New information on Anwar “black-eye” assault in 1998 surfacing in the public domain
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Judiciary, Police on Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 5:04 pm
New information on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s “black-eye” assault in 1998 surfacing in the public domain has fortified the case of Datuk Zain Ibrahim Ismail, the police officer who headed the investigations into the case, for a proper closure of the 12-year-old police stain to restore police image and credibility.
This new information in the public domain was made by Mat Zain himself in his 19-page Open Letter to the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Ismail bin Haji Omar, yesterday entitled: “Lagi Mengenai Insiden Mata-Lebam”.
On 9th November, 2010, when moving a RM10 salary-cut motion for the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail during the 2011 Budget debate in the committee stage of the Prime Minister’s Department, I had referred Mat Zain’s allegations accusing Gani Patail of fabricating evidence in the Anwar Ibrahim “black eye” investigation in 1998, which had not been unrebutted.
Although the RM10 salary-cut motion was defeated in the House, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz had promised Parliament he would bring the ;public interest issues which I had brought up to the Cabinet.
In his Open Letter to the IGP yesterday, Mat Zain has called for a proper closure of Anwar’s “black eye” police assault, volunteering information strengthening his call for a “full and final’ closure which could restore police image and credibility in public esteem – as there was no need for any Royal Commission of Inquiry to ferret out the facts for the simple reason that the police itself was completely competent and capable of getting to the bottom of the incident. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysians abroad keeping the government under watch
Posted by Kit in Articles, Good Governance, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 10:14 am
by Sydney Sasson
The Malaysian Insider
November 23, 2010
Dear Deputy Foreign Minister Pillay,
We read with interest your latest statements in the Dewan Rakyat today that the Malaysian government is keeping Malaysians abroad under watch.
Guess what? Malaysians abroad are keeping the Malaysian government under watch too. Its encouraging to know that a number of civil society initiatives and solidarity actions taken by Malaysians overseas in the past year have been noticed by the Malaysian government.
It means that all those days of braving the cold and rain to protest against the archaic Internal Security Act and government corruption, and writing to various overseas Members of Parliament and lobbying politicians, the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Commonwealth Human Rights Council, the overseas press and international civil society organisations to alert them to the worrying state of human rights in Malaysia has not been in vain.
When will we stop protesting, letter writing, lobbying, campaigning and keeping the Malaysian government under watch? Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia and ASEAN should support Aung San Suu Kyi’s call for a second multi-ethnic Panglong Conference to create a federal democracy in Burma to foster democratization and national reconciliation
Malaysia should play a leading active role in ASEAN to promote peace, democratization and national reconciliation in Myanmar as Malaysia, under the then Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, was responsible for Myanmar’s entry into ASEAN in 1997 despite ASEAN reservations and international criticisms on the ground that a policy of “constructive engagement” approach would pave the way for democratization and national reconciliation in Myanmar and security and stability in the region.
Thirteen years have elapsed but none of these objectives had been achieved.
Nine days ago, on 13th November, 2010, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was released after spending 15 of 21 years in detention under the Myanmese military junta, a release which was long overdue as the series of incarceration against the Nobel Peace Prize Laureatte should not have occurred in the first place.
With over 2,200 political prisoners still in detention in Burma, is Suu Kyi’s release a sign that the Myanmese military junta is ready seriously to address the challenges of democratization and national reconciliation in Burma?
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #41
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, globalisation on Monday, 22 November 2010, 10:28 am
Chapter 5: Understanding Globalization (Cont’d)
Globalization and the Free Movement of People
Earlier, I alluded to the fact that unlike imperialism where there was mobility of labor, today’s globalization does not have the comparable freedom of movement of people. Unlike goods, services and capital that can slip in and out of borders readily, people still have to go through tedious immigration controls. Leaders like Mahathir challenged advocates of globalization to also equally liberalize immigration, that is, to make the movement of people as free as that of ideas and capital.
Much as I agree with this ideal, it is unlikely to happen, given present-day realities. Western countries that are today’s champions of globalization have elaborate social safety nets for their citizens. Indeed the greatest asset one can have at birth is not one’s set of genes, rather one’s birthplace. There are significant benefits just by being born as Americans or Western Europeans regardless whether you are contributing or not. These include free education and other generous entitlements. No wonder these citizens want to restrict immigration; it is a manifestation of the classic “rent seeking” economic behavior.
Read the rest of this entry »
End trigger-happy shootings, lawmakers tell IGP
By Boo Su-Lyn
November 21, 2010
The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers have demanded newly-installed Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar to end indiscriminate fatal police shootings instead of “frolicking” at mock casinos.
Police had shot dead a 15-year-old suspected robber on November 13, just seven months after 14-year-old Aminulrasyid Amzah was gunned down by the police in Shah Alam on April 26.
“The top priority is to end cases of indiscriminate police shootings, reduce the crime rate and make people feel safer,” DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang told The Malaysian Insider today.
“These are the things that should receive the focus of the new IGP instead of going on a frolic having a mini casino,” he added.
Yesterday, the families of two of the three youths shot dead on November 13 after being suspected of robbing a petrol station claimed the trio were killed by the police in cold blood.
Read the rest of this entry »
Why only 12 Chinese students out of more than 4,000 get student grants from Selangor PR State Government?
Posted by Kit in Education, Pakatan Rakyat, Teresa Kok on Sunday, 21 November 2010, 1:38 pm
Yesterday, I received an email from blogger nkkhoo entitled why “The number of study grants for Chinese students in Selangor is terrible low” and asking for “serious attention to this unfair treatment given to Chinese students by the Selangor Pakatan Government”.
In his email, nkkhoo said:
Dear YB LKS and YB LGE,
I hope both of you as DAP Supremo pay serious attention to this unfair treatment given to Chinese students by the Selangor Pakatan Government.
The total study grants given to students in Selangor is more than 4000, but only 12 Chinese students are in the list. This is terrible wrong compared with treatment given by BN in the past.
The news was released by MCA Selangor (in Chinese) at http://mykampung.sinchew.com.my/node/121939?tid=6
“I do not believe Chinese in Selangor suddenly become the rich people in less than three years after Pakatan took over Selangor.
Please do something quick before Chinese voters turn against DAP and Pakatan.
Lim warns Pakatan to guard against losing direction
Posted by Kit in Pakatan Rakyat on Sunday, 21 November 2010, 11:48 am
By Queville To
Free Malaysia Today
21 November 2010
KOTA KINABALU: A senior Pakatan Rakyat leader is distressed that the opposition front is making the assumption that they are on an unstoppable march to Putrajaya.
DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang, on a visit to Sabah over the weekend, urged the Pakatan leadership to acknowledge they are facing a crisis of public confidence as a result of the series of defeats in the recent by elections, besides some problems in coalition parties.
“The Pakatan leaderships will have to meet seriously to take stock on this situation and take into account the public concerns and loss of confidence of the direction of the PR,” he told reporters at a news conference here Saturday.
“All coalition partners will have to buck up and pull up their socks. This includes the DAP in the seats that Barisan Nasional (BN) feels they can win back like Kedah and Selangor and states like Kelantan and Penang where they (BN) think is difficult but Pakatan should not think we are invincible and cannot be conquered,” he said.
Read the rest of this entry »
Lim: Sabah budget is ‘cronies’ enrichment programme’
By Queville To
Free Malaysia Today
21 November 2010
KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Musa Aman’s ‘timely’ announcement of a special allocation of RM1 million to each Barisan Nasional representatives in Sabah next year has been described as a “form of political corruption”.
DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang said Musa’s announcement – under the state budget – warrants Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) attention and investigation.
“It is a political corruption to allocate RM1 million public funds to the BN constituencies alone. It is clearly an election budget to boost the winning chances of BN in the next general election and not for the benefit of the people. It is to be used to buy votes,” Lim charged.
Musa announced the special allocation under the state Budget 2011 on Friday. He said the allocation was to enable BN elected representatives to provide assistance to the people in their areas. The BN holds 57 out of 60 state seats in the state.
Read the rest of this entry »
Two fatal political assumptions – one for BN and the other for PR
Posted by Kit in Elections, Mahathir, Pakatan Rakyat on Saturday, 20 November 2010, 5:18 pm
Another sign of the closeness of the 13th general elections is the RM3 billion 2011 election budget presented by the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Hassan to the Sabah State Assembly yesterday, with RM1.1 million allocation for every Barisan Nasional state assembly constituency to enable the BN Sabah State Assembly members to woo voters in their constituency with public funds.
This is political corruption at its most blatant and, although political or “grand corruption” has been identified by the Government Transformation Programme RoadMap and selected as one of the primary focus of the National Key Results Areas (NKRAs) to combat corruption, who believes that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) would seriously check let alone wipe out such political corruption?
In his Sabah state 2011 budget presentation, Musa cited the Barisan Nasional by-election victories in Batu Sapi and Galas as signs that the people had continued confidence in the Barisan Nasional to remain in power.
The Galas by-election is in Kelantan and was a state assembly by-election. What has it got to do with the Sabah 2011 Budget presentation if it is not an election budget to sound the gong for full preparations for the 13th general elections expected to be held early next year?
In his interview with Bloomberg, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir said Barisan Nasional is capable of wresting one or two states from Pakatan Rakyat on the ground that the opposition is in disarray.
Mahathir was however of the view that although BN would be returned to power in Putrajaya, it would likely fail to regain its two-thirds parliamentary majority. Read the rest of this entry »
Kit Siang wants royal inquiry on Sabah poverty
Posted by Kit in Pakatan Rakyat, Sabah on Saturday, 20 November 2010, 2:39 pm
Sat, 20 Nove 2010
By Queville To
Free Malaysia Today
KOTA KINABALU: DAP is calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate how Sabah, which was once a rich state, had crashed to a point that it was now the “poorest” in Malaysia and is “likely to stay that way for a considerable length of time”.
In making the call, party adviser Lim Kit Siang also asked how the government had allowed the state to become the poorest in the country if there was “inclusive growth”.
Lim was commenting on a World Bank Report last week which noted that 40% of Malaysia’s poor were centred in Sabah, making it the poorest state in the country. Read the rest of this entry »
1Malay(sian) Armed Forces
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Defence, Letters, public service on Saturday, 20 November 2010, 2:26 pm
Letters
by Zairil Khir Johari
Being Defence Minister must sit well with Zahid Hamidi, for it has turned him into a trigger-happy man. Now, if only he could move his aim away from his own foot.
In my last post I highlighted his jingoistic call to stand up against the ‘neo-colonial’ government of Penang. And just when you think that such a marvelous statement could not be outdone in asininity, he follows it up with this classic piece of pronouncement:
“The reasons (for the low participation of non-Malays in the armed forces) could be because of a fear towards a tight discipline. It could be because of a low spirit of patriotism. It could be because certain ethnic groups had a negative perception of the armed forces and did not encourage participation,” said the minister.
Bravo. As expected, a commotion soon ensued, with denouncements and debates from both sides of the fence. Certainly, such a statement is nothing less than a stinging insult to the countless deeds and sacrifices made by non-Malay servicemen over the course of our country’s history.
Yet at the same time, it does raise a pertinent question. Why does there seem to be such dismal interest in the armed services amongst the non-Malay community (recruitment of non-Malay personnel from 2008-2009 is a paltry 1.2%)? Read the rest of this entry »
World Bank report – indictment of BN government
Tweets @limkitsiang :
Media conference w NieChing who dealt w nefarious subject of IMM13 – which is now known as Instant Made Msians for 13GE. Present Hiew Jimmy
11/19/2010 12:56 PM
I spoke on WorldBank’s 2010 MsiaEconomicMonitor (MEM) released last wk-terrible indictment of failure BN 2ensure inclusive devlpmnt in Sabah
11/19/2010 01:03 PM
WB MEM conclusion – in 5decades Sabah plunged from 1 of richest 2bcome poorest state n likely 2remain in deep poverty w no inclusive growth
11/19/2010 01:10 PM
MEM prepared w full cooperation of Sabah govt w NasrunMansur Asst Minister in CM Dept praising World Bank @rpt handing-over ceremony in KK
11/19/2010 01:15 PM
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysians feeling safer?
By John Sebastian
November 18, 2010
Malaysian Insider
NOV 18 — Another survey has appeared to say that people are now feeling safer and that fear of becoming victims of crime has dropped slightly for the December 2009 to May 2010 period.
Right. It doesn’t take into account the four burglary cases in a guarded cul-de-sac in Bandar Sri Damansara earlier this week.
It doesn’t take into account the brazen day-light robberies and burglaries in Kota Damansara these past few months.
And that it took the police more than a few hours to turn up just to brush the crime scene for finger prints.
Read the rest of this entry »
Royalty Extraordinaire
by Dr. Lim Teck Ghee
CPI Asia
With their front page headlines highlighting developments on the massive Sime loss, readers of the country’s two main English papers may not have noticed the news report of the speech by Raja Zarith Sofiah Sultan Idris Shah, the consort of the Sultan of Johor, which was buried in the inner pages.
The occasion of the speech was a conference on ‘Voices of Peace, Conscience and Reason’ held on Nov 16 in Kuala Lumpur. The prime mover of the meeting in which I participated as a panelist was PCORE, a group that is representative of Malaysians who embrace and share the notion of peace as the way forward to achieve unity and integration.
Credit must go to the PCORE leadership for bringing together a diverse mix of young and older people from different backgrounds to voice their frank concerns on current issues and developments in the country.
Read the rest of this entry »
Beng Hock support group seeks 100,000 signatures
Posted by Kit in Teoh Beng Hock on Thursday, 18 November 2010, 6:26 pm
by Aidila Razak
Malaysiakini
Nov 18, 10
The Malaysians for Beng Hock support group, set up following the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock last year, is seeking 100,000 signatures in the next three months to push for the setting-up of a royal commission.
This is because they believe that the inquest, for which final submissions will be made on Dec 10, has not managed to answer questions surrounding the 30-year-old’s mysterious death.
To date, more than 5,000 signatures have been collected after drives at two events held in the past month, said organiser Ng Yap Hwa. Read the rest of this entry »
Ex-servicemen launch broadside at Zahid Hamidi
Posted by Kit in Defence, nation building on Thursday, 18 November 2010, 11:14 am
By Joseph Sipalan
Nov 18, 10
When Admiral (rtd) K Thanabalasingam ascended to the position of the nation’s first ever local chief of Navy,it would have never crossed his mind that his loyalty to the country would be questioned.
Having spearheaded the navy’s mission to protect Malaysia from numerous threats that arose in the 1960s-1970s period, the former naval chief spoke in disbelief at Defence Minister Zahid Hamid’s recent statement that patriotism among non-Malays was “not strong enough” for being reluctant to sign up with the Armed Forces.
“I don’t understand how such a statement came about… I’ve been through a lot, and I don’t care who says it, it hurts me. I am a Malaysian born and bred, and I intend to die here,” Thanabalasingam (left) said when contacted by Malaysiakini.
Read the rest of this entry »
The tragic case of a lunch meal: Revisiting corporal punishment in schools
By Shazeera Ahmad Zawawi (loyarburok.com)
November 18, 2010
NOV 18 — On November 5, a mother complained to the Sarawak Education Department that her son was caned by his teacher for bringing pork to school. As you notice (of which I hope you do), I did not mention the religious or ethnic background of the boy at all. There are two reasons why I left out those layers of fact.
First, I felt sick with how recently our statesmen, bureaucrats or politicians are missing the plot to this sad incident. The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, for example, called for an investigation of the boy’s religious status before conclusions can be drawn on why he was caned. Our independent parliamentarian, Zulkifli Nordin, utilised this issue against PAS and got into an unnecessary argument with Dr Zulkefly Ahmad, another parliamentarian from the Islamic party. Apparently, the righteous fight and egoistical call to defend Islam trumps a poor child’s “wrong” selection of lunch meal.
Read the rest of this entry »
Where are the Friends of Pakatan?
Posted by Kit in Pakatan Rakyat on Wednesday, 17 November 2010, 10:50 am
by Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Nov 15, 10
Last July, the Friends of Pakatan Rakyat (FoPR) was officially launched in London to great acclaim by Zaid Ibrahim, who had specially flown into England, with his DAP and PAS colleagues.
For Pakatan Rakyat (PR) supporters worldwide, it was a new beginning. However, four months later, Zaid dropped his bombshell by withdrawing from the PKR deputy presidency elections and openly criticising PKR’s party leaders.
Whilst many are angry at Zaid’s (right) betrayal, FoPR’s silence about this important development is damning. Has FoPR lost its focus or is it just momentarily stunned? Where is the rallying cry at a crucial time like this?
The FoPR probably chose July 4 for its launch, presumably because of its significance – it is synonymous with the United States’ Independence Day. Even the venue was important – Conway Hall in Holborn is renowned as a hub for free speech and progressive thought.
Soon after its launch, the FoPR movement was being duplicated throughout Europe, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. In east Malaysia, FoPR helped create awareness, with its network of support and community services. Read the rest of this entry »
Salam Aidil Adha
Posted by Kit in Announcement on Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 3:11 pm
Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays to fellow Malaysians!
Rental hikes and lack of parking bays a bane in Little India
By G Vinod | Free Malaysia Today
KUALA LUMPUR: After the pomp and pagentry at the launch of ‘Little India’ in Brickfields on Oct 27, the lights have dimmed and a pall of gloom has decended in the area.
Traders and businessmen at the 3km stretch of Brickfields are at crossroads with the prospect of ‘impending’ rental hikes and dwindling sales due to the absence of car parks.
Several businessmen voiced their frustration over these two issues which could hamper trade in the bustling area, where one could purchase almost all items found in India.
While an increase in rental could slice profits significantly, the lack of parking space could inflict severe damage to their business, which they claim had already been battered.
Read the rest of this entry »
