In Khairy, Shahrizat twin victories, analysts see a more powerful Najib
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO on Sunday, 13 October 2013, 8:16 am
By Ida Lim
The Malaysian Insider
October 13, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 — The return of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s “allies” Khairy Jamaluddin and Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abd Jalil back into their posts as Umno Youth and Wanita chiefs last night will cement the prime minister’s own position in the Barisan Nasional (BN) lynchpin, analysts have said.
According to analysts, Najib, who has himself returned unopposed as Umno president recently, now has his feet planted firmly on the ground, and has been given the green light to proceed with his transformation plans with the same team of soldiers.
Dr Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani, a political analyst from Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), pointed out that both Khairy and Shahrizat already support Najib’s national policy of transformation.
“If they win, I think they will strengthen Najib’s position in Umno,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted yesterday shortly before the duo’s twin victories, after noting their appointments to positions within the Najib administration this year. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s silence on Zahid signals trouble
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Police, Zahid on Saturday, 12 October 2013, 7:04 pm
– Jay Jay Denis
The Malay Mail Online
October 12, 2013
OCT 12 — “If we get evidence, we shoot them first,” Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was quoted as saying. Reporters were then threatened that if any of what he said was reported, their news portals might be shut down. This is a Member of Parliament put in charge of one of the most key ministries in the country.
What will happen after this? I think you know. There is no need for elaboration.
The Home Affairs Minister has “crossed the line” many a time but has he been held accountable? I don’t recall him being investigated for his statements at all.
To say that “we shoot them first” is preposterous. And that coming from a minister!
Many countries try to observe the rule of law, putting it above everything else so that it acts (via the judicial system), as a check and balance for any society. Ahmad Zahid has undermined the rule of law. Read the rest of this entry »
Election Courts are worse than the Election Commission
– P Ramakrishnan
The Malaysian Insider
October 12, 2013
Yes, the Election Courts are worse than the Election Commission (EC)! The recent disappointing decisions of the Election Courts have proved that there is no hope for parliamentary democracy even in the judiciary.
If the Barisan Nasional (BN) is a great let-down for democracy, the Election Commission is an even greater let-down for the electoral process. But shockingly, the Election Courts comparatively are far worse in that they cannot dispense justice to the aggrieved party even if there was a glaring injustice.
It is clear as daylight that the BN abused the electoral process by openly bribing voters through its many projects launched especially during the period leading up to the GE13 (including the campaign period itself) by dishing out goodies and cash inducements to win over the voters. Billions of ringgit in cash or projects was dispensed freely giving an unfair disadvantage to the Opposition who were cash-strapped. Read the rest of this entry »
PAC’s first job is to submit an immediate report to Parliament to amend Standing Orders so that PAC can hold public hearings into its examination of 2012 Auditor-General’s Report as is now the practice in most legislatures in the world
Posted by Kit in Auditor-General Report, Parliament on Friday, 11 October 2013, 4:41 pm
The Communications and Multimedia Minister, Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek wants live television coverage of his appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to prove himself right and the Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang wrong over the expenses of the K-Pop concert last year.
Shabery had challenged the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report that the K-Pop concert, which was part of the mammoth 2012 Hari Belia celebrations, had cost the government RM1.6 million, claiming that the auditor-general was “culas” (not diligent) in the audit and did not take into account the RM20 million in sponsorship raised.
Strangely, the current Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin also said the government paid for the concert, but was forced to do so because sponsorship pledges fell through.
Shabery should be given the opportunity of live telecast of his testimony before the PAC on the Auditor-General’s 2012 Report on the government expenditure of RM1.6 million for the K-Pop concert, when the Ministry had claimed right from the beginning that the cost of bringing in the three K-Pop groups – U-Kiss, Teen-Topo and Dal*shabet – was borne through sponsorship. Read the rest of this entry »
Despicable meme
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Najib Razak, UMNO on Thursday, 10 October 2013, 7:09 pm
COMMENTARY
The Malaysian Insider
October 10, 2013
This is what’s…
• Despicable about Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his ilk: They believe that the day after the Umno polls on October 19 they can wrap up their divisive talk and everything will be normal again in Malaysia.
It won’t.
These past weeks of cutting words and right wing rhetoric has set back race relations years, maybe even decades. The fighting words from Zahid and Datuk Seri Ali Rustam – one pitching Indians as criminals and Malays as victims and the other pigeonholing Chinese as power crazy – have reminded non-Malays that behind the cash handouts and 1,000-kilowatt smiles, an enemy looms.
A true test of a leader is his consistency and what he utters under pressure. Will he play to the gallery to score points? Will he sacrifice race relations to get voted into office? Will he speak with a forked tongue to win?
The trouble with the Umno politician today is that he stands for everything that is rotten about the state of the country. He is corrupt; he is a plunderer; he is vindictive; he has no understanding of the rule of law.
And he actually believes that hurt from a quiver full of verbal arrows fired at non-Malays can be forgotten. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s got talent, but they’re being driven away, mostly to Singapore – world economic report
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, NEM, NEP on Thursday, 10 October 2013, 2:36 pm
The Malaysian Insider
October 10, 2013
The huge presence of foreign workers in Malaysia has led to static wages, according to the WEF report. – The Malaysian Insider pic, 10 October, 2013.The huge presence of foreign workers in Malaysia has led to static wages, according to the WEF report. – The Malaysian Insider pic, 10 October, 2013.Affirmative action policies and an overreliance on cheap foreign labour have led to Malaysia’s best and brightest leaving to find greener pastures, particularly in Singapore, according to a new report released by the World Economic Forum.
The Geneva-based body’s Human Capital Index evaluates such things as quality of healthcare, infrastructure and education, in order to gauge a country’s ability to develop a skilled workforce.
Its 2013 report ranks Malaysia at the 22nd spot in a list of 122 countries. Topping the list is Switzerland, followed by Finland, Singapore, the Netherlands and Sweden. Asean countries in the list include Thailand which is placed at number 44, Indonesia (53) and the Philippines (66).
The report notes that Putrajaya’s affirmative action policies as well as cheap migrant labour have kept Malaysia from achieving a skilled workforce to compete with its smaller and richer neighbour, Singapore. Read the rest of this entry »
What is the PM, Cabinet and IGP’s stand on Zahid’s policy of police “shoot first” when dealing with suspected criminals
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Police, Zahid on Thursday, 10 October 2013, 12:27 pm
Both the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar cannot continue to remain silent on the Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s policy of police “shoot first” when dealing with suspected criminals.
Zahid gave automatic backing to the IGP when Khalid made the ludicrous excuse that the 44 missing police firearms could have “fallen into the sea” when the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report revealed RM1.33 million worth of missing police assets which had included 29 vehicles, 156 handcuffs, 26-walkie-talkies and 22 radios.
Is Khalid going to give similar backing to the Home Minister that police is now operating on a policy of “shoot first” when dealing with suspected criminals?
Whichever the position, Malaysians are entitled to know from the Inspector-General of Police whether the police had adopted a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in line with Zahid’s announcement last Saturday, and if so, when this new SOP had taken effect. Read the rest of this entry »
You should be in a home, minister
Eric Loo
Malaysiakini
Oct 9, 2013
When I was a reporter in the late 70s, the home minister known to lecture journalists at press conferences on what to write was ‘King Ghaz’. But Muhammad Ghazali Shafie had our respect. He had style and substance.
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has none.
The home minister’s verbal abuse of a Malaysiakini reporter however, had a plus. It provided a teaching aid to show students that the irrational antics of political morons during press conferences is fodder for great stories.
I commend the reporter for his tenacity despite the minister’s mindless heckling,and maligning of Malaysiakini for ‘spinning’ his words. ‘Spinning’ actually means to twist a report to one’s advantage, which readers know applies well to the mainstream media’s slanted coverageof the 13th general election while demonising the opposition. Read the rest of this entry »
Umno Leaders and Their Racist Hatespeak
By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
9th Oct 2013
No run-up to any Umno party elections has been so notoriously marked with racist fervour as the current one. At least two of the contenders for senior positions have revealed their true colours by openly bashing non-Malays. In any sensibly-governed country with sensible laws, they would both have been arrested for provoking racial tension. But Malaysia is increasingly becoming the country where Umno is king, and anyone who is not Malay doesn’t count for much.
This is why someone no less than the home minister can say with impunity that because more than half of identified gang members in the country are Indians, and most of the victims “are our Malays”, the police are justified, if they have the evidence, in shooting to kill gang members before asking questions.
This statement from Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in front of presumably a predominantly Malay audience in Melaka last Saturday is not only racist; it is also something that in a civilised, sensibly-governed country with the right sensibilities would have resulted in his being sacked, without hesitation, as home minister.
His statement totally disregards human rights and natural justice. It encourages the police to take lives instead of bringing people to justice. It is telling the police to be judge and executioner all at once. How could it have come from a minister of the government? Read the rest of this entry »
Call on all Malaysians to reaffirm the Malaysian Dream which is not anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan or anti-Dayak but pro-all Malaysians
Posted by Kit in Malaysian Dream, Najib Razak, nation building, UMNO on Wednesday, 9 October 2013, 2:21 pm
The UMNO party elections campaign have rocked the country with intolerant, incendiary, racist and even seditious pronouncements by contending UMNO candidates which run afoul of what former Deputy Prime Minister and one-time Deputy UMNO President, Tun Musa Hitam had cautioned UMNO candidates against in a recent interview where he said:
“… often times, to show one’s Malayness they become anti-other groups or accuse others of being anti-Malays. Only then they become heroes. This cannot be.”
Two UMNO politicians who had blatantly and irresponsibly played the race card utterly reckless of the damage they do to 56 years of nation-building in the country are Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam and Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in their campaign for the UMNO vice presidency on Oct. 19.
In a bout of Chinese-bashing, Ali Rustam blamed the Chinese voters for his defeat in the Malay-majority Bukit Katil parliamentary seat in Malacca, oblivious of the fact that he would not have lost in the May general elections if he had not also lost the support of the Malay voters in his constituency.
Is Ali Rustam going to blame the Chinese again if he loses in the UMNO Vice Presidential elections next Saturday?
Zahid’s racist, incendiary and seditious rantings are more serious as it compromised his high office as Home Minister. Read the rest of this entry »
Winds of discontent over Borneo
– Murray Hunter
The Malaysian Insider/Asia Sentinel
October 08, 2013
Since Malaysia’s general election last May, Umno has been attempting to redefine its electoral base to include Bumiputera or native groups across the country, most of them in East Malaysia in Sabah and Sarawak, and not just ethnic Malays.
Malays and Muslim Bumiputera today account for 59.7% of the population, with non-Muslim Bumiputeras comprising another 7.6%. That is expected to rise to 67.9% by the next election. Umno strategists believe that if the party can successfully capture this constituency, it would garner enough votes for the party to continue governing Malaysia into the foreseeable future, simply continuing to disregard the votes of Chinese and Indian voters on the Malaysian peninsula, who turned soundly against the Barisan Nasional, or national ruling coalition in the May election.
A recent statement by Sabah Mulfti Bungsu @Aziz Jaafar calling for the government to classify all Muslim indigenous people as “Malays” seems to support this view. This has attracted criticism from some local components of the ruling state Barisan Nasional coalition, as it ignores the differing histories and elements of cultural identities of peoples of the peninsula and Borneo, and creates many complications around native land ownership because of provisions in state constitutions.
However, this strategy faces problems, with rising discontent in Sabah and Sarawak becoming more and more public. On the eve of a conference organized by the Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF), former Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh personally entered the debate through the local media, saying all Sabah leaders are responsible for the current situation. Read the rest of this entry »
IGP Khalid should be hauled before the Chief Secretary’s Special Committee on 2012 Auditor-General’s Report for the missing firearms and police assets instead being represented on the committee
Posted by Kit in Auditor-General Report, Parliament, Police on Tuesday, 8 October 2013, 4:22 pm
More and more questions are being asked about the high-level Chief Secretary’s Special Committee to study and scrutinise the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report announced by the Chief Secretary Tan Sri Dr. Ali Hamsa on Saturday.
According to Ali, who will chair the Special Committee, other members are the Public Services director-general, attorney-general as well as representatives from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Finance Ministry and the Royal Malaysian Police.
The first question is whether the Najib government is serious to ensure the highest standards of integrity and accountability in the public service and that the Chief Secretary’s Special Committee on the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report is not just a “public relations” exercise to circumvent and distract attention from the avalanche of adverse publicity following the publication of the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report!
Has the first meeting of the Chief Secretary’s Special Committee on the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report been held, and will Najib, as the Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister be able to present a White Paper when Dewan Rakyat reconvenes on October 21 reporting on the initial actions and decisions of the Special Committee? Read the rest of this entry »
What Utusan doesn’t know about DAP
Liew Chin Tong
DAP MP for Kluang
The Malaysian Insider
October 08, 2013
Falsehoods and pseudo-logic are being fed to Utusan Malaysia readers and the TV3 audience just to prevent the Malays from truly understanding the DAP. Here are some of the things that Umno, Utusan and TV3 ought to know about DAP.
First, is Umno’s electoral system superior to DAP’s?
It is comical to see Utusan and TV3’s recent tirade against DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng for not winning the top spot in the re-election of its central executive committee and why I, being the candidate who received the highest number of votes, should be handed the secretary-general’s post immediately.
Underlying this is the notion that DAP’s party electoral system is faulty and undemocratic. Systems that are dissimilar to Umno’s are not necessarily faulty. Each type of electoral system comes with its own reasoning which requires deeper analysis. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Umno leaders are singing such a vile tune these days
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building, UMNO on Tuesday, 8 October 2013, 12:05 pm
NEWS ANALYSIS
The Malaysian Insider
October 08, 2013
If Malaysians are offended by the vile garbage being spewed by the likes of Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam and other Umno politicians auditioning for the Umno party polls on October 19, there is more distressing news.
A recent poll of 600 Umno party members and their supporters by the respected Merdeka Center has revealed a disturbing picture of a party contented with itself and angry with just about everyone else.
A clutch of questions was asked to gauge the current perception about the ruling party by its own cadres. Read the rest of this entry »
Let Najib’s White Paper on 2012 Auditor-General’s Report tell Malaysians what has happened to the loss of RM1.33 million worth of police assets, including 44 firearms
Posted by Kit in Auditor-General Report, Najib Razak, Parliament, Police on Monday, 7 October 2013, 2:58 pm
After a week of intense adverse publicity, including ludicrous pronouncements by the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and the Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi about missing guns “falling into the sea”, Malaysians are no nearer to finding out what has happened to the loss of RMRM1.55 million worth of police assets, including 44 firearms, 156 handcuffs and 29 vehicles, between 2010 and 2012 as revealed by the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report – whether and how many of such police assets have really “fallen into the sea”!
Yesterday, the Malaysian Insider in its report “One down, 43 to go. One of my men reported his gun was stolen, says police task force director” quoted the Federal Special Task Force (Operations and Counter-Terrorism) director Datuk Seri Mohamad Fuzi Harun as saying that one of the 44 missing guns was stolen from a policeman by a snatch thief.
Although this would account for one of the 44 missing guns, the immediate question that arises is why the policeman had taken more than a year to report that his gun was stolen by a snatch thief!
Read the rest of this entry »
Of running dogs, misunderstanding and proving the phrase
NEWS ANALYSIS
The Malaysian Insider
October 07, 2013
The police are looking into five reports against DAP publicity chief Tony Pua for calling the Registrar of Societies and Utusan Malaysia Umno’s running dogs.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin reportedly said they want to decide whether Pua should be investigated under criminal law or the Sedition Act.
This is where it gets farcical. Why investigate a man for calling someone else a lackey?
Do the police, Utusan Malaysia, the five groups that lodged the reports or even Umno understand what running dogs even means? It’s an English translation of the Mandarin word that refers to lackeys or lapdogs. Read the rest of this entry »
I work hard so my government can afford RM4,000 clocks
Posted by Kit in Auditor-General Report on Sunday, 6 October 2013, 8:18 pm
– CL Tang
The Malaysian Insider
October 06, 2013
Monday blues again. I dragged myself out of bed, for yet another day of traffic jams, mundane work and greasy lunches. As I arrived at my office barely on time, I noticed it is just the first week of the month. Yet another 3 weeks to go before that next paycheck.
It is an important day today – the company is due to sign a huge contract with the government. The company chairman will get to buy a new Rolls Royce, and I may get a promotion with a big pay rise. I buzzed my assistant to bring in the contract that we have spent the last month putting together.
She walked in, looking rather perplexed, and muttered,” Sorry boss, I lost my briefcase that contains the contract, including my laptop and the back-up disk”. I sank into my chair. “What?! How can you lose such an important document?” I yelled. She blinked her thick eyelashes and whimpered,” Boss, if the police can lose 44 guns and their boss is not even cross with them, why are you so harsh with me?” I did not know how to respond to that as she stormed out, lips pouting. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib should present White Paper to Dewan Rakyat when it reconvenes in a fortnight on the initial decisions and actions taken by Special Committee on Auditor-General’s 2012 Report
Posted by Kit in Auditor-General Report, Finance, Najib Razak, Parliament on Sunday, 6 October 2013, 4:02 pm
The Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should present a White Paper to the Dewan Rakyat when it reconvenes in a fortnight’s time on Oct. 21 on the initial actions and decisions taken by the Special Committee set up to scrutinize the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report.
The Special Committee was announced yesterday by the Chief Secretary Tan Sri Dr. Ali Hamsa, who will chair the special committee which will comprise the director-general of the Public Service, the Attorney-General as well as representatives from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Finance Ministry and Royal Malaysian Police.
There is widespread skepticism that the Special Committee will be able to make any difference to end the annual tale of horrors in the Auditor-General’s Reports about rampant corruption, wastage of public funds and abuses of power in the public service.
If the government is serious about wanting to stamp out corruption, waste, extravagance and abuses of power running into billions of ringgit of public funds every year, such a high-level government committee should have been formed immediately after the Auditor-General, Tan Sri Ambrin Buang submitted the 2012 Report to the government in July, and not now – only after the spate of adverse publicity in the past week following the tabling of the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report in Parliament on Oct. 1. Read the rest of this entry »
Will Najib lead BN into GE14?
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak, UMNO on Sunday, 6 October 2013, 11:33 am
P Gunasegaram
Malaysiakini
Oct 4, 2013
QUESTION TIME In the wee hours of yesterday as most of Malaysia slept, the amendments to the Prevention of Crime Act were pushed through. This brought back the dreaded provision of detention without trial that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had rolled back when he dismantled the Internal Security Act and the Emergency Ordinance.
With that, out through the window went Najib’s self-proclaimed programme to promote civil society and get rid of legislation which curtailed human rights in order to restore the same to all Malaysians.
Najib had made this loosening up of tight legislation a part of his election campaign to try and capture some of the more liberal minded, non-bumiputera, and urban voters by at least giving the impression that the nation was moving towards greater freedom.
Along with this Najib sought to become a prime minister for all Malaysians with his 1Malaysia programmes and efforts to get the non-Malay votes by targeting them specifically in ad campaigns and through the English mainstream media.
But post the elections, the tone of changes has taken a completely different complexion. The moves have been to help bumiputeras almost exclusively and to reverse the changes towards greater liberalisation. Read the rest of this entry »
Lost guns: IGP’s and Zahid’s cocky “explanation”
Posted by Kit in Auditor-General Report, Police on Sunday, 6 October 2013, 9:49 am
– Ravinder Singh
The Malaysian Insider
October 05, 2013
One told Malaysians that the guns might have fallen into the sea and the other confirmed it. This type of ‘explanation’ is what is termed in the Malay language as an attempt to “memperbodohkan” the public, to make fools of the public.
Even a bullet lost by a member of the police force is supposed to be reported, what more when weapons are lost. Thus there must be a report by each of the persons who lost their weapons and ammunition. Or has this practice been long discarded?
Losing weapons is a very serious matter. But to the Inspector General of Police and to Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, it is child’s play, as if the guns lost were mere toy guns. They are arrogantly telling the public “to mind your own business” and that asking the police about the lost weapons is none of their business.
This cockiness stems from the fact that they are the ones in power and whatever they do or say must be meekly accepted as the truth which is final and binding. In other words, do not question those in authority. This is the culture of “ketuanan”, the master must not be questioned. But isn’t the public the master as the public elects the politicians into office and civil servants are the servants of civil society? So by the theory of “ketuanan”, the public are the tuans of the politicians and the civil servants. So why can’t the public question the politicians and public servants? Read the rest of this entry »
