Can Malaysia go the way of Greece becoming a bankrupt country and can Sarawak be spared if Malaysia is bankrupt?
The SUPP leadership does not want the Sibu voters in the “By-election of the Century” in Sarawak to be concerned about big national issues – and this is the great difference between the DAP and Pakatan Rakyat on the one hand and the SUPP and the Barisan Nasional on the other.
In fact, today I ask the Sibu voters and Sarawak people to ponder one serious question: Can Malaysia go the way of Greece becoming a bankrupt country and if Malaysia is bankrupt, can Sarawak be spared its awful consequences?
There was recently a television documentary regarding Greece ‘s financial fiasco, enumerating the why’s and how’s that this historic and beautiful country came to grief.
The diagnosis as to how the great nation of Greece ended as a financial “basket-case” are:
Bureaucracy: Greece’s bureaucracy is famous in the whole of Europe ! To open a cafe or pub there are 25 processes to go through! This is a country of rules and regulations.
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Challenge to SUPP Sibu chief Wong Soon Koh to a public debate on Friday night on his allegation that “A vote for Rocket is a vote for Islamic State”
The SUPP leadership has unveiled its “killer weapon” for the Sibu by-election, with the SUPP Sibu chief and Sarawak 2nd Finance Minister Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh opening the “killer” attack, declaring that a vote for Rocket and DAP/PR candidate Wong Ho Leng is a vote for PAS and an Islamic State.
The SUPP strategists believe that this is a “killer weapon” which could “finish off” the chances of Ho Leng of ever winning the Sibu by-election “Battle of the Century”, frightening off the Chinese and non-Muslim voters in Sibu, when Ho Leng is already the underdog in the by-election, starting off with a 40% to 60% against him.
In the past two days, as a result of the intensive campaigning by the candidate, Ho Leng, and DAP and Pakatan Rakyat leaders, members and supporters throughout the Sibu constituency, we are beginning to narrow the odds.
The sentiments in Sibu are clearly in favour of change because of the triple importance of the Sibu “battle of the century” – for Sibu, Sarawak and Malaysia.
In the past 48 hours, Ho Leng has perceptibly gained ground and I would roughly estimate that odds after two days of campaigning as 44% to 56% still in favour of the BN candidate.
However, this is already causing panic among the SUPP strategists which have unsettled the SUPP by-election strategy, as could be seen by three examples:
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Quality, Quantity, and Equity in Malaysian Education #1
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, Education on Monday, 10 May 2010, 11:43 am
By M. Bakri Musa
[First of Three Parts]
Quality Education and Economic Development
In referring to the low quality of our labor pool, the New Economic Model Report cites statistics showing that 80 percent of our workers have only SPM level (11 years) of schooling. That surprises me, not the figure rather the fact that the SPM is now viewed as inadequate.
That observation reflects more on the quality of our education system than it does of our workers. For had our education system maintained its quality, and today’s SPM is of the same caliber as the old Cambridge School Certificate “O” Level, then I would argue that our workers are among the most highly educated.
Members of the National Economic Action Council (they wrote the NEM Report) are old enough to appreciate that when they obtained their O-level certificate, they were in command of sufficient intellectual and other skills to prepare them well for life. The same cannot be said of today’s SPM, as the Report clearly implies.
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Hishammuddin should apologise for his insult to Malaysian women on Mother’s Day blaming women’s “chattering” for exaggerating the crime problem and demonizing the police
What a shame! After the farce of the Selangor Chief Police Officer’s stolen official car, which was returned by the thief in panic after two days with an apology note for stealing the wrong car, a Deputy Minister has lost his car.
Will the Deputy Minister get his car back like the Selangor CPO with an “apology note” too left on the dashboard of the car abandoned on the roadside?
Most unlikely. I understand the Deputy Minister concerned is Senator A. Kohilan Pillai. He is unlikely to be as lucky as the Selangor CPO for the simple reason that he cannot strike fear among the thieves and handlers of stolen goods of “hell to pay” that the Selangor CPO could!
The twin episodes of the different fates of the two stolen cars of the two VIPs would make excellent butt of jokes and would definitely be good for laughs if not for the serious security crisis in the country which they highlighted.
If it is so easy for the official cars of the Selangor CPO (though “returned” with apology note in two days) and the Deputy Foreign Minister to be stolen, what is safe in the country?
Read the rest of this entry »
Crime Wave – Hishamuddin blames it on “chattering women”
Hishammuddin rails against police-bashing
By Shannon Teoh | The Malaysian Insider May 09, 2010
LONDON, May 9 — Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein last night urged Malaysians to defend and not demonise the police force, now under increasing public pressure to reform after the two recent shootings of teenagers.
The Home Minister also said that instead of constantly attacking the police, the public must support the force as it was one of the institutional pillars that formed the spine of the country.
“I want to assure everybody, that the morale of the police also has to be safeguarded and balanced. Clear demonisation does not help anybody,” Hishammuddin told some 100 students at the Malaysian Students Department here.
“Malaysia is in transition. In times of change, there is always a tendency to demonise these institutions without basis, without study, discussion and understanding,” he said of institutions such as law enforcement and the judiciary.
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Ho Leng promises to solve ‘Allah’ row
By Adib Zalkapli | The Malaysian Insider
SIBU, May 9 — DAP candidate Wong Ho Leng today made solving the “Allah” issue as his major campaign message in the Sibu by-election.
“If elected, I will call upon the prime minister and home minister to immediately cease the legal dispute with the Christian churches over these matters to protect the freedom of religion in Malaysia for non-Muslims,” said Wong.
The Sarawak DAP chairman reiterated his party’s stand for Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Robert Lau to make his stand about the ban on non-Muslims using the word “Allah”.
“Lau cannot take an ambiguous stance on the Allah issue anymore, otherwise the people of Sibu, especially the non-Muslims will not trust Lau to speak up for them in Parliament,” the Bukit Assek assemblyman told a press conference here.
About 53 per cent of the 55,000 voters in the Sibu constituency are Christians.
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Sibu4Change manifesto
Sibu4Change
Both Sarawak and Malaysia are at the crossroads. We deserve and need better state and federal governments. Sibu has the unique and historic opportunity to set the tone for the future and be the beacon of hope for Sarawak and Malaysia.
Sarawak, with the largest land mass in Malaysia and an abundance of natural resources such as oil and gas, is languishing in the bottom half of all the states in Malaysia when it comes to poverty levels.
In 2009, the total estimated revenue of the state was RM3.726 billion. We have timber, palm oil, gold and many other natural resources.
Yet, more than 70% of longhouses do not have access to electricity and many do not even have treated piped water. Until today, there are no roads to many Sarawak villages. The people of Sarawak are among the poorest in Malaysia because of low pay, poor employment opportunities and a business environment which is monopolized by selected individuals.
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1 Malaysia: Another morning glory?
Posted by Kit in Tunku Abdul Aziz on Sunday, 9 May 2010, 9:02 am
An old English friend of mine, the late Humphrey Ball, the Malacca lawyer, once described Malaysia, his adopted country, as a morning glory — a reference to “a climbing plant with flowers shaped like trumpets that open in the morning and close in late afternoon.”
Having lived among us for so long, he was used to putting up with our little foibles, and if he was irritated by them, he kept his feelings very much to himself. Humphrey was the quintessential English gentleman.
We were having breakfast and it was a lovely morning and the city looked splendid. In between another cup of tea and a round of toast and marmalade, he surveyed the Kuala Lumpur skyline from the veranda of the Selangor Club and declared that from his experience, many of the state of the art concrete and stainless steel structures that were jostling for breathing space in the ever expanding concrete jungle of Malaysian towns and cities would go the way of all the other buildings he had seen in this country — in wreck and ruin within a few years.
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Prime Minister Najib given until 11 am tomorrow to set up Hanif Omar RCI into police trigger-happy killing of Aminulrasyhid or I will ask Sibu voters to use by-election to send clear message that they want a IPCMC
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Police on Saturday, 8 May 2010, 5:13 pm
Prime Minister Najib given until 11 am tomorrow to set up Hanif Omar RCI into police trigger-happy killing of Aminulrasyhid or I will ask Sibu voters to use by-election to send clear message that they want a IPCMC to create an efficient, independent, incorruptible world-class police service
I congratulate the Selangor Police Chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar for the speed with which his official car stolen two days ago had been found.
This however cannot be attributed to any police efficiency.
This was the result of the bungling of the car thief in stealing of all things the Selangor Police Chief’s official car which will condemn not only the thief but all handlers of stolen goods as targets of concentrated police search, surveillance and fire, which will make their lives among the most miserable on earth.
No wonder the car thief abandoned Khalid’s jet-black Perdana V6 when he discovered the identity of the car which he had stolen, leaving the vehicle on the side of the road in Prima Damansara with the apologetic note on the dashboard from the car thief: “Sorry PDRM tesilap sapu” (Sorry PDRM: a mistake).
The car was found at 8.45am by police officers who were making their rounds in the area.
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Sibu by-election nomination tweets
#Sibu #P212 Nomination then Battle of Century 4Sibu/Swak/Msia begins At stake triple future of Sibu/Swak/Msia Vote 4Sibu/ Swak/Mysia 16 May
Saturday, May 08, 2010 7:58 AM
All PR national/state leaders DAP PKR PAS SNAP arr @ Sibu MP Hall 4nomination Historic show of new Msian political force 4change 4new Msia
Saturday, May 08, 2010 8:39 AM
#Sibu Unprecedented in Swak – all excitement expectation even bn4 9am Nomination illustrating d critical importance of dis byelection #P212
Saturday, May 08, 2010 9:12 AM
1st met SUPP PeterChin TiongThyeKing going over 2BN camp Byelection banter Told Peter 2ask Najib 2come Sibu daily n bring a lot of ang paus
Saturday, May 08, 2010 9:17 AM
All BN big guns oredi @BN camp Went over w KuiLun TonyPua 2say hello 2DPMM’din CMTaib ShafieApdal GeorgeChan TsuKoon More banter #Sibu #P212
Saturday, May 08, 2010 9:22 AM
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Why SUPP candidate Lau Hui Yew is like other Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders who have no confidence in their own school system by sending their children to international schools or overseas?
[Speech (2) at the launching of the Rejang Park Operation Centre of the DAP Sibu by-election campaign on Friday, 7th May 2010]
Another headline in Borneo Post today is “Zahid: Vote for Hui Yew to be heard in Dewan Rakyat”.
My first reaction is one of great skepticism and to ask why the SUPP candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew is like other Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders who have no confidence in their own school system by sending their children to international schools or overseas.
Will Hui Yew speak up in Parliament against the national educational system over which he, like other BN Ministers and leaders, have no confidence by not sending their own children to them?
DAP candidate for Sibu by-election Wong Ho Leng has five children, all in the local schools – three in secondary and two in primary.
I have been informed that Robert Lau2 has sent all his three children to the international school in Kuching. Read the rest of this entry »
Police investigation into Aminulrasyid’s killing most disgraceful and unprofessional in subjecting 15-year-old Azamuddin to three questionings when the student had consistently stuck to his version as given in his first police report the very same day
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Najib Razak, Police on Friday, 7 May 2010, 6:22 pm
(Speech at the launching of the Rejang Park Operation Centre of the DAP Sibu by-election campaign on Friday, 7th May 2010)
Borneo Post carries the headline today: “Drop in crime index for first four months” . However, it does not give Malaysians any accompanying assurance of greater safety and security whether in the streets, public places or privacy of their home since the beginning of the year as illustrated by two recent episodes:
• The charade of the Selangor police chief’s official car being stolen; and
• The trigger-happy police shooting and killing of 14-year-old Form III student Aminulrasyid Amzah some 100 metres from his Shah Alam house 12 days ago at 2 am on April 26, 2010 whose only offence is underaged and unlicensed driving to watch the football match Chelsea vs Stokes at the neighbourhood mamak stall with his friends.
Tajem’s message to the Ibans
SERIAN: An adviser to PKR and former deputy chief minister Datuk Daniel Tajem (pic below)warns the Iban community that they will lose their native customary rights lands if they continue to elect the State Barisan Nasional coalition in the coming State election.
“Many Ibans in other parts of Sarawak have already lost their lands and we will continue to loose our land, if the State Barisan continues to govern Sarawak.
“In Balai Ringin we are about to lose our lands, when four companies linked to Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud have been given provisional lease (PL) to plant oil palm in our lands.
“A total of 741,000 hectares of our NCR lands have been earmarked for this purpose,” he said, adding that the land owners had protested, but to no avail.
In fact, he said, he and the land owners have written to UMNO to intervene and stop the State government from taking away people’s lands.
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Who are against 1Malaysia concept?
1Malaysia concept as espoused by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak should be accepted by all if it is to be implemented. In spirit or sloganeering alone is not enough; it must be implemented in deed and in action.
Under the concept “every race is equal” as Dr. James Masing, PRS president explained over Radio Iban some time ago.
But there are people, government departments, ministries and universities which are working against this concept.
For example, UiTM is one such organisation which does not practise 1Malaysia concept.
Starting 29 April until 7 May, UiTM campuses in the country are recruiting students who achieved only 4 credits to be adopted under “Destini anak Bansa” (literally it means the destiny of our children).
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DAP fully supports PAS proposal for a suit to be filed against the federal government for ceding away the oil-rich offshore Blocks L and M in South China Sea
DAP fully supports the PAS proposal for a suit to be filed against the Federal Government for ceding away the oil-rich offshore Blocks L and M in South China Sea to protect the rights of future generations of Sarawakians, Sabahans and Malaysians.
Kelantan state councillor Husam Musa yesterday proposed a legal suit against the federal government for ceding away the oil-rich maritime boundary areas to Brunei.
DAP endorses Husam’s demands and calls on the Prime Minister to issue a White Paper pertaining to all the following issues:
• Reveal to the public all communiques between Putrajaya, Brunei, Sabah, Sarawak and national oil company Petronas pursuant to the ceding of the boundary areas.
• Report all decisions made by the cabinet about the matter.
• Convene a royal commission of inquiry to investigate the issue. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #13
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, globalisation on Thursday, 6 May 2010, 10:58 am
By M. Bakri Musa
Chapter 2: Why Some Societies Progress, Others Regress
“Progressive” Versus “Static” Cultures
In 1999, Harvard’s Academy for International and Area Studies convened a symposium whose proceedings were published in the book, Culture Matters. As expected, the contributors are committed believers of the creed that cultural factors shape economic and political development. The natural corollary would be how can we ameliorate or negate factors in the culture that are obstacles to progress and encourage those that facilitate it.
Societies can be divided into those that have “progressive culture,” that is, a value system that promotes development within that society, and “static culture,” which of course favors the status quo, and thus lack of progress.
Time orientation, with the emphasis on the future rather than the present or the past, is one trait of a progressive society. This future must not be too far ahead as in the hereafter (the preoccupation of medieval Christians and present-day fundamentalist Muslims), rather for the immediate future of the present life. Read the rest of this entry »
Will IGP and Selangor CPO apologise for starting the trial by media and defaming Aminulrasyid and Azamuddin and their families when the two boys were called “criminals”?
The Cabinet yesterday belatedly expressed its distress and condolences to the family of Aminulrasyid Amzah, 14, who was killed by trigger-happy police about 100 metres from his Shah Alam house in the early hours (2 am) of Monday, April 26, 2010 when trying to flee home driving his sister’s car.
The first question that comes to mind for Malaysians is why the Cabinet did not express its distress and condolences at last Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, which met more than 48 hours after the fatal shooting and killing of Aminulrasyid.
Is it because the Cabinet had relied on the first public account of the heinous police killing by the Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar who said Aminulrasyid was shot dead “while reversing his car in an attempt to run over several policemen”, describing the Form III student as a “criminal”? Read the rest of this entry »
The IGP should resign
By KJ John | Malaysiakini
In Chinese culture, it is said that ‘the fish rots from the head’. Is the 5,000-year-old cultural saying wrong? If not, what is it that makes institutions become corrupt over time?
What has made civilisations themselves corrupt, leading to their extinction, such as that of Babylonia or Egypt? What has made the Christian culture and beliefs of the founding fathers of America become so corrupt that, today, secularism and liberalism drives much of the US agenda?
What will ensure that Malaysia, a nation only 53 years old, does not become corrupt like some noble civilisations of old?
Last week, I reflected on the question of whose authority we live under, on earth? I argued that we need to be accountable to both God and Man; to give each what the other does not deny.
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Saudi clerics square off over gender mixing
Posted by Kit in Islam, Islamic state on Wednesday, 5 May 2010, 7:18 pm
By Paul Handley (AFP)
4th May 2010
RIYADH — Conservative Muslim Saudi Arabia’s battle over men and women freely mixing mounted on Tuesday as a powerful Islamic judge rebuked a hardline cleric over his attacks on anti-segregationist reformers.
In a column published on a website for judges, Riyadh criminal court judge Sheikh Issa al-Ghaith lashed out at cleric Abdul Rahman al-Barrak for his sweeping condemnation of anyone advocating lifting the country’s draconian Islamic laws against fraternisation between unrelated men and women.
“What does it mean to issue fatwas (Islamic edicts) that are difficult to implement and statements which make people go away?” Ghaith said.
“Anyone who disagrees is accused of hypocrisy and branded a hypocrite,” he said of conservatives’ views. Read the rest of this entry »
2010 World Press Freedom Day – will Najib usher a return of Mahathirish media dark age ?
Posted by Kit in Media, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 5 May 2010, 5:09 pm
2010 World Press Freedom Day ignored by Najib Government as Malaysia stands on the crossroad with Najib deciding whether to usher a return of the Mahathirish media dark age
The 2010 World Press Freedom Day celebrated worldwide two days ago was completely ignored by the Najib government, without any commitment to restore press freedom in Malaysia, as press freedom in Malaysia is in fact facing the possibility of worst censorship and repression since the retirement of Tun Mahathir as Prime Minister five years ago.
This is the result of no institutional changes to create a new environment and regime of press and information freedom during the period of premiership of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Prime Minister.
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