Archive for December 12th, 2012

Let 16th DAP National Congress this weekend be a historic curtain-raiser to the “Hundred Days to Putrajaya” campaign for Malaysians to create history and usher in a new, truly united, democratic, just and prosperous Malaysia under a PR Malaysian government

All eyes are on the 16th DAP National Congress in Penang this weekend not only because it is the last national congress for political parties in Malaysia this year, but also because it heralds the last hundred days before the holding of the long-postponed/awaited 13th General Elections.

Let the 16th DAP National Congress be a historic curtain-raiser to the “Hundred Days to Putrajaya” campaign for Malaysians to create history and usher in a new, truly united, democratic, just and prosperous Malaysia under a Pakatan Rakyat Malaysian Government in the 13th General Elections.

Let the 16th DAP National Congress send out the clear and unequivocal message to all Malaysians throughout the country – that DAP leaders, delegates and members are imbued with a profound sense of vision, commitment, responsibility and discipline to accomplish the historic mission and objectives of the “Hundred Days to Putrajaya” campaign for Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Orang Asli, Kadazans or Ibans; whether Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Taoists or Sikhs; whether in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah or Sarawak, to unite as one people to restore Malaysia’s greatness as a model of a harmonious plural society where there is tolerance, freedom, justice, human rights, democracy, sustainable development, prosperity, good governance and a clean and incorruptible government.

In the run-up to the 16th DAP National Congress and during the “Hundred Days to Putrajaya”, UMNO/Barisan Nasional propagandists and spin-masters will go into an overdrive in their politics of lies, hate and fear not only to demonise the DAP and create maximum division and damage inside the party but also in DAP’s relations with our Pakatan Rakyat parties, PKR and PAS. Read the rest of this entry »

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Beranikah SPRM mengikut jejak rakan sejawatnya di Indonesia, Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) dengan memperkenalkan pengubah-permainan di dalam pencegahan rasuah dengan mengkehendaki semua pemimpin politik dan penjawat awam untuk memperjelas tentang kekayaan luar biasa yang tidak setara dengan gaji rasmi mereka?

“Jangan tembak SPRM dari belakang” adalah salah satu tajuk akhbar hari ini, memetik Ketua Pesuruhjaya Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah (SPRM) Datuk Seri Abu Kassim semalam ketika meminta ahli politik untuk tidak “menembak SPRM dari belakang” kerana itu akan menyukarkan untuk memerangi rasuah.

Beliau berkata: “SPRM adalah tentera untuk memerangi rasuah. Jika anda menembak kami dari belakang, kepada siapa lagi masyarakat boleh meminta pertolongan untuk menentang rasuah.”

Abu Kassim benar-benar telah silap. Ahli politik Pakatan Rakyat bukan menembak SPRM daripada belakang tetapi daripada depan berkenaan kegagalan nyata dan ketidakcekapan di dalam memerangi rasuah, namun membenarkan SPRM untuk mempertahankan dirinya. Tiada sebab untuk pemimpin politik PR menyembunyikan kritikan mereka terhadap SPRM.

Hanya ahli politik UMNO/Barisan Nasional mempunyai sumber, cara malah motivasi untuk menembak SPRM dari belakang, untuk memastikan SPRM yang sudahpun menjadi alat menurut perintah kepada pemimpin politik yang berkuasa, supaya menjadi lebih menurut perintah kepada pemimpin bawahan yang lain di dalam perikatan pemerintah.

Kedua, empat tahun selepas menaiktaraf Biro Pencegahan Rasuah (BPR) kepada SPRM dengan penambahan kuasa, dana dan kakitangan, rakyat Malaysia masih belum yakin bahawa SPRM merupakan “tentera untuk memerangi rasuah”.
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The pathologies of Malay nationalism

by Ahmad Fuad Rahmat
New Mandala
03 December 2012

The nation

The problem begins with the nation-state ideal; for its coherence depends on there being a people deemed as the rightful owners of a land. It is rooted to the belief that territory is property – a thing to own – and that loyalty to the people means, among other things, the readiness to uphold the integrity of territory to ensure it belongs to the nation.

This requires clearly defined, finite, national borders, which – at least at the face of it – appears as a simple enough idea. Matters become complicated when we ask who those borders are meant for. There cannot be a nation-state, if there is no nation to begin with.

But identities unlike land cannot be enclosed and demarcated. Cultures do not flourish in vacuums. They develop out of interactions and fusions with one another. New words, outlooks and practices are adopted while others fade, in a slow, arbitrary and often ambiguous organic process of contact and migration through time.

The nationalist agenda is at odds with this reality. The belief in the congruence of identity and territory – or indeed identity as territory – at the face of inevitable cultural change that can neither be controlled nor predicted, means that each nation will always find itself in the position of having to redefine the conditions of membership, to determine what or who should or should not be excluded. Culture too is given boundaries as a result.

The nationalist imagination must, in other words, assume however implicitly that there is some supposed essence underlying the flux of culture and identity, out of which the ‘Otherising’ so common to nationalist politics is legitimised. The marker could be anything from a common language, religion, ethnicity, race or history. It could even be a set of values or general traits. None of this is exclusive, of course. At any given time, depending on the issue and occasion, different factors can be evoked to proclaim dissimilarity. Read the rest of this entry »

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