Hasten civil suit, pleads Altantuya's dad

EXCLUSIVE After a long hiatus, the father of slain Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu has appealed to the Malaysian courts to hasten the hearing of the RM100 million civil suit he has filed against the government.

Setev Shaariibuu (left), who filed the suit on June 4, 2007, is suing the Malaysian government and those responsible for the gruesome murder of Altantuya in a jungle clearing in Shah Alam on Oct 19, 2006.

In a letter translated into English by his lawyer Mukhsaruul Mijiddorj, Shaariibuu said he has paid a substantial amount of money to the Malaysian court last year.

The money, amounting to RM60,000 as security bond, was paid by the Mongolian government, on behalf of Shariibuu.

However, a year has passed but he has yet to receive any news of the commencement of the court case, Shariibuu lamented.

“The fact that your government does not make positive steps towards the issue raised by Mongolia (may) perhaps adversely impact the interest of hundreds of Mongolians who are studying and living in Malaysia,” he said.

“Despite the fact that the government of Mongolia proposed to discuss the issue by appointing and sending its representatives to Malaysia, it has been one year without any response,” he added.

Karpal frustrated case delayed

Shaariibuu did not elaborate on who and when the representatives he was referring to had come to the country to discuss the matter.

It is learnt that the letter, a copy of which was provided toMalaysiakini, is currently in the possession of Karpal Singh, who is representing Shariibuu in this case on a pro-bono basis.

Earlier this month, Karpal expressed frustration that the hearing of the suit has been delayed as the two police personnel convicted of the murder have filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal.

Karpal said he has written many times to the court for case management of the suit, but has yet to receive a response.

Shaariibuu and his spouse Altantsetseg Sanjaa are now the guardians of Altantuya’s children, one of whom suffers from a medical disorder which requires expensive treatment.

As executors of Altantuya’s estate and on behalf of her dependents, they are also seeking special, aggravated and punitive damages.

MPs’ support sought

Meanwhile, Shaariibuu, via his letter to Karpal, has pleaded for all members of Parliament to support his cause “for the sake of charitable purposes”.

He admitted that Malaysia’s judiciary was fair to have convicted the two policemen - former bodyguards of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak - found guilty of brutally murdering Altantuya five years ago.

Najib’s close confidante and political analysist Abdul Razak Baginda was acquitted of her murder without his defence being called.

Najib, who was then Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister when the incident occurred, has denied any involvement in the case.

It is widely believed that Altantuya acted as the Mongolian translator in Malaysia’s Scorpene submarine purchase from Russia.

Shaariibuu said one of the reasons why he wants the civil suit to commence quickly is that it could help Altantuya’s soul to rest in peace.

“There are vital matters pending such as to resolve the deceased’s funeral and pacify her spirit through charitable attention to the orphaned children,” said Shaariibuu.

“Honoured members of the Parliament of Malaysia, I would like you to pay attention to my request and to treat this issue from the stand worthy of intelligent human beings,” he added.

Panel's final call for 42,051 'doubtful' voters

The New Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR: The Election Commission will be forced to strike out the names of 42,051 "doubtful" voters from its roll if their particulars could not be verified following a week-long public display beginning today.

Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said this would be the final call for the 42,051 'doubtful' voters.

"Our stringent cross-checks with National Registration Department have uncovered this 'doubtful' voters whose MyKad particulars could not be verified.

"We have to take this action to clean the roll. I hope the public will take this seriously and check out the details of these 'doubtful' voters which will be displayed nationwide."

Aziz said the commission hoped that relatives or friends of the those on the 'doubtful' list would get in touch with the commission.

He said the commission felt that it would be unfair to delete their names without first making them public.

Aziz said if these 'doubtful' voters should suddenly turn up to vote in the next general election -- despite having been deleted -- they would not be able to vote and would be advised to contact the NRD to verify their details.

"But bear in mind that 42,051 are still a small number compared with the 12.3 million registered voters we have in our electoral roll," he added.

On Tuesday, the commission public relation officer Sabri Said issued a statement that the list of the 42,052 electors would be displayed together with the electoral roll for third quarter of 2011 in 987 locations nationwide.

The list of doubtful names was not for the purpose of objection, but for verification by the electors or their next-of-kin, said Sabri.

"If the electors find their names in the list, then they should clear the matter with the NRD and sort out the their identification records, before referring the matter back to the EC," it said. 

On the electoral roll for the third quarter of 2011, he said it contained 264,404 applications for new registrations and 52,215 for a change in address. 

It added that those who had registered during the exercise from July to September but found their names missing from the list should present their case by filling up Form B and sent it to state EC offices within seven days from the date of display. 

Objections to the names in the electoral roll can be made by filling up Form C, it said, reminding the public, however, to not to make objection for the sake of objecting, but should be accompanied by valid reasons.

Mahathir: Human rights used to save 'someone'

Opposition politicians are using human rights issues for their political benefit, warned former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In saying this, Mahathir said he agrees with concerns raised that certain quarters were using the 'human rights wave' to "save someone".

"...While we respect human rights, it should be implemented within our capabilities," said Mahathir today

"If we follow the West, which adopts extreme human rights that allows men to get married with (other) men and women getting married with (other) women, (that) should be rejected outright," he added.

Mahathir said as a developing, multiracial and multireligious country Malaysia is not like countries in the West.

"When they are trapped in, they impose much more worse human rights violations compared to us, as what is done in Guantanamo Bay."

"They (United States) don't have laws to detain people without trial, as in Guantanamo (Bay detention camp), and now it is already 11 years. Why don't they release (those detainees)?"

He said while Malaysia has laws to arrest people like the Internal Security Act, the US do not have such laws, but they still arrest and torture detainees for 11 years.

"Their government allows the torture of the detainees. Do not focus on our human rights record, lah. If you want to criticise, criticise (Barack) Obama, lah, for the human rights violations."

He stressed that Malaysia should focus on issues relevant to Malaysia and not adopt all the values in the West.

Yesterday, former inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor, when addressing the second Perkasa annual general meeting, warned of people using human rights issues to harm the country.

Ibrahim Ali disappointed by Himpun turnout

Datuk Ibrahim Ali giving his winding-up speech during Perkasa’s second general assembly, in Kuala Lumpur. – Picture by Jack OoiKUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 – Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali has expressed embarrassment over the poor turnout at the Himpunan Sejuta Umat rally, despite the Malay rights movement earlier shrugging off the low attendance.
Only 5,000 people filled the 100,000-seat Shah Alam Stadium where the rally against the alleged Christianisation of Malaysia took place last weekend.

“Even as late at 4pm, there were fewer than 10,000 people... I was embarrassed as a Malay and a Muslim. Where are our Malays?

“But when there’s a conference or an assembly, why this, why that?” Ibrahim said in his winding-up speech at the 2nd Perkasa general assembly here.

The Malay rights leader lamented that Malays were very good at asking for things but were reluctant to put their money where their mouth was when time came for action.

“What is our sacrifice? How far are we willing to go?” he said.

Ibrahim added that if Malays remained too passive in voicing their objections despite being “under attack from within and without”, they would suffer the same fate as Singaporean Malays and Malays in Penang, whom he said were marginalised.

Himpun was organised by various right-wing religious groups calling for Muslims to rise up and fight the “challenge of Christianisation” to Muslims in Malaysia.

The mass rally was mooted following the controversial August 3 raid by Selangor Islamic authorities on Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC), where it was alleged that Christians were converting Muslims.

Christian leaders have denied claims that Christians were attempting to convert Muslims and have called Himpun’s fight “irrelevant”.

The Real Reason Why Gadaffi Was Killed & Why We're In Libya

A Marshall Plan for South Asia

Warming up?

A proposal to break the deadlock

The war of words between the United States and Pakistan in recent weeks has put in stark relief the two core strategic conundrums Washington has vis-à-vis Islamabad, as well as the integral role India plays in both of them.

The first is to encourage a more constructive Pakistani approach in Afghanistan, which Islamabad regards as a theater for its endemic rivalry with New Delhi. The second is to steer a nuclear-armed but deeply dysfunctional Pakistan away from failed state status, a harrowing prospect that many believe is all too plausible unless Islamabad is convinced that its prospering neighbor to the East actually represents an economic opportunity rather than an existential threat.

The Obama administration entered office believing that Pakistani cooperation on Afghanistan was a function of addressing its acute security anxieties regarding India. Two weeks before the November 2008 election, Barack Obama declared that resolving the perennially-inflamed dispute over the Kashmir region was one of the “critical tasks” for U.S. foreign policy and worthy of “serious diplomatic resources.”

It was a valid observation but the manner in which Washington pursued it guaranteed a quick failure. Moves to appoint a turbocharged envoy (in the person of Richard Holbrooke) with the mandate of mediating the Kashmir issue– similar to U.S. efforts to broker the Middle East peace talks – met with Pakistani approval but proved too much for the sovereignty-conscious Indians to accept.

For the past three years, Washington has struggled to find a way to bring the two sides together and focus them on their common interests. Fortunately, the parties may have found one themselves. Despite the obvious displays of mutual suspicion in both capitals, a consensus is growing in the two countries – especially evident in their business communities – that the time has come for a more normalized relationship.

After a three-year hiatus caused by the 2008 terrorist strikes in Mumbai, India and Pakistan have restarted their peace dialogue. In July, Pakistan’s new foreign minister, the 34-year-old Hina Rabbani Khar, held unexpectedly warm talks in New Delhi, where she emphasized that a “mind-set change” was occurring among younger Indians and Pakistanis. Last month, for the first time in 35 years, Pakistan’s commerce minister visited New Delhi, bringing with him a notably large business delegation.

The trip was especially productive. The two countries pledged to more than double their two-way trade flows – to the $6 billion annual level – by 2015. They agreed to ease visa rules for business travel and to open a new customs post at the Wagah border crossing that lies midway between Lahore and Amritsar. Islamabad also committed to extending “most favored nation” trade status to New Delhi, reciprocating the status India earlier conferred upon Pakistan.

This last development promises to enliven the 2006 South Asia Free Trade Agreement which up until this point has been all but a dead letter. India’s commerce minister, Anand Sharma, captured the spirit of the meeting when he exclaimed that “only shared prosperity can bring lasting peace.”

The annals of India-Pakistan relations are filled with numerous false dawns and the current moves toward greater economic engagement could well founder upon the sharp historical animosities that regularly bedevil bilateral affairs. But things may be different this time. Reports out of Islamabad indicate that the Pakistani government realizes the country is in desperate economic straits and that closer ties with India constitute a much needed lifeline. The military establishment is also said to understand that the eastern border needs to be stabilized so resources can be focused on combating rising internal security threats.

If enhanced trade ties were to develop between South Asia’s largest economies, they would produce significant economic and (eventually) security dividends for both countries. Despite the common civilizational and historical bonds that permeate South Asia, as well as the unified market forged by the British Raj, the region today is remarkably fragmented economically. Trade flows between India and Pakistan, for instance, represent a miniscule fraction of each country’s overall trade portfolio.

Wagah is the only vehicle crossing along the 1,800-mile-long international border. The two-lane road there is only open a mere eight hours a day and the cargo that passes through it must be unloaded and transferred to local trucks. Indeed, the crossing, which some refer to as the “Berlin Wall of Asia,” is better known for the Kabuki-like displays put on by the border guards than as an efficient transit point.

The pervasive barriers to bilateral economic cooperation have also spurred circuitous and highly inefficient trade patterns. A booming India requires cement for its construction sector yet is forced to import it from Africa instead of Pakistan, where the cement industry has excess capacity. Off-the-books trade – the value of which easily rivals official levels – is also conducted via third countries like Dubai, Singapore and Afghanistan. According to various studies, a more liberalized trade regime would increase bilateral exchange at least 20 times above current figures as well as boost economic prosperity in both countries.

The Obama administration would do well to reinforce the current stirrings by launching a Marshall Plan-like initiative geared toward the expansion of cross-border economic linkages between the two countries. One of the keys to the Marshall Plan’s far-reaching success was the major financial inducement it gave European countries devastated by World War II to frame their economic futures in conjunction with their neighbors.

By putting an emphasis on reconstruction projects that crossed national frontiers, it was an important catalyst for the historic reconciliation between France and Germany and paved the way for the deep economic integration embodied in today’s European Union.

A similar vision should inspire a US effort to bolster cross-border economic cooperation between India and Pakistan. This initiative would be aimed at helping the two countries, on a joint basis, upgrade and expand the meager transportation infrastructure presenting connecting them. It would support projects that increase road and rail linkages, as well as the number and capacity of customs posts. It would help provide resources for modernized seaport facilities that enable more two-way trade.

And with each country plagued by chronic power shortages, it would help bankroll cross-border energy projects such as joint electrical grids or the proposed natural gas pipeline connecting Central and South Asia via Afghanistan.

This effort would dovetail well with the “New Silk Road” initiative that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced to foster the economic integration of Central and South Asia. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was born in what is now Pakistan, has spoken eloquently of the powerful role stronger economic linkages can play in bridging South Asia’s deep political fissures. In early 2007, he spelled out his vision for regional integration:

“I dream of a day when, while retaining our respective identities, one can have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul. That was how my forefathers lived. That is how I want our grandchildren to live.”

For his part, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has even expressed the hope that India and Pakistan could one day join together in an economically-unified zone like the EU.

The original Marshall Plan entailed a staggering sum of money – well over $100 billion in today’s terms – and an austerity-minded U.S. Congress would certainly balk at any scheme with a similar price tag. But the initiative outlined here need only entail a modest level of expenditures – say, $50-75 million per year over a five-year period – and could be paid for by redirecting funding already authorized under the 2009 Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act. Better known as the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill, the act provides $1.5 billion annually in non-military assistance to Pakistan through 2013. But due to a variety of factors, much of its economic development funds remain unspent.

To avoid potential concerns in New Delhi and Islamabad that Washington might try to extract diplomatic concessions from specific funding decisions, resources could be routed through the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank, where professional staff would assess the viability and impact of proposals submitted jointly by the two countries and make final judgments on which projects go forward. Additional countries, such as those assembled by Secretary Clinton in New York last month to discuss the New Silk Road plan, also could be invited to contribute resources.

Obviously, this initiative offers no magic bullet for transforming the singular intensity of the India-Pakistan strategic rivalry. But it would be a creative investment in nurturing promising developments already underway in both countries, which if they take root over the long term would help lead to a game-changing situation in South Asia: One in which Islamabad looks upon New Delhi more as a partner than as an outright enemy. If such a development came to pass, U.S. interests in the region would be vastly easier to safeguard than they are today.

(David J. Karl ( dkarl@usc.edu) is president of the Asia Strategy Initiative, a political and economic consultancy. He earlier served as project director of the Task Force on Enhancing India-U.S. Cooperation in the Global Innovation Economy, jointly sponsored by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry and the Pacific Council on International Policy.)

Panel's final call for 42,051 'doubtful' voters

The New Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR: The Election Commission will be forced to strike out the names of 42,051 "doubtful" voters from its roll if their particulars could not be verified following a week-long public display beginning today.

Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said this would be the final call for the 42,051 'doubtful' voters.

"Our stringent cross-checks with National Registration Department have uncovered this 'doubtful' voters whose MyKad particulars could not be verified.

"We have to take this action to clean the roll. I hope the public will take this seriously and check out the details of these 'doubtful' voters which will be displayed nationwide." 

Aziz said the commission hoped that relatives or friends of the those on the 'doubtful' list would get in touch with the commission.

He said the commission felt that it would be unfair to delete their names without first making them public.

Aziz said if these 'doubtful' voters should suddenly turn up to vote in the next general election -- despite having been deleted -- they would not be able to vote and would be advised to contact the NRD to verify their details.

"But bear in mind that 42,051 are still a small number compared with the 12.3 million registered voters we have in our electoral roll," he added.

On Tuesday, the commission public relation officer Sabri Said issued a statement that the list of the 42,052 electors would be displayed together with the electoral roll for third quarter of 2011 in 987 locations nationwide.

The list of doubtful names was not for the purpose of objection, but for verification by the electors or their next-of-kin, said Sabri.

"If the electors find their names in the list, then they should clear the matter with the NRD and sort out the their identification records, before referring the matter back to the EC," it said. 

On the electoral roll for the third quarter of 2011, he said it contained 264,404 applications for new registrations and 52,215 for a change in address. 

It added that those who had registered during the exercise from July to September but found their names missing from the list should present their case by filling up Form B and sent it to state EC offices within seven days from the date of display. 

Objections to the names in the electoral roll can be made by filling up Form C, it said, reminding the public, however, to not to make objection for the sake of objecting, but should be accompanied by valid reasons.

Death penalty for woman

The Star 

SHAH ALAM: A Japanese woman said she brought a bag to Kuala Lumpur thinking it only contained clothes.

A High Court here, however, did not buy her story and sentenced her to death for trafficking in 3,493gm of methamphetamine at the KL International Airport two years ago.

Justice Siti Mariah Ahmad ruled on Tuesday that former nurse Mariko Takeuchi, 37, had failed to raise reasonable doubt in her defence.

The accused said she had gone to Dubai to meet a man named Alex, to get some money from him and to pass the cash to a good friend in Kuala Lumpur.

However, she claimed, instead of meeting him, she met a driver who said he was a friend of Alex and that he, too, was going to Kuala Lumpur.

She claimed the driver asked her to bring along a bag, which she was made to understand contained only clothes.

Takeuchi was arrested at a Customs inspection counter at the international arrival hall of the KLIA at 9.55pm on Oct 30, 2009.

In her judgement, Justice Siti Mariah said she found the testimony of the accused fake and illogical.

“The excuse that the accused went to Dubai to get the money is unreasonable and highly suspicious.

“Her own good friend could have gone there herself. Or Alex could have wired the money to her,” she said, adding the court noted that Takeuchi had been in and out of Malaysia five times between September and October 2009.

Justice Siti Mariah added: “The court finds it illogical and suspicious that going back and forth between Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, as claimed by the accused, is cheaper than staying put in Dubai.

Deputy public prosecutor Aimie Yusreena Yunus prosecuted while Takeuchi was represented by lawyer Mohd Rafik Rahem.

Raja Muda Of Perlis Wants UniMAP Staff To Be Bold In Challenging Status Quo

GEORGE TOWN, Oct 27 (Bernama) -- The Raja Muda of Perlis, Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail has called on the staff of Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) to be bold in challenging the status quo in efforts to empower the university.

Tuanku Syed Faizuddin, who is also the UniMAP Chancellor, said they should have the courage to take risk and should not fear to make mistakes which should instead be treated as a major challenge to improve the situation.

In his speech at the pre-launch of the "Sedekad UniMAP" programme on board the cruise ship, Superstar Libra, in Penang waters last night, he said the university staff should always be open minded and competent in their respective disciplines.

He wanted the UniMAP to create three new programmes namely the sports technology, marine and exotics to widen its programme size as it entered its tenth year.

The Raja Muda said the initiative was in line with the government's aspiration to develop the country's higher education sector.

Husband enjoys watching as wife is raped

Wife asks for death penalty after husband helped friend to rape her

An Arab man in Ajman returned home from a booze night, jolted his wife out of bed and let his friend rape her for two hours while he sat smoking and enjoying the scene. The husband was jailed for life but his wife is pleading for his death.

The unnamed woman was in her bed with her 12-year-old daughter from a former husband when the present husband returned late night and shoved her out of the room while ordering the girl to stay in bed.

In the sitting room, the woman came face to face with another man, who was also drunk and who stared lustily at her light night gown.

“I tried to back off but he jumped on me…I tried to run away and clutched to my husband but he pushed me away and said ‘I have invited my friend for you,” the woman, with tears in her eyes, told court in Ajman.

“It was a horrible nightmare…I collapsed on the floor and the man was on me while my husband sat on the chair smoking and enjoying the scene with a big smile on his face…I begged him and asked him how he can accept this as I am your wife, your dignity and your honour…but he kept smiling.”

According to Albayan newspaper, the woman told the judge that “every minute she wishes to die after what happened to her.”

“When the lawyer for the husband and his friend heard the woman’s plea, he just stood up and told the judge he was pulling out of the case,” the paper said.

“The judge then ordered the two lashed 80 times for drinking alcohol and sentenced them to life in jail…but the woman screamed and insisted on death punishment, saying life imprisonment is not enough.”

In Australia, Ambiga serves notice of people power

Ambiga (left) speaks during a public lecture at University of Melbourne, October 25, 2011. — Pictures by KC Boey

MELBOURNE, Oct 26 — Bersih 2.0 will hold Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to the civic movement’s eight demands on elections and governance should the opposition pact come into government, chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said at a public forum here yesterday.

“Not only Pakatan,” Ambiga said of her movement that transcends party politics. “We will hold all parties accountable. That’s the way it should be. The power is with us (the people), not with them (political parties). It’s only when power is in the hands of the citizenry that we have a working democracy.”

Ambiga was responding to a question at a public lecture at the Asian Law Centre, University of Melbourne, to kick off a speaking tour of four of the most renowned law schools in Australia.

On Friday she shares Bersih 2.0 stories with Malaysians at a solidarity evening organised by Bersih 2.0 Australia and the Melbourne chapter of Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia Australia (SABMoz).

Ambiga speaks at the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney on October 31, and the College of Law at the Australian National University in Canberra on November 1, at each stop encouraging Malaysians to register as voters.

Malaysians waiting in line to greet Ambiga (right) after the talk.

At the lecture in Melbourne, Malaysia’s Consulate-General in Melbourne, Dr Mohamad Rameez Yahaya, told the audience that foreign missions such as his had started to put in place processes to register voters.

“We registered 26 voters (last night),” said David Teoh, co-ordinator for Bersih 2.0 Australia and SABMoz Melbourne.

More than 300 mostly young Malaysians filled a lecture theatre at the Asian Law Centre for the lecture hosted by Dean of Law Professor Carolyn Evans.

In her talk on electoral reform and the quest for democracy in Malaysia, Ambiga spoke on the significance of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights to which Malaysia is a signatory.

She recounted events leading up to Bersih’s rally on July 9, the implications of the rally, and considered whether the government’s subsequent undertaking to amend or repeal laws such as the Internal Security Act might offer hope for a more democratic Malaysia.

She drew attention to the aspirations of youth, lamenting the “disconnect” of old politics with new technology, a yellow pashmina draped around her neck, and sporting a “CleanBefore13” lapel badge. As Ambiga was speaking, Global Bersih was following events on microblogging service Twitter, using the #CleanBefore13 hashtag.

Moderator Professor Tim Lindsey, director of the Asian Law Centre, had to apologise for not being able to accommodate all those who had questions for Ambiga, almost all of them from Malaysians studying or living in Melbourne, who make up the highest number of Malaysians in Australia.

Ambiga was overwhelmed by the response. “As I said (in her talk), the future is with the youth,” she told The Malaysian Insider. “Never have they been so interested in an election.

“Look at the quality of the questions. That says it all.”

In the audience were Jufitri Joha and Farhana Halim, two Malaysians in Australia for a Young Muslims leadership programme organised by the Centre for Dialogue at La Trobe University in Melbourne.

Jufitri and Farhana were disappointed at the low participation among Malays.

Both were disappointed there were not more Malays at the forum. “It is important to inculcate a culture of intellectual debate,” said Jufitri, vice-president international of Abim.

“It is the essence of Malaysia,” said Lawyers for Liberty advocate Farhana of the national conversation on the way forward for Malaysia. “Regardless of whether you support or not support (Bersih).

“If you do not support, it is an opportunity to question her.”

Farhana was overwhelmed by the crowd. “We underestimate the power of Malaysian Chinese involvement in the national movement... the Chinese sense of patriotism is the very opposite,” she said of what she discovered speaking to those among the overwhelmingly Chinese audience.

Ambiga’s lecture would have been an eye opener for Australians, going by Lindsey’s observation.

“Australians see the region as a bad news story — of the horror of Australians caught up in the violence, and in natural disasters,” said Lindsey, a scholar on Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia; he is also director of the Centre for Islamic Law and Society at the University of Melbourne.

“They are unaware of the debates on democracy going on... Out of the bad news (government reaction to Bersih) has come a good news face.”

It was important for Australians to be aware of changes in the region, Lindsey told The Malaysian Insider, and for government and politicians to stop conducting foreign policy “in reaction to domestic issues”.

Recipients of housing aid not really hardcore poor

The Star

PETALING JAYA: 96% of the 341 recipients of housing aid meant for the hardcore poor did not fall under the category in 2009, according to Auditor-General's Report 2010.

The 327 recipients could not be listed as hardcore poor as they were not registered with e-Kasih or People's Welfare Development Scheme System (SSPKR).

Yet, they were given housing aid under the Central Terengganu Development Authority (Ketengah)'s Housing Assistance Programme (PBR).

As of December 2010, recipients were not registered with e-Kasih consisted of 128 recipients for new houses and 199 for repairs to their existing houses.

The housing assistance offered were new constructed houses with 3 rooms costing RM33,000 each, and repairs to their existing houses costing RM11,000 each.

“Visits made to the houses of the 73 recipients for new houses and 37 for repairs to their existing houses in Dungun, Kemaman and Hulu Terengganu district found that they were not poor as they owned cars and had renovated their PBR new houses,” read the report.

From the listing in the e-Kasih, only 22 out of 251 participants were eligible for assistance but only one received new house assistance.

In reply, the Treasury said all participants had registered with the e-Kasih system.

On the 22 eligible participants, it said not all who are listed in the system will be given assistance.

Those who are not eligible in this case was because their houses were found to be in good condition during a field survey. 

Prisons Department Denies No Post-mortem On Mogana's Body

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 (Bernama) -- The Prisons Department denied that the body of R. Mogana Sundram, who was found hanged in prison three days ago, was not sent for a post-mortem before it was released to his family.

A statement issued by the department's Secretariat and Public Relations Unit, said that Mogana's body was released to his family members after the post-mortem on Oct 23.

A coroner inquest found no other injury on Mogana's body, except the ligature marks on the neck, it added.

The department said that all necessary procedures were taken before Moganas's body was released to his family members.

"Hence, the claim that a post-mortem was not conducted on Mogana's body is not true," it said.

The department also denied involvement with the coffin shop which handled Mogana's body.

Two days ago, Mogana's mother, A. Jagathambal, 55, claimed that her son's body was not sent for a post-mortem to ascertain the actual cause of his death and wanted the police to investigate.

She also claimed that the police and the Taiping Prison had ordered a coffin shop to make arrangement for Mogana's cremation without the family's consent.

Jagathambal said Mogana's body was now at the family home at Taman Meru Ipoh and no funeral arrangement would be made until a post-mortem was conducted.

Mogana, the youngest of three siblings, was arrested by the police for a drug-related offence about a month ago.

Millions of aborted girls imbalance India

India has only 914 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to the latest census [Davinder Kumar/Plan International]

 Gender selective abortions have skewed birthrates, so millions of men will never find wives, potentially causing strife.
Dr Neelam Singh is on the front line of India's battle to save its girls.

Modern medical technology - specifically ultrasounds for determining the baby's sex - coupled with ancient cultural values which give preference to boys, mean that hundreds of thousands of girls are never being born.

There were only 914 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of six in India, according to the 2011 census, compared with 927 for every 1,000 boys in the 2001 census. Today's ratio is the highest imbalance since the country won independence in 1947.

"I feel the demand [for abortions] every day," Singh told Al Jazeera. "Parents say it's important to have a son in the family. They want to keep their family name. I see this as the most heinous kind of discrimination towards a girl child."

A gynecologist in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, Singh has witnessed population growth at a rate of 20 per cent. Out of a population of almost 200 million, men outnumber women by nearly 10 million.

The world's population will hit seven billion later in October, according to the UN, and the problem of imbalanced gender ratios is getting worse in several regions.

Widespread patriarchy

"In India, there is a confluence of factors leading to passive infanticide, active infanticide or sex selective abortion," Valerie Hudson, a professor of political science at Brigham Young University who studies birth rates, told Al Jazeera.

"Probably the most important is the tradition of dowry [payment to a prospective husband]. Having to marry a girl off may be the equivalent of several years of income for a family. A daughter is often seen as a thief who will rob necessary resources."

Restrictive property rules, where inheritance is passed from father to son rather than to daughters, male dominated funeral rights and parental hopes that male breadwinners will support them through old age also play a part in skewing demographics, Hudson said.

The world's largest democracy still fares better than China, where the ratio is 121 men per 100 women. Globally, 163 million girls have gone "missing" from the world's population due to sex selective abortions in the last thirty years, according to the calculations of Mara Hvistendahl, author of Unnatural Selection.

By 2020, an estimated 15 to 20 per cent of men in some regions of northwest India will lack female counterparts. "In Punjab, there are entire villages with no girls under [age] five," said Rohini Prabha Pande, an independent demographer who works on gender issues in India. "There are some districts with 700 girls per 1,000 boys," she told Al Jazeera.

Social disorder

These massive social imbalances could spark a host of social problems.

"When 15 per cent of young adult males in your population will never become head of household or heirs you will alienate these men in ways that cannot be fixed," Hudson said. Poor men will be the biggest losers in this equation.

"The historical record shows there can be distinct negative impacts on levels of violent crime, riots and rebellion against the state," when large groups of single young men are alienated and lack family commitments, according to Hudson.

The lack of women is being felt by bachelors, policy makers and women's rights activists across Asia. By 2020, China could be home to 40 million bachelors who won't be able to find mates.

"North Korea's largest export is women across their northern border with China," Hudson said, noting that the ruling communist party is particularly worried about prospects for unrest from angry, unmarried men.

Governments will likely funnel bachelors into the military, she said.

While prospects for conflict are unclear, other problems including human trafficking, prostitution and polyandry – men (usually relatives) sharing a wife - are certain to get worse.

Governments are, however, trying to address the problem.

Legislative response

After India's 1991 census, a prolonged campaign by women's rights activists over the skewed child sex ratio led to the enactment of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act in 1994.

"Technology allowing families to detect the sex of a foetus at an early stage and plan for an abortion has been banned," said Mohammed Asif, director of programme implementation with Plan India, an NGO which lobbies to save baby girls.

"The government's law is stringent, but people have been trying to work around it, going to far away clinics and giving fake addresses. Loopholes have been exploited and a key strategy would be to take action against illegal ultra sound clinics," Asif told Al Jazeera.

Other researchers don't think legal changes are the best way to improve the situation. If cultural values discourage against having girls, families can find other ways of getting rid of them without advanced screening techniques.

"Ultra sound technology is just the latest wave to select a son preference," Pande said. "In rural Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, you see a fairly balanced sex ratio at birth. But when you look at what is happening between birth and age six, they resort to traditional means of neglecting girl children. They are less likely to be immunised, less likely to be taken to a health centre and more likely to be chronically malnourished."

No cure in education

Contrary to popular belief, education, status and upward mobility can actually make the problem worse.

"You have a much greater chance of survival as a girl baby if born to a poor family, rather than a rich family," Hudson said. "Richer families have more assets which could be put in jeopardy by girls due to dowry payments," she said, adding that wealthy groups worry about having their family name tarnished if their daughter marries from a lower class.

While national trends are cause for concern, the situation is improving in some areas. "Tamil Nadu is one of the few states where we have seen an improvement," said Sharada Srinivasan, a professor of gender studies at York University in Canada.

In addition to counselling, and the creation of self-help groups for women, the southern state is using the carrot and the stick approach. "The government has created a massive cash transfer programme" to entice parents to keep baby girls, Srinivasan told Al Jazeera. Parents who commit infanticide are increasingly being prosecuted for homicide, she said.

Tamil Nadu also hosts some of India's new outsourcing and information technology and these post-industrial jobs could improve women's rights. "Before, women's work was either at home or on the farm," Plan India's Asif said. "With globalisation, girls are now picking up jobs in banking, manufacturing and hi-tech. This is creating a lot of buzz in the family to start considering girls."

While cash incentives, laws against gender selective ultrasounds, harsh punishments and economic changes all play a role, changing deeply ingrained social values is arguably the most important issue, and the most difficult.

Some communities in Punjab and elsewhere are taking collective pledges not to kill or abort girls, considering the practice a source of shame and an example of backwardness. This is where government policy ends and grassroots action begins.

"There is no way you can tax patriarchy," Srinivasan said. "Public action has a role to play in changing social norms. History is full of examples of this."

Follow Chris Arsenault On Twitter: @AJEchris

Malaysian Islamic party protests Elton John show

 Members of an opposition Islamic party call on Muslim-majority Malaysia to ban next month's concert by Elton John, saying Tuesday that the gay singer promotes "hedonism"

Shahril Azman Abdul Halim Al-Hafiz, an official with the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), said the concert by singer Elton John at the Genting Highlands resort on Nov. 22 would corrupt young Muslims because of John's homosexuality.

"It's not good. In Islam homosexuality is forbidden," he told AFP. "What he is doing is hedonism. Hedonism is not good in Islam."

The British singer is openly gay, marrying his partner in 2005 after same-sex unions were legalised in Britain.

Shahril is the chairman of the PAS youth wing of eastern Pahang state. The casino resort lies on the border of the state, about an hour's drive from the capital Kuala Lumpur.

An official from concert promoter Tune Live declined to comment.

But the show, part of John's "Greatest Hits Tour," is expected to go ahead in the resort. John will be singing in Singapore before he comes to Malaysia and then go on to Jakarta.

PAS often protests concert by Western acts, saying the artists promote a promiscuous lifestyle and corrupt youngsters' minds.

But despite protest threats, most concerts have gone ahead without incidents though performers had to abide by strict rules, barring them from bearing too much skin and kissing on stage.

A tale of malice or negligence?

Najib bubar parlimen 11.11.11, PRU 10 Dis

PM akan mengikut tarikh ini walaupun ada pihak yang menasihatinya agar jangan mengadakan PRU awal dan secara mengejut.

REMBAU: Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak dijangka bubar parlimen pada 11 November depan bagi membuka jalan kepada Pilihan Raya Umum ke 13 (PRU13) sekembalinya dari Mekah sekitar 6 November, seterusnya 1 Disember akan diumumkan sebagai hari penamaan calon dan 10 Disember (Sabtu) sebagai hari mengundi.

Demikian menurut Pengerusi Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM), Badrul Hisham Shaharin atau lebih dikenali sebagai CheguBard.

Mengikut maklumat sumber dalaman yang beliau terima, tahun ini Najib dan isteri beliau Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor akan menunaikan ibadah Haji dan akan pergi ke Mekah dengan penerbangan terakhir.

Pemergian beliau ini juga dikaitkan dengan pembinaan dan pembaikan imej beliau dan isterinya yang teruk tercalar dengan beberapa isu.

“Diyakini telah disusun liputan media yang akan menyiarkan imej dan visual pasangan suami isteri ini mengerjakan ibadah Haji untuk memberikan satu persepsi baru kepada orang ramai khususnya dalam usaha mengepung undi orang Melayu.

“Jangan terkejut nanti kalau imej atau klip video Najib dan Rosmah memasuki Kaabah akan dimainkan tiap malam.

“Najib dan Rosmah dijadualkan balik dengan pesawat penerbangan khas sekitar 6 November. Selepas itu dia akan mengukur kejayaan misi hajinya selain dari membuat beberapa keputusan akhir menjelang tarikh penting 11 November”, katanya.

Nombor bertuah

CheguBard yang juga Ketua PKR Cabang Rembau memberitahu bahawa beliau difahamkan Najib memilih tarikh 11, 01 dan 10 kerana angka berkaitan 1 ini sengaja dipilih kerana mengikut nasihat paranormal dan tukang tilik yang menyatakan nombor berkaitan 1 merupakan nombor bertuah bagi Najib dan Rosmah.

Diyakini sehingga hari ini dari maklumat dalaman bahawa sah Najib akan mengikut tarikh ini walaupun ada pihak yang menasihatinya agar jangan mengadakan PRU awal dan secara mengejut.

“Pilihan raya awal ini dipercayai juga kerana krisis dalaman Umno yang semakin meruncing. Sudah ada pihak yang mahu menjatuhkan Najib dalam Umno sendiri. Najib tidak boleh membiarkan gejala ini merebak. Mereka yang terlibat perlu disingkirkan.

Namun sebelum itu Najib perlu mendapat mandat baru dan memastikan majoriti yang dinamakan sebagai calon PRU perlulah individu yang boleh menyokong beliau tanpa belah bagi”, ujar CheguBard.

Sementara itu, CheguBard turut menyatakan kebimbangan beliau bahawa Najib akan adakan PRU tanpa menunggu proses penambahbaikan pilihanraya.

Pada 9 Julai lalu, ribuan rakyat turun ke jalan raya sekitar di ibu kota bagi menuntut pilihan raya bersih dan adil walaupun pihak berkuasa membuat berbagai sekatan dan halangan.

Najib sendiri akhirnya terpaksa mengakui bahawa kepincangan wujud dan proses pilihan raya memerlukan reformasi. Sebuah Jawatankuasa Terpilih Parlimen diwujudkan untuk maksud tersebut.

Malangnya usaha Najib hanya pada kulit. Dalam mengumumkan langkah pemerkasaan demokrasi dalam negara tetapi beliau sendiri terus melakukan banyak kerja jahat dengan membunuh demokrasi ketika proses pilihan raya.

BN kurang ajar

“Isu penganugerahan istimewa orang asing dengan taraf warganegara secara mudah dengan syarat mengundi Barisan Nasional (BN) dilihat antara kemuncak kurang ajar BN ini.

“Justeru itu SAMM memberikan peringatan kepada Najib, Rosmah dan regim BN keseluruhannya, jangan ada sebarang PRU sehingga selesai proses penambahbaikan PRU khususnya melaksanakan lapan tuntutan Bersih 2.0.

“Jika PRU diadakan sebelum proses reformasi maka PRU tersebut bakal menjadi PRU terkotor dalam sejarah negara,” ujar beliau.

Tegas CheguBard, “jika PRU tetap diadakan sebelum proses reformasi pilihan raya selesai maka PRU yang diadakan itu hanyalah penipuan dan hanya proses bohong yang hanya ingin memanjangkan hayat Umno dan BN.

“Najib dan regimnya mungkin boleh terus berdegil memanggil PRU dan jika ini berlaku yakinlah pasti akan ada mobilisasi terbesar rakyat dan SAMM tidak menolak kemungkinan kali ini bukan sekadar demonstrasi protes tetapi ia mobilisasi rakyat benar–benar untuk menumbangkan regim dan mobilisasi rakyat untuk memasuki Putrajaya”, tegas CheguBard.

Chegu Bard turut menegaskan mobilisasi rakyat kali ini akan benar–benar berwajah Malaysia dengan menolak sebarang sentimen perkauman.

“Dari pengamatan SAMM yang sama bergelumang di bawah, majoriti rakyat yang sedang terhimpit dengan kehidupan mereka, tidak redha BN terus mendapat mandat dengan cara menipu dan terus menghancurkan negara,” katanya.

Kedatangan Islam serlah tamadun Hindu

Tamadun dari pengaruh agama Hindu turut menyumbang kepada proses ketamadunan di Nusantara.

PETALING JAYA: Presiden PKR Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail berkata, tamadun dari pengaruh agama Hindu turut menyumbang kepada proses ketamadunan di Nusantara.

“Kehebatan yang terserlah ialah, apabila kedatangan Islam, kedua tamadun ini dapat terjalin dengan baik dan tanpa sebarang ketegangan atau kesusahan,” katanya dalam perutusan sempena menyambut Hari Deepavali esok.

Beliau berkata, ujian sebenar ialah hari ini. Sebagai salah satu kaum utama di Malaysia, masyarakat India khususnya yang beragama Hindu masih tercicir. Lihat sahaja bagi mereka yang tinggal di estet-estet, keadaannya masih daif.

“Berulang kali disebutkan, termasuk di dalam Parlimen bahawa angka banduan, keciciran pendidikan di sekolah dan gangsterisme masih ramai yang melibatkan belia dari masyarakat India. Yang jelas ialah kepercayaan sekian lama yang mereka berikan kepada pemerintah sediakala telah dikhianati.

“Malah kita dengar bagaimana saham berbilion ringgit yang diperuntukkan kepada masyarakat kita yang keturunan India, lenyap begitu sahaja. Pembelaan bagi pihak semua masyarakat yang memerlukannya adalah tunggak perjuangan PKR sejak penubuhannya.

Dalam konteks ini kata beliau, masyarakat India tidak boleh dibiarkan terkebelakangan mengakibatkan keseluruhan corak masyarakat Negara menjadi tidak seimbang. Inilah ujian dan cabaran yang sedang dihadapai oleh seluruh rakyat Malaysia yang cintakan keadilan dan kesejahteraan.

Wan Azizah berkata, PKR tidak memandang sambil lewa hal ini. Kita dengan sepenuh daya upaya mahukan agar masyarakat India tidak lagi ketinggalan dan keberadaan mereka bukan hanya tempelan di kaca TV untuk menampakkan keharmonian yang serba pura-pura.

“Menjelang hari mulia 26 Oktober 2011 ini, saya mewakili seluruh barisan kepimpinan dan ahli-ahli PKR mengucapkan Selamat Hari Deepavali. Mari kita bersama membawa cahaya kebaikan ke semua warga negara kita yang tercinta,” katanya lagi.

Perayaan cahaya

Sementara itu, Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim juga mengambil kesempatan untuk mengucapkan Selamat Menyambut Hari Perayaan Deepavali kepada seluruh penganut agama Hindu, khususnya di negeri Selangor Darul Ehsan.

“Deepavali tentulah merupakan perayaan penting buat penganut agama Hindu. Perayaan Cahaya ini menjadi lambang kebaikan mengatasi kejahatan, keadilan mengatasi kezaliman,” katanya dalam kenyataan media yang berasingan.

Beliau berkata, negara kita mempunyai sejarah yang unik dalam hal kepelbagaian agama serta kepercayaan. Sebab itu Perlembagaan Persekutuan memberi jaminan kepada semua penganut agama. Agama Hindu merupakan satu daripada agama yang utama diamalkan di negara kita.

“Di Selangor sahaja, daripada sekitar 5.3 juta penduduk, 16 peratus berketurunan India dan majoritinya beragama Hindu,” jelas beliau.

Dalam realiti hidup yang majmuk, saya menyeru agar kita semua dapat bersama saling mengenali, menghormati, memahami serta menerima persamaan dan perbezaan yang ada. Ini penting dalam usaha memelihara kerukunan hidup bermasyarakat.

“Kita harus menerima bahawa perbezaan pendapat adalah hal yang tidak dapat dielakkan. Apa yang boleh dibuat ialah berikhtiar menguruskan persoalan berbangkit dengan cara aman dan bijaksana,” katanya.

KJ taunts police over Raja Petra REVISITED

Sex, Lies and Malaysian Politics

A House is not always a home

Prurient and puritanical, the country gags, goes gaga for naughty tales
Malaysia fancies itself a conservative society, with plenty of restrictions on racy movies and activities that might lead its majority Muslim population astray. But get inside a courtroom and anything goes, with details that would make a New Yorker blush, published in the mainstream media.

In the latest trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, whose sex life has been an object of prosecutorial attention off and on since 1998, the court — and the press — has been filled with graphic descriptions of the anatomy of Mohamad Saiful Bukhairy Aslan, the 26-year-old former aide who has accused Anwar of sodomy. Outside of court, the titillations are also commonplace — especially when an opposition politician or his family is involved.

Take the 16-year-old son of Lim Guan Eng, the chief minister of the opposition-held Penang state. The youth was the subject of bloggers accusing him of fondling a girl and getting kicked out of his school, with his father supposedly having to pay bribes to hush up the matter. Unfortunately, it transpired that the girl whose photo was distributed as the victim was a 21-year-old Hong Kong chess champion who is now attending Wellesley University in the United States, has not been in Malaysia for seven years and has never met Lim’s son. She demanded an apology for herself and the youth.

“This is something fairly new. Every month there is something, half of it manufactured, if not most,” said Elizabeth Wong, an opposition Democratic Action Party assemblywoman who was the victim of a former boyfriend who posted nude pictures of her on the Internet and who considered quitting politics out of embarrassment. “It isn’t the way to get people in politics. It just continues, I imagine people are disgusted with politicians regardless of party.”

Although the United States set a similar precedent in the mother of all sex scandals – the 1998 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton for having sex with a White House intern, there are few examples of similar attention to sexual misdoings across Asia.

“I've got no clue why Malaysian politicians are all sex deviants of one kind or another,” said a longtime expatriate resident. “I am also not so sure that this isn't going on lots of other places nowadays, given the various sex scandals that have emerged in recent times (think Berlusconi, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Elliott Spitzer, Arnie the sperminator, gay Brit ministers, etc.).”

However, he says, the Anwar cases “have been overtly used in a political power struggle here, with all the attendant publicity afforded by a government-controlled mainstream media determined to ensure that the gruesome details reach every Malaysian man, woman, child, dog and kuching (cat).”

Going back to at least the middle 1980s, otherwise tame newspapers have often been filled with graphic sexual details. At one point the daily tabloid Malay Mail got its hands on the illicit pictures of a romp between an ethnic Indian politician and a beauty queen. The newspaper couldn’t run the pictures themselves, but it got its artists to produce amazingly realistic pictures of the beauty queen’s various lecherous poses – then showed her the photographs and photographed her humiliated reaction at seeing them.

All of this is despite the fact that the so-called khalwat cops – conservative Muslim patrolmen – patrol assiduously to ensure there is no “excessive closeness” between people of opposite sexes, busting the odd luckless teenage couple caught smooching. But in the houses of power the powerful have been going at it like goats nonstop for years, and not just with the four wives they are allowed under Islamic law. In 2002, the Reformasi website named top public figures and officials who were having relatively public affairs, including Najib Tun Razak, then the defense minister and now the prime minister, who was caught in a Port Dickson hotel room with the actress and singer Ziana Zain. None have been apprehended by the khalwat police.

Kiss me. But be careful.

“It’s in the culture — not that sex is a scandal in itself but that Malays like to aib or cause shame to their enemies,” said an ethnic Malay lawyer in Malaysia. “Khalwat is a tool to eliminate or shame your enemy. It’s partly rooted in perasaan hasad dengki – good old jealousy to bring down the other fella who has more than you. Islam itself forbids spying. That’s what khalwat is.

They are obsessed with khalwat. I think it’s bullshit. Utter nonsense. That’s all they do.”

Others blame it on former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

“What is going on now is an extreme kind of politics that is very debased by people who have no sense of values,” said S. Nagaratnam, acting dean and senior lecturer of Liberal Studies at Wawasan University in Penang.

Nagaratnam cites the United Malays National Organization, Malaysia’s dominant political party. “The UMNO we have now is not the one we had in the 1960s and 1970s, when we had leaders who were legally trained and had respect for the rule of law. Thanks to Dr Mahathir, there was an erosion in basic values, a corruption of those kinds of boundaries.”

Whatever happened, Malaysians have been subjected to a plethora of sex tapes and other transmissions that have gone viral on the internet. Anwar has featured in three of these public airings, the first in 1999 when he was put on trial for sodomy and corruption in a trial that featured equally graphic revelations. That trial has been universally condemned as rigged to get him out of politics. The second trial, which is just winding up, has featured similar descriptions of sexual activity and similar charges of rigged prosecution.

The third episode came earlier this year when three men known collectively as “Datuk T” — a datuk is the lowest rank in Malaysia’s whimsical list of titles for the privileged — planted four cameras in a love hotel to engineer the filming of either Anwar or his stunt double, having sex with a Chinese prostitute. Anwar has insisted the figure in the film wasn’t him and regularly has flashed glimpses of his stomach, which he says is in contrast to the pot belly on the man having sex. Anwar’s doctors say a back injury has prevented such athletic goings-on. Whoever it was, the film clip has been circulating widely on the Internet and has been distributed across the country on DVDs.

Ironically, one of the three datuks behind the filming was Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik, the former Malacca chief minister, who was forced to resign his position after allegedly having an affair with a 15-year-old schoolgirl. After the matter became public, the schoolgirl was sentenced to three years protective custody in a house for “wayward girls.” After the girl’s grandmother came to him for help, the opposition parliamentarian Lim Guan Eng brought up the matter in parliament. He was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison for sedition for printing a pamphlet containing the allegations.

The love hotel technique was also used to dethrone Chua Soi Lek, one of Malaysia’s top ethnic Chinese politicians, who was forced to resign as minister of health and to leave politics after a sexually explicit videotape was widely circulated that showed him getting into bed with an unnamed woman whom he later described as a friend. Political enemies believed to be rivals for power in the Malaysian Chinese Association were thought to be behind the filming, which included four secret cameras in a hotel room. Chua, however, recovered from the scandal and has since assumed the presidency of the MCA.

Likewise, almost immediately after Mohamad Sabu was elected deputy president of Parti Islam se-Malaysia in June with a mandate to broaden the party’s appeal to Malaysia’s ethnic Malays, a VCD and flyer titled “Skandal Seks Mat Sabu” (Mat Sabu sex scandal) was mailed across the country. PAS leaders charged UMNO officials with being behind the distribution of the film.