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• Party matters most to voters
• Budget fails to live up to reform pledges
• ‘M’sia should have been a federation of three nations’
• ‘Rough sex very unlikely for Anwar’
• Najib to announce Felda's listing at KLSE?
• A free-for-all at PAS ceramah in Rembau
• Malaysian unis fail to make THE 400
• Unions flex muscles as BN, Pakatan vie for votes
• Putrajaya stands by refusal to charge A-G

Party matters most to voters Posted: 06 Oct 2011 07:11 PM PDT By Santhi Oorjitham, NST Voters in the next general election are 10 per cent more likely to look at the party rather than the candidate compared with those who cast their ballot in the 2004 polls, according to a recent survey by the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). Crunching such numbers could prove useful as parties plan their election strategy -- right down to when they should announce their line-up of candidates. Back in August 2004, 56 per cent of about 1,650 voters polled said the party was the main influence on their vote, recalled Professor Datuk Seri Syed Arabi Idid, head of the university's Elections Study Group. That rose to 60 per cent in a similar survey just after the March 2008 polls. And in July this year, 65 per cent of those surveyed named the party as the most important factor. The biggest rise was among Bumiputeras and middle-aged voters (aged between 35 and 50). Of those who looked more at the candidate when voting, the highest number came from the young voters -- 37 per cent of those aged 21 to 35. That's a significant number, since 4,360,000 voters were below 40 in the 2008 elections (about 40 per cent), compared with 6,540,000 above 40. At the next polls, voters under 40 could make up about 42 per cent of the total, estimated UCSI University lecturer Dr Ong Kian Ming, an election analyst. Supporters of Barisan Nasional, DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) are more likely to choose based on the party than the candidate this year than in 2008. In 2008, 64 per cent of BN supporters said they voted for the party but this year, 69 per cent would vote for the party. (See chart.) The biggest jump is for supporters of DAP and PKR. In 2008, 54 per cent of each party's supporters would vote based on party, but this jumped to 67 per cent and 69 per cent this year. Part of the reason for the focus on the party could be the timing, explained Syed Arabi. "Malaysian voters usually don't know the candidate until Nomination Day. They usually decide on the party first and that decision is made far ahead." "Party preference, once formed, may be harder and slower to change," added Universiti Sains Malaysia's Dr Lim Hong Hai. "A one- or two-week campaign may not be enough to change it for most respondents or voters." Although the party is the main factor for the majority of voters, pundits still recommend announcing candidates much earlier. "Parties should tell or at least hint who will be the candidates early, giving a year in which they can be examined closely," urged Syed Arabi. "The candidate can start building support and infrastructure on the new media, for example, and identify voters and supporters." There is a risk of infighting if candidates are announced early, he admitted. But it could be done in "states where the party structure is strong -- in Perak, Sarawak and Sabah for the BN, for example, and in Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan for the opposition". Early announcement of candidates was most important for PKR, added Ong, "because they are seen as the weakest link in Pakatan Rakyat in the sense that many of their candidates who were elected later defected and two were asked to step down. They should announce early so voters can be assured they are good quality candidates". At the national level, parties "must be solid in terms of their leadership -- no back-stabbing and bickering", said Professor Dr Mansor Mohd Noor, of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, who has been researching elections since 2004. "They must hold to a common view of public issues to be managed and solved -- rather than denying issues raised by the public." Coalitions should strengthen cohesion among component parties and "improve their image in terms of policy announcements," suggested Syed Arabi. "The prime minister has tried to link up with the young on Facebook and Twitter, but other leaders have not shown they are communicating with the young." Younger voters have less political knowledge, reckoned Ong. "While most do not know who their members of parliament and state assemblymen are, they are much more likely to be swayed by appeals by leaders at the national level." Older voters look at what the party has done for them in the past, said IIUM research coordinator Azrul Hisyam Wakichan, but the young and the middle-aged look at candidates, issues and what the party can do for them.

Budget fails to live up to reform pledges Posted: 06 Oct 2011 07:02 PM PDT By Tony Pua, FMT The expectations were high for a pre-election budget where Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak will stamp his "reformist" credentials.  It is for the prime minister to put into action the various reform pledges made in his cornerstone policy blueprints – the New Economic Model (NEM), Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP). However, the announcement of the budget left much to be desired as little has changed beyond tweaking the budget of the previous financial year.  Instead what is perhaps the most worrying is that Malaysians are like the proverbial frog in the hot soup – where the frog does not realise the soup is slowly but surely reaching the boiling point. We may not yet be facing the crisis of Greek proportions, but Budget 2012 is doing very little to avert such eventuality, leaving the Malaysian economy nakedly exposed to the inevitability. Federal government debt Our federal government debt has increased rapidly from RM242 billion in 2004 to RM363 billion in 2009 and RM456 billion in 2011.  That represents a marked 88.4% increase in debt over the past 7 years.  It is also an increase of 25.6% or nearly RM100 billion over two years. The increase in debt has increased the pressure on reigning in our budget deficit as our annual debt service commitments have increased to RM20.5 billion next year from only half the amount five years ago in 2007. While our federal government debt to GDP ratio is still at a moderate 53.8%, a far cry from Greece's 117%, we are not far from Spain's 64% or Ireland's 67%, both of whom are facing economic turbulence of their own. Our debt levels will only worsen in the next few years as we embark on record levels of infrastructure spending such as the RM53 billion Klang Valley MRT project which is expected to be funded entirely on debt. Wages and pensions At the same time, our public sector expenditure is increasingly mirroring that of the European countries with ballooning civil service obligations. The budgeted expenditure for wages and pensions for 2012 is a whopping RM64.1 billion, an increase of RM6.2 billion or 10.8% budgeted for 2011. The increase is even more worrying when contrasted against the budgeted RM36.9 billion 2007, a 73.7% increase in just five years. The GTP had promised a more efficient and cost-effective government and civil service.  What we are seeing from the budget is only one which is indebting our children, entrenching our structural problems and very weak expenditure controls. Economic growth Despite the government's efforts in the ETP, our manufacturing and export statistics paint a starkly different picture. Our export sector grew a miserly 2.7% in 2011 against 13.2% in 2010. However, we should be further alarmed by the fact that the growth was a result of increased contributions from exports of rubber, paper, textiles, clothes and shoes which grew in excess of 15%, and the petroleum products by 9.3%. Our electrical and electronics sector, which constitutes 26.4% of our total exports industry, shrunk by 4.9% in 2011. From the above indicators, there appears to be a shift away from higher value-added export sectors to the primary products industry such as rubber, wood, textiles and crude oil. This is the exact reverse of what we are trying to achieve via the ETP. Budget deficit Based on the Economic Report, we are expected to meet our deficit target of 5.4% for this year only because our revenues had grown beyond the expected in the 2010 budget due to very strong commodity prices. The government has managed to collect RM21.1 billion of extra revenue on top of the originally budget RM165.8 billion. If not for the unexpected increase in government revenue, our budget deficit would have been a shocking 7.9%.   READ MORE HERE.

‘M’sia should have been a federation of three nations’ Posted: 06 Oct 2011 04:36 PM PDT Civil society activist Haris Ibrahim says the original agreement in 1963 called for the setting up of the Federation of Malaysia as three separate nations. (Free Malaysia Today) - United Borneo Front (UBF) chief Jeffrey Kitingan wants two administrative systems to be implemented in Malaysia but civil rights activist Haris Ibrahim says this is not in the spirit of the 1963 Borneo Agenda. Instead, Haris suggests that Malaysia should have been a federation of three nations. The UBF is pushing for a "1-Country, 2-Systems" type of administration in Malaysia – one for Peninsular Malaysia and the other for Sabah and Sarawak. Jeffrey said this was in line with its Borneo Agenda and aspiration to restore political autonomy to Sabah and Sarawak. Speaking at its recent Borneo Tea Party gathering and Hari Raya open house held in Dataran Bengkoka, Pitas, Jeffrey said the vast distance between the two regions with the South China Sea between them emphasised their differences. "The differences in indigenous people, culture, language and heritage should be taken into consideration in the administration of the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak in addition to the historical fact that Sabah and Sarawak together with Singapore and Malaya formed the Federation of Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963," he said. Responding to this today, Haris wrote in his blog: "The then federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak had agreed to come together and, without any loss or reduction in their respective status as independent sovereign nations, form the federation of Malaysia as equal nation-state partners within that new federation." He backed his view by quoting clause three of Sabah's 20-Point Agreement, which reads: "Whilst accepting that the present Constitution of the Federation of Malaya should form the basis of the Constitution of Malaysia, the Constitution of Malaysia should be a completely new document drafted and agreed in the light of a free association of states and should not be a series of amendments to a Constitution drafted and agreed by different states in totally different circumstances." Haris argued that Jeffrey's proposal did not honour the 18 and 20 points signed respectively by Sarawak and Sabah. READ MORE HERE

‘Rough sex very unlikely for Anwar’ Posted: 06 Oct 2011 04:07 PM PDT Dutch expert Dr Thomas Hoogland says it is very unlikely for the opposition leader, who has a back problem, to indulge in the type of sexual act described by the complainant. (Free Malaysia Today) - It is unlikely for Anwar Ibrahim to indulge in rough and vigorous sex as described by complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, according to the opposition leader's spinal surgeon Dr Thomas Hoogland. Testifying at the Sodomy II trial today, the Dutch orthopedic doctor said that a back and forth movement done repeatedly would have caused "significant pain in Anwar's back". Asked by Anwar's defence lawyer Sankara Nair how he came to such conclusions, Hoogland said that as a spine expert it was his opinion based on examinations of Anwar and findings of MRI scans. "For Anwar to really vigorously use his back… I think when we consider the sexual act, it is very, very unlikely that it is possible; based on examination of Anwar and findings of MRI, it is not possible for a man his age (to have performed the alleged act)," he told the High Court here. When asked, Hoogland agreed that it would also be painful for Anwar to kneel on a carpeted floor. Hoogland had performed surgery on Anwar's back in 2004 in Munich, Germany. He also recently re-examined Anwar last month on Sept 8 and testified yesterday that it would have been painful for Anwar to bend his body for even 10 degrees, or to partake in "vigorous activities". Hoogland had said yesterday that even after surgery, which improved Anwar's walking abilities, the latter still suffered from arthritis in his facet joints, limited movement as well as nerve roots damage caused by a police assault in 1998. The then inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor was charged with assaulting Anwar in the infamous "black-eye incident" which resulted in the latter falling and hurting his back. Hoogland said Anwar's 1998 injuries were "significant" and "traumatic" and described them as the beginning of all of Anwar's back problems as they were not caused by degenerative age reasons. CCTV footage shown During cross-examination by lead prosecutor Solicitor-general II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, Hoogland was shown a CCTV footage depicting what appeared to be Anwar in a lift. Yusof pointed out that in the video, dated June 26, 2008, Anwar could be seen bending over several times while easily putting down and picking up his briefcase when he was in the lift. Quizzed on this, Hoogland said he could not really comment on the recording as some parts of the video playback was faster than normal and he could not ascertain how quickly Anwar was bending. "The video is speeding faster than normal. Some parts are real speed. People don't walk so fast," complained Hoogland, who said that he could not see if Anwar was bending all the way or just picking up his briefcase. He also said that he could not see the expression of Anwar to determine if he was in pain or not. "He is like Anwar (in the video) and he is able to bend. I never said he cannot bend in my medical report. Only that there is pain while bending and he has to do this motion slowly. Here we can't see if he is in pain," added the doctor. Hoogland had earlier said that it would be "very painful" for Anwar to bend his back and to pick up something, noting that he would need to bend at the knees. However, he admitted that it was possible to bend slowly. Could he be pretending? Yusof had earlier asked Hoogland if a person could easily bend and pick up a pen, without displaying any pain or hampered movements, what would his conclusion be. Hoogland, however, said that such an observation was not a usual functional test for doctors. Yusof: How about we regard this as a new test? Hoogland: Well I will suggest to my colleagues from now on and perhaps call it the 'Kuala Lumpur Test'. READ MORE HERE

Najib to announce Felda's listing at KLSE? Posted: 06 Oct 2011 02:22 PM PDT (Harakah Daily) - Prime Minister Najib Razak will announce Felda Holding's listing at the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange during the 2012 Budget speech today, according to a source. The source added that the decision was seen as climax in the ongoing clash between politicians and the management of Felda opposed to the move. "It will have big implication on Felda in the future," the source told Harakahdaily, adding that the decision had not been discussed in detail with settlers and Felda management. It also said that listing Felda Holding at the KLSE showed that the body was in serious financial problem despite statements on the contrary by Barisan Nasional leaders. "Felda does not need the funds from the listing. The party which will make huge profit is CIMB, which has reaped millions in profit from the listing of the sugar company Malayan Sugar Manufacturing Co Bhd (listed in July) prior to this, as well as Isa (Samad, Felda chairman) and Najib's companies trying to own Felda's businesses which are very profitable although not listed on KLSE," he added.   READ MORE HERE.

A free-for-all at PAS ceramah in Rembau Posted: 06 Oct 2011 02:17 PM PDT By Zehfry Dahalan, FMT REMBAU: A free for all broke out last night between supporters of PAS, PKR and a group calling themselves the movement to dignify national heroes at a PAS ceramah here. The group's, Gerakan Memartabatkan Pejuang Nasional (GMPN), target was PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, better known as Mat Sabu. The group was lying in wait for Mat Sabu and when he arrived at the ceramah venue, they marched 300 metres to the ceramah location to heckle him. But, this time the PAS supporters were prepared for it. In an earlier ceramah in Seremban last month, GMPN also created a fracas. For the ceramah last night, PAS had mobilised 3,000 PAS and PKR supporters from Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Pahang, Johor and Malacca. The ceramah was held in the fully fenced Negeri Sembilan PAS commissioner Mohd Taufek Abdul Ghani's home. When the 100 plus GMPN supporters neared the gate of the house, PAS supporters formed a human barricade. Shouting "Jangan ganggu majlis orang" (Don't disturb others function) and "Balik! Balik! (Go back! Go back!) the PAS supporters forced the group to retreat. A scuffle broke out and both sides were trading blows for nearly 35 minutes. The situation was brought under control when the police intervened. No injuries were reported.   READ MORE HERE.

Malaysian unis fail to make THE 400 Posted: 06 Oct 2011 02:04 PM PDT By Yow Hong Chieh, The Malaysian Insider KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — No Malaysian university made the grade in this year's Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, which lists the world's top 400 universities. This is despite Universiti Malaya's (UM) greatly improved performance in last month's QS World University Rankings, leaping 40 places from 2010 to 167. Malaysia's oldest university was the only local institution to breach the QS top 200 mark after improving its academic, employment and international scores. US, UK and European universities continued their traditional domination of the league tables in the THE rankings released yesterday. The California Institute for Technology — or Caltech — secured top spot, followed by Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Princeton. In the bottom half of the top 10 were Cambridge University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Imperial College London, Chicago University and Berkeley. Only 18 Asian universities made the top 200, led by the University of Tokyo (30), University of Hong Kong (34), National University of Singapore (40) and Peking University (49).   READ MORE HERE.

Unions flex muscles as BN, Pakatan vie for votes Posted: 06 Oct 2011 02:01 PM PDT By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — Local unions are re-asserting themselves in their quest for more rights and money, using threats of pickets over a key law and tapping rival political coalitions' eagerness to court workers' support ahead of a general election expected early next year. With Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak expected to announce an "election budget" later today, the umbrella Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has vowed nationwide pickets against amendments to the Employment Act, which it said will allow employers to turn a blind eye to workers' rights. The Dewan Rakyat passed the changes last night after a five-hour debate. "Ignoring us could be fatal for Najib," MTUC executive committee member Bruno Pereira told The Malaysian Insider. Barisan Nasional (BN) has made unprecedented concessions to workers since record losses in Election 2008, where it ceded its customary two-thirds of Parliament and five state governments. This year alone, the Najib administration has passed a law to set the nation's first minimum wage and promised to raise the mandatory private sector retirement age to 60. Najib, who is also finance minister, is also expected to announce a major restructuring of civil service wages that will see some of the 1.3 million government servants enjoy pay raises of up to 40 per cent. But private sector unions have continued to ask for more. The MTUC last week insisted on a base wage of RM1,500 while Maybank employees have held Najib personally responsible over a bonus dispute worth 80 months' pay. Even Malaysia Airlines (MAS) staff have threatened to picket in December if the controversial share swap with AirAsia is not reversed. "Elections are coming," said Human Resource Minister Datuk S. Subramaniam candidly when The Malaysian Insider asked why union demands were getting louder.   READ MORE HERE.

Putrajaya stands by refusal to charge A-G Posted: 06 Oct 2011 10:47 AM PDT Abdul Gani has been hit by a stream of accusations from Mat Zain and Raja Petra. — File pic (TMI) Putrajaya has insisted it will not take action against Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail despite renewed allegations of corruption and fabricating evidence made against the country's top lawyer. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz said that last year's decision to close the door on the A-G's alleged involvement in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's 1998 "black eye" case still stands. "Same reply, same reply. I replied to (DAP adviser Lim) Kit Siang in Parliament before. The reply is the same," he told The Malaysian Insider when asked if Putrajaya would act on the latest allegations against Abdul Gani. When asked to state if the government would take action against Abdul Gani's accusers, Nazri repeated, "Same reply." In Parliament last December 14, the government side-stepped the damning accusations made by former investigating officer Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim that Abdul Gani had falsified documents in the "black eye" case, brushing aside several open letters and appeals issued by the retired policeman.. Instead, Nazri had told the House that there was no need for Mat Zain to complain that the independent panel formed to investigate the claimed evidence fabrication had failed to clear his name in the incident. This, said Nazri, was because Mat Zain had never been the subject of the panel's probe and had merely been called forth as a witness to testify. "The MACC's (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) advisory board, though its letter to Datuk Mat Zain on July 23, 2009, had already stressed that there was no need for the independent panel or the MACC to clear Mat Zain's name, seeing as he was not the subject of the investigation in the first place," he said. Nazri also said that the panel had been constitutional, despite Mat Zain's claim that the Solicitor-General had no right to appoint the members. In his first open letter to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar, Mat Zain had claimed that the right to appoint a tribunal only lay with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, based on the prime minister's advice. Despite Nazri's response, Mat Zain continued his relentless pursuit to convince the government to charge Abdul Gani in court and, over recent months, penned more letters to IGP Ismail. The former senior police officer also went a step further recently by accusing Putrajaya of admitting to Abdul Gani's role in allegedly falsifying evidence when Nazri appeared to back the independent panel's findings on the case. He said with Putrajaya's endorsement, there was no longer a need to form a royal commission of inquiry or a tribunal to investigate Abdul Gani's involvement. Mat Zain also claimed that Najib was aware of Abdul Gani's involvement as the prime minister had been briefed and was provided "complete evidence" in October 2008, when he was still the country's deputy premier. Mat Zain said he had briefed Najib at the latter's Finance Ministry office in Putrajaya, adding that he had "assumed" the leader would take appropriate action once he took up the prime minister's post. Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/putrajaya-stands-by-refusal-to-charge-a-g/

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Najib, wake up! Posted: 06 Oct 2011 04:11 PM PDT He must know that his credibility in the international arena is nothing to shout about and take serious steps to address the issue of electoral reforms. Nazri's statement proves that all along the government is not concerned with electoral reforms. Its claim is that "everything is fine, if not, how could the opposition win five states in 2008?" This statement is meant to deceive the gullible among the rakyat because the opposition won in spite of the dubious electoral system due to the overwhelming support from the rakyat and not because the election process is clean. Selena Tay, Free Malaysia Today The July 9 Bersih rally came about mainly due to the fact that the voter rolls were dirty and are still dirty. Hence, the name Bersih, which means "clean" in English. Due to the pressure exerted by the rakyat who came in droves to participate in the rally, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced that a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) will be formed to see to electoral reforms. The keywords here are "to see to". This does not mean that electoral reforms will necessarily be implemented. The nine MPs sitting on the PSC are made up of fve Barisan Nasional MPs: chairman Maximus Ongkili (PBS, Kota Marudu), Alexander Nanta Linggi (PBB, Kapit), Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad (Umno, Kangar), Fong Chan Onn (MCA, Alor Gajah) and P Kamalanathan (MIC, Hulu Selangor). The three opposition MPs from Pakatan Rakyat are Azmin Ali (PKR, Gombak), Anthony Loke (DAP, Rasah) and Dr Hatta Ramli (PAS, Kuala Krai). The Independent bloc is represented by Wee Choo Keong (Wangsa Maju). Although the PSC seems to be a good move by the BN government, its sincerity and seriousness in implementing electoral reforms is doubted by its detractors who claim that the PSC is only "for show" and "an eyewash to hoodwink the public". Still, there are many who lauded the government's move as sincere and commendable. However, the PSC started on a wrong note when Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz stated that reforms can still be implemented after the 13th general election if Parliament is dissolved before the reforms are implemented. It is pointless to have reforms after the 13th general election. This only goes to show that the government is not really serious about electoral reforms as what the sceptics have trumpeted all along. Bersih 2.0 has thus issued a press statement on Oct 4 denouncing Nazri's statement and urging the prime minister to give all Malaysians his word that the polls will not be held before the recommendations from the PSC are implemented. Government is not concerned Nazri's statement proves that all along the government is not concerned with electoral reforms. Its claim is that "everything is fine, if not, how could the opposition win five states in 2008?" This statement is meant to deceive the gullible among the rakyat because the opposition won in spite of the dubious electoral system due to the overwhelming support from the rakyat and not because the election process is clean. Had the election process been clean, the opposition would have already taken over the seat in Putrajaya! On Oct 6, the government's sincerity in electoral reforms was again in doubt when Ongkili made a statement that the views of Bersih 2.0 would not be taken into account! This is shocking indeed as the PSC was set up due to pressure from Bersih 2.0. Therefore, to ignore Bersih 2.0 is like eating nasi lemak without the sambal! Bersih 2.0 has indeed been cleaned out by the PSC, given that the statement came from none other than the PSC chairman himself. This brings to light the poignant question: why is the PSC chairman making a unilateral decision without the consensus of the other eight PSC members as the first PSC meeting has yet to begin? With the PSC starting on a wrong footing, it is highly doubtful that much can be achieved and it is likely that it will end up as a rubber-stamp committee to approve the current flawed electoral system. Thus, the PSC's sceptics have been vindicated even before the first meeting has begun. Foreign vote bank The three opposition MPs must do their utmost to see to it that the PSC is not a toothless tiger. As it is, there have been many adverse reports pertaining to the malpractice or oversight committed by the Election Commission (EC). Chief among these are the proven evidence that the names of foreign workers have been inadvertently or mistakenly entered into the electoral rolls although how this could have happened is anyone's guess. Coincidentally, the legalisation of the foreign workers came at a most crucial time (in August 2011), with the 13th general election widely tipped to be held by March next year. READ MORE HERE

Moving forward from racial tensions in Malaysia Posted: 06 Oct 2011 10:14 AM PDT There is also genuine ideological belief amongst Malaysia's extreme right-wing Malay ethno-nationalists that the Federal Constitution is based on Malay Supremacy. They conveniently forget that the same document—as abovementioned—also provides for the protection of the legitimate interests of the other communities. By Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (New Mandala) Politics in Malaysia is centred on race and religion. This Southeast Asian nation is in many ways a modern and moderate Muslim majority country. But this carefully-cultivated international image belies the underlying tensions of Malaysian society. Like many countries in the region, Malaysia's ethnic diversity is largely a legacy of colonial policy. Large numbers of Chinese, Indian and Indonesian migrants were brought in either directly by the British colonial administrators or commercial agents as part of their plans to exploit the economy of the various Malay states during the 19th and early 20th centuries. There was naturally much debate—especially when it became evident that the British would be winding back their empire—over the place of these non-Malays, who had settled and largely became part of the local fabric. What for instance, would the religion and language of the proposed free-state be? Many ethnic groups felt their claims in these matters to be equal, if not better than the others. Thus when Malaya achieved its independence in 1957, the Federal Constitution of Malaya (nowMalaysia) reflected a consensus and compromise between the different ethnicities and the preference of the retreating colonialists. Islam was to be the religion of the Federation, but other faiths were allowed to be practiced. Malay was made the official language but other communities were allowed to use, teach and learn their own. Finally, the King – the Supreme Head – of Malaysia was given the power not only to protect the "special position" of the indigenous Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak, but also the legitimate interests of the other communities on the advice of the Prime Minister. Thus, while many see the Federal Constitution as an imperfect document, it still has a strong imperative for liberty and justice. True, the institutions it created were generally conservative, but they functioned with integrity and efficiency. There was rule of law. Much was spent on education and infrastructure development.Malaysiawon a place of respect in the world. This, however, was undone during Dr. Mahathir Mohammad tenure as Prime Minister. He fought to shore up his power at the expense ofMalaysia's royal families, judiciary, civil service, media and civil society. Malaysia's fledgling democracy seemed headed towards one-party, and indeed one-man rule. Malaysia suffered one Constitutional crisis after another as he brooked no dissent. Mahathir's era also saw a change in Malaysia's social fabric. The global Islamic revival made politicised Islam became more visible in the public space, which the ethnic Malays, who are constitutionally also Muslim, flocked to as a means to articulate their identity more clearly. At the same time, ethic polarization increased as non-Malays became disillusioned with the limited opportunities available to them in the public sphere and an increase in socio-economic inequalities across all-races. On the other hand, the advent of the Internet saw the slow dismantling of the government monopoly on information and capital. This was the background to the Reformasi movement that emerged after the sacking of Mahathir's third Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim in 1998. The movement derailed Mahathir's attempt to recreateMalaysia in his image as a developed nation by 2020, and led many Malays to vote for the Opposition in the 1999 elections. Thus, Mahathir's dominant UMNO party tried to shore-up its Malay support. It increased its rhetoric of Malay supremacy ("ketuanan Melayu") to frighten the community into thinking they would be "swamped" by the other races while abandoning moderate Malays and the non-Malays. UMNO's racialism led to the BN losing unprecedented ground in the 2008 elections.  Barisan Nasional (BN) was denied its traditional two-thirds Parliamentary majority and lost control of five state governments. The present administration led by Najib Razak has realised on the need for change and launched a "1Malaysia" campaign that talks of multiracialism and unity. Unfortunately, while Najib has been saying the right things, there seems to be a lack of political will to push through reforms that would upset the various vested interests in the establishment. This was also true of his predecessor's – Abdullah Ahmad Badawi – tenure. There is also genuine ideological belief amongst Malaysia's extreme right-wing Malay ethno-nationalists that the Federal Constitution is based on Malay Supremacy. They conveniently forget that the same document—as abovementioned—also provides for the protection of the legitimate interests of the other communities. While the Federal Constitution provides for asymmetrical freedoms and responsibilities, equality as a fundamental liberty is enshrined. Thus, Malaysia's rising tensions have less to do with its formal structures than its entrenched authoritarian political culture. The mistaken belief that the Constitution embodies Malay Supremacy – a term only introduced in the mid-1980s – is a result of the hijacking of history by political propagandists, racist brainwashing camps for university students and civil servants and extremist sentiments being played up by BN-owned media. Read more at: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2011/10/07/moving-forward-from-racial-tensions-in-malaysia/

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Najib, what’s it to be? Free and fair elections after electoral reforms, or Tahrir Square? Posted: 06 Oct 2011 11:30 AM PDT These were the  electoral reforms for which thousands of Malaysians converged on the streets of Kuala Lumpur to send a strong message to Najib's government : we, the rakyat, are not prepared to have another general election until we have the reforms we have demanded. You will all recall that between the BERSIH 2.0 event on 19th June to announce the rally of 9th July, and the days after leading up to the rally itself, Najib, his ministers,Ibs and Perkasa, UMNO bloggers and the mainstream media were in complete denial that our 8 demands for electoral reforms had any basis. The sheer numbers, the determination and the solidarity of the rakyat out there on 9th July, notwithstanding the blockades to prevent thousands getting into the city that day and the brutal treatment meted out by the FRU on those who managed to get into the rally, however, must have sent a chill down Najib's spine. On 15th August, Najib announced the intention of the government to form a parliamentary select committee to look into reforms to our electoral system. "Recently there have been demands for free and fair elections. The government's response is that we will propose the setting up of a parliamentary select committee soon, which will be made up of members from both BN and opposition…The committee will discuss all electoral reforms that needs to be implemented in order to achieve bipartisan agreement without any suspicion that there is manipulation by the government," , Malaysiakini reports Najib as saying. Najib is also reported to have said that he will not form a government unless it is truly elected by the people. "Don't think that we do not want a clean process of electing the government, we are committed to the tradition of parliamentary elections," he is reported to have said. Two days later, Nazri Aziz brushed aside demands from the opposition that assurances be given that no general election will be called until the requisite electoral reforms are put in place. "They are a minority and this is the right of the government. They cannot dictate to us," , Malaysiakini reports Nazri as saying. Two days later, as reported in Malaysiakini, Najib reiterated what Nazri had said : the next general election can be held anytime and is not bound by the work of the parliamentary select committee on electoral reforms. Since then, rumours abound that the 13th GE is imminent. 11th November, 2011, cause Najib is fixated with the number 11. 5th November, cause, it seems, that is Rosmah's preference. On 3rd October, Parliament passed a motion to establish the parliamentary select committee (PSC) to look into electoral reform. Malaysiakini reports that Nazri Aziz, who tabled the motion in Parliament, when winding up the debate on the same, said that "PRU-13 (the upcoming 13th general election) will not be the last GE for Malaysia and after that the world ends. If a snap election is called, the PSC's recommendations can be implemented in the 14th, 15th, 16th and GEs thereafter." In other words, even as the committee discusses and discovers serious flaws in our electoral process, we, the rakyat, are expected to acquiesce to UMNO and BN going ahead to hold the 13th GE without those flaws being first put right. Read more at: http://harismibrahim.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/najib-whats-it-to-be-free-and-fair-elections-after-electoral-reforms-or-tahrir-square/

‘Truth In Advertising’ – Ta Ann Exposed! Posted: 05 Oct 2011 10:15 AM PDT The report, published today by the Huon Valley Environment Centre of Tasmania, spells out Ta Ann's hypocrisy and it is uncompromisingly titled "Behind the Veneer: Forest destruction and Ta Ann Tasmania's lies". [click for report] Over 50 pages, the troubling expose details how the Sarawak timber giant's decision to invest in Tasmania was specifically aimed at targeting the growing market for environmentally friendly, sustainable wood products, but has ended up deceiving consumers. Why Tasmania? "EIDAI is proud of our ECO-friendly flooring product" – Japanese advertisement for Ta Ann veneer panels sourced in Tasmania As Ta Ann boss, Hamed Sepawi, himself confessed in 2006, Sarawak has almost completely run out of accessible timber, after 30 years of unrestrained logging by his own cousin and benefactor the Chief Minister. Tasmania still has extensive hardwood jungles however, and remains one of the most important areas of natural wildlife world wide. Even more crucially, Australia has received limited accreditation for sustainable timber, compared to Sarawak which is notorious for its destruction of the Borneo jungle. Hence the constant highlighting of Tasmania as the source of Ta Ann's new 'environmentally conscious' operations. However, as the investigation makes clear, NONE of the wood that Ta Ann has so far used from Tasmania qualifies as sustainable. In fact, ALL of the logs so far taken by the company have come from old growth forests, many in high conservation value areas that form crucial habitats for some of the world's most endangered species.  These include Tasmania's Wedge Tailed Eagle, the Quoll and the Tasmanian Devil. And NO plantation wood is being used by Ta Ann in its veneer processing mills in Tasmania.   READ MORE HERE.

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Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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• No Malaysian university in Times Higher Education (THE) 400 Top World University Ranking 2011/12
• Tax reliefs: Hidden subsidies that favour the rich
• Grassroots Support The Key To Forming The Next Government
• The Pinnacle of Human Stupidity - The Darwin Awards
• The Bersih Truth Hurts
• Malaysia In The Next Era
• Maybe UMNO should court HINDRAF
• Freedom House Calls For Release of Egyptian Blogger

No Malaysian university in Times Higher Education (THE) 400 Top World University Ranking 2011/12 Posted: 06 Oct 2011 10:08 AM PDT By Lim Kit Siang The release today of the Times Higher Education (THE) 400 Top World University Ranking 2011/12, where not a single Malaysian university is included, has punctured the elation and euphoria just two months ago over the QS 200 World University Rankings 2011/12 which saw University of Malaya making it to the top 200 Top Universities moving 40 places to 167 compared to 2010. In the QS World University Rankings 2011/12, four other Malaysian universities slid down the rankings – University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) ranked 279 this year compared to 263 in 2010; Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) ranked 335 (309 last year); Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) ranked 358 (319 last year) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) at between 401 and 450 (365 last year). But in the just-released THE 400 Top World University Ranking 2011/12, none of the Malaysian universities made it into the placings. For the first time, Harvard (with Stanford) is at number two, failing to take the top spot in the list's eight-year history – with California Institute for Technology named the best university in the world. The rest of the Top Ten spots are Oxford (4), Princeton (5), Cambridge (6), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (70), Imperial College London (8), Chicago (9) and California (Berkeley) (10). The top Asian universities in the THE World University Ranking 2011/12 are: 30 – University of Tokyo (Japan) 34 – University of Hong Kong (HK) 40 – National University of Singapore (Singapore) 49 - Peking University (China) 52 – Kyoto University (Japan) 53 - Pohang University of Science and Technology (S.Korea) 62 - Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Hong Kong) 71 – Tsinghua University (China) 94 - Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (South Korea) 108 – Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) 119 – Osaka University (Japan) 120 – Tohoku University (Japan) 124 – Seoul National University (South Korea) 151 – Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong) 154 – National Taiwan University (Taiwan) 169 – Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) 192 – University of Science and Technology of China (China) 193 – City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong) Worth noting is that while not a single Malaysian university made it into the Times Higher Education (THE) 400 Top World Universities, Thailand through Mahidol University is ranked in the final category between 351-400.

Tax reliefs: Hidden subsidies that favour the rich Posted: 05 Oct 2011 05:53 PM PDT Tax reliefs are a very regressive form of government subsidies to the taxpayers. The richer the taxpayer, the more subsidies she receives from the government. Thus it is unfair and inequitable, writes Subramaniam Pillay. In the past couple of years, there has been a lot of talk on subsidy rationalisation i.e. the removal of subsidies for basic items like cooking oil, sugar, flour and petrol. The argument is that it subsidises the poor as well as the rich; it is unfair to provide subsidies for the rich, so we must eliminate the subsidies and let market forces work. Many of these subsidies help the poor and the rich equally. For example, if a family consumes 5kg of cooking oil per month, they get the same subsidy regardless of their wealth and income. Usually, consumption of basic food items does not increase with increasing wealth and income. However, there is a large hidden subsidy which favours the rich over the poor that has been conveniently forgotten. And this comes in the form of the various tax reliefs offered to taxpayers. In this week, before the 2012 budget is announced, there have been numerous calls to increase the tax relief for various items including premiums for medical insurance, educational insurance and life insurance. Tax reliefs are is a very regressive form of government subsidies to the taxpayers. The richer the taxpayer, the more subsidy she gets from the government. Thus it is unfair and inequitable. Tax relief for purchase of books Let us illustrate this with an example. Currently, there is a tax relief of RM1000 for the purchase of books and magazines that is available to all taxpayers. Ostensibly, this is to encourage the reading habit among Malaysians. A high-income earner who is at the top tax bracket will pay a marginal tax rate of 26 per cent i.e. for every extra ringgit she earns, she will pay 26 sen income tax. On the flip side, every ringgit of tax relief that she claims will reduce her income tax by 26 sen. If she now buys books and magazines worth RM1000 for herself or her children, she can claim the full relief and lower her tax bill by RM260. In other words, this high-income person is getting a government subsidy of RM260 to purchase books. Now let us take the case of Mr X, the average citizen of Malaysia whose income is so low that he does not pay taxes. (It has been reported that only 1.7m residents have tax files with IRB which means the remaining 12m-15m working adults are either earning too little to pay income tax or evading paying income tax!) If Mr X now buys RM1000 worth of books to improve his and his children's knowledge to enable them to have a better life in the future, he receives no subsidy as he is not entitled to any tax relief. If Ms Y, a middle income Malaysian has a marginal tax rate of 12 per cent, she will get a subsidy of only RM120 for the RM1000 worth of books she buys. The irony is that it is the families in the lower-income group who need the books more as it will enable them to earn a better income in the future. They need the book subsidy more than the rich. But our tax relief system rewards the rich more than the poor thus widening the income and wealth disparity in this country.   Tax relief for medical insurance premiums An even more unfair tax relief is the one offered for purchase of medical insurance. Using the same reasoning as above, the government is subsidising the rich with 26 per cent of the cost of the medical insurance premium while the poor will be unable to even think of buying medical insurance as they cannot afford it. This subsidy should rightly be diverted to the health care budget so that the public sector health care system can do a better job in terms of delivering quality health care on a consistent basis. The beneficiaries of this medical insurance tax relief (or subsidy as it should be correctly labelled) are not only the high-income taxpayers but also the private medical insurance companies and the profit-seeking private hospital sector.   Why are tax reliefs popular? Given this glaring inequity and unfairness of the tax relief system, why is it popular in many countries? The beneficiaries are well educated and vocal enough to influence politicians to give these reliefs. Industry groups which benefit from these reliefs (e.g. insurance companies, private hospitals, and private education providers) are also powerful lobbies in many countries. The poor on the other hand are voiceless and their welfare is usually neglected. For example, few top leaders in all segments of our society use public hospitals; in fact many go abroad for medical treatment, so they don't see the need for consistently high quality health care from government hospitals which most Malaysians have no choice but to use. Another reason is that the subsidy in the form of tax relief is revenue foregone and not visible directly; it is not recorded anywhere in the government's income and expenditure accounts. On the other hand, a subsidy for cooking oil turns up as an expenditure item in the accounts. So when the government thinks of tightening its belt, it tends to focus on how to cut spending and not how to enhance revenue by removing all these indirect subsidies which favour the rich more than the poor. It is also easier to quantify direct subsidies whereas revenue foregone through tax reliefs is more difficult to estimate and is thus less visible. Given these reasons, it is not going to be easy to get rid of the unjust and massive inequitable subsidy that occurs through tax reliefs in our government budgets.   Dr Subramaniam Pillay is an economist who has just retired from academia. He is also a member of the executive committee of Aliran.

Grassroots Support The Key To Forming The Next Government Posted: 05 Oct 2011 05:51 PM PDT By LH Chew Really, the battle for the hearts and minds of the Malaysian voters come GE13 is not the educated and internet-savvy voters but in the grassroots, deep in the kampungs, new villages and estates. The Sarawak state election held a while back proved that statement. And I am sure our Pakatan Rakyat brothers and sisters knew that. No amount of mud-slinging and korek would unseat the BN government. The BN machinery is just too slick working effectively in the rural areas. If you think about it, this is actually the reverse in Thailand where the elites and educated and urbanites worked hard to exclude the parties that have the support from the rural population (the have-nots) from forming the government. Your guess is as good as mine, eventually, the elites and internet-savvy still have to give way to the grassroots. The recently completed Singapore elections also proved this point. It was touted as an internet election with young voters reading up on the alternative media before deciding who to vote but alas, it was the mainstream media that won, according to a survey conducted jointly by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and Nanyang Technological University (see link to the story http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20111005-303216.html). That is the reality in Malaysia and those who are internet-savvy can be easily counted with our ten fingers versus the masses in the kampungs, new villages and estates. BN knew this is where the battle will be fought and won and they knew this is one of the main oppositions' weaknesses. As for me, like many of you, I would like to see reforms, hopefully by voting in a new government. Unfortunately, facts are not on our side. I wonder if our pakciks, makciks, ah peks, ah sohs, aunties, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers ever know what is Pakatan Rakyat because to many of them, they only swear by the dacing symbol. The opposition parties have to unite and go to the grounds, not squabbling who is going to be the Prime Minister and whether hudud is the way to go. They need to take a leaf from the Workers Party in Singapore where their party members worked the grounds for many years in one of the areas they contested despite losing in several elections and eventually they won it in last year's election, along the way knocking out one of the most prominent Cabinet minister. And now this party is working on a long term plan to replace the PAP government. Well, you can laugh at it. At least they are already working on that plan.     It is a tough journey and whether BN can be voted out, depends on how organized the opposition parties are.

The Pinnacle of Human Stupidity - The Darwin Awards Posted: 05 Oct 2011 05:46 PM PDT I was thinking, luckily no Malaysian has ever won this award before, so we must be smarter than this, at least. By Socrates It's that time again. The DARWIN Awards are out. The annual honour is given to the persons who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out. This year's winner was a real rocket scientist ... HONESTLY! Read on ... and remember that each and every one of these is a TRUE STORY!!! And the nominees were: Semifinalist #1 A young Canadian man, searching for a way of getting drunk cheaply, because he had no money with which to buy alcohol, mixed gasoline with milk. Not surprisingly, this concoction made him ill, and he vomited into the fireplace in his house. This resulting explosion and fire burned his house down, killing both him and his sister. Semifinalist #2 Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low altitude when another plane approached. It appears that they decided to moon the occupants of the other plane, but lost control of their own aircraft and crashed. They were all found dead in the wreckage with their pants around their ankles. Semifinalist #3 A 22-year-old Reston, VA, man was found dead after he tried to use octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70-foot rail road trestle. Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast-food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink Park, jumped and hit the pavement. Warren Carmichael, a police spokesman, said investigators think Barcia was alone because his car was found nearby. 'The length of the cord that he had assembled was greater than the distance between the trestle and the ground,' Carmichael said. Police say the apparent cause of death was 'Major trauma.' Semifinalist #4 A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems that he and a friend were playing a game of catch, using the rattlesnake as a ball. The friend - no doubt a future Darwin Awards candidate - was hospitalized. Semifinalist #5 Employees in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed the smell of a gas leak. Sensibly, management evacuated the building, extinguishing all potential sources of ignition; lights, power, etc... After the building had been evacuated, two technicians from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the dark. To their frustration, none of the lights worked. Witnesses later described the sight of one of the technicians reaching into his pocket and retrieving an object that resembled a cigarette lighter. Upon operation of the lighter-like object, the gas in the warehouse exploded, sending pieces of it up to three miles away. Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter was virtually untouched by the explosion. The technician suspected of causing the blast had never been thought of as ''bright'' by his peers. And now, for the winner of this year's Darwin Award Award: (As always, awarded posthumously): The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. Police investigators finally pieced together the mystery. An amateur rocket scientist had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off, actually a solid-fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra 'push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to the car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO! The facts as best could be determined are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit the JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20 -25 seconds. The driver, and soon-to-be pilot, would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, causing him to become irrelevant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock. Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable. Epilogue: It has been calculated that this moron attained a ground speed of approximately 420-mph, though much of his voyage was not actually on the ground. PEOPLE LIKE THIS WALK AMONG US, AND THEY ARE ALLOWED TO HAVE KIDS AND VOTE!! ######################################################### I was thinking, luckily no Malaysian has ever won this award before, so we must be smarter than this, at least. Then, an awful thought struck me. Perhaps, as individuals we may not have reached this moronic level, but we certainly take the cake when we look at it from a national angle. I mean, for letting the UMNO/ BN Government rape and plunder our country, Malaysia, for over 40 years, resulting in near bankruptcy in the near future, and if we are still voting them into power in GE13 we must win the Darwin Award for being the GE13, most moronic population in the world, bar none! Certainly, I shall put forward Malaysia as a candidate for the Darwin Award if there is no change in the government after the GE13. To prevent Malaysia from winning this shameful award, VOTE OUT BN in the GE13!!

The Bersih Truth Hurts Posted: 05 Oct 2011 10:30 AM PDT By Douglas Tan via Malaysian Digest While our Prime Minister receives accolades from most quarters for the repeal of archaic acts such as the Banishment Act 1959 and the Restricted Residence Act 1993, questions must be asked about when the true reforms would be made. Only now has Najib Razak instructed the Attorney-General to draft the two pieces of alternative legislation to the Internal Security Act (ISA), and he has continued to chide the opposition for claiming to be the champions of the repeal of the act. Clearly, the Prime Minister has not come prepared by announcing that the ISA would be abolished without having anything prepared to replace it. The circus does not stop there. The Medical Device Authority act gives the police the authority to seize any medical devices as evidence with the approval of the Health Minister. In our system where Ministerial authority for criminal matters should be diminished, the wide scope of the act shows that this Barisan Nasional (BN) government is as authoritarian as ever, and has no intention to change. Question Time was intriguing as it forced Ministers to come clean with the information behind their recent actions. Actions are not without consequences, and as it transpires, the justification given for their actions are nothing short of laughable. No rally has been publicized as much as Bersih 2.0, branded by the mainstream media as the July 9th illegal rally. Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has been put under an enormous amount of scrutiny as to how the event was handled, and now the spotlight has been redirected at him as he attempts to explain the actions taken and the cost. As we all now know, there were over 11,000 police personnel at a cost in excess of RM2 million borne by the taxpayers. This enormous figure compared with their official claims that only 6,000 people turned up for the rally and that almost 1,700 people were arrested smacks of inefficiency and waste in itself! Or could it be that there were really 50,000 on the ground that day and the police presence and cost was a proportional response to keep public order? The Home Ministry can argue about the facts, but when it comes to footing the bill, it becomes difficult to justify the sheer cost of it all. Repealing the ISA would make Malaysia the best democracy in the world, chimes the Prime Minister, but the Home Minister continues to deem Bersih as an illegal organization as they intended to "overthrow the government". This line of reasoning is a result of paranoia rather than fact. The intent was to reform the electoral system, not to overthrow the government! This is not a justification, rather just a convenient, albeit farfetched, explanation to defend the indefensible. Finally, Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai once again has egg on his face. After his public denial that no teargas or chemical laced water was shot at Tung Shin Hospital, the Home Ministry report conceding that the police has breached their own Standard Operating Procedures is a massive slap on the face. After all the fuss about Lim Guan Eng apologizing for his gaff about Johor security, can we also expect an apology from the Health Minister? Or shall we expect more excuses, and the same holier-than-thou hypocrisy that we are used to? Either way, BN have displayed their true colors yet again by failing to walk the talk. With these half-hearted measures taken to reforms, they are asking for punishment from the Rakyat in the looming General Elections.

Malaysia In The Next Era Posted: 04 Oct 2011 01:23 PM PDT By LH Chew Sometimes it makes me wonder if we really have the guts to take the first step to make the change. We like to lament how bad things are, how the government took us for a ride, how innocent people who simply wants to see reforms were 'terrorised', the corruption, the money leakage, and all sorts of ills, yet we still want to stick with BN election after election. Yes, BN had ruled for more than 50 years, and we have been eating the same set of dishes for that long, should we not have a different taste now? Previously, I wrote in my article 'A New Dawn In Malaysia, Hopefully' which was published in Malaysia Today last December and I mentioned if we voted an alternative government into place and they do not perform as what the rakyat expected, we can always kick them out in the next election. But if we do not even try, will you see any changes? If there is no change, there is no change. Sure, changes come with risks, as it has been proven in many other countries when they changed the government, but if we do not take risks, do you expect your life is going to improve? There is no such thing as a free lunch and we know that. Take Taiwan for example. It was ruled by KMT for more than 50 years and the people voted for a change in government in 2000. Unfortunately what they got was a miserable 8 years under the rule of the new government. The new government became even more corrupt and they abused their power more than the previous government. But the civil service did improve and the civil servants for once really became a 'servant' to the people, they became more polite and humble. After experimenting with an alternative government, Taiwan decided to vote back KMT because during those 8 years in the wilderness, the KMT transformed and reformed and listen more to the people. In other words, they suddenly became more people-friendly. We need to keep ourselves in mind that there is no such thing as a perfect government and we cannot expect when we are given a drumstick, we want the whole chicken. With a reformed KMT back in power, there was less turmoil in the society and the economy did get going and the peoples' lives did see improvement. So, if our Pakatan Rakyat brothers and sisters claim they can do a better job than the BN government, let them try. If they do not live up to what they said they can do, we will simply kick them out in the next election. But we first must bite the bullet and let them form the government. What is the point of complaining about the state of affairs if we continue voting in the BN government. If we do so, then we should just shut up and take all these unpleasantness in our stride. We have already read in the alternative media, the exposures related to abuses of power that were swept under the carpet and selective prosecution. We want all these 'crooks' to see the light of the day. We want a fairer society. But if we keep sticking with the BN government, we are not sure if we can see some remedies to these ills. Indeed Pakatan Rakyat do have some good people in their line-up and hopefully when they form the government, they will live up to their expectations. Yes, there were many 'kataks' too as back in 2008, Pakatan Rakyat just grab any live bodies to stand for them but these unworthy members should have been weeded out when they jumped ship. We want to see those who remained in Pakatan Rakyat prove their worth. So, hopefully come GE13, we can all wake up to a new government. Let us not just talk about it, just do it!

Maybe UMNO should court HINDRAF Posted: 04 Oct 2011 01:10 PM PDT PR had a free ride under the HINDRAF banner for GE12 and yet today they won't even engage with them. People are not blind and they do understand what racism is.  By Jakun Malaysia   With the election on the horizon, everyone seems to be wary of the direction of the nation with the usual politicing taking centre field. The public who seems to know everything that happens around us which ends up in kedai kopi gossip seems to read too much into the gimmickry both by UMNO and PR. The showdown comes and goes and nothing changes for the general public in terms of policies or the betterment of the society. UMNO, having castigated HINDRAF with anything and everything that they could find under the advice of their mandores was eventually brought down in GE12 with unexpected loses in the election. They even went to the extent of legalising and inaugurating the superficial political movement that calls itself MMS within a month of its application although MIC would have naturally been against it. Imagine how desperate UMNO was?  As far as PPP is concerned, it is a shade of its originators, the Seenivasagam brothers, so it does not even deserve a mention like other Indian-based parties like IPF and god knows how many more Indian party splinters. Let's look at Sabah & Sarawak; you have four different parties in each respective state being a part of the coalition with guaranteed either parliamentary or state seats. Looking into the decision-makers in West Malaysia which is definitely multicultural, official coalition partners with some chicken feed by the UMNO supremos are only MCA, MIC, GERAKAN & PPP. Now you have twenty-one other officially registered parties and one unregistered party ie (HRP). Naturally, you can guess whose affliance the leaders of these parties are fed except for PSM. You don't see them much in public until election time. PR thinks with its three (3) parties they have the cat in a bag although if not for the uprise of HINDRAF they would be standing high and dry like what happened in 1990 & 1999. PR had a free ride under the HINDRAF banner for GE12 and yet today they won't even engage with them. People are not blind and they do understand what racism is. UMNO may have committed atrocities, courtesy of Dr Mahathir in the past, but they had their brothers in arms ie the rest of the elite and cari makan middleclass non-Malays who equally neglect the poorer brethren of their society. I don't know whether UMNO has learnt its lesson, but I can see that they are trying to make amends like accepting a superficial party like MMS into their fold and approving PSM and KITA. Maybe UMNO wants to make a change, maybe it was misdirected by their mandores like how PR is, who knows, when it is a bread and butter issue for the society?   In semblance to Suqiu, if many would remember, their demand was similar to HINDRAF back in 1999 but naturally eclipsed by the one and only Dr Mahathir after inflicting fear and favor in exchange.     Fortunately HINDRAF is immune to fear and favor, and that carried the spirit of consciousness for the community and the torch is still there after 4 years by its spirited followers. If PR thinks that this is not relevant, then I think it is high time UMNO makes an attempt to engage HINDRAF and lay down a blueprint if they feel that even after 54 years of faults and errors through their mandores, they have the humility to ensure they are the best movement to ensure the progress of its people irrespective of origin.

Freedom House Calls For Release of Egyptian Blogger Posted: 03 Oct 2011 06:39 AM PDT On the eve of his appeal hearing, Freedom House condemns the unjust imprisonment of Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad and calls for his immediate release. Mr. Sanad was sentenced to three years in prison as a result of his criticism of the military's brutal treatment of protestors. During his trial, he was accused of spreading false information and insulting the military. He was convicted in a summary procedure without the presence of a lawyer or the ability to contact his family. Makail Nabil began a hunger strike in August to protest his imprisonment and intends to continue this strike until he dies or is released.  "Mikael's trial and hasty imprisonment by a military tribunal on charges of insulting the armed forces is a violation of his right to due process as well as a betrayal of the principles of democracy the Egyptian military claims it wants to uphold," said Charles Dunne, Freedom House's senior program manager for MENA. "The appeal hearing on October 4 is a clear opportunity for Egypt's ruling military council to set right a gross injustice." Egyptians have been the victims of an increasing crackdown on public debate, including the reinstatement of the Ministry of Information, a ministry that does not exist in most democracies and is viewed as restrictive by many activists. At least 12,000 civilians have been tried in military courts since February 2011, according to Human Rights Watch. Bloggers, journalists and those critical of the military have been arrested and restrictions have been placed on publication or broadcast of information or opinion about the military. In August 2011, activist and blogger Asmaa Mahfouz was arrested and charged with inciting violence against the military for her social networking posts. Egypt is ranked Not Free in Freedom in the World 2011, Freedom House's survey of political rights and civil liberties, and Not Free in Freedom of the Press 2011. For more information on Egypt, visit: Freedom in the World 2011: Egypt Freedom on the Net 2011: Egypt Freedom of the Press 2011: Egypt Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports democratic change, monitors the status of freedom around the world, and advocates for democracy and human rights.

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