Sibu - another referendum

thenutgraph.com

DATUK Seri Najib Razak called the Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election a referendum on his premiership. The justification was rather obvious as it was formerly a Barisan Nasional (BN) stronghold with an ethnic composition mirroring Peninsula Malaysia's. The campaign was largely fought by Umno, even though the BN's candidate was from MIC.
Sibu has also been a BN stronghold where the late Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew won with a comfortable margin of 3,235 votes or 9% of the total valid votes in 2008. And in the center of the ongoing campaign is not the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew, but Najib.
From a larger perspective, the Sibu by-election is actually an unpronounced referendum, not so much on Najib's premiership but more subtly on Umno's entry into Sarawak.
Sarawak is almost a different country compared to West Malaysia. Ethno-religious relations are much more harmonious and multiculturalism is truly celebrated.

The "Allah" issue does not seriously bother many SarawakiansYou have halal food sold at one end of Sibu's pasar malam and roasted pork at the other end, with canned beers sold in between. The only other place I know personally where pork is not an issue for Muslims is Tumpat, Kelantan where pigs reared by Thai Malaysians roam freely in Malay Malaysian kampungs.
That's why many Sarawakians are not seriously bothered by the "Allah" row. For them, this is pure monkey's business staged by West Malaysian politicians. Yes, many East Malaysians do look down on West Malaysians when it comes to social relations and civility.
Even Najib admits that Sarawak is the embodiment of his 1Malaysia campaign. To digress, doesn't that mean we have 2Malaysias — one where 1Malaysia is already actualised while in the other, 1Malaysia remains but a goal?
Taib as Sarawak's defender
What makes Sarawak different from the rest of Malaysia? One simple explanation is the absence of Umno.
In fact, many Sarawakians have a love-hate relationship with Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) president, Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, because of Umno.
They probably hate him for the corruption, cronyism and nepotism that have left the state's vast natural wealth in the hands of the few while the majority are trapped in poverty. But they also believe that had it not been for Taib and PBB, Umno would have entered Sarawak and eroded if not destroyed the pleasant and easy-going Sarawakian lifestyle.
For the state's business class, Taib also protects state resources from their West Malaysian competitors.
In a sense, Taib is the protector of Sarawak's socio-economic interests from Umno and other West Malaysians for different groups of Sarawakians. His hegemony is built on more than just patronage, repressive state power and media control.
Taib as Umno's representative

James Brooke, first White Rajah of Sarawak
(public domain | Wiki Commons)Taib's success is that Umno is happy with an indirect rule of Sarawak through him, a bit like former British control via Sarawak's White Rajahs.
From the birth of Malaysia, Umno leaders have distrusted East Malaysia's Christian natives who — not coincidentally — tended to defend the rights of their states more staunchly compared to their Muslim cousins.
Just look at Sarawak's Tan Sri Stephen Kalong Ningkan, who was removed unceremoniously as chief minister in a Perak-coup style defection ending in federal-imposed emergency rule. Sabah's Donald Stephens was sidelined in favour of Tun Mustapha Harun and was reinstated only after Mustapha fell out of favour with Kuala Lumpur and Stephens converted to Islam and became Tun Fuad Stephens.
Umno's handpicked Muslim rulers in Sabah and Sarawak and their governance models, however, turned out to be very different in both states.
In Sabah, Mustapha and his successor Datuk Harris Salleh embarked on aggressive Islamisation to increase the number of Muslims vis-à-vis other ethnic groups.
This eventually resulted in Christian Kadazandusun revolts, which eventually gave birth to Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS). PBS and some NGOs later accused the federal government of engineering mass influxes and naturalisation of Indonesian and Filipino Muslims since Mustapha's time to dilute the non-Muslim population and strengthen Kuala Lumpur-preferred Muslim control.
After a few years of marginalisation in the BN, PBS eventually left the ruling coalition in the 1990 elections just after the nomination day. The defection led to Umno's eventual entry into Sabah to take on PBS directly.
Mustapha's United Sabah National Organisation was absorbed and transformed into Sabah Umno with Mustapha as state chief, hence ending Umno's option of indirect rule by Sabah Muslim natives.
In Sarawak, Umno's indirect rule has been entrusted to Melanau Muslim Sarawakians since 1970. Chief Minister Tun Abdul Rahman Ya'kub was succeeded by his nephew Taib in 1981.
Yet, neither Rahman nor Taib embarked on Islamisation to strengthen their control. Sarawak remains the only Malaysian state without a state religion.

Nested controls within Sarawak BNThe Melanau Sarawakian dominance is established more subtly through nested controls. First, Melanau Sarawakian elites dominate Malay Sarawakians within the larger umbrella of "Muslim natives". Secondly, Muslim natives dominate their Dayak junior partners within PBB. Thirdly, PBB dominates SUPP and two Dayak-based parties, Parti Rakyat Sarawak and the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party within Sarawak BN. In turn, Sarawak BN dominates the entire state.
Exactly because of the Melanau Sarawakian elites' subtleness and sophistication, Sarawak has not experienced political turmoil and regime change as Sabah did. Dayak and Malay Sarawakians have tried to alter Sarawak's political balance but have failed thus far.
The successful dominance gives Taib tremendous bargaining power vis-à-vis Umno, which in turn allows him to secure autonomy for Sarawak which legitimises his rule.
Post-Taib arrangement
But Taib's game will not last forever. Ruling Sarawak for 29 years, he will have to go one day.
There is no guarantee that his successor can maintain the nested control like he has. While Dayak Sarawakians are fragmented, Malay Sarawakians may rise to challenge Melanau Sarawakians in the succession war. Urban Chinese Sarawakians are also increasingly alienated by corruption and abuse of power.

Taib MahmudThe post-Taib uncertainty is too much a risk for Umno to bear. More than ever, BN's survival at the federal level now needs Sarawak's 31 parliamentary seats (with BN currently controlling 30) as the coalition's "fixed deposits". So, the Muslim indirect rule model must end in Sarawak as it did in Sabah.
Also, Umno politicians have immense incentives to directly control Sarawak. Ideologically, it's the "last frontier" for the Malay nationalist party. It would be an achievement of "1Malaysia under Umno". Organisationally, whoever controls the future Sarawak Umno will have 14% of the enlarged Umno divisions in hand.
The challenge is: Umno has long been subtly portrayed by Sarawak BN as a remote threat to the state. Sarawakians have thus far been convinced that they can and should vote for BN because, ironically, that's the way to keep Umno off Sarawak's shores.
So, how could one prepare Sarawakians for Umno's direct rule there, as in Sabah?
One way might be to capitalise on the popularity of Najib the premier so that voters may accept Najib first and Umno later.
What would be a better place to test the waters than in Sibu, an urban seat with two-thirds Chinese Malaysian voters? The thing is, one out of four or one of out five Chinese Malaysians in West Malaysia have been rejecting Umno in most of the post-March 2008 by-elections, notwithstanding Najib's goodwill gestures. But all Najib needs to claim victory in Sibu is perhaps 35% to 40% of Chinese Malaysian support.
And if this is coupled by big victories in the native precincts, Najib can claim to be the BN's vote-puller in Sarawak. The dissidents in PBB and other Sarawak BN parties can then start calling for a merger of Umno and PBB for more effective representation of Sarawakian interests in Kuala Lumpur.
Would that not make Umno's entry into Sarawak — the unannounced referendum question — perfectly natural?

Sarawak : Poverty Midst of Plenty

By Tunku Abdul Aziz

Although I have in my travels seen abject poverty in such diverse places as Addis Ababa, Dhaka, Dar es Salaam, Kolkata, Mumbai and Manila, I must confess to a feeling of utter revulsion and anger when confronted by stark deprivation in our supposedly well-governed and prosperous Malaysia.

The pockets of rural poverty in the Malay heartlands of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu are islands of prosperity compared to the scene that churned my stomach and assailed my sense of guilt and outrage when I first ventured into the Iban long houses on the majestic Rejang.

It is not enough that we have robbed them of their ancestral lands and impoverished them in the process, but we also felt constrained to strip them naked of any residual personal dignity that they might still have by introducing policies that have succeeded in reducing them to the fringes of mainstream economic life. The Orang Asli tribes and the Orang Hulu, the Malays from the interior, have a great deal in common with their Dayak friends. For all we care, they are Malaysia’s forgotten people, but not quite. Whenever an election is underway, be it a by-election or a general election, they find themselves the centre of attention, in great demand by the rich and powerful, all claiming to love and care for them.

Before the day is out, they are the proud possessors of a handful of crisp 50 ringgit notes. Four or five hundred ringgit is a princely sum to them, a king’s ransom, no less, in exchange for their votes. If some of them have become cunning, manipulative supplicants and sacrificed their values for a fistful of ringgit, remember it is we who have corrupted them.

Years of exposure to extreme poverty and unbridled exploitation have rendered many of these once proud and noble people, nature’s gentlemen, inured and insensitive to their own traditional values and value systems. They are reduced to living from hand to mouth, on handouts, from day to day. What a tragedy to befall a people whose only sin is to trust those sworn to protect their native rights. They are bewildered to find themselves dispossessed, as their land is taken away without as much as “by your leave” for commercial exploitation by the towkay friends of the powerful.

Talking to many of them, the Ibans, I mean, I believe the only way we can restore their pride and dignity is by providing opportunities for regular employment. We are dealing with an ancient people with a distinctive culture. Even those among them whose lives have taken on an urban aspect continue to cling strenuously to their traditional practices. We who are strong have a duty to help the weak by not foisting on the Ibans and others our culture of corruption and other despicable practices.

Some years ago, an Indonesian anti-corruption activist friend of mine visited our country during the 11th general elections, as part of a privately funded election observer mission. His group spent a great deal of time in Sarawak and Sabah and told me that he was shocked by the scale of vote buying. I was greatly embarrassed by his revelation because at an anti-corruption conference in The Hague at which I was invited to speak and he was a participant some two months earlier, I had said that while vote buying was rampant in party elections, the practice was unknown in general and state elections. I was unbelievably naïve to believe the Barisan Nasional government propaganda. The scale of vote-buying must have been so massive as to shock my Indonesian anti-corruption fighter, used as he was to living and working in a corruption-infested nation. It is not that easy to shock an Indonesian over a corruption issue. But unlike Malaysia, Indonesia is on the mend as far as fighting corruption is concerned. In Malaysia, on the contrary, it is in indecently robust health.

Malaysia is blessed with rich natural resources and poverty as we have seen in Sabah, Sarawak, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu can only be explained in terms of governance grounded on corruption and political excesses. When we look at the personal wealth accumulated by Chief Minister Taib of Sarawak at one extremity and the Ibans at the other, one begins to wonder what the future holds for Malaysia. I am not at all sanguine.

The thieving and plundering by those in power must stop because, as history tells us, it is only a matter of time before the forbearance of the long suffering poor takes on an ugly aspect, with consequences too dreadful to contemplate. The Government of Malaysia and the state governments of Sabah and Sarawak in particular can alleviate poverty by governing in the sole interest of the people. Najib’s people first is under close public scrutiny.

Mahkamah Syariah setaraf Mahkamah Sivil

Utusan Malaysia 

PUTRAJAYA 14 Mei - Mahkamah Syariah akan terus dinaik taraf bagi memartabatkan undang-undang Islam dalam negara agar setaraf dengan mahkamah sivil.

Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom berkata, antara langkah yang akan dipakai untuk memartabatkan institusi tersebut adalah dengan mengesyorkan penubuhan Majlis Rayuan Syariah, Mahkamah Tengah Syariah dan menaik taraf kedudukan Mahkamah Tinggi Syariah.

Selain itu, katanya, cadangan menubuhkan Perwujudan Perjawatan Berpusat, Mahkamah Rayuan Syariah Negeri serta menaik taraf hakim-hakim mahkamah syariah adalah antara pendekatan terbaru untuk memartabatkan institusi tersebut.

"Cadangan-cadangan dalam kertas kerja ini adalah sesuai dengan keperluan keadaan sekarang yang begitu mendesak kerana ada kes-kes yang memerlukan rayuan terhadap mahkamah yang lebih tinggi.

"Cadangan penubuhan juga amat wajar dan bertepatan dengan situasi sekarang, buat masa ini kita hanya ada tiga tingkat mahkamah syariah kita iaitu Mahkamah Rendah Syariah, Mahkamah Tinggi Syariah, Mahkamah Rayuan Syariah," katanya.

Beliau berkata demikian pada sidang akhbar selepas merasmikan Persidangan Penyelarasan Undang-undang Syarak dan Sivil Ke-20 di Pusat Konvensyen Antarabangsa Putrajaya (PICC) di sini hari ini.

Hadir sama Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (Jakim), Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz dan Peguam Negara, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.

Objektif utama persidangan adalah untuk membincang, membahas dan mendapatkan pandangan mengenai undang-undang atau kaedah-kaedah yang berkaitan dengan hal ehwal Islam serta isu-isu penting yang berbangkit.

Jamil Khir berkata, bersempena dengan persidangan tersebut, Peguam Negara dijemput untuk memberi penerangan mengenai konsep menaik taraf Mahkamah Syariah.

Beliau berkata, konsep baru Mahkamah Syariah yang dicadangkan itu akan dipersembahkan kepada Majlis Raja-Raja untuk diberi kelulusan.

"Sekiranya Majlis Raja-Raja memperkenankan cadangan itu, Mahkamah Syariah akan memasuki suatu lembaran baru dalam sejarah penubuhannya di mana tarafnya hampir sama dengan mahkamah sivil," katanya.

Beliau memberitahu peningkatan martabat Mahkamah Syariah memang diperlukan seiring dengan perkembangan industri perbankan Islam dalam konteks ekonomi dan halal yang kini sedang berkembang.

Mengenai isu halal, beliau berkata, pindaan terhadap Akta Perihal Dagangan (APD) 1972 melalui kerjasama dengan Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri, Koperasi dan Kepenggunaan (KPDNKK) akan dibuat untuk mencari jalan penyelesaian terhadap isu yang cukup sensitif itu.

"Pindaan tersebut akan dibentangkan pada sesi Persidangan Parlimen pada Jun depan.

"Apabila diluluskan nanti, segala permasalahan yang timbul berkaitan dengan soal halal seperti masalah pengisytiharan sendiri halal oleh pihak yang tidak berkuasa akan dapat diselesaikan," katanya.

After the tsunami

Haris Ibrahim hosts a Komas documentary on Malaysia after the political tsunami of 2008.

Selepas Tsunami (After the Tsunami) from Pusat KOMAS on Vimeo.

IGP makes playground bully threats again, gives cops a bad name

On one hand, credit to the where credit is due regarding the un-OSA-ing of the IGSO.

Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan said he had no problem if the Inspector-General Standing Order (IGSO) on the use of firearms was to be made public.
“Everything can be read, no problem.”

Good and well.
Would have been even better if he hadn’t continued on with his usual little boy antics:

In this regard, he said, the public could no longer blame the police on the use of firearms against those who violated the law.
“When you know how we do our job based on the IGSO, you can expect what will happen if you do not adhere to the law,” he said.

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The first sentence is technically incorrect. Speeding is a violation of the law. Should we expect to get shot then?
The second sentence is even more stupid and inane.
What kind of “Tan Sri” “IGP” is this? Making playground bully threats like this, he might as well use language like:
“If you mf*ckers don’t mf*cking behave, we gonna cap yer mf*cking asses!”
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Chaos, violence grips Thai capital

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- The bitter standoff between government troops and Red Shirt protesters in downtown Bangkok worsened Friday, the day after the wounding of a key protest leader aggravated the already deep tensions permeating the Thai capital.

Hospital officials reported seven people died in confrontations Friday in Bangkok, an urban fortress under siege and beset by gunfire, tear gas and stone-throwing. That followed the death of one person Thursday.

The unrest boiled over after Thai authorities set a new deadline to seal off the Bangkok intersection where protesters have gathered by the thousands for the past month. In addition to the deaths, 101 were hurt Friday and eight were wounded Thursday, emergency officials said.

A government official said Thai forces were slowly getting control of the downtown area, with video footage showing soldiers shooting rounds toward the area with protesters. Among those wounded on Friday was a journalist from a French television station who was shot in the leg.


The government said it was forced to take action after demonstrators disregarded an ultimatum by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to vacate the intersection by Wednesday.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, the acting government spokesman, said on Friday security forces who have been the objects of attacks have no choice but to respond.

He told reporters that forces have been dutifully following the rules of engagement, which allows them to use live ammunition to protect themselves and their comrades. He assured Bangkok residents and foreigners there that the forces have no intention of harming anyone.

The government, he said, is "very confident" it will be able to "stabilize the situation" and get it "under control very soon." Also, he said the prime minister is looking forward to working with others in hammering out reforms.

The United Front for Democracy, the formal name of the Red Shirt opposition, has been demanding that Abhisit dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call new elections. The Red Shirts support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup.

Tensions ramped up when Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol -- a renegade general better known as Seh Daeng, which means Red Commander -- was shot and wounded by a sniper's bullet on Thursday, an action that left him in critical condition.

Seh Daeng was shot in the head while being interviewed by journalists in makeshift barricades set up by protesters. Thomas Fuller of The New York Times told CNN that the opposition leader was looking at him and answering questions when "the bullet hit him in the forehead, from what I could tell."

Reporter: Bullet 'felt like it grazed my head'

"It looks like the bullet came over my head and struck him. I don't have any way of confirming this beyond what I remember from the scene, but it felt like it grazed my head," he said.

Fuller, who said bamboo pikes and rubber tire barricades have been formed as a makeshift encampment by the protesters, said the opposition figure was facing out of the barricades and into Bangkok's business district of tall office buildings.

"He was standing in the same location for a while when I was talking to him but he was moving around, he was gesticulating," Fuller said. "He wasn't standing still, he was bobbing his head."

iReport: Are you there? Send your images, video

Seh Daeng did not appear to be armed or have bodyguards, but was dressed in camouflage jacket and a floppy hat, Fuller said.

Seh Daeng is a controversial public figure, even within the protest movement, Fuller said. Some Thai opposition leaders see him as an impediment to a peaceful resolution to the political stalemate that has gripped Thai politics, the reporter said.

"He's a renegade in sort of all senses," Fuller said. "He's a renegade from the army, a hardliner within the protest movement. He told me today he thought they (other opposition leaders) were being cowardly and he wanted to carry on."

Polis halang himpunan bantah judi dan konsert Pitbull

Is Hindraf racist?

By DP Vijandran - Free Malaysia Today

COMMENT It is sad that Hindraf is now being castigated as racists by some quarters. It is easy to underestimate now the new thrust verve that was given to Malaysian Indians in this country by the Hindraf movement.
The two brothers P Uthaya Kumar and Waytha Moorthy and the other leaders of the movement courageously and steadfastly espoused the plight of Malaysian Indians. They made huge personal sacrifices and the Indian community gratefully accepted them.

Once hailed as heroes they are now being labeled as racists. It is a fascinating turn of events. Is this charge of being racist well-founded or is it just political labeling to discredit the movement ?

What is a racist? The dictionary definition is:

1. a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2. racial prejudice or discrimination

Neither of these definitions can apply to Hindraf. They have never claimed that the Indians are a superior race. Further they are committed to removing racial prejudice and/or discrimination against the Indians. They have never said that any race should be discriminated against.

So why this label.

Is it because they steadfastly have concentrated on improving the lot of the Indians? That could be so if they argued that only the Indians in this country should be helped. That is far from the truth. Though they have argued the Indian case they have also said that all races which face poverty and deprivation should be helped. They are seeking a fair balance.

However they concentrate on the Indians for two reasons.

State of citizenship
Firstly they know the Indian problem well, being themselves Indians who have struggled to come up in life bereft of public help or aid. Secondly it is a fact acknowledged by all parties in the political spectrum that the Indians do need public help the most.

“
Hindraf has brought to the Indians a collective consciousness that they have not been given a fair deal.

But this is not racist. Is it racist for Muyiddin to say that he is Malay first and Malaysian second? Is this not the reality of our society. We are Malaysians in a macro sense.

But at the micro level we operate separately. We are separated into different educational streams. We pray and worship differently. We wear different clothes and eat different food. We speak our own mother tongue at home. The majority of us mingle within our own races.

The term Malaysian refers at present to a state of citizenship. In does not as yet signify a oneness. As we move forward whether towards “1Malaysia or “Malaysian Malaysia” , we will hopefully identify more and more common traits, needs, values and wants that will blend us into an unique whole. But until the advent of that Utopia we have to accept and live with the current reality of different races at different stages of development with differing severity of problems to be redressed.

This then is the reason  the Indians generally have embraced Hindraf so warmly. Non-Indians are not rushing to take up the Indian cause apart from some well-placed articles decrying the plight of the Indians. Hindraf rose to fill the niche.

Perhaps the word racist is used to criticize some averments in some documents that were published in the early days of Hindraf. The problem is that these documents used the English language. It must be accepted that in our country, words are used in English with varying degrees of understanding and intent. It is an affliction that affects many writers of English in this country.

Words and phrases are used and misused by the framers of public speeches and documents and understood or misunderstood by others.

But should we be seizing on an inappropriately used word or phrase in Hindraf statements or documents and harp on it or should we look at the broad spectrum of the ideas and essential thrust of these documents.

Analysed properly and allowing for the use of  grandiloquent or over-zealous words, the Hindraf documents by and large attempt to highlight the dire plight of the Indians.

Until a time comes when other races give due and fair priority to the problems of the Indians, Hindraf will be a much honoured and needed force amongst the Indians. Hindraf in turn, in order to meet the expectations it has raised has to concentrate on pressing for solutions to the problems of Malaysian Indians. This is the core area of their enterprise and so far they have done a sterling job.

A splintered movement

There is an attempt to now downplay the influence of Hindraf on the basis that it is now a splintered movement with divergent groups.

They point to a recent by-election where three factions which were formerly together in Hindraf took three different positions. One backed the Barisan Nasional and one backed Pakatan Rakyat. The third asked that the Indians boycott the elections. Sad indeed.

But let us not confuse the essential concept of Hindraf with its physical components.

The term “Hindraf” does not merely refer to a motley collection of organizations that now appear to be split. The larger and more important reference is to the spirit and concept that has now the brand name of “Hindraf”. It is an idea whose time has come. It will not go away because it is labeled “racist”.

It is difficult to keep several Indian organizations together. This has been the traditional bane of Malaysian Indians. Given the crop of leaders now in the field it may not be immediately possible to forge such unity. However this does not mean that the Indians are disunited pushovers. Hindraf has brought to the Indians a collective consciousness that they have not been given a fair deal. That consciousness is a silent force and a powerful one. That force is now being courted by all and sundry.

The future of the Indians will now rest on how well they marshal and focus that force in the advancement of their just rights as loyal citizens of this country. It would be a tragedy if in this attempt they are decried as racist by those who have an imperfect understanding of their cause and struggle.

---

DP Vijandran is a lawyer and a former MIC secretary-general.

They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth! – My response to Kenny Gan’s Article in MToday recently- Hindraf: Arrogance from Delusions. By Iraiputtiran

The Statements in red are clipped out from Kenny Gan’s article  – so the truth can be laid out for all to see and to see what a contortionist this Kenny Gan is.

1. Micro-analysis of the results shows that the actual swing of Indians to BN was marginal and could be explained by the rampant vote buying. 

The difference of 3.4 % vote swing in the rural Indian settling from 53.2 % to 56.5% to BN in Hulu Selangor in 2008 and 2010 respectively may be marginal, but why has PR lost 57% of the Indian votes two years after coming into power? Rampant vote buying by BN? Hello, which planet are you from? Since when has BN not bought votes? 

By comparison, the Indians there who allegedly voted BN for some cheap saris and money were nobler than many PR lawmakers who breached the trust of the voters by prostituting themselves for millions from BN, one Hee even causing the whole PR state government in Perak to collapse!

Continue losing other by-elections and blame it on BN’s vote buying, PR’s failed politics will be justified! Hey, ask yourself, what have you done to win the Indian votes, two years into power in the state! Stop being a cry baby and blaming others! 

In politics, the party that makes the best impression wins! Your PR coalition is pathetically poor in making impressions! In 2008, Indians in the country, en bloc voted for PR, resisting the goodies from BN, ONLY and ONLY because of HINDRAF! So, what are you ranting and raving here about HRP/ Hindraf? 

2. In the first place, how much influence does Hindraf and its political offshoot HRP still have among Indians? There is evidence that its influence has waned tremendously as they are unable to muster any meaningful crowd size for any event these days…

Check those many videos on the HRP website featuring HRP’s various campaigns. I have never attended any of those campaigns personally, but whose staunch supporter am I, you think? We all see what we want to see, don’t we? 

3. The reason for their declining support is clear. The original movement has split into a few factions which have gone separate ways such that the original spirit has been diluted. 

There was only one Hindraf leader, Waythamoorthy. There is only one Hindraf. The rest are the temporary creations of the enemies to confuse the people and clear attempts to defeat Hindraf. Only those who do not want to see this will keep on parroting like you. You are harping on a tale gone stale!

Tell me, Kenny Gan, talking for a coalition like PR, that has lost nine law makers including 4 MPs and with rumors of more to defect, that PR’s nemesis UMNO had nothing to do with all of these defections and it was all PR’s making. As you are making the case out to be with Hindraf. Don’t use one argument for Paul and then self -righteously another for Peter.

4. Both Hindraf and HRP have also lost touch with the grassroot Indians. While poor Indians are concerned with bread and butter issues the Ponnusamy brothers are still championing emotive We do not know what contacts you have with the grassroots Indians, for you to say that HRP/Hindraf has lost touch with them. What is your source of information other than the MSM or your mandore friends.

Who are the grassroot Indians that you talk about? Not the ones coming to the HRP offices with all sorts of issues, anything from IC-less, BC-less, ailments, police atrocities, acute poverty, legal issues, temple issues, Tamil school issues, house/village demolishment issues, police brutality, etc….on a daily basis? How many such Indians have come to you at your PR offices and told you that HRP has lost touch with them. 

Bread and butter issues? What Indian bread and butter issues are PR leaders dealing with that you accuse Hindraf/HRP of having forgotten. Is housing and land not bread and butter issues.

Then you say Tamil schools, temples and cemeteries are emotive issues? Education is emotive issue? That is what your Chief Mandores Ramasamy keeps saying, Tamil schools are emotive issue? Very self serving arguments, because he cannot do a diddle about these real issues. And he and you know that. Call them emotive issues and take them off your back.

So, by your logic, the Agama schools and the Chinese schools are also emotive issues? Why then PKR, DAP and PAS state government allocated 1,000ha (about 2,500 acres) of land to nine Chinese schools in Perak? 

Hear me, Gan! Hear me loud! You are the only ‘educated man’ in this whole wide world that sees education and schools as emotive issues. Have you ever read the UN Convention? The convention on The Rights of the Child protects children’s rights by setting standards in health care; education; and legal, civil and social services. The convention also rules that the States parties to the Convention are obliged to develop and undertake all actions and policies in the light of the best interests of the child. Education is critical to our development as individuals and as societies, and it helps pave the way to a successful and productive future. And you, Kenny Gan, call that an emotive issue played by HRP/Hindraf! I am lost for words to express my disbelief! 

5.  HRP should test its strength by fielding its strongest candidate in a by-election with sizable number of Indian voters. 

HRP/Hindraf will, come the 13^th GE! And a third force will emerge to put both PR and BN on track. And in return, can I ask the PR supreme leader whom you are serving so obediently and duly through your write-ups, or your DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang or Lim Guan Eng or even Hadi Awang to stand in Buntong or any other constituencies targeted in HRP/Hindraf’s 15/38 project? 

6. Asking land for Tamil schools is both arrogance and lacking common sense!

Aiyoyoo, thamby, whose common sense, hah? Yours and that of your half-baked PR policy makerskah? To me and many other Indians that makes a lot of sense! Asking land for Tamil school is arrogance and lack common sense! Nevertheless, giving 2,500 acres of land to Chinese schools is applaudable, commendable? Is this the best you can debate, are you the best writer the PR coalition can find to propagate their policies? If so, then, PR has serious problems! 

7. HRP is still clinging on to the foolish delusion that it can be a third force to play kingmaker between BN and PR. This is irrational as there is no way it can win any seat in Malaysia based on the Indian vote alone.

Go on deluding yourself. If the Lib-Dems can do it in the UK with less than 10% of the seats, it just shows open minded people what is possible. Of course, for dummies like you, nothing other than what you think, will be possible.

8. As for HRP, the so-called ‘Human Rights Party’ it is best to rename itself “Hindu Rights Party” so as not to mislead Malaysians.

So, what should DAP call itself. DAP should call itself the Chinese Action Party. I am just extending your logic, so as not to mislead Malaysians.

9. Where is its voice in the human rights violation of Teoh Beng Hock, Norizan Salleh and Aminulrasyid? 

Sigh! Go to HRP website and read all the related articleslah! Human Rights Party signed the Memorandum of Protest to the IGP condemning the police shooting of Norizan! And also please do read many other articles that give HRP/Hindraf’s condolences to the deceased families while questioning PR’s selective reaction of only showing uproar when Chinese and Malays are the victims. Uthayakumar represented  Mohd Anuar bin Sharip another unheralded death in custody case and won it in the courts. Another was of Ho Kwai See, a coconut seller. Go get your facts straight before opening your mouth friend.

Your PR leaders are no match in fighting for Human rights like Uthaya, the human rights lawyer of 18 years of standing. He fights for the downtrodden Indians even upon many arrests by the police in the last 18 years! Anyway, where is PR’s voice in the hundreds of the Indian youths’ deaths in police custody and shootouts? 

Why was there deafening silence in PR on the deaths of two Indian youth in Taiping, the five suspects in Klang, P.Gunasekaran who died on the same day as Teoh Beng Hock, Kampung Medan ethnic cleansing any hundreds more? Why wasn’t there a single motion tabled in parliament to debate the shoot-to-kill policy that has taken the lives of hundreds of Indian youths as for Aminulrasyid? 

Why? 

You are the biggest hypocrite, Kenny Gan! Being silent on BN’s racism is also racism, passive racism! Mind you!

Before I pen off, Kenny Gan – the Indians have really little reason to support PR, as Anwar in his recent visit to London,  said PKR could not be expected to solve Indian socio-economic problems because other communities too have socio-economic problems, what reasoning PR has. I cannot solve your problem because others have it too. Instead of saying, thank you for raising the problem, let us work on solving it. Keep on giving silly excuses like this and HRP/Hindraf shall meet PR leaders in the Parliament after the 13^th GE! 

They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth! – Plato

Thank you!

Iraiputtiran

MIC mandores wayang kulit of “padam” (picture)

Will be given a low cost house as the present house is infested with white ants (SH 11/5/10 at page S8).

Indians ‘ethnically cleansed” from even sports. Malay only sportspersons today by PM’s wife.

(See The Star 10/5/10 at page N 24)
Gone are the Punch Gunalans, Santokh Singh, Dr. Jegathesan, Yamuna Nairs, M. Karathu, etc, from the sports arena in Malaysia. Today it is an almost all Malay affair.
Government sports complexes are mostly built in Malay dominated areas and are excluded to the Indians. In the poor Indian neighbourhoods, sports and recreational activities are not built or are excluded to them.
Even the football fields where the Indian youths used to play football have mostly been wiped out for development.
Kannathasan

Hindraf stands for principles and HRP is issue based Rejects mandorism

Immediately before and after the 8^th March 2008 general elections, PKR won in four states. Hindraf leaders did not contest neither did they take up any Director of state government linked companies, Councillor or village head positions. Even after HRP was formed in July 2009, we did not want to lobby or take up any of the P.R states as our independence meant the most to us. HRP is issue based and are not prepared to compromise especially on the BN and PR Federal and state governments excluding the Indian poor from the national mainstream development of Malaysia. We mean business with both BN and PR.
We are far from the likes of the Indian PAS supporters club scrambling for even Village head positions (The Star 12/5/2010 at page N40) or the likes of the PKR, DAP and PAS Indian DCM 2, Exco, MP and ADUN mandores who for personal interests are prepared to compromise the fair just equitable and best interest of the Indians.
Ours is a thousand mile journey and we are in no hurry.
We will only take up real positions with real empowerment.
We are not prepared to assume the mandore roles be it for tuans or towkays in UMNO, PKR, DAP or PAS.
For this reason even PR is apprehensive of us.
Hindraf stands for principles. HRP is issue based. We are activists first and politicians last.
P. Uthayakumar

Hulu Selangor: 43 years wait for 19 Indian families land applications denied by UMNO and PKR.

Only a mere 0.4 hectres ( about just over one acre ) each was applied to be made into a farm house and a farm by these poor and uneducated Indians in Kerling, Hulu Selangor.
Felda, Felcra, Risda, Fama, Mardi, Agropoliton is 99 % given to malay muslim in the 442,000 ten acre land ownership programmes (BH 25/2/2010 at page 4). But this had been excluded to 99 % of the poor, landless and working class Indians.
But even a Temporary Occupation License (TOL) was denied by even the now Hindraf people power supported and voted PKR led Selangor state government.
A piece of 0.8 hectre land that was divided for 19 individuals suddenly is now given away to one single individual by the PKR led Selangor state government
All what they want is a part of the land that their ancestors had worked on
( SH 14/4/2010 at page S 25 ).
P.Uthayakumar

The Constitutional Case for Vernacular Schools

This country, as specified in the constitution, was meant to be multiracial, multilingual and multicultural, and NOT unilingual! This makes us unique among nations of the world. No other nation is like us. National unity comes in recognising that.

Therefore we should have more chinese and tamil schools. And vernacular universities too. Greater national unity comes with that. And kadazan, Iban, japanese, korean, thai, german, french and other schools too to cater for the many small minorities.

It is the Umno attempt to ‘cap and roll back’ vernacular schools, and railroad towards unilingualism, that creates disunity!

People should grasp the idea that at independence ‘we agreed’ to multilingualism, to retain our ethnicities and cultures as it is, and NOT assimilate but integrate as a diverse nation. And that is enshrined in stone!

Education is a parents concern and prerogative, not the state. Choice must always remain with us. I will decide what stream is best for my children and their future! It is for the state to simply provide what we the people choose. The idea is to get more freedoms and not surrender existing choices and freedom.

When you look at the bigger picture, there are many advantages in having different school systems. I had always thought our children are lucky to live in Malaysia with so many different school systems to choose from. We as parents can pick out what is best in each school system for their education.

Most parents prefer vernacular school not because of “roots” or that these schools uses their vernacular language as the medium of instructions. It’s because these schools are generally of higher standard, better equipped and there are less discrimination based on race and religion. Who in their right minds would send their children to a school knowing that the school is of lower standard with teachers frequently discriminating their sons/daughters?

Tamil school students and parents alike have told that tamil teachers are more committed and dedicated compared to national school. To them it is a cause. The market has spoken.

If vernacular education were abolished, the entire vernacular press and media industry, the vernacular music industry, festivals, etc, – all would collapse, in a single generation.

There are some religious cultures for whom diversity is doctrinally anathema, they insist on uniformity, to wean away the people from their own cultures and beliefs. First the language goes, then the culture, then the religion. That would be the final objective in the insistence on linguistic uniformity.

The so called national school had become muslim religious school. What with J-QAF, religious class in the afternoon, islamic lessons in the morning and implemention or force feeding of islamic value down the throat of non muslims and non malays. Any simple survey of a national school on the number of teachers will show that 1/3 of the staff are J-QAF and Islamic studies teachers.

School budgets will most probably be spend on religious reasons compared to secular education. Majlis Tahlil. Majlis Bacaan Yassin, Majlis khatam Al quran, Islamic competition, Islamic motivational course/talks, just to name a few. A mother once said that sending children to national schools is like sending him to be converted to Islam.

We have seen national school text books and it’s disheartening to see the hidden racism in it. We have gone through so many of the books across so many years, and we see the consistency of such subconscious ideas being planted into our children.

The issue of vernacular primary schools has little to do with national integration. The medium of instruction doesn’t matter. The biggest issue of vernacular primary schools is simply that the quality clearly points to the failure of Umno-led BN government, the legitimacy of the very philosophies and policies particularly its hegemonistic malay agenda.

The issue of vernacular schools is not about national integration, it is about hegemonistic malay agenda. The fact it is an issue points to heart of our national problem. Having multi stream education is not a divisive thing, it is an enabler of people in different fields. People should have the option to choose. As long as the syllabus is common and promotes patriotism.

If the vernacular primary schools are allowed to expand, clearly the percentage of malays in these Chinese primary schools would expand striking at the heart of the malay agenda. It would increase integration but not the malay agenda.

The idea of teaching Mandarin and Tamil to attract non-malays to national schools is a non-starter, so long as Islamization of national schools is not stopped in its tracks, non-malays would always avoid it, simply because learning is just harder in a marginalized uncomfortable environment. Vernacular schools are allowed to continue as it is simply because removing it would be perceived and rightly so, as eroding the citizen rights of non-malays, i.e. the very right of education – the only upward mobility tool the non-malays have. Non-malays second class citizenship will become third class with things like further Islamization of this country.

We have not seen unity in unilingual Indonesia but on the contrary there is killing of chinese, ethnic wars between christians and muslims, pogroms against Timorese and Papuans, war in Acheh, etc. Where is the unity when they all speak the same language?

Take a look at the Dutch education system. The schools there have streams for Dutch, German, French and English language, but did it caused the break up of Holland as a nation or disunity of the Dutch people ?

We can never trust any government on POL for all students. Sure they will oblige for one generation to lull us. But after that? We tried that experiment in the 60s and failed.

No parent would want their children in schools where there is peer pressure and condescension from the majority students and teachers alike.

For all of us to effectively communicate with each other, no more than 1,500 words each in Malay and English is required. That is just 3 years of language education in school, or, can be acquired in a 3 month course.

Unity requires a uniting common cause, like a common enemy, but in a diverse country like Malaysia with it’s unique history, that cause can only be freedoms and human rights. What else can be a common cause that unites us?

The first modern schools in Malaya was a Tamil School and the Penang Free School, both established in 1816 in Penang. Malay schools came 50 years later. At independence there were 1,800 chinese schools, 880 tamil schools and only about 130 english and missionary schools. At any given time in the last two centuries only about 5% of school going children attended english or missionary schools, which is erroneously touted as the epitome of racial mingling and unity.

There were no problems in education nor disunity for two centuries until Umno introduced the New Educational Policy in 1971. Therein lies your answer. Ethnic cleansing of vernacular schools had then begun in a staggered way. Today instead of having more vernacular schools to cater for a growing student population, chinese and tamil school have dwindled to 800 and 535 respectively. What shameful affairs and to think people are actually suggesting a continuation of ethnic cleansing policies! And that too by some children of victims.

People still do not seem to understand what our forefathers agreed to, that secularism and multiculturalism in its entirety and forever shall be the basis of Malaysia. To you your way, and to me mine! Much like religion. *That* has been our tradition for 200 years, retaining at all times the prerogative of the parents over their childrens’ education, and as to what exactly are the values that we wish to perpetuate.

Our forefathers are people who witnessed the horrors of the Indian partition, Sri Lanka language pogroms of 1956, the killings of 3,000 chinese in Kalimantan/Sarawak between 1948-1951, the expulsion of one million Indians from Myanmar in 1948, and much more. They knew what was coming. In the Reid Commission there were mention of the fears of ethnic cleansing of cultures and languages down the road in Malaya. Today we are witnessing that with the repeated calls for abolishing of vernacular education. Closure of vernacular schools and its concomitant industries is ethnic cleansing of whole institutions that were painstakingly built up over 200 years.

The fact that so many university graduates nowdays failed to find job must be telling! Our educational system has failed, and yet we are asked to close the successful vernacular system and join in with the the national schools and wallow in their mediocrity.

With such low standards of national education and mediocrity, it would be wiser to discuss the closure of national/malay schools entirely! After all, instead of being parochial in these times of glocalisation, we want *unity* with the rising nations of India and China and its 2.7 billion people, under whose shadow we are geostrategically destined to live for all eternity, is it not?

Malaysian means to open an accept each others unique quality, culture, languages and beliefs. Not to tolerate. Not to assimilate. But to accept and blend in seamlessly.

temenggongmalaysia@gmail.com

Perkasa wants all Sime Darby directors to quit

By Stephanie Sta Maria - Free Malaysia Today

KUALA LUMPUR: Perkasa has called for Sime Darby Bhd's entire board of directors to resign after the palm oil giant said it is braced for losses of RM964 million due to problems with projects.

“Perkasa is shocked at the losses suffered by a government-linked company like Sime Darby,” its president Ibrahim Ali said in a press statement today. “I understand that the amount could even reach RM4 billion!”

A company statement released yesterday announced that its president and CEO Ahmad Zubir Mushid “has been asked to take a leave of absence prior to the expiry of his contract on Nov 26, 2010”.

Ibrahim also called for the immediate setting up of an independent special committee to conduct investigations into this “extraordinary losses”.

He said representatives from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission must also sit in the panel.

“This is a matter of great humiliation for the Malays,” he said. “I'm sure the prime minister, like Perkasa, will not be content with only the CEO stepping down.”

Sime Darby expects to report its first ever quarterly loss during its third-quarter results due out on May 27.

One of projects that has significantly contributed to the deficit is the controversial Bakun mega-dam in Borneo.

According to company officials, the project was initially scheduled for completion in September 2007 but was delayed due to various complications. As a result, costs have escalated and, according to Sime Darby management, may hit RM450 million.

Gobalakrishnan may lose seat after RM3,000 fine

By Stephanie Sta Maria - Free Malaysia Today

GEORGETOWN: Padang Serai MP N Gobalakrishnan was today found guilty of obstructing police in an incident eight years ago and has been fined RM3,000, or in default, a six-month jail term.

Gobalakrishnan, who was charged at the Georgetown magistrate's court in Penang, is currently in the court's lock-up awaiting to pay the fine when the counter reopens at 3pm. He will also be filing an appeal against the sentencing later today.

On Jan 29, 2002, he was arrested along with 27 PKR supporters during a Thaipusam celebration here.

“The supporters were dancing to celebrate the festival when the police began arresting them,” he told FMT today. “I appealed to the police to release them and they threatened me with arrest, too.”

Gobalakrishnan and the 27 supporters were then brought to the Georgetown police station where all, except Gobalakrishnan, were eventually released.

“I lodged a police report that same day but no action was taken,” he said. “There was no news about the case until now, which makes it obvious that it is politically motivated.”

'Another agenda at play'

Golabakrishnan's lawyer, RSN Rayer, said the sentencing took him by surprise as the case was only fixed for submission today.

“The magistrate usually takes at least a week to ponder the submission,” he explained. “This time the magistrate adjourned into her chambers for just 10 minutes before returning with the sentencing. This is unheard of and suggests another agenda at play here.”

Rayer added that it was also unusual for a case to be resurrected after so many years and speculated that it could be an attempt to silence Gobalakrishnan, who has filed numerous suits against the police for assault and battery.

He also clarified that Gobalakrishnan would be able to continue his MP duties while the case is being appealed.

“But if the Court of Appeal confirms the magistrate court's findings and sentence, then he will have to vacate his position,” he said.

Under the federal constitution, anyone who is jailed for a year or more, or fined RM2,000 or more, and who has not received a free pardon, is disqualified from being a member of either house of Parliament.

KP Samy may sue Mohan over 'childish' remark

By G Vinod - Free Malaysia Today

KUALA LUMPUR: MIC central working committee member KP Samy is contemplating a defamation suit against Youth chief T Mohan for allegedly calling the former “childish” during a recent CWC meeting.

He said Mohan uttered the word when he asked about the alleged transfer of RM4 million belonging to the Maju Institute of Education Development (MIED), whose former chief executive officer was P Chitrakala Vasu.

(Chitrakala was recently charged with three counts of cheating MIED to the tune of RM4 million. The case will be mentioned on June 14.)

“I asked him more than 10 times to retract his word. Mohan refused and instead challenged me to take the matter to court,” KP Samy said.

When asked what was the reaction of MIC president S Samy Vellu during the tussle, he said the president kept mum and asked them to settle the issue between themselves.

“The RM4 million is public money. So I took up Mohan's challenge. I will consult my lawyers,” he said, adding that he was disappointed with Mohan.

“How can a Youth chief run down a CWC member just like that?” asked KP Samy. He plans to hold a press conference on Monday to explain the issue in detail.

Sacking of Barat Maniam

On the sacking of V Subramaniam, or popularly known as Barat Maniam, from the party, KP Samy said even CWC members are in the dark over the reasons for the dismissal.

“There was no show-cause letter issued to Subramaniam as far as I know. Barat is known to be a hardcore supporter of party deputy president G Palanivel,” said KP Samy

“I believe this is an indirect message to Palanivel's camp. Usually, the deputy president is consulted by the president before sacking a member according to the party constitution. This was not done.”

On Maika Holdings' takeover by G Gnanalingam, he hoped that the latter would match the share value, ringgit for ringgit, with a 20 cent premium.

“A lot of people worked hard to ensure that the poor Indians who contributed to Maika get back their money. Special thanks to Gnanalingam and to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for their efforts (to seek a solution),” said KP Samy.

Dr M gives Najib's NEM thumbs down

By Muda Mohd Noor - Free Malaysia Today

KUALA LUMPUR: Dr Mahathir Mohamad is not convinced by his protege Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's New Economic Model (NEM).

The former premier said the economic blueprint contains numerous "unsuitable and imprecise" elements.

An imprecise economic model, he said, will not yield benefits.

Speaking at the Malay entrepreneurs convention at the Putra World Trade Centre here today, Mahathir stressed the importance of striking an economic balance between the races.

“This country has various races; if economic balance is not achieved between them, then there will be no unity,” he warned.

With his trademark sarcasm, the 84-year-old statesman also asked if the NEM was properly reasearched before being unveiled by Najib.

Mahathir said that Malay non-governmental organisations have also expressed concern over the new model, wondering if it will be profitable to the race.

“I was given the opportunity to research the NEM. There is little difference between the NEM and the New Economic Policy (NEP),” he added.

The former premier said he has submitted a memorandum on this matter and was told that it was read by the Cabinet.

NEP is not a stumbling block

Mahathir also disagreed with the view that the NEP is a stumbling block to the nation's progress.

He said when the NEP was implemented, the nation recorded an economic growth of more than 8% for 10 consecutive years (from 1987 to 1997).

“Our target was only 7% (economic growth) for 30 years, and we would have become a developed nation,” he added.

Mahathir claimed that the NEP, which critics said has been abused by the elites, was also profitable for the non-Malays.

The octogenarian's comments come hot on the heels of a Bernama report, which quoted analysts giving Najib's policies the thumbs-up.

The Malaysian economy recorded a growth of 10.1% in the first quarter of 2010, its highest quarterly growth in 10 years. The last time Malaysia charted quarterly growth as high was in 2000 when it hit 11.7%.

Lest we forget

It would have been good if yesterday’s event had been declared a day of national healing. Malaysians of all races should have been invited to attend so that May 13 could be condemned and with one voice we shout, “Never again!”

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Dr M: Malays must not forget May 13 bloodletting

By Rahmah Ghazali, Free Malaysia Today

Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad feels that the Malays should be reminded of the May 13, 1969 racial riots so that a similar episode does not recur.

Mahathir said this in reference to the controversial 'Melayu Bangkit' rally, which was scheduled to be held yesterday but was postponed following strong objections from both sides of the political divide.

The former premier was supposed to have attended the rally, and talk about various issues affecting the Malays.

"I (was) not going there to stir up feelings between the different races, but to remind them if we don't take care of this problem of race, then we will repeat our mistake.”

"But then if I go, of course I would be called a racist," he told a press conference here.

'Forgetting it is not a good idea'

The 84-year-old statesman also said that the tragic incident, which robbed hundreds of lives, is still fresh in his memory and he wants to use his experience to prevent such bloodletting from happening again.

"I went through May 13, so I know. I know it very deeply so I think I can help people so they don't act in ways that will precipitate another May 13.”

"But this idea that we should forget May 13 altogether is not a very good idea," he said.

In the aftermath of the 1969 riots, Mahathir was sacked from Umno over the wide distribution of his scathing letter to the then prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.

In his letter, Mahathir had criticised Tunku's administration as being more favourable to the Chinese.

Meanwhile, Malay pressure group president Ibrahim Ali and the 'Melayu Bangkit' rally organiser Gerakan Kebangkitan Rakyat (Gertak) slammed the critics for blowing the issue out of proportion.

Gertak said that the May 13 date was chosen out of convenience, and the main agenda of the rally was racial unity, and not to create animosity between the races.

*************************************************

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” said William L. Shirer is his epigraph for his ‘Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’.

Yes, we should remember the past. And we should remember the past not only for its glories but for its tragedies as well. Pining for the glory of the past will make us lose track of the realities of the present and make us forget the journey ahead of us.

Life is not a destination. Life is a journey. No one knows where the journey will take us. And the destination will be whatever we reach at the end of our journey.

True, we all have aims. And our aims may not always be realistic. There are times when we look at the past to plan our future. But planning our future by ignoring the present may lead us down the wrong path.

Muslims talk about the Golden Age of Islam. It was a time when the Muslim world saw greatness. But it was also a time when Europe reverted to the dark ages and was embroiled in wars and conflicts. The great Roman Empire was on a decline. A vacuum had been created. And the Muslim world merely filled that vacuum.

China was another great power. But it was not a great power with expansionist tendencies. It was a great power that closed its doors to the world. And China’s closed-door policy meant that the world was safe from what would possibly have been the successor to the great European Empires.

Would the Muslim world have seen the Golden Age of Islam had China decided that it was time for them to become the new empire of the modern world? Competition from China would have meant that the Muslim world would have joined Europe in its dark ages. But China offered the Muslim world no competition. Instead, it taught the Muslim world what Europe lacked. And with China as its teacher rather than its competitor the Muslim world overtook Europe and we saw what today we call the Golden Age of Islam.

What sent Europe back into the dark ages? Other than wars and conflicts, corruption and abuse of power were the prime factors for Europe’s decline. And when the Muslim world too adopted corruption and abuse of power as its new culture, it too went into decline.

The dark days of May 13 are not to be remembered for its glory, for there is no glory in racism and race riots. It is to be remembered as we would remember the Holocaust in Europe. It was a time when commonsense and logic no longer prevailed and insanity took over.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wants the Malays to never forget the infamous May 13. The Malays are to be reminded about May 13. Should it not be the opposite? Should not the Malays instead be ashamed of May 13 and try hard not to be reminded of this dark episode in Malaysia’s history?

Yes, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. And we do not wish to see a repeat of May 13 just like we do not wish to see a repeat of the Holocaust. But we remember the Holocaust in a solemn ceremony. We mourn the victims. And we utter the oath: never again. We do not celebrate the Holocaust in a ceremony that would befit the celebration of Merdeka or Independence Day.

It is in bad taste that we celebrate death, violence and institutionalised racism. And that was what the celebration in Kuala Terengganu yesterday would have been had they not cancelled the event.

Had they asked that yesterday’s event be attended by not just Malays but by all races, and had the event been a solemn memorial with wreaths and prayers by those from all religions to remember the victims of May 13, then it would have been a positive event.

It would have been good if yesterday’s event had been declared a day of national healing. Malaysians of all races should have been invited to attend so that May 13 could be condemned and with one voice we shout, “Never again!”

But yesterday’s event was meant as a victory celebration. It was meant as a reminder to the non-Malays to not push the Malays too far or else suffer a repeat of May 13.

Would the world stand by and do nothing if Germany were to hold a celebration to remember the Holocaust with a warning to the Jews to not test the patience of non-Jews lest they want to see a Holocaust 2?

And that was exactly what yesterday’s aborted event was all about.

The French Connection

(Asia Sentinel) A Paris investigation opens up a vast network of defense industry bribes in Asia

After nearly two decades, Taiwan's 1991 purchase of six French Lafayette-class stealth frigates has finally come back to haunt pretty much everyone involved in the deal.

Both countries, plus the French defense contractor Thales and DCN, the government-owned naval manufacturer that built the frigates have been snared in the mess. A French court ruled last week that Thales and the French government must pay Taiwan as much as US$861 million for bribery charges and repayments for nonperformance.

But according to widely published facts investigated by separate teams of French magistrates and lawyers, pulled together into a single narrative, the story appears to go well beyond Thales, Taiwan and France to reach deep into the governments of India, Pakistan, Malaysia and others. French government officials and defense contractors appear to have engaged in an intensive campaign to outfit many of the world's governments with frigates and Agosta-class Scorpene submarines manufactured by DCN's subsidiary Armaris.

The key to bringing the frigate scandal into the open was Article 18 of the contract, which made vendors liable to repay all bribes, plus associated interest and legal fees. The standard anti-corruption clause is thought to be in the contracts governing sales of Scorpenes to India, Pakistan and Malaysia, Renaud Semerdjian, a French lawyer investigating the Malaysia case, told Asia Sentinel, although he said he doesn't have access to the contracts. If the clause appears in Malaysian and other contracts, it could help bring other scandals into the open – although, unlike Taiwan, Malaysia has shown no inclination to investigate the case.

"The French state's perception that bribery and corruption, and the use of perhaps more extreme ‘direct action' when required, can be an advantage to business reflects the country's recent past," said a UK-based security specialist. "Within this context, securing arms deals with public money that serve the political interests of a narrow elite while subsidizing industries otherwise struggling to survive is viewed as less of a crime and more of a duty."

Nowhere is that more fully borne out than in the Taiwan story. According to published accounts it involves allegations of the murders of as many as eight people and reaches up to such luminaries as the late French President Francois Mitterand, the former general secretary of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang Party during its previous tenure in power and the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Beijing.

The case was stymied for years in French courts for "lack of evidence" although a variety of French officials including former Foreign Minister Roland Dumas had told newspapers that Mitterand okayed the payment of US$500 million in bribes to secure the frigate contract. But what has begun to emerge with the court judgment is a story of corruption so pervasive that it seems more like a movie plot than a real case and paints a picture of French politicians and government defense officials as having placed a separate cash register on arms sales designed to benefit themselves and corrupt governments around the world.

According to published sources, the story began when the French state-owned Elf Aquitaine conglomerate standard paid bribes through Thomson-CSF, which changed its name to Thales in 2000. The money was to persuade Taiwanese officials to drop a plan to buy cheaper South Korean frigates and for French authorities to approve the sale of more expensive Lafayette-class ones equipped with Thomson-CSF electronic gear. A plan to have the frigates built in Taiwan was also scrapped shortly after the deal was signed, and the work was reassigned to France.

The vast overpricing caught the eye of a Taiwanese Naval Captain named Yin Ching-feng, who is believed to have been ready to blow the whistle on the case in 1993. Yin's body was found floating in the ocean a few days later. Although Taiwanese officials called the death an accidental drowning, an autopsy paid for by the family discovered his head had been bashed in. Thomson-CSF's Taiwan agent Andrew Wang was eventually charged in absentia with the crime. He has long since disappeared.

Lin's nephew, who was helping Yin to investigate, also died an unusual death, as did a Taiwanese bank official acting for the naval dockyards, according to a book by a French investigating magistrate named Thierry Jean-Pierre. Later, Thierry Imbot, a French intelligence agent who had been following the frigate negotiations for the French secret service, fell to his death from his Paris apartment under suspicious circumstances. A year later, a former Taiwan-based Thomson employee named Jacques Morrison, who told associates he feared for his life because he was a witness to the talks, also fell or was pushed to his death.

In 2005, according to the publication Defense Aerospace, Taiwan asked Switzerland to return US$520 million frozen in Swiss banks, on the grounds that this represented their damages. Switzerland has provided Taiwan and two other involved countries with a collection of bank files including 46 bank accounts under the names of Andrew Wang, his three sons and Wang's company, all of whose accounts had been frozen by the Swiss Federal Court. Authorities in Liechtenstein froze a further US$27 million.

France has continued to stonewall the investigation, which was dropped two years ago for lack of evidence. That seems improbable in the face of several confessions, however, including a statement to Le Figaro newspaper by France's former foreign minister, Roland Dumas, that US$500 million in bribes for the frigate contract was approved by Mitterand, that $400 million was paid to the secretary-general of Taiwan's ruling KMT party and that US$100 million went to the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee in Beijing.

In the Pakistan case, supposedly an Al Qaeda bomber blew up a van carrying 11 French engineers employed by DCN in 2002. Although two men were sentenced to death for taking part in the attacks, their convictions were overturned. Later, it appeared that Pakistani officials were suspected of having ordered the bombing attack because massive bribes promised over the purchase of Scorpene submarines had never been paid.

According to the allegations, kickbacks were returned to the campaign funds of then-French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, who challenged Jacques Chirac for the presidency in 1995. Nicholas Sarkozy, now France's president, was managing Balladur's campaign. Called before the French parliament to explain how the funds got into his campaign coffers, Balladur said they were donated by individuals at political rallies. However, Semerdjian, the investigating lawyer, told Asia Sentinel that the total amount – 10 million French francs (US$1.929 million at current exchange rates) was all in identical 500-franc notes, which seems rather unusual for random campaign enthusiasts to deliver.

Balladur denied any impropriety. However, one of the lawyers investigating the case said magistrates had a top-secret memo from DCN which contained the allegations. The memo, shown on French television in 2008, said France stopped paying the bribes to Pakistani officials after Chirac triumphed over Balladur in the 1995 election. The unnamed Pakistani officials continued to pester them for the money for several years until, according to the memo, they organized the attack on the French engineers, who were working on the submarine project. One document found by the lawyers spoke of the Pakistani intelligence service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, which has close ties to hard-line militants.

There have been no allegations of bribery or kickbacks in the purchase of six Scorpenes in 2005 by the Indian Navy, although delivery has been delayed by three more years due to "teething problems, absorption of technology and augmentation of Mazagon Docks Ltd," according to the Defence Minister, AK Antony, in remarks to parliament earlier this year. The boats now are not due to be delivered before 2013.

And, while there have been no public allegations made on this particular contract, Indian defense spending is rife with corruption as Asia Sentinel reported on March 25, 2010. In the 1980s, Mazagon Docks was forced to abruptly terminate a contract to build four German subs for Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft (HDW) to be used by the Indian navy after it transpired that HDW had paid massive kickbacks to secure the deal, worth Rs4.20 billion.

Finally, as Asia Sentinel reported on April 28, a team of French lawyers is seeking answers to how a company with close ties to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak managed to acquire a €114 million (US$151.1 million) commission to buy two Scorpene subs from DCN and to lease a third for US$1 billion as a result of a contract signed in 2002.

The first of the submarines arrived in Malaysia in January. Joseph Breham, a member of the French legal team, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on April 28 that the company, Perimekar, was believed to have been established in 2001, shortly before the submarine contract was signed, solely to receive the commission to be able to pay kickbacks both in Malaysia and France. The wife of Abdul Razak Baginda, the then-defense minister's best friend, was listed as the director of the company, which was owned by Baginda.

Despite repeated requests for information by opposition leaders in Malaysia's parliament, Najib and other top members of the government have refused to answer.

As with the Taiwan and Pakistan cases, the Malaysian purchase involves murder, this time of a 28-year-old Mongolian translator named Altantuya Shaariibuu, who in a letter found after her death said she had been blackmailing Razak Baginda for US$500,000. She did not give a reason in the letter for why she had been blackmailing him. Two of Najib's bodyguards were found guilty of the murder, which may have been related to a failed love affair she was having with Razak Baginda.

After Breham's Kuala Lumpur press conference, government spokesmen simply said there was no case to answer and did not elaborate. Nonetheless, Breham and his colleagues are continuing to pursue the case both in Malaysia and France.

Soi Lek says he won’t join Cabinet

Written by Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider,

 

Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek today dismissed speculation he would nominate himself to be one of MCA’s ministers in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet.

Speculation has been building over a Cabinet reshuffle since Dr Chua won a bitterly-contested party election to oust as MCA president the unpopular Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat.

Najib has been expected to use the changes in MCA’s senior leadership to undertake a minor Cabinet reshuffle, which may also see some movement among ministers from Umno and other parties in the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

However, Dr Chua has reiterated that he would not nominate himself as a minister.

“I have said before and I will keep my promise. I will not join the Cabinet,” he said here today.

Dr Chua was health minister until early 2008, when he was forced to resign from the Cabinet and all party positions in the fallout from a secret recording of a tryst with his mistress, which was leaked to the public.
Read more over HERE.

Perhimpunan Bantah Lesen Judi, Konsert Kecoh

Video Ihsan Malaysia Kini

Dari TV Selangor

“Berdentum Kepala Saya, Mulut Saya Berdarah”

Mangsa kekasaran polis pada perhimpunan membantah lesen judi bola di Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru petang tadi, Muhammad Karim Abdullah kesal menganggap polis cuba bertindak kasar dalam menyuraikan program itu.

“Saya sedang memegang pembesar suara itu, tiba-tiba pihak polis merampasnya dari tangan saya, mereka menolak dan memukul saya. Saya jatuh, berdentum kepala saya dan keadaan ini yang membuatkan keadaan bertambah kecoh.

“Mulut saya berdarah dan kepala saya sakit akibat ditolak dan terjatuh ke bawah terkena ekzos motosikal,” katanya kepada TV Selangor, hari ini.

Lebih 1,000 orang termasuk orang bukan Islam menyertai perhimpunan membantah kelulusan lesen judi bola sepak sempana kejohanan Piala Dunia, di perkarangan Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru petang tadi.

Perhimpunan selepas solat Jumaat itu hanya berlangsung selama kurang dari lima minit berikutan larangan pihak berkuasa, malah seorang petugas PAS turut dikasari polis.

Mereka membawa kain rentang dan sepanduk mengecam tindakan kementerian kewangan yang diterajui datuk seri najib razak kerana meluluskan lesen judi bola walaupun mendapat bantahan rakyat.

Namun, Umno Barisan Nasional (BN) dalam usaha menutup kelemahan mempergunakan institusi polis bagi menggagalkan perhimpunan aman ini.

Polis dikatakan memberi masa lima minit kepada mereka untuk berhimpun tetapi belumpun tempoh itu berakhir, kira-kira 20 anggota polis menyerbu menyebabkan kekecohan itu berlaku.

Latest QS Asian University Rankings 2010 a sorry tale of unchecked drop/decline of the standards/international standing of Malaysian public universities.

By Lim Kit Siang,

The country’s premier institution of higher education, Universiti Malaya, has dropped two places to 41 this year from 39 last year, while Universiti Sains Malaysia which was granted Apex status in 2008 only managed to maintain its ranking at 69 – just like Universiti Teknologi Malaysia at 82.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, however, took a tumble from 51 to be placed 58, with Universiti Putra Malaysia improving its ranking from 90 to 77.

The continued drop of ranking of Malaysian Universities in Asia is part of the larger disease of Malaysia becoming the “sick man of South-East Asia” – resulting in a decade of economic stagnation and national decline in all aspects of national life, whether educational excellence, good governance, institutional professionalism, human rights or environmental protection.

This is why the New Economic Model (NEM) crafted by a panel of local and foreign experts have sound the warning: “We must act now before our position deteriorates any further”.

Unfortunately, although the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak as acknowledged the national ills and decline exposed and highlighted by the NEM, he has yet to demonstrate that he has the political will to bring about government far-reaching reforms.

In 2004, Malaysia was still included in the Times Higher Education Supplement-QS Top 200 Universities Ranking, with University of Malaya ranked in 89th position.
In that 2004 international ranking, University of Malaya was ranked the 10th Top Asian University – but it has now fallen even further to No. 42 in Asia – overtaken by more than 30 other Asian universities in a space of six years!

During my schooldays in the fifties, students do not think about foreign universities unless their results were not good or their parents have a lot of money. This was because University of Malaya, which had just separated from its Singapore campus to spawn two separate universities with University of Singapore, was recognized internationally as one of the world-class universities.

Today, the first option of Malaysian students is to get places in foreign universities and local placing in Malaysian public universities is their last choice, because of the drop and decline of standards and prestige of Malaysian universities.

This is not progress but going backwards.

During my school days, we do not think too highly of Hong Kong University for instance for we believe that University of Malaya was comparable if not a better university!
What a world of a change in a matter of 50 years under Umno/Barisan Nasional rule!

In the Asian University Rankings 2010, three of the top four come from Hong Kong – with University of Hong Kong (first), The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (second) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (fourth) out of the top 200 Asian universities.

The top 20 Asian universities in the 2010 Ranking are:

1. Hong Kong University (HK)
2. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK)
3. National University of Singapore (Spore)
4. Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
5. Tokyo University (Japan)
6. Seoul University (SKorea)
7. Osaka University (Japan)
8. Kyoto University (Japan)
9. Tohoku University (Japan)
10. Nagoya University (Japan)
11. Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan)
12. Peking University (China)
13. Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) (SKorea)
14. POHANG University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) (SKorea)
15. City University of Hong Kong (HK)
16. Tsinghua University (China)
17. Kyushu University (Japan)
18. Nanyang Technological University (NTU) (Spore)
19. Yonsei University (SKorea)
20. Tsukuba University (Japan)

Having been placed Top Tenth Asian University in the 2004 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES), the Prime Minister and Malaysian people (and the Sibu voters) must regard the dismal placings of Malaysian public universities in the Asian Universities Ranking 2010 as a final warning not only of the advanced nature of the Malaysian educational crisis but also Malaysian nation-building crisis.

The warnings of the NEM bears repeating here:

• We are not developing talent and what we have is leaving. The human capital situation in Malaysia is reaching a critical stage.

• Globalisation has created a fierce competition for talent, forcing companies and government to recognise that people are the most valuable assets. To compete on a regional and global scale, Malaysia must retain and attract talent. Malaysia must be seen by its people and by others as a land of equal opportunity to earn a good living and provide a secure, happy life for each individual and the family.

The Prime Minister and the Barisan Nasional parties, including SUPP, dare not tell the people the truth about the nation-building crisis facing the country. As I asked the other day, can Malaysia go the way of Greece and become bankrupt and if Malaysia goes bankrupt, can Sarawak be spared? No answer from PM and CM at all.
These are hard questions the SUPP and BN leaders do not want to share with the people or raise in Parliament.

This is why right from the beginning I had said that the Sibu by-election is the Battle of the Century, as demonstrated by the presence not only of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, but virtually the entire Sarawak State and Federal Cabinets – as if for the past week, the capitals of Sarawak state and Malaysian nation have shifted to Sibu and not Kuching and Kuala Lumpur respectively.

For the sake of Sibu,Sarawak and Malaysia, I call on the voters of Sibu to vote for the future, to write history and create miracle by sending Wong Ho Leng to Parliament as MP for Sibu to signify that the “fixed deposit” states of Sarawak and Sabah are ready with the rest of Malaysia to complete the March 8 “political tsunami” of the 2008 general elections to effect a change of government in Putrajaya in the 13th General Elections as well as to end the rule of “Peh Moh” in Sarawak in the forthcoming Sarawak state general election.

Deranged Man Slashes Policeman In The Arm

KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 (Bernama) -- A policeman was injured in the arm when a man, believed to be mentally unstable, ran amuk and slashed him at Jalan Wawasan, Puchong Friday.

Subang Jaya district police chief, ACP Zainal Rashid Abu Bakar said that in the incident at about 7.30pm, the police corporal was slashed with a 'parang' when he tried to pacify the suspect.

"Police received information from members of the public that a man had run amuk in their housing area and two policemen were rushed to the scene.

"The two poliemen tried to pacify the suspect but he ignored them and attacked the policemen with a parang," he said when contacted, here Friday night.

He said one of the policemen could not evade the attack and was slashed on the arm. However, the suspect was later detained.

Zainal Rashid said the policeman suffered light injury and was treated as an outpatient at the Serdang Hospital while the suspect was detained at the Puchong Police Station for further investigation.

Wee quits PKR: So predictable ... yawn!

Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong’s decision to quit PKR on the eve of the Sibu by-election comes as no big surprise.

In doing so, he has betrayed the mandate of those who voted for change. This has been coming for a long time, but I suppose he was waiting for the ‘right moment’.  Aliran president P Ramakrishnan predicted only yesterday something like this would happen on the eve of polling:

Then there will also be the high drama of one or more elected representatives abandoning the mandate of the voters and betraying their trust shamelessly and declaring their new status as Independents!

See Rama’s full statement here.