Speaking to reporters after filing the report with the Dang Wangi district police headquarters this afternoon, Federation of Malay Students' Union secretary-general Zambry Mohd Isa had warned the MP not to question the  Article.

By Patrick Lee and Stephanie Sta Maria, Free Malaysia Today

Adding a royal touch to their rebuke, the Malay right-wing critics labelled her as the "princess of Malay traitors" and filed a police report over a recent article she wrote.

The bone of contention was her interpretation of Article 153 in the Federal Constitution which touches on Malay rights.

According to the Lembah Pantai MP, the Article only referred to the "special position" of the Malays as opposed to "special rights". 

However, Nurul lambasted her critics, especially Perkasa, and stopped short of calling them ignorant for not being able to broach the subject in a rational manner.

Speaking to reporters after filing the report with the Dang Wangi district police headquarters this afternoon, Federation of Malay Students' Union secretary-general Zambry Mohd Isa had warned the MP not to question the  Article.

Also taking a swipe at her was Perkasa leader Armand Azhar Abu Hanifah, who said: "It (Article 153) is not supposed to be discussed outside of Parliament."

He warned that questioning the Article could spark off tension in the country.

Calling Nurul a fledgling MP,  Armand advised her to consult her senior colleagues on what issues should be discussed "before opening her mouth".

"This is her first term. Perhaps she is not well-versed or is politically immature regarding Article 153," he said.

Perkasa Wirawati chief Zaira Jaafar, who was also present, cautioned Nurul against "stirring a hornet's nest".

"As an MP, she should not say such things," she said, adding that Nurul was not acting like a Malay.

Nurul: Shameful and pathetic

In an immediate reaction, Nurul had described the police report against her as a "shameful and pathetic" action which justified the prejudice towards groups such as Perkasa.

"There was a reason why I wrote the article in two languages. So that it would not get lost in translation. But obviously these groups did not take the time to read it thoroughly. Their reaction is a testament to their failure in arguing in a rational manner on the issues raised.

"It also shows that our prejudice towards these Malay right-wing groups are justified. I invite you for a debate and this is the way you respond? It is shameful!" she told FMT.  

READ MORE HERE 

Today, Abdul Rahman Maidin revealed in the High Court (see here) that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad told him that Realmild Sdn Bhd, the shadowy company behind conglomerate Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB), belongs to Umno. Now, Tajuddin Ramli also admits that he was merely the front for Umno to plunder Malaysian Airlines (MAS).

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In the last two weeks, Malaysia Today revealed how Tajudin Ramli plundered MAS with impunity. Malaysia Today also showed that Ramli Yusuff, the Director of the Commercial Crimes Investigations Department (CCID) of the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), and lawyer Rosli Dahlan, paid a heavy price for pursuing Tajudin Ramli.

Both ended up being hauled into court against trumped-up charges. While Tajudin remained free and still extremely wealthy, Ramli lost his job and his shot at being the next IGP while Rosli lost his clients.

Malaysia Today also showed how Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi closed his eyes to the pillaging by Tajudin mainly because Abdullah himself had also used his position as Deputy Prime Minister to secure the MAS Catering privatisation contracts for his own family.

Now we are going to reveal why Tajudin was so bold and could practically get away with murder.

Tajuddin’s perceived success as a bumiputra businessman goes beyond just the New Economic Policy’s affirmative action. It went to the extent that he would be given immunity from the crimes he committed.

This is not what Malaysia Today says. This is what Tajuddin himself says in his affidavit -- see paragraph 6, 7(c), 12 and 13 of Tajudin’s affidavit below.

Tajudin was so audacious as to claim that he had immunity under the Public Authorities Protection Act. Mahathir, therefore, can’t deny that he asked Tajuddin to plunder MAS.

You will recall that Ramli Yusuff, in his letter to Prime Minister Abdullah, had recommended that Tajudin be prosecuted for various offences. This is based on Tajudin’s own claims that he was a government agent and was merely discharging his “public duties” when he plundered MAS.

This means Tajudin can be charged under both the old Anti Corruption Act as well as the new MACC Act for using his office to gratify his family.

For that matter, Prime Minister Abdullah can also be charged under that same provisions of the law.

Now, if Malaysia Today can figure all this out, surely it is not too difficult for MACC to pick it up from here and start prosecuting the real crooks.

You can read what the Act says below.

ANTI-CORRUPTION ACT 1997

Offence of using office or position for gratification

15. (1) Any officer of a public body who uses his office or position for any gratification shall be guilty of an offence.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), an officer of a public body shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to use his office or position for gratification when he makes any decision, or takes any action, in relation to any matter in which such officer, or any relative or associate of his, has an interest, whether directly or indirectly.

(3) For the avoidance of doubt, it is declared that, for the purposes of subsection (1), any member of the administration of a State shall be deemed to use his office or position for gratification when he acts contrary to subsection 2(8) of the Eighth Schedule to the Federal Constitution or the equivalent provision in the Constitution or Laws of the Constitution of that State.

(4) This section shall not apply to an officer who holds office in a public body as a representative of another public body which has the control or partial control over the first-mentioned public body in respect of any matter or thing done in his capacity as such representative for the interest or advantage of that other public body.

PART VI

EVIDENCE

Presumption in certain offences

42. (1) Where in any proceedings against any person for an offence under section 10, 11, 13, 14 or 15 it is proved that any gratification has been accepted or agreed to be accepted, obtained or attempted to be obtained, solicited, given or agreed to be given, promised, or offered, by or to the accused, the gratification shall be presumed to have been corruptly accepted or agreed to be accepted, obtained or attempted to be obtained, solicited, given or agreed to be given, promised or offered as an inducement or a reward for or on account of the matters set out in the particulars of the offence, unless the contrary is proved.

(2) Where in any proceedings against any person for an offence under section 161, 162, 163 or 164 of the Penal Code, it is proved that such person has accepted or agreed to accept, or obtained or attempted to obtain any gratification, such person shall be presumed to have done so as a motive or reward for the matters set out in the particulars of the offence, unless the contrary is proved.

(3) Where in any proceedings against any person for an offence under section 165 of the Penal Code it is proved that such person has accepted or attempted to obtain any valuable thing without consideration or for a consideration which such person knows to be inadequate, such person shall be presumed to have done so with such knowledge as to the circumstances as set out in the particulars of the offence, unless the contrary is proved.

(4) Where in any proceedings against any person for an offence under paragraph 137(1)(b) of the Customs Act 1967, it is proved that any officer of customs or other person duly employed for the prevention of smuggling has accepted, agreed to accept or attempted to obtain any bribe, gratuity, recompense, or reward, such officer or person shall be presumed to have done so for the neglect or non performance of his duty as set out in the particulars of the offence, unless the contrary is proved.

MALAYSIAN ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION ACT 2009

Offence of using office or position for gratification

23. (1) Any officer of a public body who uses his office or position for any gratification, whether for himself, his relative or associate, commits an offence.

 (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), an officer of a public body shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to use his office or position for any gratification, whether for himself, his relative or associate, when he makes any decision, or takes any action, in relation to any matter in which such officer, or any relative or associate of his, has an interest, whether directly or indirectly.

(3) For the avoidance of doubt, it is declared that, for the purposes of subsection (1), any member of the administration of a State shall be deemed to use his office or position for gratification when he acts contrary to subsection 2(8) of the Eighth Schedule to the Federal Constitution or the equivalent provision in the Constitution or Laws of the Constitution of that State.

(4) This section shall not apply to an officer who holds office in a public body as a representative of another public body which has the control or partial control over the first-mentioned public body in respect of any matter or thing done in his capacity as such representative for the interest or advantage of that other public body.

Part VI

EVIDENCE

Presumption in certain offences

50. (1) Where in any proceedings against any person for an offence under section 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22 or 23 it is proved that any gratification has been received or agreed to be received, accepted or agreed to be accepted, obtained or attempted to be obtained, solicited, given or agreed to be given, promised, or offered, by or to the accused, the gratification shall be presumed to have been corruptly received or agreed to be received, accepted or agreed to be accepted, obtained or attempted to be obtained, solicited, given or agreed to be given, promised, or offered as an inducement or a reward for or on account of the matters set out in the particulars of the offence, unless the contrary is proved.

(2) Where in any proceedings against any person for an offence under section 161, 162, 163 or 164 of the Penal Code, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission 51 it is proved that such person has accepted or agreed to accept, or obtained or attempted to obtain any gratification, such person shall be presumed to have done so as a motive or reward for the matters set out in the particulars of the offence, unless the contrary is proved.

(3) Where in any proceedings against any person for an offence under section 165 of the Penal Code it is proved that such person has accepted or attempted to obtain any valuable thing without consideration or for a consideration which such person knows to be inadequate, such person shall be presumed to have done so with such knowledge as to the circumstances as set out in the particulars of the offence, unless the contrary is proved.

(4) Where in any proceedings against any person for an offence under paragraph 137(1)(b) of the Customs Act 1967, it is proved that any officer of customs or other person duly employed for the prevention of smuggling has accepted, agreed to accept or attempted to obtain any bribe, gratuity, recompense, or reward, such officer or person shall be presumed to have done so for the neglect or non-performance of his duty as set out in the particulars of the offence, unless the contrary is proved.

Bear in mind that RPK is no suddenly arrived personality. The BBC had previously given press coverage to the Malaysian government's persecution of him, and several times. 

CPI 

According to its media note, Hardtalk "asks the difficult questions and gets behind the stories that make the news -- from international political leaders to entertainers; from corporate decision-makers to ordinary individuals facing huge challenges." 

This reputation of independence and fearlessly getting the stories behind the news is now blotted. 

On Aug 10, Nicholas Davis Blakemore, BBC planning editor sent an e-mail note to Raja Petra Kamarudin asking if he would be interested in appearing in Hardtalk. 

Following confirmation from RPK (readers can read the full correspondence here), the live interview was to have been conducted on Sept 1. 

On Aug 29, Hardtalk producer Bridget Osborne informed RPK that the interview was cancelled. This abrupt turnabout is quite unprecedented in the programme's 13-year history. According to Osborne, the cancellation was due to legal concerns. 

Since then the BBC has issued a further note in which its Global News senior press officer Peter Connors said in an e-mail reply: "It became clear in our research any comprehensive interview with former Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra would prominently feature issues that are currently the subject of a current court case in Malaysia, which raise issues of defamation."

It is unclear from Connors' e-mail which "current court case" is being referred to.

Even more cryptic is the allusion to "defamation". Who might it be that is likely to be defamed should RPK appear on air?

The BBC explanation is uncharacteristic of its traditional journalism ethos.

In the past, the programme has not been afraid of controversy arising from its choice of personalities and the discussions that arose during the course of their interviews. Surely the programme which prides itself on undertaking meticulous and in-depth research to accompany the interviews would have done its homework on the legal implications before any official invitation was extended by Blakemore to RPK.

Bear in mind that RPK is no suddenly arrived personality. The BBC had previously given press coverage to the Malaysian government's persecution of him, and several times. 

Nonetheless, Connors is correct to infer that the topic -- once RPK started hard talking -- may submerge viewers in turbulent waters.

Let's just suppose the Q&A had gone ahead. If 'the news' is a court case as revealed by Connors, what might be 'the difficult questions' asked by Hardtalk to get the real story behind the sandiwara.

If it is the Altantuya murder case, then there is an added dimension. One of the accused was Abdul Razak Baginda who brokered arms deals worth billions of ringgit for the Malaysian Defence Ministry.

A political commentator, Mariam Mokhtar, writing in the Malaysian Mirror speculated on what could have caused BBC to pull the plug. Mariam is sceptical that the British broadcaster would be afraid of legal threats and suggests that the Hardtalk climbdown might be due to something "purely economic" and the pressure coming instead from the British government to protect its arms sales to Malaysia's Defence Ministry.

For now, and until a whistleblower steps forward to provide details which can throw light on the unexpected turn of events, we can only ponder upon the reasons suggested by analysts who have been closely following this astonishing capitulation by Hardtalk.

Whist some of their views may appear to be highly speculative, it is however still inconceivable that the decision was arrived at by theHardtalk programming staff themselves.

READ MORE HERE

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Association for Children of Settlers (Anak) today filed a police report against Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and two others for “contempt of court”.

The report was related to the Federal Court’s recent landmark decision favouring Felda settlers.

Led by PAS MP Salahuddin Ayub and Anak president Mazlan Aliman, the report also named Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Ahmad Maslan and Felda President Yusof Noor.

In its decision, the apex court had ordered Felda (Federal Land Development Authority) to pay RM11 million in damages to 354 settlers.

The report stated that Najib and the other two had committed contempt of court by claiming that Felda lost the case because its lawyer did not attend the trial, depriving the agency of the chance to defend itself.

The report was lodged at 11.30am with the Dang Wangi district police headquarters. A handful of Anak supporters were also present.

The report was lodged on behalf of Anak by settler Abdul Rahman Ramli from the Felda Serting in Negeri Sembilan.

More expose soon

"How can they say that their lawyers did not show up at court?" Aliman said, rubbishing Najib's claim.

READ MORE HERE.

By Dominic Legeh

(FMT) KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) sees deputy Chief Minister Peter Pang’s quitting from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and his offer to resign from his state cabinet posts as a symptom of the malaise in Barisan Nasional (BN) today.

SAPP president Yong Teck Lee said Pang’s resignation from LDP and his offer to step down from his state cabinet posts  is a sign of further aggravation of internal conflict in the BN.

“To put things in prospective, Pang’s resignation is the basic cause of the political problem facing BN.

"It is only a symptom that we see today. But this symptom today has now become very public and will further aggravate the internal conflict in BN,” he said.

“So today’s timing is good (for us). We have 'Pilihanku SAPP' (my choice is SAPP),” he told reporters after officiating the launch of the 'Pilihanku SAPP' booklet authored by Emin Madi yesterday.

Asked whether he was saying it as an offer to Pang, he said: “No, no, no. Looking at the situation since noon today, many things have been revealed.

“The fact that the Prime Minister said Pang had told him that he was joining Gerakan means this is not a spontaneous and instantaneous thing that happened in the last one or two days.

“There would have been a process of discussion leading to today’s announcement…but personally I'm not surprised by the announcement because you have Chin Su Phin and others who have declared they will not cooperate with the Chief Minister.

“And then you have the president (VK Liew) who is neither here nor there and now you have Pang who decides to leave LDP, meaning he will side with the Chief Minister and not with his own party,” Yong said.

He further added that the situation was not only about Pang’s resignation because there were so many other things happening within BN.

Downfall of BN government

He said Pang’s resignation could also be read in the context of Salleh Said, the Sabah Umno deputy chairman’s disclosure of a plot by LDP and others to topple Chief Minister Musa Aman.

“(So) this goes back to my earlier point, which is further aggravation of the internal conflict in BN that will help to expedite the downfall of BN government.

“Since Sabah is considered as a BN ‘fixed deposit’ in Malaysia. When they lose the ‘fixed deposit’ even at the Federal level, they also will lose,” he said.

Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/fmt-english/politics/sabah-and-sarawak/9863-pangs-resignation-will-aggravate-conflict-within-bn

Of the two poorest states in Malaysia, one receives oil royalties, the other does not. But whilst the Chief Minister of Sarawak manages to lead a life that is way beyond his official ***RM13,000 salary and is alleged to have built a multi-million fortune and stashed it abroad, the Menteri Besar of Kelantan lives a modest life, one that speaks volumes of the man.

By Mariam Mokhtar 

COMMENT  On 30 August, the state of Kelantan sued the national oil corporation Petronas, for alleged breach of a contract that had been signed between Kelantan and Petronas, in 1975. With Kelantan deprived of oil royalties, its people were robbed of the benefits that could have improved their lives.

If this is the federal government’s way of punishing the Kelantan people for voting PAS at the state level, then BN is defeated even before it has begun. Isn’t BN bothered that it is also punishing its own supporters in Kelantan?

The federal government treats Petronas like its personal kitty - a cash cow with which it can dip its grubby paws into, to reward those states which are compliant. The federal government is acting irresponsibly, by being spiteful and therefore, is unfit to govern.

Kelantan (population 2,100,000) is the poorest state; Sarawak (2,500,000) is the next poorest. Both Sarawak and Kelantan are blessed with oil reserves and timber, but they remain poor. Their poverty is because of different reasons.

Sarawak’s abundance of liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum is the mainstay of the Federal government’s economy and yet it receives only 5% royalty. Its state sanctioned logging and oil-palm industries, has resulted in massive deforestation. Only 5% of virgin jungle remains.

Despite the relative economic growth from timber, oil palm and oil, Sarawak still lags markedly behind the rest of the other states, bar Kelantan.

These two states have in common, elderly leaders who have been at the helm for decades: Taib Mahmud led Sarawak for 30 years whilst Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat served Kelantan since 1990.

But the two men, who are in their seventies, are like chalk and cheese. Taib belongs to BN whereas Nik Aziz is with PAS.

Apparently, after filing the suit against Petronas, Kelantan menteri besar Nik Aziz led 200 supporters in a solat hajat (prayer of need) at the nearby Federal Territory Mosque. Nik Aziz is famed for commanding support from non-Muslims in Malaysia and is instrumental in playing a leading role for the increase in popularity of PAS among non-Muslims.

However, the only recent suit we remember involving Taib Mahmud was the white one he wore (complete with red bow tie) on the night of the glittering high society banquet of the Islamic Fashion Festival (IFF) Charity Gala Dinner in Monaco-Monte Carlo.

Together with various members of Malaysian royalty and 600 guests from Monaco’s high society, Taib watched as Malaysia’s “First Lady” Rosmah Mansor, the IFF patron, donated 270,000 euros (RM1,120,961) to the Prince Albert II Foundation of Monaco. The money had been raised from the promotion of Sarawak tourism, and an auction of items including a framed signed photo of Prince Albert

Tok Guru, as Nik Aziz, is affectionately called, commands huge respect from several people. He interacts well with non-Muslims, because they admire him for his honesty, views on moral issues and his candour.

They may not agree with all of his policies, but he is valued for his wisdom and his courage.  How many in the Umno camp can match up to Tok Guru?

Taib Mahmud on the other hand, raised the ire of many, including a group of foreigners who joined a protest in Oxford when he went to the United Kingdom to woo investors with the ‘Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy’ (SCORE).

They were protesting at the destruction of the rainforests of Sarawak, the denial of justice for the Penan and also the construction of the 12 mega-dams project which will displace the indigenous people living in the affected areas.

The contrast between the two men continues on a personal level.

Read more at: http://www.malaysianmirror.com/media-buzz-detail/41-opinion/49102-a-tale-of-two-states-and-two-men

By Joseph Tawie

(FMT) KUCHING: Two senior editors of a newspaper here have been sacked and suspended respectively for allowing a “negative” article on Chief Minister Taib Mahmud to be published.

New Sarawak Tribune editorial adviser, James Ritchie, has been removed and replaced by Taib’s former press secretary, Effendi Ariffin, while the newspaper’s executive editor, Paul Si, has been suspended.

The paper which recently changed its name from The Eastern Sun to the New Sarawak Tribune is owned by one of Taib’s daughters.

The offending Bernama article appeared on Aug 30, on the front page of the paper under the headline “Is Taib testing the waters?”

It is understood that the objectionable part of the article was a comment made by Jeniri Amir, a political analyst at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).

Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/fmt-english/politics/sabah-and-sarawak/9860-taibs-family-punishes-editors-over-article

Chapter 4: Modern Model States

The Relevant Lessons For Malaysia (Cont’d)

Today in the typical Malaysian classroom, even at the highest levels, teaching is a one-way street: from teacher to student. No discussions, no feedback; everything is black and white. Besides, the right answers are given at the back of the book, or in some sample essays written by somebody.

By M. Bakri Musa

A few years ago I was a guest teacher for the senior class in the school near my village in Malaysia where I once taught briefly as a temporary teacher. What an experience! I was taken aback at how passive and quiet the class was. There was no spunk or energy. In an attempt to stimulate some discussions I uttered some really silly and outrageous remarks just to get a reaction. Alas, none was forthcoming.

These students had such reverence for their teachers that they did not dare question me. More startling, when one brave soul attempted to challenge my statement, the others quickly put her down, saying in effect that questioning what I said was tantamount to being disrespectful, and thus sinful. It is this psychological effect imparted by the religious teachers that is so devastating.

These students did not begin that way. Something must have happened to them in their later years. I was with a lower class at another session and the atmosphere was much different. The pupils were lively, full of sparks and eager. I was relating to them the folk story, Batu Belah Batu Melanggup (The Mysterious Cave), about a mother who returned home after a hard day searching for food. All she had to show for her effort was a handful of mushrooms, which she cooked for her family. When she was done she was too tired to eat with her children and went to sleep instead. On wakening up, she was shocked that her children had not left her any portion. Saddened and disappointed with her children, she stormed out of her home to the mysterious cave, with her crying children trailing behind her, apologizing profusely. Undeterred, she continued on and was swallowed by the cave, leaving her children behind, orphaned.

The moral of the story as related to me in my childhood is that children must always think of their mothers first, as encapsulated by the hadith that the path to heaven is at the mother’s feet. The pupils’ reaction to the story was as I anticipated; they blamed the selfish children.

A few years earlier I had related the same story to my son’s middle school class in California, and the children there reacted with horror at the mother’s action, variously labeling her as cruel and uncaring for abandoning her children – a very different reaction from that of Malaysian pupils.

When I mentioned the response of my son’s class to the Malaysian pupils, they were appalled. After much prompting on my part, some of the pupils did finally agree that the American viewpoint was not unreasonable. And from there the discussions took off. Surprisingly most of the girls were supportive of the American viewpoint (perhaps a reflection of a nascent maternal instinct) but the boys stuck with the traditional interpretation. At the end of the class even their teacher was also surprised that I had managed to create a lively discussion with that simple story.

The point is, even the classics could be interpreted in many ways. Unfortunately today in the typical Malaysian classroom, even at the highest levels, teaching is a one-way street: from teacher to student. No discussions, no feedback; everything is black and white. Besides, the right answers are given at the back of the book, or in some sample essays written by somebody.

Respect for teachers is good, but not blind obedience. In many ways religious teachers in Malaysia remind me of athletic coaches in American schools. American students greatly respect their coaches because these coaches control who gets to play. Likewise, Malaysian religious teachers control their students by exploiting the students’ psychological vulnerabilities.

While the Irish are purposefully reducing the role of the Church in the state and in their personal lives, Malaysian Muslims are seeking an even greater role for religion. The current frenzy of Islamization in Malaysia eerily reminds me of the early Irish experience. If this is not stopped and reversed now, it will be too late and Malaysia will suffer the same fate as Ireland once did. I will return to this issue more fully later in the chapter on Islam (9).

The other lesson worthy of emulation is the Irish attitude towards the English language. Malaysians share with the Irish a common legacy of being colonized by the English and as such, we harbor many negative sentiments regarding things English, including and especially the language. Malaysia has an advantage in that unlike Gaelic, Malay is still a living language and widely used. We should nurture that. At the same time we should be pragmatic and accept English for what it is – an international language. Had the Irish stick with Gaelic, their citizens would be at a definite disadvantage. By opting for English in their schools and colleges (and also in everyday use), the Irish are poised to benefit from globalization. Indeed many multinational companies are flocking to Ireland precisely because of the ready availability of well trained, English-speaking workers. By adopting English, Ireland is able to leapfrog its development. The Irish may be anti-English in other spheres, but not in language. Malaysia, even though it has been independent for nearly half a century, still harbors lingering suspicions that everything English or (Western) is bad.

The Irish had gone overboard in ignoring their native tongue and is now desperate to resurrect that near-dead language. Gaelic is now mandatory in schools and a pass in the subject is required for senior public appointments. Politicians now generously sprinkle their speeches with Gaelic.

Besides being the official language of Malaysia, Malay is also the language of hundreds of millions more in Southeast Asia. Assured that Malay would not meet the fate of Gaelic, Malaysia should encourage its students and citizens to study and use English.

Even the Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese are desperately learning English, and their languages are even more advanced and older than Malay. English is an international language not by fiat but as a matter of fact. We need an international language, just like we need a uniform global standard for everything else, to facilitate exchanges and communication.

In the past elite linguists tried to concoct “Esparanto,” but that artificial language failed miserably. By default, English is now the international language.

Adopting English does not mean that the world wants to imitate the ways of the English. Malaysians fluent in English have no desire to be a Mat Salleh culup (Englishman wannabe).

Why English and not Chinese is the preferred international language is an interesting question. After all Chinese is spoken by more people than any other language. It would have been the more natural candidate. Trying to explain why English and not Chinese is the language of choice is like trying to explain why the personal computer is preferred over Apple; or VHS format over Beta on video recordings. The consumers have voted. Undoubtedly had the Anglo-Saxon world (Britain and America) been third-rate economic powers, English would now enjoy as much popularity and wide usage as Swahili.

In truth the future does not belong to the English speakers. Indeed those who are fluent in English in addition to their own (or any other) language will be at a great advantage, enjoying a marked premium in the marketplace. Next would be those fluent only in English. The losers would be those who speak only their own mother tongue regardless of how widespread that language is used. China is making its most prestigious universities use English as the medium of instruction. As the Chinese premier rightly said, he has no particular love for that language but it is in the national interest that the best Chinese students be fluent in it.

Properly designed, Malaysia’s educational system could produce citizens who would be in great demand worldwide. Most Malaysians, especially non-Malays, are already functionally trilingual: their mother tongue, Malay and English. What a great advantage! Malays too could be trilingual: Malay, English and Arabic. But with the preoccupation with Malay, English gets shortchanged. The official mindset seems to be that for Malay to advance, other languages must be suppressed. I argue the contrary. Studying other languages facilitates the learning of Malay.

By being fluently bilingual or trilingual I mean more than just the ability to communicate in multiple languages. It means the ability to breath, live, and dream in those languages. Such a skill would give one a different perspective on looking at the world. The difference in saying “beautiful house” in English and “rumah cantek” (“house beautiful”) in Malay reflects not simply a mere rearrangement of words but of viewing the universe differently.

When I was in school I never appreciated Malay literature. It was only later in college, after being exposed to the richness of English literature that I began to understand my own native literature. My knowledge of good English literature enhances the understanding of my own. Had I been cocooned in the world of Malay language alone, I would have missed all those splendid opportunities.

Eminent writers in Malay today (I include Indonesian writers) are those who have been exposed to great literatures of other languages. Before Pramoedya Ananta Toer produced those epic novels, he was already translating the English classics into Indonesian. Similarly, Malaysia’s Kassim Ahmad and Shahnon Ahmad (no relation) had significant education in English. They were exposed to the refined ideals of the Western world that enhanced their literary perspective and skills.

One of the reasons I (and many others) found concerts of the late Sudirman so enjoyable was because his choreography and stage presentations were unique. He was not simply aping the style of popular Western artists (as so many third-rate performers do); he broke new grounds, with the artistic and skillful blending of East and West. I have always wondered how much better Malaysian movies and television shows would be had our producers and directors been trained at such eminent institutions as UCLA cinematography school.

Next: The Relevant Lessons For Malaysia (Cont’d)

By Malaysia Waves

Pengerusi Dewan Perniagaan Melayu Selangor, Tan Sri Rozali Ismail baru-baru ini membuat kenyataan kononnya kontraktor Melayu ketinggalan dalam projek-projek pembangunan di negeri-negeri yang diperintah Pakatan Rakyat.

Sebelum ini Malaysiawaves telah pun mendedahkan betapa Tan Sri Rozali Ismail ini men dapat gaji yang lebih tinggi dari CEO Bank of China kerana beliau adalah CEO SYABAS. Soalan saya kepada Tan Sri Rozali adalah duit siapakah yang membayar gaji beliau RM5.1 juta setahun? Bukankah itu duit dari Kerajaan Negeri Selangor? Bagaimanakah beliau boleh kata beliau dipinggir?
(Nota: Bank of China adalah Bank yang ketiga terbesar DI DUNIA. Namun, gaji CEO mereka JAUHHHHH lebih rendah dari gaji Tan Sri Rozali Ismail di SYABAS)

Read more at: http://www.malaysiawaves.com/2010/09/rozali-tak-datang-mesyuarat-lepas-tu.html

The 13th general election will be the most watched and anxiously awaited event in the annals of Malaysian political history. Previous general elections have been tame affairs where the result was never in doubt; it was only a matter of how many seats the opposition could wrest away from BN. But the next election will be different as BN faces a real threat of losing power to a united opposition.

Malaysian politics has always been a one party system with the ruling coalition facing no credible challenges from a fragmented opposition. But with the rise of Pakatan Rakyat a nascent two party system has evolved ending the domination of one party which allowed it to perpetrate all manner of abuses and corruption.   

To be sure, this is not the first time that the opposition parties have grouped together to challenge BN. In the 1990 general election, Tengku Razaleigh’s Semangat 46 forged a coalition with other opposition parties and in 1999 DAP, PAS and Keadilan formed Barisan Alternatif to take advantage of public revulsion over Mahathir’s cruel treatment of Anwar. 

But these opposition pacts did not even manage to deny BN its customary two-thirds majority. They failed because the social forces at that time were just not in their favour. The minorities were controlled by racial and religious fears and the mindset of the people then could not accept being governed by any coalition other than BN. 

Things are certainly different now. Never before has there been such a nexus of events to influence the political destiny of the country. The coming together of the opposition, the dissipation of racial and religious fears, the loss of minority votes, the sea change in mindset, the political awakening of Sabah and Sarawak and yet another sodomy outrage on Anwar have coalesced into the perfect storm to oust BN. 

The Tyranny of Numbers 

Although chances to unseat BN have never been better one should not be mistaken into thinking that ousting the behemoth is easy or inevitable. In Malaysia there is no such thing as free and fair elections. The playing field is wholly tilted to BN which has almost unlimited funds and controls the mass media and all the levers of power which it shamelessly uses to its advantage. If these advantages are not enough a little help from postal votes and phantom voters are in order. 

There are 222 parliament seats so a party winning 112 seats gains a simple majority to form the government with the other side ending up with 110 seats. Of course such a slim majority is not workable in practice as a single defection will lose the majority. 

To gain a reasonable majority of say 20 seats, PR would need to win 121 seats with BN ending up with 101 seats. After the 2008 general election, PR held 83 parliament seats to BN’s 139. This means PR must retain all the seats it won in 2008 plus an additional 38 seats. On the surface this looks rather optimistic. 

But numbers can be deceptive. Our election system is based on “first past the post” which means that a win by 1 vote is still a win. Hence a small swing in vote share can result in a large number of seats changing hands. An alternative system is proportional representation where seat allocation is based on the proportion of votes secured but the disadvantage of such a system is that it tends to result in weak governments.  

After the 2008 election there were many marginal seats won by both sides which could change hands with just a small swing in voter support. Based on data on marginal seats sourced from malaysiakini, a 6% swing to PR will result in PR winning 112 seats to BN’s 110 but this is too weak to govern, a 7% swing means PR having 118 to BN’s 104 which is still very dicey so an 8% swing is needed to give PR 125 seats to BN’s 97 seats with a workable majority of 28 seats. 

An overall 8% swing is a large swing and this must come on the back of the 2008 swing against BN. To put this in perspective the overall swing to and against BN in past general elections are as follows: (sourced from The Star) 

1995 - 11.8% swing to BN due to Dr. M's liberalization policies

1999 - 8.7% swing to opposition due to Anwar factor

2004 - 7.4% swing to BN due to new PM Badawi

2008 - 10.7% swing to opposition due to tsunami. 

So an 8% swing is within the range of possibility but the crux is that swings have alternated between BN and opposition from election to election. Since the last election saw a swing of 10.7% to the opposition an additional 8% swing in the same direction seems unlikely or very optimistic due to a limit in fence sitters. Even more ominous, a mere 1.2% swing to BN will see BN regaining its two-thirds majority. Is BN safe in Putrajaya after all?

The Keys to Putrajaya 

The key to break this tyranny of numbers is Sabah and Sarawak. To put it another way, Sabah and Sarawak hold the keys to Putrajaya. 

In the above analysis we have assumed that the voting pattern in the two East Malaysian states will not differ greatly from 2008 subject to a moderate percentage swing. In 2008 and the opposition only managed to capture only a single seat each in Sabah and Sarawak.  

But Sabah and Sarawak are experiencing a political awakening in the wake of the 2008 tsunami. The notion of the two states being “fixed deposits” for BN is set to be seriously challenged. The loss of BN’s stronghold Sibu in a by-election is a signal that political changes are afoot in Sarawak. The mood in Sabah against the federal government is anger at the hordes of illegal immigrants and Sabah is ripe for political change. 

Hence we should treat Sabah and Sarawak differently on the basis that their normal voting pattern is going to be upset from the usual trend. Sabah has 26 parliament seats and Sarawak 31, numbers which are disproportionate to their population. 

The number of seats which PR can capture in these two states varies between political analysts but even conservative estimates indicate that both these states are likely to lose at least one-third of their seats to PR. The coming Sarawak state election will give a strong pointer. If BN loses its two-thirds majority in the state assembly it spells trouble for BN in the next general election.  

If we assume that PR can capture 10 seats in Sabah and 12 seats in Sarawak and adding these to PR’s 81 Peninsula seats in 2008, this brings the total to 103. From the table of BN’s marginal seats and excluding those seats in Sabah and Sarawak, we find that a 4% swing will yield PR an additional 14 seats while a 5% swing will yield another 19 seats in the Peninsula. 

Crunching the numbers this means that a 4% swing will give total of 117 seats for PR against BN’s 105, a majority of 12 which is probably too thin to govern as BN will waste no time in toppling the government with wheelbarrows of money and attacks with their cohorts in the civil service. However a 5% swing yields a total of 122 seats for PR and 100 seats for BN with a majority of 22, not great but workable giving PR time consolidate its position by making much needed changes to the police, judiciary MACC and other enforcement divisions. 

A 5% swing is still significant but begins to look more attainable although we must remember that this must come on the back of a 10.7% swing in 2008 in the same direction. The next question is, “Will there be enough fence sitters to execute the swing given that a large number have already swung away from BN in 2008?”

Hard Core Supporters and Fence Sitters 

Politics in Malaysia is characterized by hard core supporters and fence sitters. These terms merit some description. 

Fence sitters may be best understood by distinguishing them from hard core supporters. Both BN and PR have their flock of hard core supporters who will vote for their party come hell or high water. No amount of negative news or shameful acts attributed to the party they support will make any difference to their vote, not even fielding a disbarred lawyer in a by-election.

Fence sitters are not strongly aligned to any party. Their vote may go either way depending on how they weigh the parties. They are usually well read, well informed from many sources of information and their views are shaped by current events, exposes, scandals and perception of injustice or unfairness. They will vote for the better party or failing that, the lesser devil.

Every partisan action by the police or MACC, every controversial court decision, every racist outburst, every unfair application of the law and every crime that goes unpunished means BN pushes some fences sitters off to PR’s side.

To BN’s great shame it has learned nothing from the 2008 tsunami but has continued to offend the sensibilities of fence sitters left, right and centre. It goes without saying that PR will win the fence sitters’ battle.

The Racial Battleground

Among the Malays there appear to be few fence sitters. This is why PR finds it hard to increase its Malay vote share. On the other hand even overt racism and ultra nationalism do little to enlarge Umno’s Malay base. The Malay ground is very hard to shift either way but a little means a lot due to their demography. 

Analysis of BN’s Malay vote share in past general elections show 49% in 1999 due to the Anwar crisis, 59.1% in 2004 due to the new PM factor (or because Mahathir was gone) and 55% in 2008. Umno’s baseline Malay support appears to be about 55% and it can shift up or down by about 5%. This means that in 2008 it may have declined down to it base support level and it possible to shift further to PR by a further of 5%.  

But the possibility is not the deed as there must be something to shift the Malay ground. Is there any likelihood of a cataclysmic event which will swing the Malay vote away from BN as what happened in 1999? Yes, there is - Anwar’s sodomy II which is almost certain to end with his imprisonment.  

A more drastic consequence of the Malay vote falling below 50% with the minority votes with PR is that BN will lose all the non-Malay majority seats and mixed seats in the Peninsula while all the Malay majority seats will be up for grabs thus giving PR an easy victory. 

The Chinese community can be considered to be won by PR with up to 80% support in by-elections. Comparing this with the 65% Chinese support for the opposition in 2008 it can be seen that there is considerable latitude for further swing from the 2008 baseline. 

It is generally believed that the Indian community voted overwhelmingly against BN in 2008 but the numbers show that Indian support for BN was split down the middle at 48%. This was of course a huge swing from their normal 80% support level. Right now the Indian vote is ambivalent and still split down the middle although by-elections have detected a slight drift back to BN. In the Hulu Selangor by-election BN managed to capture 55% of the Indian vote. 

It is regrettable that the Indians who claim to be the most marginalized race cannot stand with the Chinese in getting rid of a regime which is responsible for their economic under performance. In ousting BN all races are important; there are many mixed seats which would be won easily if the Indians vote with the Chinese. Hindraf and their offshoot HRP’s incessant attacks on PR in their ill-advised quest for political power has confused the Indians. The lack of a charismatic Indian leader in PR has not helped. 
 

The Final Analysis 

So what sort of overall swing from the 2008 baseline can be realistically expected? Assuming that the Anwar sodomy factor will result in a 4% swing to BN among the Malays, a 75% support level from the Chinese (10% swing) and a 0% swing from the Indians (hopefully no negative swing) and basing on a demography of 66% Malay, 26% Chinese and 8% Indian, the overall swing can be calculated as 5.24%. 

This is just sufficient to push PR into Putrajaya with a practical majority to govern. Of course this is based on the assumption that BN will dig their own grave by sticking Anwar in prison on a parody of seeking justice for a consensual sodomy victim and that the Indians do not help to perpetuate a system which has sidelined them.  

Why did I choose 4% for the Malay swing? As can be seen this number is crucial as it will make or break PR’s bid for Putrajaya. It is not because ‘4’ sounds like ‘death’ in Chinese dialects to signal the death of BN. In 1999 Malay support for BN dropped 6% but there appears to be less anger now. 4% is within the estimated 5% of Malay fence sitters. Yes, it may well be 1% or 2% but I cannot believe that Malays are much less compassionate now over injustice and humiliation heaped on a popular leader. The 4% swing reflects not just the Anwar factor but also disgust for Umno’s racism, chauvinism, bigotry, corruption, institutional abuse and double standards. It is a reasonable figure and my purpose is to show that BN can be ousted with reasonable assumptions. 

It is clear that the 13th general election will be a battle for the Malay vote. Only the Malays themselves can determine who governs them. There are no races acting as kingmakers.

A New Dawn for Malaysia 

The road to Putrajaya is long and arduous so PR must stay focused and cohesive. There is no room for petty squabbling or in-fighting. Unseating BN with their absolute control of money, media and machinery is hard even with the opposition coalition at its optimum. Anything less and BN may even gain back their two-thirds majority instead of being ousted. 

Along the way PR will be helped by young voters entering the electoral rolls who are repelled by BN’s corruption, abuses and racism, wider access to online sources of information, increasing urbanization of rural areas, rising cost of living against depreciation of real income and BN’s continuing sandals.  Although PR supporters are anxious to kick out BN more time may actually be favourable to PR. 

For too long has Malaysia suffered under the domination of one party and a race based political system with a government that uses corruption as its lifeblood and racial discrimination as a state policy. It is time for a new dawn for Malaysia, a new government that is inclusive, pluralistic and capable of driving Malaysia to new heights without the baggage of the past.

By Anak Sungai Derhaka

Swiss-based NGO Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF) told FMT that the company, Samling Global, made the offer to Long Ajeng's headman, Jawa Nyipa.

According to BMF, Nyipa was asked to sign a statement prepared by Samling stating that the women in the region had retracted allegations of sexual abuse.

He was told that until he signed the statement, there would be no transport for the Penans in the area. Nyip refused.

According to BMF, logging companies in the Middle Baram region stopped providing transport for natives who complained about sexual abuse and rape by timber workers.

Vehicles owned by timber companies often serve as the only means of transport for indigenous people residing deep in the interior.

Roads reaching these remote jungle villages are also constructed by timber companies.

"The roads are not only in the (Upper Baram) area," said Raymond Abin, of Borneo Research Institute of Malaysia. "They are all over the places, especially where they have logging camps."

"(Samling's manager) has given a directive to all its drivers (not to pick up the Penan people)," he said, adding that he saw a copy of the order.

When asked if the Penans would retract their sexual abuse allegations, he said: "I don't think they will withdraw their statement."

Sarawak-based land rights lawyer, Paul Raja, agreed.

"They shouldn't retract (the allegations)," he said. "We are talking about the rights of the Penans."

"If these reports (of sexual abuse) are genuine, no one should be left off the hook," Raja said, adding that Samling should refrain from taking advantage of the Penans.

He also questioned the government's failure to provide transport for indigenous people.

"The government should be responsible," he said. "It cannot leave it (transport) solely to the company."

READ MORE HERE.

KUALA LUMPUR: Two months into his new role as PKR Federal Territory chief and Zaid Ibrahim is already pushing hard for a dialogue session with the Minister of Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin. His invitation has been met with silence so far but Zaid is keeping his hopes up. An acceptance, he said, would put many of the issues raised by MPs in Kuala Lumpur on the fast track to a concrete resolution.

“The situation in KL is that although the opposition holds nine of the 11 constituencies there, the power and decision to improve facilities and resolve issues are not in our hands,” Zaid explained. “So I have written letters to the minister asking him for a dialogue to discuss all these issues.”

“The ruling government and the opposition can fight on issues, but there comes a time when we have to rise above our differences in order to serve the people. The opposition is limited to highlighting issues and putting forth suggestions to resolve them. Such feedback is crucial for the minister so I hope there is a change of attitude.”

In the same breath, however, Zaid also voiced his agreement with Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai that the ministry should be abolished to release Kuala Lumpur from beneath the thumbs of “political masters”.

He pointed out that on a structural level, KL Mayor Ahmad Fuad Ismail and Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) appear to have the authority to make decisions but in reality, this power belongs to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Raja Nong Chik.

Zaid blamed most of the conflicting decisions concerning Kuala Lumpur on the lack of role clarification among the minister, the Cabinet and the mayor.

“Resolutions can't take place overnight... much planning is needed,” he stated. “But if the details of the plans keep changing or if one person reverses another's decision, then nothing moves. And this is what's happening now because the party that is entitled to authority is being denied it.”

“The minster's position is unnecessary because we already have a mayor in KL and we can have mayors in Langkawi and Labuan as well. It would also be good to have an elected mayor who would feel accountable and responsible towards those who voted for him. This is part of a long-term plan that will address the issues in KL.”

Closer to home

Zaid's new plans are also primed to make a difference at the party level. He will focus his next monthly meeting on three or four main problematic areas and elect a key person to handle each area.

READ MORE HERE.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — Analysts and politicians have hit out at Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for wanting an indefinite continuation of pro-Bumiputera New Economic Policy (NEP)-style policies.

They claim that NEP-based policies needed to be replaced with a more “merit-based” policy, saying that a majority of Bumiputeras “have not benefited” from the NEP during Dr Mahathir’s tenure as prime minister.

“I disagree strongly with Tun Dr Mahathir. Under the NEP and during his time as prime minister, a majority of poor Malays have not benefited from the race-based policy. It only served to widen the gap between the poor and a rich elite. Look at the urban poor today where a majority are Bumiputeras as well as Indians,” said economist Dr Subramaniam Pillay.

Dr Mahathir predicted earlier this week that there would be an escalation in racial tension and division should NEP-style policies be removed, likening the situation to the Communist revolution in Europe.

He stressed that the time was not right to introduce any policy which would “disregard the disparities between races in the interest of equity and merit.”

In justifying his arguments, Dr Mahathir said that during his time as prime minister and under the implementation of the NEP, Malaysia had enjoyed stability and good economic growth.

Subramaniam did not agree with Dr Mahathir’s explanation.

“During Dr Mahathir’s time, many countries in Southeast Asia or even Asia did not practise an open economy. There were very few countries which were open to foreign direct investments (FDI). Malaysia was doing relatively well, yes because there was no stiff competition from other countries at the time,” said the Nottingham University lecturer.

Subramaniam told The Malaysian Insider that due to “rising economies” like India and China over the past decade, Malaysia was in urgent need of a policy which would allow the country to escape from the “middle-income” trap.

“In spite of Mahathir’s NEP policies, it had favoured the few rather than improved the economic situation of the poor.

“The country requires a policy where it encourages the acquisition of survival skills. We don’t have that right now. We cannot compete with other countries because we don’t have the skills,” said Subramaniam.

He, however, added that a “needs-based” form of affirmative action was still required to help the poor.

Historian and political analyst Tan Sri Dr Khoo Kay Kim questioned the reason for Dr Mahathir’s “claims of an impending revolution.”

Khoo was doubtful that NEP-like policies would ever be scrapped, until the Malays and Bumiputeras were themselves ready for a change.

“What Mahathir is talking about is impossible. Since when can we remove the NEP? Unless and until the Malays themselves are ready, we cannot do anything,” said Khoo.

UKM lecturer Professor Shamsul Amri said while Dr Mahathir had a right to express his views, the former prime minister was in no position to make any changes to the country’s current economic policies.

“Let Mahathir say whatever it is he has to say. I do not see why he cannot have that opinion. He can no longer do anything, he is no longer in power,” said Shamsul.

He blamed politicians from both sides of the political divide for not doing anything to amend or scrap NEP-based policies.

“If people do not think it is relevant, change it. The opposition as well as Barisan Nasional talk too much but do not take any action.

“If they do not want NEP-based policies, please do something about it in Parliament,” Shamsul told The Malaysian Insider.

The academic claimed that although the actual NEP policy was no longer being used, the “spirit” of the NEP still lived within Article 153 of the Federal Constitution.

“The NEP is dead, but the spirit of the NEP is represented within Article 153 of the Federal Constitution. The spirit of NEP will always be there if Article 153 is there. If you do not want it, change it. Do something about it in Parliament,” said Shamsul.

The NEP, put in place in 1971, officially ended in 1990, but many of its programmes are still being continued.

READ MORE HERE.

We refer to the article entitled ‘The RPK blip, bleep and the Beeb’ written by Shane Fuentes and published in Malaysian Mirror, in particular the following part of that article:

When RPK tried to desperately contact London-based Hindraf Makkal Sakthi chairman Waythamoorthy Ponnusamy, the latter was understandably very wary and kept a good distance from him. RPK used a go-between to get Waythamoorthy to see him but the latter rebuffed all attempts. Finally, RPK turned up one morning at Waythamoorthy’s door himself. He was virtually shown the door.

Subsequently, he went on a tirade against Hindraf, labeling it and the Ponnusamy brothers – including the elder Uthayakumar – as racists. Hindraf did not dignify RPK’s attacks with any rebuttal. 

In a statement that make no reference whatsoever to RPK, Hindraf has explained that “a racist is one who denies other people their rights in the sun”.

In the case of Hindraf, it was further explained, the ad hoc apolitical movement was only fighting for the rights of the marginalized to have their place in the sun without depriving others, in the process, of their rights”.

Hindraf sees no need to speak up for others but to focus only on the plight of the marginalized. This has been latched on by RPK to label Hindraf in his blog as racist since “it doesn’t speak up for all but only one group”.

Is it any wonder therefore that the BBC has found RPK not newsworthy enough or credible to appear on its HARDTalk show?

RPK neither makes a difference for the better nor for worse. He’s in the non-news category. No news is bad news. Bad news is good news. When a dog bites a man, it’s not news. When a man bites a dog, it’s news.

It’s more likely that Hindraf’s Waythamoorthy will soon appear on a BBC show. Even hardcore Malay racists in Malaysia concede, albeit grudgingly, that Hindraf Makkal Sakthi makes a compelling case. (read more here).

We wish to confirm that the article above is inaccurate, to put it mildly, as we have a very good relationship that extends beyond just a professional relationship but is very personal in nature. We have met many times and have visited each other’s homes on numerous occasions. Your commentary is therefore not only misleading but also malicious in intent.

Issued by:

Waythamoorthy Ponnusamy and Raja Petra Kamarudin 

It started back in 2007. Musa Hassan, the IGP, was due to retire that year. To make sure that he could stay on, he got rid of the competition in the form of the CCID Director, Ramli Yusuff.

Malaysia Today then published Statutory Declarations signed by half a dozen police officers, the IGP’s own ADC, and two underworld figures. Story after story was generated about the IGP’s links with the underworld. In fact, reported Malaysia Today, the IGP not only has links with the underworld he is the Godfather of the prostitution, gambling, drugs and loan shark syndicate.

Instead of taking action against the IGP, the whistleblowers were persecuted. Most were cited for breach of discipline and were dragged before the disciplinary board for beheading. Some were arrested and detained in the lockup.

The brutal retaliation against police officers whom exposed corruption in the police force sent shivers down every officer’s spine. In one case in Kuantan, the wife and children of a police officer were kidnapped by the MACC. They then made a phone call to the police officer concerned and told him that if he wanted to secure his family’s release then he must make a statement cancelling his earlier statement.

Both the police officer and the wife made police reports about this kidnapping. You can guess what happened after that. Yes, that’s right, NFA.

This appears to be the SOP of Malaysia’s uniformed agencies. Is it any surprise that P.I. Balasubramanian was also subjected to the same?

Musa Hassan could afford to run around like Wyatt Earp in Dodge City because he held both the previous Prime Minister as well as the current Prime Minister by the short and curly.

The previous Prime Minister had instructed Malaysia’s national airline company, MAS, to give the lucrative catering business to his own family. And the stupid chap gave that order in writing -- not like Dr Mahathir Mohamad who will only dish out verbal instructions so that no one can pin anything on him. And then there were the Oil-for-Food and nuclear centrifuge export to Libya issues as well. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was in real deep shit and only Musa can save his sorry arse.

As for the current Prime Minister, according to the Honorary Mongolian Consul to Malaysia, Syed Abdul Rahman Alhabshi, the IGP had in his possession the photograph of Najib Tun Razak together with Razak Baginda and Altantuya Shaariibuu taken at her birthday party in Singapore. Altantuya’s cousin, Amy, in fact, confirmed this in her testimony during the murder trial.

Musa had served his purpose and had outlived his usefulness. In 1998 he was in charge of fabricating evidence against Anwar Ibrahim. In 2008 he did the same thing in what is now known as Sodomy II, a déjà vu of sorts. He also covered the backsides of three Prime Ministers -- Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and Najib Tun Razak.

However, there is just so much he can get away with in spite of all this loyal and extracurricular service. When he begins to fail to deliver then it is time he be put out to pasture.

His first failure was failing to deliver Raja Petra Kamarudin. In mid-2009, he confidentially announced that Raja Petra will be back behind bars by or before October 2009.

That was more than a year ago. Till today Raja Petra is still free and is mocking the Malaysian government.

Strike One!

Next he framed the ex-CCID Director, Ramli Yusuff. It was so badly handled that he personally had to take the witness stand in Kota Kinabalu to testify against Ramli. The judge, however, said that Musa was lying to his teeth (although in a more diplomatic manner) and Ramli was acquitted without his defence being called -- not once, but three times.

This has greatly embarrassed the government and not only does it add weight to the allegation that Ramli was set up -- and by the top cop on top of that -- but it also confirms that this is the modus operandi of the Malaysian government. Now, when Anwar Ibrahim and Raja Petra Kamarudin scream that they have been set up, not a single soul would have any doubt.

Strike Two!

But the last one is the mother of all screw-ups. Actually, it’s a double screw-up.

With his tail between his legs he went to see the Prime Minister to confess to these two major screw-ups. This first screw-up was the matter of the so-called sperm in Saiful Bukhari Azlan’s anus. What the IPG had originally told the PM was that, according to the DNA test, the sperm in Saiful’s anus is Anwar’s. However, now, after further tests, it appears like it is Saiful’s own sperm.

How the hell did Saiful get his own sperm up his anus? That was what the PM screamed at the IGP. The IGP just shrugged his shoulders and was at a loss for words.

And just when Najib thought that that was the worst news yet, the IGP dropped another bombshell. And this last bombshell is that the so-called suicide note that Teoh Beng Hock wrote was actually written by the investigating officer (I.O.).

That was it. That was the last straw. There was no way Najib could tolerate all this any longer. First you say that Raja Petra Kamarudin is untouchable and immune from prosecution or extradition. Then the judge in Sabah calls you a bare-face liar. Now you tell me that Saiful somehow got his own sperm up his arse and that the so-called ‘suicide note’ was not written by Teoh Beng Hock but by the I.O.

Strike Three!

And as they say, three strikes and you’re out. So out goes Musa Hassan and in comes his replacement. Well, let me warn this new IGP that we are watching him like a hawk. And if he screws up like Musa did then we are going for his arse. But then, no one can ever screw up the way Musa did, not in a thousand years. Musa is one-in-a-million.

(TMI) KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 – The Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) has warned Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching not to enter the prayer areas of any suraus or mosques in Selangor without its permission, she revealed today.

It is understood that the warning letter had been issued upon orders of the Sultan of Selangor after an uproar over her August 22 visit to Surau Al-Huda in Kajang Sentral which was highlighted by Umno-owned newspaper Utusan Malaysia.

Teo (picture) said that she had received the letter via fax and that the letter stated that she needed to obtain permission from Mais beforehand if she wanted to visit any suraus in the future.

“Yes, I have received the letter at 1.30pm today. The letter stated that I was barred from entering the the prayer areas of mosques and suraus in Selangor without the permission of Mais,” Teo told The Malaysian Insider.

The DAP lawmaker said that she would abide by Mais’ warning, and would in the future refer to Mais before visiting any suraus or mosques.

“Of course I will heed this advice, this is the decree of the Sultan of Selangor. What else can I do?

Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/mais-bars-teo-from-visiting-suraus-mosques-without-its-nod/

(The Star) KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar will succeed Tan Sri Musa Hassan as the IGP on Sept 13.

The new deputy IGP will be Datuk Hussin Ismail, who is now the Director of Internal Security and Public Order.

Ismail, was born on May 17, 1953, in Kulim, Kedah, and joined the police force as an inspector in 1971.

He holds a law degree from the International Islamic University Malaysia.

Ismail was an investigating officer at the Seremban police headquarters in 1972 before he was transferred to the Ipoh police contingent in 1977.

In 1983, he was promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Police and posted to the Federal police headquarters as one of the officers in-charge in disciplinary investigations.

He was made the prosecuting officer in Ipoh in 1994 before being promoted as Seberang Prai Tengah OCPD in 1996.

In 1999 he was promoted to ranks of Asst Commissioner of Police and was made head of the CID Legal/Prosecution Affairs in Bukit Aman.

He then moved up the ranks and was made assistant CID director in 2004 with the rank of Senior Asst Comm (11).

His hard work and perseverance in carrying out his duties diligently saw him being promoted as the deputy director of the Narcotics Crimes Investigations Department in 2005 with the rank of Senior Asst Comm(1).

Again Ismail proved he could handle the job and in 2005 he was promoted to Deputy Commissioner of Police and was tasked to head the Selangor police contingent as In 2006 Ismail was promoted and made director of management with the rank of Commissioner.

Hardly a year later he was appointed as deputy Inspector General of Police.

Ahli Majlis Pimpinan Pusat (MPP) PKR Mohd Rafizi Ramli yang mengumumkan bertanding jawatan ketua AMK turut menamakan regunya dalam pemilihan akhir tahun ini.

Mereka ialah Adun Batu Caves Amirudin Shaari akan bertanding jawatan timbalan ketua AMK, manakala  Sim Tze Tzin (Adun Pantai Jerjak), S Kesavan (Hutan Melintang)akan  bertanding naib ketua  AMK.

Manakala Adun Teja, Chang Lih Kang  bersama Halimey Abu Bakar, MA Tinagaran, Saifullah Zulkifli dan Jafery Jomion akan bertanding jawatan exco.

Mohd Rafizi mengumumkan perkara itu dalam satu sidang media di sini hari ini yang turut dihadiri pengarah komunikasi PKR Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

Beliau menggelar pasukannya itu barisan Generasi Reformasi menggabungkan pelbagai kumpulan berbeza atas semangat reformasi.

Dua calon lain yang disebut-sebut bertanding Ketua AMK ialah  Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin dan seorang lagi anggota MPP Badrul Hisham Shaharim, bagaimanapun belum ada pengumuman rasmi.

Mohd Rafizi berkata, generasi reformasi beberapa asas yang perlu diperkukuhkan oleh AMK.

Katanya, ia termasuk membawa pendekatan baru untuk mempelbagaikan isu orang muda yang diangkat ke peringkat nasional.

"Memperkukuhkan organisasi peringkat akar umbi dengan memastikan persediaan kewangan yang memuaskan dan urus tadbir akar umbi yang baik.

"Tumpuan khusus kepada latihan kepimpinan dengan memberi ruang yang seluasnya kepad pemimpin bawah 30 tahun sebagai persediaan masa depan," katanya dalam satu sidang media di sini hari ini.

Mohd Rafizi, selain ahli MPP, beliau juga  bendahari PKR Terengganu dan kini ketua eksekutif di pejabat penasihat ekonomi Selangor.

Mohd Rafizi berkata, gerakan reformasi yang tercetus pada 1998 membuka lembaran baru apabila berjaya menggabungkan kumpulan yang berbeza tetapi mempunyai  matlamat yang sama.

Gerakan reformasi ini, katanya mewakili suara anak Malaysia yang mahukan perubahan dinamik secara berterusan demi kesejahteraan rakyat.

Beliau berkata, dalam pilihanraya umum lalu adalah kesinambungan kepa perjuangan generasi reformasi.

Walaupun isu pokok yang menjadi teras perjuangan tetap sama, pelbagai isu baru juga timbul dan perlukan pembelaan sewajarnya, katanya. 

READ MORE HERE 

Home Minister and UMNO vice-president Hishamuddin Hussein truly sank to a new low when he called Teo Nie Ching "dirty" and likened her presence in the surau to a "disaster". (Source:http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/141518).

Malaysia’s former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has been making a name for himself as a blogger after he retired in 2003.

Perhaps because the man’s main concern is to be confrontational, and in the blogosphere the competition on that score is relentless, many of his entries have tested the boundaries of rationality. Very often, these are full of contradictions and are not worth commenting on.

However, a recent one where Dr Mahathir claims that proponents of meritocracy are as racists as anyone else does require a reaction.

For starters, just because most of us have racist tendencies does not make racism all right, especially in public policy. That point need not be belaboured.

It is also undeniable that political slogans always conceal a political agenda, and not always in an opaque manner either.

This goes for “Malaysian Malaysia” as much as it does for “Ketuanan Melayu”; and for “Middle Malaysia” as much as it does for “One Malaysia”.

However, that is not the real issue.

Although Dr Mahathir recognises that meritocracy, imposed without consideration for social inequalities, will merely favour those who are already privileged economically or otherwise, he does not draw the obvious conclusion that we are talking about a condition we may provocatively call a class struggle.

This brings us back to 1970. During the days when the New Economic Policy (NEP) was being drafted, it was obvious that the issue was poverty. The official insight gained from the May 13 riots was that the Malay community was not getting any richer despite independence.

After three elections, there were no signs that their lot would improve dramatically, and if that situation was not remedied, the country could not possibly enjoy political stability and economic growth.

And so, the attempt was made to remodel Malaysian society.

Once class inequalities were lessened, inter-ethnic tension would follow suit, and so the NEP would succeed by making race passé as a political tool. The poor had to be helped, and the Malays had to be helped. That was the dilemma, which had to be solved within the ultimate project of turning Malaysia into a prosperous and stable country.

Thus, three criteria for success competed with each other.

First, the lot of the Malay community as a whole had to improve dramatically. Second, the income gap among Malaysians as a whole must diminish. Third, the national economy as a whole must experience impressive economic growth.

Since the political structure had always been race-based, it was easy for the system to continue along those lines, and the implementation of the NEP favoured racial interests over class concerns. This created a system of patronage which over time encouraged mediocrity over excellence, quota strictness over merit, and political concerns over judicial correctness.

What is sad is that after 40 years of the NEP, it is still the racial aspect, now evolved into Malay Supremacy, which continues to be taken by Dr Mahathir and others as the most effective political tool at their disposal.

Other crucial values are overshadowed. The income gap, also within the Malay community, remains enormous, leading to a host of social problems that the country can do without, such as a low level of education, criminality, corruption and, worst of all, a sustained weakness for racial politics.

The only gap that seems to have lessened impressively is the one between party and state.

READ MORE HERE.

YB muda Nurul Izzah harus dipuji untuk mempelawa Perkasa berdialog bersamanya mengenai apakah yang menjadi kebimbangan Perkasa. Beliau bertanya apa punca atau perkara yang dikatakan menjadi kebimbangan Perkasa. Beliau mengulas, adakah orang Melayu sudah hilang kedudukan istimewa mereka, atau apakah kemunduran mereka itu berpunca daripada sebab-sebab yang lain? Nurul bertanya, adakah mereka sebenarnya mempunyai ‘hak istimewa’?

Kesanggupan anak muda ini mengupas perbezaan konsep ‘hak’ dan ‘kedudukan’ (Special position, privileges atau rights) itu mengembirakan saya. Ia menunjukkan seorang pemimpin yang tidak malas berfikir. Malas berfikir adalah penyakit utama kemunduran pemimpin Melayu. Tanpa memahami perbezaan konsep ini, sukar untuk kita faham maksud Perlembagaan. Dan tanpa merujuk kepada Perlembagaan sebagai asas, kita akan berterusan menjerit dan mengancam antara satu sama lain. Beliau juga berani mengupas fakta sejarah seperti latarbelakang peruntukan istimewa Perkara 153 dalam Perlembagaan dan konsep Social Contract.

Seperti yang saya jangkakan, Perkasa tidak akan berdialog dan telah menolak pelawaan itu. Perkasa lebih selesa menghentam dan menjerit-jerit bagaimana Melayu tercabar, bagaimana Melayu sudah hilang segalanya, atau bagaimana institusi Melayu terancam dan sebagainya.

Mereka tidak mahu mencari punca sebenar. Cukup bagi mereka memanaskan api kemarahan dan meninbulkan kebimbangan orang Melayu dan menutup pintu pemikiran orang Melayu tentang punca sebenar kemunduran Bangsa yang Bertuah ini. Sudah lebih 50 tahun kita mempunyai Kerajaan yang dikatakan membela orang Melayu, dan didampingi oleh institusi Raja dan Institusi Melayu yang lain, tetapi masih lagi kekal sebagai bangsa yang ada dalam segala kekurangan. Salah siapa sebenarnya?

Inilah tanggungjawab pemimpin Melayu yang mahu berjuang. Sanggup meneliti and menerima bahawa kita tidak boleh bercakap mengenai hak dan keistemewaan kita tanpa menerima realiti bahawa rakyat lain juga ada hak mereka. Kita tidak mampu berlaku adil kapada satu kumpulan atau puak kalau kita tidak berupaya berlaku adil kapada semua rakyat. Dalam mencari asas keadilan ini, pemikiran dan sikap pemimpin Melayu perlu berubah. Mereka mesti sanggup mencari punca sebenar kelemahan mereka, dan tidak takut memberitahu orang Melayu hakikat sebenar yang mungkin pahit ditelan. Pendekatan ini ada bahayanya.

Pemimpin seperti Nurul ini akan terus dicap sebagai ‘terlalu liberal’ atau tidak sesuai dengan pandangan orang Melayu. Beliau akan dihentam oleh Perkasa, UMNO dan sesetengah lapisan pemimpin Parti Keadilan sendiri. Beliau akan diingatkan bahawa pandangan ‘liberal’ ini tidak boleh diterima oleh orang Melayu kerana pandangan orang Melayu masih lagi ‘feudal’.

Sebenarnya inilah cara Melayu dikongkong: mereka disalahkan di atas kelemahan pemimipin Melayu mereka sendiri. Sedangkan sebenarnya pemimpin Melayulah yang mengecewakan orang Melayu kerana mereka yang masih feudal, terkongkong dan malas berfikir. Semua pandangan baru yang lebih progresif ditolak, takut kononnya orang Melayu tidak boleh menerima.

Saya sendiri sedar ramai pemimpin Keadilan melihat serong pandangan saya dalam pelbagai isu. Malah dalam masa pemilihan parti dewasa ini, saya telah mendengar bermacam kecaman, bahawa saya akan menjual hak orang Melayu. Saya kononnya Melayu liberal yang suka mencari populariti murahan dengan bangsa lain dalam parti. Dan yang paling dahsyat, yang saya akan menggagalkan perjuangan Anwar Ibrahim dan mungkin menjualkan parti Keadilan ini kepada UMNO suatu hari nanti jika saya diberi kuasa.

SELANJUTNYA DI SINI.

PETALING JAYA: The Selangor palace today suspended state titles awarded to former MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik and Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager OC Phang pending the outcome of the investigation into the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

(TMI) KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — The BBC denied today that it was pressured to drop Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin from its influential Hardtalk programme this week.

The network said its research found out that interviewing the Malaysia-Today website founder would affect an ongoing court case in Malaysia.

Given that the BBC and most major news organisations usually invite newsmakers after research is done on them and the subject, the answer from the BBC appears peculiar.

An interview date had also been given for RPK to appear and the cancellation came late last week after the interview had been publicised by the blogger's fans.

“The BBC researches many different stories, it is the normal process of news and current affairs throughout the media that not all make it to air for a variety of editorial reasons,” said the network in a statement issued via its senior press officer Peter Connor.

“In this case, it became clear in our research that any comprehensive interview with former Malaysia Today Editor Raja Petra Kamarudin would prominently feature issues that are currently the subject of a current court case in Malaysia, which raise issues of defamation,” it added.

The BBC however did not specify the court case.

Early this week, Malaysia-Today posted that Raja Petra was informed by BBC’s Bridget Osborne that the interview had been cancelled as it “would upset the Malaysian government and may even expose the BBC to legal action.”

But the BBC insisted today that the network was not under political pressure and the decision was in line with its editorial policy.

“The suggestion that the item was dropped due to political pressure is untrue. All BBC programmes adhere to the same strict editorial guidelines which ensure complete editorial independence and impartiality,” said the statement.

Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/bbc-no-political-pressure-to-drop-rpk/

Here comes a chance to “pedal” your way to saving someone!

On 18th of September, Pedal Away Polio will take place in Sunway Integrated Resort City! Organized by Rotaract Club of Taylor’s University College, it is a fund-raising cycling expedition, aims to channel every dollar raised to Rotary International PolioPlus Fund. It is a Rotary’s volunteer arm of the global partnership dedicated to eradicate polio globally through the immunization campaigns.

Read more at: http://www.baikbike.com/2010/pedal-away-polio-18-9-2010/

By Art Harun

I have written about how Tenaga Nasional Berhad or some people in TNB could not see the light from the bright. Please see my article titled No joke please, we are TNB!!!

And today, I learned from Rocky's Bru that Malaysia has again been dragged into legal infamy by some really bright spark in the Multimedia and Communications authority in Malaysia.

Yes. The author who wrote that TNB parody/satire is going to be charged in Court tomorrow, apparently under section 233(1)(a) of the Multimedia and Communications Act 1998, for allegedly  “creating and spreading lies with the malicious intent to hurt others.” Please go to his blog, Nose4news for this story.

We have lost the plot so many times.

Submarines which could not dive. Slaughtered a cow in the Parliament. An MP got semput after eating durian and mutton in the Parliament. Jet engines from the Royal Air Force were stolen and nobody knew about it for yonks. A reporter was detained under the ISA to protect her own safety. Jean Todt became our ambassador for tourism (what the heck has happened to him, by the way?).

Then of course we have Ibrahim Ali and his Taming Sari wielding followers around town lodging police reports after police reports while posing in front of cameras holding the police report for everybody to see their stupidity. Latest I heard a police report is going to be lodged because telur ayam had naik harga. 

Recently, we have a pronouncement of legendary proportion that meritocracy is racist. And non-Muslims cannot be in a mosque. Teenage baby dumpers should be sentenced to death. A Chinese MP is deemed dirty. Headmistress spewing racist remarks. A rapper insulting the headmistress in a video. A top legal man demonstrating in Court how to strangle oneself.

All are classic Malaysian-esque display of moronic orgies. It's like we are all living in a porn of stupidity, where everyday, everyone of us tries hard to outdo each other's stupidity.

Read more at: http://art-harun.blogspot.com/2010/09/holy-mother-crap.html

To:  Kerajaan Malaysia

Dewan Pemuda PAS Pusat sedang menjalankan suatu kempen mendapatkan tandatangan orang ramai bagi membantah saman ekor yang dijalankan oleh Polis DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM).

Kami merasakan saman ekor yang dilaksanakan sekarang ini bakal membebankan rakyat. Meskipun kerajaan telah mengumumkan untuk menangguhkannya sehingga bulan Februari 2011, ia tidak bererti saman ekor telah dihapuskan terus. Kemungkinan besar saman ekor akan diteruskan kembali selepas Februari 2011. Kami mengharapkan agar saman ekor ini akan terus dihapuskan selepas dari tarikh tersebut.

Justeru bagi menyatakan bantahan terhadap pelaksanaan saman ekor, kami berusaha untuk mendapatkan tandatangan seramai mungkin daripada saudara / saudari. Dengan tandatangan saudara / saudari kita mengharapkan kerajaan akan sedar bahawa rakyat membantah pelaksanaan saman ekor dan seterusnya bakal mengubah keputusan kerajaan untuk meneruskan saman ekor.

Segala maklumat dan butiran saudara amat penting sebagai bukti kempen tandatangan ini dijalankan.

Kerjasama dan perhatian saudara / saudari terhadap usaha kami ini amatlah dihargai dan didahului dengan ucapan terima kasih.

Yang menjalankan amanah,

KHAIRUL FAIZI AHMAD KAMIL
Setiausaha Dewan Pemuda PAS Pusat

Sabah (known as North Borneo then) gain independence from British Crown colony on 31st August 1963. From 1st September 1963 to 15th September 1963, for 15 days, Sabah was truly independence, truly liberated, truly on its own. On 16th September 1963, Sabah, together with Malaya, Singapore and Sarawak joined to form Malaysia. Little did Sabah knew that on that very day, her independence was gone forever.

Today is 31st August 2010. 47 years since the 'Merdeka Day' given by the British Crown colony. It was right after all, for all Sabahan to celebrate 31st August as their Independence Day (at the same time with our fellow counterpart from Peninsular Malaysia). It is therefore, historically wrong for Sabahan to celebrate their Independence Day on 16 September as some do.

We, Sabahan did gained our independence on 31st August. However, it was not in 1957, but in 1963. That means, we should be only celebrating our 47th year of independence (and not 53rd).

16th September is not the Independence Day for Sabah (or North Borneo). It is the commemoration of the formation of Malaysia. If anything, 16th September should be remembered by Sabahan as the day their nation lost its short lived independence.

Anybody would know and realise that between 1st September 1963 to 15th September 1963, Sabah was a nation on its own. Sure, Sabah did not manage to have its own President or Prime Minister, simply because on that fateful 15 days, Sabah was already being cajoled and readied into the formation of Malaysia.

In that 15 days of independence, there was no time for election to be conducted. It was deemed unnecessary to have even a local but British appointed head of the new nation. Instead, The Cobbold Commission was already there to valiantly proclaim that Sabah will be forming Malaysia with the rest of the other newly formed nations.

In fact, The Cobbold Commission of inquiry (which was tasked to assess whether Sabah (and Sarawak) were willing to form Malaysia) was conducted several years earlier and completed its report on 1st August 1962. In the report, roughly a third of Sabahan agreed to the formation, a third did not agree and another third agreed with conditions (hence the famous 20 points of Sabah).

The third who agreed with conditions must be turning and tossing in their graves now (if they are dead), knowing the most of the 20 points are now no more adhered in the Federation of Malaysia. Among them who are still alive now, they must be wishing they are dead!

Are we better now, after 47 years of independence from the British Crown Colony? I want to believe so. However, looking at how recently liberated Hong Kong (from British in 1997), one cannot help to see the striking difference between it and the immediate neighbourhoods. Hong Kong by any measures is much more developed as compared to other cities in China.

With Sabah endowed with rich resources, there is no reason to believe that British would not be able to develop Sabah to a much more grandiose than Hong Kong. We could easily have our own commuter systems, top class network of asphalt roads, twin towers somewhere, world class oil and gas industries and many more. After all, we have all that in Peninsular Malaysia, where 95% of our oil revenue goes to.

However, who should we blame?

Can we blame the Federal Government for sucking us dry? I do not think so. In this world, the smarter people will always take advantage of the foolish people. Therefore, we only have our own forefathers to blame for not acting smart enough in the interest of Sabah.

Of course, there are people who were allegedly murdered while fighting for the better term for Sabah. The fact that they died only indicates that the victors who lives on were much smarter, after all that is how wars and battles are won. It was due to the foolishness of our forefather that we only have 15 days of independence. It was due to the ignorance of our forefathers that we are continually being colonised until now.

Even now, to this very date, we still have our own present fathers (political leaders) who are still happily handing over what little is left of our treasures to 'others'. I will forever blame them. I will eternally blame my biological forefathers too, for they were only interested in which 'Tajau' to drink from and how many pigs to slaughter for 'Aramaiti' during the time of Cobbold Commission.

However, the most important question is, will my children blame me in another 47 years from now? What I do now (or more aptly, who I vote now) will echo in eternity.

Read more at: http://rizzku.blogspot.com/2010/08/sabahs-15-days-of-independence.html

Perkasa’s brutal rebuttal to Nurul Izzah’s Debate challenge is hardly surprising. Their blunt response to her was that, if she can’t understand the Bumiputra’s special position and privileges, she'll just have to Swallow it!! Without any questions asked.

By Capt. Iskandar Dzulkarnain

When will we ever learn that there is simply no point in responding to their propaganda or rebutting them. Every word that comes out from their mouths are laboriously engineered to trigger a frantic response. No amount of helpful advice, facts or evidence is going to turn them into a new leaf.

For a fact, in the near future, all this rhetoric will continue to peak to a crescendo, simply to trigger an angry response. An example is the Headlines about Tian Chua’s accident a long while ago. The wisest thing for everyone to do was just to keep quiet and pretend to accept their propaganda.

Opposition parties should stop opposing for the sake of opposing and just take a sabbatical leave of absence. Let them wonder what is happening with the general consensus. Internet blogs should observe a period of silence, and replace political news with Fairy Tales from Grimm and Enid Blyton. Important news should be rewritten between the lines, without causing a ripple in the pond. Commentators should invent new ideas of rewriting their comments. Let us comment constructively like 1Malaysians, heaping praises on other races without appearing to be biased. This will catch the cyber troopers off guard.

Cybertroopers are working overtime, scanning political websites and painstakingly assembling reports on public opinion. Every comment on these sites is digital statistics that will determine the next course of action for Black Ops. The men in Black are still active on the 4th floor.

Some of the Taboo Subjects that should never EVER be brought up are:

Stop all debate on Bumiputra Rights. Stop any discussion on Racial inequality. Stop talking about religion. Refrain from mentioning the Royalty. Stop commenting on meritocracy and about the 30 percent quota. Stop criticizing the Police, the AG, MACC, the Judiciary, and certain NGOs purportedly fighting for equality. Stop harping at the various Ministries. Stop the highlighting of exposes in news and political blogs. We know for sure that under the current leadership, justice is not going to be served. The usual excuse is that, there isn’t enough credential evidence. Highlighting it will only lead the perpetrators to strengthen their guard and to destroy the evidence.

Keep a period of dead silence. And one day this silence will be even more deafening. You cannot start a war if your enemy refuses to fight.

The problem with us is that we are playing right into their hands. They are pulling the strings, and we like puppets are automatically reacting to their whims and fancies.

Let them open their floodgates of propaganda. Stop getting excited and keep a cool face. If we play along with them, sooner or later they will run out of steam. The Malaysian public is not so dumb that we do not know what is going on. The psychological warfare (Black Ops.) going on is only meant to have one objective; to change public perception of the current leadership, and to recognize them as the true champions of national security that will protect our way of life and to avert a civil war.

We can only respond by quietly educating the ones around us. There are simply not enough internet readers that will sway the next elections. Going down to the grassroots is the only way to have any real chance. Voter registration is still not encouraging. Our current administration already has their army of diehard fans all preregistered to vote. Early elections may be called next year, wiping out any late registrants. With trouble brewing in Sabah and Sarawak, and the loss of Perak, Pakatan Rakyat really needs to implement its own version of Black Ops.

Maybe, with all that silence, they may actually approve the printing permit for her to start her Newspaper “Utusan Rakyat.”

Finally, from Nurul Izzah Anwar herself a meaningful and comforting verse, something for us to reflect on that, there is still hope out there.

“My question to Perkasa is,  spiritually and intellectually, does a Malay accept injustices, power abuse, corruption, racism, anti-democratic laws, state institutional degradation to ensure that the Malays are a Supreme Race in Malaysia, with first class citizenship privileges not to be shared with other non-Malay citizens?”

By Jamiliah Kassim

Being a Malay, I must say "thank you" for advocating to let the Bumiputra quota stay, albeit your much embarassing, ridiculous and amusing criticisms on meritocracy.
 
However, we need clarity on who is supposed to have these privileges. Are only Malays and Bumiputras entitled? Definitely, yes. But, why are mamaks requesting to enjoy the same?
 
Why can mamaks be made Malays? Where on earth can a person convert his race through religion? Obviously this is unacceptable. UMNO is for Malays, and Malays are exclusive of mamaks. UMNO, being fighter for Malays' rights, should rectify this false definition.
 
Regards,
Jamiliah Kassim

KUCHING: The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) is in a quandary – should it continue to support Taib Mahmud as chief minister and the leader of the state Barisan Nasional or not?

“To continue backing Taib will mean losing the support of the Chinese voters. Not doing so will incur the wrath of the chief minister and its members will lose their positions and businesses with the state government,” said an observer.

"If the people don't need me, then I will step down." And with that, Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud has set into motion the oldest political trick in the book. Scan the local newspapers and you will catch the outpouring of support for Taib to remain as the chief minister and leader of the state Barisan Nasional (BN). A fervour of support seems to have erupted from the masses for Taib. They all want to keep Taib at the helm.

The gradual migration of the Malays, Chinese, Indians and other peoples of varied linguistic stock (yet with similar DNA make-up) to Tanah Melayu, illustrate phases of historical moments in the epic of British colonialism. 

A REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE

Azly Rahman 

Let me share my thoughts on independence and social contract by first quoting excerpts from a poem by the American poet Emma Lazarus, and next from the Enlightenment thinker Jean Jacques Rousseau.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" (The New Colossus by Lazarus, inscribed on the Statue of Liberty in the New York). 

"Nations, like men, are teachable only in their youth, with age they become incorrigible. Once customs have been established and prejudices rooted, reform is a dangerous and fruitless enterprise, a people cannot bear to see its evils touched, even if only to be eradicated, it is like a stupid, pusillanimous invalid who trembles at the sight of a physician" (Rousseau in The Social Contract).

The excerpts above inspire my essay on the meaning of social contract.

Let us go back to our history and listen attentively to the idea of the formation of Malaysia. We must revise our understanding of social contract that we derive from state-authored textbooks, written by the intelligentsia; knowledge that has since formed the perception of policy makers. What revisions do we need to make to our social contract, if we are to be independent?

"Our ideology"

The validity of an argument has its birth and death. It’s life-line is determined by the historical moment and essentially by the historical-materialistic condition of existence. Ideas become bankrupt, designed to collapse under their own internal weight of contradiction. Ideas that once ‘moved nations’ may also mark their end of history. The post-independence argument that formed the New Economic Policy (NEP) is one such collapsing argument.

Human beings with ideological and constitutive interests craft arguments in favour of this or that political-economic advantage. Those arguments become a basis for this and that contract/compact/covenant or even law enforced with iron hands. In our history, the British-colonialist produced argument on the issue of ‘social contract’ that has become an emerging issue as Malaysia celebrates her 48th birthday on Wednesday.

Let us revisit this argument.

What did the British Empire still want when it granted Malaya independence on a silver platter? What ideological paradigm was transplanted into the consciousness of the people and the political-economic landscape of Malaya when the Reid Commission laid out its arguments for the protection of the rights of this or that person and how did this benefit the British in the overall scheme of neo-colonialism? What character of neo-colonialism was about to take shape as the ‘newly-Independent’ Malaysia struggled with an identity crisis of deciding who owned the land and who should be considered second-class citizens?

These are difficult questions that are surfacing in a newer light. These are haunting us - the new generations of ‘hyphenated’ Malaysians. But I think there are answers to these questions and they must be crafted differently and require a re-interpretation of history.

Let us reconstruct our understanding of social contract so that it may become real to the lived experience of the working class multi-cultural poor and those marginalised and yearning to be free.

I am inspired by Rousseau’s notion of social contract: 'How to find a form of association which will defend the person and the goods of each member with the collective force of all, and under which each individual, while uniting himself with others, obeys no one but himself, and remains as free as before. This is the fundamental problem to which the social contract holds the solution." 

"Newly-branded arguments"

History, said Hannah Arendt, does not necessarily mean progress. Malaysia’s history cannot be equated with the progress of arguments that are taught by her imperialist masters and race theoreticians. If this is the notion of progress we are embracing, we are actually accentuating the haze of totalitarianism. To package and market these argument anew is failure to analyse it historically using the tools of what I call, ‘post-structuralist dialogical materialism’.

To let the story of this nation called Malaysia continue, let us abandon the race-based definition of citizenship and ownership of national wealth, definitions derived from race theorist produced by the process of ‘othering’, or ‘we versus them’. We must not be afraid to even reinterpret the spirit of the constitution and call upon constitutional conventions to amend parts of it that no longer suit our generation that continues to evolve as Malaysians. This is the essence of creativity and problem-solving in a nation that is complex and in constant cultural flux.

This will make our nation stronger and its citizens wiser. We will no longer need a keris-based argument.

The history of the American Constitution, saw amendments to make it relevant to the changing times and fundamentally to make it closer to the meaning of America as a land of immigrants. In spite of its shortcomings, America has constantly renewed the spirit of multi-culturalism.

If we are to also renew our understanding of multi-culturalism, think of the following proposition. In Malaysia, are we not all immigrants and time travelers that are being tested based on how we treat each other in non-discriminatory terms irrespective of race, colour, creed, and national origin? Is this not what all religions profess too?

The gradual migration of the Malays, Chinese, Indians and other peoples of varied linguistic stock (yet with similar DNA make-up) to Tanah Melayu, illustrate phases of historical moments in the epic of British colonialism. The great epic of Pax Brittanica is one which tells the story of a world dominated by an empire that controlled the means of production, and thereby controlled the means of mental production and hence, the production of the ideology called ‘colonialism’.

It is a story of the economic drafting of ‘indentured servants’ forced to enrich the British Empire and how the ideology of imperialism bred class antagonism cleverly masked in the name of race and ethnic politics. One needs to read the history of slavery and civil rights movement in America in order to understand how we are evolving and how race is not a specific and isolated moment in Malaysian history, but a global and historical phenomena in the development of the cultural logic of late, middle, and early capitalism.

"Economic interest"

It has been almost 50 years since this experiment called ‘Malaysia’ was designed by the long-dead and gone British imperialists. The children and grand-children of those rubber tappers, padi planters, fishermen, petty traders, and tin-miners have all grown up and become classes of people ideologised, hegemonised and subjugated by a modern version of British colonialist divide-and-rule policy – the ideology of the NEP.

The earlier crafters of the neo-colonialist ideology of Malaysian communalism believed that a just social contract is one that protected and promoted the economic interest of each major race separately. It has worked to a certain extent as, for instance, in the creation of a professional bumiputera class and a few millionaires.

But a neo-colonialist ideology creates a neo-colonialist system of production of human beings, materials, and culture based on a pseudo-sophisticated strands of arguments of race theory that is founded upon the structure of hyper-modernity. Are we seeing a bankruptcy of race-based ideology of a post-Reid Commission, post-NEP confusion agenda of neo-colonialist based developmentalism that squeezes the blood, sweat and tears out of the cheap human labour of different colour and national origins?

In this Malaysia in the year 2005, how must we construct a more accurate definition of a native, an immigrant, a first/second/third generation of this or that? Why must we not question history if we are to become new makers of it? Why must we still treat the grandchildren of immigrants as ‘second-class’ citizens? Why must we not accord them with opportunities that resemble equitable/regulative justice? Have not their parents laboured for the prosperity of this nation, a nation that has trumpeted itself the world over as a modern developing state? Have not the children of these serfs and labourers think, act, and feel Malaysian enough to be treated as equals?

Why must we not declare, as the principles of social redistributive justice requires, that we must design a new social contract that will abolish all interpretations of human beings based on racial origin and use the abundant resources we have for the benefit of all - all the children and grandchildren of tine miners, rubber tappers, and padi planters, fishermen who were cleverly divided, conquered, and exploited by the British imperialists?

Or even better, I propose we not only think ourselves no longer, constitutionally as ‘hyphenated-this-or-that-Malaysian’, but reject any form of ethnic-chauvinistic-based politics that are only interested in advancing neo-colonialist ideology we wish to expunge from our consciousness. That will be a good beginning to our new resolution for Merdeka. Lived democracy

"What is independence then?"

I have some thoughts on this.

Independence is not a slogan but an existential state of mind and a condition of ‘lived democracy’, one in which citizens are aware of how oppressive systems are cultivated. We cannot be independent until we arrive at these historical junctures, and until we do the following:

1. Free the human mind from all forms of dogmas, superstitions, mental chains, hegemonic formations, and transitional levels of totalitarianism. Our educational system at all levels must strengthen the scientific and philosophical foundation of its curriculum and practices to effect changes in the higher-order thinking skills of the next generation. We should not tolerate any forms of bigotry, racial chauvinism, and retarded form of democracy in our educational system.

2. Understand the relationship between the ‘self and the system of social relations of production’ and how the self becomes alienated and reduced to labour and appendages and cogs in the wheels of industrial system of production, a system that hides under the name of the corporatist nation and any other term that masks the real exploitation of the human self.

3. Make ourselves aware that our social systems, through the rapid development of technology and its synthesis with local and international predatory culture, have helped create classes of human beings that transforms their bodies into different classes of labour (manual, secretarial, managerial, militarial, intellectual, and capital-owning) that is now shaping the nature of class antagonism locally and globally.

4. Understand how our political, economic, cultural institutions have evolved and are created out of the vestiges of newer forms of colonialism, institutions that are built upon the ideology of race-based interpretations of human and material development that benefit the few who own the means of cultural, material, and intellectual production.

5. Understand how ideologies that oppress humanity works, how prevailing political, economic, cultural ideologies help craft false consciousness and create psychological barriers to the creation of a society that puts the principles of social contract into practice.

6. Be aware of how our physical landscape creates spaces of power and knowledge and alienates us and how huge structural transformations such as the Multimedia Super Corridor create a new form of technological city-scape (technopoles) that benefits local and international real estate profiteers more that they provide more humane living spaces for the poor and the marginalised in an increasingly cybernated society.

7. Be fully aware of the relationship between science, culture, and society and how these interplay with contemporary global challenges and how we clearly or blindly adopt these rapid changes and transform them into our newer shibboleths of developmentalism – one such policy being the National BioTechnology Programme.

8. Put a halt to the systematic stupefication of academicians and students in our public universities by first incorporating Academic Freedom Clauses in their mission statements and next enculturalising intellectualism in these learning environments.

I am not keen on thinking about celebrating Merdeka.

I feel that the indicators of our psychological, economical, political and technological well being, are telling us that there is a rupture in progress - one that is signifying the collapse of an argument taught to us by the British imperialists. The powerful amongst us are now the new imperialists, new mandarins with their own daulat (sovereignty), creating a more sophisticated caste system, and keeping this matrix functioning.

I am more keen on exploring the possibilities of Rousseau’s ideas of ‘social contract’ and crafting a new definition of Malaysian multi-culturalism.

And borrowing the words of Lazarus, let us lift our lamps ‘beside our golden door’. 

Yesterday, I wrote an article called ‘Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!’ regarding the Selangor Royal Family’s opposition to British colonial rule. Today, I want to publish chapter 34 of the book ‘Malay Nationalism Before Umno: The Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain’ to show that Umno was not involved in the early moves to gain Merdeka for Malaya. 

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Some of you may not want to read the entire chapter of eight pages (I know Malaysians malas membaca). So allow me to summarise the main points of this chapter.

1. The fight for Merdeka in 1946 was not spearheaded by Umno (as the Malaysian history books claim). It was spearheaded by the All-Malayan Council of Joint Action (AMCJA). The AMCJA was a leftist group (what Umno would call Communist).

2. This was the second attempt to gain Merdeka. The first was in 1945 during the Japanese occupation of Malaya. In fact, Japan had already agreed to Merdeka, which was supposed to have been declared on 17 August 1945. However, Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945 (just two days before Merdeka) after the bombing of Hiroshima followed by Nagakasi. If the Americans had delayed the bombing just a few weeks, Malaya would have seen Merdeka on 15 August 1945 instead of 31 August 1957.

3. The 1945 and 1946 moves to gain Merdeka was made by a multi-racial group amongst who were nationalists, religionists and communists. It was not an all-Malay group. And Umno was certainly not in the group. Umno did not talk about Merdeka until about 10 years later.

So that is story of the struggle for Merdeka and don’t let Umno tell you otherwise. And take special note that all the races, not just the Malays, participated in the fight for Merdeka.

Of course, at that time, the British would not consider Merdeka because then Malaya would have become a socialist state (with a Constitutional Monarchy). Instead, the British arrested those calling for Merdeka. The British then promoted and backed Umno, a party of British-trained Malays, to ensure that post-Merdeka Malaya would remain pro-British.

Pemangku ketuanya, Herman Samsudeen berkata, tindakan cybertrooper Umno yang menggunakan nama "PAS Beruk" mencipta dan menyebarkan gambar super impose yang kononnya Lim Guan Eng sedang menyembelih lembu korban untuk umat Islam dengan tagline "Sanggupkah kita lihat jika jadi begini? Dalil apa lagi nak halalkan perbuatan DAP??" adalah keterlaluan dan sengaja mencetus sentimen agama.

“DPPWP kesal kesal budaya fitnah terus membiak dalam Umno walaupun dalam bulan Ramadhan ini. Begitu jauh mereka tersasar dari hidayah Allah,” ujarnya dalam satu kenyataan.

Baginya, demi kepentingan politik mereka, gambar sedemikian dicipta, walhal gambar sebenar adalah menunjukan Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin sedang menyembelih lembu korban untuk rakyat.

Katanya, gambar berkenaan sengaja direka dengan harapan rakyat melihat bahawa kerjasama PAS dan DAP kononnya merosakan Islam.

“Hal sebegini sudah berakar umbi dalam Umno sehingga diwarisi oleh anak-anak muda hingusan yang baru bersama Umno,” katanya.

Sebelum ini, media Umno-Utusan Malaysia memutar belitkan fakta dengan menyebarkan kepada rakyat yang ahli parlimen DAP Serdang, Teo Nie Ching beri 'tazkirah' dalam surau di mana ucapan aluan sengaja ditukar kepada 'tazkirah' bagi mencetuskan polemik awam.

Dua hari lepas, Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin yang juga mantan Ketua Penerangan Umno pula menyebarkan fitnahnya dengan mengatakan PAS mahu rampas harta Cina semasa peristiwa 13 Mei dan PAS kononnya turut menyokong tindakan Indonesia menyerang Malaysia semasa konfrontasi.

“Semua ini adalah fantasi Umno. Kini mereka bermain gambar pula, sama seperti gambar Zaid minum arak yang mereka cipta di Hulu Selangor. Tindakan ini menunjukan Umno semakin kehabisan modal untuk burukkan PAS dan Pakatan rakyat,” katanya lagi.

Sehubungan itu, DPPWP berharap pemimpin dan ahli Umno bertaubat.

Katanya, semakin banyak fitnah disebar, semakin terdedah keburukan Umno, semakin banyak fitnah disebar, semakin meluat rakyat kepada Umno.

“Malulah kepada bukan Islam, malulah kepada umat Islam, malulah kepada Allah kerana perbuatan fitnah ini begitu jijik dan jauh lebih dahsyat dari membunuh. Ianya tidak akan diterima oleh mana-mana kaum dan agama sekalipun,” ujarnya lagi.

Ianya termasuk badan kehakiman seperti Ketua Hakim negara, badan penguatkuasa seperti seperti Ketua Polis negara, Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) dan ketua pesuruhjaya Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM).

Perkara tersebut dimaklumkan Naib Presiden PAS, Salahudin Ayub pada majlis berbuka puasa Naib-naib Presiden PAS bersama media alternatif di sebuah hotel di ibu negara semalam.

Menurutnya, tindakan itu mahu dilaksanakan kerana tidak mahu Pakatan Rakyat melakukan kesilapan sama seperti yang dibuat Umno Barisan Nasional pada waktu ini.

"Kita akan buat satu pindaan perlembagaan meletakkan mereka ini di bawah parlimen.

"Kami bimbang jika dengan sistem yang ada ini, kami juga akan melakukan perkara sama seperti yang dilakukan BN.

Perkara tersebut juga ujarnya, antara keputusan yang telah dipersetujui bersama PAS, PKR dan DAP dalam konvenyen Pakatan Rakyat baru baru ini.

Selain itu Pakatan Rakyat juga berjanji akan melakukan pemulihan terhadap demokrasi negara mengikut apa yang diperuntukkan dalam perlembagaan Malaysia.

Ianya termasuk kebebasan media, kebebasan berhimpun, hak bersuara dan sebagainya.

"Adakah anda mahu, kalau kami di Putrajaya nanti, dengan sistem yang ada sekarang ini tidak diubah, kami juga akan mencengkam media seperti yang Umno BN buat pada hari ini? " soalnya kepada lebih 50 warga media yang diraikan.

Turut serta pada majlis itu, Datuk Mahfuz Omar manakala seorang lagi Naib Presiden PAS, Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man tidak dapat hadir kerana menghadiri majlis berbuka puasa di Istana Pahang.

Mahfuz dalam ucapannya pula melahirkan penghargaan kepada warga media yang banyak membantu PAS dalam usaha memperjelaskan isu semasa kepada rakyat.

Sehubungan itu, Mahfuz berharap usaha dan kerjasama antara kedua-dua pihak akan terus berlaku.

Sehubungan itu, Kerajaan Pusat atau Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (Jakim) sepatutnya mengeluarkan notis makluman kewajipan menutup aurat kepada semua pihak yang ingin memasuki surau atau masjid di negara ini.

Demikian dinyatakan oleh Exco Kerajaan Negeri Kedah, Datuk Mohamed Taulan Mat Rasul sebagai mengulas isu Ahli Parlimen Serdang, Teo Nie Ching yang didakwa tanpa menutup aurat telah berucap di ruang solat surau Al-Huda, Kajang Sentral baru-baru ini.

Beliau juga berharap notis yang dikeluarkan itu mampu untuk memberi penjelasan yang sebenar mengenai kepentingan menutup aurat dan menjaga kesucian masjid dan surau.

"Notis menjelaskan adab memasiki masjid atau surau perlu dikeluarkan sebagai rujukan masyarakat Islam dan juga yang bukan Islam dalam negara ini.

"Tidak dinafikan adanya unsur-unsur pilih kasih dalam isu ini kerana sebelum ini juga terdapat di kalangan isteri menteri yang beragama Islam sendiri memakai tudung tetapi tidak menutup aurat sewaktu hadir majlis di masjid.

"Manakala tuntutan menutup aurat bagi bukan Islam bukanlah sesuatu yang wajib bagi mereka," katanya lagi.

Mereka juga seolah-olah tidak memberatkan tuntutan agama supaya menutup aurat sebagai seorang isteri kepada pemimpin Islam dan memperlihatkan contoh yang patut diikuti kepada wanita Islam yang lain.

Beliau yang juga merupakan Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Tokai menggesa mereka yang bertanggungjawab supaya menyediakan garis panduan tersebut kepada orang Islam dan bukan Islam tanpa mengira pangkat dan kedudukan, dan bukannya dengan memakai tudung tetapi rambut mereka masih kelihatan.

With reference above, I would like to submit some sensitive information about our government in Malaysia. I hope this can reach my most respected Raja Petra Kamarudin. I am sorry that I need to remain anonymous as I am a Malaysian.

I have been caught by the police once when I was young and they claimed that I took drugs since the tester was positive; and because of that I asked them to test again because I couldn't believe it was true. It was lucky that DAP, with the media's help, helped me clarify my name by using the general hospital's report. Now everyone, including my customers, believe that I am innocent.

After a few years, I joined the Police Volunteer Reserve to learn what is actually inside the Royal Malaysian Police force's procedures and everything. I found out that it is totally corrupted as what has been depicted in the movies. I won't dare to say what other PVRs can learn as what I really learnt inside, but this is a very true experience I went through.

People can change their urine samples even when they are tested as a positive drug taker. To change the urine, it costs everyone a standard price of RM300.00 +- per person. And to hasten the procedure for bailing out will be the standard price of RM500.00 +-  per person.

To do this, sometimes you may need a person to help liaise between the public and the police force (which they call PR) and in Mandarin called Wai Jiao. This PR will also take some commission from the payment.

If you are caught with 12 pcs of ecstasy pills or 3 strips of five or 5 sets of ketamine, it will cost about RM5000.00 +- to solve it on the spot with cash without even stepping into the police station or just bring the drugs pusher outside some outskirt police station and wait for the money to come.

As I know it, if someone uses a knife to slash someone and that person becomes gravely injured, it will just cost about RM35,000.00 to RM40,000.00 +- in order to settle it, but he will still have to stay in the lockup for 2 to 3 days.

Almost everything can be solved by bribery in the Malaysian government sector especially criminal cases as long as the case is still fresh and even when it is out on media.

I have seen a very good example when there was 1 of the big time drugs pusher caught with 3000 ++ pills of ecstasy and was highlighted in the media but ended up with a punishment of 18 months of jail. After 13 to 14 months, I heard that he had been released and a month later, I was eating together with him very far away from the state that he been sent to due to some proper business money collection I needed to do.

I wanted to let you know because I don't want to see Malaysia be bankrupt one day due to corruption! My family and friends are still in Malaysia even if I'm going to migrate to some other country. I am too sad to see the place I have stayed in for such a long time come to the edge. With tears, please help Malaysia!

Teo Nie Ching had in the best tradition of Ramadan come to a surau in her constituency to share in the iftar and to present a modest donation from the state. She had rightly assumed that to be her role as their representative to Parliament.

By M. Bakri Musa

Involved as we are in the many rituals of Ramadan (beyond the integral daytime fasting), it is not surprising that we fail to appreciate much less live the true spirit of this holy month. This is especially so if we live in a predominantly Muslim country like Malaysia.

Muslims hold Ramadan in reverence because it was the month in which the first revelation of the Qur’an was given to Prophet Muhammad. It was a message for “all mankind, at all times, and till the end of time.” It was a message that would later change for the better not only the Arabs but also the world.

Ramadan thus should be a time for us to re-commit to the central message of the Holy Book. As Eboo Patel so eloquently wrote in the inaugural Ramadan series of the HuffingtonPost.com, “Ramadan is about remembrance and return – remembrance of the origins of Islam, and return to its essence.”

The Qur’an, was revealed “as a guidance for mankind [in] distinguishing between right and wrong,” (Surah Al Baqara 2:185), with its recurring theme of “commanding good and forbidding evil.”

“Be a community that calls for what is good, urges what is right, and forbids what is wrong; those who do this are the successful ones,” commands Surah Al Baqara (2:177).

Goodness does not consist in turning your face towards East or West, the Surah continues. “The truly good are those who believe in God, and the Last Day, in the angels, the Scripture, and the prophets; give away some of their wealth to the needy; liberate those in bondage; keep up their prayers and alms; fulfill their pledges; and remain steadfast in misfortune, adversity, and times of danger. These are the ones who are true, and it is they who are aware of God.”

The Ugly Reality

Alas, the reality in so many Muslim countries today is so far detached from those lofty Quranic messages.

Peruse the headlines during this Ramadan, filled with deadly wars, civil unrests, and suicide bombings. While Malaysia is fortunately spared such horrific tragedies, nonetheless the lead items grabbing the headlines in the mainstream as well as the alternate media tell of an ugly reality not much different from those seen in other Muslim countries. If there were indeed differences, they would be merely in degree, not kind.

Consider our current diplomatic squabble with Indonesia over God knows what this time. The Indonesians, we are repeatedly reminded, are our kin and kind; we share the same faith, culture, and language. We even affectionately and respectfully refer to them as “Abang!” (older brother).

Yet there was precious little brotherly love or generosity in the spirit of Ramadan displayed in the recent demonstrations at the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta, what with human excrements thrown into the fray! Perhaps that was the best the Indonesians could hurl at us!

Back at home, there are the two ugly, loud-mouthed and self-professed champions of bangsa, agama dan negara (race, religion and nation) – Khairy Jamaluddin and Ali Ibrahim – going after each other in the hideous tradition of our Malay kurang ajar.

Don’t those two, and countless others, pause to reflect just a wee bit on the meaning of Ramadan as they go through their hunger pains during the day, or when they partake in their generously-sponsored iftars? What could they be thinking of as they then perform their prayers?

Consumed with the rituals of Ramadan, they remain blissfully unaware of if not downright contemptuous of its essence.

I would have expected them to be guests at each other’s iftars, in the spirit of Ramadan. If they cannot do that, then at least have the decency to be civil with each other during this blessed month.

If these Muslim leaders are downright crude and rude with each other, imagine their attitude towards non-Muslims! I pity the poor freshman MP from Serdang, Teo Nie Ching. She had in the best tradition of Ramadan come to a surau in her constituency to share in the iftar and to present a modest donation from the state. She had rightly assumed that to be her role as their representative to Parliament.

She must have been blown away by the storm of controversy that subsequently erupted. I am not at all surprised that characters like Khairy Jamaluddin and Ibrahim Ali would seize the opportunity of Neo’s visit to the surau to expose their hideously ugly chauvinism by condemning her. That would be par for the course for any ambitious but untalented leaders everywhere.

I am however severely disappointed in the reaction of the Sultan of Selangor. According to the state religious council (MAIS – its Malay acronym), the sultan was “murka dan dukacita” (angry and disappointed).

The sultan should not be so quick to react; he should at least wait for the full facts. Ramadan after all calls for patience and restraint. He should also remember that he is not only the head of Islam by virtue of being a sultan, but he is also sultan to all Selangorians, Muslims as well as non-Muslims, and that each should be treated no differently from the other. It is time to tell our sultans that we expect more from them if they wish to remain on the public payroll.

For her part, Teo was quick to put in her formal apology to the sultan. She should not have done so. She should have the courage to stand by her conviction that she had done nothing wrong. In this she can rely on the arguments put forth by Tok Guru Nik Aiz and Datuk Asri, the former Mufti of Perlis. As a Muslim, I would rely on these two luminaries on matters pertaining to Islam rather than from the likes of Khairy, Ibrahim Ali, or Datuk Sharizzat.

Things Can be Different If We Will It!

Things need not be this way; it is within us to change them.

Consider that on the first Friday of this Ramadan, President Obama continued a longstanding tradition of hosting a White House iftar with Muslim and non-Muslim guests. Mosques in the San Francisco Bay area, like many elsewhere, continue the tradition of “Open House” where we invite non-Muslim community members to join us for iftar. Yes, they sit and eat with us in the prayer area. We do not have the luxury of separate dining and praying areas!

In an earlier Ramadan PBS, the public television channel, chose the occasion to premier its highly-acclaimed series on Islam. This Ramadan, the HuffingtonPost.com, a highly influential Internet news and commentary portal, initiated its faith and religion feature by posting a series of articles on Islam. These are non-Muslim organizations and entities that sponsor these wonderful and highly informative initiatives. They deserve our praise. Better yet, their actions ought to be emulated in the Muslim world.

It would be wonderful if the first iftar were to be hosted by the King and all senior political and community leaders be invited. It would be a great tradition if similar events were to be replicated at the various state capitals! What a wonderful way to bring the community together!

There are many other ways to demonstrate our reverence for Ramadan and live its essence without having to resort to chauvinistic displays in a crude attempt to portray ourselves as “champions” or “defenders” of the faith.

It is said the first ten days of Ramadan are for mercy. What better way to show this then when making the announcement for fasting the next day, the King would also release the names of prisoners granted amnesty in the spirit of Ramadan. That would be a very tangible demonstration of the power of mercy of a Muslim state. I stand corrected, but I have yet to see this as a tradition with any Muslim country.

These are the traditions of Ramadan that we need to cultivate and demonstrate.

I hope to refute Ibrahim’s claims from a Quranic perspective and to show how the Quran completely rejects his point of view. Worse still, it considers Ibrahim’s own views as the views which run contrary to the Quran.

By Farouk A Peru

After the whole Siti Inshah incident which insulted our friends of the other faiths, nothing surprises me anymore. The racism and religious bigotry practiced by some of our Malay Muslims have reached a crescendo. Things will only get worse with time if we fail to reverse this mental condition. We will simply be unable to do dig ourselves out of that hole if that happens and our nation will fall to ruin. Why? All because we choose to be political over the lowest discriminating factor: race.  

The latest incident is about the Serdang MP’s visit to Surau Al-Huda. We must take YB Teo Nie Ching’s visit in good faith. She went to the surau with a donation and gave a talk about higher education loans. There was nothing political about her visit. Regrettably even the most sincere intentions can be played upon to stoke the most heinous sentiments. One can expect no less from Ibrahim Ali who seized upon this opportunity faster than a cobra strikes its victim.  

Ibrahim Ali’s language about the issue reflects a horrible bigotry. He used the word ‘desecrate’ and the phrase ‘unclean DAP politician’. He also rhetorically claims that this is a lesson from God showing how PAS has ‘sold out’ Islam and that this is visit is ‘shaitan confusing the Muslims’.  

The former Perlis Mufti, Dato’ Asri had already given evidence on why YB Teo’s visit wasn’t against Islamic laws but his evidence was historical. I hope to refute Ibrahim’s claims from a Quranic perspective and to show how the Quran completely rejects his point of view. Worse still, it considers Ibrahim’s own views as the views which run contrary to the Quran.  

For a start, the Quran does not bar anyone from entering a masjid. The Quran actually tells children of Adam , that is to say anyone at all, to enter every masjid with their best clothing and to eat and drink yet not be wasteful (7/31). This shows that anyone can go and participate in any of the mosque activities and even participate in their festivities.  

Secondly, the Quran equates the establishment of social justice as the cornerstone of every masjid (7/29). This verse is also addressed to the children of Adam, thus not restricting people according to faith. What was YB Teo doing if not helping the members of the surau’s congregation, thus establishing social justice?  It seems Ibrahim Ali is in a muddle! YB Teo was in no way desecrating the surau at all. Indeed she was honouring it.  

Fifty-three years since independence, Malaysia is fighting a losing battle against the R-cancer. It is also not responding to the cancer radiation programme known as 1Malaysia. Instead this rehabilitation programme has worsened the cancer. R refers to racism that has been permeating into the society through various levels.

What makes it more malignant than the rest is that it is being led by people who are along the corridors of power, entrusted to lead and raise a new generation.

This cancer is worsening as the physicians (read politicians) do not treat Malaysia of its cancer. Instead the physicians are turning up as catalyst to spread racism.

When physicians turn cancer catalysts

An example of this is the meeting between Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein with the cow-head protesters. Yet as home minister he still has the tenacity to tell Malaysians not to incite racism.

In recent times, there are several cases already that have debunked Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s half-past six suggestion for a task force to investigate the case involving school principals.

Muhyiddin’s call for a task force is definitely a half-past-six measure as police reports have been lodged against the principal. By calling for the formation of a task force, he simply is dismissing police investigations.

These incidents cannot be “isolated” as said by Koh Tsu Koon if the culprits are school principals and teachers.

In identifying this cancer, many symptoms have been misdiagnosed.

The education system has, by and large, been overlooked as the contents are lop-sided. The minority race groups can understand the sensitivities of the majority but not vice-versa.

Education over-emphasises on the majority without paying due attention to the minority races. For instance, freedom fighter Sybil Karthigesu is a misnomer. Secondary schoolchildren are unaware of this freedom fighter’s contribution in Perak.

Religion and cultural aspects of Malaysian minorities are taught like a footnote from a chapter.

There are also certain individuals and media who make racial allegations but are let loose by the authorities.

They act as catalyst through their own mediums. A national Malay daily continuously ensures that the cancer blooms at various body parts of Malaysia.

READ MORE HERE.