Archive for April 23rd, 2012

Let’s just get back to basics

— May Chee Chook Ying
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 23, 2012

APRIL 23 — Let’s forget about trying to break into the Guinness Book of World Records and stuff. Let’s just get back to basics. Let’s just go back to square one; what it means to be a democracy, what it means to uphold the constitution. Let’s remember the pledge of the Rukunegara, first mooted in 1970. For those who have forgotten about it and for those who do not know anything about it, it goes like this:

“Our Nation, Malaysia, is dedicated to: Achieving a greater unity for all her people; maintaining a democratic way of life; creating a just society in which the wealth of the nation shall be equitably distributed; ensuring a liberal approach to her rich and diverse cultural tradition, and building a progressive society which shall be oriented to modern science and technology.

We, the people of Malaysia, pledge our united efforts to attain these ends, guided by these principles:

Belief in God

Loyalty to King and Country

Upholding the Constitution

Sovereignty of the Law and

Good Behaviour and Morality”

Seen or felt any of the above lately? Am I the only one sorely missing the spirit of the Rukunegara? Can we drown out the din, please, and get back to living with dignity, the way decent human beings deserve to? Read the rest of this entry »

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3.1m dubious voters on list for a decade, says Bersih

By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — Bersih accused the Election Commission (EC) today of failing to investigate 3.1 million voters whose identity card (IC) addresses differ from that in the electoral roll despite having the information since 2002.

Speaking at a press conference called by the electoral reform movement, independent polls analyst Ong Kian Ming said the EC was given this information for all states in the peninsula and also Kuala Lumpur in 2002 and the figure made up 37 per cent of the 8.3 million voters registered then.

The project director for the Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project (MERAP) said he has had the information given by the National Registration Department (NRD) to the EC before the implementation of the new registration system where all voters have to be registered according to the constituency indicated by their IC addresses.

“The EC has failed to act on this… to clean up the electoral roll even though the presence of these non-resident voters contravenes Article 119 1(b) of the Federal Constitution which says a voter must be a resident in the constituency he is voting in,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

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The death of civil liberties

by Malik Imtiaz Sarwar

Though the Government has said much about the repeal of the infamous Internal Security Act, little has been said to explain how its so-called replacement, the Security Offences (Special Measures) Bill (SOA), will impact on our lives. Even less has been said about the bill tabled to amend the Penal Code that went hand in hand with the SOA. I think there was a reason for this.

To say that the two bills are draconian would be a gross understatement. They brutally curtail the constitutional freedom of Malaysians to dissent. It seems that we have been made the victims of a sleight of hand. While we were being distracted by the song and dance that attended the termination of the ISA, Parliament was being harnessed to diabolical purpose. The passing of the two bills has sounded the death knell of civil liberties.

I am not given to hyperbole. The facts speak for themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

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Testimonial siapa yang lebih baik? Tunku dan Hussein Onn atau yang lain-lain?

—Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 23, 2012

23 APRIL — Semalam PM Najib di Pulau Pinang, negeri yang telah begitu maju dan telah pun menjadi negeri yang mendahului negeri-negeri lain dalam pelaburan pembuatan tahun lepas. Pulau Pinang diikuti rapat oleh Selangor dalam sektor yang sama dan kedua-duanya adalah negeri yang ditadbir oleh Pakatan Rakyat. Najib kali ini menjanjikan bulan dan bintang kepada negeri P. Pinang jika BN kembali memerintah negeri itu.

Janji pemimpin BN itu adalah janji dari parti yang telah jatuh ke dalam gaung dan kali ini ia memberikan janji kepada orang-orang yang telah mencampakkan BN ke dalam gaung itu. Lawatan ini adalah lawatan dalam siri kempen pilihanraya ke13 nanti dan Najib masih melagukan lagu-lagu lama yang sudah tidak masuk “carta lagu popular mingguan” lagi.

Lagunya yang dinyanyikan di Pulau Pinang semalam bertajuk “Ingat kepada jasa lama” dan “Jangan tinggal daku” yang telah dinyanyikan oleh pemimpin Umno setiap kali pilihanraya sampai. Lagu ini serupa seperti lagu “Selamat Hari Raya” nyanyian biduawanita negara Saloma. Lagu “Selamat Hari Raya” hanya berkumandang semasa kita menghampiri Hari Raya Puasa. Lagu-lagu ini datangnya bermusim. Bila habis Hari Raya hilanglah lagu selamat Hari Raya. Begitu jugalah lagu nyanyian Najib.

Tidak ada modal lain selain dari meminta rakyat dan orang Melayu khususnya untuk berterima kasih kepada BN dan mengenang jasa-jasa pemimpin-pemimpin terdahulu seperti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Dr Mahathir serta Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Najib menggunakan nama-nama pemimpin yang terdahulu sebagai “testimonial” untuk mendapatkan sokongan yang berterusan dari rakyat. Najib dan Umno pimpinannya sedang kepanasan kerana dalil-dalil yang jelas telah dilihat yang BN akan menghadapi pilihanraya yang paling getir dalam sejarah negara merdeka kita.

Tetapi Najib tidak pula nampak yang “testimonial” nama-nama pemimpin yang disebut beliau itu tidak boleh meyakinkan rakyat untuk menerimanya bulat-bulat. Setidak-tidaknya dua dari nama yang disebutnya itu tidak berada didalam Umno semasa mereka meninggal dunia. Tunku Abdul Rahman sehingga akhir hayat beliau tidak mahu menyertai Umno kerana parti itu tidak lagi mempunyai “attribute” sebagai parti yang mempunyai intregiriti untuk memerintah. Begitu juga Hussein Onn. Kedua-dua bekas pemimpin besar Umno ini tidak mahu menyertai Umno sama sekali. Read the rest of this entry »

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Umno’s looming end

— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 22, 2012

APRIL 22 — It is already happening. The people in the mainstream media and “mainstream new media” do not have a clue about what is happening. They are seeing ghosts at every corner. Umno is in total disarray. In desperate times, Umno resorts to desperate measures.

Umno knows the Malay mindset. They know Malays have this addiction to horror stories, sex and other bizarre tales. That is why readership of the Mastika Magazine far outstrips that of Utusan Malaysia. In Utusan Malaysia, only two pieces of news are true; (1) the Islamic prayer times and (2) 4-digit numbers. Can it be that more Malays now patronise the gaming shops? Everything else in Utusan is deceit.

So, now, they concentrate on the horror of horrors — all else will die with the demise of Umno. The hard truth is, if Umno dies, the ones who will suffer most will be the parasitic leeches and the anointed rent-seekers, the licensed rajahs, the ones given licences to plunder, and the corrupt politicians. It’s the end of civilisation, but it’s the end of the plundering civilisation as Umno knows it.

Let me hasten to comfort Malays and Malaysians; nobody dies if Umno goes under. Especially not the Malays. The tide and ebb of Malays do not absolutely depend on Umno. We progress through education and through our efforts. Read the rest of this entry »

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DAP wants ‘clueless’ PKA boss to disclose meeting minutes

By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — The DAP today demanded all minutes of the Port Klang Authority (PKA) meetings in 2009 and 2010 be made public, while accusing its chairman Datuk Teh Kim Poh and Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha of misleading the public over the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) bonds payment fiasco.

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said Teh was merely attempting to protect his boss Kong on Friday when the former denied allegations that the minister had been the one who had overturned PKA’s decision not to pay turnkey developer Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) bondholders.

“Teh must be either completely clueless about what had happened in 2009 and 2010 or he is just lying through his teeth to protect the boss Kong who appointed him to his current position,” Pua said in a statement here.

The DAP publicity secretary then cited a media report on July 28, 2010 that said it was Kong who had used his ministerial powers to override PKA’s decision to refuse to make the final RM222.58 million to the special purpose vehicle set up by KDSB to raise funds from the market. Read the rest of this entry »

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