Archive for category Najib Razak
Najib should intervene immediately to restore publication licence to The Heat before it becomes the tipping point to plunge Malaysia’s 2014 Press Freedom Index to the lowest point, even below that of Myanmar
Posted by Kit in Media, Najib Razak, Press on Friday, 27 December 2013
Before the end of the year of 2013 in five days’ time, there is another pledge that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should honour – his pledge to make Malaysia the “best democracy in the world”.
Nobody whether in Malaysia or outside really believe Najib would transform Malaysia into the “best democracy in the world” but the least they expect Najib to do is not to backslide on his specific promise of democratic reforms.
The suspension of the weekly, The Heat, would be one such unacceptable instance of Najib reneging on his specific promise of democratic reforms to unshackle the press from authoritarian restrictions of the Mahathirish past.
In fact, Najib should be moving forward to repeal the Printing Presses and Publications Act altogether to remove the requirement for the licensing of publications.
The Home Ministry has claimed that Najib is not behind the suspension of The Heat and that the suspension is not related to the report in the weekly titled “All eyes on big spending PM Najib” published for the week of November 23-29.
Read the rest of this entry »
Najib – Time to prove he is a moderate by deed and conviction not a political chameleon who alternates between moderation and immoderation in his speeches depending on the crowd and occasion
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building, Religion on Thursday, 26 December 2013
The speeches by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday – one delivered by him at the national-level Christmas Open House in Penang and the other read out for him in Kuala Lumpur by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Paul Low, at the Christian Federation of Malaysia’s Christmas Hi-Tea – should have been received in elation by all reasonable and moderate Malaysians but this time, they failed to evoke such a response.
Why? Is it because men and women of reason and moderationn in Malaysia have become extremists rejecting the sentiments of moderation, harmony and co-existence preached by Najib in his two Christmas speeches yesterday?
This cannot be so and it is not so.
In his address at the National Christmas Open House celebration in Penang, Najib said both Christianity and Islam have common roots and are Abrahamic religions.
He noted that the Muslims may not be able to accept the Christian interpretation on the concept of God and vice versa for the Christians.
“So, rather than choosing this path of fighting over these differences, it is better that we find a common ground to preserve the peace, harmony and stability of the country.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Support for Barisan will drop further if it ignores rising cost, says varsity survey
Posted by Kit in Finance, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 24 December 2013
The Malaysian Insider
December 24, 2013
Support for the Barisan Nasional administration will drop further if it fails to deal with the rising cost of living experienced by Malaysians, another study has found today.
At the same time, the study by the Universiti Malaya’s Centre for Democracy and Elections (UMCEDEL) showed that 61% of respondents disagreed with the Government’s plan to introduce a goods and services tax in 2015.
The study showed that only 20% of those polled agreed with the initiative.
UMCEDEL director Prof Datuk Dr Mohammad Redzuan Othman said that the rise in electricty and petrol prices had a severe impact on those polled and that 52% of them felt that the Government’s BR1M (1Malaysia People’s Aid) handouts were inadequate to deal with rising prices. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia deserves a new Education Minister who is fully committed to resolve the national education crisis with a practical and achievable action plan to transform the country from a mediocre to a world-class education system
Posted by Kit in Education, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 24 December 2013
The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is trying to minimise the enormous damage caused by the three-week-long thunderous silence of the Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to the “triple whammy” of relentless erosion of educational standards in the country, viz
* 2011 TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study);
* 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment); and
* World Bank’s adverse Malaysia Economic Monitor themed “High-Performing Education”.
In his Facebook post yesterday, Najib said Malaysia is capable of providing the best education system for all with the co-operation of all stakeholders, i.e. parents, educators and students themselves.
Describing the issue of education as closest to his heart, he also acknowledged that various efforts had to be taken to empower the national education system which “encompasses all aspects of human capital development inclusively as well as bridges the education gap between the urban and rural students”. Read the rest of this entry »
MCA’s reforms hollow without Umno’s, analysts say
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, MCA, Najib Razak, UMNO on Monday, 23 December 2013
By Syed Jaymal Zahiid
The Malay Mail Online
December 22, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 — MCA is unlikely to succeed with planned reforms to win back the Chinese community so long as Barisan Nasional (BN) lynchpin Umno continues to thrive on communal politics, said two political analysts.
Despite the winds of change blowing through the party that yesterday elected a new line-up of leaders, they said Umno’s dominance over government policies meant it was difficult for MCA to shake its seemingly subservient role to the Malay nationalist party that has disenchanted its traditional support base.
Since reinforcing its position by winning 88 of the 133 federal seats the coalition managed to retain in Election 2013, Umno has also gained a stranglehold over country’s administration by controlling 17 of the 25 ministerial posts in the government.
“Reform in MCA is dependent on Umno,” Prof James Chin, a political analyst with Monash University, told The Malay Mail Online yesterday.
“The reform would only go as internal party reform and not government policies,” Chin said of MCA’s planned transformation. Read the rest of this entry »
In deflecting the heat over weekly’s suspension, Putrajaya raises more questions
Posted by Kit in Media, Najib Razak on Monday, 23 December 2013
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
December 21, 2013
The Home Ministry has now denied that The Heat (pic) was suspended over its reports of a profligate administration but rather it was because the weekly had violated provisions in its printing permit.
If anything, that defence raises more questions than answers for Putrajaya. After all, was it a coincidence that a show-cause letter was only issued after the November 23 to 29 edition on hefty spending on travel and consultants by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak?
“This decision was not linked to The Heat’s recent report regarding the prime minister, and any accusations to the contrary are without merit,” a ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal.
The spokesperson said the suspension resulted from the publishing company violating provisions mandated under its printing permit, the Journal reported.
Home Ministry sources told The Malaysian Insider that the permit given to the publisher was for the publication of a magazine and not for newspaper printing.
Well, The Heat is a weekly newspaper and in some circles, that is a magazine.
More importantly, when did the ministry find out that it was not a magazine? It has had a run of 15 editions since entering the marketplace on September 6, 2013. Read the rest of this entry »
Politics and sexual innuendoes
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Sunday, 22 December 2013
– The Malaysian Insider
December 21, 2013
Why do Malaysian politicians have a penchant of spicing up their rhetoric with sexual innuendoes? Is it the lowest common denominator in politics and one every political party member can relate to?
Be it Borneo politicians who liken leaking roofs to woman’s menses or suggestive remarks about having quotas for four wives or a minister linking property values to a woman’s made-up beauty – almost every other speech is linked to sex.
So it is no surprise Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak mentioned “political viagra” today to stimulate MCA to greater heights. Read the rest of this entry »
Which assessments are Malaysians to believe – PMR or PISA/TIMSS?
Posted by Kit in Education, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak on Friday, 20 December 2013
I join the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in congratulating the top scorers in this year’s Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examination, in particular the 30,988 or 7.33 per cent of the over 462,940 PMR candidates nationwide who scored Grade A in all subjects – an increase of 0.41 per cent or 514 candidates over last year’s 30,474 Grade A straight scorers.
However, both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister have been singularly silent over the 2011 TIMSS and 2012 PISA results which show Malaysian students very low down in international educational standards, and they should explain the reason for the vast discrepancy in the local PMR examination results with international educational assessment results like 2011 TIMSS and 2012 PISA.
With 7.33 per cent of students scoring straight As in all the PMR subjects, this should mean that the Malaysian national education system has produced over seven per cent of our students who are world-class “top scorers” comparable with their peers in the rest of the world.
However, this is not reflected whether in the 2011 TIMSS or 2012 PISA results. Read the rest of this entry »
Unable to take the heat, Putrajaya puts media on notice
Posted by Kit in Media, Najib Razak on Friday, 20 December 2013
NEWS ANALYSIS BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
December 20, 2013
Putrajaya’s transformation programme took a step backward yesterday when the Home Ministry suspended The Heat weekly, most likely for its November 22 lead article that focused on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s spendthrift ways.
While such reports are commonplace in online news portals, The Heat’s article hit too close to home as it was in print and came at a time when Putrajaya had cut fuel and sugar subsidies while higher electricity tariffs, toll charges and public transport fares were on the cards as public funds were tight.
Putrajaya insiders say the Home Ministry took action as the report made the PM look bad, which is an unwritten out-of-bounds marker in the local media scene.
“You get a permit to publish, so you must know your parameters even if you want to be critical,” a retired newspaperman told The Malaysian Insider.
“This is just a warning not to overstep the boundaries even if the PM can be quite liberal about such things,” he added, noting that the government is more concerned about print rather than online media. Read the rest of this entry »
Deficit-cutting measures take toll on Najib’s popularity, survey shows
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Wednesday, 18 December 2013
By Zurairi AR | December 18, 2013
The Malay Mail Online
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 — A series of painful measures to trim Malaysia’s chronic budget deficit has hit Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s popularity hard, according to a survey by independent pollster Merdeka Center that showed his approval sliding to a new low of 52 per cent in December.
Conducted from June to September and supplemented by an updated poll this month, the survey took place during a time when Putrajaya rolled out a fuel price hike, confirmed the long-delayed Goods and Services Tax (GST), eliminated price support for sugar, and announced an increase to power tariffs next year — all of which have angered Malaysians already struggling with rising cost of living.
News is also swirling now of extensive toll rate increases next year.
Sixty-seven per cent of respondent cited worsening costs and inflation as their main grouses.
Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s approval rating takes a plunge, Merdeka Centre survey reveals
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Wednesday, 18 December 2013
The Malaysian Insider | December 18, 2013
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s approval rating has taken the lowest dip since assuming office in 2009, declining to 52% in December, from 62% in August, a Merdeka Centre survey has found.
Two months after replacing Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as prime minister, Najib had a 65% approval rating.
The pollster said the survey was conducted between December 4 and 12, 2013, after the reduction of fuel subsidies in September 2013, and the tabling of the 2014 national budget during which the government announced the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2015.
Merdeka Centre said in a statement that concerns over the economy, particularly rising costs and inflation, rose to its highest ever level, up to 67% of all respondents.
Read the rest of this entry »
Idris Jala should “walk the talk” to “stop politicizing education” and get agreement of PM and Cabinet to establish Opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on Education
Posted by Kit in Education, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat on Wednesday, 18 December 2013
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and the head of Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), Datuk Seri Idris Jala should “walk the talk” to “stop politicizing education” and get the agreement of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet for the establishment of an Opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on Education as a bipartisan response to the “triple whammy” of relentless erosion of educational standards in the country, viz:
* 2011 TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study);
* 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment); and
* World Bank’s adverse Malaysia Economic Monitor themed “High-Performing Education”.
If Idris can announce such an agreement by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to the establishment of a bi-partisan Opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, this will be the most cheerful and best end-of-the-year news for Malaysians who had been buffeted by an avalanche of bad news on all fronts in the past seven months after the 13th general elections creating unprecedented division, disunity and negative vibes about the future of Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »
Will ‘The Heat’ wilt from Government heat?
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Kee Thuan Chye, Mahathir, Media, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 18 December 2013
– Kee Thuan Chye
The Malaysian Insider
December 17, 2013
The relatively outspoken weekly newspaper The Heat has been given a show-cause letter by the Home Ministry and reportedly told to tone down its fervour. And this has come about only three months since the paper sparked to life in early September.
This shows how tightly the Government still controls the media, and how difficult it is for any print publication to be critical of the ruling party. It also blows to bits the promise that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak made in September 2011 that he wanted to establish in Malaysia “the best democracy”. Unless, of course, he has a radically different understanding of “democracy”.
The online news website The Malaysian Insider had reported that the action taken by the ministry was believed to have been prompted by The Heat’s front-page article on Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor’s “spendthrift” use of public funds – on overseas trips, utilities in their official residence, the hiring of consultants, the use of the Government’s private jets, allocations for the Prime Minister’s Department. Read the rest of this entry »
Shafee’s and Ramli’s affidavits: A criminal conspiracy?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Crime, Najib Razak, Police on Tuesday, 17 December 2013
– Mat Zain Ibrahim
The Malaysian Insider
December 17, 2013
Many people may not realise that the affidavits affirmed by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Datuk Ramli Yusoff, which are the subject of my police report last Sunday, were filed in court by the Attorney General’s Chambers.
Quite simply, what I am saying here is that the full contents of both the affidavits have been vetted, scrutinised and cleared for filing by the Chambers.
The people must also be told that on or about November 1, Ramli had filed a suit against Abdul Gani Patail, Musa Hassan and several others including the government, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police claiming damages totalling RM128.5 million.
And the person who advised and encouraged Ramli to use the black-eye incident evidence as the main cause of action of the suit was none other than Shafee.
Incidentally, Shafee is also the person whom I’ve alleged in my report to have concealed material evidence against Gani and Musa which Shafee received from me on September 24, 2013.
Now, against this backdrop, Gani must explain how could he have allowed both Shafee’s and Ramli’s false affidavits to be filed in court through the AG’s Chambers? Especially Ramli’s, unless a deal was struck. Read the rest of this entry »
Saluting M’sia’s Mandelas
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Najib Razak, nation building, Teoh Beng Hock on Sunday, 15 December 2013
Dean Johns
Malaysiakini
Dec 14, 2013
In the wake of the death of the man who led South Africa to freedom from apartheid, many here have wondered whether there will ever be a Mandela-style leader to liberate Malaysia from the curse of Barisan Nasional.
Of course this robber-regime has already made a brazen bid to steal the spirit of Mandela for itself, with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak ludicrously claiming that his Umno party’s ‘struggle’ is similar to that of South Africa’s ANC.
A claim that was neatly rebutted by US President Barack Obama in his speech in celebration of the life of Nelson Mandela, in which his statement that “there are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people” was clearly directed at the Najibs of the world.
In any event, there was never much of a struggle to free Malaysia from colonial rule, except by socialists, trade unionists and communists.
And the Alliance that finally achieved Merdeka under the benevolent and broad-minded leadership of Tunku Abdul Rahman all too soon degenerated into the Umno-dominated Barisan Nasional that has ever since so disgracefully re-colonised the nation for its own and its cronies’ benefit.
So that just as Mandela’s dream of a resurgent South Africa has degenerated into the current reality of a sink-hole of gross inequality, rampant crime and corruption under the unlovely Jacob Zuma, so has Tunku Abdul Rahman’s idea and ideal of Malaysia descended into today’s Najib-style nightmare. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP calls for genuine educational transformation to ensure “educational excellence for all students” and not just for 1.3% of the student population with over 51% failures
Posted by Kit in Education, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak on Sunday, 15 December 2013
Both the current Education Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his predecessor Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein must be held responsible for the decline and deterioration of educational standards in Malaysia in the past decade, as illustrated by the 2007 and 2011 TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and the 2009 and 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment).
This is because Hishammuddin was Education Minister from 2004 – 2009, and must be held solidly responsible for Malaysia’s poor performance in the 2007 TIMSS and 2009 PISA while Muhyiddin, who had taken over the Education Ministry in April 2009, must bear full responsibility for Malaysia’s educational performance in the 2011 TIMSS and 2012 PISA.
I have a vested interest in the performance of Malaysian students in international educational benchmarking, as I was responsible in getting Malaysia involved in the global educational assessments in the first place.
In 1996, I met the then Education Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Run Razak, and persuaded him that Malaysia should participate in TIMSS, as I had emailed the organisers of TIMSS, the Netherlands-based International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), inquiring about Malaysia’s participation in TIMSS as Malaysia had not participated in the four-yearly TIMSS assessment for eight-grade (Form Two) students.
Najib agreed with me that Malaysia should participate in the international educational assessments so that we know where Malaysian students stand with their peers in other countries, resulting in Malaysia’s first participation in a global educational assessment in the 1999 TIMSS. Read the rest of this entry »
Questions for Umno delegates
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO on Thursday, 12 December 2013
Azly Rahman
Malaysiakini
Dec 11, 2013
Malaysia’s most exciting political party of the old, United Malays National Organisation (Umno) just had its general assembly. A ritual of the political blood transfusion and the annual health check and administration of medications and treatments of a body politics ageing and grumbling. Too much good food and good life. Too sedentary of a life after its early years of “winning the war of independence” through a victory presented essentially and arguably, on a silver platter.
With the advent of mega-issues such as the most hegemonic and imperialistic US-imposed proposal of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), the rise of fascist and hate-mongering groups, the disillusionment about our education system, run amuck and latah behaviors displayed in our Parliament, massive growth of the underclass amongst the overpopulated nation on immigrants shipped en masse to build the country to such giddy heights, a daily rise of cases of mindless crimes, a slackening and weakening school system that is criticised for not preparing the next generation for a competitive economy requiring the cultivation of brainpower, resilience, and a sense of economic republicanism with a heart of social-democraticism, the clamour for a sense of unity reminiscent of the 70s – with all these and more, why are the speeches in this party assembly out of focus?
Here are my questions to the Umno delegates:
Why can’t your speeches be about:
•Coming up with strategies to create a better understanding between the races, since we’ve been together for centuries?
•Designing our education system to be inclusive of all Malaysians with each race treated on equal terms,
•Helping any group progress, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation, since we are all lawful citizens and we are not going back to “where we belong”,
•Stopping this nonsense called ‘1Malay’ as a greeting since 1Malaysia is already enough as a meaningless slogan and even 1Mandela would be better,
•Dismantling all systems that will perpetuate hatred amongst us and redesign our lives around celebrating our strength in diversity,
•Find ways to unify all races as one dignified race of Malaysians united against any threats from outside (if there are any real or imagined),
•Coming together as Malaysians to redesign our education system that will truly enhance children’s understanding of concepts, skills, attitude to become good learners, global and transcultural in outlook, and will grow up to see each other as a human race with a common humane destiny, rather than see more divisions and destructions,
•Collaborating with all races to see how best we can help those who are marginalized regardless of race and religion, and how best we can design an economic system that will promote cooperation, collaboration, and the enculturalisation of conscience and conscientiousness amongst us, rather that perpetually create competitions that lead to hatred and warmongering,
•Mediating the differences between Muslims of different interpretive practices, schools of thoughts, ways of leading their ‘Islamic life’ rather than create bogeymen and bogey-women for the purpose of witch-hunting and persecuting each other of the things we cannot fully understand,
•Stopping the total closing of the Malay mind by constantly instilling fear of themselves since time immemorial, since feudal times, so that the Malays can be spared of being called stupid, weak, lazy, and dependent on Umno as savior – all these a perfect model of a Master-Slave Narrative.
We need new speeches, Umno, saner ones. Read the rest of this entry »
What Our Leaders Can Learn from Mandela
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 11 December 2013
By Kee Thuan Chye
msn.com
10.12.2013
When Nelson Mandela died last Thursday, some Malaysian political leaders paid him tribute and expressed their admiration for what he stood for.
Prime Minister Najib Razak, who recently bought back preventive detention, tweeted, “Mandela lives on in the spirit of every human that believes in democracy and freedom.”
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, the champion of Perkasa, Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy) and the New Economic Policy (NEP), called Mandela a great leader dedicated to the cause of social justice.
Kedah Mentri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir, who in September said he would not entertain any requests for allocations from Chinese schools in Kedah, called Mandela “a true international patriot” for having suffered for the freedom movement against Apartheid.
Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who last year raised the threat of another May 13, extolled his message of unity and called him a “role model for all of the world”.
Weighed against what these people have said, done and been perceived to believe, the tributes sounded hollow. Even hypocritical. It makes one wonder if they truly understand the meaning of Mandela’s legacy. Read the rest of this entry »
Umno Baru running scared
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Mariam Mokhtar, Najib Razak, UMNO on Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Dec 9, 2013
The 4Rs – race, royalty, religion and the rural people – have been used by Umno Baru to divide and rule Malaysia.
When Najib asked the rhetorical question, “Where would the Malays be without Umno Baru?”, it was a cry of desperation and an admission of defeat.
Umno Baru’s hold on the Malays is slipping. Najib and Umno-Baru are scared. Without the Malays, where would Umno Baru be? Domination of the Malays is not about protecting their rights. It is all about power and status.
The line that Umno Baru has used for over five decades to divide the nation, is no longer relevant. Malay graduates who return to Malaysia do so because they have to fulfil the terms of their scholarship or loan. Try asking them what they really feel about Malaysia, about Umno Baru and its leaders. Their stories will fill you with hope.
The current clampdown on dissent and the hunt for Malays who speak their minds is because the government is afraid. A thinking Malay is a threat to Umno Baru. A thinking Malay who is prepared to question the leaders and make them accountable for their actions will erode the power of Umno Baru.
Umno Baru knows that one thinking Malay will embolden other Malays and very soon, Umno Baru will become irrelevant. Read the rest of this entry »
How Dare Najib Discredit Mandela
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO on Monday, 9 December 2013
By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
9.12.2013
Umno President Najib Razak diminished the stature of a great man when he said last Saturday at his party’s general assembly that Umno fought for the “same cause” as Nelson Mandela, who had died two days before.
What same cause? Mandela fought against racial discrimination whereas Umno institutionalised racial discrimination a few decades ago and still upholds it.
Mandela never advocated black supremacy, whereas Umno promotes Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy).
After he became president of South Africa, Mandela proposed reconciliation and sought to bring the races in his country together, whereas in Malaysia, Umno divides the races in order to keep itself in power.
Even at its general assembly, Umno’s delegates lobbied for the ethnocentric ‘1Melayu’ to replace the more inclusive ‘1Malaysia’, bashed the Chinese for not supporting the party at the last general election, and demanded a bigger stake in the economy, totally ignoring the reality that most of the country’s economic development is now already in Malay hands. Read the rest of this entry »
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