image" and "stature" to garner the votes.
 
Still, before that, the analysts as well as strategists within Pakatan itself agree that the major challenge now is to get the entire Pakatan fraternity, in particular the grassroots in Johor, to "see the big picture".
 
The big picture, of course, is winning GE13 and forming the federal government. But isn't that obvious? Why reiterate the need to see the big picture? If not for anything else, it's to "pre-empt any chance" of an "implosion" arising from the move of bringing in Lim to Johor. 
 
Pakatan strategists agree "there can be problems", citing the recent PKR-DAP spat as an example. Other "potential  time bombs" could be a PKR backlash as Gelang Patah has always been their's to contest and MCA man turned PKR leader Datuk Chua Jui Meng's "disappointment" of being overlooked after eying the Gelang Patah candidacy for some time. Enter the big picture.
 
"If they understand the bigger picture, no one needs to throw a tantrum," said a DAP headquarters source. PAS GE13 director Dr Hatta Ramli agrees that Pakatan supporters should see the bigger picture but "at the same time leaders should appreciate the contribution and sacrifices of grassroots and local leaders".
 
Lim's Gelang Patah candidacy was announced by Opposition Leader cum PKR Ketua Umum Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim himself. "I believe Anwar speaks for his party and this is for the good of Pakatan," said Hatta. 
 
Already word has it that Chua will be given the relative safe seat of Bakri to contest. And said Hatta: "I'm not ruling out other compromises to sooth any ill feeling".
 
According to a Chinese political affairs watcher, DAP is confident of winning in constituencies where PKR candidates had failed previously. And Gelang Patah is one of them. "So DAP managed to convince Anwar to give them the seats to contest."
 
According to another political observer,  Pakatan aims to win 15 parliamentary seats in Johor which will help in its quest of taking over the federal administration. "Pakatan feels winning the parliamentary seats in Johor is realistic. If they do win the state government, it will be a big bonus."
 
The DAP source has this to say: "Johor is a front line state for DAP in GE13. And the best person to lead the attack is Lim Kit Siang. He is anak  (a child of) Johor. Like the Malay saying "sirih pulang ke gagang (going back to his roots)."
 
And, said the political observer, Lim needs to win Gelang Patah as well as help the opposition pact win all Chinese majority seats. "With him leaving the safe seat of Ipoh Timur, it shows DAP is serious in Johor." 
 
The observer went on to say:  "All the while the Chinese in the state have not been part of the political tsunami, but this time the DAP feels it's going to be different."
 
The Chinese political affairs watcher however said it's not going to be easy for DAP, and in particular Lim, in Gelang Patah. But to the DAP source, Gelang Patah is tough "but winnable for Pakatan".
 
Still the Chinese political affairs watcher said while "most Chinese voters are rumoured to have made up their minds to kick out BN out of Johor, we must not lose sight of the fact that the majority of Malay and Indian voters are likely to defend BN".  And he also pointed out there are no parliamentary seats in Johor which have more than 60% Chinese voters.
 
Yet a PAS activist has an interesting theory, something he has been saying for quite some time. And I've written about this last year. It's worth repeating. He said that in the 1999 general election, Umno lost the Malay votes due to the sacking of Anwar by then PM Datuk Seri (now Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad and what saved BN then was the Chinese votes as admitted by Dr Mahathir himself.

Read more at: http://fz.com/content/political-suicide-or-stroke-genius#overlay-context= 

Pakatan & PTPTN

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 12:37 PM PDT

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/rafizi-ptptn.jpg 

Rafizi Ramli says PTPTN should be abolished sooner than later, otherwise the nation will go bankrupt. But, with PTPTN abolished, and with the provision of free tertiary education, will not the nation go bankrupt even faster?

Arshad Mohd Nor 

At the rate Pakatan leaders are contradicting each other, it is becoming increasingly clear that they cannot provide a credible alternative to BN. A simple example of their credibility gap is how they have been addressing the PTPTN issue.

To date 1.9 million students have availed themselves of PTPTN loans to the tune of RM 43.6 billion. This figure has been estimated to grow at 11% annually. So, by next year end, PTPTN loans would have increased to RM53.21 billion.

Pakatan supremo Anwar Ibrahim has been quoted as saying that, if Pakatan were to come to power, he would write off the PTPTN loans.

Pakatan has also promised free tertiary education in public institutions. So, that will probably cost another RM10 billion, at a conservative estimate. That makes it a total of over RM60 billion in year one of Pakatan rule. That's RM60 billion down the drain. Where will they find the funds to finance this massive expenditure? That's the curious part.

But the curiouser part is this: PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli says PTPTN should be abolished sooner than later, otherwise the nation will go bankrupt. But, with PTPTN abolished, and with the provision of free tertiary education, will not the nation go bankrupt even faster? Pakatan should re-do its maths. If it really insists on fulfilling all its shaky promises, the education bill alone will hang over its neck like an albatross.

It has been acknowledged worldwide that Malaysia already spends a large chunk of its budget on education.  In the world ranking it is No. 10, spending 8.1% of GDP on education. That is higher than all the developed countries. Malaysia therefore has its priorities right. Nobody should be allowed to tamper with a winning formula, especially not those with nothing else on their mind except political advantage at the expense of the rakyat.

 

The Myth of the Rich and Poor

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 12:26 PM PDT

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSUijnt_ccmWYzx0W05nul7gPEVq46pDuIRU0EW-l_qtDYqL72fMg 

Consequently, the levers of power will be in the hands of corporations and the wealthy, which will have a bigger say in public policies, thus countering the libertarians' intended "democracy". Unlike the government of the day, boards of directors are not voted in by the people.  

Anas Alam Faizli


"They are simply lazy"

"His father is a Tan Sri"

"He knows someone from the inside"

"I made it purely out of effort; I worked hard to get where I am today"

These are some typical expressions that are sure to be heard in coffee chats, every time the topic of rich and poor is brought up. People have grown easily accustomed to brushing off the topic of inequality as welfarist or socialist. This happens even amongst supposedly "middle class" Malaysians, not realizing that they are in actuality, most likely top income earners and wealth owners. Households earning RM10,000 a month above already qualify as Top 4% Malaysians! In fact, while partisan voices continue their discourse in the racial imbalance tone, Malaysia has silently migrated into new battles, concerning intra-racial, income, and class-based imbalances.

It is often argued that the poor and the low income earners are plain lazy and do not work hard; that one earns what one deserves. This is not true. Many are simply unlucky, to be born to parents who lack education or skills to escape from the clutches of poverty. Some were born with disabilities and diseases, while some others live in flood-prone or hazardous places. On the other hand, we have sub-quality undeserving businessmen linked to political patrons, estate and fortune inheritors, and individuals plainly lucky to be placed in lucrative industries with high economic rent. Accusations like laziness then become hardly the issue. The rich can be lazy too!

There are those who do not deserve to be in poverty, just as there are those who do not deserve their wealth. The cases above are simple yet fitting examples to describe that not all poverty is a result of unwillingness for hard work, and not all wealth is a result of it. Thus, the fight against inequality is rather a fight to equalize opportunities so as to reach more equitable outcomes, not to distortively equalize outcomes. This is not a crusade against the rich, but a crusade to help the poor.

What's the Big Deal with Inequality?

Inequality is very real, whether or not we have problems with the GINI coefficient as a measure. In fact, the attention regarded to inequality is very much driven by consequences of inequality, rather than pre-emptive. We can see real consequences to the society; including societal backlashes, power imbalances, effects on wages, effects on growth, crime and quality of living, to name a few. As long as the income and wealth inequality gap remain large and public investment for education, training, childcare and public infrastructure remain inadequate, progressive taxes and affirmative action in its true and productive spirit have a place within public policy. It is imperative that the richer within the society share the responsibility of helping the poor; in the bigger picture, it is actually in their interest to do so, as they too will feel the consequences of inequality.

The Fallacy of the Free Market

In any discourse of inequality and the rich and poor, the "free market" will almost immediately arise. The basic tenant of a free market is well described by the "Invisible Hand" coined by 18th century economist, Adam Smith. It argues that prices, and thus distribution of goods, services, labour, capital goods, land and human skills are all determined by market forces, or this "hand" that cannot physically be seen. Proponents of this market-based allocation system are naturally against increased forms of government intervention like transfers, donations, taxes, subsidies and benefits. To put simply, they believe that letting the market run its course freely will reach desirable market equilibriums in the fairest manner, thus achieving productivity and wealth for a nation.

The marketplace does have some elements of arguable fairness; hard work will get you higher income, and laziness will be punished. Jobs, goods and wages are "naturally" supplied to and demanded by society, according to their needs and capabilities, instead of government allocation which is dangerously prone to over or under budgeting.

However, one must note critically that the fairness of the marketplace should not be exaggerated. Market forces can be "brutally unsentimental", as put by Jeffrey Sachs. Pockets of failures in the market are impossible to deny because not everyone in the economy starts from the same baseline. Endowments like wealth, opportunities, or physical health vary extremely amongst people within the system. While some manage to climb out of low income brackets and make it, as a result of opportunities and big breaks, others remain pressed in a vicious downward cycle. Indeed, not everyone gets a big break.

The Taxation Antagonist

The most common proponents of the free market are libertarians; whose ethical core is liberty. They hold the best economic outcomes will only prevail when each individual is left free to act economically and live without an authority governing their economic decisions. Individuals are in no way held responsible to the society, other than to be respectful towards the liberty and property of others. The government's sole responsibility is to only maintain law and order such as protection of private property. Extreme libertarians even hold that there is no requirement for government to build infrastructures, road or highways; such should be left to market forces because the need for them itself is incentive enough for someone to build them.

Libertarians are like "taxation antagonists". Amongst other forms of government intervention, libertarians reject governments promoting fairness and efficiency through a system of taxation. Tax is regarded as just another form of government extortion; de-motivating those who work hard while potentially over compensating those who don't.

In summary, libertarians hold that free market is the only way economic allocations are done "democratically"; hence it is the savior of democracy and enough on its own to ensure prosperity. Therefore, talk of government intervention in helping the poor will also become a point of contention in the books of libertarians.

Malaysian Libertarians

Many quarters have easily discarded the New Economic Policy (NEP) in hindsight, but it arguably did its job to almost eliminate poverty; reducing it from 50% in 1970 to the current 3.8%. Previously poor now form middle class and professional Malaysians.

Unfortunately, there is nothing to be proud of with the NEP mid 90s onwards. Rampant corruption, leakages and a breakdown in the integrity system demonstrated by those within the government have further worsened the situation. Perhaps this frustration in the government is behind the mushrooming of libertarian ideologies in Malaysia.

Is Libertarianism for Malaysia? We can first answer this by revisiting typical problems of missing a government sector. There is the question of who will provide public and common goods. We also do not need more than one police force, firemen, or court of law competing against each other. Without the government, who will then take care of the environment, regulate moral hazards, ensure individuals do not hurt each other, and protect the sovereign rights of Malaysians? Reducing government role is perhaps agreeable, but its total elimination has grave repercussions.

We then approach the issue of poverty. In all its admirable intentions of rewarding hard work and reducing influence of corrupt governments, libertarianism leaves too much room for an upward continuity of wealth and a downward spiral of poverty. As argued earlier, people start from different baselines. Holders of wealth are in the position to continue leveraging on existing wealth, to create more wealth- they can hardly be blamed as they are only incentivized and allowed to do so! It is worse when wealth comes from extracting economic rent, rather than the creating of true values that ultimately increases the size of the economic pie.

Consequently, the levers of power will be in the hands of corporations and the wealthy, which will have a bigger say in public policies, thus countering the libertarians' intended "democracy". Unlike the government of the day, boards of directors are not voted in by the people. Their fear of how a socialist nation will lead to fascism can also happen in free market except under the disguise corporate power. The free market failure then becomes as much political as economic!

Now imagine this "free market" is Malaysia, with one of the highest inequality levels in Asia (measured by GINI). The helpless poor will be left drowning in the currents of this market force, contending against the rich. This is exactly where a true, free, and liberal form of the market may not be able to generate the pristine intended outcomes it initially set out to do.

The Pakatan Rakyat Manifesto: A Manifesto for its Time

Political preference aside, there is cause to applaud the recent Pakatan Rakyat Manifesto. Tackling core economic issues, its four pillars hit home the concerns of the common rakyat; fraternity of the people, the people's economy, people's well-being and people's government. In Malaysia, the published absolute poverty number may be low, but in relative terms, many rakyat including daily creation of urban poor are effectively impoverished by demanding cost of housing and living that are unmatched by salary levels, high indebtedness, and low productivity levels due to limited skills and education.

For the government to maintain relevance in the face of libertarian claims, government interventions need to be tactical. If the government's stance is pro-business, it must be backed-up with robust social safety nets to hoist up and bring along poor households in the sprint towards growth and wealth creation. If the focus is the rakyat, care must be put to ensure business appetite is not suppressed. Such aspirations will be impossible to achieve without policies such as those proposed by the PR Manifesto; such as expanded educational opportunities (by making tertiary education free), reduction in the cost of living (utilities and tolls), targeted instead of blanket subsidies, and an upward pressure towards wages and salaries that are currently depressed by influx of foreign labour.

We have yet to see what Barisan Nasional has to promise with its manifesto but as a start, it should be more defined than its 2008 one; "to grow the economy" and start quantifying them. In fact, growing the economy is really a given.

Uplifting the Poor: Leveling the Playing Field

This is no plan to pull a modern-day Robin Hood, robbing the rich off of their hard work to reassign some wealth to the poor. The rich may be reached out to, to shoulder some responsibility to raise the level of education, health and productivity of the poor. Imagine the difference between a community with a billionaire worth RM40 billion and lots of poor people, versus one with 400 households worth RM10.0 million each. We might not love to pay tax but we accept its legitimacy as long as it is properly enacted into law and is used properly. This by no means entails slacking off on the part of the poor. Opportunities are provided, but they still need to be capitalized upon. The idea is a bigger economic pie and an unleashing of further values that the poorer population could have produced and Malaysia could have enjoyed.

Putting all these into consideration, where does it leave libertarianism, minimal taxes to the rich and businesses, and the free market? Need bigger government roles necessarily mean bigger inefficiencies, and more corruption? Welfare states in Scandinavia have ranked higher than America in terms of the Human Development Index (HDI). At the same time, Scandinavian nations are among the most equal nations, high in governance and control over corruption, despite the bigger size of their government.

Ultimately, a healthy economy is a mixed economy, in which both the government and market forces both play their role. The exact balance remains an ongoing battle; but it's good to start with unraveling the realities of inequality. Inequality is neither a hobby for anti-capitalist activists, nor development economists looking for the next trendy topic for their thesis. It's true that government intervention in the shapes and sizes that they take form, may have distortive capabilities, but the "lazy poor and the hardworking rich" is a myth. For a better Malaysia, we have no choice but to continue our strive for productivity albeit with a new focus; inclusiveness.
 
Otherwise, Malaysia will be dragging its feet into the future, carrying the baggage of the past policies and its repercussions.

"A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upcoming elections." – Abraham Lincoln

* Anas Alam Faizli is an oil and gas professional. He is pursuing a post-graduate doctorate, executive director of TFTN and tweets at @aafaizli

 

Rosmah puts some sparkle in her biography

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 09:37 PM PDT

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Datin-Seri-Rosmah-Mansur-300x202.jpg 

(Free Malaysia Today) - 'First Lady' says it is common to receive expensive jewellery and gifts and denies purchasing a RM24 million diamond ring in her book.

Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the prime minister, finally shed more light on the RM24 million diamond ring scandal – in her biography, two years later.

In her biography, she said it is common for the prime minister's wife to receive expensive jewellery and gifts while on official duty.

"While welcoming guests, it is common courtesy for them to present us gifts as memorabilia. Among these gifts include rings, watches, jewellery and others. Some are very expensive and custom-made," she said in the book's Question and Answer section.

Rosmah was responding to allegations that she had purchased RM24 million diamond ring as claimed by the opposition two years ago.

Her 180-page biography entitled "Biographi Rosmah Mansor" was launched today by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The authors are Siti Rohayah Attan and Noraini Abdul Razak.

In the book, Rosmah explained that it was common to receive gifts from hosts while visiting another country on official duty.

"When someone gives us something, it is not nice to reject it. This said, there is no reason for me to go around announcing that I have been presented watches, designer bags, and the rest. That's just showing off," she said.

Rosmah said she would then "wear" the gifts presented to her as it was a "waste" for them be kept in a safety deposit box.

"It is illogical to keep them [the gifts] in a metal box when they were presented to me sincerely, are beautiful and suitable for use," she said.

Rosmah added that she also purchased jewellery and designer clothes using her own money.

"What's wrong with that?" she asked.

"As a woman and wife of a leader, I have to look presentable, neat and upkeep my appearance. I don't want to look unkempt because if I do, I will be criticised.

"It would be embarrassing for the rakyat when other countries tease the PM's wife for being unkempt," she said.

In her book, Rosmah reiterated that she did not own the RM24 million diamond ring as alleged by former PKR central committee member Badrul Hisham Shaharin in 2011.

"The ring was brought in through Customs to be viewed by Maira Nazarbayev who was with me at the time preparing her son's engagement to my daughter," she said, adding that Maira was a "regular customer" of jewellery maker Jacob & Co.

"Once viewed by Maira, the ring was returned and sent out of Malaysia through Singapore port on April 20, 2011. It arrived at Jacob & Co's headoffice in New York on May 13, 2011."

Rosmah's book should be distributed in schools

Meanwhile, during the launch of the book, Mahathir said it was important for all leaders and public figures to chronicle their experiences and achievements in a biography for future references.

Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/03/19/rosmah-puts-some-sparkle-in-her-biography/ 

The Chinese and Indians screwed up

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 08:03 PM PDT

There is some chatter going on in the Internet regarding the New Economic Policy (NEP) so I thought that maybe I would address this issue. Some readers, however, have said they are incapable of reading my 3-4-page articles. Some say they only read the titles and then start posting comments based on the title. For the sake of these people who want to read brief articles, today I shall try to be as brief as possible.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In 1981, Tun (then Dato' Seri) Dr Mahathir Mohamad took over as Malaysia's Fourth Prime Minister.

Soon after he took office he invited members of the Malay and Chinese Chambers of Commerce for dinner at the Equatorial Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. He then placed five Malays and five Chinese at each table for ten and made us all sit alternate to one another.

Dr Mahathir then told the Malays that the NEP had run for more than 11 years and had less than nine years to go before it ended. And, as promised, it will end in 1990 because it is not fair to the non-Malays to extend it beyond 20 years. Hence the Malays need to be prepared to face this day.

Dr Mahathir also told the Chinese that they would need to work with the Malays and help them achieve the aspirations of the NEP so that the government can end the NEP in 1990 as planned. If the NEP ended far short of the target, then this might create a lot of dissatisfaction, which is not good for the stability of the country when one race harbours a grudge against another.

In 1991, Dr Mahathir proposed that the Third Bumiputera Economic Congress be held at the PWTC where the various races, political parties from both Barisan Nasional and the Opposition, Malay-Chinese-Indian Chambers of Commerce, associations, societies, movements, NGOs, etc., could sit down for three days to discuss the ending of the NEP and how the government should face the post-NEP era and address the various short-comings in the social reengineering experiment of 1970-1990.

(SEE MORE HERE: http://www.pmo.gov.my/ucapan/?m=p&p=mahathir&id=210)

At this Congress, which was held in January 1992, the audience was shocked by the public quarrel between Anwar Ibrahim, the then Finance Minister, and Rafidah Aziz, the Trade and Industry Minister. These two Ministers plus the other members of the Cabinet could not agree on a common policy.

The non-Malay members of the Congress, in particular the Chinese and Indians, did not put forward any proposals and attended the session merely as silent observers. They just listened to what the Malay participants had to say without contributing any ideas.

Eventually, the Congress ended without any concrete proposals other than the 20-point Memorandum from the Malay Chamber of Commerce (which Raja Petra Kamarudin presented to Tan Sri Sanusi Junid), which the government accepted as merely an Addendum to the main Resolution from the Congress proper, which was that the Congress left it to the government to resolve the issue of what to do in the post-NEP era.

For all intents and purposes, the Congress failed because the Cabinet Ministers, the non-Malay participants, the members of the Opposition parties, and the Chinese and Indian Chambers of Commerce, did not contribute any ideas and proposals that the government could consider and adopt as Malaysia's new policy post-NEP.

 

Saman Homoseksual RM 100 Juta - Permohonan Maaf Papa Gomo Kepada Anwar Ibrahim

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 07:19 PM PDT

Papa Gomo

Untuk makluman Dato Sri Anwar Ibrahim hari ini saya telah pun terpancut kerana sekian lama air saya tertunggak menantikan saman dari Dato Sri. Tak disangka hari ini ianya keluar terpancut melimpah limpah dengan amaun RM 100 juta dari Anwar Ibrahim.

"Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim memfailkan saman ke atas blogger pro-Umno, Papagomo yang menyebar gambar lucah menyerupai Ketua Umum KEADILAN di rangkaian media sosial.

Anwar"Saya telah arah pasukan peguam saya untuk mengambil tindakan undang-undang ke atas blogger pemfitnah yang mempunyai kaitan rapat dengan Umno," kata Anwar di twitter hari ini."

In the letter of demand sent today, Dato' Seri Anwar's solicitors have demanded that the blogger Papa Gomo withdraw his malicious allegations, apologize within 48 hours from today, and pay damages in the sum of RM 100 million."

Permohonan Maaf saya :

Salam sejahtera kepada Dato Sri Anwar Bin Ibrahim Ketua Umum Pakatan Rakyat. Saya dengan ini memohon maaf diatas ketelanjuran saya yang menyebarkan gambar gambar berbentuk separa lucah kepada rakyat. Saya benar benar memohon maaf diatas kebiadapan saya ini yang mencerca Dato Sri dan melabelkan Dato Sri sebagai pengamal Homoseksual.

Dengan permohonaan Maaf ini saya harap agar Dato Sri dapat balik menarik saman RM 100 juta yang difailkan keatas saya kerana saya orang susah, tidak ada duit sebanyak itu untuk membayar saman Dato Sri. Lagipun saya terpaksa menanggung 5 orang adik adik saya yang masih lagi bersekolah manakala ibu saya tidak sihat dan bapa saya pula tidak berkerja.


Apa sekalipun Dato Sri, saya juga dengan ini memberikan amaran buat Dato Sri untuk menarik balik saman tersebut dalam masa 48 Jam kerana jika Dato Sri tidak menarik balik saman tersebut serta membuat permohonan Maaf kepada saya maka saya dengan ini tidak akan teragak agak untuk mendedahkan lebih banyak paparan video Homoseksual Dato Sri untuk tatapan rakyat.

READ MORE HERE

 

Anwar threatens RM100mil suit against blogger

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 06:56 PM PDT

NONE

(Freemalaysiakini) - Lawyers acting for Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim sent a letter of demand to Umno-aligned blogger Papagomo or Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris today for implicating Anwar in a fabricated sex video.

PKR vice-president N Surendran said Wan Muhammad Azri, who is the owner or operator of Papagomo, had on March 16 published fake photographs and allegations about Anwar.

"The faking and distribution of photographs and false allegations of a sexual nature against Anwar have become a trademark of the gutter politics practised by Umno and its bloggers.

"Hence, today we sent a letter of demand to him. Anwar's solicitors have demanded Papagomo withdraws the malicious allegations, apologises within 48 hours from today and pays damages in the sum of RM 100 million.

"The sum of damages demanded reflects the blogger's close ties with Umno and Umno's clear backing for him," Surendran (above), a lawyer, said in a statement.

Privileged access to submarine

He claimed Papagomo was notoriously close to and had confidential ties with senior Umno leaders such as party vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said the blogger was even allowed privileged access to Malaysia's Scorpene submarine KD Tun Razak during a controversy that erupted between BN and Pakatan Rakyat over the capabilities of the submarine.

The hidden hand of Umno was thus clearly present behind this latest disgusting attack on the character and reputation of the leader of Pakatan Rakyat.

"Umno's heavy reliance on sleazy politics and dubious bloggers highlights its utter moral and ethical collapse. It proves Umno-BN's complete unfitness to continue to rule and administer our nation," Surendran added.

Anwar over the weekend denied the latest allegation, calling it "Umno's disgusting pre-election slander".

 

‘Over 60,000 dubious voters in Sabah’

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 06:51 PM PDT

DAP also finds 29 instances of old IC duplications in the electoral roll.

Anisah Shukry, FMT

The Sabah electoral roll has 60,673 or 6.3% potentially dubious voters, the DAP said today.

Ong Kian Ming, director of the party's Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project (Merap), said they arrived at this figure from the proceedings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) probing the issuance of identity cards (IC) to illegal immigrants in Sabah.

"Ruslan Alias, an assistant head in the IC division of Sabah/Sarawak in the National Registration Department [NRD], revealed a list containing 130,459 'problematic' old IC numbers where their records with the NRD were either incomplete or where these cards had been cancelled," Ong told a press conference at the party's headquarters here.

He said Merap did a search of the old IC numbers using the first quarter of the 2012 electoral roll and found that 60,673 of those problematic ICs were on the roll.

"These voters are not evenly distributed across the state. Eight out of the top 10 parliamentary constituencies featuring these voters can be found on the east coast of Sabah. Some 66% or 39,750 voters out of the 60,673 problematic ICs can be found in these eight parliamentary seats," said Ong.

The top eight seats are Silam (7,934 dubious voters), Kalabakan (7,536), Semporna (4,742), Libaran (3,949), Batu Sapi (3,442), Sandakan (2,603), and Kinabatangan (2,068), according to Merap.

Ong conceded that the current electoral roll may not reflect similar figures, but he said it was unlikely the Election Commission (EC) would be able to remove over 60,000 voters from the roll within a span of four months.

"Far from seeing a decrease in voters in Sabah's electoral roll in the past few months, we have actually seen a surge of voters," he said.

He also said Merap found 29 instances of old IC duplications from the list of problematic ICs.

"These voters are still on the electoral roll at the time of writing," said Ong.

Serious issue

Meanwhile, Ong questioned why 20 IC numbers listed as having been cancelled in 1996 were only removed from the electoral roll in the fourth quarter of 2012.

"How did these voters manage to stay on the electoral roll up until the fourth quarter of 2012?

"Who was responsible for registering these voters with cancelled ICs? According to the data collected previously by Merap, all these voters were registered after 1996, when these ICs were supposed to be cancelled," he added.

READ MORE HERE

 

Who is PI Bala?

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 06:45 PM PDT

The fight for justice and truth is still very much alive although the private investigator is no more here to see its conclusion.

The Altantuya "curse" refused to go away. It has returned to haunt those who were responsible for committing such an unspeakable, cold-blooded, horrific murder. Her spirit must surely be pattering silently along the corridors of power, closely following the perpetrators wherever they go – to public functions, campaign trails, shopping sprees.

Free Malaysia Today

Who is PI Bala? The whole country knows private investigator P Balasubramaniam including even Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor. But the First Couple refuses to acknowledge the existence of such a man or pretends he does not exist. After all, Bala's damaging revelations hardly saw print in the mainstream media. If there is nothing mentioned about Bala in the tightly controlled newspapers, then there is nothing to worry about. Even if it gets reported, the news is deliberately sanitised.

Who is PI Bala? Let's take a brisk walk down the lane trodden by Bala. The private investigator was one of the key characters in the story about the murder of the Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu. He made two statutory declarations: the first contained the jaw-dropping allegation that Najib had intimate relationship with Altantuya; in the second SD, he withdrew the allegation implicating Najib in the gruesome murder.

Bala was the PI hired by Abdul Razak Baginda to stop Altantuya from harrying Abdul Razak and Najib. Abdul Razak was Najib's former aide and Altantuya's purported lover. Altantuya was harassing the duo for her commission after acting as a middle person in a submarine deal in which Najib was involved as the then deputy prime minister and defence minister. The Mongolian woman only wanted her share in the dodgy deal and ended up paying for her life.

After retracting the second SD, Bala went abroad. A seemingly innocent Najib went on to become the country's most powerful CEO. No one now could touch a strand of his hair. For awhile, the Altantuya storm subsided. Then a carpet trader, Deepak Jaikishan, entered the stage and dropped a bombshell: he admitted he was the man who persuaded Bala to withdraw the second SD. Bala resurfaced to make a more damning statement: he was sticking to the first SD. Then he returned home and again swore that what was written in the first SD was nothing but the truth. Which means Najib was indeed involved in the murder of Altantuya.

The strength and integrity of the second SD have been considerably weakened and compromised when Bala's lawyer Americk Siddhu told the world that the second SD was prepared on the instruction of Najib. How did he know? A lawyer by the name of Cecil Abraham had allegedly confessed to Americk that the former had drafted the second SD on orders of the almight CEO. Bala's fight for justice has reopened a festering wound.

READ MORE HERE

 

Attack on coffeeshop worker: No cover-up, say police

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 05:47 PM PDT

In another incident, a company director linked Taib Mahmud was released on bail following a three-day remand for attacking a NCR landowner. 

Joseph Tawie, FMT

KUCHING: Kuching police chief ACP Roslan Ahmad has given an assurance that there will be no cover-up of a case involving a police inspector attached to the 11th battalion of the General Operations (GOF) who was caught on CCTV assaulting a 21-year-old youth in Batu Kawah area last week.

The youth, Andrewson Ngalai, a coffeeshop worker, and his friends were reportedly attacked by the police inspector and some gangsters in the early hours of March 14.

Roslan told reporters today that the police inspector and two of gangsters have been detained.

"He has been arrested together with two men aged 22 and 39. The six handphone sets robbed by them have also been confiscated," he said, adding that all were currently under remand until March 21 pending an investigation.

The police inspector not only aided and abetted a group of gangsters in assaulting Andrewson but also slapped him.

The inspector's actions was caught on a CCTV camera in a coffeeshop at MJC Batu Kawah where Andrewson works.

Following the incident, Andrewson lodged a report at the Kawah police station.

In his report, he said he was attacked with a iron rod while the officer watched.

He also said the thugs demanded that he and his friends pay RM500 each for a handphone set as well as an "ang pow" to settle the case.

"All this happened in front of the police officer," Andrewson said reportedly said.

He added that the police also advised him not to mention the police inspector in his report.

Andrewson said that after lodging the report against the gangsters, he received a threatening call from the inspector to withdraw it.

Fearing for his safety, he approached Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen for advice and was told to lodge a report against the inspector.

Released on bail

Meanwhile, in Serian this morning, a director of a company linked to Taib Mahmud's Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Party (PBB) – Andrew Wong – was released on police bail after a three-day remand.

Wong, a director of United Teamtrade Sdn Bhd, had attacked Surik Anak Muntai, a native customary rights land owner last Friday. He is closely linked to two PBB leaders – a senior minister and another assistant minister.

Three other security personnel of the company, who had aided Wong, are however still at large.

Surik, who was slashed on the head, also suffered a broken arm and legs. He is admitted at the Sarawak General Hospital.

READ MORE HERE

 

Why Kit Siang WANTS Anwar's endorsement

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 02:45 PM PDT

http://mole.my/sites/default/files/images/HUSS0536.storyimage.JPG 

They say, there are never permanent enemies in politics, and Kit Siang and Anwar are just that. With Kit Siang being announced as the candidate for Gelang Patah, what PR is telling Boo is that LKS has already agreed in the trade off between PKR and DAP.

Can You See It? 

This would have been unheard of in the early nineties.

When back then, struggling to make an impact (and perhaps some will argue that they still do) DAP's Lim Kit Siang would often lock horns with Anwar Ibrahim. (Here is just one example of what Anwar and Kit Siang engaged in in 1993, and another referring to the same)

But today, these politicos are very different animals.

Kit Siang is often seen in DAP as the supremo (perhaps even higher than a 'tokong') and those who have crossed path with him has always emerged on the losing end. (here, Wee Choo Keong can attest to that having been sacked from DAP for not showing enough 'affection' to party leaders)

So why is it that the recent announcement of Kit Siang contesting in Gelang Patah is announced and endorsed by Anwar Ibrahim?

With Chua Jui Meng mounting a comeback in Johor (after being sidelined by MCA in the 2008 elections, in which as a result Chua Jui Meng instructed his division members to close their bilik gerakan early presumably to sabitage MCA), it is understood that Jui Meng himself wants in on the action should PR take the southern state. DAP's Boo Cheng Hau who is the state DAP leader has in recent weeks been engaged in a tit for tat with PKR's Jui Meng, accusing the latter of using 'black hand' (unseen influence by Party higher ups) in undermining Boo's campaign.

Clearly, all is not well in Pakatan and as GE13 draws nearer, more of this can be seen when whos who in their state begin to tussle for the much touted 'calon'ship.

Read more at: http://muststopthis.blogspot.com/2013/03/why-kit-siang-want-anwars-endorsement.html 

 

Is the HINDRAF blueprint a fact or fallacy for the survival of humanity?

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 02:29 PM PDT

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Malaysian Indians are not relevant in Malaysia except when we want their votes; fact or fallacy? 

R.Shan (Human Being) 

Pre-GE12, you had more than 100,000 Malaysian Indians gathered to voice their grievances. Fact or fallacy?

The opposition parties ran their political agenda solely on Makkal Sakthi. Fact or Fallacy? These opposition parties  should watch their videos. They even promised the Kg Buah Pala folks but we all know what happened when politically expediency was at play.  

Post GE12 with Pakatan in power, nothing changed for the Malaysian Indians because 110,000 land titles in 349 Rancangan Kampung Tersusun were for Malay Muslims in Perak; 102,000 land titles for 134 Chinese New Villages in Perak; 10 acres to each and every Orang Asli in Perak; 1,000 acres of land and RM100 Million for pig farming in Sepang, Selangor and  more than 607 (Chinese) New Villages nationwide with 1.2 million villagers. Fact or fallacy?  

Looking at Indian villages within PR's hold like Kg Muniandi, Kg Ghandi, Kg Kanchang Puteh, Kg Chikadee, Kg DBI, Kg Buah Pala, Kg Bengali, nothing happened. Fact or fallacy?  

Let's look at the PR manisfesto for Sabahans/Sarawakians;
1) Raising oil royalty from 5% to 20%.
2) Appointment of Sabahans and Sarawakians to lead and hold office in the Govt.
3) Cleaning up citizenship registry list.
4) Recognition of customary land rights.
5) Raising the level of infrastructure development.

Orang Asli :
1) Preserving Orang Asli customary land rights and welfare.
2) 141k hectares of land reserved.
3) Water and Electricity supplied to Orang Asli settlements.
4) 5000 educational scholarships for Orang Asli students (Isn't this all catered in the constitution?)

For Chinese :
1) PR will recognize the certificate for Combined Chinese Secondary Schools for the purpose of furthering academic admission to higher education institutions.

For Malays:
1) Abolishing PTPTN loans and as such billions of taxpayers' money will be wiped out from existing loans taken but not paid up by irresponsible Malays.
2) Justice for Felda settlers.
3) RM 500 mil allocated for Military Veterans. Increasing govt contribution to Armed Forces Fund Board from 15% to 20% and an addition 5% to a special fund for them. Introducing a Soldiers Divident - RM 2k per year.
4) Dissolving 1MDD so that Khazanah remains sole state investment body but Khazanah has for years been run in a shady manner benefiting Malays exclusively.
5) GLCs to be tuned to produce more viable Bumiputra entrepreneurs.
6) Going to double Tabung Haji Fund
7) More allocations for Islamic religious depts
8) adding value to wakaf land.

Now, as a Malaysian Indian, I try to understand why do we need to be the scapegoat when we have the same aspirations as the rest of the Malaysians? Is this a fact or fallacy?       

Malaysian Indians are not relevant in Malaysia except when we want their votes; fact or fallacy?

    

 

 

My political thoughts during the Hunger Viratham Day Ten 19th March 2013

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 01:54 PM PDT

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When this kind of situation is occasional, you can say it is because of the individual. But when you see the same phenomenon repeated at a social scale across the country, it is no more individual caused. This is exactly what the political class does not  accept.

 

P. Waythamoorthy 

 

Today is the 10th day of my Hunger Viratham. Over the weekend we have had people streaming in steadily to the temple, all feeling an inner compulsion to share in my prayers. The warm touches, the hugs, the tears, Vibuthi to my forehead, their words, and their looks all keep feeding me with strength. I may be getting weak physically but my strength to fight this oppressive system only gets stronger with every passing day and with every warm touch.

 

Today I want to write about Displaced Estate Workers to clarify some history. This knowledge of history and the consequences are necessary for informed decision making to solve national social problems, something which is sorely lacking. I hope this will help.

 

Part five

 

Displaced Estate Workers.

 

In my presentation at the UN office in Geneva in April 2008, I was not sure if using the term "Internally Displaced Persons"  for the evicted Estate workers in Malaysia was appropriate,. Part way through my presentation, I paused and asked the officials of the UN if the term "Internally Displaced Persons" was accurate to describe the workers in Malaysia who were evicted from the estates and they readily agreed with me. So, there we have it, another distinct problem that we have identified and given expression to.

 

The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement defines Internally displaced persons as "persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border."

 

In the case of displaced Malaysian Indians they are forced to leave their homes and places of habitual residence as a result of development programs of the state and in violation of their fundamental rights. The Indians have lived and worked in the estates for generations and in some cases the forefathers may have lived there as far as the late 1800s.

 

The British brought in South Indian laborers – whom they considered best for the picking jobs in the plantations for a good 100 years from 1830s- 1938. They modified both British India policy as well as British Malaya policies with the tacit approvals of the Malay rulers to facilitate this mass movement. They set up infrastructure on both sides of the Ocean to facilitate the flow of South Indian labor, the British splurged on significant false propaganda to the gullible South Indian poor about the good life, about a good future in the "land of plenty in Malaya".

 

The British offered free and heavily subsidized fares to travel to Penang, to Port Swettenham and to Singapore for these laborers from Nagapattinam, a port town in India. These laborers could hardly afford the tickets from their villages to the port town of Nagapattinam let alone to Malaya. Historical records that I have collated clearly tell this tale of forced migration to Malaya all for the profit of British enterprises and only for the profit of these enterprises.  

 

This stream of migrants coming into Malaya was termed assisted migration. This accounted for the largest part of the migration. There was yet another stream of migration called unassisted migration. These were the traders, the teachers, the hospital assistants, the money lenders, the policemen, the lawyers, the doctors etc. These unassisted migrants mainly populated the urban centres while those that came in as assisted migrants formed the hundreds of rural Indian communities deep within the estates.

 

To further boost migration each labourer who had completed his/her indenture period of 2 years were promised a minimum of 5 acres each for them to settle in Malaya permanently. So this is clear proof that for the most part Malayan Indians were not "pendatangs" but invitees of the Malay Rulers and British Government then acting in the capacity of advising the Malay rulers.

 

But the promises of land were never fulfilled by the Malay Rulers and the British Government ruling in Malaya. The Indians effectively became slaves. For generations they had the "Nambikei" that one day the British and the Malay Rulers would take care of them. Even at the point of independence they were not granted land by the British as what had happened to similar workers exported by the Britishers to Guyana and Surinam.

 

Post independence the Indians went about their lives believing the estates would be forever. In the 1970's however, when rubber price fell the Government devised new plans for the economy and for the plantations. These plans were to have disastrous effects on the lives of the estate workers in the ensuing years. The estate workers were evicted from the estates as these estates were turned into development land for commercial, industrial or residential purposes or were replanted with oil palms. These workers were evicted without adequate compensation, housing, alternative temples, alternative job opportunities or new skills training. Most estate workers are given compensation ranging from RM3,00 –RM5,000 in the 1970's and in the current times about RM10,000 for working and contributing to the country's economy for almost 4-5 generations – a pittance.

 

The implications of this devastating forced displacement are best understood by looking at the life of one evicted worker who is a 4th generation Malaysian Indian. When she talked to me about the eviction she was so distraught and she said that all the family had known was the estate for 3 generations. And they were summarily told to leave. Their option was to move to the fringes of the town adjacent to the estate. Before this eviction their visits to the towns were mainly for some occasion. Otherwise their lives revolved within the estates. They had a small kebun a couple of cows, some chicken and grew some vegetables. The estate temple was the centre of their social and religious lives. Her parents were married in that temple; her marriage was in that temple too. Now it was all gone. So, too with the estate school. It was gone too. Her community was completely destroyed when they were all evicted. Each family found their different ways out of this eviction and moved out helter skelter. Now she was staying in one of the low cost flats. Before moving to these flats they had lived for many years on tanah haram. Their children now grown up had put together enough money to purchase this flat. If they had not the children, they would have been condemned to a perpetually squalid life in their tanah haram shacks. With their incomes and the pittance for compensation there was no way they could have bought a flat on their own and no bank would give them a loan either to support their purchase.

 

This is just one of the stories of the 800,000 displaced estate workers. Each displaced worker will have a story similar to tell. Almost all Indian households have a link to this common past. Most are still stuck in this trap of poverty. This is why Hindraf seeks a permanent solution in the form of state intervention to get these people out of the trap and to put them on a level playing field and to give them an even shot at life.

 

Without a proper program to support the displaced during the displacement process, the result contains many of the elements of the life described above. When this kind of situation is occasional, you can say it is because of the individual. But when you see the same phenomenon repeated at a social scale across the country, it is no more individual caused. This is exactly what the political class does not accept. The outcomes of these are daily visible in the social statistics – yet the politicians across both sides of the divide prefer to remain ignorant. Their way of dismissing all this is to simply think of all our demands to correct this situation as "terlalu".

 

The displaced estate worker problem is a long recognized problem by the elite. They just do not care enough to address it. These displaced workers are the ones that form the lowest ranks of Malaysian society. The way they got there or what is needed to get them out of there is unique to the extent of the specific historical circumstances. So, the statement of some half baked politicians that the source of poverty is the same for the Chinese, the Malaysia and the Indians is plain dumb and at best is just self serving.

 

Abolishing NEP: The Most Serious Omission in PR Manifesto

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 01:48 PM PDT

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Yes, we have heard the lesser PR lieutenants saying that we will see the gradual withering away of the NEP and DSAI has also told BFM that the NEP will be "fragmentalised" or something to that effect…But why is the abolition of the NEP not in the PR manifesto? 

Dr Kua Kia Soong, SUARAM Adviser

Out of all the policy changes we want to see in Malaysia, the New Economic Policy (NEP) must surely be of topmost priority. This "Never Ending Policy" that was introduced in 1971, was supposed to have run out in 1990, as all "sunset clauses" are supposed to do. All these years, the abuse of the NEP has led to a nation more polarized than it has ever been since independence in 1957 and an economy warped by rent seekers and private monopolists. 

The NEP was imposed as a fait accompli after the May 13 pogrom in 1969. The constitution was amended with a new 8A to Article 153, thus allowing for the implementation of the "quota system". This has been abused to the extent that public institutions such as UiTM and other MARA schools and colleges can be justified as 100 per cent "bumiputera" with a former Higher Education minister even vowing at an UMNO general assembly that he would not allow a single non-bumiputera to be admitted to UiTM. Try justifying this to an international court as "affirmative action". 

We have had to tolerate this blatant racial discrimination for more than forty years now, with generations of Malaysians labelled by this unconvincing racial divide between "bumiputeras" and "non-bumiputeras". Apart from preferential treatment regarding entry into tertiary institutions and the allocation of scholarships and loans, "racial" discrimination stretches to discounts in purchasing houses and other properties, APs, licences. Imagine "bumiputeras" who can afford RM2.5 million houses wanting 5 to 10% discount as well! Try justifying that in an international court as "affirmative action"! 

While the middle class among the non-bumiputeras have adapted as best they can to this racially discriminatory policy, the working class and the poor among the non-bumiputeras have had to cope with a life of abject poverty and marginalization. This gave rise in 2007, to the historic phenomenon of Hindraf. The non-bumiputeras have also been forced to pay exorbitant fees in the private colleges and universities which have grown out of the discriminatory policies operating in the public tertiary institutions. 

These abuses go beyond what our founding fathers had envisioned in Article 153 of the Federal Constitution at Independence. There was no such concept of "bumiputera" or "ketuanan Melayu" in neither the 1957 constitution nor the 1963 Malaysia Agreement. Does the so-called "social contract" refer to Merdeka in 1957 or has the goal post been shifted to 1971? 

Until this racial discrimination is abolished, the hype about "1Malaysia" will only be so much hot air. The UMNO leaders know this and so do the MCA and MIC leaders. The pity of it all is, political masters live in their own bubble of reality and besides, they have too much to gain from the NEP – besides the material gain, and they gain electoral support through the ideological/populist appeal to "bumiputera interests". Nevertheless, in recent years the "revolution of rising expectations" has led to more and more Malays becoming disaffected with UMNO as they see Umnoputras creaming off more than their share of the economic pie.

 

Malaysia is ready: What about PR?

On 23 February 2013, Malaysian civil society declared that "MALAYSIA IS READY: SAY NO TO RACISM!" Among other things, Concerned Malaysian NGOs demanded that Malaysia ratifies the International Convention on the Eradication of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) forthwith. Malaysia stands alongside a small number of countries including North Korea and Burma that has still not ratified the ICERD.

Telling that to BN is like asking the fat cat to give up his pot of cream. But what about PR's stand on the NEP? Isn't it time for change? Isn't it time for real change that will set our nation on a new footing of reconciliation and reconstruction, when we are no longer divided into "races" and progressive policies can be put in place to help the truly needy? What happened to the DAP manifesto drafters? Can they give the same excuse that they were not in the drafting committee when they were confronted by Hindraf? That is the lamest excuse I have heard in a long time!

On 6 March 2013, Malaysian civil society released "Twenty 13GE Demands "on political parties and candidates. The very first demand is this:

"1. Eradicate Institutional Racism
1.1. Abolish the "New Economic Policy" - corrective action in all economic and education policies must be based on need or sector or class and not on race with priority given to indigenous people, marginalised and poor communities;
1.2. Repeal amendment (8A) of Article 153 that was passed during the state of emergency in 1971 and was not in the original 1957 federal constitution;
1.3. Institutionalize means testing for any access to scholarships or other entitlements;
1.4. Implement merit-based recruitment in civil & armed services;
1.5. Enact an Equality Act to promote equality and non-discrimination irrespective of race, creed, religion, gender or disability with provision for an Equality & Human Rights Commission;
1.6. Institutionalise equality and human rights education at all decision-making levels, including state and non-state actors/ institutions;
1.7. Ratify the International Convention on the Eradication of Racial Discrimination (ICERD);…"

So far, we have not heard any response from the political parties to these twenty demands. Let us remind the parties that they are supposed to respond to the peoples' demands and not the other way round. Their manifestoes are supposed to reflect the peoples' demands. So let us start with this first and most important demand.

Yes, we have heard the lesser PR lieutenants saying that we will see the gradual withering away of the NEP and DSAI has also told BFM that the NEP will be "fragmentalised" or something to that effect…But why is the abolition of the NEP not in the PR manifesto?

When confronted with the question of the stateless, PR has responded by saying it will be solved within 100 days after they come into office. Can we expect that upon coming into federal power, PR will announce an early date for the abolition of the NEP and the ratification of the ICERD? If not, why not?

 

The preferential voting system

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 01:43 PM PDT

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If there is a three-corner fight between PSM, DAP and BN, the BN candidate will most likely win the seat because PSM and DAP have diluted the opposition votes. The current electoral system only functions as "the winner takes all" and does not sufficiently read the general intent of voters.  

Kuo Yong Kooi 

The current voting system in Malaysia favours and benefits the big political parties.

The Jelapang seat allocation dispute between DAP and Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) is a classic example that demonstrates this phenomenon. Perak DAP is refusing to budge and make way for a smaller component party to contest. 

If there is a three-corner fight between PSM, DAP and BN, the BN candidate will most likely win the seat because PSM and DAP have diluted the opposition votes. The current electoral system only functions as "the winner takes all" and does not sufficiently read the general intent of voters. 

The fact that Wong Tack from Himpunan Hijau had to join DAP to contest in the election, is another example where our electoral system fails to register local issues at play in this case. 

If there is a "Green Party of Malaysia" candidate willing to contest a seat to challenge the installation of the Lynas rare earths plant, the green candidate has to negotiate with the Pakatan opposition so that they are allowed a one-on-one fight to maximise their chances of winning the seat. If Pakatan refuses to give way, as for the case of Jelapang, there is little hope that the smaller party candidate can win the seat outright. 

Perhaps Bersih should consider adding in another demand to the lists of electoral reforms which is looking at the possibility of a preferential voting system. This system has been used in many other developed democracies for a long time. The preferential voting system requires the winning candidate to secure either an absolute majority (50 percent + one) of the primary vote or an absolute majority after the distribution of preferences. 

As a hypothetical, let's say there is a three-corner fight between PSM, DAP and Umno at the Jelapang seat. If we are using the preferential voting system, voters have to put numbers "1", "2" and "3" onto the allocated boxes alongside the name of the candidates on the ballot paper. 

Assuming that I am the voter and my first preference is a DAP candidate, I will place "1" into DAP's candidate box. In case the DAP candidate does not win, my second preference is the PSM candidate. I then place "2" onto PSM's candidate box. To every candidate, I allocate a number according to my preference of the candidate that I would like to represent me in my electorate. The Umno candidate gets number "3" as for the case of my voting. 

Assuming that the result turns out to be Umno as the winner of 10,000 votes, DAP receives 5,000 votes and PSM gets 9,900 votes after the counting of the primary or first preference votes. It is clear that for this case, there is no absolute majority winner. The next step then is to eliminate the candidate with the least number of votes from the count, which is the DAP candidate.

Winner by elimination

The ballot papers of the DAP candidate are then re-examined and re-allocated amongst the two remaining candidates according to the second preference - where all the voters had placed the number "2" on their ballot paper for the eliminated candidate, which is DAP in this case. At the end of the second preference count of the (eliminated) DAP candidate's 5,000 votes, 4,100 of the second preferences go to PSM and 900 go to Umno. 

The final tally is that PSM has garnered 14,000 votes and Umno with 10,900 votes. So the Jelapang seat is given to the PSM candidate. As the current Malaysian voting system stands, Umno wins the seat, even though the figures clearly show that the voters' intention is to vote for the opposition. 

Put it another way, the winning candidate is the "most preferred" if we use a preferential voting system.

The advantages of the preferential voting system is that it allows parties of like-minded philosophies or policies to 'exchange preferences' in order to assist one another to win. PSM and DAP are obviously classified as "like-minded" philosophy parties for this case, as they were only separated by a minor, irreconcilable difference due to the stubbornness of the Perak DAP leadership. 

As a result of this, the two parties have wasted precious time arguing over the matter. If the preferential voting system is in place, they can place their respective candidates in a three-corner fight and simply exchange their preferences to maximise their chances to win the seat without having to go through any arguments.

The preferential voting system also ensures that voters can support minor parties and independent candidates, knowing that their preferences may be used to decide the winner. Thus, votes for minor parties and independents are not wasted. 

As for example in Sabah and Sarawak, if the opposition and the government supports the building of a big dam in the electorate where the indigenous people live and they clearly state their opposition to the dam project. 

The indigenous group can put an independent candidate to garner a sizeable number of votes that can decide the winner for their electorate. This forces the potential winning candidate to listen to the minority group's grievances if they want to win the seat. It also puts the local issue on the election agenda of that particular electorate.

As for the case of Wong Tack, there have been calls for him to resign from Himpunan Hijau because he has watered down his initial radical tone from "burning down the Lynas project" to "you have to come in from the front door". If Wong Tack is to run as an independent candidate, he stands little chance to win a seat. He is at the mercy of the Pakatan pact who allocated him a seat to run in the coming GE13. 

This is mainly because the Lynas issue is a big issue for the nation, and Wong Tack as the head of Himpunan Hijau is currently a popular public figure. Unfortunately, once he joins DAP and runs as their candidate, he has to toe the party line. If the preferential voting system is used in Malaysia, he can remain as he is and there will be no confusion as to where his loyalty lies.

'Unfair to accuse Wong Tack'

Accusing him of being a chameleon is unfair; after all, being an activist is the embryonic stage of being a politician. It is the electoral system that causes this phenomenon. This situation is totally different from party-hopping.

Wong Tack might have to go through the same painful lessons that Dr Kua Kia Soong learnt before. Dr Kua was a Chinese educationist who quit the United Chinese School Committees' Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) in 1990 to contest under the DAP in the 1990 general election. He won the Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentary seat, but ended up quitting DAP as his personal world view was different from DAP's. 

The same situation has repeated itself, and will continue to repeat over and over again if we do not look into changing the current voting system.

The first port of call for any minority group is to choose a leader and try out as an independent in the electoral process. If they are successfully voted into the Parliament, then it is in the Parliament where all their grievances can be heard. If their grievances are ignored in the Parliament, then the minority group can take to the streets to gather more support for their cause. 

Unfortunately, the current voting system denies the minority group that opportunity to bring their grievances to the Parliament. Hindraf had to go through countless street protests - which turned violent - to get their voices heard. Neither BN, nor Pakatan is willing to agree to all their demands. Hindraf chief P Wathayamoorthy was quoted to have said that "I don't know what else to do". 

If there is a preferential voting system, he can run as an independent and possibly hold a good number of votes to get the candidates in that constituency to listen to him, because he will decide who gets to win the seat through preferences. As for the case of less assertive indigenous groups, they are virtually left to rot when their plights are ignored by the major parties.

We need to get the candidates from the big political parties to work for the people, not the other way around. As it currently stands, the minority groups have to kowtow to the big political parties to get their approval for candidacy.

Inside Malaysia's Shadow State

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 01:36 PM PDT

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Or watch at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1RRNggnM6A

WHAT IS THIS FILM ABOUT?

This investigation provides undercover footage of the corruption and illegality at the heart of governance in Sarawak, Malaysia's largest state, on the island of Borneo.

Global Witness 

For over thirty years, Sarawak has been governed by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, who controls all land classification, forestry and plantation licenses in the state. Under his tenure, Sarawak has experienced some of the most intense rates of logging seen anywhere in the world. The state now has less than 5 per cent of its forests left in a pristine condition, unaffected by logging or plantations and continues to export more tropical logs than South America and Africa combined.

The film reveals for the first time the instruments used by the ruling Taib family and their local lawyers to skirt Malaysia's laws and taxes, creaming off huge profits at the expense of indigenous people and hiding their dirty money in Singapore. Taib and the local lawyers we approached denied Global Witness's allegations of corruption. A summary of their responses are included at the end of the film.

HOW DOES CORRUPTION AFFECT SARAWAK'S PEOPLE?

Corruption is destroying the fabric of Sarawak's society and squandering the state's natural resources. The region's indigenous people have born the brunt of this. Ancestral land to which they have claims has been routinely licensed for logging and plantations, badly damaging their livelihoods and violating their rights under Sarawak and Malaysian law. This has trapped many communities in a cycle of poverty and dependency.

Moreover, corruption affects the future well-being of all Malaysian citizens. This investigation demonstrates how money that should be driving development is being lost to corruption and hidden in secrecy jurisdictions overseas. Malaysia is thought to be the world's third largest source of such illicit financial flows, losing the country an estimated US$285 billion (RM863 billion), or over US$43,000 (RM130,000) perhousehold between 2001 and 2010. This is money that could have been spent on improving key services and quality of life for ordinary Malaysians.

IS THIS A WIDER PROBLEM THAN SARAWAK?

The timber rush which occurred during Taib's three decades in office has spawned some of the world's largest logging companies. These companies have had a catastrophic effect on forests and indigenous communities in almost every major tropical forested region in the world, and are regularly implicated in major illegal logging scandals.

Global Witness' analysis shows that Sarawak's logging companies are currently logging or converting forests to plantations in at least 12 countries. Their operations cover an area of 18 million hectares worldwide, an area roughly three times the landmass of Norway.

Watch the film at: http://www.globalwitness.org/insideshadowstate/ 

 

 

Corruption in Malaysia laid bare as investigation catches Sarawak's ruling elite on camera

A new investigation by Global Witness today reveals the systemic corruption and illegality at the heart of government in Sarawak, Malaysia's largest state. A film,shot undercover during the investigation, shows for the first time the instruments used by the ruling Taib family and its lawyers to skirt Malaysia's laws and taxes. It shows how they cream off huge profits at the expense of indigenous people, and hide their dirty money in Singapore.

Sarawak still exports more tropical logs than South America and Africa combined, despite having just five per cent of its forests left intact after decades of industrial logging and plantation development. Sarawak's Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has ruled the state for over three decades and controls all land allocation and forestry licensing. He is widely understood to abuse this power to enrich his family and associates.

"This film proves for the first time what has long been suspected – that the small elite around Chief Minister Taib are systematically abusing the region's people and natural resources to line their own pockets," said Tom Picken, Forest Team Leader at Global Witness. "It shows exactly how they do it and it shows the utter contempt they hold for Malaysia's laws, people and environment."

Global Witness posed as foreign investors looking to buy land for oil palm plantations. We approached the Regional Corridor Development Authority (RECODA), the government body charged with receiving foreign investment. An official at RECODA during a meeting in March 2012 directed our investigator to certain members of Taib's family looking to sell their company licensed to log and clear land for plantations. 

Out of four land leases offered to Global Witness during 2012, members of the Chief Minister's family were direct shareholders or beneficial owners of three of these. The fourth deal was proposed by an intermediary on the understanding that Taib would receive a multimillion dollar kickback from the selling party. The key findings of this investigation are:

  • KICKBACKS: A representative of one of Sarawak's biggest tycoons indicated that Taib would be likely to receive a multimillion dollar kickback for a plantation licence;
  • CORRUPT LAND DEALS: Some members of Taib's family are allocated land through directives from the Ministry of Resource Planning and Environment, headed by Taib, for a tiny fraction of its real commercial value, enabling these individuals to 'flip' these assets for multimillion dollar profits;
  • EVASION OF MALAYSIAN TAX: One company, jointly owned by Taib's first cousins, a Malaysian MP for Taib's party and a sister-in-law of the Malaysian Prime Minister, was offered for sale through an illegal transaction in Singapore designed to evade Malaysian tax;
  • THE SERVICE ECONOMY OF CORRUPTION: A well-established service economy of local lawyers routinely facilitates illegal transactions in violation of Malaysian and Sarawak law.

Additionally, Global Witness was told by senior government officials and a timber company executive that it is standard practice in Sarawak for companies to pay a personal kickback to Taib in return for obtaining timber and plantation licences, typically amounting to 10 per cent of the commercial value of the licence.

The findings also reveal that the small elite around Taib have a deep seated contempt for Sarawak's indigenous population, whose rights to their ancestral land are enshrined in Sarawak's law and protected under the Malaysian constitution. Two of Taib's first cousins repeatedly referred to indigenous communities as "naughty" people who "try to make money" through "squatting" on land that has been licensed to private companies for logging and plantations.

"The Taib family and their friends have treated Sarawak's natural resources like a personal piggy bank for decades," said Picken. "This investigation shows how they are willing to stash this dirty cash in jurisdictions like Singapore, which one lawyer in the film describes as "the new Switzerland". Until Singapore and other financial service centres stop allowing corrupt politicians and criminals to shield themselves and their loot from justice back home, the likes of Taib will continue to get away with stealing from their own people."

Global Witness is calling on Malaysia's federal authorities to hold a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the extent of corruption in Sarawak's executive and government institutions, explore institutional reforms to improve systems of transparency and accountability, and to ensure prosecutions swiftly follow against those found to have been engaged in corruption. Key to these reforms will be granting Malaysia's Anti-Corruption Commission independent powers to prosecute.       

Global Witness put our allegations to the individuals concerned. The law firm in London representing Chief Minister Taib – Mishcon de Reya – told Global Witness:

"The Government of Sarawak issues licences for land in very controlled circumstances… This is an administrative exercise, not political patronage."

"Our client never demands or accepts bribes for the grant of licences and leases."

"He has not issued any 'directive'... illegally to benefit his cousins." 

A summary of the responses received from other parties is included at the end of the film, which is available here.

/ENDS

Contact: In London: Oliver Courtney +44 (0)7912 517147ocourtney@globalwitness.org

Tom Picken +44 (0)7810 558247 tpicken@globalwitness.org

Editor's notes:

  • A 15 minute film by Global Witness documenting some of the covert footage obtained is available at: http://bit.ly/16ESEVU
  • Sarawak's Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has governed Sarawak for 31 years. One of his many ministerial roles includes heading up the Ministry of Resource Planning and Environment which controls all land classification, timber and plantation licensing in the state.
  • Leaked Sarawak land registry documents suggest members of Taib's family have interests in companies holding land leases totalling nearly 200,000 hectares (source here), conservatively valued at over half a billion US dollars.
  • Much of Sarawak's environmental destruction has occurred on the ancestral land of Sarawak's indigenous population, who depend upon access to farmland and healthy forests for their livelihood and whose rights are protected under Malaysian law. These rights have been systematically ignored by the Sarawak Government, resulting in widespread environmental degradation, social disenfranchisement and economic deprivation.  

 

 

Johor DAP row worsens

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 01:33 PM PDT

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(NST) - REVOLT: Senai rep leads 16 branches in show of defiance of state party chief

JOHOR BARU: THE infighting among opposition leaders in Johor took another twist when state DAP vice-chairman Ong Kow Meng led 16 party branches to throw their vote of no-confidence against  state party chairman Dr Boo Cheng Hau.

Ong, who is also DAP's Senai assemblyman, had accused Dr Boo of attempting to split the "long-established cohesion among the opposition pact's component parties".

This he said was because of Dr Boo's disclosure of his conflict with Johor PKR chairman Datuk Chua Jui Meng with regard to seat allocations between the two opposition parties last month.

Ong, who revealed this at a press conference yesterday, listed out his dissatisfaction with Dr Boo, and lambasted him for advocating "cronyism" ever since he became the Skudai assemblyman in 2008.

He said Dr Boo arranged for his cronies within the party to assume important positions and duties, and ignored the voice of senior and grassroot leaders.

"Last week, I visited several constituencies in the state, including Batu Pahat, Kluang, Muar, Labis and Johor Baru. Many of the grassroot leaders have told me about their unhappiness with Dr Boo.

"When he found out that I visited the constituencies, he texted me a message, asking me who am I serving?

"When I replied by asking what he meant, he kept quiet.

"My conscience as a Johor party vice-chairman and an elected assemblyman to serve the people is clear. How could he be doubtful about this?" he asked.

Among representatives of party branches who were with Ong at the press conference were those from Johor Baru, Taman Nesa, Kulai, Bukit Indah, Taman Skudai Baru and Kulaijaya.

Ong also criticised Dr Boo as being arrogant for publicly attacking his PKR counterpart, adding that such an act could thwart the opposition pact's march towards Putrajaya. He said Dr Boo should not be doubtful about Chua's identity and sincerity.

"Take PKR chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as an example. He was formerly with Umno but is with the opposition pact and our comrade now."

Sources within Johor DAP had, however, informed the New Straits Times that Ong's outburst against Dr Boo was caused by a revelation that the state party chairman had not endorsed Ong to be fielded in the next general election.

Meanwhile, DAP Kulai division liaison committee chairman Ng Pack Seong, who was also at the press conference, claimed that it was unbecoming of Dr Boo to appoint his crony to assume important posts.

He said Dr Boo had appointed an "outsider" to lead the election operations room in Kulai, which is where Ong's Senai constituency is located.

"As a state leader, he should know the will of party members and his duty is to unite the party, and not otherwise," said Ng.

Dr Boo responded to the criticisms by pointing out that the choice of election candidates was in the hands of the party central selection committee, adding that there was no need to blame him if anyone was not selected as a candidate.

At state-level, he said the choice of candidates was done by a three-member team comprising the state chairman, deputy chairman and secretary.

"Our choice of candidates is based on several criteria, such as quality, discipline, team spirit and language proficiency, among others.

"To prevent any conflict, we have yet to submit the candidates' list to the headquarters.

"I am sad that there are certain people who do not understand the procedure, and quickly jump to the conclusion that they will not be fielded and level their attack at me."

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