Archive for January, 2016
Najib and UMNO propagandists are giving the Malays the supreme insult doubting their intelligence and capability when they spread the canard that the Malays will lose political power to the DAP and Chinese if Najib and UMNO lose in next general election
Posted by Kit in DAP, Elections, Malays, Pakatan Harapan on Monday, 11 January 2016
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and UMNO propagandists are giving the Malays the supreme insult doubting their intelligence and capability when they spread the canard that the Malays will lose political power to the DAP and Chinese if Najib and UMNO lose in the next general election.
There is no doubt that Najib and UMNO are facing the greatest crisis of survival in their lives, for a recent poll has shown that the popularity rating of the Najib UMNO-led government is at an all-time low – below the 50 per cent mark for the first time, down to some 30 per cent.
Even UMNO leaders accept the real prospect that Najib can lose not only the popular vote (which UMNO/Barisan lost in the 2013 general election securing only 47% of the total votes cast) but also the majority of the parliamentary seats (which through an undemocratic electoral system, enabled Najib to secure 60 per cent of the parliamentary seats in the 13GE although with 43% of the votes, and therefore entering Malaysian history as the first minority Prime Minister in the country).
If the 2013 General Election had been fair and democratic, where the principle of “one man, one vote, one value” is the abiding feature of the electoral system, the Prime Minister after the general election in May 2013 would have been Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and not Najib Razak, and Anwar would not be in Sungai Buloh prison today.
It is a national tragedy that instead of redeeming his position as the first minority Prime Minister of the country, by heading a government which really cares for the people and nation, which is clean, incorruptible, consultative, democratic, fully guided by the principles of accountability, transparency and good governance, Najib had done the reverse, which is why there are Najib’s RM2.6 billion and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals giving Malaysia a bad name not only locally but in the international arena as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Saudi Arabia has bigger problems than Iran
Posted by Kit in International, Islam, Islamic state, Oil on Monday, 11 January 2016
— Tobin Harshaw
Malay Mail Online
January 8, 2016
JANUARY 8 —Saudi Arabia’s feud with Iran over the beheading of a prominent Shiah cleric led to a lot of overwrought speculation about Sunni-Shiah tensions rising to tear up the Middle East. Those more steeped in regional affairs point to the other 46 men beheaded, almost all of whom were Sunnis charged with terrorism.
The theory here is that the execution of the preacher, Nimr al-Nimr, was less about provoking Shiahs than pre-empting domestic outrage over the deaths of so many Sunnis, who make up 85 per cent of the country’s population. The kingdom has rarely been concerned with domestic opinion in its 90 years of statehood. Does Saudi Arabia now fear unrest among the masses? Should it?
Outside of North Korea and the New England Patriots, few institutions are more opaque than the Saudi royal court. But over the last year, the first in the reign of 80-year-old King Salman, the famously hidebound monarchy has undergone a shocking and risky makeover.
Salman, who took over last January 23 on the death of his half-brother King Abdullah, was widely expected to be just a caretaker. Instead, he took care of business. Within months, he replaced the anointed crown prince with his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, the longtime interior minister. Yet he also watered down this new heir’s influence by dismantling the crown prince’s previously independent court.
The real winner was the king’s young son, Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman, who became deputy crown prince and gatekeeper to those seeking the king’s attention. The prince was named head of the new Council of Economic and Development Affairs, which took over many powers of the finance ministry, and was given control over Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil monopoly. (Yesterday, he suggested that the kingdom may consider selling a stake in the oil giant.) Read the rest of this entry »
10 things about: Steven Sim, the computer engineer turned MP
by Opalyn Mok
Malay Mail Online
January 10, 2016
GEORGE TOWN, Jan 10 — Steven Sim Chee Keong was relatively new in DAP when he first stood for elections in 2013 for the Bukit Mertajam parliamentary seat and won.
Prior to that, he was the Seberang Perai Municipal Council councillor and had been helping his predecessor Chong Eng and later, Berapit state assemblyman Lydia Ong Kok Fooi with party matters.
Ever since he won the seat, the 32-year-old has been using technology to try and improve governance and delivery to the people, particularly his constituents in Bukit Mertajam.
He is the one behind the introduction of a user-friendly application called “Citizen Action Technology” for the public to lodge complaints to the local authorities.
He also wrote a book titled The Audacity To Think: An Invitation To Rethink Politics which is his take on political concepts based on his experience.
It is hard to imagine that this young energetic politician used to be a chocolate entrepreneur before calling it quits to continue his studies in computer science. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP will not forsake our original commitment and vision to be a party by and for all Malaysians regardless of race or religion at all levels of leadership and elected representatives, bound by the common goal of an united, just, democratic and progressive Malaysia
Posted by Kit in DAP, Malays, Najib Razak, Parliament on Sunday, 10 January 2016
Bukit Bintang is the 60th parliamentary constituency I am visiting since my six-month suspension from Parliament on Oct. 22 for wanting the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to give full accountability for his RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals.
Najib had been most ill-advised to claim in his 2016 New Year Message nine days ago that these twin mega scandals had been resolved and are no more issues in the country, when both these Najib scandals continue to be major concerns and conversational topics of Malaysians throughout the country every day since the New Year – an alarmin g indication of how divorced from the ground and reality the Prime Minister has become.
As everyone can testify, Najib’s twin mega scandals had been in the news every day since New Year’s Day , with greater intensity than last year, and there are no signs any time soon that Najib’s twin mega scandals will disappear from the radar of national consciousness and concern. Read the rest of this entry »
Who are you bluffing, Apandi?
Posted by Kit in Judiciary, Najib Razak on Saturday, 9 January 2016
In his 2016 New Year Message, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said his RM2.6 billion donation and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals had been resolved and were no more issues in the country.
How wrong the Prime Minister had been.
Every day since the New Year’s Day for the past week, Najib’s twin mega scandals had hogged the news headlines, and there was not a single day when there were no multiple news items on the issue, especially on the Internet.
In fact, no other news story in the country could compete with Najib’s twin mega scandals in terms of their daily coverage, durability and newsworthiness.
It is not for nothing that Najib’s twin mega scandals were the reasons why Malaysia was ranked third for the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015” by ForeignPolicy website of Washington Post.
Najib’s twin mega scandals have repeatedly made history, though not of the sublime or honourable kind. Read the rest of this entry »
The Saudi blueprint
Posted by Kit in International, Islam on Friday, 8 January 2016
Economist
Jan 9, 2016
The desert kingdom is striving to dominate its region and modernise its economy at the same time
FOR years Saudi Arabia seemed inert, relying on its vast oil wealth and the might of its American patron to buy quiet at home and impose stasis on its neighbours. But oil prices have tumbled, America has stood back from leadership in the Middle East, the region is on fire and power has shifted to a new generation—notably King Salman’s 30-year-old favoured son, Muhammad bin Salman. A sandstorm of change is rousing the desert kingdom.
The visible result is the brutal treatment of dissent at home and assertiveness abroad that has just been on chilling display. On January 2nd Saudi Arabia executed 47 people. Most of them were terrorists linked to al-Qaeda but some, including a prominent Shia cleric, simply called for the fall of the ruling House of Saud. After Iranians set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest, the kingdom cut diplomatic, trade and air links, a grave and foolish escalation in a febrile region.
Away from the headlines, however, a different assertiveness could prove equally consequential. Prince Muhammad has drawn up a blueprint designed to throw open Saudi Arabia’s closed economy and government—including, he says, the possible sale of shares in the national oil firm, Saudi Aramco.
Coupling geopolitical swagger with sweeping economic change is a gamble. The outcome will determine the survival of the House of Saud and shape the future of the Arab world. Read the rest of this entry »
Dissipating Malaysia’s ‘big risks’
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Judiciary, Law & Order, nation building on Friday, 8 January 2016
by Gurdial Singh Nijar
The Malaysian Insider
7 January 2016
As we usher in the New Year, it is time to reflect on the state of the nation – our hopes and our disappointments. We have much to be thankful for. After all, our nation is certainly not a seething cauldron of instability.
But at the same time there are disturbing trends, which if left to run their course makes for deep concern.
In this context I was reflecting on a piece by the conservative UK-based Economist magazine (“Stick-in-the-mud”, December 5, 2015). Read the rest of this entry »
Restoring hope in politics
Syerleena Abdul Rashid
The Malaysian Insider
8 January 2016
Fundamentally, I am an optimist who always believes that silver linings do exist in any situation we find ourselves in, even in situations so bleak and depressing.
However, there are quite a number of dark moments when my faith is sorely tested and I have to admit, there are times when I feel that the odds are stacked way too high.
Desmond Tutu said it best, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness”. These are the words that every Malaysian must try to remember.
The injustice and the humiliation we encounter as we soldier on in the name of political and democratic reforms will probably worsen as the general election draw closer. Read the rest of this entry »
The IDE study that UMNO-PAS attacks have been successful in fuelling anti-DAP sentiments among Malays a wake-up call to all DAP leaders and members to take these misperceptions seriously
Posted by Kit in DAP, Malays, Pakatan Harapan on Friday, 8 January 2016
The Darul Ehsan Institute (IDE) study that UMNO-PAS attacks and demonization campaigns have been successful in fuelling anti-DAP sentiments among Malays, especially in rural areas, must be a wake-up call to all DAP leaders and members to take these misperceptions seriously.
The study found that after the break-up of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in June, the campaign to demonise the DAP as anti-Malay has become more effective with UMNO and PAS working together in the anti-DAP campaign.
In a survey by IDE between November 13 and 15 last year, involving 1,716 Malay respondents throughout Selangor, almost two-thirds of respondents (72%) agreed that DAP was a racial party and that it was only looking after the interest of the Chinese community.
Only 12% disagreed, while 16% said they were “unsure”.
More than half (64%) also agreed with the statement that “DAP was an anti-Malay and anti-Islam party”. Some 18% disagreed while 19% were unsure.
I wonder what would be the results if a survey had been conducted among Chinese respondents to the questions whether UMNO was a racial party that only looked after the interest of the Malay community and whether UMNO was anti-Chinese and anti non-Islamic religions in the country.
Be that as it may, DAP leaders, members and even supporters should be concerned about the IDE survey, for DAP was never formed to be a party for the
Chinese or any particular community but for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region – and it was totally anathema in DAP for anyone to be anti-Islam or any other religion. Read the rest of this entry »
The Disgrace of Malaysian University Education
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Education, university on Thursday, 7 January 2016
By Murray Hunter
Asia Sentinel
January 6, 2016
Mismanagement, waste, and corruption in public universities
Malaysia’s public universities have dropped completely out of the World University Rankings maintained by the Times of London. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia was ranked 87th in the top 100 Asian rankings in 2013, but has since fallen out. Not a single Malaysian university made the top 100 Asian rankings.
The collapse of higher education in Malaysia has grown so marked that World Bank economist Dr Frederico Gil Sander recently said the state of the system is more alarming than the country’s considerable public debt. The talent needed to develop the Malaysian economy is not being produced.
It isn’t just the Times survey. Malaysian public universities have also shown mixed results in other surveys like the QS rankings,where three Malaysian universities rose slightly while Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, International Islamic Universiti Malaysia, and Universiti Teknologi MARA, all slipped. Not a single Malaysian university made the top 100, According to the QS ranking profiles, Malaysian universities have lost significant ground in academic reputation and tend to be weak in research, with no Malaysian university even reaching the top 400.
Public Universities Vice-Chancellor/Rector Committee chairman Kamarudin Hussin, also vice chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Perlis (Unimap) claims that the ranking methodologies favor older, more established universities. Yet many universities within the top 100 Asian universities were established relatively recently. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, ranked 7th was established in 1980, Nanyang Technological University, ranked 10th was set up in 1981, and Pohang University of Science and Technology, ranked 11th, was established in 1986. Read the rest of this entry »
The 14GE is not battle between the Malays and Chinese for political power as Malays will not lose political power but whether Najib and UMNO leaders can continue to mislead Malaysians to continue their economic scandals and abuses of power
Posted by Kit in DAP, Elections, Najib Razak, Pakatan Harapan, Parliament on Thursday, 7 January 2016
I want first to thank the DAP Assemblywoman for Senai, Wong Shu Qi for a new translation and bringing out this new Chinese edition of “Time Bombs in Malaysia”, a collection of my speeches in Parliament during my first two terms as Member of Parliament from 1971 – 1978.
I am reminded of the first day of the resumed Parliament on Feb. 23, 1971, when Members of Parliament convened for the first time after a 21-month suspension of Parliament and National Operations Council (NOC) Emergency rule after the May 13 racial riots of 1969, under the grave threat that Parliament will be closed down and Members of Parliament sent home if they failed to accomplish the first task expected of them – to amend the Malaysian Constitution to entrench four issues as “sensitive” issues which could not be questioned on pain of conviction for sedition and the removal of the parliamentary immunity of MPs with regard to these entrenched “sensitive issues” even in parliamentary debates.
In fact, a few days before MPs met, the UMNO Youth leader at the time warned that UMNO Youth would surround Parliament until MPs approved the Constitution Amendment Bill.
During the debate on the Constitution Amendment Bill in Parliament, there was palpable electricity in the air, with government MPs walking around with bulges in the pocket, signifying the least pacific intentions.
However, the 13 elected DAP MPs were not so easily browbeaten and we stood up for the people’s rights and made it clear that DAP MPs were not elected into Parliament to be “yes-men” to surrender their principles or betray the trust and confidence of the electorate. Read the rest of this entry »
Umno-PAS attacks fuel anti-DAP sentiments among Malays, study finds
BY ZULKIFLI SULONG, FEATURES AND ANALYSIS EDITOR | The Malaysian Insider
Published: 7 January 2016 6:59 AM
Anger towards DAP among Malay Muslims, especially in rural areas, has increased due to Umno’s consistent campaign to demonise the Chinese-dominated party, even as it recruits more Malay members and leaders, says a think tank.
The animosity intensified after the break-up of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in June, when DAP parted ways with former ally PAS, the country’s second largest party of Malay Muslims.
With Umno and PAS starting to work together, the anti-DAP campaign is becoming more effective as both Malay parties use religion to attack it, said the Darul Ehsan Institute (IDE).
Read the rest of this entry »
The Education Minister should ensure that Malaysian taxpayers do not have to pay for RM3 million mistake in reprint of Year Six History textbook which showed Malacca in the east coast above Terengganu
Education Minister, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid should ensure that Malaysian taxpayers do not have to pay for the RM3 million mistake in reprint of Year Six History textbook which showed Malacca in the east coast above Terengganu.
It is shocking as to how such a basic mistake, which should not be made under any circumstances, could be made despite the various levels of checks and counter-checks, from the choice of the author to the writing of the text, including the title to the diagrams and content to the last page.
Clearly, the whole system of checks and counter-checks have broken down in the education ministry, which does not reflect well on the professionalism of the Education Ministry, departments and agencies like the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) delegated with such tasks.
The DBP director general Datuk Dr. Awang Sariyan has said that reprinting the history text would cost RM3 million. Read the rest of this entry »
My experience at the Impian Edu-Camp
Posted by Kit in DAP, Impian Malaysia, Sarawak on Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Helen D’Cruz
Malaysiakini
5 Jan 2016
It was a rainy afternoon as we drove into Kg Sorak Sumpong, Serian in the outskirts of Kuching. It took us about an hour and a half drive from Kuching to reach this Bidayuh village. We were the 10 volunteers and two Impian officials who were going to run a holiday education camp for the children of the village.
At first sight of the village, I was disappointed, having expected to be taken into the interiors of Sarawak and given an opportunity to live in longhouses. As it turned out this looked like one of the new villages often seen in West Malaysia.
It was soon apparent that due to some miscommunication, we were not expected at the village that week. However, this was quickly sorted out and we were placed with three host families. The only married couple in the group was given a bedroom to themselves in one home. This was considered very gracious of the host as there were 11 family members in that house.
Two of the guys were housed close to a pigsty and padi drying area. The rest of us were graciously given the living room and one bedroom in another house. Most of us slept on mats spread out on the floor. Read the rest of this entry »
Malacca DAP must continue to help lead Malaysia towards a new future – where Malaysians can regain confidence to be able to compete with the rest of the world instead of fighting among ourselves over a diminishing national economic cake
Posted by Kit in DAP, Najib Razak, Pakatan Harapan, UMNO on Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Malacca had always played a leading role in DAP’s 50-year campaign to create a new and better Malaysia – where Malaysians can regain confidence to be able to compete with the rest of the world instead of fighting among ourselves over a diminishing economic cake.
Malacca was one of the six founder DAP branches after the party was registered on March 18, 1966, the other being Seremban, Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Johor Baru and Penang. The formation of the DAP branch in Ipoh made these seven branches the Magnificent Seven in the first year of the DAP’ s political struggle in 1966.
No other state could claim to have a special relationship with the 50 year struggle of the DAP, as four out of the five DAP Secretaries-General had special associations with Malacca, starting with DAP’s first Secretary-General C.V. Devan Nair (who was at the time DAP MP for Bangsar and later became President of Singapore), myself, Kerk Kim Hock and Lim Guan Eng who together served as Secretary-General of DAP for some 47 of the party’s 50-year history.
Right from the very beginning, DAP was formed as a political party with a commitment and vision for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region. Read the rest of this entry »
Will Najib survive the RM2.6 billion fallout?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Story by Khairul Khalid | Kinibiz
DECEMBER 23, 2015 8:00AM
The political purge that followed the WSJ revelations stunned the public and sent shockwaves among Umno grassroots. Can Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak survive the RM2.6 billion backlash?
________________________________________________________________________
Just a few weeks after the sensational Wall Street Journal (WSJ) expose in July, alleging that RM2.6 billion was transferred directly into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s bank accounts, major reshuffles in key government posts shocked the nation again.
The most prominent were the triple whammy dismissals of attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail, deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin and federal minister Mohd Shafie Apdal.
Retribution in RM2.6 billion ‘Donorgate’
Were these casualties political retribution in the RM2.6 billion “Donorgate” scandal linked to Najib? The public seemed to think so.
Read the rest of this entry »
Iran, Emerging From Sanctions, Faces More Isolation After Embassy Attack
Posted by Kit in International, Islam, Islamic state on Tuesday, 5 January 2016
by Thomas Erdbrink
New York Times
Jan 4, 2016
TEHRAN — When a Saudi state executioner beheaded the prominent Shiite dissident Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday, the Shiite theocracy in Iran took it as a deliberate provocation by its regional rival and dusted off its favored playbook, unleashing hard-liner anger on the streets.
Within hours of the execution, nationalist Iranian websites were calling for demonstrations in front of the Saudi mission in Tehran and its consulate in the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad.
The police, outmanned, looked the other way as angry protesters set the embassy ablaze with firebombs, climbed the fences and vandalized parts of the building.
Now, Iranian leaders are suddenly forced to reckon with whether they played into the Saudis’ hands, finding themselves mired in a new crisis at a time they had been hoping to emerge from international sanctions as an accepted global player. Iran might have capitalized on global outrage at the executions by Saudi Arabia, but instead finds itself once again characterized by adversaries as a provocateur in the region and abroad. Read the rest of this entry »
How Saudi Arabia and the Islamic State find common ground in beheadings
Posted by Kit in International, Islam, Islamic state on Tuesday, 5 January 2016
By Adam Taylor
Washington Post
January 4, 2016
Over the past year, Saudi Arabia has faced recurrent criticism that its ultraconservative interpretation of Islamic law is not so far off from what is practiced by the Islamic State, an extremist organization that proclaimed its “caliphate” across parts of Syria and Iraq in June 2014. The criticism clearly irks some Saudi officials, who have threatened legal action against social media users who make the comparison with the Islamic State.
This weekend’s announcement that Shiite cleric Sheik Nimr Baqr al-Nimr was among 47 people executed in Saudi Arabia in a day has added considerable fuel to the fire, however. Saudi authorities have acknowledged that some of those executed were beheaded — a technique widely used and publicized by the Islamic State.
In just one sign of broader official outrage at the execution of Nimr, the website of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, released an image that contrasts the Saudi kingdom’s use of beheadings with the Islamic State’s decapitation videos. “Any differences?” it asks, showing a Saudi executioner with a sword standing over a kneeling man.
The idea that Nimr could have been beheaded will only inflame sectarian tensions in the Muslim world, with Shiites remembering the way that Husayn ibn Ali, the third Shiite imam, was beheaded by the Sunni Umayyad caliphate in the seventh century. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s RM2.6 billion ‘Donorgate’ rocks Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Tuesday, 5 January 2016
By Khairul Khalid | Kinibiz
DECEMBER 22, 2015 8:00AM
________________________________________________________________________
The sensational expose on a RM2.6 billion transfer into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal bank accounts rocked Malaysia in 2015. Will there be more twists and turns to the “Donorgate” scandal in 2016?
In 2015, “donations” took on new dimensions in the Malaysian lexicon. There are still more questions than answers about the RM2.6 billion transfer – purportedly from a mysterious Arab donor – directly to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
The shocking expose by the American newspaper Wall Street Journal (WSJ) last July is arguably the biggest bombshell ever dropped on a sitting Malaysian prime minister in recent memory.
Read the rest of this entry »
MACC’s “name and shame” website should be closed down as it only shames Malaysia when the person responsible for Malaysia to be ranked third in world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015” is not mentioned
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 5 January 2016
I thank the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for its quick response to my speech at the “Mana RM2.6 billion?” kopitiam ceramah in Kulai on Sunday, explaining that only those who are convicted of corruption are placed on the MACC’s “name and shame list” on its website and not those being investigated.
This is exactly the point I was making, that the MACC’s “name and shame” data base does not make any significant contribution to the battle against corruption, especially against grand corruption, when the person responsible for Malaysia to be ranked third in the world’s “worst corruption scandal in 2015” is not even mentioned.
Can MACC point out any “shark” in its “name and shame” database of over 700 names or explain how it could claim to have any successful anti-corruption campaign when it had not been able to nab, prosecute and convict any “shark” apart from “ikan bilis” with the MACC entering its eighth year of operation after taking over from its predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) with more powers, funds and personnel than ACA?
Three months have passed since the Malay Rulers made their unprecedented Oct. 4 statement expressing concern about three national issues causing the grave crisis of confidence battering Malaysia for several months – the 1MDB scandal, the rule of law and national unity in the country. Read the rest of this entry »
-
You are currently browsing the archives for January, 2016
