Anyone surprised by Hasan Arifin’s announcement that PAC report on 1MDB will not be ready in time for the March meeting of Parliament?

Anyone surprised by the announcement yesterday by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Datuk Hasan Arifin  that the PAC report into its investigations into the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal will not be ready for tabling in the Dewan Rakyat in the March/April meeting?

I believe the majority of Malaysians share my feeling of not in any way being surprised at all.

In fact, I will expect the PAC under the “cari makan” chairman will even miss the following Parliamentary meeting from May 16 to 26, which will mean that the PAC report on the 1MDB will be kicked to the end of the year, when Parliament meets for 25 days from 17th Oct to 24th Nov, 2016.

Again, nobody will be very surprised if the net result demanding full accountability for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Raza’s twin mega scandals by the end of this year will conclude not very much differently from that of last year – where the Prime Minister disappeared from Parliamentary chamber on the last day of the 25-day budget meeting although Ministers have proclaimed to the world that all the answers about the Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal would be answered on Dec. 3, 2015, the last day of the Parliamentary meeting, but there was absolutely no answer to the teeming questions about the scandal!

There is no sense of urgency in the PAC investigations into the 1MDB scandal since the appointment of Hasan as PAC Chairman, after the derailment of the PAC investigations for more than three months after the “purge” in the government of personalities in favour of full and satisfactory accountability of the 1MDB scandal, including the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muyhyiddin Yassin, Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, officers in the AG’s Chambers, Bank Negara, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Malaysian Police.

The high-powered multi-agency Special Task Force on the 1MDB, headed by four Tan Sri’s, was dissolved and even the PAC investigations was sabotaged and stopped for more than three months!

 Malaysians expect the PAC to “burn midnight oil”, and to conduct investigations into 1MDB with a great sense of urgency, putting aside all other agendas  until they could complete investigations into the 1MDB scandal – which had already given Malaysia the international infamy of third ranking for the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”.

Why is the PAC under the Chairmanship of Arifin taking its own sweet time, as if completely indifferent and unaware of the national and international interests about the early and swift outcome of PAC investigations into 1MDB?

The Auditor-General submitted the interim report on its audit of 1MDB to the PAC in July, and its final report has now be deferred to February, because of the refusal of 1MDB to co-operate in submitting documents requested by the Auditor-General.

Is there going to be an indefinite serial delay and postponement in the submission of the Auditor-General’s report and the PAC report on 1MDB to Parliament?

The PAC should meet in emergency meeting to speed up its work so that it could submit its report to Parliament in  March, and if this cannot be done, PAC should not continue to sit on the interim report on the 1MDB by the Auditor-General, but table it in Parliament in March together with an interim PAC report on 1MDB.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 21 January 2016, 5:44 pm and is filed under
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Najib should immediately suspend Jamil Khir as Minister and Johari Bahrom as Deputy Minister if Kedah Wanita UMNO chief is telling the truth that she had been tricked into the press conference against Mukhriz

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, should immediately suspend Datuk Seri Jamil Khir  Baharom as Minister and Datuk Johari Baharum as Deputy Minister if Kedah Wanita chief Datuk Maznah Hamid is telling the truth that she had been tricked into the press conference yesterday declaring loss of confidence in Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir as Kedah Mentri Besar.

I do not want to be entangled in the question whether Mukhriz is the best person to be the Kedah Mentri Besar, but the revelations by Maznah is most shocking, outrageous and unacceptable, totally against the fifth Rukunegara precept of “Morality and Good Behaviour”.

If what Maznah said is true, then Jamil Khir and Johari Baharom are not fit to be Minister and Deputy Minister respectively, as Malaysians are entitled to question as to how persons who have no respect or regard for  the Rukunegara principles and who acted  totally without the most elementary sense of political morality can be allowed to be Minister or Deputy Minister.

What Maznah told Sinar Online cannot be ignored or disregarded if true.

She said that she had received instructions to attend a private briefing by the state Umno leadership but found herself ushered into a row of other leaders at a press conference without knowing what it was about.

Kedah Umno deputy chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Hanipah, who held the press conference, then announced that the state party’s leaders had lost confidence in Mukhriz, who is also Kedah Umno liaison chief.

She said that  chief of the state women’s wing and division, she attended the briefing to hear updates on the party especially in Kedah.

Upon arriving at the venue, there was no briefing. Instead, she and several other leaders were told to line up in front as part of a press conference, when in fact she had no idea what the subject or purpose of the press conference was about.

She said  her presence there did not mean she supported calls for Mukhriz’s removal, and instead wanted an explanation from the Umno leadership.

The ball as to whether Khir Jamil and Johari Baharum should be  retained as Minister and Deputy Minister respectively in the light of their misbehaviour in utter disregard of the Rukunegara is now in Najib’s court.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 21 January 2016, 7:00 pm and is filed under
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‘Flawed democracy’ Malaysia slips down in The Economist unit’s ranking, behind Indonesia

Malay Mail Online

January 22, 2016

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — Malaysia stayed mired among countries rated as “flawed democracies” in The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Democracy Index 2015 released this week, losing three positions from the previous year.

According to the EIU table, Malaysia is now 68th out of the 167 countries measured, after it scored 6.43 in the index, down from 65th in 2014, putting it behind Indonesia (49th) and the Philippines (54th), but ahead of 74th placed Singapore.

“These countries also have free and fair elections and, even if there are problems (such as infringements on media freedom), basic civil liberties are respected.

“However, there are significant weaknesses in other aspects of democracy, including problems in governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation,” the EIU explained.

The EIU index ranks democracies on a scale of 1-10, with those those scoring 8-10 regarded as “full democracies” while countries measuring between 6 and 7.9 are considered “flawed democracies”. Categories below are hybrid regimes and authoritarian states.

The overall scores are based on aggregate measures of five categories: electoral process and pluralism, government function, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.

“Flawed democracies” are the plurality among nations measured, with 59 of the 167 countries in the ranking falling into this category. The next biggest is “authoritarian regimes”, with 51 countries; at just 20, “full democracies” was the smallest group.

Malaysia’s ranking was dragged down by the low political participation score of just 5.56 as well as in civil liberties (5.59). Government function was the country’s best category, 7.86, followed by electoral process (6.92) and political culture (6.25).

Low public interest in politics was not unique to Malaysia, however, with the EIU calling it a  “crisis of public participation” worldwide, which it said was most prevalent in developed countries.

“Democracy is more than the sum of its institutions… A culture of passivity, leading to an obedient and docile citizenry, is not consistent with the healthy functioning of democracy,” the EIU said.

“Democracies flourish when citizens are willing to participate in public debate, elect representatives and join political parties. Without this broad, sustaining participation, democracy begins to wither and become the preserve of small, select groups.”

Civil dissent and disobedience are contentious pursuits in Malaysia owing to colonial era security laws that allow the authorities to prosecute for such activities.

Putrajaya at one point pledged to provide Malaysians with greater civil liberties in order to transform Malaysia into a “world-class democracy”, but has since introduced new laws and amended old ones that appear to run counter to this pledge.

Among these are the revival of preventive detention that went away with the repeal of the Internal Security Act 1960, the amendments to the Sedition Act 1948 that introduced mandatory prison sentences, and the National Security Council Bill 2015 that will allow Putrajaya to impose emergency-like martial law in locations deemed “security areas.”

                This entry was posted on Friday, 22 January 2016, 11:48 am and is filed under
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Is there ever a positive side to beauty pageants?

Syerleena Abdul Rashid

The Malaysian Insider

22 January 2016

On a personal level, I have to admit, beauty pageants make me queasy because it sends out a pretty clear message that only beautiful women succeed in life.

Beauty pageants and other similar events where women are made to prance around all dolled up with fake smiles plastered on their faces have increasingly becoming more controversial.

The negative impacts it has will definitely resonate especially on young girls.

The pressure to look good and the expectations society presents to a large number of women can lead to adverse psychological effects – body dysmorphic disorder, eating disorders and plastic surgeries, to name a few.

The unrealistic expectations and societal pressure sets out the bizarre idea of perfection – one dictated by men and driven by illusory values that stem from misogyny.

Beauty pageants and reality shows which promote pageantry values (i.e. Next Top Model, Toddlers & Tiaras, The Swan, etc) highlight hyper-sexualisation because female contestants are judged upon appearance and harshly criticised in the most demeaning manner.

As a result, women and young girls grow up in an environment where their self-confidence and self-worth are viciously destroyed.

In recent years, these pageants have been repackaged and rebranded as something positive and beneficial for their contestants, but, unfortunately, the grim reality is that such ideas feed into a larger and more destructive cultural framework that dehumanises women.

For instance, pageants like Miss Universe offer scholarships and present platforms for women to step up – when packaged nicely, one might truly believe that such organisations are the beacon of women’s self empowerment.

Unfortunately, reality presents something else – the conditions cemented before a woman can achieve this, having judged and pre-judged only reinforces distorted standards of beauty.

Pageants and reality shows that focus on superficial beauty objectifies our bodies and undervalues women’s minds.

Unfortunately for some of us, getting rid of pageants is not a feasible solution – like it or not, pageants will be around for a very long time.

Why? Simple economics. The profits generated from these pageants will override logic and reason.

However, as a feminist, I ultimately believe it is a women’s choice to participate in such events.

I don’t want to speak ill of the women who participate in such events, participating in pageants do not make you a bad person.

However, those who intend to participate should (at least) brush up on their cultural references, current issues and look beyond “world peace” as the token response to any questions thrown at them.

Sad truth is, despite the progress women have made over the decades, there are still plenty of reminders of how far we still have to go – we are still struggling to fight for basic rights like the wage gap and ending sexual violence.

It just seems a bit bizarre that while feminism is increasing its influence in the Malaysian socio-political sphere, average Malaysians still cannot seem to figure out a way out of this conundrum, with something as obviously misogynist and retrograde as beauty pageants.

Women are so much more than looks; we have brains and personalities.

We deserve to be treated like people and not like some prized farm animal on display. – January 22, 2016.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 22 January 2016, 3:20 pm and is filed under
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Of emigration and the trust deficit

Julia Yeow

The Malaysian Insider

10 January 2016

Malaysia’s brain drain problem is far from a new one and, to be fair, is not exclusive to our country.

However, the rise in the number of highly-skilled Malaysians moving abroad to work or live is especially troubling for a country that is hoping to become a developed, high-income nation in less than five years.

The most recent World Bank report states that more than 300,000 Malaysians moved overseas in 2013 alone, joining the millions who are now spread across the globe.

 The number of skilled Malaysians living abroad is estimated to have risen 300% over the last two decades, and roughly 20% of them are tertiary-educated.

While statistics for 2014 to 2015 have yet to be released, it is clear that Malaysia’s brain drain problem has not improved and if frustrations on social media and the internet is any indication of public sentiment, it may even intensify.

To explain the chronic brain drain and the country’s dismal economic and political outlook, our government has often pointed to the problem of a trust deficit, a term to explain a situation where public perception does not reflect reality.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low and Pemandu CEO Datuk Seri Idris Jala have both been famously quoted as blaming this trust deficit for the general perception that the country’s economy, governance and politics is in a deplorable state.

The reality, they claim, is that the crime rate has dropped, our economic fundamentals are strong and corruption and transparency is being checked. They also claim that Malaysians are not appreciating these gains because there is a lack of trust in the reports and statistic that are released.

In the bigger picture, this speculative view overtakes fundamental values and snowballs into what appears to be a badly-performing economy and a troubled government.

But these leaders fail to openly address the reasons for this trust deficit. Why is it that announcements of a drop in crime rate, a clampdown on corruption or a rise in economic expansion, are usually met with ridicule and disbelief?

When we don’t feel safer on the streets, when the common man needs to work two or three jobs to feed his family, when racist leaders continue to enjoy impunity and when minority groups are increasingly being pushed to a corner, is it a cynical public that is to be blamed, or a government that has failed to convince its people?

Many emigration-haters put down the outflow of Malaysians to a lack of love and loyalty to the country, and there is often a hint of resentment towards those who seek greener pastures abroad.

“Serve your own country”, “This is where your talent and your vote is most needed” and “If all the capable ones move, we’ll be in deeper trouble” are just some of the usual arguments for staying back in Malaysia.

These are all valid points, and is surely some of the noble reasons why many Malaysians who have the means and opportunity to leave, have chosen to stay.

But for most Malaysians who have emigrated, their decision has less to do with a lack of loyalty than it is a lack of acceptance for the irresponsible governance, political hijacking of the education system and creeping Islamisation in society, among others.

The journey of leaving your home and all that is familiar to you is never an easy one, and not all of the hundreds of thousands of Malaysians who have left and those who are planning on leaving, do so gleefully.

Many Malaysians thinking about emigrating are, in fact, looking for signs to stay. They are looking for a strong leadership that shows real political will to bring about reforms in the government.

For these Malaysians, simply putting the blame of the country’s declining fortunes on a trust deficit is far from enough to convince them that Malaysia is conducive to build a secure future or to raise a child.

The responsibility to assure the public and the world that Malaysia is truly on its way to political reform and economic recovery lies in the hands of the government.

And until the government addresses the real issues and reasons our people are leaving, no amount of tax exemptions, incentives or good PR will stop Malaysians from leaving, or bring them home. – January 10, 2016.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 22 January 2016, 9:06 pm and is filed under
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PAC should table the Auditor-General’s interim report on 1MDB at the Special Parliament next Tuesday or Wednesday as part of the PAC Interim Report on 1MDB so that the AG’s interim 1MDB report could be made public and studied by Malaysians

Malaysians must make clear their protest and opposition to the shocking though expected announcement by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Datuk Hasan Arifin two days ago that the PAC report into its investigations into the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal will not be ready for tabling in the Dewan Rakyat in the March/April meeting.

This is because Hasan’s announcement will open the way for an indefinite postponement of  PAC  report on  its investigations into the 1MDB scandal, which had already stained Malaysia’s international reputation by giving the nation the  third ranking in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”.

In fact, I will not be surprised if the “cari makan” PAC Chairman will find some reason to further postpone submission of the PAC Report into 1MDB in the May meeting of Parliament – kicking the ball to the end of the year for the 25-day budget meeting from 17th October to 24th November 2016.

Just as “justice delayed is justice denied”, the “cari makan” PAC Chairman must also understand that “accountability delayed is  accountability denied”!

Malaysians must make clear their disgust that the PAC Chairman has no sense of national priority and urgency to ensure that the PAC should “burn the midnight oil” and  for PAC members to work doubly or even trebly hard to complete PAC investigations for presentation of its report to Parliament and the country without any undue delay – as the derailment of PAC investigations into 1MDB for close to four months last year after Najib’s purge of the government in the sackings of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Attorney-General must be deplored as a great setback to the principles of democratic accountability and good governance in Malaysia.

Why is the PAC under the Chairmanship of Arifin taking its own sweet time, as if completely indifferent and unaware of the national and international interests about the early and swift outcome of PAC investigations into 1MDB?

With Hasan’s announcement that the PAC Report on the 1MDB had been kicked into the distant future, the Auditor-General’s interim report on 1MDB submitted to the PAC in July should be made public without any delay.

The PAC  should table the Auditor-General’s interim report on 1MDB at the Special Parliament next Tuesday or Wednesday as part of the PAC Interim Report on 1MDB so that the AG’s interim 1MDB report could be made public and studied by Malaysians.

What are the skeletons in the Auditor-General’s Interim Report on the 1MDB that the interim report must be kept hidden from parliamentary and public knowledge and scrutiny?

What are the real objections for the Auditor-General’s interim report on 1MDB to be tabled in Parliament next week so that it could be made public immediately, when the Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah had publicly claimed that the AG’s interim report had cleared 1MDB of any “wrongdoing”?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 22 January 2016, 3:02 pm and is filed under
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Hasan Arifin should resign as PAC Chairman if he is not prepared to be a second “Nur Jazlan” who will delve into the bottom of Najib’s twin mega scandals without fear or favour

The Hasan Arifin Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a far cry and a pale shadow of the Nur Jazlan PAC.

Nur Jazlan Mohamad as Chairman of the PAC  created parliamentary history in raising credibility and public respect for PAC to such a high pedestal that it became the only hope for Malaysians that there would be an independent, professional and non-holds barred investigation into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s twin mega scandals – the RM55 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal.

In Nur Jazlan’s own words, for the first time, Malaysians harboured high hopes that there was still someone in UMNO who wanted to do the right thing.

All these hopes were dashed  when Najib  purged his government at the end of July last year, sacking the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the Senior Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, followed by a campaign of fear and intimidation at  high levels of government with the arrest or immediate transfer of recalcitrant officers in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Bank Negara, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Police and  the dissolution of the high-powered multi-agency “Four Tan Sri’s” Special Task Force on 1MDB.

PAC, which was launching into a full-scale probe  into 1MDB led by PAC Chairman Nur Jazlan, was sabotaged and derailed for four months from continuing with 1MDB investigations  with Najib’s power-play of appointing Nur Jazlan as Deputy Home Minister as well as the promotion of three other Barisan Nasional members of PAC into executive branch of government.

The appointment of Datuk Hasan Arifin as the new PAC Chairman, with his unforgettable “cari makan” start of his parliamentary tenure, destroyed the people’s high hopes in PAC as their only hope for any breakthrough in forcing the Prime Minister to give  full accountability for  the twin mega scandals

This is  confirmed by the total lack of any sense of urgency and priority of the Hasan PAC to complete the PAC investigations on 1MDB in the shortest possible time.

Three days ago, Hasan as good as announced that the PAC under him would not be able to submit its report on the 1MDB probe even for the March meeting of Parliament, leaving open the prospect that the PAC report on the 1MDB may not even see the light of day within this year.

What is more horrifying is that the PAC under Hasan Arifin has no interest  whatsoever in summoning business tycoon Low Taek Jho to appear before the PAC to testify about Najib’s twin mega scandals,  although the PAC under Nur Jazlan had decided on July 24 last year that Low Taek Jho should appear before it on Sept. 8 to testify on the 1MDB scandal.

Furthermore, Hasan’s PAC has also no interest in summoning the Prime Minister to testify before the PAC, although Nur Jazlan had said on record that he would summon the Prime Minister as witness before the PAC “if necessary”.

There can be no doubt that it would be necessary to summon Najib before the PAC as Najib is the only person, apart from Jho Low, who knows the ins-and-outs of the RM2.6 billion ‘donation’ and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals in the past six years, as Arul  Kanda Kandasamy is only the latest ‘operative’ to join the ‘revolving-door’ teams of operatives who had been employed to take orders to run the 1MDB in the past six years.

If Hasan Arifin is not prepared to be a second “Nur Jazlan” as  a competent, conscientious and professional PAC Chairman who will get to the bottom of Najib’s twin mega scandals, without fear or favour including the Prime Minister, Hasan should resign as PAC Chairman so that a new Chairman could be appointed to carry out Nur Jazlan’s unfinished task in the PAC.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 23 January 2016, 6:09 pm and is filed under
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Abolish the BTN in the 2016 Budget calibration on Thursday, initiating a  study whether BTN can be redeemed and totally revamped  to promote national unity instead of fostering racism, disunity, intolerance and extremism in Malaysia

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should abolish the Biro TataNegara (BTN) in the 2016 Budget calibration on Thursday, initiating a study whether BTN can be redeemed and totally revamped to promote national unity instead of fostering racism, disunity, bigotry, intolerance and extremism in the last three decades.

On Thursday, the newly-appointed BTN director-general Ibrahim Saad said that BTN would undergo a rebranding exercise that aims to dispel perceptions it is racist and see its module updated to suit current needs.

The problem with BTN is not about rebranding or that it suffered from “perceptions” that it is racist, but  whether the BTN could be redeemed and totally revamped from its ration d’etre for the past few decades –   negative, divisive and anti-national role in indoctrinating and  inciting racism, disunity, bigotry and intolerance instead of fostering patriotism, unity, inter-racial and inter-religious understanding and goodwill.

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

This was why former diplomat and spokesperson of G25 Datuk Farida Ariffin have  joined the growing chorus demanding that the Najib government should dissolve the “anti-national” BTN.

As late as November last year, an UMNO Member of Parliament told DAP MP for Kota Kinabalu, Jimmy Wong, to “balik tongsan” or to “return to mainland China” – a mark of the tentacles and  success of BTN in indoctrinating  a racist, extremist and anti-national mentality among Malaysians  in the fifth decade of our nationhood.

For the past 30 years, Parliament had allocated some RM1.2 billion for the BTN operate without any close monitoring and supervision, allowing BTN to carry out its activities as a  Bureau Tentang Nasional, aggravating instead of narrowing the racial and religious polarisation in our plural society.

For some three decades, the BTN had failed to use the Rukunegara as a basic text of its national civics course, resulting with more and more Malaysians in each generation ignorant about Rukunegara as to be guided by its principles.

The BTN has also failed to leverage on the unique position of Malaysia as a confluence of the great religions and civilisations of the world, to spread and disseminate the best values from the various religions and civilisations.

I am reminded of the two Quranic verses:

1. O you who believe, if a wicked person brings any news to you, you shall first investigate, lest you commit injustice towards some people, out of ignorance, then become sorry and remorseful for what you have done.

2. O you who have believed, avoid such (negative) assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin. And do not spy or backbite each other. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his brother when dead? You would detest it. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is Accepting of repentance and Merciful.

If these Quranic teachings to to be good, honest and truthful, like the teachings of the other great religions which meet in confluence in Malaysia, are diligently and conscientiously  inparted to all Malaysians, then the country would not have been troubled by dishonest, untruthful and treacherous falsehoods trying to set one race against another or one religion against another  – like the recent falsehood that Christian missionaries target the uneducated in Malaysia and offer money and aid to secure their conversion or the downright lie accusing the DAP of supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) as trade in the country is purportedly controlled by the Chinese community.

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

The budgets for BTN multiplied ten-fold in the eighties compared to the nineties, multiplying from some RM20 million in the eighties to RM200 million in the nineties, which continued to increase, in fact more than double to over RM550 million in the first decade of the 21st century. From 2010 to 2016, the budgets for BTN totalled over  RM400 million.

This means that for the last three decades, the BTN had cost the taxpayers some RM1.2 billion.

There can be no doubt that the RM 1.2 billion spent by BTN in the past three decades can be better utilised in promoting national unity and harmony.

The  RM1.2 billion would also be better spent to help the poor, needy and disadvantaged, regardless of race and religion, in the past three decades instead of running and maintaining an anti-national agency under the cover of promoting patriotism in the very bosom of the government civil service, mushrooming from a staff of a handful in the early eighties to some 300 public servants at present.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 24 January 2016, 4:47 pm and is filed under
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New Deal for Malaysia

– Liew Chin Tong

The Malaysian Insider

24 January 2016

With mega crises on all fronts, (Datuk Seri) Najib (Razak) and Umno look doomed. But they might just survive politically by creating a “Low Yat incident” every other week.

The game plan is simple: pit underprivileged kids of one race against another, then they will be so busy fighting each other that they will forget who keeps them poor to begin with. The accusation of “poor Malay cheated by Chinese handphone taukeh” is untrue. Why would a “rich” young Chinese work for a handphone shop for meagre pay?

Can we, DAP, see the shared fate of the bottom 60% of the economy – youngsters who are Malay as well as Chinese and other races? Can we articulate their wishes and aspirations in a single breath?

The even more crucial question is this: do we even actually know them? Do we actually know who the Malays are? What the Malays are? Where the Malays are?

It is sad to note that some of us see the Malays as one single entity with a set of stereotypes. For example, we didn’t even realise that we are being racial when we see most Malays as policemen, enforcement officers, Mat Rempit, etc.

The same is true for others who only see Chinese as rich people and business owners who always cheat Malays. After 50 years, the narrative has stayed the same. This is sad.

When it comes to race, there are three points that I wish to share.

First, identities are fluid and not constant.

Up until the end of Second World War, most ethnic Malays did not call themselves Malays. They identified themselves first and foremost with the peninsula states or Indonesian localities they came from. Likewise, most ethnic Chinese see themselves as Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, etc.

From the onset, DAP wished to create a Malaysia in which everyone sees themselves as Malaysian first. We call it Malaysian Malaysia.

In the meantime, after 10 years as prime minister, (Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad came up with the idea of Bangsa Malaysia. Both ideas met halfway, well, sort of.

For 14 years between the launch of Vision 2020 in 1991, and when (Datuk Seri) Hishammuddin Hussein waved his keris during the Umno general assembly in July 2005, Dr Mahathir made Americans, Jews, British, Australian and Singaporeans as national “enemies”, but little was heard about the local racial discourse.

I always think that the keris-waving and Umno’s turn to right-wing politics in 2005 was the stupidest political move ever in Malaysia’s history. As a result, MCA, MIC and Gerakan have been dead since 2005. So I urge you not to wake them up.

Second, identity politics will create a defence mechanism.

An Australian anthropologist arrived in Christian village in the Indonesian side of Kalimantan to find with bewilderment that every Christian ritual in the village is conducted with the sacrifices of pork. Being a Christian herself, she was confused.

Only months later when we wandered out of the village did she realise that the bizarre pork sacrifice was actually a defence mechanism of sorts. The village was surrounded by six other Muslim villages. Sacrificing pork was the Christian village’s way of differentiating itself from the Muslims.

Ethnic Chinese in Malaysia, especially my generation, grew up thinking that lion dance is the most important component of Chinese culture. It was only much later that I realised, no other country in the world – China and Taiwan included – views it that way.

How did this idea come about? I would attribute it to what Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie did. The then home minister one told the Chinese that it would be better for their cultural dance to use the national mascot of the tiger, instead of the traditional lion. Obviously, it backfired.

In the following example, I do not wish to equate religion with a particular school system. But in identity politics, Islam was being championed post May-13 in part because Muslims felt the psychological need to have a clear identity vis-a-vis the non-Malays. Likewise, Chinese rallied to Chinese schools because they felt that their identity was being denied.

But today, most Muslims are practising the religion one way or the other and many spend years studying it. Likewise, 90% of Chinese now have some form of Chinese education, at least for a few years. Things are very different now.

Do people still feel that their identities are under threat? My answer is both “yes” and “no”. If the battle lines are drawn been “Muslims versus non-Muslims”, then everyone will put up their defence antenna.

You cannot just insult people and expect not to get a reaction. So when Umo waves the keris or Perkasa does stupid things, every non-Malay gets offended. That’s the problem when we get ourselves into the mode of “pantang dicabar”.

But DAP must be very clear about this. We should not play their games. We must be decent, we must lead our supporters to be decent and lead them to get out of race profiling everything.

Third, where are the Malays?

Sometimes, I find that even Malay opposition politicians see Malays as backward, rural, emotional people.

Every time I hear someone mentioning the term “Malay” with the word “rural” as if they are inseparable twins, I cringe. Clearly, someone who thinks that way has a poor grasp of reality.

Most Malays today live in urban centres and semi-urban towns. Most Malays have access to handphones and the Internet.

Most Malays are active users of WhatsApp and Facebook. The rural Malay population is really small. Like the Chinese from small towns, even if they are registered to vote in a rural constituency, probably half of them live in a city or a town.

If you have ever spent a morning at the road in front of DAP national headquarters, you will find that the old open-air Pudu market is mostly manned by foreign workers and half, if not most of their clients are Malays.

Malays, like everyone else, are making rational political choices. They are dignified people like everyone else. We must treat every Malaysian as a mature citizen in our approach.

And, most importantly, we must see the human needs of every Malaysian. Everyone wants a decent job, decent homes, good health, good transport, good education, respect, and dignity.

Hence, we must set the agenda and not let others set it for us. Not Umno, not PAS.

Harsh reality

Imagine an elephant, or any other large animal, which has been in chains since its infancy. After a decade or two when the chains are finally taken off, that elephant will find it strange and difficult to move around freely. Because it has been chained for so long, it has no idea how to enjoy its newfound freedom.

This is a reflection of our society. For decades, we have been conditioned to accept that segregation by race and religion is normal. So we don’t really know each other.

Our knowledge of our neighbours are based on prejudices and negative stereotypes, encouraged by the state. Hence, racism prevails among us.

When this happens, it blinds us from the reality, which is our shared problems. I am talking about our shared economic problems, high cost of living, lack of jobs and business opportunities, education and many other related issues.

We do not live in an ordinary time. It is not impossible to contemplate a scenario of oil prices at US$15 per barrel, and the ringgit trading at five to the dollar. This might happen in the near future.

Let me predict that the most important conversation in 2016 is not about one’s race, but about one’s rice bowl – we are about to face a great economic crisis that could be worse than the 1997 crisis.

Why do I say that? Because for the past decade or so, the Malaysian economy has been heavily dependent on oil and gas, commodities, construction and property development. Salaries, productivity and skills have stagnated and even declined.

The vast majority of Malaysians are heavily indebted through housing loans, car loans, study loans, credit cards debts, instalments for consumer items, and even wedding loans for some. Some continue to pay these off even after their divorces!

Once a sizable number of layoffs take place within a short period of time, everything will grind down to a crunch – a job crisis, a debt crisis, bursting of the property bubble, a welfare crisis, and a heightened crime rate.

New Deal

The question is, can the DAP live up to the expectation of the public to play a historic role to lead the nation out of the impending crisis, work out a New Deal, and create a new Malaysia?

Let me give you two examples.

How do we deal with Proton in the upcoming crisis? Our easiest response is to kill it off. But what about the workers there? Our answer may be “the government has to deal with it”. But we also know the Najib government is incapable of thinking.

So what do you do? In times of crisis, we want to ensure that everyone has a job to get by. Can we ask Proton to produce buses instead of cars and make Proton the Southeast Asian centre for bus production (as there is none)? After all, we have too many cars on the road now. We have 25 million vehicles (half of them motorcycles and the other half passenger cars).

When in crisis, people won’t have money to pay loan instalments for their cars and motorcycles. The alternative would be to take the bus. This plan also saves the government from building roads as market liquidity dries up. Even if you want to build roads, no one is going to finance you.

Another example, is what we like to call the bloated civil service. Very often we just say, let’s trim the size of the civil service, without even thinking about the lives of ordinary civil servants.

Who actually wastes more resources? Imagine a mid-level female civil servant supporting a husband who couldn’t find a good paying job and their four young kids. Cutting her job during a crisis means that you are starving six people.

What’s more, you are starving the much-needed domestic consumption. If this family, and many other families are not spending, who will buy? If no one is consuming, the economy collapses even faster.

What we should do instead is to trim the extravagance of the ministers, the outsourced contracts that hire foreign workers, and those that waste out of price procurement.

Recently, when it was reported that university students were starving, the immediate responses of many opinion leaders were: why are they whining so much, or why don’t they get a part-time job? For me, this sounds like a middle-class reaction.

We seem to forget that jobs at convenience stores, fast food chains and restaurants are increasingly becoming the domains of foreign workers – no, I’m not against any human being getting a job but we all know that these are low-paying jobs that exploit people who are not given much choice. And, as we all know the establishment is not very serious about the minimum wage.

Even if our students can find a job there, they don’t pay well enough to be worth the time spent juggling work while studying. Imagine a boy or a girl coming from a small town with retired or worse, retrenched civil servant parents, he or she will have nothing to fall back on.

My mother sold lottery tickets at a place less than half a mile from this hotel since 1989. My father was once a mini bus driver and taxi driver. Within this hall, many of our elected reps come from humble backgrounds, whose parents may be as hawkers, small traders and workers.

DAP was once, and perhaps still is, a party for these people. Of course, we’re proud of our heritage. What we need now is empathy and solidarity to build a much larger social coalition. There are now many hawkers, small traders and workers of all ethnicities, Malays, Indians, Ibans and Kadazans included. DAP should represent all these fellow Malaysians.

DAP must transcend the old society barriers to offer a new hope for Malaysians. The New Deal must be one that is built upon solidarity of all Malaysians. In time of crisis, we shall unite and not divide.

I therefore propose the motion that DAP needs to change drastically in its modus operandi in order to be more inclusive to appeal to all Malaysians, including those in Sabah and Sarawak, for the opposition to win Putrajaya. – January 24, 2016.

* Liew Chin Tong is DAP national political education director and this is his speech when tabling the motion in the party’s transformational debate during the DAP national retreat on January 16. Liew is recovering from Bell’s palsy. This speech was written with extensive help from the executive director of DAP Political Education Department, Wan Hamidi Hamid, who also read the speech on his behalf.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 24 January 2016, 1:06 pm and is filed under
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‘The Economist’: While Indonesia fights Islamic State, Malaysia politicises Islam

Malay Mail Online

January 24, 2016

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 ― Indonesian social movements are attempting to counter jihadist influence, but the Malaysian government has completely politicised Islam until there is little space for more peaceful interpretations, The Economist said.

In an analysis of the Jakarta bombings published yesterday, the London-based weekly publication noted that supporting or joining the Islamic State (IS) is not illegal in Indonesia, though the Indonesian government is considering preventive detention laws to curb terrorism.

“The country’s two biggest Muslim social movements — Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama — have been trying to counter jihadist propaganda.

“In Malaysia, however, the government itself has thoroughly politicised Islam, leaving little room for dissent from its harshest rules. A study last year found more than 70 per cent of Malaysia’s ethnic-Malay, Muslim, majority support hudud laws such as stoning for adultery. Another found that 11 per cent of Malays viewed IS favourably,” said The Economist in an article titled “After Jakarta.”

Religious authorities in Malaysia have been promoting an increasingly conservative interpretation of Islam, while the ruling Umno has welcomed a relationship with PAS that seeks to enforce hudud in Kelantan. Umno has also repeatedly demonised the DAP as being anti-Islam.

A survey by local pollster Merdeka Center released in 2014 found that 71 per cent of Malays polled supported the Islamic penal code that imposes punishments like amputation for theft.

A Pew Research Centre study last year on the attitude of Muslims towards IS showed that 11 per cent of Malaysians supported the Muslim militant group that has claimed responsibility over the January 14 bombings in Jakarta, Indonesia, that killed four civilians and four terrorists.

The Economist reported that authorities believe an Indonesian named Bahrun Naim, who leads a South-east Asian unit fighting with IS in Syria and Iraq, had planned the Jakarta attack from Syria.

Sidney Jones, who runs the Institute for Policy Analysis and Conflict in Jakarta, reportedly said Bahrun had used encrypted messages on social media in a bid to inspire attacks in Malaysia.

The police recently arrested a 28-year-old man at an LRT station here, who was suspected of travelling from Terengganu to stage a suicide attack at a karaoke outlet or a pub in Kuala Lumpur.

Two Malaysian suicide bombers blew themselves up separately in Iraq and Syria earlier this month, killing more than 30 people.

The Economist noted that counter-terrorism strategies that worked before may not be as effective against transnational bodies like IS that it said inspired online self-radicalisation and lone-wolf attacks.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 24 January 2016, 11:57 am and is filed under
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Call on Najib to present White Paper on his twin  world-class mega scandals before the Special Parliament on TPPA tomorrow

The Najib government has a totally perverted sense of national priorities when it holds a two-day Special Parliament for Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) but not for Najib’s world-class  twin mega scandals or the recalibration of the 2016 Budget – with  the coming of the “perfect storm” with the convergence of a multitude of economic, political, good governance and nation-building crisis in Malaysia.

Another perverted sense of national priorities of the Najib government is  my six-month suspension from Parliament for basically demanding that the Prime Minister should not avoid the question “Mana RM2.6 billion?”,  with the string of  broken promises about accountability and good governance on the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal, like the undertaking that all the questions about the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal  would be answered on the last day of the 25-day budget meeting on Dec. 3 last year, the Prime Minister’s public stance that his twin mega scandals had been resolved and are no more issues in the country and the latest signal from the Public Accounts Committee Chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin,  that there is no light at the end of the tunnel as far as the PAC  investigations into the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal is concerned.

It is sad that Parliament has again proven its utter irrelevance and impotence with regard to demanding full and satisfactory accountability from Najib for his  twin mega scandals – which had infamously given Malaysia the third place in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”.

Would the second Prime Minister Tun Razak ever imagined that his legacy will be corrupted by his son as the sixth Prime Minister in causing the nation to be placed third in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”?

There is talk that three of four proposals for parliamentary reforms had been approved by the Cabinet and would be brought to Parliament in the March meeting.

I would any time choose full and satisfactory accountability by the Najib government with regard to his world-class  twin mega scandals instead of the three mini-parliamentary reforms which had been approved by Cabinet, as these mini-parliamentary reforms are quite meaningless so long as the Prime Minister and Cabinet can get away with “blue murder” in parliamentary democracy by utterly disregarding the most fundamental principles of parliamentary accountability and good governance.

I have been suspended from Parliament for six months, not because I am guilty of theft, robbery, murder or corruption, but because of my questioning the various avoidance and evasion tactics of the government  in the past year to stall any full and satisfactory accountability for the  world-class twin mega scandals.

Tebrau will be the 67th of the 222 parliamentary constituencies I am visiting since my suspension from Parliament on 22nd Oct.

I will take the people’s pulse whether they are happy with the three mini parliamentary proposals in exchange for the Najib government escaping  full and satisfactory accountability for the twin mega scandals, or whether the Malaysian public want full and satisfactory accountability for Najib’s twin mega scandals which are any time  more important than the three mini-parliamentary reforms which had been approved by the Cabinet.

I have so far found and learnt during my nation-wide “Mana RM2.6 billion?” tour  that Najib cannot be more wrong when he claimed that his twin mega scandals are “dead and buried” and no more burning issues of the country, for all over the country, in every nook and corner, Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region or even politics, age or gender, are demanding answers to the teeming questions about Najib’s twin mega scandals.

Najib’s world-class twin mega scandals are constantly spawning new questions and the latest question to surface in the new year is whether Najib’s  RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal is in fact  an even bigger scandal as first reported, as the total monies deposited into Najib’s personal bank accounts was not  RM2.6 billion (which Najib had admitted) but a very much bigger sum of RM4 billion or even more?

Why is Najib silent to the latest query about his RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal?

UMNO leaders and even the PAS President may not want answers to these questions, but the people and ordinary members of the various political parties, including the three million UMNO members and one million PAS members, want answers from Najib about the twin mega scandals!

I call on Najib to issue a White Paper on the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal before the Special Parliament on TPPA tomorrow and Wednesday, which must answer the following questions on the billion-ringgit deposits in Najib’s personal bank accounts:

1. What are the total amounts of these donations deposited into Najib’s personal banking accounts – RM2.6 billion, RM4 billion or more?

2. Who were the donors, one or more, and which foreign country or countries involved;

3. What were the motives for such donations – to fight Israel, ISIS, Shiites, “liberal” Muslims, DAP or who?

4. Where have the donations gone to? Who were the beneficiaries, whether Ministers or MPs, how much each had received, how they had spent them; and

5. What is left of these astronomical donations  and where are the monies now.

Najib should also give a full and satisfactory account for the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal.

(Speech at the DAP Ulu Tiram “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang and Mana RM2.6 billion?” kopitiam ceramah in Tebrau, Johor Baru  on Monday, January 25, 2016 at 9 am)

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The Najib government must demonstrate that it is capable of being sensitive about  Malaysia as a multi-racial and multi-religious nation before it talks about widening the scope of  BTN  for youths and citizenry to become  the “eyes and ears” of the state on security threats

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Azalina Othman said last night that the  National Civics Bureau (BTN) needs to be revamped given the diverse nature of security threats and that the  government needs its citizens to be better “eyes and ears” for the state and for young people to be more aware of such threats.

She said that the government wants the rakyat to be more aware of national security threats, especially youths who seem to be less sensitive of this.

The Najib government must demonstrate that it is capable of being sensitive about Malaysia as a multi-racial and multi-religious nation before it talks about widening the scope of BTN for the youths and citizenry to be “eyes and ears” of the state on security threats.

If the Najib government had been sensitive about Malaysia as a multi-racial and multi-religious nation, it would not have abandoned the 1Malaysia Policy to create a Malaysia where every Malaysian regards himself or herself as a Malaysian first and race, religion, region or socio-economic position second.

Nor would have the seven-year tragedy of Indira Gandhi happened, where a mother is forcibly separated from her 11-month old baby daughter for seven long years with no end in sight because the Cabinet has no political will to resolve the controversy over unilateral conversion of minors.

Nor would have the Cabinet allowed the controversy over the proposed suspension of Public Service Department (JPA) Scholarships for degree courses and the Education Ministry’s bursary for pre-university programmes because of falling government revenues to roil on  for over five days without a clear-cut clarification from JPA, causing heart-burns all-round.

Nor would the “adviser” of the Prime Minister disseminate lies to aggravate racial and religious polarisation in the country,  like the falsehood that Christian missionaries target the uneducated in Malaysia and offer money and aid to secure their conversion or the downright lie accusing the DAP of supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) as trade in the country is purportedly controlled by the Chinese community.

Instead of giving serious consideration to the dissolution of BTN, which in the past three decades had cost Malaysian taxpayers some RM1.2 billion in expenditure and the bane of Malaysian nation-building for its divisive and destructive role in fanning  racism, disunity, bigotry intolerance and extremism in Malaysia, the government seems set on widening the  scope and coverage of BTN to include youths and the general citizenry under the pretext of recruiting them as the “eyes and ears for the state” to face new security threats.

There is a strong case for the dissolution of BTN in the recalibration of the 2016 Budget by the Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minster on Thursday.

Azalina’s argument for widening the scope and coverage of BTN is not convincing enough.

I maintain that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should abolish BTN in the 2016 Budget calibration on Thursday while  initiating a study whether BTN can be redeemed and totally revamped to promote national unity instead of fostering racism, disunity, bigotry, intolerance and extremism in the last three decades.

The  newly-appointed BTN director-general Ibrahim Saad had said that BTN aims to dispel perceptions it is racist and see its module updated to suit current needs.

The problem with BTN is not about rebranding or that it suffered from “perceptions” that it is racist, but  that the BTN is guilty as charged – that it is racist, inciting disunity, bigotry and intolerance instead of fostering patriotism, unity, inter-racial and inter-religious understanding and goodwill.

This is why former top Malay civil servants in G25 have condemned BTN of being “ultra Malay-racist”.

On behalf of G25, former diplomat and spokesperson of G25 Datuk Farida Ariffin have  joined the growing chorus demanding that the Najib government should dissolve the “anti-national” BTN.

Are there no Ministers who are prepared to speak up to demand the dissolution of BTN because of its long-standing role in the past decades in causing national division and disunity?

[Speech (2)  at the DAP Ulu Tiram “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang and Mana RM2.6 billion?” in Tebrau, Johor Baru  on Monday, January 25, 2016 at 9 am]

                This entry was posted on Monday, 25 January 2016, 8:20 am and is filed under
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Is AG Apandi guilty of conflict of interest when he decided that Najib will not be charged for the RM2.6 billion “donation” and SRC scandals?

Is the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali guilty of conflict of interest when he decided that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had committed no criminal offence in the RM2.6 billion  “donation” and SRC scandals?

Apandi should have withdrawn from the decision-making process on what  actions should be taken on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation papers on Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” and SRC scandals, and left the decisions to be taken by the Solicitor-General.

It is open history that Apandi was appointed by Najib in the most extraordinary of circumstances, when the former Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail was suddenly and shockingly sacked on July 28 purportedly on “health” reasons, which even  took Gani by total surprise.

Up to now, the real reason for Gani’s sacking as Attorney-General had not been given to the Malaysian public, as he appeared very healthy and is even now starting on a new career as a legal consultant after having retired from the public service three months after he was sacked as Attorney-General – three months before his compulsory retirement.

It has been speculated in the public domain that the reason for Gani’s sacking was because the Attorney-General’s Chambers under Gani was preparing to charge the Prime Minister for corruption in connection with Najib’s world-class twin mega scandals.

Up to now, there has been no satisfactory answer on this issue, whether involving Najib as Prime Minister, Apandi as the  current Attorney-General or Gani as the sacked Attorney-General.

These extraordinary circumstances of Apandi’s appointment as Attorney-General by Najib in place of Gani are additional reasons why Apandi should have avoided any conflict of interest situation and withdrawn from any decision-making on MACC’s investigation papers relating to Najib in its investigations into the RM2.6 billion donation and SRC scandals.

Apandi’s announcement that there will no charges against Najib also runs contrary to what MACC officials had said on public record.

Yesterday, after MACC had resubmitted its investigation papers to the AG’s Chambers at the request of Apandi himself on Jan 22, the MACC special operations chief Bahri Mohd Zain said the MACC was confident that the AG’s Chambers was satisfied with its investigation into two cases linked to the Prime Minister as the AG’s Chambers had not called the MACC in on the matter – the RM2.6 billion found in Prime Minister Najib’s bank accounts and claims that RM42 million flowed from state-owned SRC International into Najib’s accounts.

Bahri said that conventionally, the attorney-general will call in MACC top management or the investigation officer to discuss facts of the case and proposed charges in high-profile cases, before deciding on whether to prosecute the matter.

He said: “In the SRC International and RM2.6 billion cases, the MACC has not been called in for a discussion and I believe this is because the attorney-general is satisfied with the proposals made in the investigation papers.”

Bahri and the other MACC officials must be very surprised and  disappointed that their expectations had  been dashed to the ground and they must be as shocked  as  Malaysians that the Attorney-General had decided that no charges would be brought against Najib based on the MACC investigation papers.

I call on Apandi to make public the MACC’s proposals in its investigation papers on the RM2.6 billion “donation” and SRC scandals.

Although Article 145(3) of the Constitution vests absolute discretion on the Attorney-General “to institute, conduct or discontinue” any proceedings for an offence, which cannot be challenged in a court of law, the Attorney-General should realise that in high-profile cases affecting the Prime Minister as in the two cases involved, he owes a heavy responsibility to the Malaysian public to account for his extraordinary decision not to charge the Prime Minister at all

Apandi’s revelation that Najib had returned RM2.03 billion to the Saudi royal family, two months after the May general election, has raised even more questions – why did he accept the astronomical donations for the 13th General Election campaign in the first place  and why did he return RM2.03 billion in August 2013; what happened to the balance of RM570 million from the original sum of RM2.6 billion?

Why didn’t Najib admit that he had returned the RM2.03 billion of the Saudi royal family, when he was prepared to let it be known that the donor for the RM2.6 billion had come from a Saudi royal family?

The question of who had benefitted from the astronomical donations still await answer.

Furthermore, what about the reports that more deposits were put into Najib’s personal bank accounts after the 13th General Election, to the extent that the total amounts deposited into Najib’s    personal bank accounts before and after the 13th General Election could have reached RM4 billion?

To remove all these questions and suspicions, a high-level three-man committee comprising two former judges and the former Attorney-General Tan Sri Abu Talib Othmn should be formed to review Apandi’s decision to determine whether there had been a conflict of interest as well as whether the Attorney-General’s decision not to prosecute the Prime Minister was correct based on the MACC’s investigation papers.

(Speech at the DAP Batu Pahat  “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang & Mana RM2.6 billion?” kopitiam ceramah in Tongkang Pecah on Tuesday, 26th January 2016 at 12 noon)

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My Tribute to Badri bin Muhammad, PhD

M. Bakri Musa

www.bakrimusa.com

Last and for a very special reason, I will cite another example of a free mind, Dr. Badri bin Muhammad. Badri was special to many, most immediately his wife and fellow Professor of Chemistry Karen Crouse, and their children Susanna, Adam, Diana, Nadira, and grandson Mitchell.

      Once on meeting a group of Malaysian graduate students here in America, a few happened to have attended University Putra Malaysia. To my query whether they knew of Badri, one bright student beamed widely, “Yes, he was my wonderful chemistry professor!” and the others quickly joined in the praise. Very effusive and very heartfelt, those students were among Badri’s many legacies.

      Badri died recently after a brief illness. He was special to me as we had been dear friends for a long time and shared so many bonds. Our wives knew each other well and so did our children who were of comparable ages.

      Both of us came from rural Malaysia; he from Ulu Kelantan; I, Ulu Muar, Negri Sembilan. Like me, Badri went to Malay College for his Sixth Form but our years there did not overlap; he came right after I left. We met a few years later in Canada when he spent a summer as an undergraduate doing research at the University of Alberta where I was a medical student. We met by chance on campus, and typically Malaysian, he moved that very evening into the apartment I shared with a fellow medical student from Sarawak, Thaddeus Demong.

     It also did not take Badri very long to take over our kitchen after tasting our version of Malaysian cuisine, and our nutrition improved considerably thereafter. I remember well his Canadian variation of our sambal, with an extra generous helping of onions and vinegar!

     Later that summer we met a group of young Malaysian nurses attending a course on campus. They were taking the same classes as the Canadian degree student nurses, but because those Malaysians had only Form Five qualifications, they could not be formally registered as undergraduates. Also typically Malaysian, those nurses took that restriction in stride.

     Not Badri, however. He encouraged the nurses to enroll in a summer course to qualify for formal university admission, with Badri volunteering to coach them especially in the sciences, in return for their cooking us dinners. Badri had earlier served as a temporary science teacher in Malaysia.

     The girls took his advice and worked hard all summer, driven by Badri’s firm but kind tutelage. As expected with good teaching, all five passed their “departmentals” and were allowed to formally register as undergraduates that fall. Thus instead of getting merely a “certificate of completion,” those nurses became the first Malaysians to have a degree in nursing. One of them, Nik Safiah Ismail, would later become dean of nursing at UKM and a UN consultant.

     That was Badri; he saw opportunities where others would passively accept constraints as the normal order of things.

     Universiti Putra Malaysia was Badri’s academic home; he was a true scientist, passionate about his research. While others were consumed with lobbying for senior administrative positions, Badri was busy guiding his doctoral students and pursuing his passion – research.

     For many years he stayed on campus; it was always a joy to visit him and his family there. The UPM campus is one of the most scenic, set in a lush valley away and protected from the urban hustle and bustle not too far away. My blood pressure would drop noticeably whenever I visited them. I always enjoyed those visits; strangely we did not bitch about Malaysia, instead we were busy sharing our experiences in our respective fields and comparing the differences between “bench” versus clinical research.

     Badri was the first person I confided in when I decided to leave Malaysia. Like a true friend he was not at all shy in letting me know of his severe disappointment. But also like a true friend, he was supportive of my decision.

     At that time the Badris had a daughter and son, both of comparable ages to my daughter and older son. In the first few years after I left, the Badris would frequently visit my parents in Seremban. Those visits meant a lot to my parents, and Badri and Karen knew that, as they allowed my parents to enjoy their grandchildren (my children) Melindah and Zachary albeit vicariously through Sue and Adam.

     Badri demonstrated best the halus (soft or subtle) ways of our people, and that being halus does not preclude one from being determined and tenacious. You have to have those qualities to be a good researcher. Badri published his first research paper while still an undergraduate, a rare accomplishment.

     When Badri and Karen visited my wife and me in Canada on their way back to Malaysia after receiving his PhD from Dalhousie, I showed him a Malaysian article profiling a young student who had just been awarded a scholarship to Australia to pursue his doctorate in chemistry. The article touted him to be the “first Malay PhD in chemistry” when he would graduate. Badri simply smiled on seeing that piece!

     Realizing that he was probably the first Malay PhD in Chemistry, I complimented him and told him that he had beaten the legendary star of Malay College only a few years our senior, the one dubbed “the sharpest mind ever to step foot at Malay College.” Badri was genuinely embarrassed by the comparison. “I didn’t do too well at Malay College,” he demurred.

      “Not too well” in Badri-speak meant that he was not the top student. The class that Badri joined at Malay College was among the brightest; it was the first batch of the pure science stream. I remember supervising many of their evening “prep” hours. The class had a reputation for intimidating their supervising prefects; they in turn would groan when assigned. As I was the most junior and had the least clout with my fellow prefects, that chore fell on me disproportionately. It was fortuitous, for I thoroughly enjoyed being with those bright young students. Among his classmates was one Ariffin Aton who would later obtain his PhD in Chemical Engineering and would head SIRIM.

     Obviously Badri was smart; he would not have been awarded a Colombo Plan scholarship otherwise or been recommended by his teachers.

     Badri too was a man of many firsts, but as with his “first Malay PhD in chemistry” bit, they were all unheralded, and that suited him just fine. That was his style – unassuming. When appointed to senior administrative positions, for example being dean, to Badri that simply meant time away from his lab and students. He was one of the few academics who returned smoothly to his laboratory following a detour in administration.

      He was the Foundation Fellow of both the Islamic as well as the Malaysian Academies of Science. Once he gave me a reprint of his latest paper. I had my undergraduate degree in chemistry so I was not lost with the content, but what impressed me was that the paper appeared in a leading international journal.

     “You wouldn’t believe the hassles I got over that one,” he volunteered after I complimented him. It turned out that the university was none too pleased with his publishing the paper in English and in an international instead of a local journal!

     I am always mindful whenever I write critical commentaries on our education system of individuals like Badri, educators and professionals who gave all they have to their institutions and students despite the huge obstacles and other “hassle factors” they faced daily in their work. The nation would be better off if only those in authority would relent just a wee bit and let individuals like Badri do what they do best.

      The most revealing display of Badri’s halus ways and free-mindedness was his ability to sway his recalcitrant supervisors back home into letting him stay in Canada to pursue his PhD after getting his undergraduate degree. Then as now, the policy was that students had to return first and then wait their turn patiently before being sent abroad again.

      Badri had other ideas; he was already offered a grant from the Canadians to pursue his doctoral work, all he had to do was get that special dispensation from home. I remember discussing at length with him on the best strategy to pursue in convincing the folks back home into letting him stay.

      After much deliberation and with great anxiety, he decided to pursue a reverse psychology approach. It helped that the civil servants back in Malaysia who would be making the pivotal decision were just like Badri, so he could easily put himself in their shoes and understand their psychological vulnerabilities.

     So in the most polite and deferential tone Badri wrote a long pleading letter in traditional Malay, together with the obligatory elaborate and profuse salutations expressing his heavy heart and sense of serba salah (dilemma) at having to write that letter, but had to do so merely as a favor requested by his professor. It was his professor’s wish that he (Badri) should continue with graduate work directly into the doctoral program. However, he (Badri) wished to return home as he was homesick and was missing his family and Malay food, especially his favorite budu (fish paste).

      When as expected he did not receive a reply, he wrote back again, this time gently reminding his Malaysian supervisor that his professor wanted an answer from him (Badri) soon. This time Badri helpfully added that his professor had heard that Malaysia would soon be opening a second university and would need qualified candidates to staff it. And his professor wanted to contribute to this endeavor by training Badri.

     The reply came finally, a few months later when already deeply engaged in his graduate work. “Tuan di arahkan melanjutkan … ” (“You are directed to pursue further studies…”) Badri was ecstatic. He had outwitted those civil service guys back home.

      A few years later I met another Malaysian; he too was a scholarship student but was then residing abroad. I asked him how he did it, thinking it might be a variation of Badri’s move. He replied that he simply absconded; he did not bother to return or in any way communicate with the folks back home. What about his scholarship bond? It seemed that the authorities in Malaysia had lost his file!

     I thought Badri was smart, but this character was shrewd. On second thought though, I think Badri would not contemplate simply skipping out. That would not be the Badri I knew.

     When you have a free mind as Badri had, it would be easy for you to put yourself in your adversaries’ moccasins, as the natives here would put it, and thus figure out their thinking. Once you can do that, you are already one step ahead. That was my lesson from Badri.

      My long story on him, apart from being my way of paying tribute to a long dear friend, is to demonstrate precisely this point about a free mind. The other is that when you have a free mind, you can easily focus on your objectives and not be distracted by the current fads. Badri was a scientist right from the very beginning; he had a passion for it, and he remained a true “bench scientist” right to the end. May Allah bless his soul!

Adapted from the author’s book. Liberating The Malay Mind, ZI Publications Sdn Bhd, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, 2013.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 26 January 2016, 6:06 am and is filed under
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The illiberal threat to Islam

Zairil Khir Johari

The Malaysian Insider

25 January 2016

Central to the idea of liberalism, be it political, economic or social in context, is human agency – the capacity for individual human beings, acting rationally, to make choices deemed to be in their best interest.

However, freedom of choice and conscience alone is insufficient if it is not complemented by the necessary space, both in the personal sphere and the public realm, to act upon those choices without discrimination or victimisation.

Conversely, illiberalism refers to the lack of such fundamental freedoms. An illiberal polity is, therefore, one where diversity is not tolerated, and where being different invites persecution, whether by society or the state.

It is one where conformity is not only approved of, but even coercively imposed. In Islamic terms, it is where ijtihad (independent reasoning) is suppressed and taqlid (to follow blindly) is expected.

In an illiberal state, speech and expression are censored and dissent is suppressed. In most cases, citizens are kept in check through the fear of an existential threat – often through the construction of an “other”.

Such states also exhibit authoritarian tendencies, where rule of law means rule of the regime. In such conditions, corruption, rent-seeking and abuse of power usually thrive.

To sum it up, as American public intellectual Kim R. Holmes puts it, illiberalism “is not just about government denying people the right of free expression and equality before the law. It is also about controlling how people think and behave.”

Applying the criteria above, it is extremely difficult to deny that Malaysia is anything but an illiberal state.

While often hailed as a leading moderate Muslim nation, in truth the Malaysian state has fastened a leash around the neck of its citizens. Occasionally tugged at but generally loose enough to make it fairly unnoticeable, the last two decades, however, has seen a gradual tightening of the leash.

Thus, being a Muslim in Malaysia today means that one has to adhere to a certain denomination approved by the state.

Anything else and one would run the risk of being labelled a deviant. And if telling people what they are allowed to believe in is bad enough, Muslims in Malaysia are even prevented from reading a whole list of publications, ranging from Ultraman to Charles Darwin, because, according to the wisdom of Jakim (Department of Islamic Development Malaysia), these writings may compromise their faith.

Banning and censorship does not apply exclusively to Muslims, however, as non-Muslims in Malaysia are restricted from using gazetted words, such as “Allah”, “masjid” and “ulama”.

It is also in supposedly moderate Malaysia that you hear often cases of body snatching by religious authorities and where private spaces are regularly infringed upon by badge-carrying moral police.

The state’s attempt to exert control over the religion has become so dogmatically extreme that it even expended great resources into prosecuting – and then appealing after losing at the High Court – a Muslim woman, Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz, whose only crime was to be working in a bookshop selling a banned publication, even when the raid had occurred before the said book had been officially banned.

The leash has been tightened so hard that oxygen flow to the brain appears to be affected, at least judging by the extent of popular discourse on Islam in the country these days.

Instead of great philosophical debates, religious forums typically revolve around the mundane and the inane – “what is the hukum (permissibility) on sending a text message to my boyfriend?” as an example.

But perhaps more sinister is the increasing lines of division that are being drawn between Muslims and the “others”.

To say that the state is going overboard is an understatement when we have the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism recently announcing that the government intends to introduce grocery apartheid through the segregation of halal and non-halal trolleys. Perhaps even the air that we breathe would be segregated in the future.

Even worse is when creeping Islamisation makes its way into the realm of non-Muslims, such as in the case of M. Indira Gandhi, a mother who has been separated for close to seven years from her daughter, following her ex-husband’s unilateral conversion of their daughter, then an infant, to Islam.

Despite obtaining a High Court judgment granting full custody to the mother, the police refused to act on grounds that there was a Shariah Court order that gave the father custody.

When citizens of a country are divided and discriminated against on the basis of their racial or religious identity, a state is not only illiberal, but can be said to be dysfunctional.

Even worse, on a more philosophical level, the illiberal Islamic experience in Malaysia only serves to condemn the religion.

Instead of being the promised rahmatul-lil-alameen (mercy for all), the faith of liberation and advancement, Islam is increasingly portrayed as a doctrine of enslavement and intolerance. Is this not antithetical to the goal of dakwah, which is to attract people to Islam, and not repel them?

The truth is that Muslims are indeed under threat. However, the enemy is not the Christians, or the Jews, or the West, or orientalism, or neo-imperialism.

The real threat to Islam is the rise of illiberalism within. As much as we like to lay the blame on colonial legacies and foreign conspiracies, the reality is that illiberal visions of Islam, such as that which is being propagated by the state in Malaysia, do the most harm to the faith. – January 25, 2016.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 26 January 2016, 8:26 am and is filed under
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Was Hadi an agent, stooge  or puppet of DAP in most of the seven years of Pakatan Rakyat from 2008 to 2015?

The demonisation of DAP as anti-Malay and anti-Islam, and the tactics of fear and hate to scare Malays  into believing that  they will lose political power if UMNO and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak are toppled from Federal power in the 14th General Election have been intensified recently.

I expect such politics of fear and hate to escalate in the coming weeks and months.

The reason is very simple and  obvious – Najib and his UMNO propagandists believe and fear that UMNO and Barisan Nasional would be defeated in  the next national general election.

A recent opinion poll had found that the popularity rating of  Najib’s UMNO-led Barisan Nasional government had for the first time in UMNO history fallen below the 50% mark among Malay voters, plunging to as low as 30%.

What better way to save Najib and UMNO by the classic tactics of creating an imaginary enemy for the Malay community!

Hence the continued intensification and escalation of the campaign of fear and hate to scare Malay voters into believing that Malays will lose  political power and Islam will come under grave threat if UMNO and Prime Minister Najib are  defeated in the 14th General Election – never mind that rational Malays will find this proposition a most preposterous and outrageous one, as such a scenario will never come to pass in Malaysia.

There is no way that the Malays can lose political power in Malaysia and that the DAP or the Chinese will rule the country.

The demographic forces will see an  increasing percentage of Malay population and decreasing percentage of Chinese population in Malaysia.

In 1970  Malaysia’s population comprised 44.32% Malays, 34.34% Chinese, 8.99% Indians, 11.89% non-Malay Bumiputeras, 0.67% others; but 40 years later  in  2010, the percentage of Malays in the Malaysian population increased to 55.07%, Chinese reduced to 24.34%, Indians dropped to 7.35%, non-Malay Bumiputeras maintained at 11.94% and 1.3% others.

Furthermore, DAP is not a Chinese or non-Malay political party but a political party for all Malaysians, as we had Malay Members of Parliament and State Assemblymen in the various states throughout the party history – in fact, the very first by-elections contested by the DAP in sixties  were UMNO strongholds like Kampong Baru in Selangor (where the UMNO candidate Razali Ali went on to become Selangor Mentri Besar in 1982), and Johor’s Tampoi State Assembly and Segamat Utara Parliamentry by-elections (where Tun Musa Hitam first won a seat in Parliament in the latter by-election and went on to become Deputy Prime Minister).

DAP is the first Pan-Malaysia political party, with branches and politically active in Sabah and Sarawak – before any other political party in the country.  We have a Kadazan State Assemblyman in Sabah and hope to have a Dayak State Assemblyman elected in the Sarawak state general election expected to be held in March or April.

In fact, Najib and UMNO should have been toppled in the 13th General Election as UMNO only secured 47% of the popular vote, and the person who would have replaced Najib as the Prime Minister would not be a Chinese but Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

But the  Malaysian electoral system was unfair and undemocratic, violating the democratic principle of “one man, one vote, one value”, for Najib secured 60% of the 222 parliamentary seats with 47% of popular vote, enabling him to be the first minority Prime Minister in the nation’s history.

It is  very clear that whatever happens in the 14th General Election, whether Najib is toppled as Prime Minister  and UMNO defeated in the contest for Federal power in Putrajaya, the Malays will continue to exercise political power in Malaysia as there is no way they will lose political power.

During the 13th general election, 52.63% of the voters were Malays, 29.68% Chinese, 7.31% Indians, 8.96% non-Malay Bumiputeras and 1.43% others.

Out of the 165 Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, 114 are Malay majority seats representing some 70%, 22 Chinese majority seats (13%) and 29 mixed seats (17%). There is not a single Indian majority seat.

Can the Chinese voters, being majority voters  in 22 parliamentary seats  (representing some 13%) in Peninsular Malaysia, control the rest of the 165 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia as to cause the Malays to lose political power?

This is clearly a no-brainer but this is exactly the fear that Najib and the UMNO propagandists want to create among the Malay electorate, to panic them to close their eyes to the rampant corruption and widespread socio-economic injustices in the country to continue to vote for Najib and UMNO!

In its campaign of fear, lies and hate, UMNO propagandists also spread the falsehood that Parti Amanah Negara and PKR are mere agents or stooges of DAP – in particular that the Amanah President Mohamad Sabu is a puppet or tool of DAP.

This was exactly the lies  that UMNO propagandists spread about the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang during the  years of Pakatan Rakyat.

Was Hadi an agent, stooge  or puppet of DAP in most of the seven years of Pakatan Rakyat’s existence from 2008 to 2015?

I have political differences with Hadi but the PAS President was never  an agent, stooge or puppet of DAP – just as Mohamad Sabu is never an agent, stooge or puppet of DAP.

I am really shocked that there are some PAS propagandists who are adopting the UMNO tactics and campaign of lies, fear and hate “lock, stock and barrel” in their attempt to demonise   Mohamad Sabu  as  a stooge or puppet of DAP, the very  same tactics  and campaign which UMNO propagandists had earlier  used against Hadi in the days of Pakatan Rakyat in trying to depict Hadi as a stooge or puppet of DAP.

In fact, during the Pakatan Rakyat days, DAP was accused by MCA and Gerakan of being stooges or agents of PAS among the Chinese electorate. But the Chinese electorate did not buy such lies and falsehoods or the MCA would not have become a 7/11 party.

But UMNO propagandists seem to be more successful in demonising  Hadi as a stooge or agent of DAP.

PAS propagandists should not adopt the tactics and campaign of lies and falsehoods  against Amanah leaders which UMNO propagandists had used against Hadi and PAS leaders in the past.

It is such dirty and unprincipled politics which we should expose and clean up if democracy in Malaysia is to develop into a healthy and progressive political system in Malaysia.

(Speech at the launching of Pagoh Parti Amanah Negara branch and constituency office at Bukit Pasir, Pagoh on Monday, 25th January 2016 at 10 pm)

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 26 January 2016, 7:39 am and is filed under
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Good governance,  the end of rampant corruption and widespread  socio-economic injustices like Najib’s twin mega scandals are the best antidotes to fight extremism and terrorism, including Islamic State (IS)

At the International Conference on Deradicalisation and Countering Violent Extremism (IDC) yesterday, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said he made no apology for stopping at nothing to ensure the security and safety of Malaysians, referring in particular to the slew of draconian laws in the arsenal of the Malaysian government.

Najib’s statement to the IDC, aimed at discussing and boosting co-operation between security agencies from ASEAN and nine strategic partners including Australia, France, Italy, Japan,  China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates,  Britain and the United States, as well as discussing policies of the respective countries on deradicalisation and countering extremism, had failed to grasp the full spectrum of the threats, brutality and barbarity posed by movements like Islamic State (IS).

While far-reaching security laws are necessary, Najib and all world leaders must never lose sight of the fact that good governance,  the end of rampant corruption and widespread socio-economic injustices like Najib’s twin mega scandals are the best antidotes to fight extremism and terrorism, including Islamic State (IS).

It is unfortunate that Najib had named the National Security Council (NSC) Bill as one of the necessary draconian laws to fight terrorism, as the threat of terrorism and in particular the Islamic State (IS) was never mentioned in Parliament, whether in Dewan Rakyat or Dewan Negara, as the raison d’etre why the NSC Bill was necessary.

The National Security Council Bill vests in the Prime Minister vast extraordinary powers usurping even the constitutional powers of the Yang di Pertuan Agong, as the Prime Minister will have the power to declare “security areas” where emergency powers could be exercised without having first to seek the consent of the Yang di Pertuan Agong to declare a state of emergency.

Can Najib explain why at no stage of the parliamentary debates on the National Security Council Bill, whether in Dewan Rakyat or Dewan Negara, whether during the presentation or winding-up of the debate on the Bill, the Minister responsible for shepherding the Bill never mentioned a word  on the threat from Islamic State (IS).

This is the strongest proof that the National Security Council (NSC) was never formulated to solely deal with terrorist threats like those posed by Islamic State (IS), but to give the Prime Minister extensive and dangerous powers  to launch crackdowns against peaceful and democratic dissent.

This is why the National Security Council (NSD) Bill is such a vile and obnoxious law, for it is not confined to deal with threats like those posed by Islamic State (IS) but to deal with peaceful and democratic dissent.

As far as is known, although the NSC Bill has been rammed through both Houses of Parliament last month, it has yet to become law as it has not yet been given the Royal Assent by the Yang di Pertuan Agong and gazetted into law.

I call on the Prime Minister to withhold presentation of the NSC Bill to the Yang di Pertuan Agong for Royal Assent, and instead to first convene a Round-Table Conference of all political parties, NGOs and NGIs as well as all representative civil society organisations to reach a national consensus as to what is the best way to deal with the threat of extremist and violent organisations like IS, and whether the NSC Bill should first be amended to ensure that civil liberties, human rights and other legitimate activities on peaceful and democratic dissent would not be jeopardized by draconian and repressive laws.

(Speech at the “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang & Mana RM2.6 billion?” kopitiam ceramah in Bakri parliamentary constituency in Muar on Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 9 am)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 27 January 2016, 11:56 am and is filed under
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Produce proof that Najib had returned US$620 million to Saudi royal family and what happened to the remainder of the US$41million in Najib’s RM2.6 billion donation scandal if Apandi wants his version to be believed

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak this evening welcomed the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali’s exoneration of any wrongdoing by him in the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal, and said that “the cases have been closed” and that its time for Malaysia to “move on”.

Just as Najib had been proven wrong when he declared in his 2016 New Year Message that his world-class twin mega scandals, which caused Malaysia to be ranked third in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”, had been resolved and were no more issues in the country, the Prime Minister cannot be more wrong when he said that the cases of his world-class “twin mega scandals” had been closed and that the country could now  “move on”.

I cannot think of another case in the nation’s history  where the Attorney-General’s decision in a high-profile matter like Najib’s world-class twin mega scandals had been greeted with more skepticism, outrage and scorn, not only locally but in international circles, as the announcement by Apandi yesterday that no charges would be brought against the Prime Minister based on the investigations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in the RM2.6 billion political donation and RM42 million from SRC International transferred into Najib’s personal bank accounts.

It is no exaggeration to say that public esteem and credibility for the office of the Attorney-General had never fallen so low in the 58-year history of the nation as yesterday.

Apart from his dubious decision to exonerate Najib of any wrongdoing in the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal and the transfer of RM42 million from SRC International to his personal bank accounts, despite the possibility of the taint being caught in a embarrassing “conflict-of-interest” situation, Apandi’s announcement that Najib had returned US$620 million to the Saudi royal family who were the original donor raised national doubts about  the AG’s credibility to new lows.

To put it most mildly, the AG is taking Malaysians as a nation of fools and simpletons if he expects his bald statements that the RM2.6 billion was “a personal donation from the Saudi royal family given to him (Najib) without any consideration” and that Najib had returned US$620 million from the US$681 million (RM2.6 billion) in August 2013 to be accepted without any questions.

Let me tell Apandi: Produce proof that Najib had returned US$620 million to Saudi royal family and what happened to the remainder of the US$41million in Najib’s RM2.6 billion donation scandal if Apandi wants his version to be believed.

Or has Apandi no proof whatsoever for the above two transactions? If so, the competence and professionalism of Apandi as Attorney-General comes under immediate question!

Najib was being very naïve to believe that the cases of his world-class twin mega scandals were closed and the country could move on, when in fact, his RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal has become even bigger than in the past as the Attorney-General’s statement yesterday has spawned even more questions, including the credibility of the claim that Najib had returned RM2.03 billion to the Saudi royal family two months after the May 2013 general election.

For over six months after the Wall Street Journal expose on July 2 last year, Najib was criticized, castigated and crucified locally and internationally for the RMRM2.6 billion “donation” into his personal banking accounts.

Was Najib such a masochist as to enjoy the intense pain from such a  flagellation on his image and character?

Why didn’t Najib let it be known that in fact, he had returned RM2.03 billion to the Saudi royal family, two months after the May 2013 general election?

The Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, never knew that RM2.6 billion had been deposited into Najib’s personal banking accounts, and until he was sacked as DPM on 28th July 2015, never knew that Najib had returned R$M2.03 billion to the Saudi royal family.

The new Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi also never knew that Najib had returned RM2.03 billion to the Saudi royal family, as he conspicuously omitted such a reference when he said publicly in August that he had met the representatives of the “donor from the Middle East”, who told him that the RM2.6 billion donation was “a sign of thanks for Malaysia’s fight against terrorism”.

No mention whatsoever that RM2.03 billion had in fact been returned to the original donor as far back as August 2013!  Why?

What type of a democratic government do we have in Malaysia where the Prime Minister had no trust of the past and present Deputy Prime Minister as not to let them know that he had returned RM2.03 billion donation as far back as August 2013?

The Prime Minister and the Attorney-General must realized that the exoneration of any wrongdoing  by Najib for the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal is a high-water  mark not for upholding of the Rule of Law, but the degeneration and desecration of the Rule of Law in Malaysia.

The Attorney-General’s shocking and outrageous decision to exonerate the Prime Minister of any wrongdoing in to the RM2.6 billion “donation” and the RM42 million SRC International scandals is the end of the sorry saga of Najib’s donation scandal, but only the opening of a new chapter.

Malaysians are still awaiting for Najib to give full and satisfactory accountability for this world-class twin mega scandals.

Would he convene a Special Parliament next month to show the country and the world that  there is no cause to doubt the integrity of the Malaysian Prime Minister by allowing a full parliamentary debate on his full and satisfactory accountability for the world-class twin mega scandals?

(Speech at the Parti Amanah Negara ceramah in Labis to mark the launching of Labis AMANAH on Tuesday, 26th January 2016 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 27 January 2016, 9:26 am and is filed under
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