Tee Keat soldiers on – with or without MCA

By Teoh El Sen - Free Malaysia Today

KUALA LUMPUR: Politics aside, former transport minister and ex-MCA president Ong Tee Keat is a down-to-earth kind of guy.
That's why these days, the Pandan MP has been going to the ground to serve not only his constituents, but also the public at large, living up to his new catchphrase: "My commitment is to the people. It remains unchanged."

Ong is steadfast in this public duty despite talk that he could be dropped as an MCA candidate in the Pandan seat in the next general election.

In the last of a three-part interview with FMT, Ong said he now has more time to go back to, and focus on, the type of community work that he loves doing all this while -- with or without the support of his party.

He said he is now using the NGO platform – notably Yayasan Bakti Nusa – in spearheading more community programmes of late.

Ong is continuing his efforts in HOPE (Higher Opportunities for Private Education), an initiative to help students who failed to get into public universities to obtain places at private universities at subsidised rates.

He is also launching another project called TRAIN (Technical Resource and Internship Network), a vocational training programme for school leavers and dropouts.

Apart from his popular weekly mobile clinic project in Pandan, Ong also recently started a baby hatch project to save abandoned babies and a “city survival” programme to help women cope with urban living.

Of late, Ong is spending more time indulging in his hobby – reading. He has also taken up a new "job" as a columnist for several news outlets.

Below are excerpts of the interview:

FMT: Since your departure as transport minister, how have you been spending your time in your Pandan constituency?
In the past months since I left, I've been spending more time in my constituency doing community work largely conducted by Yayasan Bakti Nusa Malaysia.

I am still playing the role of executive adviser to Yayasan Bakti Nusa (an NGO formed more than 10 years ago). On top of that, of late, I have just started my column for the Malay, Chinese and English media. On and off, I also find time to pursue my hobby -- reading. Not just politics but also memoirs of celebrities, especially political celebrities. That is how I spend my time.

Can you elaborate more on these 'NGO activities' by Yayasan Bakti Nusa?
When I was serving as a deputy minister some years ago, I had conceived the idea of enhancing access to local university education. Through a programme known as HOPE (www.hope.org.my), we have formed a committee to monitor the intake of 16 private universities. If they still have excess seats available, we will help students who failed to gain entry into public universities to enrol in anyone of these private institutions. Their subsidised tuition fees are comparable to those of public universities. Thus, we are offering a second chance to those who didn't get into public universities.

So this HOPE programme is still ongoing?
Yes it is. We introduced this on Jan 1, 2007, with the 16 participating universities. To date, we have more than 1,000 students sponsored under the HOPE programme.

So this is really something close to your heart?
Yes, certainly. Now we are undertaking a second phase: we are taking in SPM and UEC students instead of only STPM students. (The UEC exam is for Chinese independant schools.) For those students who can't afford the subsidised rate, we can assist them to apply for the government-sponsored National Higher Education Fund Corporation loans.

There is another initiative of yours called TRAIN (Technical Resource and Internship Network). Could you tell us more about this?
TRAIN is not train coaches. But it is a new manpower or vocational training programme specifically meant for dropouts or school leavers. We know that the dropouts will not be taken in by government-run vocational schools which require an SPM qualification. But dropouts, especially those who don't have adequate proficiency in Bahasa Malaysia and English, are the people left in the lurch. TRAIN (www.train.org.my) provides courses to enable them to acquire entrepreneurial skills so that they can secure a better livelihood.

I am going to launch a new phase after Hari Raya. Some of the courses are conducted in Mandarin, some in Bahasa... it depends on the needs of the students.
What we want to make sure is that the early school leavers have a platform to acquire the necessary skills in a language they are comfortable in. Because if you were to conduct courses in a language they don't understand, it will defeat the purpose.

Where is TRAIN based and how many students do you have?
This is just the beginning... when we enter the new phase, it would be more realistic for us to announce the figures. So far, we have managed to take in more than 200 students. Currently, TRAIN is based in the Klang Valley, but we want to have more training personnel to join us.

How and why were HOPE and TRAIN conceived?
I was prompted to start these two programmes as a result of my own personal experience. When I was 13, I nearly became a dropout and joined the child labour force. This was because my dad suddenly passed away.

Those days we needed to pay school fees and we struggled. I had gone through all this with my brother so I know it is extremely challenging. My elder brother was a dropout and throughout his working life as an electrician, he never got his skills certified just because of his lack of proficiency in Bahasa and English. He is now retired.
So, you may have the working experience, but you still can get nowhere. I have seen enough cases like this in our community. I wanted to make sure this was changed.

As for HOPE, when I served as the MCA Youth chief, every year without fail, throngs of students came to us to seek our help because they couldn't get into local public universities. We have to register their names and bring up their cases to the authorities. But I don't really believe in fighting endless battles, so I started HOPE.

Where does the funding of these projects come from?
We started from very limited funds. We don't have the hard cash to meet the demands of each and every person. But the participating universities are subsidising; after all, we are using their excess, unused seats and they had agreed to do this as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility or community service inititiative.

What other programmes are you working on?
I started two other social intervention programmes for women and children. First is the city survival programme meant for women and second is the life-saving project for abandoned babies.

Are there many baby-dumping cases in Pandan and why are you teaching women about city survival?
Not only in Pandan but also in the greater Kuala Lumpur and Ampang Jaya. When I thought about these two programmes, I had in mind not only Pandan but also the country as a whole. It is going to be a series of nationwide programmes. This is not going to be a political (undertaking) but based on humanitarian grounds. It is imperative for us to do something about this.

We are focused on life-saving because we don't want to get embroiled in age-old polemics of whether it is moral or immoral to abandon babies. Suffice to say, we are concerned about saving lives.
As for city survival, women need to learn to be more streetwise and be given sufficient knowledge and information on the latest developments in the crime scene.

Is this your own brainchild or are you getting help from the MCA, or is this strictly NGO work?
I would say that is my brainchild. At the same time I am aided by my NGO friends, who would often engage in a brainstorming session with me over lunch.
When I was vice-president, I brought these programmes to the MCA, but I must admit that at that material time, it did not seem to attract much attention from the MCA leaders.

With or without their participation, we managed to kickstart this programme without any financial aid from the government. But I did not brag about this.
Also, in each constituency, we have a committee under the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development called the Council of Welfare and Social Development (Mayang). I am the chairman of Pandan Mayang. When I am asked time and again if I would party-hop, I would answer that my loyalty is to the people. When I say this, it's not platitude and neither is it rhetorical. I mean business. Even without a ministerial post, I won't give up my endeavours. These are my brainchild. I have to work them out and give them a new lease of life.


How about your mobile clinic project, how is that coming along?
Every Sunday morning without fail, our mobile clinic with doctors and nurses has been going round from community to community in Pandan since February this year. This is for the urban poor, especially the low and middle low-income groups.
We could see that residents in apartment or flats are responding positively. In just a few hours, we could have a crowd of about 200 people. Sometimes it could rise to 400 and so we have to extend our time.

We are planning to start another mobile clinic. When we talk about the urban poor, we can go on talking all day, but we also need such an intervention programme. I spend at least one hour at each stop. Sometimes I just put on my jeans and walk in and talk to the waiting crowd. Through this programme, we even managed to identify some of the common problems of the people living in the same area. Sometimes it's linked to local concerns such as the quality of drinking water.

Do you find any problem serving your constituency without holding any national post in both the party and the government?
Of course. Without the ministerial portfolio, fund allocations under the minister's quota would definitely be taken away from me. Now I work within the bounds of limited funds in my constituency. But that has in no way dampened my commitment to serve the people in Pandan.

Are you working on anything to raise funds?
Fundraising for a backbencher would not be as easy as you think, compared to a minister's effort.
At this juncture are you involved in any businesses?
No. When I say that I need to spend time and need to focus on my work, I really mean it. There's no such thing as part-time business or being a part-time boss. And I don't believe in half-heartedness in doing things.

Would you be confident of a win if you were given another chance to contest this parliamentary seat?
Well, of late, there has been speculation that I would most likely be dropped as an MCA candidate for the Pandan seat. I am keeping my fingers crossed... My commitment to serving the people remains unchanged.

CM calls for abolition of Penang Bridge toll

(The Sun) Penang commemorated the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Penang Bridge today with the state government calling for the abolition of toll for its use.

Or watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZdW0z51rEg

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said profits from the toll rates have far exceeded the original construction cost of about RM750 million.

"Since you have made up for the construction costs, we hope you can abolish the toll rate," he said at a press conference. I believe they (the concessionaire) have already made more than RM1 billion in profits."

Since Aug 15, 1993, Penang Bridge Sdn Bhd (PBSB), a subsidiary of UEM Group Bhd, has been managing, operating, upgrading and collecting toll for the bridge under a 25-year concession agreement that expires on May 31, 2018.

The bridge was built by UEM Bhd together with Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company (Korea) Ltd .

When the 13.5km bridge was opened in Sept 1985, it was the world’s third longest, and today it handles more than 100,000 vehicles daily, Lim noted.

Lim also hailed the contribution of "unsung local heroes" behind the bridge, like engineers Tan Sri Prof Chin Fung Kee and Liaw Yew Peng.

"The construction costs were initially budgeted at RM850 million but final costs were RM100 million lower," he said, crediting the engineers for their innovative measures.

"Prof Chin’s various innovative design features such as the use of rubber pads to take care of seismic loading were wisely adopted elsewhere," he added.

He also said the nine workers who lost their lives during the construction should be remembered for their work and sacrifice.

Earlier, Lim held a meeting with Tenaga Nasional Bhd CEO Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh on the incident last Saturday where three TNB cables under the bridge caught fire.

He said TNB had agreed to make public its findings on the cause of the fire.

He said the damaged 150m-long sections of the cables are expected to be replaced by November at a cost of RM5 million.
He added that there was a need for a crisis management plan in the event such an accident recurred, with increased coordination with the cross-channel ferry services run by Penang Port.

Petitions 'irrelevant'

The New Straits Times 
By Nik Imran Abdullah

KOTA BARU:  The petitions filed by a lawyer acting on behalf of Sultan Ismail Petra carry no relevance to the appointment of Tuanku Muhammad Faris Petra as the sultan of Kelantan, a member of the state Succession Council said.

Datuk Shukri Mohamed, who is a lawyer and adviser to Tuanku Faris, said: "The appointment of Tuanku Faris by the council is a separate exercise and has no relevance to the petitions that are pending before the Federal Court," he said at Istana Balai Besar yesterday.

It was reported on Monday that lawyer Rashid Zulkifli, who acted on behalf of Sultan Ismail Petra, had said that attempts by Tuanku Faris to assume the power of the sultan were not proper or lawful.


Rashid said Tuanku Faris could not preempt the Federal Court's pending decision on Sultan Ismail Petra's two petitions on questions about Tuanku Faris acting as regent.

The state council on Monday appointed Tuanku Faris to succeed his father Sultan Ismail Petra based on Article 23A of the state Constitution.

Shukri said the authority of the lawyer to act on behalf of Sultan Ismail Petra was also in dispute as no medical evidence had been produced to substantiate whether the sultan had the capacity to instruct the lawyer to represent him.


No medical evidence had been disclosed "to indicate that Sultan Ismail Petra had the capacity to understand the contents of the petitions and affidavits filed before the Federal Court", he said.

He said the laws of the state constitution had been amended and subsequently published in the state government gazette on July 22.

"Tuanku (Faris) had been advised by the Council of Advisers to issue a decree to amend the state constitution by inserting Article 23A as part of the state Constitution," he said.


Under the Government Proceedings Act, Shukri said there were no legal provisions for any aggrieved party to file an injunction against any government body, including the state Succession Council, from exercising its functions.

"If you can file an injunction against the state government or state assembly from carrying out its duties, the state authorities would not be able to, for example, pay the salaries of civil servants."

Report on unsolved killings 'baseless'

The New Straits Times 

GEORGE TOWN: Police yesterday denied the suspects in the Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya murder case were also involved in the unsolved murders of lawyers in Penang since 1992.

State police chief Datuk Ayub Yaakob said a report in an English daily yesterday that the suspects were involved in the killings of five lawyers here were "totally baseless".

Expressing his unhappiness with the report, he also said no special task force would be formed to look into the unresolved murders in the state.

"I did not mention reopening. I just said reviewing.

"Every state has a committee which reviews all unsolved cases from time to time, especially murder cases.

"It is a standard operating procedure. It is our normal practice," said Ayub.

In a front page report yesterday, the daily had stated that Penang police were reopening unsolved murder cases in the state over the past few years, particularly those involving lawyers. It quoted Ayub as saying that a special committee would re-look those cases to see if there were any new developments.

The cases of murdered lawyers reported in the daily were the ones involving R. Thinakaran Raman, 37, senior civil lawyer Datuk S.P. Annamalai, 59, Chew Sien Chee, 39, criminal lawyer S. Pathmanathan, 29, and Triptipal Singh, 60, between 1992 and last year.

Read more: Report on unsolved killings 'baseless' http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/10lawy/Article#ixzz0zYpu5mDO

Nazri asks if Utusan wants Dr M to replace Najib

By Clara Chooi - The Malaysia Insider

Nazri questioned Utusan’s apparent lack of loyalty. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 — Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has questioned Utusan Malaysia’s apparent attempts to undermine Datuk Seri Najib Razak, asking the Umno newspaper if it was conspiring to replace the prime minister with predecessor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The Umno supreme council member told The Malaysian Insider that from the slant of Utusan Malaysia’s news reports and editorials, it seemed as if the daily had forgotten its own masters.

“I cannot understand Utusan. Who is their boss — Najib or Dr Mahathir?

“I wonder sometimes if they have an agenda to bring back Dr Mahathir to replace Najib,” he said when contacted last night.

The minister in the prime minister’s department explained that by playing up Dr Mahathir’s statements of support for Malay rights group Perkasa, the daily was clearly weakening Najib’s 1 Malaysia concept.

“They should be promoting Najib’s 1 Malaysia and not undermine his programme. [Instead] they are supporting Dr Mahathir.

“Because in the angle of their news reports, they want to give Dr Mahathir more coverage than Najib. They seem to have their own agenda. Do they have an agenda to bring back Dr Mahathir to replace Najib?” he said.

Nazri, however, acknowledged that this made little sense as the daily was owned by the ruling party, of which Najib is president.

“And certainly, 1 Malaysia is Najib’s agenda so Umno-owned papers should be seen to support Najib by promoting 1 Malaysia. But I do not know... I am not directly involved in this.

“Like if you look at Harakah, they promote PAS’s programmes, Suara Keadilan promotes PKR, The Star promotes MCA, but Umno’s paper Utusan does not even support their own bosses,” he said.

Nazri was responding to the daily’s overt promotion of Perkasa despite the recent bid by the ruling Umno leadership to disassociate itself from the Malay rights group, fearing that supporting it would only cause Barisan Nasional (BN) to lose the people’s support.

Ibrahim was labelled a “reject” by the minister.

Dr Mahathir, who is Perkasa’s patron, quickly stepped into the fray to warn Umno against completely rejecting the group, claiming that the ruling party was weak and risked losing the next general election.

Utusan Malaysia seemed to agree with Dr Mahathir on the issue, and in response, the daily has been carrying opinions, features and stories that directly back the former premier and Perkasa.

Its open support for Perkasa in an editorial carried on Sunday had already raised questions on whether the daily was still supporting the Najib administration.

In yesterday’s edition of the conservative Umno newspaper, there were even more strident views published.

A prominent feature in the daily’s Op-Ed section lamented how Malays could no longer speak of their rights anymore without being classed as racist.

The opinion piece also argued against using Perkasa as a scapegoat for BN’s failure to capture the non-Malay votes.

The daily also published a series of quotes from ordinary Malays, accompanied by photographs, under the headline “Majority of Malays support Perkasa”.

Nazri, however, insisted that Utusan Malaysia’s assertions were merely based on selective interviews with the minority of Malays, claiming that it did not necessarily reflect the true feelings of the grassroots.

“To me, they do not represent the feelings of the Malays on the ground because the Malays who support PAS will continue to support PAS regardless of what Utusan says and so will the PKR boys who support (PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri) Anwar (Ibrahim)... they do not care what Utusan says, and the same goes for all,” he said.

Nazri cited an example of his Padang Rengas parliamentary constituency in Perak, pointing out that Perkasa had not even succeeded to cause a ripple in the pool of Malay voters there.

“I am the Padang Rengas Umno division chief. At the grassroots level, no one talks about Perkasa and in my division, no one has joined Perkasa. I think the same goes for the neighbouring areas of Kuala Kangsar, Sungai Siput, Lenggong, Bukit Gantang... Perkasa has no impact whatsoever,” he said.

Nazri added that Perkasa was only being popularised in Utusan Malaysia.

“They have no impact in the rural areas and you want to know why? Because those who are leaders of Perkasa are Umno rejects. Umno members who hold posts in the division will not support Perkasa.

“Look, (Perkasa president Datuk) Ibrahim Ali himself is a reject. His deputy also lost in an Umno division fight and so did his Youth chief,” he said.

Ibrahim, the fiery founder of Perkasa, was sacked from Umno in 2004 and won the Pasir Mas parliamentary seat on a PAS ticket.

Story of Our PM, DPM and Queen......

By Michael Owen,

 

Najib asked the Queen, "Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient
government?  Are there any tips you can give to me?"

" Well," said the Queen, "the most important thing is to surround yourself
with intelligent people."

Najib frowned, and then asked, " But how do I know the people around me
are really intelligent?"
The Queen took a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy; you just ask them to answer
an intelligent riddle." The Queen pushed a button on her intercom. "Please
send Tony Blair in here, would you?"
Tony Blair walked into the room and said, "Yes, my Queen?"
The Queen smiled and said, "Answer me this please, Tony, your mother and
father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who
is it?"
Without pausing for a moment, Tony Blair answered, "That would be me."
"Yes! Very good," said the Queen.

Najib went back home to ask Mahyudin the same
question. "answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a
child.   It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?"
"I'm not sure," said Mahyudin. "Let me get back to you on that one..." He
went to his advisors and asked every one, but none could give him an
answer.  Finally, he ended up in the men's room and recognized Lim Guan Eng's shoes in the next stall. 

Mahyudin didn't want but asked anyway, "Lim, can you
answer this for me?  Your mother and father have a child and it's not your
brother or your sister. Who is it?"
Lim yelled back, "That's easy, it's me!"
Mahyudin smiled, and said, "Thanks!" 

Then, he went back to speak with Najib.
"Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle.  It's
Lim Guan Eng!"
Najib got up, stomped over to Mahyudin, and angrily yelled into his face,
"No! You idiot!  It's Tony Blair!"

AND THAT MY FRIENDS IS PRECISELY WHAT'S GOING ON WITH OUR FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT IN Putrajaya

IGP GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS ON FIRST DAY....WILL HE BE SINCERE TOWARDS HIS DUTIES....??

By Muralitharan Ramachandran

KUALA LUMPUR: Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar began his first day in office yesterday with a series of meetings with senior officers. (NST 14/09/10).

Looks like the new top cop in our nation has officially started his duties promising to combat crimes...bla, bla, bla.....just like the other top cops who spoke on their first day of their duty but what about Tan Sri Ismail Omar? Will he be sincere towards his duties...?? To safe guard the nation's law and order, to fight corruption within the forces, to combat abuse of power by his officers and the most talked about lately, the interference of third parties concerning police duties?

 I am sure Tan Sri Ismail has plans and answers for all these questions above. Every Malaysians like me will be wondering what is he going to do about this. And, during media interviews pertaining on going crisis, is he going to answer the same way as the former, The Great Tan Sri  Musa Hassan answers....:"Do Not Speculate, Let Us Investigate" and after someone is shot dead by the police, the same stereotype answers from him " My Men were Following Them, Upon Knowing It, They (the suspected criminals) Fired A Few Shots Forcing My Men To Open Fire At Them."

As for me, I wonder what are his actions going to be on the allegations by his former boss on "Interference Of Third Parties". Is he going to dig up old files and start investigations or wait for the former to lodge an official complain about this? Whatever his actions going to be it should clear the  doubts of all Malaysians who will be magnifying his actions from now.

Now, Lets look at the image of our Polis Diraja Malaysia. It doesn't really portray an image of what it should be. There was a spree of  deaths in custody and unwanted shootings lately. How is he going to change it?  Is he going to hold a Royal Commission or at least an internal enquiry on all those police personnel involved?
There are a lot of issues to be looked into by the new Top Cop.

So, Malaysians of all ethnics, let us wait patiently for our answers. And then again, "Do Not Speculate, Lets wait And See".

MB Khalid also wants Anwar-Azizah combo

British prostitution ring sentenced to 2-plus years each

London, England (CNN) -- Three women and a man who admitted to trafficking in underage girls have been sentenced to prison terms of more than two years each, British authorities announced Tuesday.

The three women and one man pleaded guilty to the charges Monday in Harrow Crown Court, north of London. They were arrested about a year ago and accused of bringing girls to London to sell them for sex.

"This is a sad and harrowing case that involved the main defendants effectively selling the virginity of girls as young as 13 for as much as 150,000 pounds ($231,300)," said Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Martin, head of the Metropolitan Police Service's Human Exploitation and Organized Crime Command.

Fatima Hagnegat, Marokh Jamali and Rasoul Gholampour pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic persons within the United Kingdom for sexual exploitation. Hagnegat and Jamali also pleaded guilty to control of prostitution for gain, police said.

Jamali and Gholampour received sentences of two years and nine months in prison, while Hagnegat was sentenced to two and a half years, court officials announced.

A 43-year-old woman who also pleaded guillty to trafficking conspiracy received a two-and-a-half-year prison term. Her name was withheld under British laws aimed at protecting the identities of children.

The investigation began in September 2009 after a woman dropped off a handwritten note at the Jumeirah Carlton Hotel in London's upscale Knightsbridge neighborhood. The note was addressed to the owner of the hotel and mentioned a rented house with girls available, though it didn't say for what, police said.

"I have 12 girls ready from the age 14-20 years, who are living all over the U.K.," the note read.

Concerned staff at the hotel alerted police, who traced the phone number on the note and the woman's car to an address in Wigan, near Manchester in northern England. That was where Hagnegat, 24, lived with her 30-year-old husband Gholampour, police said.

An undercover officer then called the number on the note to ask about hiring girls for a client. He spoke to Hagnegat's aunt, Marohkh Jamali, 41, who said she could arrange a party for four to five people that night with girls from Iran, England and Eastern Europe, police said.

The aunt said the girls would be between the ages of 14 and 20, police said.

A week later, the officer met Jamali at the Lancaster London hotel, which agreed with police to be the venue for the undercover officer's meetings with the defendants.

Jamali told the officer she could provide girls between the ages of 14 and 20. She said some of the girls were virgins, and that a number of them were available for a full range of sexual acts, police said.

Over the next two weeks, Jamali e-mailed the officer 28 times with pictures of several girls 14 and older, saying they were available for sex.

The officer then contacted Jamali to arrange a meeting with the girls. Jamali said she would bring four or five of them, including two 13-year-olds, to London and that she wanted at least 50,000 pounds ($77,000) and as much as 150,000 pounds ($231,300) for each one, police said.

Jamali went to the hotel the next day with Hagnegat and six girls, two of whom were 14, one who was 17, and others who were 18 or older. Officers then arrested Jamali and Hagnegat and took the six girls to a victims center, police said.

The girls told investigators that they traveled from Wigan, England, to London on the understanding they would earn money by dancing for a group of rich men. It was only once they arrived in London that they were told they may be asked to have sex with the men.

Gholampour was arrested when police then searched Hagnegat's home, and the 43-year-old owner of the apartment where the girls stayed the night before the London meeting was also arrested, police said. She could not be named for legal reasons, they said.

"This case highlights the fact that trafficking is not just a crime that involves foreign nationals being brought in the U.K. It is something that happens within the U.K. as well," Martin said. "We hope that this result will encourage any other potential victims to come forward and speak with police who may have felt that they couldn't do so before."

Lessons from the whole Quran episode

(CNN) -- When Terry Jones, a Florida pastor, announced his plan to burn Qurans on 9/11 with a tweet and an "International Burn a Koran Day" page on Facebook, he ignited an international conflagration of outrage.
As news spread, worldwide condemnation and anxiety mounted. At least two people died in a demonstration in Afghanistan. It seemed this obscure self-proclaimed pastor in Gainesville, Florida, was determined to carry out an action of catastrophic global consequences.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates even called him. Jones finally changed his mind.
Now that the crisis is over, CNN asked contributors to write their observations of what happened, and what lessons the pastor's threat and the events that followed can teach us.

Bob Steele, director of the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University and the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values at the Poynter Institute.
Journalism is a powerful tool with very sharp edges. Used wisely and skillfully this tool can craft solid, substantive stories that meaningfully inform citizens. When used irresponsibly and incompetently, the journalism tool causes great harm.
Regrettably, the saga of the Rev. Terry Jones and his Quran-burning threat proves that many journalists and news organizations too easily abandon news judgment, professionalism and ethical standards in a zealous quest for a controversial story.
Journalists could not and should not have ignored Jones and his threats, no matter how inane and injurious they were. Journalists have an obligation to shine the light of scrutiny on those who threaten others, and that is what Jones and his disciples were doing. They were preaching intolerance and hate with the potential for real harm. However, the coverage of this small band of publicity seekers was vastly out of proportion to the value of the news story.

The intensity and tone of the reporting seriously skewed its significance. The flawed journalism fueled the fervor of many TV and radio talking heads and online commenters producing much more diatribe than dialogue. The journalistic power tool is a force for good, but only when used wisely and well. That didn't happen in this case.

Akbar Ahmed is professor and Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington and the former high commissioner from Pakistan to the United Kingdom. He is author of "Journey Into America: The Challenge of Islam" (Brookings Press).
While the desire to humiliate or hurt those who are not like us may be played out on a local level, we learned in the case of Pastor Terry Jones how quickly it could be transported onto the global stage, dragging in the entire world in confrontation. Unfortunately, although Jones canceled his plans, we learned that the very idea was so offensive that it will continue to percolate all over the Muslim world. Several people have already lost their lives in demonstrations.
We learned how a great country, founded in some of the noblest ideals of human civilization embodied by its Founding Fathers -- civility and respect for knowledge -- could have its image abroad tarnished by the actions of an individual. And it was confirmed for us that the actions of small groups of people will continue to exacerbate the already complicated and often tense relationship between the United States and the Muslim world.
Finally, we also learned how Jews, Christians and people of other or no faiths all categorically rejected the idea of burning the Quran as disrespectful and even harmful. In that sense, Jones' story had a happy ending, showing that there is such a thing as reason and compassion in the hearts of the high and mighty and the ordinary folk, which trumped hatred and bigotry.

Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy and legal fellow for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington.
Usually in America, when a lone crackpot of any political or religious persuasion threatens to commit a publicity stunt that will needlessly enrage millions of other innocent people, our basic common sense tells us that our national media should not even give that person the time of day.
Sadly, not only did Terry Jones successfully receive media attention, but because of the overexposure of this one man, we are beginning to see other "copycat" Quran burnings around the country.
The consequences of the widespread media coverage of this possible event were so serious that both President Obama and Gen. David Petraeus warned that burning copies of the Quran would endanger the lives and well-being of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have already been other copycat Quran burnings at mosques in Tennessee, Michigan and other states.
Sadly, because of our media's overexposure of Jones and his stupid anti-Muslim publicity stunt, we may have only seen the beginning of what might turn into a national trend of Quran burnings around the country.

Brian Fishman is a counterterrorism research fellow at the New America Foundation, a think tank focused on innovative ideas across the political spectrum.
The statement from Asaib Ahl al-Haqq, a Shiite militant group in Iraq with ties to Iran, was typical of militant Islamist responses to the would-be Quran-burning in Florida: "The enemy should know that we are serious about this matter and that, God willing, we are capable of setting the Iraqi land on which they stand on fire; turning it to a volcano that never calms and a fire that never dies, regardless of the sacrifice."
Propaganda to be sure, but Asaib Ahl al-Haqq specializes in rocket attacks on American facilities and has the capability to increase violence. Its capability cannot be wished away.
The Florida church's decision to stand down will mitigate the radicalization and violence that might have occurred had it gone forward. But there were serious strategic costs to the U.S. from the entire sordid episode, including a missed opportunity to remind the world, and ourselves, what 9/11 and the response to it is all about. That matters when we have enemies like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in Afghanistan, who explain the Quran burning as "part of the American war against Muslims" that "they started ... 60 years ago by occupying Palestine, and then invaded Iraq and Afghanistan."
President Obama, Gen. David Petraeus and others were right to condemn the Quran burning, even if their comments increased domestic media coverage. Jihadis were already capitalizing on the situation, and official silence would be easily manipulated by jihadi groups as support. It was a lose-lose situation.
In a world of global communications, crackpots such as the would-be Quran-burners in Florida can disrupt the U.S. war on terror. In the future, Americans might take some wisdom about the responsibilities that come with the right to free speech from Petraeus' guidance to his troops upon taking command in Afghanistan: "Live our values. Stay true to the values we hold dear. This is what distinguishes us from our enemies. We are engaged in a tough endeavor. ... All of us experience moments of anger, but we must not give in to dark impulses or tolerate unacceptable actions by others."

Ed Rollins, a senior political contributor for CNN, is senior presidential fellow at the Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University. He was White House political director for President Reagan and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
If a tree fell in a forest and hit Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, on the head on September 11, would anyone other than the 50 poor souls who turn to this misguided preacher for spiritual guidance each Sunday care? Would the falling tree make any sound other than thump?
Before the last few weeks, nobody would even know the pastor existed. Then why did his reckless and self-serving threats to burn hundreds of copies of the Quran become a national and international story that, according to Google news, was in more than 12,000 articles? The secretary of state, defense secretary and many other serious people put aside their real work to placate this man's ego.
We were told that his actions would lead to serious threats against the mightiest military in the world and put our soldiers in jeopardy. Have we all lost our minds? Unfortunately, it's the age we live in. Instant communication becomes instant celebrity. We live in a society where "yelling fire in a theater" when there is none won't get you arrested -- but will get you a slot on the morning shows. As never before in our history, instant news stories, regardless of whether they're relevant or not, are just that: "instant news stories."
"Who cares?" and "Does this really matter?" should be the guiding principles of our news organizations. We all know there are consequences when someone irresponsibly uses the media for his message of hate. We will be the poorer if the slogan "All the news that's fit to print," which has appeared on the front page of The New York Times since 1896, is replaced with "Send us anything that's a little sensational to fill our blogs and 24-hour air space." The First Amendment guarantees that we can say anything, but it doesn't guarantee that news organizations need to broadcast or print it.

Farah Akbar is a New York-based writer who has contributed to Gotham Gazette, Islamonline.net, Al-Ahram Weekly and Salon.com.
The world is full of attention-hungry individuals willing to do just about anything for fame. Terry Jones got it, and frankly, he did not even have to do much. A provocative threat from him wrapped the media around his finger for days.
His distasteful plan to burn Qurans on the ninth anniversary of September 11 at an obscure church had the media obsessed about him, as teenyboppers are about Justin Bieber.
Jones, a radical, fringe Christian with less than 50 followers, wound up having a change of heart. His only claim to fame before this was a hateful book he wrote that has only six reviews on Amazon.com, most of which are negative. And besides his title of pastor, what authority or influence does he have when it comes to matters of religion?
But if Jones had followed through on his pledge to burn Islam's holy book, the results could have been disastrous. Many Muslims perceive any insult toward their revered book as an attack on their faith. The Daily Star, an English-language paper in Lebanon, said that if the event were to have taken place, it was "likely to ignite a fire of rage that could consume swaths of the globe." Demonstrations against the burning took place in Pakistan, Gaza, Indonesia and Afghanistan.
His cheap attempt at getting attention trumped important news, such as the devastating floods that have ravaged much of Pakistan. Aren't there individuals on the planet who are actually making a positive difference in the lives of others who would have been more worthy of that attention?
How could this situation, with the potential to have had very damaging effects here and elsewhere been avoided? Simple -- don't let obscure people, whose actions have the potential to incite violence, dominate the news cycle.

Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor.
In the Quran burning that wasn't, seven lessons can be learned.
1. There are extremists in every religion. Islam has them. Christianity has them. We shouldn't let our perceptions of Christianity be determined by Terry Jones, or our perceptions of Islam by al Qaeda.
2. Don't let the extremists control the story. When Jones canceled his 9/11 Quran burning and then abruptly uncanceled it, you could almost hear a collective groan from the media: How and why did we end up giving this nut so much airtime? The more important question is whether we are going to let the fringe control the religion conversation. We have done that in U.S. politics to a shocking extent. Are we going to let it happen with Islam?
3. We need stories about interfaith cooperation to balance the stories about religious conflict. Yes, conflict sells newspapers and captures eyeballs. And God knows there is plenty of conflict to cover. But the hard work of religion is being done every day by people like Zeenat Rahman of the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, who challenges her readers in the Chicago Tribune to seek out their Muslim neighbors and ask them what they believe.
4. The religious world is flat, too. We can gaze into the inner workings of a microchurch in Gainesville, Florida, not only from New York and Atlanta, Georgia, but also from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Jakarta, Indonesia.
One reason Gen. David Petraeus felt he had to respond to Jones was that the story was gaining traction in the Muslim world. No religion story is merely local any more.
5. Religion matters. Even if you aren't religious you cannot avoid the power of religion, which continues to refuse to be relegated to the private realm either at home or abroad. Religious beliefs and behaviors may or may not move mountains, but they move people. They turn elections in India and in the United States, and they affect economic behavior in Saudi Arabia and China.
6. Religious illiteracy is rampant, not least about Islam. It is easy to wag a finger at Jones for condemning a book he has by his own admission never read, but Americans as a group admit to being almost ignorant about the world's second largest religion. According to a poll released last month by the Pew Research Center, 30 percent of Americans say they know "not very much" about Islam and 25 percent say they know "nothing at all."
Are we going to continue to get our "information" about Muslims and the Quran from Jones, Franklin Graham and Newt Gingrich? Perhaps it is time we started listening to Muslims themselves -- to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Park51 project, Ingrid Mattson of the Islamic Society of North America and Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota.
7. We need to have an informed conversation about Islam. After 9/11, that conversation died aborning, collapsing into uninformed platitudes about how Islam was "a religion of peace" or "a religion of war." We need to get beyond the platitudes by informing ourselves about, among other things, the Quran.

Jocelyne Cesari is director of the Islam in the West Program at Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University. She is a political scientist, specializing in contemporary Islamic societies and Islam in Europe and in the United States. For more, see euro-islam.info and islamopediaonline.
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Americans hurried to bookstores to buy the Quran, hoping to understand why 19 Muslim extremists carried out the most devastating terrorist attacks against America ever.
Now, on the ninth anniversary of 9/11, some Americans prefer to desecrate Qurans. Terry Jones created an international media frenzy by threatening to burn 200 Qurans, but didn't, while members of the Westboro Baptist Church made good on their threat, but with hardly any media attention at all. Vandals left burned Qurans at mosques in East Lansing, Michigan, and Knoxville, Tennessee.
While resentment has simmered against Muslims in America since 9/11, not since the attacks has the backlash been so intense. There are several reasons. For starters, America's military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, accompanied by the news media images of al Qaeda and Taliban extremists committing suicide attacks and beheading infidels, has planted a monolithic and evil image of Muslims in Americans' heads.
Second, the persistent and increased threat of radical Islamism across the world, coupled with the rise of homegrown terrorism, from would-be subway bomber Zazi Najibullah and Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Hasan, to the more recent Times Square bombing attempt, among others. This year, fear and feelings of insecurity are growing among many Americans, exacerbated by economic hard times and perceptions of an America in decline.
What hasn't changed is that the Quran is still perceived by many Americans as the motivating force behind Islamic radicalism. It's not a completely unreasonable conclusion, given that extremists cherry-pick verses of the Quran to justify indiscriminate violence. Yet it's a misinformed conclusion. No Scriptures, especially sacred religious texts, stand on their own.
Taking the Quran out of context to turn it into a political weapon against the West is what radicals do. While the media and public often assume that extremist interpretations of the Quran are classical interpretations, they are in fact new, and very far from Islamic tradition and centuries of religious interpretations and contextualization of message.
Repressive regimes and America's military presence in the Middle East, for example, have led to the creation of a political movement like al Qaeda. Taking these factors into account, rather than cherry-picking Quranic texts for evidence of violent tendencies, as radicals do, would be a much more effective way of countering terrorism.

Ruben Navarrette Jr., a regular contributor to CNN.com, is a nationally syndicated columnist and an NPR commentator.
Terry Jones never made good on his boorish threat to burn a copy of the Quran. But the Florida pastor did manage to ignite an international firestorm.
Of course, Jones had help. The same media that helped fan the flames of this controversy because apparently some readers, viewers and listeners were curious about whether the attention-craved preacher would actually carry out his plan, later turned around and accused Jones of creating unrest and inciting violence around the world.
That theory gives Jones more credit than he's due. It's obvious that he was playing us -- the media, politicians, activists, all of us. Whatever it took to get him the most attention at any given time -- make a threat, try to make a deal, cancel a threat, catch a flight to New York, etc. -- he did it.

Sadly, in the end, according to news accounts, at least three copies of the Quran were burned. And at a counterdemonstration in London, anti-American protesters burned the Stars and Stripes and a copy of the U.S. Constitution. So now we know: It doesn't take much to turn mischief into madness.

The opinions expressed in these commentaries are solely those of the authors.

Suspend Racist and religious supremacist UMNO Utusan Malay-sia for maliciously implicating Hindraf lawyers in murder of Susilowati

No.6, Jalan Abdullah, Off Jalan Bangsar, 59000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: 03-2282 5241 Fax: 03-2282 5245
Website: www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com Email: info@humanrightspartymalaysia.com

Your Reference :

In Reply :

Date : 14/09/2010





Y.B Dato Seri Hishamuddin Hussein
Home Minister,
Aras 12 Block D 1,
Complex Kerajaan Fasa D,
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan,                Fax: 03-8888 4913 62546 Putrajaya. E-Mail: hishamuddin@moha.gov.my


Dear Sirs,
RE: Suspend Racist and religious supremacist UMNO Utusan Malay-sia for maliciously implicating Hindraf lawyers in murder of Susilowati.

We refer to the above matter and to the Utusan Malay-sia headlines amongst others “Siasatan juga mendapati Datuk itu (an Indian lawyer) pernah memberi bantuan guaman kepada Pertubuhan haram Hindraf dan menjadi ahli seumur hidup sebuah parti politik”.
This statement is a completely untrue, false, malicious and a Seditious statement calculated to tarnish Hindraf, cause disunity among the peaceful Indian and Malay communities in Malaysia and to cause racial disharmony.
Hindraf categorically denies that the lawyer/s implicated in the murder of Susilawati has ever represented Hindraf or any of it’s supporters or had rendered legal assistance to Hindraf at any material time. And neither do we know them or had ever known them.
This is not the first time but this UMNO linked Utusan Malay-sia has repeatedly done this especially during the period immediately before and after the 25^th November 2007 Hindraf Rally.
We hereby call upon your goodselves further to Article 8 of the Federal Constitution (Equality before the law) to stop this UMNO and Utusan Malay-sia racist and religions supremacist agenda and forthwith suspend Utusan Malaysia like what your goodselves had done to Makkal Osai at least on two occasions
within a space of about six (6) months or so in 2008 and previously to Tamil Malar a Tamil daily and various other publications.
End the UMNO racist and religious agenda in One Malay-sia.
Kindly revert to us accordingly.
Thank you.
Your faithfully,
………………..
P. Uthayakumar
(Secretary General pro-tem)

Finally, Mahathir concedes he screwed the merit system

Sambu lingam, via e-mail - free Malaysia Today

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad in a statement (FMT Sept 4, 2010) finally admitted that he and the Umno government intentionally discriminated against innocent non Bumiputra students by denying their educational rights as enshrined in the Constitution.

He said: "If we use the merit system , half of the university students (Bumiputeras) don't qualify..."

What one can gather from his statement is that the education system over the past 53 years has failed to produce Bumiputera students to meet the set requirement by Umno's own higher educational qualification merits.

Despite the billions spend to improve the educational achievements among Bumiputeras, citizens of this country are now been told by this longest serving Malaysian Prime Minister that Bumiputera students in Malaysia can only survive upon discrimination against their fellow non Bumi students. What a shame!

The former Prime Minister also revealed the truth on why local public universities are constantly dropping in international standard ratings. He admitted that half of the undergraduates did not qualify for entry into universities but were nevertheless granted places merely on race considerations.

I wonder how he justifies such brutal educational injustices. The moment a government tolerates such discrimination, it is actually planning to fail the country and its citizens over the years to come.

By implementing this racist based policies, thousands of fully qualified non Bumiputera students are cruelly denied entry into matriculation courses , local public universities intakes as well the PSD scholarships.

To summarise Mahathir's statement, he as the former prime minister and those in power ruling this country today clearly do not implement meritocracy in local university intakes, half of our university students are actually non qualifiers for higher education.

Fully qualified non Bumiputera students are oppressed and suppressed by the implementation of racially biased educational discrimination. The Umno-led Barisan Nasional government over the past 40 years have conveniently violated article 8 and 12 of Federal Constitution.

Singapore was cause of Malaysia’s racial problems, says Dr M

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today that racism in Malaysia was clearly the result of Singapore’s short membership in the country, and not because the island was “turfed out” as suggested by the republic’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew recently.

“Can we really believe that if Singapore had not been ‘turfed out’ Malaysia would have no racial problem?

“While Kuan Yew talks about his belief that all ethnic communities should free themselves from the shackles of racial segregation in order to promote fairness and equality among the races, he also said that “once we are by ourselves (out of Malaysia) the Chinese become the majority,” said Dr Mahathir in a posting on his blog.

In an interview with the New York Times, Lee argued that if Malaysia had accepted a multiracial base much of what had been achieved in Singapore would have also been attained in Malaysia.

Lee, Singapore’s longest serving prime minister, claimed that if Singapore had not seceded from Malaysia, the country would have improved inter-racial relations and an improved holistic situation today.

“Now we have a very polarised Malaysia — Malays, Chinese and Indians in separate schools, living separate lives and not really getting on with one another. You read them. That’s bad for us as close neighbours,” he had said in the interview according to the transcript made available on the website of the Singapore prime minister’s office.

The remarks by the two retired prime ministers come ahead of Malaysia Day on Thursday.

Singapore joined newly-independent Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia on September 16, 1963, but was subsequently expelled in 1965.

Lee’s and Dr Mahathir’s comments also come amid a heightened race debate in Malaysia, as a result of plans by the Najib administration to roll back some of the country’s affirmative action policies favouring the Malay and Bumiputera communities.

In his blog post, Dr Mahathir pointed out that Singapore’s population was made up of 75 per cent Chinese and that the community owned 95 per cent of the economy.

“It is therefore not a truly multi-racial country but a Chinese country with minority racial groups who are additionally much poorer,” he claimed.

Lee had said in his interview that all ethnic communities should free themselves from the shackles of racial segregation in order to promote fairness and equality among the races.

This, he said, had been his greatest satisfaction in helming Singapore.

“We made quite sure whatever your race, language or religion, you are an equal citizen and we’ll drum that into the people and I think our Chinese understand and today we have an integrated society.

“We will not as a majority squeeze the minority because once we’re by ourselves, the Chinese become the majority,” he said.

Lee also took a dig at the Malaysian scenario, pointing out that the Singaporean Malays were English-educated and were no longer like the Malaysian Malays.

Dr Mahathir’s stand contrasted sharply with that of Lee’s. He argued in his blog post that Singapore was a country dominated by one race and not really multiracial.

“Whether the PAP admits it or not, the party has always been led and dominated by ethnic Chinese and have won elections principally because of Chinese votes. The others are not even icing on the cake.

“If Singapore is a part of Malaysia the PAP can certainly reproduce the Singapore kind of non-racial politics because together with the Malaysian Chinese, the PAP will ethnically dominate and control Malaysian politics. No dissent would be allowed and certainly no one would dare say anything about who really runs the country.

“Amnesia is permissible but trying to claim that it is because Singapore had been ‘turfed out’ for the present racist politics in Malaysia is simply not supported by facts of history,” said Dr Mahathir.

Dr Mahathir also asserted that there was less racial politics in Malaya before Singapore joined the federation.

“In 1955, the Malays who made up 80 per cent of the citizens gave a large number of their constituencies to the few Chinese and Indian citizens and ensured they won with strong Malay support. As a result the Alliance won 51 of the 52 seats contested.

“The Tunku then rewarded this willingness of the Chinese and Indian citizens to support the coalition concept by giving them one million unconditional citizenship. This reduced Malay majority to 60 per cent.”

He claimed that it was because Lee had subsequently reneged on a promise that his PAP would not take part in politics outside the island that sparked racial tension.

Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s first prime minister, was forced to expel Singapore because racism had taken hold, Dr Mahathir claimed.

This, Dr Mahathir suggested, led eventually to the 1969 racial riots in Kuala Lumpur.  - The Malaysian Insider

Penang Umno tells Gerakan to surrender seats to MCA, MIC

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Penang Umno has urged Gerakan to surrender all its contested seats in the state to the MCA and MIC if it has given up hope of wresting Penang from Pakatan Rakyat in the next general election.

Penang Umno deputy chairman Datuk Zainal Abidin Osman told The Malaysian Insider today that Gerakan should immediately notify the Barisan Nasional (BN) alliance if it felt it was no longer capable of facing the election.

Teng had admitted in an interview that the DAP would continue to rule Penang for one more term. — File pic

Zainal Abidin, who is also the state’s BN deputy chairman, stressed that no political leaders within the BN pact should give up so easily in their struggles.

“Gerakan leaders should not give up on their efforts to recapture Penang, we have to work hard… and if they are unable to, they should inform quickly so that they (MCA and MIC) can take over their roles (in contesting Gerakan’s seats).

“Gerakan should make way for MCA and MIC to contest in the seats that they (Gerakan) contested two years ago if they are no longer confident,” he said when contacted.

At the same time, Zainal Abidin said efforts to regain the support of Penang folk should be improved to help the BN win in the next general election.

“For Umno, we will work hard to win in the election… we won 11 state seats in 2008 and we are confident that we can win two more in the coming election,” he claimed.

He also expressed confidence that Umno would win more parliamentary seats. BN contested five parliamentary seats in Penang in Election 2008 but only won two.

Zainal Abidin was responding to Penang Gerakan chairman Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan’s admission last week that the DAP would continue its rule in Penang for one more term by winning in the coming 13th general election.

In his prediction, Teng said that BN would only have a chance of winning back Penang, which had been ruled by Gerakan since 1969, in the subsequent general election.

In March 2008, Umno contested 15 state seats in the 40-seat Penang assembly and won in 11 constituencies. Gerakan contested 12 seats but failed to capture even one. The remaining seats were contested by the MCA and MIC.

Of the three Pakatan Rakyat parties, DAP took the lead and won all the 19 seats it contested while PKR won nine and PAS won one.

According to Teng, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng would not be able to lead the state after the 14th general election due to his administrative methods.

“With his style of running the government, he will be appointed the chief minister in the next general election, but … not the following general election,” Teng had told The Malaysian Insider.

PR’s mandate will only end in 2013 but already there is speculation that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would call for early polls at the parliamentary level while state-level elections are to be held at a different date.

Following its dismal performance in the 12th general election, political pundits have described Gerakan as becoming increasingly irrelevant. It now only holds two parliamentary seats.

Zainal Abidin, however, stressed that Teng’s statement and concession to the DAP was not the official stand of the BN or Umno as no prior discussions had been held on the issue.

The Penang BN is currently chaired by Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon who was also the state’s chief minister before Lim. Koh failed in his bid to win a parliamentary seat in the last election.

“Umno was not invited for any discussion to take such a stand… so we regard Teng’s stand as one that is neither the position of BN nor Umno,” said Zainal Abidin.

He added that the foundation of the party’s struggles was to give the best service to the people and to improve its efforts in trying to emerge victorious in the coming election.

He also claimed that there was still time for BN to prepare its strategy.

“In politics, one week is considered a long period… anything can happen, seeing as we do not even know when the elections will be held, maybe in a month, maybe in a year.

“So we (political parties) should use the time available now to improve our efforts in giving the best service to the people,” he said.

While admitting that the BN had committed mistakes in the past, he said the ruling alliance at federal level had improved since then and the people now know that “we have changed”.

“We (BN) want to give the best service to the people. So we should strengthen our party, our party machinery to maintain the level of support from the people, unity and solidarity among party members,” he said.

He said that losing an election was merely a temporary situation but the act of giving up hope would make it a permanent reality.  - The Malaysian Insider

Next-of-kin of four victims undergo DNA tests

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Police are expected to carry out DNA tests (deoxyribonucleic acid) on the next-of-kin of four victims who were murdered and burnt in Tanjung Sepat, Banting, to determine the identity of the victims.

All the next-of-kin, including CIMB Bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad’s mother Satinah Mokhtar, were at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) since 1pm today to undergo the DNA test.

Also present was cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya’s daughter.

Earlier, Noorhisham’s wife Suzana Radim Pangat, 38, was among those seen entering the Dang Wangi Police station to give their personal details to assist in the investigations.

Sosilawati, 47, her personal driver Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, Noorhisham, 38, and lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abd Karim, 32, were reported missing since August 30, after going to Banting, Selangor for a land purchase deal.

Police later confirmed that the four were murdered, burnt and their ashes strewn in a river near Ladang Gadong, Tanjung Sepat. — Bernama

Court hands victory to longhouse folk [video]

Court hands victory to longhouse folk

By Joseph Tawie - Free Malaysia Today,

KUCHING: The residents of seven longhouses in Tuba today heaved a sigh of relief when the Kuching High Court ordered the state to exclude their lands from the proposed Sebuyau National Park.
“It is a huge victory for us,” said Joshua Karim, a spokesman for the group.

“Credit should be given to the people for their brave efforts and their patience.”

Two years ago, the state government earmarked some 27,500 hectares of land in Ulu Sebuyau for the park, meant as a wildlife sanctuary, particularly for orang utan and proboscis monkeys.

Several longhouses, including the seven in Tuba, would have had to be moved out from the area.

But the Tuba folk brought their case to court with the help of native land rights activist Baru Bian and his legal firm. The decision today ensured that 5,000 acres of the NCR (native customary right) land are safe. Only 400 acres of NCR land are now part of the park.

“Now we can sleep peacefully and are no longer fearful of being moved out from the land which we have occupied since the time of Rajah Brooke,” Karim said.

Negotiations to start

Celebrating the victory with them today was PKR supreme councilor Zaid Ibrahim, who flew in from Kuala Lumpur to hear the court decision.

Zaid said the case should serve as a lesson to the state government that it could not simply ignore the rights of the people.

Baru Bian, briefing the press on the court decision, said his clients would begin negotiations with the government next week for some form of compensation for the money they had to spend on the case.

“I hope it can be settled out of court,” he said.

Guna Ungkapan 'India Mabuk', Polis 'Periksa Alat Sulit' Anggota AMK

Nurshakira Buang
KUALA LUMPUR 14 SEPT - Tujuh anggota polis lelaki didakwa mencabul kehormatan seorang anggota Angkatan Muda Keadilan (AMK) Perak dan tiga rakan lain dalam satu sekatan jalan raya di Bukit Sentosa, Hulu Selangor, 7 September lalu.

Mendedahkan perkara itu, Arjunan pada sidang media hari ini, berkata, mereka ditahan sepasukan anggota polis yang dikatakan menggunakan ungkapan 'India Mabuk' sebelum pemeriksaan tubuh dilakukan ke atas mereka secara giliran.

Mencerita detik kejadian lebih lanjut, katanya,  beliau dalam perjalanan ke Ipoh, Perak ketika ditahan polis di satu sekatan jalan raya sebelum lesen dan kad pengenalannya diminta dengan cara tidak sopan.

“Seorang anggota polis mengetuk cermin kereta seperti mahu memecahkannya. Saya kata, dia tidak sopan lalu dia (polis) naik berang dan menyelongkar kereta serta ada menyebut untuk membuka seluar dan baju saya,” katanya.

Arjunan berkata, seorang anggota polis juga memasukkan tangan dalam poket seluar dan memegang alat sulitnya dan mendakwa perbuatan sama turut dilakukan terhadap tiga individu lain yang turut bersama beliau.

Beliau kesal kerana anggota polis terbabit tidak menyatakan sebab beliau diperiksa dan kenderaannya digeledah tetapi percaya perbuatan sedemikian adalah perkara biasa di kalangan polis.

Katanya,  tindakan kurang sopan anggota  polis itu ditegur anak yang juga pembantu peribadinya, Kalaimugilan Arjunan, mendorong polis  mengeluarkan kata-kata kesat sambil mengugut untuk membogelkan mereka dengan alasan polis berkuasa berbuat demikian.
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Kurang senang dengan tindakan  itu, Arjunan bersama tiga rakan lain membuat laporan di balai polis Bukit Sentosa pada hari sama.

Mereka juga bercadang menyerahkan memorandum kepada Ketua Polis Negara yang baru, Tan Sri Ismail Omar dan Kementerian Dalam Negeri bagi mendesak mereka mengambil tindakan tegas ke atas tujuh anggota polis itu.
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Mengikut Seksyen 354 Kanun Keseksaan, seseorang yang melakukan kesalahan mencabul terhadap seseorang baik perempuan mahupun lelaki, boleh dihukum penjara maksimum 10 tahun atau denda, jika sabit kesalahan.

STATEMENT BY DR SYED HUSIN ALI, DEPUTY PRESIDENT ON HIS POSITION VIS-A-VIS THE CENTRAL PARTY ELECTION

Beginning 17th September, various Branches will start the process of proposing names of candidates for all positions in the Party. The time has come for me to state whether I will be defending my position as Deputy President or not.

Of late quite a number of Central, State, Division leaders and ordinary members have sent me sms or emails and phoned me asking or even urging that I should stand. They provided all kinds of reasons. I thank them all most sincerely.

Truly, I wish to see a younger and more active person to succeed me, although at the age of exactly 74 which falls next week, Insha Allah, I sometimes do not feel that old. I wish to devote more time on writing. Besides my wife, children and grand children, this is my great love.

For a long time I have indicated that I would like to withdraw from my position as Deputy President when the time came. I have consulted with my family, a few Party leaders and a number of close friends. Now I have decided not to stand.

But this does not mean that I will leave politics and the Party for good. I began my involvement in politics when I joined the Malaysian People’s Party in 1958. I have been Deputy President of the People’s Justice Party since 2003. Politics and the struggle for the people are in my flesh and blood. Thus it will not be easy to abandon them just like that.

I hope and pray that KEADILAN, as well as its Women and Youth wings will be led by leaders who are committed to the basic struggle of the Party as stated in its Constitution, respectful of Party organizational discipline, tested through long and arduous struggles, good team players, uncompromising against all forms of corruption and upholding high moral values.

It rests upon the members to determine who they want as leaders. The direct election process that has just been introduced by KEADILAN gives every member a vote. It is very democratic. As far as I know this may be the only political party in the world that practices this process.

It is of utmost importance that his process is carried out, by every candidate standing and every member voting, in a fair, clean, transparent manner and free from the corruption of money politics.

Dr Syed Husin Ali
14 September 2010

Obama Slows Outsourcing to India

 
(Asia Sentinel) Facing political problems at home, the US president goes after an international target

Well in advance of US President Barack Obama's November visit to India, consternation is rippling through India's US$50 billion annual outsourcing industry over the president's intention to block tax breaks to companies globalizing their IT operations.

But whatever complications that may bring to his India visit, domestic political concerns are playing a bigger role. Ohio's beleaguered governor, Ted Strickland, who is up for re-election in November, is battling a Republican charge that outsourcing has cost the state 400,000 jobs during the Ohio governor's tenure. Campaigning to try to save a fellow Democrat's seat in a major state, Obama on Sept. 8 announced the end of federal tax breaks for those who outsource jobs. Strickland himself issued an executive order banning outsourcing from his state.

"One of the keys to job creation," Obama told an audience in Cleveland, Ohio, "is to encourage companies to invest more in the US. But for years, our tax code has actually given billions of dollars in tax breaks that encourage companies to create jobs and profits in other countries. I think if we're going to give tax breaks to companies, they should go to companies that create jobs in America -- not those that create jobs overseas."

While the protectionist stance may or may not bolster Obama's ratings, which have hovered at about 49 percent for months – or Strickland's, for that matter – New Delhi immediately felt the tremors. No sooner had the president made his speech than Indian activists and politicians began calling for boycotts of US products. Indian newspapers took up the cudgels, condemning Obama's move.

The Ohio ban and the announcement of the end to the tax breaks, some Indian industry analysts say, could continuw across India's IT industry, especially if other US states follow suit. The industry has grown at double-digit rates for the better part of a decade, much of it built on US companies that have farmed out their back-office operations overseas.

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma announced that India would "formally express its disappointment to the US" over the issue at a high-level bilateral Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting in Washington later this month. The forum is the principal avenue for trade dialogue between the US and India.

According to Sharma, any mindset that is "inward looking and isolatory would end up hurting economies." He recalled the examples of post-Depression protectionist measures in the US of the 1930s and the long-term damage they had unleashed. He emphasized that announcement of the tax change for outsourcing comes within weeks of fee hikes for H1-B visas that will directly affect Indian tech workers and Indian companies in the US.

"We feel that for the speedy recovery of the world, the US should have more confidence to engage with the rest of the world," the minister said. "Protectionist measures end up deepening recession and delaying economic recovery. The Indian IT sector has created jobs in the US even amid job losses all around."

Analysts point out that the issue of tax breaks may not have a direct impact on the Indian outsourcing business as corporate tax rates are higher here than they are in the US, but populist protectionism can cast a long shadow over Obama's visit, his first. He is also visiting India earlier in his presidency than any US leader before, a move intended to be symbolic of the new US-India relationship.

However, sources in India's Ministry of External Affairs point out that there's more to it than meets the eye. The US, they say, has been displeased over the final contours of the just-approved nuclear liability bill and New Delhi's refusal to re-formulate the legislation to accommodate American companies eager to sell components for India's burgeoning nuclear power industry.

The US under the previous administration of President George W. Bush provided the major impetus India's inclusion in the global nuclear club, ending a three-decade old global ban on nuclear sales to the country.

Washington had hoped that New Delhi would help it get an edge over other countries in obtaining lucrative contracts. Nothing of the sort transpired. Instead, the Indian government's decision to drop a controversial clause that seeks to indemnify companies against liability in the event of a nuclear accident will now prevent US companies from having a level-playing field, analysts say, because it puts them up against stiff competition from French and Russian companies which enjoy state subsidies.

"The US corporations are feeling cheated about the bill, which makes suppliers liable, and believe it is deliberately designed to keep American companies out of the Indian market," says the ministry official. This development has led to a souring of moods on both sides, hardly a happy omen for the presidential visit.

As for Obama's outsourcing actions, should India really worry? Nearly 60 per cent of India's software revenue comes from outsourcing, and a large chunk of it from the US. Analysts don't think there's any real cause for worry. The US companies, they point out, are shifting jobs to India for lower labor costs and operational efficiency and the tax issue will not be enough of a detriment to discourage them from continuing to do it.

"The US private sector is the primary source of outsourcing to India," said Virginia-based financial analyst Devender Prasad, "and the recession has only whetted everybody's appetite for cost-cutting. In fact the US corporations are the loudest voice in favor of outsourcing."

Recent surveys have also shown that even in more protectionist Europe, 40 percent of firms plan to add to their outsourcing operations. "In a globalized world, where individual economies are enmeshed with each other, and guided by WTO rules, protectionist barriers can only prove to be detrimental," Prasad said. "It is indeed ironic that the US, which has been biggest supporter of free trade and economic liberalization, should now seek to isolate its economy and its people from the rest of the world."

Critics add that the outsourcing controversy reared its head in 2005 when five US states, including New Jersey, passed or proposed similar legislation. At that time too, the US was heading for a tight election during an economic turndown. But the 2005 laws had a minimal impact on the Indian IT services industry.

In other words, if guarded protectionism over the past two years has not been able to generate more jobs or make local, all-American businesses profitable, what is the guarantee that recent measures like hiking visa fees for foreign workers and prohibiting outsourcing of government work to offshore firms, will achieve the desired result?

Obama knows that a Republican revival is likely to deliver up a congress hostile to his plans for the next two years and could diminish his chances of seeking a second term in 2012. He is playing the cards he has to try to stop that, and in Ohio that means a threat to the globalization of business office processing,

But the fact is that despite 9.75 per cent unemployment in the US, there has been little action against outsourcing since 2005. Ohio's protective penalties may have little impact on the Indian IT sector, which is increasingly looking to other global markets. However, they are far more likely to disturb the Indo-US political equilibrium in the short term. Obama may face a tough time on his maiden visit to India.

New Delhi-based Neeta Lal writes internationally on current affairs; neetalal@hotmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

ANALYSIS – Malaysia “top-down” reforms set to disappoint

By David Chance | Reuters

Malaysia’s plans to revitalise investment by backing national champions and ending race-based policies may sound ambitious, but the details are hazy and real economic reform will face formidable obstacles.

The government starts public consultations this month on a new round of reforms, but there is growing resistance from voters and disappointment from investors over measures taken so far.

A government think tank has identified a dozen growth industries such as oil and gas, biotechnology and Islamic finance to focus on in a drive to double Malaysia’s income per capita and propel it into the ranks of “developed nations” by 2020.

Prime Minister Najib Razak’s record on reform is patchy — he shied away from big subsidy cuts and reversed tack on race-based preferential equity ownership rules for the majority ethnic Malay population under pressure from activists.

“Earlier optimism that Najib will be able, and will be committed, to carrying out his plans for reforms has been replaced by resignation that Malaysia will not change course quite so quickly or easily,” said Southeast Asia political risk analyst David Kiu.

Najib took office last year and promised investor forums that on reforms, he would “execute or be executed”, after the National Front coalition that has now ruled this Southeast Asian country for 53 years stumbled to its worst ever election results in 2008.

In the past decade Malaysia has seen its dominant position as an investment destination in Southeast Asia crumble, its productivity gains lag and a worsening of its education rankings which mean it is less well equipped to meet its growth goals.

A survey last week by the World Economic Forum showed Malaysia slipped two places in its global competitiveness rankings to 26th spot out of 139 countries while neighbouring Indonesia surged 10 places to 44th spot. The quality of Malaysia’s institutions, ranked 17th by the WEF five years ago, has plunged to 42nd place since then.

Under its “Economic Transformation Plan” to be unveiled this month, Malaysia’s government wants to galvanise 2.2 trillion ringgit ($706.7 billion) in investments over the 10 years to 2020 of which 92 percent will come from the private sector.

That would be a big leap from the 535 billion the private sector has invested over the past decade, and few analysts expect detailed plans to be unveiled on how to boost investment.

Although hot money has flowed into the Malaysian bond market this year, reversing outflows in 2008 and 2009 and pushing the ringgit currency to 13 year highs against the dollar, Malaysia has slid off the investment map for many.

Foreign ownership of the stock exchange stands at just 21.2 percent of market capitalisation, down from 26.2 percent in 2007.

Many Malaysian companies like leading bank CIMB and telco Axiata are being wowed by the prospects of faster growth in countries like Indonesia and want to become major regional players, so they are exporting capital.

That means government-linked companies (GLCs) will lead the charge to invest more at home, said Wan Saiful Wan Jan of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs think tank:

“They cannot talk about opening up our markets and at the same time give more for GLCs to do to meddle in our economy.”

MORE VOCAL RESISTANCE TO REFORMS?

Although Najib has only been in power since April 2009, he may soon have to shift to policies that will shore up his political base. Elections are due by 2013 and are likely to be called earlier.

His coalition of 12 parties, constructed along racial lines to reflect the Malay, Chinese and Indian populations as well as the indigenous people on Borneo island, is still fraying.

Najib is under pressure from Malay activists in his own party who fear reforms will erode their privileges as well as from ethnic Chinese coalition leaders whose only hope to win back voters is to be more vocal in promoting their own community.

A Malay pressure group called Perkasa which claims 300,000 members recently lodged a police report against the leader of the coalition’s ethnic Chinese party after he called for the removal of laws guaranteeing Malays and indigenous people 30 percent equity rights in public companies.

There has also been a steady drip of racial posturing in the media during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan with an opposition ethnic Chinese politician being attacked for visiting a mosque and a Ramadan ad campaign being pulled for having Christmas overtones.

“The incitement of ultra-nationalist feelings is mainly conducted in the Malay media and hence is not so visible to foreign observers but it is a really worrying trend that is taking place under a so-called reformist government,” said Lim Teck Ghee, director of the Centre for Policy Initiatives.

Najib has sought to sidestep some of the blockages to reform by outsourcing the process to advisory bodies, but when it comes to implementation, he will still have to rely on the 1.2 million strong mainly Malay civil service.

The civil service employs one in every 20 Malaysians and Wan Saiful notes many of them are drawn from the constituency that has most to lose from any meaningful reforms:

“They are a force of their own, and they are far too big for the government to ignore.”

Boustead reclamation deal: Please explain

By Anil Netto,

Could someone please explain this deal to me. Despite my finance background, I am sorry I don’t understand.
Boustead was claiming RM60 million in compensation for scaling down its project in the world heritage zone in George Town.
In return for giving up that claim, it is now reportedly allocated land/reclamation area “very much less” than 100 acres in the southeast of Penang Island. How much less than 100 acres and how much is the gross development value of this land/reclamation area? (The Edge estimates that the entire 97-acre site could fetch RM870 million.)
Huh? They give up RM60 million in compensation and now they are allocated an area that could fetch hundreds of millions of ringgit? Could someone please explain with precise figures.
In the recent past, under BN rule, a couple of the major land reclamation deals in Penang – worth billions of ringgit in gross development value (GDV) – landed up with big property development companies. And what did the Penang state government get in return for handing over all this prime waterfront stretches? A pittance (whether in cash or kind) compared to the GDV. Are we seeing a continuation of this trend?
How much did the state government actually earn from all these deals? We need more transparency on all past and present land reclamation deals. We should demand a  detailed accounting that should be independently audited and made public.
This is the report in The Edge:

Boustead may get to reclaim land south of Penang Bridge
Written by Regina William
Tuesday, 14 September 2010 14:26
GEORGE TOWN: Boustead Holdings Bhd will be allowed to reclaim an area south of the Penang Bridge as compensation for scaling down its Royal Bintang Hotel project from 12 floors to five floors as required by Unesco for declaring George Town a World Heritage Site, according to sources.
They told The Edge Financial Daily that Boustead will be allowed to reclaim an area “very much less” than 100 acres between the existing Penang Bridge and the Penang Second Crossing (P2X) in Batu Maung.
The reclamation will be carried out to the south of Bayan Mutiara, which the state government recently tendered out to be developed in a bid to raise much-needed funds for its social programmes.
The state had made a request for proposals (RFP) for the multi-billion ringgit development of almost 100 acres (40.47ha) of land at Bayan Mutiara, which under the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) state government had been earmarked for a new state administrative centre.
The RFP, inviting local and regional players, is for the development of 62 acres of Bayan Mutiara, a new development area south of the Penang Bridge overlooking Pulau Jerejak, with the potential to develop an additional 35 acres via reclamation after the development of the initial 62 acres.
The reserve price of the Bayan Mutiara project is expected to be above RM200 per sq ft which would mean that the 97-acre site (62 acres with 35 acres to be reclaimed) could fetch over RM870 million.
It is learnt that Boustead is planning to develop the reclaimed area into an integrated township with upscale housing and commercial components.
With Boustead being allowed to reclaim the area, almost the entire eastern shoreline would be reclaimed from the south coastal area of Pantai Jerejak right until the end of Jelutong coastal expressway.
The reclamation is part of the compensation for Boustead due to its hotel project having to be scaled down in accordance with Unesco requirements.
After a year of negotiations and demand from Boustead for land as compensation for scaling down the project, it was agreed that the company would be allowed to reclaim land along the coast.
The state government and Boustead have agreed in principle to the proposal and Boustead has also backed down from its initial RM60 million compensation claim from the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) and will only seek abortive costs for having to amend its plans. It is also learnt that both parties will move ahead to appoint a third party to ascertain the abortive costs.
With the talks having just been concluded, the paperwork is now being completed with Boustead preparing the draft agreement. t is learnt that Boustead would soon submit its amendments to the MPPP and proceed with the construction of its hotel, which had stalled at five stories. Sources said Boustead was fighting for time to complete the project by November.
The state government had directed the developer to scale down the project to meet Unesco’s requirement of 18 metres or five-storey height in the core heritage zone of Weld Quay following George Town’s inscription as a Unesco World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008.
In a report on April 5, Bousteaddeputy chairman and group managing director Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin was quoted as saying the height of the new Royale Bintang Hotel would be reduced, but that Boustead was seeking compensation, which could include land.
The Royale Bintang Hotel project was among four projects affected by the Unesco ruling in the core zone of the World Heritage Site in George Town.
There were no problems with the other three projects, namely Asian Global Business Sdn Bhd’s (AGB) Rice Miller Weld Quay Development in the core zone; Eastern & Oriental Bhd’s annexe building of the E&O Hotel in the buffer zone; and Low Yat group’s project along Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah.
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, September 14 2010.