Teresa – why she is the target

Why she is the target

Teresa Kok’s attempts to reach out to Malay Muslims has no doubt been a threat to Umno

Leslie Lau
, October 4, 2008

SHE has been villified as a Chinese chauvinist and portrayed as anti-Muslim. She was detained one week under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for allegedly stirring up religious sentiments. And last week, unknown assailants threw a Molotov cocktail into the compound of her family home in Kuala Lumpur.

But ask Democratic Action Party (DAP) Member of Parliament Teresa Kok why she has become the target of a smear campaign in recent months and she will probably be hard pressed for an answer.

And those who know her insist she is anything but a chauvinist or an enemy of Islam that her detractors claim she is.

When Ms Kok was detained under the ISA, even Mr Zaid Ibrahim, who quit the Cabinet as de facto Law Minister partly in protest against the use of the law, said of her: “I know Teresa personally and I cannot see her as anti-Islam.”

While Mr Zaid was the only United Malays National Organisation (Umno) member who spoke out publicly, he was not the only one who viewed the recent ISA detentions of Ms Kok and a female journalist, who was released after18 hours, as unwarranted.

“Look, everyone who knows her (Ms Kok) knows she is not a bigot or a chauvinist. This makes the government look bad,” one MP from the Umno told Weekend Xtra.

In fact, it was some of Ms Kok’s political opponents in Parliament – from the ruling Barisan Nasional – who met with government officials in private to plead for her release. Such is Ms Kok’s popularity that when she made her first public appearance at a press conference hours after her release on Sept 19, she received a standing ovation from reporters.

It is probable that Ms Kok, who won her Seputeh parliamentary seat in Kuala Lumpur with a 36,492-majority – the biggest – in the March elections, could win with an even bigger margin if polls were held today.

To her supporters, she is a hero who has been wronged.

It was alleged that she had abused her position as an MP and a member of the Selangor state government to direct a mosque to reduce the volume of its public address system during prayer times because it was disturbing non-Muslims living nearby.

The allegation, made by former Selangor mentri besar Mohd Khir Toyo, and highlighted in the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia newspaper, was found to be untrue. Even the mosque committee came out to publicly deny the allegation. Still, she was detained by the police.

The attacks have not stopped despite her release. Utusan Malaysia has made her, in her own words, a “cover girl” since her release. After she complained about the allegedly low quality of food served during her detention, comparing it to dog food, she has been chastised repeatedly in the newspaper.

Ms Kok, known for her multi-racial stand, has been determined more than ever to flaunt it since her arrest.

Following her release, she has been attending breaking-of-fast functions almost nightly during the just-ended fasting month of Ramadan.

But even that has become the subject of attacks by Utusan Malaysia.

Last week, Ms Kok was criticised in the newspaper for “wearing a skirt to a mosque”. The article appeared to suggest that she was wearing something outrageous and that her attire caused serious discomfort among Muslims present at the function.

However, facts suggested otherwise. Ms Kok wore a long-sleeved dress which came down almost to her ankles. She also did not enter the mosque, remaining instead in its compound.

One of Ms Kok’s Malay-Muslim supporters told Weekend Xtra: “I don’t understand why she is being targetted. She is usually so sensitive to the religious obligations of Muslims it is almost ridiculous. She usually takes great pains to tell me what I can or cannot eat when we are out that I find it hard to believe she would be anti-Islam.”

Ultimately, the smear campaign could be attributed to the fact thatMs Kok and a number of leaders from the Chinese-dominated DAP have taken pains to reach out to Malay-Muslim voters.

As a member of a party who is part of three state governments – along with its Malay partners in the Parti Keadilan Rakyat and Parti Islam SeMalaysia – DAP leaders like Ms Kok have been reaching out more than ever, and successfully, to Malay voters.

This is undoubtedly a political threat to the ruling coalition led by Umno.

The attacks against Ms Kok and the attempts to portray her as a Chinese chauvinist who is anti-Islam represent a crude attempt at undermining the credibility and viability of the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, as a viable multi-racial alternative to BN.

But targetting Ms Kok, known for her congeniality as much as anything else, may well backfire.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 4 October 2008, 10:03 am and is filed under
DAP
,
Pakatan Rakyat
,
Teresa Kok
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Why Eurocopter’s Cougar has been selected to replace Nuri

The Prime Minister-cum-Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should set an example of integrity and transparency by making public the details of the shortlisted bids for the four aircrafts to replace the RMAF Nuri helicopters and the reason why Eurocopter’s Cougar EC725 has been selected.

It is a sad commentary on the failure of Abdullah’s National Integrity Plan that Malaysia’s latest  ranking on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index has plunged 10 places in his five years as Prime Minister  from No. 37 in 2003 to No. 47 in 2008 and a deepening crisis of confidence about integrity and transparency.

Abdullah should be aware that his first act as Defence Minister, announcing that the  Defence Ministry has agreed to acquire new helicopters from European helicopter manufacturers, Eurocopter, to replace the Nuri has been immediately dogged by integrity and transparency questions – in particular, the allegation about the involvement of  his son Kamaluddin  Abdullah in the Eurocopter deal.

It is for this reason that Abdullah should make public the details of the shortlisted bids by the four aircrafts to replace the RMAF Nuri helicopters and the reason why Eurocopter’s Cougar EC725 has been selected.

If no full explanation is forthcoming from Abdullah, I will be raising this issue in Parliament when it reconvenes on October 13.

The Eurocopter Cougar EC725 was one of four aircraft shortlisted by RMAF. The other three were the Sikorsky S92, Agusta Westland EH-101 Merlin and the Russian-made Mil Mi-17 Hip.

It has  been reported that the government had allocated US$600 million (RM1.93 billion) to buy an initial fleet of 12 helicopters, which will be in service until 2050.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 4 October 2008, 12:06 pm and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
Corruption
,
Defence
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Abdullah’s Pivotal “Non-Decision”

by
M. Bakri Musa

There are three possible decisions that Abdullah Badawi could make on or by October 9, 2008, ahead of his party’s divisional meetings.  One, he could bravely declare that he will defend his post; two, announce his resignation; and three, waffle and leave it up in the air, effectively a “non-decision.”

            This third option would be more in character with him.  Throughout his tenure Abdullah has shown a singular inability to make even the simplest decisions.  He would defer them until the last minute when the decision would be forced upon him, as the other choices would have been effectively taken away by changed circumstances.

            With the third choice, Abdullah, with advice from his “bright” advisors, would of course frame or “spin” it not as a “non-decision;” rather he would dress it up in a language more in tune with our culture.  He would for example “leave his fate to Allah,” or for his “party members to decide.”  This would also be a classic Abdullah’s non-decision and “flip-flop!”

            This option is also nothing more than a diluted form or an attempt for a more acceptable and less confrontational version of the first choice.  Former Tun Mahathir, who knows a bit more about Abdullah, had predicted that Abdullah would not give up his position.  Mahathir would be wrong if he were to think that Abdullah would boldly declare his intentions to stay on, that is, go with the first option.

            The first option would also be out of character for Abdullah as it would mean an inevitable confrontation with his party leaders, specifically UMNO Supreme Council members who had earlier given him an ultimatum.  If there is any certainty about Abdullah, it is that he would do anything to avoid a confrontation, especially with his party members.

            That has been the bane of his administration.  Abdullah came in boldly proclaiming to end corruption.  With the first resistance from UMNO warlords used to plump government contracts san competition, he waffled.  Likewise with his “determination” to set up the much-needed Police Commission.  That project is still in the air years later because of persistent opposition by senior leadership in the police force.

            The decision that millions of Malaysians and I are hoping for is that Abdullah will gracefully announce his resignation, that is, the first choice.  Were he to do that, it would give all his critics including severe ones like me a chance to finally praise the man.  It would certainly be a brave decision from him.  It would portray him as a leader who has the interest of the nation at heart, of a leader who puts the future of Malaysia ahead that of his own, as well of his family’s and cronies’ ambitions.

            This painful decision could only come after the most difficult self-introspection.  More significantly, it would require him to dismiss the advice of those closest to him.  For this reason I believe that this would not be the decision he would make this week.

            On a practical level, it would also mean Abdullah giving up those luxurious perks of his office that he has become accustomed to, if not relished.  It is more than just having an opulent corporate jet at his disposal; it is all the attention and adulation he is currently getting from his staff, ministers, civil servants, and finally, the people.  I recently saw a picture of Rais Yatim, one of Abdullah’s senior ministers, bowing low and very deferentially towards Abdullah while kissing his hand!  That is heavy stuff!

            More to the point, as Henry Kissinger once observed, power is the most powerful aphrodisiac.  With a new wife (albeit a divorcee) at his side, and with Abdullah in his late 60s, this is not a minor consideration.

            In a more profound level, by resigning now Abdullah would go on record as being the shortest serving Prime Minister of Malaysia.  He is also mindful of the accompanying opinion that invariably would be associated with him, of being the least effective leader of the country.  I am certain his advisors, and others whose fate is tied to him, would not too subtly remind Abdullah of these realities in an attempt to dissuade him from resigning.

            Gracefully resigning now would require much of Abdullah.  It would require of him to acknowledge the worsening situation in the nation as a consequence of his ineffective leadership.  Not many of us are courageous enough to face up to our own limitations.  This task is made that much more difficult as there would be plenty of folks around him and whom he holds dear telling him otherwise.

            Self-examination and serious introspection are not and have never been Abdullah’s strong suits.  Meaning, this option is out for Abdullah.

Consequences of “Non-Decision”

Abdullah and his advisors will, as usual, be oblivious of the devastating consequences of his hanging on.  For UMNO, it would mean further turmoil and fractious upcoming divisional meetings and the twice-postponed General Assembly; for the nation, continued and rapid decline.

            The implosion of UMNO is already inevitable; Abdullah’s hanging on would only hasten this.  The decline of UMNO as an institution is not something I would celebrate, notwithstanding the party’s many detractors.  Quite apart from it being one of the most enduring political parties, having been in power continuously for well over half a century – a record unmatched anywhere – it is also one of the few successful modern Malay institutions.

            UMNO is still the largest Malay party with the strongest grassroots organizations.  While not belittling PKR’s remarkable achievements in attracting young Malaysian especially Malay talents, UMNO still has many capable leaders despite the fact that they have been eclipsed by the more numerous corrupt and ineffectual ones.

            UMNO’s accomplishments are many and we should not belittle them.  It was instrumental in successfully leading the nation to independence, of besting a domestic communist insurgency, an achievement that has yet to be replicated anywhere else, and an earlier enlightened development policy of emphasizing growth with equity, now accepted as mainstream economic wisdom.

            If that sounds like an obituary for UMNO, it is, and not a premature one at that!

            The fact that these achievements have been corroded and corrupted by later leaders, especially during Abdullah’s tenure, does not in any way diminish those achievements.  Instead they should be the inspiration and challenge for subsequent leaders to exceed those high expectations.

            The reality under Abdullah is more ugly.  While his apologists would claim that the present climate of political “openness” is Abdullah’s finest legacy, the reality is that he was an ineffective bystander.  The present climate of openness has more to do with technology, in particular the Internet, than with Abdullah’s stated mission.

            For that, it would be best if we were to ask the likes of Raja Petra Kamarudin, the “Hindraf Five,” and hundreds others incarcerated without trial under the ISA during Abdullah’s tenure.  That is Abdullah’s real legacy, and the reason I do not look forward to this week when he will announce that he will not vacate his office

                This entry was posted on Monday, 6 October 2008, 11:39 am and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
Bakri Musa
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Five to contest UMNO Deputy President  post – Abdullah no more  in political radar of Umno leaders

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has still four days to go before Oct. 9  to announce  his Hamlet decision of “To Do Or Not To Do” – “To Defend Or Not To Defend the Umno President (and Prime Minister’s) Post”.

However, the declaration by  five Umno leaders, led by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Mohd Ali Rustam, of their decision or interest to contest for the Umno Deputy President’s post before it falls vacant is very eloquent testimony that Abdullah has ceased to exist in their political radar well before his Oct. 9 announcement.

Clearly, Abdullah has already been ousted from the mainstream Umno currents and relegated to the periphery of Umno politics although he is still incumbent Umno President and Prime Minister. How fast the powerful have fallen!

But will Abdullah drop a bombshell of a surprise in his “before Oct. 9” announcement – as former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad seems to think, when he said today that  he does not believe that Abdullah intends to announce his departure before the start of Umno divisional meetings on Oct 9.

Mahathir said: “He likes to change his position, so as long as he does not make the announcement I will not believe it.”

The bet however is on Abdullah throwing in the towel as a result of  the immense pressures by the Umno leaders for him to scuttle his mid-June 2010 power transition plan.

I believe Abdullah will have to announce his intentions by Wednesday, which is probably the last Cabinet meeting which he could preside with dignity and authority – unless he is prepared to demonstrate that he will under no circumstances be a “lameduck” Prime Minister, whether defends the post of Umno President or not.

(Speech at the 2,000-People Puchong DAP dinner at 14ms Puchong, Selangor on Sunday, 5th October 2008 at 10 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 6 October 2008, 8:10 am and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Release Hindraf 5, RPK and all ISA detainees  by Deepavali – or leave Barisan Nasional

With the approach of their respective party conferences and elections, It is common nowadays to read of the fierce speeches and statements by   leaders and ministers of MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP and other Barisan Nasional component parties, undertaking to learn from the mistakes of the past and  pledging to  stop being puppets or parrots of UMNO “Big Brother” and to speak up for the basic rights and interests of the people.

All these are political “sharp practices” – as the leaders and Ministers from MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP and other BN component parties are equally guilty as their Umno counterparts  for the worsening multiple crisis of confidence in the past seven months because of their failure to insist on government reforms after the March 8 political tsunami.

Seven full months have passed since the March general elections – and it is not only the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and UMNO which have nothing to show, the MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP and other BN component parties have also nothing to show in terms of long-needed reforms.

What is worse, things have gone from bad to worse as could be seen by the worsening multiple crisis of confidence, whether political, economic, educational, institutional, anti-corruption or nation-building.

In the last seven months, nation-building suffered a major setback when Umno leaders took communalism to a new height in drumming up slogans on “ketuanan Melayu” when all Malaysians should be focusing on “ketuanan rakat Malaysia” after more than half-a-century of nation-building.

UMNO Bukit Bendera division chief Ahmad Ismail’s “Chinese are penumpang” was the last straw, furnishing another completely unacceptable example of first-generation or second-generation locally-born “bumiputras” questioning the loyalty and patriotism of sixth or seven-generation locally-born “non-bumiputras”!

It was after the March 8 “political tsunami” that human rights and Internet freedoms suffered grievous blows when the Internal Security Act again became an instrument of political oppression when it was used to detain DAP MP for Seputeh, Teresa Kok, Sin Chew senior reporter,  Tan Hoon Cheng and Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin.

It was also during the past seven months that nothing was done to free the Hindraf Five and the other ISA detainees from the draconian detention-without-trial law.

So what is the use of promising that in future, they will speak out vigorously for the rights and interests of Malaysians when in the past seven months, the  leaders and Ministers of MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP and other BN component parties have been equally guilty like their UMNO counterparts in not doing anything to initiate reforms to end these nation-building excesses and human rights abuses?

For a start, are all the leaders and Ministers of MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP and other BN component parties prepared to take a common stand to demand for support from the Umno leaders and Ministers in Cabinet and the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council that the Hindraf Five should be released from ISA latest by Deepavali on October 28, that RPK and all other ISA detainees must similarly be released unconditionally?

Furthermore, that unless their Umno counterparts agree to the release of Hindraf Five, RPK and all other ISA detainees, MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP and all other BN component parties must decide  whether it serves any purpose for them to remain in Barisan Nasional.

[Speech (2)  at the 2,000-People Puchong DAP dinner at 14ms Puchong, Selangor on Sunday, 5th October 2008 at 10 pm]

                This entry was posted on Monday, 6 October 2008, 1:54 pm and is filed under
Hindraf
,
nation building
,
Post-2008 general election
,
Raja Petra Kamaruddin
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


RPK sedition trial begins in PJ

In Petaling Jaya sessions court now where the celebrated RPK sedition trial has just started.

Big crowd of RPK supporters and well-wishers including household names in Malaysian blogosphere like Haris Ibrahim, Zorro and delCapo in court but space too limited to accommodate even a substantial number of people who had to overflow outside.

RPK in the dock looks his devilishly  irreverent  best ready to take on the powers-that-be although he has just become a freshie Internal Security Act detainee.

Let all bloggers and Malaysians concerned about human rights and Internet freedom come to PJ  court to support RPK.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 6 October 2008, 9:47 am and is filed under
Raja Petra Kamaruddin
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Abdullah last acts as PM – reach out to Hindraf supporters and stop excoriating Hindraf

I am taken aback by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s comments  yesterday concerning Hindraf, which
Utusan Malaysia
 used in its front-page headline:
“Kecewa sikap Hindraf: Penyokong buat bising, enggan bersalam dengan TPM, Menteri – PM”

In the past few days, Hindraf has come under intense attack, with even MIC leaders like its President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and Secretary-General Datuk Dr. S. Subramaniam joining in the Hindraf-bashing.

Tomorrow, Abdullah would most probably be announcing that he would not be defending the post of Umno President in the March Umno General Assembly.

Whatever his announcement, among Abdullah’s  last acts as Prime Minister should be to reach out to the Hindraf supporters to end the status of Malaysian Indians as a new underclass instead of excoriating and demonizing Hindraf.

Abdullah should initiate this healing process which is an important  integral part of Malaysian nation-building, to end the marginalization of the Malaysian Indians in their own country – just as a similar healing process must also begin to address all other marginalized Malaysians in the country, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak.

There can be no better start to this “healing process” than for the Cabinet tomorrow to release the Hindraf Five from Internal Security Act – making Deepavali this year a most significant and memorable one in making all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion,  feel proud again to be sons and daughters of the nation.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 7 October 2008, 11:48 am and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
Hindraf
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Abdullah – Flip-flops to the very end

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi flip-flops to the very end!

This morning, the grapevine was abuzz with his  latest flip-flop that he has decided to defend his positions as Umno President and Prime Minister after a three-hour meeting with some 200 of his supporters at his Putrajaya official residence which started at about 11 pm last night and dragged into the wee hours of the morning.

This was
blogged
 by three-term Umno MP for Parit Sulong and former Backbenchers Club, Ruhanie Ahmad at 3.32 am.

If so, that was the penultimate flip before the ultimate flop, which Star editor-in-chief
Wong Chun Wai
blogged at 3.53 pm that SMS flying out from the ongoing Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting at PWTC was that Abdullah had thrown in the towel and succumbed to the Umno Supreme Council pressures for an early exit in March next year.

There was a
pathetic last stand
 by  a handful  of Abdullah’s supporters at Putrajaya this morning and PWTC this evening, urging him to remain steadfast to the mid-2010 power transition plan instead of being forced out 15 months earlier in March next year.

The die is cast.  This die was actually cast seven months ago in the March 8 political tsunami.

Abdullah has told  the BN  Supreme Council what almost everyone had expected, that he would not defend his Umno president’s post and will quit in March next year, to set another dubious record as the country’s most short-lived Prime Minister.

The political landscape has not materially changed with Abdullah’s enforced exit but new configurations  will surface with the rise of a new curtain, with new characters taking the centre stage.

Malaysia is in for “interesting” times.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 8 October 2008, 5:17 pm and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


D-Day for Abdullah – honourable or dishonourable exit?

It was  exactly seven months ago this day that the March 8 political tsunami struck the Malaysian political landscape, resulting in today as  D-Day for Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi – whether he will defend the Umno presidency.

Yesterday was a day of utter confusion with conflicting news throughout the day that Abdullah had been persuaded to “fight it out”  including against his deputy, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, with all the weapons available to him to defend the posts of  Umno President and Prime Minister.

The general consensus, however, is that  “sanity will finally prevail” and Abdullah will succumb to the Umno Supreme Council pressures for an orchestrated five-month exit as Prime Minister by not contesting for the top Umno post.

If so, then the two  most pertinent questions are:

1.	Is it  going to be an honourable or dishonourable exit for the  fifth Prime Minister? and

2.	Will the five-month succession interregnum pave the way for an end to the worsening multiple  national crisis of confidence in the past seven months or whether it will plunge the country into a deeper rut and rot?

When he  was asked on Monday what would be his
focus
 in his remaining days as prime minister, regardless of when he decides to leave, Abdullah said he would use the time to make good on his promises to the rakyat.

He said: “There are uncompleted things, such as reforms I promised the rakyat.

“I will undertake them.  Of course, I have to do it because what I promised, I will deliver.”

It is sad and pathetic to see Abdullah end his five-year premiership in a mirage – cocooned in total denial.

If Abdullah cannot deliver his many reform pledges when he was at the height of his power as a result of the greatest electoral victory and mandate ever won by any Prime Minister in half-a-century in March 2004, what could he achieve when he is being forced out of office after suffering the most ignominous electoral defeat in Umno and Barisan Nasional history?

It is a million times more difficult for Abdullah to deliver his reform pledges  once he has announced his exit-plan today than when he won the landslide electoral mandate in the March 2004 general election.

But this could still be done, if Abdullah is prepared to “do the impossible” and use  his last five months as Prime Minister to honour all the unfulfilled pledges and promises of the past five years – but this must be evident from today’s Cabinet meeting as well as the first day of the reconvened Parliament on Monday, October 13, 2008.

This will be an honourable exit for the fifth Prime Minister. It will be Abdullah’s tryst with destiny.

Can Abdullah embark on such an “impossible mission” in his last five months as Prime Minister, when there will be a de facto Prime Minister who will immediately and increasingly  be more powerful than the de jure Prime Minister?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 8 October 2008, 9:12 am and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Rest in Peace, Islam Hadari

By
Farish A. Noor

Observers of Malaysian politics both at home and abroad have already begun to write the political obituary of the country’s embattled Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. While the global economy goes into a tailspin and markets across Asia tumble on an hourly basis, Malaysians seem more engrossed in the country’s on-going political drama that has turned into a comical farce of near-epic proportions: The fate of Prime Minister Badawi hangs in the balance as rival contenders for the coveted post of leader of the UMNO party and Prime Minister of Malaysia come to the fore, ranging from his current deputy Najib Razak to even veterans like Tengku Razaleigh whom many had written off years ago.

To be sure, the immediate verdict on Badawi’s period of rule will not be a pleasant one. The picture that is being painted at the moment is that of a less-than-rosy canvas, and the list of Badawi’s failings is as long as it is impressive. The man who started with such promise, and who promised so much to the electorate, may well end up in the history books of Malaysia as the one who lost it all.

When he came to power in 2004 Badawi scored the highest mandate in the history of Malaysian politics. Not a single leader before him, not even the country’s founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman or Mahathir Mohamad, had ever managed to win such a huge share of the public’s votes. Yet following the elections of March 2008, he has earned himself yet another honour, this time being the leader who lost the most votes, seats and state assemblies in the history of Malaysia.

Badawi’s great promise (which turned into an even bigger disappointment) was his claim to be a reform-minded leader who seriously wanted to reform the institutions of power in the country. His attempts to deal with corruption, abuse of power by the police, lack of transparency in governance and the judiciary, all earned him the approval of the Malaysian public and managed – temporarily – to sap away support from the opposition parties too.

Yet by 2006 it became clear that Badawi had bitten off more than he could possibly chew and the signs of institutional inertia were plain to see: His reform gestures were not well met by the police in particular, whom for a long period were given a free hand to operate during the days of former PM Mahathir. Despite talk of anti-corruption, few cases of high-level corruption were brought to court (compared to neighbouring Indonesia where even high-ranking members of the Suharto family have been brought to book.)

But it is in the area of Islam, or rather normative Muslim religiosity, that Badawi failed the most. Badawi’s trademark project was the Islam Hadari programme that he hoped to launch in the country. ‘Islam Hadari’ was, from the outset, a state-sanctioned and state-sponsored exercise in social engineering, at a somewhat crude level. Its aims were simple: To open the way for a modern and relevant interpretation of Islamic laws and norms that would help galvanise society to think of religion in a dynamic and contemporary mode, in keeping with the modern age we live in. It promoted the notion of gender equality, and insisted that Islamic practice can and should be used as a vehicle for social advancement, capacity building and individual empowerment. The key ingredient in this formula was knowledge and exposure to new ideas.

Yet anyone with even the most shallow understanding of Malaysian society would realise by now that engineering a society and trying to make Muslims modern and progressive cannot ever be a top-down process, anymore than a slave master can teach his slaves how to be free. The prevailing values and norms of Islamic praxis in Malaysia, like in many Muslim countries today, remain conservative and even reactionary in many quarters.

Thus while Badawi the leader preached open-mindedness and called on his fellow Muslims to think and live in the modern age, he underestimated the extent to which his own efforts would be foiled by the very same conservative Muslims who manned the religious institutions of power in Malaysia’s vast Islamic bureaucracy. The irony of the situation was as pathetic as it was comical at times: Foreign scholars like Karen Armstrong were invited to conferences on Islam in Malaysia while her books were banned; and throughout the years of Badawi’s feeble leadership scores of other books on Islam and religion were banned as well. How, pray tell, does one open up the minds of Muslims when they are not allowed to read anything in the first place?

It has to be said however that Badawi was not entirely at fault here as he was attempting a reform of Islam while battling on several fronts. On the one hand he had to deal with an unco-operative Islamic bureaucracy that paid little attention to his own reform initiatives, some of which were indeed laudatory. On the other hand he also had to deal with opposition from the Malaysian Islamic party that took an even more conservative stand and whom simply dismissed Islam Hadari as a ‘deviant’ idea. Yet this is the same Islamic party that in 2001 valorised the Tabiban as ‘true Islam’ and their ‘brothers’. To make things worse Malaysia’s stifling race-based communitarian politics made it even more difficult for discussion on Islam to take place in the public domain without it bring racialised and used as a political toy by all the communitarian parties in the country.

Half a decade on, it would appear that Badawi’s days are drawing to an end, and with that Islam Hadari as well. In the years and decades to come, future historians may be kinder to Badawi who may be remembered as the man who tried to reform Malaysia but failed, and whose failure was due to the rot and inertia that had settled in the very same corridors of power that he walked. But perhaps the biggest loss for Malaysia in the long run will be the demise of Islam Hadari as a project that was never really understood, unfairly criticised, crassly instrumentalised and ultimately cast into the dustbin as just another item in the long train of baggage left behind in the wake of Badawi’s exit from power.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 8 October 2008, 6:35 am and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
Farish Noor
,
Islam
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Abdullah –  can he redeem his premiership by instituting three fundamental reforms?

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is a decent human being.

He was always personable and very approachable until he was cut off from the public by his gatekeepers whether fourth-storey or otherwise  – and the common complaint after his first two years as Prime Minister was that he was more difficult to see than Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in the latter’s 22 years as Prime Minister!

I had two meetings with Abdullah in his first two years as Prime Minister which led to the establishment of parliamentary select committees but since then I had stopped trying to meet him for it was just impossible to get through his handlers.

I do not know whether it is possible to see Abdullah again in has last five months as Prime Minister.

In his press statement yesterday, Abdullah said that he would complete three reforms he had pledged when he became prime minister before stepping down by tabling three bills in Parliament to establish the Judicial Appointments Commission, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption and a Special Complaints Commission.

The question is whether Abdullah can redeem and salvage his five years of ineffective premiership  by instituting three fundamental reforms in last five months in office?

I am surprised to read a very objective and level-headed political commentary in today’s New Straits Times,
“In the end, he made a sensible decision”
 by Zubaidah Abu Bakar
, with the very telling opening:

“THE pressure must have been enormous on Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in the 48 hours leading to yesterday’s announcement.

“But in the end, wisdom trumped emotion.”

Stating that Abdullah’s quit decision was to prevent implosion in Umno which would result in the Barisan Nasional ending up in opposition after the 13th general election, Zubaidah wrote:

“His ‘Work with Me, Not For Me’ campaign and commitment to fight corruption charmed the voters at the March 2004 general election, granting BN the largest election victory in the coalition’s history. But his reform agenda ran counter to the patronage-driven party culture in Umno.

“Now that the baton has been passed to Najib, will there be stability in Umno?”

With Umno and BN patronage-driven party culture, can Abdullah successfully and meaningfully carry out three fundamental institutional reforms, in the next five months – with two months spent on leave?

His mention of a Special Complaints Commission  (SCC) Bill is like a pail of cold water on Malaysians who harbour hopes that Abdullah might still end his premiership with uncharacteristically reformist fervour and success.

This is because the SCC Bill, first presented to the previous Parliament last   December just before dissolution, had already been rejected by the civil society as a parody of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), the most important recommendation of the  Royal Police Commission to transform the Malaysian Police  into an efficient, incorruptible, accountable, professional world-class police service with the three core objectives to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights.

Instead of an IPCMC “lion” with teeth and claws, a toothless and clawless SCC mouse has been produced wasting five  years of the Abdullah premiership and  making a total mockery of Abdullah’s pledge to reform the police and the Royal Police Commission Report with its 125 recommendations.

In the past 10 months since the SCC Bill was withdrawn last December, there had been indications  particularly after the March 8 “political tsunami”, that the IPCMC would be established.

If all that Abdullah can table when Parliament reconvenes next week is the same toothless and clawless SCC Bill, then let it be said clearly and definitively that it is completely unacceptable and a travesty of his reform commitment in his last five months in office.

With this SCC Bill backdrop, there is great scepticism that the two other bills on judicial reform and anti-corruption would not be mere paper reforms without any meaningful institutional changes – especially with Malaysia’s ranking on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index plunging from No. 37 to No. 47 in the five years of Abdullah premiership from 2003 to 2008 and the likely appointment of the first Umno Chief Justice in the 51-year history of the nation, plunging the country into a new era of judicial darkness and scandal.

As in the past, I am ever ready to meet Abdullah about these institutional reforms but has he got such liberty to make his last five months of premiership completely different from his past five years?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 9 October 2008, 12:49 pm and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Malaysia out of THES Top 200 Universities for second consecutive year – another fall of domino

In his press statement to announce his decision to step down as Prime Minister next March, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi spoke of the initiatives  to “regain our country’s competitiveness” which are “necessary to enable our nation and our society to face the challenges that the world has in store for us”.

But in actual fact, under his five-year premiership, one domino after another of our national and international competitiveness has been collapsing one after another.

Two weeks ago, one such falling domino was Malaysia’s ranking on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2008 which plunged to No. 47 placing, a fall of ten places from No. 37 in 2007.

Another domino has collapsed  today when it is revealed that for the second consecutive year, Malaysia has fallen completely out of THES-QS 2008 World Top 200 Universities  –  further testimony of the  country’s  deteriorating competitiveness.

Two years ago, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Malaya (UM) were listed at the tail-end of the Top 200 in the THES-QS 2006 ranking, and I had repeatedly warned both in and out of Parliament that Malaysia risked  being pushed out of the 200 Top Universities ranking unless there was  the political will to check brain-drain and restore meritocracy and excellence to Malaysian academia.

It gives me no satisfaction but extreme sadness to see my dire prediction come true – in two consecutive years in succession.

UKM was ranked 185th in 2006, the only time it appeared in the THES-QS chart.

UM, once the nation’s premier university, has  a sorry tale of continuous decline. It was ranked among the world’s top 100 universities in 2004 at 89th position, fell to 169th in 2005 and 192nd placing in 2006.

Have Malaysian universities fallen into the “black hole” of international university competitiveness stakes, unable to prove their academic quality, excellence and worth in the international arena?

At the University of Malaya’s centennial celebrations in June  2005, Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak  threw the challenge to University of Malaya to raise its then 89th position among the world’s top 100 universities in THES ranking to 50 by the year 2020.

Instead of accepting Najib’s challenge with incremental improvement of its THES ranking, the premier university went into a free fall for two years followed by completely disappearing  from the Top 200 Universities ranking in the past two years.

Clearly, Najib and government leaders did not realize or know that the rot in academic excellence and quality of the nation’s premier university  had become so deep and septic that far from being able to become the World’s Top 50 Universities,  it was to plunge completely out of the Top 200 Universities chart in the past two years.

After he became Prime Minister, Abdullah called for a  “education revolution” to achieve world-class universities in Malaysia.

This is another dismal failure of the Abdullah premiership as totally lacking was the political will to carry out such an “education revolution”  to liberate our universities from the culture of mediocrity and  free lecturers and students from the fetters strangling academic freedom and student idealism.

Malaysians are not asking our public universities to scale new heights never achieved before – but to restore the  academic eminence, standards, excellence and quality which University of Malaya had enjoyed in the sixties and even the seventies.

If Australia can have seven universities among the top 100 Universities, Japan four, Hong Kong three, Singapore two, China two and South Korea two, why can’t Malaysia have at least one or two among the  Top 100?

National University of Singapore is ranked No. 30, while Nanyang Technological University of Singapore No. 77. What must be more mortifying is Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University is ranked No. 166.

When will Malaysia’s leaders wake up from  the slumber  and  realise that Malaysia has been losing out in the  competitiveness stakes and risk being relegated to the “stragglers” instead of the “achievers” in the global society?

If Abdullah’s call for an education  revolution is not to end up as another empty slogan, the government must confront and resolve  the continuing crisis of higher education standards by elevating meritocracy as the primary criteria for all public universities – from appointment and promotion of academicians to university student intake.

There should be an  immediate end to the divisive and fraudulent system of meritocracy for student intake by introducing only one common university entrance examination, whether it be STPM or matriculation.

Furthermore, Malaysian universities should give top priority to academic excellence which should not be compromised by non-academic  considerations.

It is most ridiculous for instance that University of Malaya, unranked, refuses to recognize the degrees of Beijing University, ranked No. 50 Tsing Hua University ranked No. 56 in THES 2008 Ranking of the world’s Top 200 universities.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 9 October 2008, 4:33 pm and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
Education
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Wise Decision And A Class Act

by
M. Bakri Musa

Prime Minister Abdullah’s decision to resign is wise.  That decision is good for him, his party, and most of all, for our nation.  I am certain it was not easy for him to reach that decision but in the end he did it, “guided by my conscience” and placing “the interests of the nation above all else.”

            I applaud him, especially considering the intense last minute pleas by his many well-meaning supporters.  It was a decision that was not expected by many, yours truly included.  This is one instance where I am only too happy to acknowledge my misjudgment of the man.

            Abdullah’s plaintive admission, “I know I’ve not been doing well; it’s time for someone else to take over,” must come only after the most difficult introspection.  To admit to one’s limitations is never easy, especially for a leader, as there are always supplicants and subordinates who are only too willing to filter the harsh reality.  Some leaders never get it at all.  Saddam Hussein went to the gallows still believing that he was Allah’s gift to the Arabs.

            I applaud Abdullah’s wise decision for another important reason.  I never underestimate the potential multiplier effect of a single good decision.  Properly seized upon, it will lead to many other positive consequences.  Already judging from his resignation statement, Abdullah is now all the more committed to reforming the anti-corruption agency and the process of judicial appointments, among others.

            Freed of the burden of his political future, and fully aware that these last few months could well determine his legacy, Abdullah will hopefully be more focused.

Dignified Statement

Abdullah ready set a standard of sorts in the dignified manner in which he announced his stepping down.  He made sure that his cabinet colleagues and fellow leaders in the Barisan Nasional coalition hear of his decision first, in private, and directly from him.

            When he made his statement, it was a formal affair, surrounded by his cabinet colleagues and fellow UMNO leaders.  He also read from a prepared text; this was not the occasion to ad lib.  His tone was proper; his body language and emotions displayed appropriate.  He did not blame anyone, nor did he express regret.  There was no hint of personal disappointment or a sense of being betrayed.  Abdullah gave proper due to the serious occasion.

            As well he should.  The country has been good to him; he had the privilege of serving the highest office in the land, granted only to a lucky few.

            The content of his announcement may have surprised many, but not its timing.  There was no unexpected statement that would shock the audience and move them to public hysteria.  Nor was there uncontrolled sobbing of his supporters, as the embarrassing public spectacle that accompanied Mahathir’s first announcement of his retirement.

            When there are no public tears, then the question whether those displays of emotions are genuine does not arise.  As we now know from subsequent events, those earlier hysterical displays of affection as shown by the likes of Rafidah Aziz during Mahathir’s announcement of his retirement were a fraud.  Those histrionics were more for public consumption rather than genuine expressions from the heart.

            In his resignation statement, Abdullah wisely avoided anointing his successor.  He expressed only the hope that Najib would take over, and reemphasized that point in case it was missed.  This was not a lukewarm endorsement for Najib or an attempt at getting even with him, rather Abdullah’s correct reading of our constitution.

            The leadership of our land has to be earned.  It is not your private heirloom to be passed on to a member of the next generation who strikes your fancy.  Abdullah is correct in reminding everyone that Najib first has to win UMNO’s presidency.

            Abdullah showed great wisdom, besides not being presumptuous, in not even hinting who Najib should pick as his deputy should he win UMNO’s presidency.

Abdullah’s Five Goals

To his credit Abdullah articulated five goals he wished to accomplish in the remaining few months of his tenure.  I would be satisfied if he could accomplish two, or at most three.  Apart from strengthening the Anti-Corruption Agency and setting up the Judicial Appointment Commission, Malaysians would be satisfied if he were to establish an effective social safety net.

            Those three objectives are not mutually exclusive.  On the contrary, they are closely related.  If we have a judicial system that has the respect and confidence of the people, that would go a long way towards reducing corruption.  And by eradicating corruption, then we would have enough resources to devote to helping the needy.  We have currently wonderful programs for the poor, at least they are on paper, but because of endemic corruption and abusive political patronage, those programs suffer through considerable leakages.

            There is one major reform, supported by many in UMNO, that Abdullah could initiate.  That is, remove the current onerous burden placed on challengers to senior party leaders.  Instead, relax the rules such that anyone with the minimal number of nominations by individuals, not divisions, could compete.  When no candidate could secure a majority vote, then have a run-off election between the top two vote getters.

            Abdullah’s calls for a convention of his Barisan coalition parties “to improve inter-racial and inter-religious relations.”  I respectfully suggest a more modest and readily achievable goal:  focus on improving UMNO.  Leave the coalition alone.  A clean, strong and effective UMNO will mean an equally clean, strong and effective Barisan.

            Such a simple and easily implemented reform initiative would effectively dent the corrosive powers of the party’s warlords that have created the cesspool of money politics.  By removing this onerous nominating barrier, the divisional meetings currently underway this month would become mute, at least as far as nominating candidates are concerned.  Perhaps then those meetings could become more meaningful with members using these opportunities to discuss substantive policy matters instead of trying to create camps around personalities.  That would also elevate the deliberative levels of those meetings to the benefit of the members and UMNO.

            Only by opening up the nominating process and encouraging as wide a field of candidates as possible, could UMNO attract and produce its own Barack Obama.  All Malaysians, not just UMNO members, would then benefit.

            Those four objectives, three for the nation and one for UMNO, are well within Abdullah’s reach.  Focus on them, and Abdullah would be able to redeem his leadership.  That would be a legacy worth striving for.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 9 October 2008, 4:33 pm and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
Bakri Musa
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Abdullah forewarned – avoid valedictory judicial scandal with new Chief Justice Zaki Azmi

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reiterated yesterday that he would concentrate on
five initiatives
 he wanted to see through in his final five months in office, viz: to table three bills in Parliament to strengthen:

(i)	the judiciary; and

(ii)	the  anti-corruption enforcement;

(iii)	increase the effectiveness and integrity of enforcement agencies;

(iv)	to enlarge the social safety net to ensure aid to all who needed it; and

(v)	to hold a Barisan Nasional convention to improve inter-racial and inter-religious relations.

Abdullah must be realistic enough to know that the overwhelming majority of Malaysians are skeptical  that he could accomplish any meaningful  institutional reform in his last five months in office when he was helpless and impotent  in the past five years.

The outgoing Prime Minister  does not have the luxury of time – as he could be put to the test whether he has found the resolve to implement reforms he promised two days ago in a matter of a week, particularly on judicial reform.

In fact, Abdullah should be forewarned not to plunge the nation into a new era of judicial crisis which could erupt in a week’s time if an Umno Chief Justice is appointed for the first time in the nation’s 51-year history.

The present Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad is  set for compulsory retirement on 18 Oct 2008.

The Conference of Rulers will be meeting in Kuala Terengganu on October 15 and 16, 2008.

Article 122B of the Constitution provides that the Chief Justice shall be appointed by the Yang di Pertuan Agong, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister,  after consulting the Conference of Rulers.

Will the new  Chief Justice be appointed after the Kuala Terengganu Conference of Rulers?

For the past two decades, the country had been plunged into prolonged  judicial darkness, rocking from one  judicial scandal to another, making the Malaysian judiciary an international laughing stock.

One of the reform pledges of Abdullah when he became Prime Minister five years ago was to restore national and international confidence in the independence, impartiality and integrity of the Malaysian judiciary to pre-1988 era.

However,  nothing was done until the March 8 “political tsunami” when he appointed Datuk Zaid Ibrahim as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department with the specific task to implement judicial reforms.

But Zaid resigned as Minister after less than six months in office  in disgust and protest  not only over the abuse of the Internal Security Act but also at the resistance he faced in the Cabinet when pushing for reforms to the judiciary especially the setting up of a meaningful  Judicial Appointments Commission.

So far, the only “accomplishment” in the judicial field is the ex gratia payment to the former Lord President, Tun Salleh Abas and four  former Supreme Court judges who were victims of the “mother of all judicial crisis” of 1988 –  the Mahathir sacking of Salleh Abas and two Supreme Court judges, Datuk George Seah and the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh.

However, the country has not been able to fully turn the corner to start the arduous process to restore national and international confidence in the independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary because of ongoing judicial blots and scandals  like the still unresolved Lingam Videotape scandal, the selective and malicious prosecution/victimization  of Opposition leaders and the  fast-track appointment of a long-standing Umno activist, Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi to the bench –  firstly, the triple jump to become Federal Court judge in September  last year without ever being High Court or Court of Appeal judge and  then the   quadruple jump three months later up the judicial hierarchy to become the Court of Appeal President.

Will Zaki make quintuple jump to be appointed Chief Justice of Malaysia after a year’s elevation to the bench  when Abdul Hamid retires from the topmost judicial post in eight days’ on Oct. 18?

It is this possibility which holds the seeds of plunging the country into a new judicial scandal and crisis.  Will this be the valedictory scandal of  the Abdullah premiership?

This is why the
Bar Council President Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan
has said that it is imperative that the new Chief Justice  to be appointed should  have the necessary qualities to set the tone of the Judiciary and guide its direction.

I endorse her statement when she said:

“This is all the more critical at this time when the nation faces many political challenges. An independent judiciary stands above the fray, giving the nation’s citizens a sense of security and stability that justice will continue to be administered in accordance with the rule of law, no matter what the circumstances.”

The Bar Council President’s advice should be given full consideration by the Prime Minister in the appointment of the new Chief Justice, especially as a Judicial Appointments Commission has not been set up in violation of  an implicit undertaking that the new Chief Justice would be appointed under the new regime of judicial reform.

Article 127 of the Constitution restricted parliamentary discussion of conduct of judges when it stipulates that “The conduct of a judge of the Federal Court, the Court of Appeal or a High Court shall not be discussed in either House of Parliament except on a substantive motion of which notice has been given by not less than one quarter of the total number of members of that House, and shall not be discussed in the Legislative Assembly of any state”.

If next week, the new Chief Justice or new acting Chief Justice is Zaki Azmi, then this constitutional provisional is likely to be invoked for a full parliamentary debate on a substantive motion into his suitability and qualification based on a scrutiny of his conduct and public record particularly as Umno legal adviser,  chairman of the Umno’s election committee and  deputy chairman of Umno disciplinary board of appeal.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 10 October 2008, 12:39 pm and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
Judiciary
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Black Friday – Najib should present revised 2009 budget on Monday

Today is Black Friday.  The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index plunged 34.88 points or 3.6 per cent  to close at 934.01, falling to its lowest level since July 2006.

We are feeling the effects  of the world financial meltdown as the United States Government’s US$700 billion (RM2.5 trillion)  bailout has failed to inspire confidence that it is sufficient to avert a looming world economic depression.

But this is not the only bad news for Malaysia, which has been aplenty lately particularly our deteriorating national competitiveness.

Yesterday, for instance, it was announced that for the second consecutive year, not a single Malaysian university has succeeded to get listed  in the 2008 THES-QS World Top 200 Universities while a fortnight ago, Malaysia’s ranking on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2008 plunged 10 places to No. 47 in  2008 from No. 37 five years ago in 2003 when Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister.

What disturb Malaysians is that the Barisan Nasional government is totally at sea and unprepared to face the looming world financial crisis, as the Ministers and BN leaders are too preoccupied fighting for survival in their respective political parties to be able to plan out a strategy  to save the Malaysian economy from the world financial meltdown.

Parliament is reconvening on Monday after a six-week recess and the first item of business is the beginning of the 2009 budget debate.

I have always been uncomfortable about  the presentation of the 2009 budget on August 29 and  the immediate adjournment of Parliament for six weeks for the fasting month without any debate until six weeks later on Oct. 13.

So many things would have happened in the national and world economy in the intervening six months as to make the 2009 Budget presented six weeks ago quite outdated and irrelevant – as has been proved to be the case with the fast-paced world financial meltdown in the past six weeks.

Why wasn’t  the 2009 Budget be presented on the Friday before the reconvening of Parliament on Oct. 13, i.e. today on Oct. 10, so that the 2009 Budget that would be debated in Parliament on Monday would be timely and relevant to the latest economic scene, both local and global?

There is now another reason why the presentation of the 2009 Budget on August 29 and its debate on Monday on Oct. 13 is most odd – as there is now a new Finance Minister, with Datuk Seri Najib Razak taking over the portfolio on Sept. 17 when pressures mounted in  Umno to  fast-track Abdullah’s power-transition plan.

Is the 2009 Budget Abdullah’s Budget or Najib’s Budget?

These are two reasons why before the parliamentary debate on the 2009 budget begins on Monday, Najib should present a revised 2009 Budget which should take into account the financial maelstrom in the past six weeks and present  the government  strategy to counter the  adverse impacts of the looming world economic crisis on Malaysia.

(Speech  at the Rasah DAP Solidarity Dinner in Seremban on Friday, 10th October 2008 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 10 October 2008, 11:40 pm and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
Economics
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Police should stop harassing Hindraft/RPK supporters over PM’s Hari Raya Open House

Police are taking things  too far in initiating
investigations
 against two groups over their presence at the Prime Minister-cum-Cabinet Hari Raya Open House last Wednesday – the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) members and “I’m with  RPK” supporters who had turned up at the Open House with T-shirts bearing the theme of their cause.

Four Hindraf members,  K Shanti, wife of Hindraf leader-in-exile P Waythamoorthy,  Hindraf information chief S Jayathas, Selangor coordinator K Tamilselvam and national events coordinator R Kannan have been served with  written notice under Section 111 of the Criminal Procedure Code to report to the Dang Wangi district police headquarters on Tuesday to give their statements for illegal assembly under Section 27 (5) of the Police Act, as well as trespass under Section 447 of the Penal Code.

Three persons, lawyer-blogger  Haris Ibrahim, lawyer  Amarjit Sidhu and blogger P. Surind Raj are required to report to the police in connection with their “I’m with RPK” demonstration at the PWTC Hari Raya Open House.

Are the Umno leaders and Police seriously suggesting that the allegedly 200,000 people who visited the Prime Minister-cum-Cabinet Open House, particularly who went with more than five in number, could be investigated by the police for illegal assembly and trespass?

If so, Malaysians should think twice before they go to future Open Houses whether of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister or Cabinet Ministers – as they risk criminal sanctions!

The Police should stop harassing Hindraf and RPK supporters for visiting the Prime Minister-cum-Cabinet  Hari Raya Open House as if they are common criminals and end their ridiculous investigations to concentrate on reducing crime.

Umno leaders and others are entitled to their view whether the peaceful and orderly presence of the two groups at the PWTC Hari Raya Open House should take the opportunity  plead their cause for the release of the Hindraf Five and Raja Petra Kamaruddin, and they have done so – in many cases, gone to extremes in inciting racial and religious hatred – but it is completely unwarranted for the police to be dragooned into the intimidation process to create a culture of fear.

It is also utterly baseless for the Prime-Minister-in-waiting, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to go overboard in his remarks in Kuala Terengganu yesterday in suggesting that both groups were guilty of “unruly and indecent behaviour” which could even
“undermine the country’s unity and security”
.

It is such making   a mountain out of a molehill which characterizes a tendency to abuse powers – which becomes very dangerous to the people and country if such a person is vested with huge powers as in the case of a Prime Minister-in-waiting.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 10 October 2008, 3:25 pm and is filed under
Hindraf
,
Police
,
Raja Petra Kamaruddin
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


The cries of Sabahans

[Received the following email:

“Dear YB Lim,

“Kindly please assist to post the article below on your blog, this is written by one of my friends from Sandakan, it reflects the true situation we are facing in Sabah, and East Malaysia, do hope it can be done. I wish to remain anonymous.”

I read it and felt very ashamed as a Malaysian that after 45 years of Malaysia, there is still such an ocean of ignorance among West Malaysians about Sabah and Sarawak.

Barisan Nasional  is not prepared to create a truly Malaysian nation where Sabahans and Sarawakians can fully feel that they are an integral part of the nation.

This is why BN has become quite  irrelevant, not only to Sabahans and Sarawakians but to all Malaysian communities, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazan-Dusun-Muruts, Ibans, Orang Aslis.

Let Malaysians join hands as one people despite the obstacles and baggages of BN.- Kit]

As 916 (September the 16th) – the day where the change of Federal Government is rumoured could happen. I suddenly have the urge to say a few words for my beloved hometown and state – Sabah, the Land below the Wind.

I am not very good in writing, but I will try my best, to let our voices be heard throughout the world.

Many people assume that we Sabahans are a proud bunch of people, hence the name “Proud Sabahans”; I do admit, Sabahans generally do have a biased perceptions towards West Malaysians, me myself included. Although Sabah is the poorest state amongst all the 13 states in Malaysia, it’s not the fault of the peninsular people. (It’s the fault of the Federal Government), but the lack of understanding of West Malaysians towards us – East Malaysians, makes me feel ashamed of myself.

Because they – West Malaysians, they never really encountered what we as East Malaysians faced, nor do they understand the distresses we are in.

This is the story of one country, two different encounters, as fate would have it.

When I first arrived in West Malaysia, west Malaysians they asked me “Do you Sabahans really live on trees?”, while my sister was mistaken for a bumiputra although she is a Malaysian Chinese.

We are not rude; nor we still hunt; nor we still have tiger meat for food; neither do we sleep together with Orang Utans.

West Malaysians do not really quite know where do I come from, is it Sarawak? Is it Sabah? Hence they always refer us as originating from Sabah Sarawak, explanations after explanations, they still do not get it, and hence still, they assume, we are from Sabah Sarawak. But I do not refer those West Malaysians as coming from states like Kedah Kelantan; neither melakasembilan nor penangperlis.

I tried my best to introduce Sabah to my West Malaysian friends; over in Sabah we do have housing estates, markets, discos, jetties, and even Giant hypermarkets.

But in contradiction, although I live in a house with 4 walls and a roof, but we always have to face frequent blackouts, not to mention frequent water disruptions and rationing also, we do not even have a properly tarred road, compared to West Malaysia.

Once I was staying in West Malaysia, I was ticked off by my housemates for not flushing the toilet after urinating; he mentioned that it was very unhygienic of me.

When I heard of this, I was dumbfounded; do I need to flush every time after I finish using the toilet?

Then I realized, West Malaysia have endless water supply 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, 60 minutes an hour, 60 seconds per minute.

Humph!!! Well, it’s my fault, my fault for bringing all the bad habits from Sabah to West Malaysia, in my hometown – Sandakan, Sabah, we have to put up with frequent water disruptions, my mother do not allow me to flush every time after I use the toilet !! We only have water supply twice a week, which is on Monday and Thursday; this is because my house is situated on top of a hill, for other low lying areas, they only got water supply at the most 3-4 times a week, this is the policy that is practiced way back in my hometown.

When I mentioned about my house toilet, you would be better prepared, it smells and stinks like there are no tomorrow, we only flush when the urine stench is really became unbearable, looking yellowish in colour, if we were to flush every time we finish using the toilet, then there will be no more water for us to bath.

Either you want to use the water to flush every time you finish using the toilet, or use the water to bath, you decide yourself. For those who bath and wash their hair twice a day, I really envy you guys, as we are only allowed to wash our hair on Monday and Thursday, the days when there are water supply coming in.

Talking about power supply in my hometown, on average in a month, we will be in total darkness for at least 72 hours; the highest record was no power supply for 8 hours a day for 1 whole week!! If there is no power disruption in Sabah, then it’s not Sabah, even the electricity company of Sabah, SESB confirms to this, where SESB stands for SABAH EVERYDAY SURE BLACKOUT. If there were no power supply for half an hour in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, tomorrow it will be the top news in the media, but for us Sabahans on the other side of Malaysia, being drenched in total darkness for few hours, causing traffics to go haywire, no one even bothered about us.

I still remember the first time I took my friends to visit my hometown, on the first night there was no power supply, so we sat in front of the house, gazing at the stars and the moon on the sky. If I were to say, standing outside my house, lifting up your finger and you may be able to touch the moon, where the moon is so bright that you can see your shadow, and you can even differentiate each and every sign of the zodiac, you have to believe me, because the air in my hometown is still unpolluted, pristine and fresh.

Anyway, with regards to the frequent disruption of water and electricity supply in Sabah, we have become acquainted with it, for more that 20 years that I have been living here, its still the same, things never changed for the better, we have learn not to resist and accept it as fate would have it.

This is us, Sabahans, always the simple, pure and innocent lot; we just grin and bear with it.

Hence the reasons why the Federal Government always likes to bully us Sabahans, they took away all our vast natural resources to develop Kuala Lumpur, sold away all our valuable timber logs, in exchange for high rise buildings in West Malaysia, sucked up Sabah’s petroleum, in order to built north-south expressways in West Malaysia.

Not to mention using Sabah’s orang utan in exchange with China’s panda, and have it keep in Zoo Negara in West Malaysia.

The Federal Government is so generous in donating monies to Sichuan, but aren’t capable of building better roads for Sabahans, it’s still the same after 45 years.

Sabah’s first flyover was recently completed, after being built for 8 years more, this make us Sabahans so happy and jumping with joy. That’s us, easily contented.

Sabah is a poor neglected state; she would weep if she were able to do so, each and every time, the government promised to solve the illegal immigrants issue plaguing the state, but the matter is still unsolved up until today, like the saying, to settle a matter by leaving it unsettled.

The illegal immigrants in Sabah has overwhelmed the local population at 1.7 million versus 1.5 million, and is increasing day by day, most of these illegal immigrants are from The Philippines and Indonesia, when last year it was briefly mentioned that The Philippines is interested in claming back Sabah, if a referendum were to be held, with the help of Filipinos residing in Sabah, we will be dead for sure, Philippines will be able to take Sabah back as theirs.

Needless to say, Sabah is not only without its frequent disruption of water and electricity supply, even job opportunities are hard to come by, causing all the youngsters to seek jobs in West Malaysia and other places.

Do you know that a bottle of yogurt that costs RM3.70 in West Malaysia cost Rm5.70 in Sabah, and all the magazines and newspapers in Sabah are more expensive if compared with West Malaysia? This is because all the goods have to be flown over from West Malaysia, where the courier charges will be included in the goods prices, therefore marking it up higher, the money that we earn are taxed by the Federal Government, these taxes that we pay are taken to develop Kuala Lumpur,

In Sabah there are still people that earn a meager RM200 per month, even worse off than those toilet cleaners in West Malaysia.

Everytime I am back in Sabah, wherever I looked went and looked around; I can only manage to find mostly schooling youngsters.  There is nothing much these youngsters can do for those that prefer not to leave Sabah. Last year, a few of my friends decided that after graduation, they will stay in Sabah, no matter what happens, at that time I thought that they are very naïve, West Malaysia especially Kuala Lumpur is such a nice place, what’s the reason to stay back in Sabah? They replied in jest, “If nobody is willing to stay in Sabah, how do we expect Sabah to stand up”, what they said make me realized my mistakes, but what to do, none of the jobs in Sabah are suitable for me; I have no choice but to continue working in West Malaysia.

Last month, my cousin quit his job and went back to Sabah, out of curiosity, I asked him the reason for doing so, since the wages in Sabah is so low, it’s not worth it, I told him. He retorted back, saying “West Malaysia is not my home, sooner or later I will be going back to Sabah, the place where I belong, and I surely believe there are companies willing to employ me.” I felt ashamed, as previously I planned to reside and have a family in West Malaysia, but what my cousin say woke me up, although I am now residing in West Malaysia, I should have given words of encouragement for my beloved state – Sabah.

If the land of Sabah was and is properly developed, surely it will be amongst the top states in Malaysia, but everything was trampled on, ruined and went the other way!!

Hence the reasons why those who stepped on the soil of Sabah will be given an immigration slip by the Customs department, only allowing non Sabahans to stay in Sabah for not more than 90 days.

If Sabah were not to protect herself, I dare not dread to think of the consequences that may befall us, it will be too ghastly to look at.

Up till today, for West Malaysians, Sabah is shrouded in secrecy and far away from their sight. No one is willing to come to Sabah, as if it’s a different world comprising of humans of uncivilized nature, for those youngsters who are going to be send to Sabah to undergo their National Service, they wept like there are no tomorrow, its like they are about to enter hell.

Is Sabah heaven or hell? Come and have a look for yourself, until today, only tourists from Western and other countries are willing to come to Sabah, a state once deemed to be more prosperous than Kuala Lumpur, in search of its glorious pasts.

In West Malaysians, there are only 3 major races; in Sabah, there are 32 ethnic tribes, most West Malaysians do not know of these facts.

East Malaysia is the place where all the different races and tribes, of different faiths and religions, live harmoniously; this, probably West Malaysians do not know either.

In Sabah, it’s a norm for Muslims to eat in non-Muslims eateries, to dine in Chinese seafood restaurants, without fear and prejudice of being served with non halal foods; this is the kind of respect and trusts we have for each other. I don’t think this can be seen in West Malaysia, besides Kelantan, I would say.

Recently Giant hypermarkets make their presence known in Sabah; they are trying to control the Sabah supermarket segment, indirectly trying to control Sabah’s economy, but were rejected by Sabahans.

We in Sabah have our own newspapers; our own supermarkets, we do not need others to come in and reap our fruits of labour, all to be channeled back to West Malaysia!!

The country neglected East Malaysia – Sabah and Sarawak so much so that even 16th September 1963 was not recognized as the day Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak merged to form Malaysia. And out of nothing Malaysia boasted that Mount Kinabalu is the pride of all Malaysians.

Mount Kinabalu is the pride of Sabahans; the biggest flower in the world – Rafflesia is the pride of Sabahans, orang utans are also the pride of Sabahans; but we are not proud to be Malaysians.

Last but no least, as a Sabahan, I sincerely hope and pray that after 916, Sabah can gain back what she has lost all this while, for a better tomorrow for all Sabahans.

Hopefully the coming 16th September can be declared as the day, we East Malaysia – Sabah, Sarawak tohether with Malaya formed Malaysia! Dear Federal Government, please be fair to us!!

All the best Sabah!! I wish to see you grow; in the future, in the time to come!!

A TRUE SABAHAN

                This entry was posted on Friday, 10 October 2008, 7:24 am and is filed under
Sabah
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta, Chow Yun-Fat, Ang Lee and Aaron Kwok also to be honoured for filming in Malaysia?

A reporter just phoned up, asking for my comments on popular Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan as one of the 77 new Malacca Datuks on the occasion of the 70th birthday of the Malacca Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob.

I was astounded and I said so. Are there no Malaysian film stars, artists or sports-people who have greater title to be honoured and encouraged as compared to Shahrukh?

I don’t think the
reason
that has been given for making Shahrukh Khan a Malacca Datuk  would impress or convince many – that the Bollywood actor-dancer had “contributed to our tourism industry when he acted in a movie filmed in Malaysia”.

On this basis, shouldn’t Hollywood stars Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones be honoured for their 1999 film “Entrapment” which first promoted the Twin Towers to the world shortly after they were  completed when  the  Twin Towers was used as  the film location – although the film was subsequently accused of “distortion” when images of Malacca slums were spliced with shots of the 1,482ft-high skyscrapers.

Or the 2000 Academy Award-nominee film “Anna and the King” (a remake of  “The King and I”) starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat (and our Patrick  Teoh) which was mostly shot in Ipoh?

Or are Taiwan Gold Horse Award 2005/6 Best Leading Actor Aaron Kwok to be similarly awarded for his 2006  film “After  This Our Exile” and world-famous director Ang Lee for his 2007 film “Lust, Caution”.  starring Tony Leung & Tang Wei, as both promoted Malaysia as having been filmed or used footages from Perak?

What about other foreign stars in films which had used Malaysia for their location?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 11 October 2008, 12:59 pm and is filed under
culture
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


The cries of Sabahans (2)

Don’t neglect Sabah, please

by
Another Doctor

 I refer to the Malaysiakini
article
 Kota Marudu needs more than
wireless Internet
.

I read Dr Hams letter and cannot help  but agree with many of his observations. I worked in Sabah  for over seven years as a house officer and medical officer.

 After my housemanship, I was sent to Ranau to serve in the  district hospital. What Dr Hams described in Kota Marudu is  not something isolated to that district alone in Sabah. It  is an often repeated story in the whole of Sabah.

My first  introduction to the poverty in Sabah came during my first  months there, when a sweet 70- year-old lady from Kota  Marudu was sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with deep  jaundice. She lived alone in a small village off Kota Marudu  and noticed the jaundice about a month before.

She had no  money for the taxi fare and so waited a month to sell off  her chickens to have enough money to pay RM50 for the  transport to Kota Marudu Hospital. She had to walk two miles  to get to the road to get to the taxi.

Having been born,  bred and educated in Peninsular Malaysia, I was shocked.  When she arrived, she was septic and had a gallstone lodged  in her common bile duct. The stone was duly removed but she  was found to have a heart problem that required a pacemaker.

We arranged for her to get a permanent pacemaker but she  refused. When I pressed her for her reason, she told me that  she couldn’t afford to buy batteries for the pacemaker,  having sold off her chickens. Once I explained to her that  the batteries would last for years and we would provide  them, she agreed to the pacemaker.

Ranau town itself has  roads and is on the main highway between Sandakan and Kota  Kinabalu. It developed primarily as a result of the Mamut  Copper Mines in the district. However, highway in this  context means a two lane road with frequent landslides and  potholes, with a two-hour drive to Kota Kinabalu.

Outside  Ranau, transportation becomes a problem as tarred roads  disappear to become gravel or crudely marked logging trails.

Anyone who has worked in Sabah would have the same stories  to tell, of extreme poverty and poor transportation. During  my 2 years in Ranau, I’ve heard and seen it all,  patients with cerebral malaria, a condition unheard of in  Peninsular Malaysia, coming in after 48 hours to the  hospital from places like Kaingaran and Karagasan, with  relatives having to push the ‘pirate taxi’ through  the mud, spending RM50 on fare during the monsoon season,  the equivalent of 2 months income, this too when petrol was  only around RM1.20 a litre in Ranau. Patients having to  delay treatment for life threatening conditions because a  bridge washed away along the trail (I won’t even call it  a road) to Tambunan.

Emergency surgery such as caesarean  sections, appendectomies and even ectopic pregnancies had to  be performed in our little district hospitals by Medical  Officers with little more than 4 months housemanship  experience. Medical emergencies such as myocardial  infarctions, which in Peninsular Malaysia would be managed  in a Coronary Care Unit setting, had to be managed in the  district hospital level.

I’m grateful however, that my  staff in that hospital were the best I’ve ever had the  pleasure of working with and were dedicated enough to want  to make a difference in their patients’ lives. But poor  transportation does not only affect the access to  healthcare. Having no roads to be able to transport their  agricultural produce for sale means that these people are  stuck in a never ending cycle of poverty. At most, some of  them get RM20 to RM50 by selling their produce to middlemen  to be sold at the monthly tamu or market at prices that are  perhaps only 10 percent of the value of the goods.

These  innocent people are also preyed upon by traveling cloth  merchants, mostly foreigners, who offer them ‘easy  payment schemes’ to buy cloth for clothes, and when they  cannot pay for the cloth and the interest accumulates, they  end up having to marry their daughters to these men, who  often have wives back home in Pakistan.

One of the cases I  could never forget was of the family who came to  Ranau  Hospital just as I was leaving, a family who had failed  crops, were hungry and unable to get food. The father  collected some toad eggs and fed them to the whole family in  a desperate attempt to stave off hunger. When they arrived  at our little emergency room, one of the children were dead  and two passed away within 10 minutes of arrival in our  casualty unit due to poisoning.

Education is a problem in  parts of Sabah outside major towns like Kota Kinabalu at the  moment. Many children would be lucky to be able to get to a  school or even afford to get to one. Most of my patients  outside Ranau were lucky to even have a primary school  education and a vast number of women marry in their teens.

 I’ve had 14 year olds delivering babies in Ranau, most  of them have never ever stepped foot in a school. The  education level is so poor that many women feed their  children condensed milk thinking that it’s better than  breast milk.But at the heart of it all, these mothers want  the best for their children but are not empowered with the  knowledge to help them.

Major towns in Sabah have  electricity courtesy of the Sabah Electricity Board, but  smaller villages have either diesel generators or rely on  candles or lamps when night falls. How can children study in  these conditions?

Like many doctors in the districts, I had  to learn Dusun to communicate better with these patients who  could speak little else. Forty five years after the  formation of Malaysia, the promise of a better life for  these poor Dusun, Murut and Rungus patients in the districts  of Sabah is a pipe dream at best.

How can our politicians  claim to have brought development to the state and have  neglected these poor people, many of whom still wear the  cheap t-shirts and caps given free by political parties from  many elections ago. How can I claim to be proud of Putrajaya  with it’s beautiful bridges and lamp posts and the  Petronas twin Towers when our fellow Malaysians in Sabah are  so neglected?

The cycle of poverty and illiteracy one sees  in the districts in Sabah brings despair to the heart.  Eradication of poverty must tackle the real issues of  education and transport and not just handouts to poor  people.

By all means, declare Sept 16th a public holiday,  but remember it in it’s real context, where we made a  promise to our brethren in Sabah and Sarawak to treat them  as equals in Malaysia, and give them the development they’ve been long denied.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 11 October 2008, 8:57 am and is filed under
Sabah
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


World crude oil below US$78 a barrel – Najib should “burn midnight oil” to present lowered pricing for petrol on Monday

For the past month, two questions have obsessed Malaysians.

The first has been answered, viz: whether Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will bow down to pressures from inside Umno for a quick exit as Prime Minister by announcing that he would not defend the post of Umno President in the forthcoming Umno General Assembly.

The second question, still awaiting answer, is whether the government could respond nimbly to the rapid fall in world crude prices to undo its unconscionable 41% hike in  fuel prices in June which had kicked off a relentless  inflationary spiral hitting a 27-year high.

When the price of petrol in Malaysia was hiked by 41% by 78 sen from RM1.92 to RM2.70 a litre, the price of world crude oil was around US$140 per barrel.

World oil prices have plummeted to a one-year low
below US$78 a barrel
, but the price of petrol is RM2.45 or reduced by a mere 25 sen in two reductions.

This is clearly unacceptable and the situation is not made any more  palatable with the statement yesterday by the Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumers Affairs
Datuk Seri Shahrir Samad
of the possibility that the price of petrol reverting to the old price of RM1.92 a litre if world crude oil price continues to dip below US$72 per barrel.

What Malaysians want is immediate action.

Last night, at the DAP Rasah dinner, I had called on Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who has become the Finance Minister, to present a revised 2009 Budget when Parliament reconvenes on Monday, as the 2009 Budget presented by Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on August 29 had been overtaken by economic events in the past six weeks – in particular the looming financial meltdown which has already precipitated a US$700 billion bailout ,  compared to the 1929 Great Depression and wiped out RM57 billion market capitalisation from the local bourse this week.

Najib should suspend all Umno commitments for the rest of the weekend and  “burn midnight oil”  to table a revised 2009 Budget in Parliament on Monday , with the centrepiece on the strategy to enable Malaysia to tide through the financial maelstrom but also incorporating new lowered pricing for petrol as world crude oil has plunged below  US$78 per barrel.

This is Najib’s first challenge as Finance Minister – to demonstrate that he is on top of his new task as Finance Minister and not be accused of  being a latter-day Nero  “fiddling while Rome burns”.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 11 October 2008, 5:16 pm and is filed under
Najib Razak
,
Oil
,
OSA
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Gerakan has not risen above its infantile subservience to Umno

The first post-March 8 Gerakan national delegates conference is supposed to send out one message –  that Gerakan has  finally come of age as a political party as it has heard loud and clear the message of the political tsunami in the March general election seven months ago.

I had looked forward to such a Gerakan “coming of age” as a healthy development of Malaysian politics in the post-tsunami era.

But it is not to be and I am disappointed. It was very clear from yesterday’s opening session of the Gerakan conference that it has not risen above its infantile political subservience to Umno despite all the Gerakan posturing, “thunder and lightning” in the past seven month.

When Gerakan President Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon could call Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi  the “Father of Democracy”, it was a most adverse reflection on the former Penang Chief Minister than on the Prime Minister.

How could Koh call Abdullah the “Father of Democracy”  when:

(1)	the draconian and most undemocratic law, the Internal Security Act (ISA), was arbitrarily and unjustly wielded only last month against DAP MP for Seputeh and Selangor senior exco, Teresa Kok, Sin Chew Daily senior reporter Tan Hoon Cheng and blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin;

(2)	three newspapers, Sin Chew Daily, the Sun and Suara Keadilan asked to show cause under another most undemocratic law, the Printing Presses and Publications Act, why action should not be taken against them;

(3)	the Hindraf Five continue to be detained in Kamunting Detention Centre  under the ISA with the first anniversary of their incarceration fast approaching and the  latest abuses of power in the orchestrated campaign  of intimidation and demonisation of  Hindraf with the police harassment of Hindu members and supporters over their plea for the release of the Hindraf Five at the Prime Minister-cum-Cabinet’s Hari Raya Open House at Putrajaya; and

(4)	the undemocratic action and abuse of power in prosecuting RPK under sedition and criminal defamation, when the proper course is for those aggrieved by RPK’s blogs to institute civil defamation proceedings to seek justice.

Koh would have received unanimous approbation if he had said  that Abdullah deserve the title of “Father of Democracy” if in his remaining five months as Prime Minister, he could initiate democratization reforms which he had failed to do in the past five years, and in particular:

•	Release the Hindraf Five from ISA detention in Kamunting before Deepavali on 27th October, RPK as well as all ISA detainees; and

•	Repeal the detention-without-trial ISA law and other undemocratic and draconian laws like the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Sedition Act, the Official Secrets Act and the Police Act.

I wonder what would be the result if Koh’s proposal to name Abdullah “Father of Democracy” is put to a vote by the Gerakan delegates at the conference – whether he could secure even majority support if it is by secret ballot, without any redeeming democratic reforms in the next five months.

Yesterday, Koh declared that Gerakan  will remain in Barisan Nasional to help reform the coalition.

This is of course for Gerakan to decide. But what has happened to his earlier revelation that up to 60 percent of party grassroots wanted Gerakan to pull out of BN following the March 8 general election and the subsequent support  by 80 per cent of the delegates at the August Perak Gerakan delegates conference for a pull-out of BN?

Were these just “hot air”?

Koh told the press yesterday that discontent peaked among the party grassroots over the  “penumpang” controversy of Bukit Bendera Umno division chief Ahmad Ismail and when one of Ahmad’s supporters tore Koh’s picture in front of journalists.

Has Ahmad Ismail apologised for his offensive, insensitive and racist reference of the Chinese in Malaysia as “penumpang” and has there been any public expression of remorse for the public tearing of Koh’s picture?

One can only imagine what would have been the consequences if a Gerakan official had publicly torn  the picture of the Umno President and had remained defiant and unrepentant!

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 October 2008, 10:26 am and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
,
Gerakan
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.


Revised 2009 Budget tomorrow – Najib’s first test as Finance Minister

Tomorrow when Parliament reconvenes to start the 2009 Budget debate is the first parliamentary test of Datuk Seri Najib Razak as Finance Minister – whether he has a revised 2009 Budget to take corrective measures to shield the country from the world’s worst economic crisis in 80 years so as to enhance competitiveness, boost growth and tamp down inflation.

The first thing Malaysians want to hear from Najib are not platitudes like Malaysia enjoying strong economic fundamentals, financial markets and infrastructure and immunity  from external shocks but how the country could be shielded from the worst fallouts of the looming world economic crisis.

Secondly, how Najib proposes to tamp down inflation which had hit a 27-year high largely because of the sharp and unconscionable 41% increase in petrol pump prices in early June.

The price of crude oil has now plunged by almost 50 per cent since striking record high levels above US$147 per barrel on July 11.

The price dropped US$5.61 to US$77.05 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange on Friday.

Energy experts believe prices could go even lower, going down to the US$60 a barrel range.

As Najib has been Finance Minister for 25 days, there is no reason why he is  unable to announce a revised 2009 Budget in Parliament tomorrow taking fully into account the sharpest drop of the price of oil in 13 months by lowering the pump prices of petrol.

Furthermore, Malaysians want to know what proactive policy would be pursued in a revised 2009 budget to tamp down inflation to ensure that the lowest price of world crude oil in 13 months is felt and translated into the daily lives of ordinary Malaysians – or as one
commentator
on my blog put it:

“Does this mean that I wil be able to ask my children’s school van operator to lower the fare from RM100 down to the RM80 previously. Or does this translate to paying RM3.50 for chicken rice from the current RM4.00?”

Or will the 5pack Curry Flavour Maggie Mee which increased from RM2.59 at the end of 2007 to RM2.89 in January 2008 and now costs RM3.99 come down in prices?

If Najib has no revised 2009 Budget for Parliament tomorrow, he would have failed his first test as Finance Minister after  more than three weeks since Sept. 17.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 October 2008, 4:38 pm and is filed under
Economics
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.                You can
leave a response
, or
trackback
 from your own site.