DAP, please pay no mind to flip-flop KJ
by Haris Ibrahim
The People’s Parliament
January 24, 2012
From the time I was in secondary school until about 2 years ago, if ever I was to join a political party, it would have been the Democratic Action Party.
Yes, the DAP.
Guan Eng well knows this.
Since 2010, though, I am pleased to say that my options have increased.
Today, besides DAP, if ever I was inclined to join a political party, I would have no reservations in filling a membership application form and submitting the same to the Parti Sosialis Malaysia or the Parti Rakyat Malaysia.
These parties are not multiracial. In my view, the term ‘multiracial’ still places emphasis on ‘race’.
They are non-race based.
They champion issues, are advocates of meritocracy and champion the lot of the downtrodden. Read the rest of this entry »
Upshot of attacks on Anwar, ABU
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Judiciary, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 24 January 2012, 1:41 am
Mariam Mokhtar | Jan 23, 2012
Malaysiakini
This is not an auspicious start to the Year of the Dragon for the PM. The person who controls events in Malaysia and who will undoubtedly shape its future, is one effete man called Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is wrong to think he leads the country.
Malaysians thought that after 9 January, the nation would move on, but their dream was shortlived. Only in Malaysia would the government and its institutions, like the judiciary, be preoccupied with Saiful’s posterior, just as his face will always be associated with Sodomy II.
So now, instead of the nation concentrating on a way forward, of improving our lives, of revitalising the economy and of making sure our politicians do the work we elected them for, we are trapped in Sodomy II, Scene 2. Read the rest of this entry »
Nak tengok Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah? … ada di Pulau Pinang
Posted by Kit in Corruption, DAP, Mahathir, UMNO on Monday, 23 January 2012, 3:31 pm
— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 23, 2012
23 JAN — Ada sesuatu perkara yang saya mesti kongsi dengan rakan-rakan yang mengikuti blog saya. Sejak saya menyertai parti berbagai kaum DAP baru-baru ini, saya telah mendapat kutukan dari beberapa orang termasuk seorang dua rakan blog saya yang saya kenali, dan itu memang telah saya jangkakan dari awal lagi.
Tetapi sebagai empunyai blog kecil ini saya telah mendapat lebih galakan dari yang mengkritik saya. Yang mengkritik saya itu pun adalah kebanyakannya dari mereka yang masih baru dalam Umno itu atau hanya sebagai penyokong pemimpin dan “warlords” dalam parti itu. Yang mengatakan saya seorang yang bangkerap politik itu merupakan budak hingusan belum merasakan pengalaman bergiat di dalam Umno itu.
Tetapi yang paling saya seronok ialah sokongan dari orang-orang biasa dan menzahirkan sokongan mereka melalu ribuan teks pesanan ringkas (SMS) yang datang bertalu-talu serta sokongan melalui e-mail dan sebagainya. Sembilan puluh peratus yang memberikan sokongan itu adalah dari kaum Melayu yang saya kenali dan yang saya tidak pernah mengenali mereka.
Apa yang saya seronokkan bukannya kerana saya mendapat sokongan secara peribadi, tetapi kerana mereka sudah faham sebenarnya yang DAP itu bukanlah seperti yang dimomokan oleh Umno dan media masa perdana sejak berdekad-dekad dahulu. Saya merasa sedikit bangga kerana mampu membuatkan mereka menilai secara ilmiah yang mendalam serta sudah mengetahui yang parti DAP ini telah secara deras mendapat sokongan orang Melayu akhir-akhir ini. Read the rest of this entry »
Suu Kyi becomes key to complex Myanmar politics
By Didier Lauras (AFP)
23rd Jan 2012
YANGON — Aung San Suu Kyi is playing an increasingly important role in Myanmar, helping shore up a fragile alliance of former junta generals whose recent reforms have amazed observers, analysts say.
After half a century of total military domination, the Southeast Asian nation held widely-criticised elections in 2010 after ordering some of its members to shed their army uniforms to lead a “civilian” government.
Suu Kyi, released from house arrest days after that poll, has since taken a pivotal position, following talks with President Thein Sein last summer and her subsequent decision to run in an April 1 by-election.
The 66-year-old’s participation in the upcoming vote is one of a series of positive changes that have marked a break with the old junta approach to leadership and led to thawing relations with the West, which has imposed tough sanctions on the isolated nation.
Observers say power in the new regime balances between two key former generals turned eager reformers — the president and Shwe Mann, the speaker of the lower house of parliament — with Suu Kyi becoming a third key player. Read the rest of this entry »
Chapter 12: A Prescription For Malaysia
by Bakri Musa
Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #97
In 1969, shortly after the traumatic race riot that nearly ripped Malaysia apart, an angry and impatient young politician wrote a most unusual letter to the prime minister at the time, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Written in Malay, the letter used the most polite and deferential language, tone, and form that characterized communications between a peasant and his ruler. It was classic of a feudal Malay society, as Malaysia was at that time. Despite that, the petition could not hide its blunt and trenchant message: The Tunku must go.
Such a frontal challenge to a leader was unprecedented in polite and highly structured traditional Malay society. Malay society prides itself in an orderly and predictable succession. That gauntlet could only have been thrown by someone either unbelievably stupid and reckless or very sure of himself and his assessment of the citizens’ mood.
What galled the Tunku was that the challenger was a low-level politician who had lost his parliamentary seat in the elections that took place just before the riot. Most losers in combat would quietly withdraw to lick their wounds, not come out swinging looking for new adversaries, at least not so soon afterwards! Yet there it was, the impudence and impertinence of a hitherto obscure political backbencher challenging the nation’s revered leader amidst a national crisis! Incensed, the Tunku saw to it that the politician was expelled from the party. Thus was how Mahathir bin Mohamad was stripped of his UMNO’s membership. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia ‘falls far short’ on rights vows
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Najib Razak on Sunday, 22 January 2012, 10:46 pm
AFP/Herald Sun
January 22, 2012
MALAYSIA has fallen “far short” of upholding its pledges to allow civil liberties ahead of elections widely expected to be held soon, Human Rights Watch says.
Prime Minister Najib Razak has promised to grant greater civil rights by revising or abolishing several security laws, including the Internal Security Act which allows for detention without trial of those deemed security threats.
But activists and opposition leaders have dismissed his vows as ploys to regain at fresh polls expected this year votes lost in the last general election, where Najib’s Barisan Nasional had its most narrow ever win.
Human Rights Watch said on Sunday in its annual world report that the South-East Asian nation had last year “arbitrarily” detained critics, broken up a peaceful march for electoral reforms and replaced restrictions on free assembly “with even more draconian controls”.
“Malaysia’s leaders are fooling themselves by thinking they can backtrack on public promises to respect the rights to demonstrate peacefully and criticise the government without fear,” the group’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, said in a release. Read the rest of this entry »
Top five topics of all Malaysians during the Dragon Chinese New Year holidays
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Corruption, Elections, Judiciary, Najib Razak on Sunday, 22 January 2012, 5:02 pm
What will be the top five topics of all Malaysians during the Dragon Chinese New Year holidays?
I will pick the following five:
(1) The Attorney-General’s appeal against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal in the Sodomy2 charge by the Kuala Lumpur High Court, expressing the determination of the top UMNO leaders to want to see Anwar in jail.
(2) The Court of Appeal decision to overturn the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision to acquit and discharge DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh on the sedition charge relating to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s illegal, unconstitutional and undemocratic coup d’etat against the Pakatan Rakyat Perak state government.
Both these incidents have killed off public hopes that Malaysia is firmly set on the road to restoration of national and international confidence in our justice system, with a just rule of law and truly independent judiciary.
The only inescapable conclusion is that Malaysia can only begin to seriously undo the ravages against the doctrine of separation of powers especially between the Executive and the Judiciary in the past 24 years years stemming from the arbitrary sacking of the then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas and two Supreme Court judges Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh and Datuk George Seah in 1988. Read the rest of this entry »
They are going to convict Anwar – that is certain!
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Judiciary on Sunday, 22 January 2012, 12:32 pm
by P. Ramakrishnan
22 January 2012
What wasn’t expected surprisingly happened. The High Court acquitted and discharged Anwar. That decision took everyone by surprise and they hoped that it would be the end of this sordid affair.
What the vast majority of Malaysians had hoped for following Anwar’s discharge did not happen. The Prosecution shocked everyone and appealed the High Court decision.
What will happen following this appeal is predictable. We have said as much in our previous statement on 23 December 2009. This is what we said:
“Aliran has been keeping track of recent Court decisions and with this knowledge we must warn the jubilant litigants not to get carried away easily. This is Round 1 and Round 1 usually goes in favour of truth and justice. It is here where the facts are scrutinised diligently and justice has its sway. It is as far as justice can go!
“In Round 2, this decision will almost certainly be overturned, as has been the case on many occasions. It is here where facts don’t matter but technicalities will be the overriding factor and justice will be forced to take a back seat.
“This glaring outcome is inevitable in our system of justice. We have witnessed this without fail in Anwar’s cases, in the Perak Pakatan government’s tussle for democracy, in the Kampung Buah Pala residents’ plea for justice and in the MACC case involving Tan Boon Wah’s human rights.” Read the rest of this entry »
Pengisytiharaan harta
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Lim Guan Eng, Najib Razak on Saturday, 21 January 2012, 11:35 pm
— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 21, 2012
21 JAN — Sekarang isu pengisytiharan harta oleh ahli Jemaah Kabinet menjadi bahan perbincangan rakyat ramai di mana-mana. Belum pun habis dengungan saranan yang anjurkan oleh DAP serta MACC, Nazri Aziz, seorang menteri kanan kerajaan negara, dengan pantas tidak bersetuju dengan cadangan itu.
Nazri memberikan alasan yang jika dilakukan pengisytiharan harta itu ia akan merbahayakan keselamatan individu itu. Apa bahayanya saya pun tidak tahu melainkan Nazri didapati mempunyai harta yang bertimbun secara haram.
Nazri bersetuju jika pengisytiharan harta itu hanya dibuat kepada Perdana Menteri sahaja. Lain-lain perkataan Nazri hanya sanggup memberitahu PM sahaja berapa jumlah harta beliau sejak menjadi menteri ini.
Selangor telah mengambil tindakan mengisytiharkan harta ahli Exconya dua tahun lepas dan Pulau Pinang telah mengambil tindakan mengisytiharkan harta ahli majlis mesyuarat kerajaannya dan boleh dilihat melalui internet oleh semua rakyat. Contoh-contoh baik yang dilakukan oleh kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat ini patut diikuti oleh kerajaan Barisan Nasional di peringkat persekutuan dan negeri-negeri yang ditadbirnya. Read the rest of this entry »
On changing horses midstream and the man who can walk on water
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat, Penang, UMNO on Saturday, 21 January 2012, 11:24 pm
— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 21, 2012
JAN 21 — The prime minister told the people not to change horses midstream. So we asked, don’t we change even if the horse is limping and is running on three legs? In endurance races, riders change horses in order to arrive at the destination. Malaysians should be pragmatic when it comes to deciding their future.
Midstream for Barisan Nasional and Umno is already over 50 years. Since 1955, when the first elections took place until now, from Perikatan to BN, we have had more than 50 years of BN rule. What do we have?
We have development, for sure, but are also damaged by rampant corruption, utter disregard for the rule of law, abuses of all kinds, political manipulations, deception and lies and gross mismanagement of the economy. To all that, the PM says, we don’t change? If we don’t, we shall have another 50 years of unchecked corruption, emasculation of the judiciary, thugs running the legal institutions, abuses and gross mismanagement.
At another point in his speech, the PM says we don’t know whether the opposition knows what to do if they come into power. We don’t know whether, under Pakatan Rakyatwe, we can achieve developed status by 2020 with the fabled per capita income of US$15,000.
Of course Pakatan knows what to do. In the short years since they came into power, direct investments have been highest in Pakatan led states of Penang, Selangor and Kedah. These states have achieved balanced budgets without doing arithmetic tricks.
In Penang, which is led by a non-Muslim, grants to Islamic religious institutions have reached RM30 million a year. Compare that to Negri Sembilan, which is led by a good Muslim, where the grant is only RM 12 million a year. How is that possible? Because the state coffers have been managed better in one state than in the other managed by BN and Umno. Read the rest of this entry »
Dua graduan UiTM sertai DAP
IPOH, 21 JAN: Dua graduan muda jurusan undang-undang daripada UiTM yang berminat dengan politik telah memilih untuk menyertai DAP. Mereka adalah Fairuz Azhan Amirruddin dan Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.
Fairuz Azhan, 25, merupakan seorang penulis manakala Dyana Sofya, 24, seorang peguam.
Penyertaan mereka dilihat sebagai keseinambungan populariti parti tersebut di kalangan profesional Melayu yang semakin meningkat.
Kedua-dua mereka telah diperkenalkan dalam satu sidang media di ibu pejabat DAP Perak di sini hari ini.
Dalam sidang media itu, Ketua Parlimen DAP Lim Kit Siang yang mengalu-alukan penyertaan Fairuz dan Dyana berkata, kemasukan mereka ke dalam DAP mengingatkan beliau kenangan manisnya menceburi bidang politik 46 tahun yang lalu.
Katanya beliau dapat merasakan idealisme, semangat cintakan negara dan sayangkan rakyat di kalangan golongan muda yang mahu membuat apa yang mampu bagi menambah baik negara tercinta ini.
Menurutnya DAP jelas dari dulu sampai sekarang merupakan parti untuk semua kaum, malah di Perak sahaja, DAP pernah mempunyai lima wakil rakyat Melayu. Read the rest of this entry »
Rosmah’s ‘shopping spree’ hits Aussie paper
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Saturday, 21 January 2012, 9:23 pm
Malaysiakini
Jan 21, 2012
The big spending habits of another member of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s family caught the attention of the Australian media again today – this time in Sydney.
In the ‘Private Sydney’ section of the Australian daily Sydney Morning Herald, columnist Andrew Horney called Rosmah the “first lady of shopping”, allegedly for spending A$100,000 (RM325,000) at a Sydney boutique.
Quoting Sydney designer Carl Kapp, the columnist reported that Kapp’s “biggest customer” had spent the astounding amount during a “private holiday” there “a little more than a fortnight ago”.
According to the column, Rosmah and Najib had during the holiday stayed at the A$20,000 (RM65,100) a night penthouse (right) at the newly-minted five-star Darling Hotel. Read the rest of this entry »
Let Malaysian Chinese unite as one Dragon and together with other Malaysians, effect a change of power in Putrajaya in 13GE
With the closer approach of the 13th General Elections, whatever the date decided by the Prime Minister to dissolve Parliament, one common aspiration uniting Malaysians is gathering momentum – the possibility and potential for change of power at the federal level for the first time in the nation’s 54 year history.
Let Malaysian Chinese unite as one Dragon in the Year of the Dragon and, together with other Malaysians, effect a change of power in Putrajaya in the 13th General Elections to fulfill Malaysia’s potential as an united, harmonious, democratic, just, prosperous and competitive nation.
In his pre-Chinese New Year walk-about in the Federal Territory on Friday, Datuk Seri Najib Razak claimed that Malaysia is the best place in the world to live in as it provided the “best value for money”.
This is the strongest reason why Malaysia needs a change of federal power because the powers-of-the-day in UMNO and Barisan Nasional suffer from an incorrigible disease of denial complex in refusing the admit the failures of government and nation-building in the past few decades which have driven some two million of the best and brightest Malaysians to foreign lands for they could not get respect and recognition or able to hold their heads high as Malaysian citizens in their own homeland.
Read the rest of this entry »
Anwar verdict: What Najib now faces
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Najib Razak on Saturday, 21 January 2012, 6:22 am
— Yang Razali Kassim
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 20, 2012
JAN 20 — Last July, Prime Minister Najib Razak and Indonesian Muslim leader Amien Rais had a private meeting in a third country to chat about the case of Anwar Ibrahim. Amien, who is close to Anwar, apparently had expressed brotherly concern to Najib about how the political conflict within the Malay leadership was undermining the credibility of Malaysia as a country the Muslim world looked up to.
Amien intimated whether Najib could withdraw the charge. Najib, predictably, told Amien he could not do as asked as he had no power over the judiciary. Besides, Najib said, the case had nothing to do with him.
Six months later, on January 9, the High Court stunned Malaysians by acquitting and discharging Anwar of the charge of sodomy. The surprise verdict lent support to Najib’s assertion about the independence of the judiciary. Indeed, at face value, the court’s verdict to acquit Anwar is a setback to Najib’s political position.
A free Anwar would certainly be a grave threat to the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. It had indeed been widely thought a foregone conclusion that Anwar would be found guilty and put away before the coming general election — reflecting the Malaysian public’s generally low confidence in the judiciary.
So what does the verdict mean for Malaysian politics? Read the rest of this entry »
A totalitarian/absolutist economy
— Art Harun
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 20, 2012
JAN 20 — The establishment, nourishment, protection and subsequent embellishment by any government of entities (corporate or otherwise) with monopolistic businesses and/or preferential treatment signal the rise of what I would term as totalitarian economy.
A totalitarian economy operates and behaves in manners not unlike a totalitarian or absolutist state. By its very nature, it feeds off compulsion and force, disallows and even destroys competition and gives no option nor choice to the consumers. It is beyond scrutiny as it is not answerable to any entity, let alone the very consumers which it aims to supply.
As a result of the totalitarian and absolutist approach, this economy owes little, if at all, affinity to the concepts of fairness and justness.
It is like a black hole. It swallows everything which is in its way. It then grows bigger. And bigger.
The only difference is that, unlike the real black holes, a totalitarian economy only grows bigger within the confines of the parameters defined by its own creators. Throw this economy into unchartered territory, the real capitalist would just laugh its head off. With a mere snap of the capitalist’s finger, this totalitarian economy would be history.
That is not surprising. As a result of the constant nourishment, protection and forced embellishment of this economics absolutism/totalitarianism, such economy knows not how to compete. Its supernova-like explosive birth and subsequent growth deprives it of the ability to learn and to grow organically. This totally underdeveloped creature — underdeveloped in the sense that it is bereft of the elements which would ensure its vibrancy and survival in unchartered territories — has no defence mechanism nor the ability to adapt to changes within its surrounding, preferring to coil within the comfort of its mother’s lap. Read the rest of this entry »
Dalam diam DAP melakukan transformasi
Posted by Kit in Corruption, DAP, UMNO on Friday, 20 January 2012, 11:37 pm
by Amin Iskander
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 20, 2012
20 JAN — Pada ketika Umno masih belum selesai dengan isu Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, memperbesarkan isu pemecatan Datuk Dr Hasan Ali dan memanipulasi isu pengambilan portfolio agama Islam oleh MB Selangor, dalam diam DAP memperkukuhkan partinya.
Hari ini Umno dikejutkan lagi dengan berita penyertaan Hata Wahari, bekas wartawan Utusan Malaysia dan mantan Presiden NUJ kedalam parti tersebut.
Sebelum ini dua orang blogger, Aspan Alias dan Datuk Mohd Arif Sabri — juga veteran Umno —menyertai parti yang digambarkan oleh Utusan Malaysia sebagai “chauvinis Cina”.
Ironinya, Hata Wahari memilih untuk menyertai DAP walaupun majikan lamanya, Utusan Malaysia paling kuat menghentam parti yang menguasai Pulau Pinang itu.
Apakah yang bakal dikatakan oleh lidah pengarang Utusan Malaysia untuk menjawab penyertaan Hata Wahari ke dalam DAP?
Apatah lagi pada ketika Setiausaha Agung DAP, Lim Guan Eng yang baru sahaja memenangi saman fitnah terhadap Utusan Malaysia. Utusan Malaysia di-ibarat “sudahlah jatuh ditimpa tangga pula”.
Dikala ramai yang menyangka Hata Wahari akan menyertai PKR, mantan Presiden NUJ itu mengejutkan ramai pihak. Hata mungkin nampak perubahan besar yang telah berlaku dalam “mindset” DAP. Read the rest of this entry »
Let Muhyiddin reveal his true colours, whether he is an extremist, a moderate or an extremist camouflaging as a moderate?
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak on Friday, 20 January 2012, 4:12 pm
By inviting Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muyhiddin Yassin to officiate the closing ceremony, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has destroyed whatever credibility he might have salvaged by hosting the International Conference on Global Movement of Moderates.
As a result, it is legitimately asked whether the so-called International Conference on Global Movement on Moderates is actually a camouflage by extremists to try to gloss over their “extremism”, whether directly and through aid, abet and condonation of voices of hate, unreason and all forms of extremism, whether ethnic or religious in recent times.
Najib had already raised grave questions about the bona fides in hosting the International Conference on Global Movement on Moderates when he refused to clean his own slate of “extremism” not only of the past, but even those committed in his 33 months as Prime Minister – as in refusing to retract his extremist speech at the 2010 UMNO General Assembly threatening “crushed bodies, lives lost” to defend UMNO from losing power in the 13th General Election or in allowing or condoning Utusan Malaysia, the official newspaper of UMNO, becoming the chief protagonist of the voices of extremism, whether unreason, hate, enmity, lies and incitement causing the worst polarisation of Malaysia in both racial and religious terms in the nation’s history.
Read the rest of this entry »
A Critique of the ETP (Part 1) – Let’s evaluate PEMANDU on its DEEDS
By Dr. Ong Kian Ming BSc (LSE), MPhil (Cantab), PhD (Duke)
Teh Chi-Chang, CFA, BSc (Warwick), MBA (Cantab)
Refsa | 19 January 2012
The Economic Transformation Programme is ambitious indeed. The ETP promises to double gross national income (GNI) per capita to RM48,000 by 2020 from RM23,700 in 2009. An average 6% per year real income growth over 10 years and 12.8% per year private investment growth over 5 years is required to achieve this. Ultimately, RM1.4 trillion of investments in 131 Entry Point Projects (EPPs) within 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) will create 3.3 million new jobs.
Predictably, there are critics. Any plan as bold as this is bound to attract critics. But the attacks so far have mainly been against specific projects, such as the MRT and 1 Malaysia email; carping about the slick façade and expensive costs at PEMANDU – the Performance Management and Delivery Unit, prime minister’s department – the government agency that created and is now steering the ETP; or questioning the viability of its lofty targets.
We will evaluate PEMANDU on its DEEDS. In this series, we shall evaluate PEMANDU and the ETP on its own terms by looking at the goals and plans outlined in the ETP Roadmap document. So, for example, rather than questioning its ambitious targets, we shall analyse how well it is measuring up to those aspirations. Doing so facilitates constructive debate as it uses the same framework which PEMANDU has chosen to work within.
Read the rest of this entry »
