Archive for February, 2010
Sabah people must fully embrace new Internet technology in the “Save Sabah, Save Malaysia” battle
Sabah people must fully embrace new Internet technology of blogs, facebook and twitter in the “Save Sabah, Save Malaysia” battle to restore justice, freedom and prosperity for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region
This is my first visit to Tuaran and it is historic in more senses than one.
Firstly, the coming together of Bajaus, Dusuns and Chinese in Tuaran tonight illustrates the living 1Malaysia in Sabah and not just at the sloganeering level of 1Malaysia since Datuk Seri Najib Razak became the sixth Prime Minister in April last year.
When I visited Kota Belud earlier today, I was told that Sabah – like the Bajau, Dusun, Iranun and Chinese in Kota Belud – had been practising 1Malaysia for decades, with the various ethnic groups in Sabah long having a very easy, friendly and cosy relationships with each other, and their response to Najib’s 1Malaysia is whether the Prime Minister had been sleeping all these decades. Read the rest of this entry »
LKS visits Kota Belud
In KotaKinabalu w MPs 4Serdang Segambut KK also SriTanjong SA attended UPKO CNY do met BernardDompok DonaldMojuntin YongTeckLee EdwardKhoo
Friday, 26 February, 2010 18:35
Dinner w Kadazan leaders Windbell Restaurant TgAru incl EdwardMuji JeffreyKumin DrEdwardBosi Steven FrancisAriffin MickyJangki JeffreyEkol
Friday, 26 February, 2010 19:07
Glad 2meet Sabah bloggers at Cititel Hotel Kota Kinabalu Sat tmr 830 am Maybe we can set agenda 2save Sabah n Malaysia
Friday, 26 February, 2010 22:46
Met Sabah political bloggers this morning coined a new word – deavatarise How n why imp 4bloggers 2also get into real world of knockabouts
Saturday, 27 February, 2010 12:03
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UMNO/BN betrayed its pledge of power-sharing by rotation of Sabah Chief Minister’s post
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Sabah, UMNO on Saturday, 27 February 2010
It is coming to a year since Datuk Seri Najib Razak became the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia bombarding Malaysians with his multi-million ringgit “1Malaysia” slogan and campaign.
It is sad and ironical that despite such high-intensity 1Malaysia publicity campaign in the past 11 months, Malaysians have never been more polarized both on race and religion, reminding Malaysians that they are even further from the goal of a united Malaysian nation, as illustrated by issues such as the Allah controversy, the burning of churches and attack of mosques and other places of religious worship, the cow-head and pig-head incidents; irresponsible politicking of race and religion as the mischievous attempt by Umno leaders and Umno-controlled media to paint the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Penang Pakatan Rakyat state government as anti-Malay and anti-Islam; the racist brain-washing courses conducted by Biro Tata Negara of the Prime Minister’s Department, resulting in “ultra” statements like dismissing the Chinese and Indians as “pendatang” and defaming the Indians as coming to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese women coming as prostitutes; the rise of what UMNO elder statesman Tengku Razaleigh has described as “rabid racism” like the surfacing of organizations like Perkasa, etc.
Everywhere and everyday in Malaysia, there are more evidence of the absence of 1Malaysia rather than its presence.
In Kota Kinabalu today, I saw new evidence of the absence rather than the presence of 1Malaysia – with two conflicting and competing sets of billboards, banners and advertisements of Chinese New Year greetings by MCA in Sabah. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib is setting the stage for drastic action by UMNO against Tengku Razaleigh
When the Prime Minister and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said last night that it was up to UMNO members to decide if action should be taken against Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah for continuing his campaign against the federal government over Kelantan’s oil royalties claim, the stage is set for drastic action by Umno against the Kelantan prince and elder Umno statesman.
It is clear as to what Najib meant when he made the ominour statement:” We have to hear what the party members have to say” after the Umno supreme council meeting last night.
Already, the Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Umno President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had more than once expressed displeasure at Razaleigh’s unrepentant recalcitrance, openly questioned Razaleigh’s loyalty to Umno and accused him of trying to confuse the public over the oil royalty issue.
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Raising Malaysia’s Hackles
An angry youth protest highlights the Malaysian authorities’ insecurities over international criticism.
Opinion Asia | The Wall Street Journal
The prosecution of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is proceeding apace, but that doesn’t mean international pressure is useless. Witness the government’s reaction to recent international criticism.
A bipartisan group of 56 Australian parliamentarians sent a letter earlier this month to the Malaysian High Commissioner in Canberra, saying the fact that a leading opposition voice has been charged with sodomy a second time “raises serious concerns,” and urging the authorities to drop the charges. The letter cited an op-ed in this newspaper by Munawar A. Anees, who claims he was tortured by the police and forced to confess to sodomy with Mr. Anwar before the first trial in 1998. And it echoes statements by American and Canadian politicians also worried about the impartiality of Malaysia’s rule of law.
The reaction was swift. Some 500 members of the ruling coalition’s youth wing and sympathizers protested in Kuala Lumpur last week, calling the letter a “trampling” on “sovereignty.” Youth leader Khairy Jalamuddin told us in a telephone interview that the trial is a judicial process, not a political one.
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Speak Out for Anwar Ibrahim’s Sake
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Foreign on Friday, 26 February 2010
By Paul Martin, former prime minister of Canada.
The Globe and Mail
Anwar Ibrahim is a former deputy prime minister of Malaysia. After having differences of opinion with prime minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1998, he was removed from office, charged with sodomy and corruption – charges condemned worldwide as an attempt to remove him from politics – and imprisoned for six years. After his release in 2004, he became the leader of a coalition of opposition parties that is successfully challenging the ruling coalition’s power. Mr. Anwar has now been charged again with sodomy, a charge that has again been condemned worldwide.
I have known Mr. Anwar well since the period when we each served as finance ministers for our respective countries. He is deeply committed to democracy, justice and the rule of law. And I have watched with horror how he has been treated in Malaysia because of that commitment. His initial imprisonment was seen worldwide as politically motivated. Amnesty International regarded him as a prisoner of conscience, jailed for the non-violent expression of his political opinion. After his release in 2004, he redoubled his campaign, attracting thousands to his public rallies, with the result that the historic 2008 election returned an unprecedented number of opposition candidates to Parliament. He now poses a threat to the government in the next national elections, expected in 2013 – the real reason for the latest charge.
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Spare the Rod, Spoil the Country
by John Berthelsen
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Malaysia seeks to organize an international caning conference
Malaysia appears determined to make an international fool of itself. The latest news, according to Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the Women’s Minister, is that the country is considering organizing an international conference on caning and whether it is an appropriate punishment for women under Islamic law.
The announcement by Shahrizat comes on the heels of a government statement last week, nine days after the fact, that a shariah court had ordered the caning of three women for adultery. A fourth, far more publicized, is the case of Kartika Dewi Shukarni, a part-time model who was ordered by a shariah court to be caned for drinking beer. The case is still hanging fire while the Regent of Pahang decides how to treat the matter.
This all is in addition to the widely publicized show trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on charges of consensual sex with a male, a selective prosecution at best even if he did it, since Kuala Lumpur throngs with gay bars, and political persecution at the worst over widespread suspicion that the charges were trumped up. There is also the January violence in the wake of a high court judge’s decision to allow the Malaysian Catholic Church to use the word Allah as a synonym for God in its Malay-language editions of its newspaper, the Catholic Herald. Eleven churches, a Sikh temple and two Muslim prayer rooms were attacked.
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Government should stop waste of public funds which end up in greater national embarrassments like the “strangest” cloak-and-dagger CSIS seminar featuring Nazri in Washington yesterday
Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman should give an assurance that the government would stop waste of public funds which end up in greater national embarrassments like the “strangest” cloak-and-dagger Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) seminar “Governance and Rule of Law in Malaysia” featuring the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in Washington yesterday.
I agree with the former United States Ambassador to Malaysia John R Mallot who had described the seminar as the “strangest” he had attended in Washington DC. The reasons for such an appellation would include:
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Seminar Panellists – Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail and former Chief Justice and now head of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisory panel Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad who were billed to appear with Minister in Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz never showed up. Nazri told the seminar he did not know where the two were in Washington.
The presence of the Abdul Gani and Hamid would have reinforced criticisms of the lack of progress in judicial and institutional reforms to restore international confidence in the independence and integrity of key national institutions. This is why I had publicly gone on record to criticize Abdul Gani’s participation at the CSIS seminar as his first duty is to carry out the duties of the Attorney-General independently and professionally to ensure national and international confidence in the administration of justice rather than to join in government’s international roadshows to win foreign hearts and minds that there is the just rule of law and a truly independent judiciary in Malaysia.
A Failed Mission in Washington DC
by Raja Petra Kamaruddin in Washington DC
It was a strange scene at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington on Wednesday morning. When the seminar on Governance & Rule of Law in Malaysia began, only one of the speakers came into the room, Nazri Abdul Aziz.
Attorney-General Gani Patail and former Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Mohamed were somehow nowhere to be seen. And in good Malaysian fashion, the seminar started 10 minutes late.
The seminar’s chairman, Ernest Bower, looked tired and nervous, saying that he had received a number of e-mails expressing concern that the seminar would not be balanced. He said that he wants a dialogue on important issues. Therefore he also has invited the opposition to speak at CSIS. He hopes they will accept.
Ernest Bower then shocked the audience of about 40 people by saying that the session was ‘off the record’. The flyer announcing the seminar never said it was an off the record session. It doesn’t matter though. The session was so boring there is very little to report anyway.
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The weakness of PERKASA
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman on Thursday, 25 February 2010
by Azly Rahman
I have been following with interest, yet again, with the development of a new Malay-centric interest group called Perkasa.
Is its creation a necessity in an age where in the emerging force of change is multiculturalism and the rise of neo-Malays with cosmopolitan and cosmotheandric perspectives ready to abandon ultra-Malayness?The weakness of Perkasa lies in the gradual boredom-ness of its existence, in face of the excitement of radical marhaenism.
Ho hum. That is what all these newer developments in Malay-consciousness is about, as if we have not heard enough calls to protect the rights of the Malays – rights already enshrined in the constitution.
Ho hum. That is an expression of boredom unto all these, when we know that modern crutches and structures of disabilities of the Malay culture – ultra-nationalistic Youth parties, Biro Tata Negara, cow-head protesters and a myriad others – are still used to make the Malays scared of their own shadow.
Ho hum, when we are presented with the boring story of yet another organisation whose goal is to promote the philosophy of ‘we versus them’ in a country mystified with the slogan ‘1Malaysia’; of being and becoming one in a metaphysical world of blue ocean strategies of shark-eat-shark.
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Malaysia in the Era of Globalization
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, globalisation on Thursday, 25 February 2010
By Bakri Musa
Introduction and Overview
A Father’s Query
Growing up in colonial Malaya, my father insisted that his children attend English schools. This was surprising as my parents were Malay school teachers and the country was then in the grip of intense nationalistic fervor, anticipating independence. Malay teachers were at the vanguard of this movement, specifically in UMNO.
In his later years my father would confide to me his reasons. He wanted us, his children, to learn the ways and secrets of the English, and to discover what it was that made them so successful that they could control an empire. What was it about Britain, he wondered, an island half the size of Sumatra that it could produce a race that would control a vast portion of the globe? Why was it that the British who colonized Malaysia and not Malays over Britain?
My father was not the first to ponder such matters.
The American biologist Jared Diamond in his Pulitzer prize-winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies, recounted his experience with a tribal chief in Papua New Guinea at the end of the Second World War. At that time the Allied forces were regularly dropping supplies and other “goodies” to the troops and natives on the island. These cargo drops were much anticipated. To the Stone Age natives, these precious gifts were literally falling from heaven.
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Poor, unworkable attempt to discredit Penang
Posted by Kit in Letters, Penang Government on Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Letter by Lilian
I refer to the letter Penang must arrest this alarming decline. As a citizen journalist and a Penangite who loves my island, I wish to point out some of the things that the writer mentioned in his letter. Being a citizen journalist, it is my habit to observe and report on things on the ground.
Firstly, I found that the same writer has written the same letter to The Star and The Sun in January. Obviously, he is still sore from the ‘supposed nightmares’ he encountered in Penang after two months. A blogger had posted these two letters on his blog and claimed it as a blatant attempt to discredit the Penang government by BN/Umno.
I shall not dwell into the political side of things. But I can provide my own observations:
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Penang has improved tremendously in terms of cleanliness. The writer said he found Penang to have deteriorated so much that it made him to swear not to visit the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ ever again. But as a Penangite, I can see the state has improved a lot in terms of cleanliness in recent months.
Right-thinking Malaysians gravely concerned at the rise of intolerance and bigotry under Najib’s 1Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Religion on Wednesday, 24 February 2010
According to Malaysiakini, four police reports were lodged in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur yesterday over an article last Friday entitled “Persuasion, not compulsion” by the Star managing editor P. Gunasegaram for allegedly containing seditious material which insulted the Malays and Islam.
The police reports state that Gunasegaram’s commentary on the recent syariah whipping sentence meted against three women was an insult to Muslims and contended that Gunasegaram has no right to comment about Islamic jurisprudence because he is not a Muslim.
There were calls for Gunasegaram to be sacked as Star managing editor and for boycott of Star unless there is an apology.
I have not read the Star article before the police reports. The Star has no love for me and I have no love for Star. However, as a matter of principle, I read Gunasegaram’s article and I find it quite rational and sensible, there was no intention to insult or scandalise Islam and it should be the last object for criminalisation and the subject of police reports.
The whipping of women under syariah criminal offences legislation has created controversy for a variety of reasons, including for contradicting civil law where women are not punishable by caning under Section 289 of Criminal Procedure Code.
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The Malaysia Divide
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 24 February 2010
An institutional overhaul is long overdue in Kuala Lumpur.
By ALICE LLOYD GEORGE
Kuala Lumpur | The Wall Street Journal
“The Leopard,” Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s celebrated novel about the crumbling feudal order in 19th century Sicily, made famous the line, “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” That pretty much sums up the predicament of Malaysia’s ruling elite today.
The sodomy trial of Anwar Ibrahim drags on in Kuala Lumpur, with the opposition leader’s freedom and political career hanging in the balance. But the true significance of this anachronistic case does not depend on the outcome in the courtroom. The political assassination of Mr. Anwar aside, Malaysia is witnessing the death throes of a political machine that has run the country for over five decades. Mr. Anwar is a skilled politician who holds together an unlikely alliance of opposition parties—his conviction would certainly be a blow for the prospect of real political pluralism in Malaysia. But he also serves as a vessel for wider social forces and a disenchantment with the country’s leadership. Another figure would surely take his place at the head of the reform movement.
The ruling coalition was founded on the principle that the three main races—Malays, Chinese and Indians—participate in politics through their own parties. Coupled with an elaborate system of affirmative action, this has allowed the United Malays National Organization to maintain a lock on power by protecting Malays from the winds of competition. After the opposition made unprecedented gains in the March 2008 elections, desperate tactics were called for, hence a rather tired repeat of the homosexuality charge first brought against Mr. Anwar a decade ago, now dubbed “Sodomy II” by a skeptical public. The government has denied that the trial is politically motivated.
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Can Muhyiddin pass three simple tests as to whether he is sincerely and seriously committed to Najib ‘s 1Malaysia concept?
Posted by Kit in Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is only half right when said that my head is “filled with problems” but half wrong when he alleged that these problems are about Pakatan Rakyat.
My head is indeed filled with problems but they are not about the Pakatan Rakyat but are compounded by the life-and-death struggle of Umno and the other Barisan Nasional component parties including MCA, Gerakan and MIC after the political tsunami of the 12th general election in 2008 and the pathetic 10-month history of Najib’s “1Malaysia” slogan and concept which may meet the fate of being the first slogan of a Prime Minister with the shortest useful life-span.
Muhyiddin’s suggestion that that I am bankrupt of ideas and his allegation that I had run out of issues to use against the government are “old hats” and “no great shakes”, as they had been thrown at me by Umno, MCA and Gerakan leaders for over four decades but to no great avail, or Umno and the Barisan Nasional would not be fighting for their political life after the March 8 “political tsunami” while the stocks of DAP and Pakatan Rakyat, whatever our problems, are on the ascendance.
Instead of making personal attacks and baseless accusations that I was laying a “trap” to “cause friction between him and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak”, Muhyiddin should have responded to my call to him to declare whether he is the right-hand man of Najib or former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir in the Najib premiership.
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Malaysian Circus goes to Washington
by Martin Jalleh
For a little more than a month in 2010 Umno has gone full steam with its scare tactics, saber-rattling tricks, silly threats and sinister theatrics. Now it is all set to take the Malaysian (political) circus to the US and to show Uncle Sam a far “superior” sample of democracy and governance.
The trip is by courtesy of Apco Worldwide, a global PR firm, employed by the government to resuscitate, redeem, and re-engineer the PM’s flagging image at about RM20 million. The firm has allegedly offered similar services to dictators and corrupt leaders worldwide. They must feel very at home here in dealing with the “most corrupt institution in the country”.
But why is Umno off to the US with its best circus clowns to impress the US when they just told those lowdown politicians in Down Under that to Umno it is a no-no to interfere in the affairs of Bolehland? Why waste the people’s money and be bothered about what the US thinks of us? Alas, the answer to such a mystery belongs only to those who can go the lowest.
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Twitter conversation – LKS and Kuli
Posted by Kit in nation building, Oil, Parliament, Razaleigh Hamzah, Twitter on Tuesday, 23 February 2010
limkitsiang: Oil royalty – Najib is Razak’s son or Mahathir’s heir? http://bit.ly/93SgAj
04:12 PM
razaleigh: My fellow dinosaur w/ a memory of a better day RT @limkitsiang: Najib: Razak’s son or Mahathir’s heir? http://bit.ly/93SgAj
04:22 PM
limkitsiang: @razaleigh shld not have 2depend solely on memory Shld have documents somewhere Petronas etc though mayb OSA Must wait 4regime change 1st?
04:30 PM
razaleigh: Why don’t I put the PDA up on my blog, YB RT @limkitsiang: @razaleigh shld not have 2depend solely on memory
04:34 PM
limkitsiang: @razaleigh good idea but PDA makes no mention of “offshore”. Aren’t there some documents/records somewhere referring to it?
04:42 PM
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Cockcroach and Blood Stained Blankets in Hospital
Letter by Ganesh
My wife recently delivered our baby in Pantai Hospital Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. Being a premium hospital situated ideally to cater to the Damansara Heights and Bangsar affluent residents, one would expect minimum standards of service and hygiene to be practiced.
I was appalled to find that the hospital had blood stained blankets and was infested with cockroaches.
Our nightmare began on the first day we checked in at about 1 pm. That evening, the hospital forgot to serve the tea time snack and also the dinner meal. When asked why, they could not give a proper explanation and had just said, “sudah lupa”.
My room was a brand new room that was just set up for a new patient. Initially, there were no blankets. My wife who was admitted, was freezing in the room for several hours. I had to ask several times for blankets to be given. However, when the blankets did come, the blankets were heavily stained with dried blood and urine. Refer to the enclosed picture. The staff nurse confirmed it was dried blood. I was shocked beyond believe. I immediately asked the nurses for an explanation but they were unable to give me a reasonable explanation. I demanded for the blankets to be changed.
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Oil royalty – Najib is Razak’s son or Mahathir’s heir?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Oil on Tuesday, 23 February 2010
I agree with veteran Umno leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah that the federal government’s full-page advertisements in Malay weeklies on the oil royalty controversy is an insult to the intelligence of all Malaysians.
The full-page advertisements contain an important omission – the reply 35 years ago in Parliament by the then Prime Minister, Tun Razak to my question whether all states in Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah had signed agreements with Petronas for oil exploration along the coastline and what were the joint profits for the state.
As recorded in the Parliament Hansard of November 12, 1975, this was Tun Razak’s reply: “All states in Malaysia, except Sabah and Sarawak, have signed the agreement with Petronas under the Petroleum Development Act 1974. I have been informed that Selangor had agreed to sign the agreement.
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Recent caning of three Muslim women latest in series under Najib’s premiership flooding Malaysia in adverse worldwide spotlight inimical to our international image and competitiveness
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Tuesday, 23 February 2010
The recent caning of three Muslim women for allegedly participating in illicit sex is the latest in a series of events flooding Malaysia in adverse worldwide spotlight inimical to our international image and competitiveness in the ten months Datuk Seri Najib Razak has taken over as Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Before I came, I googled the two words “malaysia caning” and there were 257,000 search results. I next added another word to google the three words “malaysia muslim caning” and the finds multiplied by 30 times to return 6.45 million results.
Malaysia cannot continue to be in adverse international spotlight if we are to restore our international competitiveness by regaining national and international confidence in good governance; the rule of law; a democratic, progressive and model multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious modern nation to be ideal destination for FDIs, haven for tourists and hub for international students.
There had been a series of adverse publicity for Malaysia world-wide since Najib became Prime Minister negating all his efforts to project a new slogan, 1Malaysia – such as the divisive “Allah” controversy, the sacrilegious burning of churches and attacks on mosques and other places of worship; the 5-0 Federal Court judgment seeking to legalise the undemocratic and unconstitutional ouster of Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin in the Umno power grab in Perak; the mysterious death of DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock at Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters last July, Read the rest of this entry »
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