Malaysia at 50 : Inclusive development, nation-building and human rights
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, nation building, Sabah on Monday, 16 September 2013, 7:11 am
– Simon Sipaun
The Malaysian Insider
September 15, 2013
In two days’ time on 16th September, 2013 Malaysia will turn 50 years old. For a country, 50 years of age is very young, although it is old for a human being. It does make me feel my age to realise that I am 25 years older than Malaysia.
I have reached the age described by George Burns as the time “where everything hurts, what does not hurt does not work”. The reality is “today is the oldest we have ever been, yet the youngest we will ever be”.
The theme of this RTD is Malaysia 50 years since formation: Inclusive development, nation-building and human rights. Indeed it is a very wide subject. It is a three-in-one. The three are closely inter-related.
Recognising Malaysia Day
In 2007, I used to see billboards at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport with the slogan “celebrating 50 years of nationhood” written on them. Of course, the truth is in 2007, Malaysia was only 44 years old. This is a classic case in which history is the distortion of facts by people in power.
I used to point this out at the slightest opportunity in the past but it felt like it was just a voice in the wilderness. I had the impression that the federal government was trying to make the people, especially Malaysians living in Sabah, believe that the formation of Malaysia was on 31st August, 1957. Read the rest of this entry »
Has Najib finally abandoned the New Economic Model (NEM)?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, NEM on Monday, 16 September 2013, 6:23 am
One question for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak following his announcement of the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Agenda on Saturday is whether he has finally abandoned the New Economic Model (NEM) which he announced three years ago on 30th March 2010.
The NEM admitted that “the excessive focus on ethnicity-based distribution of resources has contributed to growing separateness and dissension”.
NEM stated in Chapter 6 (p. 117):
“Existing affirmative action programme and institutions will continue in NEM but, in line with views of the main stakeholders, will be revamped to remove the rent seeking and market distorting features which have blemished the effectiveness of the programme. Affirmative action will consider all ethnic groups fairly and equally as long as they are in the low income 40% of the households. Affirmative action action programmes would be based on market-friendly and market-based criteria together taking into consideration the need and merits of the applicants. An Equal Opportunities Commission will be established to ensure fairness and address undue discrimination when occasional abuses by dominant groups are encountered.”
Because of opposition from racist and chauvinists, Najib had abandoned the idea of an Equal Opportunities Commission.
Has he now abandoned the entire NEM with regard to a needs-and-merit based transformation of the affirmative programme, to promote building of capacity and capability, focusing on the low income 40% of the households? Read the rest of this entry »
Relive history – with a modern twist
by Chester Chin
Star
September 15, 2013
PETALING JAYA: For the first time, Malaysians will see clear video footage of the late Tunku Abdul Rahman when he declared the country’s independence.
Not only that, local celebrities and politicians like Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, Nurul Izzah Anwar, Lim Kit Siang, Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, Datin Sofia Jane and Datuk David Arumugum could also be seen in the crowd at Merdeka Stadium in other footages.
The footage is just some of the many old clips from the 1950s and 1960s restored and doctored by local filmmaker Pete Teo and his team over a span of five months.
These clips will be featured in Teo’s latest Hari Malaysia music video which will premiere at midnight both on www.HariMalaysia.com and YouTube.
“Previously, you would not be able to see Tunku’s face in the footage.
“However, we have restored the footage to give Malaysians a clearer picture of the moment,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s New NEP: Step Forwards or Backwards
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Najib Razak, NEM, NEP on Monday, 16 September 2013, 12:06 am
by Koon Yew Yin
42 years after the New Economic Policy (NEP) was launched by his father, Tun Abduk Razak, Prime Minister Najib Razak has now followed in his father’s footsteps with a new national policy specially aimed at enhancing Malay participation and control of the economy and which is expected to run into the year 2020.
There are many reasons to fear the worst from this new national policy. Firstly unlike the NEP which was initiated following the racial riots of May 1969, this policy is clearly linked to Najib’s fear of losing his position as president of UMNO in the coming UMNO general assembly elections. Najib has also made references to the fact that the new policy is to reward the Malay voters who supported UMNO during the last elections but this appears less strong a reason than his own survival as UMNO leader.
Secondly, unlike the NEP which was at least endorsed by a larger multi-racial grouping in the form of the National Operations Council, the main catalyst for the so-called Bumiputra empowerment policy has come from Malay pressure groups such as the Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM), Perkasa, right wing Malay media and bloggers and their god father, Dr. Mahathir. In fact the MTEM has claimed the credit for the new policy. Completely side-lined even though the nation is not under emergency rule has been the cabinet as well as Parliament.
The apparent failure of the ruling BN coalition of parties to even be minimally consulted on the new policy speaks volumes of how much respect Najib has for his non-UMNO BN colleagues and for the principles of parliamentary democracy. It also shows that Najib – despite all the rhetoric of 1Malaysia and the inclusive scope of the New Economic Model – is prepared to sacrifice the interest of the non-Bumiputra component of the country’s population to secure his own and UMNO’s Malay interest. Read the rest of this entry »
While wishing Malaysia “Happy Birthday” …
Posted by Kit in nation building on Sunday, 15 September 2013, 8:21 am
by Art Harun
Special to The Malaysian Insider
September 15, 2013
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr, among others, led a civil rights march on Washington for “jobs and freedom”. There, he delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech, saying he was there to “cash a cheque” for “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
He spoke of an America where his children “will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”.
He concluded: “And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last’.”
Nineteen days later, our father of independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman, stood before a nation and said: “Now finally, the peoples of Malaysia are celebrating the establishment of Malaysia. This is the time to think earnestly and hopefully on the future of Malaysia as the whole country resounds with joy.
“So I pray that God may bless the nation of Malaysia with eternal peace and happiness for our people. Read the rest of this entry »
At Last, the Right Decision on English
By Kee Thuan Chye
msn.com
11.9.2013
One of the brightest things to emerge in these gloomy days is the Education Ministry’s announcement that English will be a must-pass subject at the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations from 2016.
This is something that has been a long time coming. English used to be a must-pass subject until it was stopped from being such so long ago that I can’t even remember when. But what resulted after that was a drastic drop in the standard of our competency in that language. Then the ripple effect caused the standard to drop even further as people who were not proficient enough in English came to be trained to teach it in schools. I have heard many horror stories emerging from that situation.
At one time, Malaysia was among the top countries in Asia that were proficient in English. But nowadays, most Malaysians can’t string a sentence together properly and without making grammatical errors. These include English-language teachers themselves – not just those teaching in schools but also those teaching students learning Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL), and even English Literature, in universities. This is embarrassing. Read the rest of this entry »
In Umno blogs, a window into a party divided
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Najib Razak, UMNO on Saturday, 14 September 2013, 7:45 am
By Syed Jaymal Zahiid
The Malay Mail Online
September 14, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — A renewed and inward-facing agitation among Umno-friendly blogs hints that all is not well within the Malay nationalist party ahead of its polls.
Since the general election, prominent blogs aligned to the party such as bigdogdotcom and outsyedthebox began turning up their criticism against Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak. And with the party’s election drawing nearer, their volume has only grown louder.
They are also not a force to be trifled with; ostensibly created to protect and promote the conservative interests of those aligned with former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, they were partly credited for the campaign that saw Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi forced out to make way for Najib in 2009.
But the grace accorded to Najib since he took office in April 2009 has since ended. Now, the son of Malaysia’s second prime minister has come in for the same treatment from the very blogs that helped put him in power.
And as much as Najib and his allies try to tell the public that Umno is doing well and remains united in the aftermath of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) worst ever electoral performance, the increasing attacks in the blogs paints a much grimmer picture that the ruling Malay party is divided. Read the rest of this entry »
Fracturing along racial lines, BN needs to start healing Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, nation building on Saturday, 14 September 2013, 7:32 am
News Analysis by The Malaysian Insider
September 14, 2013
Somebody, someone better step in because never before has the stereotyping been this bad, this widespread, this debilitating and potentially irreversible for Malaysia.
And the big loser along this road to perdition will be Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN).
In the eyes of a significant number in Umno, the non-Malays who voted with their feet in GE13 are traitors and ingrates who must be punished, the harder the better.
The form of punishment yearned for ranges from depriving the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) supporters of cash handouts to penalising businesses owned by Chinese to completely erasing the concerns of non-Malays in policy-making.
No doubt some of this is just talk, borne out of anger and frustration by BN members not being able to deliver what they believed was a minimum target: regaining two-thirds majority control of Parliament.
But there are enough Umno politicians bending Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s ears about a more punitive approach against non-Malays to suggest that this toxic thinking will poison decision making, sooner rather than later. Read the rest of this entry »
Sabah Illegal ICs: The Buck Stops with Mahathir
By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
13th Sept 2013
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad drew considerable laughter last Wednesday when he gave testimony at the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah. One hopes the laughter was laced with irony and scepticism.
Irony and scepticism because it seems unlikely, going by reports of the proceedings, that anyone listening to some of the things he said could find them acceptable.
The most unacceptable was his saying that he had not heard about Project IC or Project M (for Mahathir) until only recently, and that the Government could not be held responsible for the issuance of illegal identity cards (ICs) to immigrants who had entered Sabah illegally.
“These illegal immigrants may have been issued the identity cards erroneously or it may have been the wrongdoing of certain low-ranking civil servants,” he said, expressly passing the blame on to others. Read the rest of this entry »
Why my father, an ordinary man, took to the streets during the elections
Posted by Kit in Elections, nation building on Friday, 13 September 2013, 9:42 am
by Sugasini Kandian
Special to the Malaysian Insider
September 13, 2013
My father is a Malaysian citizen. At least, that is what his identity card (IC) says.
But ask him what it means to be a Malaysian citizen – and he will probably say, “I don’t know.”
My father is an ordinary man. He was born in Kuala Lumpur, raised in Pahang, completed his high school education at St John’s Institution, KL, and then left to study accountancy in the United Kingdom.
Growing up in a family where political commentary was the norm at dinner, I used to ask my dad, “Why didn’t you just settle in the UK? Then we wouldn’t have to deal with this messed up system!”
His answer, “I don’t know. Family. Plus Malaysia today isn’t the same as it was back in the 1980s. The economy was booming then and prospects were good.” Read the rest of this entry »
Ex-top cop Yuen Yuet Leng confirmed that the May 13, 1969 “urination” incident at the Selangor MB’s residence was totally fictional as he never heard of it although he was based in KL during the riots
Posted by Kit in DAP, nation building, Police on Thursday, 12 September 2013, 5:48 pm
I thank former top police officer, Tan Sri Yuen Yuet Leng for his two postings on my blog statement yesterday: “Yuen Yuet Leng is wrong – as the 1969 general election result was a greater blow to the MCP although it was a set back for the Alliance”
I had expressed my disagreement with a Sun report on Monday headlined “’Communists helped opposition win seats’ in 1969” quoting Yuen as saying that “the communists had helped opposition parties, including the DAP, to win a substantial number of seats in the 1969 election”.
I had said that Yuen’s claim that the communists helped the opposition to win seats in the 1969 general election was news to me, as it run counter to what happened in the run-up to the 1969 general election and studies whether books or articles by scholars of the 1969 general election.
This was because the communists had called for a boycott of the 1969 general election and the Opposition parties which had participated in the 1969 general election were attacked and condemned as “stooges” and “puppets” of the Alliance for going against their call to “shatter the parliamentary path” and to opt for the “mass struggle”.
But the communists failed in their campaign calling on the voters to boycott the 1969 general election, as the voter turnout reached some 72% – though less than the 79% voter turnout in the 1964 and 73% in the 1959 General Election, it was still higher than the 70% voter turnout in the 1986 and 71% voter turnout in the 1999 General Election. Read the rest of this entry »
Using Dr Mahathir’s logic
– The Malaysian Insider
September 11, 2013
Raise your hand if you expected Dr Mahathir Mohamad to have a conscience attack and blame himself and the Barisan Nasional (BN) government for Project IC – that not-so-secret initiative to hand identity cards to thousands of illegal immigrants in Sabah.
Well, if you didn’t raise your hand, you are in good company because the former prime minister does not do well before a Royal Commission of Inquiry.
He had an acute case of amnesia when he appeared before the commission looking into the V. K. Lingam video clip in 2007 and there was every chance that he was going to hit the didn’t-do-it can’t remember-it mode today.
Why? Because the former prime minister does not lose sleep just because millions think he is being charitable with the truth. In his own perverse way, he must always come out on top. Read the rest of this entry »
When is it patriotic to like crap?
Posted by Kit in Media, nation building on Wednesday, 11 September 2013, 11:18 pm
Erna Mahyuni
The Malay Mail Online
September 11, 2013
SEPT 11 — You would think I set fire to the flag and declared my allegiance to North Korea, judging from the vitriol I got for my “Tanda Putera” review.
Someone even said that I shouldn’t have been so hard on the film since it was “a local film.”
So if it is a local film, I shouldn’t expect it to have a coherent script?
So if it is a local film, I shouldn’t hope the actors are more than decorative furnishings that speak?
So if it is a local film, I should fully expect it to be bad and be pleasantly surprised if it does not suck
If a film is about any of our historical leaders, painting them in a beatific light then I have to like it before even watching it? Read the rest of this entry »
Look, who’s unhappy with our education system!
— Ravinder Singh
The Malay Mail Online
September 11, 2013
SEPT 11 — Well, well, thank you Education Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh for confirming what many Malaysians have long known.
He has spilled the beans, not realising that when you point a finger at someone, you have three pointing back at yourself.
Please tell us dear minister, how many children of how many elites in the country are attending Sekolah Rendah/Menengah Kebangsaan in Malaysia?
Do us a favour please. Besides having leaders of the country declare their assets, get them to also declare the schools their children are attending.
When the rakyat could see that the children of the leaders are also attending the local schools, you will not need any other promotional campaigns to tell Malaysians that our local schools are “setanding” (i.e. of equal standing) with schools in advanced countries such as Germany and the US. Read the rest of this entry »
Yuen Yuet Leng is wrong – as the 1969 general election result was a greater blow to the MCP although it was a set back for the Alliance
In a news report headlined “’Communists helped opposition win seats’ in 1969”, former Special Branch deputy director Tan Sri Yuen Yet Leng was quoted as saying that “the communists had helped opposition parties, including the DAP, to win a substantial number of seats in the 1969 election”.
The Sun report states:
‘Communists helped opposition win seats’ 1969
Posted on 9 September 2013 – 09:38pmVathani Panirchellvum
[email protected]KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 9, 2013): A retired senior police officer today hinted that the communists had helped opposition parties, including the DAP, to win a substantial number of seats in the 1969 general election.
Former special branch deputy director Tan Sri Yuen Yuet Leng said the communists infiltrated the Opposition prior to the election, which led to them making inroads into areas held by the alliance government.
“The communist had infiltrated many legal organisations, including political parties, and that is what led to the Opposition winning (in the 1969 general election),” he said at Telekom Malaysia’s “Cerita Tanah Airku” (Story of my Homeland) event in conjunction with Malaysia Day.
The Opposition in 1969 comprised the DAP, the People’s Progressive Party, Gerakan and PAS.
However, he said that the Opposition electoral victories did not lead to the race riots on May 13 that year.
Read the rest of this entry »
Counter fundamentalism with “critical Islam”
– Nazry Bahrawi and Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib
The Malaysian Insider
September 11, 2013
When the World Trade Center twin towers came crashing down 12 years ago, it was not just non-Muslims who were shocked – many Muslims were equally horrified. Consequently, it led to deeper introspection. For many Muslims, it was a turning point.
Just over three decades ago, prominent Arab intellectual Sadik Al Azm wrote a devastating critique of the Arab world’s political stagnation after the Arab defeat at the hands of Israel in the 1967 war. The loss gave impetus to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism worldwide. The solution to Muslims’ social, economic and political humiliation, it was believed, lay in returning to “Islam” as a complete ideology. Islam-ism would rival all other isms, from secularism to capitalism to communism.
At the heart of Islamism is an orientation that upholds the supremacy of “Islam” versus everything else deemed “unIslamic”. Syed Qutb, in his famous treatise Ma’lim fi al-tariq (Milestones), pretty much sums up the tension between what he deemed an “Islamic society” versus the “jahili (paganistic) society”.
Over nearly three decades, certain frustrated Muslim youths became attracted to this orientation known as Islamic fundamentalism. It was also a period of struggle for many Islamic movements to establish “daulah islamiyah” or the notion of an “Islamic state”.
This project failed, and its proponents continue to be frustrated by authoritarian secular regimes and their own intellectual deficiency in defining and operationalising the notion of an “Islamic state”. French sociologist Olivier Roy, in his insightful 1996 book, termed it “the failure of political Islam”.
Since the 1990s, the world has seen an increase in violent acts committed by Islamist movements which draw upon such frustrations. This culminated in the attack on New York’s twin towers.
If the 1967 defeat of the Arabs had propelled the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, 9/11 has paved the way for rethinking and critical reflection.
Could Islam accommodate the separation of religion and state, thus admitting that secularism is not anathema to Muslim political thought? Could Muslims be at home with modern values without positing these as an antithetical to the Islamic notion of what is “traditional” and “authentic”?
Was the dichotomy between “Islam” and “the West” tenable or even intelligible? These were some of the issues that posed a new challenge to Islamic fundamentalism. Critical Muslim scholars such as Mohammed Arkoun (Algerian), Nasr Abu Zayd (Egyptian), Abdullahi An-Na’im (Sudanese), Nurcholish Madjid (Indonesian) and Abdolkarim Soroush (Iranian) continue to push the boundary of Muslim sociopolitical thought — and ultimately challenge the dominance of fundamentalist conceptions of Islam. Read the rest of this entry »
Home Ministry, police turn a whodunit into a who’ll buy it?
Posted by Kit in Crime, Good Governance, Police on Wednesday, 11 September 2013, 8:53 am
by Elizabeth Zachariah
The Malaysian Insider
September 11, 2013
Wanted: A detective who can solve this mystery.
The whodunit: The Home Ministry says it wants to know who in the ministry had released to the media the names of 30 gang leaders – a name list which includes an MIC politician who has since threatened to sue the government.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told The Malaysian Insider that ministry officials were perplexed about who released the names.
“We don’t know who did it but we want to know as well,” he said, adding that he did not know if the list was real or not.
The players: Bernama, the state-owned, pro-government news agency which took a rare stab at investigative journalism and reported the names on Friday, citing the Home Ministry as its source.
Another player, the police. They report to the Home Ministry but say they did not give these names to the ministry… to which they report, by the way.
“I don’t know who is the source at the Home Ministry but the input did not come from the police. We have our own list and some gangs listed by the ministry were already under our watch,” Federal Police secret societies, gaming and anti-vice (D7) principal assistant director Datuk Abdul Jalil Hassan told The Malaysian Insider in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »
“I was apolitical before… May 5, 2013, changed it all”
Posted by Kit in nation building on Tuesday, 10 September 2013, 9:42 pm
BY DINA ZAMAN | September 10, 2013
The Malaysian Insider
Mazlyn Mustapha is a doctor. She enters the cafe we are in, in a crisp-like manner. Dressed in a blouse, long skirt, tudung and sporting sunglasses. Her hands are clasped tightly as she begins talking. She may cut a diminutive figure, but her speech is clear and measured, and she has very firm ideas.
She is from Petaling Jaya, and leads “a normal life. Nothing unusual.”
Her late father wanted one of his children to be a doctor, and when she received a scholarship to study medicine in Ireland, she did what he had planned for her. She did very well academically.
In short, she was the quintenssential school girl who excelled, and was expected to come back with a degree, marry, and practise, all of which she did.
A stranger in her own country
When she and her husband came back to Malaysia, they lived in Kelantan for awhile.
Read the rest of this entry »
When was RoS DG co-opted into the Umno/BN Demolish/Destroy DAP (DDD) campaign and if not, why the modus operandi of RoS DG acting on the Umno/BN DDD script in the past few months?
When was the Registrar of Societies (RoS) Director-General (DG) Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman co-opted into the UMNO/BN Demolish/Destroy DAP (DDD) conspiracy and campaign, and if not, why the modus operandi of RoS DG acting on the Umno/BN DDD script in the past few months?
Initially, in the early phase of the UMNO/BN “Demolish/Destroy DAP” campaign, the RoS Director-General was fairly independent, impartial and professional, as evidenced from Abdul Rahman’s statement in January that DAP CEC re-elections “would only occur if there was concrete evidence there were discrepancies in the CEC election process”.
But in the past few months, the RoS DG succumbed to the pressures of the Umno/BN DDD conspiracy to undermine, destabilise and destroy the DAP as evident from the fact that the RoS DG was unable to state in writing the “concrete evidence” of the “discrepancies in the CEC election process” as to justify his directive for a CEC re-election to be held.
A study of the UMNO/BN DDD conspiracy and campaign in the past few months will show a pattern of the Umno/BN DDD battalions setting the stage to attack the DAP leadership, and which are subsequently followed up and acted upon by the UMNO/BN leadership, including the Prime Minister or Cabinet Ministers, and the RoS DG, justifying the inference that the RoS DG had been co-opted into the UMNO/BN DDD conspiracy and campaign. Read the rest of this entry »
The best (acting) prime minister
Posted by Kit in Mariam Mokhtar, nation building, UMNO on Monday, 9 September 2013, 11:29 pm
Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Sep 9, 2013
No one will dispute the filial piety and devotion shown by Tawfik, the eldest son of Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, who was once called “The man who saved Malaysia.” Dr Ismail died in office, in his capacity as acting prime minister, effectively the best prime minister we have had.
tun dr ismail abdul rahmanDr Ismail was remembered for his non-ethnic approach to issues and his concern about racial polarisation. He had a strong work ethic, was a strict but fair man who adhered strictly to rules. He despised incompetence and lateness. He was feared and respected. He refused to grant favours even to relatives and close friends. He was highly principled and enjoyed debating.
He avoided conflict of interest and the British High Commissioner said in despatches, “Ismail was a man of formidable reputation for integrity and talent in all communities.”
Tawfik has sullied his father’s memory by aligning himself with the present, undistinguished Umno Baru politicians by suggesting that the controversial film, Tanda Putera be made into a mini-series. Read the rest of this entry »
