Archive for December 12th, 2014

‘I no longer care about my political position,’ says Pulai MP

by Michael Murty
The Rakyat Post
Dec 12, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12, 2014:

“I no longer care about my political position”.

This was the reply by Pulai MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed when asked about his attendance at the “Freedom of Expression Under Threat?” forum held by the Bar Council here yesterday.

According to Sinar Online, Nur Jazlan said he wanted to use the opportunity while he still had it, to voice his opinion.

“The question about my political career is no longer on my mind. I do not care about my position within the party (Umno) as I have reached an age where I no longer am chasing positions within the party.

“But I do want to use the platform that I have to do consensual politicking, rather than bickering all the time,” he told the news portal. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ex-envoy urges moderate Malays to take stand

By Zakiah Koya
Malaysiakini
8:36AM Dec 12, 2014

Former Wisma Putra head honcho Ahmad Kamil Jaafar has vowed that the ‘Eminent Malays statement’ signed by him and 24 others will not be a flash in the pan.

“We will continue to speak up and this (statement) will not be the end of us,” Ahmad Kamil told Malaysiakini.

He said he signed the statement, despite having served in the civil service for many decades, as he felt something must be done to get moderate Malays to stand up to the extremists who are destroying the country’s multiethnic and multireligious make-up.

Ahmad Kamil, 77, was a diplomat for 34 years before his retirement as secretary-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Until recently, he was special envoy to the prime minister.

“All the issues (mentioned in the statement) have been welling up in the society and I was feeling concerned…

“Some of them (in the government) are going overboard and they are talking of arresting the lot (those who questioned the extremists).

“We (the 25 of us) talked to one another and we wanted to take some kind of action that may influence other moderate Malays… I also want to see everyone come back to the country,” Ahmad Kamil said. Read the rest of this entry »

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Over 5,000 pages are missing from the RCI Report on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah released by the government on Dec 3 – call on Najib to immediately release the missing pages

Firslty, let me thank the packed capacity for attending this forum organised at very short notice for taking part in a straw vote by show of hands that not a single person in this hall support the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) Report released in Kota Kinabalu on Dec. 3, and the unanimous show of hands showing disappointment or rejection of the RCIIIS Report.

This is confirmation of the deep and widespread disbelief, dismay and disquiet by the people of Kota Kinabalu and Sabah over the RCIIIS Report, which has been such a great letdown after the high hopes and expectations of the people that finally, there would be a solution to the four-decades-old problem of illegal immigrants which has changed the political demography in Sabah as well as the social, economic and security circumstances and landscape for Sabahans.

In fact, I had said – and I find confirmation tonight – that if the RCIIIS Report had been released before the 13GE in May last year, Datuk Seri Najib Razak would not be the Prime Minister today, and that if a Sabah state general elections is held now, the RCIIIS Report will be one issue which will be cause of the downfall of the UMNO/BN State Government in Sabah. Read the rest of this entry »

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I don’t know if Umno is capable of reforming itself, says Ku Li

The Malaysian Insider
12 December 2014

Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Malaysia’s longest-serving Member of Parliament, is decidedly despondent about his country.

“I cannot recall an experience when Malaysia, after independence, was trapped in a situation similar to that we face now,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with The Edge Review.

Malaysia’s troubled political landscape, where the sensitive issues of race and religion are dominating headlines and public discourse, is being weighed down by the serious deterioration in the country’s economic performance where mounting debt in the public sector and households is leaving the country very vulnerable to external shocks.

“We have never been in this spot before,” says the urbane 77-year-old politician, who is fondly known as Ku Li. Read the rest of this entry »

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Rise of the moderate Malays

By Stephen Ng
Malaysiakini
Dec 11, 2014

COMMENT The open letter by 25 top former civil servants urging Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to show leadership in handling the intolerant right wing groups is a clear sign that the moderate Malays are finally speaking up.

It marks the rise of the voice of moderation – something that we have been waiting for in the past six years, or longer. These 25 eminent retirees have broken their silence and spoken up for the sake of preserving our decaying social fabrics.

They are like salt to decaying meat. Without such salt, the meat will continue to decay until it is no longer safe for consumption. We certainly do not want this nation to get to the extent of becoming another South Africa during the apartheid era. Read the rest of this entry »

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