Gordon Brown’s sister-in-law tackles corruption in Borneo

David Cohen

London Evening Standard

22 Feb 2011

In a flat above a restaurant in Covent Garden, an investigative reporter called Clare and a tribesman from Borneo covered in tattoos prepare to transmit their daily revolutionary radio broadcast deep into the Borneo jungle.

They make for an unlikely double act – she is a white, middle-aged Englishwoman, and he the proud grandson of a Dayak headhunter who broadcasts under the pseudonym Papa Orang Utan. Their aim is no less outlandish: to expose the alleged corruption of Taib Mahmud, chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo 6,500 miles from London, and bring an end to his 30-year rule.

“This is Radio Free Sarawak,” begins Papa Orang Utan, donning his headphones to interview a village headman who has been forcibly removed from his land and who, quite remarkably, speaks to them on a mobile phone from the edge of the Borneo rainforest. Clare briefs Papa: “Make sure you ask if he knows that it’s chief minister Taib who has stolen their land? And get who he’ll be voting for!”

Until now the identity of the “pirates” behind Radio Free Sarawak has been a closely guarded secret – and for good reason. Scandal-plagued Taib, 74, is one of the world’s most ruthless and wealthiest men – richer allegedly than the Sultan of Brunei, whose independent country lies alongside – and locals who oppose him can feel the full force of his retribution.

But today is a watershed: the duo have bravely decided to out themselves ahead of the upcoming Sarawak elections, expected in April. Indeed, the Evening Standard can reveal that the mystery Englishwoman who set up Radio Free Sarawak four months ago and who brought out the tattooed tribesman – real name Peter John Jaban – to front her broadcasts is in fact Clare Rewcastle Brown, sister-in-law of former prime minister Gordon Brown.

The last time she was in the public eye was in May 2009 when she published a letter defending the then prime minister’s cleaning arrangements in the wake of the expenses scandal. Her piece, “The true story of Gordon Brown, the cleaner and my husband”, laid out their “very ordinary shared cleaning arrangements” and explained why The Telegraph’s front page “scoop” was groundless.

“My poor husband Andrew,” she recalls, “was the face on the front page on the first day of the expenses scandal, which was pretty damn unfair given that Gordon’s arrangement with the cleaner was later judged wholly legitimate. The reporters arrived on our doorstep thinking they’d ‘got Gordon’ but they hadn’t done their due diligence and when we presented them with the truth, they didn’t want to hear it.”

Today she sees less of her husband’s older brother, “Gordon and Sarah being mainly up in Scotland”, but they are “a close-knit family” and “Gordon is hugely supportive,” she says.

Rewcastle Brown, 51, born in Sarawak to British parents in the days before the former British colony was handed over to Malaysia, lived in the region until the age of eight, and she is the author of the hard-hitting Sarawak Report, a hitherto anonymous blog that gets 18,000 hits a day.

“English is still the unifying language in Sarawak and I use my blog and broadcasts to expose the outrageous deforestation which has seen 95 per cent of Sarawak’s rainforest cut down and replaced by logging and palm oil plantations which have enriched Taib and his family,” she says. “What’s more, my investigations indicate some of the Taib family money is right here in London and includes a lucrative property portfolio in the heart of our capital.”

Her work, she adds, is also about “giving the 2.5 million oppressed people of Sarawak a choice”.

“The leader of the opposition party, a charismatic human rights lawyer called Baru Bian, inspires hope of real change in the upcoming election, but scandalously only one-third of the electorate are registered to vote and the corrupt Malaysian government turn a blind eye because Taib always delivers them Sarawak, their richest state.”

She says their decision to go public was prompted by death threats posted to the Sarawak Report website and by the mysterious fatality of her chief whistleblower in America. “Before Christmas, Taib’s disaffected US aide Ross Boyert was found dead in a Los Angeles hotel room with a plastic bag around his head. The inquest is still pending but there was a sense that Peter and I could be in danger. Rather than hide, we’ve decided to come out fighting.”

She kicks off her leather boots and laughs. “The irony is that Taib and his people think we’re a huge operation but there are just five of us with a couple of laptops and a mixer. Advances in MP3 technology mean that these days shortwave radio is cheap and easy to do. We’ve been so effective that Taib’s people believe we’re funded by George Soros, whose foundation funds Radio Free Burma.”

Her outfit – started in October from the dining room of her loft in Victoria where she lives “in shabby dilapidation” with Andrew and their two teenage children – costs less than £10,000 a month, she says. Initially she funded it herself but she’s since roped in some “better-off friends” who help out “anonymously”. “Not Gordon,” she hastens to add. “His support is strictly moral!”

Her passionate dedication to a cause 99 per cent of Londoners have never heard of sometimes causes strains, she admits, with friends and family. “But I honestly believe that Taib is probably one of the worst environmental criminals on the planet and that he has taken huge amounts from the country of my birth.”

She smiles. “He never saw me coming. When he set up his property companies in 1982, he could never have imagined that some mad woman sitting in her kitchen in London would unravel his property empire simply by scrutinising company reports online.”

As an investigative journalist who started with the BBC World Service in 1983, she is better equipped than most to uncover the wealth of the Mahmud family.

“My investigations have indicated that Taib and his family have a property empire in Canada, the US and the UK. Funds have been generated by Taib selling off rainforests with some of the money going through the British Virgin Islands.”

The Evening Standard put these allegations to those who are behind the companies and they were denied.

Rewcastle Brown’s passion for the rainforests of Sarawak was kindled as a child when she accompanied her mother, Karis, a midwife, into the jungle. Back then, Sarawak had the most biodiverse rainforest in the world with 3,000 species of trees, 15,000 plants, 420 birds and 221 mammals.

“My mother would drag me to remote clinics to show the indigenous Dayaks what a healthy baby should look like,” she recalls.

“Everyone in those villages sleeps in one long-house and my mother frequently saved the lives of their sick babies. As a kid, my first friends were the local children and we used to climb trees and run barefoot, dodging the odd scorpion.”

The family came to the UK when Rewcastle Brown was eight and she attended a private boarding school and later finished her masters in international relations at the LSE. It would be 38 years before she returned to Sarawak on a media trip where the degradation of the rainforest – so evident from the air – shocked her to the core.

In 2008 she went back to report on a by-election and secretly film companies clearing rainforest for oil palm. That was when she “fell into a peat bog and nearly died”, and it was also when she met Jaban, 46, an election monitor fired from Taib’s state-controlled radio for allowing callers to criticise the chief minister.

Last year she invited Jaban to become the voice of Radio Free Sarawak in London. It was a drastic step because it meant that while Taib stays in power, Jaban can never go back.

“I miss my four children, I miss my home,” he says, tears streaming. He looks vulnerable, like a fish out of water, but he suddenly straightens. “I am prepared to die for this cause,” he says. “In the days of my grandfather, you had to bring a decent clutch of heads as a sign of your masculinity when you got married. Today things have changed but you still have to be a man.”

What are their chances of success? Rewcastle Brown ponders for a moment. “People say our man hasn’t got a prayer in the election and that Taib will intimidate voters as he always does but I think our reports are having a huge effect and that there’s a groundswell for change.”

She smiles thinly. “You’ve got to take heart from what is happening in the Middle East to rulers who seemed equally immovable until just a few weeks ago.”

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 23 February 2011, 11:50 am and is filed under
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Lim Kit Siang 70 years young

Oon Time By Oon Yeoh

The Sun

Wed, 23 Feb 2011

PREMESH Chandran, CEO of Malaysiakini, once referred to Lim Kit Siang as “a walking encyclopedia of Malaysian political history” and for good reason.

Lim was first elected to Parliament in 1969, during the waning years of Tunku Abdul Rahman’s tenure as prime minister. As a politician, he has outlasted Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

When it comes to Malaysian politics this guy’s been there and done that, including being charged under the OSA and twice being detained under the ISA.

I’ve interviewed him about his time in Kamunting. For a guy as articulate as he is, he sure doesn’t have a lot to say about his experiences there. Some speculate that he feels bitter about being detained without trial. Others think he feels it was just a terrible waste of his time (although he did manage to learn Jawi and obtain a law degree while in detention).

Whatever the case, I’m sure he was never as down as he was after the 1999 general elections when he lost in Penang. Lim in his prime, could move to a new constituency and win that new area for DAP. Before the 1999 polls, he had been MP in Bandar Melaka, Kota Melaka, Petaling Jaya and Tanjung. Wherever he contested, he won.

He thought he could do it again in 1999 and instead of staying in the safe seat of Tanjung, Lim contested and lost in Bukit Bendera. It was a crushing blow. For the first time in his long career, Lim found himself in the political wilderness.

Sure, Lim continued to write press releases prolifically but his messages sounded tired and jaded. He was in danger of becoming a political has-been. A proverbial shadow of his former self.

Lim had one last chance at redemption. If he had lost in the 2004 general elections, that would have been the end of his career. It was a comeback bid worth watching and I wanted a ringside seat. I was working for theSun back then so I naturally chose to cover Ipoh Timur, the constituency Lim chose to contest in.

You should have seen Lim on the 2004 election trail. He had heavy bags under his eyes from lack of sleep and his voice was hoarse from the stump speeches he was making night and day. It may have been his ninth general election but Lim was campaigning like it was 1969.

After he won by a landslide, Lim returned to form and reminded everyone what it meant to have an effective opposition leader in Parliament. But his position as the top dog in Malaysian opposition politics would not last long.

By the time the 2008 general elections came along, a new force had emerged in the opposition political scene. His son, Lim Guan Eng, who spearheaded a charge into Penang, managed to do what the elder Lim had never quite managed: Wrest the state from Gerakan.

And with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as de facto leader of Pakatan Rakyat, Lim’s role today seems to be that of an elder statesman, which if you think about it, is quite fitting for a politician of his stature and experience. Lim turned 70 this week.

That said, I’m sure the prospects of the next general election keeps him young at heart. What else do you expect from a political animal like Lim Kit Siang?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 23 February 2011, 11:24 am and is filed under
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Malays are afraid of themselves

Mariam Mokhtar | Feb 21, 11

Malaysiakini

The BTN or National Civics Bureau is divisive, racist and politically-motivated. Most people are aware of this except for BN politicians. Despite the serious allegations made about the BTN, their main coalition partners, MCA and MIC have not been effective in condemning the BTN.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin denied claims that courses run by the BTN were a form of political indoctrination. He said, “BTN is to inculcate nationalism and unity among the people in line with the 1Malaysia concept”.

Talk of nationalism smacks of the supremacy of one race over the other races. If he had said that the mission of BTN was to promote patriotism, this would be more in line with the spirit of Malaysian unity.

After a media blitz on the BTN in late 2009, the cabinet decided that the BTN would be revamped as it had run counter to its aims of instilling a united Malaysia. When former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad disagreed, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz described him as racist.

Nevertheless, the task of revamping the BTN was given to Ahmad Maslan, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, who is also the BTN chief. As is common with most BN politicians, he flip-flopped and said that he was not going to revamp the curriculum but would merely ‘upgrade’ it.

In the last few days, we have heard that the BTN is indeed thriving.

The Pahang BTN assistant director, Ahmad Shah Jamlus, said on the bureau’s blog that “to reject race was un-Islamic”. He also stressed that “the religion and Malays are inseparable”.

Ahmad Shah then said that “the creation of Adam and Eve implied differences in mankind as we are made of distinct races”. He opined that the “Quran says Allah has created nations and tribes and the most honoured are those with the most piety towards Allah.”

Malays and Muslims are indistinguishable?

He said, “Therefore Malays and Islam cannot be separated. The first step in reaching a higher level of God-consciousness is established in the country’s constitution whereby Article 160 stipulates that a Malay must be a Muslim.”

Few people will understand what Ahmad Shah is trying to say in his article entitled “Rejecting race or ethnicity is rejecting human nature”. Is he saying that Malays and Muslims are indistinguishable?

His comments give an insight into the man. How does he equate the rejection of race or ethnicity as rejecting human nature? It is clear that he has a warped view of the Quranic teachings, and that is my being polite.

If Ahmad Shah is the assistant director of the Pahang BTN, then what sort of outfit does he lead? How many hundreds of thousands of minds has he polluted?

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is from Pahang. This is happening in his own backyard. What does he intend to do about this serious failing of his minister, Ahmad Maslan, and the Pahang BTN? Clearly, Ahmad Maslan has failed to do his job properly and should be sacked.

It is obvious that the BTN is not a tool to unite the people. It is only a propaganda machine to unite one race – the Malays.

One Malay man told me, “The Malay spirit is threadbare. Malays are fencesitters and support those who hold the gun. They have no pride and have become shoe lickers of the Japanese, British and the communists. Malays are not concerned about power and do not want to be united. They are willing to work with the devil as long as their livelihood is protected.”

Another said, “Past Malay leaders realised that the Malays are stupid and allowed themselves to be colonised for 500 years without a fight. They preferred to be ruled as long as they led an easy life. That is the reason that today, Malays are still slaves to the Chinese and Indians.”

It is disturbing that some Malays think like this in 21st century urban Malaysia.

Pakatan Rakyat will have to do much more to engage ordinary Malays – urban and rural. The Malays have a misconception that if Pakatan were to take over Putrajaya, non-Malays will rule and over-run the country and take away their rice bowls.

Malays are traditionally conservative and 53 years of brainwashing by Umno has corrupted their minds.

Strangling the ideals of all Malaysian peoples

The greater damage is that BTN has strangled the ideals, aspirations and uniqueness of all Malaysian peoples, not just the Malays.

These Malays will have to be made to understand that if Umno were to lose power, the Malays themselves would not lose power.

What BTN did not tell them was that they can be progressive, innovative, united, creative and excellent, without Umno’s crutches.

The fear these Malays have is a fear of themselves. They do not want to lose their identity. Indoctrination has made them become dependent on Umno for a place in society. Indoctrination has led them to believe they are who they are, because of Umno.

It is up to us to strip them of their insecurities and make them realise that with Pakatan in power, the Malays will flourish alongside the other races.

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In ‘real-speak’, this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 23 February 2011, 11:17 am and is filed under
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Commission must be neutral

Brave New World

By
Azmi Sharom

The Star

Thursday February 24, 2011

To ensure that there is no conflict of interest, the conducting officers must be totally unbiased.

THE family of Teoh Beng Hock has decided that they do not want to take part in the Commission of Inquiry which was set up to investigate his death.

This act has been criticised by some quarters as being a political ploy designed to delay the proceedings. I beg to disagree.

The family has some very compelling reasons for doing what they did.

Their main complaint is that there is currently an appeal in the courts regarding the findings of the inquest.

To refresh your memory, the inquest that was formed to investigate the cause of Teoh’s death concluded with an open verdict.

The magistrate was unable to come to a conclusion whether Teoh was killed or whether he committed suicide.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers has decided to appeal to the High Court.

They believe that the cause of death was suicide and they want a declaration from the court to that effect.

The family want this High Court case to either be settled first or dropped by the A-G before the CI continues.

This is a reasonable request for what happens if the CI comes up with one decision and the High Court another?

They are also unhappy that the conducting officers are from the A-G’s Chambers.

The conducting officers are the people with the responsibility of conducting the inquiry.

They organise proceedings, for example by drawing the witness list.

It is odd indeed that the people who are conducting the proceedings of the CI are from the very same body (the A-G’s Chambers) who are calling for a finding of suicide.

It would appear therefore, that there is clearly a conflict of interest here. They are working for the CI, which is supposed to be independent and neutral, yet they are also from an organisation that has made up their mind as to the cause of death.

I am not for one moment questioning the integrity of the individuals who make up the CI.

However, the CI must be impeccable in its neutrality and, more importantly, it must appear to be impeccable.

The way it stands, this neutrality can be cast in doubt.

Furthermore, it must be remembered that the A-G’s Chambers was involved in the initial investigation.

For example, the Investigating Officer revealed the so-called suicide note so late in the inquest proceedings because he was waiting for the green light from the Deputy Public Prosecutor (who is part of the A-G’s Chambers).

The DPP and thus the A-G’s Chambers had a supervisory role in the original investigation, so how can their staff play such a prominent role in the CI.

In order to ensure that there is no conflict of interest, the conducting officers must be totally unbiased.

If it means getting them from an independent source, so be it.

There is after all precedence for this.

In the Commission formed to investigate former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s black eye incident, an independent party was chosen to lead the conducting officers.

The CI has to distance itself from any possibility of impropriety.

This was not done and thus casts doubts on the whole procedure.

This is the reason why the family and later the state of Selangor decided to pull out.

It is unfortunate that there are accusations that the family had done what it did under external pressure.

They have been through the mill for the past two years or so.

They have stated time and time again that all they want is justice.

It is perfectly within their right to withdraw, and it is perfectly understandable.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 24 February 2011, 6:11 pm and is filed under
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In praise of Lim Kit Siang

by
Humayun Kabir
 | FMT

IPOH: DAP vice-chairman M Kulasegaran would have been one of the statistics of the brain drain from Malaysia if he had not read Lim Kit Siang’s book “Time Bombs in Malaysia”.

The book changed his destiny, he said in a tribute to Lim on the occasion of the opposition veteran’s 70th birthday.

Kulasegaran bought the book in 1978 – the year it first appeared – while he was en route to Subang airport for his flight to England for his law studies. He was then 21.

“On the long flight to London, I read the book and almost immediately began to rescind a prior decision I had made not to return to the country of my birth after my law studies for reason of its discriminatory policies,” he said in a statement released online yesterday.

He said it had kept alive his hope for political reform in Malaysia.

The book was reprinted last year by REFSA. The MPHonline bookstore called it a book that “will serve as a constant reminder of what half a century of Malay-centric policies have done to trivialise and damage race relations to an extent unparalleled in our history”.

Kulasegaran, who is also Ipoh Barat M, spoke of the “democratic flame that still burns brightly in Kit Siang”.

“In the forests of the Malaysian opposition’s struggle for the reform of their country, the torch held aloft for nearly four decades by Lim Kit Siang has burned brightly, lighting the path for thousands such as I who have struggled to find their feet in the often bewildering and shifting sands of time,” he said.

He said “the flame of political hope” was first kindled in him when he was preparing for his Form 5 examination in 1974.

In that year, Kit Siang was charged with violation of the Official Secrets Act and was fined RM1,900, which did not disqualify him from Parliament.

DAP national chairman Karpal Singh also released a statement in praise of Lim.

“Kit was a real force and I think he would have made a very good lawyer as he is very perceptive and sharp,” he said.

“He would have gone a long way in law if he had chosen to, but instead he chose to be selfless in his commitment to politics to serve the needs of all Malaysians.”

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 24 February 2011, 11:43 am and is filed under
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Letter to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers on Interlok as Literature School Text

by
Dr. Lim Teck Ghee

Dear Esteemed Malaysians,

I am not sure if you have been following this issue which is not only causing concern amongst many Malaysians but it also has the potential to poison young minds through its insidious and divisive racial stereotyping and messages.

I feel that, purely on educational and pedagogical grounds, this book with its denigration of the various communities, and in the context of our multi-ethnic society facing one of the most turbulent periods of our history, should be subject to higher standards of acceptance before being designated as a reading text in our schools.

This is not to challenge the artistic freedom and independence of the writer in pursuing his craft and writing on any subject that he chooses. In our country there is a need for greater candor and honesty on all types of divisive issues, however sensitive there are. Writers and artists should be encouraged to write freely and without any restrictions; and all Malaysians should work harder to dismantle the constraints on our freedom of expression and other freedoms.

The concern over the Interlok book is not about restricting the writer’s freedom of expression or about its literary merits but it is about its harmful impact on young and impressionable minds in the context of our nation-building and 1Malaysia objectives.

I urge you (and other concerned Malaysians) to read the book and arrive at your own conclusion as to the desirability of retaining the book as a required literature text.

I, and many Malaysians, am of the opinion that the book should be withdrawn as a school text.

As the print media has not given sufficient coverage to the many critics of the book, I urge you – before you arrive at your own conclusion – to also take time in reading the analysis of the book and other feedback provided by concerned citizens. The following are some of the critical feedback to date that will be useful:

Hartal MSM,
Chinese Sell Their Daughters

Scott Thong,
Chock Full of Insults Against Chinese Too

K. Pragalath,
Imperative that the Public Lock Horns over ‘Interlok’

Jeyaseelan Anthony,
‘Interlok’: Scant understanding dangerous to schoolchildren

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 24 February 2011, 9:40 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s lackluster response to a neighbour in need

Letter by Dr Nicholas Lee

Dear MP Lim Kit Siang,

I have never written to you but I do so now in the hopes of bring to light a small matter.

As you may have read in the newspapers, Christchurch, the second largest city in New Zealand has suffered a damaging earthquake. Within a single day of that report, the world raced to provide aid to the stricken city. Offers of aid came from neighbouring nations such as Australia and Singapore. Form further a field, assistance came from Japan, Taiwan, United States, the United Kingdom and South Korea. Even Thailand made a small gesture to provide some financial aid to the earthquake victims.

As for Malaysia, we took an entire day to respond. And our dear PM only went so far as to offer condolences and to monitor our own citizens (students). Nothing more. This behaviour strikes me as somewhat lackluster for a few reasons.

Malaysia is closer to New Zealand than say UK, US, or Japan. (All three nations are sending rescuers to the afflicted city). If Malaysia had sent a response team, it would have arrived anywhere from 6hr to 15hr earlier than any of these other nations. The first 24hrs are crucial if you want to rescue trapped people rather than recovering dead bodies.

Speaking of response team, Malaysia actually has such a team. The Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART). Our boys here are trained for this kind of work. We have the personal and the equipment. We are even one of the closer nations. Why isn’t it a GO for SMART?  We send them to Pakistan, but not New Zealand?

There isn’t much national pride in me anymore, but what remains is irritate that Singapore has already sent their rescue team. Why is it that Singapore can act on the same day, flying over their rescue personal and equipment, while Malaysia is slow to even offer her condolences?

Anyone who knows of these facts would think that Malaysia is not very neighbourly.

And yes, I do realize  the death toll in Christchurch has been small so far. And there may not be any need for Malaysia to send its rescue workers. Yet this should not have stopped Malaysia from offering to send rescue workers. At worst, New Zealand could have turned down Malaysia’s offer if they had enough men on the ground. People will remember our actions and will respond in kind.

Thank you for your time,

Dr Nicholas Lee, PhD

Bethesda,

Maryland

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 24 February 2011, 11:50 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Sorry Record on Press Freedom

by
Malaysia Center for Independent Journalism

Ruling coalition’s ‘multi-pronged approach’ to curb expression

Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional, or national ruling coalition, has gone to extreme ends to control freedom of expression and monopolize the dissemination of information, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based Center for Independent Journalism.

The NGO’s report, released Tuesday, says the Barisan “adopted a multi-pronged approach, using the myriad of laws at its disposal to curb expression. The Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 was used to intimidate The Star, China Press and Special Weekly, among others.”

A summary of the report, furnished by the center, follows. It is the fourth such report the organization has released.

These publications were issued show-cause letters over various issues, from a cartoon depicting Prime Minister Najib Razak as Mr U-Turn to a commentary on the whipping of women under shariah law. The newspapers were pressured to apologize or make changes to their editorial teams to avoid the risk of losing their printing permits.

Books were also banned and seized under the PPPA, ostensibly to protect public order and morality. Among the banned and seized books were cartoonist Zunar’s 1Funny Malaysia, Perak Darul Kartun, Isu Dalam Kartun and Cartoon-O-Phobia. Zunar himself was arrested for sedition on the day of Cartoon-O-Phobia’s launch, although later released. Also banned was Kim Quek’s March to Putrajaya, which was then released free online.

Government control also extended to the broadcast media. ntv7 producer Joshua Wong resigned in protest, saying his bosses had received text messages from the Prime Minister’s Department, complaining about his show Editor’s Time’s content. RTM producer Chou Z Lam also exposed content interference, saying that a documentary on Sarawak’s Bakun Dam was cancelled after only two out of nine episodes had aired.

Shortly after Chou’s exposé, his contract with RTM was terminated. On radio, disk jockey Jamaluddin Ibrahim was sacked along with two other Star RFM employees. This occurred after Jamaluddin interviewed a gay pastor on race and relations and opposition Democratic Action Party secretary-general and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng on his radio show.

Internet Control

The government has stepped up its efforts to control the internet. The public are constantly reminded how Malaysia’s many repressive laws such as the Sedition Act are applicable online. The home minister announced the setting up of a “special unit” to monitor the internet, especially for postings that could ignite racial tension and cause disunity. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) formed a special team with the police to handle threats to national security and unity in cyberspace. Meanwhile, special guidelines have been drafted to explain the reach of the Sedition Act and the PPPA online.

The Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 was also used as a tool against expression online. Malaysiakini and Malaysia Chronicle were investigated for their news reports on Najib’s opening speech at the Umno general assembly. Blogger Irwan Abdul Rahman was charged for a satirical post on Tenaga Nasional Berhad. Rocky’s Bru blogger Ahirudin Atan was quizzed for his posting of rumours of lucrative Information Ministry contracts involving a minister’s son.

Sedition

Arrests and harassment under the Sedition Act also continued. Those arrested include blogger Aduka Taruna and PKR supreme council member Badrul Hisham (known as Chegubard) for postings on royalty. Wee Meng Chee (known as Namewee) was questioned for a YouTube video criticising a principal’s alleged racist remarks. MCA president Chua Soi Lek and PKR’s Nurul Izzah Anwar were questioned over remarks about bumiputera corporate equity and the constitution’s Article 153 respectively. A “special team” was set up to investigate Penang imams apparently praying for Lim Guan Eng instead of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. And police reports were lodged against MyConstitution which aims to educate people about the constitution’s principles; and against a Shah Alam church for planning to stage a play at the Shah Alam Convention Center during the fasting month.

Najib recently said that “the government has no monopoly over information and the dissemination of information”. With the many creative ways in which Malaysians are expressing themselves – whether online, through flash mobs, “cake parties” or open letters, it is clear that it will be impossible for the BN to control everything that is being said about it. But although absolute control of information may not be within its grasp, the BN federal government has certainly demonstrated that it is not willing to relinquish whatever control it still has. And as discussions persist over whether to extend the reach of the PPPA online, it is equally clear that the government will try to extend its control as far as it can in the coming year.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 24 February 2011, 11:21 am and is filed under
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One Libyan Battle Is Fought in Social and News Media

Middle East

By
EMAD MEKAY

The New York Times

February 23, 2011

CAIRO — While Al-Jamahiriya, the Libyan state-owned television channel, was broadcasting nonstop patriotic songs, poetry recitations and rowdy rallies supporting the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, on Tuesday, Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite channel based in Doha, was showing images of angry Libyan demonstrators throwing shoes at a giant street screen carrying live pictures of Colonel Qaddafi’s speech.

The contrast highlighted a fierce battle between Colonel Qaddafi’s supporters, who were using the state-run news media, and Libyan protesters, who were turning to social media and the foreign news media, to win over hearts and minds, inside and outside Libya.

This tug-of-war has been going on since a public uprising started on Feb. 17 calling for Colonel Qaddafi’s ouster. His rivals have clearly made a global impression through multiple amateur video Web posts, visceral pictures, twitter posts and dozens of heartfelt interviews on Arab television stations telling stories of a ruthless repression unleashed by troops loyal to Colonel Qaddafi.

But the Libyan leader, who has ruled this tribal society unopposed since 1969, has demonstrated that he will not easily be outmaneuvered. His television channels appealed on Tuesday for amateur images showing support from his base and beseeched viewers to place them online, too.

Government channels have run a written appeal: “For the dear brothers whose hobby is photography and video taping, please put up videos online that show the massive support for our beloved leader.”

In Colonel Qaddafi’s all-out media counteroffensive, a sports channel and a music channel that are popular among the young have instead been showing 24-hour programs of poetry reciters eulogizing his achievements and films of pro-government rallies waving his pictures.

Al-Jamahiriya 2, another government channel, has been broadcasting patriotic songs describing Colonel Qaddafi as “father of the nation” and interviews with Libyans thanking him for all he has done for the country over the four decades of his rule.

Colonel Qaddafi has taken his media critics head-on. Minutes after Al Jazeera broadcast the shoe-throwing scenes, state-run Libyan television showed images of chanting crowds insulting Al Jazeera.

“Oh you dirty lying Jazeera, we want none other than our leader,” shouted crowds of several hundreds in what Al-Jamahiriya said was the central Green Square in Tripoli.

In a bold-font subtitle that filled half the screen, and referring to another Arabic-language television station, Al-Jamahiriya asked, “Why doesn’t Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya show the thunderous voice of the Libyan people who support the leader of the revolution?”

Pro-Qaddafi officials and analysts have been appearing on state television shows calling for calm and “opening a dialogue.” They have reminded viewers that the Qaddafi government is spending “hundreds of millions” of dollars on making life better through investments in infrastructure, roads, schools and universities. At the same time, taking their cue from Colonel Qaddafi’s speech, in which he called the protesters “rats” and “mice,” they dismissed his critics as “dogs and “criminals.”

But some people associated with the Libyan news media say that after 41-years of Colonel Qaddafi’s rule, the public has grown so used to official propaganda that no matter the scale of the new campaign, Libyans are unlikely to be much impressed.

“Years of marketing Colonel Qaddafi using similar tactics made most of the official media carry little credibility,” said Khaled Mahmoud, who was previously bureau chief in Cairo for Jana, the official Libyan news agency, and a correspondent for Libyan state television.

“Those are heavily controlled media outlets,” Mr. Mahmoud said. “That’s why you see them taking pictures only in limited areas. You’ll never see the Libyan TV cameras stepping outside affluent areas or touring the real side streets of Tripoli.”

Official Libyan news media reactions to seven days of protests echoed those of Tunisia and Egypt in their first few days of demonstrations, when state-run channels attacked the foreign news media and belittled pro-democracy protesters as “kids,” “saboteurs” and “foreign-funded agents.”

At one point during the Egyptian protests, state-run television and private channels owned by backers of President Hosni Mubarak broadcast reports that pro-democracy leaders had been handpicked by Israel and trained in the United States and Qatar to destabilize Egypt. The report was later found to have been planted by Mr. Mubarak’s state security police.

The Qaddafi government has similarly painted the revolt as a foreign plot to destabilize the country.

Jana reported this week that the Libyan government was fighting an “Israeli inspired” scheme to create anarchy. The report asserted that Israel was financing “separation forces” in the Arab region and that there were no genuine popular grievances behind the protests.

Al Shams, a newspaper controlled by an arm of the Libyan Information Ministry, reported on its Web site that the government had exposed “foreign network elements” in several Libyan cities.

Mr. Mahmoud, now an analyst on Libyan affairs, said opposition news media outlets were based mainly in Europe and a few other Arab countries, with no presence in Libya. The main ways for the protesters to communicate with the outside world, he said, remain the online social media and pan-Arab channels like Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, the BBC Arabic service and Al Hurra, which is financed by the United States.

One of the most popular sites for the protesters has become libyaFeb17.com, which congregates twitter posts and helps to galvanize Colonel Qaddafi’s scattered opponents abroad in English and Arabic. Protesters have posted videos to the site, filmed on mobile phones, showing the violent crackdown in several Libyan towns.

Other sites include Almanara and Libya Alyoum, based in London. These have carried statements and reports from Libya and are widely credited with spurring support for the protests among Libyans abroad, especially in the United States and Europe. Among their most powerful weapons have been crudely filmed videos and images of civilian deaths and injuries. The amateurish quality of these has given them an added psychological strength and impact in contradicting the clean and professional pictures on Libyan television.

Whichever side wins this media battle will probably be well on the way to ruling the country.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 24 February 2011, 3:54 pm and is filed under
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Unrest in the Middle East and Africa — country by country

By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) — Demonstrations have spread across a swath of the Middle East and Africa. Here are the latest developments, including the roots of the unrest:

Wednesday’s developments:

LIBYA

An opposition figure told CNN that a pilot who had been ordered to bomb oil fields southwest of Benghazi refused to do so and instead ejected from the plane. Citing military sources, the Libyan newspaper Quryna reported that the two people aboard — the pilot and co-pilot — parachuted out and that the plane then crashed into an uninhabited area west of Ajdabiya, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Benghazi.

The Swedish tabloid Expressen reported that Libya’s former justice minister has accused Moammar Gadhafi of ordering the 1988 bombing of a jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.

Various nations worked to evacuate their citizens for Libya.

Roots of unrest:

Protests in Libya began in January when demonstrators, fed up with delays, broke into a housing project the government was building and occupied it. Gadhafi’s government, which has ruled since a 1969 coup, responded with a $24 billion fund for housing and development. A month later, more demonstrations were sparked when police detained relatives of those killed in an alleged 1996 massacre at the Abu Salim prison, according to Human Rights Watch. High unemployment has also fueled the protests.

BAHRAIN

Bahrain has released about 25 high-profile political detainees, following an order by the king to free those he described as “prisoners of conscience” and halt proceedings against others, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said Wednesday.

Among those released were the prominent blogger and human rights activist Ali Abdulemam, who runs bahrainonline.org; Abdul-Ghani Khanjar, a member of Committee for the Victims of Torture; and Mohammed Saeed, who works with the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

Roots of unrest:

Protesters initially took to the streets of Manama last week to demand reform and the introduction of a constitutional monarchy. But some are now calling for the removal of the royal family, which has led the Persian Gulf state since the 18th century. Young members of the country’s Shiite Muslim majority have staged protests in recent years to complain about discrimination, unemployment and corruption, issues they say the country’s Sunni rulers have done little to address. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights said authorities launched a clampdown on dissent in late 2010. It accused the government of torturing some human rights activists.

CAMEROON

Opposition groups in Cameroon are planning “Egypt-like” protests Wednesday to call for the president’s ouster after almost three decades in power. Organizers said the protests are planned in Douala and the capital, Yaounde.

Roots of unrest

President Paul Biya, who is running for re-election this year, has led the country for 28 years. “People yearn to see a change in government,” said Kah Walla, a protest organizer. Cameroonians sought reforms long before the North Africa uprisings. In 2008, they took to the streets to demand lower food and fuel prices. The protests later grew to include Biya’s plan to change the Constitution to lengthen his term.

YEMEN

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is calling for an end to the protests in that country and said he supports the creation of a national unity government to oversee upcoming parliamentary elections, the state-run news service Saba reported Wednesday.

Undeterred by the attack on their sit-in a day earlier, anti-government protesters gathered at Sanaa University again on Wednesday to demand that Saleh step down.

Roots of unrest:

Protesters have called for the ouster of Saleh, who has ruled Yemen since 1978. The country has been wracked by a Shiite Muslim uprising, a U.S.-aided crackdown on al Qaeda operatives and a looming shortage of water. High unemployment fuels much of the anger among a growing young population steeped in poverty. The protesters also cite government corruption and a lack of political freedom. Saleh has promised not to run for president in the next round of elections.

EGYPT

An Interior Ministry compound in Egypt was burning Wednesday as smoke billowed into the sky over Cairo. Witnesses said the fire was started by protesters upset about labor issues and the blaze could have been ignited by Molotov cocktails.

There have been about 1,300 official complaints against former Egyptian ministers and government officials, state-run media reported Wednesday. Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdi said he ordered investigations into all the complaints, many of them about government waste and corruption, the state-run EgyNews website said.

Roots of unrest:

Complaints about police corruption and abuses were among the top grievances of demonstrators who forced President Hosni Mubarak from office. Demonstrators were also angry about Mubarak’s 30-year rule, a lack of free elections and economic issues such as high food prices, low wages and high unemployment.

Some key recent events related to unrest in the Middle East and Africa:

UNITED NATIONS

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been in “continuous contact” with regional leaders in Northern Africa and the Middle East. Ban is concerned about the attacks during pro-reform demonstrations, the office said, adding: “This is the time for broad-based dialogue and for genuine social and political reform.”

Ban had an “extensive discussion” with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Monday, the United Nations said. Ban “expressed deep concern at the escalating scale of violence and emphasized that it must stop immediately,” according to the statement.

ALGERIA

Protesters have demanded government reform, prompting authorities to lift a state of emergency imposed in 1992. The rule was used to clamp down on Islamist groups, but critics say the insurgency has long since diminished and the law exists only to muzzle government critics.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced this month that he would soon lift the emergency declaration, a move analysts said was aimed at getting ahead of a protest movement that has grown since January.

Roots of unrest:

Protests began in January over escalating food prices, high unemployment and housing issues. They started in Algiers, but spread to other cities as more people joined and demonstrators toppled regimes in Tunisia and later Egypt. Bouteflika announced that he would lift the state of emergency law in what analysts called an attempt to head off a similar revolt.

DJIBOUTI

Thousands of people have marched in protest through Djibouti. On Friday, riot police charged the crowd after the call to evening prayers, shooting canisters of tear gas at the demonstrators, according to Aly Verjee, director of the international election observation mission to Djibouti, who witnessed the event.

Djibouti is home to Camp Lemonnier, the only U.S. military base on the African continent.

Roots of unrest:

Protesters have called for President Ismail Omar Guelleh — whose family has ruled the country since its independence from France in 1977 — to step down ahead of elections scheduled in April. Guelleh has held the post since 1999 and is seeking a third term. Economic stagnation is also a source of anger among the people.

IRAN

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday urged Middle Eastern leaders to listen to the voices of citizens who have taken to the streets in masses to demand a change in government — though such protests in his own country have been crushed with brute force since Feb. 14.

In Tehran, thousands of security officers patrolled Revolution Square, at times striking at throngs of protesters with batons and rushing others on motorcycles. Opposition websites reported that security forces opened fire on protesters in Hafteh Tir Square, killing one person. Several were reported injured and detained. In Isfahan, protesters were met with batons and pepper spray in one square, while another peaceful march took place elsewhere under the watch of security agents.

Roots of unrest:

Opposition to the ruling clerics has simmered since the 2009 election, when hundreds of thousands of people filled Tehran streets to denounce the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as fraudulent.

IRAQ

Iraqi activists and a gamut of groups ranging from intellectuals to unemployed workers to widows are preparing for large demonstrations Friday in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, along with large protests in most of Iraq’s provinces.

Demonstrators in Iraq have clashed with Kurdish security forces in Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq. Most of the demonstrators oppose Kurdistan regional president Massoud Barzani and the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Roots of unrest:

Demonstrations in Iraq have usually not targeted the national government. Instead, the protesters are angry over corruption, the quality of basic services, a crumbling infrastructure and high unemployment, particularly on a local level. They want an end to frequent power outages and food shortages.

JORDAN

Protesters in Jordan have called for reforms and for abolishing the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel. On Friday, about 200 people clashed with pro-government demonstrators in Amman. Several people were reported injured. Anti-government protesters who participated in Friday’s demonstration included leftists and independent activists demanding political and economic reforms.

Roots of unrest:

Jordan’s economy has been hit hard by the global economic downturn and rising commodity prices, and youth unemployment is high, as it is in Egypt. Officials close to the palace have told CNN that King Abdullah II is trying to turn a regional upheaval into an opportunity for reform. He swore in a new government following anti-government protests. The new government has a mandate for political reform and is headed by a former general, with opposition and media figures among its ranks.

KUWAIT

Protesters in Kuwait have clashed with authorities on at least two occasions. Hundreds of protesters are demanding greater rights for longtime residents who are not citizens of the country. They also demanded the release of people arrested in demonstrations. Saturday, the protesters attacked the security forces, who managed to disperse the people and make arrests. The forces used tear gas on the demonstration involving between 200 and 400 protesters.

Roots of unrest:

Protesters are seeking greater rights for longtime residents who are not Kuwaiti citizens, an issue the country has been grappling with for decades. According to the CIA World Factbook, Kuwait has a population of 2.7 million, with 1.3 million resident registered as “non-nationals.”

SUDAN

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has decided not to run for another term in 2015, a senior member of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party announced Monday. Al-Bashir has ruled since a military coup in 1989. He won another five-year term in a 2010 vote opposition parties boycotted over complaints of fraud. He also faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region of Darfur.

Demonstrators have clashed with authorities on recent occasions in Sudan. Human Rights Watch has said that “authorities used excessive force during largely peaceful protests on January 30 and 31 in Khartoum and other northern cities.” Witnesses said several people were arrested, including 20 who remain missing.

Roots of unrest:

Demonstrators seek an end to NCP rule and government-imposed price increases, according to Human Rights Watch. It accuses the government of being heavy-handed in its response to demonstrations, and using pipes, sticks and tear gas to disperse protesters.

SYRIA

As protests heated up around the region, the Syrian government pulled back from a plan to withdraw some subsidies that keep the cost of living down in the country. President Bashar al-Assad also gave a rare interview to Western media, telling The Wall Street Journal last month that he planned reforms that would allow local elections and included a new media law and more power for private organizations. A planned “Day of Rage” that was being organized on Facebook against the al-Assad government failed to materialize, The New York Times reported.

Roots of unrest:

Opponents of the al-Assad government allege massive human rights abuses, and an emergency law has been in effect since 1963.

MOROCCO

Protesters have taken to the streets in cities across Morocco to call for political reform. Labor unions, youth organizations and human rights groups demonstrated in at least six cities on Sunday. Police stayed away from the demonstrations, most of which were peaceful, Human Rights Watch reported.

Roots of unrest

Protesters in Morocco are calling for political reform. Government officials say such protests are not unusual and that the protesters’ demands are on the agenda of most political parties.

TUNISIA

An uprising in Tunisia prompted autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to leave the country on January 14 after weeks of demonstrations. Those demonstrations sparked protests around North Africa and the Middle East.

Roots of unrest:

The revolt was triggered when an unemployed college graduate set himself ablaze after police confiscated his fruit cart, cutting off his source of income. Protesters complained about high unemployment, corruption, rising prices and political repression.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Hundreds of Palestinians rallied for unity in Ramallah Thursday, calling on Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian political factions to heal their rifts amid arguments over elections scheduled for September in the Palestinian territories. “Division generates corruption” was one of several slogans on banners held up by the demonstrators, who flooded the streets after calls went out on social-networking sites as well as schools and university campuses.

Roots of unrest:

The Palestinian territories have not seen the kind of demonstrations as in many Arab countries, but the Fatah leaders of the Palestinian Authority have been under criticism since Al-Jazeera published secret papers claiming to reveal that Palestinian officials were prepared to make wide-ranging concessions in negotiations with Israel. Negotiations toward a resolution of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict have since collapsed. Palestinian protests, largely in support of Egypt and Tunisia, were generally small and poorly attended, and in some cases the Hamas rulers of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority rulers of the West Bank actively tried to stifle protests. The split between Hamas and Fatah hampers internal change in the territories, although calls for political change are growing louder among Palestinians. Large-scale protests have failed to materialize as many Palestinians believe their problem remains Israel.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Hundreds of Palestinians rallied for unity in Ramallah Thursday, calling on Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian political factions to heal their rifts amid arguments over elections scheduled for September in the Palestinian territories. “Division generates corruption” was one of several slogans on banners held up by the demonstrators, who flooded the streets after calls went out on social-networking sites as well as schools and university campuses.

Roots of unrest:

The Palestinian territories have not seen the kind of demonstrations as in many Arab countries, but the Fatah leaders of the Palestinian Authority have been under criticism since Al-Jazeera published secret papers claiming to reveal that Palestinian officials were prepared to make wide-ranging concessions in negotiations with Israel. Negotiations toward a resolution of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict have since collapsed. Palestinian protests, largely in support of Egypt and Tunisia, were generally small and poorly attended, and in some cases the Hamas rulers of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority rulers of the West Bank actively tried to stifle protests. The split between Hamas and Fatah hampers internal change in the territories, although calls for political change are growing louder among Palestinians. Large-scale protests have failed to materialize as many Palestinians believe their problem remains Israel.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 24 February 2011, 3:34 pm and is filed under
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70 and looking forward to more democratic breakthroughs (postscript)

Turning 70 was a good excuse for my batch of classmates of Batu Pahat High School to go down the memory lane of our school days in the fifties.

Michael Ong reminded me, which I could not remember, that in Form V in 1959, I had given the first talk to the school debating and literary society. Topic? “Malayan Consciousness”.

Allan Goh, who has retired from the teaching profession in Penang, has composed an ode to the Class of 59:

Ode to the Class of 59

What really made my classmates tick?

Competitiveness, work, but no trick.

With shoulders firmly to the rack,

Oft leaving foot prints on time’s track.

It never was a one-horse race,

But a constant multiple brace:

Leadership, routinely ceded

To better friends who succeeded.

Charging for the golden chalice,

Driven by honour, not malice,

In and out of classrooms we strived,

That pushed and pulled until we arrived.

We seldom ceased to cogitate;

Arguments, we did not hesitate.

We might not be the very top,

Never far, with success, to hop.

Gaining confidence to the core

That motivated us to score.

Were we the sand that built the hill,

Or water that was the ocean’s fill?

Till today we tend to walk tall,

Inferior, we are not at all.

Allan claimed title as the Class 59 Laureatte with another poem underlining the truism that no man is an island and dedicated to  all his “long begotten friends of Batu Pahat”:

You Touched My Life

(To all my long begotten friends of Batu Pahat)

To my many classmates of High School, Batu Pahat,

I, hereby, dedicate this valediction with all my heart.

Outdid me in the many physical assertions,

Also, out-paced me in the pursuits of knowledge and passions.

 You were the youthful models of my admiration,

Often in those far off days, a source of my inspiration:

A beacon of brightness to guide me in the darkness

Through sometimes confused, convoluted mind of my youthfulness.

In later years, you have shone in public endeavours,

Whilst others remained confident, secured in their own fervours.

I am what I am today, a happy rounded life,

Is due in no small measures to your earnest, determined strife,

Friends, you have certainly touched my life forever more,

Believe me, there are many bits of you in my very core,

Be it the humour in me or the biting sarcasm,

All these and more I learnt from you during the good school baptism.

Although I could never catch you in the endless race,

I have, none the less, found my place with good values to embrace.

Happy be the contented man who has found himself,

For, baring none,  what better conquest than the conquest of self?

Should mention in this postscript of my reunion with my two hostel mates in London days at London House (my address for six weeks from 19th April till end-May 1977 was Room 69, London House, Mecklenburg Square, London WCIN 2AB) where I stayed to prepare for final London Bar exam.

They are dear friends K. Sila Dass and San Markan Ganapathi. They kept my spirits up when I was tempted to cut short my London stay, take a plane home and abandon the “impossible” examination.

Finally, thanks to Dr. Goh Cheng Teik for his counsel and  encouragement when he responded to my children’s invitation, viz:

Dear Guan Eng, Hui Ming, Hui Ying and Guan Choon,

Thank you for the invitation to attend your dad’s birthday dinner.  I can hardly believe that your dad is entering the roaring seventies, like the Lion of Jelutong, Karpal Singh!

All of you can be truly proud of your father.  He has made great sacrifices for the nation and also the good of you and your generation.

“Power tends to corrupt

and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Great men are almost always bad men.”

These are the words of John Acton, the famous English historian.  Your dad knows what absolute or  near-absolute  power is in reality.  He and others have been at the receiving end of such power every day for the past two score years.

That your dad and colleagues have been able to withstand  so much power for so long and survive (!) is not a small achievement.  Of course, they had to pay a heavy price for standing up for their rights.  Your dad was detained without trial on a number of occasions.  As you celebrate his birthday, do remember the sacrifices that he has made for the country.

Moreover, persuade him not to contemplate retirement just yet.  The breakthrough that will enable transformation of Malaysia into a more democratic country has not yet taken place.  Your dad’s services are critical to the success of this breakthrough.

Please convey to him happy birthday wishes from my family (from my wife, myself, Anthony, Alvin, Angeline and Henry Teh).

                This entry was posted on Friday, 25 February 2011, 12:42 pm and is filed under
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Dilemmas of a young Malaysian abroad

by
Alea Nasihin

(loyarburok.com)

The Malaysian Insider

February 24, 2011

FEB 24 — When I first stepped off the plane in Heathrow Airport three years ago, I was your average idealistic 19-year-old who thought she knew everything, and who thought she had it all planned out.

I was going to come to the UK, finish up my law degree and go home to Malaysia and single-handedly change the system. Everyone else who had trodden this path before me and failed just hadn’t tried hard enough. Everyone who went abroad and never came back were cowards who didn’t love their country.

Now, three years on, as I face my imminent graduation and the prospects of returning home for good, I find myself questioning the very beliefs I once held so dear.

It’s hard to leave the fact that I can walk a mile to class everyday and not fear for the safety of my handbag (or my lungs). It’s hard to leave the fact that I can discuss religion and race openly without getting accused of being an “infidel” or “ungrateful.”

It’s hard to leave the way I am allowed to think and question and express and explore for myself, and where my views are respected. It’s hard to leave when, here, youths are given a voice and never patronised, and nobody says “because I said so.”

It’s hard to leave the fact that I can walk down the street wearing anything I want and nobody will give me odd looks or whisper behind my back, or even force me to “cover up.”

It’s hard to leave the fact that throughout my three years here I managed to immerse myself in student activism and politics and went on protests and demos and nobody bat an eyelid.

It’s hard to leave the fact that whilst, yes, racism does exist everywhere, at least here it is not institutionalised and ingrained and incited by the system.

And as I sit in my little student room in Nottingham and read about the latest Federal Court hearing or by-election outcome, or the latest racial slur by a politician, or the latest “religious” festival that has been banned, I think to myself: Why should I go back? What’s in it for me back home? Why should I go home and try to fight for something that is obviously only going downhill? What role is there for a young law graduate whose interests lie in Human Rights and International Law — human rights, international law, Malaysia, are you kidding me?

And even if I did eventually go back, I realise it is surprisingly easy to not care and to get sucked into your own little material world with your own little problems. I came home for the summer with the full intention of getting into the thick of things and ended up spending most of my time drinking overpriced coffee in Bangsar, listening to my friends talk about internships in large law firms and financial powerhouses.

Maybe I could get used to this life after all — it’s nice and cushy and there are yummy cocktails involved. What happened the last time I went for a demonstration of any kind in Malaysia? Oh policemen with riot shields chased me and the FRU trucks blocked my way home. I think I’ll take the cocktails, thanks.

In short, I had become the person I despised, without even realising it.

My wakeup call came in the form of the Al-jazeera YouTube channel on February 10. Watching Hosni Mubarak’s speech, and watching the energy in Tahrir Square, something in me snapped and I realised that maybe we could do it too.

Sure, we had a few teething problems to address — like perhaps having a single united movement with the same aim in mind, but yeah, teething problems — but it wasn’t impossible. It could be in a few months, or a few years, or even a few decades, but there was hope at the end of the tunnel, and maybe at that time it’ll be our turn to scream and cheer in our very own Liberation Square as we finally realise that the country does, indeed, belong to the people. And I realised, it will kill me if I wasn’t a part of that.

There is a line from Yasmin Ahmad’s Gubra that I’ll always remember: “Sometimes, it’s like loving someone who doesn’t love you back,” Orked says of Malaysia. And it’s true, sometimes it feels like we’re all alone, fighting and struggling for something that doesn’t even want to be fought for.

Most of the time, there are a lot of easier options, like for me to just stay on in the UK and be perfectly content here. But I guess it’s like a long distance relationship, where you need to keep putting in the effort, and you need to keep trying, and at the end of the day you need to go back to the person you love.

We have a long, long road ahead of us. There won’t be any change (much less a full-fledged revolution) in Malaysia until we get our act together, until the people can come together and decide what it is that they want.

We need to wipe out apathy amongst the youths, and educate and entire country about their rights and their choices. But amidst the darkness some people have lit their candles and they shine brighter than ever — the recent solidarity movement amongst students, the outpouring of protests against the PPPA and the building of the mega-tower, the fight of the indigenous people.

What these tell us is that we need to be patient and keep fighting the good fight and don’t ever give up.

What it tells me is that I need to regain my passion and hope and idealism, and get my ass back home (and overpriced cocktails in moderation). —
loyarburok.com

                This entry was posted on Friday, 25 February 2011, 1:17 am and is filed under
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‘Interlok a classic work of Malaysian racism’

Malaysiakini

Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) director Lim Teck Ghee has added his voice to calls for the novel Interlok to be removed from the Form Five Malay literature syllabus due to its perpetuation of “offensive stereotyping” of minorities.

This, while the controversial novel celebrates the virtues of the Malay race, culture and value system.

As such, Lim noted, it has led some quarters to see the novel as “the classic Malaysian racist book”.

In remarks e-mailed to Malaysiakini today, the former academician-turned-social activist said some may be tempted to invoke freedom of expression to justify maintaining the book as required reading in secondary schools.

That same “freedom to offend” would not, however, be granted if the offence were against Malays, he noted.

There is concern, furthermore, with the prospect of predominantly Malay literature teachers teaching students the novel and its racially-slanted messages.

While anger has been expressed mainly by Indian groups and politicians against the negative portrayal of the community in the novel – including the use of the term ‘pariah’ – ire has also been raised on the perpetuation of stereotypes relating to ethnic Chinese.

Stressing against the call for the book to be banned “in the same way in which the government has banned so many other books”, Lim said Interlok should not be in the prescribed literature curriculum and “certainly not let loose on young and impressionistic minds”.

It should be not made an exam text, furthermore, whereby students are liable to be coerced into giving the “officially correct” reading of the novel in their answer papers, and whose correctness is determined by the authorities marking the exam papers.

“This will poison young minds and bring unintended harmful consequences to race relations in the country,” he said.

Lim also questioned why the novel was now being made compulsory and enjoying “political patronage” when it had failed to impress the literati when it was first published in 1971 – four years after the manuscript had languished in obscurity, claimed Lim.

“It is not unreasonable to deduce that the book’s publication in 1971 was agenda-driven. The political scenario at that time, that is, the 1969 race riots and the introduction of the NEP in the following year, was rapidly evolving and veering to outright Malay nationalism.

“The decision – made only last year – to include Interlok in the reading list, is equally suspect as the 40-year-old book had in the past not got any rave reviews from either the reading public or the writing fraternity,” he added.

Expressing surprise that members of the government panel tasked with reviewing the book for its “offensive bits” had agreed to working under such a limited scope, Lim said the transparency of the exercise was suspect, given that the government had reportedly succumbed to Malay pressure groups in other issues.

“It was not paragraphs or sections of the book that were in question, although there were innumerable instances of racial stereotyping, historical errors and misrepresentation of Chinese and Indian culture and society.

“Instead, it is the sum total of the book that needs to be rejected,” he added.

Although the rejection of the book on grounds of its unsuitability as a school textbook is not part of the terms of reference, he hoped the review panel would have the courage to arrive at this decision in view of the overwhelming evidence presented on the racially offensive overall thrust of the book.

Whatever the outcome of the review process, Lim challenged cabinet members to read the book – or the translation of the book – and “decide for themselves whether they would permit their own children to be exposed to it.”

More against ‘Interlok’

The Chinese Assembly Hall Youth also lent their weight against the novel.

Besides reinforcing the stereotype of Chinese and Indians as outsiders and immigrants, and the Chinese as deceitful and greedy, the novel also unconsciously promotes the idea of Malay supremacy, said chairperson of the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall Youth, Ng Chong Soon (left).

Although this might destroy relations between the ethnic communities in the country, this “is exactly what a race-based political party like Umno would need to serve its political agenda”, said Ng in a statement.

While freedom of expression should be respected,he added that narrow political interests should be kept out of education.

Echoing Lim’s comments, he also said the novel is rich in racial discrimination and factual errors.

“For example, the Chinese Anti-Japanese Army was depicted as wanting to build a small China in Malaya. And Indians were described as thinking that the Indian government takes better care of the Indians compared to Malaya’s government.”

The Ministry of Education should not have amended the school syllabus and selected ‘Interlok’ as a compulsory textbook unless it is treated as an example of racial discrimination, Ng stressed.

Meanwhile, The Human Rights Party’s (HRP) will hold an ‘anti-Interlok’ forum at the KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall tonight, while the ‘People’s march in solidarity against Umno’s racism’ is set for Sunday.

‘Interlok’, written by national laureate Abdullah Hussein, became controversial when it was selected as a Malay literature textbook for Form Five.

Several parties then opposed it on grounds it contains words and incidents deemed demeaning to Indian Malaysians.

Education Minister MuhyiddinYassin had announced on Jan 27 that the novel would remain as a textbook for Form Five, but with amendments to parts deemed offensive by the Indian community.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 25 February 2011, 1:12 pm and is filed under
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Libya: Past and future?

After alienating powerful tribes, Qaddafi’s regime seems to be falling, but it is unclear who could fill vacuum.

George Joffe

24 Feb 2011

Aljazeera

Many believed that Colonel Qaddafi’s regime in Libya would withstand the gale of change sweeping the Arab world because of its reputation for brutality which had fragmented the six million-strong population over the past forty-two years.

Its likely disappearance now, after a few days of protest by unarmed demonstrators is all-the-more surprising because it has systematically destroyed even the slightest pretence of dissidence and has atomised Libyan society to ensure that no organisation – formal or spontaneous – could ever consolidate sufficiently to oppose it.

Political Islam, whether radical or moderate, has been the principle victim, especially after an Islamist rebellion in Cyrenaica, the country’s eastern region, in the latter 1990s. Other political currents have been exiled since 1973, when “direct popular democracy” was declared and the jamahiriyah, the “state of the masses”, came into existence.

Even the Libyan army was treated with suspicion, with its officer corps controlled and monitored for potential disloyalty.  No wonder that major units now seems to have broken away from the regime and made the liberation of Eastern Libya possible.

Causes for collapse

The only structures that the regime tolerated, outside the formal structure of the “state of the masses” Colonel Qaddafi’s idiosyncratic vision of direct popular democracy in Libya’s stateless state in which all Libyans were theoretically obliged to participate – came from Libya’s tribal base and the Revolutionary Committee Movement, itself tied to the regime by tribal affiliation and ideological commitment and used to discipline and terrify the population through “revolutionary justice”.

Apart from that, there was only the colonel’s family and the rijal al-khima, the “men of the tent” – the colonel’s old revolutionary comrades from the Union of Free Officers which had organised the 1969 revolution against the Sanussi monarchy which had brought the colonel to power.  And even the tribes did not necessarily support the regime, although they were constrained by the “social popular leadership”, a committee bringing together thirty-two of the major tribal leaders under the watchful eye of the regime.

Yet, in reality, the Sa’adi tribes of Cyrenaica, for example, had little love for the regime, for they had been the cradle of the Sanussi movement which had controlled much of modern Libya and Chad in the nineteen century. In partnership with the Ottoman Empire, the Sa’adi led resistance to Italian occupation between 1911 and 1927.

They had been disadvantaged by the revolution, not least because the revolutionaries came from three tribes – the Qadhadhfa, the Maghraha and the Warfalla – which had originally been subservient to them.

It could be argued, in short, that the revolution was, at its heart, a reversal of tribal politics, despite its ostensible commitment to Arab nationalism.

Geographic issues

Indeed, the regime has been consciously constructed on the back of these three tribes which populated the security services and the Revolutionary Committee Movement.

Yet even they had their own grievances; the Warfalla had been implicated in the unsuccessful 1993 Bani Ulid coup and its leaders had refused to execute those guilty as a demonstration of their loyalty to the regime.

Colonel Qaddafi’s henchmen organised the executions instead, earning tribal enmity and probably explaining why tribal leaders so quickly sided with the opposition when the regime began to collapse.

Then there is also a geographic imperative for the rapidity of the collapse of the regime. Libya is essentially a desert, with the only areas that can support intensive residence located in the Jefara Plain, around Tripoli in Tripolitania, and the Jabal al-Akhdar behind Benghazi in Cyrenaica.

The result has been that Libya’s six million-strong population, as a result of oil-fired economic development in the rentier state that emerged at the end of the 1960s, is now highly urbanised and largely concentrated in these two cities and the satellite towns around them.

Corruption

This means that any regime which loses control of them has lost control of the country, even if it controls all outlying areas, such as the oil fields in the Gulf of Sirt between them, which is also the home base of the Qadhadhfa, or the Fezzan that still seems to be loyal to the Qaddafi regime.

It is this that explains how, once the army in Benghazi changed sides, the regime lost control of Eastern Libya and why its hold on Tripoli, the capital, has been so rapidly contested.

Nor should the nature of the regime or the Qaddafi family be ignored as a factor for the collapse. The regime has, in recent years, benefited from growing foreign investment in Libya, alongside its massive oil revenues, after sanctions in connection with the Lockerbie affairs were removed in 1999.

As foreign economic interest grew, so did corruption and, although Colonel Qaddafi himself may not have been corrupt, his seven sons and one daughter certainly were, drawing their fortunes from commissions and income streams siphoned off from the oil-and-gas sector.

Libyans themselves have been excluded from the benefits of oil wealth for decades, so the blatant corruption inflamed their resentment in recent years.

‘Foreign mercenaries’

In addition, the Libyan leader, who had no formal role inside the jamahiriyah but made sure that the Revolutionary Committee Movement answered only to him, has played on the aspirations of his sons to succeed him, pitting one against the other to ensure that none of them could amass sufficient power to threaten his position.

In such an atmosphere of eternal mistrust and suspicion, it is hardly surprising that the ultimate bastion of the regime has been the “foreign mercenaries” that have terrified Libyans with their indiscriminate violence during the country’s latest revolution.

Yet, they too form part of the leader’s conception of the state. In the 1980s, Libya opened its borders to all who were Muslim, as part of its vision of Arab nationalism and Islamic radicalism.

The regime also recruited an “Islamic Legion” to aid it in its foreign adventures, particularly in Africa, as Chad, Uganda and Tanzania were to discover.

In 1997, Libya also renounced its self-image as an Arab state, prioritising its African destiny instead, opening its borders to sub-Saharan Africa, despite the intense domestic tensions that the inflow of migrants generated, which resulted in riots and deaths in September 2000.

Now, apart from using African migrants as a tool to coerce European states such as Italy with the threat of uncontrolled migration, it has also recruited them into its elite forces around the “Deterrent Battalion” (the 32nd Brigade) which are used solely for internal repression.

They have no loyalty to Libyans who hate them and they are the forces on which Colonel Qaddafi relies to ensure that his regime ends in a bloodbath to punish Libyans for their disloyalty to his political vision.

The future

Whatever the Colonel thinks – and it is what he thinks that determines the struggle inside Libya today – there are objective factors that will determine the outcome.

Unrest in Western Libya has already led to towns in the Jefara Plain falling to the widening anti-regime movement.  Zuwara is said to have been taken over by them and major struggles are taking place between armed forces loyal to the Qaddafi regime and the inchoate movement opposed to it in Misurata and Zawiya, where helicopter gunships seem to have been used.

Even if Tripoli is still under regime control, the towns surrounding it seem to be slipping away. Eventually, the leader will control only the capital and nothing else. There is no doubt that the struggle is becoming increasingly bloody, with estimates of losses being set at between 600 and 2,000 dead.

The outcome will be determined by the loyalty of the armed forces and the institutions of the state towards the Libyan leader.

Yet this is increasingly in doubt; two ministers, from the justice and the interior, have resigned and Libya’s diplomatic missions around the world are gradually falling way, including key missions at the United Nations in New York and in Washington. Diplomats say the are sickened by what they regard as genocide as Libya’s armed forces fire on unarmed demonstrators.

Even the armed forces are becoming increasingly unreliable – a belated revenge, no doubt, for the way in which they have been chronically mistrusted and misused. Few, in the armed forces or within the population, have forgotten the abuse heaped upon them by the regime after Libya was forced out of Chad with heavy losses in the late 1980s.

Who follows?

The problem is that it is extremely unclear what could emerge to replace the colonel’s unlamented regime.

One consequence of its unrestrained repression has been to ensure that no movement or individual has emerged as a natural alternative. Inside Libya, only the Muslim Brotherhood and some extremist Islamist groups have any formal presence.

Outside Libya there are myriad opposition groups, it is true, but there is no evidence that they have any real purchase inside the country.

There are also growing fears in European states along the northern shores of the Mediterranean of a flood of migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing the violence.  And then there are the one million sub-Saharan African migrants marooned in Libya in the hope of crossing into Europe.

George Joffe is a Research Fellow at Cambridge University, and Visiting Professor at Kings College, London University, specialising in the Middle East and North Africa. He is the former Director of Studies at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London (Chatham House).

                This entry was posted on Friday, 25 February 2011, 12:53 pm and is filed under
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Libya’s falling tyrant

Gaddafi reaps what he has sown during his four-decade rule: terror, nepotism, tribal politics and abuse of power.

by
Larbi Sadiki: 21 Feb 2011

Al Jazeera

Libya cannot escape the infection of democratic revolutionary wind blowing through the Middle East and North Africa. If longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi falls, it will be a sweet victory for the heirs of Omar al-Mokhtar, the legendary anti-fascist and anti-colonial hero. But a lot of blood will spill before the Libyan colonel abandons ship.

After Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Tunisia’s Ben Ali, Gaddafi is the worst of the Arabs’ surviving illegitimate rulers. He is now reaping what he has sown: terror, nepotism, tribal politics, and abuse of power.

In Gaddafi’s Libya, the so-called People’s Congress, universities and other regime-affiliated organisations have had to toe the official line: worship of the “brother leader”, read his Green Book, and the brand of Pan-Africanism that no Libyan except Gaddafi and his henchmen believed in.

While visiting the country with a group of students from Exeter University, the hollow slogans of Gaddafi’s “Great Revolution” covered all public space. “Partners not salaried” one says. Another declares “People’s rule” (sultat al-sha’ab). Nothing could be further from the truth.

Gaddafi has ruled the country with the delusion of grandeur of a man who rose to power in a 1969 coup with fairly acceptable political ideals that got corrupted and abandoned. Gaddafi’s much vaunted socialism turned into distribution in favour of the Colonel’s clansmen.
Inner circle

An inner circle of Gaddafi’s confidants and close relatives decided and executed the hangings of the 1970s, relying on the fearsome and murderous “revolutionary committees”.

No recourse to the people was taken when decisions were made and carried out about war such as in Chad and elsewhere in Africa. The people could not openly complain about the money lavishly disbursed in the pursuit of Gaddafi’s foreign adventurism, including the sponsoring of terrorist organisations.

Gaddafi’s regime has been linked to the 1972 Black September killings of Israeli athletes in Germany ,  the 1978 disappearance in Libya of Shia Imam Musa Al-Sadr, the 1984 murder of British police officer Yvonne Fletcher, the 1986 bombing of Berlin’s La Belle Discotheque, the 1987 arms vessel destined to the Irish Republican Army, and to the hijacking of Pan Am flight 73 in 1986 and the 1988 Pan Am flight 103 bombing. This does not exhaust the list.

The US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986 or the large amounts of monies paid by Gaddafi to compensate all kinds of claims against Libya have been some of the prices paid by Libyans for their leader’s miscalculation.

The sanctions and pariah status have only been eased only in the past 10 years. Carrying the green Libyan passport has made Libyan citizens persona non grata in many parts of the world.

Gaddafi’s narcissism was such that very few of his comrades in arms from the original Free Officers cohort that executed the 1969 coup against King Idris have survived his brutality.

A few died in mysterious circumstances (Omar Limheshi; Imhammad al-Muqrif). Others withdrew from public life voluntarily (Abd al-Salam Jelloud).

Act of public disavowal

Like Egypt, the uprising in Libya qualifies as an act of public disavowal of an existing regime. These are countries which had military revolutions and today are experiencing civil revolutions.

Like Tunisia, but in a worse fashion, Libya has invested very little in social capital or civic capacity building. All organisations are committed to, and affiliated with, Gaddafi’s Great Revolution. Literally, these are cells that spy on the people or militias bribed to defend the regime. When protesters wave flags, chant pro-Gaddafi or anti-Western slogans, they do so on regime orders.

Regardless, Libyans have not been passive. For instance, the Libyan League for Human Rights, the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition (NCLO), and the banned Islamists all have used the internet to express their anger. In some cases, Libyan dissidents used the Internet as a political tool before activists in other part of the Middle East.

The NCLO met in London in 2006 and it may plan a role in reforming post-Gaddafi Libya.

Attempts at removing Gaddafi began in the mid-1980s. The most famous was the May 1984  Bab Al-Aziziya Barracks coup when the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, made up of military and civilian dissidents, played a leading role.

The most serious challenge against Gaddafi’s authority came from the most populous and powerful Libyan tribe, the Warfallah, in October 1993. The rebellion led to kangaroo trials in 1995. Many tribesmen were executed in 1997.

The eastern region, Benghazi, has always been a source of dissidence against the regime. Dozens died in protests in 2006.The map of the current mutiny is both tribal and regional. Two tribes have withdrawn allegiance to Gaddafi’s regime, thus settling old scores. Gaddafi is now paying the price for humiliating the Wirfallah tribe, which he has excluded from his favours since the mid-1990s. Similarly, the Tabu tribe in the country’s southeast has suffered appalling discrimination.

The misery belts of Libya are now leading the rebellion. Cities like Al-Baida, Derna, Ijdadia are all marginalised and are not beholden to Gaddafi, as they have not gained from his rule. Tripoli’s poorest suburbs, Zintan and Zawiya, which have come under heavy fire, are leading the rebellion in the capital.

Why is the revolution that ousted Tunisia’s Ben Ali proving to be infectious? The reasons can be summed up by the following factors: the presence of a Ben Ali-type hegemon; dynastic and nepotistic rot; monarchical republicanism; rampant corruption; the marginalisation of young people; human rights violations; information control and a police state.

All of these conditions apply to Libya. The only good in Gaddafi’s Libya is the absence of elections, which spared the Gaddafi’s revolutionary committees the additional misdemeanour of rigging them.

In addition to these factors, the eastern region, namely Benghazi, has been deprived of the dividends of petroleum. In a country with one of the longest stretches of coastline and high oil production, income and opportunity should be available to citizens. But this is has not been the case. Now, Gaddafi is reaping what he has sown.

Dr Larbi Sadiki is a Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, and author of Arab Democratisation: Elections without Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2009) and The Search for Arab Democracy: Discourses and Counter-Discourses (Columbia University Press, 2004), forthcoming Hamas and the Political Process (2011).

                This entry was posted on Friday, 25 February 2011, 1:38 am and is filed under
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Najib has tough fight against NEP ‘cancer’, says report

By
Shannon Teoh

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak is taking “an unprecedented gamble” by pledging to dilute the system of Malay patronage that has kept Umno in power, said a foreign report yesterday.

The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) — an Australia-based think tank — said that the large support for the status quo and Umno’s current vulnerability meant that “Najib will have a difficult task convincing his colleagues to ‘risk all’ for the sake of Malaysia’s long-term future.”

Its foreign policy research fellow Dr John Lee also questioned the prime minister’s capacity to introduce economic reforms as the introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1970 has cultivated a “vast and deep network of rent-seeking and patronage.” While acknowledging that the New Economic Model (NEM) introduced by Najib last year was “enormously significant,” Lee said that the decades of pro-Bumiputera affirmative action was now a “millstone around the neck of the struggling Malaysian economy and the cancer behind the country’s growing structural problems.”
However, the public policy think tank backs Najib’s gamble as an opinion poll by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research in 2008 found that 71 per cent of Malaysians — including 65 per cent of Malays — believed that affirmative action needed to be reviewed.

Lee’s paper, “Malaysian Dilemma: The Enduring Cancer of Affirmative Action,” said that the NEM has the potential to win back disaffected Chinese and Indian voters to Barisan Nasional (BN).

But the researcher, who was born in Ipoh but migrated to Australia, added that there has “been few initiatives aimed at reducing the role of the state in the Malaysian economy—which is essential for cutting back rent-seeking opportunities by Malay elites in the name of affirmative action.”

Calling steps such as relaxing Bumiputera equity requirements in 27 service subsectors “piecemeal,” the paper noted that Najib has had to placate pro-Malay groups including senior Umno figures who are “far from unanimous in their support of Najib’s gamble.”

The largely Malay civil service with its deeply entrenched ‘pro-Malay’ culture means it will be difficult to effect genuine reform, Lee added.

Commenting on the paper, local libertarian think tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) believes that it is time to debate the policy of affirmative action.

Project manager Afif Abdullah said that “the evidence against affirmative action is now clearer. The prime minister must not succumb to demands from far right groups, be they Malay, Chinese, Indian, Dayak, or anything else.”

Established in 1976, CIS states that it supports a free enterprise economy and a free society under limited government where individuals can prosper and fully develop their talents.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 25 February 2011, 11:20 am and is filed under
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