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Friday, 23 April 2010

Be a man and stop hiding, Anwar tells Najib

By Free Malaysia Today,

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today issued a challenge to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to fight his own battle instead of hiding behind others.

In a press statement, the former deputy premier said Najib should stop casting aspersions on his character and PKR through devious tactics.

The PKR supremo said the prime minister should also cease employing the resources of the government machinery to disseminate lies and slander.

“He should stop making insinuations to mislead the people. If Najib has something to say, then he should be man enough to say it.

“It is very demeaning for a leader of a political party, let alone the prime minister, to hide behind turncoats like Zahrain (Mohd Hashim) and Zulkifli (Noordin),” he added.

Zahrain, the MP for Bayan Baru, had quit PKR recently, experessing lack of confidence in the party leadership whereas Zulkifli, the MP for Kulim Bandar Baru, was sacked from PKR.

The two remain as independent MPs, and continue to lash out at their former party.

Meanwhile, Anwar said that he has openly accused Najib of being tainted with the Scorpene submarine corruption scandal.

Furthermore, the PKR leader said he has also taken the prime minister to task for failing to deal with all the unanswered questions in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder as well as other pertinent issues.

“Najib should answer them instead of indulging in scurrilous gossip and rumour mongering,” he said.

BN 'giving Orang Asli chiefs RM20,000 each'

By Muda Mohd Noor - Free Malaysia Today

HULU SELANGOR: Barisan Nasional is bribing Orang Asli village heads with RM20,000 each to help ensure the victory of its candidate in Sunday’s by-election, according to a PKR official and pro-opposition Orang Asli campaigners.



PKR information chief Tan Yee Kew said Orang Asli “volunteers” had complained to the party that village heads were being induced and sometimes threatened into keeping Pakatan Rakyat workers and supporters out of Orang Asli settlements in the area.

“Some volunteers have told us that the Tok Batins have been given RM20,000 each by Umno to organise many activities,” Tan said.

“They also said the young were being tempted with cash and entertainment.”

Tan’s statement came at the heel of a press conference in which Orang Asli campaigner Podir Kadir, 45, spoke of concerts and parties organised by the Orang Asli Affairs Department (JHEOA) that ended in “happy hour” time.

“They (BN) hold parties from 8 pm to 11 pm every night, and after that they give out money and entertain Orang Asli until they are drunk,” Podir said.

“We don’t like this. They are using us and spoiling our young.”

Podir is one of the Orang Asli volunteers from Pahang who are in Hulu Selangor to campaign for Pakatan candidate Zaid Ibrahim. Their role is to explain to the Orang Asli communities their right to preserve their heritage, including land.

But it has been an uphill battle for them; they have been barred from entering any of the 16 settlements here.

Podir spoke of an incident in which a state assemblyman from BN had tried to buy votes in the Kampung Gerachi Jaya settlement.

“The YB came from Pekan, but I don’t know his name,” he said. “He asked us all to support BN if we wanted more money.”

He said JHEOA officials were with the BN man from Pekan.

Department running campaign for BN

Pakatan has alleged that JHEOA is running the BN campaign machine in all the settlements.

Hulu Selangor is home to more than 3,000 Orang Asli, of whom 1,000 are voters.

The BN game plan, according to critics, is to confine the Orang Asli and lull their senses to ensure absolute support on Sunday. They say this is done through the JHEOA and the police bases that have been set up overnight in all the 16 villages.

Selangor executive councillor Elizabeth Wong has lambasted BN for what she said was a “blatant abuse” of power.

“This has never happened before and shouldn't be allowed to happen,” she said.

“The Public Service Act clearly prohibits civil servants from participating in political campaigns, and vote buying is an election offence. The JHEOA has violated these laws.”

There are altogether 64,500 registered voters in Hulu Selangor, and they will be choosing between Zaid and BN’s P Kamalanathan.

The seat fell vacant when PKR’s Zainal Abidin Ahmad died on March 25.

Many believe it will be a narrow win for either candidate. Zainal Abidin won by 198 votes in the March 2008 general election.

Nasi Lemak-Teh Tarik Fiesta In Hulu Selangor On Saturday

KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 (Bernama) -- Locals and visitors to Hulu Selangor are invited to a "kenduri rakyat" (people's feast) here on Saturday where a sumptuous spread of Malaysia's favourite food and drinks awaits.

The Nasi Lemak-Teh Tarik Fiesta and 1Malaysia Food Heritage programme, organised by the National Heritage Department, will take place at the Kuala Kubu Baharu Fire and Rescue Department's parade ground between 10am and 6pm.

The department's director, Prof Emeritus Datuk Siti Zuraina Abdul Majid said the fiesta would also feature food from various communities including those from Sabah and Sarawak.

"It's going to be a truly 1Malaysia food fiesta," she told Bernama.

The programme is aimed at showcasing Malaysia's food heritage apart from strengthening the bonds among the people.

She said the department and local residents would also work together to come up with the biggest wrapped nasi lemak which they hoped could be featured into the Malaysia Book of Records.

The prime minister's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor would open the fiesta.

Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim and wife Datin Seri Masnah Rais will also be there.

There will also be exhibitions by agencies of the ministry including a snake display by the National Museum as well as cooking demonstrations of Sabah and Sarawak traditional food.

Letter to Uthayakumar: The Thousand Li Journey

Xiaode addresses the honourable Mr Uthayakumar:
Because of China’s geographical spread and its vastness, the Chinese count large numbers in ten thousands. Hence in hanzi (the Chinese language), wan = 萬 or 10,000 is a popular transliteration of idioms that speak of distances and of great effort. The Chinese quantitative measure, li = 里 (written same in Japanese kanji) is equivalent to about half a km. In its Chinese name 萬里長城 wan li changcheng it reads literally, ‘ten thousand li wall’. But Anglophile idiots, Malaysian lovers of an English model of life, call it the Great Wall instead; what do they know?
P. Uthayakumar, like many Malaysians, has heard of the Chinese principle of the thousand li (which hadn’t come from Confucius but appears in a work predating the Analects, that is, Laozi’s daodejing 道德经). In the original Chinese, it reads 千里之行 始于足下, qianli zhihang shiyu zuxia. Literally, a thousand li journey begins at the foot below. In this, you immediately sense a nuance difference from the popular recitation: a thousand li journey begins with a single step, as opposed to ‘the foot’.
The original Laozi version emphasizes a conscious, deliberate attempt towards a goal, hence, of individual assertion and volition whereas the popular phrase connotes the requisite of a journey and its inevitability. Be that as it may, here is the problem: popular comprehension of the idiom begins and ends with the first step? What’s the second to be? The tenth, the hundredth? The 10,000th? The last step?
Ch 64 of the daodejing from which the line is drawn offers no answers. But the thousand li idiom was written within a context, which is that of a person left in a situation, a quandary, without resolution, an escape, a remedy. What to do? Continuing on the idiom, Laozi said:
Whoever does anything to it will ruin it;
Whoever lays hold of it will lose it.
Hang on to those two lines and we’ll return to them.
That situation – “it”, as predicament – is exactly as Uthayakumar’s description of the Indian state of affairs: a people politically disenfranchised and dispossessed of the land have no escape. Umno will pulverize this community, perhaps not out of malice but slowly and surely if only to protect their economic and monied interests. Given half a chance, neither Anwar Ibrahim nor the DAP nor the PKR is of any help. They know which side of the bread they must butter to stay in business.
The Pakatan is spread so thin it will hanker after any vote, accompanied by recurring talk of “Beyond Race Politics”, its prodigy “Malaysian first”, its banalities “we’re part of the human race” and keturunan rakyat. Anwar also understands the situation all too well of the Indian predicament: there is no third influential bloc. Indians without power will vote Pakatan regardless. (Petra Kamarudin’s latest, kindergarten diatribe against Hindraf reflects very well this PKR conceit and condescending presumption.)
Pakatan no longer has need to pretend to listen. It has propaganda on its side, and Ibrahim Ali to haunt the population as the ghost of Umno. What is to be done, Mr Uthaya?
To-date you have relied largely on the only leverage you know, pleading, although you must admit, and have, that any and all Pakatan political promises were never actually specific to their intent. They talk in abstract terms of equality and justice, ringing in pious tones, but in detail, on the ground and in specifics, they are hard to fulfill for the reason the parties, politics and policies of Pakatan were in their origins not constructed from humanity and compassion. They were constructed from vengeance and hatred (of Umno mostly) overlaid by a Western ideology and Arab Islamic religious bigotry.
So you dispatch endless rounds of letters. In the nature of your pleadings, those letters, for them to work, must presume there is virtue in persons such as Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang, Hadi Awang and their second-echelon underlings. But, if those virtues existed, your letters would have been unnecessary in the first place. Land for Indian schools, for example, would appear almost as if by magic, no questions asked, no need for the Press, before you even sat down with pen and paper. A man honours his word as he does to his family and ancestors. But, Pakatan people don’t even know how to honour their forefathers much less those alive and distant from their selves. Consequently, the DAP is not representative of Chinese culture, much less the Chinese polity or Indian. On the contrary, they represent an evangelical, Anglophile, urban-only interest constructed on White society ideologies. Then, there are the PKR and the PAS: you know them already….
Land for Chinese schools was not acquired on the basis of a man’s virtue. In the past they were paid for with the blood, sweat and money of the Chinese people, not the Anglo-white lovers of course. (What do they know?) Rather, it came with the efforts of the Chinese who understood and therefore appreciated why a school is necessary to sustain a way of life that we call culture. There might have been occasions when wheeling and dealing became necessary, but this goes with the turf in Malaysia. This country, being Malaysia or Malaysian first, makes exceedingly difficult and hazardous an honest life. A country free of corruption cannot be an end in itself – that would be humanly impossible – but neither should be the desire to hoard material things, the accumulation of assets. Land ownership goes with a larger, fundamental purpose. Having land merely permits the control of the school, of education, of thought dissemination, of the children’s future, of a way of life, thence culture.
Looked at this way, the land, pivotal and indispensable, yes, but it isn’t the ultimate intent. It’s the culture – is it not? – which, in turn, enables a community of people, Indians in your case, to survive the onslaught of the imported, mercenary, aggressive and hostile bureaucratic institutions and a political apparatus exemplified in people that shall remain nameless. The resilience of such a culture is therefore the beginning of freedom. Once you begin to see and recognize this truism – there are things, culture, freedom, that are greater than the land, hence greater than the money or the politics required for its acquisition – then both the purpose and direction of your thousand li journey inherits a fresh meaning. You are off to a new political strategy. In its renewed purpose, the thousand li journey begins to matter in the first step you take, in the what and in the how.
It is along those lines, to confess to you, that are at the root of Chinese political thought in Malaysia. By Chinese it is meant here, to repeat, not the Anglophiles, the White lovers; they are a colonized lot. Only they don’t know it, and they wouldn’t be a problem excepting they get in the way like a horde of vermin and bugs.
Hindu culture – and here one writes at a great risk of presumption – also seeks to sustain itself but has its limitations because Indian society is fragmented as a class system. Chinese culture is more complete, unitary, civilizing, purposeful, and it does what it does for very practical purposes that we shall skip discussing here.
If this is true of Hindu culture, then there is little you can rely on the depth of your community to pick off, one by one, parcels of land and then pass them to the schools even if the Indians have the means. Yet some do, so it is a question purely of who do you turn to. But, note that the wealthier the Indians and the higher up they are in the social hierarchy, the elite, the more Anglicised, the more White they become. This is in contrast to the wealthy Chinese that you often read about and are associated with indigenous Chinese culture, literature, the fine arts, language, and especially education. It means that the Indian group, from who you must turn to in your pleadings, is even more remote from Indian culture to be willing to open their wallets.
What are you left with?
Back then to the same futility: pleading. This, too, is the political raison d’etre of MIC, MCA to some extent. You sometimes call it “mandorism”. They are reduced to pleadings, looking for pickings that make them subservient. This way of conducting a relationship, political, social, economic, strips people of dignity and it might even be alright or tolerable if it worked. You know well, however, it doesn’t. In White man’s ideological parlance, it’s called an unequal relationship. You therefore turn to the principle of equality – What? Article 8? – but it’s the same mucus dripping from the mouths of DAP and PKR party hacks, Indian and Chinese especially. You know who they are.
There are two sources of power within your reach to enable the demands that justly belongs to the Indians. These are (a) numbers, concentrated numbers, and (b) the vote.
Because this power emanating from your community is so scarce, use it wisely and sparingly. Above all, do not plead; do not rely on the virtues of men, both for the reason, again, they don’t work. Moreover, those are not men – in Chinese culture we refer to true men as the junzi 君子 – that you deal with. They are instead political creatures, made in Malaysia, schooled by a Western culture (Judeo-Christian), raised, fed and indoctrinated in a system that uses power, rather than virtue, as the basis to govern.
Kongzi, that is Confucius, said: To govern by virtue is like the north polestar with which other stars find their places. Our politicians don’t understand this, nor culture, much less Chinese culture. In your predicament, in the dire situation of the Indians, and under the yoke of a system heaped against you and your people, this is the meaning in, if you’ll recall, the daodejing lines:
Whoever does anything to it will ruin it,
Whoever lays hold of it will lose it.
Once you begin to think outside the Western paradigm, you won’t have to go back to it for solutions that are futile. Instead, fresh ones, new approaches, will emerge. That is freedom, genuine freedom. But what shall be the replacement paradigm?
Your demand for land is intended to serve the schools. Yet, you already have the school, why then the need of the land? Your answer: to secure the school’s future, to protect its existence, and above all to get at government financial aid that comes with land gazetted for education. This means, your need is ultimately about money and security and your expectation of Pakatan governments is really to help deliver both, not the land.
In this circuitous approach, you’ve make a school’s existence dependent on an outside force, first Pakatan, the Barisan government after that. But, how can a dependent existence, especially dependent on outside parties, be ever, ever secure? Can you now see why the daodejing says: in your present predicament, you ruin it when you touch it? (Think of tofu with which you treat gently. Grab it, it breaks up.)
You must therefore remove the contradiction in your approach. And this means be independent. It is from independence that freedom emanates and your culture is sustained, and in turn the Indian people. Once independent, you no longer need to trade, to ransom, your power – those two scarce commodities, numbers and votes – for a pittance.
All this is to also say that because your power is so scarce it is all the more invaluable. See how the negative, which is the limits of your political power, becomes the positive, that is, the immeasurable value of that power? This negative-positive exchangeability is representative in the underlying, and key, idea of the daodejing yin-yang principles and other related idioms, such as the thousand li journey. The scarcity of power in your hands is too invaluable to trade for bits of land that’s fundamentally – and we had discussed this above – intermediary in its purpose. No. If that power is to be usefully deployed, then it must bring with it broad, maximum effect.
It would be presumptuous here to say how your community should employ that power but this much will be said: let it be the font of greater, not transient things.
What to do meanwhile with your decrepit schools?
The Chinese have a long history of experience, 2,000 continuous years, in managing education and so know what matters and what doesn’t (the Chinese invented the system of examinations the French copied and, after them, the rest of the world). More than that, the Chinese understands that, ultimately, it isn’t in the quality of the desks or the chairs – even the roof can leak – but it’s the effort put into teaching the children that counts above everything else. To the Chinese, the purpose of education is not to teach counting (Mahathir Mohamad), an easy task that’s purely incidental to schooling. Nor is it about teaching how to write fine words (Khoo Kay Kim) or to get rich (Anglophiles). Rather, something fundamental is at stake in Chinese teaching and this shall be a secret for another time between us.
While the Chinese searches for ways to sort out problems with the furniture and the roof, it is the content in the teaching that deserves most attention and that must be immediate and relentless. This is because, after six years, then another six, we turn out thousands of the young, true to their identity, filial to their parents, loyal to their community, useful to themselves, and so employable. They appreciate and know what is it to give back to the schools in the values by which they were raised, and they do so without prompting. Soon the school’s furniture and roof problems begin to sort themselves out.
(For contrast, consider Petra Kamarudin, schooled in a La Salle, comes out a Western product – and he is already half-White – hence, 40 or so years later he commits the ultimate profanity: he actually abandons his kid, flesh and blood, to the dogs, all locked inside the same cage. Even that isn’t all. He then excuses himself on some supposed “principle”, more important than the life of a son, and which nobody could quite put a finger on. The act of family betrayal becomes a glorious deed. And how does his English-speaking hacks respond? Literally they cheer him on. Incredulous! But this is Malaysia, and we are suppose to be Malaysian first.)
All that says, the Chinese schools, other than equipping their students with practical living tools, also teaches humanness and relationships –  civilization. In the heart of that civilization is the strength of Chinese culture. So then, in a rather circular way of looking at things, it is also for the reason of culture that Chinese schools insist on being on their own. To be on one’s own means never to rely on the government but oneself.
By not expending the Indian vote on land, you save it – your power – for the future, and for a larger and greater cause. That time will come, as sure as spring arrives. (As for Hulu Selangor, go with the MIC for now although Zaid Ibrahim is a good, decent man, but he is in bad company. Also see related essay on Hulu Selangor in A Melancholy Year.)
It might be imprudent to suggest this but necessary. Go to the dongjiaozong (董教总). Get their help. Who knows, this – education – might just be the seed of a new Sino-Indian relationship this country needs for the betterment of our peoples. Consider encouraging the Indian children to learn hanzi, not to serve any grand design but simply to augment the employability of Indians. It will surprise you to know the Chinese language, unlike the languages of Western or Arab Islamic cultures, has no colonizing ambition. It seeks to convert nobody or to turn other people into Chinese. English education does that instead, conversion, and you see everywhere in urban Malaysia the converted. Chinese education is to the contrary….
Whatever your decision, recall your recitation of Laozi (not Confucius), the original and not the truncated version: a thousand li journey gazes ahead from the foot below.
The journey is to rebuilt your society and to restore the dignity of the Indians from the ground up. And, if that be so, then the first foot forward is not to trade your votes for schools. Marshall today that power but deploy it last.
ADDENDUM
While copies of the daodejing (circa 600 BC) circulated in modern-day Chinese societies, two near complete sets were found in tombs dating around 300 years BC, still before mass printing. The Mawangdui text unearthed in 1973 was on silk; the Guodian version discovered 20 years later in Guodian town, Hubei, has 13,000 characters on about 800 bamboo strips strung together. Other than variations in calligraphic style, they are consistent with each other and with print text at the respective times. Some more recent daodejing editions use either of two texts to polish on earlier print versions.
The Chinese original below is Mawangdui – it has a poetic quality – because the Guodian text has no calligraphic fonts in computer format. English translation is from unknown print version before Mawangdui. Since Chinese script is vertical, the chapter numbers probably follow the scripts arranged in sets, right-to-left, each bound, then stacked in numerical sequence. (You can catch a glimpse of how a “book” rolls out, to open, in the movie clip Confucius, circa 400 BC, who relied considerably on the daodejing for guidance in his role as political adviser in the state of Lu, one of several in a multi-state China before eventual unification 200 years later by the first emperor Shihuang.)
From Laozi 章六十四 (Thousand li journey idiom in bold and red)
其安易持,
其未兆易謀。
其脆易泮,
其微易散。
為之於未有,
治之於未亂。
合抱之木生於毫末。
九層之台起於累土。
千里之行始於足下。
為者敗之,
執者失之。
是以聖人
無為故無敗,
無執故無失。
民之從事常於幾成而敗之。
慎終如始則無敗事。
是以聖人
欲不欲,
不貴難得之貨。
學不學,
復眾人之所過,
以輔萬物之自然而不敢為。
English Ch 64 (Feng Giafu with Jane English translation, 1972)
Peace is easily maintained;
Trouble is easily overcome before it starts.
The brittle is easily shattered;
The small is easily scattered.
Deal with it before it happens.
Set things in order before there is confusion.
A tree as great as a man’s embrace springs up from a small shoot;
A terrace nine stories high begins with a pile of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles starts under one’s feet.
He who acts defeats his own purpose;
He who grasps loses.
The sage does not act, and so is not defeated.
He does not grasp and therefore does not lose.


People usually fail when they are on the verge of success.
So give as much care to the end as to the beginning;
Then there will be no failure.
Therefore the sage seeks freedom from desire.
He does not collect precious things.
He learns not to hold on to ideas.
He brings men back to what they have lost.
He help the ten thousand things find their own nature,
But refrains from action.
Below is what you might expect from the Chinese idea of education: what’s it for, why, and how. It is a dramatization, true, but one actually sees it in practice deep in the Chinese heartland and its culture. Farther below a modern depiction into the tumultous times of Confucius, to whom Chinese societies everywhere are eternally indebted. He took the first step, opening the way for the Chinese to cope with life’s journey.


Kapal Scorpene: Najib diminta cuti

Jeffrey Kitingan meets HRP 2nd time for Hulu S’gor support.

Jeffry Kitingan SabahJeffrey Kitingan meets HRP 2nd time for Hulu S’gor support.
22/4/2010 K.L This evening there was a two hour meeting between Dr.Jeffrey Kitingan and HRP at the HRP Headquarters. Dr.Jeffrey wasIMG_5703 accompanied by former Deputy Labour Minister Kalakau Untul and En Sapari while HRP Secretary General P.Utahyakumar and S.Jayathas represented HRP.
Dr.Jeffrey again solicited for HRPs’ help in the Hulu Selangor by elections especially as it was at a neck to neck stage.
HRP reiterated the need to solve (from the scores) at least one critical Indian problem ie the granting of freehold ten acre land titles for all 98 Tamil schools in Selangor and the end to PKR’s Indian mandore politics as the pre conditions.
IMG_5709 P.Uthayakumar had asked Dr.Jeffrey as to why Anwar Ibrahim is saying No to the said 98 Tamil school land. Dr.Jeffrey replied that Anwar had not said no. P.Uthayakumar then asked “but why hasn’t he said yes” for which there was no clear answer.
P4220038
Dr.Jeffrey however appeared sympathatic with the critical Indian problems highlightened by HRP. P.Uthayakumar emphasised that it would make that difference when Dr.Jeffrey and the other non Indian forces brings up the critical Indian problems Indian problems with the PKR and P.R top leadership. IMG_5707
Be that as it may, both parties had unequivocally agreed to endeavor to end through the ballot box UMNOs’ 53 year without a break in the chain rule of Malaysia
P.Uthayakumar added that this was and is the main reason for the current critical Indian problems in Malaysia.IMG_5705
After the Hulu Selangor by-elections, HRP had asked Dr.Jeffrey’s help to go on a forward moving mode to meet up and constructively work with the PKR and PR top leadership with the view to addressing the current critical Indian problems.
Thiagarajan Sasayapillai
Dr Jeffrey Kitingan Cigma/HRP consensus on the third force

Hulu S’gor: UMNO and PKR denies Indian poor Felda like agriculture and animal farm land


url hulu sgor Hulu S’gor: UMNO and PKR denies Indian poor Felda like agriculture and animal farm land
It has been over two years since PKR, DAP and PAS has been ruling Selangor.
There is no doubt that UMNO had oppressed, suppressed and maliciously kept the Indians out of the mainstream development of Selangor.
And the Indian poor are aware that by virtue of Section 76 of the National Land Code vis a vis the Selangor Land Enactments, Felda like land can be alienated to the poor Indians, at least to undo and mitigate the 50 years of injustices meted out by UMNO.
But PKR would not do this? Why? Why not?
80 hectres of animal farm land approved in Rasa, Hulu Selangor, says the Selangor Exco Member for Agriculture, Yaakob Sapari (S.H 22/4/10 at page 2).
But again the Selangor and K.L Indians have been denied these animal husbandry farmland by the PKR led Selangor State government.
Malaysia imports 90% of it’s mutton, 95% of it’s dairy milk and 75% of it’s beef. The Indians have been and are prepared to work hard to rear cows and goats. In fact the Indians have a tradition of doing so. The latest example we had attended involves a third generation cattle farmer, Shanmugam, who had been denied cattle farming land by both UMNO and PKR.
http://www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com/2009/12/13/masy-india-tanah-ternakan-di-semenyih-ditolak-kandang-mahu-diroboh-dbkl-tetapi-75-daging-lembu-95-susu-dan-90-daging-kambing-diimpot-rm-6-billion-bajet-2010-untuk-pengeluaran-makanan/
Both UMNO and PKR would rather see the foreign exchange flow out of the country by the aforesaid imports rather than giving the agriculture and farm land opportunities to these poor Indians for their upward mobility purposes. They are prepared to wreck the country rather than see non malays also prosper.
This is UMNO’s One Malay-sia, and PKR, DAP and PAS’ multiracialism!
But when we point these injustices and human rights violations against these poor Indians, PKR Supremo Anwar Ibrahim alleges that this is the Hindraf’s racist agenda. In this country voicing out racial injustices is itself racism! This is how they hammer down the minorities.
P. Uthayakumar
hulu sgor

Hindu cemeteries are responsibility of UMNO and PKR state governments


url hulu selangor Hindu cemeteries are responsibility of UMNO and PKR state governments
The maintenance, upgrading and well being of Hindu cemeteries are the responsibility of the federal UMNO Housing and Local government Ministry and the PKR, DAP and PAS state governments of Kedah, Penang and Selangor, in particular the City Councils, Municipal Councils and District Councils.
But both the UMNO and PKR, DAP and PAS state governments had Hindu cemetaries demolished with impunity in violation of Section 297 of the Penal Code which reads as follows:-
Trespasing on burial places, etc.
"Whoever, with the intention of wounding the feelings of any person, or of insulting the religion of any person, or with the knowledge that the feelings of any person are likely to be wounded, or that the religion of any person is likely to be insulted thereby, commits any trespass in any place of worship or on any place of sepulture or any place set apart for the performance of funeral rites, or as a depository for the remains of the dead, or offers any indignity to any human corpse, or causes disturbance to any person assembled for the performance of funeral ceremonies, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both."
The latest example of a muslim cemetery in Kuang, Hulu Selangor (SH 22/4/2010 at page S6).
Pray tell us of one Hindu cemetery that looks as well maintained as this muslim cemetery? Or the hundreds of Chinese and Christian cemetery that dots the Malaysian landscape. The Indians are human beings too. The Indians too deserve to honour their ancestors.
But even the Kedah PAS government ruthlessly demolished the Lading Batu Pekaka Kuala Ketil Hindu cemetery to make way for University Unsamiah, whereas even the cruel UMNO government allows a Chinese cemetery inside University Pertanian Malaysia.
The Hindu cemetery in Rawang demolished by the PKR Selangor State government is another recent example. click here
P. Uthayakumar
http://www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com/2010/04/01/hulu-selangor-hindu-cemetary-desecrated-by-pkr-selangor-and-pas-kedah-but-chinese-cemetery-accomodated-within-upm-grounds/

hulu selangor hindu

40% Malays but 80% Indians earn below RM 1,500 per month

 url 40 40% Malays but 80% Indians earn below RM 1,500 per month
The UMNO Prime Minister says that the per capita income of an average Malaysian is a “whopping” RM 1,916 per month (RM 23,000.00 per year).
This may be so for the Malay muslim community.
We have reported cases of an Indian lady earning RM 300 per month as a dishwasher which is about seven times lower than what the Prime Minister is talking about. Many plantation workers in Cameron Highlands earning as low as RM 13 per day (approximately RM 290 per month). Just as I am writing this piece, Ravichandran of Setapak Air Panas, told me that his mother earns RM 600 per month as a sweeper with a DBKL contractor company with no EPF or Socso contributions.
This low earning Indians is as a direct result of the UMNO controlled Malaysian government denying upward mobility opportunities and literally excluding the Indians from the national mainstream development of Malaysia right from womb to tomb.
Indian children born are denied even their birth certificates, denied primary school education or in unconducive cowshed like cramped up Tamil schools, denied places in elite MRSM, etc secondary colleges, 99% of the Giatmara and other government funded skills training Institutions denied to Indians, 80% not pursuing their education beyond Form Five, 99% deserving Indians denied places in public universities and institutions of higher learning, 0.1% deserving Indians given overseas and local scholarships, 98% denied licences and permits for even taxis, heavy lorries, tourist vans, etc, an Indian Mini market owner’s 28 year old licence was even revoked by the Temerloh Municipal Council, there are almost zero Indians in franchise outlets like Petronas, Shell, Esso, Mobil, Ayamas, KFC, McDonalds, A&W, Burger King, Proton outlets and service centres.
Even for the currently predominantly 99% scrap metal business an estimated 90% of them have been denied their licences. Indian car wash operators suffer the same fate.
Unlike other communities overseas Indians in Malaysia are prepared to work hard. Many Indians are forced to eve take up two jobs to make ends meet. Many Indians are forced to work right up to their dying days, which are golden years for most Malays and the Chinese. We have documented media reports of Indian security guards dying “in Office”, ie., at their guard posts. The weakest among the Indians simply commit suicide which rate is 600% higher than the Malay community, largely because of poverty and being denied business and other upward mobility opportunities.
P. Uthayakumar


40

UMNO regime makes 85 Tamil schools in Perak beg for electricity bill

url umno regime UMNO regime makes 85 Tamil schools in Perak beg for electricity bill
Race Relations in the USA has gone leap and bounds and within forty five years of being given the right to vote by the US Voting Rights Act 1965, ie., eight years after Malaysia’s independence, testimony of this is the election by the 90% whites, of Barack Husin Obama, a black and “muslim” as the President of the United States of America.
But despite Malaysia having been independent for 53 long years, 85 Tamil schools in Perak and almost all of the 523 Tamil schools in Malaysia still have to beg the UMNO government even for electricity bills. It should have been as of right, from the very beginning as is done for all malay and Islamic schools.
Karunai Nithi @ Compassionate Justice
umno regime

UMNO DPM & Wilayah Ministers’ wayang kulit with Indian children

11191 UMNO DPM & Wilayah Ministers’ wayang kulit with Indian children
(BH 14/3/2010 at page 3).
In the last two months two Hindu temples in Wilayah Persekutuan were demolished. This is despite the Wilayah Minister’s ministerial statement in Parliament in mid 2008 that no Hindu temple would be demolished in K.L.
Even the 82 PKR, DAP and PAS MPs including their 11 Indian Mandore MPs will never raise this matter in Parliament, asking for the sacking of the Wilayah Minister, if not championing against these Hindu temple demolishments. They are muted. In Malaysia why do the UMNO, PKR, DAP and PAS federal and state governments only pick on the Hindu temples, cemeteries, Tamil schools and Indian settlements?
Indian soft targets?
Our way forward is the Indian Political Empowerment Strategy
http://www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com/books/TheWayForwardTamilVersion.pdf
http://www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com/books/TheWayForwardEnglishversion.pdf
S. Jayathas

UMNO 
DPM

UMNO PM: Top human capital priority in NEM. NEP had same tune but excluded Indians


 url umno pm UMNO PM: Top human capital priority in NEM. NEP had same tune but excluded Indians
Focus on education at all levels, says the PM seen sitting with a group of youths and specifically being portrayed as “giving a listening ear to an Indian boy” ( The Star 13/3/2010 at page N2).
Because this One Malay-sian UMNO prime Minister Najib marginalizes the Indians the most? As they are the soft targets with little or no political and economic clout?
The main objective of the New Economic Policy for 40 long years was eradication of poverty irrespective of race. But in reality it specifically excluded the Indians. Otherwise 100,000 Indians would not have taken to the streets in the 25th November 2007 Hindraf Rally. And now UMNO is trying the same trick under different banner, ie., New Economic Model. Old wine in new bottles!.
P. Uthayakumar

umno 
pm

Umno’s wooden Tamil schools. But no more wooden Malay, Islamic, Orang Asli, Iban and Kadazan schools. One Malay-sia?


url umno dpm  Umno’s wooden Tamil schools. But no more wooden Malay, Islamic, Orang Asli, Iban and Kadazan schools. One Malay-sia?
This SJKT Ladang Sabak Bernam is still in this dilapidated condition in the face of prosperous Malay-sia having been independent for 53 years now and boasts having the world’s tallest twin towers.
P. Uthayakumar


umnos1

UMNO’s 1Azam to reduce 44,000 Malay muslim poverty. What about Indian poor?


url umno azam UMNO’s 1Azam to reduce 44,000 Malay muslim poverty. What about Indian poor?
What about the 70% poor and hardcore poor Indians? Why are they excluded from this 1Azam poverty eradicating scheme by UMNO?
And then to create 2,000 women entrepreneurs, says UMNO Women Family and Community Development Minister. No Indian poor has ever heard of the 1Azam kerja, 1Azam Niaga, 1Azam khidmat and 1Azam Tani, let alone ever having benefited from the same.
We are yet to hear of even one Indian woman in this or any other such entrepreneur schemes. If at all there was, it would have been for a mere showcase, and never based on merits and needs based but race and religion based.
UMNO has very successfully camouflaged itself as the world’s most racist, religious extremist and supremacist regime.
P. Uthayakumar

umno
 azam

Khairy: Am I drinking in the photo?

Gnanalingam's Firm To Buy Maika Equity For RM106 Million

KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 (Bernama) -- Port tycoon Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam's firm, G Team Resources, has offered to buy out financially-troubled Maika Holdings Bhd for RM106 million and pay back the money invested by some 66,000 long suffering shareholders of MIC's investment arm.

A formal bid for the acquisition of the entire stake in Maika would be submitted to the authorities on May 1 this year, he said.


He said the acquisition was a social service on his part and partly inspired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's concern to help Maika shareholders and resolve the more than two-decade old problem.

Gnanalingam has promised to buy back shares from shareholders at a fair price of roughly 80 sen in a preliminary proposal he laid out Thursday.

"We will return all the shareholders the money that had been invested," he told a media briefing here.

He said that some shareholders had sold their shares before for 30 sen to 50 sen and others still hoping to get dividend for the investment.

He said the new company was incorporated in January this year with a paid-up capital of RM1.5 million specifically to resolve Maika's financial woes and monies owing to shareholders which has been a concern for the Indian community.

Maika had previously issued a bonus issue of 25 million shares free to the shareholders. As such, there could be 125 million outstanding shares.

For 125 million shares, shareholders would get 80 sen each or original investment of RM1 each.

Once the shares have been taken over, a committee comprising Gnanalingam as co-chairman, engineering consultant Datuk Kuna Sithambaram, Datuk N. Sadhasivam, who is Petronas and Bank Negara Malaysia director, Datuk R. Karunakaran, former MIDA director general and Ravin Ponniah, a special officer from the Prime Minister's Department, would act as the trustees of Maika.

He said he had also bought a 12 per cent stake in Maika from the management and that its chairman, Vijay Kumar had gotten him the board's approval to buy the shares.

He denied that the move to buy the stake was politically motivated and neither was it a bailout for the politicians involved in the failed running of Maika.

"I'm in no position to bail out anybody and this is not a bail-out exercise. This is genuinely trying to return to shareholders what they invested in and we are going directly to shareholders," he said.

He said the board of trustees would look at ways to sell the assets and to eventually close down the company.

"If we can break even, I'll be very happy," he said.

Presently, he said Maika was valued at RM85 million, after eliminating RM30 million of liabilities owed to commercial banks and government securities fund.

In bridging the gap between the current value and the RM106 million to be spent from his personal coffer, Gnanalingam said they were looking to sell off Maika's two assets, namely a pice of land worth RM11 million and its insurance firm Oriental Capital Assurance (OCA), which at 74.6 per cent stake is worth RM99 million.

He said the land could be developed into a housing project which could increase its value while OCA could be sold off to another insurance entity, especially with the industry going in for a round of consolidation.

"Within six months to a year, we hope to do both and reduce the gap. I'm not sure we can recover the whole lot, but I am confident we can reduce the amount," he said.

Asked on the injunction by Nesa Cooperative to stop the sale of assets of Maika, he said, "Hopefully, we can prevail on all parties to resolve this amicably. Ultimately, the sale of OCA is subject to Bank Negara's regulations and we have to fully abide by that."

He clarified that the acquisition of Maika was not to sell the assets of Maika but get back all the shares and purely to return shareholders the money they invested in.

"Hopefully we can get back 100 per cent or even 90 per cent of the shares," he said, in view of the difficulties as some shareholders had passed away and some had lost their share certificates.

He also denied reports that the deal was shrouded in mystery. "You guys (the media) made it a mystery."

However, "I'm not ready to tell you everything yet as I need to do due diligence and get the bankers to give me a price. I'm just giving you a preliminary outline.

To earlier speculative reports that he would emerge as the white knight to buy over Maika, he retorted that he was the not the white knight but rather the "brown knight" pointing to the colour of his skin.

BN throws party, money to woo Orang Asli

By Stephanie Sta Maria - Free Malaysia Today

HULU SELANGOR: There is a new 'party' in town and it's called the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA). Its mission, according to the angry Orang Asli community here, is to nail their support for BN through a game plan of bribery and intimidation.
Hulu Selangor is home to over 3,000 Orang Asli scattered over 16 villages in the district. Since the campaign kicked off,  the PKR Orang Asli Bureau has complained that JHEOA is hampering their campaign efforts in the community by exerting tremendous pressure on both voters and bureau members.

One bureau member, Podir Kadir (photo), has spotted JHEOA vans with stickers covering the department logo entering the Orang Asli villages under the pretense of being party supporters.

“We aren't stupid,” he told the media at a press conference in Kuala Kubu Bharu today. “We recognise the JHEOA vans and it is clear that it is working alongside BN to help secure a win in the by-election.”

Taking advantage of the Orang Asli fondness for entertainment, the JHEOA has also organised dinners and even rock concerts in the villages. Aside from having a good time, all attendees walk away with RM10 as a 'token of appreciation'.

“They are buying our pride,” protested another bureau member, Nurul Fazil. “In some villagers they have even gone round asking people to name the country's prime minister. Those who can are rewarded with RM10.”

Tok Batins or village heads also claimed that JHEOA officials have asked them to usher out PKR bureau members from within their villages. However, the heads have refused.

This by-election has also made history by being the first to have every JHEOA director in Peninsular Malaysia sent to Hulu Selangor to oversee an Orang Asli village there.

Police intimidation
Selangor exco member Elizabeth Wong, also the chairman of the Orang Asli Land Task Force, called this a blatant abuse of power.

“This has never happened before and shouldn't be allowed to happen,” she slammed. “The Public Service Act clearly prohibits civil servants from participating in political campaigns and vote buying is an election offence. The JHEOA has violated these laws.”

Wong also seethed over the sudden appearance of police booths in front of the villages, describing it as an intimidation tool.

“Police booths are a symbol of a state of emergency,” she said. “And BN is doing everything it can to frighten the Orang Asli into remaining as party supporters.”

“It is targeting villages via the JHEOA because it thinks that the villagers won't protest unlike those in the towns. But the Orang Asli are very angry at this mistreatment.”

Wong called on the Election Commission address this abuse of power and for the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission to take action on the bribery issue.

“BN is free to campaign in any way it pleases,” she said. “Just don't use a government department as a puppet to intimidate the people.”

Fake degree? RPK zeroes in on Kamalanathan

By FMT staff
KUALA LUMPUR:Popular blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin remains unconvinced about Barisan Nasional candidate P Kamalanathan's educational qualification.
His doubts continue to linger despite Kamalanathan posting on his blog today a scanned image of what he said was his degree certificate.
The parchment, from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, is for the degree of Bachelor of Communication, in the name of "P Kamalanathanlp. Panchanathan".
In response, Raja Petra questioned if the certificate was forged, in an article entitled “It just does not add up”.
A forged certificate would be an election offence; candidates who state fraudulent information in their nomination papers would be disqualified.

Raja Petra, who is known for making controversial disclosures, wrote: “We tried verifying his certificate but it appears like what he uploaded on his blog may be a fake certificate after all.

“The certificate in fact raises more questions than it provided answers. Is this certificate a forgery?”
Raja Petra said the posted certificate carries the name 'P Kamalanathanlp. Panchanathan' with the parchment number 2004100372, and the date Jan 23, 2004.

“However, a search that we did still does not produce any results whereas we did two other searches on other people (also Olympia College twinning students) and they came back positive.

“We also tried using six different name variations but they all came back blank.

“Note that the name we used in the search on 'Claire' was not complete yet it came back positive. It could still trace the details even with the incomplete name,” he said, providing screenshots of the searches done and a link to the search engine.

Verbal confirmation from Olympia College

News portal Malaysian Insider also reported article today that Olympia College had verbally confirmed that Kamalanathan was a registered student at the college and completed his course.

Olympia's academic director Tan Chee Seng said Kamalanathan's actual student record was no longer available.

However, he added that he remembered Kamalanathan, and he confirmed that Kamalanathan did an external course in communications, majoring in public relations with the Australian varsity.

Tan also explained that universities sometimes kept separate registers for off-campus students and that might explain why a search of the ECU alumni roll turned up nothing, as claimed by Raja Petra.

Tan also revealed that Olympia College processed only one batch of students with ECU before both sides terminated the programme in 2004.

In a previous posting, Raja Petra had said that Olympia College did not offer a Bachelor  in Communications and that ECU did not offer off-campus courses in the subject.

Kamalanathan had previously said that he completed the course entirely off-campus.

The 44-year-old BN candidate, who is actively campaigning for the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat, could not be reached for comment today.

Maika's saviour: It's social service, not politics

By Marc Jitab

KUALA LUMPUR: Prominent Malaysian businessman G Gnanalingam today denied any political  motive behind the proposed RM106 million Maika Holdings deal.
The tycoon, who preferred to be known as Maika's “Brown Knight”, said he was in no position to bail out anybody in response to allegations that the move was intended to quell criticism that MIC had mismanaged its investment arm.

“This is not a bailout, but a social service,” he said during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

He also denied that the deal was linked to the upcoming Hulu Selangor by-election, where some parties have charged that it was a political gimmick to attract Indian votes for Barisan Nasional.

According to reports, there are some 1,500 Maika shareholders in the parliamentary constituency.

“There is no political gimmick here. The media broke the story during the Hulu Selangor by-election, that's all,” stressed the businessman who is one of Malaysia's richest.

The deal was first reported by national news agency Bernama on April 16, a day ahead of the nomination for the by-election.

The Maika Holdings fiasco is always raised by the opposition during elections, especially when the candidate is from MIC as in the case of Hulu Selangor, which has a sizeable number of Indian voters.

The Malay-majority seat had fallen into the hands of PKR in the 2008 general election, and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is said to be keen on winning it back since he is the Selangor Umno chief.

There was also talk that Bernama had received instructions from the top man to run the story, which was penned by the agency's editor-in-chief Yong Soo Heong himself.

The report quoted sources as saying that the government understood that the Maika share problem had been a sore point with the Indian community for many years and decided to resolve the prickly issue.

"The very long wait of more than 26 years is finally over for these thousands of people from the Indian community," one of the sources told Bernama.

The sources added that the proposed purchase value of the shares was RM20 million above the total net value of Maika's assets, which were only worth about RM85 million currently.

G Team to the rescue
Meanwhile, Gnanalingam explained that the Maika solution was an important issue for the prime minister.

The businessman, who co-chaired a cabinet taskforce to look into the Maika situation, felt that the RM106 million offer was a “win-win situation” and was the “best move” given the circumstances.

“There are no perfect answers in this world,” he said.

He also explained that the deal was still in the proposal stages, and it will take at least three months
before all the shares from some 66,000 shareholders could be collected.

After this had been done, Maika's assets and liabilities will be dealt with independently, he explained.

The new company that will buy over the Maika shares is eponymously named G Team Resources.

Gnanalingam intimated that he was heading the organisation but refused to comment who else was involved.

However, he revealed that the G Team will be placed under a board of trustees in the near future.

Furthermore, he explained that Maika only owned 74.6% of  insurance firm Oriental Capital Assurance  Bhd (OCAB).

After the global economic downturn, OCAB's worth plummeted to RM130 million and Maika's shareholding in the company was then valued at RM99 million.

Maika's attempt to sell off OCAB, termed as its cash cow, to reimburse its shareholders had hit a snag following a court injunction by shareholder Nesa Cooperative, linked to former MIC deputy president S Subramaniam.

Subramaniam is considered as MIC president S Samy Vellu's arch rival. The president's son Vell Paari is the chief executive officer of the debt-ridden investment arm.

Maika also has a piece of land worth RM11 million and a cash balance of RM6 million, bringing Maika's assets to a total of RM115 million. Maika had also accrued RM30 million in liabilities, and from this it was deduced that Maika's value is RM85 million.

Once the RM106 million deal goes through, there will be a shortfall of about RM20 million.

At the moment, G Team will be absorbing this loss but it hopes to reduce this over the next year.

It is also hoped that this social service will bring closure to the Maika issue and help the Indian community move on and to find other ways to participate in the economy.

Many of those who invested in Maika in 1984 were Indian estate workers who had pawned their family jewellery and withdrawn their life savings to invest.

But Maika, which was established in 1982 to enable Indians to participate in the country's economic growth, had not produced good returns, much to the disillusionment of its shareholders.

Scenes at parliamentary debate today

Coalfield Estate: Once tenants now squatters

Rosmah campaigns for Kamalanathan

(Bernama) - HULU SELANGOR: Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, wife of the prime minister, campaigned yesterday for the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate in the Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election, asking the people of Felda Kg Soeharto to vote for P Kamalanathan come polling day on Sunday.

"It does not matter if the candidate is not a Malay. He is a Malaysian citizen and has promised to work. As the elected representative, you can meet him when you have a problem and he will convey the matter to the senior leaders," she said when launching a 1Malaysia programme organised by the Selangor welfare foundation, Kasih.

Also present at the event were Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Umno Information Chief Datuk Ahmad Maslan and Kasih vice-president Prof Datin Seri Aishah Salleh.

Rosmah said the people there should remember and appreciate the BN's deeds in championing the cause of Felda settlers for years.

"The BN government has given attention to the progress and welfare of Felda settlers, and some among them have become millionaires and the children of the settlers hold top posts as well.

"If we want the future of our children to be bright, elect the Barisan Nasional (candidate)," said Rosmah, who is also president of Kasih.

Rosmah contributed RM1,000 each to seven community-based rehabilitation centres in the Hulu Selangor constituency to fund their training programmes and activities.

At the same event, Ahmad handed over housing loan documents to 49 settlers of four Felda schemes in Hulu Selangor.

"The allocation was approved by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak when he was here early this month. The total fund is RM6.1 million for 158 settlers in Hulu Selangor.

"The purpose is to renovate the houses of the settlers. Datuk Najib wants a change. We want them to experience a change in livelihood, we want to take care of their welfare," he said.

Ahmad said that on the average, interest-free loans of RM30,000 and RM40,000 were given to eligible settlers and had to be repaid in 20 years at less than RM300 a month.

Kamalanathan is facing Datuk Zaid Ibrahim of PKR in a straight fight in the by-election, which is being held following the death of the Member of Parliament Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad of the PKR on March 25.

Dr M targets Zaid, Anwar, Pak Lah in Hulu Selangor

Written by Chua Sue-Ann, The Edge

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad took to the Hulu Selangor campaign platform on Thursday, April 22, taking swipes at his usual targets — PKR's candidate Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and former premier Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Dr Mahathir began his ceramah in Serendah here by reminding his audience that the country's progress, achievements and stability had been due to BN's efforts since independence in 1957.

He denied that his son Datuk Mirzan Mahathir had owned shares in a beer company, saying that San Miguel Corp was looking to move into other sectors. "If he's in a company that sells beer only I will ask him to leave, but the one that drinks alcohol, it is true," Dr Mahathir said, referring to Zaid.

Zaid, the former Kota Bharu member of parliament, has admitted to consuming alcohol in his youth but had since repented.

"I advise Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and PKR members, no need to choose such a person. He's not certain. When he gets drunk, we don't know what he would do," Dr Mahathir said, prompting laughter. He also criticised Zaid for allegedly owning race horses.

The former premier labelled Zaid as a "frog", the common term for someone who changes parties, referring to his exit from Umno to join PKR.

Zaid was sacked from Umno in December 2008 for attending opposition functions. He later joined PKR in June 2009.

Dr Mahathir said that Zaid cannot be trusted because "one minute he'll follow this person, another minute he'll follow another".

The veteran leader accused Zaid, who founded the country's largest law firm, of forgetting his roots and abandoning Umno after becoming rich.

"Have we seen Zaid in court? Never. His work is only to sign forms. Even that, it was the government who paid him wages to sign forms. When he became successful, he can talk big. In the past, he always looked for Umno. Now that he's rich, he doesn't need Umno anymore," Dr Mahathir said.

He then moved on to slam Abdullah, his successor turned nemesis, without naming him.

"For decades before 2008, we know our country was good. But 2004 to 2008 what happened?" Dr Mahathir said, referring to Abdullah's tenure as prime minister.

"I don't want to say anything, later people will say I am not a good person. I know choosing (Prime Minister Datuk Seri) Najib Razak was far better than the previous guy. I hope Najib can fix the mistakes," he said.

Dr Mahathir had been a fierce critic of Abdullah's administration and continued hitting out even when the latter stepped down as prime minister in March 2009.

On Pakatan Rakyat, Mahathir said the Malay word "pakatan" means to create "conspiracies to do bad things".

"What do they pakat for? To grab power. We cannot trust them. They only quarrel," Dr Mahathir said, before quickly moving on to attack his former deputy.

"From far, Anwar looks good but when you go near you can see the blemishes. Many have left his party. Only when you go near, you would know who he is. I was also like that (fooled)," he said.

Dr Mahathir claimed that Anwar had initially wanted to join PAS but decided to join Umno when he realised that "he could not become prime minister if he joined PAS".

The senior politician also made many allusions to sodomy and Anwar's sodomy trial, urging Anwar to be brave to face the courts and swear on the Quran if he was telling the truth.

Independent Pasir Mas member of parliament Datuk Ibrahim Ali, who is also the president of Malay nationalist group Perkasa, was also present at the ceramah.

More than 300 people filled the compound of a house in Serendah here, eager to hear the former premier speak.

Dr Mahathir's presence here was a last-minute surprise as the veteran leader had earlier declared that he was would not be campaigning in Hulu Selangor.

He said that he was "happy" to be campaigning again, adding that the first time he campaigned was in 1946 for BN and Parti Perikatan.

Dr Mahathir later told a press conference that "as a loyal supporter of Barisan Nasional, I must come".

The last time Dr Mahathir, 84, joined the campaign trail was in April 2009 during the Bukit Gantang parliamentary by-election in Perak and the contest for the Bukit Selambau state seat in Kedah.

He urged voters to back BN's candidate P Kamalanathan and to back BN for continued development and stability.

Kamalanathan, who spoke at the event earlier, hailed Dr Mahathir as his "idol".

Met by reporters, Kamalanthan declined to reveal his "new strategy" planned for the last two days of campaigning, saying that he would "keep it close to (his) chest" and only announce it on Friday.

The MIC information chief had earlier told a Chinese newspaper that he would employ a new approach to give his campaign a final push.

Abolish ISA UK Campaign Monthly Picket

Date : Saturday, 24th April 2010

Time : 12.00- 1.15pm

Location : Malaysian Tourism Office, Malaysian House, 7 Trafalgar Square, London, England WC2N 5DU

This year, the Malaysian Internal Security Act (ISA) celebrates its 50th birthday. Since its inception it has been used with impunity as a political weapon by the ruling elite against opposition politicians, human rights activists, journalists and ordinary civilians. It remains one of the most chilling and feared weapons of oppression - and understandably so. Under the ISA a person can face arbitrary detention for up to 2 years without charge. This detention order can then be renewed at the whim of the Home Minister, effectively extending the detention period indefinitely. Detainees are often mistreated, tortured, kept in solitary confinement and denied access to due legal process. Since its inception, more than 10,000 people have been detained under the ISA. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have produced numerous reports on the serious threat to human rights posed by this act. In a report from 2005, Human Rights Watch noted that 'Its provisions violate fundamental international human rights standards, including prohibitions on arbitrary detention, guarantees of the right to due process, and the right to a prompt and impartial trial' (Human Rights Watch report 2005 http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11608/section/2).

A group of concerned Malaysians living in the UK have pledged to come together to demonstrate again the Internal Security Act on a monthly basis until this draconian law is abolished. We would like to invite you to join us in showing solidarity to all ISA detainees and their families, both past and current, and to hold the government of Malaysia accountable, reminding our public servants that the world is watching and detention without trial in Malaysia must be brought to an immediate end.Let us ensure that the ISA isn't allowed to perpetuate fear and injustice for another 50 years.

We will be meeting on the last Saturday of each month at 12pm outside the Malaysian Tourism Office in Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar Square has been host to a number of important demonstrations in the past, including the campaign to free Nelson Mandela from 27 years of political detention under the apartheid regime in South Africa. We will demonstrate from 12.15pm-1.15pm. Our first demonstration will be on Saturday, 24th of April 2010.

We look forward to seeing you there

Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA, UK
(Abolish the ISA Movement, UK)

Questions Kamalanathan refused to answer

Jiwi Kathaiah, Malaysiakini

BN candidate for the Hulu Selangor by-election P Kamalanathan has put his public relations skills to work by avoiding giving straight answers to questions involving statements that he had made earlier.

"My focus is Hulu Selangor. My focus is the voters in Hulu Selangor. And my focus is to win the election," he said repeatedly when asked to elaborate on some of his controversial remarks.

"I will answer all these questions after the by-election," he told Malaysiakini yesterday while campaigning in Batang Kali.

Ask whether he would follow Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's example in putting his race first, he said:

"I'm Malaysian. I don't want to say anything more," he said.

He was also quizzed on his 'Hindraf is not a factor' statement, which he quickly brushed aside.

"I have already explained. I am not going to go into it again."

Kamalanathan also kept mum when asked whether he considered relevant some of claims contained in Hindraf's 18-point manifesto such as the need for a ethnic relations act, to convert all Tamil schools into fully government-funded schools, and reserving 20 percent of jobs in the public sector for Indians.

Perkasa's 97 percent claim

He was also asked whether he would endorsed Perkasa's aim to reserve 97 percent of the economic cake to the Malays.

"I have already explained, no further comment," he said.

The BN was pressed on why Indian Malaysians continued to be marginalised despite MIC being part of the ruling coalition for over half a century.

"This is a hard question. You should have put it in writing and given it to me earlier so that I could do some research before I could answer it," replied Kamalanathan.

When told that as the MIC information chief, he should have ready answers to such questions, he said: "I have been the information chief only for less than a year."

Kamalanathan was then referred to the MAPEN Report 1991 (National Economic Consultative Council), which had recommended, amongst others:

1. Pre-schools in estates.

2. Conversion of all partially-aided Tamil schools into fully-aided government schools.

3. Provision of assistance to setting up of a commercial bank and an insurance company.

4. Creation of a trust fund to enable Indians to invest in share markets.

5. Creation of a special scholarship fund to enable Indian students to acquire higher education in foreign countries.

6. Introduction of "affirmative action" similar to the affirmative action that is implemented for bumiputeras.

He was asked why MIC had not pressed the BN government to implement all these recommendations.

Kamalanathan hesitated, and then said he would have to look at it.

Short answers

The BN candidate was told that one of the biggest problem facing the Indians is employment opportunity.

For example, in 1971, before the implementation of New Economic Policy, there were 14.4 percent Indians in the public service. Now, they represent only 4 percent.

"It is going up," said Kamalanathan, without elaborating.

Similarly, according to the 9th Malaysia Plan, the development allocation for Chinese and Tamil primary schools is RM174.3 million and RM64.8 million respectively, while the allocation for national schools is RM4.8 billion.

Given on the basis of per student per month, national schools have RM33.30; Chinese schools RM4.50; Tamil schools, RM10.55. Why the discrimination, the MIC candidate was asked.

Kamalanathan's answer was again typically short. "More Tamil schools are being built," he said.

When he was pressed further to answer a number of other questions. Kamalanathan finally gave up.

"I will answer all these questions after the election," he said.

State of the Indians - Part VII Pakatan is not perfect but BN worst

What Indian Malaysian voters want

thenutgraph.com
INDIAN Malaysian voters are said to be the deal-breakers in the Hulu Selangor by-election, according to one view. They comprise 12,453 or 19.3% of the total 64,500 voters in this parliamentary seat.
In the 2008 general election, 51% of their votes went to the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate, Datuk G Palanivel from MIC. Palanivel lost by a razor-thin 198-majority to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)'s Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad. The question in this by-election is which way this 50-50 Indian Malaysian support will tip.
But the dynamics are different now. Palanivel, the MIC deputy president and a favourite among some of the grassroots, has been replaced by a younger candidate, P Kamalanathan. Kamalanathan is the party's information chief, and a public relations manager by profession. This factor alone is enough to cause indecisiveness among some voters.
There are several other factors, too, but the overriding ones are unmet promises of development and infrastructure, and Hulu Selangor's sluggish economy. However, the personal touch of a candidate and of his or her party workers among voters, are also just as influential. As some voters reveal, the late MP Zainal Abidin, who was ill throughout, still served the constituency through proxies.
The Nut Graph chats with a few Indian Malaysian voters in an attempt to understand what influences them. These conversations, partly conducted in English and partly translated from Bahasa Malaysia, are by no means representative of the community. But they offer a glimpse into what matters most to these Indian Malaysian voters during an election, and their perceptions of the campaign.
Some unscientific observations must be stated first off: Anger against MIC and its president Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu appears higher among estate dwellers than semi-urban residents. Some voters appear torn between affection for a candidate and unhappiness with the candidate's party. And the theory that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has wooed Indian Malaysians without the MIC does hold water with some voters.

Who: Sanasaya Jogulu, 56, bus driver, father
Who: Vanitha Sanasaya, 24, teacher, daughter
Where:
Their home in Taman Bukit Teratai, Sungai Choh, Batang Kali
Date: 21 April 2010 
The Taman Bukit Teratai housing estate
TNG: What do you think of the two parties contesting?
Sanasaya: The older people are more with BN. The younger ones with Pakatan [Rakyat]. In this housing estate, there are about 300 families. It is half for BN and half for PKR. I think this will be hard to change.
Why?
Because of history. The older people are traditional and loyal to BN.
What is the difference to you between Palanivel and Kamalanathan?
I prefer Palanivel. Kamalanathan is young and new to us. He's only come to this area once so far [during the campaign]. But three weeks ago, the Human Resource Minister [Datuk S Subramaniam] came here to tell us about [how we can find] new jobs and about EPF (Employees Provident Fund).
What do you know about the PKR candidate, (Datuk) Zaid Ibrahim?
I don't know him. He's never been here. I've read about him in the newspaper but I don't have an opinion. People say he is campaigning more in the Malay [Malaysian] areas so I think that's why he hasn't come here yet.
Is the candidate or his [or her] party more important to you?
The party. My heart is with BN and MIC.
What do you think about Samy Vellu? He has been MIC president for a long time.
It is time to let others have a chance. He has been there for a long time.
What do you think about the prime minister, Najib?
He's good. (Gives thumbs-up sign)
Why?
He freed the Hindraf people from prison. And he has come here to this area. The prime minister before him never did.
What has happened here since they announced the by-election?
The 'killer junction' with new traffic lights installed recently
We have a new traffic light. That junction where you turned in to come here? That is a killer junction. Many people died from accidents there. We have been asking for a traffic light for a long time but only last week they installed it.
Who?
BN.
Do you like that? That the things you want are given to you when it's time for an election?
(Daughter Vanitha interjects)

Vanitha: Some people think it is good that PKR is in charge [of the state] so BN is forced to provide the solutions during the by-election. But people also think it is negative that BN only gives priority to people's wishes when it is election time. It makes people go [to the opposition].
(To Vanitha) What about you, what do you think of the candidates from both sides?
I have to vote BN because I am a teacher. People say they can know [how you voted] because there is a serial number [on the ballot]. Anyway, I feel free to vote for BN because I studied in a government school and went to a government university.
The government has provided enough facilities, overall. But if you look at specific areas, like here, we are not very well equipped. Until it is election time. This should change.
Are you interested in national issues, like abolishing the Internal Security Act? You are going to vote for a new Member of Parliament, so what kind of issues are you interested in?
I watch the news but I am more interested in economic and education opportunities. Whatever is related to my work as a teacher.
(To Sanasaya) What do you think of our democracy, do you want more freedom?
Sanasaya: We are already democratic. We are less controlled than Singapore, aren't we? We can voice our opinions but it must be within limits.

Who: Two Indian Malaysian men who agreed to be photographed but declined to be named
Where: By the roadside leading to Taman Bukit Teratai, Sungai Choh, Batang Kali
Date: 21 April 2010

The two friends chatting by the road. Behind them is the Tamil school which was given
funds by both BN and PR for the by-election
TNG: Are you voters here?
Both: Yes
Have you met either candidate?
White shirted man: No chance yet.
What do you think of the MIC candidate?
I wanted Palanivel. In 2008, I voted for him. Now, I have to see first.
Was Palanivel a good MP?
Yes, he came here often. He is good, but the local MIC leaders in this taman are not good. They only help their family members and relatives. They are all one gang. If you're not in their gang, they don't help you.
But you still like the MIC party? Even though it is a different candidate now?
(Yellow shirted man interjects)

Yellow shirted man: Now we have to see first, la. Both sides also didn't do much. Not until now, when it is election time. That school (points to school behind them), both BN and PKR gave money for repairs because of this by-election.
What do you think of the Selangor government under Pakatan for the last two years?
They are OK. Selangor executive councilor Dr Xavier Jayakumar  gave us land nearby for Hindu and Muslim cemeteries. That never happened under BN.
Did you buy Maika shares last time?
White shirted man: Yes. All gone. Still haven't got anything.
So even though you lost money, you still voted for MIC in 2008?
Ya, because I like Palanivel.
What do you think about Zaid Ibrahim from PKR?
I want to meet him first.
What do you think of the prime minister, Najib and his policies, like 1Malaysia?
White shirted man: You tell me what is that. What is that?
(Yellow shirt man interjects)
Yellow shirted man: Whatever it is, don't make this place like Ijok [after the by-election]. During the by-election, the BN gave this and that, there were so many infrastructure projects. Now, it's a forgotten town again. I have relatives there and that's what they tell me.

Who: Amarawati Desangu, 43, rubber tapper and single mum of five children
Where: Ladang Sungai Jernih, Kerling, after a campaign stop by PKR candidate Zaid
Date: 18 April 2010
amarawati
Amarawati
TNG: Did you know Zaid Ibrahim before this?
Amarawati Desangu: Just from television.
So what do you think of him after his visit here?
Keadilan has helped us a lot here. When our houses flooded in January this year after a storm, they gave us food, clothes and school things for the children. BN never came.
The previous Keadilan MP was sick and people say he didn't do much.
But he sent his people from Keadilan to help.
Have you ever seen Palanivel here while he was MP for four terms?
No. I heard he goes to Kuala Kubu Baru but he didn't come to this estate.
What do you think of Samy Vellu?
I only see him on television. He talks about fixing this and that but nothing happens here.

Estate workers waiting for Zaid
How long has Keadilan been active in this estate?
More after 2008.
Who did you vote for in 2008?
Keadilan.
How much do you earn a month?
RM300

Who: Chennaih Karpiah, 53, rubber tapper and PKR Ladang Sungai Jernih branch chief
Where: Ladang Sungai Jernih, Kerling, after a campaign stop by PKR candidate Zaid
Date: 18 April 2010

Chennaih (left, in yellow shirt), with Zaid at a meet-the-people session on the estate
TNG: When did PKR start a branch here?
Chennaih Karpiah: After the elections in 2008.
So how did you know about them in the 2008 election?
It was because of Hindraf, we heard about the gathering in Kuala Lumpur in 2007.
How did you find your former MP PKR Zainal Abidin who was very sick?
He sent his people to work with us. PAS has also come to help. They gave us RM2,500 to help repair our temple (points). PKR has also helped us get new houses here, on the condition that we work.
People say Palanivel was very popular also.
The estate temple, repaired with the help of a PAS donation
He only visits the towns. He doesn't come to the estates. In 2007, he said he didn't need the Indian [Malaysian] voters. He said he could count more on the Malay and Chinese [Malaysian] votes.
Would you like MIC better if Samy Vellu wasn't the president?
Even if Samy is out and Palanivel takes over, it will be his cronies who rise. The people still won't get anything. I am still waiting for my Maika shares. I bought RM5,000 worth 25 years ago. Till today, there is nothing.