Has MIC no more energy to assert its position in BN?

ANALYSIS Having postponed its party elections in order to accommodate the hotly-contested 13th general election last May, MIC now stands at the crossroads, appearing to have run out of ammunition to assert its strength within the BN coalition - as evidenced at its annual general meeting in Malacca yesterday.

The party delegates did not miss the chance to openly express their worries about the "cold shoulder" Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak gave them when launching their AGM.

Contrary to the handouts and programmes Najib constantly dolled out to Indians before GE13, the prime minister this time around did not have any cheerful announcements to make at the MIC event, despite explicit requests from party president G Palanivel in his speech just before Najib's address.

In fact, Najib took time taking sly shots at MIC leaders, at varying degrees, in his speech. First, he said that MIC could not claim to be the best party representing Indians in this country unless it earned the overwhelming trust of the community at the grassroots level.

He called for the party to have more professionals as its grassroots leaders, and even called for a show of results and implementation before he would consider increasing allocations, as requested by the party.

'Account for all the money allocated'

The prime minister is now asking MIC to account for all the money that Najib purportedly has allocated to Indians via the party's coffers.

Whether Palanivel and his team of leaders will actually take the pains to show these results to the PM and convince him that their programmes delivered the right results is beyond anyone's knowledge.

But one thing was certain: the party leaders did not take pains to explain to their own delegates as to how they spent these allocations specifically, instead of just dolling out numbers, time and again, and claiming that their programmes benefited "many" Indians.

The delegates in their brief, often interrupted speeches, displayed the kind of rupture in the party structure.

Many asked where the money had gone to, many expressed disappointment with the PM, even more said that the party needed to be more assertive on Indian issues, and quite a few spent their time talking about money politics that affected the elections.

Palanivel claimed pride yesterday in conducting what he claimed to a clean and transparent party election, and he used the fact that 40 percent of the central working committee and vice-presidents posts experienced changes in this party elections to drive home this point.

While change is welcome in a party that increasingly looks like a junior party and is largely silent on issues pertaining to the very community it claims to represent, any real change in direction will not take place unless there is an overhaul in the top leadership of the MIC.

The 40 percent changes is irrelevant, unless the president and deputy president's posts are contested.

Allegations of money politics will always to surface, but watching delegates feeding RM50 notes to one another, while claiming that a candidate had channelled this money to the recipient, smacks of a party that has not even matured beyond the ad-hoc value of delegates' votes.

Campaigning with eight pretty models displaying their sarees, textile giant R Raghu Moorthy stormed to first place in the CWC elections.

Attracted by quirky campaigning methods

And the MIC delegates seemed to know more about a candidate through their quirky campaigning methods instead of knowing about them through word of mouth, or having any real knowledge about the candidate's grassroots connections and leadership potential.

While leadership change makes it seem like a fruitful election, the almost comical way with which the election was conducted, with bad handling of the media, and even their own delegates, says a lot about the unity in the party, post the general election.

Media personnel were initially only provided two measly tables to work on, before the room was expanded, and were not even provided with a monitor to watch the speeches and the voting process from their work stations, leaving them to fight out with delegates to get a decent peek at the stage.

Delegates who did not know where and how to vote simply flooded the hotel lobby, hardly leaving any space for the other hotel visitors to get to the concierge.

And when there was no handout from Prime Minister Najib to cheer on, all that was left for the delegates was to have a go at their own newly-elected leaders on the party's past and future directions.

When there is no money, the crack in MIC is so painfully obvious to the anybody who chances by the AGM venue. When the party can't represent its own interests within the BN coalition, how can it claim to represent the Indians out there who need real, genuine help?

‘Demolished temple site for Unesco listing’

Historian describes the demolition of ancient several temples sites in Bujang Valley as shameful and unforgivable.

PETALING JAYA: The ancient temple area in Bujang Valley, Kedah, has been submitted to Unesco to be certified as a World Heritage site and it is shameful and unforgivable to demolish the structures before the listing.

Penang Heritage Trust honorary secretary Clement Liang slammed the Kedah government today for “carelessly letting a private developer destroy heritage sites”.

“I cannot believe it. This is unforgivable. Why are they allowing the developer destroy the sites when they should do everything to save it,” Liang told FMT today.

“Any other country will not do such a thing. We cannot feel proud for what we have done,” he said.

Liang said Bujang Valley “is a very important archeological site” and had been submitted to Unesco to be certified as a World Heritage site.

“However, before Unesco can certify it, we have disqualified ourselves first,” he said.

“It’s so disappointing. I feel we don’t deserve to be listed,” he added.

MIC central working committee member S Murugesan expressed shock over the Kedah state government’s decision to sell land upon which the Bujang Valley temple was situated on.

“Can the present state government disclose when it was sold? Was it done by the previous PAS government or the present BN government?” he asked.

“In any event, it is unpardonable no matter which government did it,” he said in a press statement.

Murugesan disclosed he was not convinced by Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir’s assurance that the land would not be developed anytime soon.

“Bujang Valley belongs to all Malaysians and its part of our history and heritage. Selling it to a private company shows the short-sightedness and insensitivity of those who took the decision.

“I call upon the present MB to buy back the land and ensure that the the historical site belonged to all Malaysians,” he added.

No action from authorities

Last Friday, it was reported that a housing developer had demolished several temple sites, including an 8th century heritage site, in Bujang Valley, and the authorities are not taking any action to stop the act.

Non-governmental organisation Bujang Valley Study Circle chairman V Nadarajan had urged the Tourism and Culture Ministry to stop the developer from further destroying the area and preserve the site.

Nadarajan said several ancient temples, called Candi or tomb temples, had been demolished in the last few years to make way for development.

He said the developer had now demolished the remants of the most famous 8th century temple, Candi Sungai Batu estate or Bujang Valley site 11.

Nadarajan, who is a lawyer, urged Tourism and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz to stop the demolition process.

Sivarasa: Tengku Adnan misled the House

The Subang MP says Justice VT Singham's court order on July 5, 2012 did not approve the demolition of the Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman temple

KUALA LUMPUR: Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Mansor was today accused of misleading the House when he said a court order was given to approve the demolition of the Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman temple.

Subang MP R Sivarasa told reporters in Parliament today that presiding judge of the case, Justice VT Singham, had clearly said in his judgment that the court order cannot be used to demolish the temple.

“The order of the court dated July 5, 2012 does not include any order of demolition of the wall of the temple building and it is also not an eviction order,” stated the judgment.

Sivarasa added that as such, Tengku Adnan’s statement amounts to contempt of the House and he can be referred to the rights and privileges committee.

“The question is whether he did it knowingly or not. If he says he did not say it knowingly, he must then explain why and how he was given the wrong information,” said Sivarasa.

Sivarasa said Tengku Adnan must also explain the action he will take against the civil servant who misinformed him.

“Since he is the minister in charge, he should be more careful in his statements,” said Sivarasa.

City Hall had demolished a part of the temple located in the city centre on Nov 10.

Get your facts right

Commenting on his eviction from Parliament last week, Sivarasa said that as the Speaker, Pandikar Amin Mulia should not have taken sides and instead be neutral and unbiased.

“The Speaker and Tengku Adnan must get their facts right,” he said.

Sivarasa was thrown out of Parliament last Wednesday for bringing up the issue on the temple’s demolition.

Sivarasa had refused to budge when Pandikar asked him to move to another topic and was then suspended for two days.

On Tengku Adnan’s statement which stated that the temple was only a shrine, he said: “It’s not a matter of interpretation, rather, it’s a false statement.”

Defeated duo accept results of ‘clean election’

Early favourite for MIC veep post Jaspal Singh and defeated incumbent SK Devamany say they will now concentrate on working for the Indian community.

PETALING JAYA: Two defeated candidates in the MIC vice-presidential race said that they were satisfied with their showing and would accept the results.

Both party treasurer-general Jaspal Singh and defeated incumbent SK Devamany told FMT today that they would concentrate more on working for the Indian community now.

Jaspal was tipped to be a hot favourite to win one of the three available slots and in the first count on Saturday had come in third.

However after recounts, he was pushed to the fourth slot, losing out to another newcomer, Johor Baru division chief S Balakrishnan.

The top slot was won by former party vice-president S Sothinathan who made a comeback to MIC politics after a five-year gap. He was out of the scene after losing to G Palanivel in the 2008 deputy president contest, with the latter eventually becoming the party president.

Second in the vice-president’s race was incumbent M Saravanan.

Initially Jaspal was said to be upset with the outcome with SMSes believed to be from him being sent out to delegates to express his disappointment.

The SMSes stated that Jaspal was not satisfied with the results and had questioned the existence of an additional 77 ballot papers in the second recount of votes.

However when contacted today, Jaspal said that he accepted the results and thanked those who voted for him.

“The election was close and I accept the result with a willing heart,” he said.

“Even though I lost, I am happy to get so many votes. I am thankful to the MIC members that voted for me.

“MIC members still have trust on me,” he said.

Jaspal said he will continue to serve the Indian community and hoped that more of the younger generation Indians will support MIC.

Devamany too when contacted said his defeat would not mean he would stop working for the Indian community.

He also rubbished claims that there were irregularities in the elections.

“It was a clean election and I accept the loss,” he said.

“The main priority for me now is to serve the community,” he added.

He congratulated the candidates that won and hoped that they will be responsible in their selected positions.

The final outcome of the vice-presidential race is as follows:

1. S Sothinathan: 717 votes

2. M Saravanan: 716

3. S Balakrishnan: 683

4. Jaspal Singh: 670

5. SA Vigneswaran: 572

6. T Mohan: 530

7. SK Devamany: 332

8 James CS Selvaraja: 52

Mukhriz, Najib ticked off over Bujang Valley

PKR veep N Surendran hits out at Kedah MB Mukhriz Mahathir and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for their indifferent attitude in preserving the historical site

PETALING JAYA: Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak were taken to task for allowing the destruction of the 8th Century Bujang Valley temple structure in Kedah

“How could the Federal government and Kedah state government allow this to happen? The Kedah government’s excuse that the land is privately owned is pathetic and unacceptable.”

“Why did the Kedah state authorities give the necessary approvals for development to proceed, knowing full well that the area is historically significant?” asked PKR vice president N Surrendran.

Surrendran, the first-term Padang Serai MP who is currently suspended from Parliament, was responding to Friday’s FMT’s report ’8th century temple site in Bujang Valley demolished’.

A NGO called Bujang Valley Study Circle revealed that a private developer demolished the most famous eighth century temple remnants in Bujang Valley’s Site 11.

Excavations at the archeological site had revealed jetty remains, iron-smelting areas and a clay-brick monument dating back to 110AD, making it the oldest man-made structure recorded in Southeast Asia.

‘Cultural barbarism’

The Kedah government has said that it was powerless to act since the land is owned by a private company.

Calling the destruction ‘cultural barbarism’, Surendran said the irresponsible act is equivalent to the destruction of Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by Talibans in 2001.

He added that the Kedah state government and authorities were irresponsible and ignorant of ancient cultures and that they favoured developers demolishing the site in Bujang Valley.

He also vented his anger at the Najib administration.

“The federal government also has a positive duty to ensure that historically significant sites are preserved. This they have miserably failed to do in the case of Lembah Bujang.

“What is the use of having a Ministry of Culture and Tourism if the nation’s heritage can be destroyed for private profit? How do we answer for this cultural vandalism to future generations?” he asked.

Rumblings of rebellion in MIC Youth may spoil Palanivel’s party

MALACCA: MIC president Datuk Seri G Palanivel must be heaving a huge sigh of relief with the new line-up of vice-presidents and central working committee (CWC) members voted in at the party’s annual general assembly on Nov 30.

After all, two of the vice-presidents and 17 of the 23 elected CWC members are believed to be the president’s men.

He has yet to appoint another seven CWC members, which will surely be his men, effectively putting decision-making control in his hands.

But Palanivel might not want to be overly jubilant just yet for he might have underestimated the power of the Youth wing in the party.

A party insider, who spoke to theantdaily on condition of anonymity, said the Youth wing is not going to keep quiet about its former leader Datuk T Mohan being ousted in his bid for the vice-presidency.

Mohan was one of eight candidates who vied for the vice-presidency in the election, which saw former vice-president Datuk S Sothinathan, incumbent Datuk M Saravanan and Johor Baru division chairman Datuk S Balakrishnan elected as the three vice-presidents.

The other candidates were Perak State Legislative Assembly Speaker Datuk SK Devamany, former Youth chief Datuk SA Vigneswaran, MIC treasurer-general Datuk Jaspal Singh and Bukit Bintang division vice-chairman James Selvarajah.

The elections drew the ire of many delegates as a Tamil daily, regarded as Palanivel’s “mouthpiece”, had splashed photographs of Sothinathan, Jaspal, Vigneswaran and Balakrishnan as the president’s preferred choice of candidates a week before polling.

“It’s no longer fighting behind closed doors and presenting a united front to the public, it’s now outright war. The fight is now personal and public,” said the party insider.

This is also due to the fact that newly elected MIC Youth chief C Sivarraajh is closely aligned to Mohan.

The party insider said MIC elections had always been determined by two factors, namely the party president and the caste-based system.

“This is the reason factions are created within the party. Sothinathan’s win is proof of this. Usually the whole contest will be determined by the combination of the above two factors,” he said.

Saravanan and Mohan are believed to be in Team B who are said to be aligned with former MIC president Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu and who also happens to command huge support within the party. Those aligned to Palanivel’s camp are said to be in Team A.

How will the election results affect party unity?

“Mohan’s loss is a major issue in the party, especially since he still exerts a strong influence on the Youth wing. With Saravanan being the only surviving lone ranger from the other camp in the vice-presidential list, this effectively wipes out the influence of Team B in the party.

“Going down to the grassroots level and fighting for Indian issues, such as temple demolitions and statelessness, was the Youth wing’s job, which was then led by Mohan. So the youth of the party were the ones upholding MIC’s public image of standing up for the Indians.

“Removing Mohan is a clear indication that the Youth wing may not work along with the party president. Unity in the party will be affected,” said the party insider.

He believes the latest results will push the Youth wing to test the boundaries of party solidarity.

“Even though Team B members will not be in the top echelons of the party, they can still cause mischief from outside and this will be seen as outright disloyalty to the president, which will further fracture unity within the party.

“Closing ranks does not seem likely unless the new Youth chief and his new team decide to make a U-turn and support the president. This seems highly unlikely as Mohan still wields considerable influence over the Youth wing,” he said.

He said that although there was disunity within the party in the past, it was handled internally while a united front was presented to the public.

“There will always be problems within the family, but we all have a common aim. We can fight with the party president when it comes to issues but we work towards a common aim. Now Team B will only have one agenda, that is, to transform the party which would include removing a few selected people.

“They will not present a united front anymore. The fight is now personal and public,” said the party insider.

In his keynote address at the MIC AGM on Dec 1, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak congratulated the MIC on transforming itself with more Indian professionals in the party.

Najib also stressed that unity within the MIC is an important factor.

But the problem with professional Indians is that they are no longer just prepared to be “yes men” of the president and are not afraid to speak up, even publicly, when they feel something is not right.

So will Najib’s united MIC be just a pipe dream?

Maybe Palanivel realised this and that is why, in his policy speech at the AGM, he said: “MIC is not just an Indian party. It is a party for all but they must be loyal to the general. That is very important.”

BLOG: IGP, what is seditious in Mariam’s article?

Columnist Kee Thuan Chye is saying the recent warning issued by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to political commentator Mariam Mokhtar against writing articles that could be deemed seditious is highly unwarranted and deserves to be censured.

I cannot see a fellow writer being threatened by someone in public authority for what she writes and not stand up for her. I’m therefore saying that the recent warning issued by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to political commentator Mariam Mokhtar against writing articles that could be deemed seditious is highly unwarranted and deserves to be censured.

Now, if the IGP was giving her friendly advice in saying she should not write articles that were seditious, he might have good cause to do so. Even if the articles she has written so far have not proven to be so. But that does not seem to be the tone and tenor of what he said a few days ago.

What makes his remark deserving of censure is what he added: “She had better watch out or we will go after her.” That comes across, undoubtedly, like a threat. And it’s inappropriate coming from someone like the IGP.

I don’t know Mariam personally and have never met her. (Sorry for sounding like Najib Razak talking about a different person – I think you know who.) I also can’t say I’ve read every article she’s written. But those I have do not strike me as being seditious - certainly not as is spelt out in the Sedition Act.

In fact, her writing impresses me as that of someone who cares about her country and wants it to be better. She criticises wrongdoing by people in power, exposes their foibles and points out the contradictions between what they say and what they do in order to make Malaysians aware of right and wrong.

She provides a much-needed public service by highlighting issues of pressing and immediate concern to Malaysians, giving voice to thoughts that many of her fellow countrymen and women may share but are unable to articulate.

She has written about racial discrimination, social injustice, domestic violence, child abuse, the rise in crime, political scandals, the ‘Allah’ issue, the ineptness of Najib as prime minister, the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the illegal immigrants in Sabah, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s attempt to muzzle the media, the disservice to the Malaysian electorate done by the Election Commission … and many, many more topics of public interest.

She should not be intimidated for creating awareness and putting issues in perspective. She should not be shut up.

IGP Khalid Abu Bakar is reportedly displeased with her article ‘One ideology, two reactions’ that appeared on the online news website Free Malaysia Today on November 29.

In it, she asked why the Government was willing to welcome home Siti Aishah Abdul Wahab from London when it had been dead against allowing even the ashes of the late Malayan Communist Party leader Chin Peng to be brought back from Thailand.

After all, Siti Aishah was also a left-winger. She was on the Malaysian police’s ‘wanted’ list in the 1970s for being considered an extremist. When she went to study at the London School of Economics, the police kept her under surveillance. Subsequently, she was allegedly held as a “slave” in London by a Maoist sect for 30 years, until she escaped several weeks ago.

Khalid said Mariam’s article was “highly seditious”.

I have since read it a few times, but I cannot in all honesty find anything in it that is seditious.

Mariam states the facts about Siti Aishah and Chin Peng. She asks a pertinent question: “Malaysians must wonder why Aishah is considered safe but Chin Peng’s ashes are deemed a national threat.” Indeed, that has been in the minds of many people this past week.

She informs us, “The High Commission in London has said that it would extend its full cooperation to reinstate Aishah’s citizenship if she had unknowingly lost her identification papers during her 30-year imprisonment. We are thankful that the global network of the Foreign Ministry is diligent in performing its responsibilities in assisting Malaysians in various parts of the world.”

She asks, again pertinently: “So why can’t the same assistance be made available by the necessary departments in Malaysia to serve the hundreds of thousands of stateless people who were not registered by their poor and uneducated parents? Parents who may be the rural Orang Asli, the interior bound Penan or Indians who live on rubber estates?”

What is wrong with any of that? What is seditious in what she has written?

She also writes: “Wisma Putra, the Women’s Ministry and the IGP are keen to help Aishah. By all means show compassion but make sure that compassion is extended to all Malaysians and not a select few individuals who just happen to be making headlines in the developed world. If Aishah is promised counselling, the same should be given to the traumatised victims at home; the ostracised Penan women and young girls who were raped by timber workers, the family members of people killed in violent incidents like Batangkali, Memali, Kampung Medan and May 13.”

Again, I ask, where is the sedition?

She is asking for social justice and compassion across a wide spectrum. That’s a positive thing. Does that constitute sedition?

So why is the IGP displeased?

And why must he invoke sedition? The Sedition Act has of late become too obvious an instrument being used by the ruling party to bully citizens who speak up because they want things to be better, like cartoonist Zunar, activists Hishamuddin Rais and Haris Ibrahim, student leaders Adam Adli and Safnan Awang.

On the other hand, people like Perkasa President Ibrahim Ali, ex-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and politician Zulkilfli Noordin and the newspaper Utusan Malaysia that have said things for the worse, like insulting the religions of others or causing hatred between the races, have not received even the slightest ticking off from the authorities. Ironically, what they have said subscribe more to the definition of sedition as spelt out in the Act. And yet they are seemingly immune to prosecution.

So, please, IGP, don’t threaten Mariam with sedition and appear so obviously selective with your targets. Go instead after the people who really commit sedition. Don’t turn this into another farce as you did with your explanation of how policemen lost their guns (the weapons fell into the sea!).

And do learn how to make a critical discourse analysis of a piece of writing so that you don’t see things that are not in it. I arrived at my conclusion that ‘One ideology, two reactions’ is not seditious by using logic and reasoning. What did you use to arrive at yours?

Oh, one last point. The Malaysian police were monitoring Siti Aishah when she was in London. How did they miss the moment when she got ‘enslaved’ by the Maoist sect? And were they unaware of it for 30 years? Can we conclude from this that the police were slack in their work? Or is there more to it than meets the eye?

These are not seditious questions, IGP, so please provide us the answers.

* Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to MSN Malaysia

* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the new book The Elections Bullshit , now available in bookstores.

Police Station Special Team To Curb Smuggling Of Firearms

KOTA BAHARU, Dec 2 (Bernama) -- Kelantan police have stationed a special team to monitor smuggling activities involving fire arms and weapons through the Malaysia-Thailand border from Tumpat to Jeli.

Kelantan police chief, Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said they (Malaysian police) have initiated a close working relationship with the police force in Thailand to curb activities involving weapons and the use of fire arms.

"The sales of firearms as reported by local dailies happen in Sungai Golok, Thailand and outside the jurisdiction of Malaysian police. The Malaysia-Thailand border, especially in Sungai Golok, is vast and difficult for the police to have total control.

"We also cannot deny the fact that some firearms have been smuggled out. However, we (Kelantan police) are serious in curbing such smuggling activities and throughout 2013, we seized 31 firearms of various make and models that were smuggled in," he said in a statement, Monday.

Jalaluddin when commenting on reports that criminals from Malaysia bought their firearms from Sungai Golok, said the motive for such initiatives could be to safeguard their drug trafficking activities or to seek revenge against their enemies.

Over the past two years, serious crimes involving firearms had seen a drastic increase in Malaysia since many people have been shot dead using guns.

"People with information must come forward to inform the police about such activities. The people must also be the eyes and ears of the police to combat crime and smuggling activities," he said.

Centuries-old temple ruins in Bujang Valley furtively destroyed

  

Lembah Bujang in the Merbok district of Kedah has more than 50 ruins of candi or temples with Hindu or Buddhist influences like this one. — Pictures by K.E. Ooi

GEORGE TOWN, Dec 1 — Prehistoric ruins at an archaeological site in Bujang Valley some 1,200 years old were secretly demolished by a land developer, a Penang lawmaker said yesterday, even as Badan Warisan Malaysia seeks to list the historical spot as a Unesco world heritage site.

Confirming the matter with The Malay Mail Online, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Prof Dr P. Ramasamy said he was shocked to discover the ruins of candi (tomb temple) site number 11 dug up from its spot near Sungai Batu and cast aside in a pile of debris.

“The candi was located at Sungai Batu and it was demolished by the developer, who is clearing the land for development, more than a month back,” he told The Malay Mail Online after he visited the site yesterday.

According to the Penang lawmaker, he received reports of the demolition last week and decided to visit the site to verify if they were true.

“This particular candi is hidden from sight behind an old oil palm estate so the developer probably demolished it first before clearing the oil palm trees,” he said.

Lembah Bujang is the richest archaeological site in Malaysia. - See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/centuries-old-temple-ruins-in-bujang-valley-furtively-destroyed#sthash.UJVcEXv3.dpuf

Lembah Bujang, in the Merbok district of Kedah, is well-known as the richest archaeological site in Malaysia, with more than 50 ancient candi at the site.

Most of the candi are in ruins, and some have been reconstructed and moved to a site near the Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum. Others, including candi number 11, were rebuilt at their original sites.

The ruins of these candi and other archaeological discoveries unearthed in this area date back more than 2,000 years. The destroyed example, candi number 11, is believed to have been built between the 11th and 13th century, according to research by historian Dr Mohd Supian Sabtu.

Outraged that such an ancient and significant archaeological site was not only unprotected but also allowed to be dug up to make way for development, Ramasamy said he will be writing to Badan Warisan Malaysia to seek action against the developer and the authorities complicit in the destruction.

“I learnt that the Merbok land office had given the developer the go-ahead to clear the land because ‘there were no historical sites’, so the land office should also be held accountable for this,” he said.

Lembah Bujang is the richest archaeological site in Malaysia. - See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/centuries-old-temple-ruins-in-bujang-valley-furtively-destroyed#sthash.UJVcEXv3.dpuf

Ramasamy also said the Lembah Bujang Archaeological Museum officials he spoke to appeared to have their “hands are tied” as they had no authority to stop the developer.

“Only Badan Warisan can do something and the Kedah state government should also do something as we are talking about an important historical site that should be preserved and protected,” he said.

embah Bujang is the richest archaeological site in Malaysia. - See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/centuries-old-temple-ruins-in-bujang-valley-furtively-destroyed#sthash.UJVcEXv3.dpuf

 

 The destruction of candi number 11, rebuilt on its original site back in the 1970s by an archaeological team, was chanced upon by a scholar who happened to be investigating the historical valley.

“A researcher, Datuk V. Nadarajan, who is conducting a study on the Lembah Bujang site, is the one to discover that the candi was demolished and had lodged a police report to stop the developers but nothing happened,” the Perai state assemblyman said.

Pointing out that Badan Warisan Malaysia was planning to apply to Unesco for Bujang Valley to be listed as a heritage site, Ramasamy said it only made sense that it should be doing everything to protect the site instead of ignoring this.

“In Penang, we do everything in our power to protect our heritage sites because George Town is a Unesco world heritage site, so how could the Kedah state government allow this to happen to the oldest archaeological site in the country?” he asked.

Bujang Valley is home to the oldest man-made structure recorded in Southeast Asia — a clay brick monument nearly two millennia old.

Excavations on the site have also uncovered jetty remains, iron smelting sites and relics with Hindu and Buddhist influences that point towards a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that traces as far back as 110 CE.

The site has been at the centre of research by various historians, archaeologists and university students in the past two decades.

Tamil secondary school? DPM put on the spot

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was today put on the spot after he was asked to approve a Tamil secondary school when launching a Tamil literature event.

Makkal Sakthi Party president R Thanenthiran, who was the host of the event, had made the request during his opening speech. Muhyiddin, who is also the education minister, was the guest of honour.

"We have been independent for almost 57 years and there are so many Chinese secondary schools but not a single Tamil secondary school.

"I know Muhyiddin is sensitive and caring to the Indian community. Thus, I believe this request is something he will consider seriously," he said.

Muhyiddin who took the stage later after being garlanded with flowers that reached his feet acknowledged that the suggestion can become a bit of a hot potato.

"About the proposal for a Tamil secondary school, I need to be careful about this since there is already a national education policy.

"Whether a Tamil secondary school is needed and suitable has to be studied thoroughly," he said.

DPM: Vernacular schools will remain

Although Muhyiddin was non-committal about the idea, he did highlight efforts made by the federal government to promote Tamil education, which includes building Tamil primary schools on its own initiative.

He added that he will use his authority as education minister to ensure that Chinese and Tamil schools continue continue to be part of the education system.

"I have included in the National Education Blueprint (NEB) - so long as there is the sun and moon, so long as this government is BN, Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools will remain in the country.

"Do not heed claims that such schools will be closed as it has never been the case and the NEB solidifies their (vernacular schools)  position in this country."

Part of Malaysia's heritage

Muhyiddin said such schools were part of Malaysia's heritage and thus should be preserved.

"Malays, Chinese or Indians, everyone have their mother tongue and are the country's asset.

"They must not be allowed to die and must be defended while the Bahasa Malaysia will remain the national language and English as the second language," he said.

Muhyiddin later officially launched ten Tamil literature books which he suggested to be translated to the national language by the Malaysian Institute of Translation and Books.

"So even though I do not know Tamil language, I can still know what the Tamil writers are saying," he said.

The NEB had previously come under attack from Chinese educationist group Dong Zong, which claimed that the plan did not acknowledge vernacular schools.

Kedah gov't in dark over Lembah Bujang destruction - Malaysiakini

State government officials have denied knowledge of any demolition of ancient temples going on at the 8th century heritage site in Bujang Valley, Kedah.

Kedah Arts, Culture and Heritage committee chairperson Aminuddin Omar said yesterday that he could not comment as he has not received news of any such happenings.

"I have not received the latest and first-hand information about such a matter. I can only comment when I do," said the Jitra assemblyperson when contacted by Malaysiakini.

Aminuddin, who is also a Kedah state executive committee (exco) member, was asked to comment on a report by Free Malaysia Today on Friday alleging that a housing developer had destroyed a famous 8th century temple ruins, known as Candi Sungai Batu.

The report quoted a NGO known as Bujang Valley Study Circle calling on the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to intervene and prevent further destruction of the historical sites.

The NGOs chairperson V Nadarajan said the temple, also known as Bujang Valley site 11, is a very famous tourist attraction in the region.

“The temple in Sungai Batu estate is the most famous tourism spot in Bujang Valley, but now it is gone,” he was reported saying.

In 2011, the government pledged to buy land around the Bujang Valley in order to avoid the development of housing in the area.

Deputy Minister of Information, Communications and Culture Minister Maglin Dennis D'Cruz had then also made a similar assurance to the Dewan Negara.

State government says can’t stop Lembah Bujang demolition as area is private land

The Kedah state government said it was helpless to stop a developer from harming ancient tomb temples at the historic temple site of Lembah Bujang because the area was privately owned.

Noting that the incident attracted a lot of negative criticism, Kedah Youth and Sports, Arts, Culture and Heritage and Non-governmental Organisations Committee chairman Aminuddin Omar said the 1,200 year old site was also not gazetted as a historical site.

"The Lembah Bujang area is huge and parts of it are being studied by Universiti Sains Malaysia's Centre for Global Archaeological Research," said Aminuddin, who said state exco Datuk Tajul Urus Mat Zain was discussing with the University's Professor Mokhtar Saidin on the matter.

"The state government will see how this discussion goes for now before we plan our next course of action. There may be a need to study the area carefully and determine which parts of the valley should be preserved," he added.

It was reported that a tomb temple among the pre-historical ruins of Lembah Bujang was secretly demolished by a developer recently.

The act was condemned by non-governmental organisation Badan Warisan Malaysia, describing it as "disgraceful".

Professor Jimmy Lim Cheok Siang, who is the sole surviving founding member of Badan Warisan Malaysia, said the Kedah government must act to stop development at the site, and urged the ruins to be archaeologically restored at all costs.

"The state authorities should not have approved this development. They should have consulted or referred the matter to the appropriate heritage authorities in Putrajaya or relevant organisations like Badan Warisan Malaysia.

"Lembah Bujang and the candi there represent a very old Hindu civilisation and we must preserve any historic monument," he told The Malaysian Insider today.

Lim lamented that preservation of historical monuments was "sometimes not to the advantage of the government".

"The government has to decide whether heritage is beyond politics or not. All monuments also must be preserved regardless of the religion," he added.

Badan Warisan Malaysia is seeking to get the area listed as a Unesco world heritage site.

The destruction of candi or tomb number 11, which was by Sungai Batu, was discovered by researcher Datuk V. Nadarajan, who was conducting a study on the Lembah Bujang site. He has since lodged a police report on the matter.

Nadarajan said the developer demolished the famous 8th century temple remnants known as Candi Sungai Batu estate or Bujang Valley site 11.

He accused government agencies of turning a blind eye to the demolition work, and said the National Heritage Department, the Museum, Kedah state tourism committee and Sungai Petani Municipal Council should have protected the sites.

Demolition works, which took place near an oil palm estate, were said to have gone on for over a month, according to Penang Deputy Chief Minister II, Dr P. Ramasamy, who visited the site.

Ramasamy condemned the demolition and was quoted as saying that he was shocked to discover the ruins were cast aside in a pile of debris.

He said he learned that the Merbok land office had given the developer the green light to clear the land because "there were no historical sites". - December 1, 2013

8th century temple site in Bujang Valley demolished

NGO is urging the Tourism and Culture Ministry to stop a housing developer from demolishing remnants of ancient temples in Bujang Valley and to preserve the area.

PETALING JAYA: A housing developer has demolished several temples sites, including an 8th century heritage site, in Bujang Valley, Kedah, and the authorities are not taking any action to stop the act.

Non-governmental organisation Bujang Valley Study Circle chairman V Nadarajan has urged the Tourism and Culture Ministry to stop the developer from further destroying the area and preserve the site.

Nadarajan said several ancient temples, called Candi, had been demolished in the last few years to make way for development.

He said the developer had now demolished the most famous 8th century temple remnants known as Candi Sungai Batu estate or Bujang Valley site 11.

Nadarajan, who is a lawyer, urged Tourism and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz to stop the demolition process.

“The temple in Sungai Batu estate is the most famous tourism spot in Bujang Valley, but now it is gone,” he said.

Nadarajan, who has written a book on the Bujang Valley heritage site, said the authorities had failed to stop the demolition.

“The National Heritage Department, Museum, Kedah state tourism committee and Sungai Petani Municipal Council should have protected the sites but they have turned a blind eye to the demolition work,” he added.

Area is packed with historical artifacts

He said that he was not sure when the Candi Sungai Batu was demolished but believes it was done earlier this week. He only realised it was demolished when he visited the Candi two days ago.

“This entire area is packed with historical artifacts. Most of them are hidden away from our view. This particular temple site is famous with tourists.

“The developer is greedy and willing to pay the fine for the demolishing the temples (and its remnants) because they will make a huge profit from the housing project.

“I am surprised why the Malaysian government is so careless in Bujang Valley when countries like Indonesia and Cambodia are proud of their heritage sites,” said Nadarajan.

The Bujang Valley is an archeological site and excavation had revealed jetty remains, iron-smelting areas and a clay-brick monument dating back 110AD making it the oldest man-made structure to be recorded in South-east Asia.

“It is the most important entry port before Malacca (15th century) and Singapore (19th century). Bujang Valley has been a mid-way hub to Arab nations, India and China,” said Nadarajah.

“We should be proud of the heritage and not give the site to profit-minded individuals,” he added.

Nadarajan urged the ministry to issue a stop-work order to the developer and preserve the remaining sites.

Nepal Election. At least Hindu people of Nepal rejected Anti Hindu Prachand and Maoist politics.

BBC |  KATHMANDU | 28 November 2013:: The centrist Nepali Congress party won the most votes in last week’s general elections, latest results announced on Thursday show.

The Maoists – who formed the single largest party in the previous Constituent Assembly – have been relegated to third place.

They have complained that the results have been systematically rigged.

The vote is seen as vital in moving Nepal towards political stability after a 10-year Maoist revolt ended in 2006.

Final results in the vote – conducted through a mixture of direct voting and proportional representation – are expected over the weekend.

The previous assembly – elected in 2008 after the abolition of the monarchy – was won by the former rebels. But the Constituent Assembly (CA) was bitterly divided and failed to write a new constitution.

The Congress party has said that it may now form a government of national unity that would include the Maoists and the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) which came second in the vote.

On Thursday, the Election Commission said counting of votes under the proportional representation system had been completed. It said that the Nepali Congress party had won more than 2.4 million votes while the Maoists had won about 1.4 million votes.

Experts say that the Nepali Congress has won about 200 seats in the 601-member CA while the Maoists will only get about 80 seats.

The UML has won about 175 seats, ahead of the pro-monarchy Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal and about nine parties which represent the Madeshi community in the south.

Officials said that more than 70% of the 12 million eligible Nepalese voters cast their ballots in the elections held on 19 November.

They said Nepal might have to wait for least at another two months to get a new government. Click Here>>Complete Reading Courtesy: BBC.

Egypt: Muslims burn down Christian homes over relationship between Muslim girl and Christian boy

Islamic law forbids Muslim women from marrying Christian men. When the "reports surfaced of a relationship between a Muslim girl and a Coptic boy," the two families "held reconciliatory talks," but they "fell through after 'Muslims burnt down the house of the boy’s father and an adjacent house.'" Now that's "dialogue."
"Sectarian violence in Minya leaves five dead," by Hend Kortam for Daily News Egypt, November 29:

Two separate incidents of sectarian violence in villages in the governorate of Minya on Thursday claimed several lives. One of the incidents took place in the village of Badraman where reports surfaced of a relationship between a Muslim girl and a Coptic boy. Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said the families of the girl and the boy held reconciliatory talks but the talks fell through after “Muslims burnt down the house of the boy’s father and an adjacent house.”

Ibrahim said tensions escalated when a Muslim man was killed in “unknown circumstances,” possibly in a security chase.
State-run Al-Ahram reported that in addition to one dead person, six were injured in the violence. It added that two people were arrested.
The other incident broke out between residents of the predominantly Coptic village of Nazlet Ebeid and the predominantly Muslim village of El-Hawarta. A statement by the Diocese of Minya and Abu Qurqas said a Coptic landowner whose land is close to El-Hawarta village was being prevented from building a house on his land.
The Coptic landowner had filed a complaint with the police regarding the issue but tensions escalated when he and others who were with him were shot at while building a fence around his land. Clashes which started on Wednesday continued until Thursday. People from both villages gathered as a result and the ensuing violence left four dead, according to Bishop Makarios of Minya who spoke to private channel ONTV. He added that around 55 people were injured....
Sectarian tensions had earlier flared in another Minya village, Delga. Of the five churches in the village, three were attacked after the 3 July ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi. Two people had reportedly died.

Stray animals as gift for DAP duo

Members of Malay Sons of Penang Association hold a protest after Friday prayers against Jeff Ooi and Tony Pua.

GEORGE TOWN: A Malay NGO plans to present DAP parliamentarians Jeff Ooi and Tony Pua a stray cat and dog each as tit-for-tat for their recent damning remarks against civil servants.

Malay Sons of Penang Association president Jahangir Abdul Sukkur also called on other Malaysians to do the same to both the DAP elected representatives.

“We will make an appointment to meet the MPs and present the animals as gifts to them.

“We want to show them how stray cats and dogs look like,” he told newsmen after leading a brief post-Friday prayers demonstration against the MPs Jeff Ooi of Jelutong and Tony Pua of Petaling Jaya Utara outside Masjid Melayu Jamek Lebuh Acheh here today.

A association committee member Wan Shahriwal Salim told the crowd Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng’s deafening silence on the issue confirmed that the DAP was a “racist, anti-Malay and anti-Islam” party.

Some 30 association members took part in the high noon demonstration.

The demonstrators also held up anti-Jeff Ooi, anti-Tony Pua and anti-DAP banners, streamers and placards to express their displeasure and anger against the parliamentarians.

They also chanted ”Allahu-Akbar’ several times.

Last week, Ooi courted controversy when he described low-ranking municipal council officers as “kucing kurap” (stray cats).

Previously Pua described the officers of Registrar of Societies (ROS) as Umno’s running dogs, which Jahangir claimed was equivalent to “anjing kurap” (stray dogs).

Remarks by both Ooi and Pua drew flaks from various parties, including from DAP.

A check during on-going Penang assembly sitting revealed many Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers, and civil servants were upset with Ooi’s remarks.

“He is a parliamentarian but he blatantly uses an un-parliamentary word,” said a Pakatan legislator, while his colleague slammed Ooi as being “arrogant and mulut celupar (trouble shooting mouth)”.

A civil servant summed up general feelings among his colleagues when he said: “Just because he is an elected rep does not mean he can use any words he like. Kucing kurap is strong word. We are also humans, we also have feelings.”

Tubuh Suruhanjaya Diraja siasat kekalahan Batu Putih

Pendedahan yang dibuat Mat Zain itu amat serius melibatkan kepentingan dan maruah negara.

PETALING JAYA: Perkasa mencadangkan supaya kerajaan menubuhkan Suruhanjaya Diraja menyiasat kekalahan Malaysia kepada Singapura dalam kes tuntutan Pulau Batu Putih.

Menurut Presiden Perkasa, Datuk Ibrahim Ali, kerajaan perlu membuat rayuan segera kepada Mahkamah Antarabangsa (ICJ).

Sehubungan dengan itu beliau meminta bekas pegawai kanan polis, Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim membuat laporan polis terhadap Peguam Negara, Tan Sri Gani Patail.

“Susah sangat ke beliau mahu buat laporan polis?” soal beliau dalam satu kenyataan kepada FMT.

Beliau mengulas kenyataan Menteri Dalam Negeri, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi yang mengatakan polis tidak boleh menyiasat kecuali Mat Zain buat laporan polis sedangkan menurut Mat Zain beliau tidak perlu buat laporan polis kerana polis boleh siasat mengikut peruntukan undang-undang polis yang ada mengenai akuan bersumpahnya.

Dalam akuan bersumpahnya, bekas Pengarah Siasatan Jenayah Bukit Aman itu mendakwa kekalahan Malaysia kepada Singapura dalam tuntutan Pulau Batu Putih kerana Peguam Negara ditawarkan rasuah berjuta ringgit.

Mat Zain juga mendakwa akuan bersumpahnya itu sudah diserahkan kepada Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

“Persoalannya kenapa Mat Zain sendiri tidak buat laporan polis?
Kalau sedia buat akuan bersumpah, apa susah sangat nak buat laopran polis/” soal beliau.

Bekas ahli parlimen Pasir Mas itu berkata pendedahan yang dibuat Mat Zain itu amat serius melibatkan kepentingan dan maruah negara.

Katanya, ianya juga tuduhan membabitkan integriti Peguam Negara.

“Sama ada betul atau tidak tuduhan Mat Zain itu tidak ada siapa yang dapat sahkan. Maka cara terbaik Mat Zain kena bertanggungjawab buat laporan polis,” katanya lagi.

Venezuelan envoy to speak at PSM congress

Ambassador Hernandez will discuss the socialism with local activists

PETALING JAYA: The Venezuelan ambassador to Malaysia, Manuel Antonio Guzman Hernandez, will join local activists tomorrow in a panel discussion on socialism as an alternative economic and political system.

The discussion is one of the main items in the programme of Parti Socialis Malaysia’s annual conference this weekend.

PSM has close relations with socialists in Venezuela, but this will be the first time that Hernandez participates in its conference. His discussion partners will include Sungai Siput MP Dr D Michael Jeyakumar and NGO activist Ahmad Fuad Rahmat of Islamic Renaissance Front and Projek Dialog.

Two other panel discussions will follow the one featuring Hernandez tomorrow. Both will be held after the lunch. One of these will concentrate on developments in the Middle East since the Arab Spring. Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad of PAS will be one of the speakers.

The third discussion is on the future of the political left in Malaysia. The speakers include PSM secretary general S Arutchelvan and PKR activist Badrul Hisham Shaharin of Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia.

Sunday’s sessions focus more on Malaysia and the highlight will be a discussion on the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), with Darshan Singh Khaira and Tommy Thomas speaking.

The two lawyers represented CPM chief Chin Peng in his failed bid to return to Malaysia before his death last Sept 16.

The conference is open to the public. The registration fee is RM10 for students and RM25 for others. Everyone who registers will get a T-shirt and lunch tickets for both days of the conference.

Satu lagi aduan kepada ROS terhadap DAP

Saya memohon pihak ROS dapat membantu dan memastikan hak-hak sebagai ahli parti tidak terabai oleh pihak-pihak tertentu

SEREMBAN – Menjelang berlangsungnya Konvensyen DAP Negeri Sembilan di City Kingdom Ballroom, Seremban Sabtu ini, ahli seumur hidup DAP, A David Dass membuat satu aduan rasmi kepada Jabatan Pertubuhan Malaysia (ROS) cawangan Negeri Sembilan petang semalam.

David Dass mendakwa Konvensyen yang bakal berlangsung esok yang turut membabitkan pemilihan Ahli Jawatankuasa peringkat Negeri Sembilan, bercanggah dengan peraturan perlembagaan parti mengikut Fasal XV(9) di mana Setiausaha negeri gagal memberi notis pemberitahuan sekurang-kurangnya lapan minggu kepada semua Setiausaha Cawangan sebelum tarikh ditetapkan untuk konvensyen peringkat negeri.

“Peraturan Perlembagaan Fasal XV(9) amat penting kepada semua cawangan peringkat negeri untuk menominasikan wakil-wakil yang bakal ditandingkan untuk jawatankuasa peringkat negeri.

“Saya memohon pihak ROS dapat membantu dan memastikan hak-hak sebagai ahli parti tidak terabai oleh pihak-pihak tertentu di dalam DAP demi kepentingan peribadi,” kata David Dass.

David Dass juga mendakwa bahawa ada beberapa cawangan DAP yang tidak menerima langsung notis pemberitahuan konvensyen.

“Ada beberapa cawangan DAP yang tidak menerima langsung notis pemberitahuan konvensyen. Contohnya Cawangan Ladang Paroi, Taman Desa Dahlia, Nilai Perdana dan Taman Bukit Emas.

“Selain itu saya juga kecewa apabila daripada 37 calon yang akan bertanding untuk 15 jawatan Ahli Jawatankuasa Negeri , hanya lima calon berbangsa India. Daripada lima calon itu empat adalah Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri iaitu P Gunasekaran (Senawang), J Arulkumar (Nilai), S Veerapan (Repah) dan Mary Josephine (Rahang). Saya tidak mengenali seorang lagi calon berbangsa India.

“Apa yang mengejutkan ialah tidak ada seorang pun calon berbangsa Melayu di dalam senarai 37 calon untuk jawatan Ahli Jawatankuasa Negeri. Perkara ini mengejutkan saya walaupun ada pemimpin dan ahli DAP berbangsa Melayu di peringkat cawangan di Negeri Sembilan.

“Ada sesuatu yang tidak kena dengan perkara ini. Ini perkembangan yang tidak sihat untuk sebuah parti yang mencanangkan sebagai parti berbilang kaum,” ujar David Dass.

Sementara itu Setiausaha DAP Negeri Sembilan, Cha Kee Chin apabila dihubungi FMT pagi ini berkata beliau mencabar David Dass untuk meneruskan tindakan beliau.

“Beliau bukan lagi ahli DAP dan beliau telah dipecat. Saya mencabar beliau meneruskan tindakan beliau tersebut (membuat aduan kepada ROS),” kata Cha dengan ringkas.

Malays have too much power

Zaid Ibrahim, The Malay Mail

It’s a common saying from the elderly and the wise: too much of anything is harmful. Now, I think the Malays have too much power and it’s gone to their heads.

At the last general election, Utusan Malaysia and Umno actively lambasted the Chinese by casting doubt on their loyalty to the country and asking them to go and live elsewhere.

When the Chinese, hurt by these accusations, understandably rejected the Barisan Nasional at the polls, Utusan had the temerity to ask, “what more do the [ungrateful] Chinese want?”

Only people who have too much power will conduct themselves in the way Umno and Utusan have. To them, the idea of being sensible and reasonable is unreasonable and weak.

Of course, organisations like Perkasa will tell you that the Malays are losing political power and “enemies” are circling in for the kill. This narrative is attractive to some people, especially retirees like Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman who once headed the Election Commission.

Rashid said he’d signed up with Datuk Ibrahim Ali (they are both from the famous state of Kelantan) to make sure that Malays don’t lose power. I cried with laughter when I read this.

Surely the dear Tan Sri knows only too well that the problem with the Malays and their leaders is not that they are losing power, but that they have so much of it that they can no longer appreciate it.

Powerful Malays today do as they like without care for consequence. They don’t think about national policies nor do they try to persuade and engage others. They simply impose their will and threaten those who disagree with them.

Right now, PAS and Umno are apparently forging a closer relationship and, to top it all off, the Malay Rulers are more vocal and assertive than they have ever been. Listening to all of them, you’d think that Malays and Islam are under serious daily attack and everyone must get together to defend the race and religion or perish.

The problem is that we know the fears are just imaginary. This is why, besides the rhetoric, none of these “champions” has ever bothered to spell out the accusations or to give hard evidence of what terrible things the Chinese/Christians/Jews/Liberals and so forth are actually doing.

Not only do these self-created fears exist entirely in the heads of leaders in Umno, Utusan and Perkasa, Malay power is actually reaching its zenith under the present Prime Minister. We will have to wait and see what this new power will do to Malays in general.

We can already see some of its effects: Malaysia is the only Muslim country in the world who can claim proprietorship to God’s name . This can only happen when the Muslims have too much power for their own good. Even for weekend rest days we keep changing them; because no one can questioned us.

In such an important portfolio as education, we have two Ministers, two Secretaries-General and two Directors-General and over 50 separate departments. Only a group with too much power will organise things this way—and it is this same group that sends its children to private international schools or public schools in England but asks the rest of their people to learn Arabic and Bahasa Melayu.

Now, coming back to the historic meeting between two of the largest Malay-Muslim political organisations in the country: PAS and Umno. What do you think they will talk about?

I don’t think it’ll be how to improve education for the people or about enhancing skills and improving English for the global economy. In fact, I don’t think the economy will feature at all. There will be no talk about increasing development funds for Kelantan ‘ or returning the oil royalty to the state coffers ;or helping them solve the water problem.I don’t think they’ll even talk about improving state religious education.

No.

They just want to talk about hudud (which neither party will implement), Islam (which the Holy Quran has declared to be perfect and protected by Allah—therefore nothing needs to be done, right?), and the threat of liberals, NGOs and alliances like Comango. That’s what too much power does to you.

Moving on to better things, I was fortunate yesterday to have been a guest of Bank Negara Indonesia at a Forum in which the various political parties assembled to talk about important issues for the Indonesian general election in 2014.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made an excellent presentation. He urged Indonesians to think about economic issues and urged both all political leaders to work together to bolster the country’s performance.

He spoke about enhancing capacity building and overcoming administrative gridlocks. He warned about decreasing imports from large economies and the tightening of money flows from the United States, which has helped Indonesia over the past four years.

He spoke about the need for infrastructure enhancement, especially in the provinces, and challenged presidential aspirants (from his own party and the opposition) to put forward good policies.

Not once did he speak of “enemy forces” working against Indonesians, Islam or the Pancasila. Not once did he rely on false paranoia to gain cheap political capital. Instead, he urged his people to unite to make Indonesia a world economic power.

That is my kind of leader: honest and inspiring. My kind of leader knows that power is limited so he must govern with care because his days are numbered from the moment he takes office.

He or she believes that political power may be used only to discharge the sacred duty to the people while maintaining the principles of democratic government.

It’s a tough job to govern responsibly. Umno and other Malay leaders have yet to learn this.

Malaysia’s Pakatan Rakyat Loses its Luster

Time for Pakatan to pack it in on Anwar?

Why the opposition doesn’t deserve to take over the federal government

The last general election is almost six months behind us, in which the narratives of Malaysian politics have been defined. The Pakatan Rakyat may have won the popular vote, leading some to believe that the opposition coalition is owed a moral mandate. However under a "first past the post" electoral system, the game is about winning seats, not aggregate votes.

Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), one of the three legs of the opposition stool, has ruled Kelantan well for many years within the social and cultural contexts of the state and has shown it understands the aspirations of the Kelantanese. Selangor has been prudently run as a corporation by Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Abdul Khalid Ibrahim despite the current controversy over salaries, and Penang's finances have been restructured with great fiscal skill, where industrial investment has been revived through relentless promotion by the Democratic Action Party's Lim Guan Eng.

However, even with these achievements, the PR doesn’t have the pedigree needed to form a federal government, given the existing inconsistencies and weaknesses. As a multi-dimensional party, PAS doesn’t speak with a unified voice, given its divisions between the fundamentalists and the so-called Erdogans.

The DAP has shown its failure to provide ideologically sound and loyal candidates for political office, causing the downfall of one state government. The coming DAP party election in Penang shows the mad scramble for positions of influence among party stalwarts. To date, PKR has shown itself to be opportunistic, with very little in the way of its own thought-out ideological based policies. In fact some of its views like the one on salary hikes for politicians are even contradictory.

The culmination of these problems, the failure to take tactical initiatives, and electoral blunders have cost the Pakatan Rakyat the grand prize of Malaysian politics, the federal government.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has been grossly unappreciated for his job of holding the line for UMNO in the recent election. He was written off before the election by some who expected great losses. Many felt there was a real possibility that Terengganu and Negeri Sembilan would fall to Pakatan and that it would win back Perak. However Najib held all these states and took back Kedah as well. We will never be sure whether it was Najib's strategic brilliance or Anwar's strategic blundering that made the final result what it was.

The taking back of Terengganu from PAS in 2004 and the recent return of Kedah to the Barisan Nasional indicates that voters won't accept incompetence by any Pakatan government, although they may not apply the same standard to the Barisan, which historically has been riddled with corruption and incompetence. The taking of Kedah by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed's son Mukhriz will be extremely difficult to reverse next election.

Pakatan, and in particular PKR has made a major blunder in Sabah, wanting to run candidates under its own banner rather than work with the existing opposition forces in the state, leading to a number of three-cornered fights. As a result, the opposition is divided into a number of groups which played straight into the hands of UMNO's strong man and Chief Minister Musa Aman, allowing UMNO to dominate the state's political landscape. This cost the opposition forces four federal and eight state assembly seats. In addition PKR itself seems to be disintegrating in the state, with eight to 12 leaders having quit the party over the last few days.

Although the DAP has made inroads into Sarawak’s towns, the rural regions of the state remain the bastion of Taib Mahmud's Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu-dominated government. Pakatan appears to have grossly underestimated the political mastery and respect Taib Mahmud carries in the rural heartlands of Sarawak despite credible reports of vast corruption. He has the qualities of a leader, rather than the administrative mold of many other national leaders, making him a very strong adversary. It's not the work of Pakatan that has made small inroads into PBB support but rather the work of Radio free Sarawak and other independent local activists.

In both Sabah and Sarawak, it is difficult to see where Pakatan can make gains unless it can change its understanding of the political dynamics of both states. From the rakyat or people’s perspective this may be even more difficult as PAS, PKR, and DAP are considered by many as "peninsulacentric", as Lim Kit Siang himself said in a recent article on his blog. Sabah and Sarawak are mathematically critical in deciding which side of politics forms the federal government.

In the last election campaign, Pakatan focused on preaching to the converted. This didn't win new voters. The inroads into Johor were good for the coalition but city campaigns were largely wasted, with perhaps the exception of Anwar's daughter Nurul Izzah in Lembah Pantai where she was challenged by the then UMNO Federal territories minister Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin. If the Pakatan leaders had not run the mass rallies in Johor, conveying a syok sendiri or chauvinist manner, the UMNO rhetoric after the election might have been much more conciliatory and inclusive than the current divisive narrative coming out of the party.

Many perceive the PKR to be a dynasty with husband, wife, and daughter holding high profile positions. This is one reason why the Azmin Ali influence is so strong within the party, to the point of being bitterly divisive. His recent comments over a pay increase announced for Selangor lawmakers make Azmin look more like an opposition leader in Selangor than a member of the government.
There is more to Azmin Ali's antics than just naked ambition. He has a point that many in the party agree with. One Sabah PKR leader Jelani Hamden upon his resignation from the party a couple of days ago said that there was too much central control. This is a rift that could paralyze the party, particularly when the rank and file membership are needed on the ground during elections.
The current disagreement about how funds in treasury funds in Selangor should be utilized show the policy malaise of PKR. There is also a wider dimension to policy issues where the PR has not been able to deal with the issue of hudud, or Islamic law, and an Islamic state. The concept of an Islamic state is ill explained. The issue could have been easily resolved through adopting the concept of governance through Islamic principles rather than going all out for an Islamic state. The best advantage for UMNO is for PAS to continue focusing on hudud. For as long as PAS promotes Islamic law, UMNO will stay in power.

It's time for the PR to eradicate ego from the coalition leadership and make a serious attempt to regroup under a new guard for the next election. To do that would shed the usual to allow a new vanguard of Malaysian politicians to emerge who are younger and more energetic than the Barisan. This doesn't mean that the old guard of Anwar Ibrahim, Lim kit Siang and Singh withdraw totally, but rather give others room to move in the generational transition.

The best thing for the PKR might be Anwar to declare that he had no more ambition to become Prime Minister and stand aside. This would go a long way in winning over voters who mistrust his intentions. As long as Anwar clings to the hope of one day becoming PM, Pakatan is doomed to remain in opposition. The myth that Anwar is a vote winner must be overturned. His immense international popularity doesn't equate to winning new voters within Malaysia.

When looking closely at PAS, there is an almost perpetual struggle going on between the Ulama, or religious leaders and the professionals, technocrats, Anwaristas, and other progressives within the party. Occasionally members of the Ulama within PAS make pronouncements which lead to many voters developing a fear of the party due to its interpretation of Islam. This costs PAS votes as Malays tend to be moderate relative to many other Islamic societies. This however has generally been kept in check by leaders like Nik Aziz and Mat Sabu over the last few years.

According to PAS research director Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad, PAS needs to woo the Malay youth and women voters. The youth vote is growing massively and changing the dynamics of elections, and PAS currently only holds around 40 percent of the Malay vote, being only 35 percent among women. UMNO's power house during elections is its women's division UMNO Wanita. If PAS is going to grow its electoral support, it must connect with the women and the younger generation.

Currently PAS is good at preaching to the converted. However its electoral support within the Malay heartland is on the decline. This electoral decline lost Kedah and failed in enabling the opposition to retake Perak. Even in the stronghold of Kelantan, PAS lost six seats although it continues to govern the state. Ironically PAS won in the multi-ethnic areas as a beneficiary of the PR coalition. PAS needs to make up this deficit if the PR is to have any chance of taking over the federal government.
PAS also needs to inspire the multi-ethnic electorate to maintain the support it has gained. Hudud is not going to help with any of these demographics. Many mistake Hudud for Islam because of PAS insistence on the issue. Sometimes PAS mistakes being Arabic for being Islamic , which looks frightening to many voters, particularly urban Malay youth. People don't vote for PAS because of Islam, but rather their dislike for the BN. A vote for PAS is not necessarily a vote for the ideals of the party.

The PAS philosophy that has been so successful in Kelantan cannot be translated nationally. The long premiership of Nik Aziz can be considered an extraordinary example of a leader who had special qualities and was able to appeal to the emotions and aspirations of the Kelantan people. PAS success in Kelantan has little national correlation. With Terengganu and Kedah losses, PAS still has to prove that it can govern.

The rumors of PAS-UMNO talks, fueled by a recent meeting between Kelantan MB Ahmad Yakob and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak continue to undermine and bring insecurity to the opposition, especially when at the closing of the recent PAS general Assembly, President Abdul Hadi Awang didn’t rule out the possibility of discussions.

As we have seen, policy has very little to do with who governs. It's about emotion and sentiment. It's not about exposing corruption and incompetence, but rather making people in rural Malaysia understand the difference between political parties and government. Otherwise the BN will always be the government and the PR be the opposition. It's also about realizing that those who will be the ones that decide who will be the next government in Putra Jaya are not middle class professionals in the cities but Pakchik and Makchik (Moms & Pops) in the rural areas. This is Perak, much of Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis, Sabah, Sarawak, and Kedah, which PR lost in the last election.

Most political analysts in Westminster systems would argue that governments lose elections rather than oppositions win them. However the Malaysian context may be different where the opposition needs to win the confidence and trust of the rural electorate. The major problem here is that most rural people don't know any other type of government. Issues such as the separation of party and state are difficult for many to understand. One of the beliefs that many Malays hold is that opposing UMNO is opposing the government. Many rural people have been brought up with the belief that only UMNO can protect their religion, way of life, and against Chinese economic domination.
Part of the reason UMNO has returned to the ultra Malay narrative and taken a strong Islamic stance is UMNO's feeling that it must compete with PAS to show it is the party with the best credentials to look after Malay interests. Consequently the current hudud law project has isolated Islam from the wider concept of Tawhid. Islamic proclamations and the strong stances we are witnessing are not benefitting the progression of Islam within Malaysia.

If PAS presented a more balanced Islamic world view, UMNO would have much greater room to move into the middle ground.

The Pakatan agenda has a massive influence on the behavior of the government. If the opposition was truly concerned about the consequences of its own political rhetoric, the leadership might consider changing approach, which no doubt would also benefit them electorally.

Anwar's "September 16" and Twitter message on election night that "PR has won the election" are difficult in being seen as constructive. Many perceive Anwar to be driven by ambition, hate, and a sense of revenge. His pledge to retire if PR didn't win the election has lost him credibility.

There is a segment of the population who have become disillusioned with the opposition over a number of issues. Anwar's antics, internal struggles, a potential political dynasty, lack of policy direction, and basic mistrust is keeping the PR from winning the federal elections. If the PR wants to win, they must take a hard inward look, rather than blame their loss on phantom voters.

Within the current stance, victory for the PR at the next election looks bleak. The members of the PR need to go back to the drawing board and return to the electorate with consistent and united policies and most of all learn how to engage rural communities. It is therefore not the alternative media that will be most important but the rural JKKKK committees, which is still the proven secret weapon of the BN.

In politics it doesn't matter what foreigners think of the present Malaysian government, or Anwar Ibrahim for that matter. It doesn't matter whether there is electoral fraud or not. Elections are not about the moral high-grounds or even what the majority wants. What matters is knowing the hand you are playing and winning the competition by the rules that exist. Otherwise a tired and scandal-laden government would have long been tossed out of office.

Unlike the post 2008 election period, the Malaysian electorate appears to be "burnt out" and has given up expectation and yearning for change. It's now very much suppressed. This is where the BN is likely to make up lost ground next election as the wave of change has reached the peak and will gently subside.

The PR urgently needs good strategists whose opinions are listened to. The PR must advance from being a one man crusade to becoming a true multi-dimensional coalition with a wide and varied intellectual input and consistent message.

Reform of the civil service: The NUCC is its last hope – Koon Yew Yin

To say that the newly established National Unity Consultative Council has been greeted with a big yawn by the public is too kind. Feedback so far especially over the uncensored internet has ranged from scepticism – “a political wayang” to the dismissive – “a waste of taxpayers’ money and time” and “expect NUCC to go the way of the 1Malaysia slogan”.

One reader has already predicted that “it will soon be known as the ‘No Use Consultative Council (NUCC)’”.

Part of the reason for the criticism is that among the group appointed to forge a new direction in national unity are some well-known apple polishers who have risen to where they are because of their prowess in flattering the Barisan Nasional.

On the bright side, those appointed could have been much worse – think of what outcome we will have if the Government had appointed Riduan Tee or Awang Selamat.

Another problem is the restricted terms of reference set up for the Council which can discuss only four subject areas - laws, the federal constitution, values and programmes. Why this limitation if not to prevent discussion of sensitive areas is the obvious conclusion to reach.

Include civil service reform in NUCC agenda

For me, if the Council really wants to be taken seriously, it should include the civil service as one of the areas of examination covering all the four topics. There is no doubt that one of the pivotal players in national unity – perhaps the most pivotal – is the civil service. Unlike the politicians of whom there are only a few tens of thousands, the civil service employs over 1.5 million staff. We have one of the highest if not the highest number of civil servants per capita in the world! Their actions and decisions extend into every area of life and affect all Malaysians – from the time when the child is in the womb until after he or she dies.

Let me put a question to the NUCC. Is it not clear that the drastic decline in national unity has coincided with an increasingly Malay dominated civil service with the non-Malay bumiputera component, increasingly marginalised and reduced to single digit numbers in terms of their participation in key national ministries and agencies?

It will be revealing if the Government can reveal the racial composition of the civil service today. According to one estimate the proportion of Malays in the civil service had grown from 60% in 1970 to 77% for the year 2005. Today nearly 10 years later what is the proportion of non-Malays in the civil service?

Is it 20%? Is it 15%; or perhaps even less? I am happy to see that the Malays have made big strides in participation in the private sector since 1969. But what about the participation of the non-Malays in the public sector which was promised to by the New Economic Policy?

If the Government had upheld the provision of the NEP calling for restructuring of the civil service to increase non-Malay participation, I am sure that the thousands of racially and religiously sensitive or controversial incidents happening almost on a daily basis nation-wide will be dramatically reduced.

A multi-racial and multi-religious civil service is the cornerstone of a united and social cohesive Malaysia. It is also the cornerstone of social and economic development as it ensures a representative system based more on merit.

Suggestions for NUCC

I would like to propose the following steps to be taken by the NUCC when it meets.

1. Request for data on the civil service racial composition and for the number to be broken down by government department – police; land and district offices; Ministry of Education; public universities; local councils; etc. This should be a time series for the past 20 years so they can see the actual situation in each major sector of the civil service.

2. Undertake a thorough and full evaluation of the implications of the trend towards a mono-ethnic civil service and examine whether this trend is desirable in the interest of national unity and social cohesion as well as national socio-economic development.

3. Make use of policy studies on the civil service and their proposals as a basis for a strategy of reform and to make the civil service more multi-racial. The most relevant one is the paper, Towards a Representative and World Class Civil Service. This was part of the studies in the Centre for Public Policy Studies report, Proposals for the Ninth Malaysia Plan, ASLI, Kuala Lumpur, February 2006. It provides a methodology for recruitment of non-Malays and rebalancing towards a multi-racial civil service which protects existing Malay rights. Members of the NUCC should review the methodology which provides a compromise for a more racially representative civil service that can be accepted by all communities.

Civil Service as the key cog of development

Malaysia's poor performance is largely due to the inefficient civil service. For any organization, business or government to do well, they must have good people to manage. The government must employ more non Malays and practice meritocracy in the selection and promotion of the employees.

Malaysians know that we started off in the 1960s well ahead of South Korea, Taiwan and on the same level as Singapore. Today, these countries are in a completely different league of development. The answer to the riddle of why they have moved ahead so quickly is partially due to their civil service. Focused, efficient, based on merit and most of all, united, they have been the engines of growth accounting for the remarkable progress made in their societies.

In contrast, the Malaysian civil service has followed a different trajectory. Unfocussed, inefficient, with merit a secondary factor in recruitment, not representative and hence a dis-unifying factor – it is no surprise that the civil service is a critical blockage to unity and development.

I am confident that the majority of the NUCC members will agree that the present racial composition of the civil service is adversely affecting national unity, social cohesion and economic competitiveness.

I hope the NUCC can rise to the challenge to push for the reform of the country’s civil service which can enable all communities to be represented in reasonable numbers and help Malaysia to rise above race and religion. – November 29, 2013.

*Koon Yew Yin reads The Malaysian Insider.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

Government Will Continue To Focus On Human Capital Development - Najib

By Ahmad Fuad Yahya

JAKARTA, Nov 29 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak said the government will continue to focus on human capital development to make Malaysia a developed country.

The Prime Minister said the people were Malaysia's greatest asset and that huge investments in human capital development can guarantee a better future for Malaysia.

"I believe in equal access to education, we must create opportunities as wide as possible but we cannot ensure equal outcomes as this depends on our own efforts.

"If we work hard, we will get better results than others (who don't work as hard)," he said at a dinner with Malaysian students in Indonesia at the multi-purpose hall of the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta in Kuningan, South Jakarta here Friday night.

Najib said Malaysia each year gave the largest allocation for the moulding of new generations through education and continued to give scholarships for its students to pursue studies abroad, in almost all corners of the world .

At the event, the prime minister launched the Jakarta iM4u Outreach Centre, the third international outreach centre after London and New York.

He also presented a RP37 million (RM10,000) cheque to the Jakarta iM4U Outreach Centre to organise volunteer activities.

Najib urged Malaysian students in Indonesia involved in the iM4U volunteer movement to provide services to orphanages, old folk homes and mosques so that Malaysia would be held in high regard by locals.

To date, 700,000 volunteers have registered with the iM4U movement which boasted 1,500 projects.

On the Malaysian Medical Association's claim that there are too many medical students graduating every year and not enough hospitals to train them, Najib said the government would ensure that all medical graduates would be able to do housemanship and get jobs.