10 Days in May (28)
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Teoh Beng Hock on Monday, 23 May 2011, 9:44 am
Tweets @limkitsiang:-
RCI TBH: Who in MACC responsible 4″black blog” 2accuse DAP of murder of TeohBengHock 2distract public attention of real cause of TBH death?
Evident “black blog” MACC handiwork. Not difficult 2zero in on culprits as MACC documents leaked in “black blog”. Will RCI re-open hearing?
Will MACC Chief AbuKassim (named 1 of 100 influential ppl in business ethics 4 2010 by Ethisphere Institute) apply 2RCI re-open hearing?
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysian universities improve ranking on Asian scale
Posted by Kit in Education, university on Monday, 23 May 2011, 9:20 am
By Boo Su-Lyn
The Malaysian Insider
May 23, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Six out of seven Malaysian universities improved their ranking on the QS Asian University Rankings this year, with Universiti Malaya (UM) climbing three spots to 39th.
Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) also jumped 20 slots to 57th out of 200 Asian universities.
No Malaysian university entered the top 10 ranks while the National University of Singapore (NUS) retained its third place.
QS also said in a statement the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) knocked the University of Hong Kong down to the second spot.
The global higher education information specialist noted that Malaysia had seven universities in the top 200 Asian universities compared to Thailand’s nine and Indonesia’s eight.
Japan was the best-represented nation with five universities in the top 10 ranks and 57 in the top 200.
In contrast, China had 40, South Korea 35, Taiwan 16, India 11, and Hong Kong had seven universities in the top 200 Asian institutions. Read the rest of this entry »
If not 1 Malaysia, then what?
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Najib Razak on Monday, 23 May 2011, 9:06 am
Jema Khan
The Malaysian Insider
May 23, 2011
MAY 23 — Writing this article from Singapore which has just undergone its own general election, I wonder what other possible political themes may come out in Malaysian politics.
The Najib administration is pushing its 1 Malaysia theme which in general is supposed to appeal to a broad spectrum of Malaysians as its purpose is to be inclusive.
Even the opposition PR has to work on inclusive general themes that have broad appeal to the multiracial voter base that is Malaysia. Their theme cannot be far off from Najib’s 1 Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »
10 Days in May (27)
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Hishammuddin, Islam, Media, Najib Razak, Religion on Monday, 23 May 2011, 9:00 am
Tweets @limkitsiang:-
Don’t agree w NUJ chief Hata 2shut down UtusanMsia but action must be taken agnst it 4rabid extremism/sedition eg “Christian Msia” bogey
If no action agnst Utusan “ChristianMsia” bogey (ref SinChew ChinaPress MakkalOsai SwakTribune) its double stds HusseinOnn wld not approve
If Utusan enjoys immunity 4Christian Msia bogey Najib’s GMoM call utter mockery. Also means Utusan extremists running UMNO n BN Cabinet/govt
Has Najib political will 2salvage 1Msia GMoM? Or allow 1Msia become 1Melayu, NEM in2 “new economic muddle”, Talent Corp in2 Talent Corpse? Read the rest of this entry »
Umno VP spooked by DAP’s move into Malay territory
Malaysiakini
May 22, 11
Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has exposed a plan by the DAP to name Malay candidates in several states in the next general election.
He said DAP was now identifying suitable Malays to contest seats in states like Perak, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan.
“They’re taking measures to ensure that the candidates (Malays) would be accepted by voters,” he told reporters after opening the Masjid Tanah Umno divisional meeting in Alor Gajah today.
Ahmad Zahid, who is Defence Minister, said DAP planned to name Malay electoral candidates in Perak in hopes of conquering the state and naming one of its own as menteri besar. Read the rest of this entry »
Will the GST be another nail in the coffin?
Posted by Kit in Elections, Finance, Najib Razak on Monday, 23 May 2011, 7:08 am
Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
May 22, 2011
MAY 22 — A long time ago, I wrote about the government’s plan to implement goods and services tax (GST). I am not going to bother looking at what I wrote. Maybe what I wrote then did not make sense at all.
But to me, the plan to implement the GST will be another nail in the coffin for the Barisan Nasional government. In almost all cases where the GST was introduced, it has raised a lot of discontent. Governments have fallen because of the GST and finance ministers have resigned.
Remember this: Governments have fallen, finance ministers have quit.
I hope, the government’s tax package is not an attempt to trick workers into thinking that they will be better off after the proposed tax cuts. I also hope it will not trick people on government benefits that they will be better off after the so-called “compensation”, despite the introduction of a GST.
Consider this. Our tax base is perhaps only 15 per cent, i.e. only about 15 percent of the population pays taxes. The balance do not pay taxes — kampong people, self-employed, ordinary folks outside the tax bracket. Now, all are caught in the tax trawler net and will pay consumption tax. Never mind, says the government, we will compensate the ordinary people. Read the rest of this entry »
Puad: Pakatan psy-war puts Umno in peril
Malaysiakini
May 22, 11
Umno could be in peril if it fails to curb the psychological attacks mounted by the opposition, said party supreme council member, Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi.
He said the opposition’s approach was dangerous as it could influence the minds of the young who did not fully understand the history of this country and who were thinking too much about material things and freedom.
“Their thinking could be affected by negative perceptions. For example, the 1Malaysia concept is a good thing and is perceived negatively by certain quarters who could influence those with little understanding of the concept in a negative way.
“The psychological attacks are also carried out in a hit-and-run manner, by not admitting to it afterwards because they (opposition) want the people to be angry with Umno so as to weaken Malay power,” he said after opening the Umno Kota Raja division delegates’ meeting, here, today. Read the rest of this entry »
Penang gives RM25,000 to landslide victims
Posted by Kit in DAP, Penang Government, Selangor on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 10:45 pm
The Malaysian Insider
May 22, 2011
GEORGE TOWN, May 22 – Penang will give RM25,000 to the 25 victims of the Hulu Langat landslide yesterday which claimed 16 lives.
Nine others survived the landslide at the Rumah Anak-anak Yatim dan Anak-anak Hidayah Madrasah Al-Taqwa at Batu 14, Hulu Langat in Selangor.
“Although it is not a lot, it is moral support for the families of those who died and survived so that they can persevere through this tragedy,” Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »
Islamic leaders question non-Muslim rights
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Islam, nation building on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 10:26 pm
By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani
The Malaysian Insider
May 22, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 – Several Islamic leaders have questioned the loyalty of non-Muslims in the country, declaring today the community’s rights must be re-evaluated if Malaysia is to call itself an Islamic state.
Former president of Islamic Da’wah Foundation Malaysia (Yadim), Datuk Nakhaie Ahmad, said treatment of non-Muslims must be based on the social contract agreed and pointed out that the government has been too gracious to the community.
“In attempts to get vote and support of non-Muslims, we have been very gracious in giving them their civil rights. Civil rights given to them includes the rights to vote, participation in politics, hold office, involvement in the military and so forth but we cannot just willingly give them everything.
“Our offer must be based on religious practices. If we look at the prophet’s agreement in the Madinah constitution, civil rights were given to the Jews but the rights must be paid back with responsibility. They must have the responsibility and agree to defend our country and not insult the agreement,” he said during a forum here.
Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad declared Malaysia an Islamic state a decade ago in a move to counter PAS’s growing influence among the country’s key Malay Muslim population. Read the rest of this entry »
Pakatan gov’ts offer aid to landslide victims
Posted by Kit in DAP, Pakatan Rakyat, Selangor on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 6:39 pm
Malaysiakini
May 22, 11
Pakatan governments of Selangor and Penang have pledged aid to the victims of the landslide yesterday in Hulu Langat, Selangor as a sign of moral support.
Selangor is sending aid as well as contributing RM1,000 to each victim’s family, while Penang is suggesting a RM25,000 lump sum donation to the victims of the tragedy.
16 youths were reported killed and nine injured when a landslide hit Hidayah Madrasah Al-Taqwa orphanage at 2.30pm yesterday.
Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim yesterday said the state has sent a humanitarian aid mission to the scene of the tragedy to provide immediate assistance to the victims. Read the rest of this entry »
NUJ chief: Shut down Utusan Malaysia
Susan Loone | May 22, 11
Malaysiakini
National Union of Journalists chief and sacked Utusan Malaysia reporter Hata Wahari has called for his former employer to be shut down and its editors left to suffer for publishing a religiously charged article earlier this month.
Hata, who was in Penang for a forum on press freedom organised by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), said this was the only way to make its editors and reporters take responsibility for the unsubtantiated front page article on May 7, and the following ruckus across the nation that ensued.
He added that there were existing laws like the Sedition Act and the Printing Presses and Publication Act, which could be wielded on Utusan.
This would show that the government was not practising ‘double standards’ when dealing with an errant newspaper, he added. Read the rest of this entry »
Freedom of speech for all?
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Media, Religion on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 2:55 pm
Sharmini Darshni
May 22, 2011
MAY 22 — I should not have done it. Should have left it alone. Should have continued my hiatus from the humdrum of life. Should have continued to embrace the peace that comes from purposeful ignorance.
But no, just knowing there was a single computer with Internet access, I gave in to the temptation and checked the e-mails — and unfortunately — read the news.
Regrets! I said goodbye to the zen stupor I had been in for five days as I read the latest buzzword in Malaysian politics: Crusade. Read the rest of this entry »
M’sia needs nothing short of complete makeover
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Najib Razak on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 2:28 pm
Malaysiakini
May 22, 11
‘For short-term political expediency, the politicians are willing to sacrifice the long-term interests of the country.’
Competitiveness ranking drop shocks Pemudah
Ferdtan: Pemudah’s Chua Tia Guan, to say that you were surprised by the worsening result of the global competitiveness ranking for the country shows that Pemudah and Pemandu are as much clueless as the BN government.
Minister Idris Jala, who is in charge of Pemandu, had been spending obscene amount of taxpayers’ money organising public seminars with plenty of colourful charts, placing expensive advertorials in the mass media and giving out ‘feel-good’ statements that Malaysia is on the right track.
All were mere rhetoric that are self-delusory. Finally, you are now caught by the very mechanism of measurement of performance that you have adopted – the KPI thing that you had been so gleefully used. The KPIs of Pemudah and Pemandu have shown that they have failed miserably. Read the rest of this entry »
10 Days in May (26) – Tweet exchange on Sarbani, 2nd MACC death
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Sarbani, Teoh Beng Hock on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 1:58 pm
The “10 Days in May (23)” tweets yesterday resulted in a tweet exchange (reproduced below) with BN MP for Kota Belud Abdul Rahman Dahlan on assistant customs director Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed, the second case of MACC death:
mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan
What abt it? u wanna politicise it just like u did to TBH? RT @limkitsiang: MACC…What abt Sarbani’s death?
21 May
limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang
Y now MACC spokesman 2defame Sarbani? Met Sarbani’s family? @mpkotabelud Sarbini came on his own to MACC office that morning. Uninvited. .
23 hours ago
mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan
Who said he jumped? There is a plausible 3rd version circumstance. U don’t speculate! RT @limkitsiang: U believe Sarbani jumped?
23 hours ago
mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan Defame?
R u still on drips? 3rd plausible circumstance. R we to take ur words hook, line &sinker? RT@limkitsiang: 2defame Sarbani?
23 hours ago
limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang
@mpkotabelud YB Don’t be MACC stooge. Read – http://bit.ly/kCXkJs Sarbaini did not kill himself, says family (TMI)
23 hours ago Read the rest of this entry »
Change a byword for Kedah Chinese, but to whom?
Posted by Kit in Elections, Pakatan Rakyat on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 1:18 pm
By Sheridan Mahavera
The Malaysian Insider
May 22, 2011
ALOR SETAR, May 22 — About a month after he was put in charge of Kedah Barisan Nasional (BN), Datuk Paduka Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah declared the state’s Chinese community was returning to the national coalition.
Ahmad Bashah, who made this claim after a Chinese New Year dinner in February, was confident this was happening because of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1 Malaysia concept.
He is not far from the truth. The Malaysian Insider conducted a straw poll of Kedah Chinese residents and found that a significant number of respondents wanted to change the Pakatan Rakyat state government.
However, this did not mean they liked BN either. In fact, the poll showed that only 12 per cent of all Chinese respondents found the 1 Malaysia concept exciting or attractive. The rest were lukewarm, totally uninterested or unclear about it.
Also, though there were more Chinese respondents who wanted to change the state government, this was not reflected in their feelings about the PR administration. More than half of respondents felt satisfied with how PR was running things. Read the rest of this entry »
10 Days in May (25)
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Teoh Beng Hock on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 12:04 pm
Tweets @limkitsiang:-
TBH RCI-Open apology 4twin death TeohBengHck Sarbani prerequsite 4MACC 2regain public confidence in its indpndence integrity professionalism
This also serves as response @mpkotabelud Msia needs politics of engagement not guerilla. Let’s work together 2make SPRM more effective!
Support politics of engagement 2make Msia better country everybody proud 2call home. Thats Y I had given full support 2MACC replacing ACA
MACC got more staff budget powers than ACA. But what did it do? Became BN catspaw 2serve BN agenda declaring war agnst PR caused TBH’s death
Let MACC declare what is its brief 2Shafie @TBH RCI? 2assist RCI 2findout truth of TBH death or 2protect MACC w red herrings/MACC cover-ups?
Will Shafie support TBH RCI re-open inquiry 2findout MACC officer behind “black blog” 2accuse DAP of murder of TBH 2distract attn from MACC? Read the rest of this entry »
Slash graft before cutting subsidies
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Economics, Prices on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 10:46 am
Malaysiakini
May 22, 11
‘This illegal leakage is costing the nation to bleed, thus the reason behind the need to cut subsidies for the rakyat.’
Idris presses his case on cutting subsidies
Patriot: Subsidy cuts could be kept to a minimum so as to not burden the poor people struggling hard to earn a living to take care of their numerous domestic and external expenditures if there is proper and prudent governance and the elimination of servicing the cronies’ insatiable monetary wants.
What is being very prominently reported is the increase in government expenses on subsidies would be insurmountable based on current global trends and escalations.
However, the government never informs us how much could be saved if funds are properly utilised that could be ultimately channeled into covering some of the increases in the prices of commodities and foodstuff in order not to burden the poor. Read the rest of this entry »
10 Days in May (24)
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Najib Razak, Politics, Religion on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 10:29 am
Tweets @limkitsiang:-
Identity yrselves – UMNO/BN Ministers who secretly support Utusan’s “Christian Msia” bogey http://bit.ly/lX7f5r Totally agnst Najib’s GMoM!
Umno/BN Ministers shld not b closet extremists while outwardly claim 2b moderates secretly assuring Utusan support 4its Christian Msia bogey
If Najib is serious about GMoM he shd draw line in the sand n ask every Minister 2declare whether 4 or agnst Utusan’s Christian Msia bogey
How many Umno/BN Cabinet Ministers qualify as genuine moderates – x extremists or opportunists – 2join MMoM, 1st national bldg block 4 GMoM?
Will Najib dare 2patronise MMoM- 1st object 2rally moderates of all races religions 2censure Utusan “Christian Msia” bogey n abjure bigotry?
Fleeing Syrians say too late for reforms, Assad must go
Posted by Kit in Middle East/Africa on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 10:12 pm
Reuters
By Yara Bayoumy
BOQAYA, Lebanon | Sat May 21, 2011
(Reuters) – Syrians who fled for their lives from a security crackdown in the border town of Tel Kelakh say violence has hardened attitudes toward President Bashar al-Assad and unrest will not end until he steps down.
Assad had lost credibility and it was too late to implement reforms since security forces laid siege to the town, raiding homes and arresting and killing dozens, they said.
“The first words my year-old son will learn to say are: ‘We don’t want Bashar’,” said Ahmed, who fled from Tel Kelakh, where security forces, the army and irregular Assad loyalists known as shabbiha had cracked down on earlier this week.
“Are these his reforms? To oppress people? Until when will we be downtrodden?” he said. Like other refugees interviewed by Reuters in the Lebanese border village of Boqaya, he asked that his surname not be used to protect his family still in Syria. Read the rest of this entry »
S’pore gains from M’sia’s brain drain
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Brain drain on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 6:00 pm
Patrick Lee | May 21, 2011
Free Malaysia Today
Malaysia’s brain drain is both heavily Chinese and concentrated just below the border, says a report by the World Bank.
PETALING JAYA: A large portion of the best and the brightest Malaysia has to offer have taken root in Singapore.
According to a 2011 World Bank report entitled “Malaysia Economic Monitor: Brain Drain”, 121, 662 highly-skilled Malaysians migrated to the island nation by 2010.
This accounted for nearly half of the 276, 558 Malaysians registered as “brain drain” individuals by 2010.
Additionally, the report said a total of 385, 979 Malaysians were residents of Singapore in 2010.
“Singapore alone absorbs 57% of the entire (Malaysian) diaspora, with most of the remainder residing in Australia, Brunei, United Kingdom and the United States,” the report added.
On top of that, it said that 88% of Malaysians residing in Singapore were ethnic Chinese, with Malays and Indians accounting for 6% and 5% respectively.
It has been estimated that there are more than one million Malaysians residing overseas. Read the rest of this entry »
