Archive for 2012
Scandal-ridden BN on the ropes?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections, Najib Razak on Sunday, 25 March 2012
Neil Khor | Mar 24, 2012
Malaysiakini
COMMENT
It has been some three months since I last wrote an article for Malaysiakini. I have, nevertheless, kept up with the issues that continue to glue Malaysians to their computer screens, iPads and mobile phones. Even the mainstream media cannot keep Cowgate off its pages!
There is little doubt that the next general election will happen in 2012. Every pundit in Malaysia is saying June. One cannot continue beating the war drums and delaying the date of battle.
For the opposition, the elections of 2008 never ended and they have been prepared for a long battle. Few remember now that nobody expected Pakatan Rakyat to stay together.
One senior member of a Chinese kongsi told me that he did not expect Lim Guan Eng to be CM for more than six months but now sings the CM’s praises.
Instead, what looks most brittle is the BN as a coalition. The decision to put up winnable candidates will apply across the board.
This means less seats for Umno’s traditional partners the MCA and the MIC; and the other component parties. This cannot go down very well with the component parties. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia after regime change
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections, Finance, Politics on Saturday, 24 March 2012
— Tricia Yeoh
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 24, 2012
MARCH 24 — The intricate nexus between the worlds of business and politics has been an age-old tradition in Malaysia. Crony capitalism, a term to describe the intertwined relationship between business, politicians and the state, where individuals in the private sector benefits by obtaining licenses, concessions, government subsidies, other forms of protection from governments and appointments to key state owned enterprises through their close relationship with politicians and bureaucrats.
The main questions to ask in the event of a regime change are: Will it really ever be possible to extricate one from the other, given the context where this is an assumed norm? Second, how would a new government go about making these drastic changes?
There has been recognition of this problem by political players from both sides of the divide.
The Pakatan Rakyat (Pakatan) Shadow Budget admits, for example, that “Pakatan will face resistance from cronies that desire to perpetuate patronage and rent-seeking” when it begins to attempt open tenders and a more transparent procurement policy.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak also announced that a new initiative under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) would regulate financing for all political parties, where all funding must be channelled to an official party account. He said that “a proper receipt record” would “prevent corruption and misappropriation on a grass-roots’ level…” Read the rest of this entry »
‘No More Bullshit’: Political Cognizance of a Rakyat for the Rakyat
Posted by Kit in Elections, Kee Thuan Chye on Saturday, 24 March 2012
by Syed Zahar
Malaysian Digest
We are living in interesting times. Here and now is a crucial episode in Malaysia’s modern political history, where things can go either way. To put things in perspective, it is a national duty of writers and media practitioners to feed Malaysians with the lowdown on the political situation in this post-March 8, 2008 era. And one writer has stepped up to the plate since even before the historical 12th General Election to do Malaysians a big favor by helping us make that informed decision come poll day.
Following his March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up (2008) and its sequel, March 8: Time for Real Change (2010), veteran journalist Kee Thuan Chye’s latest book is aptly titled No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians. It’s a compilation of his trademark straightforward commentaries on Malaysian politics that were published in various print and online media (including Malaysian Digest) as well as the author’s past speeches, political plays, poems and interviews with various media.
Malaysians now can be categorized into four political mindsets. To put it simply, there are the staunch Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters, the fence-sitters, the strong Opposition supporters and then those who are more than willing to vote for the Opposition for the sake of change and to get the two-party system going. I would say Kee belongs to the last category as we can see from the following excerpt from his new book: Read the rest of this entry »
The civil service must prepare for change of government
Posted by Kit in Elections, public service on Friday, 23 March 2012
— IDEAS
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 23, 2012
MARCH 23 — The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) today releases a new Policy Ideas briefing paper that calls for the civil service at federal and state levels to plan and prepare for a smooth transition of administration. This is particularly important as we get closer to the general elections.
The Policy Ideas briefing paper argues that a smooth transition is more than just a peaceful transfer of power. It is also about ensuring that the effective functioning of government does not become too disrupted during the transition period. It provides case studies on how transition was managed in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, and the strengths and weaknesses of the systems in these countries.
Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive of IDEAS says: “A clearly defined transition process is important. Politicians, especially those who are now in power, must accept that for the sake of the rakyat, they must create a proper transition plan. And looking at the latest developments, I think that it is more important to prepare in the states rather than federal because there is a chance we will see some states changing hands. Just imagine how disruptive it could be for the rakyat there if Kelantan or Sabah change hands. We can avoid the disruption by planning early.” Read the rest of this entry »
Teflon Umno
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak, UMNO on Friday, 23 March 2012
— Gomen Man
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 23, 2012
MARCH 23 — Today was closure for Prime Minister Najib Razak. Not for Malaysia and not for Shahrizat Jalil or her family, most recently known for their involvement in the National Feedlot Centre scandal.
Closure because Najib has been forced to publicly back Shahrizat as the Wanita Umno chief or face the possibility of some form of a revolt from the Wanita ranks.
This scenario was communicated to Putrajaya by Wanita Umno in not to subtle ways. So Shahrizat got to pick her “retirement” date from Cabinet and the assurance that she can remain as Wanita chief.
So today she was feted by her wing, the same wing which was clueless and probably thought that the NFC meant the National Feeding Committee when Shahrizat made light of the scandal at the Umno general assembly. Read the rest of this entry »
Guan Eng: PM must halt Lynas plant construction
Posted by Kit in Lim Guan Eng, Lynas, Najib Razak on Friday, 23 March 2012
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 23, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak should immediately halt the construction of the Lynas refinery in Gebeng to prove his commitment to public safety, Lim Guan Eng said today.
Penang Chief Minister Lim accused the prime minister of contradicting himself during an interview with radio station 988FM yesterday, where Najib had said he would scrap the Lynas plant construction if there was scientific evidence to prove it was hazardous.
This, according to Lim, was different from what Najib had said last week — that the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on the Lynas rare earths plant could not decide on whether the refinery would be built.
“Datuk Seri Najib Razak should publicly withdraw his March 17 remarks, order an immediate stop-work order on Lynas and declare the Barisan Nasional’s government willingness to pay compensation of at least RM700 million which Lynas spent on building the plant,” Lim said in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »
Western Australia says no to Lynas waste
By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 23, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — The Western Australian government, where Lynas Corp’s rare earths mine is located, has said it will not accept waste from the firm’s controversial refinery in Kuantan even if it is not radioactive.
Putrajaya said early this month Lynas, which plans to transport ore from Mount Weld in the Australian state, to its RM2.3 billion plant in Gebeng, had promised to send its residue abroad if it could not find a suitable waste disposal site in Malaysia.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai had also said late last month the Sydney-based firm must find a way to ship the waste back to Australia, failing which no temporary operating licence (TOL) will be issued.
But Western Australia Minister for Mines and Petroleum Norman Moore told the state’s legislative council that it would not allow the residue, which Lynas says it can treat to reduce its radioactivity, to be returned to its source.
“Yes, as Commonwealth legislation prohibits the importation by Australia of any waste product produced from offshore processing of any mineral resources purchased here,” he said in a written response to Mining and Pastoral Region member Robin Chapple obtained by The Malaysian Insider. Read the rest of this entry »
Before being known as “Bapa Transformasi”, Najib must show he is not “Bapa U-Turn” first
Posted by Kit in Economics, Finance, Najib Razak, NEM on Friday, 23 March 2012
Less than 3 years into his term as the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Tun Razak has already been showered with the accolade of “Bapa Transformasi” courtesy of his many transformation programs. The litany of acronyms associated with Najib is like a never-ending alphabet soup – GTP, ETP, PTP, NEM, NKEA, NKRA, NEAC, EPP, SRIs.
One almost needs a reference dictionary to keep track of them. But despite his many programs, he is still very, very far from being a transformative Prime Minister. And his many programs are still very, very far from being transformative.
On the eve of what will be the most tightly contested general election in our history, Najib has shown a greater willingness to make U-Turns when faced with tough decisions that would have made Malaysia into a more progressive, liberal and vibrant country.
His various transformation programs are nothing more than expensive tax funded PR exercises that masks the business and politics as usual way of doing things that is taking place behind the scenes within the corridors of Putrajaya and within UMNO’s headquarters at PWTC.
Before Najib can earn the title of ‘Bapa Transformasi’, he needs to show that he is not ‘Bapa U-Turn’ first. Read the rest of this entry »
“I was born in Malaysia and I shall die in Malaysia” – I am proud I have stood by my statement of commitment and patriotism to Malaysia when I was 28 years old under my first ISA detention 43 years ago in 1969
Posted by Kit in DAP, Elections, Najib Razak, Parliament on Thursday, 22 March 2012
Recently, there has been a coarsening and vulgarisation of politics in Malaysia, even in this august House of Parliament, where lies and falsehoods are disseminated without conscience or compunction whatsoever.
During the present and past meetings of Parliament, the most irresponsible and despicable falsehoods had been made against me, accusing me of having instigated the deplorable May 13 riots 43 years ago in 1969.
For four decades, the police, the security forces and the government could not pinpoint who caused the May 13 riots in 1969, but suddenly, somebody knew who caused the May 13 riots – and I have been accused in this House of having caused May 13, through making the most racist slogans in the streets of Kuala Lumpur on May 11, 12 and 13, 1969.
As a result, these lies and falsehoods that I had incited and sparked the May 13 riots, particularly in the streets of Kuala Lumpur on May 11, 12 and 13, 1969 had been blazoned on the blogs of UMNO cybertroopers. Read the rest of this entry »
Get real Mr Prime Minister!
Posted by Kit in Economics, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat, UMNO on Thursday, 22 March 2012
By Sakmongkol AK47 | March 22, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
MARCH 22 — Like many others, I read somewhat amused at PM Najib’s war cry that he is confident of getting back the states now under the opposition. I say war cry because here we have a PM seized by an extreme bout of paranoia declaring that we are at war. With who?
He has to stop the charade. It’s not like Umno and BN people are gifted with extraordinary talent that reserves them the right to govern the country. Who can argue against facts? The top three states which drew the highest FDI are Pakatan-led states. Just under one term, Pakatan governments can achieve these good things which no other BN lead states have ever achieved is an incontestable testimony that Pakatan people are more talented.
This is what Umno and BN and the Umno president fear most. That people are slowly but surely realising that there is life without Umno and what’s better, there is a better life without Umno. Let’s repeat this once more there’s life without Umno and there’s a better life without Umno indeed. Tell your friends, neighbours about this; let us kick out the kleptocratic maniacs out of Putrajaya and forge a new future. Let’s square off with Najib as the opposition leader. We will see he is a paper tiger who, without a scripted text, cannot respond to out-of-pre-approved questions.
Read the rest of this entry »
An incident that ‘should not have happened’
Posted by Kit in Law & Order, PAS, Police, Tunku Abdul Aziz on Thursday, 22 March 2012
by Dina Zaman
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 21, 2012
MARCH 21 — Excerpt from Memali incident chapter.
Tunku Muszaffar Shah Tunku Ibrahim’s book, Memali: A Policeman Remembers is a first-hand account of the tragedy. It is an emotional book, written by a man with deep regrets. It may have served as a cathartic tool for the writer, but nevertheless has mythologised Ibrahim Mahmood nee Libya, and Memali as a martyr and a victim of a political bung-up.
On page 49, he wrote, “… the instruction given by those higher up that under no circumstances were the police to use force. Instead, they were to withdraw if there was retaliation.” This sentence was published, in bold. On page 71, he and the Director of Internal Security and Public Order entered Libya’s home, after the fracas, and Tunku found a woman and a child hiding under a bed. No weapons were found in the house.
“It would have been more appropriate for the Special Branch to arrest (Libya) when he was on his way to give political talks in Selama Kedah/Perak,” instead of attacking the man and his people in his stronghold (Page 79).
The book also included the infamous White Paper which tabled out 79 points of facts and dates leading up to the Memali Tragedy. It was signed by the then Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia of 1986, then Datuk (now Tun) Musa Hitam. Read the rest of this entry »
Sejak Merdeka isu Melayu berkumandang, Melayu tidak ke mana juga
— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 21, 2012
21 MAC — Isu Melayu tetap menjadi bahan kempen Umno dan Barisan Nasional semasa kita sedang menanti tarikh muktamad pilihanraya yang akan datang. PRU boleh jadi hampir atau mungkin lambat lagi. Mungkin Najib Razak menangguhkan PRU ke13 ini sampai akhir penggal pada bulan Mac 2013. Terpulang kepada beliau untuk menentukannya.
Yang saya hendak sebut hanya tentang isu yang dimainkan oleh Umno dan BN sekarang ini dan isu yang paling jelas ialah isu keselamatan dan masa depan orang Melayu. Isu ini digunakan setiap kali pilihanraya di adakan. Ia semata-mata untuk menakutkan orang Melayu untuk meninggalkan Umno dan memberikan sokongan ke pihak lain. Ia menunjukan kegagalan Umno untuk memberikan penyelesaian terhadap isu Melayu ini.
Sejak mencapai kemerdekaan ini sahajalah isu yang dimainkan. Ia merupakan lagu lama yang sudah jarang didengar. Lagu ini kita dengar bermusim sahaja, iaitu semasa pilihanraya diadakan. Ianya adalah seperti lagu lama nyanyian Momok Latif dan anak muda sekarang ini sudah tidak suka mendengarnya lagi. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s political reform: Academic freedom
Posted by Kit in Education, Human Rights, university on Wednesday, 21 March 2012
— Ahmad Iskandar
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 21, 2012
MARCH 21 — Towards the end of 2011, several incidents unfolded bringing the issue of academic freedom to the fore of Malaysia’s public discourse. Among them were the demonstrations held to oppose University and University College Act (UUCA 1975), one in PWTC and another in UPSI. Adam Adli and Safwan Anang, emerged as voices to champion the cause. However, we will not discuss demonstrations here, but we will explore briefly the main issue underlying the demonstrations, which is academic freedom. Systematically, we will look into its definition, the examples of the lack of freedom, the solutions and their implications.
Borrowing from The Lima Declaration on Academic Freedom and Autonomy of Institutions of Higher Education, academic freedom is defined as “the freedom of members of the academic community individually or collectively, in the pursuit, development and transmission of knowledge, through research, study, discussion, documentation, production, creation, teaching, lecturing and writing.” To ascertain whether academic freedom was observed or not, we will use four categories of relationship– academic freedom between government and institutions, administrators and academics, among peers and finally by external factors. By looking at these four categories, we can conclude that academic freedom is rarely observed in Malaysia.
Generally, there are two clear factors that show the absence of academic freedom in local universities. Read the rest of this entry »
Pakatan: No point to Lynas PSC
Posted by Kit in Elections, Lynas, Pakatan Rakyat on Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Patrick Lee | March 20, 2012
Free Malaysia Today
A PSC investigating Lynas’ purported radiation will have no effect, with Pakatan MPs scoffing at its advent.
KUALA LUMPUR: A Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) investigating the Lynas rare earth plant near Kuantan will come to naught, opposition lawmakers said.
Pakatan Rakyat politicians said the government had no intention to scrap the controversial plant, hence it was pointless to form a PSC to study the plant’s safety standards.
They said this after opposition MPs marched out of the Dewan Rakyat, moments after a motion tabling the PSC was approved. Read the rest of this entry »
Kadir Sheikh Fadzir sempat keluar Umno sebelum parti itu diketepikan
Oleh Aspan Alias | March 20, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
20 MAC — Tan Sri Kadir Sheikh Fadzir telah rasmi meninggalkan Umno. Ini disahkan oleh Setiausaha Agung Umno Tengku Datuk Seri Adnan Mansor. Tindakan beliau itu telah dijangkakan dari awal lagi kerana beliau telah meluahkan banyak perkara yang beliau tidak persetujui berlaku didalam Umno. Beliau telah menyertai Umno pada tahun 1956 dan bersama-sama menyertai Umno Baru pada bulan Februari 1988 yang lalu.
Saya memahami apa yang dirasakan oleh TS Kadir itu kerana beliau sudah begitu lama terlibat didalam kedua-dua parti (Umno asal dan Umno Baru), dan tentulah beliau nampak dan merasakan perbezaan diantara dahulu dengan sekarang. Saya menganggap dan boleh mengagak yang beliau lebih selesa berada diluar Umno untuk bersama-sama menyatukan Melayu diluar parti yang kian hari kian lemah itu.
Tindakan TS Kadir keluar dari parti itu merupakan bayangan menifestasi sebenarnya yang berlaku didalam Umno. Sebagai seorang yang telah bersama dengan parti itu selama 5 dekad lebih itu, tindakan beliau itu tentunya didasarkan kepada masalah-masalah yang berlaku didalam Umno kerana saya secara peribadi merasakan apa yang diresahkan oleh TS Kadir itu.
Read the rest of this entry »
BR1M=BN’S money politics
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak on Monday, 19 March 2012
by Jeswan Kaur
Free Malaysia Today
March 19, 2012
Where did the government obtain the additional funds for the programme as only RM1.8 billion was allocated in the budget approved last year?
COMMENT
A meagre RM500 packaged under the guise of Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) might not do the trick in influencing the country’s voters to sway in favour of Barisan Nasional. The alm was nothing more than a trickery, conceived by the federal government to make sure the people’s nambikei or trust is bought at the cheapest price possible.
To hypothesise that the BN government is prihatin or sensitive towards the high cost of living plaguing the rakyat would be wrong; if BN was bona fide in its concern, its chairman and Prime Minister Najb Tun Razak would have more prudent with his monthly electricity and water bills, both amounting to RM160,000 and RM66,000 respectively.
Likewise, if Najib was sincere in wanting to assist the people, he would not have used money from the national purse to finance his daughter’s engagement ceremonies, as claimed by opposition PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP to stay out of Lynas PSC
Posted by Kit in DAP, Lynas, Parliament on Monday, 19 March 2012
By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 19, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — The DAP will abstain from participating in the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on the Lynas issue, its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today, calling the panel a “sham”.
He charged that the PSC, expected to be proposed in Parliament tomorrow, was the Najib administration’s way of legitimising the controversial Lynas Corporation plant, which activists claim would be an environmental hazard.
“DAP will not participate in a sham PSC which serves to deliver a ‘fait accompli’ by endorsing the Lynas plant and forcing public acceptance without any due regard for safety, environmental and health concerns,” Lim said in a media statement here. Read the rest of this entry »
Similar Scandals, Different Treatment
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, Corruption, Najib Razak, UMNO on Monday, 19 March 2012
To assert that the Malaysian mass media is nothing more than propaganda arm of the ruling Barisan coalition is no revelation. The personnel in the mainstream dailies, the national news agency Bernama, and the government broadcasting channel RTM are less journalists and editors, more political hacks and spinmeisters. They are, to borrow National Laureate Samad Ismail’s word, the carma (contraction for cari makan, seeking a livelihood) variety.
Less appreciated is the fact that they are hired hands not of the Barisan government but of whatever faction in it that is currently dominant, or trying to be so. Thus one can surmise the tensions and the dynamics of the current swing of the political pendulum within Barisan, specifically UMNO, from perusing the headlines. Perusing is exactly the right word, for there is nothing much worth reading in those dailies.
Consider the contrasting treatment in the mainstream media of the two currently unfolding financial scandals. The first is the National Feedlot Corporation mess (“cow-gate”) that is now ensnaring the husband and family of Women’s Minister Shahrizat Jalil; it had also led to her resignation from her cabinet post. The other is the nearly half-a-million ringgit engagement party for Prime Minister Najib Razak’s daughter and an equally expensive birthday bash for himself that he allegedly tried to on to Treasury, and thus the taxpayers.
Read the rest of this entry »
Show BN the door
Posted by Kit in Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak on Monday, 19 March 2012
— Gomen Man
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 18, 2012
MARCH 18 — We should punish Umno/Barisan Nasional for their arrogance and must pay heed every time their politicians show their arrogance and let other Malaysians know about it.
And it is even more imperative that we act decisively when those who portray their arrogance and deign to lecture us are anything but role models. Just listen to Najib Razak and Muhyiddin Yassin.
Today, the PM says that his government’s reforms will fail if states under the Opposition are not back in the BN fold. What a sham.
Look, his so-called reforms are dead, and have been for some time. Fearful of losing his party warlords, there have not been any open tenders, or move to push Malaysia up the income level, or more transparency in government procurement. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia – through the eyes of a patriot
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Kee Thuan Chye on Monday, 19 March 2012
Lynn D’Cruz | Mar 18, 2012
Malaysiakini
As one flicks through the early pages of Kee Thuan Chye’s second yet profoundly articulate book ‘No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians’, one cannot help but stare in wonder at the last two names in the dedication.
Soraya Sunitra Kee Xiang Yin and Jebat Arjuna Kee Jia Liang fly off the pages like a flag in the wind.
One knows instantly that beyond it’s ability to provoke change, this is a book by a true patriot. A patriot who believes that Malaysia is worth fighting for.
To the reader’s delight a whole chapter is dedicated to explaining the names of his children leaves the message “I am Malaysian first, Chinese second,” resonating deeply with the reader. Read the rest of this entry »
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