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The competing arguments used to explain the riots Posted: 13 Aug 2011 10:46 AM PDT   By BBC News Magazine Many theories have been posited about the underlying causes of the riots in England - from moral decay to excessive consumerism. Here two criminologists give their views on some of the arguments. Welfare dependence Sir Max Hastings, in an article for the Daily Mail, focused on "a perverted social ethos, which elevates personal freedom to an absolute, and denies the underclass the discipline - tough love - which alone might enable some of its members to escape from the swamp of dependency in which they live". There is a culture of entitlement in the UK, says David Wilson, professor of criminology at Birmingham City University and a former prison governor. "But it's not just about the underclass - it's about politicians, it's about bankers, it's about footballers. "It's not just about a particular class, it permeates all levels of society. When we see politicians claiming for flat-screen TVs and getting jailed for fiddling their expenses, it's clear that young people of all classes aren't being given appropriate leadership." Social exclusion Writing in the Independent, Kids Company charity founder Camila Batmanghelidjh blamed a society in which the "established community is perceived to provide nothing... It's not one occasional attack on dignity, it's a repeated humiliation, being continuously dispossessed in a society rich with possession". Studies do suggest that living in areas of social deprivation could be a factor, says Marian FitzGerald, visiting professor of criminology at the University of Kent. "But the socially excluded are not always the ones who are rioting - in fact they are often the ones who are most vulnerable to riots. We need a better thought-out approach rather than just using social exclusion as an excuse." Lack of fathers According to Cristina Odone of the Daily Telegraph, the riots could be traced back to a lack of male role models: "Like the overwhelming majority of youth offenders behind bars, these gang members have one thing in common: no father at home." "I brought up two boys on my own," says Prof FitzGerald. "Yes, there are some issues about where boys get a positive sense of masculinity from when they don't have anyone in the home to give it. But if you have a stable family set-up then these kids can still be very high-achieving." Spending cuts Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight, Labour's candidate for London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, suggested that austerity measures were responsible: "If you're making massive cuts, there's always the potential for this sort of revolt against that." It's too soon to say this, Prof FitzGerald says. "The full implementation of the cuts to local authority services that will have the biggest impact on these areas will not be fully felt until next year. "However, it may be that because there's been so much talk about police spending cuts, the rioters may have internalised the message that they're less likely to be caught." Weak policing In a leader, the Sun newspaper said it was "crazy" that water cannon was not available to officers, and that parliament "must not be squeamish" about the use of tear gas and baton rounds. There has also been discussion about the impact of the fall-out from criticism of policing during the G20 protests in London in 2009. Some commentators have suggested officers might be afraid of taking on the rioters directly for fear of legal action. It may have made some difference if the rioters had been more immediately engaged with a more robust form of policing, says Prof Wilson. "Several of the rioters who were interviewed clearly enjoyed the feeling of being powerful. They were encouraged to feel that the cities in which they were misbehaving belonged to them. "However, I don't think that has anything to do with political correctness. What has characterised British justice over the past 25-30 years is the large numbers of young people we have sent to prison compared with our European neighbours." Racism Violence began in Tottenham on Saturday after the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man. Christina Patterson of the Independent said the race factor could not be overlooked: "Too many black men have been killed by the police. Too many black men and women have been treated like criminals when they're not. This is not the cause of these riots, but it's there in the mix." Police shootings are very rare, Prof FitzGerald notes. "According to IPCC reports in the last three years there have only been seven and all of those - including the shooting of Raoul Moat - were of white people. "The Met police has seen huge changes in attitude since the Macpherson report. That said, its use of section 60 stop-and-search powers disproportionately brought normally law-abiding young black people in particular into potentially confrontational encounters with the police. "However, this is not true of many of the other police forces who are now facing similar threats to public order - so it cannot be used as any sort of excuse." Gangsta rap and culture Paul Routledge of the Daily Mirror blamed "the pernicious culture of hatred around rap music, which glorifies violence and loathing of authority (especially the police but including parents), exalts trashy materialism and raves about drugs". It's certainly clear that gang culture is a real phenomenon, says Prof Wilson. "I once interviewed a boy who said 'just because I like the music doesn't mean I agree with the lyrics', which is true," says Prof FitzGerald. "But it may be a factor when it comes to those who may be particularly susceptible." Consumerism "These are shopping riots, characterised by their consumer choices," insisted Zoe Williams of the Guardian. She added: "This is what happens when people don't have anything, when they have their noses constantly rubbed in stuff they can't afford, and they have no reason ever to believe that they will be able to afford it." In studies of street crime, this has been shown to be a factor, says Prof FitzGerald. "But with the recent riots, I'm not so sure - in the context of looting, it's about taking what you can. As well as mobile phones and clothes, there were plenty stealing petty things like sweets and cans of beer." Opportunism "As more and more people became embroiled in the riots, others have been tempted to join them, confident that one unexceptional individual in a sea of hundreds is unlikely to be caught or to face retribution," according to Carolina Bracken writing in the Irish Times. This is credible, says Prof Wilson. "Opportunism, mixed with a sense of being in a big gang, will have enticed many who wouldn't necessarily do something like this normally. "Also significant is the feeling of invulnerability because they are part of something so big. Also linked to this is the feeling of doing something transgressive and feeling powerful in a culture where they don't have much power. Technology and social networking "Social media and other methods have been used to organise these levels of greed and criminality," Steve Kavanagh, the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, told reporters. This is an under-explored phenomenon, suggests Prof Wilson. "For years we've been aware of gangs and football hooligans have been using technology to get together and fight. I think the police have been quite slow to respond to this. "But as we know, mobile phones can also be used to counteract criminality and to an extent I think that's something the police prefer to downplay."

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• Tsu Koon slams Ezam’s ‘jihad’ threats
• Punish if proselytisation proven, PAS tells Jais
• Umno deputy minister wants referendum law, lower voting age
• Bersih 2.0: Najib never specified Shah Alam in stadium offer
• Polls panel to remove inactive voters above 90
• 'Rally and riot, which part did you misunderstand?'
• Hindraf’s UK lawyer Imran Khan deported
• GLCs upset with Nazri for misleading explanation in Tajuddin Ramli saga

Tsu Koon slams Ezam’s ‘jihad’ threats Posted: 13 Aug 2011 12:01 AM PDT (The Malaysian Insider) - Senator Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon slammed today his Barisan Nasional (BN) colleague Umno Senator Ezam Mohd Nor's threat to wage war against those who try to proselytise Muslims. The Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in National Unity and Performance Management said in a statement that Ezam's threats had sent out the wrong message and could damage the coalition's reputation. "Senator Ezam Nor's open threat to burn two online news portals (Malaysia Kini and Malaysian Insider) is uncalled for, unwarranted and unacceptable, further fanning emotions in the controversy arising out of JAIS' (Selangor Islamic Affairs Department) action against DUMC (Damansara Utama Methodist Church)," Koh (picture) said. The Gerakan party president said Ezam has his right to express his views about defending Islam and his concern about alleged proselytisation of Muslims which is now being investigated. "If he thinks that reports in the online news portals were not correct and proper, he should present cogent arguments against them, present relevant facts and solid evidence, or even take legal action. "Unfortunately, instead of using his intellect and influence to argue and counter whatever he did not agree with, he allowed himself to be overtaken by emotions and sentiments which have evoked negative reaction of others," Koh said. Ezam vowed yesterday to wage war against those who try to proselytise Muslims, in a highly-charged assembly where he also defended the state Islamic religious authorities' raid on a dinner at a church last week. The former PKR leader and a group of demonstrators rallied after Friday prayers here in support of the Jais over its raid at the DUMC in Petaling Jaya on August 3. Among those present was Kulim MP Zulkifli Noordin. READ MORE HERE

Punish if proselytisation proven, PAS tells Jais Posted: 12 Aug 2011 06:55 PM PDT   By Clara Chooi, The Malaysian Insider KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 – PAS finally declared its official stand today on the recent church raid in Petaling Jaya, saying the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) must take immediate action if it finds proof that Christians were proselytising to Muslims there.   Its leaders said the decision is in accordance with PAS's position as a party founded on Islamic principles, adding that under no circumstances would it compromise on religious matters. "PAS is an Islamist party. Our Constitution states Islam is our foundation and the Quran. "So PAS's priority is to defend the sanctity of Islam, there is no compromise when it comes to upholding the faith," deputy president Mohamad Sabu told reporters after the party's political bureau meeting here this evening. MORE TO COME

Umno deputy minister wants referendum law, lower voting age Posted: 12 Aug 2011 05:10 PM PDT By Melissa Chi, The Malaysian Insider Higher Education Deputy Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said today Malaysia should have laws allowing for referendums, adding that the Election Commission (EC) should also lower the voting age to 18. There is now no law to hold referendums, which is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. "It is about time we had legislation for referendums. I think the government of the day, whichever party, should get approval not just from the Parliament, but from the people as well, on big or fundamental issues," he said at the Electoral Reform and Purification of Democracy Forum organised by the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) and the Abim Lawyers Group (GPA). Other panellists were Professor Dr Redzuan Othman, Universiti Malaya's dean of the Literature and Social Science Faculty, and Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) director Wan Firdaus Wan Fuaad. Saifuddin, an Umno supreme council member, also said there should be an increase in civil society participation in the democratic process. He said the problem now was that the state was still "condescending and does not trust civil society". "I agree with automatic registration for 18-year-olds to vote, if not for the 13th general election, there should be a roadmap leading towards this goal. If needed, we should change the law or the Constitution to make it easier for the people to vote," he said. The current minimum age for voting is 21. He had previously urged PR and BN lawmakers to start "the ball rolling" by forming a caucus in Parliament for such a cause. The Temerloh MP also said: "Just because BN had never lost doesn't mean that the election is clean, and vice versa just because there is a constant change in government doesn't necessarily mean the election is fair. We cannot be so simplistic in that thinking."   READ MORE HERE.

Bersih 2.0: Najib never specified Shah Alam in stadium offer Posted: 12 Aug 2011 05:08 PM PDT By Clara Chooi, The Malaysian Insider Election watchdog Bersih 2.0 disputed Datuk Seri Najib Razak's claim yesterday that he had specifically offered "a stadium in Shah Alam" for its July 9 rally. Steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah reminded the prime minister today that he had never named a stadium when he made the offer to the coalition just days before the mammoth event. "That offer only came from Selangor Mentri Besar (Tan Sri) Khalid Ibrahim, not from the PM. Najib never said which stadium... he only said a stadium. Perhaps we were expected to read his mind," she told The Malaysian Insider when contacted this afternoon. Maria Chin (picture) was commenting on Najib's statement to the press yesterday that he had specifically offered Bersih 2.0 use of a stadium in Shah Alam to hold its rally and had never retracted the offer. "We are regretful that the offer made by the government (to Bersih) to have its gathering in a stadium in Shah Alam was not accepted by the (rally) organisers. "This offer was never denied or retracted by the government. We wanted to avoid any untoward incidents from happening," he had said. Maria Chin recalled that the stadium offer was made following the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin's surprising decree on July 3, calling for all warring parties to reach a mutual agreement over Bersih 2.0's electoral reform demands. A check on media reports of the sequence of events in the run-up to the tumultuous July 9 rally revealed that Najib had not expressly named any stadium in Shah Alam when he made the offer. In one media report on July 3, Najib was quoted as saying: "We are willing to provide a stadium for them to rally but why choose to protest in the streets. The government is not against them rallying in a stadium from morning until night. Just don't hold street protest as it is very risky to the nation."   READ MORE HERE.

Polls panel to remove inactive voters above 90 Posted: 12 Aug 2011 12:09 PM PDT By Farrah Naz Karim, NST PUTRAJAYA: Those above 90 years of age and are considered to be "inactive" will be struck off the electoral roll. Under this approach of cleaning up the roll, which is updated every three months, the Election Commission has removed some 12,000 names to date. EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof said the National Registration Department would be the one to assess if the individuals under the category should be rendered as such. He said the NRD would, among others, study their transactions and movements as well as correspondence before classifying them as inactive. However, he said in cases where those struck off the list reappeared, the EC would re-upload their names on the roll. The commission's database, which mirrors that of the NRD, does not allow removal of names unless it was done by the department, which could only do so when families of the deceased come forward to report the death. However, under the EC's own initiative, names of those above the age of 120 are automatically removed. The EC is also in the midst of removing 469 names that were found to be duplicated in the latest roll. On allegations that the commission had been adding permanent residents in the electoral role, he said the opposition, especially Pas had been referring to an out-of-date database and the NRD's website. "The individuals who they are accusing us of upgrading to become citizens just to be put in the electoral roll are qualified citizens. Many of them had been permanent residents for over 20 years and were finally granted citizenship," he told the media before the breaking of fast at the EC headquarters. Aziz said the commission would meet up with the NRD soon to iron out any hiccups. On preparations for the general election, he said a committee to look into all aspects of the polls had been set up. Aziz also said returning officers for the various constituencies had also been identified. "We are in the midst of ascertaining the needs of each of the areas. "There are logistics, personnel and budget issues that we are looking at," he said, adding that the EC would be ready if a general election was called, even in the very near future.

'Rally and riot, which part did you misunderstand?' Posted: 12 Aug 2011 12:03 PM PDT (Harakah Daily) - PAS today took to task deputy Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar for attempting to liken the riots in British cities to the massive Bersih rally in Malaysia on July 9. The party's deputy information chief Nizar Jamaluddin questioned whether Khalid had problem understanding the difference between a 'riot' and a 'rally', which was something planned and accompanied by the organiser's request for cooperation from the police. WORLDS APART ... (Top): Bersih participants on July 9 queueing up at a store in the city centre to buy refreshments. (Bottom): Looters at a store during the riots which engulfed several British cities. "That statement (by Khalid) is utterly wrong because we did not riot, but participated in a peaceful rally that took the NGOs months of planning, " the Bukit Gantang member of parliament and former Perak Menteri Besar told Harakahdaily. Khalid had earlier remarked on his Facebook that the riots in London and surrounding cities were proof that street protests could lead to "nightmares". Nizar however stressed that the riots there, the worst social unrest in Britain in recent times, were also attributed to widespread unemployment and rising prices of goods. On the other hand, Bersih, he said, was solely to seek electoral reform. "In London, the riots erupted suddenly ...there was no planning and there was no one to take responsibility. "In Malaysia, we have responsible NGOs, we have a leader and the rally was discussed with authorities over a long period before it finally took place," added Nizar. 'Our police more cruel than Britain's' READ MORE HERE

Hindraf’s UK lawyer Imran Khan deported Posted: 12 Aug 2011 11:58 AM PDT By Athi Shankar, FMT GEORGE TOWN: Hindraf Makkal Sakti's UK-based lawyer Imran Khan was deported back to United Kingdom upon his arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 1.50pm on Friday. London-based Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy said Imran Khan, a prominent British human rights lawyer, was forced by the Malaysian authorities to fly back to England at 2am on Saturday, 12 hours after he was refused entry to the country. "The authorities deemed Imran as a threat to Malaysia's security," said Waythamoorthy told FMT today. Throughout his ordeal, Imran was kept stranded at the immigration checkpoint. Imran was originally scheduled to leave the country only on Aug 18. His colleague, G Suresh however was allowed entry. Waythamoorthy said Hindraf was appalled by the excessive and unwarranted act of the Malaysian police and Home Ministry to deny entry to an internationally-renown human rights lawyer. He also slammed the government's act of branding Imran as a security threat. This is "absolute nonsensical and cheap stunt." The deportation confirmed Hindraf's fear that the Putrajaya administration would do a 'Bourdon' on Imran and his colleague upon their arrival in Malaysia. French human rights lawyer William Bourdon was deported by the government when he was here to give a speech pertaining to the billion-dollar Scorpene submarine scandal last month. "The refusal of entry to Imran in essence means that as far as the Malaysian Indians are concerned or their cause, the government can act in authoritarian ways against the rule of law," slammed an upset Waythamoorthy. Following orders The Hindraf leader said that upon his arrival at KLIA, Imran had presented himself at the immigration counter. Imran then informed the female officer that he was in Malaysia to meet his clients, who wish to engage him on a class action suit against the former colonial, United Kingdom government. The officer checked in her list of "wanted" persons and immediately told Imran that his request to entry was being refused. Upon insistence, Imran then met senior immigration officers who could not give any valid reason for refusing his application to enter Malaysia. "All that the senior immigration officer could say was that he had no problems giving Imran entry. "But the officer said his decision to bar Imran from entry came from the top most office of special branch in Bukit Aman and the Home Ministry. "The officer added that the police deemed Imran as a threat to Malaysia's security," said Waythamoorthy. He said Imran's deportation showed that the government has something serious to hide, thus it makes arbitrary decisions pertaining Malaysian Indian issues. He said Imran was coming to Malaysia to represent his clients from the underclass segment of the ethnic Malaysian Indian community. Meeting will take place tomorrow Imran was to meet his clients, or potential clients, on Sunday morning at the Klang Hokkian Hall to consider them as co-claimants for the British, which Waythamoorthy plans to re-file soon. READ MORE HERE.

GLCs upset with Nazri for misleading explanation in Tajuddin Ramli saga Posted: 12 Aug 2011 11:26 AM PDT By Debra Chong, The Malaysian Insider Several government-linked companies (GLCs) are perturbed by Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz's attempts to justify Putrajaya's intervention into ongoing lawsuits against Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli and claimed the de facto law minister was giving out misleading information. A source close to several parties named in the lengthy series of suits and counter-suits involving Tajuddin pointed out that the former poster boy for Bumiputera entrepreneurship had lost his RM13 billion countersuit against national debt restructuring company Danaharta in 2009. Among several documents obtained by The Malaysian Insider, a High Court judgment on December 7, 2009 showed trial judge Anatham Kasinather had awarded a total sum of RMRM589,143,205.57 to Danaharta, its two subsidiaries and its four managing directors named as Datuk Azman Yahya, Datuk Abdul Hamidy Hafiz, Datuk Zukri Samat and Datuk Kris Azman Abdullah. The same trial judge had also dismissed Tajuddin's RM13 billion countersuit against Danaharta and its agencies a month earlier on November 12, 2009. The source related that the GLCs and their directors were stunned with disbelief at Nazri's reasoning that an out-of-court settlement was the best solution to save the federal government billions of ringgit in legal claims. "Nazri misled the public when he said 'Our total claims by the companies against Tajuddin are only half a billion ringgit. That is why we said we should sit down and talk'. His claim that Tajuddin has the bargaining power and that the GLCs were disadvantaged is nonsense. The RM13 billion against Danaharta was also plucked from thin air," the source told The Malaysian Insider yesterday on condition of anonymity. "Tajuddin was the only one who owed money and Danaharta did not owe him anything," the source said and quizzed: "So what is there to negotiate?" Federal Court judge Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif has been put in charge of managing the ongoing slew suits involving a total 38 parties, including Danaharta and Malaysia Airlines (MAS), due to Tajuddin's appeal after losing his counter-claim.   READ MORE HERE.

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• Lest We Forget
• Malaysia: Disputing elections
• Airport Tax Up! Next?

Lest We Forget Posted: 12 Aug 2011 05:13 PM PDT In February '11, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced via a Bernama statement that the government has agreed to allocate RM6bil to build six second generation patrol vessels for the Royal Malaysian Navy. The rationale given for the expenditure was to "boost the economy while benefiting 632 vendor companies". The Defence Minister clarified that they would ensure that "at least RM2bil of the allocation will benefit these vendor companies which are strategic partners of Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd".  Then, many Malaysians were up in arms after that disclosure. In October last year, The Star reported that the construction of six patrol vessels by Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd (BHIC), a maritime engineering and defence-related services provider, may only begin as early as the fourth quarter of this year. Analysts estimated it would take another year before BHIC's letter of intent (LOI) is firmed up and construction of the patrol vessels begin. "This is as seen with the company's Scorpene service job, which took a year for the LOI to be firmed up via the letter of award," ECM Libra said in a research report. (CLICK HERE for more.) Today, The Australian announced that AUSTAL has won a $330 million contract to produce eight new patrol boats for the Australian customs service. The eight boats will be built in Henderson, south of Perth. The contract is for the design, construction and through-life support of eight Cape Class patrol boats for the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. What is most interesting about the report is that the total value of the project is $330 million, including a $280 million design and construction contract and an In-Service Support contract worth $50 million. So the Australians can build EIGHT NEW PATROL BOATS at AUS$330 million (RM1.016 billion) @ RM127 million per boat while in Malaysia, six new patrol boats cost us SIX BILLION RINGGIT at RM1 BILLION per boat. Can you see the RIDICULOUS DIFFERENCE in figures? Apart from that, The Austal site reports:   READ MORE HERE.

Malaysia: Disputing elections Posted: 12 Aug 2011 06:08 AM PDT Police eventually dispersed demonstrators with water cannons and tear gas and arrested nearly 1,700. Several were injured (including the opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim) and one died from injury. Harrowing scenes were shown on news broadcasts around the world, and uploaded to numerous local websites. Why did this confrontation come about? After all, in recent months Prime Minister Najib Razak has crossed the globe selling Malaysia's credentials as a democratic and moderate state. Central to his message has been the assertion that elections in Malaysia are free and fair — proven, he says, by the opposition's large gains in the last national elections.

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"Questions for Muslims" Posted: 12 Aug 2011 07:03 PM PDT By John Doe   Soul-searching Questions: The only pre-requisite would be, that you have read the complete Koran. Download the free PDF versions which are freely available, or else, download the numerous mp3 versions if you are too lazy to read the words of the Entity which created the World, and the Planets, and the Quasars, and the Black Holes, and the Warp Holes, and the DNA, and the most important one by Allah of course, is.... JAIS. The 114th Book of the Koran is dedicated to JAIS. In fact, it is titled "JAIS". SET "A" Is the Koran the word of Allah? Is the word of Allah infallible? Is every single word in the Koran directly from Allah? Can Muslims choose to obey some and not other rules as dictated in the Koran? SET "B" What is Syariah Law? Is the Syariah Law the decree of Allah? Is this Law absolute? Can the Syariah Law be changed? If the Syariah Law is absolute and the decree of Allah, then why are no two Muslim countries having the same Syariah Law? How many Allah's are there, if that's the case? Does Allah have different Laws for different people? If he indeed does, and the multiple versions of Syariah Laws prove just that, then move to a country which has more relaxed Syariah Laws. Allah is apparently more Merciful there. Who is JAIS? Set "C" Is Allah fair? Is Allah just? Why does Allah condemn some to stoning but not others? If you believe that every single letter of the Koran should be followed, then Stoning should be brought back. (And Razak Baginda should be stoned first, because he admitted to adultery with Altantuya.) Rosmah should be the First Lady to be stoned. Why? Because she does not wear the Jilbab. And we have all seen her ankles. Hishamuddin stoned himself with beer. (yes, most of us have seen that picture too) Has JAIS arrested Hishamuddin yet? Has JAIS arrested Hishamuddin's daughter yet, for producing porn? Is Hishamuddin bashing his head on the wall after reading this? Did he damage the wall? Can JAIS arrest him for vandalism then? Set "D" How literal should we follow the Koran? Every word? Some words? Or whatever JAIS says? Who determines that JAIS is the absolute authority on what Allah said 1,400 years ago? Can JAIS show us the Allah-Human SMS, or e-mail MT the Certificate from Allah? Who is JAIS again? Set "E" If JAIS cannot verify that they are indeed the authority for Allah, then why are their Laws different from the mUddle East? Why are there only fines, and "re-education" in Malaysia and NOT stoning-to-death? Where did hand-cutting come from? When was the last Hand cut after Friday Prayers in Malaysia? When is the next Hand-Cutting Ceremony? Why do the Malaysian Police still have their hands? Why does UMNO members still have their hands? Should they all not have been cut off because of corruption? Who is JAIS again? Set "F" Does Allah defend people? Do people have to defend Allah? Who is JAIS again?   JAIS...Keep quiet.

A Meek Attempt? Posted: 12 Aug 2011 11:38 AM PDT   By Tony Pua The Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's meek attempt to explain the withdrawal of civilian suits against Tajuddin Ramli as an "off-site" solution epitomises the former's complete lack of political will to fight patronage, rent-seeking and cronyism in Malaysia. In fact, the "off-site" solution by Najib suggests some secret rendezvous between the two parties to thrash out a handshake deal by subterfuge. In his oft-quoted speech to foreign investors at the launch of his landmark New Economic Model (NEM), Najib said that "we can longer tolerate the behaviour of rent-seeking and patronage". However, the crude and blatant attempt to direct all Government Linked Companies (GLCs) to withdraw their multi-billion suits against Tajuddin to reclaim outstanding debts as well as other alleged misendeavours when he was the Chief Executive of Malaysian Airlines System (MAS) leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The directive proves beyond doubt that Najib is not only failing to live up to his NEM promise, he is doing the complete opposite. The Prime Minister is more than tolerating behaviour of rent-seeking and patronage, he is protecting the richest cronies who have benefited from the largese handed down by the Barisan Nasional government. In one of the most outrageous bail outs in Malaysian history, the Malaysian government paid RM1.79 billion to acquire MAS shares belonging to Tajuddin's corporate vehicle at RM8.00 per share despite its market price then being only RM3.62 per share. In addition, gross mismanagement by Tajuddin since 1994 has resulted in MAS suffering billions in losses and was laden with RM9.5 billion in debt. Despite MAS debts being whittled down via a "asset unbundling" exercise where Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd (PMB) was set up to acquire all MAS aircrafts and their associated debts, MAS never really recovered from Tajuddin's maladministration with its share price today struggling below RM1.80 per share. The attempt by Najib to withdraw all suits againts Tajuddin, and to even replace all the lawyers independently appointed by the GLCs with a well-known UMNO lawyer smacks of letting Tajuddin getting away scot free. Is Najib trying to tell us that when the respective GLCs including MAS, Telekom Malaysia, Prokhas (formerly Danaharta), many of which are listed, were poorly advised and did not know what they were doing when they filed their suits againts Tajuddin? Is the Government telling us that the existing panel of appointed lawyers, including some renown names, were wrongly advising the GLCs to claim billions of ringgit in debt and damages from Tajuddin? Were their advice so bad that they must be replaced wholesale by an UMNO lawyer? Given the billions of ringgit in rakyat's money involved, the Government must be completely transparent in its actions and not sweep everything under the carpet. The public interest in this case is paramount and must be protected at all cost. Najib must immediately withdraw the directive to GLCs to drop the suits againts Tajuddin because it is improper, an abuse of power and a corrupt practice to protect a billionaire crony. The Government must instead make public the case against Tajuddin to prove the Prime Minister's determination to eradicate rent-seeking behaviour, political patronage and cronyism. Did Minister in Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz really finish law school? I have asked yesterday for the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Nazri Aziz to be investigated under Section 2(1) of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance No. 22/1970 where "Any member of the Administration, Parliament or State Legislative Assembly or any public officer who commits a corrupt practice shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of 14 years or a fine of RM 20,000 or both." A "corrupt practice" in this case is defined as "any act done by a member…in his capacity as such member…whereby he has used his public position or office for his pecuniary or other advantage…" When questioned on the above, Nazri retorted that I was "practising double standards". Nazri told The Malaysian Insider, "I want to ask him (Pua): When (PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang asked the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) and Jais (Selangor Islamic Religious Department) to see him and explain the recent church raid, why did he not rebuke Hadi? Because what power does Hadi have in doing so? He is not the mentri besar of Selangor and neither is he the minister for religious affairs. So why the double standards, Tony?" I'm completely shocked by the absurdity of the analogy used to accuse me of being hypocriticaland practising double standards. Firstly, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang did not ask DUMC and JAIS to see him. Hadi asked to see them to better understand the recent controversy at DUMC. Secondly, PAS President did not give any directive to JAIS, a government body – whether to withdraw from investigation the alleged offences or to take action against any party. Thirdly, even if Hadi did in effect express an opinion on the issue, one way or another, it does not constitute a directive especially since Hadi is not a "member of the Administration" who is able to exercise the powers of his public office over JAIS. On the other hand, Nazri as a Minister is clearly a "member of the Administration" who has "used his public position or office" to unduly exercise improper influence over the actions of Government Linked Companies (GLCs) by-passing the GLCs Board of Directors, possibly to obtain "pecuniary or other advantage…" It is the exact same law used to find Anwar Ibrahim guilty of alleged abuse of power in 1999 where he was sentenced to jail for 6 years. Anwar, while holding the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, was found guilty of having "committed corrupt practice" by giving alleged directives to two police officers. If there is a relevant analogy at all, it has to be with the former Deputy Prime Minister's case. The comparison between his actions and that of the PAS President is that between night and day, which raises the question of whether Nazri is qualified to take on the role of Minister in-charge of law.

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Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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• Polls panel to remove inactive voters above 90
• 'Rally and riot, which part did you misunderstand?'
• Hindraf’s UK lawyer Imran Khan deported
• A Meek Attempt?
• GLCs upset with Nazri for misleading explanation in Tajuddin Ramli saga
• Malaysia: Disputing elections
• That Elusive Rural Support: Pakatan Needs to Think Long Term
• Airport Tax Up! Next?
• The opportunists' utopia
• A-G must still prosecute Tajuddin, says Mat Zain
• Nazri says Tajuddin intervention could save Putrajaya billions
• BERSIH 2.0: SPR Series of Untruths
• Bersih twist to church raid saga
• Senator Ezam threatens to 'burn down' news portals
• ‘No approval to operate as a church’
• Ahah! Did we not say so?
• 50 orang Islam dipercayai menyertai majlis DUMC
• Najib still an asset?
• When politicians plot, public gets shafted
• When you lie...are you not a liar?
• DAP: Nazri abusing his power
• JAIS missing the point
• Use new laws to stop merger, govt urged

Polls panel to remove inactive voters above 90 Posted: 12 Aug 2011 12:09 PM PDT By Farrah Naz Karim, NST PUTRAJAYA: Those above 90 years of age and are considered to be "inactive" will be struck off the electoral roll. Under this approach of cleaning up the roll, which is updated every three months, the Election Commission has removed some 12,000 names to date. EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof said the National Registration Department would be the one to assess if the individuals under the category should be rendered as such. He said the NRD would, among others, study their transactions and movements as well as correspondence before classifying them as inactive. However, he said in cases where those struck off the list reappeared, the EC would re-upload their names on the roll. The commission's database, which mirrors that of the NRD, does not allow removal of names unless it was done by the department, which could only do so when families of the deceased come forward to report the death. However, under the EC's own initiative, names of those above the age of 120 are automatically removed. The EC is also in the midst of removing 469 names that were found to be duplicated in the latest roll. On allegations that the commission had been adding permanent residents in the electoral role, he said the opposition, especially Pas had been referring to an out-of-date database and the NRD's website. "The individuals who they are accusing us of upgrading to become citizens just to be put in the electoral roll are qualified citizens. Many of them had been permanent residents for over 20 years and were finally granted citizenship," he told the media before the breaking of fast at the EC headquarters. Aziz said the commission would meet up with the NRD soon to iron out any hiccups. On preparations for the general election, he said a committee to look into all aspects of the polls had been set up. Aziz also said returning officers for the various constituencies had also been identified. "We are in the midst of ascertaining the needs of each of the areas. "There are logistics, personnel and budget issues that we are looking at," he said, adding that the EC would be ready if a general election was called, even in the very near future.

'Rally and riot, which part did you misunderstand?' Posted: 12 Aug 2011 12:03 PM PDT               (Harakah Daily) - PAS today took to task deputy Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar for attempting to liken the riots in British cities to the massive Bersih rally in Malaysia on July 9. The party's deputy information chief Nizar Jamaluddin questioned whether Khalid had problem understanding the difference between a 'riot' and a 'rally', which was something planned and accompanied by the organiser's request for cooperation from the police. WORLDS APART ... (Top): Bersih participants on July 9 queueing up at a store in the city centre to buy refreshments. (Bottom): Looters at a store during the riots which engulfed several British cities. "That statement (by Khalid) is utterly wrong because we did not riot, but participated in a peaceful rally that took the NGOs months of planning, " the Bukit Gantang member of parliament and former Perak Menteri Besar told Harakahdaily. Khalid had earlier remarked on his Facebook that the riots in London and surrounding cities were proof that street protests could lead to "nightmares". Nizar however stressed that the riots there, the worst social unrest in Britain in recent times, were also attributed to widespread unemployment and rising prices of goods. On the other hand, Bersih, he said, was solely to seek electoral reform. "In London, the riots erupted suddenly ...there was no planning and there was no one to take responsibility. "In Malaysia, we have responsible NGOs, we have a leader and the rally was discussed with authorities over a long period before it finally took place," added Nizar. 'Our police more cruel than Britain's'     READ MORE HERE.               (Harakah Daily) - PAS today took to task deputy Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar for attempting to liken the riots in British cities to the massive Bersih rally in Malaysia on July 9. The party's deputy information chief Nizar Jamaluddin questioned whether Khalid had problem understanding the difference between a 'riot' and a 'rally', which was something planned and accompanied by the organiser's request for cooperation from the police. WORLDS APART ... (Top): Bersih participants on July 9 queueing up at a store in the city centre to buy refreshments. (Bottom): Looters at a store during the riots which engulfed several British cities. "That statement (by Khalid) is utterly wrong because we did not riot, but participated in a peaceful rally that took the NGOs months of planning, " the Bukit Gantang member of parliament and former Perak Menteri Besar told Harakahdaily. Khalid had earlier remarked on his Facebook that the riots in London and surrounding cities were proof that street protests could lead to "nightmares". Nizar however stressed that the riots there, the worst social unrest in Britain in recent times, were also attributed to widespread unemployment and rising prices of goods. On the other hand, Bersih, he said, was solely to seek electoral reform. "In London, the riots erupted suddenly ...there was no planning and there was no one to take responsibility. "In Malaysia, we have responsible NGOs, we have a leader and the rally was discussed with authorities over a long period before it finally took place," added Nizar. 'Our police more cruel than Britain's'

Hindraf’s UK lawyer Imran Khan deported Posted: 12 Aug 2011 11:58 AM PDT By Athi Shankar, FMT GEORGE TOWN: Hindraf Makkal Sakti's UK-based lawyer Imran Khan was deported back to United Kingdom upon his arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 1.50pm on Friday. London-based Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy said Imran Khan, a prominent British human rights lawyer, was forced by the Malaysian authorities to fly back to England at 2am on Saturday, 12 hours after he was refused entry to the country. "The authorities deemed Imran as a threat to Malaysia's security," said Waythamoorthy told FMT today. Throughout his ordeal, Imran was kept stranded at the immigration checkpoint. Imran was originally scheduled to leave the country only on Aug 18. His colleague, G Suresh however was allowed entry. Waythamoorthy said Hindraf was appalled by the excessive and unwarranted act of the Malaysian police and Home Ministry to deny entry to an internationally-renown human rights lawyer. He also slammed the government's act of branding Imran as a security threat. This is "absolute nonsensical and cheap stunt." The deportation confirmed Hindraf's fear that the Putrajaya administration would do a 'Bourdon' on Imran and his colleague upon their arrival in Malaysia. French human rights lawyer William Bourdon was deported by the government when he was here to give a speech pertaining to the billion-dollar Scorpene submarine scandal last month. "The refusal of entry to Imran in essence means that as far as the Malaysian Indians are concerned or their cause, the government can act in authoritarian ways against the rule of law," slammed an upset Waythamoorthy. Following orders The Hindraf leader said that upon his arrival at KLIA, Imran had presented himself at the immigration counter. Imran then informed the female officer that he was in Malaysia to meet his clients, who wish to engage him on a class action suit against the former colonial, United Kingdom government. The officer checked in her list of "wanted" persons and immediately told Imran that his request to entry was being refused. Upon insistence, Imran then met senior immigration officers who could not give any valid reason for refusing his application to enter Malaysia. "All that the senior immigration officer could say was that he had no problems giving Imran entry. "But the officer said his decision to bar Imran from entry came from the top most office of special branch in Bukit Aman and the Home Ministry. "The officer added that the police deemed Imran as a threat to Malaysia's security," said Waythamoorthy. He said Imran's deportation showed that the government has something serious to hide, thus it makes arbitrary decisions pertaining Malaysian Indian issues. He said Imran was coming to Malaysia to represent his clients from the underclass segment of the ethnic Malaysian Indian community. Meeting will take place tomorrow Imran was to meet his clients, or potential clients, on Sunday morning at the Klang Hokkian Hall to consider them as co-claimants for the British, which Waythamoorthy plans to re-file soon. READ MORE HERE.

A Meek Attempt? Posted: 12 Aug 2011 11:38 AM PDT   By Tony Pua The Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's meek attempt to explain the withdrawal of civilian suits against Tajuddin Ramli as an "off-site" solution epitomises the former's complete lack of political will to fight patronage, rent-seeking and cronyism in Malaysia. In fact, the "off-site" solution by Najib suggests some secret rendezvous between the two parties to thrash out a handshake deal by subterfuge. In his oft-quoted speech to foreign investors at the launch of his landmark New Economic Model (NEM), Najib said that "we can longer tolerate the behaviour of rent-seeking and patronage". However, the crude and blatant attempt to direct all Government Linked Companies (GLCs) to withdraw their multi-billion suits against Tajuddin to reclaim outstanding debts as well as other alleged misendeavours when he was the Chief Executive of Malaysian Airlines System (MAS) leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The directive proves beyond doubt that Najib is not only failing to live up to his NEM promise, he is doing the complete opposite. The Prime Minister is more than tolerating behaviour of rent-seeking and patronage, he is protecting the richest cronies who have benefited from the largese handed down by the Barisan Nasional government. In one of the most outrageous bail outs in Malaysian history, the Malaysian government paid RM1.79 billion to acquire MAS shares belonging to Tajuddin's corporate vehicle at RM8.00 per share despite its market price then being only RM3.62 per share. In addition, gross mismanagement by Tajuddin since 1994 has resulted in MAS suffering billions in losses and was laden with RM9.5 billion in debt. Despite MAS debts being whittled down via a "asset unbundling" exercise where Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd (PMB) was set up to acquire all MAS aircrafts and their associated debts, MAS never really recovered from Tajuddin's maladministration with its share price today struggling below RM1.80 per share. The attempt by Najib to withdraw all suits againts Tajuddin, and to even replace all the lawyers independently appointed by the GLCs with a well-known UMNO lawyer smacks of letting Tajuddin getting away scot free. Is Najib trying to tell us that when the respective GLCs including MAS, Telekom Malaysia, Prokhas (formerly Danaharta), many of which are listed, were poorly advised and did not know what they were doing when they filed their suits againts Tajuddin? Is the Government telling us that the existing panel of appointed lawyers, including some renown names, were wrongly advising the GLCs to claim billions of ringgit in debt and damages from Tajuddin? Were their advice so bad that they must be replaced wholesale by an UMNO lawyer? Given the billions of ringgit in rakyat's money involved, the Government must be completely transparent in its actions and not sweep everything under the carpet. The public interest in this case is paramount and must be protected at all cost. Najib must immediately withdraw the directive to GLCs to drop the suits againts Tajuddin because it is improper, an abuse of power and a corrupt practice to protect a billionaire crony. The Government must instead make public the case against Tajuddin to prove the Prime Minister's determination to eradicate rent-seeking behaviour, political patronage and cronyism. Did Minister in Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz really finish law school? I have asked yesterday for the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Nazri Aziz to be investigated under Section 2(1) of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance No. 22/1970 where "Any member of the Administration, Parliament or State Legislative Assembly or any public officer who commits a corrupt practice shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of 14 years or a fine of RM 20,000 or both." A "corrupt practice" in this case is defined as "any act done by a member…in his capacity as such member…whereby he has used his public position or office for his pecuniary or other advantage…" When questioned on the above, Nazri retorted that I was "practising double standards". Nazri told The Malaysian Insider, "I want to ask him (Pua): When (PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang asked the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) and Jais (Selangor Islamic Religious Department) to see him and explain the recent church raid, why did he not rebuke Hadi? Because what power does Hadi have in doing so? He is not the mentri besar of Selangor and neither is he the minister for religious affairs. So why the double standards, Tony?" I'm completely shocked by the absurdity of the analogy used to accuse me of being hypocriticaland practising double standards. Firstly, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang did not ask DUMC and JAIS to see him. Hadi asked to see them to better understand the recent controversy at DUMC. Secondly, PAS President did not give any directive to JAIS, a government body – whether to withdraw from investigation the alleged offences or to take action against any party. Thirdly, even if Hadi did in effect express an opinion on the issue, one way or another, it does not constitute a directive especially since Hadi is not a "member of the Administration" who is able to exercise the powers of his public office over JAIS. On the other hand, Nazri as a Minister is clearly a "member of the Administration" who has "used his public position or office" to unduly exercise improper influence over the actions of Government Linked Companies (GLCs) by-passing the GLCs Board of Directors, possibly to obtain "pecuniary or other advantage…" It is the exact same law used to find Anwar Ibrahim guilty of alleged abuse of power in 1999 where he was sentenced to jail for 6 years. Anwar, while holding the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, was found guilty of having "committed corrupt practice" by giving alleged directives to two police officers. If there is a relevant analogy at all, it has to be with the former Deputy Prime Minister's case. The comparison between his actions and that of the PAS President is that between night and day, which raises the question of whether Nazri is qualified to take on the role of Minister in-charge of law.

GLCs upset with Nazri for misleading explanation in Tajuddin Ramli saga Posted: 12 Aug 2011 11:26 AM PDT By Debra Chong, The Malaysian Insider Several government-linked companies (GLCs) are perturbed by Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz's attempts to justify Putrajaya's intervention into ongoing lawsuits against Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli and claimed the de facto law minister was giving out misleading information. A source close to several parties named in the lengthy series of suits and counter-suits involving Tajuddin pointed out that the former poster boy for Bumiputera entrepreneurship had lost his RM13 billion countersuit against national debt restructuring company Danaharta in 2009. Among several documents obtained by The Malaysian Insider, a High Court judgment on December 7, 2009 showed trial judge Anatham Kasinather had awarded a total sum of RMRM589,143,205.57 to Danaharta, its two subsidiaries and its four managing directors named as Datuk Azman Yahya, Datuk Abdul Hamidy Hafiz, Datuk Zukri Samat and Datuk Kris Azman Abdullah. The same trial judge had also dismissed Tajuddin's RM13 billion countersuit against Danaharta and its agencies a month earlier on November 12, 2009. The source related that the GLCs and their directors were stunned with disbelief at Nazri's reasoning that an out-of-court settlement was the best solution to save the federal government billions of ringgit in legal claims. "Nazri misled the public when he said 'Our total claims by the companies against Tajuddin are only half a billion ringgit. That is why we said we should sit down and talk'. His claim that Tajuddin has the bargaining power and that the GLCs were disadvantaged is nonsense. The RM13 billion against Danaharta was also plucked from thin air," the source told The Malaysian Insider yesterday on condition of anonymity. "Tajuddin was the only one who owed money and Danaharta did not owe him anything," the source said and quizzed: "So what is there to negotiate?" Federal Court judge Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif has been put in charge of managing the ongoing slew suits involving a total 38 parties, including Danaharta and Malaysia Airlines (MAS), due to Tajuddin's appeal after losing his counter-claim.   READ MORE HERE.

Malaysia: Disputing elections Posted: 12 Aug 2011 06:08 AM PDT EAST ASIA FORUM On 9 July around 50,000 Malaysians marched peacefully in support of free elections, defying a government prohibition and massive police effort. Police eventually dispersed demonstrators with water cannons and tear gas and arrested nearly 1,700. Several were injured (including the opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim) and one died from injury. Harrowing scenes were shown on news broadcasts around the world, and uploaded to numerous local websites. Why did this confrontation come about? After all, in recent months Prime Minister Najib Razak has crossed the globe selling Malaysia's credentials as a democratic and moderate state. Central to his message has been the assertion that elections in Malaysia are free and fair — proven, he says, by the opposition's large gains in the last national elections.

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• The opportunists' utopia
• Penang: Getting back its mojo
• Malaysian PR Move Backfires
• British rioters the spawn of a bankrupt ruling elite
• Militant groups fuel the fires
• Less political rebellion, more mollycoddled mob

The opportunists' utopia Posted: 11 Aug 2011 10:31 PM PDT MAS in the hands of Tajuddin saw an unprecedented RM8 billion in the red. And the pathetic state of the national airline today has been a legacy of its mismanagement dating back to that time. MySinchew Malaysia is indeed a paradise for opportunists. Tajuddin Ramli has received an early Raya gift. All the GLCs have been "advised" to strike out their legal suits against him. In other words, MAS, Danaharta and other government-linked companies will no longer be able to seek compensation and liabilities from him through legal channels this moment on. Everything that is on-going and pending in court will now be put to an abrupt halt. But who is this Tajuddin? He is an icon of bumiputra entrepreneurship during Mahathir's time. When Mahathir was in power, this Tajuddin had his enormous wealth registered all over. From the national airline, land transport to telco (Celcom) he had a stake in everything, thanks to the bestowment of the one in control. Under Mahathir's economic doctrine of grooming bumi entrepreneurs and creating nouveaux riches, the country's wealth was distributed among a handful of people in the likes of Tajuddin Ramli, Halim Saad and Wan Azmi. Imagine, even a profitable national airline could be sold off to become the private asset of a handpicked individual. During the first half of 1990s, Tajuddin was the person to watch, and his money game saga made a textbook subject in Malaysia's corporate circle. The regional financial crisis in late 1990s nevertheless exposed all the feigned substances beneath the glorious skin. MAS in the hands of Tajuddin saw an unprecedented RM8 billion in the red. And the pathetic state of the national airline today has been a legacy of its mismanagement dating back to that time. Miraculously, Tajuddin tossed the loss-making airline back to the government, transferring all the liabilities and obligations to the nation and its people in so doing. Over ten billion worth of asset vanished in Tajuddin's hands, and yet he could still bow out in grace. After Mahatir and Daim Zainuddin stepped down, the new owners of these doomed GLCs filed applications in the court to seek compensation from Tajuddin, and that was when the MACC also stepped in to probe. Call that a belated justice or anything, but whatever amount that could be recovered was at least some consolation. But now, before the case even gets settled, the government has announced that it has reached an out-of-court settlement with Tajuddin. Reason unknown. The government fell short of explaining what had actually happened. The legal pursuit against Tajuddin attested to the fact that the rule of law was still very much in order and that no one was allowed to mess up things. To get back the money from him was to seek justice for the society, barring irresponsible individuals from shunning their obligations. The government owes the nation an explanation even if it wants to let Tajuddin off.

Penang: Getting back its mojo Posted: 11 Aug 2011 11:46 AM PDT   By The Economist Adapted to the national stage, such policies could transform the way that the Malaysian federal government conducts business. Mr Eng says that the savings he has made by ending the "old systems of patronage" allow him to spend money on new social programmes instead, such as modest handouts for the elderly. These policies are popular, and the assault on corruption pleases foreign investors. Little wonder, then, that Penang has become a political weathervane as much as a lesson in economic development. IF YOU are going to have a heart attack, have it in Penang. So one might think, to the see the hospitals in George Town, the capital of this north-western Malaysian state. Patients are flocking in. Ted Mohr, the head of the venerable Penang Adventist Hospital says that he will admit 70,000 medical tourists this year. The hospital specialises in heart procedures and it will perform roughly 23,000 of them this year, including 550 open-heart operations. Such is the demand that the hospital is doubling its number of beds. Mr Mohr gives two main reasons for Penang's success with the coronary crowd. First, it is relatively cheap. Open-heart surgery that would set you back $100,000 in America costs only about $10,000 in Penang. Second, Penang's hospitals are as well-equipped as many in the West. The combination of low cost and high technology is the main reason why industries across the state of Penang, made up of the original island and a larger bit of the mainland, are prospering again after more than a decade of decline. Their revival is important to Malaysia's economy—Penang and the surrounding region account for 21% of the country's GDP. But the renaissance could also have important political consequences for the country. Since 2008 Penang has been one of only four states (out of 13) run by an opposition party. If its politicians can claim the credit for the recent success, that should greatly help the opposition in the next general election, expected within the year. Penang was founded as a free port by the British in 1786. Occupying a position between India and East Asia, the island drew merchants and middlemen keen to make their fortunes. Chinese, Indians, Armenians, Arabs and more all traded alongside each other. With its racial and religious mix, and dedication to the pursuit of free trade, Penang was in many ways the first custom-made city of globalisation. The island's fortunes sank as it lost business to its arch-rival, Singapore. In the post-colonial period Penang fell victim to the rise of nationalism. The region's freshly minted republics chose to develop their own ports. Penang enjoyed a revival during the 1970s with the setting-up of Malaysia's first free-trade zone (a "free port" by another name); this attracted big names in electronics, like Intel and Bosch, which built some of the first offshore assembly lines. But this boom was founded on cheap labour, and as Malaysia became richer other emerging economies, such as China and Vietnam, drew the assembly work away. To recover its prosperity, Penang has sought to reinvent itself. With the rise of India and China, Penang's location again looks very handy to foreign companies as a place to invest, as in the 18th century. It is relatively close to both big markets—yet offers advantages that trump Asia's giants'. Penang's own "Silicon Valley" companies know that the rule of law in Malaysia gives them the sort of protection for patents and intellectual property they would not enjoy in China, and an ease of doing business that they could not find in India. Wages are higher than they were, but no more so nowadays than on the Chinese seaboard. The federal government has also spent liberally on bridges and the airport, making Penang better connected to the rest of Asia. And old George Town has been smartened up, which helps to bring in foreigners to live, work—and have surgery. The result is another boom. Last year more investment poured into the state than any other in Malaysia. Scores of new electronics firms have swooped in to join the pioneers, along with an expanding cluster of 20 or so medical-device manufacturers. Crucially, most of the new jobs are in research and development rather than assembly. An American chip-designer, Altera, has a new facility with 1,100 workers in Penang, 800 of them engineers. Its head says that almost all the engineers are locals—which is good for Malaysia. Whom to thank? When the Democratic Action Party won the state's legislative assembly three years ago, it became the first opposition party to triumph in Penang in more than 40 years. The victory presented a direct challenge to the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that has ruled the country continuously since independence in 1957. Penang's new leader, Lim Guan Eng, says that the federal government has an "ambivalent" attitude towards him, cutting off some funding but not undermining his authority. "They don't want us to get any credit, but they can't afford to see us fail". The revival of Penang was already under way in 2008, but Mr Eng's new policies have helped it along. He has become the first governor in Malaysia to open up all state tenders to competition. This has entailed dismantling the special preferences for ethnic Malays that have underpinned the BN's rule since the early 1970s. That was when the Malay majority institutionalised affirmative action for themselves, to the disadvantage of ethnic Chinese (a majority in Penang), who were perceived to have got unduly rich. Mr Eng claims that by reforming the system he has ended the cronyism and corruption that wasted money under previous regimes. Adapted to the national stage, such policies could transform the way that the Malaysian federal government conducts business. Mr Eng says that the savings he has made by ending the "old systems of patronage" allow him to spend money on new social programmes instead, such as modest handouts for the elderly. These policies are popular, and the assault on corruption pleases foreign investors. Little wonder, then, that Penang has become a political weathervane as much as a lesson in economic development.

Malaysian PR Move Backfires Posted: 11 Aug 2011 01:44 AM PDT Government effort to plant stories tarnishes major TV networks worldwide Taib, who has served as Sarawak's chief minister for three decades, said he would step down after state elections earlier this year. Reportedly, both Najib and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have urged him to leave office. However, after his party won the state elections, he reportedly is balking at stepping down.  Asia Sentinel The Malaysian government and Sarawak state Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud have been spending millions of dollars to plant favorable stories on some the world's most influential television news networks, according to a Sarawak-based NGO. According to the Sarawak Report, the news programs are being produced by Fact Based Communications, a London-based company also known as FCB Media, that describes itself on its website as an "European-based media and entertainment group specializing in television format creation, production and distribution." The story was posted on the Sarawak Report blog earlier this month, but appears to have escaped the notice of the mainstream media. However, the US television network CNBC announced on Aug. 4 that it was cancelling World Business, a program that airs in Europe and Asia, after the network learned that FBC Media was found to have a contract with Taib and had paid USS$70,000 to the APCO Worldwide public relations firm to lobby in Washington, DC on behalf of the Malaysian government. CNBC World has carried 10 interviews by FBC Chairman Alan Friedman with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak over the past two years. The BBC also said it was pulling any FBC-created content pending an investigation. In addition, according to the US-based website Politico, CNN International was criticized for "lobbing softball questions" at Najib a week after Malaysian police arrested hundreds of protesters in the Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9. John Defterios, the host of CNN International, was previously president of FBC Media.  CNN denied any bias. Alan Friedman, the chairman of FBC Media, visited Taib twice in Kuching, Sarawak, to formulate a contract that "promised to transform the international image" of the Sarawak chief minister, who has suffered from horrendous publicity in the wake of convincing allegations that he had funneled billions of dollars from illegal timber sales out of the state into companies owned by his family in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Taib is being investigated by Swiss authorities on allegations that he has stashed millions of dollars in Swiss banks. Malaysia's Anti-Corruption Commission has announced it would investigate the charges as well. Taib, who has served as Sarawak's chief minister for three decades, said he would step down after state elections earlier this year. Reportedly, both Najib and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have urged him to leave office. However, after his party won the state elections, he reportedly is balking at stepping down. According to FBC Media's website, the company's syndicated stories reach more than 300 million television households in seven languages in 100 countries and more than 30 of the world's leading airlines. As television news bureaus have continued to contract because of declining revenues, networks have been farming out more and more of their news feeds to organizations like FBC Media, some of which produce out-and-out propaganda for governments and corporations that is disguised as news. The stories are rarely if ever identified as having been produced at the behest of corporations or countries that paid the media agencies to produce them. In an exhaustive 2006 study, the US-based Center for Media and Democracy identified 77 television stations in the US that collectively reached more than half of the US population using "video news releases," or public relations videos from PR companies without disclosing their source. The clients, according to the center, included General Motors, Intel, Pfizer and Capital One. "In each case, these 77 television stations actively disguised the sponsored content to make it appear to be their own reporting. In almost all cases, stations failed to balance the clients' messages with independently-gathered footage or basic journalistic research. More than one-third of the time, stations aired the pre-packaged VNR in its entirety," the center said.. A request to speak to FBC Media chairman Friedman was deferred by an aide who said all requests were to be routed to Friedman's email address. An email sent to Friedman wasn't answered immediately. READ MORE HERE

British rioters the spawn of a bankrupt ruling elite Posted: 10 Aug 2011 06:03 AM PDT THE riots in London and elsewhere in Britain are a backhanded tribute to the long-term intellectual torpor, moral cowardice, incompetence and careerist opportunism of the British political and intellectual class. British youth leads the Western world in almost all aspects of social pathology, from teenage pregnancy to drug taking, from drunkenness to violent criminality. There is no form of bad behaviour that our version of the welfare state has not sought out and subsidised. Theodore Dalrymple, The Australian They have somehow managed not to notice what has long been apparent to anyone who has taken a short walk with his eyes open down any frequented British street: that a considerable proportion of the country's young population (a proportion that is declining) is ugly, aggressive, vicious, badly educated, uncouth and criminally inclined. Unfortunately, while it is totally lacking in self-respect, it is full of self-esteem: that is to say, it believes itself entitled to a high standard of living, and other things, without any effort on its own part. Consider for a moment the following: although youth unemployment in Britain is very high, that is to say about 20 per cent of those aged under 25, the country has had to import young foreign labour for a long time, even for unskilled work in the service sector. The reasons for this seeming paradox are obvious to anyone who knows young Britons as I do. No sensible employer in a service industry would choose a young Briton if he could have a young Pole; the young Pole is not only likely to have a good work ethic and refined manners, he is likely to be able to add up and -- most humiliating of all -- to speak better English than the Briton, at least if by that we mean the standard variety of the language. He may not be more fluent but his English will be more correct and his accent easier to understand. This is not an exaggeration. After compulsory education (or perhaps I should say intermittent attendance at school) up to the age of 16 costing $80,000 a head, about one-quarter of British children cannot read with facility or do simple arithmetic. It makes you proud to be a British taxpayer. I think I can say with a fair degree of certainty, from my experience as a doctor in one of the areas in which a police station has just been burned down, that half of those rioting would reply to the question, "Can you do arithmetic?" by answering, "What is arithmetic?" British youth leads the Western world in almost all aspects of social pathology, from teenage pregnancy to drug taking, from drunkenness to violent criminality. There is no form of bad behaviour that our version of the welfare state has not sought out and subsidised. British children are much likelier to have a television in their bedroom than a father living at home. One-third of them never eat a meal at a table with another member of their household -- family is not the word for the social arrangements of the people in the areas from which the rioters mainly come. They are therefore radically unsocialised and deeply egotistical, viewing relations with other human beings in the same way as Lenin: Who whom, who does what to whom. By the time they grow up, they are destined not only for unemployment but unemployability. For young women in much of Britain, dependence does not mean dependence on the government: that, for them, is independence. Dependence means any kind of reliance on the men who have impregnated them who, of course, regard their own subventions from the state as pocket money, to be supplemented by a little light trafficking. (According to his brother, Mark Duggan, the man whose death at the hands of the probably incompetent police allegedly sparked the riots, "was involved in things", which things being delicately left to the imagination of his interlocutor.) Relatively poor as the rioting sector of society is, it nevertheless possesses all the electronic equipment necessary for the prosecution of the main business of life; that is to say, entertainment by popular culture. And what a culture British popular culture is! Perhaps Amy Winehouse was its finest flower and its truest representative in her militant and ideological vulgarity, her stupid taste, her vile personal conduct and preposterous self-pity. Her sordid life was a long bath in vomitus, literal and metaphorical, for which the exercise of her very minor talent was no excuse or explanation. Yet not a peep of dissent from our intelllectual class was heard after her near canonisation after her death, that class having long had the backbone of a mollusc. Criminality is scarcely repressed any more in Britain. The last lord chief justice but two thought that burglary was a minor offence, not worthy of imprisonment, and the next chief justice agreed with him. By the age of 12, an ordinary slum-dweller has learned he has nothing to fear from the law and the only people to fear are those who are stronger or more ruthless than he. Punishments are derisory; the police are simultaneously bullying but ineffectual and incompetent, increasingly dressed in paraphernalia that makes them look more like the occupiers of Afghanistan than the force imagined by Robert Peel. The people who most fear our police are the innocent. Of course, none of this reduces the personal responsibility of the rioters. But the riots are a manifestation of a society in full decomposition, of a people with neither leaders nor followers but composed only of egotists.

Militant groups fuel the fires Posted: 10 Aug 2011 05:57 AM PDT THE media coverage of the British riots and the political response reveals an inexcusable incomprehension of the internal forces that are destroying Western societies. Central to this strategy is the rapid mobilisation of agents provocateurs such as the Black Bloc cadre, with their dark clothing, hoodies, ski masks, scarfs and helmets, who appear rapidly at such incidents to initiate violence and property destruction. Merv Bendle, The Australian It would be laughable, if it weren't so serious, to hear the cliches about poverty, racism, police victimisation and budget cuts cited as the causes of this violence and criminality, as if this narrative of oppression explains or excuses the wilful self-destruction of these urban communities. The dismissal of the rioters and looters as criminals is also lazy and short-sighted. Such violence is increasingly common in Western societies as their social structure slowly disintegrates. And it particularly reflects the volatile situation that exists among the urban underclass in large cities that have suffered de-industrialisation in the past 50 years and now house various marginalised and alienated communities of unemployed people of various ethnicities, many of whom survive on welfare and come from families that have not been in the mainstream workforce for generations. This situation has occurred also because of a failure of governance in Western societies, illustrated above all by the impotence of the police and the legal system, as most of those apprehended will escape with minor if any penalties. However, these riots and their rapid escalation are not spontaneous but reflect the co-ordinated efforts of self-styled revolutionary groups determined to incite and escalate outbreaks into urban insurrections. Central to this strategy is the rapid mobilisation of agents provocateurs such as the Black Bloc cadre, with their dark clothing, hoodies, ski masks, scarfs and helmets, who appear rapidly at such incidents to initiate violence and property destruction. The police and media are only now noticing their highly co-ordinated activities in Britain, despite their high profile in demonstrations against globalisation. At this stage, these groups don't aspire to lead a revolution, but the riots serve two functions. First, they confirm their radical theoretical analysis of Western society, which makes the urban underclass central to their revolutionary strategy. Second, the riots are seen as playing a vital role in the radicalisation and empowerment of this underclass, which learns how to organise and that it has little to fear from the police or the state. Western society is doomed, rotting from within, according to such groups and the post-Marxist revolutionary theory that is pervasive on the radical Left, especially within the anarchist, anti-globalisation and radical environmental movements. According to this perspective, the squalor and alienation of the urban underclass constitutes a "pre-revolutionary condition" that can be exploited by an organised revolutionary elite to mobilise a mass uprising. A representative manifesto of this militant tendency, The Coming Insurrection, attributed mysteriously to "The Invisible Committee", was published in French in 2007 and in English in 2009. The Invisible Committee sees itself as a successor to ultra-left terrorist groups of the 1970s and 80s, including the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the Weathermen and the Red Brigades. The Coming Insurrection sees Western civilisation in apocalyptic terms. The West is "clinically dead [and] kept alive [only] by all sorts of life-support machines that spread a peculiar plague into the planet's atmosphere". Consequently, "what we're facing is not the crisis of a society but the extinction of a civilisation . . . its clinical death". What is required is "to decide for the death of civilisation, then to work out how it will happen". All that is needed is the "decision that will rid us of the corpse", and that decision is to join the coming insurrection and launch direct action against the system. The book identifies components of a rapidly emerging revolutionary situation in Western societies: the global financial crisis and high-profile crimes and scandals associated with the rich and powerful; climate change and escalating environmental destruction; the alienation of youth, the failure of the educational system and widespread unemployment; political corruption, incompetence and inertia; urban degradation, irreversible demographic changes, anti-migration sentiment and ethnic conflict; the accelerating collapse of the welfare state; and spreading social chaos in many countries. It sees these factors as components of a systemic crisis that will overwhelm liberal democracies. Central to this insurrection will be an alienated generation that "has known nothing but economic, financial, social and ecological crisis". "Everyone agrees," it begins, "it's about to explode." Suitably led, this force will exploit "the truly revolutionary potentiality of the present" to implement "a new idea of communism", conceived as "the matrix of a meticulous, audacious assault on domination", led by alienated youth, marginalised groups such as European Muslims and the radicalised underclass. In the face of this revolt, "the future has no future". The front line will be the metropolis, "one of the most vulnerable human arrangements that has ever existed" and susceptible to a "brutal shutting down of borders . . . a sudden interruption of supply lines [and] organised blockades of the axes of communication", so that "the whole facade crumbles [as it] can no longer mask the scenes of carnage haunting it from morning to night". The Coming Insurrection and others like it showcase the tradition of radical extremism shaped by prominent post-Marxist theorists such as Michel Foucault and Antonio Negri, who was imprisoned on serious terrorism charges but still was allowed to publish a series of radical diatribes against the West -- Empire (2000), Multitude (2004) and Commonwealth (2009) -- all extremely influential in radical circles and academe. According to these books, the US is at the top of a global capitalist "Empire", assisted by NATO, the G8, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation and similar agents of oppression and exploitation. Beneath them is the economic oligarchy of multinational corporations and subservient nation-states such as Britain or Australia. All of these are targets of direct action, sabotage, terrorism and so on, along the lines detailed in The Coming Insurrection. The objective is to achieve "true democracy" as exemplified by the UN and international non-governmental agencies such as Greenpeace, parliamentary democracy being a sham that perpetuates capitalism. The British riots provide fertile ground for the promotion of this ideology and we are making a great mistake if we ignore the role played by these highly motivated militant groups. Merv Bendle is senior lecturer in history and communications at James Cook University.

Less political rebellion, more mollycoddled mob Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:16 AM PDT What we have on the streets of London and elsewhere are welfare-state mobs. The youth who are shattering their own communities represent a generation that has been suckled by the state more than any generation before it.  Brendan O'Neill, The Australian  MANY commentators are on a mission to contextualise the riots that have swept parts of urban London and other British cities. "It's very naive to look at these riots without the context," says one journalist, who says the reason the violence kicked off in the London suburb of Tottenham is because "that area is getting 75 per cent cuts [in public services]". Others have said the political context for the rioting is youth unemployment or working-class anger at Prime Minister David Cameron's cuts agenda. "There is a context to London's riots that can't be ignored," says a writer for The Guardian, and it is the "backdrop of brutal cuts and enforced austerity measures". The "mass unrest" is a protest against unhinged capitalism, apparently. These observers are right that there is a political context to the riots. While the police shooting of young black man Mark Duggan may ostensibly have been the trigger for the street violence, there is a broader context to the disturbances. But they are wrong about what the political context is. Painting these riots as some kind of action replay of historic political streetfights against capitalist bosses or racist cops might allow armchair radicals to get their intellectual rocks off, as they lift their noses from dusty tomes about the Levellers or the suffragettes and fantasise that a political upheaval of equal worth is occurring outside their windows. But such shameless projection misses what is new and deeply worrying about these riots. The political context is not the cuts or racist policing, it is the welfare state, which has nurtured a generation that has no sense of community spirit or social solidarity. What we have on the streets of London and elsewhere are welfare-state mobs. The youth who are shattering their own communities represent a generation that has been suckled by the state more than any generation before it. They live in urban territories where the sharp-elbowed intrusion of the welfare state during the past 30 years has pushed aside older ideals of self-reliance and community spirit. The march of the welfare state into every aspect of urban, less well-off people's existences, from their financial wellbeing to their child-rearing habits and even into their emotional lives, with the rise of therapeutic welfarism designed to ensure that the poor remain "mentally fit", has undermined individual resourcefulness and social bonding. The antisocial youthful rioters are the end-product of this antisocial system of state intervention. The most striking thing about the rioters is how little they care for their own communities. You don't have to be a right-winger with helmet hair and a niggling discomfort with black or chavvy yoof (I am the opposite of that) to recognise that this violence is not political, just criminal. It is entertaining to watch the political contortions of commentators who claim the riots are an uprising against the evils of capitalism, as they struggle to explain why the targets have been Foot Locker sports shops and why the only "gains" made by the rioters have been to get a new pair of trainers or an Apple laptop. In the Brixton race riots of 1981, looting and the destruction of local infrastructure were largely incidental to the broader expression of political anger, by-products of the main show, which was a clash between a community and the forces of the state. But in these riots, looting and smashing stuff up is all there is. It is childish nihilism. Many older members of the urban communities rocked by violence have been shocked by the level of self-destruction exhibited by the rioters. Some shop owners have got together to defend their property, even beating up rioters who have turned up with iron bars. In one video, a West Indian woman in her 50s braves the rubble-strewn streets to lecture the rioters: "These people worked hard to make their businesses work and then you lot wanna go and burn it up. For what?" On Twitter, the hashtag #riotcleanup is being used by community members to co-ordinate some post-riot street-cleaning, to make amends for what one elderly Tottenham resident described as "the stupid behaviour of the young". But it is more than childish destructiveness motivating the rioters. These are youngsters who are uniquely alienated from the communities in which they grew up. Nurtured in large part by the welfare state, financially, physically and educationally, socialised more by the agents of welfarism than by their own neighbours or local representatives, these youth have little moral or emotional attachment to their communities. Their rioting reveals not that Britain is in a time warp in 1981 or 1985 with politically motivated riots against the police, but that the tentacle-like spread of the welfare state into every area of people's lives has utterly zapped old social bonds, the relationship of sharing and solidarity that once existed in working-class communities. These riots suggest that the welfare state is giving rise to a generation happy to shit on its own doorstep. This is not a political rebellion; it is a mollycoddled mob, a riotous expression of carelessness for one's own community. And as a left-winger I refuse to celebrate nihilistic behaviour that has a profoundly adverse affect on working people's lives. Far from being an instance of working-class action, this welfare-state mob has more in common with what Marx described as the lumpenproletariat. Indeed, it is worth remembering Marx's colourful description in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon of how that French ruler cynically built his power base among parts of the bourgeoisie and sections of the lumpenproletariat, so that "ruined and adventurous offshoots of the bourgeoisie rubbed shoulders with vagabonds, discharged soldiers, discharged jailbirds, escaped galley slaves, swindlers, pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers, brothel-keepers, organ-grinders, ragpickers, knife-grinders, tinkers, beggars and from this kindred element Boneparte formed the core of his [constituency], where all its members felt the need to benefit themselves at the expense of the labouring nation". In very different circumstances, we have something similar today where the decadent commentariat's siding with lumpen rioters represents a weird coming together of sections of the bourgeoisie with sections of the underworked and the over-flattered, as the rest of us, "the labouring nation", look on with disdain. There is one more important part to this rioting story: the reaction of the cops. Their inability to handle the riots effectively reveals the extent to which the British police are adapted to consensual rather than conflictual policing. It also demonstrates how far they have been paralysed by the politics of victimhood, where virtually every police activity gets followed up by a complaint or a legal case. Their kid-glove approach to the rioters only fuels the riots because, as one observer put it, when the rioters "see that the police cannot control the situation, [that] leads to sort of adrenalin-fuelled euphoria". So this street violence was largely ignited by the excesses of the welfare state and intensified by the discombobulation of the police state. The riots tell a very interesting story about modern Britain.

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