Malayur News: 12/02/10

Thursday, 2 December 2010

Spain busts 'al-Qaeda-linked group'

Police have arrested seven people in Spain and three in Thailand in an international operation against a group suspected of forging passports for an al-Qaeda-linked group, the Spanish interior ministry…

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PKR flays Sarawak CM for state’s growing wealth gap

Taib has said the people must forsake personal interest for public interest. — File picKUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian attacked Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud…

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Gunman shoots teenager dead

IPOH, Dec 2 — A teenager was shot dead by one of two men on a motorcycle in front of a mini market in Taman Bertuah, Kampung Tawas here yesterday,…

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'Umno bijak sembunyikan krisis dalaman'

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Oleh Jamilah Kamarudin - Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: Keputusan Umno menangguhkan pemilihan Majlis Tertinggi selama 18 bulan sehingga tahun 2012 mungkin memberi petanda parti itu mahu menyembunyikan kelemahan krisis dalamannya sementara menghadapi pilihan raya Sarawak dan umum (PRU) dalam masa terdekat.
Pengajaran daripada proses 'ketelusan' pemilihan Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) yang akhirnya hanya menampakkan kelemahan sendiri, Umno dilihat mengambil langkah selamat untuk menunda pemilihan yang sepatutnya berakhir pada tahun depan bagi memberi laluan kepada pimpinan baru meneraju parti sepanjang penggal 2011/2014.
Penganalisis politik Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Dr P Sivamurugan berkata penangguhan itu menguatkan lagi spekulasi tentang tarikh pilihan raya Sarawak yang dijangka berlaku seawal Mac tahun depan manakala PRU 13 pula diramalkan pada suku terakhir tahun yang sama.
Menyifatkannya sebagai satu percaturan yang baik bagi mengelakkan Umno kehilangan sokongan rakyat serta pengaruh antara parti komponen lain dalam Barisan Nasional (BN) semasa pilihan raya nanti, Sivamurugan bagaimanapun berkata keputusan itu umpama 'ubat penahan sakit' yang hanya bersifat sementara.
"Saya percaya keputusan Umno itu mungkin hendak mengelakkan permusuhan dalaman parti yang boleh mengganggu peluang BN memenangi pilihan raya.
"Untuk memenangi sesuatu pilihan raya tak semestinya perlu bergantung kepada kelemahan parti lawan.
"Kalau Umno tak bertindak sebegini mungkin mereka berhadapan krisis dalaman yang serius sebab kalau parti sendiri tak kuat bagaimana nak lawan pihak musuh (dalam pilihan raya)," katanya kepada FMT hari ini.
Tiket penting
Pendapat sama turut disokong Pensyarah Undang-Undang Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) Profesor Dr Abdul Aziz Bari yang secara terbuka mengkritik Umno kerana masih enggan mengamalkan budaya keterbukaan politik untuk setiap ahlinya.
Membandingkannya dengan PKR yang mengamalkan sistem pemilihan demokrasi satu ahli satu undi, kedegilan Umno mengekalkan status quo katanya hanya menampakkan lagi tanda-tanda wujudnya pergelutan antara 'kem Najib' dan 'kem Muhyiddin' dalam parti itu.
Aziz juga berkata, presiden Umno yang juga Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak mungkin bimbang kedudukannya akan terancam jika pemilihan MT Umno akan diteruskan kerana sukar meletakkan calon pilihan semasa pilihan raya nanti sekaligus menghalangnya daripada terus mengekalkan kuasa dalam parti.
Ini kerana katanya 'pertarungan' dalam pemilihan MT Umno itu nanti bakal menjadi tiket penting bagi pemenang dan barisan pilihannya menerajui parti itu sekaligus menjadi kuasa penentu dengan parti komponen lain dalam BN.
"Jika mereka meneruskan pemilihan MT Umno, individu yang memenanginya ada kuasa besar untuk mengukuhkan pengaruh dan menetukan individu yang berada dalam badan kuasa perundangan (Parlimen) dan eksekutif (Kabinet).
"Umno sejak dari dulu lagi terkenal dengan masalah budaya politik naungan dan cantas-mencantas sesama ahlinya.
"Hala tuju politik mereka tidak akan kemana-mana jika sistem pemilihan 'autokrasi' mereka masih tetap tidak berubah," katanya.
Krisis MIC
Hal ini ditambah dengan pandangan Dr Sivamurugan yang berpendapat parti 'Ketuanan Melayu' itu masih belum bersedia menghadapi pilihan raya yang sama.
Ini kerana katanya berdasarkan keputusan mesyuarat tertinggi Umno malam Selasa yang mahu mengadakan rombakan dalam badan perhubungan negeri, kursus cawangan kepada ahlinya serta merancang mengadakan jelajah ke seluruh negara untuk berkempen tentang pencapaian yang dilakukan BN sepanjang daripada tahun 2008.
"Mereka perlukan masa...begitu juga dengan MIC yang mahu melihat sama ada presiden barunya Datuk G Palanivel mampu menerajui parti dengan baik dan mengembalikan semula kepercayaan pengundi masyarakat India dalam tempoh terdekat ini," katanya.
Namun beliau percaya MIC mungkin 'terselamat' daripada tekanan krisis pemilihan yang boleh menggugat imej BN untuk menghadapi PRU 13 memandangkan parti itu akan mengadakan pemilihannya pada tahun 2012.
Aziz bagaimanapun menolak pendapat penangguhan pemilihan MT Umno itu adalah satu langkah yang baik untuk parti itu terus kekal relevan sebagai parti yang mempertahankan kedudukan kaumnya dalam perlembagaan.
"Tidak semestinya langkah (penangguhan) itu baik jika politik dalaman Umno masih ditahap lama malah ia akan terus menjadi barah dan membusung sehingga tidak mampu diselamatkan lagi," katanya.
Isu nasional
Pendapat Aziz itu disokong dengan kenyataan bekas presiden Transparensi Antarabangsa Malaysia Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam bahawa penangguhan pemilihan MT Umno itu tidak akan memberi impak yang besar kepada keputusan pilihan raya Sarawak dan PRU 13 sekiranya isu nasional masih tidak dapat diselesaikan.
Beliau merujuk isu nasional kepada masalah kestabilan ekonomi negara, isu Sabah dan Sarawak, keberkesanan Program Transformasi Ekonomi (ETP), ketelusan kerajaan BN memerangi rasuah serta beberapa isu lain yang membelenggu negara sejak tahun 2008.
Tokoh ekonomi itu berkata, apa yang penting adalah prestasi yang dibuktikan serta manifesto yang sudah dilaksanakan barisan kepimpinan Najib sejak PRU 12 yang lalu.
"Rakyat bukannya mahu melihat politik perkauman terus dimainkan untuk memenangi sesebuah pilihan raya kerana mereka tahu politik sempit itu hanya akan menimbulkan ketidakharmonian pemerintahan demokrasi negara.
"Sebaliknya rakyat sekarang sudah celik dan bijak menilai apa yang kerajaan BN janjikan selama ini untuk membela rakyat dan memajukan ekonomi negara," katanya.

Police should pursue justice, not peace only

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By Joe Fernandez - Free Malaysia Today,

ANALYSIS It’s evident from the numerous and long-running criticisms levelled against the police in Malaysia that the force is single-mindedly focused on keeping the peace at any cost and to the exclusion of justice or any other abstract needs of a civilised society from the state.
Is it any wonder therefore that the Malaysian police are the “world’s best” – like our 1.2 million civil servants – for keeping the country peaceful? One of their favourite methods for keeping the peace is hammering the you-know-what out of anyone who looks less than peaceful and law-abiding. This does away, under this fast-track system, with the problem of clogging the courts.
It’s okay even if the country goes to the dogs in the process and becomes an international pariah, the police apparently think, as long as there’s peace in the country and the status quo is maintained, albeit for a highly debatable stability. The morality of it all is for the realm of academia.
This is the same mindset that saw China turn away from its voyages of discovery early in the last millennia and declare that “the Middle Kingdom had everything and that there was nothing that it needs to learn or obtain from the outside world of barbarians”. The result was the downfall of Chinese civilisation and eventually long years of humiliation at the hands of even tiny western imperial and colonial forces. The rest is even more history.
If China had learnt its lessons well since then and opened up to the world in ways surprising for a communist nation, the same cannot be said of the establishment, the police in particular, in Malaysia. The local version reminds one of the proverbial “katak di bawah tempurung” (frog under a coconut shell which thinks that is the world).
From the statistics on deaths in police custody and shoot-to-kills, it appears, for one, that the number one rule of the Malaysian police is that “all Indians, and only Indians, are trouble-creators and capable of disrupting the peace in the country and distracting everyone”.
Put this down to the police stereotyping of the Indians as noisy, plaintive, chest-beating, hair-pulling, head-banging, hopping around melodramatic “aiyoh amah kadavale” – oh mother, God – antics. So, mark them down for elimination at every possible excuse to keep the peace in the country. Shoot first, ask questions later before reading them their rights on the way to the mortuary, hospital, police station, court in that order of importance.
If all this sounds too much like P Uthayakumar of the still unregistered Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRPM) who’s convinced that only non-Indians are “racists”, it’s all deliberate to stress a point about the Malaysian police, that is, their prejudice – prasangka or prejudis -- knows no bounds especially when it comes to Indians. Again, we are going by statistics which shows that a disproportionate number of Indians are victims of the police force. The fact that the police seem to having a problem with Indians is clear from the statistics.
Uthaya, also Hindraf Makkal Sathi’s legal adviser, only sees Indians getting the short end of the stick in Malaysia. So, here goes, to continue the analysis, for want of a better term.
Trigger-happy
Enter the force’s shoot-to-kill policy sanctioned by four Emergency Ordinances which, complains Suhakam, have yet to be repealed, that is, Sarawak, konfrontasi, May 13 and Kelantan. The unrepealed Emergency Ordinances also provide legal cover in Malaysia for the extra-judicial killings first made notorious in Brazil and other Latin American countries in a long-running war of the elite against the poor and down-trodden. Latin America has moved on but in Malaysia the police continue to be trigger-happy somewhere in between their notorious ambush spots and the courthouses.
“The suspected robbers – 'planning' a robbery and hence automatically suspects – fired first, the police fired back in self-defence, robbers all shot dead, police all safe.” Dead men tell no tales.
This is the standard line by the police at every press conference stage-managed by them and complete with an impressive display of weapons, mobile phones and cash purportedly recovered from the suspected robbers. In this version, you can see the halos around the police, if not the angelic wings sprouting at their sides.
If some innocent Indians are shot dead in the process, that can be excused on the grounds that “since all Indians look alike to the police (who are usually not Indians) it’s difficult to tell the suspected robbers from other Indians who in any case are guilty by association”.
The police also belabour under the misconception that only Indians are capable of carrying out criminal activities with the term being reserved only for anything that smacks of violence and physical force including rape and murder. So, the police statistics show that the Indians are the biggest murderers in the country because generally it appears that only Indians get caught for this dastardly crime.
The murderers in police uniforms have a James Bond-style 007 licence to kill that would put even Ian Fleming to shame.
Let’s not make too much of a minor distraction like the C4 bombing killing of Altantuya. That’s collateral damage in an area where the C4 bombing trials were going on. Besides, she had no business entering the country without first making sure the Immigration recorded the fact in their computers. Legally, she does not exist. Anyway, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We don’t need Mongolian models, no matter how ravishingly beautiful they are, to advise us on purchases of submarines we don’t need.
Peace first, justice later
If local non-Indians are discovered perpetrating the Indian type of criminal activities, it’s usually not their fault but society not indoctrinating them with sufficient religious knowledge and or mixing with too many Indians who “obviously picked up their criminal ways from watching too many Tamil and Hindi movies” or looking too much like Indians, the last definitely another crime in the police dictionary of law.
Crimes of the white-collar kind – politicians raiding the public treasury or milking the banks at will – don’t figure in the police radar as real crimes since such activities are not carried out by Indians. In fact, such “criminals” should be held up as role models for the rest of the citizenry in helping to re-distribute the wealth and admired for their cunning, “intelligence” and their ill-gotten gains.
The triads, for the same reason, can be excused as they are generous benefactors of the police force unlike the two-bit Indian criminals.
Put down the police refusal to grant permits to hold rallies, ceramahs, dinners or candle-light vigils by “anti-national elements” as purely due to their fervently patriotic desire to maintain peace in the country, even if it means denying justice in the process. Peace first, justice later, if at all.
Now Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation chair Lee Lam Thye has finally outdone even himself by fuming in public in recent days that criticisms against the police are a form of crime. No doubt the police will take Lee’s statement in their favour as something that should be diligently pursued under cover of theunrepealed Emergency Ordinances.
Anyone who criticises the police in future will get the Aminulrasyhid Amzah – too Indian-looking or the police – treatment, that is, more than a bullet or two at the back of his head. For this the police can thank Lee who is ever mindful that justice is not for others but, first of all, for the police.

Malaysia’s absent voters want to be counted

By William de Cruz and Greg Lopez - Free Malaysia Today
COMMENT Hundreds of thousands of Malaysians living overseas have been locked out of voting in every federal election since…

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Nazri says ‘ketuanan rakyat’ does not empower people

Nazri said he knows what he is talking about — ‘I am not only a lawyer, I am also in politics’. — File picKUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — Datuk Seri…

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Saya Coretkan Isu Ketuanan Melayu

Dari Blog Muqabalah

Dr.Wan Azizah mengulangi secara resminya ungkapan yang sekian lama diungkap oleh para pemimpin PKR, agar ditukar ‘Ketuanan Melayu kepada Ketuanan Rakyat’ pada Konvension PKR 2010 baru-baru ini.…

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'Tak akan mansuh hukuman mati'

Berita Harian

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Berita Harian

Kajian menyeluruh, penelitian rapi perlu sebelum pemansuhan dilaksanakan

KUALA LUMPUR: Kerajaan belum bercadang untuk memansuhkan hukuman mati terhadap kesalahan membunuh dan jenayah berat yang disabitkan di mahkamah, kata Timbalan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Liew Vui Keong.

Bagaimanapun, katanya, cadangan pemansuhan hukuman mati itu akan diberi pertimbangan sewajarnya selepas kajian menyeluruh dan penelitian rapi dibuat dalam pelbagai aspek serta mengambil kira pandangan pelbagai pihak.

“Pemansuhan hukuman mati akan memberikan impak besar kepada sistem perundangan negara dan pindaan sewajarnya perlu dibuat terhadap undang-undang jenayah tertentu jika hukuman mati dimansuhkan di negara ini,” katanya menjawab soalan Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad (BN-Kangar).

Liew berkata, sejak 2000 hingga kini, sebanyak 1,601 kes bunuh mengikut Seksyen 302 Kanun Keseksaan didaftarkan di Mahkamah Tinggi dan selepas melalui proses rayuan di Mahkamah Rayuan, sebanyak 47 kes disabitkan kesalahan mengikut seksyen sama yang direkodkan sabitan di Mahkamah Persekutuan.

Beliau berkata, dalam tempoh yang sama, hanya sembilan hukuman gantung dijalankan bagi kes yang disabitkan mengikut seksyen berkenaan dan bakinya masih menanti keputusan Petisyen Jemaah Pengampunan Negeri.

Menjawab soalan tambahan Mohd Radzi, beliau berkata kerajaan juga tidak bercadang untuk menukar cara hukuman mati dijalankan berikutan hukuman gantung sampai mati yang dilaksanakan kini diperuntukkan mengikut Seksyen 281, Kanun Acara Jenayah sejak zaman British.
Bagaimanapun, katanya, kerajaan akan mempertimbangkan cadangan menggunakan kaedah yang lebih sesuai dan berperikemanusian mengikut peredaran zaman dan teknologi terkini seperti suntikan maut yang dicadangkan oleh Mohd Radzi.

Menjawab soalan tambahan Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) mengenai kewibawaan hakim dalam menjatuhkan hukuman ke atas kes yang dibicarakan di mahkamah, Liew berkata hakim melaksanakan tanggungjawab dan menjalankan hukuman berdasarkan keterangan saksi dan bukti yang dikemukakan ketika perbicaraan dan ia tidak boleh dipertikaikan oleh sesiapa.

S’wak White Paper on ‘naughty people’

The Sarawak State Assembly has tabled and passed a White Paper to ‘prevent the escalation of dangerous politics employed by outsiders, especially politicians’.
The state’s Cabinet will decide at its…

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WikiLeaks: Pakistan quietly approved drone attacks, U.S. special units

Pakistani Senator Mohammad Saleh Shah protests near parliament in Islamabad in 2009 against U.S. drone attacks.

(CNN) -- On the record, Pakistan has persistently criticized the United States' use of unmanned drones to attack militant hideouts in its mountainous border region.

But diplomatic cables obtained by…

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Indians have to torch themselves and beg to death to stop Hindu temple demolishment in PKR, DAP and PAS Selangor and UMNO One Malay-sia

In over the last 53 years UMNO had been systematically “ethnically cleansing” and demolishing thousands of Hindu temples nationwide.

When I was a boy ( 35 years ago ) I…

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In over the last 53 years UMNO had been systematically “ethnically cleansing” and demolishing thousands of Hindu temples nationwide.

When I was a boy ( 35 years ago ) I remember an Indian actor from Chennai visiting Malaysia, interviewed on radio, that he was impressed to see so many Hindu temples that dotted the Malaysian landscape and that it reminded him of India. And he quoted the Tamil Proverb “Never live in an village that does not have a temple.

That was some 35 years ago. No more now through.

And today Chakra Gunasegaran had to set himself ablaze and kill himself ablaze (see Tamil Nesan headlines 1/12/10 ) and beg the PKR, DAP and PAS state government to stop the demolishment of his Hindu temple.

Where is the change? Worse still such self immolation has never happened even during the 50 year old rule of Selangor by the UMNO / BN regime. PKR, DAP and their Indian mandores should ask themselves why. Perhaps they are missing something?

PKR, DAP and PAS ruling Selangor, Penang and Kedah have 100 % powers to grant land to all Hindu temples, Hindu cemetaries, and the 180 Tamil schools which will qualify all these 180 Tamil schools in these three states to become fully financially aided schools, and out of it’s current cowshed like dilapidated conditions in these three states and offer a permanent solution while they are still in power because if UMNO/BN comes back to power there is no way there are going to do it. But they have blatantly refused to do so simply because they fear losing the “Malay muslim” votes. But never mind the Indians kena nyaya.

90 % of the minority Indians voted for PKR, DAP and Pas and for the first time in 50 years the UMNO/ BN regime lost their two thirds majority in Parliament and won in five new states including the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.

But PKR, DAP and PAS after getting what they had wanted ie the bulk and chunk of the Indian votes hardly made a difference to their lives of the Indian poor. They continued with the 50 year old UMNO neo colonialising the Indian poor by using their Indian mandores to offer temporary and piece meal solutions like dishing out hampers, petty cash for Hindu temples, Tamil schools cemeteries or kosong promises of land here or land there and getting the same widely covered in the three Tamil dailes.

PKR, DAP and PAS would do everything else on an ad hoc and a temporary solution, but not grant a permanent solution like granting land to all Hindu temples, Hindu cemeteries, Tamil schools and Indian villages and settlements.

Especially with no cost of RM to them, only land is to be granted. One stroke of the MB/CM’s pen and a permanent solution to this 53 year old out standing problem.

But why not while they are still in power playing to the 60 % Malay muslim voters is more important than the Indians from now onwards having to burn themselves to death so that their temples, cemeteries, Tamil schools, Indian villages and settlements are not demolished and destroyed.

May Chakra Gunasekara’s soul rest in peace his sacrifice in defence of his Hindu temple from destruction.It is the first of it’s kind in Malaysia and has created history.

Only HRP’s project 15/38 will have some hope of ending these Indian poor misery.

Rights not merc

P.Uthayakumar

Samy Vellu giving up saddle but not the reins

COMMENTARY, Dec 1 — Outgoing MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu is expected to take a leaf out of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s playbook by anointing his own…

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COMMENTARY, Dec 1 — Outgoing MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu is expected to take a leaf out of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s playbook by anointing his own successor in order to maintain control after he retires.

The MIC veteran, who is handing over the reins of the party to deputy president Datuk G. Palanivel on Monday, appears to have not taken heed of Dr Mahathir’s follies in holding on after officially leaving.

Instead of allowing the MIC delegates decide, in a free and fair election, his successor as MIC president, Samy Vellu is orchestrating the progression and leaving “back doors” open for him to exert his influence on MIC decisions after he “retires.”

After his retirement, Dr Mahathir had tried to run the show from behind a politically weak Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, but the latter’s ambitious son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin, then only 29, put paid to that attempt.

In seeking to re-exert control, Dr Mahathir hobbled the Abdullah administration with massive recriminations, leading to rebellion in Umno’s ranks and Barisan Nasional/Umno nearly losing power to the opposition Pakatan Rakyat in the 2008 backlash.

Dr Mahathir, Umno watchers now feel, should have handed the party to the man most capable of running the party and government — Datuk Seri Najib Razak — instead of promoting Abdullah in order to pull the strings from the shadows.

Now, Samy Vellu is attempting to do the same by pitting one MIC faction against another in a divide-and-rule gambit designed to extend his hold despite officially surrendering the presidency.

What the MIC needs is a strong, decisive and imaginative leader to win back the support of the working class among the Indian community — and the only way for such a leader to emerge is through a hard, election battle.

Instead, Samy Vellu is stretching the party constitution and railroading the central working committee (CWC) — which he controls — into “appointing” Palanivel as president and his rival, Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, as deputy president.

Palanivel is the elected deputy president while Dr Subramaniam is one of three elected vice-presidents.

At present, MIC’s constitution is silent on the “provisions” by which the two appointments will be made.

The party constitution allows for an “acting president option” but makes no allowances for either the president or deputy president to be appointed rather than elected.

The solution may be found in history. In 1979, Samy Vellu was deputy president when then-president Tan Sri V. Manicavasagam passed away.

Samy Vellu then became acting president until 1981, when the delegates elected him as president and Datuk S. Subramaniam as his deputy, both unopposed, in a peace deal that lasted nearly a decade.

It is unclear why this formula is not being adhered to.

Samy Vellu’s expected appointment as a special envoy to South Asia is also expected to further complicate matters for the party, as it will be seen as providing him a platform from which to “meddle” with the party and the Indian community.

There is no doubt that both Palanivel and Dr Subramaniam, the human resources minister, are political rivals and want to succeed Samy Vellu.

By appointing both as president and deputy president, not only is Samy Vellu bending the party’s rules but also postponing the inevitable clash between them.

The appointments as president and deputy president might be a show of unity for the upcoming general election, but Indian voters may no longer be so easily convinced, especially after the 2008 awakening.

A better way is to let democracy work. A free and fair election to decide the issue — as took place in MCA — would be more acceptable to the Indian community. It would strengthen the MIC and win legitimacy with Malaysians.

Another way is to help the two top leaders mend their fences and share the party presidency between them with the endorsement of the delegates.

By appointing Palanivel president and trying to appease Dr Subramaniam that he will be the “future president”, Samy Vellu is also shutting the door on his long time rival Datuk S. Subramaniam, who is once more become politically-active, now that Samy Vellu is leaving.

Subramaniam’s strategy is to align with Palanivel against Dr Subramaniam, in the hopes to riding back into a MIC without Samy Vellu.

In or out of MIC, Samy Vellu has the capacity to influence its course, although he has promised not to interfere in the party’s affairs.

Although he relinquishes control of MIC on Monday, this is not the last of Samy Vellu.

DAP wants Johor principal slapped with criminal charges

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 – DAP raised the Johor racist school principal incident again today and demanded that the government slap criminal charges on the educator for citing “racial unrest”…

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KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 – DAP raised the Johor racist school principal incident again today and demanded that the government slap criminal charges on the educator for citing “racial unrest” with her statements against the Indian and Chinese communities in August.

Several DAP elected representatives, led by party adviser Lim Kit Siang (picture), sent a memorandum addressed to Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in Parliament today, calling on the government to stop dithering on the issue and to take immediate action against the school principal.

“We strongly urge that strict disciplinary action including dismissal should be taken against her (the school principal).

“We also urge that she be charged under Section 504 of the Penal Code for instigating racial unrest.

“If YAB (Muhyiddin) is serious about the concept of 1 Malaysia, please do the right thing,” they said in the memorandum.

The leaders also submitted a petition containing 2,250 signatures collected from parents and members of the public, mostly from the Chinese community in Johor, to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz in Parliament.

In a statement written by Senai assemblyman Ong Kow Meng, who was also present in Parliament today, it was declared that the school principal in the case, Siti Inshah Mansor, was no longer “fit” and should not continue to remain in the teaching profession.

“She does not have the aptitude to be a headmistress; she does not understand the cultures of the various communities; she does not have common sense to discern what is right and wrong; she does not respect the rights of citizens of this country.

“Her attempt to sow the seeds of hatred in the hearts and minds of the young and innocent school children must be strongly condemned by the government,” he said.

Ong also repeated the derogatory statements allegedly made by Siti Inshah during a Merdeka celebration at SMK Tunku Abdul Rahman in Kulai, Johor, during the incident on August 12 this year.

“Among other things, the following was quoted by the said headmistress during the school assembly – ‘Chinese students are not needed here and they can return to Foon Yew school or China’, ‘the Indian students whose prayer strings tied around their neck and wrist make them look like dogs because only dogs are tied like that’, ‘the government has targeted 30 per cent wealth for Bumiputera and 70 per cent for non-Bumiputeras under the National Economic Policy. If I were to helm the government I will instead allocate 70 per cent wealth for Bumiputera and only 30 per cent for non-Bumiputera’ and ‘if I own a Proton Saga car and if I give a ride to Munusamy (Indian) and Chong (Chinese), they remain a passengers only. They cannot claim right to the car. Likewise the non-Malay students are merely passengers in the country’,” said Ong.

He added that Siti Inshah’s “warped and distorted” views raised questions on the type of values and knowledge she was imparting to her students as an educator.

“Her remarks clearly indicate venomous bigotry and are an utter insult to the entire Chinese and Indian community in the country.

“It is very difficult for us to reconcile how a principal of a secondary school could be so insensitive as to utter derogatory words to denigrate students under her care,” he said.

Siti Inshah, he added, had clearly violated the spirit of 1 Malaysia.

The August 12 incident had sparked off an uproar in public and the Najib Administration came under fire when it failed to take speedy action against the school principal.

To make things worse, another school principal in Kedah was later accused of making similarly derogatory statements against the non-Malay community. In the incident, the educator was accused of censuring the non-Malay students for eating during Ramadan month in the school canteen.

Shortly after the two incidents, another case involving a civil servant hit the headlines in September.

BTN assistant director Hamim Husain had allegedly uttered racial slurs during a closed-door Puteri Umno function when he referred to the Chinese and Indian communities as “Si Mata Sepet” and “Si Botol”.

Since then, the Kedah principal has been punished with a heavy warning and a transfer while Hamim was suspended from his duties since October 6.

Earlier this month, yet another educator uttered racial slurs agains the non-Malay communities while invigilating for the SPM examinations at a school in Lukut, Negeri Sembilan.

The teacher had allegedly told the Chinese students to return to China and the Indian students to India if they failed to understand her instructions in Bahasa Malaysia.

She has since been relieved of her invigilating duties.

Parliament yesterday rejected a motion by DAP MP Er Teck Hwa to debate on the iss