Happy Chinese New Year of the Golden Tiger – make 13th general elections the great turning point for Malaysia

I wish all Malaysians a Happy Chinese New Year.

This is the second Chinese New Year after the historic political tsunami of the March 8, 2008 general elections which witnessed a paradigm shift in Malaysian political thinking and expectations.

What were never thought of as possible in the first five decades of nationhood have become common-place and are even in danger of being taken for granted.

All eyes and thoughts are focused on the next general elections – whether the 13th general elections will complete the process prepared by the 12th general elections for Malaysia to have a new ruling coalition in the seat of federal government in Putrajaya apart from the state government level.

The next general elections, whether in 2011 or 2012, will provide answers to many intriguing questions, including:

  • Whether the most famous political prophecy, RAHMAN on the first six Prime Ministers will be fully completed with Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the last UMNO Prime Minister?

  • Read the rest of this entry »

40 Comments

Will Najib now ask Umno executive secretary Abdul Rauf Yusoh to resign for doing a Nasir Safar at an Umno Club function in London?

The denial by Umno executive secretary Datuk Abdul Rauf Yusoh that he had made racist remarks at an Umno Club function in London a few days ago is most revealing for its self-incriminatory and confessional nature.

Rauf, who led an Umno delegation to London to meet with party members in a private closed-door meeting earlier this week was alleged to refer to non-Malays as “bangsa asing” who were trampling on the Malays in “Tanah Melayu”.

In a letter sent to The Malaysian Insider, Ahmad Naim Mazlan, a first-year finance and accounting student heard Rauf saying “Jangan biarkan bangsa asing pijak kepala kita.” (Don’t let the foreigners walk all over our heads.)

Ahmad Naim said in his letter:

“There was also a vigorous defence of Datuk Nasir Safar’s recent comments against non Malays which branded non Malays as beggars and prostitutes. According to one Umno Youth exco member present, those comments were not racist but quite contrarily, ‘just facts’….

“Throughout the session, non-Malays were treated as the enemy, and whilst they did praise Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, there was no mention of 1 Malaysia, unity or multiracial nation-building. During some moments in the session, they sounded nothing less than Vikings on the path to war — an Umno Youth exco said something to the effect of Umno willing to fight to the death the threats made by non-Malays. These threats were, strangely enough, never detailed….
Read the rest of this entry »

57 Comments

Muhyiddin’s Myths & Make-Believe

Bolehland’s economy is Stagnant, Shaky, Startling & Sliding
by Martin Jalleh

Deputy PM Muhyiddin Yassin tries very hard to make sense of what he says most of the time. When he fails to make sense he makes fun of those whom he criticises. He then constructs (make believe) his preferred reality of the country and ends up making the fool of himself.

In a report on Malaysia released at the end of January, the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) warned: “Events of the past month give the impression that pressures are building and the entire situation is becoming much more unstable”. Malaysia was “veering towards instability” (Malaysian Insider, 10 Feb. 2010).

The PERC reported that the impression that Malaysia has given since New Year’s Day was that the situation in the country is becoming increasingly unstable; a group of elite minorities were dominating the national agenda to the extent that it was hurting Malaysia’s attractiveness to investors; and it is “probable” that no other Asian country is suffering from as much bad press as Malaysia.

Among the developments that caught PERC’s attention were the theft of military jet engines; detention of terror suspects from a number of African and Middle East countries; warnings that Islamic militants were planning attacks on foreigners at resorts in Sabah; renewed ethnic and religious “violence” that included arson at some churches and desecration of mosques; and controversy over the integrity of key institutions like the judicial system in the sodomy trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Read the rest of this entry »

18 Comments

PDC Board Has Awarded The Open Tender Of Managing The Bukit Jambul Golf & Country Resort(BJCC) That Is Worth More Than RM 40 Million.

By Lim Guan Eng

The Penang Development Corporation (PDC) Board decided on 9 February 2010 to award the open tender of managing the BJCC to a company that is worth more than RM 40 million over 10 years. Full details of the tender award will be published after the Chinese New Year in accordance with CAT principles of Competency, Accountability and Transparency.

BJCC is run by Island Golf Properties Bhd(IGP), a PDC owned subsidiary company. At the present moment Bayan Baru MP Dato Seri Zahrain Mohd Hashim is still the Chairman of IGP. Zahrain has been the Chairman and Director of Island Golf Properties Bhd since 9th July 2008. PDC has informed me that no letter has been sent by either PDC or IGP to any director of IGP of any changes.

Certain actions and claims by Zahrain on the IGP has compelled PDC to monitor IGP closely to ensure that IGP is run in the public interest and in compliance with CAT principles. PDC has been concerned at how Zahrain was leading the IGP, when he and the IGP recommended on 12 January 2009 that the operations of the BJCC be outsourced and awarded to a RM 2 company.

PDC Board meeting on 10 February 2009 rejected Zahrain and IGP’s recommendation that the RM 2 company be selected. Instead the PDC Board agreed with the Chief Minister’s recommendation that a fresh open tender be called.
Read the rest of this entry »

25 Comments

Malaysia would have been spared the religious troubles of the past month if inter-religious dialogues had been institutionalized as an important aspect of nation-building in the past five decades

PR leaders at 1st Pakatan Rakyat hosted Inter-Religious Dialogue

The Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council decided on 31st January 2010 to convene tonight’s inter-religious dialogue because we believe that the overwhelming majority of Malaysians from all religions are men and women of good will and good sense who want religion to unite and not divide, to build and not to destroy, the nation.

During the course of the historic dialogue tonight, bringing together representatives from all the great religions in Malaysia to freely and frankly exchange views and share their common concerns for the best welfare of the country, I was struck by the thought that Malaysia would have been spared the religious troubles of the past month if inter-religious dialogues had been institutionalized as an important aspect of nation-building in the past five decades.

Bapa Malaysia and the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, established the Inter-Religious Organisation to provide a common platform to bring representatives of all religions together to work for the common good and it is most unfortunate that Tunku’s initiative was discarded in the past few decades.

Tonight’s inter-religious dialogue is a historic one. As Dr. Herman Shastri has said, the mechanism of trust has broken down and in our challenge and task to rebuild this mechanism of trust, regular inter-religious dialogues among the different faiths in the country plays an important part.
Read the rest of this entry »

26 Comments

What is Najib’s response to the PERC’s “blistering” report and the prospect of Malaysia becoming even more uncompetitive internationally because of his failing strategy to be “all things to all people”

Yesterday, I criticised the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for coming up with a wishy-washy “1Malaysia” concept, which has come to mean “a thousand and one” different things even to Umno and Barisan Ministers and leaders – resulting in his lament that “I am greatly saddened that such an idea, which is not terribly complicated, is so often not understood.

This criticism has found support in the latest report of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) on Malaysia which is quite pessimistic about the Najib strategy of “trying to be all things to all people, but in the end he might satisfy no one”.

In what Malaysian Insider has described as a “blistering report” on Malaysia at the end of January, PERC raised Malaysia’s risk index from 5.24 in December to 5.4 in January – out of a possible maximum score 10 for highest level of risk.

PERC maintained in its report that foreign investments into Malaysia have not been forthcoming, either in direct form or in the equity markets.

It said: “Foreign companies and investors are remaining cautious until they see how Malaysia gets its own house in order.”
Read the rest of this entry »

34 Comments

Justice is done in by the Federal Court

By Martin Jalleh
 
Once again justice is shamelessly sacrificed on the altar of political expediency by judicial shenanigans of the highest court in Bolehland. It is a sad day indeed to see how five “blind” men of supposed legal stature strove so hard not to see and sense what was staring at them in the Federal and Perak constitutions.
 
The judiciary – the very portal of justice continues to be reduced to a convenient playground for the ruling elite to legitimize their power grab, persecute their opponents and promote their political agenda, through the perversion of the rule of law by certain court jesters.

The Federal and Perak Constitutions are dead, done in by those who decided to disregard, desecrate and discard constitutional provisions to treat the doctrine of separation of powers with deference. They are rigorously and rightly interpreted only when it best suits Umno.
 
In stark comparison to the courageous, cogent and convincing judgment of High Court judge Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim, the cowed five-member bench caved in and conveniently decided to take the cue from the powers that be.
 
It comes as no surprise that their “collective written judgement is apparently riddled with contradictions”.The five judges surely qualify for retired Justice N H Chan’s classic category of “recalcitrant” and “Humpty Dumpty” judges in the Perak conundrum.
  Read the rest of this entry »

34 Comments

Najib’s 1Malaysia concept means “a thousand and one” different things even to Umno and BN Ministers and leaders

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is unhappy about the various misconceptions over the 1Malaysia concept which he introduced upon taking office in April last year, causing him to lament yesterday in his keynote speech at the 1Malaysia Economic Conference: “I am greatly saddened that such an idea, which is not terribly complicated, is so often not understood.”

Najib has only himself to blame as the 1Malaysia concept has come to mean “a thousand and one” different things even to Umno and Barisan Ministers and leaders – let alone to the people at large.

This is why even his senior aide of some two decades, Datuk Nasir Safar, could interpret Najib’s 1Malaysia as inclusive of offensive and insensitive sentiments such as:

  • Labelling Indians and Chinese in Malaysia as “pendatang”;

  • “Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese especially the women came to sell their bodies (jual tubuh)”;

  • Claimed that Umno was solely responsible in drafting the constitution sidelining the contribution of MCA and MIC;

  • Threat to revoke the citizenship of those vocal about the subject cap for SPM examination.

Read the rest of this entry »

52 Comments

Mandela-isation of Anwar?

by Azly Rahman

“Man proposes, god disposes”
Thomas a Kempis, ‘Of The Imitation of Christ’

While America awaits The Super Bowl, Malaysia awaits The Super Trial II this week to listen to the arguments concerning the predicament of Anwar Ibrahim.
Philosophically, what ought to be the shape of things to come? Where do we go from here, as a nation? Where do we wish to bring this nation that is in need of deep reflection on the meaning of nationhood and democracy?

Maturity after Mahathirism

If we take 1998 as a framework in looking at the changes this country is seeing politically, Anwar can be seen as an embodiment of Nelson Mandela.

His spirit did not die for the six years he was jailed and upon his release a momentum was created that grew in strength to first, become institutionalised in the form of a strong Parti Keadilan Rakyat and next, of Pakatan Rakyat.
Read the rest of this entry »

23 Comments

Malaysia has forgotten Tunku, and Tunku would not recognise Malaysia

By Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

Tunku Abdul Rahman was the founder of Malaysia. That has been obscured by an intervening period in which his memory has been brushed out of our national consciousness.

He brought together a Malaysia that had come together “through our own free will and desire in the true spirit of brotherhood and love of freedom”, in a union arrived at “by mutual consent by debate and discussion…through friendly argument and compromise,” and “in the spirit of co-operation and concord.”

This was the basis for Malaysia he worked for and established, and that his life embodied. That basis has been replaced by something alien to it, his memory has been suppressed, and our history revised.

Part of the reason our collective memory of Tunku has faded, and that Tunku would not recognise today’s Malaysia, is that Tunku and his generation built institutions that empowered the people rather than cults of personality to concentrate power and wealth in themselves. They reached instinctively for democratic decision-making. The concepts and precepts of constitutional democracy were part of their natural vocabulary and instinctive reactions. They knew who the country belonged to, and that they lived to serve.

The day of Tunku’s funeral was not even declared a public holiday. It is no accident that the erasure of his memory has gone hand in hand with the erosion of our institutions. Tunku built up a system of good civil service in which ordinary citizens did not need to see so-and-so to get things done. This has been replaced by a domineering style of leadership in which what you get done depends on who you know. Of course the rich and powerful have better connections.
Read the rest of this entry »

24 Comments

UMNO leaders in Federal Government should not play with fire and mortgage credibility and success of 1Malaysia GTP Roadmap and Malaysia 2.0 new economic model

UMNO leaders in the Federal Government, from the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to Cabinet and sub-Cabinet levels should not play with fire and mortgage the credibility and success of the 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Roadmap and Malaysia 2.0 new economic model yet to be announced by Najib.

They should be mindful that Malaysians and the world are watching whether they could separate their responsibilities as Federal Government officials from those of Umno leaders, which would have a great bearing on the credibility, trustworthiness and success of of Najib’s 1Malaysia GTP Roadmap and Malaysia 2.0 new economic model which is to be the basis for the Tenth Malaysia Plan to be presented to Parliament in June.

For instance, national and international credibility in the system of governance which plays a very important role in a country’s international competitiveness, would suffer grievously if Malaysians and the international community believe that the Najib premiership is unable to rise above narrow political party considerations to give top priority to national interests as to continue to compromise the independence, professionalism and integrity of national law enforcement agencies.
Read the rest of this entry »

9 Comments

Why the prosecution of Anwar Ibrahim matters to the West

The Washington Post

FEB 7 – In the past two years, Malaysia, which has been a one-party state since it gained independence in 1957, has made remarkable strides toward becoming a democracy. That it has done so is mostly due to the efforts and political talent of one man – Anwar Ibrahim.

So the fact that Anwar went on criminal trial last week should deeply concern the democratic world. The outcome could determine whether one of Asia’s most economically successful countries preserves its stability and embraces long-overdue reforms.

A former deputy prime minister in the ruling party, Anwar was deposed and jailed in 1998 by former Malaysian strongman Mahathir Mohamad.

A manifestly unfair trial followed in which Anwar was convicted of homosexual sodomy, which shamefully remains a crime in Malaysia.

Six years later, the conviction was overturned by a court, and Anwar resumed his political career – this time as an open champion of democracy in Malaysia and other Muslim countries.
Read the rest of this entry »

10 Comments

Towards A Developed Malaysia – Part 1

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 One of Six: Definition of A Developed State

Thank you, President Shahrir Tamrin of Kelab UMNO-NY/NJ for inviting me again. I still savor the many pleasant memories of last year’s event. To President Arif Aiman of the Malaysian Students Association, RIT, your warm welcome and generous introduction more than made up for the chill of a New York autumn! To Nur Fauzana and her committee, I congratulate you for your grit in holding this forum in December when American campuses are typically gripped with term paper deadlines and final examinations.

To fellow panelist Dr. Azly Rahman, it is good to see you again! I was in Greece recently and imagined you conducting a Socratic-like seminar on the meaning of truth, wisdom, and knowledge, under those imposing columns! To Ambassador Jarjis, it is a pleasure meeting you and your wife again. That was an impressive picture of you with President Obama, a portrait of a Malay hulubalang (knight), fearsome yet elegant, with his tanjak (keris) discreetly tucked underneath the samping. You effectively demonstrated that a genuine hulubalang need not brandish his keris to convey his message!
Read the rest of this entry »

20 Comments

How can Najib inspire confidence in Malaysia 2.0 new economic model when he has done nothing in past ten months to stop brain drain or achieve brain gain

When he became Prime Minister in early April last year, one of the first things Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced was a new economic model for the country to ensure Malaysia make a quantum leap to escape the middle-income trap to become a high-income country.

At first, this new economic model of Malaysia 2.0 was to be announced by the second half of last year, then delayed to January of the new year and now to the first quarter of the year.

In actual fact, the World Bank had recommended that Malaysia adopt a new economic model three years ago, stressing that industrial countries are already aiming for economic model 3.0, and with competition at economic model 1.0 intensifying, striving to achieve economic model 2.0 is not an option for Malaysia but a necessity.

The question is why the World Bank’s advice that Malaysia migrate to a new economic model 2.0 was ignored for three years, losing more precious time for Malaysia to catch up in the international competitiveness race when the country had become a straggler as compared to other countries.

When the country achieved nationhood in 1957, Malaysia was the second most economically-advanced country in Asia after Japan.
Read the rest of this entry »

36 Comments

Open Letter to ALL Pakatan MPs

Open letter by Emmanuel Joseph

Dear Few Pakatan Rakyat Elected Representative (You Know Who You Are)
Yang Berhormats,

I am writing this to vent my frustration, irritation, disgust, disbelief and anger on how many of you are acting recently. Its with sincerest and most honest intention that I am writing this, as a Pakatan grassroots ‘small fry’ member, who like the millions of Malaysians came out in full force to support you all when you were practically nobodies and put you where you are today, sitting in the highest decision making bodies in your own states and country respectively. Some of you were luckier than others, and been appointed to important government posts, some even head entire state governments. Congratulations, your long wait and tireless effort paid off. But please do kindly remember, it was not only your effort alone, but the effort and will of more than half the Malaysian electorate that put you where you are. You did not win entirely on your own charm, your education level, your profile in your respective fields of expertise or struggle. Frankly, most Malaysians who supported you did not even care who you were or what you did, as long as you were not donning a dark blue cap with a BN logo on it. That is the reason we had aircraft mechanics voted into power in the last General Election.

The next time any of you decide to foam in the mouth about lack of funding, lack of resources and other similar grumbles, please bear in mind these few facts. Firstly, you stood for the election on your own free will. Nobody put a gun on your foreheads asking you to run for elections, nobody begged you to contest. Out of your own reasons, rightly or wrongly you stood, representing the people, and because of that, the people rallied behind you and riding on this, you were catapulted into where you now are. Secondly, others have had far less than you, suffered much more than you and been doing it for far longer. Take a look at the likes of YB Dr Tan Seng Giaw, YB Fong Kui Loon, YB Dr Wan Azizah, YB Mustafa Ali, YB Nasharuddin Mat Isa and many more. Read the rest of this entry »

38 Comments

Twitter exchange – Anwar’s Sodomy 2 and NEM

02/06/2010 06:54 PM
limkitsiang
: @saiwanstar Journos owned by politicians shld not talk high and mighty about “NEM is 2 impt to leave 2 politics n politicians”.

02/06/2010 06:49 PM
limkitsiang
: @saiwanstar “NEM is 2impt to leave 2 politics n politicians” – Najib n MCA Ministers not “politicians”? Star owned by MCA – so? Warped logic

02/06/2010 06:46 PM
limkitsiang
: @saiwanstar “I agree with u tht sodomy 2 ws a fixed up but …” who said this? Backing off so quickly? Deny when cornered?

02/06/2010 06:38 PM
saiwanstar
: @limkitsiang Don’t recall ever saying who fixed sodomy 2 did I? :) no bullseye uncle lim. NEM is 2 impt to leave 2 politics n politicians.

02/06/2010 06:21 PM
limkitsiang
: @saiwanstar Y classic mca kneejerk allegation dap will sabo d country’s economy? U have sole claim 2patriotism? U owe public apology
Read the rest of this entry »

10 Comments

Stop Anwar Sodomy2 trial if Najib is serious about Malaysia 2.0 new economic model …

In his 2010 New Year Message issued on 31st December 2009, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak forecast that Malaysia will emerge stronger in 2010 with the long-term as well as short and medium-term initiatives taken by the Government.

However, Malaysia has becoming weaker instead of stronger whether in terms of national unity or in international competitiveness since the first day of the new year.

The first month of the new year was marred by irresponsible mischief to create inter-religious discord over the Dec. 31 judgment of the Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Datuk Lau Bee Lan lifting the 2007 Home Ministry ban on the Catholic Church weekly Herald and allowing the use of the word “Allah” in its Bahasa Malaysia version – with a spate of desecration of churches, mosques, surau and Sikh Gurdwara.

As a result, Malaysia’s international image and standing suffered unprecedented battering in the first month of the year, aggravating Malaysia’s crisis of confidence, undermining Malaysia’s international competitiveness and tarnishing Malaysia as a safe and secure haven for FDIs and as an ideal location for tourists and students.
Read the rest of this entry »

27 Comments

Malaysia on trial along with Anwar

By Barry Wain | The Age, Australia

The last time Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was charged with sodomy, the country’s judicial system was on trial. This time around, the stakes are even higher.

If Anwar is convicted, in a case that opened in Kuala Lumpur’s High Court on Tuesday, Malaysians can wave goodbye to the best chance of developing a two-party political system in more than half a century.

It will also end any real prospect of Malaysia extricating itself from corrosive race-based politics, and signal the former British territory’s continued descent into self-destructive extremism.

Over the past two years, the charismatic Anwar, 62, has achieved what many analysts thought was impossible. He has tacked together three disparate political parties and formed a credible – if still fragile – opposition, representing hope for a multiracial future.
Read the rest of this entry »

41 Comments

No McCarthyism but disband BTN which had produced a generation of Nasir Safars with racist brain-washing making it the biggest enemy of Najib’s 1Malaysia campaign

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday tried to mitigate the Nasir Safar outrage claiming that it could have been “a slip of the tongue” (New Straits Times).

If so, it is a very big slip or Nasir has got a big tongue when he could in one gulp make so many offensive, insensitive and anti-1Malaysia utterances as:

  • Labelling Indians and Chinese in Malaysia as “pendatang”;

  • “Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese especially the women came to sell their bodies (jual tubuh)”;

  • Claimed that Umno was solely responsible in drafting the constitution sidelining the contribution of MCA and MIC;

  • Threat to revoke the citizenship of those vocal about the subject cap for SPM examination.

Clearly, it cannot be a madness of a moment, but madness for many moments!

Although the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had been very quick and prompt in damage-control, getting Nasir to resign within 12 hours of the outrage on Tuesday and declaring that the Nasir episode should be “a lesson to all” to be racially sensitive, Najib must admit that the greatest casualty is his 1Malaysia campaign.
Read the rest of this entry »

25 Comments

There they go again

The opposition leader treads a familiar path into the dock
Feb 4th 2010 | BANGKOK | From The Economist print edition

SLINGING mud at opponents is a staple of most democracies, even if voters might prefer a more sensible debate. In Malaysia, a prudish, majority-Muslim country, it seems that nothing succeeds quite like below-the-belt personal attacks. For Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader and former deputy prime minister, who went on trial this week accused of sodomising a young male aide, the tactic is wearily familiar. In 1998 he was charged with the same crime, found guilty and jailed. Exonerated and freed, he has staged a comeback that another conviction might jeopardise.

Much has changed in Malaysia since Mr Anwar last took the stand. His nemesis, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who presided over his downfall, has retired, if not exactly gracefully or quietly. The once-mighty United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which leads a 13-party multiracial governing coalition, looks increasingly vulnerable at a future election. A judiciary that was seen as beholden to its political masters has begun to assert its independence, and has sided with free-speech plaintiffs in prickly faith-related cases.

That independence will be put to the test in “Sodomy 2.0”, as Malaysia’s press has taken to calling Mr Anwar’s trial. His lawyers have pressed for the disclosure of prosecution evidence, including medical reports of the accuser, Saiful Bukhari. Read the rest of this entry »

12 Comments