Archive for 2012
The Hair-Raising Truth About the MCA
Posted by Kit in Martin Jalleh, MCA on Wednesday, 28 November 2012
By Martin Jalleh
UMNO General Assembly re-enacting last year’s “drama”: Who lied – Najib/Muhyiddin, Chua Soi Lek or all three?
Posted by Kit in DAP, Islamic state, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 28 November 2012
The 66th UMNO General Assembly is in full-swing but it is only a re-enactment of last year’s 65th UMNO General Assembly “drama”.
At the end of the 65th UMNO General Assembly last December, I posed the question: “Who lied – Najib/Muhyiddin or Chua Soi Lek? Or all three?”
Although the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak will only be delivering his UMNO Presidential address tomorrow and his winding-up speech on Friday, one does not have to be prescient to know it will be equally valid and pertinent to pose this same question at the end of the 66th UMNO General Assembly.
The Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO Deputy President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, has already started the ball rolling for the re-enactment of this “drama” last year of whether “Who lied – Najib/Muhyiddin or Chua Soi Lek? Or all three?”
Last night at the opening of the UMNO Youth, Wanita and Puteri Assemblies, Muhyiddin dismissed PAS’ Islamic State goal as “a daydream”.
But this is the very exact opposite of what the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek is warning the Malaysian Chinese and non-Muslims up and down the country of “a point of no return” for the PAS agenda of an Islamic state if Pakatan Rakyat wins Putrajaya in the 13th general election! Read the rest of this entry »
It’s the system that turns good leaders bad
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, NEM, UMNO on Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | November 28, 2012
Free Malaysia Today
Malaysians think that by changing the present set of bad people with good ones everything will be all right, but nothing is farther from the truth.
COMMENT
People do not want to believe that if you have an intrinsically bad system, you are good at the beginning, but you are eventually going to degenerate.
But people don’t want to accept this.
Let’s assume Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is a good person (he probably is) but the system which sustains him is bad. It will eventually cause him to turn bad.
So it isn’t enough to transform society by changing the people leading it, but the system that structures our society must be changed too.
That is our (Pakatan Rakyat’s ) agenda now. Not just changing of guards, but changing the system that structures our society. Read the rest of this entry »
Academicians: M’sia may descend into ‘kleptocracy’
Posted by Kit in Corruption on Wednesday, 28 November 2012
by Pauline Wong
thesundaily
27 November 2012
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia may descend into a “kleptocracy” if corruption is not addressed effectively and comprehensively, academicians warned today.
They warned that the country would be ruled by the corrupt if graft is not tackled in a far-reaching manner which can be felt by the people.
“Kleptocracy”, derived from the words “kleptomania” and “-cracy” or “rule” refers to a government filled with those who seek status and personal gain at the expense of the governed.
At a forum on “Eradicating Corruption: How successful have we been?” organised by the Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) today, National University of Singapore Associate Professor Dr Syed Farid Alatas voiced the danger of kleptocracy taking root as corruption is not a random or occasional occurence but tends to be systemic.
He said “kleptocrats” are usually not mid-level officials who extort money as a means to make a living, but high-ranking officials who see it as a way to accumulate wealth. Read the rest of this entry »
Education the key to a better Malaysia
— Hussaini Abdul Karim
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 26, 2012
NOV 26 — “Education is the most powerful weapon, we can use it to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela.
The country needs to change for the better and whoever leads the government that will be determined by the results of the coming 13th general election (GE13) must make change happen as soon as possible and not just continue with rhetoric only.
Given the political situation in the country now, and with the “help” of the Internet, regardless of whether it is spreading nuisance or pleasantries, I do not think it is possible for any coalition of political parties, either Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, or individual political parties to win by a two-thirds majority anymore.
Those days are already gone as hinted in the last general election when a political tsunami favouring the opposition happened. In the coming GE13, I think it is more realistic to believe that it will return results such as a simple majority, split votes or even a result that will culminate in a hung Parliament and there will be individuals who contest as independents or candidates who represent smaller political parties in selected constituencies to play the role of “kingmaker” after winning their respective contests in those constituencies.
It is therefore “smart” for all political parties to think about how to handle the many fence-sitters all over the country; their number is perhaps more than the total number of voters with set minds, who will determine the outcome of GE13. Read the rest of this entry »
Can MCA deliver for Najib?
Posted by Kit in Elections, MCA, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | November 27, 2012
Free Malaysia Today
Is Najib lashing out at DAP because he’s frustrated with MCA’s inability to sustain Chinese support?
COMMENT
Why should any self-respecting Malay support Umno which stands idly by and endorses a party like the MCA?
MCA can no longer sustain Chinese support and Umno is absolutely disabled to help.
So it has come to this because all this while Umno has turned MCA into a party of honorary Malays. Now Umno reaps what it has sown.
The prospect of DAP supplanting and eliminating MCA altogether is the main reason why Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is attempting meek scare-mongering tactic.
But people are not buying whatever you say now, Mr PM. Read the rest of this entry »
The Malaysian government is “broken” and that’s why it must be “fixed” in 13th GE
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Brain drain, Corruption, Education, Elections, environment, Judiciary, Najib Razak, university on Monday, 26 November 2012
Over the weekend, in his speech to the state-sponsored NGO gathering “Himpunan Barisan 1Malaysia” at the Putra World Trade Centre, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said:
“Why fix it (the government) if it’s not broken? It’s not broken, far from it. Our country is the envy of many other nations.”
Both at the thousand-people Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat dinner in Kota Kinabalu on Saturday night and the People’s Green Assembly at Dataran Merdeka this morning at the conclusion of the historic 14-day 300-km Kuantan-Kuala Lumpur trek, I had posed the same question whether the “Malaysian government is broken and needs to be fixed?”, and the answer is a thunderous, powerful and united affirmative!
Fortunately, the Malaysian government has not broken down completely, all the more why it must be “fixed” immediately before it reaches a point of no return.
There is a long list why the Malaysian government is “broken” after 55 years of UMNO/BN rule and needs to be “fixed”, but I will only refer to the following instances: Read the rest of this entry »
Nurul Izzah’s statement in the Kaum Muda-Kaum Tua context
by AB Sulaiman
CPI
26 November 2012
The case of Nurul Izzah Anwar, the PKR vice president, making the statement that there is no compulsion in religion and that this should apply not only to non-Malays but to Malays as well is now commanding the public domain.
Thanks to Utusan Malaysia and the Internet, the speed at which Nurul’s statement spread was staggering. The very next day, it appeared as a front-page headline in the Malay daily but with a twist: it was reported that she had been ‘suggesting’ Malays could commit apostasy; or showing the way to do so. (Apostasy is considered the greatest sin in Malay reckoning.)
To the Malay-Muslim, she has committed a grave offence for which she must be taken to task.
I will try to identify what really is at issue by way of asking some pertinent and relevant questions. Read the rest of this entry »
Tweets on 20,000 patriotic Malaysians at Dataran Merdeka protesting against Lynas
Posted by Kit in environment, Najib Razak, Parliament on Sunday, 25 November 2012
Tweets by Lim Kit Siang today
From Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat Sabah KK 2Himpunan Hijau Dataran Merdeka KL – quickening of awakening of Malaysians all races religions regions
3hrs ago
Final day of 13-day 300km trek from Kuantan to Kuala Lumpur to protest against Lynas rare earth refinery in Gebeng Pahang culminates in 20,000-ppl massive demo
3hrs ago
Most humbling/inspiring sea of confident hopeful patriotic Malaysian faces particularly young generation prepared to stand up for clean/green country
3hrs ago
I told Wong Tack as I joined 20k patriotic Malaysians who loved/cared 4Msia in last lap of 300km Kuantan/KL trek @ Sogo KL, he has made history
3hrs ago
28 Greenwalkers who completed 300km anti-Lynas trek have made history as with massive support of 20k people today, they have sent a powerful messsage.
3hrs ago Read the rest of this entry »
Will PR become the proverbial rabbit?
Posted by Kit in Elections, Pakatan Rakyat, PAS on Friday, 23 November 2012
Dr. Hsu Dar Ren
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 23, 2012
NOV 23 — As the end of the year approaches, there is still no sign of any election being called. Now it looks like the general election (GE) will only be held after the automatic dissolution of our Parliament in late April 2013. Another possible date is perhaps March 2013.
Malaysia’s political landscape cannot be more different from that of the United States. Yet the recent presidential election there reinforces one important fact. That even if a person or a party cannot win the majority of the biggest ethnic group, the person or the party can still win the election by winning an overwhelming majority of the minorities.
President Barack Obama won because of the votes of the minorities. He carried almost 93 per cent of the African-American votes, over 70 per cent of the Asian and Hispanic votes, but got only 39 per cent of the votes of the White majority. In contrast, his opponent won the majority of the white votes at around 59 per cent but still lost the election.
Based on this, I think it is possible for Pakatan Rakyat to win the next general election in Malaysia, given that majority of the Chinese will vote for the opposition. What is needed is to make certain that the majority of Indian votes go to PR. Most of the Malay votes (my estimate is over 60 per cent) — the Malays form the biggest ethnic group in the country — will be for BN. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib tidak boleh samakan buah epal dengan bacang
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, UMNO on Thursday, 22 November 2012
Aspan Alias
21 November 2012
Najib masih menyanyikan lagu lama dengan dendangan yang lama. Najib seorang yang sangat terdesak dan kata-kata nya pun sangat tidak bernilai sebagai satu ucapan pemimpin yang setimpal sebagai kata-kata dan ucapan seorang pemimpin kepada rakyat yang sedang dalam pencarian ini. Najib terpaksa menggunakan ‘testimonial’ orang lain untuk mendapat kepujian dan pengiktirafan dan tidak mampu menunjukkan ‘testimonial’ sendiri bagi meyakinkan rakyat.
Najib masih meminta rakyat memberikan sokongan kepada UMNO dan BN kerana memberikan sokongan kepada UMNO khususnya kepada beliau itu tidak akan menjejaskan pelan transformasi beliau yang telah beliau umumkan setiap bulan dan minggu itu. Jika memberikan sokongan kepada pihak lain ia akan menjejaskan pelan pembangunan dan kemajuan negara dan akan membantutkan usaha kerajaan pimpinan beliau untuk menjadikan negara ini sebagai negara yang berpendapatan tinggi dan sebuah negara maju menjelangnya tahun 2020 nanti.
Najib mengambil Amerika Syarikat (AS) sebagai contoh pandangannya itu. Rakyat AS telah memberikan ‘continuity’ kepada pentadbiran Barack Obama dari Demokrat dalam pilihanraya Presiden baru-baru ini dan rakyat Malaysia perlu mengikut contoh itu dan memberikan sambungan pentadbiran kepada Barisan Nasional. Mendengar ucapan beliau itu, ramai termasuk diri saya hampir jatuh dari kerusi kerana hendak menyamakan beliau sebagai Barack Obama dan beliau tidak nampak bagaimana AS telah melakukan perubahan acapkali dalam pilihanraya Presiden di negara itu. Read the rest of this entry »
Dua prasyarat untuk PR menewaskan Umno/BN dalam pertembungan merebut Putrajaya pada PRU13
Presiden PAS, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang menyatakan dalam ucapan beliau ketika pembukaan Muktamar PAS ke-58 pagi ini bahawa PAS bersedia untuk mengambil alih kuasa persekutuan dengan teman-teman lain dalam Pakatan Rakyat.
Rakyat Malaysia kini dalam dilema pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13, untuk membuat keputusan sama ada Malaysia patut mempunyai sebuah permulaan baru dengan memilih Pakatan Rakyat sebagai kerajaan persekutuan yang baru di Putrajaya, atau sama ada rasuah, salahguna kuasa, ketidakadilan dan ketidaksamarataan Umno/Barisan Nasional perlu terus menggelapkan masa depan, harapan dan kehendak rakyat.
Terdapat dua prasyarat untuk Pakatan Rakyat menewaskan Umno/Barisan Nasional dalam pertembungan merebut Putrajaya pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13.
Perkiatan Pakatan Rakyat yang terdiri daripada PAS, PKR dan DAP mestilah mampu meyakinkan rakyat Malaysia kepada dua perbezaan penting antara Pakatan Rakyat dengan perikatan Umno/Barisan Nasional. Read the rest of this entry »
Pemimpin-pemimpin PR sepatutnya memberikan sepenuh fokus kepada memenangi sokongan majoriti rakyat Malaysia terhadap Dasar Bersama PR
Dalam pusingan akhir menuju PRU13, pemimpin-pemimpin PR sepatutnya memberikan sepenuh fokus kepada memenangi sokongan majoriti rakyat Malaysia terhadap Dasar Bersama Pakatan Rakyat dan tidak jatuh ke dalam perangkap ‘Pecah dan Perintah’ Umno/Barisan Nasional.
Biarlah kita dipandu oleh Kenyataan Bersama pemimpin-pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat sewaktu Pakatan Rakyat ditubuhkan pada 2008 yang menegaskan semula landasan perpaduan, komitmen dan persetujuan PR untuk melaksanakan sebuah agenda bagi membangunkan negara dan mewujudkan masyarakat yang makmur berdasarkan keadilan, kebebasan, demokrasi dan tadbir urus yang baik, tanpa mengira kaum, agama dan budaya.
Kenyataan Bersama pemimpin-pemimpin PR bertarikh 12 April 2008, yang terpahat padanya tandatangan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Datin Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Ismail, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang dan saya sendiri, menyatakan:
“Dasar-dasar Pakatan adalah berpaksikan kepada perkara-perkara yang telah dipersetujui dan disepakati oleh semua pemimpin tiga parti iaitu, KeADILan, DAP dan PAS. Antaranya ialah membina negara ini atas landasan keadilan, membuka peluang untuk semua rakyat menikmati kemakmuran negara dengan memberi keutamaan kepada mereka yang miskin dan terpinggir.” Read the rest of this entry »
A disappointment to all young Malaysians
Posted by Kit in MCA, Ong Kian Ming on Thursday, 22 November 2012
— Ong Kian Ming
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 22, 2012
NOV 22 — I had the opportunity to have lunch with Chua Tee Yong (CTY, hereafter) before I joined the DAP. I was grateful for this opportunity given that I had already written a few less-than-complementary articles about his father, Dr Chua Soi Lek, in his capacity as MCA president. I wanted to meet up with him because I had been somewhat impressed by the manner in which he handled himself in Parliament. He was articulate in his parliamentary replies and he responded coolly and calmly to the supplementary questions thrown his way. I thought that this MCA leader, in his capacity as the chairman of his party’s Young Professionals Bureau, could raise the overall level of political discourse by attracting more qualified young people to be engaged in the political landscape. I never thought that less than a year later he would instead drown in a puddle of his own making, snuffing out whatever little hope his party had of rejuvenation and regeneration.
The cause of CTY’s massive loss of what credibility he may have had is well known — the so-called RM1 billion Talam “scandal”. When he first announced this “scandal”, many of us in the opposition were worried that he had actually uncovered an issue that could potentially sink the Pakatan government in Selangor. He displayed tremendous confidence which we now know was actually ignorance masked by cockiness. The utter baselessness of his accusations has been exposed by my colleagues in Pakatan. I don’t need to go into the details here except to say that he has been faulting the Selangor Pakatan state government for trying to retrieve debts owed to the state, something which the BN federal government has failed to do time and again because of “obligations” to cronies such as those behind the PKFZ scandal, the NFC scandal, the MAS bailout, and a long list of other real scandals. The public at large, with access to alternative sources of information, have also figured out that CTY is barking and continues to bark up the wrong tree, especially after the recent release by the Selangor state government of the Talam White Paper.
What I will highlight is the utter disappointment that CTY has been to the young people of Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »
From Kuantan to Dataran Merdeka: The emancipatory journey for a green Malaysia
Posted by Kit in civil society/NGOs, environment on Thursday, 22 November 2012
— Boon Kia Meng
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 22, 2012
NOV 22 — Humans make history; but never in circumstances and situations of their own choosing. This insightful observation by Marx, as he watched over the social upheavals unfolding in Europe in the middle of the 19th century, is a timely expression on what is happening in Malaysia today.
Have Malaysians ever heard of a group of ordinary, fellow Malaysians — our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, our children — marching slowly but surely, on foot, all 300 kilometres of it, rain or shine, from Kuantan to Dataran Merdeka? All united in a common cause: to stop any further environmental degradation in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah and Sarawak, where stopping the Lynas rare earth refinery in Gebeng, and the Murum and Baram dams in Sarawak, constitutes a fundamental demand.
These Malaysian citizens chose to embark on this journey (dubbed “Langkah Lestari”) because for far too long we have collectively as a nation allowed indiscriminate “development” and rapacious capitalistic resource extraction to go on, all in the name of economic growth and wealth creation.
Just witness the rapid decimation of our natural forestry and the displacement of our fellow indigenous Malaysian communities in Sabah/Sarawak and the peninsula. These have become common phenomena and Malaysians know deep inside that the present state of affairs cannot go on indefinitely without irreversible consequences to our common habitat. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s Palestinians who have the right to defend themselves
Posted by Kit in Middle East/Africa on Thursday, 22 November 2012
Seumas Milne
The Guardian
20 November 2012
The US and Britain stand behind Israel’s onslaught on Gaza. Justice requires a change in the balance of forces on the ground
The way western politicians and media have pontificated about Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, you’d think it was facing an unprovoked attack from a well-armed foreign power. Israel had every “right to defend itself”, Barack Obama declared. “No country on earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”
He was echoed by Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, who declared that the Palestinian Islamists of Hamas bore “principal responsibility” for Israel’s bombardment of the open-air prison that is the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, most western media have echoed Israel’s claim that its assault is in retaliation for Hamas rocket attacks; the BBC speaks wearisomely of a conflict of “ancient hatreds”.
In fact, an examination of the sequence of events over the last month shows that Israel played the decisive role in the military escalation: from its attack on a Khartoum arms factory reportedly supplying arms to Hamas and the killing of 15 Palestinian fighters in late October, to the shooting of a mentally disabled Palestinian in early November, the killing of a 13 year-old in an Israeli incursion and, crucially, the assassination of the Hamas commander Ahmed Jabari last Wednesday during negotiations over a temporary truce. Read the rest of this entry »
Nation-building or undermining? – Open Letter to PM
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Najib Razak, nation building on Thursday, 22 November 2012
By P Ramakrishnan
Aliran
21 November 2012
My dear PM,
You sounded like a great statesman when you urged Malaysians “to disregard political difference and work toward nation-building”.
That was simply fantastic!
It was very heart-warming to hear you say, “We must build the nation together. Irrespective of the political differences that we have, at the end of the day this country is ours.”
That was simply unbelievable!
How we wish that you really meant what you said. If that was your philosophy, by now you would have been proclaimed as the greatest Prime Minister this country has ever had. If that had happened, you need not now scramble around the country desperately trying to get the Barisan Nasional returned to power. Read the rest of this entry »
Do Your Job Right, PTPTN
By Kee Thuan Chye
Malaysian Digest
21 November 2012
It’s unbelievable how lackadaisical the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) is in collecting loan payments. These, after all, constitute the rakyat’s money, and it is the responsibility of the corporation to be accountable for it. And yet its chief executive officer, Agos Cholan, can say, in an interview with Malaysiakini, that it tells its debtors to pay whatever they can.
Whatever they can! What kind of an attitude is that? Isn’t it encouraging defaulters?
Is PTPTN not concerned about getting back the money because the money belongs to others? Is it plainly incompetent? Is it poorly run? If so, it reflects badly on the government we have.
In fact, the least the Government could do now is crack the whip on the people heading PTPTN to ensure that they do their job well, and if they don’t, it should have them replaced. Read the rest of this entry »
Tunisia’s Hamadi Jebali: The face of moderate Islam?
Posted by Kit in Islamic state, Middle East/Africa on Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Al Arabiya News
AFP
19 November 2011
TUNIS – With deep roots in the fight against anti-Muslim oppression, Hamadi Jebali emerged from years in jail under a repressive regime as a man of compromise and the moderate face of Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamist party.
The 63-year-old Ennahda secretary general is set to become the north African country’s prime minister under a deal reached by the three main parties, to be approved Tuesday by the newly elected constituent assembly.
With his neatly trimmed white beard, thin-framed glasses and the prayer mark of the pious Muslim on his forehead, Jebali “has been one of the main players on the Islamic scene” in Tunisia, Sofiene Ben Fahrat, editor of Tunisia’s La Presse daily told AFP.
“He notably led the confrontation against the regime of (Habib) Bourguiba,” the father of independent Tunisia who launched a repressive campaign against Islamists and had several of its leaders sentenced to death, he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Umno is ‘rakyat’, not wrong to acquire public land, says Kuang rep
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Selangor, UMNO on Wednesday, 21 November 2012
By Zurairi AR
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 21, 2012
SHAH ALAM, Nov 21 — A Selangor assemblyman denied today that Umno had abused its political ties to grab state land meant for the public, as the party represented the people.
All 24 plots of land in Selangor — alleged to have been acquired by Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties and former MIC President Datuk Seri Samy Vellu (picture) while they were in the ruling coalition — were meant for public amenities like multi-purpose halls and kindergartens, said Umno state lawmaker for Kuang, Abdul Shukur Idrus.
“Umno is ‘rakyat’… Umno represents 400,000 ‘rakyat’ in Selangor. (The land plots) were not for an individual. They’re for an organisation with many members.
“Can’t Umno receive land for the use of the people?” he asked, in response to backbenchers from the ruling Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact in the Selangor legislative assembly who had yesterday accused BN parties of being involved in a land grab when still in power.
The allegation was said to involve 24 plots of public land in seven out of nine districts in the country’s wealthiest state, which were acquired by the branches and divisions of Umno, MCA, MIC and Gerakan between 2000 and 2008. Read the rest of this entry »
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