In Borders case, common sense triumphs over bad faith
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Judiciary, Religion on Tuesday, 20 August 2013, 9:34 am
by Debra Chong
The Malay Mail Online
August 20, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 — In the face of Malaysia’s rising religious conservatism, a civil court judge has boldly ruled on reason and common sense to uphold a Muslim storekeeper’s constitutional right to sell a book Islam’s gatekeepers here found offensive.
The court case involving the local Borders’ sale of Canadian author Irshad Manji’s book “Allah, Liberty and Love” has been closely-watched since it hit national headlines last year after Islamic enforcement officials seized the stock and charged the store manager Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz with violating publication and distribution laws.
Five months after pronouncing the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (JAWI), the home minister and the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic affairs guilty of abusing their powers to illegally prosecute the bookstore’s Muslim manager, Datuk Zaleha Yusof of the Kuala Lumpur High Court has finally released her grounds of judgment.
Though couched in the language of the court, the judge’s strongly-worded explanation kept to a strict interpretation of the law that has given hope to Malaysians that their civil liberties as laid down in the country’s founding document remain as robust as the day they were conceived half a century ago.
“I am satisfied that the applicants have shown existence of illegality, abuse of discretionary powers, irrationality, unreasonable exercise of power, unconstitutionally and that there exists procedural impropriety on the part of the respondents,” Zaleha wrote in her grounds of judgment released last week. Read the rest of this entry »
Can religious leaders still talk through issues anymore?
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, nation building, Religion on Monday, 19 August 2013, 9:14 pm
by Jennifer Gomez and Hasbullah Awang Chik
The Malaysian Insider
August 19, 2013
To the world, before these past few weeks, Malaysia has been a country that always at least claimed to be a model for moderate faith and prided itself on cherishing interfaith dialogue and shared space.
No one is making that claim anymore, at least no one from the top. No one there can.
Not when in the space of bare weeks, Malaysians have seen two high religious figures – one Buddhist, the other Catholic – have to issue apologies to mollify a madding crowd. Read the rest of this entry »
The role of public interest litigation
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Judiciary, Mahathir on Monday, 19 August 2013, 6:36 pm
– Dr. R. Rueban Balasubramaniam
The Malaysian Insider
August 19, 2013
After the recent general election, Malaysian democrats have again been frustrated. Once more, the United Malay National Organization (“UMNO”) emerged victorious, though many believe this was the most fraudulent election in Malaysia’s political history. Now, democrats are redoubling their efforts to reveal such fraud and to seek electoral reform at least with an eye to winning the next election.
Democrats take solace in the fact that UMNO is on very vulnerable political terrain; it cannot compete fairly within upon a democratic playing field, but they should not just exert political pressure on UMNO. They can use another strategy: public interest litigation designed to embarrass UMNO’s ethnocratic political program, a program rooted in an authoritarian and discriminatory principle of Malay political dominance. Through such litigation, democrats can cast further doubt on UMNO’s claim to exercise legitimate political rule.
At present, Malaysia has no tradition of public interest litigation. This, despite the existence of a supreme written Constitution that contains a bill of rights and provisions that protect important group interests within a rubric of legal equality and provisions that express the principles of the separation of powers and federalism, which guard against the excessive concentration of power in any single organ of government. It is plain that the constitutional framework imposes legal discipline upon political power in a way that is hostile to authoritarian rule that is readily amenable to public interest litigation. Read the rest of this entry »
Lawyers instructed to institute legal proceedings against Utusan Malaysia for recycling the lies of booklet “The Equity Report (CEC Election Fraud)” of fictitious “Father Augustus Chen”
I have instructed my lawyers to institute legal proceedings against Utusan Malaysia for recycling the defamatory lies of the booklet “The Equity Report (CEC Election Fraud)” of fictitious “Father Augustus Chen”.
In a statement on August 5, 2013, I said:
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“Father Augustus Chen” who authored the booklet alleging irregularities in the DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) elections last December was “a total figment of imagination of the Umno/BN ‘war-room psy-war’ campaign against the DAP before and after the 13th General Elections”;
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The allegations of DAP election irregularities by the fictitious “Father Augustus Chan” in his booklet is a regurgitation of the many lies and baseless allegations which had been published in some 400 anti-DAP reports and write-ups in UMNO/BN controlled media since January, particularly in Utusan Malaysia and New Straits Times;
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The appearance of the booklet of lies by the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen” in July was to provide a semblance of justification for UMNO/BN and the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to act against the DAP, enabling Umno/BN leaders and Cabinet Ministers to quote the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen” as authority why action, such as invalidation of DAP CEC elections and even deregistration, should be taken against the DAP.
DAP facing life-and-death struggle with the widening of the battleground and opening of a third phase of the UMNO/BN “DDD” campaign to demonise and destroy DAP
DAP is facing a life-and-death struggle with the widening of the battleground and opening of the third phase of the UMNO/BN “DDD” campaign to demonise and destroy the DAP.
In the past several months, the Umno/BN “DDD” – “Demonise/Destroy DAP” – battalions of propagandists and cybertroopers had launched two phases of assault on the DAP, viz:
Firstly, the outrageous and preposterous allegation of the non-existent DAP-financed “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget from RM100 million to RM1 billion in past six years to demonise and character-assassinate Umno/BN leaders; and
Secondly, the baseless and malicious campaign about electoral fraud in DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) elections last December, culminating in the booklet of lies by the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen” making two major allegations, namely “753 delegates (mostly Indians)” not notified of the DAP Congress and “543 phantom delegates (mostly from Penang)”, when both are complete lies and falsehoods.
In the two phases of the “DDD” campaign, the battalions of Umno/BN propagandists and cybertroopers had concocted and recycled hundreds of lies and falsehoods against the DAP especially in the Umno/BN media Utusan Malaysia and New Straits Times. Read the rest of this entry »
Why MAS Share Is On Cheap Sale?
by Koon Yew Yin
16th Aug 2013
As a long term serious investor, I have a closer look at the cheap share price of MAS. Why is it selling at 33 sen. about one third of its par value?
Many market analysts have already covered MAS and Idris Jallal has said that the company should be sold off as soon as possible. My intention of writing this piece is to help the BN Government decide to put in the final nail to bury MAS to save tax payers’ money. Obviously the Government did not see my previous article “Why MAS Is Still Flying” which I published about a year ago. It is important and worthwhile to include some of the points I mentioned earlier in my previous article.
The latest 1st quarter 2013 ending March shows that MAS lost Rm 279 million. In 2012, 2011 and 2010 the company lost Rm 433 million, Rm 2.424 billion and Rm 234 million respectively.
As usual, there are the incorrigibly optimistic cheerleaders for the airline who are unable to see the writing on the wall. These ‘experts’ are still touting that the company is in recovery mode and will soon be returning to profitability.
The market however sees the prospects for the airline differently. During the past few days the airline share has been trading around 35 sen level. This is about the lowest share price that the airline share has recorded during the past many years. Without the support of government-linked funds and left to market forces alone, it is possible that the share price of MAS will drop even more. Read the rest of this entry »
The escalating religious intolerance must stop
Posted by Kit in nation building, Religion on Saturday, 17 August 2013, 1:16 am
– Lawyers for Liberty
The Malaysian Insider
August 16, 2013
Lawyers for Liberty views with extreme concern the escalating religious intolerance in Malaysia where in recent months, several minor incidents of perceived insult against Islam have been blown completely out of proportion by Umno leaders, their supporters and the mainstream media – leading to the arrest and remand of Maznah Yusof, known as Chetz, and Syed Ahmad (the resort owner), and in Alvivi’s case, criminal charges and denial of bail (which was later reversed after eight days in prison).
While religion especially Islam is a sensitive subject to most, this however must not detract from the fact that Malaysia is a multi-racial and multi-religious democratic state with established democratic norms including the Federal Constitution guaranteeing fundamental rights, rule of law, due process and other practises that mark Malaysia as a
modern and civilised state.
Religion like any other important issue cannot escape from being subjected to scrutiny, comment, satire and to the less eloquent, insult and condemnation.
The government and state institutions such as the police, Attorney-General’s Chambers and Jakim, instead of advocating harsh action, should take a more measured approach in diffusing this obvious attempt to pit Malay/Muslim against other ethnic group/religion and explain why Islam or any other religion should not be subjected to insults. Read the rest of this entry »
Today’s New Straits Times front-page report of lies about DAP CEC re-election signals a new phase of the DDD (Demonise/Destroy DAP) propaganda war with lies and falsehoods
The New Straits Times (NST) front-page report today on the DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) re-election is a typical example of the mountain of DDD – “Demonise/Destroy DAP” – lies and falsehoods by Umno/Barisan Nasional media, culminating in the July appearance of the booklet of lies by the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen”, in the past seven months.
The lead paragraph of NST front-page report headlined “DAP finally agrees to hold fresh CEC polls” by S.K. Thanusha Devi reads:
“Kuala Lumpur: DAP yesterday conceded that it must hold fresh polls, after it was found to have disallowed 753 party members from attending its congress-cum-elections as delegates in December”.
This is not journalism but a downright blatant and bare-faced lie, for two reasons: Read the rest of this entry »
The general election surprise: younger Malays too went to Barisan
The Malaysian Insider
August 16, 2013
Here’s what was expected: Pakatan Rakyat (PR) comfortably won the battle for first-time and younger voters in Election 2013. Here’s what was not expected: Barisan Nasional (BN) snared more Malay votes in this category of voters.
Going into the elections, the general line was that PR would obtain the bulk of the first-time and young Malaysian vote because its focus on a range of issues, including corruption, would be attractive to younger voters.
Also, the Opposition had a stronger slate of young politicians like Rafizi Ramli, Nurul Izzah Anwar and Liew Chin Tong who found support among young Malaysians.
But Ibrahim Suffian of Merdeka Center sounded a note of caution for the opposition pact on this thinking. He noted that the majority of first-time Malay and young Malay voters gave their support to BN, suggesting that the Opposition has not done enough to convince young Malays that their future was secure with PAS, PKR and DAP.
And Ibrahim noted that this segment is only going to get larger in coming elections, due to the higher birth rate among Malays. Read the rest of this entry »
Putrajaya blew over RM500m on pre-polls ad offensive
The Malay Mail Online
August 15, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 ― Putrajaya spent over RM500 million in its advertising blitz ahead of Election 2013 ― as much as the next four advertiser categories combined ― to dominate the list of top spenders for the first half of the year.
According to a report on local advertising growth by Vizeum Media, an international media-buying agency, the next closest contender was women’s beauty products, which laid out RM163 million or less than a third of the RM530 million spent by the government.
“[The General Election] drove government spending to a historical high of RM531 million, accounting for 9 per cent share of the advertising market or one-third of ADEX within the top 10 spending categories in 1H 2013,” Vizeum said in its July report.
The amount was a 160 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Of the over half-billion spent, the Prime Minister’s Department took up the lion’s share with an outlay of RM264 million for the first six months of the year or five times more than it did in 2012.
“Jabatan Perdana Menteri accounted for 50 per cent share of all government spending during the same period,” the report continued.
The sum was enough the make the PM’s Department the country’s second-largest single advertiser, losing out to multinational consumer goods firm Unilever Malaysia which spent RM286 million. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP to hold fresh CEC elections
Media Statement by DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor, YB Karpal Singh, on 15.8.13:
Despite the strong legal position of the DAP that the directive of the Registrar of Societies that the party holds fresh CEC elections in that that directive does not have the sanctity or authority of law, in the larger interests of the party, and to avert deregistration of the party, the CEC resolved last night, to hold fresh CEC elections.
The DAP had made every effort to receive from the Registrar of Societies the reasons for his directive and the law upon which that directive had been based. In fact, DAP Secretary-General, Lim Guan Eng, as recent as a few days ago, sought to meet up with the Registrar of Societies to discuss the position but the Registrar of Societies declined to give him an appointment. To compound the position, the party’s repeated requests to the Registrar of Societies to be supplied with the complaints made against the party have been futile.
Under the circumstances, it is with regret, that as directed by the Registrar of Societies, the CEC of term 2008-2011 will meet up next Thursday to make the necessary preparations for the fresh CEC elections.
‘Duplicitous, dysfunctional and directionless’
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO on Thursday, 15 August 2013, 11:04 am
By Ong Kian Ming | 11:07AM Aug 14, 2013
Malaysiakini
COMMENT This week marks the first 100 days of the Najib administration since May 5, 2013, when BN won 60 percent of parliament seats with only 47 percent of the popular vote.
Najib Abdul Razak has the distinction of being the first Malaysian prime minister to hold on to the reins of power without having won the majority of votes.
He has further distinguished himself by presiding over a duplicitous, dysfunctional and directionless government. If this is a sign of things to come, the next five years will, if Najib lasts that long, see things in the country going from bad to worse.
Duplicitous
On the night of polling day, when it was announced that BN had retained power at the federal level, Najib called for a national reconciliation in order to unite the voters who had been “polarized” as a result of a high stakes and often heated general election campaign.
Read the rest of this entry »
We have to keep the faith, even if our leaders can’t
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building, Police, Religion on Thursday, 15 August 2013, 10:53 am
— May Chee Chook Ying
The Malay Mail Online
August 14, 2013
AUG 14 — Many are making senseless statements; some to the extent of baying for blood. It’s almost unbelievable that our beloved motherland has descended to such depths. The irresponsible politics being played out by those morally bankrupt are keeping some people at the level of their instincts.
That’s what arrogant politics does – it divides the masses. It refuses to respond to new realities. It insists that the only way to solve problems is to bring back archaic structures and instruments that demean the human person. Are we still moving towards 2020, the year we are supposed to be a developed nation? How can a nation be developed when the puppeteers are still hoping to enslave the minds of the masses? To dictate to them and control their every move?
Things are coming to a head now in Malaysia. Instead of finding out what went wrong; whether those in power have had a share in the fault, looks like the liberty of some will have to be sacrificed in order to expedite matters. As usual, coming up with irresponsible band-aid solutions, e.g. bringing back the EO instead of implementing the ICPMC. Harking back to the dark old days when events in life are pushing us forward to change plans and directions? Read the rest of this entry »
Did Umno really scare up strong Malay support? Not quite, shows study
The Malaysian Insider
August 13, 2013
Umno’s election strategy of ratcheting up fear among Malays over the loss of political power actually yielded only a slight increase in Malay support in the past general election.
In contrast, right-wing rhetoric, unresolved issues of race and religion as well as the belief that Pakatan Rakyat should be given a shot at running the country saw a 20% swing of Chinese voters and 5% swing of Indian voters away from Barisan Nasional, compared with 2008.
In fact, what really did help Umno tap the rural vote was its strong political machinery there as well as the villagers’ continued dependence on government aid and services. Cash handouts under BR1M also played a part. Read the rest of this entry »
Demanding that the accused prove innocence is utter rubbish!
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Judiciary, Law & Order on Wednesday, 14 August 2013, 1:19 am
— P Ramakrishnan
The Malay Mail Online
August 13, 2013
AUG 13 — The accepted legal norm is that the accused is innocent until proven guilty. That is the basic law. That is the golden thread of the law. That is the basis of justice.
It appears that Ranjit Singh Dhillon, the Penang Bar Committee’s criminal law chairman, has totally ignored this time-honoured principle by demanding that Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Karpal Singh declare their assets to prove their innocence. This is ridiculous!
If this was Ranjit Singh’s personal view, that would be of no consequence. But this view was stated in his capacity as an official of the Penang Bar – that makes it preposterous!
Malaysians would like to know if the Penang Bar shares Ranjit’s absurd view or does it disassociate itself from this view? This must be stated immediately and clearly. Malaysians should not be left wondering what has happened to the Penang Bar. Isn’t justice and fairness the paramount concern of the Bar? This must rightly be so.
Ranjit’s sober position should have been to ask the accuser to make a police report and provide the MACC with the so-called evidence in his possession that suggests that there was corruption in the conduct of these two Pakatan leaders. In this manner, he would have facilitated the commencement of criminal investigation by both the police and the MACC. Unfortunately, Ranjit did not do this. He did not promote the cause of justice.
What are the facts? Read the rest of this entry »
QED – “Father Augustus Chen” a sham, phantom and ghost and his booklet on DAP a tissue of lies and falsehoods
QED – “Father Augustus Chen” is a sham, phantom and ghost, and his booklet on the DAP “The Equity Report (CEC Election Fraud)” a tissue of lies and falsehoods.
The lies and falsehoods about “Father Augustus Chen” were so thick and free that he was even described as my one-time close associate and I had even been challenged to declare whether I still maintain a friendship with him.
The seven days given to “Father Augustus Chen” to surface to prove that he is not a phantom are past, and there is no ghost of a sign that there is such a person in Malaysia or on this earth.
“Father Augustus Chen” is a chimerical and fictitious creature of the fancies and fantasies of the Umno/BN “DDD” (Demonise/Destroy DAP) propagandists and cybertroopers to cram about one hundred lies about the DAP in a 12-page booklet as a culmination of a seven-month DDD campaign over the DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) elections last December which had spawned a few hundred lies and falsehoods about the DAP in the UMNO/BN controlled media in the past seven months.
Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s getting off this tiger’s back
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Mahathir, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 13 August 2013, 11:54 am
AB Sulaiman
Malaysiakini
Aug 12, 2013
COMMENT In the Malaysian public domain one issue seems to be taking a lot of attention; its source, of all things, is a book.
For a people not known to read much, this is bizarre. For it to be written purportedly by Abdullah Badawi, as some have assumed, more bizarre still.
Actually ‘Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years in Malaysia’ is not a book written by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at all; it’s one about him but edited by Bridget Welsh and James Chin.
In it Abdullah makes comments about his tenure as prime minister, about how he dared go against the wishes of predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad who apparently was holding the reins of power in the background.
Abdullah was commenting on how he was hounded by Mahathir but stood his ground anyway, and even cancelled some Mahathir-conceived mega projects. Read the rest of this entry »
The greatest PM we never had
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Elections, Mahathir, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 13 August 2013, 12:29 am
Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Aug 12, 2013
Malaysian prime ministers display fascinating quirks and characteristics; Dr Mahathir Mohamad assumes the role of the Pied Piper of Hamelin who leads the children (Malays) to a catastrophic end; Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is like Rip van Winkle who slept when he should have been working to improve the nation; and Najib Abdul Razak appears to act like Nero who fiddled while Rome burned.
Najib’s entry into politics is a lacklustre, predictable story which might explain his inability to inspire the nation. His role in undermining Malaysian democracy is pivotal.
He places more emphasis on sound-bites and slogans, than on sound policies. Najib is English educated, and a well travelled man. Some consider him a roué but he comes from a family with an impeccable political pedigree. The reason he failed as PM is simple.
Najib lacks leadership. Read the rest of this entry »
Pluralism is not a dirty word
by Azrul Mohd Khalib
The Malay Mail Online
Aug 12, 2013
AUG 12 — While I was listening to the Hari Raya Aidilfitri sermon at the National Mosque the other day, I was struck by its gloomy, depressing and combative tone. Rather than a message of celebration and rejoicing at the achievements represented by the conclusion of the holy month of Ramadan, the sermon was one which spoke in strident tones about the enemies of the faith, and attacks and threats to the ummah.
One of the elements identified in the sermon as being a threat to Islam (along with secularism and feminism, strangely enough) was pluralism.
Somehow, in less than 10 years, pluralism has become from being a proud attribute of multicultural and multi-ethnic Malaysia to one that has been vilified and has left certain people trembling in their boots.
In case anyone is unsure, the Oxford dictionary defines pluralism as being a condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of authority, etc., co-exist. In the context of Malaysia, a condition in which numerous distinct ethnic, religious or cultural groups are present and tolerated within a society. Somehow, someone, somewhere has deemed pluralism to be the equivalent of a four-letter word.
Pluralism lives and breathes in Islam. It is embedded in the rich traditions of Islamic academia where from antiquity the religion prides itself in the diversity of views and the value of rigorous academic discourse and dialogue. Thus, the discourses and arguments of Muslim jurists and scholars of the likes of Al Kindi, Al Biruni, Ibn Sina are spoken in the same breath as the Greek and Roman philosophers such as Socrates, Cicero and Marcus Aurelius.
The best example of religious pluralism in Islam comes from the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) himself who offered a delegation of Christians from the kingdom of Najran his own mosque, Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, for their prayers. What is this gesture if not recognition of the plurality of religion by the Prophet? Didn’t other religions not only survive but also flourish under early Islam? What does it say to others that pluralism is now considered a bad thing? Read the rest of this entry »
Crime is Up, Cops are Down
By Kee Thuan Chye | Tue, 30 Jul 2013 16:30:00 GMT
MSN Malaysia
Hineous crimes such as the recent murder of Hussain Ahmad Najadi makes us think that the police are getting less and less efficient at curbing crime. In fact, the crime rate seems to be going up and up, but until lately, the Government was denying it.
ay after day, we keep getting reports of break-ins, muggings and robberies. Even of diners at popular restaurants falling victim to marauding gangs.
All this makes us think that the police are getting less and less efficient at curbing crime. In fact, the crime rate seems to be going up and up, but until lately, the Government was denying it.
In June 2012, the then home minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said the crime rate was going down, and that if people thought it was going up instead, it was merely their “perception”. He was lambasted for his condescending comment.
Read the rest of this entry »
