Archive for September 3rd, 2014

The bloodlust behind the Islamic State’s beheading of Steven Sotloff

Posted by Kit in Islamic state on Wednesday, 3 September 2014

By Terrence McCoy
Washington Post
September 3 2014

It began with a knife, an orange tunic and a name. “I am Steven Joel Sotloff,” the bedraggled journalist said. “I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now. And why I’m appearing before you.” Sotloff paused for a long moment, kneeling on the desert floor, and looked directly into the Islamic State’s camera. He neither wept nor begged. There was only resignation. “And now,” he said, “it is time for my message.”

After it was done and Sotloff was dead, the knife-wielding man who has come to be known as “Jihadi John” grabbed another Western hostage. Promising to “strike the necks” of more Americans if the United States continues airstrikes against the Islamic State, he warned, “We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of American against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone.”

The beheading of Sotloff, two weeks after journalist James Foley’s decapitation, is an Islamic State calling card. In the last week alone, militants decapitated a Kurdish man and then days later beheaded a Lebanese soldier in an additional video. The decapitations are brutal and terrifying. But are they politically motivated? Or do they instead betray an unhinged brand of violence that is ultimately self-defeating? Read the rest of this entry »

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Najib premiership has not gone bonkers – there is logic in the madness as ISA is not the only route to authoritarianism

Posted by Kit in Law & Order, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 3 September 2014

Many Malaysians are asking whether the Najib administration has gone bonkers with the political dysfunction of his five-year premiership most conspicuous on the occasion of the 57th Merdeka Day celebrations, viz:

• Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s break with the tradition of pre-recording and broadcast of Merdeka Day message to have “eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart” connection with all Malaysians in a “live” speech with the triple theme and thrust of unity, confidence and prosperity totally ignored by Umno Ministers and leaders who before and after Merdeka Day on August 31 continued to fan the flames of national disunity and racial discord by propagating the reckless and baseless myth that the Malay race and Islam are under attack.

• Najib’s pledge to repeal the Sedition Act and to make Malaysia “the best democracy in the world” torn into shreds with him presiding over the most number of sedition prosecutions against Opposition leaders and dissent under any Malaysian Prime Minister, while UMNO Ministers, leaders, UMNO cybertroopers and their front organisations allowed unchecked to spout incendiary and seditious utterances with immunity and impunity. Read the rest of this entry »

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After ‘attack’ on academic freedom, UM students to rally forth

Posted by Kit in Law & Order, university on Wednesday, 3 September 2014

The Malay Mail Online
By Ida Lim
September 3, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — Angered by the sedition prosecution of their vocal law lecturer Dr Azmi Sharom, a group of University of Malaya (UM) scholars will lead a rally here next Wednesday to reclaim fully their academic freedom.

Student leader Vince Tan said the charge against Azmi over the latter’s comments on the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis, is an “attack” on institutions of higher learning, and voiced concern at the growing repression of intellectual thinking.

“We feel there is an attack on academic freedom. We have come to a level that is beyond acceptable, because academic freedom in UM and Malaysia has gone so low. (An) academic can be charged for just stating an opinion in the field of his study.

“So we are coming out with a protest together with academics in UM, September 10, 1pm to 2pm,” the secretary-general of student rights group Progressive University of Malaya told Malay Mail Online when met at the court complex here yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »

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DAP not for secession

Posted by Kit in DAP, Sabah, Sarawak on Wednesday, 3 September 2014

John Joseph| September 3, 2014
Free Malaysia Today

KOTA KINABALU: DAP has clarified it had never advocated the secession of Sabah and Sarawak from the Federation.

“Advocating secession is sedition under Malaysian law,” acknowledged DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang during a visit here for Merdeka.

He was commenting on a statement by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in Sipitang last Saturday that “Sabah belongs to Malaysia” and that action would be taken against those advocating the Borneo nation’s secession from the Federation.

Lim added that no political party, to the best of his knowledge, advocated secession from Malaysia.

What the DAP wanted to see, stressed Lim, was democratic change and reform in the country. Read the rest of this entry »

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