xBlog ☪ Sociopolitics

PKR confident of good run in Kedah

Ted Torrence — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:30:10 PST

With the 13th general election looming, Kedah PKR hopes to settle its dispute with the DAP over seat allocations.

ALOR STAR: Kedah PKR hopes to resolve its lingering dispute with DAP over the allocation of electoral seats within the next few days when both parties are likely to agree to swap seats.
The move may upset a few local warlords but it aims to enhance Pakatan Rakyat's chances of retaining the state.
PKR had earlier reached an agreement with PAS, the dominant party in Kedah, for a status quo on their seat allocations. But with the DAP, it is a headache because of the presence of warlords.
Besides, the DAP does not trust the local PKR leaders.
Sensing that the 13th general election is looming near, Kedah PKR liaison committee chairman Wan Salleh Wan Isa said he would seek a confirmation and a mandate from PKR supreme leader Anwar Ibrahim to resolve the seat allocation issue now.
"We hope to discuss it at our national-level PKR meeting. We will make an announcement later."
Wan Salleh, a former senior immigration officer, alleged that certain quarters have blown out of context the dispute between DAP and PKR over the seat allocations here.
Kedah DAP has asked for two parliamentary and six states seats for the coming election, its state chairman Lee Guan Aik, who is also the Kota Darulaman assemblyman, was reported as saying.
It is seeking the federal seats of Padang Serai and Alor Star as well as six state seats – Kota Darulaman and Bakar Bata (Alor Star), Lunas (Padang Serai), Gurun (Jerai), Bakar Arang (Sungai Petani) and Derga (Pokok Sena).
Most of the seats mentioned have substantial Chinese voters and DAP is confident of delivering their votes and would then count on PKR and PAS to produce a sizeable number of Malay and Indian support.
Of the seats DAP wants, only two are currently held by Barisan Nasional (BN) incumbents, and they are Bakar Bata and Gurun.
There are 36 state seats in Kedah of which BN has 14 while 20 are held by Pakatan Rakyat while another two (Bakar Arang and Lunas) are held by Independents.
The KUIN issue
There is also the controversy surrounding Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak (PAS) over his handling of the suspension of undergraduates from a state-owned religious institution of higher learning (KUIN).
To this, Wan Salleh said certain PKR leaders or academicians may have their own views, but Kedah PKR enjoys an excellent relationship with Azizan despite the latter's insistence to uphold the suspension of four KUIN students.
PKR suffered a political setback when its assemblymen for Bakar Arang, Tan Wei Shu, and Lunas' Mohd Razhi Salleh as well as parliamentarians N Gobalakrishnan of Padang Serai and Zulkifli Nordin of Kulim-Bandar Baharu left the party to become Independents.
Political observer Jason Wong says that Kedah is poised to become a battleground in the next election largely because Pakatan does not enjoy a two-thirds majority in the State Legislative Assembly.
He said that Azizan has to tread carefully, as he does not want to antagonise the influential Kedah Malay customs civil service, the Malay royalty, as well as former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Mahathir's legacy to Kedah, particularly in Jitra and Langkawi, cannot be simply overlooked despite Pakatan portraying him in a bad light, Wong said.
Wan Salleh said that Kedah Pakatan is stronger than ever and has often held discussions to resolve disputes over the state government's administrative style or its policies.
However, it is learnt that some in PKR support a proposal for Azizan to rest now since he is suffering from cronic ailments.
"They feel that Azizan needs to rebound fast and be sharp enough to take on BN in the next election. To do it, he has to either recover fast, or make way for other PAS leaders," an insider said.

NFC Directors Laughing All The Way To The Bank

Ted Torrence — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:00:11 PST

Hantu Laut

No personal guarantee!

The giver of the loan should now carry the burden of responsibility to the taxpayers.If this isn't abuse of the first order what would you call it? It's not the recipient fault if the government acted so stupidly.Those involved in giving out the loan should also be investigated.

It is now clear why the money was used for what it is not intended for.This soft loan is softer than soft, it is as good as giving the money away for free.

"The loan agreement has been signed. If we don't pay back, we will be declared bankrupt or locked up in jail. We will pay every sen plus interest. The question of misappropriation does not arise," said Wan Shahinur Izmir, who is minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's son.

Come on man! Are you kidding? How is the government going to sue you personally for recovery of the loan if you did not sign personal guarantee?

My company had borrowed tens of millions before from banks and all directors were made to sign "Joint and Several Guarantee" If the company folded and can't pay up the loans, the directors are fully liable for the amount including all interests and if they failed to make good the banks would declare every director a bankrupt.

The government, probably, can charge the directors for CBT (Criminal Breach of Trust), which, sometimes, is difficult to prove in a mismanagement.

Misappropriation is a crime, mismanagement is not.Buying properties under the company's name for investment or even to house working directors is also not a crime, it becomes a crime only if they are in your personal name using company's fund to purchase.It would also not be a crime if the company gave you a housing loan duly approved by the BOD (Board of Directors).

You see, whichever way the government is going to be the biggest loser if the project failed.
Read the full story here.

PKR confident of good run in Kedah

Hawkeye — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:39:07 PST

ALOR STAR: Kedah PKR hopes to resolve its lingering dispute with DAP over the allocation of electoral seats within the next few days when both parties are likely to agree to swap seats.

The move may upset a few local warlords but it aims to enhance Pakatan Rakyat’s chances of retaining the state.

PKR had earlier reached an agreement with PAS, the dominant party in Kedah, for a status quo on their seat allocations. But with the DAP, it is a headache because of the presence of warlords.

Besides, the DAP does not trust the local PKR leaders.

Sensing that the 13th general election is looming near, Kedah PKR liaison committee chairman Wan Salleh Wan Isa said he would seek a confirmation and a mandate from PKR supreme leader Anwar Ibrahim to resolve the seat allocation issue now.

“We hope to discuss it at our national-level PKR meeting. We will make an announcement later.”

Wan Salleh, a former senior immigration officer, alleged that certain quarters have blown out of context the dispute between DAP and PKR over the seat allocations here.

Kedah DAP has asked for two parliamentary and six states seats for the coming election, its state chairman Lee Guan Aik, who is also the Kota Darulaman assemblyman, was reported as saying.

It is seeking the federal seats of Padang Serai and Alor Star as well as six state seats – Kota Darulaman and Bakar Bata (Alor Star), Lunas (Padang Serai), Gurun (Jerai), Bakar Arang (Sungai Petani) and Derga (Pokok Sena).

Most of the seats mentioned have substantial Chinese voters and DAP is confident of delivering their votes and would then count on PKR and PAS to produce a sizeable number of Malay and Indian support.

Of the seats DAP wants, only two are currently held by Barisan Nasional (BN) incumbents, and they are Bakar Bata and Gurun.

There are 36 state seats in Kedah of which BN has 14 while 20 are held by Pakatan Rakyat while another two (Bakar Arang and Lunas) are held by Independents.

The KUIN issue

There is also the controversy surrounding Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak (PAS) over his handling of the suspension of undergraduates from a state-owned religious institution of higher learning (KUIN).

To this, Wan Salleh said certain PKR leaders or academicians may have their own views, but Kedah PKR enjoys an excellent relationship with Azizan despite the latter’s insistence to uphold the suspension of four KUIN students.

PKR suffered a political setback when its assemblymen for Bakar Arang, Tan Wei Shu, and Lunas’ Mohd Razhi Salleh as well as parliamentarians N Gobalakrishnan of Padang Serai and Zulkifli Nordin of Kulim-Bandar Baharu left the party to become Independents.

Political observer Jason Wong says that Kedah is poised to become a battleground in the next election largely because Pakatan does not enjoy a two-thirds majority in the State Legislative Assembly.

He said that Azizan has to tread carefully, as he does not want to antagonise the influential Kedah Malay customs civil service, the Malay royalty, as well as former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Mahathir’s legacy to Kedah, particularly in Jitra and Langkawi, cannot be simply overlooked despite Pakatan portraying him in a bad light, Wong said.

Wan Salleh said that Kedah Pakatan is stronger than ever and has often held discussions to resolve disputes over the state government’s administrative style or its policies.

However, it is learnt that some in PKR support a proposal for Azizan to rest now since he is suffering from cronic ailments.

“They feel that Azizan needs to rebound fast and be sharp enough to take on BN in the next election. To do it, he has to either recover fast, or make way for other PAS leaders,” an insider said.

Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #98

M. Bakri Musa — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:22:38 PST

Chapter 12: A Prescription For Malaysia

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister

May 13, 2000

Dear Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, MBBS, SPMJ, DSDK, DP(Sarawak), DUPN, DKNS, SPCM, SPDK, SPNS, SSMT, DUK, DK(I), PIS, DK(Perlis), FICS(Hon), SSAP, DK(Kelantan):

I do hope that I have all your titles correct and honorifics up to date. It was so much easier in the old days when you were simply Dr. Mahathir! You seem invigorated lately by the West’s belated recognition of your considerable leadership qualities. While President Bush and others may have been slow in recognizing your talent, rest assured that for many Malaysians, your place in our history books is secure.

No segment of the populace has benefited more from your able leadership than Malays. It must therefore pain you immensely to see in the twilight of your career to have Malays turning against you. You may eerily wonder whether your fate might be like that of your predecessor, Tunku Abdul Rahman. He led the country peacefully to independence; despite that he was later hounded out of office and then ignominiously ignored. The old man later bitterly lamented that even the nation’s history books did not mention his name in recounting its path to freedom. It would be sad indeed were you to share Tunku’s destiny, a man you so mercilessly tormented 30 years ago. The irony would be providential.

The world has changed since the 9/11 terrorists’ attack, and not just in America. Whereas Americans once severely berated you for jailing those extremists, today those same leaders are lauding you for your decisive actions. You rightly see through their hypocrisy, but this time you were smart enough not vocalize it. Obviously to the West, preventive detention and other flagrant abuses of human rights and due process are fine as long as the targets are anti-Western elements.

On your part, you crow about how America is learning a thing or two from Malaysia by adopting some of the elements of the ISA in its new Patriot Act. I disagree with your assessment. The Patriot Act is meant for foreigners, not Americans; the ISA on the other hand is directed against our own citizens. In your enthusiasm for what you think you can teach America, you have missed this essential difference.

As leader you have given the nation much-needed direction, a vision. Your Vision 2020 aimed at turning Malaysia into a developed and moral society is truly, well, visionary. Unlike many leaders who are consumed with shouting one slogan after another, much like the leader caricatured in Shahnon Ahmad’s short story Ungkapan (Sloganeering), you have backed up your vision with careful planning and concrete proposals. Indeed I would argue, too much planning and too specific a proposal. There are dangers to both. Let me elaborate.

In the mid 1970s the City of Edmonton, Canada, was planning a massive suburban development. The city planners did something unusual. Instead of planning every detail they merely drew up conceptual drawings. They began filling in the details as development progressed. Instead of building expensive sidewalks and pedestrian paths immediately as was the usual practice for example, the planners left empty spaces. A year after the residents had moved in, the natural pathways that they had chosen would become obvious and the city would then pave them. Thus it avoided paving sidewalks that would rarely be used.

The lesson here is that we cannot always anticipate accurately everything; we must therefore be flexible and ready to modify our plans with changing conditions and on the feedback. In short, we should “plan for the unplanned.”

I am skeptical of elaborate plans; the more detailed they are the more detached they would be from reality. I have never been impressed with Malaysia’s multitude of Five Year Plans. They have a faint Soviet odor about them. The Seventh Malaysia Plan that began in 1995 was quickly reduced to irrelevance by the economic crisis of 1997.

It is naïve to think that every governmental activity could be forced into the same five-year time frame. Five years would be an eternity when dealing with Information Technology. On the other hand for education, a five-year span is too short. Policies on such an important issue as education must never be changed on a whim. The same is true of economic and trade policies. Investors want stability when making long-term investments. It would be smarter for each department or sector to have its own short- and long-term plans, with the time frame to be determined independently.

Thus instead of a flurry of meetings consuming the entire government machinery to the exclusion of its regular work and responsibility, have few select committees or commissions to study and recommend what the long-term missions are in specific areas like trade and education, and then develop the short-term plans to reach or achieve those goals in steps.

Having said that, I am still cautious and skeptical of central planning. The problem with Malays today is that our lives have been over-planned. We have been told to this and that, and then later reversed to that and this. In the end nothing works. We were told that our culture and values hinder us in the modern world, and then told to celebrate and hold high our heritage and ideals. We were told to ignore English and to use our Malay language instead, only to be later told on the importance of English. We are urged to pursue the sciences and yet we do not reward those who do take up the challenge. No wonder our people are confused. We have been yanked back and forth too many times.

As I have never believed that a committee or planning commission can achieve anything meaningful, I set forth my own ideas with a view that they would be a starting point for a national dialogue. Over the long term Malaysia must commit to joining the global mainstream, and be an active and contributing participant. We must recognize the inevitability of globalization and the further spread of free enterprise.

We must also recognize that these two trends would continue to evolve. A generation hence they will assume far different and better forms than what they are today. If we do not embrace them now, it would be that much more difficult to adjust later when we would inevitably be forced to join the mainstream.

Additionally we should commit to the ideals of a civil and moral society, and strive to be one. By this I mean a society that values individual rights and freedom; is ruled by law and civil institutions, and respectful of the differences among us. Like globalization and free enterprise, the detailed form and shape of a civil society will continue to evolve, modified by time and culture, but the sooner we embrace the concept the better we will be. It should not surprise us to discover that the ideals of a civil society as envisioned by civil libertarians in the West are also very much the ideals celebrated in Islam.

As a nation we are now closing in on our fifth decade. We have come a long away. We are a far different society today than we were a generation ago, in no small measure due to your enlightened leadership. The assumptions we have of ourselves then are no longer valid today, so too are our policies that were based on those assumptions. We need new strategies to meet fresh challenges.

Without being presumptuous I suggest six specific areas we should concentrate on in preparing our citizens for this new reality.

• Embrace the reality of globalization, free trade, and capitalism
• Enhance the competitiveness of all Malaysians
• Strengthen our laws and civil institutions
• Buttress our social fabric and safety net
• Optimize our natural attributes
• Empower our people

By committing to globalization we are sending a clear message not only to our citizens but also the world that Malaysia is now adopting international or universal standards. We no longer accept that being “good enough for Malaysia” is good enough. We are already doing many of these things. There is however, a significant difference in doing something grudgingly or because we have to, and doing it because we are committed to the ideals. It is all in the attitude, or as we say in our faith, the niat.

Right from the very beginning Malaysia wisely eschewed socialism, although we have not shied away from massive state interventions in the private sector. Initially the rationale was to achieve social and racial equity, but like so many government initiatives, these programs have a life and momentum of their own. Thus even though they have proven to be not the most effective ways of addressing the problems as well as their massive price tags, nonetheless they have persisted and expanded though sheer momentum.

You insist that the “commanding heights” and strategic sectors of the economy be under local or even public control, in the belief that they are too important to be left in the private sector or foreign hands. I disagree. I have no qualms were Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and our giant utility companies like Tenaga Nasional and Telekom Malaysia be controlled by foreigners.

The job of our government should be to ensure that we have enough trained Malaysians to be their executives, professionals, and technicians. There is no point in MAS being government-owned if it is a drain on the Treasury or if its local managers are incompetent. Our precious and limited resources ought to be diverted away from owning these expensive companies and instead directed towards developing our most precious asset: our people. Once we have an abundance of trained and capable personnel then it would be easy for us to start our own local ventures. What you are now doing is putting the cart before the horse. That has never worked and never will.

Your ambitious Multimedia Super Corridor project bogs down for lack of competent personnel. Your preoccupation with and frequent harping on the Bumiputra and non-Bumiputra rivalry is shortsighted and counter productive. We should make all Malaysians competitive. We should look upon each other not in terms of the Bumupitra and non-Bumiputra dichotomy, rather as potential clients, customers, and business partners. We would achieve this best under free enterprise. To a businessperson it does not matter where his profits come from: locally from his own kind or from foreigners.

Next: Embracing Globalization

APA DAH JADI NI: ROSMAH LEBIH KELAS DARI NAJIB!!

Drs. Harun — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:35:31 PST

Gosip Rosmah di tangan wartawan gay

Sebilangan orang meremehkan ruangan gosip di akhbar Australia yang mendedahkan babak awal percutian perdana menteri dan isterinya Rosmah Mansor.

Apatah lagi wartawan yang mengulas perbelanjaan A$100,000 (RM325,000) itu seorang gay -- istilah yang dicemuh di negara ini.

Jika seseorang itu pro-kerajaan dan simpati pada Rosmah, dua fakta ini sudah cukup melucutkan kewibawaan maklumat yang disampaikan di harian Sydney Morning Herald minggu lepas.

Mungkin mereka sendiri sudah terlupa atau tidak menyedari bahawa dakwaan liwat Anwar Ibrahim sendiri bermula dari keratan kecil kolum gosip sebuah majalah hiburan popular pada 1997.

Pemimpin majalah itu pula, walaupun bawah payung kumpulan media yang akrab dengan Umno, seorang yang mempunyai orientasi seks tertentu (jika gay tidak sesuai).

Beberapa bulan sebelum buku 50 Dalil muncul pada awal 1998, keratan kecil ini cukup menjadi bahan wartawan memburu berita dengan cuba mengesahkan dakwaan itu daripada mulut perdana menteri ketika itu Dr Mahathir Mohamad sendiri.

Lihatlah bagaimana keratan kecil gosip itu berkembang menjadi episod politik yang maha dahsyat dan kes mahkamah yang maha gempar kemudiannya.

Perbandingan ini tidaklah membawa maksud gosip lebih benar daripada buku; atau kes mahkamah Anwar kemudiannya lebih palsu daripada dakwaan Dr Mahathir.

Ia hanya menjelaskan satu unjuran peristiwa bahawa gosip di media -- walau dianggap remeh dan layak dipedulikan oleh orang yang rendah akalnya -- boleh mendatangkan malapetaka politik suatu hari nanti.

Setidak-tidaknya malapetaka kepada Anwar dan penyokongnya -- termasuk pemimpin kumpulan media yang menerbitkan keratan kecil gosip tersebut!

(ii)

Ruangan 'Private Sydney' kelolaan Andrew Hornery bukan sahaja membongkar beberapa babak awal tabiat berbelanja Rosmah, ia juga menceritakan ke mana pergi suaminya Najib Abdul Razak dan gelagatnya sewaktu bercuti di kota besar itu.

Dengan dukungan maklumat blog Frockwriter, yang menjadi sandaran Hornery, peminat politik dapat mengintai di sebalik tabir kehidupan santai pasangan pertama negara ini.

Episod ini belum dibahaskan media secukupnya.

Fokus utama setakat ini -- termasuk penjelasan pereka fesyen Carl Kapp -- malah mendedahkan lagi sisi-sisi Rosmah yang sedia dicurigai ramai.

Reaksi Najib terhadap Kapp dan pereka fesyen Itali kegemaran ahli parlimen Pekan sewaktu berbual di penthouse semahal A$20,000 (RM65,100) semalam belum dibicarakan.

Media sendiri, termasuk Malaysiakini, setakat ini gagal mengesahkan daripada tuan punya badan. Apakah wajar seorang perdana menteri mendapat kemudahan seperti itu dan berapa kerap perbelanjaan dikeluarkan untuk kemudahan seumpamanya?

Jika media gagal mendapatkannya sekarang, mungkin tiba giliran ahli-ahli Dewan Rakyat membangkitkannya dalam persidangan Mac depan.

Kalau gagal juga di Dewan Rakyat, nampaknya hanya si isteri yang bakal menanggung cemuhan sedangkan sang suami yang memegang jawatan awam tertinggi ghaib daripada radar muhasabah rakyat.

Tidakkah ia berat sebelah dan ganjil?

(iii)

Rosmah, sebagai pendamping perdana menteri, sengaja mencari status selebriti.

Sebagai wanita pertama, status itu sepatutnya datang secara alami; bukan direkayasa melalui penampilan berlebihan di media arus perdana.

Namun Rosmah ingin menonjol sebagai ikon besar wanita; bukan sekadar selebriti biasa.

Kadang-kadang imej Rosmah jauh ke depan daripada ketua Wanita BN sendiri, jawatan kanan dalam kerajaan dan parti, sehingga Shahrizat Abdul Jalil kelihatan sekadar bayang-bayang isteri Najib.

Mujurlah muncul isu National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) dan keriuhan projek lembunya di Gemas -- dapatlah menteri berkenaan mencuri perhatian rakyat.

Di awal penonjolannya, Rosmah tidak menyedari ia telah meresahkan media apabila hampir setiap hari akhbar dan TV terpaksa memberitakan kegiatan, foto atau kenyataannya.

Remeh-temeh melayan karenah Rosmah dalam usahanya mendapatkan liputan di media sudah menjadi gosip tidak bertulis di kalangan barisan wartawan arus perdana sejak 2009, awal-awal Najib memegang tampuk kepemimpinan negara.

Penonjolan itu juga sekali gus membangkitkan rasa ingin tahu luar biasa pengguna media, yang juga pengundi dan rakyat negara ini.

Dan akibatnya -- seperti lumrah nasib semua manusia yang berkuasa, terkenal dan elitis -- ikon ini menjadi sasaran intipan dan umpatan ramai, termasuk ahli politik dan media.

Semakin besar penonjolannya, semakin ghairah pula rakyat bawahan ingin menyelak misteri kekuasaan, keelitan dan pengaruh Rosmah. Ibarat selebriti Barat dengan paparazzinya!

Jadi media, sebagai saluran popular komunikasi antara elit dan rakyat bawahan, tidak mempunyai banyak pilihan kecuali memburu dan terus memburu ikon besar itu.

Sehingga? Sehingga semuanya lenyap daripada radar awam dan ikon atau selebriti baru pula muncul.

Fathi Aris Omar yang bertugas sebagai ketua pengarang di Malaysiakini.

Malay matters in the nation’s future

Hornbill Unleashed — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:00:22 PST

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin’s challenge to the DAP to provide figures on the number of Malays joining the ranks of this centre-left party, not to mention Professor Khoo Kay Kim’s rather jaundiced view of Malay leftist as “non-freedom fighters”, is further evidence of the party’s desperate need to define what it means to be Malay, both historically and in the present.

Umno’s continuing efforts at creating the perception of a monolithic Malay polity has veered from the insidiously sophisticated to the downright crude.

Every facet of Malay life as projected by the state’s media propaganda organs has been to present the image of the Malays as a unified voting block raging against the liberal foreign ideas of the DAP, the eroding Islamic ideals of PAS or the immorality of Anwar Ibrahim.

There is a reason why there is a state-sanctioned method of practicing Islam. There is a reason for the morality police. There is a reason for apostasy laws. There is a reason for marriage laws.

There is a reason why other religions are demonised. There is a reason why the Malay population has been indoctrinated to fear their fellow Malaysians. And the reason for this is simple.

What Umno desires, and has received for so many years, is total submission from the sizeable majority of the Malay population.

The recent Christian conversion controversy – that Christian proselytising is against the law in a supposedly multiethnic and multi-religious country is further evidence of the ruling regime’s fear of not only the diminishment of the role Islam in the public and private lives of Malays but their control of it – implies that a certain segment of the Malay population is not getting any part of the largesse that is supposed to trickle down to them and that they are more then willing to seek elsewhere the assistance they need.

Racial card not exclusively Malays

It has of course gone to ridiculous extremes as in the recent NFC (National Feedlot Corporation) fiasco where Ibrahim Ali and his ilk (bolstered by the right-wing state-controlled Malay mainstream press) suggest that an issue of corruption is really an issue of race and a racial provocation against the Malay community.

The fact that the alleged whistleblower has been identified as a non-Malay is par for the course in this country’s national political debate.

And let us (non-Malays) not assume the high road because we, too, have played the same racial card when it comes to the shenanigans of non-Malay political parties.

In any other functional democracy an investigation into a case of corporate and governmental malfeasance would be handled with the utmost impartial diligence or at least that’s the perception the powers-that-be would attempt to convey but here, the fact that the state responded in its usual fear-mongering fashion is an overt threat to non-Malays that they should never attempt to impose any accountability on the government or its financial policies, less they inadvertently start a racial incident.

However, these tactics are fast becoming obsolete since it was a predominantly Malay political party with the vocal backing of its non-Malay allies that first exposed this scandal and the very real fractures within the Malay community that Umno for so very long has been trying to hide or stamp out is being given expression on the national stage.

Professor Khoo’s interpretative stance when it comes to the contributions of the Malay left to the independence of this country may favour the Umno narrative but what the current debate proves is that the Malays even then were not some sort of monolithic entity bound by the same political ideology unlike what our state-coddled history professors teach us.

Professor Khoo uses the tired old clichés of communism (anti-religion) and world domination (conveniently forgetting that we were a British colony) to misinterpret a polychromatic Malay left to bolster the narrative that only the Umno-led coalition and the so-called social contract ensured our independence and political and social stability.

Constitutionally-created Malays

Readers’ interested in a sympathetic perspective of the diverse nature of the Malay left of a pre- and post-colonial Malaya should read Said Zahari’s memoir, ‘Dark Clouds at Dawn‘, to understand how even elements in the British colonial establishment considered a paper likeUtusan Melayu a “pinko” or “red” newspaper, a charge vigorously denied by then editor Zahari.

The very fact that a certain segment of the Malay-Muslim population were not hostile to the so-called liberal concepts of self-determination, social justice and fair play – as though such concepts are anathema to Islam – is evidence enough of the ideologically diverse nature of a pre-independence Malay community. A community as yet infected by the propaganda of BTN (Biro Tatanegara) and the stranglehold of a federal government.

If the concept of what constitutes a Malay is complex historically with different connotations of culture as exemplified by the various different traditions and mindsets of various states, is added to these days’ constitutionally-created Malays, the mix becomes more explosive.

As I have argued before, the concept of Malay has changed so dramatically over the years through the social engineering agenda of Umno, these days it would be easier for the divergent forms of political and religious ideologies which manifest in the Malay community, to further fracture the concept of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ and in the end, the Umno choke hold.

The shortsightedness in the creation of constitutionally-created Malays will have severe repercussions on Umno and in the end, the country.

For the former, it will be the gradual erosion of influence of the so-called “authentic Malay”, a topic of conversation that seems to be de rigueur in the hushed confines of the mosques but more importantly, the corridors of power.

The not-so-recent inclusion of Malaysian Muslim Congress (Kima) as a non-voting member of Umno is like the recognition bestowed on an unwanted child born out of wedlock.

Possible sectarian violence

And let’s not forget the Indonesians, Burmese and Filipinos that have been granted the status of Malays outside the Umno-controlled peninsula and we have a situation pregnant with the possibility of some sort of national renunciation.

Meanwhile, the Orang Asli who have long been denied the benefits and privileges accorded to the bumiputera, will continue to be ignored by mainstream political parties until they organise into a cohesive political force which would further tensions within the Malay community.

The consequences for the country will of course be dire. Not only will there be sectarian violence within the Malay community but most probably as has been documented in various parts of the Muslim world, the nature of the conflict will be religious based.

If we are lucky it would be between two extremes, but the reality will probably be that non-Malays will either have to leave this country or latch on to whichever side that offers the least subservient role.

Khairy and indeed others of his temperament should be concerned of the fact that more Malays could be embracing the DAP.

This demonstrates that they feel no affinity for the religious brand of politics favoured by PAS or the strong whiff of Umno-ism emanating from PKR.

They have chosen a third, more secular route. Now, by no means does this mean that they are abandoning their religious world view, merely that they don’t see their Islamic perspective threatened by the political framework of the DAP.

The Banality of Corporate Evil: Bill Gates & Monsanto

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:22:00 PST

Some rights reserved © Antares/Magick River You may borrow and/or modify content for your own blog but please credit and backlink, thanks.

Action: Vote UndiMsia! For The WBSM Awards 2012

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:43:51 PST

Vote UndiMsia! – only if you think the movement is worth your vote.

It has just come to our attention that a kind soul nominated UndiMsia! for the World Bloggers & Social Media Awards 2012 under the category “Best Social Media Campaign of the Year – Malaysia” via the only blawg, LoyarBurok. Thank you and we are grateful.

It is said that the awards “are the supreme testament to the stunning achievements in all verticals connected with blogging and social media” set to “highlight the work of some of the best from the social media fraternity of global and local social media practitioners”.

Do go online and vote UndiMsia! by taking these steps – if you think the movement deserves it. Online voting ends 6 February 2012. See you at the event!

Tuduhan pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO jelas palsu

(author unknown) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:08:12 PST

Kenyataan media oleh Zairil Khir Johari di Kuala Lumpur pada hari Ahad, 29^hb Januari 2012:

Tuduhan pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO jelas palsu

Isu penyertaan beberapa orang Melayu ke dalam DAP baru-baru ini sedang hangat dibicarakan, terutama sekali di kalangan pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO yang seolah-olah teruja dengan perkara yang sebenarnya tidaklah luar biasa sangat.

Yang terbaru, Timbalan Presiden UMNO Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin sendiri telah menyindir bahawa DAP tidak pernah membela kepentingan orang Melayu, manakala Ketua Puteri UMNO pula menuduh Kerajaan Negeri Pulau Pinang menganaktirikan masyarakat Melayu di sana.

Tuduhan pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO ini jelas palsu kerana sejarah jelas membuktikan bahawa DAP adalah parti yang membela sesiapa sahaja yang ditindas, tanpa mengira warna kulit atau agama.

Lebih sedekad lalu Setiausaha Agung DAP yang kini merangkap Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang Lim Guan Eng tidak teragak-agak untuk membela seorang anak gadis Melayu yang tercabul, sehingga beliau sendiri terpaksa meringkuk dalam penjara akibat dimangsakan oleh undang-undang yang berat sebelah.

Mungkin pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO, terutamanya yang bertaraf Puteri atau Putera, malah Pemuda, tidak tahu atau tidak mengingati akan insiden ini. Atau pun pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO sengaja tidak mahu ingat kerana yang terlibat itu adalah seorang pemimpin daripada kalangan parti mereka.

Di Pulau Pinang pula, Kerajaan Negeri Pakatan Rakyat pimpinan Setiausaha Agung DAP Lim Guan Eng giat melaksanakan program-program kebajikan sosial yang disasarkan kepada pelbagai golongan seperti warga emas, ibu tunggal, orang kelainan upaya, keluarga-keluarga muda serta pelajar-pelajar sekolah dan universiti adalah contoh-contoh dasar yang membantu golongan masyarakat yang paling memerlukannya.

Dasar yang dilaksanakan ini jelas tidak bersifat perkauman. Namun, rata-rata golongan yang paling banyak menerima bantuan adalah masyarakat Melayu yang selama ini dipinggirkan dan disia-siakan oleh Kerajaan UMNO yang kononnya memperjuangkan kepentingan mereka.

Bagi hal-ehwal agama Islam pula, Kerajaan UMNO-BN hanya memperuntukkan RM12 juta setahun. Di bawah pentadbiran Pakatan Rakyat, jumlah ini telah dinaikkan setiap tahun sehingga peruntukan untuk tahun 2012 sudah pun mencecah RM64 juta, iaitu lima kali ganda lebih.

Peruntukan besar ini merangkumi usaha-usaha untuk, antara lainnya, pembesaran tapak perkuburan Islam, pembangunan Sekolah Agama Rakyat, elaun-elaun untuk pegawai masjid, guru KAFA, para Huffaz serta progam-program sambutan kebesaran Islam (yang mengikut fitnah UMNO tidak disambut sama sekali di Pulau Pinang). Tidakkah ini membantu masyarakat Islam yang rata-ratanya orang Melayu?

Tambahan pula, sistem tender terbuka yang diperkenalkan oleh Kerajaan Negeri PR Pulau Pinang telah menampakkan kejayaan kontraktor-kontraktor Melayu yang selama empat tahun sejak perlangsungannya telah memenangi lebih 70 peratus daripada semua tender Kerajaan Negeri. Lebih penting sekali, mereka telah berjaya secara sah dan tanpa bantuan atau pengaruh politik.

Dalam erti kata lain, bukan sahaja usahawan-usahawan Melayu telah berjaya dalam suasana persaingan, mereka juga dimartabatkan kerana berjaya atas daya usaha mereka sendiri.

Sekiranya pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO merasa bahawa warga Melayu di Pulau Pinang berada dalam keadaan tertindas dan tidak maju, bukankah itu salah kerajaan BN yang telah memerintah selama lebih 50 tahun di Pulau Pinang?

UMNO sudah tidak layak untuk membela nasib orang Melayu. Ini kerana mereka hanya tahu satu jalan penyelesaian, iaitu dalam bentuk skim cepat kaya yakni Perjanjian Pembelian Tenaga (PPA) dengan syarikat-syarikat penjana tenaga elektrik bebas (IPP), konsesi-konsesi berat sebelah dengan syarikat-syarikat pengendali tol lebuhraya, skandal RM250 juta National Feedlot Corporation yang melibatkan keluarga seorang menteri dan juga penyenaraian Felda Global Ventures yang bakal menguntungkan segelintir kroni elit.

Kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat tidak pernah menganaktirikan sesiapa pun. Yang melemahkan orang Melayu adalah pucuk pimpinan UMNO yang mahu mengekalkan kuasa melalui kebergantungan orang Melayu kepada UMNO. Dalam erti kata lain, kuasa UMNO adalah kemudaratan orang Melayu.

Kerana itu, tidak hairanlah kenapa orang Melayu yang makin celik dan sedar akan kemungkaran UMNO dan sekutu-sekutunya tidak akan takut lagi untuk memilih DAP yang mengutamakan rakyat Malaysia dan menawarkan siasah baru yang berteraskan demokrasi, hak asasi dan peluang saksama.

* Zairil Khir Johari, Setiausaha Politik kepada Setiausaha Agung DAP Lim Guan Eng

Is the Dato' Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob trying to pull a fast one by claiming Malaysia has increased its sugar subsidy because global prices have increased despite the opposite being true?

(author unknown) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:07:45 PST

Media statement by Tony Pua Kiam Wee in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 29^th January 2012:

Is the Dato' Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob trying to pull a fast one by claiming Malaysia has increased its sugar subsidy because global prices have increased despite the opposite being true?

The Star published on its front page news yesterday with the headline "Sweet Subsidies". It reported that the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister, Dato' Seri lsmail Sabri Yaakob said that the government has increased subsidies from 20 sen to 54 sen per kilogramme of sugar in order to maintain the price of sugar at RM2.30 because the "global price of sugar is skyrocketing".

One would almost feel deeply moved by the Minister's kindness when he said "world prices have increased but we have decided not to raise the price here... We are doing what we can to reduce the people's burden."

The price of sugar was last increased by 20 sen in May 2011 to RM2.30 per kilogramme. However it has increased from RM1.45 since January 2010 when translated to a 58.6% increase in the price of sugar within just 18 months as part of the government's subsidy reduction exercise.

What is extremely intriguing however, was that global sugar prices over the past 6 months since the last price hike in May 2011 had in fact declined significantly, and not the purported "skyrocket".

In fact, after hitting a peak of US$29.47 per hundred pounds in July 2011, the price of sugar has fallen consistently every month - US$28.88 (August), US$26.64 (September), US$26.30 (October), US$24.52 (November) to US$23.42 (December) per hundred pounds. This meant that global sugar prices traded on the Sugar, Free Market, Coffee Sugar and Cocoa Exchange (CSCE) has fallen by 20.5% since July last year.

Even after taking into account the fact that the Malaysian Ringgit has depreciated against the US Dollar by 7% between July 2011 and December 2011, the global price of sugar would still have declined by 13.5% in Ringgit terms.

Therefore by maintaining sugar prices at RM2.30, the Government should in actual fact have to subsidise less, and not more, as proudly boasted by Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri. What is more perplexing is the fact that our subsidy had to increase by 170% to cope with the non-existent "skyrocketing" global price of sugar.

Today, 99% of Malaysia's raw sugar requirements are imported. However the sugar market is monopolised by only 2 refineries - Malayan Sugar Manufacturing Holdings (MSM Holdings) and Tradewinds Corporation Bhd. These companies import Malaysia's raw sugar requirements. MSM Holdings is a 71% subsidiary of FELDA-related entities while Tradewinds is 43% controlled by Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary with another 20% owned by FELDA Global Ventures Holdings Sdn Bhd.

The question then is - whether the 170% increase in sugar subsidy or approximately RM198 million a year payable to MSM Holdings and Tradewinds, is in fact a thinly disguised attempt to fatten the profits of these two politically-connected companies?

The Minister must hence clarify why there was a need to increase subsidies when the global sugar price is falling while at the same time explain who are the real beneficiaries from the extra RM198 million of supposed "subsidy".

* Tony Pua Kiam Wee, DAP National Publicity Secretary & MP for Petaling Jaya Utara

PM harus menjelaskan sama ada konsesi 60 tahun berjumlah RM7.07 bilion yang dianugerahkan kepada Europlus adalah selaras dengan kepentingan awam

(author unknown) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:03:40 PST

Kenyataan media oleh Lim Guan Eng di Kuala Lumpur pada hari Ahad, 29^hb Januari 2012:

PM harus menjelaskan sama ada konsesi 60 tahun berjumlah RM7.07 bilion yang dianugerahkan kepada Europlus adalah selaras dengan kepentingan awam

Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak harus menjelaskan sama ada konsesi 60 tahun berjumlah RM7.07 bilion yang dianugerahkan kepada Kumpulan Europlus Bhd (Europlus) untuk pembinaan lebuhraya Banting-Taiping sepanjang 316km yang melibatkan pinjaman mudah RM2.24 bilion, subsidi faedah 3% untuk 22 tahun dan geran sebanyak RM980 juta untuk pengambilan tanah adalah selaras dengan kepentingan awam.

Europlus mengumumkan telah menerima surat kelulusan untuk membina lebuhraya 316km daripada Unit Kerjasama Awam Swasta Jabatan Perdana Menteri.

DAP berasa curiga kenapa Kerajaan Persekutuan belum lagi membuat pengumuman mengenai konsesi lebuhraya yang jelas melanggar prinsip asas ketelusan dan kebertanggungjawab awam. Sebelum Kerajaan menandatangani perjanjian dengan Europlus, Perdana Menteri hendaklah memastikan bahawa 7 soalan berikut dijawab:

Adakah tender terbuka dijalankan untuk perjanjian ini, dan jika tidak, kenapa? Jika ya, siapa lagi yang menyertai dan kenapa mereka tidak dipilih?
Kenapa Europlus dipilih, sedangkan mereka tidak mempunyai rekod prestasi yang terbukti dalam bina-kendali-pindah (BOT) sektor lebuhraya, dan pemilik utamanya mempunyai sejarah permasalahan dalam projek perumahan?
Bagaimanakah Kerajaan boleh memberi tempoh konsesi selama 60 tahun, iaitu yang terpanjang dalam sejarah Malaysia dan kedua hanya kepada perjanjian pembekalan air selama 100 tahun kepada Singapura yang telah dimeterai pada tahun 1960an?
Apakah rasional untuk penganugerahan pinjaman mudah sebanyak RM2.24 bilion dari tahun 2013 pada kadar faedah 4% serta subsidi faedah 3% untuk pinjaman komersial selama 22 tahun? Kedua-dua subsidi ini berjumlah RM4 bilion jika prinsipal pinjaman adalah RM6 bilion.
Kenapa perlu Kerajaan membayar RM980 untuk pengambilan tanah sedangkan ini projek swasta?
Kenapa kos lebuhraya 316km ini yang berjumlah RM7.07 bilion atau RM22.3 juta setiap km adalah dua kali ganda kos pembinaan lebuhraya yang sama di India dengan kos RM10 juta setiap km?
Jika konsesi tol terbaru ini adalah alternatif kepada Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan yang sesak, kenapa berhenti di Taiping? Kenapa konsesi Europlus tidak dilanjutkan kepada Pulau Pinang yang mengalami kesesakan yang lebih teruk? Ini tidak adil untuk rakyat Pulau Pinang dan juga Kedah.

Konsesi 60 tahun yang dianugerahkan oleh Jabatan Perdana Menteri ini bermakna bahawa beberapa generasi rakyat Malaysia akan terpaksa membayar tol dari generasi saya hingga ke cucu-cicit saya. Ini langsung tidak boleh diterima kerana tempoh konsesi yang begitu lama ini hanya menguntungkan segelintir kroni syarikat pengendali tol yang akan mengaut keuntungan maha-Firaun manakala yang ruginya 28 juta rakyat Malaysia.

Rakyat Malaysia tidak boleh menerima lagi satu skandal umpama Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan (NSE), di mana pengendali tol diberi tempoh konsesi 50 tahun sehingga 2038 walaupun mereka sudah mengaut keuntungan berkali-kali ganda lebih daripada pelaburan asal. Kos pembinaan NSE adalah RM6 bilion dan setakat 31.12.2010, pengendali tol sudah pun menerima RM24.3 bilion, iaitu keuntungan sebanyak RM18.3 bilion.

Kenapa pengendali NSE dibenarkan mengutip tol sehingga 2038 serta menaikkan kadar tol apabila mereka sudah mengaut keuntungan yang maha-Firaun, iaitu RM18.3 bilion ataupun 3 kali ganda kos pembinaan? Cukup-cukuplah! Kerana itulah PR menekankan pemansuhan tol NSE.

Adakah konsesi lebuhraya RM7.07 kepada Europlus ini permulaan lagi satu skandal? Rakyat Malaysia tidak mahu pengulangan skandal NSE. Perdana Menteri haruslah menjawab 7 soalan di atas untuk memastikan kepentingan awam dijaga dan dipelihara dalam perjanjian RM7.07 bilion dan konsesi 60 tahun Europlus ini.

*Lim Guan Eng, Setiausaha Agung DAP & Ahli Parlimen Kawasan Bagan

PM must explain the public benefit of the RM7.07 billion 60-Year concession to Europlus is in the public interest

(author unknown) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:37:32 PST

Media statement by Lim Guan Eng in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 29^th January 2012:

PM must explain the public benefit of the RM7.07 billion 60-Year concession to Europlus is in the public interest

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak must explain the public benefit of the RM7.07 billion 60-year concession to Kumpulan Europlus Bhd(Europlus) for constructing a 316 km highway from Banting to Taiping and whether the RM 2.24 billion soft loans, 3% interest subsidies for commercial loans for 22 years and RM 980 million grant for land acquisition cost is in the public interest. Europlus had announced that it had received an approval letter to construct the 316 km highway from the Public Private Partnership unit of the Prime Minister’s Department.

DAP is curious why the Federal government had still not make any announcement on such an important highway concession which violates the basic principles of public accountability and transparency. Before the government signs this agreement with Europlus, the Prime Minister must ensure that the following 7 questions why Europlus was given such a good deal are fully answered.

Was there an open tender, and if no why not. If yes, who were the other parties and why were their bids rejected?
Why was Europlus chosen when they have no proven track record in build-operate-transfer(BOT) of highway concession and its principal owners have a troubled history of problematic housing development projects?
How can the government grant such a long concession period of 60 years, which is the longest in Malaysian history, second only to Malaysia's 100 year agreement to supply water to Singapore in the 1960s?
What was the rationale of granting a soft loan of RM2.24 billion from 2013 at 4% interest and also offer an interest subsidy of 3% from commercial loans for 22 years? Both interest subsidies which may cost the Federal government RM4 billion assuming a principal loan of RM6 billion.
Why should the government pay RM980 million for land acquisition cost if this is a privatised project?
Why is the cost for the 316 km highway at RM7.07 billion or RM22.3 million per km more than double the cost of building a similar highway in India at RM10 million per km?
If this newest toll concession is the alternative to the already congested North South Highway, why stop at Taiping? Why is the Europlus concession not extended to Penang which is even more heavily congested? This is unfair not just to Penangites but also Kedahans.

For the Prime Minister's Department to grant a 60 year concession period means, that generations of Malaysian will be compelled to pay toll, from me to my great grand-children. This is unacceptable and giving such a long concession only benefits the few, allowing the toll operators to earn mega profits of Pharaonic proportions at the expense of 28 million ordinary Malaysians.

Malaysians can no longer tolerate another North-South Expressway(NSE) scandal, where the toll operator is given a 50 year concession period until 2038 even though they have reaped profits many times over their investment outlay. The NSE costs RM6 billion to build and as at 31.12.2010, the toll operator has already received RM24.3 billion, landing a cool RM18.3 billion in profits.

Why should the NSE operator be allowed to continue to collect till 2038 and hike up toll rates when they have earned such massive and Pharonic-like profits of RM18.3 billion, 3 times the construction cost? Enough is enough! That is why PR is pressing for the abolition of tolls on the NSE in view of the pharonic like profits earned by the toll operator.

Is the RM7.07 billion Europlus highway concession deal another scandal in the making? Malaysians do not want another NSE scandal. The Prime Minister must fully answer the 7 questions to ensure that public benefit is assured and public interest is protected in this Europlus RM7.07 billion 60-year concession deal.

*Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary General & MP for Bagan

New Pakatan Rakyat government in Putrajaya will establish RCI into the RM336.64 million NFC/NFCorp “cattle condo” scandal

(author unknown) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:36:48 PST

Speech by Lim Kit Siang at the Perak Pakatan Rakyat Chinese New Year Open House at Kopisan Baru, Gopeng on Saturday, 28^th January 2012 at 9 pm:

New Pakatan Rakyat government in Putrajaya will establish RCI into the RM336.64 million NFC/NFCorp “cattle condo” scandal

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was very quick and abrupt yesterday in rejecting my call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the RM336.64 million National Feedlot Centre (NFC)/National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) “cattle condo” scandal, eager to pronounce the idea as “dead as a dodo”.

Malaysians everywhere are asking who is Muhyiddin to reject the call for a RCI into the “cattle condo” scandal when Muhyiddin himself, as the Agriculture and Agro-based Minister who approved the controversial project back in 2006, would himself be one of the subjects and personalities of any RCI investigation?

It smacks of conflict of interest on Muhyiddin’s part and he should exclude himself from any decision-making as to whether there should be a RCI into the cattle condo scandal, instead of being so gung-ho in opposing the proposal.

It is downright disgraceful that the RM336.64 cattle condo scandal had dragged out publicly for three months like a soap opera without any satisfactory conclusion – which is a most telling indictment of the lack of political will of the Najib administration to declare effective and meaningful war on corruption and be an example of an open, accountable and transparent governance as promised in the 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme (GTP).

If the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is unable to satisfactorily handle the RM336.64 million cattle condo scandal after three months, who believe that he has the political will to lead an all-out war against corruption which cost the country RM28 billion a year or address the problem of over a trillion-ringgit outflow of illicit capital overseas in a decade from 2000 to 2009 because of corruption and other financial malpractices?

The 13th General Elections is around the corner. Let Malaysians regardless of race, religion or political affiliation speak loud and clear at the forthcoming polls that they want a Royal Commission of Inquiry to reveal the full details of the true horror stories of the RM336.64 million “cattle condo” scandal despite the obstructionist and cover-up conspiracy of the UMNO/Barisan Nasional.

Muhyiddin had claimed that there is no need for an RCI as on-going investigations by the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) into the “cattle condo” scandal are sufficient.

Muhyiddin should stop kidding himself as if he does not know that the general Malaysian public have no confidence whatsoever in the independence, integrity and professionalism of either the police or MACC to carry out a no-holds-barred investigation, because these agencies have been too compromised by executive interferences and directions.

Before coming on to the stage, I have discussed with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and he has agreed that a new Pakatan Rakyat government in Putrajaya after the 13th General Elections will establish a RCI into the RM336.64 million NFC/NFCorp “cattle condo” scandal if there is still no satisfactory accountability of the controversy.

Let this serve as a clear notice to Muhyiddin that he had can say “No” but it is the Malaysian people as a whole who will decide whether there is to be a RCI into the “cattle condo” scandal come the next general elections!

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor

How people redefine themselves when calamity strikes

Dian — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:47:34 PST

Imagine a world where you lost your sense of smell or hearing, a limb, your face, even your mind. Now imagine that world if your entire livelihood depended upon the very thing you'd lost.

Nick Coleman's memoir The Train in the Night: A Story of Music and Loss, published this week, explores exactly that – a music critic afflicted by sudden neurosensory hearing loss, as "silence descended suddenly and without warning" – struggling to cope in a world that has suddenly lost its most important dimension.

His experience of adapting to a new world, accepting he is deaf in one ear and that music will never have the same architecture, echoes that of Molly Birnbaum, who lost her sense of smell but continued to cook at home. "I concentrated on other cues: colour, sound and touch. I would listen to the crackle of mushrooms as they expel water while being cooked," she said. Alongside Clive Wearing, the conductor who lost his memory, Rick Allen, the drummer who lost his arm and Katie Piper, the television presenter who lost her face, their identity has been reshaped by their loss.

Dr Kerri McPherson, a psychologist, says: "Key to all our identities is how we see ourselves, and how we would like others to see us. The loss has a huge effect on how they evaluate themselves, because it is part of their identity, and affects how they think other people are evaluating them.

"If someone can no longer to do something, and it impacts their employment or social life, it requires a massive shift."

Katie Piper, the television presenter who lost her face

In March 2008, Katie Piper had sulphuric acid thrown in her face by the accomplice of a violent ex-boyfriend. "It spread through my body like fire. I felt as if I was being burned alive, that I was melting like a candle," she wrote in her memoir Beautiful. Her entire face was rebuilt with grafted skin in pioneering treatment. She lost sight in her left eye. She launched the Katie Piper Foundation to help others with burns. "I am proof that disfigurement doesn't have to destroy lives," the 28-year-old wrote. "I'd seen what was truly important in life, and found a strength I never knew I had."

Clive Wearing, the conductor who lost his memory

Clive Wearing has anterograde amnesia: it is impossible to make new memories. He contracted a brain infection, herpes encephalitis, in 1985, leaving him with a 10-second memory span. While he cannot remember new people, his love for his wife, Deborah, who wrote the memoir Forever Today, is undiminished. If she leaves the room, he greets her with the affection of not having seen her for years. But despite his amnesia, Wearing, 73, retains his musical ability, and is still able to read music and play the piano.

Nick Coleman, the music critic who lost his hearing

Nick Coleman told doctors he would rather lose an eye or foot than his favourite sense. "Music to me has always been a handsome three-dimensional container, a vessel, as real in its way as a Scout hut or a cathedral or a ship," he has written. He has learnt to adapt, to listen to music at low volumes. In 2010, three years into adapting to his new way of living, he listened to Exile on Main St. "It sounded starkly beautiful, as it always used to," he wrote in his memoir. "Music hasn't changed after all ... It's just that I get to it through unpleasantness now, not pleasure."

Molly Birnbaum, the chef who lost her sense of smell

"My world faded from colour to black and white, especially in the kitchen," recalled Molly Birnbaum, author of Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way. As she was training to become a chef in 2005, she was involved in a collision with a car while jogging, fracturing her skull. Her olfactory neurons were severed; her sense of smell disappeared. She had to abandon her place to study at the Culinary Institute of America, and gave up her job cooking at a bistro in Boston. Gradually, her olfactory neurons began to regrow. The first smell was rosemary, now her favourite scent. "I always appreciated my sense of smell because I love cooking, but there's also the smell of people we love, the ties between smell and emotion." Last year she became confident she could smell everything again. "It was a long, hard journey with a lot of work – and a lot of luck."

Rick Allen, the drummer from Def Leppard who lost his arm

On New Year's Eve 1984, Rick Allen was involved in a serious car crash. "I left the car and landed in a field. My arm was left in the car. I didn't think I'd be able to do anything again," he told Lynn Redgrave in 1992 in BBC 1's Fighting Back. Allen realised he could play many drum parts with his feet, and continued with the band. "I appreciate my life more than I did back then. But there are always going to be reminders: it's more a process of leaving things behind."

By Genevieve Roberts

Malaysiakini: Landmark Gender Equality Judgment Faces Appeal

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:07:12 PST

Original article by Hafiz Yatim on 28 January 2012 in Malaysiakini found here.

It is a landmark judgment which has been nominated for this year’s International Gender Justice Uncovered award. However, this has not stopped the government from appealing the decision.

Such is the fate of Norfadilla Ahmad Saikin, 29 (left), a relief teacher who sued the Education Ministry and government for withdrawing her appointment letter as an untrained relief teacher (GSTT) at a secondary school in Kajang, just because she was three months pregnant, three years’ ago.

She had named the two district officers, the Selangor Education Department, the ministry and government as defendants in her application, where she sought a declaration that the revocation of her placement offer was illegal and unconstitutional.

Norfadilla had been successful in an interview by the department which offered her a placement in January 2009.

However, as she and two other relief teachers had been asked whether they were pregnant, and when the answer was affirmative the offer letter was immediately withdrawn.

Undeterred, Norfadilla and her husband wrote to the ministry asking for an explanation, and subsequently decided to bring the matter to court.

Last July 12, Shah Alam High Court judge Justice Zaleha Yusof delivered a landmark judgment where she declared that the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw), which Malaysia had been a signatory since 1995, is binding.

No discrimination against employment of women

In her 25-page written judgment made available at the loyarburok website, Justice Zaleha cited Article 11 (1) of Cedaw where nations shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights in particular to employment opportunity, and same criteria for selection.

She also stated that Article 11(2) of Cedaw states that parties shall take measures to prohibit, subject to the imposition of sanctions, dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy.

The Education Ministry and department decided not to accept Nurfadilla based on a circular that GSTT teachers cannot be pregnant because during the two-month period between the time of delivery to full health, the woman may not frequently attend her job due to various health reasons, and when the birth takes place she needs to be replaced and replacements teachers cannot fill in for GSTT teachers.

However, Justice Zaleha noted that Cedaw is not a mere declaration but a convention.

Citing the Ezam Md Nor case, Justice Zaleha noted that Cedaw “has the force of law and is binding on member states including Malaysia”.

“This is the more so in view that Malaysia has pledged its continued commitments to ensure that Malaysian practices are compatible with the provisions and principles of Cedaw as evidenced in a letter from the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the Permanent Missions of UN member states dated March 9, 2010,” she said.

“To me in interpreting Article 8(2) of the federal constitution it is the court’s duty to take into account the government’s commitment and obligation at international level especially under an international convention like Cedaw to which Malaysia is a party.

“The court has no choice but to refer to Cedaw in clarifying the term ‘equality’ and gender discrimination under Article 8(2) of our constitution.”

Justice Zaleha could not accept the argument that the circular is a policy decision by the government, and considered the argument by the defendants as an afterthought as this had not been incorporated in the circular or (pregnancy) raised in the interview.

“It is clear that the GSTT contract is a month-to-month contract and it can be terminated at any time. Even after one month of working there is no guarentee that the person will stay even if she is not pregnant.

“As such, I find there is no merit in the argument put forward by the defendants that employing a pregnant woman would defeat the purpose of GSTT to solve the problem of shortage of teachers.

“Even medical check-ups for a pregnant woman will not disturb school time as it can be done in the evening or night.

“The circular does not prohibit a pregnant woman from applying for the post as it merely states GSTT are not entitled to maternity leave,” she noted in her judgment in allowing Norfadilla’s application.

‘Appeal decision most unfortunate’

Lawyer Edmund Bon (left), who was the lead counsel for Norfadilla, on being asked about the government’s decision to appeal, said the team is naturally disappointed.

“The government signed Cedaw and amended the constitution to outlaw gender discrimination in 2001, and it expressly made its commitment to the international community and especially the UN to uphold international standards of gender equality.

“To appeal the decision is double-speak and unfortunate. The government should accept the decision, move on and ensure no further cases like this occur again.”

The International Gender Injustice Uncovered award highlight court decisions that positively or negatively affect gender equity.

Kalau orang Melayu masuk DAP, Muhyiddin Yassin sibuk pasal apa...

ali allah ditta — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:11:00 PST

Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin mengingatkan orang Melayu supaya tidak sesekali terpedaya dan terperangkap dengan tipu helah DAP bahawa parti itu memperjuangkan kepentingan orang Melayu.

Muhyiddin berkata, apa jua tindakan parti itu hanyalah helah semata-mata demi untuk menarik sokongan orang Melayu.

"Kenapa baru sekarang dia nak jemput orang Melayu, saya tak tahulah apa tujuan dia, tapi kita dah tahu sejarah DAP ini, jadi orang Melayu kena faham lebih-lebih lagi bila dia menekankan Malaysian-Malaysiannya.

"Dia kata dia bukan parti perkauman, dia kata dia parti multi-racial (pelbagai kaum) tetapi dari segi amalan dan apa yang telah dilakukan oleh DAP sejak ditubuhkan sampai sekarang pun jelas terbukti (ia) parti yang chauvinist," katanya kepada pemberita di sini hari ini.

Muhyiddin berkata demikian sebagai menjawab pertanyaan wartawan berhubung kenyataan Penasihat DAP, Lim Kit Siang, bahawa lebih ramai orang Melayu akan menyertai parti itu.-antarapos.com

Don't fall for DAP trap, Muhyiddin warns Malays

Malays must not allow themselves to fall into the trap being carefully laid for them by the DAP, Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin warned today.

"Don't do easily duped by DAP's trap," he said at a press conference in Putrajaya today. "After so long, suddenly they want to recruit Malays. Who knows what for?" he said.

All throughout history, Muhyiddin said, he and political veterans were aware that the DAP had never even once stood up for the rights of the Malays.All the party ever stood for with any conviction, he claimed, were issues such as Chinese education.

"Look through the annals of history. Their chauvinist manner is clear," the deputy prime minister added.

More importantly, he said, the DAP exhibited racist tendencies and Malays must therefore be warned that there must be hidden motives for the party to be suddenly recruiting Malays.

"When they have a need for Malay leaders in order to fill the ranks of executive councillors or high positions (in Pakatan governments), then they look for Malays," he said.

Muhyiddin said this in response to DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang's statement that more Malays were gearing up to join the party. Recently, two Malay Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) students announced their intention to join the DAP. Their move came on the footsteps of two Malay lawyers and press freedom advocate and former NUJ chief Hata Wahari, who signed up as members of the party.-malaysiakini

IS IT A GREVIOUS SIN TO JOIN DAP?

Hak orang Melayu untuk sertai DAP

Tiada siapa di dalam dunia ini dapat menghalang penyertaan sukarela orang Melayu ke dalam DAP, kata Ketua Parlimen DAP Lim Kit Siang.

Malah, beliau berkata Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak dan timbalannya Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin mungkin akan terperanjat apabila lebih ramai Melayu menyertai DAP tidak lama lagi.

Katanya ini adalah gelombang perubahan masa kini dan tiada siapa pun mampu menghalang Melayu menyertai kaum-kaum lain bersama membentuk masa hadapan negara yang lebih hebat.

“DAP dari awal penubuhan selama 46 tahun ini tidak pernah lari dari perjuangan buat semua rakyat Malaysia, tidak kira apa kaum atau agama pun,” katanya dalam ucapan sewaktu Rumah Terbuka Tahun Baru Cina DAP Pulau Pinang di sini hari ini.

Sebaliknya, Kit Siang yang juga Ahli Parlimen Ipoh Timur berkata, Najib sendiri gagal meyakinkan kabinet beliau untuk menyokong dasar 1Malaysia yang kononnya mahu mewujudkan perpaduan dan keadilan untuk semua kaum.

“Ia adalah gambaran politik penakut sebahagian pemimpin UMNO terhadap DAP yang kerap dihentam dengan penipuan, fitnah dengan hasutan 3R (race, race and royalty – kaum, agama dan raja) yang digunakan terhadap DAP,” katanya.

Menurutnya DAP sentiasa menjunjung Perlembagaan Persekutuan 1957 selain memberi komitmen dan keyakinan penuh kepada Dasar Bersama Pakatan Rakyat serta cadangan-cadangan dalam Buku Jingga yang juga berdasarkan Perlembagaan Persekutuan.

Justeru, beliau menasihatkan Najib dan Muhyiddin agar peka dan tidak keras kepala terhadap apa yang sudah termaktub dalam Perlembagaan, dan supaya menghentikan politik 3R.

“Ini juga bukan sahaja satu cabaran terhadap konsep 1Malaysia Najib itu, malah kepada usaha Najib yang kononnya mengangkat diri sebagai ‘golongan sederhana’,” katanya. – Roketkini.com

Tentang orang paling rasis di dunia - Hata Wahari

Saya terpanggil untuk membuat kenyataan ini berikutan tindakan Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin mengeluarkan kenyataan bahawa orang Melayu tidak harus terperangkap dengan perangkap DAP.

Sebaliknya perkara yang paling relevan sekarang ialah orang Melayu jangan terperangkap dengan kata-kata Timbalan Perdan Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Pertamanya, saya ingin menegaskan orang Melayu kini semakin terbuka untuk menilai sebuah parti berbilang kaum DAP sebagai sebuah parti yang telus dan ikhlas untuk berjuang untuk kepentingan semua kaum di negara Malaysia yang tercinta.

Keduanya, orang Melayu kini boleh duduk berbincang dengan orang Melayu yang menyertai DAP walaupun mereka dari Umno dan menerima penjelasan dengan baik serta tidak lagi bersikap ingin memusuhi ataupun menghamburkan kata-kata penghinaan.

Ketiganya, orang Melayu kini telah mula menyedari bahawa Umno dan BN bukan lagi parti yang memperjuangkan kepentingan orang Melayu sebaliknya sebuah parti yang mementingkan kroni serta suku sakat mereka sahaja.

Keempat, orang Melayu kini telah bersedia untuk menongkah arus memastikan kesinambungan perjuangan pemimpin-pemimpin lampau yang mahukan Malaysia menjadi sebuah negara aman, makmur dan bersatu sesuatu yang telah gagal di laksanakan oleh Umno dan BN.

Baca seterusnya di sini.

cheers.

Open letter to Mahathir Kutty

Dian — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:55:40 PST

An Open Letter To Tun Dr. Mahathir: The Future Is Not Bleak In The Absense Of Race-Based Policies

LETTERS/SURAT

Sunday, 29 January 2012

I find it hard to believe that scrapping race-based policies will lead to chaos. The status quo is more detrimental to the country in the long run. The existing race-based policies have done little to improve the plight of the Malays. In fact it has created a class divide between the Malay haves and have-nots. This WILL split the Malays because severe class inequalities have caused revolutions, even in singular nations.

By Mohd Ikhram Merican

Dear Tun Dr. M,

Many years ago, in 1986 or ’87, I can’t remember the exact year, I had the pleasure of meeting you in a private family dinner. You were the guest of honor and I was a very young boy, excited to be in the vicinity of your towering presence. I had many things I wanted to say to you and when I walked up to where you were seated I could only manage one rhetorical question.

You were very kind. Although in the midst of conversation with my uncles, you stopped and gave me, a little boy, a few minutes of your time. I spoke to the Prime Minister. It was my 2 minutes of fame.

For the better part of my life you have been the Prime Minister of Malaysia. In all those years, I saw you as the best Prime Minister Malaysia has ever had. Sadly, I'm not so sure anymore. I don’t despise you or loathe you but I question your rationale for a good many things. There are so many issues that I would like to raise with you. It is near impossible to cover everything here but let me start with your latest blog post titled “Kaitan Bangsa Dengan Bisnes”. The Malaysian Insider reported this with the headline, “Dr M: Scrapping race-based policies will lead to chaos.”

You believe not everyone has equal capabilities and some people must be given special consideration in business and other areas based on their race. This is an argument that neither makes sense nor justifies special considerations. Let me elaborate. Would you allow an aspiring surgeon to become one via special considerations, even if he is inherently bad at it? And would you trust your life under the knife with this person? This is what you propose.

Allow me to provide further example. UiTM was founded in 1956 (as Dewan Latihan Rida) to facilitate the creation of Bumiputera professionals. 56 years later, it ranks among the last in the QS World University Rankings. While it is the largest university in Malaysia, and has admittedly created a lot of graduates, it has done little to create world-class professionals.

The IITs of India were created with similar ideals to UiTM. The first IIT was conceived in 1950, a mere 6 years before UiTM. In the same QS World University Rankings, IIT Delhi ranks in the top 200. The IITs are internationally recognized for engineering and technology with entrance exams that are so tough, candidates use Ivy League universities as a fall back in case they don't make the cut. Bill Gates has been quoted as saying, "And it's hard to think of anything like IIT anywhere in the world. It is a very unique institution."

This happens when you pursue meritocracy.

In your blog post you ask if it is true that race considerations in business vis-a-vis the NEP has stifled economic growth. My answer is, yes it has. The NEP's original intention was noble but it has become a tool to justify and facilitate nepotism, cronyism, and contrary to its original purpose, inequality. The nation's resources have been unscrupulously plundered to benefit cronies NOT the common man, be he bumiputera or not. Yes, we've had a good run under your stewardship but our fundamentals have been hindering us from the type of progress that Singapore enjoys. In short, a system that does not promote and reward performance, is inherently flawed. If you need proof, look at Malaysian Airlines.

I quote the book Winning in Asia by Peter J. Williamson (Harvard Business Press):

"Those Bumiputera companies with a continued reliance on preferential treatment and local connections and without a broader set of competitive advantages have been unable to successfully expand internationally. To grow, they have therefore diversified across industries within their home country, often resulting in a loss of focus and an inability to build deep operational competence in particular businesses."

And so again, yes, the NEP has stifled economic growth.

You say that when the distribution of wealth is disparate between the races, there is a high probability of enmity between the poorer and richer races. After 40 years of implementation, and devoid of significant success, don't you think there is a serious problem with the NEP as a tool to bridge the economic gap? Furthermore, the Malays, Chinese, and Indians have not been at each other's throats during this period. In fact, it is the ruling coalition that regularly stokes racial fire. The race card has been played to the hilt and it is now a misnomer for economic and social stability. I wish you had more faith in us and our ability to co-exist.

Progress is hindered by fear. It is the fear of change, fear of each other, fear of betrayal, fear of riots, fear of racial tension and fear of so many other things that keep us from progressing. Amplifying our fears by attributing wrong causes to effects is not going to help with nation building. I believe that the socio-economic divide can be closed through prudent management of the economy, a world class education system, observance of the rule of law, and nation-building policies. I ask that you use your influence to condemn corruption, nepotism, and cronyism. This is the real problem that undermines Malaysia and stifles its growth.

Ibrahim Ali's "after-life" ang pow

shanghaistephen — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:52:29 PST

To say this lard does not know a little bit about Chinese customs and sensitivities is wrong. And to say he does not know that 'red' to Chinese denotes 'auspicious' is totally unacceptable. In fact this fat mass of protoplasm know as Ibrahim Ali must have deliberately insisted on 'white' ang-pows with RM10 inserted to be given out to ignorant old folks from nursing homes in the Cheras area. ( read here )

To the Chinese donations in cash are inserted into white envelopes only at funerals. How can this idiotic fellow not know about that ? Most Malaysian are surely aware and sensible enough to understand the do's and don'ts of another's customs, cultures, religions and taboos in order to claim as educated, no ?

So what has Najib been teaching his goons all along with his hollow 1Malaysia crap ?? Should not such subjects about learning and respecting your neighbours' custom, religion and tradition be taught in schools and in other racists "supremacy" programs like BTN and NS ?? Who's to be blamed for this Perkasa mutt Ibrahim's ignorance, deliberate or otherwise ?

I also strongly suspect this 'froggie' and most favoured disciple of that "father of all racists" the Tun, would have been toying with the idea of adding a billion dollars in Hell Bank notes along with his RM10 into that white ang-pow, don't you ?

By the way no Chinese New Year dinner is complete without a pork dish, just as no
Hari Raya dinner is complete without beef dish, a Deepavali dinner complete without a mutton dish, or a Christmas dinner without some wine or alcohol, no ?

But we Malaysians are always more concern of our "neighbours" sensitivities and comfort and sometimes go over-board in pleasing our guests, right ?

Beware of the New Year

Hornbill Unleashed — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:00:14 PST

Sim Kwang Yang

According to ancient Chinese mythology, the New Year beast is an ancient beast that used to terrorise the human world every so often. The New Year celebration has always meant to be noisy and boisterous in our attempt to frighten away this horrid beast to ensure that we can live in peace and prosperity in the New Year.

The New Year also signifies a new beginning in an eternal turn of seasons. It is a time for farmers to harvest old crops and enjoy the hard earned rest at the end of the year before replanting the fields.

For the Chinese people, the New Year is an all important turn in the eternal cycle of life in their agrarian mode of existence. Time for the Chinese is forever cyclical.

Much of the meaning of the New Year has its roots in the Chinese agricultural way of life. The New Year is a day of rest from their annual toil of working the fields. It is time to celebrate the harvest and enjoy it in happiness with family.

It is the most auspicious occasion for family reunion and enjoyment of feasting. The Chinese have enjoyed thousands of years of their civilisation steeped in their deeply-rooted traditions. Unfortunately, the history of China has always been interrupted by wars and famine on a gargantuan scale.

If you study the history of China, you will be amazed at the natural and human disasters that the Chinese have endured down through the centuries. Life can be very cheap in China.

Finally, China has prospered and grown to become the second most wealthy nation on earth. This is the first time that the Chinese have enjoyed prosperity and peace for as long as memory can recall. This year, Chinese people all over the world indeed have something to celebrate.

As the descendant of Chinese immigrants, I am also part of that legacy of the overseas Chinese who were driven to settle in Malaysia.

My parents were Chinese migrants who by force of necessity had to traverse the ocean to escape from famine and war back home in China. Like most Chinese in Malaysia, we have done well for ourselves leaving behind us old poverty and now enjoying a satisfactory way of life.

Like other Chinese people, we are still bound by the traditions of many centuries. The grandest event of the New Year is the family reunion dinner for New Year’s Eve.

Children must go home to join in the reunion and renew their bonds with the rest of the family. That is of the greatest importance throughout the New Year.

The New Year is a season of universal joy wherever you are. It must be celebrated with the most boisterous of rituals as epitomised by the explosive burst of fire crackers and playing of the gongs by the lion dance troupes.

The New Year is also dominated by many taboos. Households are not allowed to sweep their floors for fear of sweeping away money.

Quarrels are strictly forbidden and parents are not allowed to scold their children for their misdeeds. Minor gambling is even encouraged in the hope of bringing wealth to the parents.

My own Chinese New Year celebration this time was rather quite like all of you. I also enjoyed a grand dinner with my family members.

Having come to this grand old age, I have too many memories of the past to haunt my Chinese New Year celebration.

All in all, I am grateful for the bounty of the good earth and peace of Malaysian society. Once again, Happy Chinese New Year to all of you.

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To all Chinese in the world

Dian — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:44:02 PST

Dear All Chinese,

This open letter is to remind the Chinese in the world, that Racist Boss Ibrahim Ali, an UMNO member and a right hand man of Mahathir Kutty has again insulted the Chinese openly.
This Racist is aware of the Chinese culture. This racist loves to ear haram meat in raw and cooked form. If one were to follow his many trips to China, Hongkong, England, Singapore and Thailand, one cannot help to notice his appetite for everything Chinese, especially the roast pork.
So why do Chinese people have to support the like of him especially UMNO where the members clapped and cheered when he insult the Chinese verbally and physically.
So the next time he stepped into your doorway, make sure you throw salt at him.
To MCA and Gerakan, where is your dignity?
To Malaysian Chinese, how long more do you intend to allow UMNO get away with this?
To Chinese all over the world, this racist must be stopped at all cost.

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To all Chinese in the world