Anyone surprised by Hasan Arifin’s announcement that PAC report on 1MDB will not be ready in time for the March meeting of Parliament?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Parliament on Thursday, 21 January 2016, 5:44 pm
Anyone surprised by the announcement yesterday by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Datuk Hasan Arifin that the PAC report into its investigations into the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal will not be ready for tabling in the Dewan Rakyat in the March/April meeting?
I believe the majority of Malaysians share my feeling of not in any way being surprised at all.
In fact, I will expect the PAC under the “cari makan” chairman will even miss the following Parliamentary meeting from May 16 to 26, which will mean that the PAC report on the 1MDB will be kicked to the end of the year, when Parliament meets for 25 days from 17th Oct to 24th Nov, 2016.
Again, nobody will be very surprised if the net result demanding full accountability for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Raza’s twin mega scandals by the end of this year will conclude not very much differently from that of last year – where the Prime Minister disappeared from Parliamentary chamber on the last day of the 25-day budget meeting although Ministers have proclaimed to the world that all the answers about the Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal would be answered on Dec. 3, 2015, the last day of the Parliamentary meeting, but there was absolutely no answer to the teeming questions about the scandal!
There is no sense of urgency in the PAC investigations into the 1MDB scandal since the appointment of Hasan as PAC Chairman, after the derailment of the PAC investigations for more than three months after the “purge” in the government of personalities in favour of full and satisfactory accountability of the 1MDB scandal, including the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muyhyiddin Yassin, Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, officers in the AG’s Chambers, Bank Negara, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Malaysian Police. Read the rest of this entry »
What Indonesia Knows About Blocking the Islamic State
Posted by Kit in Islam, Islamic state on Wednesday, 20 January 2016, 7:40 pm
Joshua Kurlantzick
Bloomberg
January 20, 2016
Smart strategy has made the largest Muslim-majority nation a tough environment for the Islamic State.
In the wake of last week’s attacks in Jakarta, which killed seven people, fears are growing that the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world is going to be hit by a wave of Islamic State-linked bombings and shootings. The potential for mayhem seems obvious. Indonesia’s open society and high social media penetration make it easy for young Indonesians to access Islamist sites and Facebook pages, and the Sunni Muslim insurgency has released several videos in Indonesian in an apparent recruiting effort.
Indonesia is a country of thousands of islands, with porous borders and many soft targets: The militants launched bombs and opened fire in broad daylight in one of the busiest neighborhoods in Jakarta. And Indonesians have fought in Syria and Iraq and returned. The Soufan Group, a consulting security consulting group, believes that at least six hundred Southeast Asians have traveled to Syria to fight with the Islamic State and then come back to their home countries. Indeed, the alleged ringleader of last week’s Jakarta attacks, a militant named Bahru Naim, is currently living in Raqqa, Islamic State’s hub. Read the rest of this entry »
Islamic State Eludes Southeast Asian Authorities With Telegram App
Posted by Kit in Islamic state, IT on Wednesday, 20 January 2016, 7:12 pm
By NEWLEY PURNELL and RESTY WORO YUNIAR
Wall Street Journal
Jan. 19, 2016
Terrorist group using encrypted messaging app to recruit members in Malaysia, Indonesia
Communications app Telegram Messenger is in the spotlight after the deadly terrorist attacks in Jakarta last week, with experts in Indonesia and Malaysia saying Islamic State radicals in Syria have used the platform to recruit members from Southeast Asia.
The revelations underscore both the apparent popularity of the Berlin-based app among members of the terror organization and the challenges it poses to authorities in tracking its private, encrypted chats.
Malaysian police on Saturday said its counterterrorism unit last week arrested four suspects, three of whom were recruited to join Islamic State in Syria by a Malaysian national via Telegram and Facebook Inc.’s social-networking platform.
Telegram, which in November said it blocked 78 of its public channels across 12 languages related to Islamic State, was one of the first apps to explicitly cater to privacy enthusiasts after reports in 2013 alleging widespread surveillance by U.S. intelligence.
Islamic State has used Telegram, a free platform that can be accessed via mobile devices and desktop computers, to disseminate public statements, such as its claim of responsibility for the November attacks in Paris. Read the rest of this entry »
Who is to bell the cat?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 20 January 2016, 4:06 pm
While Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will get the national thumbs down when he claimed in his 2016 New Year Message that his RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB scandal had been resolved and were no more issues for the new year, the Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz received unanimous national applause and support for her statement that Malaysians wish to see the investigation into 1MDB concluded so that they can move on.
When can Malaysians shake off the adverse political, economic and good governance effects of Najib’s twin mega scandals?
This question had been posed again and again in the past six months since the Wall Street Journal revelation of RM2.6 billion deposits in Najib’s personal bank accounts on July 2, 2015, and Najib’s failure to sue Wall Street Journal despite the American newspaper’s reiteration of the veracity of its allegation.
The Malay Rulers, in a historic and unprecedented joint statement on Oct. 6 last year, expressed their worry that if the issues confronting the nation, especially Najib’s twin mega scandals, were not handled wisely and allowed to drag on, not only Malaysia’s economy and the livelihood of the people could be jeopardized, public order and national security could also be threatened.
Will Malaysia be haunted and hounded by Najib’s twin mega scandals so long as Najib remains as Prime Minister of Malaysia? Read the rest of this entry »
Now that I have made an outright denial of the RM1.2 billion allegation against DAP, will MyKMU ask Najib to fully explain or make an outright denial of the RM2.6 billion (or RM4 billion) donation allegations?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 20 January 2016, 9:47 am
Pro-UMNO portal MyKMU.net has challenged me to explain allegations that the party had received RM1.2 billion “donations” from an Israeli source to fund its 13th general election campaign.
In a posting late evening yesterday, the portal said it was putting the pressure on me as I had similarly pressured the BN government to explain RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal implicating Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
I would not go to the extent of calling the MyKMU bloggers “blank heads”, an epithet in one of the MyKMU comments, but this post has only confirmed that people with high IQ and with a modicum of integrity will never condescend to become UMNO cybertroopers (or anyone’s cybertroopers) as to post such garbage like this posting on MyKMU.
My explanation of the RM1.2 billion allegation from an Israeli source against the DAP is a flat and outright denial as this is the concoction of the fevered imagination of two persons, one Razali Abd Rahman, who had the temerity to describe himself as Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng’s “former special officer” when he was never in such or any other capacity connected to the Penang Chief Minister, and one Dr. Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki, purportedly PAS Research Center’s Chief Operating Officer, raising questions as to how doctorates could be indiscriminately given out in Malaysia that it could be conferred on someone who could be so gullible and undiscerning as to fall prey, willingly or willingly, to a character like Razali.
I wonder whether the MyKMU bloggers have the intellectual capacity to realise that by re-hashing Razali and Zuhdi’s allegations, they are in fact questioning the competence, efficiency and professionalism of important government agencies like Bank Negara, the Police in particular the Special Branch and even the Prime Minister himself as RM1.2 billion is not a small sum which could wrapped in old newspapers and hidden under the mat.
Is MyKMU questioning the competence, efficiency and professionalism of Bank Negara, the Inspector-General of Police and the Prime Minister as they do not seem to know anything about the serious allegation of RM1.2 billion to DAP from an Israeli source to fund the 13th General Election campaign (made some four years ago), and if there even one iota of evidence in such allegations, all of three should be sacked immediately for gross incompetence and inefficiency.
Now that I have given a flat and outright denial of the allegation of RM1.2 billion to DAP from an Israeli source, will MyKMU publish a fulsome apology for retailing such baseless lies? Read the rest of this entry »
Enough of this nonsense! Malaysia was created as a secular nation
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam on Tuesday, 19 January 2016, 10:30 pm
— Clive Kessler
Malay Mail Online
January 19, 2016
JANUARY 19 — Enough of this nonsense! Enough already!
Malaya and then Malaysia was created as a secular nation.
Denial of this basic fact has become commonplace in recent times.
The pioneers in promoting the revisionist myth that there was or is nothing secular in the nation’s origins or about its Constitution have been the creative legal innovators and myth-makers of the PPMM: Persatuan Peguam Muslim Malaysia (Malaysian Muslim Lawyers Association) –- notably Datuk Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar — and their like-minded associates in CENTHRA, the Putrajaya-based and Saudi-friendly Centre for Human Rights and Advocacy, headed by on Azril Mohd Amin.
Their lead is followed, and their disruptive views are echoed, by a horde of Utusan Malaysia scribes and ideologues and, in their wake, a claque of well-connected writers and publicists and ambitious politicos.
In the absence of any clear refutation, their increasingly unchallenged view now threatens to become “the default position”, the received and undeniable truth.
But are they right?
In short, no. And for three main reasons. Read the rest of this entry »
Did MACC submit any recommendation for any charge against Prime Minister Najib in relation to the SRC International investigation, and if so, how many?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 19 January 2016, 3:44 pm
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has denied recommending 37 charges against Prime Minister Najib Razak in relation to the SRC International investigation.
It said that the article by Sarawak Report yesterday which said MACC had recommended 37 separate charges against Najib involving the SRC International case is untrue.
What Malaysians want to know is whether the MACC had submitted any recommendation to the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali for any charge against Najib in relation to the SRC International investigation, and if so, how many.
Furthermore, on a question which MACC should no equivocate, is whether it is true that the total sums of money deposited into Najib’s personal bank accounts meant for the last general election were not just RM2.6 billion but RM4 billion. Read the rest of this entry »
Our politics created Malaysian Isis
Posted by Kit in Islam, Islamic state on Tuesday, 19 January 2016, 2:27 pm
– Saefullah Norhaidi
The Malaysian Insider
19 January 2016
I was recently in Kuala Lumpur when Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) carried out its attack in Jakarta, marking the entrance of a new terrorist movement, in the Southeast Asian region.
It is clear now, Isis wants its voice to be heard, its presence felt. I have no idea whether this has any connection to it, but that very evening, I saw police forces walking in the miscellaneous places we were walking around in Kuala Lumpur.
Now is definitely the time when governments in this region will start to become intensely vigilant and more vehement in deterring the harmful growth of Islamic radical movements in their respective countries. Read the rest of this entry »
Shahbudin: No need for PAS to drag in God
Joe Fernandez | January 19, 2016
Free Malaysia Today
PAS Information Chief Nasharudin Tantawi urged to re-confirm whether God really indicated to him that he need not apologize to Guan Eng at the end of a defamation case.
KUALA LUMPUR: A political analyst, taking to his blog on a reported out-of-court settlement on a defamation suit between Lim Guan Eng the plaintiff and Nasharudin Tantawi, wonders whether it was really necessary to drag God into the case. “What’s important is proof based on the facts of the case.”
The case between Guan Eng and PAS Information Chief Nasharuddin was not one between Islam and non-Islam, pointed out Shahbudin Husin the analyst, but involves character values and the behaviour of human beings, something that can happen to anyone irrespective of religious leanings and race. “So, why invoke God by name as a factor, why sell the almighty’s name in a defamation suit?”
“Such an attitude will only serve to further blacken the image of Islam.”
Shahbudin wants Nasharudin to re-confirm whether God really indicated to him by a sign that he need not apologize to Guan Eng at the end of the defamation case.
If it was really true that God told Nasharudin not to apologise to Guan Eng, also DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister, the analyst wonders whether the Almighty also advised him to withdraw part of his allegations and pay compensation to the plaintiff, the victim. “Does that mean that God doesn’t like the idea of apologising?”
“Did God really tell Nasharudin not to tender an apology and go on to advise the PAS Information Chief on other aspects of the defamation suit?”
Again, wonders the analyst, why didn’t God advise Nasharudin to fight Guan Eng to the bitter end in the defamation suit. Read the rest of this entry »
UMNO leadership should consider Onn’s 66-year proposal that UMNO open its membership to non-Malays to defend and save democracy in Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, UMNO on Tuesday, 19 January 2016, 11:27 am
Yesterday, I gave as the reason why the UMNO leadership should consider founding UMNO President, Datuk Onn Jaafar’s 66-year proposal that UMNO open its door to non-Malays the simple and basic one as to whether UMNO is a loyal and patriotic Malaysian party or just a communal Malay party – how the nation could have a Prime Minister from UMNO who could be a Prime Minister of all Malaysians when the ration d’etre of his political existence is to be the champion of one race against the other races.
I was responding to the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Salleh Said Keruak, who had asked why UMNO must open its membership to non-Malays as UMNO has never claimed to be a multi-racial party.
Datuk Shabery Cheek, who was shunted off from the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia in the Cabinet “purge” reshuffle on July 28 last year, tried to come to his successor’s rescue, declaring that UMNO’s opening up its membership to non-Malays is not as simple as opening up a durian.
In a way, Shabery is very right.
If UMNO just opens up its membership to non-Malays, no non-Malay would want to be an UMNO member unless UMNO can change its political culture from a race-based party to a Malaysia-based national party.
But this is not adequate. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s hollow economy, flaws of high income nation ambition
– Anas Alam Faizli
The Malaysian Insider
18 January 2016
Allow me to share with you a blindspot moment here; not many took note that in 2014, 29.1% of our total imports were from electrical and electronic (E&E) products. The same year, 35.7% of our total exports were also E&E products.
What is actually going on here?
Well, simply put, our economy is kind of hollow. Read the rest of this entry »
Time for UMNO leadership to consider Onn Jaafar’s proposal 66 years ago for UMNO to open its membership to non-Malays so that UMNO leaders can also be leaders of all Malaysians
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, DAP, nation building, UMNO on Monday, 18 January 2016, 3:34 pm
The Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak asked why UMNO must open its membership to non-Malays, describing this as a non-issue because UMNO has never claimed to be a multi-racial party.
It is sad and pathetic that present-day UMNO Ministers and leaders are quite proud about their national blindspot and their inability to see or understand what the founding UMNO President Datuk Onn Jaafar saw very clearly and vividly 66 years ago in 1950, which was why he proposed that UMNO open its doors to non-Malays in order to lead in the building of a united nation.
How can the nation have a Prime Minister from UMNO who could also be Prime Minister for all Malaysians when the very ration d’etre of his political existence is to be the champion of one race against the other races?
This anomalous situation may be understandable and acceptable in the early years of the communal politics of plural Malaysia, but it should become increasingly anachronistic with passing decades of Malaysian nation building, especially based on the Rukunegara principles proclaimed in 1970 – which should see the old mould of the politics of race give way to the new mould of the politics of national issues of justice, freedom, good governance, integrity, progress and prosperity for all.
Onn Jaafar have the foresight and vision that we cannot build a united nation out of our diversity of races, religions, languages and cultures unless we go beyond the colonial tactics of “divide and rule” and create a common national identity where there is an overarching common national identity and consciousness, and where what is close to one ethnic community is not only articulated and championed by that ethnic group only but also by other ethnic groups transcending ethnic barriers. Read the rest of this entry »
Former ISA guard: LKS is not anti-malay
Posted by Kit in ISA, Martin Jalleh on Monday, 18 January 2016, 1:48 pm
By Martin Jalleh
Indonesia Attack Brings Islamic State to Southeast Asia’s Door
Posted by Kit in Islam, Islamic state on Monday, 18 January 2016, 6:28 am
Chris Brummitt and Rieka Rahadiana
Bloomberg
January 15, 2016
A deadly gun-and-suicide bomb attack claimed by Islamic State in central Jakarta shows the growing reach of the jihadi network from outside its base in the Middle East.
The assault on a Starbucks cafe and a police post in the Indonesian capital, while unsophisticated, was the first in Southeast Asia to be directed or inspired by IS, and follows months of warnings by security officials that its members posed a threat to the region.
“Paris in November, Istanbul this week and Jakarta today,” Hugo Brennan, Asia analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, said on Thursday. “This latest attack can be seen as further evidence of Islamic State’s increasing ability to inspire deadly attacks in cities around the globe.”
For Indonesia, which has more Muslims than any other nation, it was a grim reminder of the resilience of a radical fringe that has existed since independence. In the 2000s, militants linked up with al-Qaeda to carry out a string of attacks, the last in Jakarta in 2009 on luxury hotels, but have been under pressure from a concerted crackdown by security forces. Read the rest of this entry »
Iran Kicks Off Plan to Boost Oil Exports as Sanctions Lifted
Anthony Dipaola and Hashem Kalantari
Bloomberg
January 17, 2016
Iran is beginning efforts to boost oil production and exports amid a global supply glut after the removal of sanctions that shackled its economy and capped crude sales.
The Persian Gulf country is targeting an immediate increase in shipments of 500,000 barrels a day, Amir Hossein Zamaninia, deputy oil minister for commerce and international affairs, said Sunday in an interview in Tehran. Iran plans to add another half million barrels within months. The additional crude will push prices lower when it enters markets that are already oversupplied, said Robin Mills of Dubai-based oil consultant Qamar Energy.
“The oil ministry, by ordering companies to boost production and oil terminals to be ready, kicked off today the plan to increase Iran’s crude exports by 500,000 barrels,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Zamaninia said the plan is “still valid” and will be done in a “managed way to minimize the negative impact” on prices.
Buyers of Iranian crude are free to import as much of its oil as they want after the International Atomic Energy Agency determined that the country had curbed its ability to develop a nuclear weapon. As holder of the world’s fourth-largest reserves of crude and biggest deposits of natural gas, Iran gains immediate access to about $50 billion in frozen accounts overseas, funds the government says it will use to rebuild industries. The end of sanctions also opens the door to foreign investors such as Total SA and Eni SpA.
Benchmark Brent crude has dropped 22 percent this year, closing last week at less than $29 a barrel amid oversupply and the looming surge in Iranian output. Gordon Kwan, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc., said by e-mail that prices may drop as low as $25 a barrel on Monday. Read the rest of this entry »
Are UMNO Ministers and leaders prepared, 66 years after Datuk Onn suggested it, consider opening UMNO doors to non-Malays to become an inclusive Malaysian political party?
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Islam, Islamic state, Najib Razak, nation building on Sunday, 17 January 2016, 8:23 am
The pathetic statement by the Communications and Multimedia Minister, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak that fielding more Malay candidates in the next general elections does not make DAP a multiracial party is the latest proof of the narrow-minded and petty mentality of the present UMNO leadership, which is completely bogged down by the politics of race and the failure of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Policy.
Malaysia is a plural society and the racial, religious, linguistic and cultural diversity of the country is a national asset and not a liability.
Malaysians will continue to be Malays, Chinese, Indians, Dayaks, Kadazan-Dusun-Muruts, Orang Asli or Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Taoists, Sikhs but the success of Malaysian nation-building will be measured by our ability to create an overarching common national identity where we are Malaysians first and race, religion, region and socio-economic status second – in othe words, where despite our racial, religious, linguisticm, cultural and socio-economic differences, we accept each other as Malaysians first above all else.
In this context, UMNO Ministers and leaders like Salleh Said Keruak should welcome DAP reaching out to get more Malay, Dayak, Kadazan-Dusun-Murut and Orang Asli support and emulate the DAP example to graduate from Malay to become Malaysian leaders instead of decrying such a development.
Is UMNO prepared to emulate the DAP’s example and reach out to all non-Malays and non-Muslims by welcoming them into UMNO ranks? Read the rest of this entry »
DAP at 50: Where do we go from here?
Posted by Kit in DAP, nation building on Saturday, 16 January 2016, 11:03 pm
Where do we go from here? This is one the most intense debates we have had, and it is important because I think the DAP is at the crossroads after 50 years. As Dr Abdul Aziz Bari mentioned, we don’t have to believe everything that we hear about from pollsters but we will take it seriously.
In this case, our coalition Parti Amanah Negara is three months old. We have heard about the polling position of PKR, DAP and Amanah. The position of the poll reminded us the position of the DAP during in our early months (of 1966). What would be the poll of our standing among the Chinese, Malays and Indians in the early months of the DAP?
Amanah is three months old, similar to that three months of the DAP when it was formed, what would be the poll tells us? How many percent among the votes of the Malays, how many percent of the votes among the Indians, how many percent we got among the Chinese, and others? It was very hard.
We must give serious attention to polling results. But we must not be a slave to polling results. And if the polling results are adverse, it should be an encouragement for us to prove the polling results wrong. And I think that is why we must be serious about these results. Read the rest of this entry »
Five things Najib must do if he is to uphold Tun Razak’s legacy
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building on Saturday, 16 January 2016, 9:00 am
At the Special 40th anniversary commemorative seminar on the death of the second Prime Minister, Tun Razak, on Thursday, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak vowed to live up to the legacy of his father.
There are at least five things Najib must do if he is to uphold Tun Razak’s legacy, as there is no doubt that the second Prime Minister would have done completely differently from what the sixth Prime Minister had done on these issues.
These five things are:
Firstly, stop prevaricating and procrastinating as he had done for the past six months since the Wall Street Journal expose of the RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib’s personal banking accounts, and to give a full and satisfactory accounting for his RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega-scandals at the Special Parliament on Jan. 26 and 27 convened for the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).
As Nazir, the younger brother of the Prime Minister, said at the special commemorative seminar, their father was selfless in his dedication to nation-building and feared the corruption of absolute power, and would be disappointed that our version of parliamentary democracy has evolved into one where power is too concentrated and the system of checks and balances have broken down.
One example is the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal. It would have horrified Tun Razak that the whole system of checks and balances have become so decrepit that Najib is the only person in the government and the country who knows the ins and outs of the 1MDB scandal in the past seven years – which qualifies as the “most heinous crime without criminals” – as Najib, as Prime Minister, must approve all the major transactions, deals and decisions of 1MDB. Read the rest of this entry »
To fight Isis, US should encourage moderate Islamic agenda in Malaysia, says report
Posted by Kit in Islam, Islamic state on Saturday, 16 January 2016, 12:18 am
The Malaysian Insider
15 January 2016
The US should encourage Malaysia to pursue a “genuinely” moderate Islamic agenda if it wants to thwart militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), according to a report titled “Indonesian and Malaysian Support for The Islamic State”.
The report, produced by the United States Agency for International Development, said Malaysia’s counter-terrorism efforts had achieved some success but was curtailed by government support for conservative Islamic interests.
It said Putrajaya’s right-wing bent, borne out of the need to arrest Umno’s declining support, alienated an important Muslim population that could have helped in combating the militants’ influence.
“At the broadest level, the US government should encourage and support genuinely moderate domestic Islamic agendas in both Indonesia and Malaysia,” read the report, published on January 6 and available online.
“In the Malaysian case, the moderate Islamic image it projects internationally is not reflected in domestic policy that is increasingly sectarian and hostile, not only to minority religious rights but also to progressive Muslim views.” Read the rest of this entry »
Idris Jusoh should stop being elitist, patronising or even “Marie Antoinettish”, as he should stop arguing whether there are hungry university students but get down to resolve the problem of students cutting down on meals because of economic exigencies
Posted by Kit in Education, university on Friday, 15 January 2016, 5:42 pm
The Higher Education Minister, Datuk Idris Jusoh should stop being elitist, patronizing or even “Marie Antoinettish”, as he stop arguing over whether there are hungry university students but get down to resolve the problem of students cutting down on meals because of economic exigencies.
His statement two days ago that he went hungry too when he was a student, but lack of money was not always the issue, was not on the level of the infamous Marie Antoinette statement of “Let them eat cake!” when the French queen learned that the peasants had no bread, but was sufficiently unsympathetic to the students’ problems as to approximate Marie Antoinette in callousness and indifference to social sufferings among the people.
Instead of spearheading a campaign to end such a serious problem, Idris could only think of browbeating the media by ordering them not to highlight such issues; while one Minister after another had followed Idris to express skepticism about the existence of the problem of hungry University students.
This is most shocking for the problem of students cutting down on meals or even going hungry because of the economic strains on the students and their families, is not synthetic problem but a very real issue, as I had met university students in such straits in the past few weeks. Read the rest of this entry »
