Archive for category PAS
Say ‘no’ to Ibrahim Ali-style politics, Chua
Posted by Kit in Lim Guan Eng, MCA, PAS on Friday, 10 February 2012
— Francis Loh
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 10, 2012
FEB 10 — Since he is MCA chief, it is expected that Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek would criticise and exchange barbs with his political opponents in the DAP and the other Pakatan Rakyat parties. Nothing wrong with that, even welcomed. But he should not patronise us the rakyat with the usual simplistic and ethnicised arguments, like Ibrahim Ali is prone to do.
For instance, it was reported (The Star, February 3, 2012) that he had resorted to that age-old boring refrain: that the DAP has been misleading the Chinese into believing that a vote for the party would help realise their hopes of getting fair treatment and a top Chinese leader. In fact, for Chua, “Chinese voters did not understand that a vote for the DAP would only help PAS realise its objective of forming an Islamic state and implementing its brand of hudud”.
Chua made these remarks even when the PAS leadership had just sacked the extremist Dr Hasan Ali from the party and got him removed from the Selangor state exco for expressing views and acting in opposition to PR policies and positions that had been agreed upon and adopted. Read the rest of this entry »
The fracturing of the Malay community (2)
S Thayaparan | Jan 30, 2012
Malaysiakini
COMMENT
Umno’s interaction with “multiracial parties” has so far been with Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR – ostensibly a multiracial party but for the most part, an organisation filled with ship-jumping Umno rejects – and the Islamic PAS, often used as a bogeyman by Umno to keep the non-Muslims in line.
That Umno considers PKR a threat to its power has more to do with the fact that it was always perceived to be the third moderate way of the Malay polity and not for any multiracial reasons.
Umno is fighting a battle on two fronts, against vocal liberal Malay voices of PKR and the more religious tones from PAS.
In both these cases, the fight for the Malay soul is confined within the Malay community and the non-Malays have been collateral damage in the ongoing shadow war that will determine the fate of this country.
So it should come as no surprise that Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin (left) is concerned over the possible influx of moderate Malay voices into the routinely demonised DAP.
If more Malays enter this political party, the Malay vote will be further fractured into a diverse range of political aspirations that don’t neatly fit in the bigoted ethnocentric agenda of the ruling Umno regime.
If the point of the Umno game is to limit the choices of the Malay population then any attempt to provide avenues for different forms of political expressions is a threat to the natural order of their reality.
There can be no plurality of voices when it comes to expressing Islam. Anything which is a threat to Malay unity, which should be read as Umno hegemony, should be shot down in a hail of racial, religious or cultural bullets. Read the rest of this entry »
Malay matters in the nation’s future
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, DAP, PAS, UMNO on Monday, 30 January 2012
S Thayaparan | Jan 29, 2012
Malaysiakini
COMMENT Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin’s challenge to the DAP to provide figures on the number of Malays joining the ranks of this centre-left party, not to mention Professor Khoo Kay Kim’s rather jaundiced view of Malay leftist as “non-freedom fighters”, is further evidence of the party’s desperate need to define what it means to be Malay, both historically and in the present.
Umno’s continuing efforts at creating the perception of a monolithic Malay polity has veered from the insidiously sophisticated to the downright crude.
Every facet of Malay life as projected by the state’s media propaganda organs has been to present the image of the Malays as a unified voting block raging against the liberal foreign ideas of the DAP, the eroding Islamic ideals of PAS or the immorality of Anwar Ibrahim.
There is a reason why there is a state-sanctioned method of practicing Islam. There is a reason for the morality police. There is a reason for apostasy laws. There is a reason for marriage laws.
There is a reason why other religions are demonised. There is a reason why the Malay population has been indoctrinated to fear their fellow Malaysians. And the reason for this is simple.
What Umno desires, and has received for so many years, is total submission from the sizeable majority of the Malay population. Read the rest of this entry »
S’gor MB is no threat to Islam
Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | January 27, 2012
Free Malaysia Today
Malay rights group Perkasa can say all it wants about Islam coming ‘under siege’ in Selangor, but the fact is it’s Umno’s ruinous actions which threaten Islam.
COMMENT
Is Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim a closet Christian evangelist? Is that why Perkasa is upset over him taking charge of Islam in the state, warning that “the faith of Islam, of Muslims is under siege in Selangor”?
Is Khalid not Islamic enough for Perkasa?
I believe placing Khalid in charge of Islamic affairs in Selangor is the best decision the Pakatan Rakyat government has made.
Despite Perkasa’s postulation that Khalid “lacks the religious credentials”, I believe he will lend the prestige and stature of the MB’s office to Islamic affairs.
Since he has managed the state financially well, he can keep a look-out on the zakat money, too.
So how is he a threat to Islam, as claimed by Perkasa? Khalid is no threat to Islam, Umno is. Read the rest of this entry »
Politik perkauman akhiri zamannya
Posted by Kit in DAP, Lim Guan Eng, PAS on Thursday, 26 January 2012
— Abd Shukur Harun
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 26, 2012
26 JAN — Tidak syak lagi bahawa generasi baru, malah sesetengah generasi lama juga, telah dengan jelas menolak politik perkauman. Dengan itu parti politik yang berasaskan kaum, atau tebal dengan perkauman sedang menghadapi zaman gelapnya.
Dengan itu, tidak mungkin lagi politik perkauman akan terus mendominasi iklim politik di Malaysia, justru golongan yang mendukung politik perkauman semakin merosot dan terus merosot.
DAP yang sejak puluhan tahun digambarkan oleh musuh politiknya sebagai parti perkauman Cina, kini berusaha keras memulihkan imejnya sebagai parti politik untuk semua kaum di Malayia. Usahanya itu sebanyak sedikit menampakkan hasil di mana sudah ada tokoh-tokoh Melayu yang menyertainya.
Keterlibatan tokoh Melayu itu mampu menonjolkan kesungguhan DAP untuk dilihat secara praktikal sebagai parti bukan perkauman. Tokoh terkini Melayu dalam DAP yang mula mengukir nama ialah seperti Zairil Khir Johari (anak Tan Sri Khir Johari), Prof Arifin Omar, Mohd Arif Sabri seorang blogger yang terkenal dengan nama samaran Sokmongkol AK 47, bekas Presiden Kesatuan Wartawan Malaysia (NUJ), Hatta Wahari dan mungkin ramai lagi yang sudah memasang niat untuk bersama DAP.
Ramai yakin untuk memastikan Melayu dilihat ada tempat dalam DAP, mereka akan diberi kedudukan tertentu untuk ditonjolkan sebagai tokoh Melayu dalam DAP.
Kalangan yang menyertai DAP ini sudah tentu mempunyai persepsi yang sama bahawa masa depan politik Malaysia bukanlah politik perkauman. Justru mereka melihat Pakatan Rakyat — di mana terdiri dari PAS, DAP dan PKR — mempunyai potensi yang sangat baik. Read the rest of this entry »
UMNO General Assembly: Beating the drums for another May 13
Posted by Kit in DAP, Lim Teck Ghee, Najib Razak, PAS, PKR, UMNO on Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Dr. Lim Teck Ghee
CPI
6th Dec 2011
Commentary
The UMNO General Assembly has come and gone. Most political observers had expected it to be the usual rah-rah event aimed at rallying UMNO members ahead of the coming elections and in support of the leadership of Najib Razak, the party president. They were right. The public were subject to yet another spectacle of sound and fury on how important the party is to the future of Malays, albeit with the occasional reminder of how indispensable the party is to the well being of all the citizens of the country.
Optimistic observers who had hoped that the party would live up to its rhetoric of being a mature and transformed party of moderation – at least for the duration of this publicly viewed occasion – were disappointed. The collective breast beating led by the party president and deputy president – on the greatness and goodness of the party compared with the weaknesses and evilness of the opposition – was quite unprecedented in the history of the party’s general assemblies.
The attacks against PAS, PKR and especially the DAP during the meeting have only just begun. Can we expect it to continue with greater viciousness and spitefulness as UMNO leaders fan out into the grassroots to campaign in the next few months leading to the elections? What should be of concern is not just the running down and bad mouthing of the opposition. This has been the norm in past assemblies, especially those leading up to the elections. What is new and unexpected is the vitriol and venom directed openly and without inhibition at opposition parties and their leaders. Read the rest of this entry »
Bring it on, Pakatan tells Umno
by Nigel Aw
Malaysiakini
Dec 5, 2011
A day after the Umno general assembly concluded with the beating of war drums and vows to wrest back Pakatan Rakyat-held states, the federal opposition went on the offensive as well.
PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim, the star at a rally of 5,000 in Shah Alam last night, said Pakatan will not only defend Selangor, but improve its electoral performance in the state.
“(Prime Minister) Najib Abdul Razak said he wants to recapture Selangor (but) we tell him that he can keep dreaming about Selangor – and that we will capture Putrajaya,” declared Anwar.
He picked apart Umno’s Malay credentials which the party has attempted to project in the run-up to a looming general election.
“Do you believe that Umno defends the Malays? If they defend the Malays they would not sell Malay land.
“The last bastion of Malay land in Kuala Lumpur (is Kampung Baru). They (the government) wants to hand it over to (Federal Territories Minister) Raja Nong Chik under the Kampung Baru Development Act.”
Also present was DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang who moved to deflect Umno’s relentless attacks on his party during the general assembly. Read the rest of this entry »
Umno inciting power struggle with dominant DAP role, says Pakatan
By Melissa Chi
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 04, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders scorned Umno’s latest strategy to portray DAP as the dominant party in the opposition pact as an attempt to incite a power struggle among the three political allies.
“They say that PAS is being used by DAP, this is the strategy they use among the Malays, Muslim. With the Chinese, they say that PAS is using the Chinese. “They have used that for some time now but people know that even in terms of figures and numbers, DAP is stronger but we work collectively,” PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali told The Malaysian Insider over the phone yesterday.
DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang pointed out that Malays will continue to be the majority population in the country but Umno is creating the fear that DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam, and anti-ruler.
He reiterated his support of the constitutional monarchy.
“Nobody has undermined the Malay rulers. It is Umno and Umno leaders themselves,” he said, adding that BN leaders are contradicting themselves in their attacks against PR.
“In Barisan Nasional, it is very obvious that Umno is the hegemon and now they say that DAP is the dominant party. What has Chua Soi Lek been saying? MCA has been saying? That DAP is the puppet to PKR, to PAS, that the rights of the Chinese would be completely lost (in our hands).
“Now you have Umno saying the rights of the Malays will be completely lost. Who is lying?” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
The 13th GE: It’s an open field
— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 24, 2011
NOV 24 — Rahim Tamby Chik (RTC) says there are attempts by the opposition parties to invite Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to become PM. This will happen, Rahim says, if there is a hung Parliament. Such a situation is untenable, says Rahim, because it will create political instability. So Umno must work hard to get a two-thirds majority.
Those were the observations and musings by RTC on the political possibilities after the GE13. What is intriguing was his warning that a hung Parliament will create instability. I hope we will not be in such a situation. Malaysians would prefer a clear-cut victory one way or the other.
I am not going to respond to his nervous prognosis, being more interested on how such a scenario can possibly happen and what are the implications if it does. I don’t think we are going to have a hung Parliament. It will be clear-cut either way. I am also bemused at his attempt to involve Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in such a scenario. To qualify as a participant in any future negotiations should a hung Parliament comes into being, TRH must be head of a political party. Right now, TRH is in Umno and doesn’t head a party nor is he a leader of any faction in Umno. Could Rahim’s advice be another attempt to isolate TRH from Umno? Read the rest of this entry »
MCA and hudud: Part 1
Stanley Koh | October 18, 2011 Free Malaysia Today
The party can’t hold a candle to DAP when it comes to principled opposition to Islamic state ambitions.
COMMENT
Two questions arise from MCA’s recent call on DAP to abandon the Pakatan Rakyat coalition because PAS is pushing for hudud punishments and, ultimately, an Islamic state.
First: Why did former MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik fail to protest when former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad declared Malaysia an Islamic state in 2001?
MCA Youth chief Wee Ka Siong’s recent defence of Ling’s silence does not hold water. He said Mahathir’s declaration did not include a threat to change the Federal Constitution. Neither has Pakatan said it would change the constitution to suit PAS’s ambition.
Second: Since MCA is questioning DAP’s commitment to principles, what has happened to its own principles in the face of Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s recent remark that Malaysia was merely “not ready” for hudud?
Muhyiddin’s statement seemed to suggest that Umno, like PAS, longs to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state. Read the rest of this entry »
Why the hudud controversy will not die
Posted by Kit in DAP, Islam, Islamic state, PAS on Friday, 14 October 2011
by Pak Sako
CPI
14 October 2011
PAS and DAP’s decision to ‘agree to disagree’ on hudud must be taken for what it really is: a politically-motivated temporary ceasefire.
It does not resolve the hudud controversy.
The controversy can never be resolved as long as the fundamental questions of the hudud debate continue to be avoided. The questions are:
1. What goals are hudud meant to achieve?
2. What are the pluses and minuses of hudud?
3. Do all Malaysian Muslims as well as non-Muslims want hudud?
A national dialogue on implementing hudud must exhaustively probe these questions before anything else. Read the rest of this entry »
Hudud: Federal vs state legislative powers
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam, Parliament, PAS on Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Art Harun | October 04, 2011
The Malaysian Insider
OCT 4 — I have stated in my article, “Of wet dream, nightmare and Marty McFly” that the implementation of hudud is a Constitutional impossibility until and unless two-thirds of our Members of Parliament would vote to amend the Federal Constitution to allow it to happen. I also grimly stated in that article that the time when such Constitutional amendment is moved would be the first time when our Members of Parliament would vote solely or predominantly along racial and religious lines regardless of party policy or party whip.
The Bar Council has since issued a statement which basically echoes my opinion. Lim Chee Wee, the Bar Council’s President was quoted as saying:
“Hudud cannot be implemented within the current constitutional and legislative framework.”
My friend, the learned Professor Aziz Bari was reported to have disagreed with the Bar Council’s view. The learned Professor was quoted to say:
“The key here is Islam, not criminal law.”
The learned Professor pointed out that the Federal Constitution has set out the respective jurisdiction and powers of the Federal and State legislature. As the powers to legislate on matters pertaining to Islam rests with the State, he argued that the State, including Kelantan, may pass hudud laws accordingly. He also refuted that such a move would result in double jeopardy for Muslim wrongdoers as, in his words:
“In other words, two systems is not a problem and we are not the only country in the world where this duality prevails.”
I have the highest respect and regard for the learned Professor but I beg to differ on his opinion on this matter. Read the rest of this entry »
Malicious/selective prosecution of Mat Sabu should dampen euphoria in certain quarters sparked by Najib’s latest gambit to brand himself as reformer par excellence to make Malaysia “ best democracy in the world”
Posted by Kit in ISA, Najib Razak, PAS on Thursday, 22 September 2011
The malicious and selective prosecution of PAS Deputy President Mat Sabu for criminal defamation should dampen the euphoria in certain quarters sparked by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s latest gambit to brand himself as the reformer par excellence to make Malaysia the “best democracy in the world”.
The proposals to set up a parliamentary select committee on electoral reforms, to repeal the nefarious Internal Security Act (ISA) and to amend various laws such as Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) have not been able to stand up to close scrutiny that they are intended to usher in a major democratisation of the country.
The proposed parliamentary select committee will only be meaningful if it results in changes to the electoral system to ensure free and fair elections as envisaged in the Eight Demands of Bersih 2, and most important of all, that such reforms are all effected before the dissolution of Parliament and the holding of the next general elections.
Read the rest of this entry »
Sentimen perkauman membuat BN tidak relevan
— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 25, 2011
25 OGOS — Mengenengahkan isu perkauman memang sudah menjadi isu basi bagi generasi yang muda. Generasi muda sudah menganggapnya sebagai isu lapuk yang hanya di gunakan oleh pihak yang desperado untuk terus menunggangi rakyat untuk kepentingan kuasa yang berlandaskan kepada pemikiran sempit setengah pihak.
Sebenarnya jika seseorang itu mempunyai pemikiran yang tenang tanpa di saluti oleh pemikiran sempit politik, isu perkauman amat menjemukan kerana itu bukanlah isu pratikal lagi dalam kehidupan rakyat Malaysia yang cintakan keamanan.
Oleh itu telah mula kita nampak jelas tanda-tanda yang menunjukan yang rakyat sudah tidak mahu lagi menerima pihak-pihak yang menggendangkan isu perkauman kerana isu itu hanya akan membuatkan mereka tidak tenang untuk hidup dalam masyarakat majmuk yang merupakan realiti kehidupan di Malaysia ini.
Rakyat sudah mula menggorak langkah untuk menghindarkan dari isu perkauman ini menjadi lebih menebal di kalangan berbagai kaum di negara ini. Dalam masa yang terdekat ini sudah ada kecenderungan yang orang Melayu untuk menyertai DAP yang sekarang ini di dominasi oleh kaum Cina dan PAS yang bukan sebuah parti perkauman. Read the rest of this entry »
Seat negotiations will test Pakatan unity
Posted by Kit in DAP, Pakatan Rakyat, PAS, PKR on Friday, 29 July 2011
Joseph Sipalan and Lee Way Loon | Jul 29, 11
Malaysiakini
INTERVIEW It appears that Malaysia’s opposition is looking at covering all its bases in anticipation of a snap general election that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak may call at any time.
With speculation that snap polls could be called as early as November, Pakatan Rakyat has already gone into discussions to determine its candidates for each of the 222 parliamentary seats up for grabs.
DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang (left) said the plan is for Pakatan leaders at state level to finalise their seat negotiations by Sunday (July 31), though he did not discount the possibility that the negotiations may require more time.
What is more significant, however, is how the three Pakatan member parties – PKR, DAP and PAS – iron out their differences and accommodate one another’s needs for growth, both within the confines of the coalition and in the broader scope of Malaysian politics.
Read the rest of this entry »
DAP downplays Pakatan split rumours
Posted by Kit in Islamic state, Pakatan Rakyat, PAS on Monday, 18 July 2011
By Clara Chooi
July 18, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang today shrugged off talk that his party may split from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) due to recurring conflicts with PAS, saying the idea had “not seriously occurred” to party leaders.
The senior politician also rejected the notion that PAS had kowtowed to DAP when the former revoked the Kedah entertainment outlet ban yesterday, insisting instead that the state government had shown tolerance and their willingness to resolve conflicts through consultation.
“The issue has shown the preparedness of the Pakatan Rakyat leadership to discuss and resolve problems, a glaring contrast with Umno,” he told The Malaysian Insider today. Read the rest of this entry »
PAS: MCA, Gerakan approved nightspot ban in 1997
The Malaysian Insider | July 18, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — PAS today called MCA and Gerakan hypocrites for criticising the Kedah ban on entertainment outlets, pointing out that the two parties had approved the law when it was passed during the rule of the Barisan Nasional (BN) in the state.
“It was this group that supported the enactment in 1997 when it was debated before,” PAS information chief Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said in a statement carried on PAS website Harakah Daily this morning. “Suddenly, they want to become heroes supposedly because they want to protect the rights of the non-Muslims.”
Tuan Ibrahim, who is PAS Pahang commissioner, also countered accusations that the state’s decision yesterday to revoke the ban was due to the Islamist party’s subservience to DAP and dared all BN-controlled states to impose the same restrictions.
Read the rest of this entry »
Kedah drops Ramadan bar closure plan
Posted by Kit in Islamic state, Pakatan Rakyat, PAS on Sunday, 17 July 2011
By Hazland Zakaria
Jul 17, 11 | MalaysiaKini
The PAS-led Kedah government has dropped plans to enforce a 1997 state enactment that requires bars, discos and karaoke clubs to close during the coming Ramadhan, a state official told AFP today.
The northern state decided in May to enforce closure of all entertainment outlets during the holy month, as stipulated in the state law passed by the previous BN-led administration.
However, the plan drew criticism from entertainment outlet operators, as well as other Pakatan Rakyat components who feared that a blanket ban would alienate non-Muslim voters. Read the rest of this entry »
Kedah entertainment ban limited to Muslims, says Hadi
Posted by Kit in Islamic state, Pakatan Rakyat, PAS on Sunday, 17 July 2011
By Syed Mu’az Syed Putra
July 17, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
AMPANG, July 17 — Kedah has revoked the outright ban on entertainment outlets during Ramadan and will instead bar only Muslims from patronising such establishments, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said today.
Hadi blamed the mainstream media’s inaccurate reports for causing confusion and sparking discontent among non-Muslims.
“The BN media is exploiting this issue. So only non-Muslims can enter (the entertainment outlets), but Muslims will not be allowed to enter,” Hadi told reporters here today. Read the rest of this entry »
Thousands throng ‘Bersih 3.0′ ceramah in Penang
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Bersih, Lim Guan Eng, Pakatan Rakyat, PAS on Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Susan Loone
Malaysiakini
Jul 12, 11
They have been accused of hijacking the July 9 rally as calls of ‘reformasi’ – PKR’s battle cry – reverberated on the streets of Kuala Lumpur instead of cries of ‘Bersih’ for electoral reforms.
Yet more than 5,000 turned up to throw a hero’s welcome for Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and PAS deputy chief Mohamad Sabu at the Seberang Jaya Expo site last night, a ceramah which the latter described as ‘Bersih 3.0′.
Both leaders, who arrived within 20 minutes of each other, made a grand entrance – Anwar entered sporting a neck brace and had to assisted as he headed for the stage, while Mohamad was in a wheelchair and was hauled up onto the platform by several security personnel. Read the rest of this entry »
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