Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Support the Indigenous People's Murum Dam Blockade
- Who do you call?
- No, don’t be neutral
- Voting for an “Islamic state”
- Make our homes and streets safe again
- Respect religion, stop false rumours
- Twenty-five years later, camaraderie in adversity
- Playing the religion game
- Youth and Political Awareness
| Support the Indigenous People's Murum Dam Blockade Posted: 30 Oct 2012 12:10 PM PDT
Dr Kua Kia Soong, SUARAM Adviser The Penans have been blockading against the construction of the 944MW Murum Dam since Sept 26, 2012. More than 1,600 Penans from eight Penan villages (including one Kenyah Badeng longhouse) are affected by the construction of the dam which is now about 70% completed. Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), contractors and private companies involved in the project have been forced to use ferryboats or tugboats through the Bakun Dam reservoir to transport goods, machines, building materials etc. to the Murum Dam site. This is a new and different factor compared to the campaign against the Bakun dam in previous years. While we had built a campaign against the Bakun dam in the past, there was no action by the indigenous peoples affected on a scale comparable to the Murum dam blockade. The Penan communities affected by the Murum dam have shown a commitment to defend their rights and Malaysians must give them full solidarity and support their struggle in all possible ways. The Murum Penan communities are among the poorest in Malaysia. They have traditionally been hunter-gatherers but shifted to a more settled, agriculture-based way of life approximately 40 years ago. They rely on subsistence-based farming and hunting, fishing and gathering of forest products and the occasional sale of in-season fruit. Their livelihood has been adversely affected by low farm productivity and rapidly declining forest resources because of plantation and dam building projects.
The Bakun Dam Fiasco The Sarawak state government with federal government support, has been carrying out highly irresponsible economic projects to the detriment of the environment, the indigenous peoples' lives and the long-term interest of the Sarawak and Malaysian tax payers. The 2400MW Bakun dam project has already proven to be a major fiasco not only in terms of insufficient demand for its electricity generated but a disaster for the 10,000 indigenous peoples who were displaced from their traditional ancestral land to the slum conditions of the resettlement scheme at Sg. Asap. Those who cherish their heritage and human rights would describe their fate as ETHNOCIDE if they have seen for themselves the conditions at Sg. Asap. The total energy demand in the whole of Sarawak is only 1000MW so the government has been trying to attract the biggest energy guzzlers such as aluminium smelters which happen to be the most toxic as well. Another investment is a coal-fired power station to take up the excess energy. These environmentally polluting industries are then touted as part of the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE). In fact, hydro-electric power dams and toxic aluminium smelters are all industries rejected by the developed countries. None of these countries, especially Australia, wants to have toxic industries in their own backyard. But the Sarawak State Government is willing to have these mega projects for rather dubious purposes. The desperate chase for investments to take up the excess Bakun energy AFTER the dam has been built shows a total lack of economic feasibility studies which should have been done before the dam was built. Is it surprising therefore that many SCORE contracts have been given to companies owned by members of Chief Minister Taib's family? As if this Bakun dam fiasco was not enough, the Sarawak state government intends to build 12 mega dams in all which will strip the state of its rainforest and displace even more indigenous communities. The Murum dam is the first of these 12 dams. The dam construction is being supervised by China Three Gorges Corporation and built by Chinese dam builder Sinohydro. After their massive investments in the Three Gorges project, you can be sure these Chinese companies are hungry for investments in other hydropower projects in Sarawak. With such a large development scheme, international best practice calls for a "strategic environmental and social assessment." Such an assessment looks at the overall impact that a large development scheme can have as was done for the proposed "Greater Mekong Sub-region" energy network by the Asian Development Bank. No such strategic economic, environmental and social assessment has been conducted for SCORE. If the Bakun dam project is to be any guide, the Sarawak government's energy demand forecasts appear to be based more on nothing more than wishful thinking rather than detailed feasibility studies. Malaysian taxpayers, be warned that all these mega projects will entail an onerous debt burden on the Sarawak and Malaysian public. You can be sure that there will be electricity tariff hikes after the 13th general elections. There are many energy alternatives for Sarawak beyond large hydroelectric power projects such as small-scale hydropower, solar and other forms of renewable energy, energy efficiency measures, more efficiently run and managed power plants, among others. Above all, such environmentally friendly power projects respects the indigenous peoples' lifestyles while efforts can put into helping them with better transport systems, marketing channels and other forms of development they may require.
Murum dam violates international standards The Murum dam project is in violation of the international standards on indigenous rights as guaranteed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), of whichMalaysia is a signatory. The Murum dam is nearing completion but the resettlement report is still being withheld. As for the Bakun dam, all studies related to the projects have not been transparent. The affected Penan and Kenyah have stated that they have never been asked for consent as demanded by the UNDRIP. The project developer, Sarawak's state-owned electricity generating company, Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) has not provided indigenous communities with an opportunity to grant or withhold their "free, prior and informed consent" for the project as required by UNDRIP. Even in cases where there was agreement, however, it was neither FREE from coercion; the resettlement plan was not made known to the indigenous peoples PRIOR to the start of the construction, and they were not INFORMED by access to information about the project's impacts. The social and environmental impact assessment (SEIA) for the Murum project is seriously flawed. International standards—including the Equator Principles and the IFC Performance Standards—universally require that the SEIA must be completed during the design phase, before the government approves the project and before construction begins. This was not the case with the Murum Dam Project. The SEIA process did not even begin until after construction on the project was already underway. The Sarawak government has not yet disclosed the Murum Dam Project's SEIA to the public or to the affected communities.
The Indigenous Peoples' Demands Without transparent access to the crucial information at the centre of this project, the affected communities were placed in an unfair situation when the Sarawak government asked them to negotiate a resettlement package. The monthly allowance to be paid after resettlement falls below the poverty level and ends after four years. However, the state government turned down the other demands of the Penan, which included compensation of RM500,000 for each family for the loss of their customary land. Their other demands were 30,000 hectares of land for every village, 25 hectares for every farming family, education for their children, a community development fund and rights to their land that is not submerged by the dam waters. The indigenous communities affected by the Murum Dam project have already issued a memorandum describing how the government could still remedy the situation.
Support the Murum indigenous peoples now! Sign the Murum Appeal at http://www.sarawakreport.org/murum-appeal or atsaveriversnet@gmail.com. You can support their blockade by donating to their cause at these two websites.
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| Posted: 30 Oct 2012 12:08 PM PDT Erna Mahyuni, The Malaysian Insider "Kami polis. Kami boleh tanya, tahan dan tangkap siapa saja." (We're policemen. We can interrogate, detain and arrest whomever.) All M (she asked I not mention her name) wanted to know was why the two policemen on motorcycles were asking for her ID. It was a rainy night, M was driving. She saw a motorcyclist in her way and honked. He might not have seen her; she just wanted to make sure. She was being careful, she thought. The next thing M knew, two men on motorcycles were flanking her car. One of them berated her for honking at him. She explained why she did so and also pointed out that she had right of way. Again, he spouted the "I'm a cop and can arrest anyone" spiel. She asked if she could call her friend, a senior police officer, for advice. "Panggilah, saya takut apa?" (Call, then, what have I got to be afraid of?) M called her friend. Her friend wanted the policemen's names and numbers. And, suddenly, the "fearless" policemen were too afraid to identify themselves. They lied to M's friend on the phone, saying they only "wanted to help" her. In the end, the policemen went away leaving a very shaken M. M was lucky. Few of us can call up a senior ranked cop for help when being harassed by rogue members of the force. Thing is, we shouldn't even have to deal with it in the first place. There are decent cops. I've met them. But at the same time, we've all heard the stories or encountered "bad cops." Cops who ask for bribes. Cops who steal. Cops who turn a blind eye to crime or pretend to be too busy with paperwork to attend to crime reports. We are afraid of our policemen, for all the wrong reasons. To be honest, they scare me too. I've gone to make a police report and was ignored by the cop on duty because he thought I was a Filipina. It took me brandishing my IC at him for him to take me seriously. Then there were the cops who wanted to solicit bribes from me or make me get in a police car, all because they mistook me for a foreign worker. The cops need to be held accountable for the rogues in their ranks. They need to make it mandatory to show their identification numbers at all times. If a cop refuses to give his name and ID numbers, it shouldn't be a crime for a Malaysian to ignore him. The reality is that there are cops who are bullies. But when a policeman asks you to pull over, don't automatically assume he intends to harass you. Maybe your signal lights died. Your bumper or identification plate fell off. Give the policeman the benefit of the doubt. But when it's clear the "policeman" you're dealing is problematic, here's what you can do: Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/opinion/article/who-do-you-call/
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| Posted: 29 Oct 2012 04:50 PM PDT
It is rightly said that we get the government we deserve. I say people who do not vote should not gripe about "the wrong people running the country". You had your chance to decide but blew it. No one is to be blamed except … you know who. With all this talk on the next general election, I can't help but recall a conversation I had with a close Indonesian friend way back in 2009. It was one month or so after Indonesia had held its election, or as it is called, pemilu, short for pemilihan umum. This friend, who is also a very experienced journalist, told me that out of the 174 million registered voters then, only 70 million cast their votes. The rest stayed away from polling. Reason? They either were fed-up or simply did not believe in politicians and the many political parties which offered themselves at the polls. Well, that was according to my friend. And these folks who did not vote called themselves "golput", short for "golongan putih" (how Indonesians love to creatively come up with short forms). In English "golput" is the white group -- white being "neutral". Hence they did not take sides. Hence they did not vote. And this friend admitted he too was a "golput". Obviously he did not believe in politicians but I did not ask him why. Neither did I ask him to provide evidence or cite examples of politicians' antics which turned him into a "golput". After all it was just a casual talk between good friends. As most of us know, under the Indonesian political system, general elections are first held to elect 400-odd members of parliament, representing the many political parties of the republic. Then a second election follows suit a few months later to elect the president and vice-president. Election dates are fixed and announced much earlier, unlike in Malaysia. In 2009, for example, the election of the 400 representatives for parliament was held in April with the presidential election in July. My journalist friend from Jakarta told me that presidential elections "are what many or most Indonesians care about". They took these polls very seriously, especially the one in 2009. Political analysts then were expecting a big voter turnout. They were proven right. Put simply, Indonesians want to have a say on who becomes president and vice-president, despite their reservations or misgivings for politicians. Rightly so. To get the right man for the job is a big deal, especially in a big country with a population of more than 200 million. So folks who did not vote in the earlier general election turned up at polling stations to decide who runs the republic. In Malaysia the party with the biggest number of seats in parliament rules the nation and its leader becomes prime minister. That's in simple terms. We do not have a "prime ministerial" election, so to speak. But do we have our own "golput"? There's no denying there are among us who are simply turned off by politicians. But is the dislike for politicians at a level which can make Malaysians not want to vote? Or even refusing to register as voters? Is waiving your right to vote the right thing to do? In the past I've come across folks who did not vote because they were fed-up with politics. They were complaining before elections. And they continued to complain after the elections. I can't tell for sure if they ever regretted for not voting. If they did, they certainly did not say it out loud. Not to me anyway. It is rightly said that we get the government we deserve. I say people who do not vote should not gripe about "the wrong people running the country". You had your chance to decide but blew it. No one is to be blamed except … you know who. However, nowadays all indications are that many would want to exercise their right to vote. People who have not voted before are said to be eager to vote, particularly young Malaysians who have just registered as voters. But before going to the polls, there's only one thing on their minds. In fact, this thing is on the minds of all Malaysians -- the elections must be clean and fair. Enough said lest I be accused of all sorts of things. Back to Indonesia and what my Jakarta friend was telling me when we were having that small chit chat over teh tarik some three years ago. He said Indonesia has election rules that, among others, make it mandatory for presidential candidates to go for a medical test. Failing the test would mean they cannot stand for election. Only the healthy (and fittest?) can contest. And the Indonesian election commission also conducts tests to ensure that candidates have a very high IQ. Not any Hartono, Kartini, Hermanto can offer themselves as candidates. There are lessons to be learnt, don't you agree? Read more at: http://fz.com/content/no-don%E2%80%99t-be-neutral | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 28 Oct 2012 01:13 PM PDT
More Umno than PAS Members of Parliament (MPs) we interviewed said Malaysia should be an Islamic state. Out of the 24 Umno MPs who responded, 13 said Malaysia should be an Islamic state. In fact, most of the 13 said Malaysia was already an Islamic state. Jacqueline Ann Surin, The Nut Graph ACCORDING to MCA, a vote for DAP equals a vote for PAS equals a vote for an Islamic state and hudud. The Chinese-based political party has over the past weeks resumed its warning to voters that any vote that allows Pakatan Rakyat to occupy Putrajaya in the next general election will inevitably result in Malaysia being turned into an Islamic state because of PAS's ideology. This would be detrimental to Malaysians because there would purportedly be a loss of at least 1.2 million jobs if hudud was implemented, and non-Muslim women who don't cover up apparently deserve to be raped by Muslim men. We can expect that this argument against voting for DAP and/or PR will be ramped up as the general election approaches. What's wrong with MCA's fear-inducing scenario? Is there truth to any of these charges and predictions? And is MCA being completely honest about what the Barisan Nasional (BN) itself, of which it is the second largest component party, has been responsible for? As far as I'm concerned, we already have an "Islamic state" in the making. We are already living in a state with an expansion of religious bureaucracy and controls. And this expansion of religious bureaucracy is abundantly evident in the amount of controls exerted on citizens' rights in Islam's name. There is the prohibition of the use of "Allah" by non-Muslims to the arrest of publishers and book store managers over a translated title that was banned for contravening "teachings of the Al-Quran and Hadith". And let's not forget the ongoing and painful issues of conversion affecting Muslims and non-Muslims, whether adults or children, deceased or alive. And although various kinds of moral policing happened in the past especially in relation to khalwat, women's dressing and prostitution, these have all intensified since the mid-1990s. And citizens of different sexual and gender identities have, over the past years, been villified and threatened with violence, and had their rights denied, all in the name of religion. These examples should not come as a surprise because there has been an increase in syariah laws in Malaysia, just as there has been a rise in the size, scope and budget allocations for government Islamic authorities. Prior to 1980, only one religious law existed — the Administration of Islamic Law Enactment. Today, there are other syariah laws, including Islamic Family Law, the Syariah Criminal Offences Act, the syariah civil and criminal procedure codes and the Syariah Court Evidence Enactment. Government Islamic authorities have also been given more muscle. In 1970, for example, federal expenditure on Islam focused on two items — the National Mosque, and the annual Quran reading competition. In 2010, the national Islamic budget is estimated to be the third largest budget component of the Prime Minister's Department. Additionally, in the past, what existed was the Majlis Kebangsaan bagi Hal Ehwal Islam (MKI). The MKI still exists and its secretariat eventually grew and morphed into the Department of Islamic Development or Jakim in the 1990s. Today, Jakim has for company several other national Islamic bodies. These bodies include the Jabatan Kehakiman Syariah created in March 1998, the Attorney General's Chambers' syariah section introduced in 2003, and the Jabatan Wakaf, Zakat dan Haji founded in 2004. The AG's Chambers' syariah section was set up, among others, to ensure that civil laws are consistent with Islamic laws, even though we're not a theocracy. Additionally in 2009, a Jabatan Penguatkuasaan dan Pendakwaan Syariah was proposed. Mind you, Islam is a state matter. And this is what makes the evidence above even more compelling. Although religion falls under states' jurisdictions, in all these instances, it is the Umno-led federal government that has clearly invested in expanding Islamic bodies' powers and scope in what may be described as a slow boil. Hence, MCA can charge all it wants that it is PAS that will bring about an Islamic state if voted into power. The evidence shows it was under Umno where there has been a steady inflation in the way Islam is and can be used to control citizens' lives. And if Umno is clearly a culprit, what is MCA doing supporting Umno? Shouldn't MCA and other BN component parties also be held accountable for the state Malaysia is in today since obviously, they did little or nothing to stem Umno's Islamicisation of the government bureaucracy? Umno and PAS: What's the difference? Yes, it is true that PAS's raison d'etre is to set up an Islamic state. And while MCA tries to unconvincingly distinguish the difference between PAS's and Umno's brand of Islam, there are more similarities between the two than MCA is admitting. Read more at: http://www.thenutgraph.com/voting-for-an-islamic-state/ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Make our homes and streets safe again Posted: 27 Oct 2012 05:01 PM PDT
Malaysians would prefer our politicians to focus on the real issues of the day, such as fighting crime and improving the people's quality of life. Wong Chun Wai, The Star YOU know something isn't right when a restaurant at Section 17 in Petaling Jaya has to lock its main door during peak dining hours. The owner does not want to take any chances and prefers customers to call in ahead to make reservations. Talk of a famous fish head curry restaurant being robbed has sparked off a chain reaction with many eateries now taking a more cautious approach. For good measure, there are enough video clips, recorded from CCTVs and posted on YouTube, to show the number of 24-hour mamak shops that have been hit by parang-wielding robbers. In many parts of Petaling Jaya, many hair salons have long adopted the same security measures to prevent criminals from entering their premises. Yes, we have come to that level of insecurity in our daily life. I am not sure whether our leaders are aware of the extent of the fears among our people. They need to listen hard to the ground and not just rely on crime statistics. There is no need to be defensive about how reliable the statistics are or whether perception has got the better of us. For a start, they should listen to their own staff or even their relatives who do not go about their daily lives in the same security-enhanced environment as them. Ordinary workers who go shopping for daily provisions or withdraw money from the ATM have become more conscious of their personal safety. Our leaders should stop worrying about bad news and its messengers, in this case the media, and instead work on making our homes safe again. As a newspaper editor, I have found crime to be the biggest topic of conversation at any dinner function. People want the press to report crime, not downplay such incidents merely to make the leaders look good. What the police and media would regard as minor crimes, such as snatch thefts, burglaries and home robberies, are in fact the biggest worries for the people. Due to space constraint, the media tend to highlight the more serious crimes, or cases where important personalities are involved. As a result, there is a strong perception that we have forgotten or, worse, covered up the petty crime cases affecting ordinary people. That seems to be the sentiment in postings on Facebook, unfortunately. The people are fed up of the daily political one-upmanship and mudslinging. If only these politicians could spend as much time focusing on the real issues of the day – crime, cost of living and transportation. It is commendable that the Prime Minister has placed fighting crime as one of his main areas of transformation. As Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said, all the economic changes would be meaningless if people do not feel safe. Fighting crime is one of the national key result areas (NKRA) and the Home Ministry has just announced the second wave of the strategy, where the "feel safe" factor would be propped up and more resources would be given to the police. Recently, the police installed 19,000 CCTV cameras in southern Johor under its PDRM SafeCam programme. It's a good start but the police must be aware that this is only a drop in the ocean. Millions of CCTV cameras should be put up in major cities such as Kuala Lumpur. In an interview with The Star last week, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein Onn was asked whether the spate of violent crimes recently was the result of the abolition of preventive laws. His reply was that since the abolition of the Internal Security Act and Emergency Ordinance in September last year, 1,476 detainees have been released. Additionally, 1,119 persons under the restricted residence order have been allowed to return to their respective home states. This may be good news to human rights activists but ordinary Malaysians are wondering if these former detainees could be responsible for the spate of violent crimes. The perception now, based on anecdotal evidence, is that most crimes are committed by locals rather than foreigners. It is good to hear Hishammuddin acknowledging that the ministry recognised the possibility of these ex-detainees returning to their life of crime. Proactive measures have been put in place by the relevant agencies, including monitoring this group of ex-detainees. Likewise, while there are calls to abolish the death penalty with many questioning the effectiveness of such punishment, there are also many who are wary of the government taking away what they consider to be another preventive measure. The government, many of us hope, will not be too quick to remove these layers of deterrents merely to accommodate the demands of human rights activists. Reforms are good but not at the expense of the wider interest of the community. The police deserve our total support in terms of human resources, equipment and financial backing to ensure they do their jobs effectively. But the reality is that the police cannot fight hardened criminals with kid gloves. Whose side are we on anyway?
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| Respect religion, stop false rumours Posted: 27 Oct 2012 03:42 PM PDT We must exercise tremendous restrain in seeking to use religion and race for political gain. Denison Jayasooria, FMT While I respect differing views and the right of freedom of speech, however in recent times there have been some views that cross the line of objectivity and rationality especially in views pertaining to race and religion in Malaysian society The recent article by Iskandar Dzulkarnain in Free Malaysia Today entitled "Beware! A Christian conspiracy. Really?" that makes reference to Zulkifli Noordin, Nasharuddin Mat Isa and Ridhuan Tee is an example of malicious deception, inaccuracy and irrational portrayal of Christians in Malaysia. In a multi racial and religious society such stereotyping is a negative force and not in good taste. It is definitely not in line with the Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's ideology of moderation and one of moving from tolerance towards acceptance and celebration. This kind of writing does real damage to inter-religious harmony and breeds fear. Whatever their motives and insecurities it is of utmost importance that federal officials must monitor such wild accusations with in-depth investigation to present a counter analysis based on truth and make appreciate charges if any laws are violated Christians comprise about 9.2% of the population, however the percentage is much higher in Sarawak (40%) and Sabah (30%) where a majority of Christian are from the bumiputera community and are predominately Malay language speakers. Christianity has a long history in Malaysia and Christian institutions have major contributions to nation building in the provision of education, health care and community services. Christians are also responsible citizens and have exercised their fundamental rights and responsibilities in politics, civil society and professional bodies. One clear religious call is to pray for the nation, the King and national leaders Irrational way of thinking There is no need to try and respond to the various issues pertaining to the conspiracy and a master plan to turn Malaysia into a Christian state as claimed by Iskandar Dzulkarnain, other than saying that this is build on an irrational way of thinking and reasoning.
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| Twenty-five years later, camaraderie in adversity Posted: 26 Oct 2012 06:52 PM PDT
A quarter of a century later, as we look back at Dr Mahathir's mass detention camp of 1987 while on the cusp a possible change of government, there is a sense of poetic justice that Operation Lalang "united" Barisan Nasional's opponents and gave them a steely resolve to oppose like never before. Liew Chin Tong, The Malaysian Insider The collective adversity suffered by the DAP, PAS and civil society leaders in 1987 ironically built the steely resolve for change and the deep camaraderie to see it through. This day 25 years ago, October 27, 1987, was one of the darkest days in Malaysian history when 106 politicians and social activists were arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in Operation Lalang. Printing permits for three newspapers, namely The Star, Sinchew and Watan, were withdrawn. The security crackdown that shocked the nation and marked the end of the boisterous, often mistaken as democratic, first phase of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's leadership that began in 1981. Dr Mahathir succeeded Tun Hussein Oon with a weak base in Umno and virtually no one to trust. By pitting Musa Hitam against Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in Umno's deputy presidential elections of 1981 and 1984, Dr Mahathir bought himself time and space. But the chickens came home to roost by 1987 when Tengku Razaleigh teamed up with Musa to challenge the Dr Mahathir-Ghafar Baba ticket. The election on April 24 saw Tengku Razaleigh losing to Dr Mahathir by a mere 43 votes, allegedly after a suspicious blackout at the vote-counting centre. Umno continued to flounder after the party polls with Dr Mahathir's legitimacy seriously dented. The purging of Team B supporters such as Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Rais Yatim, Shahrir Samad and Radzi Sheikh Ahmad from the Cabinet and government further de-stabilised the situation. While Dr Mahathir's base was weak his style was anything but consultative. Further, the various ideas that he bulldozed were more often than not half-baked, resulting in multiple and major financial scandals in just a few years of his rule. Civil society activism emerged from the more discerning and critical urban populace. The Islamic revival movement was birthed as the rallying point for those who frowned upon Umno-style get-rich-quick materialism. Further, Dr Mahathir not only pitted Umno leaders against each other, he was manipulating ethnic sentiments against each other. In October 1987, the Chinese educationist cause mobilised against a policy of placing teachers who had no proficiency in Mandarin to head Chinese schools. Umno Youth was counter-mobilised to whip up Malay sentiment. Between the April Umno election and October, the Mahathir government drifted purposelessly while his party opponents started a permanent campaign to remove Dr Mahathir in the next party election due in three years' time. The rift was felt. Mercury rose. On October 18, one Private Adam ran amok in Chow Kit with an M16 rifle as Umno Youth was mobilising for a November 1 show of force. Dr Mahathir seized the timely excuse. On October 27, Ops Lalang was launched to arrest his fiercest external critics including the then Leader of the Opposition Lim Kit Siang and 16 DAP elected reps. Not only Dr Mahathir did paralyse the opposition, he terrified the nation and, more importantly, his Umno opponents.
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| Posted: 26 Oct 2012 12:27 PM PDT
The failure of Najib to control Chua's illogical rantings is obvious to many of the urban Malays and this gives the lie to Umno's claims as the defender of Islam. Readers can be sure that Najib will be going all out to do damage control in the forthcoming Umno annual general assembly scheduled to be held from Nov 27 to Dec 1 by whipping up fervour in regards to 'Ketuanan Melayu' or 'Malay Supremacy'. Selena Tay, Free Malaysia Today Are both Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek vying with each other to see who is the dumbest person where political strategy is concerned? This is the scenario. Chua has certainly overdone it in regards to wooing the Chinese. He has insulted Islam in the recent MCA annual general assembly held on Oct 20 and 21 by defending the claim of a MCA Wanita deputy minister who had said that PAS condones the rape of non-Muslim women who do not conform to the Islamic dress code. By this crazy bone-headed move, Chua has certainly alienated the Malay voters. And to top it all, PM Najib who has all along proclaimed that Umno champions Islam and Malays had the cheek to keep quiet at the assembly. The prime minister must have thought that as BN controls the mainstream media, Chua's antics would not reach the ears of the rural Malays. There is the power of the internet. And that is the reason why there is a lack of internet coverage in the rural areas. Nevertheless, the rural folks' children who are studying in the city have access to the internet and therefore news from the websites would also reach the rural folks when their children go back home during the national or festive holidays. Readers can be sure that Najib will be going all out to do damage control in the forthcoming Umno annual general assembly scheduled to be held from Nov 27 to Dec 1 by whipping up fervour in regards to 'Ketuanan Melayu' or 'Malay Supremacy'. The failure of Najib to control Chua's illogical rantings is obvious to many of the urban Malays and this gives the lie to Umno's claims as the defender of Islam. Chua only bothers about the survival of MCA. Therefore he goes all out for the kill in a kamikaze manner. It is Najib who is foolish for allowing Chua to dance 'Gangnam style' on his head. The urban Malays and those who are fence-sitters have now seen clearly Najib's cowardice. Kuala Krai MP, Hatta Ramli who is the PAS election director has raised the issue that more and more foreign-sounding names are appearing in the electoral roll. He has voiced out his anger and disappointment at the Election Commission (EC) for not doing anything to clean up the electoral roll. "The EC and the prime minister himself are not concerned at all about the dirty electoral roll and out of this dirty roll a dirty government will be elected," remarked Hatta. Back to the antics of MCA's Chua and PM Najib. After Chua's senseless attack on Islam, there is no way Najib can win the 13th general election in a fair fight. He had sat on the stage of the MCA general assembly keeping quiet when Chua was blazing away with the insults. Najib had allowed Chua to do so as he is desperate to obtain the Chinese votes. This is a very clear indication that Najib is still in a denial mode where Chinese votes is concerned because everyone knows that 80% of the Chinese have rejected his leadership. Chua may be dumb to insult Islam but Najib is dumber still for allowing it! From a recent ground survey conducted by this columnist who interviewed ten apolitical fence-sitters, all of them share the same view that Najib is lacking direction in his plans. It can be seen that his solutions are only piecemeal efforts and one-off measures and the fence-sitters opined that perhaps it is time that he is "one-offed on polling day". The fact that he lacked the courage to reprimand Chua has earned him widespread chastisement on Facebook. Therefore, Najib now tries to target the Indian voters. Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2012/10/27/playing-the-religion-game/
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| Posted: 26 Oct 2012 01:38 AM PDT
I polled the audience and most of them had no idea who Khairy Jamaludin is, let alone PR's Nik Nazmi. From this, I had a hunch that the youth, despite the 'noise' they seem to be making about politics, are not really that aware. Anas Zubedy I was recently invited to speak at Perdana Leadership Foundation in a forum titled, "Citizenship in the Age of the Internet: Has the Internet increased political awareness among Malaysian youth?" The other panelist were YB Dato' Saifuddin Abdullah (Deputy Minister of Education), Tricia Yeo a researcher and former assistant to the Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim, Cheah Kar Fei a student leader, former AIESEC President of Malaysia. The session was moderated by Lim Teck Hoe. I see being a panelist in this talk as a great chance to test a hypothesis I have regarding youth and political awareness. In a previous session I delivered early this year among 200 student leaders from all over the country, I polled the audience and most of them had no idea who Khairy Jamaludin is, let alone PR's Nik Nazmi. From this, I had a hunch that the youth, despite the 'noise' they seem to be making about politics, are not really that aware. In preparation for this talk, I experimented with the hunch. A telephone/face-on-face survey of 10 questions (5 behavioural/5 knowledge-based, Question 7 and 9 being tricky on purpose) was conducted between 15 and 16 October 2012. This is to minimize any opportunity to look up the answers and to capture the most candid ones. 120 respondents between the ages of 18 to 25 were surveyed and the answers supported my initial thought. Here are the findings: Question 1: Out of 1 hour of internet time, how many % of it you spend on reading news about politics?
Question 2: You get your biggest chunk of information about politics from? (e.g internet, friends, parents, TV, newspaper, etc)
Question 4: In one word how would you describe our politicians?
Question 5: Describe your trust level towards our politicians. 1) Excellent 2) Good 3) Average 4) Poor 5) Very Poor
Question 6: How many seats are there in the Malaysian Parliament?
Question 8: What is the prerequisite to amend the constitution in the Malaysian Parliament? 51% votes, 63% or 75%?
Question 9: How many federal and how many state seats does Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur has? (Note: Trick question. Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur does not hold any state seats)
Question 10: Do you know what Article 153 is about? Tell me a little about it.
In conclusion. The panellists were given a task to answer 4 questions with regards to the title. Based on the survey results, I provide conclusions as the following 1. Based on all of the above consideration, do I believe that the age of Internet has increased political awareness among Malaysian youth? My conclusion : Not particularly. 2. Do I think the Internet is being properly utilised to understand political and national issues? My conclusion : Not particularly. 3. Why is that? My conclusion : Simple, there are just too many distractions out there and politicians are not seen as cool. If the youth likes football, they'd make an effort to watch the matches. If they fancy a particular celebrity, they'd be stalking the celebrity on twitter and be reading up about him or her in all available media. Our politicians lack the cool factor and as a consequence, the youth just don't have that drive to fully use the Internet to catch up on current affairs, politics in particular. 4. Ultimately, do I think the 'Internet population' will significantly affect the outcome of the thirteenth general election? My conclusion: Not particularly. The parties are better off concentrating on their ground-level machinery, making sure their workers go all out to approach the voters, and also to curb internal sabotage to ensure UNITY IN PURPOSE. I have another hunch.. If we ask the same questions to older Malaysians, the results would not be too far off too. What do you think? |
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