Lim: Konflik agama, kaum gagalkan konsep 1Malaysia

By
Fazy Sahir
 | May 12, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: Penasihat DAP Lim Kit Siang berkata konsep 1Malaysia yang sering dicanangkan oleh para pemimpin Umno-Barisan

Nasional (BN) mula tercemar apabila timbul konflik keagamaan dan ketegangan kaum sejak kebelakangan ini.

“Para pemimpin Umno-BN bertanggungjawab di atas kegagalan konsep itu yang diperkenalkan Perdana Menteri (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) sejak mentadbir negara ini mulai April 2009,” katanya ketika dihubungi FMT.

Sambil merujuk kepada fitnah berterusan yang dilemparkan ke atas DAP sejak akhir-akhir ini, Lim berkata Umno-BN kini kian terdesak untuk mengembali dan mengukuh kuasa mereka.

Menurut Lim, bukan sahaja (Dr Mohd) Khir Toyo malah ramai lagi pemimpin Umno-BN yang sengaja mencetuskan ketegangan kaum dengan sering melemparkan berbagai fitnah terhadap DAP yang dianggap sebagai punca masalah.

Beliau membidas dakwaan bekas Menteri Besar Selangor itu bahawa DAP merupakan dalang disebalik konflik keagamaan dan ketegangan kaum yang tercetus suatu ketika dahulu yang disiarkan oleh FMT semalam.

“Umno-BN kemukakan cadangan untuk menyatu-padukan rakyat namun sebaliknya berlaku……mereka merosakkan perpaduan kaum.

Semua kenyataan yang dilemparkan kepada DAP adalah dusta dan fitnah belaka,” katanya.

Umno-BN tiup api perkauman

Lim yang juga Ahli Parlimen Ipoh Timor menerangkan bahawa Umno-BN menggunakan kaedah kempen yang sangat kotor iaitu dengan meniupkan api perkauman.

“Jelas kenyataan seperti ini merupakan satu komplot untuk menimbulkan ketegangan kaum dan agama. Mereka nak menimbulkan ketakutan kepada rakyat.

“Hasil daripada isu ini, siapa yang dapat untung? Adakah DAP yang dapat untung? Tidak…..sedangkan mereka senada untuk mencipta suasana seperti ini. Ini permainan politik Umno-BN,” katanya.

Lim turut mempertikai bidang tugas yang ditonjolkan oleh Najib dan Menteri Dalam Negeri Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

“Mereka berkelakuan sebagai ahli parti politik, lebih dari peranan sebagai seorang Ketua Negara dan pemimpin negara,” ujar beliau.

Menurut Lim, dengan konsep 1Malaysia yang dibawa Najib itu hanya menghancurkan kredibiliti beliau serta Hishamuddin memandangkan kedua-dua pemimpin ini bertanggungjawab untuk mengekalkan keharmonian bukannya menghancurkan negara.

“Jika dilihat kepada apa yang berlaku sejak kebelakangan ini dengan melemparkan pelbagai fitnah kepada DAP oleh beberapa pemimpin Umno-BN, adakah konsep 1Malaysia ini selaras dengan apa yang dibawa Najib?

“Hishammuddin pula, adakah beliau bertindak sebagai Menteri Dalam Negeri atau sebagai Menteri Umno?,” soalnya.

Lim berkata tindakan ini hanya memberi kesan buruk kepada pelabur-pelabur luar yang mahu melabur di negara ini.

“Tindakan ini juga merupakan suatu pengkhianatan terhadap negara kerana menakut-nakutkan pelabur. Pelabur bimbang sekiranya  wujud ketegangan kaum dalam sesebuah negara,” katanya.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 2:06 pm and is filed under
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Longing For A Free Mind (Part 10 of 14)

By
M. Bakri Musa

Free Minds, Free Individuals

In the remote possibility that you may not readily identify with these giants in our history and legends, let me cite examples of ordinary individuals just like you are now who dared think independently, that is, have a free mind.

            There was a student sent abroad to pursue his masters in engineering. Through smarts and diligence, he was soon admitted directly to the doctoral program. He did not bother to tell his administrative supervisor back home for he anticipated the negative response. His scholarship however, was only for two years, not enough time for a doctoral pursuit. That however, did not deter him. At the end of the second year he wrote his supervisor back home for an extension, citing a “slight snag” in his studies. He filled his pleading letter with sob stories of the challenges with English and mathematics.

            His supervisor, familiar with such plights especially among Malay students, readily extended the scholarship for another year, together with a stern warning to “study harder.” At the end of the third year the student still needed a few more months. So he ignored the ensuing stream of warning letters from home so he could focus on his dissertation. He completed it just in time to receive that final letter from Malaysia suspending his scholarship!

            When he returned with an impressive PhD instead of a mere Masters, far from congratulating him, his supervisor chastised him! “Pandai memandai!” Trying to be too smart! That supervisor complained about having to find another candidate to fill that lecturer’s post at the polytechnic that was slated for this student. Meanwhile this newly minted PhD readily found a university position, and thus avoided defaulting on his scholarship.

            To make a long story longer, he was invited to present his paper at a prestigious conference in America. True to form, his new Vice-Chancellor refused to grant him leave, much less fund the trip. It was someone else’s turn to go abroad, was the reason given. Resourceful as ever, he found a corporate sponsor and traveled on his vacation time.

            That young academic is an example of a free mind who dared to forge his own path, Hamkas’ berani berfikir gagah perkasa.

            Then there was the student who graduated from a top university. He had no difficulty securing a job in America. However, there was the problem of his scholarship bonds. So at the interview back home, he purposely bombed it. His interviewer was heard muttering how unimpressed he was with American universities, and regretted not being able to offer the young a man a position. The young man, released of his obligation, could hardly wait to fly back to America.

            For contrast, consider another student. He too graduated from an elite university, with a PhD no less. I asked him what his plans were, and his answer surprised me. He was waiting for what his Vice-Chancellor back home had in mind for him. I suggested that he undertake post-doctoral work to broaden his research expertise, or work in America to get some valuable experience. Indeed he was offered a lucrative position, enough to pay off his scholarship bonds if need be. However, being an obedient student (Kami menunggu arahan!), he patiently waited for instructions from home.

            A few years later I visited him in Malaysia; he was unhappy with his lot. His Vice-Chancellor found him keras kepala (hardheaded). That is another of those dismissive terms for a free mind. Too bad that he was not keras kepala when he was in America when he had the opportunity to carve his own future!

            This fellow reminded me of another student, described by his teachers as the sharpest mind ever to step foot at Malay College. As expected, he excelled abroad and was offered to pursue doctoral studies by his university. However, his supervisor back home convinced him of a better alternate plan. So he returned. To cut a short story shorter, his highest achievement was being director of matriculation program at a local university. A bright promise unfulfilled. Alas, his was not an isolated case; I could fill a book with many more such sad stories.

            The first two students are examples of courageous individuals who dared think for themselves and ignore the commands of their mullahs. They are worthy of your emulation. As for the last two, I hope you will avoid their fate.

            I have given numerous talks to Malaysians students over the years and have enjoyed them all. It is invigorating to be with young people. Your passions, enthusiasms and idealisms do rub off on me. This session is no exception, and I thank you for that.

            Some of the students I met in the past today hold important leadership positions. I hope a similar bright future awaits you. As you become leaders I pray that you will hold as role models the likes of Hang Nadim and Hang Jebat. Emulate the giants in our history, the Munshi Abdullahs and Datuk Onns. I hope that you will be as innovative as Ungku Aziz, and like him, not be trapped by the conventional wisdom.

            What I do not wish upon you is that you become another Hang Tuah. Nor should you emulate the sultan of Johor who ceded away Temasek, or his brother rulers who signed away our country with that Malayan Union treaty.

            As you contemplate your future, remember that it is in your hands. No one, not your parents, advisor at the embassy, or sponsor back home knows what is best for you. They have not traveled the path you have taken, nor do they know the challenges you have faced and will face. Most of all they will not be the ones who will bear the consequences of the decisions they make for you. You will carry that yourself, alone. By all means listen to their counsel, but in the end the decision is yours, and you will bear the consequences. What they should offer are their blessings and best wishes, and to support your decision, not veto it.

            I claim no originality to this piece of advice. This was what my late father gave me. I have found it very useful, hence my sharing it with you. I too join in wishing you well. May you have calm seas ahead and fair winds behind you! If you do encounter the inevitable swells, have your surfboard ready and ride the waves. If you should have gusty gales, then turn on your wind generator.

            That is what a free mind does; turns adversities into opportunities. Suharto imprisoned Prameodya Ananta Toer, but only his body. His mind was free, free to craft his world-acclaimed Buru tetralogy. As he said in an interview, “I create freedom for myself.” I hope you do too!

            I began my talk by invoking the stirring poetry of Hamka where he extolled:

Merdeka berfikir gagah perkasa

            Berani menyebut yang aku yakin.

            It is appropriate that I close with a stanza from our great poet, Usman Awang:

Melayu

Jangan takut melanggar pantang

Jika pantang menghalang kemajuan;

Jangan segan menentang larangan

Jika yakin kepada kebenaran;

Jangan malu mengucapkan keyakinan

Jika percaya kepada keadilan.

                        My translation:

                        Fearlessly breach the fortress

                        If it blocks your progress!

                        If need be, be brusque

                        In pursuit of the truth.

                        Stick to your conviction

                        Let justice be your declaration.

            Kemajuan (progress), kebenaran (truth) and keadilan (justice); a free mind will hold those in high esteem and vigilantly guard against those who would erode or corrode those pristine values.

            Finally, do remember that when you hear the donkey bray, do not let the sweet words of the mullah persuade you otherwise, lest you risk being made to look like an ass, or worse.

            I have spoken literally thousands of words today. Exploiting the wisdom that a picture is worth a thousand words, I will leave you as a summary of my talk these two images: the mullah with his neighbor and the donkey, and the frog underneath the coconut shell.

            Thank you! You have been a wonderful audience and I look forward to your questions.

Q&A: Change, Corruption, and Talent Recruitment

[
Presented at the Fifth Annual Alif Ba Ta Conference at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, organized by UMNO Club of New York-New Jersey, January 29, 2011.
]

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 11:45 am and is filed under
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Najib not being fair

by
Lucius Goon

The Malaysian Insider

May 11, 2011

MAY 11 — How much more humiliation and many more indignities should non-Muslims/non-Malays have to suffer at the hands of the government?

It seems there is no limit. Remember the cow head protests by Umno supporters in Shah Alam and how Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein placated and even sympathised with them?

Heck, he even blamed the Hindus and the Selangor state government for their temerity in wanting to build a temple near a mosque. Talk about consoling the inciters and lecturing the victims.

And now Najib Razak, the PM of all Malaysians is doing the same. Imagine he supposedly calmed down Muslim leaders in the wake of a false report by Muslim bloggers and a Malay newspaper.

The aggrieved party here are Christians and Malaysians who are sick and tired of the divide and rule by Umno and its sycophants.

And yet, here is the prime minister silent on the insidious role played by his party’s bloggers and Utusan Malaysia.

My advice to Christian leaders tomorrow is not to capitulate to Najib when he says that Malaysia belongs to all and he is the prime minister of all Malaysians.

Evidence suggests he is not. He is just another Umno politician. His track record over the years also supports this.

After all, he was the Education Minister when the death knell fell on Christian mission schools.

They are now mission schools in name but without the spirit and character that educated Najib in his youth.

Perhaps he didn’t learn much while at school, that this country is for all Malaysians.

Not just Muslims. Not just Malays. Najib must be fair to all or stop spouting his 1 Malaysia mantra.

It is hollow and has been exposed as such by his own party paper. What a pity. We almost believed that he really wanted a 1 Malaysia.

But as he is not fair in this matter, let’s just be frank, 1 Malaysia is dead.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 7:31 am and is filed under
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Najib’s Court

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 2:42 pm and is filed under
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Skepticism abounds over PM-Christian group meeting

Terence Netto | May 12, 11 7:35am

Malaysiakini

Today’s meeting between representatives of the Council of Churches of Malaysia and Prime Minister Najib Razak that was requested by the PM’s office to lower tensions arising from inflammatory reports in Utusan Malaysia is not likely to resolve anything.

This is the opinion of a frequent past attendee at meetings of Christian groups with Malaysian PMs who asked to remain anonymous.

“We have met him (Najib) and his predecessor and his predecessor’s predecessor often enough,” said the now retired past participant.

“There’s plenty of froth but little of substance achieved at these meetings. It’s good at promoting a ‘feel good’ atmosphere but after you have come away, the same difficulties recur,” he added.

According to him, there was little reason to doubt the sincerity of the PMs the Christian groups interfaced with at the meetings, but he doubted their resolve to tackle the core issues.

He said that for this reason he expected Christian representatives to approach today’s meeting with Najib with feelings nearer to resignation than to hope.

“This is because there have been too many meetings in the past when much good feeling was generated that a fresh start could be made only for that expectation to collide with forbidding realities later,” he opined.

No real resolve from PM

“This has saddled us with the feeling that there is no real resolve to tackle the core issues,” he said.

“After a while, you feel silly to be imbued with the ‘feel good’ sensation that inevitably arises from meeting with someone who is intent on being amenable.

“But when that feeling collides with the facts on the ground, you feel silly for having allowed yourself to be deluded and then you have a hard time avoiding the resulting cynicism,” said the veteran of several such meetings.

He said unless Najib is intent on tackling the core problems, meetings such as the one he has requested today would be an exercise in self-delusion.

“If differences are fundamental between Islam and the other religions, then I think it’s better to face that reality squarely rather than go round the bush once too often,” he opined.

Last Saturday, Umno-owned Utusan published a front-page report alleging that a group Christians sought to create a Christian state in collusion with opposition party DAP.

This came in the wake of a litany of problems faced by the minority Christians in Malaysia, including the ban on the use of the term ‘Allah’ in their Malay Bible.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 7:51 am and is filed under
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The rise of pop-litical culture

By
Zairil Khir Johari
 | May 12, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

Midway through the Sarawak campaign I received a text message from an unfamiliar number. The sender turned out to be a woman in Kuching, wanting to know when my next layover at the state capital would be.

Feeling perplexed, I glanced at my campaign itinerary. Some days I didn’t even know where I was. Spaced out as I was by the constant travelling, I was even more bemused by the rest of her message.

She went on to explain that her teenage daughter had a collection of five Ubah (the DAP hornbill mascot) plush toys, four of them bearing autographs of various party leaders and ceramah speakers. One of them, still in its original plastic wrapping, had been especially reserved for my John Hancock. Hence, she wanted to know if Kuching would be part of my tour.

It was then that I confirmed my growing suspicions that a new political dynamic was emerging. This wasn’t an isolated incident. Barely a week into our campaign, the Ubah plush toys had already sold out (30,000 units), and word was that it had spawned a private selling market with autographed toys going for as high as RM1,000 a piece.

The media had been reporting record ceramah attendances but anyone who was there will tell you that there was something more than just numbers.

Our ceramahs attracted just about everybody. There were elderly residents who brought their own chairs, listening with quiet intent from seven o’clock until the lights went off before midnight; the ardent supporters who whooped and cheered at every opportunity and the pockets of politically curious, who would smile and applaud politely on cue. But that was normal. What wasn’t normal, however, were the kids.

Teenagers in Ubah T-shirts, faces adorned with Ubah stickers and armed with Ubah plush toys. Not only would they stay throughout the ceramah which was punctuated with sing-alongs and video slideshows, at the end of the night they would also mob our speakers for autographs and photos. On some nights, I even felt like a minor pop star.

Our leaders practically became celebrities, and this was most evident in the case of speaker extraordinaire Dr Hew Kuan Yau, notoriously called “Superman” for his trademark T-shirts that bore the “S” emblem. He had burst onto the scene with his fiery rhetoric and quickly gained infamy through some controversial (but hilarious) remarks about a certain BN component party. And then we started to receive reports that Superman T-shirts were selling out in every locality he visited.

Something strange was happening. Kids who were hitherto apolitical were thronging our events and accessorising themselves with our merchandise. Semi-cult followings were developing. Somehow, somewhere along the line, the DAP campaign had inadvertently transcended politics and made its way into the realm of pop culture.

A veteran reporter and incorrigible cynic even remarked to me that he had never witnessed such a phenomenon in all his years of covering Malaysian politics.

A new dynamic was indeed emerging, and it was something incomprehensible to most people used to the natural order of politics. This is especially so for those seated in the gilded thrones of power. In their distress and bewilderment, they attempt to frame it in the only language they know how: race and religion. And while they know this to be untrue, they are also beset by the realisation that they could never, ever, replicate this kind of popularity and success.

The fact is, it only works because our struggle is one that claims the moral high ground. And therein lies the irony. The more they attempt to suppress us through the system and the more they antagonise the people with their inflammatory rhetoric, the more it will legitimise our perception as a champion of the oppressed against a tyrannical regime.

Yet it must be put into perspective. Such a situation was allowed to evolve only because the political reality in Malaysia is not ideologically-substantiated. In other words, Malaysian politics is a case of black and white. Theorists may balk and cringe, but the truth is that our political discourse revolves around the perception of good against evil, justice against tyranny, freedom against oppression, fairness against inequality.

The bad guys are obvious and we have appeared to take up the mantle of the people’s champion, a theme that was fully encapsulated in our Sarawak campaign video, which saw our mascot Ubah taking the stage against an indomitable foe in the guise of Chief Minister Taib.

Thus, we have managed to position ourselves as the underdog carrying the hopes and dreams of the people. In short, we have become Rocky Balboa against Apollo Creed.

And in true underdog style, we are up against all odds imaginable. Not only are we resource-limited, we are also constrained by a lack of democratic space, blacked out by the state-owned media and forced to battle against an Election Commission that is determined to wax an already slippery path for us.

But a champion’s cause is only as great as the sins of his foe. The sense of injustice, the palpable greed and corruption, rising inflation and a bigoted regime intent on dividing the people, these sentiments are real.

It is precisely these injustices that bolster our claim to moral superiority. Without the yin there would be no yang. And this great battle of good versus evil will continue so long as the BN government continues its corrupt and self-serving ways.

However, it is important for us to remind ourselves that everything is variable and nothing is constant in the politics of perception. Let us not forget that while Apollo Creed was the overconfident “bad guy” in the first two movies, he was reinvented as an all-American hero in the third and fourth. Perceptions change, and so can pop culture fads.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 2:23 pm and is filed under
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Time to make a stand, Malaysians

By
Mustafa Sharif
 | May 12, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

One common feature of us Malaysians is our ability to stomach so much nonsense and then don’t do anything to make a change.

We are lied to on a daily basis by politicians, bureaucrats and the media but still shrug our shoulders and get on with our lives. The strange part of this is that if our wife, children or siblings fudge the truth, we chew their heads off and threaten Armageddon.

And yet, arguably, it is the daily deception by politicians, bureaucrats and the media which impacts our life greatly. Let me just list a few examples of these lies and deceptions.

1) The great Lynas scam. If not for the role played by Internet portals, the Lynas rare earth project would have flown under the radar. Federal politicians and Pahang Mentri Besar Adnan Yaakob knew about the toxic nature of the project but FDI is more important than TMR (the mortality rate). When the firestorm about the project could not be contained, the newsletters@newspapers suddenly discovered the issue. More like, they could not bury it. It is crazy man. Hundreds or thousands of lives could be at stake and government politicians and their newspapers are either ignorant or part of a deception.

Now the government says that it will have an independent body to vet the project. But nothing is going to happen. Because Lynas has already built its facility. In addition, the United States wants this project to become a reality, concerned that Chinese is having too much control over the rare earth industry. So expect the US-centric international atomic energy body to give the Lynas project a wink and a nod.

2) The Christian debacle. Ever since, the Christians withdrew their support for BN in the Sarawak election in the wake of the Alkitab issue and a host of other acts of persecution, Umno has been waiting for retribution.

That “opportunity” came when Umno bloggers and the Umno newsletter, Utusan Malaysia, wrote and spread fiction about Christians wanting to take over the country. Talk about an alien plot.

But following that fiction, we had Umno ministers and even the prime minister console and sympathise with Muslims like as if this fictional plot were true.

If this was not bad enough, the newspapers, which have a duty to report truth and expose falsehoods, kept silent, one of them buried the story right inside the paper.

My point is that we can’t depend on the politicians in this country. We surely can’t depend on the MACC, judging by the evidence presented at the royal commission of inquiry (I wonder if any of the MACC officials will pass a lie detector test).

We can’t trust the police because they can’t catch the serial acid attackers and close a simple porn video case. We can’t trust the Attorney-General because evidence presented by a former top cop suggests that he can’t be trusted.

We can’t trust the media because they have forgotten who they owe their allegiance to and have become poodles of their political masters.

So what should be do? I don’t propose to have all the answers but I know WHAT WE CAN’T DO ANY LONGER: just shrug our shoulders and say that it’s not our business.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 2:12 pm and is filed under
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Up and around, here and there

Sakmongkol AK47

The Malaysian Insider

May 11, 2011

MAY 11 — Umno and its mathematics.

I was “bad” at math when I said out of 10, 11 do not believe. I almost believe that I was terrible at math until I scanned the mainstreams papers screaming that DAP wants a Christian PM and Christianity to be made an official religion.

I know, the trappings of power have made some people soft. What I didn’t realise as quickly as I should have is they have made some people soft in the head.

We have 222 parliamentary seats for grabs. DAP contests, at most, 40. Assuming they win all the 40 parliamentary seats, perhaps Umno mathematicians can tell me how, with 40 seats, DAP or anyone else can form a national government? You have 82 seats and even you can’t form a national government.

Malays number 17-18 million. They form 60 over per cent of the population. Even if DAP marshals the entirety of the Chinese support, can 20 per cent of the population outnumber the 60 over per cent? Perhaps the Umno mathematicians can enlighten me.

Next we have the screamer who says “hidup Melayu”. There is no way we will allow DAP to take over the country. If that makes you happy, please scream some more. We can’t argue much against such emotions and illogic.

But PAS is also Malay. So “hidup Melayu” can also mean “hidup PAS” in as much as it can also mean Umno. Umno people have this self-conceited idea, borne from uncontested arrogance perhaps, that Umno is Malay and Malay is Umno.

Hello kawan, you can’t even marshal support from 1.5 million Umno members to support you and Umno candidates got around only two million votes from the 5.7 available in the 2008 elections.

So the Malays live but they do so without needing Umno. I hope many will realise that every Malay wants to live with the slogan “Hidup Melayu,” but the Malays can now do so with choices. That’s what democracy is all about.

Pray tell, how on earth can a party which contests 40 seats and is not sure of winning all of them form a government, what more to rule Malaysia as PAP does Singapore?

Christianity and other issues

A government minister asks, what’s wrong with a Christian PM? He isn’t wrong there. Nothing wrong if the PM is a Christian in a majority Christian country. Nothing wrong if the Christian PM is accepted even in a Muslim country.

In the context of Malaysia, he is saying that probably because he is also a Christian and he if were to become a PM he thinks he can take care of all the people. So what’s wrong with a Christian thinking that way of himself and of the coveted position of PM?

Secondly, he is probably thinking that way because he knows such a proposition isn’t going to work in Malaysia. Malays who are Muslims dominate the parliamentary seats and they hold the bigger number as legislators.

Unless, of course, these Malay legislators can be bought out with money and women. Or the entire Malay population can accept a Christian as PM.

Supposing many Malays are comfortable with the idea of having a Christian as PM. What does that tell you? That tells you that Malays are disillusioned with the Malay who is a Muslim, who is PM. Think about that.

Thirdly, the majority of the population are Malays who are Muslims and who are most likely to NOT support such a proposition.

So what that Christian Minister says is not wrong because he knows it’s an impossible dream.

But it’s good for the minster to say so because it throws the Umno people into a frenzy and extreme paranoia.

Christianity as the official religion replacing Islam?

Islam is the official religion or, if it isn’t formally so, it’s so in substance. Again it is so because the majority of people here in Malaysia are Muslims.

The Malays make up the greater number of the population. The sheer number will prevail over any attempts by the minority to make Christianity the official religion.

But let us for a moment pursue the proposition. By official religion, what do they mean? Do they mean that they want to ask that Christianity be accepted as a constitutionally guaranteed religion practised by a section of the Malaysian people? For they also know, by doing, that a constitutionally guaranteed religion deserves to get funding and all that.

Then even if they do mean it that way, that is a valid proposition as Christians, too, form a legitimate section of this country. Christians have a right to be fearful that the religion they practise will be obliterated. They want recognition and I think that is valid request. As to funding, I don’t think they want any from the government.

I find it unbelievable that the majority who can never be dislodged from the seat of power on account of the sheer numbers is paranoid over an unconfirmed report of this so-called Christian plot.

On a serious note, the government should go after those responsible for causing this distress and sedition.

If it is evidently clear their conduct was done with malice aforethought, place them under ISA. Perhaps a brief sojourn as guest to the government can make some people lose weight and other people learn the art and science of anger management. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 7:42 am and is filed under
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Utusan let off with ministry warning

The Malaysian Insider
 | May 12, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — The Home Ministry has slapped Utusan Malaysia with a warning letter for publishing an unsubstantiated front-page article alleging a Christian plot to usurp Islam as the religion of the federation, which sparked a furore among the country’s majority Muslims and minority Christians.

The ministry today issued a statement that the editor-in-chief of the Umno-owned newspaper, Datuk Aziz Ishak, has been invited to the ministry to explain the daily’s violation of the Printing Presses and Publishing Act 1984.

The Malaysian Insider learnt he went to the ministry in Putrajaya at 4pm with another senior editor.

On Saturday, Utusan Malaysia carried a front-page article headlined “Kristian agama rasmi?” (Christianity the official religion?), claiming the DAP was conspiring with Christian leaders to take over Putrajaya and abolish Islam as the religion of the federation.

The report, based entirely on unsubstantiated blog postings by two pro-Umno bloggers, charged DAP with sedition for allegedly trying to change the country’s laws to allow a Christian prime minister.

Yesterday, the Penang government filed a formal complaint to the Home Ministry demanding stern action against Utusan Malaysia over the report.

In the complaint, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng sought for Prime Minister Najib Razak to act sternly against the Malay daily to prove that the newspaper does not enjoy full legal immunity.

Today, Lim took the matter further when he called on Najib to axe the Utusan Malaysia editors and reporters responsible for the “false report”.

Najib was also forced today to meet with the church leaders over the issue, after which the prime minister said he was pleased the church leaders had pledged to respect Islam’s position as the religion of the federation.

According to Najib, the church leaders also said Christians had no desire to challenge the provision within the Federal Constitution.

Najib did not, however, offer an apology for the report by his party’s mouthpiece.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 7:26 pm and is filed under
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Utusan Malaysia doesn’t speak for Malay majority

By
Maclean Patrick
 | May 12, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

What is the ultimate aim of Utusan Malaysia? Is Utusan Malaysia hell-bent on destroying the peace and harmony with sectarian violence? Or is the newspaper the unpaid spin doctors of corrupt political leaders?

Utusan Malaysia’s reporting, if we can call it that, seems to serve the needs of a few who want to maintain an atmosphere of fear and distrust among the communities living in Malaysia.

The few we are talking about here must be in a position of power. Otherwise, what is the reason for Utusan Malaysia not being reprimanded for its brand of reporting.

Utusan Malaysia is not racist; instead it is propagating an even worse mind-set –xenophobia or an excessive fear of strangers. Is Utusan Malaysia referring to those who are not Malays as strangers?

This is what Utusan Malaysia seems to want to propagate in Malaysia – a sense that anything not-Malay is fair game for persecution and blame.

Any advancement by another race is seen as a threat to the position of the Malays at large.

And Utusan Malaysia prides itself on being the voice of the Malays, the bastion of strength that guards the interest of the Malays and any seeming jibes at Malay interests are attacked with fiery fervour.

Yet, do the Malays really have any problems with other people of different backgrounds?

Last I checked, my Malay friend was still waiting for me to come over to his café to try out something new cooked up by the cook – his wife.

And when I have meetings in Putrajaya, I spend the night at my best friend’s house. We have been best friends since university days and if I don’t meet up with him whenever I am in Kuala Lumpur, it seems not right.

I have another Malay friend from college days whose mother insists that I visit their house every Hari Raya. She makes it a point to remind me that her mother is waiting for me, come Hari Raya. How can I refuse not to visit?

Is it really logical that I should believe Utusan Malaysia is the voice of my Malay friends? Friends who are more family than friends?

The majority’s voice

Utusan Malaysia is not promoting unity among the Malays; instead the newspaper is promoting xenophobia among peace-loving Malay citizens of Malaysia.

Utusan Malaysia doesn’t stand for the Malay community because the stand it takes does not tally with the one most Malays aspire to. Yet, the exemption can be given to those who have political ambitions and this is where Utusan Malaysia’s stand is clearly rooted in.

Utusan Malaysia is the mouth-piece of its owners, spreading the theology held by its political masters. And these political masters are only focused on retaining their hold on power.

Who seeks to benefit from sectarian violence in Malaysia? Not the Malays. Not the other communities. Instead, the only people who seek to benefit are those currently jostling for positions in the corridors of power.

The peace-loving citizens of Malaysia are mere pawns to a game played out in private conversations and closed-door meetings. We are pawns to a game scripted by mainstream media.

These people are the cloaked terrorists, the ones hell-bent on seeing a nation torn by differences and misinformation.

The call for calm by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak holds no weight but serves as a subtle approval to allow Utusan Malaysia to continue its mission of causing fear and resentment to boil up within the Malay community.

The Malaysian government should not be moved by stories spun by Utusan Malaysia. Instead, the government should set out to win the hearts of the people through good works, fair judgments, transparent dealings and excellent governance.

Utusan Malaysia is not the voice of the Malay majority.

Instead, the majority of Malaysians choose peace and harmony. The majority of Malaysians choose a progressive future for their children and children’s children.

The majority of Malaysians are not afraid of fundamental rights enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

Maclean Patrick is an FMT columnist based in Sarawak.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 4:15 pm and is filed under
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Utusan publishes notice on blogger’s ‘explanation’

Malaysiakini
 | May 12, 11

Utusan Malaysia, which came under heavy fire over its unsubstantiated report alleging a ‘Christian state’ conspiracy, today carried a notice that Bigdog, the blogger who created the controversy, had published an “explanation” on his blog.

Contrary to the earlier approach of highlighting Bigdog’s allegation at its front page, Utusan only published a two-paragraph notice on an inside page, without reporting the contents of the so-called “explanation”.

“Bigdog, who sparked controversy when he revealed the pledge by pastors during their meeting in Penang recently to make Christianity as the official religion of the federation, has come forward to make an explanation about this issue,” read the notice titled “Bigdog’s explanation”.

The Umno-owned Malay daily then provided the address of Bigdog’s blog and the title of the “explanation” – May God bless all of us.

However, a check on the blog found that Bigdog, whose real name is Zakhir Mohamed (right), did not provide any further explanation on his allegation.

Besides stressing that Muslims should respect Christianity and its adherents, he reiterated the allegation that “what was maintained as an issue was the pastors’ pledge to bring a ‘Christian’ prime minister to Malaysia and perhaps turn Christianity into an official religion”.

But compared with his earlier allegation which had sparked a public uproar, Zakhir seemed to have toned down this allegation by adding the word “perhaps” in the posting.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 5:19 pm and is filed under
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What rubbish is this, Najib?

Jacob Sinnathamby

The Malaysian Insider

May 12, 2011

MAY 12 — Let me understand this correctly. Some discredited blogger put out something incredible about Christian pastors wanting to take over Malaysia and that fountain of all rubbish, Utusan Malaysia, published it.

There is no evidence that any such plan is in the works, and yet today, at the so-called fruitful meeting between Najib Razak and church leaders, the church leaders had to give the when-it-suits-him leader of all Malaysians an assurance that Christians respected the position of Islam in the country and had no desire to dispute it.

How wonderful. The rascals who stirred up this rubbish have not been taken to task but the “victims” have been asked to give some undertaking not to misbehave.

This is akin to your house being robbed and your family harmed but having the police sympathise with the robbers.

Najib is playing to the Malay/Muslim gallery here. He probably was briefed by Special Branch that Umno ground is restive over this discussion on the position of Islam and he needs to show some leadership.

But surely the PM should be playing a non-partisan role here. In this instance, it is clearly his Umno blogger and newspaper which have tried to stoke anger against Christians, and they have done so with lies and fiction.

So instead of asking for assurances from Christians about a nonexistent threat, he should have apologised for the actions of his supporters.

The more conspiratorial of us will believe that Najib sought the meeting with Christian leaders only as window dressing, to extract some assurance which can be a headline in Malay papers tomorrow. Something along the lines of how Christians accept Islam’s position.

Of course, the objective of those reports will be to reinforce the rubbish about Christian pastors meeting in Penang to bring about a Christian country.

I wonder whether today’s meeting was fruitful only for Najib.

* Jacob Sinnathamby reads The Malaysian Insider.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 May 2011, 10:14 pm and is filed under
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‘Christian leaders led to their slaughter’

RK Anand | May 13, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

 Bishop Paul Tan says he is displeased and disgusted with the outcome of the meeting between PM and Christian leaders over the Utusan row. He calls the entire episode an Umno orchestration.

KUALA LUMPUR: Without mincing his words, a Catholic bishop criticised his fellow Christian leaders for allowing themselves to be used by the government to “please the other side”.

Instead of telling Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak the truth, Bishop Paul Tan of the Malacca-Johor diocese said the Christian leaders had become like “sheep being led to their slaughter.”

Commenting on the news reports on the meeting between Najib and the Christian leaders, led by the Malaysian Christian Federation (MCF) chairman Bishop Ng Moon Hing yesterday, Tan told FMT that he was extremely disappointed with the outcome.

“I was not at the meeting, so I don’t know what transpired and whether the newspapers reported the entire discussion. But if the news reports are true, then I am displeased and disgusted,” he said.

The luncheon meeting was held amid the raging controversy surrounding a Utusan Malaysia report which alleged that a Christian coup was in the making, with Christian leaders and DAP colluding to undermine the position of Islam.

‘Umno agenda to rake in votes’

Tan, 71, pointed out that since Utusan was owned by Umno, the daily would not have published the report without an endorsement from the party led by Najib.

The bishop also claimed that it was part of an Umno agenda to rake in Muslim votes in the coming general election.

“Utusan’s Christian bashing, the big feature on the Pembela demonstration at the Putrajaya mosque about the 10-point plan and now the so-called conspiracy are purely an Umno agenda prior to our general election which is imminent.

“This agenda is to unite the Malays and for Umno to be seen as the bigger and better champion of Islam than PAS whose main claim to fame is that it is an Islamic party,” he said.

“Therefore, the Christian bashing, exaggerations and fiction demonising us are for a purpose: to enhance the siege mentality of the Malays and make them cleave to Umno to ‘protect’ Islam,” he added.

According to Tan, the chronology of events had lent credence to the claim that the entire episode smacked of orchestration for the election.

“Utusan publishes what it does, Pembela and Perkasa lodge police reports premised on fiction, but not one police report from our Christian leaders and so the police investigate the fiction published by Utusan. The police can only investigate based on a police report, not on newspaper cuttings.

“Nothing for a while from the home minister and Najib only asks for calm. Then Najib meets first with Muslims groups to calm them and states that Umno will always defend Islam, the Federal Constitution etc. The media were called and featured the meeting,” he said.

“Surely by then, our Christian leaders would have known that this issue was clearly manipulated and that the media would be present and regardless of what our leaders said (at the meeting), it would end up on the same trajectory: Islam safeguarded and the Christians agree to this.

“Why did the Christian leaders walk into that clear booby trap? Why didn’t they have a clear statement printed out for the press, saying what they wanted the meeting to be and what their own demands were, regardless of Najib’s spin,” he added.

Double standard

Tan, who is also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, said the government always practised double standard – one set of rules for Malay/Muslims, and another for the rest.

Responding to a question, the hard-hitting Jesuit-trained prelate, who once served in Rome, also dismissed Najib’s 1Malaysia concept as nothing more than deceit.

“All that has happened shows that the 1Malaysia concept is a bluff. We played the usual and now the worse – racial and religious bigotry,” he said.

Asked if he agreed with Utusan only being slapped with a reprimand letter, when other publications in the past, such as the Sarawak Tribune, were dealt a lethal blow, Tan said the Umno paper should not be spared the rod.

“Action should be taken against Utusan and the two ministers who supported it in the same way they suspended in the beginning our Catholic ‘Herald’ just for using the word ‘Allah’ which, in fact, is not the property of Islam.

“I am absolutely surprised that the Christian leaders who were there to see our PM appeared all of a sudden tame and conciliatory and did not demand justice be done, i.e., in the same way, the government dealt with the other non-Malay/Muslim papers. Then again, perhaps, the press did not publish everything (on the meeting),” he added.

Sarawak Tribune was forced to cease operations in 2006, when the government clamped down on the daily for publishing offensive caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.

In a related development, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said there was “some basis” to the Utusan report.

Speaking to the press, he said this was in view of new evidence provided in a police report lodged in Penang today.

Furthermore, he added, Utusan’s editor-in-chief Aziz Ishak’s explanation to the home ministry was similar to the contents of the police report

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 8:19 pm and is filed under
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‘Don’t allow for a repeat of May 13′

By
Teresa Kok
 | May 13, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

Today marks the 42nd anniversary of May 13 riots. It stands as a day of infamy, caused in part by misinformation to stoke the flames of discontent among the races being spread among the populace, leading to fear, anger and ultimately to destruction of property and deaths.

To ensure that this day does not repeat itself, the government must send a strong message that those guilty of spreading misinformation which divides multi-racial multi-religious Malaysia must stop or be made to stop.

Thus, I urge the government to take stern action against Utusan Malaysia for spreading its lies and misinformation with its utterly irresponsible and unconscionable reporting of its “Kristian agama rasmi?” frontpage story.

It is despicable that Utusan Malaysia, which is owned by Umno, published this made-up story based on the wild allegations of two pro-Umno bloggers who provided no evidence whatsoever, and yet Utusan has escaped unpunished by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who is also Umno vice president.

The letter of caution issued by Hishammuddin to Utusan Malaysia is a pathetic excuse for censure because it does not commensurate at all with the gravity of Utusan’s crime of publishing lies to pit the Muslim against the Christians in this country.

I remind Hishammuddin that the Home Ministry has a track record of taking far more severe action upon other publications who committed lesser wrongs and oversights, including:

In 2006, China Press was made to sack its two top editors after it wrongly identified the woman in the “nude squat” incident as a Chinese national.

In 2006, the Sarawak Tribune was suspended for publishing a disrespectful image of the Prophet Muhammad.

In 2006, Guang Ming evening edition too was suspended for two weeks for publishing the same image

In 2007, Makkal Osai was suspended for 1 month for publishing a disrespectful image of Jesus Christ.

In 2008, Sin Chew reporter Tan Hoon Cheng was detained under the Internal Security Act, not for any wrongdoing but for reporting the truth that Umno division chief Ahmad Ismail’s had described the Chinese as mere squatters in Malaysia.

Prevent May 13

In 2008, I too was a victim of Utusan Malaysia’s irresponsible journalism when it falsely reported that I had forbidden the call of the azan by a mosque in my Kinrara constituency, leading to my detention under the Internal Security Act.

In 2010, China Press chief editor Teoh Yang Koon was suspended for two weeks for misreporting Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan’s resignation.

Thus, Hishammuddin should not practice double standards in his handling of Utusan Malaysia whose repeated malicious reporting has gone far beyond the point of mere cautioning.

The right thing for Hishammuddin to do is revoke Utusan Malaysia’s publication license to send a strong message that such news-reporting is contemptible, unacceptable and totally incongruent with the 1Malaysia that the government claims to support.

If he does so, Malaysians can finally be free from the dangers of Utusan Malaysia’s malicious provocation.

Hishammuddin should then go one step further to have the editors of Utusan Malaysia sacked in his capacity as Umno vice president.

After all, Utusan Malaysia is owned by Umno. Hishammuddin has the opportunity, power and influence to do so.

Failing which, it will appear that the Barisan Nasional government is not sincere in not wanting to prevent May 13 from re-occuring, choosing instead to employ it as a bogeymen when convenient, to pit Malaysians against Malaysians, for their own political interests at the cost of our nation’s peace and security.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 2:02 pm and is filed under
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10 days in May (5)

Tweets
@limkitsiang
:-

Read Utusan print online 2day: triumphalist vindicated FP :”Pemimpin Kristian akur Islam agama Islam”; “Tiada hasrat cabar agama Islam”.

Utusan totally no remorse over seditious/treasonous headline:”Kristian Agama Rasmi?” abt Christian Msia plot.Culprit r Christian not Utusan?

MakkalOsai suspended 1mth; 2-wk suspended ChinaPress Chief editor;4-yr SarawakTribune closure; SinChew reporter detained under ISA 4true rpt

Utusan’s heinous/seditious/treacherous “Christian Msia” headline just reprimand! Where is justice? Fair Play? Completely wrong msg 2Msians

Home Ministry dept heads responsible 4publications shd resign. Hishammuddin not fit 2b Home Minister subordinating national interests 2Umno

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 11:25 am and is filed under
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10 days in May (6)

Tweets
@limkitsiang
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What abject subservience MCA! Still hope its true?
http://bit.ly/kXWOTk
 MCA wants Utusan editor suspended if Christian claims false (TMI)

Utusan law unto itself! Enjoy absolute immunity/impunity despite seditious/treasonous crimes. Y? Becos Utusan editor >powerful than PM?

Principle: Collective ministerial responsibility. Entire BNgovt responsible 4farce of HomeMinistry handling Utusan “Christian Msia” outrage

Top agenda BN Supreme Council meet 2today shld be: Save 1Msia n demonstrate Najib govt fair 2all Msians n uphold rule of law re: Utusan case

Will honest fair patriotic BN leaders at BN Supreme Council resolve: Ask AG 2prosecute Utusan 4sedition inciting religious tension conflict?

CSL – most shameful! http://bit.ly/iRE4pe “how r u so sure what carried (Utusan) not true? If true ..should b investigated/exposed” Mkini

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 3:32 pm and is filed under
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10 days in May (7) (Updated)

Tweets
@limkitsiang
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MCA President become Utusan surrogate defender when even UMNO Ministers dare not openly endorse it.How contemptible! http://ow.ly/4TF8c

@giamsk Unbelievable! Now MCA come 4ward 2defend Utusan may not b wrong/its “ChristianMsia” bogey justified! Can MCA produce evidence?

@giamsk Utusan “reprimand” 4ChristianMsia bogey.Ridiculous penalty but MCA insists defend Utusan as it may be right. CSL official MCA stand?

@giamsk Did Hishammuddin direct CSL 2b Utusan surrogate defender? UMNO VP ordering MCA President what 2say on Utusan “Christian Msia” bogey?

@giamsk @thomas_su @weekasiongmp Y has CSL dutifully echoed line taken by Hishammuddin on Utusan Christian Msia bogey? http://bit.ly/lQWIp6

Hisham made things worse w his “new evidence” “1police rpt” stmt – aided abetted by CSL MCA Prez. Both irresponsible http://bit.ly/lQWIp6

@giamsk @thomas_su @weekasiongmp Just coincidence?Hisham-CSL duet makes ppl wonder whthr ChristianMsia bogeyconceived by MCA whizkid 4Utusan

IF there is word of 1 agnst 50 (put aside 4moment character integrity morality) Hisham-CSL duet will believe 1 instead of 50? Think hard

CSL led by nose by Hisham? New brave MCA politics? Lets have New Sane Politics. Stop Gutter Politics 4sake of all Msians rglss race religion

Whats this? DIGP tells ppl x speculate on “Christian Msia” case after giving fodder in urgent pc 4such speculation! http://bit.ly/kjvoUH

Is CSL a fool or knave to be led by the nose by Hisham? http://bit.ly/lQWIp6 Responsible MCA Prez wld have told Umno VP not 2b so gullible

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 7:40 pm and is filed under
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An UMNO-owned Newspaper Inflames Malaysia

Asia Sentinel

Written by Our Correspondent | Thursday, 12 May 2011

Utusan Malaysia stirs the racial pot

A week ago, the Malay-language broadsheet Utusan Malaysia printed a story that is sending reverberations throughout an increasingly racially tense Malaysia, to the effect that Christian pastors were seeking to install a Christian prime minister who would change the country’s official religion.

Although the story was ridiculous on the face of it, it has been given wide circulation and drawn considerable comment as well as a series of police reports filed in local stations. Malaysia’s official religion, enshrined in the country’s constitution, is Islam although other religions are guaranteed freedom of existence. Any attempt to change that would probably result in a racial conflagration that no sane individual in Malaysia would want.

According to the CIA World Factbook, ethnic Malays make up 50.4 percent of the population, more than double the population of Chinese with 23.7 percent, Indians at 7.1 percent, others 7.8 percent and indigenous races, primarily in East Malaysia, at 11 percent. Muslims account for 60.4 percent of the population, Buddhists 19.2 percent, Christians 9.1 percent and Hindus 6.2 percent.

Leaders of the Christian Federation of Malaysia, which represents several different religions met with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on Thursday to say the report was specious and to ask that Utusan’s editors be disciplined for irresponsible reporting. Najib told local reporters he welcomed the church leaders’ assurance that they were not seeking to make the country a Christian nation.

News reports gave no indication that Najib apologized to the church leaders for the newspaper’s irresponsible reporting. Utusan Malaysia is owned by the party that Najib heads – the United Malays National Organization, the ethnic Malay party that leads the national governing coalition, the Barisan Nasional. Over recent months, the newspaper has become more strident in its racial reporting, earning it criticism from a wide variety of sources, particularly the opposition parties which it regularly excoriates.

The paper recently fired Hata Wahari, a longtime reporter at Utusan and the recently elected president of the Malaysian National Union of Journalists after filing eight charges against him for a variety of shortcomings. However, the charges were widely regarded as having been triggered by Hata’s statements about the lack of freedom in the country’s mainstream press and in particular Utusan Malaysia’s pro-government, anti-opposition bias. Hata was the second national journalist’s union head fired by the paper.

As with Utusan, the country’s political parties own most of Malaysia’s major dailies and television stations, in Malay, English, Chinese or Tamil languages. Utusan is just one of several newspapers controlled by UMNO. Although opposition parties own their own publications, they are under strict licensing rules that require renewal each year. While the mainstream press face the same restrictions, their ownership serves as an even bigger impediment to impartial journalism. The Internet largely supplies the country’s only independent journalism, a fact that appears to account for fast-growing online readership.

Supposedly the demand to Christianize the country, reported by two pro-government bloggers according to Utusan Malaysia, was made at a meeting in which opposition lawmaker Jeff Ooi was present. However, according to critics, Utusan didn’t bother to check the information. The blogs themselves didn’t state how they learned of the report.

Press freedom organizations including the Center for Independent Journalism, Charter2000-Aliran, the Writers’ Alliance for Media Independence and 1 Muted Malaysia all condemned the reports as irresponsible.

“Utusan Malaysia also did not offer an explanation for not naming these sources,” the organizations said in an open letter. “The use of anonymous sources – usually, in consideration of the sources’ safety – must be publicly justified. Notwithstanding this, Utusan Malaysia chose to run this as a front-page report, no less, and in so doing, gave the unverified story the credibility it did not deserve.”

Further, the group said, “the front-page story only quoted Ooi denying the allegation that he had sponsored the meeting. The subjects of the allegation itself – the pastors who allegedly made this call – were not interviewed. The Christian meeting’s organizers, which included the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF), had already denied the allegations of such a call being made in a statement published in the online media. Utusan Malaysia did not refer to this statement at all, nor was there any indication that any attempts were made to seek clarification from the pastors, NECF or any other Christian organizations.”

Free Malaysia Today, a Kuala Lumpur-based blog, argued today that “The mainstream media, for as long as they pander to the government, enjoy immunity from public prosecution. But Utusan Malaysia has earned a special place within this untouchable clique simply by the virtue of being owned by UMNO. This privilege has spawned relentless attacks on the opposition and increasingly frequent inflammatory reports on race and religion. But while most urbanites can see right through Utusan Malaysia’s thinly-veiled propaganda, its rural readership remains staunch believers.

The blog quoted Hata Wahiri as saying that the country should worry about the “slander” his former employer is producing, “because it is taking root in the rural areas. Kuala Lumpur and Selangor are multi-cultural and able to discuss Utusan’s reports among themselves to seek clarification. But the rural community is predominantly Malay-Muslim. Who are they going to cross-check their facts with? Neither is there another Malay-language paper to counter Utusan’s reports. The only media they are exposed to is government-owned media.”

Hata warned that the newspaper is stoking racial flames and that “one day it will explode. I’m very afraid of that. If anything were to happen, it will begin in the rural areas.” If it continues, he said, “another May 13” – the day in 1969 when the country exploded into race riots that took hundreds of lives – is likely.

“The fact that Utusan Malaysia is continuing to spin more stories from a completely unverified report implies mischief on their part,” the press freedom organizations warned in their letter, “since there is a danger of various communities reacting further and inflaming an essentially emotive issue. Already, there are at least seven police reports lodged in response to what was mere rumor. Accuracy and verification are an integral part of journalism. Sources must be named as a measure of accountability on the part of both sources and journalists, and to allow readers to judge for themselves whether the information provided is true.”

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 12:02 pm and is filed under
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Are we Umno’s prisoners of irrational fear

Mariam Mokhtar | May 13, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

Umno is bereft of conviction and hampered by weak leaders and their only course of action is to remind us of the possibility of another May 13.

COMMENT

Utusan Malaysia’s headline, ‘Malaysia Negara Kristian?’ (Malaysia a Christian state?), was a subtle Umno plot to warn us, that the consequences of voting for the Opposition might trigger another ‘May 13’.

The Utusan article bears all the tell-tale signs– sowing the seeds of discord and exaggerating our fears. Ever since the May 13 riots of 1969, Umno has relied on scaremongering and threats, to make Malaysians prisoners of irrational fear.

It is in Umno’s character to employ cynical tactics because it faces defeat in the 13th General Election. The opposition has captivated the electorate as seen by its successes in Sarawak and to make matters worse, PAS has rejected Umno’s overtures. Umno has run out of ideas and vision. It lacks momentum and motivation. It has reached the end of the road.

In June 1969, the young Mahathir Mohamad cut his political teeth by penning a letter urging Tunku Abdul Rahman to resign as Prime Minister and Umno chief. Mahathir blamed Tunku, for the Alliance’s general election losses and May 13.

The Umno council expelled Mahathir from Umno in September 1969 but two years later, he was welcomed back into the party. By 1973, he was appointed senator. The year after, Mahathir became the Minister of Education. Bizarrely, Mahathir became prime minister twelve years after May 13 and his expulsion from Umno.

Extremist Malays probably considered May 13 a Ketuanan Melayu triumph. In addition, the 70s saw the age of ascension of the new Malay capitalists who sought to undermine the aristocratic Malays, of which the Tunku belonged.

The arrogance of Mahathir can be illustrated in how he boasted during campaigning in 1969, that he could retain his parliamentary seat without any need for support from the Chinese electorate.

The NEP was borne out of the May 13 riots. Umno was given carte blanche to implement their agenda for political and economic dominance through the NEP.

Umno’s masterplan at work

In a further horrific move, all the institutions which were left us by the British were slowly and systematically dismantled to assist Umno in its masterplan for complete domination of our mind, body and soul.

Our judiciary, the police, the military, our civil service and the education system, were some of the region’s best, but which have all been exploited by Umno.

Malaysians are not convinced by the Umno ‘experiment’. What have we to show for the past 54 years of Umno domination? So what if we have twin towers of concrete, steel and glass that reach out to the sky when our morals have sunk to terrible depths?

What use have we of an astronaut who ventures into space when the poor Penan can’t even send his daughter to school without the risk of being raped? What is the point of mono-culture when you deprive the Iban or Orang Asli of his ancestral land or of the general populace of much needed acreage for the cultivation of food crops?

Umno’s governance has been a wasted opportunity of historic proportions. Why should we believe that Umno was elected fairly when we hear of the various ways Umno is ‘creative’ at election rigging?

Umno was well-placed to change this country for the better. But its succession of leaders has failed the country.

There were flaws which undermined the project to make Malaysia an economic phenomenon.

First is that we threw money at the Malays without making them understand the true value of how to appreciate it. The second was that we did not include the non-Malays in the restructuring of the country.

The Malays were sold a dream but that dream has turned into a nightmare. Industrialisation meant they moved out of their kampungs to the towns for they were told the streets were paved with gold. The loss of the close family unit and community network plus the inadequate housing, have created its own social problems.

The Ibans too feel the same disappointment and frustrations as the Malay. Whole longhouses are vacated as the Ibans migrate to the urban areas with the loss of their NCR lands. But the longhouses are not empty for they have been colonised by the Indonesians who now work as the cheap labour of the massive plantations in Sarawak.

The non-Malays, like the Indians and Chinese, would like to share in the Malaysian dream but are forbidden from doing so. They are ‘pendatang’ and are treated as second class citizens even though Malaysia is the only place they call home.

Led by weak leaders

When all that is familiar is eradicated, these races feel a sense of loss. Without an identity, how can they possibly build a future together?

Given all this, it is not surprising that the opposition has managed to capture the imagination of the voters to build a nation based on the contributions of each and everyone of us.

The possibility of a united stable Malaysia under the opposition is what scares Umno and so they try one last tactic to influence the Malays.

Umno, via Utusan and its contentious article – tells the Malay that he will be robbed of his faith, possibly even be converted to a Christian, because subversive elements are trying to change the official religion to Christianity.

Umno is bereft of conviction and hampered by weak leaders. Their only course of action is to remind us of the possibility of another May 13. But why should we allow them to make us prisoners of irrational fear?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 11:38 pm and is filed under
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Bar Council condemns police threats against lawyer

Malaysiakini

May 13, 11

The Malaysian Bar Council expressed its outrage today over the strong-arm tactics of police personnel who had threatened a lawyer, impeding her from performing her duties.

“Such blatant police harassment of lawyers is intolerable, and amounts to a reprehensible and inexcusable menace against the physical safety of the lawyer,” Bar president Lim Chee Wee said in a statement today.

He called on the Inspector-General of Police to put an immediate halt to repeated cases of lawyers being harassed and menaced by his personnel and to take stern action against officers guilty of such behaviour.

“Bullying tactics must not go unchecked,” Lim said.

He pointed out that interfering with an accused person’s right to speak to counsel in private is a breach of of section 28A of the Criminal Procedure Code, which provides an accused person the right to legal representation.

Lawyers are also de-facto officers of the court when they are acting for their clients, Lim said, and therefore interfering with their duties is an affront to the courts and the justice system.

All powerful uniform stumped

Last week, Lawyers for Liberty counsel Fadiah Nadwa Fikri said five policemen intruded into her meeting with a client at the Gombak district police headquarters in Selayang.

When she asked them to leave, one officer, standing near a window, pointed at her and said threateningly, “Jangan sampai jadi macam kes SPRM” (Don’t let this be like the MACC case).

The officer’s statement was presumably a reference to political aide Teoh Beng Hock and customs officer Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed who were fopund dead at Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) premises in Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur.

Fadiah Nadwa said she then challenged the officer. “Do you want to throw me out of the window?” she asked him.

To this the police present kept quiet, but she related that they menacingly continued to disrupt her meeting with her client.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 8:37 pm and is filed under
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Bolehkah BN menang besar dengan menggunakan isu moral?

By
Aspan Alias
 | May 08, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

8 MEI — Nampak cara pemimpin besar kita bercakap dan bergerak pilihanraya semacam dah nak dekat sangat. Kalau dikaji pula cara bergerak pemimpin pembangkang juga menambah keyakinan kita yang waktu untuk memilih siapa yang akan memerintah dan mentadbir negara sudah semakin hampir.

Yang paling menarik sekali ialah isu-isu yang dikeluarkan oleh kedua-dua pihak yang sedang berlumba-lumba mendapatkan keyakinan rakyat semakin panas dan menarik perhatian ramai termasuklah diri saya. Saya dapat agak banyak pandangan dari kawan-kawan yang serius memberi pandangan yang serius baik buruknya sesuatu isu bagi kedua-dua belah pihak itu.

Nampaknya BN/Umno memberikan keutamaan kepada isu moral untuk menjauhkan pengundi dari parti-parti pembangkang. Isu video seks dan sodomi memainkan peranan utama di pihak BN untuk menagih sokongan yang kian menurun untuk kembali kepada pihak pemerintah kerajaan Persekutuan itu. Ramai pemimpin setiap peringkat BN khususnya Umno merasakan kali ini isu terhadap Anwar bak kata orang minang merupakan isu yang ‘mangkuih’ bagi BN.

Beberapa pemimpin Umno yang selalu bersama saya begitu berkeyakinan yang isu video yang dikaitkan dengan Anwar itu akan membawa kembali BN dengan kemenangan di setiap kerusi yang BN telah kalah dahulu. Begitu ‘confident’ sekali mereka ini. Isu moral terhadap Anwar merupakan isu yang memberikan semangat kepada mereka untuk mendapatkan kembali sokongan ramai terhadap BN. Saya hanya mendiamkan diri sahaja kerana keadaan yang sebenarnya berlaku di bawah ini bukannya seperti yang mereka sangka.

Tetapi oleh kerana mereka menganggap mereka pandai dan bijak saya hanyalah menganggokkan kepala sahaja …. dan itu pun yang pemimpin-pemimpin Umno suka … just say ‘yes’. Pemimpin-pemimpin Umno selalunya berasa rimas kalau kita membuat perbahasan terhadap isu yang mereka bahaskan. Berkata benar adalah satu kesalahan besar kepada pemimpin-pemimpin dan penyokong Umno dan BN.

Saya cuba juga untuk memberikan pandangan yang beza dengan mengatakan kalau BN menggunakan isu moral untuk ‘admonish’ pembangkang ianya akan merugikan BN akhirnya. Tetapi mereka tetap merasakan mereka telah melakukan perkara yang terbaik buat Umno dengan menggunakan isu moral untuk menjatuhkan parti-parti pembangkang. Kalau sudah begitu … gasak dialah. Saya hanya berkata dalam hati saya, “May God bless you!”

Saya hanya berdiam diri selepas itu sambil membaham karipap-karipap tebal yang mereka pesan yang masih ada di hadapan saya itu sampai habis. Habis sahaja karipap-karipap itu saya terus sahaja meminta diri kerana waktu untuk menghantar cucu saya mengaji Quran sudah sampai. Menghantar cucu pergi mengaji lebih berfaedah dari mendengar cerita dongeng yang hanya memberi ‘amusement’ kepada diri mereka sendiri.

Saya merasakan kita hanya membilang ‘buah kerayong’ sahaja setakat ini. Di situ kita menang, di sana kita menang, di sini kita menang besar dan keseluruhannya kita dapat kemenangan 2/3 di DUN Selangor.

Rata-rata di kalangan orang Umno mereka percaya yang isu moral yang dilabelkan terhadap pemimpin pembangkang itu sangat mujarab untuk mendapatkan sokongan ramai. Kita tidak mengambil isu yang baik dan mengambil isu moral untuk menjatuhkan PR. Sesungguhnya ini adalah isu yang ‘counter productive’ bagi Umno dan BN kerana ia hanya membuatkan rakyat berasa mual dan jelek.

Menggunakan isu moral yang tidak ada batas itu memakan diri Umno sendiri. Rakyat bertanya bagaimana pihak yang ditolak rakyat kerana isu moral yang nyata boleh menggunakan isu moral untuk mendapatkan kembali keyakinan rakyat? Umno/BN tidak ada isu moral kah?

Bukankah isu rasuah itu merupakan isu moral yang paling rendah sekali sehinggakan rakyat mempunyai persepsi yang Umno itu adalah rasuah dan rasuah itu adalah Umno. Apa yang membezakan di antara isu seks dengan isu rasuah? Bukankah rasuah itu merupakan kerja hina yang disamakan sebagai mereka yang memakan daging saudaranya sendiri?

Kenapa BN berani-beraninya menggunakan isu moral sebagai senjata yang mereka percaya sebagai senjata yang paling ampuh bagi BN? Rakyat lebih berminat untuk melihat harta yang mereka amanahkan kepada pemimpin itu dijaga dengan baik seperti yang diamanahkan? Rasuah merupakan dosa besar terhadap rakyat. Jika Anwar melakukan sodomi terhadap 50 orang, kerajaan BN pula seolah-olah membuntutkan 28 juta rakyat Malaysia melalui rasuah.

Isu moral hanya akan menjadi isu yang sesuai untuk dimainkan oleh Umno jika Umno sendiri tidak bergelumang dengan isu moral. Masalahnya kita merasakan isu moral ini hanya layak untuk di isukan terhadap pembangkang sahaja. BN di sebaliknya seperti mempunyai kekebalan dalam hal rasuah, jenayah, merogol , membunuh dan sebagainya.

Rasuah berlaku dari atas sehingga ke bawah, dari penggubal dasar sehingga ke pelaksana. Bagaimana pimpinan kita hendak memberi alas an kepada rakyat terhadap isu pegawai-pegawai dan kakitangan kerajaan di peringkat bawah seperti di pejabat-pejabat kerajaan di daerah-daerah yang mempunyai lessen kelas F untuk berlumba dengan kontraktor sepenuh masa misalnya.

Moral yang rendah ini sudah menusuk dengan begitu dalam di dalam sistem perlaksanaan dasar yang telah ditetapkan. Bagaimana Najib hendak menjelaskan kenapa menteri-menteri besarnya yang begitu kaya raya walaupun baru sahaja menjawat jawatan yang di amanahkan rakyat itu?

Bagaimana Najib hendak memberikan alasan kenapa bekas pemimpin utama negara menggunakan wang rakyat sehingga melebihi RM 1 billion untuk menyelamatkan perniagaan anaknya yang gagal? Boleh kah isu ini di tutupi oleh Najib dan barisan kepimpinannya? Berlambak-lambak isu moral terhadap kita boleh di jadikan isu besar oleh pihak lain, tetapi kita masih lagi percaya isu jam omega dan video seks akan memberikan kita kemenangan. Takkanlah jam omega boleh kita jadikan isu untuk memilih kerajaan.

Kenapa payah sangat untuk menyelesaikan isu pemimpin MCA dan Umno yang terlibat dengan kes PKFZ yang melibatkan RM12 billion itu. Ini semuanya isu moral yang melibatkan kehilangan wang rakyat yang berbillion ringgit. Sebaik manakah taraf moral pihak kita untuk mengisukan pihak lain dengan isu sejelek ini. Kita beriya-iya mengatakan berzina itu berdosa besar tetapi tidak pula mengisukan rasuah dengan menggunakan wang rakyat untuk menyelamatkan perniagaan anaknya itu tidak pula dikatakan berdosa.

Kita masih lagi berfikir di takuk lama. Ramai di antara kita masih menganggapkan orang ramai masih lagi menerima apa sahaja yang kita perkatakan. Kita masih beranggapan yang orang ramai masih lagi menerima apa sahaja isu yang kita perbesarkan terhadap pembangkang. Kita begitu marah dan kecewa jika orang ramai tidak percaya kepada kita. Kita tidak sedar yang kita sedang menghadapi krisis keyakinan terhadap parti dan kepemimpinan kita sendiri dalam isu moral ini.

Jadi persoalannya sekarang apa kah yang dimaksudkan oleh PM Najib yang BN akan menggunakan apa juga cara bagi mengambil kembali pemerintahan Selangor itu?

Hendak menggunakan ugutan? Najib dah ugut bangsa Cina dengan memberikan amaran yang Cina tidak akan diwakili di dalam kerajaan jika MCA tidak mendapat sokongan Cina di dalam pilihanraya yang akan datang. Pimpinan Dewan Assembly Hall Cina Kuala Lumpur dan Selangor telah pun menjawab yang mereka tidak perlukan wakil di dalam kerajaan jika MCA mewakili mereka. Mereka telah pun menolak MCA secara terbuka.

Nak lakukan rampasan kuasa seperti yang kita lakukan di Perak? ATAU nak guna bomoh dan ilmu hitam? — aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 1:49 pm and is filed under
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Brain drain: Understanding the root causes

Ronald Benjamin

The Malaysian Insider

May 12, 2011

MAY 12 — The ongoing brain drain has become a topic of intense debate since a World Bank official said that Malaysia would have had five times the foreign direct investment if not for its pro-Bumiputera policy. This comes at a time where there are about a million skilled Malaysian workers overseas who have no intention of coming back to the country.

Perkasa has claimed that even the Malays are leaving Malaysia due to the discrimination in the private sector, but fell short of providing detailed arguments on what it means by private sector discrimination.

All these debates only deal with positions that interest a particular political position without any serious attempt to resolve the issues through objective criteria that require politicians to accept truths about the real situation.

Politicians need to have the courage to take the nation along the right path — especially in creating an environment and cultural mindset for work excellence and in reducing the chronic brain drain.

Some of the problems include ethnic and neo-liberal policies that favour big business, a low-cost labour pool, poor work culture among the Malaysian workforce, the mismatch of supply from the education institutions and the needs of the market, and the gulf in power relations between the management and employees in the private sector.

These clearly show that development in Malaysia is basically physical and material at the expense of human development resulting in a brain drain from the country.

The first thing that the government should do if its honest in tackling the brain drain is to conduct a serious survey of local perceptions of discriminatory policies in the public and private sector. It is vital to conduct this survey to understand the realities on the ground.

Complaints of discrimination often centre on the ethnic Chinese and Malays, while there is hardly any comment of how other ethnic groups such as the Indians, Kadazans, and Dayaks perceive their situation in the public and private sectors.

Second, it is vital for the government to take a closer look at our education system and its content, which seems geared towards theories while failing to create well-rounded individuals capable of progress through intangible skills such as drive, desire, diplomacy, playfulness, humour, awareness and insight.

There are co-curricular activities in schools that help in these skills, but are the teachers qualified and do they take interest in reigniting and explaining learning experiences to students after these activities?

Understanding behaviour that creates success is vital, and teachers should be role models in facilitating such behaviour in schools. Are our current teachers in schools meeting these criteria? Is this not one of the underlying reasons for the brain drain taking place?

Many Malaysian parents are concerned about the type of education their children are receiving in this country. There is a preoccupation with ethnicity and religious ideology over meritocracy and excellence.

There is also the unresolved mismatch between the skills required by the private sector and the type of vocational training given in training institutes. For example, during my interview sessions for recruitment among college students, I found that students have gone though robotics studies, but the majority of SMEs are still dependent on manually operated machines. How can skilled workers remain in the country when there are limited avenues to use their skills?

Third, from my experience in the manufacturing sector, I find that Malaysian workers lack the necessary culture of excellence to succeed. This is made difficult through a hierarchy-based management structure that is “top down” with wide power differentials and where there are no common goals between management and employees.

Such a management structure creates a win-lose situation made worse by the policy of employment of foreign workers that keeps wages low. Such power differentials in the private sector have prompted highly educated individuals who prefer a “flat” organisation with greater empowerment to leave the country. They leave behind disgruntled low-wage workers who do not feel a sense of belonging to their organisation and whose only concern centres around wages.

Finally, it is vital to look at supply-and-demand and the resulting productivity of workers within ethnic groups in Malaysia that keeps wages low. We need to examine how the private sector employers evaluate their employees in terms of productivity and recruitment — and how ethnic perceptions come into play — and how these employees are paid accordingly.

This is where the missing link is when academics and government officials discuss increasing productivity, without elaborating on the mindset of employers on how they pay their workers.

The ethnic Chinese community are no takers of low salary, and this is proven when they make up the least numbers in low-end operations jobs. This is the context of how the brain drain takes place; low wages are linked to low productivity and it is also linked to employers’ perceptions of the work culture of the various ethnic groups.

Therefore it is vital to understand not only the macro aspect of the brain drain issue but also the micro aspect of it. Unless the government and the private sector tackle these issues honestly, the brain drain will continue to haunt Malaysia.

The Talent Corp that is formed by the government will not succeed unless critical issues are expounded in detail. Solutions must be found that encourage a human development perspective instead of regressive ethnic sentiments that do not do the nation a service. — Aliran.com

* Ronald Benjamin is an Aliran member based in Ipoh.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 7:40 am and is filed under
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Christian plot allegation part of larger narrative

By
Shahril Hamdan
 | May 13, 11

MalaysiaKini

The allegation of a plot to make Christianity the official religion in Malaysia is but the latest indication of a burgeoning and malignant Malay ethnic nationalism.

Whilst the anger towards Utusan is, of course, wholly called for, the problem at hand seems to have roots far deeper than the paper’s offensive, communalist and partisan journalism can account for.

I say this because such a preposterous charge could only have been leveled if it finds home in an antagonistic discourse of fear and ontological segregation. That discourse exists in the contemporary Malay discursive networks, and it appears to me to be fairly developed.

Cast our thoughts back to 2000 and 2001 – the Reformasi juggernaut that had shaped Malay(sian) politics was beginning to stutter – when Suqiu’s 83-point memorandum caused a stir because it appealed for the abolishment of the bumiputera and non-bumiputera distinction.

That the memorandum itself was essentially a list of “appeals” and not tuntutan or demands was lost in the raging debates that followed.

That the subsequent meeting between Umno Youth and Suqiu led to the retraction of seven points considered ‘sensitive’ also seemed to matter little.

The narrative that was to dominate the collective Malay consciousness had been born; at its centre was the idea that non-Malays are now conspiring to encroach upon sacrosanct spaces which were themselves imbued with originary myths.

Explaining the demon within

Survival meant absolutely the defense against the non-Malay who dah melampau. The siege mentality dominated.

Now, sister discourses have, of course, existed in the past. Indeed (Malay) ethnic nationalism in Malaysia has a longer history than its patriotic counterpart.

But I want to suggest that while earlier ethnic nationalisms assumed a chiefly affirmative, economic character, the present manifestation is particularly vicious because it defines success in the regulation of the perpetually devious internal Other.

For all the chest-thumping rhetoric that colours such an ideologically vacuous discourse, the protagonist in this chapter of Malay nationalism is really, the non-Malay.

I hesitate to say whether, taken to its logical conclusion, it desires the demise of the latter, but certainly in continuously reinscribing boundaries between “us” and “them”, the concern is much less about how “we” can better ourselves than about making sure “they” know their place.

The deconstruction of such a paradigm will be tricky; although many Malays are, in various forms, engaged in doing just that.

Counter-narratives that appeal to a more universalist rendering of Islam or a more liberal-cosmopolitan conception of ethnic affiliation do rebel against the reductive absolutisms of Utusan and co.

The difficulty of course, is that fear mongering can be extremely effective – as with all guises of social conservatism, the aforementioned narrative derives its charm from its plea to the lowest common denominator.

It is straightforward, contains no touch of nuance or sophistication and is decidedly urgent: they are out to get us.

Breaking loose from the past

But if we know anything about the Malay culture and its customs, it is that deference to leaders still counts for quite a bit. Here, our politicians need to step up.

Rhetoric and policies that encourage cross-ethnic contact, trust and solidarity are anathema to those who wish to tell us that we are essentially separate, and locked in a zero sum battle, with no horizon in sight.

In responses to issues like this one we are debating about, the message from leaders has to be clear and consistent, not one peppered with generalities and exit options both ways – leaders need to demonstrate they stand for something.

For too long, especially when dealing with the issue of ethnic relations, we have been a nation of compromises; surely it is time to supplement our character with some concrete ideals and beliefs.

On the immediate matter at hand, it has been encouraging to note that a number of Umno politicians and Umno-supporting members have at least registered doubt over the allegations, and in some instances, strongly criticized the two bloggers.

The nature of that opposition to the claims is yet unclear. Whether it was motivated by the fact that the unsubstantiated details seemed too dramatic for any part of the story to be true, or whether they genuinely think better of the non-Malays and DAP, for that matter, remains to be seen.

But the negative reactions to the individuals involved, while provisional and tentative – most understandably want to wait for the police to complete investigations – can only be welcomed.

And lest I be accused of schadenfreude, no one should be under threat of ISA over this. Nation of ideals, please. Not of compromises or exceptions.

——–

SHAHRIL HAMDAN was the deputy chairman for the United Kingdom and Eire Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC) in 2007/08. He is now pursuing his Masters degree in Race, Ethnicity and Postcolonial Studies at the London School of Economics. He considers himself to be an unashamedly cosmopolitan Malay-Muslim and is quite prepared to be associated with the (pejorative) term ‘Melayu liberal’.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 1:09 pm and is filed under
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Don: Mere warning shows Najib not serious

Tarani Palani
 | May 13, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: If Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is really serious about his 1Malaysia brainchild, he should have fired the Utusan Malaysia’s editors from the first day he took office, says Professor Abdul Aziz Bari.

He also took Najib to task for the lack of leadership over the Christian Malaysia issue, saying that Najib should have issued an apology to the Christian community for his lack of action.

“Najib should have apologised to them (the Christian leaders) for failing to take stern action like removing Utusan’s chief editor or editors. This is not the first time Utusan has come up with controversial issues like the 1Melayu, 1Bumi movement. It has been making a mockery of 1Malaysia,” Abdul Aziz, the International Islamic University law professor, told FMT.

“If Najib is really serious (about 1Malaysia), he would have sacked them from day one (of taking office). To sack them now would be too late,” he added.

Aziz was commenting on the meeting yesterday between Najib and Christians leaders over the Christian Malaysia issue.

Najib did not apologise to the community but instead said that the Christian leaders had given a pledge to respect Islam as the official religion.

The so-called “Christian plot” made headlines in Utusan Malaysia which claimed that the DAP government in Penang, together with Christian leaders, was conspiring to replace Islam as the official religion and to install a Christian prime minister. The Utusan report was based on two blog posts. Both the DAP and the Christian leaders have denied this.

Police are currently investigating the matter. The home ministry also announced yesterday that Utusan has been given a warning over the article, a move some said was too light a punishment.

Aziz agreed that the reprimand was light, saying that if Umno under the leadership of Najib was serious about 1Malaysia, sterner action could have been taken.

“Utusan is owned by Umno. Given the power that Umno has, it could have cancelled the permit or sacked the editors instead of letting them off with a mere warning,” he said.

‘Monstrous allegations’

Aziz also criticised the paper for making such “monstrous allegations”.

“It is difficult to believe that a minority group (in Malaysia) would have sat down and discussed such a thing. It is unthinkable and illogical for them to do so. Any sensible group of people can see through this. You can’t even imagine such a scenario let alone make that demand,” he said.

The Christians in Malaysia constitute less than 10% of the population.

He also criticised Utusan for “stooping so low”, saying that “it shows that Umno is panicking”.

Asked if Najib was demonstrating maturity by staying out of the fray, Aziz disagreed, saying that Najib was in the centre of the fray by giving signals on the direction that Umno should be taking.

Example of these signals were Najib’s war-like rhetoric in recent times at several high-level party events and the light punishment meted out to Utusan.

” At the Umno general assembly last year, Najib spoke about defending ‘Putrajaya at all cost’. At an Umno Selangor event this month, he also told Umno members ‘to take back Selangor by any means’ possible. At the 65th Umno anniversary celebration recently, he rallied his troops for election. It is like a war when it is merely an election,” Aziz said.

“By directing from behind and telling his troops that this is a do-or-die mission, Najib is very much a part of the fray. This is not political rhetoric in ordinary times. He is not showing any kind of leadership, he is merely a part of the team,” he said.

Asked if he thought Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had a role to play in pushing for Umno’s pro-Malay stand, Aziz said that as party president, the onus fell on Najib to control the members.

He also questioned the kind of political games that Najib was playing, saying that he was propagating 1Malaysia but allowing matters such as the Christian issue to slip pass.

“Is this the kind of mature politics you expect from the son of a prime minister, from someone who comes from an aristocratic family?” he asked.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 May 2011, 4:52 pm and is filed under
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