Archive for September 10th, 2009
Injecting Reason Back Into Indonesia-Malaysia Relations
Posted by Kit in Farish Noor, Foreign on Thursday, 10 September 2009
By Farish A. Noor
It would appear as if Reason and Rationality have gone on holiday in Southeast Asia recently: In Malaysia a group of angry residents who wished to protest against the construction of a Hindu temple in their neighborhood decided to demonstrate their anger by marching to the government offices in Selangor with a severed cow’s head, a gesture that was guaranteed to offend the sensibility of pious Hindus who regard the cow as a sacred animal. In Indonesia a misunderstanding over a tourism ad commissioned from a non-Malaysian company has angered scores of Indonesians, simply because it mistakenly featured a scene from a Balinese pendet dance which the Indonesians regard as being exclusively theirs: The net result being a new round of anti-Malaysian protests leading to local vigilante groups harrassing tourists in Jakarta and going out into the streets to ‘sweep’ the country of Malaysians.
In both Malaysia and Indonesia, tempers seem to be rising out of control and for all the wrong reasons. Making matters worse is the fact that in both countries these mob actions are neither accidental nor unavoidable. Mobs do not form themselves and move into the streets for no reason; vigilante groups do not miraculously form themselves out of this air without funding and political support.
Read the rest of this entry »
Umno has failed!
Posted by Kit in Hussein Hamid, UMNO on Thursday, 10 September 2009
By Hussein Hamid
I am an individual.
The state of affairs now seen on our country leaves us with no other conclusion then that UMNO has failed. It has failed in its effort to justify their demand that we Malaysian should allow them to continue for another fifty years with their tinkering of our democratic values and principals as a trade off to the ongoing development of our country and the yet to be achieved uplifting of the Malay race to be a developed ethnic community. Two remarkable and truly laudable goals — economic development and the rise and rise of the Malays – but arguments that are fundamentally flawed.
The Government insists that the particularity of Malaysian Politics, its multi ethnic divides and its religious enclaves make a need for the ISA to be enforced arbitrarily over its people. It continues to dominate over its people who live defenseless under its shadows. And in all this there is no political accountability in what they do.
I say that the Politics of Barisan Nasional is no longer appropriate for our people, for our country. I say that a multi ethnic, multi party democracy is what we need. We no longer want a trade-off between democracy and development. Between freedoms to demonstrate responsibly as against what the Government perceives as our inability to do so without causing riot and chaos in the streets.
Read the rest of this entry »
MACC applied to expunge torture testimony from TBH Inquest at PJ High Court
Posted by Kit in Court, Teoh Beng Hock, Twitter on Thursday, 10 September 2009
01:16 PM
Stay of execution not granted parties instructed 2proceed
01:14 PM
Lawyers argue whether lawful 4stay of execution in revisionary applns gobind objects n says Thai pathologist Porntip testifying Monday
01:11 PM
High ct judge upheld Coroner’s ruling as there is nothing erroneus. MACC lawyer applied 4stay of decision
12:53 PM
Gobind-My client TBH is dead He is not here 2give me instructions We want 2produce testimony 2submit that MACC witnesses cannot be believed
12:45 PM
in any physical assault of persons in MACCHqrs 14th floor
Read the rest of this entry »
Will Najib’s super task force on PKFZ scandal be a super “cover-up” task force to try to “get the cat back into the bag”?
I am taken aback by the announcement by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak of the Cabinet decision yesterday to set up a super task force, headed by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, to investigate the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.
Why didn’t the Cabinet establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal to ensure a full inquiry and public accounting of the mother of all scandals – as the Gerakan President and KPI Minister, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon had belatedly given his support?
Unless convinced otherwise, I see the establishment of the so-called “super task force” into the PKFZ scandal as a major step backwards in public accountability and good governance, as it smacks of being a super “cover up” task force to get “the cat back into the bag” with specific reference to the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal.
What is the purpose of a super task force into the PKFZ scandal, which is to include the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, the Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz and representatives from Finance and Transport Ministries, after the the PKFZ scandal had ballooned from RM1.08 billion in 2002 to RM4.6 billion in 2006 and now set to become RM12.5 billion through three Transport Ministers and three Prime Ministers?
Read the rest of this entry »
-
You are currently browsing the archives for Thursday, September 10th, 2009
