Panacea to reduce crime?
Posted by Kit in Crime, Law & Order, Najib Razak, Police on Tuesday, 9 July 2013, 8:24 am
— Lim Sue Goan
The Malay Mail Online
July 08, 2013
JULY 8 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak made a legal reform pledge on the eve of the Malaysia Day in 2011, which was indeed a sign of democratic progress. However, the legal reforms have been questioned. Would the government backtrack?
Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi refuses to support the abolition of the 1969 Sedition Act. At the same time, Home Ministry and the police blame the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) for causing the deterioration of public security and thus, the government is developing a special preventive law similar to the EO.
It was a right move for Najib to announce the abolition and amendments for some draconian laws, as these undemocratic laws had violated human rights and fundamental freedom. They were also accused to have been used against dissidents.
For example, student activist Adam Adli Abdul Halim; Tamrin Ghafar, son of late former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Ghafar Baba; Anything But Umno (ABU) leader Haris Ibrahim and three others were charged with sedition in May. Also, six Socialist Party leaders were detained under the EO.
In fact, as early as in 2005, the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) Report had proposed the abolition of the EO as the Act was “outdated and might become a tool to infringe fundamental freedom”. The EO allowed for 60 days’ detention without warrant or trial, depriving detainee’s right to seek legal defence. Therefore, the announcement to abolish the Sedition Act and the EC was in line with public opinion. The authorities should not resurrect the laws, regardless of whatever excuses. Read the rest of this entry »
National reconciliation: Nuremberg revengeful justice or RTC restorative justice?
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat on Monday, 8 July 2013, 8:55 am
– Sakmongkol
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 08, 2013
I have to put up a caveat: this is my personal opinion as a writer and blogger. It is not Pakatan’s official position.
PM Najib spoke about national reconciliation in parliament. Yes- he is becoming quite well-known for coining big slogans. He started with all the GTP, ETP, EPP, NKRA, PDP etc. it must have become an addiction.
Now is national reconciliation. Unfortunately his people in parliament take the national reconciliation proposal as a means to do a Nuremberg kind of justice. Impose the victor’s justice on the opposition representing 51 per cent of the voting population. Move on means accepting BN victory and be quiet about it and allow the winner do what it pleases.
This time, Najib needs help from the opposition to ensure that his national reconciliation isn’t turned into another of his useless slogans. We are 89 strong.
He has only given but one precondition- that the results of GE13 must be accepted by everyone. My reading of this is that he is willing to sit down and sort out contentious issues and to engage the opposition to hear out matters they feel strongly about.
I think we should engage him. But then he has to offer something in return. Is he offering us a victor’s justice/the Nuremberg kind of justice? Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysian Dream Agent Recruitment
Posted by Kit in Malaysian Dream on Monday, 8 July 2013, 12:26 am
Welcome to the launching of the nationwide recruitment of Malaysia Dream Agent.
Malaysia Dream is a movement where we hope that we can gather more Malaysian volunteers (including non-party members) to be Ejen Impian Malaysia for our activities and programs to promote Malaysian identity and consciousness particularly among the young generation of Malaysians.
Our present challenge is whether we can convert the passion for CHANGE shown by Malaysians in the GE-13 into constructive community work so that we can win big in Sarawak Election 2015 and eventually take over Putrajaya in GE-14.
Being the second largest political party in Malaysia, we are looking into every possibility to reach out to new voter groups who have so far been outside our sphere of influence and to garner support in order to promote the Malaysian Dream. We need you to be a Malaysian Dream Agent and take part in the community work for rural and non-cyber communities.
The Malaysian Dream (Impian Malaysia) envisions a plural society where all her citizens are united as one people, rising above their ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic differences as the common grounds binding them as one citizenship exceed the differences that divide them because of their ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural divisions. Read the rest of this entry »
Nazri: Between ‘open secret’ and common sense
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam, Parliament on Sunday, 7 July 2013, 11:53 pm
– Ravinder Singh
The Malay Mail Online
July 07, 2013
JULY 7 – Nazri is correct in saying that it is an “open secret” that the Conference of Rules (COR) can object to any law (or any sections, words or phrases in it). That is the prerogative of the Rulers.
On the other hand, it is common sense that if the COR does object to any part of a law that has been sent to it after going through the Cabinet and Parliament, the COR must send it back to the Cabinet / Parliament for the parts objected to to be reviewed, amended or dealt with in any other way deemed proper by the Cabinet / Parliament.
It is also common sense that after having approved / amended a bill, it is not the function of the COR to send it for printing / publication / gazetting. This is the duty of the executive.
So how is it that up today not only Nazri but the whole Cabinet and Parliament do not know whether the COR had actually objected to the Cabinet decision of April 2009 on the issue of the conversion of minors? Read the rest of this entry »
National Reconciliation
by Allan CFGoh
6th July 2013
The rite of reconciliation
Starts with the admission of wrong.
It is not for crude posturing,
To show off who is really strong.
Reconciliation must respect
The principle that ‘Right is might’;
Not to be manipulated,
Or exploited to ‘Might is right”. Read the rest of this entry »
Implausible Nonsense: Malaysia’s Political Theatre
Posted by Kit in Lim Teck Ghee, Muhyiddin Yassin, Parliament, UMNO on Friday, 5 July 2013, 5:40 pm
Dr Lim Teck Ghee
CPI
5th July 2013
There are two types of nonsense – plausible and implausible. Plausible nonsense is when someone spins a story to children, which although implausible to adults is plausible to young minds. Though not believable to adults, most children stories have the redeeming value of being educational and entertaining.
Then there is implausible nonsense which does not make any sense at all. Clowns and buffoons engage in implausible nonsense for the purpose of entertaining audiences and bringing comic relief.
In Shakespeare’s plays, his clowns and fools did not only invite laughter but they often had something profound to say. The Shakespeare fool, who is usually a person of low or common birth, provided insights into the main characters belonging to the nobility as well as shedding light on the central themes of the play. Read the rest of this entry »
IGP and Home Minister cannot blow hot and cold but must be consistent whether Malaysia is safe country or not
The Inspector-General of Police and the Home Minister cannot blow hot and cold but must be consistent whether Malaysia is a safe country or not.
The IGP and the Home Minister cannot on the one hand claim that Malaysia is a safe country with crime rate decreasing by 26.8% since the launch of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) in 2009, and ranked the safest and most peaceful country in South-East Asia according to the Global Peace Index, but suddenly attribute the recent spike of violent crimes to the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) in 2011 which put nearly 2,000 suspected hardened criminals back on the streets.
If the release of the 2,000 suspected hardened criminals under EO in September 2011 was responsible for the spike in crimes, why is this not shown in the crime statistics of the police, which instead claimed that there had been a reduction of overall street crime and index crime by 41.3% and 7.6% respectively in 2012 as compared to 2011?
Or did the leaders of the violent and organised crime syndicates only suddenly become active after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s declaration of “war against crime” a month after the 13th general elections – causing a worsening of crime and the fear of crime when for the first time Malaysians feel unsafe eating out with the public spate of armed robberies of owners and customers at mamak stalls and restaurants? Read the rest of this entry »
Religious Bill splits Cabinet after divisive election
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Parliament, Religion on Friday, 5 July 2013, 1:19 pm
The Malay Mail Online
July 04, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 — Some of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet have spoken out in dissent over a Bill that would let a single parent or guardian convert their child to Islam without their partner’s consent.
The proposed change has sparked protests from the prime minister’s biggest coalition partners, as well as leaders of religious and ethnic minorities in the Muslim-majority nation. The row comes as Parliament resumed last week after May’s general election which saw support for the government slide to its lowest level in more than 55 years.
“Certain sections of the Bill can be detrimental to non- Muslims,” Datuk G. Palanivel, a minister who heads the MIC in Najib’s governing Barisan Nasional coalition, said in a phone interview. “The government should propose a fairer version of the Bill, taking into account individual rights and civil liberties.”
The heads of some other parties representing minority groups in Najib’s coalition, including the MCA, have also protested the proposed amendment, testing the alliance’s unity as economic growth slows. Net foreign direct investment dropped 17 per cent last year to US$10.1 billion (RM31.3 billion) as spending in neighbours including Singapore and Indonesia increased, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development last week. Read the rest of this entry »
Global corruption watchdog demands MACC act on Taib
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Sarawak on Friday, 5 July 2013, 12:18 pm
by Elizabeth Zachariah
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 05, 2013
An international corruption watchdog has slammed the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commissioner (MACC) for their delay in wrapping up their probe into the alleged corrupt practices of Sarawak’s Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud (pic).
Global Witness noted that the probe began in 2011 and yet no charges had been brought against Taib.
It wanted the MACC to get Taib to declare all his offshore assets, including those held by family members.
Global Witness came to prominence just before the election when it released a video tape showing recordings of conversations between its private investigators and two of Taib’s cousins.
Datuk Paul Low, who was then chairman of Transparency International Malaysia, had urged the Government to immediately commission a panel of independent and reputable external auditors to examine and identify cases of suspected corruption and abuse of public office with regard to state resources and land deals.
GW commended Low whose anti-corruption ambitions include combating graft and improving transparency.
However, they are now holding him to that promise as Low is now Minister in Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the implementation of transparency in the government. Read the rest of this entry »
Guan Eng apologises for no Q and A session
by Susan Loone
Malaysiakini
Jul 5, 2013
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng did the honourable and a rare thing for him – apologise for the suspension of the question and answer session at the current legislative assembly sitting.
Lim said the occurrence was a “mistake” and could have been avoided.
He added that the state has decided to appoint executive councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo to oversee matters in the assembly, to ensure there would be no repeat of such a situation.
“I was shocked and could not accept the excuse of lack of time to suspend the session,” said Lim while wrapping up the debate of thanks to the Governor for his speech on Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysian premier shrugs off looming threats to economy
Posted by Kit in Finance, Najib Razak on Friday, 5 July 2013, 9:07 am
By Stefan Wagstyl in London
Financial Times
July 3, 2013
A slowdown in the Chinese economy, plunging commodity prices and the looming end of US “QE3” quantitative easing might appear to be a perfect economic storm for Malaysia.
The commodity producer exports to China and has benefited handsomely from the cash that washed through emerging markets as a result of the US Federal Reserve’s aggressive bond-buying programme.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday, however, Najib Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister, played down the likely effects of the threats to growth coming from the world economy. As a leader fresh from an election victory, his confidence is understandable. But some might see it as misplaced.
Mr Najib insisted Malaysia remained on course to grow at 5 to 6 per cent annually and achieve the government’s target of joining the ranks of the world’s high-income countries by 2020.
Mr Najib was speaking during a visit to London, made as his government is settling back into office after the ruling United Malays National Organisation overcame the biggest-ever challenge to its power in May’s parliamentary elections. The opposition won 51 per cent of the vote, but Umno and its partners in the ruling coalition secured 60 per cent of the seats under Malaysia’s constituency-based voting system. Read the rest of this entry »
A Bill that Does Not Fit
Posted by Kit in Constitution, nation building, Parliament, Religion on Thursday, 4 July 2013, 5:14 pm
By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo News
4th July 2013
The amendment to Clause 107(b) of the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 2013, tabled for passing this month, is going to be one helluva bill. Voting on it will see whether representatives of certain component parties within the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition will break from the party line and vote according to their own conscience.
The MCA, the MIC and Gerakan, avowedly looking after the interests of non-Muslims, have been critical of the bill. It will therefore be a real test of their integrity to vote against it. Abstaining from voting will not be enough. They must walk their talk.
From the layman’s point of view, the bill seems to be simply about granting either parent of a child below the age of 18 the right to convert the child to Islam. The front-page headline of the July 3 edition of theSun sums it up: ‘Mom or dad?’ And if one were to apply simple logic, the answer would be obvious. Since both parents gave life to the child and are responsible for its growth, why should it be that only one is enough to decide?
But the issue is not so simple. It never is when it comes to religion. And more than that, this current bill indicates an about-turn by the Cabinet. Read the rest of this entry »
Another evidence of Utusan Malaysia’s relentless effort to spearhead Najib’s Media Transformation Programme to transform news into lies, truth into falsehood, fact into fiction and information into misinformation
Posted by Kit in IT, Media, Najib Razak on Thursday, 4 July 2013, 4:22 pm
Another evidence of Utusan Malaysia’s relentless effort to spearhead Najib’s Media Transformation Programme to transform news into lies, truth into falsehood, facts into fiction and information into misinformation
The Kuala Lumpur High Court award of RM250,000 in damages and RM30,000 in costs against Utusan Malaysia in favour of former Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin over the WWW1 car number plate issue is the latest evidence of the UMNO media’s relentless effort to spearhead Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Media Transformation Programme (MTP) to transform news into lies, truth into falsehoods, facts into fiction and information into misinformation.
In its role to blaze the path towards media transformation programme, Utusan had set a new record for both national and international media, as the media whether inside the country or in the world which is not only the most sued for defamation but for losing the most defamation suits, including:
• Two libel suits by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng who was awarded RM400,000 in accumulated damages for both suits;
• Judgment of RM50,000 in damages to DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor Karpal Singh in December 2012 for a “mischievous” Utusan article painting him as anti-Islam; and
• In January 2013, the High Court awarded Anwar Ibrahim RM45,000 in damages after a series of Utusan articles deliberately misrepresented his statement in a BBC interview so as to suggest that the opposition leader was pro-LGBT.
No Red Bean Army ‘command centre’ seen in DAP visit
By Jarni Blakkarly | 11:46AM Jul 4, 2013
Malaysiakini
A visit last night to the so-called command centre of the ‘Red Bean Army’ of cybertroopers that Malay daily Utusan Malaysia said are paid at least RM100 million to work for the DAP showed no evidence of such a centre in operation.
The 10pm visit to the centre at a four-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur was organised by DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang, who wanted to put to rest the allegation against the party.
Lim led a team of party leaders and members of the media to the hotel in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and straight away went to the hotel’s restaurant to hold a press conference to rebut the claim made by the Umno-owned daily.
Soon after May 5 general election, BN leaders and Utusan claimed that DAP had spent between RM100 million and RM1 billion to fund a Red Bean Army of cybertroopers to attack the BN and the government in cyberspace, and named Concorde Hotel as one of its bases.
Among the DAP leaders present last night were vice-president and Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen, national publicity secretary and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua and treasurer and Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Loon.
Read the rest of this entry »
Will Shahidan propose in Cabinet the establishment of RCI on Utusan Malaysia’s racist, inflammatory and seditious provocations in the past four years if 1,000 or 2,000 Malaysians sign a memorandum for this purpose?
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Elections, IT, Parliament on Wednesday, 3 July 2013, 5:03 pm
The whole rigmarole about DAP funding a “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget ranging from RM100 million to RM1 billion in the past six years to demonise and character-assassinate has completely gone bersek with Barisan Nasional Ministers and Members of Parliament quoting lies as gospel truths in Parliament and outside.
Yesterday, at least two Barisan Nasional MPs spoke about the “Red Bean Army” in Parliament, but their credibility is no higher than that of the Gerakan MP for Simpang Renggam, Liang Teck Meng who made history by turning himself into an instant parliamentary disgrace yesterday.
Teck Meng purportedly quoted from WiliLeaks to allege that Parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim “owns 30 foreign bank accounts” worth RM332 million in four countries, including Israel, when such information is not available on WikiLeaks but only concocted on blogs by UMNO cybertroopers.
Like the “Red Bean Army” canard, this is another example of UMNO/BN cybertroopers finally succeeding in misleading their own leaders!
Is Teck Meng prepared to admit that he had told lies in Parliament yesterday and to surrender himself to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee for the proper punishment that should be meted out to an MP who could tell such reckless lies in Parliament? Read the rest of this entry »
Nazri’s statement that new bill on unilateral conversion of minors to Islam unfair welcome especially as the 1993 Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territorities) Act provided for both parental consent when bill was debated in Parliament
Posted by Kit in Islam, Parliament on Wednesday, 3 July 2013, 3:33 pm
The statement by Minister for Tourism, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, that the Administration of the Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013 on unilateral conversion of minors to Islam is unfair is welcome, especially as the 1993 Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act provided for both parental consent when the bill was debated in Dewan Rakyat in May 1993.
What was passed by Parliament in May 1993 on Section 95 in “Part IX – Conversion to Islam” states (English and Bahasa Malaysia):
“ 95. For the purpose of this Part, a person who is not a Muslim may convert to Islam if he is of sound mind and –
(a) has attained the age of eighteen years; or
(b) if he has not attained the age of eighteen years, his parent or guardian consents to his conversion.”
“95. Bagi maksud Bahagian ini, seseorang yang tidak beragama Islam boleh masuk Islam jika ia sempurna akal dan –
(a) Mencapai umur lapan belas tahun; atau
(b) Jika ia belum mencapai lapan belas tahun, ibu bapa atau penjaga mengizinkan kemasukannya.”
However, when it was gazetted, there was a minor but far-reaching variation in its Bahasa Malaysia version for Section 95(b) permitting unilateral conversion of minors to Islam when Parliament had always intended dual parental consent, as the gazetted Bahasa Malaysia version reads:
“(b) jika dia belum mencapai umur lapan belas tahun, ibu atau bapa atau penjaganya mengizinkan kemasukannya.” Read the rest of this entry »
Comments to a journalist
Rom Nain
Malaysiakini
Jun 27, 2013
I recently received a call – and, soon after, an email – from a persistent Malaysian newspaper journalist out to get responses to PM Najib Abdul Razak’s latest attempt at coming across as a rights-motivated liberal.
His announcement, that is, that there would be no (further) censorship of the Internet by his regime, but that we need to be more “responsible” instead in using the new media.
I informed her that I no longer gave interviews to her newspaper because the last time I did, my views were deliberately distorted. And that the pathetic reporter at that time didn’t have the decency to apologise afterwards.
She countered by saying that she’d do an email interview, so that my words would be ‘written’ and hence could not be distorted.
I know, of course, that it is never as simple as that and that devious reporters, subs and editors could easily paraphrase quotations to give quite different meanings. And, of course, they’ve done so.
But since she was polite and persistent, and only posed one general question, namely: “What steps would you suggest to encourage people to be more responsible when posting their comments on social media?”, I thought, let’s give it a go, and crafted out the following response. Read the rest of this entry »
If I were the police chief…
Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi
Malaysiakini
Jul 2, 2013
COMMENT Perhaps now that a minister’s house and the house of several ministers’ relatives have been broken into, the leaders should now know how ineffective our police force has become in relation to crime and public welfare.
I would not like to mince words but speak directly on what the police should do … if they are interested in public welfare at all. Even if they are not, they, police personnel are also subject to these crimes when they live outside quarters – such as those where I myself grew up.
So, if I were the chief of police, these are the things I would do.
Firstly, I would recognise that the first line of defence against crime is not to increase the number of police personnel, CCTVs or gated communities, or to deport all migrant workers.
The most tried of defences is the knowledge of crime patterns. If the people know how many crimes were committed and these are analysed, then it is extremely easy to protect against such incidents. I will elaborate in due course.
Secondly, I would tell my personnel to get ‘down and dirty’ with the communities they serve. They should not just drive or ride around and then stop for roti canai or nasi lemak, but should interact more with the communities they are supposed to serve. How? Well …patience dear readers and read on. Read the rest of this entry »
Respecting our children’s freedom
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Religion on Tuesday, 2 July 2013, 10:47 pm
Amar Singh
The Malaysian Insider
July 02, 2013
I want to thank every media or editor that has spoken up against the proposal by our government to introduce a law allowing one parent to change their children’s religion. It shows the courage of that media/editor and expresses the opinion of the majority of Malaysians. This attempt by the government to introduce such a law is a violation of the basic human rights of any individual and shows how little they respect the fundamental freedoms of our children.
The United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has been available since 1989 and signed by our Malaysian Prime Minister in December 1994. The UNCRC outlines the basic rights that should be accorded to any child. The fact that Malaysia is signatory underlines that the government of Malaysia is committed to uphold these fundamental rights. When countries ratify the Convention, they agree to review their laws relating to children.
Article 3 of the UNCRC clearly states that the best interests of children must be the primary concern in making decisions that may affect children. And that all adults, including the governing body of the country, should do what is best for children. This clearly includes policies and laws.
Article 14 speaks about the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. To quote “Children have the right to think and believe what they want and to practise their religion, as long as they are not stopping other people from enjoying their rights. Parents should help guide their children in these matters. The Convention respects the rights and duties of parents in providing religious and moral guidance to their children. Religious groups around the world have expressed support for the Convention, which indicates that it in no way prevents parents from bringing their children up within a religious tradition. At the same time, the Convention recognises that as children mature and are able to form their own views, some may question certain religious practices or cultural traditions. The Convention supports children’s right to examine their beliefs, but it also states that their right to express their beliefs implies respect for the rights and freedoms of others.” Read the rest of this entry »
Getting us at get lost
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, nation building on Tuesday, 2 July 2013, 7:08 pm
– Jahabar Sadiq
The Malaysian Insider
July 02, 2013
The classic cliche from Umno is this – if you don’t agree with us or criticise us, just get lost. Leave the country, now.
And they wonder why they lost the popular vote in Election 2013.
Barisan Nasional’s Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin repeated the line today when telling off AirAsia X chief executive Azran Osman-Rani for criticising Umno newspaper Utusan Malaysia over its racially-slanted articles after the May 5 general elections.
Calling Azran “Melayu Biadap” while debating the royal address in Parliament this morning, Bung Mokhtar said Azran should move if he was not happy in Malaysia.
The same line was said by Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in May when saying those unhappy with the GE13 results can also leave the country.
Is that really a solution when the Najib administration specifically set up the Talent Corporation to bring back Malaysians who can push the country to a high-income nation by 2020? Read the rest of this entry »
