Haris Ibrahim challenges KJ to debate 'Malay special rights'

Rakyat Times

Activist and former lawyer Haris Ibrahim has challenged Umno Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin to a debate on the special position of the Malays under the Constitution.

In his blog, The People's Parliament, Haris contended that "the idea of 'ketuanan Melayu' violently conflicts with the final sermon of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) at Arafat".

He added, "There is, in my view, therefore, no room in Islam for any race supremacist notions. Second, that there is nothing in the Federal Constitution that supports this perennial claim by Perkasa, Isma and the likes to there being special rights thereunder for the Malays.

"Special position, under Article 153, yes, but not special rights," he stressed.

Haris also said that he was surprised when he read that the Oxford-trained Youth, Sports and Culture Minister had reportedly said that in the run-up to, and as part of the agreement that led to independence, the Malays had agreed to citizenship being conferred on non-Malays and that in return, the non-Malays "were prepared to accept the special position of the Malays, the Malay language as the national language and the sovereignty of Malay rulers".

Let's debate it

Haris then threw down the gauntlet to Khairy to debate on whether it was the 'special rights or special position' of the Malays that was at the heart of the problem.

"If we both agree that it is only the latter, we all have tea and go home," he said.

 "But if, however, we differ, then we get it on... in the most cordial, friendly and civil fashion.

"KJ, you game? Your choice of moderator, KJ. Even your new found friend, Dr M, if you wish," Haris said.

The Rakyat Times Editorial team hereby offers the potential debaters its humble premises to host the debate.

We will even throw in tea, curry puffs and some kuih for this occasion.

Gameplan – Get rid of Khalid

A week back, Sivaji ( not his real name ) contacted me.

It had been quite a while since we last spoke, and I knew that he had been quite involved in PKR.

He asked if we could meet.

I told him that I was quite pressed for time given my Negara-Ku and ABU work, and asked if there was anything urgent.

He replied that he was quite exasperated with this whole Khalid fiasco and the goings-on in PKR for some time.

He started to pour out his heart, but I stopped him.

“What do you want me to do with whatever you are going to tell me?”, I asked.

If you believe what I am about to tell you, you can write about it and put it up on your blog.”, he replied.

“I know you well enough to trust you. This is what I will do. You write up whatever you want to tell me in a way that will not require me to do too much editing. After I have read it, if I think people have a right to know what you have written to me, I will publish it on my blog.”, I told Sivaji.

I received Sivaji’s story in the mail today.

It bore the same title as this post, and it appears below, with the minimal of editing.

__________________________________

By Sivaji

Was there a plan to remove Khalid long before the Kajang move?

Going by the revelations going around now it seems so.

But Khalid, it seems, was never in the loop of those plans.

So was he given (rather set up) to get the MBs position knowing he will get the job done and set the stage for the others to take over later?

From what has happened in the PKR elections, it seems that there was a plan to get him.

Sources have indicated that it was the top man in PKR who encouraged Khalid to contest Azmin.

Was this an attempt to show Malaysians that democracy is well and good in PKR?

We will never know.

When it dawned upon the leadership that Khalid was very much popular among the party members, Saifuddin was suddenly pushed into the race.

Most party members know this was an attempt to break Khalid’s votes.

It is very much a well known whisper amongst party members that the top man himself not only got Saifuddin to submit his nomination but phone calls were made to Division Heads to ensure votes were delivered for Saifuddin in the party elections.

Even with that Khalid has put up a good show against Azmin.

Without Saifuddin, Khalid would have won the Deputy President’s post by now.

And the Kajang move would have been buried.

Together with this was the conduct of the PKR election process.

After having much criticized the Election Commission, the PKR election Committee was no better.

There were insufficient election personnel in all the Divisions.

Ballot papers were insufficient in places where voter turnouts were larger than expected.

But more serious was the lack of independent observers, re-lections conducted without any valid reasons, voting locations in re-elections shifted to favour a particular candidate.

In Sungai Siput the incumbent Chairman and Committee were the counting agent. Ballot papers were marked by themselves. I saw this personally, gangsters from a particular camp were downstairs, so I could not do much.

In Pahang, Indian members were not encouraged to take part in the elections.

Why?

Many Indians favour Khalid. Just the funds given to temples and Tamil schools were good enough for the Indians to have Khalid as the party deputy president.

In Sabah, where there was large voter turnout favoring Khalid, the elections were disrupted and called off.

More frightening was what took place in Selangor.

Where Indians won the Ketua Cabang, elections were called off or some reason was given to call for re-election of completed elections.

At one time the results showed that 12 of the 22 Ketua Cabang had been won by Indian members. Where the winning candidate was known to favour Saifuddin or Azmin, there was no re-election.

Kuala Selangor was another issue together. They had to shame Khalid. They did that eventually

In Sepang, the Ketua Cabang was won by an Indian member. Haji Borhan, a close ally of Azmin, lost. Re-elections were called and the voting centre shifted to a place far from the first centre. The Indian candidate lost and Haji Borhan won the re-election.

In Puchong, in the first round, Khalid got the highest votes (861 against 22 for Azmin and 20 for Saifuddin). Re-elections have been called this Sunday.

What will happen?

We will never be able to tell. There will be no voting agents seated in the hall to object, only observors. This is the SOP for re-elections in PKR.

In Kuala Selangor, the elections were held again on June 22nd and the ballot boxes taken to Party headquarters. The counting took place on the 26th at 9pm.

The SOP for counting is either the votes for Ketua Cabang or the Timbalan President would be counted first or second vice versa.

The counting here started for Timbalan President and Khalid got 517 votes as against 440 for Azmin. Trends showed that if you win the Timbalan President votes, the Ketua Cabang aligned to the Timbalan President candidate will also win. Within 5 minutes there was a blackout. Later investigations showed there was a blackout indeed, but I still have my doubts from what I heard from the TNB.

The lights came on. The counting agents were told that the Ketua Cabang votes will be counted later. Protests were made but no effect. The votes for Pusat Wanita were counted. Meanwhile the vote trays for Ketua Cabang was hidden from view. One slight move by persons blocking the view showed a counting clerk holding a pencil. No action taken.

Votes were counted for Ketua Cabang and Khalid lost to Mike. 515 against 701.

There 370 empty ballot papers for Timbalan President post but there was only 120 empty ballot papers for Ketua Cabang. Those who did not know to vote for the Timbalan President suddenly knew how to vote for the Ketua Cabang.

Complaints were submitted but no action taken on this.

The complaints have since gone to the ROS

Is there an attempt to get Khalid out this way?

All this failing, the present move by the PKR leadership is very much questionable as to the real reasons.

Is there an attempt to keep Azmin safe so that when all settles down he would become the MB replacing Wan Azizah?

Azmin is very quiet.

Was this the game plan all along to go for the State coffers eventually?

Activist Haris Ibrahim to apply again for Australian visa after being rejected due to sedition case

Lawyer and activist Haris Ibrahim (pic), who was barred from entering Australia last week due to his
impending sedition trial here, will soon submit a new application for a visa.

“I met the authorities from the high commission on Friday afternoon and I will be making a fresh application for a visa soon,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Haris, who had returned from overseas last week, said he did not want to go into details of why his visa application had been rejected, except that the reason was stated in a notice along with the rejected application.

Last week, Haris said in a blog posting that he had sent an email to the high commission requesting a meeting to lay to rest any concerns the Australian government might have about his visit to the country.

Australia refused to issue an entry visa to Haris last week, scuttling his plans to tour the country and meet academics and supporters.

It is believed the Australia officials considered him a "high risk" because the country does not have an extradition treaty with Malaysia, according to a Global Bersih source in Melbourne.

The Sydney Morning Herald had reported that Murray Hunter, an academic at the University of Malaysia Perlis, had said the decision to ban Haris showed that the Australian government did not want to rock the boat with Kuala Lumpur.

Haris, PKR vice-president Tian Chua, former Umno member Tamrin Ghafar and activist Safwan Anag were charged with sedition for allegedly uttering words that have the tendency to call on Malaysians to change the government by unlawful means during a May 13 forum at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

All four pleaded not guilty. Haris’s trial is scheduled to take place early next year. – September 29, 2013.

Anwar, can we hear from you on this, please?

By Haris Ibrahim,

Last week, in RPK’s ‘The man behind PKR ( Part 2 )‘, a most startling revelation was made.
“September the 16th of 2008 was supposed to be the day that Pakatan Rakyat takes over the federal government. But to do that Anwar has to first persuade at least 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament to cross over.
Getting 30 Barisan National Members of Parliament to cross over was not that much of a problem. All it needs is money, RM300 million to be exact — to pay each Member of Parliament RM10 million as an ‘inducement’ to cross over. The problem would be: after paying them the RM300 million, which would have to be in advance, of course, how can they be assured that Umno would not up the figure by RM15 million and buy them back?
The bottom line would be: Pakatan Rakyat pays them RM10 million each and Umno also pays them RM15 million. They would receive in total RM25 million each and remain in Barisan Nasional. If they can be bought, then others can also buy them for a higher price. And they will take the higher price without returning the RM10 million you gave them.
John Soh’s bone of contention was that he would be the one who has to pay the RM300 million. If it works, well and fine. But what if it fails, as it did in Perak, and Umno counter-offers these 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament a higher figure? The RM300 million would be money down the drain.
John Soh did not agree to fund the RM300 million take-over-exercise unless Anwar could ensure success. But how could Anwar guarantee success? These were 30 ‘for sale’ Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament they were talking about. If they can sell themselves to one side then they can sell themselves to the other side as well.
John Soh refused to fork out the RM300 million and that ended the September 16th dream to march into Putrajaya. And that also meant Anwar would have to face trial for Sodomy 2. The only way to escape Sodomy 2 would be for Anwar to become the Prime Minister, which was not going to happen now.
For weeks Anwar refused to talk to John Soh. He put the failure of September the 16th squarely on John Soh’s shoulders. When they finally met, Anwar and John Soh had a heated exchange of words. When Anwar said that John Soh was to be blamed for the September 16th failure, John Soh retorted, “If you are so confident it was going to work then why not fund it yourself? Bring back some of the billions you have stashed overseas and pay the RM300 million from your own pocket!”
What troubles me the most is that, to-date, Anwar has not issued a statement to refute this most damaging of allegations.
You may or may not remember but soon after the 12th GE, PKR starting talking about the possibility of BN MPs crossing
On 19th March, 2008, Malaysiakini reported that Anwar had announced that he would form the federal government, aided by defectors from BN, mostly from Sabah and Sarawak.
Two days later, on 21st March, Malaysiakini reported that Anwar insisted that defectors from BN would not be ‘bought’.
Honestly, at the time, I took great comfort in this report.
It meant that I could turn my attention to another concern I had in respect of this much-talked-of crossover of elected representatives : a fraud on the voters.
On 23rd March, I wrote to Anwar seeking the comfort of a statement from him that no BN MPs would be accepted without such MP first getting the consent to crossover from those who voted him into office. That letter may be read in full HERE.
I can confirm now that n0 such statement was ever made by Anwar.
The next day, on 24th March, Malaysiakini reported PKR youth chief Shamsul Iskandar as saying PKR was not offering money to buy over the BN MPs.
“They have come and met (PKR de facto leader) Anwar Ibrahim because they have lost faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. They are not crossing over for monetary gains…If they want to come over, we will accept them but we are against buying them over”, Shamsul is reported to have said.
A month later, Azmin is reported by Malaysiakini to have said that there was no monetary element in the talks with the MPs intent on crossing over from BN to Pakatan.
Fast forward now to 12th September, 2008, when RPK, Teresa Kok and journalist Tan Hoon Cheng were detained under the ISA.
For many of us then, a change of government might be the only hope of an early release.
With this in mind, I and several others accompanied Marina, RPK’s wife, to see Anwar.
He assured us that he had the numbers.
I asked if money was involved.
“Mana ada duit macam tu, Ris”, was the reply.
September 16th came and went.
No change of government.
RPK says in his post that September 16th was never going to  happen because John Soh had already decided that he was not going to bankroll this mass crossover. This is how RPK put it :
“For weeks Anwar refused to talk to John Soh. He put the failure of September the 16th squarely on John Soh’s shoulders. When they finally met, Anwar and John Soh had a heated exchange of words. When Anwar said that John Soh was to be blamed for the September 16th failure…”
Yet, the Star reported on 22nd September that Wan Azizah said that more BN MPs were keen to crossover to Pakatan.
The same report quotes the current PKR Sec-gen, Saifudin Nasution, as saying that Pakatan had started its “countdown” for the takeover and things were moving according to plan.
“Our timeline is by the hour. Putrajaya is within reach”, Saifudin is reported as saying.
Is RPK’s post a pack of lies?
Only John Soh or Anwar can tell us.
Unlike John, though, Anwar does not have the luxury of elegant silence in this matter.
He must speak up, and speak up now, or live with the inferences that will otherwise flow.

If the communalist coat fits…

By Haris Ibrahim,

Since Waythmoorthy went into exile, there have been several occasions that we have communicated by phone.

I have alluded to some of those conversations, and some of the matters discussed, in several posts in this blog.

On every occasion that I have disclosed matters discussed between Moorthy and I on this blog or anywhere else, for that matter, I have first sought and obtained his agreement to such disclosure as many believe, myself included, that to do otherwise would, firstly, be in bad taste and, more importantly, discourage total candour during private discussions such as those that have passed between Moorthy and I.

Last Saturday, I spoke at the BUM2010 forum at Subang Jaya on the panel that discussed the ‘Allah’ issue.

That wrapped up by about 1.45pm. You can read about that discussion on Malaysiakini HERE.

I dashed off for another talk at a church, after first checking to see what time Uthayakumar was speaking at the BUM2010 event as I planned to come back to Subang Jaya in the hope of having a private word with Uthayakumar.

The church talk ended after 5pm.

Got back to the BUM2010 venue around 5.45pm and, yes, Uthaya was there.

I approached Uthaya and we talked for a little under 10 minutes. We stopped as the next panel discussion, ’Bloggers Role in Bridging the Religious Divide’, where Uthaya would be speaking, was about to start.

Uthaya was the third and final speaker on that panel.

On at least two occasions, Uthaya alluded to our discussion. On one of those occasions, he alluded to my having said in the course of that discussion that he and his party were still pursuing a communalist course.

I will confirm now that at no time during our discussion did I consent to such a disclosure.

During the Q&A part of that discussion, after several others had spoken from the floor, I spoke to lend my support to the views proffered by blogger A Voice ( Salahuddin Hisham ) and to say that many bloggers are reluctant to carry news posted on the HRP website given the communalist slant of their reports.

The Malaysiakini report on that panel discussion can be read HERE.

At the time of writing up this post, the second Malaysiakini report alluded to above had received 66 comments.

I reproduce one of those comments below. I have highlighted the part which I want to emphasise in red.

Anticommunalist : Dear Jiminy Qrikert, I strongly believe Uthaya, Haris and most PR leaders are on the same side but everyone’s ego is only working towards UMNO’s favour. Why can’t all of them sit down and talk amicably. It will never happen. Nobody will give in hence UMNO wins. You can’t just give a blanket statement that PR has done good and Uthaya has done bad and vice-verse. Also unruly comments such as yours don’t help either.

Given that Uthaya did not see it as being unseemly for him to disclose what I had said in the course of our discussion, I trust he will not begrudge me the right to do the same.

Anticommunalist, it will please you to know that I had asked Uthaya to meet me so that we could have a healthy ‘no holds barred’ discussion to explore how HRP and the many civil society initiatives can come together and work for the betterment of the marginalised Malaysians.

Anticommunalist does not think that discussion will happen.

I’ve asked for that discussion.

The ball is now in Uthaya’s court.

Uthaya, it seemed to me, took exception to my having referred to HRP’s politics as being communalist.

So, too, has Anticommunalist in another comment of his/hers to the second Malaysiakini report alluded to above.

Have I been unfair in categorising HRP’s politics as being communalist in nature?

Dictionary.com explains ‘communalism’ to mean, amongst others, a “strong allegiance to one’s own ethnic group rather than to society as a whole” . A ‘communalist’ is explained to mean “one who is more interested in one’s own minority or ethnic group than in society as a whole” .

UMNO was established to look out for the interests of the Malay community. No pretence is made about this. Is not UMNO a communalist party?

Are not MCA and MIC, respectively set up to supposedly look after the interests of the Chinese and Indian communities, just as communalist as UMNO?

What of Hindraf and the Human Rights Party?

On 6th February, this year, Malaysiakini reported that Waythamoorthy had taken strong exception to Hindraf being categorised as racist and asserted that if any party was racist, it was UMNO.

“A racist is one who denies other people their place in the sun and their legitimate rights under the Federal Constitution. That’s Umno. That’s the truth whether some people like it or not. A person fighting for his place in the sun and his rights under the Federal Constitution – read Hindraf – cannot by any stretch of the imagination be labeled racist. That would be defamation.” , Moorthy is reported to have said.

Malaysiakini also reported that Moorthy candidly admitted that he only raised issues touching on Malaysians of Indian origin and saw nothing wrong with that.

“I am an Indian. I know only Indian issues and no one is taking up their cause…I know that other Malaysians are also being systematically marginalised as well by the system. It’s not my business to speak up for them.” , Moorthy is reported to have said.

Is this not a communalist stance?

In fairness to Moorthy, I must disclose that the last two paragraphs of that Malaysiakini report attributes to him the following words which might be construed as contradicting his statement just quoted above.

“We have been reaching out to other Malaysians in our own way although we are very busy pushing our own case worldwide. If I am a racist, surely I won’t lift even a finger to help others fight for their place in the sun.” .

On 19th July, last year, Uthaya formally announced the formation of and application to register HRP as a multiracial party.

Malaysiakini reported Uthaya speaking about his move to register HRP.

“Our main thrust is to be the focus group in putting the Indians in Malaysia back on the mainstream development of Malaysia after 52 years of having been left out,” , Malaysiakini reports Uthaya as saying.

The report went on to say that whilst ’the party’s struggle focuses on the upliftment of the Indian community, Uthayakumar however stressed that it would not shut its doors to the plight of other communities’.

This is a multi-racial party?

I think the ‘About Us’ section of the HRP website adequately answers the question.

In his comment quoted above, Anticommunalist opines that “Nobody will give in hence UMNO wins” .

In a post in this blog on 28th November, 2007, 3 days after the historic Hindraf rally, I wrote :

“Hindraf champions the cause of the downtrodden Indians.

My friends and I in the ‘One People, One Nation’ initiative desire the emancipation of all peoples of our nation, without discrimination, without exclusion, without exception.

It follows that the ‘One People, One Nation’ initiative encompasses and includes the legitimate interests of those whom Hindraf presently stand for.

I believe that the Hindraf leadership, too, wishes the best for all Malaysians…

…in substance, both Hindraf and the ‘One People, One Nation’ initiative desire the same thing.

We are, therefore, not opponents.

BN and its ‘divide and rule’ blueprint is our common enemy…

…The danger that we face now is that, if we pursue our respective strategies and methods independent of each other rather than working together on a common strategy, neither will get anywhere and the current status quo will remain.

In all humility, I say that if Hindraf is to take the cause that it now champions to its desired end, it must now change course.

I ask the Hindraf leadership to reflect upon this with an open heart.

My friends and I would welcome with open arms the Hindraf leadership to come together as one and secure justice and equality for all” .

I wish to have placed on record that since that posting, I have made efforts too numerous to recall to persuade the leadership of Hindraf to join the many civil society efforts to fight for “all peoples of our nation, without discrimination, without exclusion, without exception”.

I shall continue to try.

New Sabah PKR captain ahoy - Harris Ibrahim

Lil Hummingbird caught up with me in the carpark of the Jalan Duta Court Complex late this morning.

“You hear about the PKR politburo meeting last night?”, he asked.

“No”, I replied.

“Bunch of wankers! Wasted three hours of their miserable lives trying to conduct a post-mortem of the Bagan Pinang by-election disaster when they can’t even see the problems they are creating for themselves right under their very noses.

If you ask me, the only good that came out of that meeting last night was the decision to replace Azmin as head of PKR in Sabah”, he disclosed.

“When is this supposed to take place?”, I asked.

“Well, they allowed Azmin to rave and rant about the need to put in their proper place the 16 division heads from Sabah who had the audacity to communicate to PKR HQ their total lack of confidence in him, and then directed Azmin to get a consensus of all division heads on a new state chief. They’ve set the 25th of this month to announce the new man”, he replied.

“Okay. Anything else?”, I asked.

“Ya. You got access to Zaid?”, he asked.

“Can be arranged”, I offered.

“Pass this message to Zaid. The daggers are drawn. Watch his back. Make sure he gets the message and takes it seriously”, he shot back as he roared off on his two-wheeler.