Power Struggle in Malaysia Pits Former Premier Against a Protégé

By THOMAS FULLER and LOUISE STORY

New York Times

JUNE 17, 2015

Photo

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia — Malaysia’s governing party is at war with itself, embroiled in a power struggle that is destabilizing the country and threatening the party’s nearly six-decade stretch of uninterrupted governance.

The battle has revealed itself publicly in a nasty spat between two political titans. Mahathir Mohamad, a former prime minister who turns 90 next month, is the chief architect of a political insurgency aiming to oust the man he helped put into office six years ago, Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Having lost none of the combativeness honed during more than two decades in power, Mr. Mahathir is pressing allegations of malfeasance in a sovereign wealth fund, criticizing the “lavish” lifestyle of the prime minister’s wife, and has resurrected troubling questions about the murder of a Mongolian woman, the mistress of a former top aide to Mr. Najib.

“I’ve had quite a long time in government, and I’ve learned a few things,” Mr. Mahathir said in an interview at his office on Wednesday in Putrajaya, the administrative capital he built from scratch when he was prime minister.

Mr. Najib “wants to leave his own legacy,” he said. “But what he does is verging on criminal.”

Mr. Najib has denied allegations of abuse of power and urged patience while the country’s auditor general completes a report on the transactions of the sovereign wealth fund. “If there is any misuse of power, we will not shield anyone,” he told a Malaysian television channel in April. The report is due at the end of the month.

The political combat has transfixed this nation of 30 million people, an officially Muslim country with one of the most developed economies in the region.

The latest round took place early this month when Mr. Najib was scheduled to address a public forum on the questions swirling around his leadership.

When Mr. Najib failed to show up, Mr. Mahathir took the stage. But he had just begun to speak when the police shut him down, cutting off his microphone and escorting him off the stage.

This is the third time in Mr. Mahathir’s career that he has turned on his former protégés, and he succeeded in sidelining the first two. Another former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, is in prison on charges of sodomy, which is illegal in Malaysia. Mr. Anwar’s five-year prison sentence, affirmed by the country’s highest court this year, was the culmination of trials that began when Mr. Mahathir fired Mr. Anwar as his deputy prime minister in 1998, declaring “I cannot accept a man who is a sodomist to become the leader of this country.”

The second time was nine years ago, when Mr. Mahathir came out of retirement and lashed out at his successor, Abdullah Badawi, for what he said was poor economic management. Mr. Abdullah resigned, and Mr. Najib took over as prime minister.

Mr. Najib’s approval ratings have plummeted over the past year amid bleaker economic prospects and higher living costs, and Mr. Mahathir says he fears that the party will lose elections if Mr. Najib remains at the helm. But he also expressed little faith in the long-term prospects of the party, the United Malays National Organization, which has led coalition governments since independence from Britain in 1957.

In the interview on Wednesday, Mr. Mahathir said that the party he led for decades, known as UMNO, lacks vision and talented people, and that it has become a repository of patronage-seeking politicians seeking to monopolize the spoils of power.

“The little Napoleons in UMNO try to keep out people who are more intelligent than themselves,” he said.

Government ministers and members of Parliament have been pressed to declare their allegiance in the dispute, and many have been cagey, afraid to alienate either their current leader or the next one if Mr. Mahathir gets his way.

For now, the divided opposition poses little threat. Its leader, Mr. Anwar, is in prison, and the unwieldy three-party coalition he led appears to have dissolved this week.

The political imbroglio comes on top of economic problems. About a third of government revenues comes from oil and gas production, whose prices have fallen steeply, and the government has been forced to pass an unpopular sales tax to make up for the loss.

Murray Hiebert, an expert on Southeast Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says the country’s political troubles “could hardly come at a worse time.”

“The prime minister is focused on political survival when the country’s economy is slowing due to low oil prices and falling exports resulting from China’s economic slowdown,” he said. The combination, he said, is “giving pause to the foreign investors Malaysia is seeking to court.”

Mr. Najib has denied allegations of abuse of power and financial malfeasance. Credit Kiyoshi Ota/European Pressphoto Agency

The sour economy has also thrown into relief what Mr. Mahathir and others describe as the Najib family’s jet-setting lifestyle of shopping trips in world capitals and the buying of expensive real estate in the United States.

Mr. Mahathir criticized Mr. Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, for her “lavish lifestyle” and for acting “almost if she was a prime minister.”

Mr. Mahathir has also dredged up questions related to the case of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian model who was murdered by two of Mr. Najib’s bodyguards in 2006. While the bodyguards were convicted, Mr. Mahathir has demanded to know who gave the orders.

But at the heart of his dispute with Mr. Najib is Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, which has debts running into the billions of dollars and is overseen by Mr. Najib, who is chairman of its board of advisers.

Mr. Mahathir says the fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, is missing “huge sums of money” that Mr. Najib has been unable to account for.

The fund has been criticized for the last several years for taking on expensive debt as well as for some of its investments, which opponents say have benefited supporters of Mr. Najib’s political party. “He has never been able to explain how the money was spent,” Mr. Mahathir said Wednesday. “They give a list of payments, but nobody believes it.”

Mr. Najib did not respond to requests for comment emailed to his spokesman.

The fund has also drawn controversy for its close relationship with a financier named Jho Low, a friend of Mr. Najib and of his stepson. Mr. Low has been involved in the sale of tens of millions of dollars of luxury real estate to the stepson in the United States.

Though Mr. Low holds no official position with 1MDB, he has acknowledged advising the fund, and several of his friends have held senior positions there. In recent months, documents have been published by The Edge, a Malaysian newspaper, and Sarawak Report, a British blog, showing that Mr. Low was instrumental in a deal between 1MDB and a Saudi oil company, PetroSaudi International. The newspaper also said the documents show that a company, Good Star Limited, was controlled by Mr. Low and received hundreds of millions of dollars from 1MDB as part of the oil deal.

Mr. Low did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement to The New York Times this week, 1MDB said that Good Star was owned by PetroSaudi and noted that PetroSaudi had confirmed that 1MDB said it had provided information about these transactions to the Malaysian authorities that are investigating the sovereign fund.

The payments by 1MDB are attracting attention in part because the fund is floundering. In recent weeks, the government announced a restructuring plan that involves the fund’s acceptance of money from the International Petroleum Investment Company, an investment fund affiliated with the Abu Dhabi government that has also made numerous deals with Mr. Low.

1MDB has issued statements disputing the notion that it is being bailed out. “This is a business transaction, not a loan, not any kind of debt and not a bailout,” the fund said in its statement to The Times.

Mr. Mahathir’s criticisms of the management of 1MDB, which he makes in regular blog postings and in public comments, are closely followed in Malaysia. But they have also been greeted with cynicism by those who say that money politics and bailouts of government-linked companies were very much a part of Mr. Mahathir’s 22 years in power.

“Mahathir is being disingenuous,” said Ibrahim Suffian, the director of the Merdeka Center, an independent polling company. “What we are seeing today did not happen overnight. It’s been heading this way for decades.”

Still, the concerns over 1MDB seem to have gained traction.

“We have been talking about and highlighting 1MDB for the last five years, and although it slowly gained momentum as a national issue, things changed the moment Mahathir picked 1MDB as an issue to bring down Najib,” said Rafizi Ramli, an opposition Parliament member. “For the first time, a government scandal has reached the attention of both sides of the political divide. In fact, it’s a bipartisan issue.”

Thomas Fuller reported from Putrajaya, and Louise Story from New York.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 18 June 2015, 4:57 pm and is filed under
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Sekarang puaslah hati PAS

Rahmat Haron

Malaysiakini

17 Jun 2015

Perkara 1, Pengistiharan Hak Asasi Manusia Sejagat menyebut, “semua manusia lahir bebas dan saksama dalam maruah dan hak-haknya.” Maruah merujuk rasa kemuliaan diri dan kehormatan peribadi. Ia merujuk kepada perihal nama baik dan harga diri.

Penggunaan frasa harga diri membayangkan suatu jenis urusniaga perasaan – mahal, murah atau sampah (seperti saya!). Ia mengukur makna kehinaan – penghina, orang yang dihina dan penghinaan.

Ia permainan kejam si kuat ke atas si lemah – yang tuan dan yang hamba, yang kalah dan yang menang, yang mulia dan yang hina, yang ularmak dan yang profesorsional, yang mencakar dan yang terluka, parah serta dalam kedukaannya.

Dalam politik, maruah (nama baik dan kehormatan diri) amat penting untuk dijaga. Misalnya, ahli parlimen Jeli, Mustapha Mohamad merasa terhina dengan niat suci DAP mahu membina masjid buat para mangsa banjir.

Ataupun golongan pro ulama Pas merasa terhina dengan ucapan Lim Kit Siang yang mengangkat hak-hak kemanusiaan, menolak pelaksanaan perundangaan deraan fizikal dan hukuman mati yang kejam.

Makanya, hasrat Muktamar PAS yang meluluskan usul tanpa bahas anjuran sayap teras Dewan Ulamanya untuk memutuskan hubungan dengan DAP telahpun menjadi kenyataan.

Sekarang, puaslah hati kalian. Pakatan Rakyat (PR) akhirnya gagal membawa harapan perubahan, menghapus rasuah, menegak hak asasi dan pendemokrasian di Malaysia.

Setiausaha Agung DAP Lim Guan Eng telahpun mengumumkan Pakatan Rakyat Sudah tidak wujud lagi.

Makanya kini jalan keindahan yang dihasratkan golongan konservatif Melayu Islam, untuk melihat perundangan hudud terlaksana semakin terbuka luas.

Umno lemah, Pakatan gagal

Tiada lagi halangan golongan sekular – liberal – plural – pro demokrasi – pro hak asasi manusia – pro negara berkebajikan – dengan label-label Anwarinas, anai-anai, munafiq, barua, tolol dan jebon.

Anwar Ibrahim pula sedang melalui pemenjaraannya untuk lima tahun lagi. Jika hukuman ini berjaya dilalui saudara Anwar, maka dia telah menghabiskan kira-kira 15 tahun usia dewasanya untuk dipenjarakan rejim zalim Umno-BN.

Doktrin kejiwaan yang mendasari pemerintahan Malaysia selama ini secara tanpa sedar – atau barangkali dengan sepenuh pengetahuan – mengajar umat Melayu Islam Malaysia untuk memperakui diri mereka sebagai makhluk pilihan tuhan yang paling mulia.

Bukan sahaja paling mulia di muka bumi, malah di serata alam semesta mayapada.

Ya, segerakanlah urusan perpaduan umat Melayu-Islam dibawah kepimpinan Perdana Menteri merangkap Presiden Umno, Najib Razak dan Presiden PAS Abdul Hadi Awang – hingga tertubuhnya Negara Islam dan terlaksananya hudud.

Saya ulangi, puaslah hati kalian. Pada saat Umno-BN berada dalam kedudukannya yang paling lemah, Pakatan Rakyat gagal menjadi jawaban penyelesaiannya.

Saya cuma sekadar yakin, siapa yang berkhianat, dia pasti akan mendapat laknat Yang Maha Esa. (Jangan risau, doa seorang pendosa seperti saya tidak makbul.)

Sejarah PAS bukanlah sejarah kopiah dan serban semata-mata. Di sebalik kopiah dan serban itu, mereka bukan setakat pernah dilutut dan disiku Umno-BN.

Di atas sejadah, sejarah PAS bergenang dengan darah, keringat dan air mata rakyat tertindas di Malaysia. Sejarah Memali berdarah.

Sejarah Lubuk Merbau berdarah. Sejarah demonstrasi padi di Kedah. Sejarah pemenjaraan ratusan pemimpin dan aktivisnya dibawah akta-akta zalim, seperti ISA dan Akta Hasutan.

Cita-cita yang tertunda

Umno-BN berjaya dibuktikan sebagai perampas maruah dan hak rakyat. Ironinya ia kini disebut sendiri oleh bekas Presidennya sendiri, Dr Mahathir Mohamad yang merujuk kepada kes skandal kehilangan puluhan bilion ringgit, duit syarikat milik kerajaan 1MDB dan pembunuhan Altantuya.

Cita-cita murni kerap kali tertunda. Retak Pakatan Rakyat telah terbelah. Dalam suasana perubahan cuaca, ditambah tragedi gempa bumi di Sabah, Pakatan turut ikut bergegar lantas harapan rakyat hancur berkecai.

Ia pasti akan menumbuhkan sesuatu yang baru untuk perubahan ke arah cita-cita murni Malaysia yang demokratik, adil, setara dan saksama, berbahagia damai sentosa.

Sementara cita-cita murni itu tercapai, Umno-BN telah dinobatkan sebagai parti politik yang paling lama memerintah di dunia, yang dipilih melalui pilihan raya (yang tidak adil, tidak bersih dan tidak amanah).

Apabila kepimpinan politik konservatif Umno-BN-Pas-Isma-Perkasa bercerita tentang maruah, seolah-olahnya mereka menggambarkan ketinggian martabat mereka di sisi Tuhan. Sudah tiba masanya kita merenung kenyataan, di mana pula hakikat kedudukan kita di sisi dunia.

Apakah makna maruah, jikalau Malaysia yang kononnya hebat berjuang untuk Palestin, tetapi tanpa segan silu berdagang dengan Israel, serta memakai khidmat perunding Apco misalnya?

Apakah makna maruah, jikalau di sebalik retorika antiimperialisme Amerika Syarikat (AS), kapal-kapal perang AS dibenarkan berlabuh di pelabuhan Malaysia?

Apakah makna maruah, jikalau perairan kita dicerobohi armada kapal-kapal perang Tentera Pembebasan Rakyat China (TPRC)? Kalau tidak silap sebanyak dua kali dua kali, pada Mac dan April 2013, malah beritanya juga berjaya digelapkan media Malaysia pada waktu itu.

Jalan kehinaan

Silalah tonton video TPRC mengangkat sumpah mempertahan wilayah (saya sangat takut).

Apakah makna maruah, jikalau ruang udara kita diceroboh pesawat tentera negara jiran lebih 2,000 kali? Apakah makna maruah, jikalau di sempadan kita wujud kem-kem pemerdagangan manusia?

Apakah makna maruah, jikalau enjin jet pejuang TUDM, kapal terbang MAS dan kini kapal tangki pembawa minyak Petronas boleh hilang?

Saya sedar semangat saya tidak sehebat anda semua, teramat kerdil dengan kelemahan dan kekurangan diri, untuk merasakan saya lebih dekat kepada Tuhan berbanding orang lain, atau pun saya lebih mulia, lebih baik daripada orang lain.

Bukankah kita semua sama sahaja sebenarnya, hamba abdi kekuasaan modal global?

Lantaran itu, saya sedang perlahan-lahan menghakis retorika kepahlawanan dunia ketiga, doktrin kemuliaan moral yang terbit daripada ilusi keagungan yang dikhayalkan dan disebarkan propaganda sistem pemerintahan ala Korea Utara dengan struktur edaran maklumat negara secara berkuku besi.

Namun antara kesemua itu, seperti saya, Najib Razak sedang membuktikan maruah tidak penting lagi dan kalian juga sebenarnya tidak ketinggalan, terimalah bahawa kita sama-sama melalui jalan kehinaan!

RAHMAT HARON seorang seniman ‘outsider’.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 18 June 2015, 7:18 am and is filed under
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Call for immediate dissolution of Biro Tatanegara (BTN) as the country has wasted over RM1.1 billion on the BTN in the past 30 years as it continued to incite racism, disunity, bigotry and intolerance instead of fostering patriotism, unity, inter-racial and inter-religious understanding and goodwill

Recently, the latest evidence was uncovered that the Biro Tatanegara (BTN) under the Prime Minister’s Department had continued its negative, divisive and anti-national activity of inciting racism, disunity, bigotry and intolerance instead of fostering patriotism, unity, inter-racial and inter-religious understanding and goodwill.

Even for former top Malay civil servants in G25 have condemned BTN of being “ultra Malay-racist”.

Former diplomat and spokesperson of G25 Datuk Farida Ariffin also joined the growing chorus demanding that the Najib government should dissolve the “anti-national” BTN forthwith.

Five years ago, the Najib administration had promised a revamp and Malaysianisation of BTN after a nation-wide furore when a senior BTN official had used the terms “si mata sepet” and “si botol” at a closed-door Puteri Umno gathering to describe the Chinese and Indians respectively, but clearly nothing had changed and BTN remains the bulwark of brainwashing and hotbed of racism, opposing the concept of Malaysianisation as a whole and Najib’s 1Malaysia policy in particular in the Malaysian civil service.

Although the National Civics Bureau had pulled down a folder on its website which contained several presentation slides, including very racist ones glorifying racism, the time has come for firm and uncompromising action agaisnt anti-national and racist outfits in the Malaysian civil service which are paid and maintained at Malaysian taxpayers’ expense.

I find it most regrettable that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has not yet said a single word about such national betrayal by civil servants in BTN.

Two days ago, Najib pleaded with civil servants to keep their lips sealed with regard to government secrets.

Speaking at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC), Najib said:

“In the past few days, many secrets have been exposed. Please safeguard the government’s secrets.

“If a (department or ministry) is not ready to make an announcement, do not expose it because the decision later may be different.

“Look at what has happened with the toll charges, before anything is finalised, it has been leaked to the public.”

Najib was referring to the controversy over impending increase in highway toll charges, saying leaks about likely increase in toll charges “betrayed” the trust of the Cabinet and would prevent Malaysia from becoming a great nation.

What about the national betrayal by Biro Tatanegara in the last three decades inciting racism, disunity, bigotry and intolerance instead of fostering patriotism, unity, inter-racial and inter-religious understanding and goodwill?

I join the call by growing number of concerned and patriotic Malaysians for the immediate dissolution of Biro Tatanegara (BTN) as the country has wasted over RM1.1 billion on the BTN in the past 30 years as it continued to incite racism, disunity, bigotry and intolerance instead of fostering patriotism, unity, inter-racial and inter-religious understanding and goodwill.

The increasing racial and religious polarisation in the country, with the country experiencing the worst state of national unity in the nation’s history, is an indictment of the abject failures of BTN in the past three decades.

The budgets for BTN multiplied ten-fold in the eighties compared to the nineties, multiplying from some RM20 million in the eighties to RM200 million in the nineties, which continued to increase, in fact more than double to over RM550 million in the first decade of the 21st century. From 2010 to 2015, the budgets for BTN totalled some RM365 million.

This means that for the last three decades, the BTN had cost the taxpayers over RM1,130 million.

There can be no doubt that the RM 1.1 billion spent by BTN in the past three decades can be better utilised in promoting national unity and harmony.

The over RM1.1 billion would also be better spent to help the poor, needy and disadvantaged, regardless of race and religion, in the past three decades instead of running and maintaining an anti-national agency under the cover of promoting patriotism in the very bosom of the government civil service, mushrooming from a staff of a handful in the early eighties to some 300 public servants at present.

I call on the Cabinet to put this item of dissolution of the BTN at the top of its agenda in the next meeting and all Ministers must take a stand whether they support that the BTN should be dissolved because of its racist and anti-national character, causing a gross waste of public funds.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 19 June 2015, 7:41 pm and is filed under
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Malays won’t fare better or worse if BN falls, says veteran newsman

The Malaysian Insider

19 June 2015

The Malays “won’t be better off” if opposition parties take over Malaysia in the next general election, said veteran journalist Datuk A Kadir Jasin, but neither will they be “worse off”.

But those who knew how to take advantage of opportunities would benefit from a new non-Barisan Nasional government, said Kadir, the former group editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times.

“The opposition pact cannot sideline Malays and Muslims if in the long term they want to govern fairly and preserve national peace,” Kadir wrote in his latest blog posting.

Kadir said that he had written this assessment as a response to the numerous questions he received over what will become of the Malays if the Barisan government was to fall in the next general election.

Kadir said the Malays would still have leverage in the new government by virtue of their dominance of the police, army and civil service.

“If the Chinese used their economic strength and the Indians used their dominance in the professional classes to influence any new government, the Malays can also balance this out with their strength in the civil service.”

Based on the experience of how Pakatan Rakyat ruled Selangor and Penang, Kadir said, Malay Muslims did not lose the rights and special position accorded to them in the Federal Constitution.

“There were no big changes to the Malays and Islam since 2008. We have seen how the Malays in Kelantan are poor under the PAS state government.

“After PAS entered the opposition pact, the Malays of Kelantan remained the same – backward and poor.”

Kadir said the opposition would continue to hand out “goodies” to the Malays and Bumiputeras in return for their support, a tactic which they copied from the BN.

“Whoever rules Malaysia would need Malay and Bumiputera support not just because they are the majority but their population is rapidly expanding compared with the Chinese and the Indians.”

Kadir said that the Chinese and the Indian communities, specifically the business and professional classes, would try to influence the economic policies of the new non-BN government.

“They will demand for more rights and greater say in policies related to the economy, education and labour. They will certainly want more involvement in government-linked companies that are now dominated by Bumiputeras.

“This is where Bumiputera power will be the most threatened. The opposition will certainly not give priority to Bumiputera entrepreneurs who are seen as proxies to BN parties and will use the excuse of corporate failure to sideline Bumiputera executives.”

Kadir added that concession agreements and easy loans would be reviewed or cancelled by a PR administration just like what was being done with water and toll agreements in Selangor. – June 19, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 19 June 2015, 12:30 pm and is filed under
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Malaysian Ex-Prime Minister Unleashes Criticism

Interview by THOMAS FULLER

New York Times

JUNE 17, 2015

Mahathir Mohamad, who served as prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, turns 90 next month. He is forcing his way back into the center of Malaysian politics with a fire hose of criticism for the man he helped install in office, Najib Razak, the current prime minister.

In an interview, Mr. Mahathir lashed out at Mr. Najib for what he described as wastefulness and lavish spending. But he also broached a host of other topics, questioning the tenets of modern democracy and calling for a boycott of Myanmar over its persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority there.

Here are excerpts from the interview.

On the splintering of Malaysian politics:

The reason why Malaysia has managed to remain stable and to grow economically was because there was one big coalition of parties. But now you can see there’s a breakup. What will happen in the next election is that no one will be able to gain a majority. This, of course, leads to instability.

On the current prime minister:

I had always supported Najib. I was in a way instrumental in his becoming prime minister. [But] the apparent disappearance of huge sums of money. This is not good. He has never been able to explain how the money was spent. He wants to leave his own legacy. But what he does is verging on criminal. He’s going to lose in the next election.

On the prime minister’s wife, Rosmah Mansor:

She projects herself too much. Normally, the wife of the prime minister should be in the background supporting the husband.

On Western-style democracy in Asia:

If you look at the history of democracy, initially it was all about the right of the people to choose their own leaders. Since then, we have added more things to democracy. You must have this freedom and that freedom. I know what is wrong about democracy. It is when people interpret it wrongly. And they seem to think that liberty, freedom is absolute. It’s not.

On the use of detention without trial:

Running a country is not just about being nice. Sometimes you have to be nasty to people who have evil intentions.

On a Muslim Malaysian gymnast who was criticized by religious leaders for wearing what they described as a revealing outfit:

I feel that these people are interpreting the religion in the wrong way. The religion is not wrong. It is these people who interpret it to suit their own purpose.

On how to deal with conservative Islamists:

You have to reply to them in the language of the religion. But if you say, ‘This is not constitutionally right,’ it’s not going to work.

On Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya:

This country claims that the Rohingya are not their people. They’ve been there for 800 years, much longer than the Chinese in Malaysia. The atrocities committed are terrible. They killed and burned people, they beat people to death. In this day and age, people should not behave like that. Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] should do something. If necessary, I think I would expel this country. It’s terrible. The whole world should boycott this country.

On the reasons he has turned against his anointed successors three times:

They all looked good to me before they held power, but they don’t seem to manage power. They seem to think that power is to satisfy their own ambition. Power is there to serve the people. It’s not for enriching yourself and living a high life.

On turning 90 next month:

I never thought I would reach 90.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 19 June 2015, 7:11 am and is filed under
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Najib should live up to his “Nothing2Hide” claim by accepting Mahathir’s challenge to a live-telecast “Ask and Answer All” public  duel

It has really come full circle – the longest-serving Prime Minister of Malaysia who in his 22-year premiership had repeatedly denounced Opposition leaders, even former leaders of the  Umno/BN coalition government, most notably his one-time Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister-designate, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, of disloyalty in using international forums to undermine their own country, being now the target of the  very same accusation by the present administration!

In an open letter to the New York Times, the Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman made  these same accusations against the “super patriot” Tun Mahathir for attacking the country’s administration and political party, expressing regret at Mahathir’s action “to undermine his own country through the international media as part of a personal political vendetta”.

Anifah wrote: “It is irresponsible of any citizen, let alone a former prime minister, to spread lies and distort facts about state owned companies.”

Anifah criticised Dr Mahathir’s attack over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Umno and accusations against current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

According to Bernama, Anifah’s open letter to The New York Times, alleged:

“Saying for example that RM42 billion is missing from 1MDB to create public anxiety, when in fact these are audited debts backed by RM51 billion in assets. These reckless claims have affected market sentiments towards Malaysia.

“Furthermore, it is telling that he continues to mount his attacks rather than wait for the findings of the enquiry currently being undertaken by Malaysia’s central bank, the Auditor-General and the Malaysian Parliament’s bipartisan Public Accounts Committee.

“This shows that Dr Mahathir is not interested in answers from the appropriate lawful authorities. Rather, he is just using 1MDB as an excuse to topple the serving prime minister.”

Describing Mahathir’s accusation against Najib as simply outrageous and entire false, Anifah’s rejoinder to Mahathir’s allegation that Umno  “has become a repository of patronage-seeking politicians” was the counter-accusation that  “it is Dr Mahathir who had led the party for 22 years. It was he who, during his time, worked to cultivate the ‘yes men’ culture to entrench his position.”

It was only on Wednesday  that Mahathir had challenged Najib to a live-telecast “Ask & Answer All” public duel, saying he was prepared to answer questions about his 22 years as prime minister.

In a closed-door meeting with Umno-linked NGOs, Mahathir said  Najib could ask him anything about his tenure as Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, and that he could also ask Najib about anything.

“I want to ask Datuk Seri Najib, together with me to be on stage in front of television (cameras).

“Najib can ask what I have done in the past, (claims) that I too had lost some money, he can ask (me) and I can ask him too.”

Yesterday, 1MDB president and group executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy claimed that Mahathir had been presented with all the verified facts and details the former premier had previously requested, and that all documentary evidence with Mahathir is now asking for have been “shared with independent auditors and Malaysia’s lawful authorities…(who) can then take action accordingly, per due process, and the laws of our country”.

What gobbledygook when all that Arul wanted to say is that 1MDB is not prepared to produce such documentary evidence after accusing Mahathir of dishonesty and bad faith.

Since Mahathir had challenged Najib to a live-telecast “Ask and Answer All” duel, this will be an excellent opportunity not only for Najb live up to his “Nothing2Hide” claim on the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal,  prove Mahahtir’s dishonesty and mala fides on the 1MDB issue by exposing Mahathir’s “lies and distortion of facts”, but also  expose Mahathir’s heinous series of  RM100 billion financial scandals under his 22-year premiership.

Why has Najib not yet jumped on the opportunity to “finish” Mahathir off  for good?  Who has more to hide – Najib or Mahathir?

Anifah is only half-right when he  said in his Open Letter to New York Times that  most Malaysians would rather see Mahathir retire gracefully than continue to “damage the standing of his own country for personal political gain”.

Yes, most Malaysians would rather see Mahathir retire gracefully, but if he is prepared to put his shoulder to the wheel of a national campaign to end the rampant corruption, abuses of power, lack of accountability and good governance as illustrated by the 1MDB scandal (admittedly started under Mahathir’s years as Prime Minister) to reset Malaysia nation-building policies and future directions,  Mahathir would be performing his last, final and most patriotic duty to the nation – and that will be welcomed by all patriotic Malaysians!

Najib should live up to his “Nothing2Hide” claim by accepting Mahathir’s challenge to a live-telecast “Ask and Answer All” public  duel.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 19 June 2015, 9:27 am and is filed under
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PAS will never get back non-Muslim support, says Mat Sabu

by Looi Sue-Chern

The Malaysian Insider

19 June 2015

Mohamad Sabu is one of PAS’s most popular leaders, outside his party and among non-Muslims, that is. Internally, the party booted him out at the recent elections where he failed to defend the deputy president’s post. In the first of a two-part interview, Mat Sabu, as he is popularly known, mourns the passing of an Islamist party that enjoyed the support of non-Muslims for a period and fears it may never regain that trust.

Even if he is voted back into the PAS leadership, the Islamist party will never regain its non-Muslim support, said former deputy president Mohamad Sabu.

Better known as Mat Sabu and popular with the non-Muslim crowd, he also told of how hard he had to work to persuade PAS grassroots members to go out and rally with non-Muslims in earlier demonstrations led by electoral reform group Bersih.

Mat Sabu painted a bleak future for the only opposition party with a religious ideology that had contributed to the death of Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

He said there was now no remedy which could fix the situation for PAS to get back its non-Muslim support.

“Non-Muslims are disappointed and broken-hearted by the whole situation.

“Furthermore, PAS is now led by personalities from the east coast who rarely come into contact with Malaysians of other races and faiths,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Mat Sabu said the east coast leaders from Kelantan and Terengganu might think they do not need non-Muslim support since they only interacted with Malays daily.

“They won’t feel it like we do here in Penang and Selangor. The Kelantan leaders had even said it is okay to do without PR because they were making assessments based on their own locations.

“They can win in their areas but what about Selangor, Malacca and Johor? In Kedah, there are also parliamentary constituencies where non-Muslim votes make up some 40%.”

He said the PAS leaders were not realistic if they thought the party could make it in general elections on its own.

“In an election, you must have a coalition, unless you just want to be a regional party in Kelantan and Terengganu.

“This is all going backwards.”

He said when the first Bersih rally was being planned in 2007, it took him almost a year to go around asking PAS members to take part and join those from other races in the demonstration.

The success of the rally, he said, contributed to PR’s victory in five states – Penang, Kedah, Perak, Selangor and Kelantan – in the 2008 general election.

“Now, that multiracial image we built is gone. I do feel sad. Let PAS with its present leadership try to gather a crowd with all the different races now.

“The ulamas in PAS organised an anti-GST (goods and services tax) rally first but the event was only attended by their own people. GST affects all Malaysians. You have got to include everyone.

“This is what we are seeing. If PAS goes back to being a regional party, it will become stronger. But when election comes, it will be another matter.”

Mat Sabu said even with PR now dead, the ruling Barisan Nasional would still fall, with or without PAS in the picture, because the people, especially the younger generation, were rejecting the ruling coalition.

He said PAS should take care about trying to get close to Umno because this would only spell its own ruin.

 “If PAS wants to work with Umno, it, too, will suffer a hit. People just don’t want BN or Umno.

“Take the Permatang Pauh by-election last month. In all streams, the percentage of votes for PKR by youth went up. It was not because they were PKR members. They just didn’t support Umno.”

The PR pact “officially died” on Wednesday after PKR agreed with DAP that it no longer existed.

The end of PR came after the PAS leadership, now dominated by the conservative ulama faction led by party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, accepted a motion to sever ties with DAP without debate.

The relationship between DAP and PAS had been rocky since last year over the Selangor menteri besar imbroglio, and worsened after the Islamist party tabled and passed the hudud bill in the Kelantan assembly to implement the Islamic penal code in the state.

Things appeared to reach the point of no return when PAS adopted a motion without debate at its recent general assembly to cut ties with DAP. – June 19, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 19 June 2015, 7:32 am and is filed under
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A crushed Mat Sabu warns PAS of slide into authoritarianism

by Looi Sue-Chern

The Malaysian Insider

20 June 2015

In the final part of our interview with Mohamad Sabu, one of PAS’s most popular leaders, he tells The Malaysian Insider that he is worried with the thinking among leaders in the Islamist party, warning it can be dangerous for the country.

PAS has begun to follow a “dangerous” trend where the focus is on punishing those who disagree with Islamic leadership, one of the party’s ousted “progressives”, Mohamad Sabu said.

The former deputy president, popularly known as Mat Sabu, who lost in recent party elections said this tendency in the practice of Islam today had started in the Middle East, and PAS has jumped on the bandwagon of “takfiri” (Muslims accusing other Muslims of apostasy) when faced with those who disagreed with them.

“You disagree with us, then you are not with us. You are an infidel, a liberal, a ‘munafiq’ (a hypocrite who outwardly practises Islam while inwardly concealing his disbelief).

“This is happening in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Somalia, Algeria and Pakistan. It is very dangerous and students, who studied in the Middle East, have brought it home with them,” he said in an interview with The Malaysian Insider.

Mat Sabu also drew out larger implications for Malaysia if this way of thinking continued.

“What is going on is dangerous for the party and in the future, it will be dangerous for the country too.

“The infighting in the Middle East may even take longer than 20 or 30 years to end. In Malaysia, it has not yet begun but the seeds have been planted and the flowers will soon bloom,” he said.

It has resulted in some PAS leaders and members becoming more focused on whether a person was on their side, rather than whether he or she had a good track record in serving the party, Mat Sabu added.

Referring to himself, he said it therefore did not matter that he had been imprisoned twice under the Internal Security Act, and had been in and out of police stations in the fight for PAS’s struggles and issues affecting Malaysians.

“What they talked about was whether Abang Mat was on their side or not. It mattered not to them if you had worked tirelessly for the party and only went home a few days in a month.

“They looked at Hanipa and they labelled him a liberal and said he must be rejected. Never mind how well he debates in the Dewan Rakyat or in the court, defending people. His work had no value since he was labelled a liberal,” Mat Sabu said, referring to lawyer Mohamed Hanipa Maidin (pic, left), who failed to defend his post in the central committee.

“This is the school of thought in the Islamic world today… and PAS is facing this disease,” Mohamad said.

He and Hanipa are among former party leaders dubbed progressives for their more open stance towards non-Muslims and belief that mutual agreements under the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact should be honoured.

They had also been critical of PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s leadership, as Hadi had defied decisions by the Pakatan Rakyat’s collective leadership on some issues.

Mat Sabu, a PAS member of 37 years and a three-term MP under the party’s ticket, said it broke his heart to see PAS take this change in direction, although he would not say that he would quit the party.

“Of course I am crushed. This is my party. It is my blood… so much effort had been put into the party. It is not easy to just leave the party, although these are strange times.”

The end of PR was brought about by a motion adopted at PAS’s annual general assembly earlier this month, which resolved to cut ties with DAP with whom Hadi and other conservative leaders had been fighting with.

There is now the possibility of the ousted PAS progressives forming their own party, but Mat Sabu said it was still to early to say more on this idea.

“We have to talk more on whether we will need a new vehicle or we can find a way to rehabilitate PAS members… overhaul everything.

“Whatever it is, the party must have an Islamic base because only then can we appeal to Muslims for support,” he said, adding that a party with an Islamic foundation would not put off non-Muslims.

This was because PAS had successfully captured non-Muslim support with the “PAS for All” slogan used in the 2013 general election. Its concept of a welfare state had also received support from non-Muslims, Mohamad said.

“PAS was accepted by the Chinese. We even saw the Chinese wearing shirts with the PAS logo at the time.

“Islam is not a problem. The problem is the thinking of the (PAS) leaders,” he said.

Should a new party be formed by leaders like him who were booted out of the PAS leadership, Mat Sabu said it would continue with the ideals that the Islamist party has now abandoned.

These would be to champion values like multiracial harmony, good governance and clean government.

“Look at the MPs in Parliament. Those who talk about corruption, good governance and values are people like (Parit Buntar MP) Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, (Shah Alam MP) Khalid Samad, (Sepang MP), Hanipa and others like them,” he said.

All these names had also lost in the party elections.

“Good governance, fighting corruption, being punctual, keeping our cities clean are all Islamic. But the so-called ulamas (clerics) appear to be weak in addressing such matters.

“Those values and practices are not the priority for PAS leaders now. All that reflects on their thinking,” he said. – June 20, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 20 June 2015, 7:11 am and is filed under
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Hopes for achievement of PR Common Policy Objectives without PR  in 14GE is not impossible  as UMNO/BN in self-confessed terminal stages from being in “wad biasa”, “wad kecemasan”, “ICU’ and “tanah kubur”

Today is special for two reasons.

Firstly, it is Duanwu Festival, which the Chinese celebrate with zongzi or dumpling. It commemorates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan 2,355 years ago in ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty, for his sacrifices in his principled stand against corruption and abuses of power.

Malaysia is today mired in  the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history, the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, with new exposes almost everyday highlighting the lack of good governance, accountability and transparency in  an administration which had at first boasted about National Transformation Programme and commitment to combat corruption and abuses of power in high political places.

The latest chapter in the 1MDB scandal is the Wall Street Journal expose yesterday alleging that the 1MDB funds running into billions of ringgit were used to bank-roll Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib’s 13th General Election campaign.

Najib’s extraordinary and ominous silence, coupled with the failure by the Prime Minister either to announce his readiness to appear before the Public Accounts Committee to undergo full investigation on the Wall Street Journal allegations or institution of legal suit against Wall Street Journal for defamation signify that Najib does not lead a Nothing2Hide administration as he seems to have a lot of things to hide.

If Qu Yuan had been alive today, he would be in the forefront against such government abuses regardless of the cost to his life and future.

Secondly, the Duanwu Festival is also a Double Fifth Festival falling on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese traditional lunar calender.

It is a reminder that two years ago, on May 5, 2013 under the Gregorian calender, Malaysians went to the 13th general elections in the hope that there could be a change of federal government for the first time in the nation’s history, and how the majority of Malaysians were cheated of such a political change for although 55% of the electorate voted for Pakatan Rakyat and for change, the undemocratic nature of the system ensured that Najib continues as the Prime Minister of the first minority government in Malaysian history.

The question many are asking is whether the hopes  of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, gender or age for political change in the 13th General Elections are still relevant and in particular, whether they are achievable in the 14th GE.

This is the greatest challenge facing Malaysians rooting for political change in the 13GE – whether their hopes for change and support for the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework in the 13th GE remains valid, relevant and achievable in the 14th General Elections when there is no Pakatan Rakyat.

I am reminded of the challenge of Johor in the last general elections, when Johor was regarded as an impregnable “fixed deposit” state of UMNO/BN, and there were widespread concerns that I myself would not get elected in Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency in the last general elections, when I left  the safe seat of Ipoh Timor parliamentary constituency for the “dangerous” Gelang Patah to spearhead a major political change in the Umno/BN fortress state.

The 13th General Elections produced the sensational result in Johor where DAP won 13 of the 14 State Assembly seats contested, and Pakatan Rakyat won 18 state assembly seats (one short of denying UMNO/BN two-thirds majority in the State Assembly) and five PR parliamentary seats.

What is in store for Johore in the 14th General Elections? Will Johor revert to become an UMNO/BN fortress state?

I do not think so.

Johor was the weakest state of PAS in Peninsular Malaysia, but it succeeded in making a major breakthrough winning four state assembly seats.

I do not believe this was because the voters in Johore, especially the Malays, want an Islamic State or hudud implementation  in Johor but because of their revulsion of the politics of corruption, abuses of power and self-interests by UMNO/BN.

What the Johor voters, whether Malays or non-Malays, wanted in the 13th General Elections was first and foremost good governance, a good and just government which can assure the people a prosperous economy, good jobs, good schools, good hospitals, efficient transportation system and safe and secure environment for their family and themselves.

I believe these will remain the foremost concerns of the voters whether in Johor or other states in Malaysia in the 14th General Elections.

For this reason, I also believe that the hopes for achievement of PR Common Policy Objectives without PR  in 14GE is not impossible  as UMNO/BN  is in self-confessed terminal stages from being in “wad biasa”, “wad kecemasan”, “ICU’ and “tanah kubur”.

Recently, Biro Tatanegara, which is under the Prime Minister’s office, asked participants very revealing question – “Pada pandangan anda di manakah kedudukjan Barisan Nasional masa kini?”,  and the four boxes for answer are “BN – Wad Biasa”, “BN – Wad Kecemasan”, “BN – ICU” and “BN – Tanah Kubur”.

This is most eloquent in revealing the mind and thinking of the UMNO/BN strategists – and why they are doing their utmost to create division and splits in Pakatan Rakyat and PAS.

(Speech  at  ceramah kopitiam DAP  in Senai on Saturday, 20th June 2015 11 am)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 20 June 2015, 2:59 pm and is filed under
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Let us move on and keep faith with the hopes of Malaysians for change in the 13GE to ensure that although there is no more Pakatan Rakyat, the PR Common Policy Framework of national unity, justice and prosperity of Malaysians must remain achievable goals in 14GE

Yesterday, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang claimed  that Pakatan Rakyat is not dead yet and that  the coalition still  exists.

This is in contrast to the statement to The Malaysian Insider  by the Dewan Ulama Chief and Johor PAS Commissioner Datuk Dr. Mahfodz Mohamed who said yesterday that he does not regret the PAS Muktamar  motion to cut ties with DAP, even though it led to the dissolution of Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

Mahfodz Mohamed said they were aware of the repercussions when passing the emergency motion during the ulama wing’s congress on June 3, which was subsequently adopted by the 61st PAS  Muktamar without debate.

He said:

“To me, there is no turning back, there is no U-turn, because all this while we had been patient in the face of everything PKR and DAP did to PAS. We never responded rudely.

“But when we did that during the congress, we knew there would be no U-turn. We had thought it through, and we knew the consequences of our actions.”

As the new PAS leadership seems to be at loggerheads with each other as to whether the PAS Muktamar motion has led to the dissolution of Pakatan Rakyat, I have no interest of intervening in their different interpretations.

But I find it strange that Hadi is claiming that Pakatan Rakyat is not dead when for the past year he had singly destroyed Pakatan Rakyat by violating the PR Common Policy Framework as well as the PR consensus operational principle, the two pillars governing the success of the PR in the 13th General Elections and without which therd could be no PR.

As a result, the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council has not been able to function for the past year, resulting in PR existing only in name but not in fact.

Hadi either refused to attend the PR Leadership Council meeting or vetoed the decision taken by the PR Leadership Council which he did not attend but arrived after consensus was reached by the leadership from the three parties, or even worse, undertakings made by Hadi at the PR Leadership Council but which he  subsequently refused to honour!

I do not want to go into details as we want to move on and keep faith with the hopes of Malaysians for change in the 13GE to ensure that although there is no more Pakatan Rakyat, the PR Common Policy Framework of national unity, justice and prosperity of Malaysians remain achievable goals in 14 GE.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 20 June 2015, 9:32 am and is filed under
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Najib cannot keep silent about the serious allegations by Wall Street Journal that 1MDB funds  running into billions of ringgit were used to bankroll his 13th General Election campaign

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak cannot keep silent about the serious allegations by Wall Street Journal  yesterday that the 1MDB funds running into billions of ringgit were used to bank-roll his 13th General Election campaign.

A Wall Street Journal report yesterday said this was achieved by having 1MDB make overpriced purchase of power assets from Genting Group in 2012.

Genting then made a donation to a foundation controlled by Najib before the 13th general election and it claimed the funds were used for campaigning.

The WSJ report said:

“The 1MDB fund in October 2012 acquired a Genting unit that owned a 75 percent stake in a 720-megawatt coal-fired power plant near Kuala Lumpur.

“The price, which was equivalent to about US$740 million at the time, came to RM2.3 billion.

“A few months after the sale, a unit of Genting called Genting Plantations Bhd made a donation of about US$10 million to a Najib-linked charity, according to a spokesperson for Genting Plantations.”

The foundation, WSJ said, was Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia, which lists Najib as chairperson on its website.

The WSJ report said: “Though set up to help underprivileged Malaysians through education and sport, this charity soon got involved in spending that appeared designed to help Najib retain power in the May 2013 election.”

WSJ said 1MDB’s purchase of Genting’s stake in the power asset was around five times what it was then worth.

The WSJ report said: “The price, which was equivalent to about US$740 million at the time, came to RM2.3 billion.

“Genting later reported it had a 1.9 billion ringgit extraordinary gain on this sale, implying a value for its stake in the power plant of just 400 million ringgit – or less than one-fifth what 1MDB paid for it.

“In a second sign that 1MDB paid a high price, the fund’s financial statement for the fiscal year ended in March 2013 said the power unit’s property, plant and equipment were worth a little under RM500 million at the time of acquisition.”

WSJ said the “donations” to Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia were then poured into the election campaign in Penang for BN’s bid to recapture the state.

“It and other charities linked to the government spent millions of dollars before the voting in Penang, a northern state that was an important election battleground.

“Najib visited Penang during the campaign and announced that Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia would donate RM2 million to two local schools.

“These schools serve Chinese communities that are not a poor demographic but whose support would be crucial to win votes in the area,” it said.

The WSJ report claimed that regulators found the charity had failed to file its required financial status since 2013.

WSJ added that Goldman Sachs, which received a handsome commission for raising US$3 billion (RM11.22 billion) in bonds for 1MDB, was pressed to do so quickly shortly before the general election.

“Goldman Sachs Group Inc arranged the bond sale and took on extra risk to get the deal done quickly at 1MDB’s request, according to a person familiar with the matter, earning unusually high profits as a result,” it said.

Malaysiakini in its write-up on the WSJ claim said that  shortly after the general election,
Kinibiz
 reported that Genting made an unexpected RM190 million in donations, believed to be related to the election.

Kinibiz
 reported that analysts were puzzled that the Genting group made such a huge donation, and that too spread out over several companies, in just one quarter, significantly impacting its bottom line.

Kinibiz
 quoted an analyst as speculating that the so-called donations could be election-related, using charities as fronts as it is normally unthinkable that such large contributions were made to charities.

The Prime Minister’s silence or that of his Prime Minister’s Office on this expose by Wall Street Journal will seriously impact in a most adverse manner not only on the Prime Minister’s credibility but the nation’s international reputation as well.

As the person responsible for 1MDB’s deals, in law and in fact, not only because 1MDB is a government company and Najib  is  the ultimate authority as Prime Minister and Finance Minister, but also by virtue of Clause 117 of the 1MDB Memorandum and Articles of Association agreement which stipulates that the Prime Minister must give his written approval for any of 1MDB deals, including the firm’s investments or any bid for restructuring, silence is no more an  option for Najib as it tantamounts to admission of the WSJ report.

Is Najib prepared to announce that he will personally appear before the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) and answer all queries about the WSJ claim that 1MDB funds running into billions of ringgit had been used to bank-roll his 13th General Election campaign?

Is Najib prepared to ask PAC to reschedule its hearings on the 1MDB scandal so as to  give priority for him to appear before the PAC on the WSJ claim, even in  matter of a week or two?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 20 June 2015, 8:05 am and is filed under
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Adieu, Pakatan Rakyat

Syerleena Abdul Rashid

The Malaysian Insider

19 June 2015

After seven years, leaders from both PKR and DAP decided it was time to bury Pakatan Rakyat. Although, this decision came as a shock to most Malaysians, to some of us, it was just a matter of time.

DAP’s Lim Kit Siang released a statement stating, “A fortnight ago, I gave my most pessimistic forecast that in two weeks’ time, there may not be a Pakatan Rakyat left. It would appear that my worst-case forecast for Pakatan Rakyat has come to pass and all that is left are the funeral rites.

And on June 17, 2015, the coalition of seven years officially ceased to “exist” in its present form when PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail confirmed the coalition’s fate and marked the end of the seven-year-old pact.

In these seven years, Malaysians started to see things differently.

Malaysians began to understand the issues so valiantly fought by leaders from the coalition, thanks to a strong opposition and the presence of “alternative” news portals, Malaysians are now able to see the other side of the coin.

However, the never-ending over-the-top political dramas have left some Malaysians feeling somewhat disenfranchised.

We find ourselves arguing over hudud, aurat and reasons why women can never be a menteri besar in this country instead of caring for our neighbours, our widening income inequality and shrinking opportunities. Those should have dominated our discussions and discourses but, unfortunately, we never had a chance to raise them.

The challenges were becoming too complicated, especially when some of us came to a realisation of how incompatible some of the leaders within the coalition have become.

This demise sparked some level of outrage and discontent, which made many of us wonder “How did it come to this?” We were, after all, the majority who were in favour of comprehensive reforms.

The reason was clear. While Malaysians were caught in the euphoria of a post-2008 “tsunami of reforms”, the conservatives didn’t walk away – they doubled down and focused on making us pay for our rejection of conservatism.

The simple and clear message they conveyed became the default mode for the minority who feared change and wanted to hang on to some piece of familiarity – the 3Rs and countering any sort of argument by laying down their brand of religiosity upon us.

The break-up of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition could be the one thing this country needs to combat the rise of extremism and ultra-right wing conservative ideologies.

We often tell each other how our country is ready get rid of raced-based politics and embrace a more inclusive concept – now it is time for us to walk the talk.

It is time Malaysians demand a more inclusive framework that complies with economic feasibility and philosophical depth.

We must demand a practical approach that can empower and accommodate all Malaysians regardless of ethnicity, religion and gender.

But how can we discuss reforms without tripping over the conservative “elephant in the room”?

Well, we can’t, but what we can do is begin to break away from the “orthodox” narrative and begin to discuss methods that are compatible with modern day society.

We need to understand that there is a bigger picture here. Overcoming the next few years will be a tough battle for this country and our survival will depend on how well we can thrive on these challenges.

The bigger picture is about embracing the pain that we will experience at the end of a race – it is about bravery, courage and fortitude.

After all, when it comes to politics – not only is the devil in the details. The devil appears in the big picture and as funny was it may seem, sometimes, more often than not, the devil is just hiding in plain sight. – June 19, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 21 June 2015, 12:13 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s national per capita income increased 25-fold from 1970 to 2014 but Malaysia’s financial scandal increased by more than 63,000-fold from RM66 million in 1975 to RM42 billion today

When introducing the Eleven Malaysia Plan in Parliament last month, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak boasted that Malaysia’s national per capita income increased 25-fold from 1970 to 2014, rising from the ranks of a low-income economy in the 1970s to a high middle-income economy today.

What Najib did not tell Malaysians is that Malaysia’s financial scandal had increased by more than 63,0000-fold from the RM66 million Bank Rakyat scandal in 1975 to the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal of today!

No wonder that even the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir, who during his 22-year administration from 1981 to 2003, had chalked up a long series of financial scandals probably costing the country some RM100 billion, has come to forefront to demand accountability, transparency and good governance  from the Najib premiership in utter disgust at the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history – the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.

In the escalating Najib-Mahathir tussle for accountability, transparency and good governance over the 1MDB scandal, DAP leaders have been proven right that allegations of malpractices, abuses of power and even corruption in the 1MDB scandal in the past few years with DAP MP for PJ Utara Tony Pua and the PKR MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli spearheading the 1MDB exposes in the last four years had hit the nail on the head about the enormity and iniquity of the 1MDB scandal.

The allegations that the Najib camp are making against Mahathir  about the financial scandals in the latter’s 22-year premiership have also proven right the DAP allegations since the eighties against the Mahathir financial scandals from the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance scandal, to Maminco, Perwaja, Malaysia Airlines,  the RM30 billion Bank Negara foreign exchange  and Port Klang Free Zone scandals, were also right and appropriate, and not figments of our imagination.

When DAP and Opposition leaders and MPs exposed the financial scandals of the government of the day, they were performing a patriotic duty and not committing anti-national or unpatriotic acts.

What the country is seeing is not only a titanic battle between Mahathir and Najib, we are also  presented with the spectacle of Najib’s scandals vs Mahathir’s  scandals.

Who do we side?

Do we agree with the Najib camp that Mahathir should shut up as Mahathir has yet to account for his RM100 billion financial scandals?

Or do we agree with Mahathir that Najib must not be allowed to get away with the current and ongoing RM42 billion 1MDB scandal?

It would be ideal if both Mahathir’s  and Najib’s financial scandals could be dealt with together in one go, but this is not in the realm of reality.

Mahathir’s RM100 billion financial scandals must be thoroughly investigated, but if a choice has to be made as to whether Najib’s financial scandals, especially the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, or Mahathir’s RM100 billion financial scandal should merit immediate national priority, there is no doubt that it is Najib’s financial scandals.

This is because it is more urgent to expose and stop Najib’s current financial scandals while Mahathir’s RM100 billion financial scandals have become a matter rendering  historic justice on accountability and transparency for financial scandals of the past which, though important and even relevant to many current developments, cannot be on the same level and of  more current pressing concerns as the Najib scandals.

Only the toppling of the UMNO/BN coalition government can ensure that the full  truth, whether about the Najib or Mahathir scandals, are told to Malaysians.

UMNO/BN leaders and strategists are fully aware that the UMNO/BN coalition are on their last legs, which is why even the government-funded Biro Tatanegara are asking whether BN is in (I) usual ward; (ii) emergency ward; (iii) ICU or (iv) cemetry in their propaganda modules for their courses.

Malaysia must become an ordinary democratic country where peaceful transition of power can be effected by a general election and the country reset its nation-building policies.

This is the most effective way to end the abuses and excesses of power, the corruption, malpractices and arrogance of power so prevalent in the Umno/BN administration today.

This is why I feel confident that the hopes and aspirations of Malaysians for political change evinced in popular support for the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Common Policy Framework (CPF) are still valid, relevant and achievable in the 14GE although Pakatan Rakyat has ceased to exist.

The last thing anyone should do is to throw a life-line to  Najib and UMNO/BN coalition which is tottering on their last legs.

(Speech at the DAP Pontian Solidarity Dinner held in Pontian on Saturday, 20th June 2015 at 10 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 21 June 2015, 7:42 am and is filed under
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Pakatan Rakyat crisis might have come earlier if PR had won majority of seats in 13 GE  as Hadi had never accepted Anwar as  PR candidate for Prime Minister

In response to media query, I want to stress that I do not want to be involved in polemcis with the PAS President, Hadi Awang who claimed that Pakatan Rakyat is not dead yet and that the coalition still exists.

The PAS Muktamar resolution cutting ties with DAP is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back as for a year Pakatan Rakyat had existed in name but not in fact, because Hadi had violated the two basic  and bedrock Pakatan Rakyat principles, the PR Common Policy Framework and the consensus operational principle that the agreement of all three PR component parties are needed for any PR motion to be made and that no single leader has the veto power to override the decisions of the PR Leadership Council.

Hadi not only violated the PR Common Policy Framework but acted in utter disregard of the PR  consensus operational principle as if he could override decisions taken by the PR Leadership Council in the same way he had no qualms about overriding decisions taken by the PAS Central Working Committee.

In fact, the Pakatan Rakyat crisis might have come even earlier if Pakatan Rakyat had been successful in winning the majority of the parliamentary seats in the 13GE two years ago  as Hadi had never accepted Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the  PR candidate to be Prime Minister of Malaysia.

With such a background, I find it astounding  that Hadi could now claim that Pakatan Rakyat is not dead, when the PR Secretariat had for the past year find it almost impossible to fix a meeting when the PAS President could attend.

Instead of getting involved in the polemic of whether Pakatan Rakyat is dead or just “pengsan”, the more important question is whether without Pakatan Rakyat, the hopes and aspirations of Malaysians for political change which were so prominent and  pronounced in the 13th General Election are still relevant, valid and achievable in the 14th General Election, or  whether these hopes and aspirations have been crushed for good with Pakatan Rakyat ceasing to exist.

We are all sad that Pakatan Rakyat has ceased to exist, but this is a fact we cannot escape from  when one of the three component  PR parties  had repeatedly violated not one but both of the  two basic and bedrock  Pakatan Rakyat principles  – the PR Common Policy Framework and the consensus operational principle.

We are grim and glum about Pakatan Rakyat ceasing to exist, but there is no reason to be gloomy about future political prospects.

I am confident that Malaysians who want political change  can prevail to face up to the great challenge of ensuring that the PR Common Policy Framework principles and objectives not only remain valid and relevant, but also achievable, in the 14th General Election altholugh there is no Pakatan Rakyat left.

In the 13th General Election, 53% of voters supported the three parties in Pakatan Rakyat because “good governance” top the agenda in the PR Common Policy Framework.

The majority electoral support achieved by Pakatan Rakyat in the 13GE  had nothing to do with any religious or sectarian objectives, whether hudud implementation or Ian slamic State.

This is why any violation of the PR Common Policy Framework is in fact a breach of the mandate given by 53% of the voters  to the Pakatan Rakyat parties in the 13GE.

DAP will work with like-minded political parties like Parti Keadilan Rakyat and political forces including individuals to fashion  a new coalition firmly based on the PR Common Policy Framework principles and objectives which have been abandoned by the Hadi leadership of PAS.

We must agree that the first and most important agenda of this new coalition is “good governance” to ensure that Malaysia enjoys a vibrant economy to provide  to all Malaysians good jobs, education, hospitals, transportation, environment  and where all Malaysians are  liberated from high crime rates  and the fear of crime.

One political reality all Malaysians must accept is that no one race or political party can run this country.

There must  be inter-racial and inter-religious unity, harmony, understanding and goodwill and every political movement should be inclusive to be open to all Malaysians, to work towards a distinctive Malaysian identity transcending race, religion and region where all citizens in the country are all first and foremost Malaysians.

For this reason, I welcome Sheikh Omar Ali for signing up to join the DAP.

Sheikh Omar was a student leader and activist, having been chairman of Solidarity Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM).

DAP’s doors are open to all Malaysians, whether Malay or  non-Malay youths,  regardless of race, religion or region, who share the DAP’s common principles and objective to attain the Malaysian Dream where Malaysians are colour-blind and a person is not judged by his race or religion but by his or her humanity, to be a Malaysian first and  other affinities whether race, religion or region second.

(Media Conference Statement in Kluang together with National Laureatte Pak Samad welcoming former student activist Sheikh Omar Ali joining DAP as member on Saturday, 20th June 2015 at 7 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 21 June 2015, 5:58 am and is filed under
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Scrap the 1MDB roadshows as they will end up as disastrously as the “Nothing2Hide”  1MDB Forum

One of the most accident-prone government front-benchers, the Deputy Finance Minister, Datuk Ahmad Maslan announced yesterday that nation-wide roadshows to explain the 1MDB scandal and other government controversies will be launched at the state levels during the second week of Syawal.

I would advise the Federal government to scrap the 1MDB nation-wide roadshows as they will end up as disastrously as the “Nothing2Hide” 1MDB Forum at the Putra World Trade Centre in KL on June 5 where the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak ignominiously backed out of appearance because of Mahathir’s presence, unless Najib could immediately explain whether 1MDB funds had been misused for the UMNO/BN campaign in the 13th General Election, and are now  being spent and misused in Sarawak for  the forthcoming Sarawak state polls.

Najib’s thunderous silence on the third day of the Wall Street Journal expose on Friday that the 1MDB funds running into billions of ringgit had been used to bankroll his 13th General Election campaign does not brook well that the Prime Minister’s credibility can recover with any “Public Relations” gimmicry like 1MDB nation-wide roadshows.

Why is Najib incapable of giving a detailed and convincing rebuttal to the Wall Street Journal allegation that one “trick” of using 1MDB billions of ringgit to bankroll Najib’s 13GE election campaign was through the artifice of 1MDB making overpriced purchase of power assets from Genting Group in 2012 – paying RM2.3 billion or around five times  for a power plant that was only worth RM400 million, with  Genting make a  subsequent donation to a foundation controlled by Najib for the 13GE campaigning purposes.

Wall Street Journal even named the foundation – Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M), which lists Najib as chairperson on its website.

It would appear that 1MDB funds are also being deployed in Sarawak in the run-up for the Sarawak state general elections, as YR1M, which is implicated by Wall Street Journal as being an intermediary to channel 1MDB  funds for election campaigning, is now actively funding social activities in Sarawak.

For instance, iM Sarawakk, which is an umbrella programme for various projects in the state, listed YR1M as well as Yayasan 1MDB as among its contributors.

The projects include repairing dilapidated houses, building gravity feed systems for rural communities, giving entrepreneurship training and conducting programmes to assist farmers which were clearly designed to counter DAP’s Impian Sarawak programmes to provide basic infrastructure assistance in the rural heartland.

How can Najib expect to restore credibility if he is unable even to counter Wall Street Journal expose on the third day of its publication?

I had said that as  the one responsible for 1MDB’s deals, in law and in fact, not only because 1MDB is a government company and Najib is the ultimate authority as Prime Minister and Finance Minister, but also by virtue of Clause 117 of the 1MDB Memorandum and Articles of Association agreement which stipulates that the Prime Minister must give his written approval for any of 1MDB deals, silence is no more an option for Najib as it tantamounts to admission of the WSJ report.

Najib should issue an immediate and convincing rebuttal of the Wall Street Journal or  announce that he will personally appear before the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) and answer all queries about the WSJ claim that 1MDB funds running into billions of ringgit had been used to bank-roll his 13th General Election campaign.

Najib should be forewarned that even without Mahathir’s daily battering of his credibility and fitness to continue as Prime Minister, every day of silence on his part  to serious allegations about the 1MDB scandal like the Wall Street Journal expose will suffice to condemn him in national and international court of opinion of being guilty as the mastermind of the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 21 June 2015, 4:50 pm and is filed under
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Whether the 11th Sarawak state general election will be the third  time Sarawakians spearhead Malaysian political changes as happened in the 2006 and 2011 state polls?

Whether the 11th Sarawak state general election will be the third  time Sarawakians spearhead Malaysian political changes as happened in the 2006 and 2011 state polls?

The question I want to pose tonight is whether the 11th Sarawak state general election, whether held this year or next, will be the third time Sarawakians spearhead political changes in Malaysia.

In the ninth Sarawak state general election in 2006, DAP made history in Sarawak winning from one to six state assembly seats, spearheading the “308 political tsunami” of the 2008 Malaysian general election where the  Umno/BN coalition was ousted from power  as the government in five States and lost for the first time its two-thirds parliamentary majority.

The 2011 Sarawak State General Election made further history when Pakatan Rakyat won 15 State Assembly seats, with DAP winning 12 and PKR three. The major electoral shifts in the 2011 Sarawak state general election spearheaded the “Ubah” political awakening in the 13th Federal general elections, where Datuk Seri Najib Razak became the first minority Prime Minister in the nation’s history and still without two-thirds parliamentary majority – as UMNO/BN won 48% of electoral support although he won the majority of the 222 parliamentary seats because undemocratic constituency redelineations.

What is in store for the 11th Sarawak state general election which must be held by next August?

Will the 11th Sarawak state general election be the third time Sarawakians spearhead political changes in Malaysia in the next national polls which must be held by 2018?

Malaysian politics are now in unchartered waters ,as both political coalitions, the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat experienced unprecedented turmoil and even chaos.

In fact, UMNO/BN leaders do not have confidence that they can survive as the Federal government in the next general elections because of the slew of political and socio-economic scandals piling one after another – the most serious of which is undoubtedly the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.

Recently, the foremost “brain-washing” headquarters of the UMNO/BN coalition government, the Biro Tatanegara in the Prime Minister’s Department –  which have cost Malaysians taxpayers over R1.1 billion in the past three decades –  issued a teaching module to get public feed on the state of terminal  health of Barisan Nasional  and the four states of terminal health asked are: (i) BN in Wad Biasa; (ii) BN in  Wad Kecemasan; (iii) BN in ICU and (iv) BN in Tanah Kubur.

I would not be surprised if this is part of Opposition surveys but it is most shocking that this questionaire has come from the “brain-washing” command of the BN government in the Prime Minister’s Department, which is as good as an admission that those running the BTN have “brained-washed” themselves into believing that the UMNO/BN government in Putrajaya is not healthy at all and  is  in fact on its  last legs!

I am prepared to show Najib, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin or the ten Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department this Biro Tatanegara questionnaire if they are completely in the dark about it.

The Sarawak state general election will be the first polls after 2008 where there will be no Pakatan Rakyat comprising DAP, PKR and PAS, and this  will also be the case in the 14th national General Election.

How can Sarawak voters spearhead for the third time political changes in Malaysia in the subsequent 14th Federal general elections?

This can be done, if the Sarawak voters can send out a loud and ummistakable message to all Malaysians that although there is no more Pakatan Rakyat, the PR Common Policy Framework of national unity, justice and prosperity of Malaysians, remains valid and relevant, and that all Malaysians want  good governance to be the  first and foremost agenda of government with  a good and just government,  vibrant economy, good jobs, good schools, good hospitals, efficient transportation system and safe and secure environment for all Malaysians.

Sarawakians can send out this message in the 11th Sarawak state election if DAP can not only secure our current 12 state assembly seats and PKR their three seats, but we can also reach out to win even more Sarawak state assembly seats currently held by the Barisan Nasional.

(Speech at the Sibu DAP Ceramah at the new Sibu DAP premises in Sibu on Sunday, June 21, 2015 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 June 2015, 9:04 pm and is filed under
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An open letter to Bloomberg

— Idris Jala

The Malay Mail Online

June 20, 2015

JUNE 20 — When I read William Pesek’s latest commentary on Bloomberg View, I barely recognised the country he was writing about. He starts by referring to Malaysia’s “underlying economic distress” and “prolonged slow growth”, which he says are caused by “race-based policies that strangle innovation, feed cronyism and repel multinational companies.”

The facts, however, are these:

1. Between 2009 and 2014, Malaysian Gross National Income grew by 47.7 per cent.

2. Growth last year was six per cent, and over the next four years the OECD predicts Malaysia will enjoy annual growth of 5.6 per cent. It would be perverse to characterise this as “slow”. By contrast, the Economist reported last month that “The European Commission is forecasting growth in 2015 of 1.5 per cent, which would be the euro area’s best outcome since 2011.” A growth rate nearly four times that of some of the most advanced economies in the world hardly suggests “distress”.

3. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak launched Malaysia’s ‘Economic Transformation Programme’ in 2010. Let me highlight some key achievements:

– Firstly, in the last 5 years, annual investment growth has been 2.5 times more than in the preceding years. Each year, total investment reached a new record for Malaysia. The bulk of this investment is from the private sector. If the private sector has no confidence in Malaysia as alleged by Mr Pesek, why would they put in record investment year on year under the Najib administration?

– Secondly, the country’s fiscal reforms are being successfully implemented, cutting Malaysia’s fiscal deficit for the past 5 years, while keeping public debt at only 53 per cent of the GDP. This level of public debt level is far lower than in many countries, such as the US, UK, France, Japan and Singapore.

– Thirdly, as detailed in the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report 2014, Malaysia’s efforts at reducing poverty have been a great success, virtually eliminating absolute poverty to less than 1 per cent. Since 2009, the income of the bottom 40 per cent households has increased by a compound annual growth rate of 12 per cent, even higher than the national average of 8 per cent. Inflation has been kept in check at only 2.4 per cent. And through the implementation of minimum wage legislation, we have lifted 2.9 million people immediately out of absolute poverty.

– Fourthly, we touched the lives of 5 million people through rural roads, electricity and water projects. This represents possibly the biggest government expenditure over a 5 year period in the history of Malaysia. All of these were done in the name of inclusive economic development.

4. That should be enough to dispel the suspiciously negative picture Mr Pesek paints. But let me address some of his other inaccurate accusations too.

As for the alleged failure to “dismantle race-based policies that strangle innovation”, let me quote from a report in a respected international news organisation:

“Malaysia eased rules governing overseas investors, initial public offerings and property purchases, peeling back decades of benefits to ethnic Malays. Foreign companies investing in Malaysia and locally listed businesses will no longer need to set aside 30 per cent of their equity to so-called Bumiputera investors, Prime Minister Najib Razak said today. He also raised overseas ownership thresholds in the fund management industry and at local stockbrokers.” At Initial Public Offerings, “Publicly traded companies will no longer have to meet any Bumiputera equity requirement under today’s liberalisation measures.”

If Mr Pesek disagrees with any of the above, perhaps he might discuss it with his editors. The report was published, after all, by none other than Bloomberg.

5. At another point, he writes that Prime Minister Najib has “deepened the economy’s reliance on oil and gas production”. The International Monetary Fund believes otherwise. The headline on its “Economic Health Check” report this March was: “Favorable Prospects for Malaysia’s Diversified Economy”.

6. Mr Pesek rounds off his imaginative piece of writing by declaring that “the ringgit’s fluctuations are a decent summary of the country’s wayward course in recent years”.

Perhaps he would like to discuss this with Malaysia’s Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, one of the most admired central bank governors in the world. She has repeatedly said that the ringgit is undervalued. Here is what she said recently: “When the oil price plummeted, the wrong perception of the degree of dependence of the Malaysian economy on the oil and gas sector led markets to think that we would be more affected than others. Of course the ringgit is undervalued. It doesn’t reflect our underlying values, which are solid and strong.”

7. Mr Pesek’s opinions do not seem to have a strong connection to the facts. He gives away his true agenda when writes that “Asia-based journalists have missed Mahathir Mohamad since he left office in 2003” and suggests “a return to old political leadership” is “urgent”.

It may be that nostalgia for the past and his distance from Malaysia have clouded his judgement, and led him to write an unsubstantiated hatchet job on the current prime minister in order to please a former prime minister about whom he gushes, his “mercurial governing style and fiery rhetoric made for great copy”.

He certainly seems to have changed his mind about Tun Mahathir. Only last year he wrote: “The insular and jury-rigged system of affirmative action, national champions and fat subsidies over which Mahathir presided now holds the economy back. The Malaysian leader also had a tendency to embarrass his nation on the international stage with his nutty anti-Semitic tirades.”

He concluded: “Malaysians must find fresh inspiration by looking forward, not back to 1990.” We agree. Why does Mr Pesek now think we should look back to a system he described in such a derogatory manner last year?

8. Malaysia has undergone an impressive economic transformation under Prime Minister Najib and the country is on course to reach the goal of becoming a high income status nation by 2020 — as the figures and achievements I have mentioned above make clear.

Because of our achievements, I was invited to share our experience at both Harvard and Oxford Universities this year. At the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, I had the privilege to share Malaysia’s success story with government ministers from many countries. Last month, I was invited to share our experience with Russian cabinet ministers in Moscow.

9. I wonder why it is that many countries and institutions can see the progress we are making, but Mr Pesek chooses not see any of it? His latest outburst is consistent with a series of slanted articles that unfairly run down Malaysia and its leadership.

10. Differing opinions are bound to be expressed on Bloomberg View. The defence of “fair comment”, however, does not apply to getting facts so woefully wrong. We would hope that the editors at Bloomberg agree, and will correct or take down such a disgracefully biased and ill-informed article.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 June 2015, 6:37 am and is filed under
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BTN is a tool for Umno’s propaganda

 – Iskandar Fareez

The Malaysian Insider

21 June 2015

I am appalled to read the recent statement made by the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Razali Ibrahim in defence of the National Civic Bureau (BTN).

Perhaps the leaking of presentation slides are not enough and Razali needs more testimonials from participants before he admits that BTN was and will continue to be a tool for Umno’s political propaganda.

From my personal experience going through training at BTN during my secondary school days, the modules were designed with the purpose of indoctrinating participants with a Malay supremacist agenda under the guise of nation building.

Being only in my teen years, we were called on to defend Malaysia’s current leadership to avoid any split of Malay political dominance.

We were cautioned that any hints of discord among the Malay community will be used by the opportunist non-Malays to take over the country.

Essentially, the key message was that the lack of participation of the Malays in the economic sector necessitated initiatives to maintain Malay (read: Umno’s) political leadership to ensure the survival of the community.

Any calls for equal rights or meritocracy should be construed as a threat towards this goal.

This idea wasn’t just covered in one or two sessions, but it became the underlying theme of the entire course.

Selective statistics were used to justify this claim and rationalise the structural discrimination practiced in Malaysia.

To put it in simple terms: the Malays are the victim and the Non-Malays are the oppressors.

Unfortunately, I grew up believing this rhetoric and began to view my Non-Malay friends in a bad light. I began to be wary of their actions and intentions.

It came to point where everything became construed as the “non-Malay’s agenda” to weaken the Malays.

However, after a few years I began to discard this silly notion and acknowledge that it was just another baseless claim.

Getting to know my fellow Malaysians from various backgrounds as individuals helped me understand that we are not as different as we were portrayed to be.

All of us want a better life and a better future. None of which involves wishing for the detriment of the other.

After reading through BTN’s leaked presentation slides, it saddens me that even after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s call for inclusivity through his 1Malaysia initiative, Umno is still employing this archaic method to control the minds of youths and the civil service.

I felt that I had to voice out to stop this vicious cycle of segregation. BTN must be brought to an end.

I also regret that instead of investigating upon the matter, Razali retaliated on those who questioned BTN by insinuating that people who support the opposition are less patriotic than those who back Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN).

Of course, in a democracy, this assumption is completely inaccurate. Anyone is free to participate in the political process.

Additionally, being critical of BN which happens to be the government of the day, only provides check and balance to the system to ensure the interest of the people is always prioritised.

The fact that such statements can be uttered by a minister holding office without any reprimand shows how ingrained this propaganda has seeped through our society; equating the ruling party to the country, thereby labelling any form of dissent as unpatriotic.

As a result, we could have a society that is compliant even to the gravest atrocities committed by the government of the day, all in the name of being ‘a good citizen’.

Indeed, a propaganda unit funded by the tax-payers have no place in a functioning democracy.

According to DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang, the budget for the BTN has been steadily increasing over the years, climbing from some RM20 million in the 1980s and RM200 million in the 1990s to the latest figure of RM365 million for the 2010-2015 period.

May I suggest that we put these funds to better use by channelling them to schools that gravely need the additional resources?

Investing in a propaganda machinery will only produce robots that do as they are told.

But investing education will produce talents that we badly need to steer this country back to the right direction; of moderation and acceptance.

My experience of BTN might differ from yours so I invite you to share your experience and hopefully we can get the message through to Razali and show that we want the government to stop wasting our tax money. End BTN once and for all. – June 21, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 June 2015, 4:30 am and is filed under
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Ministers have suddenly  become prolific  letter writers  but why is there no detailed rebuttal to serious WSJ allegations of corruption and gross abuses of power about 1MDB billions of ringgit bankrolled for 13GE?

Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet Ministers have suddenly become prolific letter writers to international publications but why is there no detailed rebuttal to serious Wall Street Journal allegations of corruption and gross abuses of power  four days ago  about 1MDB billions of ringgit bankrolled for the 13th General Election campaigning two years ago?

Two weeks ago, the Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman wrote an Open Letter to New York Times protesting against the interview by former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir who touched on the 1MDB scandal, UMNO and accusations against Najib and expressing regret at Mahathir’s action “to undermine his own country through the international media as part of a personal political vendetta”.

In one fell swoop, the nation’s elder statesman and the longest-serving Prime Minister in the nation’s history  has been reduced to an anti-national digit on the same level as other critics of the government-of-the-day who are accused of ignoble and even disloyal motives for bad-mouthing the government and the country.

It is the irony of ironies that Mahathir himself had himself made such allegations against his critics when he was Prime Minister for 22 years.

Another Cabinet member, Datuk Seri Idris Jala, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, wrote an Open Letter to Bloomberg taking the business and financial information provider to task for last Thursday’s article by its columnist William Pesek entitled
 “Malaysia Gets a Dose of Real Talk”
, accusing it of being “consistent with a series of slanted articles that run down Malaysia and its leadership”.

Idris accused Pesek of writing “an unsubstantiated hatchet job on the current prime minister in order to please Dr. Mahathir” and straying from his past writings about Mahathir’s failures and sins as Prime Minister.

What is noteworthy is that Idris avoided all comments in Pesek’s article quoting Tony Fernandes of Air Asia about the Malaysian government’s misguided priorities and its utter lack of accountability, in particular Tony’s tweets on what is wrong about Najib’s premiership, viz:

*“Government and opposition spend so much time on race and religion. Will there ever be a truly Malaysian party that puts people first?”;

*“Good education, good hospitals, fair distribution of wealth, an economy that creates jobs, honest clean government. Transparent leadership.”

 *“Where all Malaysians respect each other’s culture, religion but work together to benefit all. If you need an example look at AirAsia.”

But what cries out for answer is the silence from Najib with no Minister coming forward to write an Open Letter to rebut  Wall Street Journal’s Friday expose that  1MDB funds running into billions of ringgit had been  used to bank-roll Najib’s 13th General Election campaign.

Wall Street Journal reported  this was achieved by having 1MDB making overpriced purchase of power assets from Genting Group in 2012, paying RM2.3 billion or five times what was only worth RM400 million, with Genting then making a donation to a foundation controlled by Najib who used the funds for the 13th General Election campaigning.

In the style of the Open Letters by Anifah and Idris, one would have thought that a Cabinet Minister, probably the Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Husni would have been assigned the task of writing an Open Letter to Wall Street Journal to tear its expose into pieces.

But there is only deafening silence from Najib and his Cabinet so far on the Wall Street Journal report.

Can Najib explain what this imports, especially as his “Public Relations” outfit has  claimed that Najib has “Nothing2Hide” on the 1MDB controversy?

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 June 2015, 8:22 am and is filed under
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