Where is the Malaysian Dream?
Posted by Kit in Articles, Education, Malaysian Dream, nation building on Wednesday, 29 May 2013, 1:42 pm
by Erna Mahyuni
The Malaysian Insider
MAY 29, 2013
“To boldly go where no man has gone before.” I still get the shivers when I hear that old Star Trek line.
Looking back, things we take for granted now like telepresence conferences, virtual reality and touch screens were mere fantasy, fancies of the imagination.
Dreams matter. But what has happened to our own abilities to dream? The problem, I think, with Malaysians and their leaders is that we set our sights too low.
An educationist told me our English syllabus is so infantile as we must “follow the standards of Malaysian students.”
We want our children to fly and yet assume that all they can do is crawl. Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese upset that MCA ‘loaned out’ Gelang Patah
by Kong See Hoh
The Sun
28 May 2013
PETALING JAYA (May 28, 2013): Former deputy higher education minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah borrowed the expression “Liu Bei borrows Jingzhou” (… never to return) from the classic Chinese novel Romance Of The Three Kingdoms to illustrate the reason for the Chinese response when MCA “loaned out” Gelang Patah in the 13th general election.
He said the Chinese anger over the move was one of the reasons for MCA and Gerakan’s electoral rout that forced both to stay out of the cabinet.
“I know the Chinese saying (Liu Bei borrows Jingzhou) means borrowing something without ever returning it.
“Regardless of whether Chinese voters agreed with DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang, they felt the MCA chief himself should have taken on Lim in Gelang Patah,” Saifuddin, who is an Umno supreme council member, told China Press in an interview published today. Read the rest of this entry »
Belaga boat accident should be regarded as a national disaster as it is tragic proof of failure of 50 years of equitable development in Sarawak with still no road access to rural districts
DAP is shocked and outraged at the tragic Belaga boat disaster yesterday morning where an express boat sank in the Rajang River, with 23 passengers still missing when search and rescue (SAR) operations stopped yesterday because of nightfall.
So far, 181 passengers managed to swim to safety after the ill-fated express boat sank at the Jeram Tukok/Jeram Bungan area, about four hours’ journey upriver from Sibu.
Initial investigation indicated that the express boat had exceeded its capacity for 67 seated passengers as it was believed to be overloaded with over 200 passengers returning home for the Gawai Dayak festivities, and had encountered engine failure before crashing into a rock and sank.
The Sarawak Rivers Board (SRB) Chairman Datuk Roland Sagah has announced a full investigation into the tragic accident, warning of appropriate action against the express boat operator for failing to heed the advice not to overload or allow passengers to climb on the roof when the vessel was too full while plying the rivers.
Unfortunately, such investigations are not going to bring back to life those who have perished in the latest boat disaster in Sarawak.
Two years ago, 13 passengers died in a similar express boat tragedy in Tatau district near Bintulu town.
The Belaga boat accident yesterday should be regarded as a national disaster as it is tragic proof of failure of 50 years of equitable development in Sarawak with still no road access to rural districts. Read the rest of this entry »
Kemalangan bot Belaga sepatutnya dianggap sebagai bencana negara kerana itu merupakan bukti tragis kegagalan 50 tahun pembangunan di Sarawak yang masih tidak mempunyai akses jalanraya ke kawasan pedalaman
DAP terkejut dan kesal dengan tragedi bot Belaga pagi semalam yang mana sebuah bot ekspress karam di Sungai Rajang, dengan 23 penumpang masih hilang ketika operasi mencari dan menyelamat berhenti semalam disebabkan waktu malam.
Setakat ini, 181 penumpang berjaya untuk berenang ke tempat selamat selepas bot ekspress yang dinaiki karam di kawasan Jeram Tukok/Jeram Bungan, lebih kurang empat jam perjalanan dari Sibu.
Siasatan awal menunjukkan bahawa bot ekspres itu telah melebihi kapasiti 67 tempat duduk dan dipercayai terlebih muatan dengan 200 penumpang pulang dari pesta Gawai Dayak, kemudian menghadapi masalah enjin gagal berfungsi sebelum merempuh batu dan karam.
Pengerusi Lembaga Sungai Sarawak (SRB) Datuk Roland Sagah telah mengumumkan satu siasatan penuh akan diadakan terhadap insiden tragis itu, memberi amaran tindakan akan diambil terhadap operator bot kerana gagal mengikut nasihat supaya tidak membawa lebih muatan atau membenarkan penumpang memanjat bumbung apabila kapal terlalu penuh ketika menyelusuri di sungai.
Malangnya, siasatan sedemikian tidak akan mengembalikan nyawa mereka yang telah terkorban di dalam insiden kemalangan bot di Sarawak.
Dua tahun lalu, 13 penumpang terkorban di dalam tragedi bot yang serupa di kawasan Tatau berhampiran pekan Bintulu.
Kemalangan bot Belaga sepatutnya dianggap sebagai bencana negara kerana itu merupakan bukti tragis kegagalan 50 tahun pembangunan di Sarawak yang masih tidak mempunyai akses jalanraya ke kawasan pedalaman. Read the rest of this entry »
Umno Baru ‘takut MATI’
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Mariam Mokhtar, Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 29 May 2013, 5:04 am
by Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
May 27, 2013
It is simply ironic; Umno Baru’s Najib Abdul Razak, has urged the BN coalition to adapt so that it can maintain its relevance in the future – but behind closed doors, all the Umno Baru politicians fear change.
Why? They fear that Umno Baru will cease to exist because of Meritocracy, Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (MATI) – qualities which no Umno Baru politician displays or can ever hope to attain.
It is alleged that Umno Baru politicians laugh at this MATI joke because they realise the significance of adopting the MATI principles, as MATI means ‘death’ in Malay.
Umno Baru tyrants have exploited the rakyat for their own ends, but anyone who has met Najib or former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad (left) will be struck by their apparent friendliness and kindly manner. They will be surprised that despite what is written about them; their alleged arrogance and the alleged corruptions carried out on their behalf, they are very different in person.
That is why it is important for members of the rakyat, to understand that the public persona of these men is just a facade. Behind the public masks, lurk other people – men who are responsible for dividing the rakyat and plundering the nation. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysians wants IPCMC to end deaths in custody as they have no confidence in any police special committee even if it is headed by the IGP himself
The announcement by the Bukit Aman management director Mortadza Nazarene that the police will be setting up a special committee headed by the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to curb incidents involving deaths in police lock-ups is totally unsatisfactory and completely unacceptable, as what Malaysians want is an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) as recommended by the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry eight years ago in 2005 to put an end once and for all to the scandalous and endless spate of deaths in police custody.
After demonstrating himself in his first week as the most “political” IGP in history whose first priority is to protect the regime rather than the safety of Malaysians from crime and fear of crime, with scant regard to the human rights of Malaysians to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, Malaysians have no confidence in the IGP or in any police special committee even if it is headed by the IGP to put an end to deaths in police custody.
Khalid had been the Deputy IGP since April 2011 and Malaysians are entitled to know what he had done the past two years as the No. 2 in the police force to put and end to deaths in police custody, a scandalous state of affairs which had been highlighted by the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry way back in 2005?
Even now, despite another two deaths in police lockups – N. Dharmendran, 32, at the KL police headquarters on May 21 and R. Jamesh Ramesh 40 at the Penang police headquarters on May 26 – the police announcement appears to be more of a PR or public relations exercise, as the setting up of the special police committee had not been done but is still in the future tense!
How many deaths in police custody have occurred in the past eight years since the report and recommendations of the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry in 2005? Read the rest of this entry »
Rakyat Malaysia mahu IPCMC menamatkan insiden kematian dalam tahanan memandangkan mereka tidak yakin terhadap sebarang jawatankuasa khas walaupun diketuai oleh KPN sendiri
Pengumuman oleh pengarah pengurusan Bukit Aman Mortadza Nazarene bahawa pihak polis akan menubuhkan satu jawatankuasa khas diketuai oleh Ketua Polis Negara Tan Sri Khalid Abu untuk membendung insiden melibatkan kematian di dalam lokap polis amat tidak memuaskan dan tidak boleh diterima, memandangkan apa yang rakyat Malaysia mahukan adalah Suruhanjaya Aduan dan Salahlaku Polis (IPCMC) seperti mana yang dicadangkan oleh Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja Polis Dzaiddin lapan tahun lalu pada 2005 bagi menamatkan terus peristiwa kematian dalam tahanan polis yang memalukan dan tidak berkesudahan.
Selepas menunjukkan dirinya sebagai KPN paling “bersifat politik” dalam sejarah pada minggu pertamanya dengan meletakkan keutamaan tertingginya adalah untuk melindungi rejim berbanding keselamatan rakyat Malaysia daripada jenayah dan kebimbangan terhadap jenayah, dengan tidak begitu mengambil kira hak asasi kebebasan bersuara dan berhimpun secara aman rakyat Malaysia, rakyat Malaysia tidak yakin terhadap KPN atau mana-mana jawatankuasa khas polis sekalipun diketuai KPN untuk menamatkan insiden kematian dalam tahanan polis.
Khalid telah menjadi timbalan KPN sejak April 2011 dan rakyat Malaysia berhak untuk tahu apa yang telah dia lakukan sepanjang dua tahun lalu sebagai orang No.2 di dalam pasukan polis dalam menamatkan insiden kematian dalam tahanan polis, satu perkara keji dan memalukan yang ditonjolkan Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja Polis Dzaiddin lama dulu pada tahun 2005? Read the rest of this entry »
Zahid best example of being “own victim” of UMNO/BN 13GE “war room” lies about DAP spending more than a billion ringgit in past six years to employ 3,000-strong “Red Bean Army” cybertroopers to demonise him and other UMNO/BN leaders
The new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is the best example of being “own victim” of the lies of UMNO/BN 13GE “war room” about DAP spending more than a billion ringgit in past six years to employ a 3,000-strong “Red Bean Army” of cybertroopers to demonise him and other UMNO/BN leaders.
This is again illustrated by today’s Utusan Malaysia, one of the chief instruments of UMNO/BN propangada in the 13GE, which carried a report headlined “Red Bean Army serang kerajaan – Ekoran DAP gagal peroleh kuasa di Putrajaya”, which states:
“Kuala Lumpur 27 Mei – Kecaman serta penghinaan berterusan yang dihamburkan oleh Red Bean Army terhadap kerajaan jelas membuktikan tentera siber DAP itu gagal menutup rasa kecewa kerana tidak berjaya memperoleh ‘kuasa’ di Putrajaya.
“Menteri Dalam Negeri, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi berkata, walaupun beliau sendiri tidak terlepas daripada serangan tentera siber berkenaan, perkara itu adalah lumrah bagi mereka yang bergelar ahli politik.
“Meskipun tidak menyatakan bentuk tindakan yang akan diambil terhadap pihak terbabit, beliau dengan nada sinis memberitahu, mereka merupakan jenis manusia yang hanya tahu menyalahkan pihak lain berbanding diri sendiri.”
I do not believe Zahid suffers from any hallucination about the DAP spending more than a billion ringgit in the past six years to employ a 3,000-strong “Red Bean Army” of cybertroopers to demonise him and other Umno/BN leaders.
The kindest thing one can say about Zahid is to regard him as an “own victim” of UMNO/BN 13GE “war room” lies about DAP spending more than a billion ringgit in the past six years to employ 3,000-strong “Red Bean Army” cybertroopers to demonise him and other UMNO/BN leaders. Read the rest of this entry »
Open letter to the EC
― Tessa Houghton
The Malaysian Insider
May 27, 2013
May 27 ― Dear EC Deputy Chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar,
I wish to comment on your recent statements in an interview reported in The Malaysian Insider, dated May 27, 2013 (reproduced below):
According to Wan Ahmad, the electoral system used in Malaysia is also used by developed countries that have been practising democracy for a long time.
“Britain, already a few hundred years practising democracy, until now it uses first past the post… Australia, first past the post. New Zealand first past the post mixed a bit with the proportional representation (PR) system. India, the largest democratic country in the world, 800 million voters, first past the post,” he said.
The EC deputy chairman said it would not be possible for PR to win so many seats, including a few states, if the “first-past-the-post” system was unfair.
New Zealand does not, as you state, utilise FPP “mixed a bit” with PR. It utilises the Mixed Member Proportional system (MMP), which is distinct from simple/’single winner’ FPP. New Zealand used to suffer under the same simple FPP system as Malaysia currently suffers from, which resulted in the right-wing National Party consistently gaining power despite a majority of New Zealanders voting for the left-wing Labour Party, and in a lack of recognition of smaller parties. Wide-scale electoral reform was undertaken in 1992 in response to huge dissatisfaction with the system, through a referendum that allowed NZ citizens to decide on their preferred voting system.
Almost 85 per cent of New Zealanders voted to throw out FPP, with over 70 per cent voting to replace it with MMP. A 2011 referendum held to re-gauge New Zealander’s voting preferences found almost 60 per cent of New Zealanders in favour of retaining MMP, and less than half of the 42 per cent wanting change expressing a desire to return to FPP.
As such, your claim that NZ “uses FPP” and conflation of the two systems is a grave misrepresentation of New Zealanders’ opinions on the system of FPP used in Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »
National reconciliation or retaliation?
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Elections, Najib Razak, nation building on Tuesday, 28 May 2013, 6:39 am
Lim Ka Ea
The Malaysian Insider
May 27, 2013
Lim Ka Ea is a traveller who sees travel as the answer to all the world’s woes. Writing is a grand love. Ka Ea has had NGO and legal experience.
MAY 27 — There was no cry of jubilation. Neither were there tears of joy.
If you had been in a coma during the past few weeks and were suddenly awakened to the image of the Barisan Nasional’s victory speech on television, you would have thought that someone important had died and the whole nation had gone into mourning mode. Why wouldn’t you when Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his sidekicks looked as if the apocalypse was upon them?
Before you could even make out the hazy details that had preceded such collective sombreness, you found yourself being hit by a train of confusion. “Chinese tsunami” quickly followed by “national reconciliation” — two terms coined together only mere minutes after the announcement of the election results were enough to make me want to crawl back into that coma. Ignorance is after all bliss during moments like this.
As I begin to hear comments pouring in from different public figures and the public, of what they thought of the proposed national reconciliation, I felt sheepishly stupid. Am I the only one who doesn’t understand what it means or what it’s for?
The coma must have impaired my intellectual capacity. Full stop. Read the rest of this entry »
Johor people invited to submit questions they want to put up in Parliament either to email to five PR MPs by June 3
Posted by Kit in DAP, Parliament on Monday, 27 May 2013, 6:45 pm
I invite the people of Johor who wish to have questions put up to Ministers in Parliament to email them to the five Pakatan Rakyat MPs in Johor, including email to me at [email protected] .
The proposed questions should reach us by June 3 as the deadline for MPs to submit questions for the first meeting of the 13th Parliament is 5th June 2013.
The 13th Parliament will meet for 16 days from June 24 to July 18, with the swearing-in of the 222 new MPs elected on 5th May on 24th June, the official opening of Parliament by the Yang di Pertuan Agong on 25th June and the working session of Parliament starting with the debate on the Royal Address on 26th June 2013. Read the rest of this entry »
Call for five Royal Commissions of Inquiry (RCI) to achieve true national reconciliation and national transformation
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections, Mariam Mokhtar, Police on Monday, 27 May 2013, 2:12 pm
On the night of the 13th General Elections, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak spoke of the need for “national reconciliation” after he undermined his own credentials and credibility to facilitate such a purpose by coming out with a most biased and one-sided judgment on the 13GE results as a Chinese tsunami when it was a Malaysian, urban, semi-urban and youth tsunami!
For this reason, I wish to propose the establishment of five Royal Commission of Inquiries (RCIs) as the first task of the government and nation to achieve true national reconciliation and national transformation, viz:
1. RCI on the 13th General Election, on whether it is clean, free and fair; why the 13GE results have been generally regarded as undemocratic and unrepresentative of the will of the electorate and what could be done to resolve the crisis of confidence in the 13GE results.
2. RCI on the May 13, 1969 riots to ascertain the true events and causes of the May 13 riots, who were responsible for them, not so much to apportion blame or to punish the culprits as 44 years had elapsed since the occurrence of the national tragedy in 1969, but to ascertain the true causes and developments to present the historical truth to present and future generations and to remove the spectre of May 13 from being used at every general elections since 1969 to blackmail voters from freely exercising their constitutional right to vote to choose the elected representative and government of their choice. Read the rest of this entry »
Eight reasons why Najib’s legitimacy as Prime Minister is questioned
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Elections, Najib Razak on Monday, 27 May 2013, 8:42 am
There are at least eight reasons why there is widespread questioning of the legitimacy of Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the Prime Minister of Malaysia after the 13th general elections on May 5.
1. Najib and Barisan Nasional have only won 47% of the popular vote, while Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat won the majority popular vote at 51%.
2. The 13GE was the dirtiest elections in the nation’s 56-history of 13 general elections – where there was unprecedented money politics and massive unethical and unprincipled electioneering summed up by Umno/BN triple strategy of “Money Money Money”, “Lies Lies Lies” and “Fear Fear Fear”.
There was also the grave problem of the gerrymandering of the constituencies to benefit Umno/BN, where one vote in Putrajaya (16,000 voters) is equal to nine votes in Kapar (140,000+ voters) – making a total mockery of the “one man, one vote, one value” principle.
If the 13GE had been a clean, free and fair one, the popular vote won by Anwar and Pakatan Rakyat would have exceeded 60 per cent and even reached two-thirds of the total vote, securing the majority of the parliamentary seats to PR (even reaching a total of 125 parliamentary seats comprising 45 for PKR and 40 each for DAP and PAS) instead of the present 89 seats for PR and 133 seats for BN. Read the rest of this entry »
Bitter election creates long-term headache for Najib
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, UMNO on Monday, 27 May 2013, 7:26 am
by Niluksi Koswanage
Reuters
Malaysiakini
May 26, 2013
Malaysia’s divisive election has left a bitter taste for millions of people that risks creating a long-term problem of legitimacy for Prime Minister Najib Razak’s long-ruling BN coalition.
The outrage was clear at a busy intersection across from one of Kuala Lumpur’s fanciest shopping malls, where a huge poster of Najib and his deputy had been defaced – a rare display of public disrespect in the Southeast Asian nation.
One of the scrawled comments poked fun at the unconvincing share of the votes won by Najib’s ruling coalition in its May 5 election victory: “47 percent PM,” it said.
“If you don’t like it, you can leave,” mocked another, alluding to a comment by Najib’s new home minister that those unhappy with the result – and the electoral system that produced it – should pack up and emigrate.
The tense political atmosphere threatens to prolong policy uncertainty that investors hoped the polls would put to rest, as Najib braces for a possible leadership challenge and the opposition mounts a noisy campaign to contest the result.
By securing 60 percent of parliamentary seats with less than 50 percent of the popular vote, the BN’s victory has served to expose starkly the unfairness of a gerrymandered electoral system that is also prone to cheating and bias. Read the rest of this entry »
Does the EC No.2 take us for fools?
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Elections on Monday, 27 May 2013, 6:04 am
– Kunjuraman Karuppan
The Malaysian Insider
May 26, 2013
MAY 26 – The Election Commission (EC) is now speaking about redelineation of both state and federal constituencies as the last one was done a decade ago.
Now, this is a good move as there has been an increase in voters since then. We now have 13.3 million voters and that is set to increase by the time the 14th general elections take place.
But why is EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar taking us for a fool when he was quoted in The Sunday Star today for explaining that the difference in electorate sizes is due to reasonable access to services from the local lawmaker and local councils.
Now, is that the EC’s primary concern? Is it the commission of ensuring everyone has access to their lawmaker and council or to conduct elections in a free and fair manner? And to ensure that every vote is equal in value.
We now have ridiculous statistics of Putrajaya having nearly 16,000 voters while Kapar has some 140,000 voters. Read the rest of this entry »
Shrill Umno rhetoric betrays legitimacy doubts
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Elections, UMNO on Monday, 27 May 2013, 5:26 am
– Peter Chong
The Malaysian Insider
May 26, 2013
MAY 26 – Barisan National (BN), the ruling coalition in Malaysia, might have returned to power at the recent national elections, but the response from Umno is far from celebratory.
The Prime Minister, Najib Razak, led the outbursts of anger by blaming Umno’s poor showing on a “Chinese tsunami”. Mohd Noor Abdullah, former Appeals Court Judge, took it a step further by warning Chinese to prepare for a “Malay backlash” for their “betrayal” in voting for opposition parties.
New Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, joined the attacks by saying that the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition can “migrate elsewhere” if it is not satisfied with the country’s electoral system.
The tone became even more jarring when Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan, called on the opposition PR coalition to stop “sodomising” the people’s minds in questioning the legitimacy of BN election victory. At time of writing, news has emerged of arrests of senior opposition leaders as Umno hardens its position.
There is no doubt that Umno is trying to find a scapegoat for their poor showing and using race to create division is an old Umno favourite. The upcoming party election is another reason for the shrill tones as Umno leaders scramble for leadership positions. Read the rest of this entry »
Claims that DAP spends RM108 million in past six years to employ a 200-strong Red Bean Army of cybertroopers a total figment of imagination of Utusan Malaysia and failed UMNO/BN propagandists
Yesterday, the UMNO “lies-paper” Utusan Malaysia front-paged “Perangi Red Bean Army – Pelbagai pihak gesa kerajaan pinda Akta Komunikasi dan Multimedia” while today another UMNO mouthpiece New Straits Times headlined “’Anwar using Red Bean Army to incite hatred’”.
Suddenly, the “Red Bean Army” has become the vogue of attack of the gutter press of UMNO/BN.
Even the truculent and belligerent new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was roped into the propaganda “circus” with him declaring that the Home Ministry, via the police, will work together with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as well as Malaysian CyberSecurityj to check immediately the channelling of contents by certain cybertrooper groups which violate social media laws.
How much I had wished that the police, the MCMC and Malaysian CyberSecurity had identified the culprits and cleaned up the racism and poison spewed by UMNO/Barisan Nasional cybertroopers on the Internet during the 13th general elections, in particular those which had targetted me and the DAP as either having caused the May 13 riots in 1969, or all the lies and falsehoods to paint a picture that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers.
But absolutely nothing had been done. Read the rest of this entry »
The combination of the most “political” IGP with the most “political” Home Minister will concoct a toxic brew for democracy and human rights which will speed the end of the authoritarian Umno/BN regime
Malaysia today is having the most “political” Inspector-General Police in the nation’s history in the person of Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar who has established this dubious reputation for himself in the week he was elevated to the office of the top police officer of the land.
The country is also have the most “political” Home Minister in the nation’s history, with the appointment of Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi who had not said a word about how to get the police to roll back the tide of crime and the mounting fear of crime felt by Malaysians, particularly in Johor Baru, the capital of crime in Malaysia as his only obsession is how to use police powers to crack down hard on Pakatan Rakyat leaders and civil society activists.
In the past week, student leader Adam Adli had been arrested and charged in court for sedition; the trio PKR MP for Batu Tian Chua, democracy activist Haris Ibrahim and PAS activist Tamrin Ghaffar arrested for sedition in connection with their speeches at a forum on May 13 with the Home Minister announcing that the police will appeal against the magistrate’s decision rejecting the police application to remand the three for another seven days; the police harrassment of Pakatan Rakyat leaders like founding DAP Chairman Dr. Chen Man Hin, 86, and DAP elected representatives; the pending prosecution of DAP MP for Ipoh Timor Thomas Su, PKR Perak Secretary Mohammad Anuar Zakaria and Penang Pakatan Rakyat executive secretary Ong Eu Leong tomorrow under the Peaceful Assembly Act and the confiscation of party publications, Harakah (PAS), Rocket (DAP) and Suara Keadilan (PKR).
Thanks to Malaysia having the most “political” Home Minister and the most “political” IGP, Malaysians are reminded of an eerie return to the bad old days of Mahathirism, where all the institutions and instruments of state as well as the laws of the land are subverted to serve one and only one objective – to violate all democratic and human rights of Malaysians just to protect the political regime of the day.
Read the rest of this entry »
No point talking about Parti 1Malaysia or other combination or permutations if UMNO/BN leaders not prepared to accept 13GE outcome as a Malaysian tsunami, particularly young Malaysians of all races, who want to see the end of the politics of race
The Star today front-paged “1 Party for All”, declaring: “Parti 1Malaysia is among the names being considered for Barisan Nasional if its component parties merge into a multi-racial party to meet current political needs and expectations. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who described the proposal as ‘rational’, said an in-depth study should be conducted and a decision made within the next few months.”
Sixty-two years ago, the founding President of UMNO Datuk Onn Jaffar had already made the proposal that UMNO should open its doors to non-Malay membership and UMNO should be renamed from United Malays National Organisation to United Malayans National Organisation.
Onn was too far ahead of his time and he had to leave UMNO when his proposal for an end to race-based politics was rejected by UMNO.
It is better late than never that some in UMNO and the other Barisan Nasional component parties are broaching the subject of an end to race-based politics and race-based political parties – and there can be no denial that the cause of this re-visiting the subject of an end to race-based politics is because of the outcome of the recent 13th general elections.
For a start, the Prime Minister and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should admit that he had made a major mistake and misjudgment when he had said on the night of May 5 that the outcome of the 13GE was a “Chinese tsunami”, for analysis of the 13GE has vindicated the case that it was not a Chinese tsunami, but a Malaysian tsunami representing a political awakening of Malaysians transcending race.
It is not just Chinese, but Malays, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans who want UBAH!
Read the rest of this entry »
Why the 10-day impotence and hiatus by Najib to rectify the constitutional farce of illegally swearing in two Ministers and three Deputy Ministers without first appointing them as Senators?
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Najib Razak, Parliament on Sunday, 26 May 2013, 9:54 am
Yesterday, Malaysians saw the sorry spectacle of Paul Low who took his oath as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department on 16th May 2013 before the Yang di Pertuan Agong at the Istana Negara pathetically telling the media to “Ask Putrajaya” when questioned about the legality of his appointment to the Cabinet as he has not been sworn in as a senator yet.
This is the first time in the 56-year history of Malaysia where two Ministers and three Deputy Ministers have been placed in the Cabinet and constitutional limbo for ten days after the announcement of their ministerial appointments, as they had the dubious honour of being illegal Ministers and Deputy Ministers during this period as they have not been sworn in as Senators yet.
I had expected very quick and efficient end to the constitutional farce of two illegal Ministers and three illegal Deputy Ministers by having the five to be sworn in as Senators on the very night, even if it is midnight, when I issued my statement pointing out the grave constitutional oversight – i.e. on Friday 17th May 2013.
But I was wrong. Day after day, the two Ministers and three deputy Ministers did not know whether they were coming or going, become butts of jokes as illegal and unlawful “backdoor” Ministers and Deputy Ministers – with the sorry and pathetic spectacle of Paul Low yesterday as the latest example.
Read the rest of this entry »
