Archive for October, 2012
MCA in denial, PAS gets my vote
May Chee
Malaysiakini
Oct 22, 2012
I think every kampong or neighbourhood has this one person whom you see at the warung or food-stall during mealtimes. He kind of holds court, speaks rather loud and in a condescending tone.
If you stay long enough, you will also notice that he never pays for his food. It’s as if he needs to speak the way he does to earn his keep. I think you call that “freeloading”?
All these “hate” speeches lately by the MCA against PAS, “hudud”, and about my favourite Mursyidul Am, Nik Aziz instigating rape of non-Muslim women, borders on being just that – “freeloading”.
Rehashing news from 2008 just goes to show how bankrupt MCA has become. To go back in time when you should move forward – to create, innovate, progress, anything but backslide and with such malice, too. It beggars belief!
Instead of suggesting something constructive, the MCA, in election gear, decides to embark on a fear-mongering campaign.
Goodness, a dearth of brains in the MCA-ah? Are the people in MCA even serious about wanting to represent our interests in Parliament? Aiyoh, how-lah?
How can we trust such bird-brains to fight for us? Sure lose, hands-down! Read the rest of this entry »
History contradicts minister’s arguments that Malaysia is not secular
Posted by Kit in Islamic state, Parliament on Monday, 22 October 2012
By Zurairi AR | October 22, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 ― Historical accounts show that Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn had both said Malaysia is a secular state, contradicting de facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s remarks in Parliament today that the country had no secularist roots.
Nazri told Parliament today that Malaysia has never been declared or endorsed as a secular state, arguing that the country was formed of the Malay Sultanate, an Islamic government and, unlike countries like the United States, India or Turkey, was never declared as secular.
His remarks today come amid debate over the status of the Federal Constitution. It was also made despite a previous Supreme Court ruling that said Malaysia is a secular state, as well as previous statements made by earlier leaders such as the Tunku, the country’s first prime minister.
Tunku Abdul Rahman had referred to Malaysia as a secular state, and not an Islamic one, on a number of separate occasions.
Read the rest of this entry »
Should Government Scholars Be Grateful?
Posted by Kit in Kee Thuan Chye on Monday, 22 October 2012
By Kee Thuan Chye
Malaysian Digest
Should recipients of government scholarships be grateful? Grateful to whom?
I’m asking this because former minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil mentioned recently that PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli was a Petronas scholar and yet he appeared to be going against the people who had given him the scholarship. As the Petronas scholarship is a government scholarship, she implied he was being “ungrateful”.
She even suggested that other young people of Rafizi’s generation might also be “ungrateful”.
But should Rafizi – and other Petronas scholars, indeed all government scholars, including those awarded the Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) scholarships – be beholden to the Government and eternally grateful to it?
First of all, what is “the Government”?
Read the rest of this entry »
Is DAP all that matters to MCA?
By Jimmy Wong | The Malaysian Insider
Oct 21 — Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek must be a short-sighted politician for saying that MCA is ready and united to battle DAP in the coming general elections.
Is that all this MCA president thinks about? Beating DAP, not representing all Malaysians in a government.
Is the MCA just focussing on the Chinese vote and not other voters, in its “Battle Without Fear” campaign to keep DAP from becoming part of any government?
What about other races? Actually, what happened to MCA’s soul-searching after the Chinese rejected it in the 2008 elections? Have they forgotten that they wanted to be more inclusive, more Malaysian?
If this is how low MCA has sunk, from a party that protected Chinese interests but also represented Malayans wanting independence, then the party should just close shop. Read the rest of this entry »
Why so much fear?
By Lucius Goon | The Malaysian Insider
OCT 21 — The Chinese are scared about hudud and have become wary of the DAP’s marriage with PAS, says Chua Soi Lek.
The Malays dislike DAP, says Najib Razak.
So I say: what is the problem, then?
The coming elections should be a walkover with an easy victory for Barisan Nasional. No reason for Najib and BN to lose sleep because the rakyat are with the BN.
Or at least that should be the case if what has been said by BN leaders at the MCA AGM is truthful. Read the rest of this entry »
MCA’s death knell gets louder
Stanley Koh | October 20, 2012
Free Malaysia Today
The party goes into a crucial annual assembly amidst doubts over its chances of recovery.
COMMENT
Chinese voters are no longer asking whether MCA will remain credible as part of the ruling coalition, but whether it will survive even as an opposition party.
The general belief is that it will do worse in the 13th general election than the bruising it got in 2008, and most of the blame is placed on Dr Chua Soi Lek’s leadership, or rather the lack of it.
At the party’s 59th annual general assembly this weekend, Chua will no doubt try to boost party morale in preparation for the impending election. Sources familiar with his style predict that he will use emotional rhetoric aimed at imbuing the rank and file with the fighting spirit necessary to pull off the miraculous feat of winning more seats than the party did in 2008.
He is also expected to emphasise that he has brought unity and stability to the party, as he has done on many occasions. His detractors in the party say the claim sounds more hollow and frivolous with each repetition.
Chua, 65, limped into the MCA presidency in April 2010, carrying a tremendous amount of moral baggage. Since then the party has plunged ever more deeply into the political abyss, with no convincing sign that it will recover any time before the election.
Such is the pessimism within a sizeable section of the membership. But many prefer to whisper to each other about their grievances and frustrations rather than discuss them openly, mostly for fear of being accused of disloyalty in the face of a seemingly formidable Pakatan Rakyat, specifically DAP. Read the rest of this entry »
How do Najib, Nazri or MACC know whether RM40 million “smuggled” cash at HKIA in August 2008 was laundered money or not?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak, Sabah on Saturday, 20 October 2012
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday denied that there was any attempt to illegally smuggle the RM40 million “donation for Sabah Umno” into the country.
Responding to a question at a press conference at the UMNO headquarters yesterday, Najib curtly said “No” when asked whether there was any basis to the opposition claim that the funds were smuggled or laundered through Hong Kong, adding: “It has already been explained in Parliament”.
Nothing has been explained in Parliament as to whether the RM40 million cash in Singapore currency which Sabah timber trader Michael Chia had in his luggage before boarding a flight to Kuala Lumpur at the Hong Kong International airport on August 14, 2008 and was arrested for currency trafficking and laundering was “smuggled or laundered money”.
All that Parliament had been told is the Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman had been cleared of “corruption” as the RM40 million concerned were “contribution” to Sabah UMNO and not for Musa’s personal use, and that “no element of corruption was proven” – although this flies in the face of media reports at the time that Chia had told the Hong Kong authorities that the money belonged to Musa. Read the rest of this entry »
HK dropped Musa’s case after MACC probe, says Nazri
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Parliament, Sabah on Saturday, 20 October 2012
By Clara Chooi
Assistant News Editor
The Malaysian Insider
Oct 20, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 ― Putrajaya has confirmed that Datuk Musa Aman was only cleared of corruption after Malaysian graftbusters told Hong Kong authorities that a RM40-million cash contribution allegedly meant for the Sabah chief minister was a “political donation” to Umno.
De facto law minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz told The Malaysian Insider that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) probe on Musa was initiated after Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) requested for information on the issue.
He said the ICAC had asked for MACC’s co-operation after Sabah timber trader Michael Chia was arrested and charged with money laundering in 2008 for attempting to smuggle S$16 million (RM40 million) out of Hong Kong.
According to media reports, Chia had at the time told Hong Kong authorities that the money belonged to Musa.
“MACC agreed to co-operate with its Hong Kong counterparts and found that the money in question was not for Musa’s personal use.
“The agency then reported back to ICAC with the information and the Hong Kong authority decided to drop the matter and pull its complaint from the Swiss court,” Nazri told The Malaysian Insider yesterday.
The minister was asked to respond to DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang’s accusation that he had been giving conflicting reports to Parliament on which anti-graft authority ― Malaysia’s or Hong Kong’s ― had first cleared Musa of graft. Read the rest of this entry »
The Choices Before Us – Emigration, Encampment or Engagement
Posted by Kit in Brain drain on Friday, 19 October 2012
By Thomas Fann
19.10.2012
I had an interesting conversation with a friend this week about some of the choices made by people we know.
Over dinner, my friend related to me about his brother who had worked and lived in France for many years and how he had decided to return to Malaysia for his retirement only to find out that his citizenship has been revoked. He tried to appeal to the government but was turned down and he returned to France dejected.
He also related about his sister’s family who also wanted to return but after coming back for a holiday and looking over the socio-political environment and inequality here, changed their mind. My friend further told me that many people he knows are making plans to emigrate to Singapore or Australia. Read the rest of this entry »
Call to extend deadline for consultation on education blueprint
By CPI
Oct 19, 2012
The Centre for Policy Initiatives urges leaders from both sides of the political divide to pay heed to the urgent concerns expressed by educationists and civil society organizations with regard to the National Educational Blueprint 2013-2025.
Since its release more than a month ago on Sept 12, the blueprint has drawn markedly little response from our politicians either those in Barisan Nasional or in Pakatan Rakyat who are supposedly representing the interests of the stakeholders.
This lack of response is inexplicable and irresponsible given the importance of education to the future of our young generation and our national interest.
There is a genuine fear by Gerakan Bertindak Malaysia – a non-political, multiracial and multi-religious coalition of over 25 NGOs including CPI – that this blueprint will be hastily finalized before its many weaknesses are fully discussed and ironed out.
We share GBM’s view that the current deadline of October 2012 for the blueprint implementation is too short notice for public scrutiny of a plan that attempts to undo the damage inflicted on our education system over the past three decades and that will be in force for the next 12 years.
Extension of the period of public consultation and feedback must also be accompanied by the disclosure of key expert inputs and research data that have so far been denied to the public for reasons that cannot be justified. Read the rest of this entry »
Nazri tying himself up in contradictions when he said it was HK’s ICAC and not MACC which cleared Musa Aman of corruption in the RM40 million “smuggled” cash from Hong Kong
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Sabah on Friday, 19 October 2012
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has tied himself up in contradictions when he said in Parliament yesterday that it was Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and not the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) which cleared the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman of corruption in the case of RM40 million “smuggled” cash from Hong Kong in August 2008.
In answer to supplementary question by the DAP MP for Cheras, Tan Kok Wai, Nazri said in Parliament yesterday:
“Yang Berhormat bercakap tentang wang yang dibawa masuk daripada Hong Kong. Saya hendak sebut di sini itu bahawa siasatan yang dijalankan bukan daripada SPRM. Siasatan dijalankan oleh ICAC iaitu Hong Kong yang terkenal dengan penyiasatan without fear or favor. ICAC telah pun menyatakan itu bahawa tidak ada kes rasuah di sini. Soal sumbangan kepada mana-mana pertubuhan pun tidak ada kesalahan. Kalau macam mana-mana parti pun hendak menerima wang tidak ada kesalahan, boleh terima orang hendak sumbang bagilah, apa salahnya.”
However, Nazri gave a very different story in his written answer on the same subject to the PKR MP for Batu, Chua Tian Chan last week, viz: Read the rest of this entry »
MCA: After Mega Dinner, Mega Disaster Awaiting
By Koon Yew Yin
It was reported in the Star that several thousand people attended the mega dinner in the Ipoh Stadium, organised by the Perak MCA on 14 October. In his speech, Dr Chua Soi Lek, the MCA President, urged the guests to vote for the Barisan National because it had established a solid foundation dating back to independence. He also said that DAP would not be able to defend the Chinese even if Pakatan Rakyat took over power because it is subservient to PAS and Parti Keadilan.
At the function, Dr Chua presented RM 500,000 to 44 Chinese primary schools and 6 national type secondary schools or Rm 10,000 for each school.
Various thoughts come to my mind on reading the report of the mega dinner. One is of disbelief that the MCA leaders can stoop so low in using public funds for Chinese education in their attempt to win a few seats in the coming elections. But we should not be surprised especially when we look at MCA’s track record in the 2008 general election in Perak where they won only one state and three parliamentary seats.
A Chairman of one of the Chinese schools told me that he did not attend the dinner because he did not want to appear so stupid as to accept the Rm 10,000 bribe to vote for the MCA. Learning from the senior partner, electoral bribery appears to be the main item in the standard operating procedure manual of MCA for the coming election. But unlike UMNO in the Peninsula, and Taib and Musa Aman in Sarawak and Sabah who have billions in their political slush funds, MCA can only throw out crumbs – such is the party’s impotency and poor standing in the BN and governmental system.
Read the rest of this entry »
Privatising power – in the people’s interest?
By Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah | 12:52PM Oct 18, 2012
Malaysiakini
COMMENT I have chosen this subject because the privatisation of power, as an economic policy, is a reflection of a fundamental change in our political economy which will have a significant impact on the future of our economy.
In the 1990s, following the lead of the Reagan and Margaret Thatcher policies of encouraging privatisation as an economic policy, it had a very significant impact on Malaysia’s political economy (I have explained this in my speech on Feb 16 at the Selangor Club).
It shifted the role of government as a guardian of public good which has been institutionalised in various public bodies like the Tenaga Nasional Berhad, to private corporations of selected companies.
Read the rest of this entry »
Priority is to break back of worsening problem of Indian youth gangsterism with a high-powered Commission of Inquiry to highlight that it is a national problem
Posted by Kit in Indians, Parliament on Thursday, 18 October 2012
This Parliamentary Roundtable on Indian youth gangsterism is most pertinent and timely, not only because the problem has become even more acute and serious in recent years but also because it has been two-decades in the making.
I remember that twenty years ago in April 1992, I had devoted my speech in the debate on the Royal Address in Parliament calling on the government to hear the cry of despair and hopelessness of the Malaysian Indians so as to address the fundamental problems confronting nation-building in Malaysia.
I had spoken of the growing sense of deprivation of the Malaysian Indians, who felt that the government had not been able to do much to improve the plight of the Malaysian Indian estate workers in particular and the Malaysian Indians in general.
For the increasingly displaced and alienated Indian estate workers, the alternative they faced in moving out of the estates was low-productivity jobs in the urban areas – which launched them on the vicious socio-economic cycle resulting in the very serious phenomenon of Indian youth gangsterism today, aggravated by poverty and long-standing socio-economic and educational marginalisation and discrimination. Read the rest of this entry »
The happiest PM in the world
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Mariam Mokhtar, Najib Razak, UMNO on Thursday, 18 October 2012
Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Oct 15, 2012
The Tunku once described himself as “the happiest prime minister” when he was interviewed in 1983, by Peter Hastings, the foreign editor of the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).
Today, as we read about Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, and the tactics used against the rakyat, NGOs, civil liberty groups and the opposition, we see a man who resorts to foul play, even breaking the law if necessary, to prolong his political career and that of his party, Umno.
Perhaps, what the Tunku possessed and what his successors lack is a sense of humour. Behind the calm purpose of his jokes, Tunku was able to show his spirit of tolerance.
Tunku laughed when Hastings reminded him of the time an Islamic group had sought the Tunku’s support for adulterers to be stoned to death and he had replied: “There are not enough stones in Malaysia.” Read the rest of this entry »
Deeper Debt
Posted by Kit in Economics, Martin Jalleh on Wednesday, 17 October 2012
By Martin Jalleh
UNODC clarification that it was not passing judgment about corruption in Malaysia welcome especially as MACC’s credibility at lowest ebb after pre-IAACA and post-IAACA blows
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Sabah, Sarawak on Wednesday, 17 October 2012
I welcome the clarification by the chief of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s corruption and economic crime branch, Dmitra Vlassis to dispel perceptions that at the recent 6th International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) Conference and General Meeting, he was commending and passing judgment about the Malaysian government’s efforts to fight corruption.
I had issued a statement last week questioning news reports about his commending the Malaysian Government for its “serious efforts” in fighting corruption.
I had pointed out at the time that anti-corruption campaigners in Malaysia had been horrified by such a commendation as “they regard this as a major blow by the United Nations anti-corruption agency undermining their efforts to get the Najib government to have the political will to really walk the talk to fight corruption, in particular ‘Grand Corruption’ involving VVIPs, especially top political and public personalities”.
I had also said:
“Furthermore, they are mystified as to how the Malaysian government could merit praise for its anti-corruption efforts when from the 17-year history of Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Malaysia’s ranking and score for 2011 on both counts is lowest on record – ranking No. 60 and score of 4.3 when in 1995 Malaysia was ranked No. 23 and attained a score of 5.32 in 1996.
“In simple terms, TI CPI 2011 underlined the brutal fact that corruption in Malaysia under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is worse and more intractable than at any time under his predecessors, whether the five years under Tun Abdullah or the 22 years under Tun Mahathir.” Read the rest of this entry »
Police report on corruption against Attorney-General Gani Patail based on lawyer Zainal Abidin’s book “Tan Sri Gani Patail: Pemalsu, Penipu, Penjenayah (Fraud, Liar, Criminal)?” still under investigation
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Parliament, Sabah, Sarawak on Wednesday, 17 October 2012
I have received written replies by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, to some of the points on corruption which I had raised in my speech on the 2013 Budget in Parliament on Oct. 4, 2012 but which the Minister did not have the time to respond during his winding-up on Monday.
In my speech I had called on the Prime Minister to give Parliament and nation an update of the actions being taken by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) with regard to the various police reports lodged against the “trio” of Sarawak Chief Minister, Tan Sri Taib Mahmud, the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman and the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.
I had specifically asked what is the outcome of the police report lodged with regard to corruption allegations against the Attorney-General, in particular with regard to lawyer Zainal Abidin Ahmad’s recent book, “Tan Sri Gani Patail: Pemalsu, Penipu, Penjenayah (Fraud, Liar, Criminal)?”?
This is Nazri’s written reply:
“Yang Berhormat Ipoh Timur ingin mengetahui tindakan terhadap dakwaan rasuah oleh Peguam Negara Malaysia sebagaimana dalam buku tulisan Zainal Abidin Ahmad yang bertajuk ‘Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail Pemalsu, Penipu, Penjenayah’. Untuk makluman Ahli Yang Berhormat, buku yang ditulis oleh Zainal Abidin Ahmad mengenai dakwaan rasuah terhadap Peguam Negara yang bertajuk ‘Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail Pemalsu, Penipu, Penjenayah’ masih dalam siasatan pihak polis.”
On corruption reports against the Sarawak Chief Minister, Nazri’s written reply states:
“Yang Berhormat Ipoh Timur, Yang Berhormat Bandar Kuching, Yang Berhormat Sibu, Yang Berhormat Puchong dan Yang Berhormat Serdang ingin mengetahui hasil siasatan tuduhan rasuah yang melibatkan YAB Ketua Menteri Sarawak. Untuk makluman Ahli-Ahli Yang Berhormat, isu ini masih dalam siasatan SPRM. Siasatan kes-kes rasuah yang dibuat oleh SPRM adalah berlandaskan undang-undang dan memerlukan beban pembuktian yang cukup kukuh sehingga mencapai tahap (dengan izin) beyond reasonable doubt. Ini kerana penyiasatan sesuatu kes itu menjurus kepada intipati kesalahan yang melibatkan keterangan saksi, dokumen dan bukti-bukti lain yang mampu menyokong kes berkenaan.”
Pakatan is doing the right stuff
Posted by Kit in Auditor-General Report, Pakatan Rakyat, Penang, Selangor on Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Jeswan Kaur | October 17, 2012
Free Malaysia Today
With the Auditor-General’s report vouching for Pakatan’s ability to ‘do a good job’, does BN have any other trick up its sleeve to bring the curtains down on its arch rival Pakatan?
COMMENT
Poetic justice – that best sums up the 2011 Auditor-General’s report that has given the opposition Pakatan Rakyat-controlled four states top marks for fiscal management.
The Auditor-General in its report had praised Selangor and Penang for collecting a revenue of RM62.50 million and RM192.19 million respectively.
Both states recorded a surge of 46.8% and 4% respectively as compared to the previous year.
The AG’s report also praised Kedah and Kelantan for their revenue collection but said that the states needed to improve their debt management system.
The DAP-led Penang showed the way in terms of revenue collection, chalking up RM192.19 million or 46.8% increase compared with the RM410.70 million generated in 2010.
Selangor, the country’s richest state, increased its revenue collection by RM62.50 million or 4% for the same period.
A paradoxical scenario indeed for in spite of the vehement attacks by Barisan Nasional on Pakatan’s ability to administer the four states under its fold, the opposition coalition, as revealed by the Auditor-General’s report, has proven its rivals wrong, shutting them up in the most fashionable way through an impressive performance. Read the rest of this entry »
UN rep clarifies, comments on corruption misreported
Posted by Kit in Corruption on Wednesday, 17 October 2012
By Susan Loone | 9:02AM Oct 17, 2012
Malaysiakini
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) representative who reportedly praised the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) at an international conference said his comments have been misread by the media.
Dimitri Vlassis (left), who is chief of UNODC’s corruption and economic crime branch, said some of his comments and responses during the press conference held in Kuala Lumpur 10 days ago were misunderstood or taken out of context.
Vlassis said he wanted to offer clarifications as consequently those comments were “misinterpreted and may have created erroneous” impressions.
Read the rest of this entry »
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