Has Najib’s New Economic Model been hijacked by Neo-NEP Umnoputras like Perkasa forcing another delay in its announcement?
Posted by Kit in Economics, Najib Razak, UMNO on Tuesday, 9 March 2010, 2:21 pm
The assurance by the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that no Malaysian would be sidelined in the New Economic Model (NEM) is not convincing when from all indications, the NEM has been hijacked by Neo-NEP Umnoputras like Perkasa, forcing another delay in its announcement.
When Datuk Seri Najib Razak became Prime Minister last April, he announced that the government would introduce a new economic model for the country to ensure that Malaysia makes a quantum leap to escape the middle-income trap to become a high-income country through greater emphasis on innovation, creativity and competitiveness.
In May last year, the Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said the new economic model would be announced in the second half of the year.
Time is clearly of the critical essence to launch a new economic model as Husni subsequently admitted in a very frank speech in December that the country had lost a decade in economic stagnation.
In actual fact, Malaysia had lost not only one decade in economic stagnation but four decades in failing to fully realize the economic potential of the rich natural and human resources of the country, resulting in Malaysia losing out not only to other countries including Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea but at risk of being overtaken by an increasing list of other countries like Vietnam, Thailand and even Indonesia.
Read the rest of this entry »
Not a time to lose March 8 spirit
Posted by Kit in Kee Thuan Chye, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat, Post-2008 general election on Tuesday, 9 March 2010, 5:00 am
By Kee Thuan Chye
There was a lot of optimism right after March 8, 2008. There was a sense that things would get better. But has there been much change two years since that day?
Instead of seeing multi-racialism being freely accepted and manifested in government policies, we find ourselves becoming more divided along racial lines. Right after March 8, Umno embarked on its campaign to warn the Malays that they were under threat and to rise up against this.
The government has assumed a schizophrenic personality – the prime minister talks about 1Malaysia while his deputy says things that are completely contradictory. The PM talks about multi-racial unity while his own party campaigns for Malay unity.
Many of us had hoped that, after the elections, both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat would set aside their political differences and get down to the business of working for the national interest, of saving this country.
Instead, they have been doing their darnedest to do the dirty on each other. BN is coming out tops in that effort because it has the media under its control. Both seem to be doing their worst to win the next general election.
Read the rest of this entry »
Target of Pakatan Rakyat in Sarawak in the forthcoming state general elections must be to form the next State Government or deny BN 2/3 majority
Posted by Kit in DAP, Election, Pakatan Rakyat, Sarawak on Monday, 8 March 2010, 6:24 pm
I feel great satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment at today’s opening of the RM800,000 Kuching DAP premises as it is the culmination of the blood, sweat and tears of DAP leaders, members and supporters in Sarawak in the past 32 years since 1978 when Sarawak DAP was first formed.
We pay tribute to the Chairman of the Building Committee Sdr. Chong Siew Chiang, the founding Sarawak DAP Chairman who had planted the DAP flag in Sarawak in 1978 with a handful of Sarawakian visionaries. Another such visionary, who is with us today, is Sdr. Ling Sie Ming, the “dragon slayer” in the 1982 general elections when Sarawak DAP made the parliamentary breakthrough winning two parliamentary seats.
But the DAP struggle in Sarawak was a very arduous and testing one, as we were unable to make a breakthrough in the Sarawak state general elections for 18 years until 1996 when we first sent the Rocket to the Sarawak state assembly with the election of three Sarawak DAP State Assemblymen.
The May 2006 Sarawak state general election saw another historic breakthrough when DAP Sarawak sent six representatives to the Sarawak state assembly out of a total of nine successful Opposition candidates – a prelude to the March 8 political tsunami of the 2008 general elections in Malaysia.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ong Tee Keat and RM12.5 billion scandal – leave with a bang and not in a whimper
Posted by Kit in Corruption, PKFZ on Monday, 8 March 2010, 5:36 pm
In yesterday’s pathetic 56th MCA Annual General Meeting attended by only 25% of the eligible MCA delegates and boycotted by the majority of the MCA Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MPs and State Assembly members, MCA President Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat suggested his present troubles were caused by his investigation of the nation’s biggest financial scandal – the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.
For several months, I had refrained from commenting on the PKFZ scandal after putting intense pressure on Ong to “tell all” about the scandal – at one stage, posing three-questions-a-day for 36 days without pause, totaling 108 questions, to force Ong to act on the PKFZ scandal.
I wanted to give Ong a completely free hand and not to feel to be under any pressure when there were signs that some action were at last being taken to ensure proper accountability for the PKFZ scandal.
However, up to now, only four not major personalities had been charged in court for corruption and abuses of power in the PKFZ scandal before the new year, with the promise by the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Othman himself that “big fishes” in the PKFZ scandal were almost ready to be brought to book and prosecuted in court.
The whole nation waited in bated breath for the arrest and prosecution of the “sharks” of the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal, as nobody really believe that the four middling persons charged last December could be responsible wholly or even for majority part of the PKFZ scandal.
Read the rest of this entry »
Najib losing battle for 1Malaysia when a rational and level-headed Umno leader like Second Finance Minister Husni could make a racist remark when he is under influence of Penang UMNO
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building on Monday, 8 March 2010, 1:06 pm
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is fighting a losing battle for his 1Malaysia slogan and concept when a rational and level-headed Umno leader like the Second Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Husni Mohd Hanadzlah could make a racist remark when he is under the influence of Penang Umno.
DAP MP for Jelutong Jeff Ooi has asked Husni to apologise for making a racist remark at a dinner organized by the Penang Malay Chamber of Commerce on Friday, where he said: “Kalau orang Cina di Pulau Pinang buli kita, kita lawan balik orang Cina”.
Husni’s racist remark was reported in the evening edition of the Penang papers on Saturday night but it was taken out in the morning editions of the Sunday papers.
Although this racist Husni remark has been denied, it had been caught on tape.
I am very surprised as DAP MPs have always found Husni as a very rational, level-headed and reasonable Deputy Minister and since Najib’s elevation as Prime Minister last April, as Second Finance Minister, and we find it most shocking that he could have uttered such a racially-laden statement, which runs counter to what Najib’s 1Malaysia represents.
The question all Malaysians must ponder is why a usually rational, level-headed and reasonable Umno leader who is very moderate in his views could make such a racist remark completely of his character?
Read the rest of this entry »
Towards A Developed Malaysia – Part 5
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa on Monday, 8 March 2010, 9:30 am
By M. Bakri Musa
[Presented at the Third Annual Alif Ba Ta Forum, “1Malaysia Towards Vision 2020,” Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, December 5, 2009, organized by Kelab UMNO NY-NJ. The presentation can be viewed at www.youtube.com (search under “Bakri Musa RIT”) or through this link]
Part Five of Six: Q&A Con’td:
Q 4: How can we unite Malaysians when we have these separate school systems?
MBM: The underpinning of the national school policy, as articulated in the Razak Report of 1956, was that if young Malaysians were to learn the same language, read the same books, study the same history, then we would all idolize the same heroes and subscribe to the same values. With a common base and shared goals, national unity would be that more readily achievable.
It was not an unreasonable assumption. Tun Razak’s national schools were a definite improvement over the then existing vernacular schools. At least Malaysians now know more about Tunku Abdul Rahman than Nehru or Chiang Kai Shek, and can speak the national language, an achievement that should not be belittled.
Read the rest of this entry »
Dr. Chen – the indefatigable Malaysian warrior for justice and democracy
Posted by Kit in DAP, Dr. Chen Man Hin on Monday, 8 March 2010, 9:26 am
Kit Siang: Pakatan to win big if Anwar is jailed
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Pakatan Rakyat on Sunday, 7 March 2010, 8:49 pm
By Neville Spykerman | The Malaysian Insider
SHAH ALAM, March 7 — Veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang today predicted the Pakatan Rakyat will have an easier time at the next general election if the government jails Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy.
“If he is jailed, our motto will be free Anwar, vote PR!” said the DAP stalwart during the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Convention.
Anwar, the de factor PKR and PR leader, is facing his second sodomy charge in more than a decade after he was sacked as deputy prime minister and later jailed for sodomy and corruption offences.
The next election is not due until 2013 but pundits expect Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to call for snap polls after the Sarawak state elections, which are due by July 2011.
The Ipoh Timor MP said the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government was courting trouble by continuing their persecution of the Opposition Leader, who has denied the sodomy charge and called it a political conspiracy.
Read the rest of this entry »
Cabinet on Wednesday should give “green light” for legislative action to allow state governments like Penang to restore local government elections
Posted by Kit in Local Goverment, Penang Government on Sunday, 7 March 2010, 1:07 pm
The Penang State Executive Council has made a historic decision to restore local government elections for Penang which was suspended 45 years on 1st March 1965 because of Indonesian Confrontation which ended in the latter part of 1966.
If elections to the two Municipal Councils of Penang, the Municipal Council of Penang Island (MPPP) and the Municipal Council of Seberang Prai (MPSP) are held at this time, it would be doubly meaningful because the last local council elections in Malaysia was held half a century ago in 1961.
In fact, there would be a triple significance as the first-ever elections held in the country was for the Municipal Council of George Town on Dec. 1, 1951 – marking the 60th anniversary commemoration of the start of the nation’s electoral history.
Following the historic decision of the Penang State Government to restore the third vote, with the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng writing to the Election Commission to conduct local government elections for the two municipalities in Penang, the Cabinet on Wednesday should give the “green light” for legislative action to be taken to allow state governments like Penang to restore local government elections.
Read the rest of this entry »
Kit Siang’s ‘biggest losers’ jibe riles Sabahans
Joe Fernandez | Malaysiakini
DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang has distressed BN leaders in Sabah no end with his Feb 28 statement in Kota Kinabalu that the KadazanDusunMuruts (KDMs) – the largest indigenous group in the state – are the biggest losers under the ruling coalition.
The reverberations are still echoing throughout the state and is likely to haunt BN in the run-up to the next general election.
Lim had also linked the biggest losers tag with the continued ban on the book, ‘Peter Mojuntin Golden Son of the Kadazan’, by former Malacca DAP leader Bernard Sta Maria. He has since initiated an online campaign to get the ban on the book lifted.
The book is about Sabah’s leader Mojuntin, who died in the plane crash together with a number of other top leaders including the state’s first chief minister Fuad Stephens in 1976.
Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, a Pathan-Dusun, castigated Lim in no uncertain terms for being irresponsible. He was particularly upset that Lim pointed out that Umno had held the CM’s post for 11 of the last 16 years, the Chinese for four years and the KDM for only nine months.
Read the rest of this entry »
Cops crash DAP party
Sentul OCPD ACP Zakaria Pagan up on stage to declare the party over. – Picture by Choo Choy May
By Clara Chooi | The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Police put a stop to a dinner and ceramah organised by the Kepong DAP here tonight.
The function, which features star speakers from Pakatan Rakyat like Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Datuk Husam Musa, was called to an abrupt halt at 10pm when the police raided the premises.
About 1,500 people in attendance booed loudly when Sentul OCPD ACP Zakaria Pagan took to the stage and announced that the ceramah was cancelled.
He justified the action by pointing out that the function’s permit was only to organise a dinner and not a ceramah with political speeches.
Read the rest of this entry »
Bumburing Calls On Health Ministry To Expedite Upgrading Work On Tuaran Hospital
TUARAN, March 5 (Bernama) — Former Sabah deputy chief minister Datuk Wilfred Bumburing has called on the Health Ministry to expedite the upgrading of the Tuaran hospital to cater for the health care needs of about 120,000 people living in the area.
He said the hospital was in dire need of upgrading and it was sad that a hospital for a large district like Tuaran, with a population of 120,000, had no bed at all.
“I was also told that the hospital had been downgraded to a clinic in the past. In my speech in Parliment last year to debate the 2010 budget I have outlined all the reasons and rationale as to why the construction of the hospital is most urgently needed,” he told reporters here on Friday.
However the member of Parliment for Tuaran denied DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang’s recent allegation that the BN government had not done anything to develop Tuaran.
Bumburing said the Health Ministry had assured him that the second phase construction of the hospital would start this year.
“While appreciating Kit Siang’s concern, I have to mention that we in the Barisan Nasional have carried our duty and responsibility in bringing up to the relevant authorities matters that are of urgent public interest,” he said.
Read the rest of this entry »
MCA dignity and humiliation plumbing new historic lows
Most pitiable and tragic to see MCA dignity and humiliation plumbing new historic lows in its 61-year history in the past 24 hours.
Whether the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will attend the 56th MCA Annual General Meeting scheduled for Sunday became the most strategic gambit in the MCA “Three Kingdom” power tussle when the Ong remnants in the rump MCA Central Committee after the resignation of two-thirds of its membership from the Chua and Liow factions insisted on proceeding with Sunday’s MCA AGM.
The spokesman for the “Ong” MCA faction announced after the rump MCA Central Committee meeting last evening that Najib would attend which was contradicted soon after by spokesmen from the “Liow” and “Chua” MCA factions that Najib would not attend!
As if it is not shameful and humiliating enough that Sunday’s 56th MCA AGM is being aborted in less than 72 hours of its scheduled meeting by directive and pressure from outside the MCA!
It would be understandable if the MCA “Three Kingdom” power tussle is over which faction could better champion the proclaimed objectives of the party or the proper implementation of announced government programmes like Najib’s 1Malaysia concept.
Read the rest of this entry »
AG’s Acumen for Asinine Answers
Posted by Kit in Martin Jalleh on Friday, 5 March 2010, 6:38 pm
By Martin Jalleh
Attorney-General (AG) Abdul Gani Patail want us to believe that he is committed to ensuring that the rule of law is upheld in Bolehland. In his address to members of the Judiciary and the Bar entitled “Opening of the Legal Year 2010”, on 16 Jan., he declared:
“(I)t cannot be over emphasized that the concept of justice is grounded on the basic principles of equality, fairness, and rule of law. The AGC (AG’s Chambers) is committed to promoting the rule of law and ensuring justice be given to all people whatever their race, religion or class.
“AGC in carrying out its duties is well aware of the maxim ‘justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done’, and hence the explanations issued by AGC from time to time on cases handled by it so that the public would not have misconceptions of biasness.”
Such purported profound and passionate zeal for the rule of law by the AG turns into mere political BN propaganda when one applies it to his pathetic excuses for not pressing charges against the two reporters of the Al-Islam magazine who had committed a most sacrilegious act against the Catholic community.
Gani’s Gall
Read the rest of this entry »
First time in 56-year MCA history – fresh party leadership elections decided by external remote control
Who was the mastermind of the decision yesterday to halt the 56th MCA Annual General Meeting to be held in less than 72 hours on Sunday, 7th March 2010?
Not MCA President Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat though he subsequently claimed that he was the first to call for fresh party polls.
His first comment that his supporters had “expected this long-anticipated development” is the most eloquent admission that he was completely taken by surprise by Chua’s announcement – which was why the Bernama report of Chua’s shock announcement was preceded less than two hours earlier by Ong’s special interview as MCA President on the occasion of Sunday’s 56th MCA AGM, which is as good as spiked!
Not the second MCA Three-Kingdom challenger, MCA Vice Chairman Liow Tiong Lai – though the Liow faction must be very relieved that finally MCA party leadership elections are being held.
If not Ong and Liow, was Chua the mastermind of the move?
Nobody believes that Chua would dare, or to use the Chinese description “have the leopard’s bile”, to abort the 56th MCA AGM to be officially opened by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in less than 72 hours without any “green light” from above.
Read the rest of this entry »
Abdul Gani’s decision not to press charges against Al-Islam reporters without extracting public apology indefensible and dangerous precedent inimical to 1Malaysia concept
Posted by Kit in Law & Order, Religion on Friday, 5 March 2010, 12:39 pm
The decision of the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail not to press charges against the two Al-Islam journalists who desecrated a sacred Catholic ritual without extracting a public apology is indefensible and a dangerous precedent inimical to the 1Malaysia concept of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
I can understand the disappointment of Kuala Lumpur Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam over Gani’s decision to drop the case against Al-Islam reporters without any public apology.
Gani said the desecration of the communion wafer by the two Al-Islam reporters at the St. Anthony’s Church in Jalan Robertson near Puduraya, Kuala Lumpur last May was “an act of ignorance, not malice” and that they might have hurt people’s feelings but he was satisfied that they did not intend to offend anyone.
The Attorney-General would not be able to convince the community hurt by the act of desecration with such a lame excuse – what more, without any apology from the perpetrators to show remorse for the religious desecration which must be regarded as an act of heinous insensitivity completely unacceptable in Najib’s 1Malaysia.
Gani said: “In view of the circumstances at that particular time, and in the interests of justice, peace and harmony, I decided not to press charges against them.
He said he had made similar decisions in previous cases involving other religions.
Read the rest of this entry »
@ “The Smiling Warrior – Kit Siang” comedy
limkitsiang: At Actors Studio Lot 10 4latest “Kit Siang” Fair game
about 2 hours ago
Read the rest of this entry »
Are the Kadazan natives the big losers in Sabah?
My visit to Sabah last week has stirred a hornet’s nest.
Today, a Sabah daily – Daily Express – carried a report with the headline “IDS boss dismisses Kit Siang’s claim as nonsense – Many KDMs hold key posts” to respond to me, which is reproduced below:
Najib cannot find real comfort in PKR’s agonizing self-cleansing process when his 1Malaysia concept and Barisan Nasional are in such tatters
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat, UMNO on Thursday, 4 March 2010, 11:55 am
UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders are fully exploiting the present turmoil in Pakatan Rakyat caused by the PKR’s agonizing self-cleansing process but the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak cannot find real comfort when his 1Malaysia slogan and concept – in less than a year – and the Barisan Nasional are in such tatters.
Only in today’s Sin Chew Daily, the Gerakan youth leader Lim Si Ping said that this is the best time for Gerakan to pull out of Barisan Nasional and that it is only by leaving Barisan that Gerakan can restore its dignity.
If Pakatan Rakyat is tottering on its last legs as pictured by the mainstream media (msm) in the past few days, such a thought would not have occurred to the Gerakan youth leader!
Nanyang Siang Pau today reported that the Prime Minister has issued an ultimatum to the three MCA warring factions to “ceasefire” within this month because of an imminent Cabinet reshuffle in April, leading to the latest speculation that the newest permutation in the “Three Kingdom” MCA battle will see a Chua-Liow vs Ong realignment.
It is not only the lesser Barisan Nasional parties who are chronically afflicted with fatal schisms like MIC and PPP, even the UMNO “Big Brother” is seriously fractured, with Najib’s authority weakening, instead of strengthening, by the day.
Read the rest of this entry »
Of crossing overs and cultural cancer
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, Pakatan Rakyat on Thursday, 4 March 2010, 9:00 am
By Azly Rahman
Should I cross over for those millions of ringgits?
That is a two million ringgit question.
How much does one get for ‘crossing over’ these days? I do not know. But if there are millions of ringgit involved, this nation will continue to rot as corrupt politicians continue switching allegiances, getting appointments to good positions, and making horrifying decisions for you and your children.
We must destroy this culture and heal anew.
We were convinced things will be better after the elections. We were sure that the revolution was going to benefit the masses and no party hopping would occur.
We are wrong. Things are getting more complex, in a complex time of rising prices.
Read the rest of this entry »
