Archive for June 24th, 2018

MALAYSIA’S MORNING BREAKS

By Pauline Fan | May 23, 2018

If politics is ‘the art of the possible’, Malaysia’s 14th General Election has reignited a call for a politics of hope, what Václav Havel – dissident playwright turned President of the Czech Republic – beautifully termed ‘the art of the impossible’.

In the two weeks since GE14, the impossible has become reality. Malaysians have witnessed changes we never imagined we would see in our lifetime – the fall of the ‘invincible’ Barisan Nasional, Mahathir Mohamad’s return as prime minister, the release and royal pardon of Anwar Ibrahim, former political prisoners sworn in as top cabinet ministers.

Like the Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia, Malaysia’s historic yet peaceful transition of power unseated a regime that ruled for decades and saw a people’s movement swept into government. Yet our ‘revolution’ was won quietly through the ballot box as much as through people power campaign rallies throughout the country. What impelled most Malaysians to bring down the old regime was the need to restore the rule of law and reform systems of governance plagued by corruption. In essence: a yearning to return to a Malaysia that could have been. Read the rest of this entry »

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Will the UMNO Assemblies this week make serious amends on three major issues confronting the nation?

There are at least three things to look for in the upcoming UMNO Assemblies to be held this week beginning from Wednesday.

1. 1MDB and global kleptocracy

First is whether UMNO will embrace, ignore or repudiate the Najib legacy in particular with regard to the 1MDB international money-laundering scandal and the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocracy.

When Tunku Abdul Rahman took over the UMNO leadership from Onn Jaafar in 1951, he had to sell his house in Penang to fund the running of UMNO. Contrast this with the Prime Minister-cum- UMNO President rejected by the electorate in the 14GE – the nearly 300 boxes of designer handbags and dozens of bags filled with cash and jewellery among the items taken away by police in raids at properties linked to the former Prime Minister’s family, which contained RM114 million in cash in 26 currencies and Birkin handbags each worth up to hundreds of thousands of dollars! Read the rest of this entry »

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