Too soon to write off DAP’s Teluk Intan wager, analysts say

by Pathma Subramaniam

The Malay Mail Online

June 2, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — By going against the current, the DAP challenged a pattern of communal voting that has been ingrained for decades.

It lost the contest for Teluk Intan, but it remains to be seen if the gambit of fielding the likes of 26-year-old Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud will work out in the next general election in which political analysts say the makeup of voters and issues will vary.

“It is work in progress and DAP has taken the lead,” said Ibrahim Suffian who heads Merdeka Center. “I’m confident that in the long run people will vote for policies and no longer just for one’s skin colour.”

The head of the independent pollster noted that while it is tempting to blame DAP’s loss on racial silos, the result may also be skewed as by-elections are generally “tougher” for the opposition as it cannot match the might of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) federal strength.

“[By-elections are] unlike in a general election, [where] the resources of both sides are spread out thinly so that allows a smaller party to ride on the national sentiments and issues,” said Ibrahim who heads independent pollster Merdeka Center.

In Saturday’s Teluk Intan by-election triggered by the death of DAP’s Seah Leong Peng last month, Dyana Sofya took 19,919 votes to lose to BN’s Datuk Mah Siew Keong’s by a 238-majority.

Comparing DAP’s support in the constituency now to  last year’s national polls, Ibrahim concurred that local issues had a significant impact and the party with better resources have an advantage in rural constituencies.

While Dyana stumped on national issues such as inflation and an impending Goods and Services Tax (GST), Mah had campaigned on more tangible issues such as better broadband connectivity and securing Unesco status for Teluk Intan’s iconic clock tower.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak also pledged a Cabinet spot for Mah if the Gerakan president succeeds in defeating DAP.

Preliminary analysis indicated that voters were likely to have voted for BN’s promises of development, rather than DAP’s campaign of breaking racial barriers and combating corruption.

Ibrahim conceded that the loss was exacerbated by the absence of outstation voters; unlike Election 2013 where DAP won by over 7,000 votes due to a turnout of  80 per cent voter turnout. Only 66.7 per cent of registered voters turned up to make their choice on Saturday.

“It’s a common by-election phenomenon… a lot of people did not make that trip back,” added Ibrahim.

According to DAP campaign director Tony Pua, the issue was exacerbated by a drop in support of the Chinese community from a high of 85 per cent in Election 2013 to 70 per cent in the past 12 days of campaigning.

Monash University’s political science professor James Chin said that despite being a multi-racial constituency, Teluk Intan “is not a good example for cross-ethnic voting pattern”.

He said DAP’s decision to field a young Malay woman was a gamble in a Chinese-majority seat as many of the resident voters were over 40.

DAP’s misstep was to use a strategy “suitable” for an urban setting where people have become more averse to race-based politics.

“In the rural nooks and corners of Teluk Intan, religion plays a big part… and though Dyana is Malay and Muslim, she is not conservative enough,” said Chin.

Conversely, BN’s campaign for the Gerakan president was successful despite Mah being Chinese, said Chin, as the component party is still seen as a subordinate to lynchpin Umno.

“That’s is how Umno sells its non-Malay candidates, because they indirectly tells their voters that Umno is still in charge and the only party that represents the Malays and the Muslims,” he said.

But Ibrahim pointed out data from polling station showed Dyana Sofya managed to help DAP make inroads in the Changkat Jong state seat, with its sizeable Malay and Indian community.

Yesterday, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng insisted that Dyana’s unsuccessful bid will not deter the party from its bid to move beyond communal politics.

“In the future, DAP will have to work hard to convince outstation voters to return home to increase voter turnout; to convince voters that development is a right not a privilege; as well as accept a new Malaysia without racial politics where a Malay can represent a non-Malay and a non-Malay represent a Malay,” he said yesterday.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 2 June 2014, 3:25 pm and is filed under
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DAP loses a seat but scores a political point

YourSay

Malaysiakini

Jun 3, 2014

YOURSAY
 ‘Fielding Dyana is still a good strategy, despite the result.’

DAP’s strategy missteps cost Teluk Intan

CQ Muar:
Obviously, the elderly voters of Teluk Intan were not receptive to being represented by a young Malay woman, but rather preferred a man-about-town, who is a local figure; plus the lackadaisical attitude of young outstation voters, who took things for granted.

 Other factors are those issues relating to hudud, internal strifes and party squabbles, which must be quickly addressed and halted.

 The next GE is around three years from now, but by then the senior voters will probably see a dip in their number, while young voters an increase theirs.

 Therefore, it is of paramount importance that DAP and Pakatan Rakyat need to penetrate the heartlands of the Malays, and continue to convince urban voters simultaneously.

AA:
 I am not a supporter of any of the political parties, but I did hope for Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud to be elected as her election would be a clear victory against racial politics.

 Nevertheless, there is no need for DAP to feel gloomy in the aftermath of this by-election. A majority of the Chinese voters (more than 50 percent) voted for Dyana. There is also a slight increase in the percentage of Malay votes for her.

 Although this may not translate into a victory for the young politician, it is a sign that the dismantling of race-based politics practised by BN has just begun.

Apache:
 DAP should compile all the promises made by BN during this election and track them one by one.

 Publish this tracking yearly to show the voters these are empty promises, for even Mah himself said he is not responsible for those promises made by other component parties.

 To start with, track the alleged Indian Progressive Front’s (IPF) promises to give land to the poor Indians, build a super highway across Teluk Intan, build schools, provide Internet access and carry out major developments in the constituency to benefit the residents there.

Survivor:
 Ram Anand, based on the 238 votes, you are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Fielding Dyana is still a good strategy despite the results.

 Without the Umno racial approach and character assassination, putting young, progressive Malay candidates to replace the oldie Malays is still the best answer for the new Malaysia.

Anonymous #74150739:
 This Ram Anand’s analysis is a rather precise initial assessment of the situation that saw a huge swing to BN.

 As I have said elsewhere, Dyana should not be handled with kids gloves but allowed to make mistakes along the way. DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, including the central leaders, were too protective, leaving the “local” leaders no substantive role in the campaign.

 I believe grassroots support was lacking despite it being a parliamentary seat. Ordinary people, including local members, are not discerning enough to recognise/understand the difference between state politics and federal politics.

 The demise of the incumbent MP should have been fully anticipated. However, DAP seemed ill-prepared for the inevitable by not having readied the ground for a by-election and candidate. Did the long-term planners fail DAP?

Anonymous_1395655275: It is all right to lose a seat to score a political point. DAP is a multiracial party. DAP cannot forever depend on non-Malay voters if it sees itself as a national party.

 If blame needs to be accorded, they are the “outstation voters” who failed to exercise their right to vote.

Boonpou:
 Ram Anand, your analysis is outright wrong. We should applaud DAP for fielding a Malay, let alone a newbie and a woman.

 If there is any chance the opposition parties (and I don’t care about PAS, since it shall forever be an Islamic party) is that both DAP and PKR need to transcend racial politics.

 Putting forward Dyana is a bold and important first step. She might have lost by a mere 238 votes (not discounting the mishaps and uneven playing field), and this should be taken as a sure sign that DAP is doing the right thing.

 Capitalise on the experience of Teluk Intan as a bold step in transcending racial politics. It is the only way to defeat Umno.

Awakened:
 Ram Anand is right to a certain extent that strategically, DAP may have erred in thinking that the electorate in Teluk Intan are like the urban, young and educated lots who care more for rule of law, equality, corruption-free values and who will choose the party, rather than the candidate itself.

 This by-election was unlike the GE13, where the average turnout of more than 80 percent was unprecedented due to the charged-up atmosphere that there is a high chance of changing the government.

 Many citizens who worked overseas came back just to cast their votes. Before GE13, the turnout rate was between 65 and 75 percent on the average. Pakatan and DAP should have anticipated that.

 There was no such euphoria in this by-election and the outstation voters did not see the need for them to come back to vote as winning or losing would not change anything as far as government policies are concerned.

KB Menon:
 I presume DAP has, in the counting process, properly verified the high number of spoilt votes in relation to the very slim margin of victory by BN. But is marking an ‘X’ in the appropriate place that difficult for some Teluk Intan voters?

 Anyway, good job by first-timer Dyana Sofya. There is no shame in this loss as the margin of victory by BN and its mighty election machinery is so very slim. With a higher voter turnout the result could have been different.

 DAP must continue to evolve from the image of a Chinese-based party to that of a truly multiracial one with more young, intelligent Malays brought into the fold and groomed as future election candidates.

Casey:
 I wouldn’t call it a “strategy of missteps”. The fight to liberate the country, from all forms of oppression and racial and religious bigotry, is not going to be smooth sailing or without a heavy price to be incurred. But in the end, the people’s will is what achieves victory.

 I tend to agree with DAP’s national strategy – of not resorting to a safe approach and playing to dogmatic politics along the racial and religious divide.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 3 June 2014, 10:04 am and is filed under
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Gang-rape is okay, chocs are not

Mariam Mokhtar

Malaysiakini

Jun 2, 2014

The Muslim NGOs who were prepared to declare jihad, sue the manufacturers and burn down a factory, because their favourite chocolates were allegedly contaminated with pig DNA, deserve our contempt, not our compassion.

 Where was their condemnation of the gang-rape of two teenage girls by some 30 men in Kelantan? Why did they keep silent about the abduction, attempted rape and subsequent beheading of a two-year-old girl?

 In third world countries like Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, women are treated like replaceable items. Malaysia is no different. Some of our Muslim men treat their women like disposable razors: Once the edge has gone, their usefulness is over and they are discarded. Another will take its place.

 Will the Muslim NGOs demand stern action to deal with violence against women? Are chocolates more important than women?

 The Kelantan teenagers (14 and 17) who had been lured to a drug den were raped by men who were high on drugs. The arrested rapists looked Malay, and if they were Malay, they are Muslim. Many were allegedly related to one another, including a father and his two sons.

The futures of the teenage girls are all but destroyed. They face rejection by society and possibly family and friends. They may have contracted a sexually transmitted disease (STD) or HIV/AIDS from their rapists.  Rape victims often bear the mental and physical scars forever. Our community is ill-equipped to help them.

 A few days after the gang-rape, we read about a homeless mother whose two-year-old daughter was abducted by a drug addict and ex-convict, who then beheads the child, after unsuccessfully attempting to rape her.

 Why has zakat, the Muslim charity payment, not filtered down the line, to help the mother? She is one of several hundred poor Muslims living in the shadow of the gleaming Petronas Twin Towers, allegedly a symbol of Malaysia’s wealth. Most of us don’t know people like her exist. The women in Malay society are a forgotten people.

 No one doubts the mental anguish of the Muslims who had inadvertently consumed the allegedly “porcine contaminated” chocolates, but did they ever stop to think that this cannot have been a deliberate act by the manufacturers?

 The silence of the Muslim NGOs reinforces the belief that Malay/Muslim society views women as mere sex objects.

 The Malays above, are products of our society, and victims of a breakdown of law and order in Malaysia. Hudud is not the answer. Just keeping to the basics of legislation and enforcement, should help resolve most of our issues. There should be no more “macam mana mau settle”, or justice for the highest bidder, or sweeping things under the carpet because they are deemed “sensitive”.

Will the Muslim NGOs demand that sex education is taught in schools? Will they ask for an equal emphasis on building strong relationships? Young boys should be taught to respect women, and not treat them as objects of derision or pleasure.

 Every year, hundreds of abandoned babies are born and dumped. If unsubstantiated stories are to be believed, many unwanted babies are also sold illegally to parents who cannot conceive.

The tip of the iceberg

 The gang-rape story is just the tip of the iceberg. Many rapes go unreported because of shame and humiliation.

 The Malay way of avoiding the embarrassment of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy, is by sending the daughter away, perhaps to a distant relative, until she gives birth. The other option is to marry-off the young children.

 In time, as more children are born, financial problems develop as both parents are not educated and have no skills. They divorce, leading to more broken families and a vicious cycle of hopelessness. This is the hidden face of Malay society in the urban and rural areas.

 Only a small fraction of the Muslim population are polygamists but divorce is high among Muslim families. Divorce can be attained in a matter of seconds. There is no hassle and little expense, just the cost of sending a text message.

 There is a breakdown of the family structure, a lack of a male role model and a father–figure, especially for sons. There is an absence of paternal guidance. Most single parent families struggle to bring up their children.

Our authorities are indifferent to the real needs of Malay society. More religion is not the answer. Anecdotal evidence from people dealing with women’s problems and drug issues say that the more conservative Muslim states record the highest levels of incest, drug and sex-related offences.

 Kota Baru OCPD Asst Comm Azham Othman, who is dealing with the gang-rape case, said that in Kota Baru district, there was an average of 16 rape cases a month, mostly of minors, with drugs like amphetamines and ‘pil kuda’ being a contributory factor.

 If Kelantan were under hudud, how will the gang-rape victims obtain the testimony of four reputable characters who witnessed their rape? Are drug addicts reputable witnesses? To add insult to injury, the victims will be stoned for having sex before they are married, and with multiple partners.

 The Muslim NGOs should demand that Putrajaya disburses funds to help develop Kelantan. Poverty kills. Money can help build more schools and provide good teachers, good clinics, better infrastructure and other modern amenities. Proper education is the key.

 A word of caution to the Muslim NGOs. The pig is an animal with at least 185 uses (Christien Meindertsma, author of ‘Pig 05049′). Pigs are not just for food, but are used in the manufacture of many products, from bullets to bread, from cigarettes to cream cheese, from heart valves to heparin, and paper to paint. Jakim and the Chemistry Department had better keep the lid on this Pandora’s box.

 MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO).

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 3 June 2014, 6:48 am and is filed under
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How I felt when I joined DAP

― Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud

The Malay Mail Online

June 3, 2014

JUNE 3 ― I refer to the statement reportedly made by Tunku Aziz that I will leave the DAP when I realise “it is not a multi-racial party.”

My experience with the party was never similar to Tunku Aziz’s. I joined DAP as a regular member after getting to know some of the party’s members and leaders.  I understand and admire the struggle of its leaders, and its principle of multi-culturalism. I appreciate its consistency in standing up for all Malaysians, regardless of race and religion. I believe in its principle of doing what is right, despite the risks and repercussions.

I joined without the intention of being appointed into any position. I simply wanted to be with like-minded people, sharing a vision and mission, and partake in the struggle for a better Malaysia. In DAP, I found friends and comrades.

DAP is not merely a political party to me. It is family. My saudara-saudari, brothers and sisters in DAP have made me realise that it is possible to be a true Malaysian without obliging hypocrisy, unlike the empty “1Malaysia” slogan that supposedly encourages the spirit of being Malaysian, but is nothing more than a front for the continuation of racial politics.

Don’t get me wrong, I am proud to be Malay. I am proud of my roots and heritage. However, I don’t believe in abusing it at the expense of other Malaysians.

I have never felt truly Malaysian until after I joined DAP. Perhaps if Tunku Aziz spent more time with us in the grassroots, he would have agreed too. We might have our differences, but that doesn’t mean one should leave the family every time disagreements emerge. Unlike some, I have far more conviction than to simply quit because I failed to get elected, or appointed, or because of dissatisfaction over a wedding kenduri.

In 2012, I was asked to organise a programme called Pesta Lagu Jalanan with Yeo Bee Yin and Kasthuri Patto. We worked well together and remain great friends until today, because we share the same love for our nation, vision, mission, principles, and understanding. I believe that if all Malaysians focused on our similarities rather than our differences, then we could all see the world the same way Standard 1 kids do – skin colour blind.

And that is how I felt when I joined DAP.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 3 June 2014, 3:52 pm and is filed under
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Misi politik Dyana perlu diteruskan

A Shukur Harun

The Malaysian Insider

3 June 2014

Pengundian berdasarkan kaum oleh generasi lama masih wujud, tetapi ia dilihat semakin berkurangan dan berkurangan. Oleh itu, lambat laun generasi baru akan menggantikan generasi lama dan ini adalah proses biasa dalam kehidupan.

Ketika itu suasana politik semakin berubah dan nada perkauman semakin berkurangan didengar.

Sebagai contoh dalam pilihan raya umum (PRU) setahun yang lalu di mana pengundi generasi baru sudah mencapai sekitar 41%. Maka dalam PRU akan datang peratus pengundi muda ini boleh meningkat lebih tinggi lagi. Di sinilah terletak peluang dan masa depan politik yang cerah bagi Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.

Calon DAP/Pakatan Rakyat itu tewas di tangan calon BN di Teluk Intan dengan majoriti paling rendah, 238 undi dan ini menggambarkan pencapaian baik bagi Dyana yang hanya diperkenalkan kepada pengundi di situ kurang daripada sebulan.  Dengan itu walapun Dyana tewas, tetapi ia sebenarnya mencapai kemenangan moral.

PRK Teluk Intan itu perlu dilihat daripada pelbagai sudut, ia adalah sebuah kawasan campuran bandar dan luar bandar. Tetapi luar bandarnya jauh kebih luas hingga ke sempadan Selangor, dengan kawasan estet dan kampung tradisi.

Maka generasi lama di luar bandar masih berlegar di koridor perkauman dan tidak ada akses kepada media baru, maka ia terkongkong dalam tradisi di mana hanya saluran TV yang mereka lihat setiap hari, di samping media tradisional. Tetapi seperti saya katakan, generasi ini akan berkurangan dan terus berkurangan.

Dalam hal ini, pemerhati politik melihat, pengundi generasi baru yang kini 41%, dijangka terus meningkat dan akan mendominasi trend pengundian dalam PRU akan datang – kira-kira 4 tahun lagi. Maka peluang ahli politik muda seperti Dyana ketika itu sangat cerah kerana ketika itu suasana  berlainan dengan yang ada sekarang.

Dyana kini berumur 27 tahun dan ketika itu, jika Allah memanangkan umurnya, beliau baru 31 tahun, masih muda dan masih sangat bertenaga, cergas dan semakin matang dalam politik.

Ataupun mungkin dalam masa terdekat ini, siapa tahu, ada lagi pilihan raya kecil, maka DAP mungkin pula sekali lagi mempelawa Dyana bertanding kali kedua. Ini semua boleh berlaku.

Politik secara semulajadi penuh dengan kemungkinan dan pertarungan dan ia sangat dinamik. Maka ketika itu pengalaman peguam muda ini makin bertambah. Bagaimanapun, pada pendapat saya, Dyana mempunyai masa depan politik yang cerah.

Menerusi ucapannya pada malam Sabtu yang lalu, ketika menerima kekalahan kecil itu, Dyana kelihatan tidak kecewa, bahkan berazam untuk meneruskan perjuangan membela rakyat dan menghapuskan perkauman.

Dyana sendiri ketika berdepan dengan kira-kira 200 penyokong pada malam itu berkata, ini bukanlah penamat bagi beliau dalam politik. “Ini bukanlah penamat bagi Dyana Sofya. Saya tidak akan kecewakan anda,” katanya dengan tenang tetapi penuh semangat.

Peguam muda itu, yang mengenakan baju kurung warna kundang dan selendang berwarna hitam pada malam itu berkata, beliau tidak hanya berusaha untuk bertanding kerusi Parlimen, tetapi tujuan politiknya ialah untuk mencapai matlamat lebih besar.

“Kita perlu menghentikan politik kaum. Saya tidak hanya berdepan dengan Datuk Mah Siew Keong, tetapi seluruh jentera BN,” katanya dan berjanji akan terus berkhidmat untuk penduduk Teluk Intan walaupun tewas dalam pilihan raya kecil tersebut.

Beliau ditemani penasihat DAP Lim Kit Siang, Setiausaha Agung Lim Guan Eng dan pemimpin DAP lain serta Pakatan yang hadir untuk menyatakan penghargaaan kepada penyokong.

Ada  beberapa perkara yang sangat wajar diperhatikan di sini iaitu, pertamanya, kita wajar menghargai usaha DAP melakukan pembaharuan politik dengan meletakkan calon muda, gadis Melayu, terpelajar untuk bertanding di Teluk Intan, sebuah kawasan di mana 40% adalah pengundi Cina. Ini suatu keberanian luar biasa DAP, walaupun berisiko tinggi.

Walaupun percubaan pertama DAP ini tewas (tewas kecil), tetapi DAP mempunyai pandangan politk yang jauh ke depan di mana calon muda, tanpa mengira bangsa, perlu diketengahkan untuk bertanding. Justeru inilah sebenarnya politik masa depan Malaysia dan ini adalah strategi politik yang bijaksana. Hendaknya pembaharuan politik seperti ini ada dalam semua komponen parti dalam Pakatan Rakyat.

Kedua, usaha Pakatan Rakyat menentang politik perkauman mestilah diperhebat lagi, kerana perkauman ini ditentang oleh Islam kerana menghancurkan seluruh sistem kehidupan dengan segala nilai luhurnya.

Tidak mungkin Rasulullah menyuruh umatnya menentang perkauman kalau tidak kerana perkauman itu sangat berbisa dan berbahaya.

 Hadis sahihnya yang sangat tegas menyatakan:”Bukan dari umatku, mereka yang menyeru kepada assobiyah (perkauman)” adalah gambaran jelas setiap umat Islam bukan saja wajib menjauhi perkauman bahkan menentang perkauman.

Malaysia dengan beban sejarahnya sejak zaman feudal dahulu kala, hingga dijajah Inggeris dan kemudian mencapai kemerdekaan lebih setengah abad yang lalu, hingga kini, dilihat masih dibelengu oleh fahaman perkauman, terutama di luar bandar. Malah perkauman menjadi modal politik berterusan yang sangat berkesan.

Pilihan raya demi pilihan raya, fahaman perkauman ditiupkan dengan kencangnya oleh golongan tertentu. Dalam PRU di Kajang, di Bukit Gelugor dan di Teluk Intan baru-baru ini, hantu perkauman terus menyeringaikan taringnya dan sangat menakutkan.

Maka, Pakatan Rakyat perlu menjadikan usaha menentang perkauman itu sebagai agenda penting sepanjang masa.

Pada pendapat saya, dengan Dyana – seorang calon Melayu – bertanding atas tiket DAP di Teluk Intan itu, walaupun tewas, menghantar isyarat sangat jelas akan usaha DAP/Pakatan Rakyat menentang perkauman dalam apa bentukpun. Beliau meneroka politik baru di Teluk Intan.

Dalam hal ini Dyana tidak keseorangan dalam perjuangannya menentang perkauman, rasuah, salah guna kuasa dan sebagainya, justeru rakyat prihatin akan bersamanya. Untuk itu, kita ingin menyaksikan semangat Dyana ini di mana-mana dan terus menerus, kerana ia mewakili politik generasi baru. – 3 Jun, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 3 June 2014, 8:15 am and is filed under
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The BN Government should close down MAS

By Koon Yew Yin

The long term MAS price chart shows that it has dropped from Rm 2.10 in 2007 to 18 sens today. As a long term serious investor, I have had a closer look at the cheap share price. Why is it selling at 18 sen or less than one fifth of its par value?

My intention in writing this piece is to help the BN Government decide to put in the final nail  and to bury MAS so as to save tax payers’ money. Obviously the Government did not pay enough attention  to my previous articles “Why MAS share price is on cheap sale?” and “Why MAS Is Still Flying” which I published about a year ago. It will be relevant to include some of the points I mentioned in my previous article in this new one.

The latest 1st quarter 2014 ending March shows that MAS lost Rm 443 million. In 2013, 2012 and 2011 the company lost Rm 1,168 million, Rm 433 million, and Rm 2,424 million respectively. It is beyond logic as to why the Government wants to continue to use tax payers money to support MAS?

As usual, there are the incorrigibly optimistic cheerleaders for the airline who are unable to see the writing on the wall.  These ‘experts’ – including the fat cat management of MAS – are still touting that the company is in recovery mode and will soon be returning to profitability.

The market however sees the prospects for the airline differently.  During the past few days the airline share has been trading around 18 sen level.  This is about the lowest share price that the airline share has recorded during the past many years.  Without the support of government-linked funds and left to market forces alone, the share price of MAS will definitely drop to  a single digit figure.

Should the government continue to bail out MAS?

With the most recent losses, the total losses of MAS is now more than $4 billion.  In any normal business, any company incurring large and sustained losses would have closed down or gone into bankruptcy.  This has not happened to MAS yet but I think the time is right – in fact, long overdue – for the government to withdraw the open cheque book extended to MAS.

When planning the future of MAS, it is important that the government avoids not only the past mistakes but also takes a rational approach based on economic fundamentals.  One line of simplistic thinking is that there is a bright and profitable future for MAS since the number of air travelers continues to increase by about 5-7 percent per year.

But if you look at the history of airline industry profitability, this is not the case for airlines worldwide.  The fact is the airline industry requires huge capital and produces poor returns on capital employed. Hence, year after year, many airlines produce poor profit margins or outright losses.

Why is it that an industry with year-on-year rises in sales cannot generate good returns to shareholders?

It all comes down to the economic structure of the industry.  One of the forces that limit profitability is the intensity of the rivalry between the leading airlines. There is over-supply leading to pressure on prices. This is exacerbated by a high degree of freedom for new competitors to enter the industries.

If, say, an airline route between two destinations is found to be reasonably profitable it is not long before new entrants move in or current airlines simply move their planes to this profitable route.

It is truly an industry governed by the principle of “survival of the fittest” and there is no doubt that Air Asia is much fitter than MAS.

The next logical question to ask is why doesn’t the Malaysian government allow MAS to fold up or go under?

There are two main reasons:  Firstly, the perennial optimism of managers and shareholders. “Just one more chunk of money will see us break through into profitability as we rout the opposition!” seems to be the credo of these parties based on their self interest and not national interest.

Secondly, there is government interference because of the Bumiputra factor. The BN government refuses to let MAS go because of the NEP and the fear that the retrenched employees who are mainly Malay will kick up a fuss or change their support from the BN to the Pakatan. Some may say that the government’s policy makes sense politically but it is poor economics.

Close down MAS without further interference or delay is the only way forward in the national interest especially since the permanent stain left by MH 370.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 3 June 2014, 4:47 pm and is filed under
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Will Najib at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow put a stop to the Dyanaphobia which is beginning to sweep Muhyiddin’s Education Ministry?

A new phobia is sweeping the Boleh-land of Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

I will like to know whether Najib at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow will put a stop to the Dyanaphobia which is beginning to sweep the Education Ministry under the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin or whether he would also succumb to it.

Is Dyanaphobia the inevitable result of what has been described as “Dyanamania” which swept Teluk Intan and the country during the Teluk Intan by-election from May 19 – 31, although 26-year-old  DAP/PR candidate, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud lost to the Gerakan President and BN candidate, Datuk Mah Siew Keong by a wafer-thin majority of 238 votes in a record-low voter-turnout of 66.5% on polling day on May 31.

It indeed the height of irony that on the hand, the UMNO Secretary-General and Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor is urging teachers to return to politics under Barisan Nasional’s fold, conceding that the headmasters, principals and teachers were  the “real movers” of Umno, MCA, MIC and BN in the past, but on the other hand, high-ranking officials from Education Ministry were reprimanding a teacher for posting campaign posters of Dyana Sofya on Facebook.

The teacher was told to remove the Facebook posting as it was “anti-government” and her actions will be monitored.

Is this what Najib meant when he boasted that he wanted to make Malaysia the “best democracy in the world” – where teachers have only the right to take part in politics if they become the “prime movers” of Barisan Nasional but not Pakatan Rakyat, becoming practitioners of hypocrisy and double standards in front of the new generation of Malaysians they are teaching in the schools in the country?

If teachers are not allowed to put up Dyana’s posters on their Facebooks, how can headmasters, principals and teachers  be allowed to be active in Barisan Nasional to  resume their role as the “prime movers” of the UMNO, MCA and MIC as in the spread of Dyanaphobia as a counter to “Dyanamania” in the schools?

During the Teluk Intan by-election, UMNO/BN pulled out all the stops to launch the dirtiest by-election campaign of lies, falsehoods and calumny against the candidate and the DAP not only in the history of  Teluk Intan but probably in the country for fear that Dyana would be elected as MP for Teluk Intan, for Dyana symbolises everything UMNO/BN are not  – youthful and self-less  idealism for an united Malaysian nation transcending the politics of race and in pursuit of  justice, freedom, accountability, incorrupt leadership and good governance.

It is not just the one person of  Dyana Sofya whom the UMNO/BN should fear, but the tens and hundreds of thousands of “Dyana Sofyas” in Malaysia who have been inspired by the example by the DAP/PR candidate for Teluk Intan to come forward to take a stand to roar for a moderate Malaysia for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, and to dissociate themselves from all forms of racial and religious extremism in the country.

If the UMNO/BN government succumbed to Dyanaphobia, there is no clearer signal of the impending end of UMNO/BN rule in Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 3 June 2014, 5:26 pm and is filed under
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Dyanamania, Dyanaphobia and Dyanaphiles

 – OMG

The Malaysian Insider

4 June 2014

Malaysiakini reported today that high-ranking officials in the Education Ministry had called a teacher since last week, “advising” her to remove Facebook postings on Dyana Sofya which they deemed as “anti-government.”

The teacher told the Malaysiakini news portal that a special officer to the Education Ministry director-general had told her to close down her Facebook page and that she will be “watched”.

“It is indeed the height of irony that on one hand, Umno secretary-general  Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor  is urging teachers to return to politics under Barisan Nasional’s fold, conceding that the headmasters, principals and teachers were  the ‘real movers’ of Umno, MCA, MIC and BN in the past, but on the other hand, high-ranking officials from Education Ministry were reprimanding a teacher for posting campaign posters of Dyana Sofya on Facebook,” Mr Lim Kit Siang, the MP for Gelang Patah, Johor said in a statement today.

“Is Dyanaphobia the inevitable result of what has been described as “Dyanamania” which swept Teluk Intan and the country during the Teluk Intan by-election,” he asked.

My online Merriam-Webster dictionary definitions are:

1. mania: extreme enthusiasm for something that is usually shared by many people

2.  phobia: an extremely strong dislike or fear of someone or something

3. -phile: suffix used to specify some kind of attraction or affinity to something

So now we can express precisely what all the hullaballoo was about.

During the recent Teluk Intan bye-election, Ms Dyana Sofya was the DAP candidate. Ms Sofya, 27, a qualified lawyer who has been called to the Malaysian Bar, came across as personable, intelligent and witty, possessed of liberal and modern egalitarian views that match her party’s vision.

Her candidacy resulted in unexpected interest among the Malay voters in this semi-rural constituency and great interest in cyberspace. This was Dyanamania.

Although she eventually lost, the extremely narrow margin of victory by a former Minister and politician of many years’ standing, the President of Gerakan and a former incumbent of that seat, and a 3% gain in votes that Dyana received from the Malay electorate, show a significant result, one that may be ominous for Umno.

There are many Dyanaphiles in Malaysia, not just among Malays but in the general population of all races. The ruling coalition has relied too long on a simplistic formula of posturing as the party that brought independence and that can best represent Malays while arranging “power-sharing” among the races, based meanwhile on communal parties, syncretic politics (while papering-over or ignoring built-in contradictions) and demonizing opposition parties, especially  DAP as “anti-Malay.”

As the population gets increasingly better-educated and its tight control over information gets a bashing from online media and social networks, Dyana Sofya is exactly what they don’t need! Hence, a frantic call to man the battlements and search for subversives within – thus the start of Dyanaphobia.

After the General Election of 2008, the results were said to be a tsunami.

After the General Election of 2013, the Prime Minister proclaimed a Chinese tsunami, despite the statistics showing a general swing to Pakatan Rakyat.

Dyanaphiles and Dyanamania may just presage a Malay tsunami on the way. That would deliver the final devastating coup-de-grace to an ageing one-party rule.

It is fascinating to see how life imitates the sciences, especially Biology and Physics. In “The Living Planet”, naturalist Sir David Attenborough movingly describes how a great tree dies in the jungle:

“The death of a giant

“Forest trees fall eventually. Many stand for centuries but finally the sap no longer rises so strongly in the giant trunks. The aged branches, attacked by molds and fungi, riddled by tunneling insects, can no longer carry their burden of leaves and squatting plants. One big branch breaks and the tree may be fatally imbalanced. The torrential rain adds several tons to the weight of the lopsided crown. A strike of lightning will deal a final blow. Slowly the immense tree hinges over. The lianas binding it to its neighbors tighten, snap.

“Others drag at surrounding branches. As the crown topples forward with increasing speed, it tears through the canopy with a roar of sustained smashing. The first branches hit the ground, followed seconds later by the earth-shaking thundering double thump as the immense trunk hits the ground and bounces. Then there is silence.

“But the death and fall of an old tree, also brings the promise of life to the small saplings that till now had stood in its shade! Many have remained only a foot high for 10 years, waiting for this moment. Now the sun shines brightly through the gap torn in the canopy by the fall. The strong, unaccustomed light, the first they have experienced in their lives triggers their growth. Seeds that have lain dormant in the ground, rapidly sprout. All race to grow and dominate in the new space that has been created. In a decade or so, just one or two attain their full height, the canopy is closed again and the stability of the life beneath restored.”

So will it be that the fall of a once-great entity shall lead to a renewal of the nation’s political life and the empowerment of its citizenry.

As Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said, the day before she was assassinated on  October 31, 1984: “If I should be killed, every drop of my blood shall invigorate my country.”

Death and renewal are the age-old rhythm of societies as they are of individual lives. We need not fear the passing of the once-great. We should only worry that we are afraid to face the light of the Truth as it streams down from above.

Facing the Great Depression in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his Inauguration Address told the American people: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Meaning: face our fears to begin the process of overcoming them. – June 4, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 4 June 2014, 10:22 am and is filed under
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Selangor MB Khalid gives assurance there will be no repetition of Jais disruption of Hindu wedding

Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim has given assurance that there will be no repetition of Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) disruption of a Hindu wedding, as happened on Sunday when Jais took away a bride from a Hindu wedding ceremony at a temple in Shah Alam on suspicion that she is a Muslim.

I met Khalid earlier today to express the outrage of moderate Malaysians, whether Muslims or non-Muslims, at Jais’ high-handed and unacceptable raid on Sunday, which tantamount to disrespect and  interference with the affairs of other religions in the country.

Jais was acting in a most insensitive and offensive manner when it stopped the Hindu wedding ceremony after it received a tip-off that the 32-year-old bride named Zarena Abdul Majid is a Muslim.

It is now established that Zarena was born and raised as a Hindu but her name was registered by her estranged father who had converted to Islam.

Malaysians must not be held hostage by irresponsible elements in our midst who want to spread the alarm that Islam is under attack, when there is no basis whatsoever for such a message. Islam, or any other religion in the country, is not under attack!

Malaysia must continue to be a model of multi-religious society where the great religions in the world can flourish in peace, harmony, tolerance and acceptance by 30 million Malaysians.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 4 June 2014, 4:06 pm and is filed under
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The greatest enemy to Najib’s 1Malaysia Policy are the cancer organisations like Isma which preaches the  politics of hate, intolerance,  lies and racism

When I came across the Malaysiakini report yesterday entitled
“Rid nation of cancer called DAP, says Isma”
, I tweeted:
“Real Cancer talking!”
.

This is because the greatest enemy to Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Policy to build a nation where everyone regards himself or herself as Malaysian first and race, religion, region and socio-economic status second are cancer organisations like Isma which preaches the politics of hate, intolerance,  lies and racism.

For instance, Isma attacked the defeat of the DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud  in the Teluk Intan by-election as “the failure of the Chinese-dominated party to use a Malay as a mask to hide its chauvinism”, disseminating the preposterous lie that the “real struggle of DAP is to abolish the special rights of the Malays and bumiputera, which ruins harmony in the nation”.

Isma wants the DAP “like cancer”  to be “cast out from the local political landscape”.

This is an example of the Dyanaphobia which have afflicted Isma and such like organisations which thrive on the politics of hate, intolerance, lies and racism because of the candidature of Dyana Sofya in the Teluk Intan by-election.

They are panicking because they find their message of hatred, intolerance, lies and racism are facing a diminishing market and more and more Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region want to see a new Malaysia uniting all Malaysians and transcending the politics of  race, hatred and lies.

It is fortunate that it  is not the  extremist and hate organisations like Isma, but the voters of Malaysia, who will decide whether the DAP is banished from the political landscape.

In fact, the 48-year history of the DAP is testimony that the DAP is increasingly relevant to the future of Malaysia and that it is the extremist organisations like Isma which are facing extinction because they depend on the message of  hatred, intolerance, lies and racism for survival.

Dyana Sofya is not the first Malay candidate to be nominated by the DAP.

Even before the first general elections contested by the DAP in the 1969 general elections, the DAP had fielded a Malay candidate Daing Ibrahim Othman in the Tampoi by-election in 1967.

In the 1969 general election DAP fielded nine Malay candidates and two won on its ticket, namely Ibrahim Singgeh who was elected as the Perak State Assemblyman for Tapah Road and Hassan Ahmad who became the Negri Sembilan State Assemblyman for Si Rusa.

Daing Ibrahim Othman was the DAP parliamentary candidate for Johore Bahru Barat and State Assembly candidate for Tampoi  but lost respectively  to the then Alliance candidates, Mohamed bin Rahmat and Ellas bin Udin.

Subsequently in the 1974 GE Mohd Salleh Nakhoda Itam and Daing Ibrahim Othman won the Guntong and Pasir Puteh state seats in Perak respectively.

In the 1978 GE, DAP fielded a record number of Malay candidates, nine at the parliamentary level and 36 at state level. However only Mohd Salleh Nakhoda Itam won the Guntong state seat.

In the 1982 and 86 GE, Fadzlan Yahza was elected DAP State Assemblyman for Pasir Bedamar.

In the 1990 GE, DAP’s Ahmad Nor became the first Malay candidate for the party to win a parliamentary seat, winning the Bayan Baru parliamentary seat in Penang while Mohd Asri Othman was elected DAP State Assemblyman for Dermawan in Perak.

In GE13, DAP Malay candidates achieved the best results yet. Zairil Khir Johari won the Bukit Bendera parliamentary seat in Penang, while Mohd Ariff Sabri and Tengku Zulpuri won the Raub parliamentary seat and Mentakab state in Pahang respectively. Ariffin Omar is the senator for DAP representing Penang in the Dewan Negara (Senate).

The fear of Isma and such-like organisations is not that the DAP is anti-Malay but that we will find increasing acceptance among the Malay electorate because DAP is never anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Malay Rulers – the lies they keep disseminating to drive the Malays away from the DAP.

But facts and truth will triumph eventually against lies and falsehoods.

As the DAP has demonstrated right from our formation in 1966, the DAP does not want a Chinese Malaysia, Indian Malaysia, Malay Malaysia, Kadazan Malaysia or Iban Malaysia but  a Malaysia for all Malaysians.

Malaysia will always be a plural society.  We will always be proud to be Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans, but let us be prouder as Malaysians.

This in a nutshell is what the Malaysian Dream is all about, and what extremist organisations like Isma are trying to frustrate, like King Canute trying  to stop the coming of the tide.

                                                                Lim Kit Siang

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 4 June 2014, 12:39 pm and is filed under
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Dyna Sofya Shoots Down A Political Frog

Koon Yew Yin

5 June 2014

Two years ago I wrote a piece titled
“Dissecting Tunku Abdul Aziz”
 in which I wrote that Tunku Aziz was a conservative and pro-establishment figure right from his early days. Also contrary to the public persona that he was trying to cultivate that he has always been an independent and neutral public figure, he was in fact an insider in the corporate world who had benefited from opportunistic moves in advancing his career. It was not ideals that motivated the man but really his super-sized ego and concern for status.

Thus it was was not surprising to me that after a short stint in the opposition, he quickly moved back to the political center right where he has always belonged. My conclusion after his futile attempt to repair his damaged image was as follows:

But what I and most Malaysians find completely unacceptable, objectionable and disgusting is Tunku Aziz’s transformation from being the vice chairman of the largest opposition party to being Prime Minister Najib Razak’s cheerleader.

He has now gone on record to say: “What the prime minister has done now is the right thing and we need to support him”.

He has also said that Najib’s transformation process for change and improving the democratic process would certainly take time.

Earlier, Tunku Aziz was one of those who said that more than enough time had already been given to BN and Najib in ruling the country. Now, he has changed his tune.

To my mind this political somersault is unprecedented in the annals of Malaysian political history….It is tantamount to saying “Vote for the BN” despite all the corruption and abuses of human rights and democracy from someone who claimed that he was anti-Barisan.

No wonder Najib, Muhyiddin Yassin and Dr Mahathir Mohamad are praising him to the sky and using him as part of their anti-DAP and anti-Chinese rhetoric.

However, given that these same BN leaders and media have condemned him so strongly in the past, Malaysians can see through the double talk and hypocrisy of the BN and Tunku Aziz.

It is time for everyone to move on. Tunku Aziz can tend to his ornamental fish. And the Malaysian public should focus on the many serious problems that plague our society and which in my opinion. Tunku Aziz warrants only a small footnote at most when the final report comes in.

Cynical Old Man Vs Young Idealist

Many Malaysians, including myself, had thought that we had heard the last of this sorry character whose political integrity has been in tatters. We were wrong.

Tunku Aziz has now emerged from his ornamental fish pond to denounce Dyna Sofya who recently stood as the DAP candidate in the recent Teluk Intan by election. He is, of course, not the first Malay critic of Dyna whose entry into the political world has electrified  the Malay community. Is there any thing new or original in what Tunku Aziz has to say of a young Malay who has made the momentous decision – as he did some years ago – to join the opposition instead of taking the easy route to political leadership by jumping on the bandwagon of the ruling coalition?

Basically nothing  as he is simply repeating the same line of racist attack used by UMNO leaders and other right wing Malay leaders. However, in doing so and in attacking Dyna for suggesting that the university she graduated from – UITM – be opened to young Malaysians of all races instead of making it an exclusive Malay and Bumiputra enclave, he is showing the racist side of his character, previously cleverly concealed beneath his facade of superficial cosmopolitanism.

Those who knew Tungku Aziz previously have always known that his Malay supremacy mindset is not very much different from that of Perkasa’s. Now it is out in the open for all Malaysians to view.

Dyna’s Response to Tunku Aziz

The emperor has paraded again without his clothes; and who better to expose him than Dyna herself, the present source of his nightmares. In her response titled “You are wrong, Tunku Aziz” she acknowledges that she is young but as she puts it “I know who are the hypocrites, who are racists”.

In her own words on why she joined the opposition and the DAP, she writes

“I understand and admire the struggle of its leaders, and its principle of multi-culturalism. I appreciate its consistency in standing up for all Malaysians, regardless of race and religion. I believe in its principle of doing what is right, despite the risks and repercussions.

I joined without the intention of being appointed into any position. I simply wanted to be with like-minded people, sharing a vision and mission, and partake in the struggle for a better Malaysia.”

On Tunku Aziz’s attempt to question her Malayness, Dyna had this to say.

“I am proud to be Malay. I am proud of my roots and heritage. However, I don’t believe in abusing it at the expense of other Malaysians.”

And in a reversal of role, like a mother lecturing to a young son, she chided someone three times her age (though her junior in wisdom!) in the following fashion.

“I have never felt truly Malaysian until after I joined DAP. Perhaps if Tunku Aziz spent more time with us in the grassroots, he would have agreed too. We might have our differences, but that doesn’t mean one should leave the family every time disagreements emerge. Unlike some, I have far more conviction than to simply quit because I failed to get elected, or appointed, or because of dissatisfaction over a wedding kenduri.”

Tunku Aziz: A Lost Cause

Unfortunately, Tunku Aziz is a lost cause. Unlike Dyna and her friends, he does not “share the same love for our nation, vision, mission, principles, and understanding” Unlike her, he is not able to see that “if all Malaysians focused on our similarities rather than our differences, then we could all see the world the same way Standard 1 kids do – skin colour blind.”

He is a frog whose whole world revolves around his Barisan well. Except for that brief span of time he spent away from it, he has lived in it all his life and cannot think of a world without the hypocrisy and racism that is synonymous with the BN.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 June 2014, 10:30 pm and is filed under
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Emirates’ Clark Sees MH370 Investigation Deficiencies

Jens Flottau

Aviation Week

Jun 3, 2014

Emirates Airline President Tim Clark is demanding more transparency in the investigation of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. “We are the largest operator of the Boeing 777 in the world. I need to know how anybody could interdict our systems,” Clark told Aviation Week in an interview on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) annual general assembly in Doha, Qatar. “Something is not right here and we need to get to the bottom of it.”

Clark criticized how the investigation into the disappearance of the Malaysian Boeing 777 has been handled. “There have been many questions unanswered or dealt with in a manner that is unacceptable to the forensic nature of the inquiry.” He believes that “this aircraft was disabled in three primary systems. To be able to disable those requires a knowledge of the system which even our pilots in Emirates don’t know how to do. Somebody got on board and knew exactly what they were up to.”

Clark also does not believe that the aircraft was not seen when it flew over land in Malaysia after its initial unplanned left turn. “The notion that the track of an aircraft going across the Malaysian peninsula was not picked up on primary radar, sorry, I don’t subscribe to that view.”

The Emirates President is also skeptical about the industry initiatives on flight tracking. “We have never lost an aeroplane in 50 years, we have always known where they are. Whoever was clever enough to interdict the system, will be able to interdict this one as well.” To Clark, tracking is not the main issue: “the first thing you need to do is do not allow anybody on board to disable ACARS – job done.”

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 June 2014, 12:32 pm and is filed under
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Hindu group to sue NRD for ignoring bride’s plea on religious status

by Pathma Subramaniam

The Malay Mail Online

June 5, 2014

Kuala Lumpur June 5 — The Malaysia Hindu Sangam, the country’s main advisory body on Hindu worship, said it plans to sue the National Registration Department (NRD) for refusing to change the state religion of Zarinah Abdul Majid, the woman at the centre of the latest row over faith conversions here.

Its president, Datuk R. S. Mohan Shan, said as a public institution, the NRD is obliged to at least investigate the religious background of Zarinah, who alleged that she was unilaterally converted to Islam by her estranged father as a child.

He said the government department should not have delegated its duties to the religious authorities.

“We are looking for lawyers to help us seek legal recourse because they have denied her the right to explain why she wants to leave Islam,” Mohan Shan told The Malay Mail Online.

He said the NRD rejected Zarinah’s first application to switch her religious status in 2007 because she failed to obtain her father’s signature.

In her second attempt, made just months ago, Zarinah’s application was completely ignored, he added.

“If they leave it to the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) or the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) to investigate, surely she will not be able to get a favourable response,” said Mohan Shan.

On Sunday, Jais arrived unannounced at Zarinah’s Hindu wedding ceremony in a temple in Sungai Way after it received a tip-off that the 32-year-old bride is a Muslim.

According to Mohan Shan, the bride went ahead with the ceremony but ended up being escorted out before the reception at the temple.

He alleged that Jais has since interrogated Zarinah and her Hindu mother.

“When I spoke to her she said Jais had requested that she sticks to her current religion, which indirectly means they now want her husband to convert,” he claimed.

“How is this freedom to practise one’s religion?”

Zarinah had reportedly tried to have her marriage registered under the Malaysian Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 before pushing ahead with the Hindu marriage ritual, but it was declined as it does not apply to Muslims.

She has claimed that she and her siblings were secretly converted by her Muslim convert father when they were children, but they have long been practising Hindus since their father divorced their mother and abandoned the family over 20 years ago.

Jais deputy director Ahmad Zaki Arshad was earlier reported to have said they were investigating the case under Section 10 of the Shariah Criminal Enactment (Selangor) 1995, for insulting or bringing disrepute to Islam.

Jakim had last year said that a marriage between a Muslim and non-Muslim is “completely prohibited” and against the principle of beliefs of Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah — the prevailing Islamic philosophy in Malaysia.

The Selangor government, which also oversees Jais, admonished the religious authority for the “embarrassing” episode and has instructed it to assist Zarinah in changing her religious status as the latter “was never a practising Muslim”.

Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said Jais breached standard operating procedures in raiding the wedding held over the weekend.

Attempts to reach Zarinah have been futile. Her sister told The Malay Mail Online that she is unwilling to speak to the media.

“We will speak to you later, we can’t now,” said another male relative who answered Zarinah calls yesterday.

The bride, whose name was given as Zarina Abdullah Majid in a statement from the Selangor mentri besar’s office, has also been spelled Zarina Abdul Majid and Zareena Abdul Majib in other news reports.

The Malay Mail Online has not been able to reach either the bride or Jais to confirm her real name.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 June 2014, 7:55 am and is filed under
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Jais acting like Taliban, says ex-Perlis mufti Asri

MD IZWAN

The Malaysian Insider

5 June 2014

The Selangor Islamic authorities’ action to disrupt a Hindu wedding on suspicion that the bride was a Muslim is akin to “Talibanisation”, says well-known scholar and former Perlis mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin.

Asri rebuked the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) for raiding a Hindu temple in Petaling Jaya where the wedding was conducted, warning that the Islamic authority that it had, by its action, tarnished the image of Islam.

“Jais should be careful in what they do because their actions have given the wrong image not only to Malaysians, but to the world.

“Day by day, the global community is seeing much of the world leaning towards ‘Talibanisation’ because of such actions,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Asri said Jais was naive in its handling of the incident, which would have given rise to all kinds of misunderstandings among Malaysians.

“There are already so many issues which have given a negative image and caused misunderstandings not only among non-Muslims, but with Muslims as well.”

He added that Jais’s actions were a direct contradiction of the Wasatiyah campaign promoted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Officers from Jais on Sunday reportedly interrupted the wedding at a Hindu temple after receiving reports that the bride, 32-year-old Zarinah Abdul Majid, could be a Muslim.

Checks on Zarinah’s MyKad showed that she was Muslim, and Jais officers took her away for questioning.

The department acted under Selangor’s Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988, which outlines offences deemed as acts of proselytisation by non-Muslims towards Muslims, and grants Jais the power to launch investigations and arrest individuals without a warrant.

However, the bride said her father, who had abandoned the family, had registered her as a Muslim but she grew up as a Hindu.

Asri also criticised Jais for its lack of professionalism in handling the issue, and questioned the need to conduct the raid while the wedding ceremony was going on.

“Religion is not forced, this is the modern era. Jais should have conducted their investigations earlier and interviewed the bride beforehand.

“Why couldn’t Jais call the bride and question her prior to the wedding ceremony?”

He said Jais could have resolved the issue earlier when they received the tip-off, and there was no need to wait until the wedding day to conduct the raid.

Asri called for a careful review of cases where parents had converted to Islam, saying times have changed.

“In the old days, when a person renounced Islam, there were elements of treachery.

“Obviously, the penalties are heavy, not only for Islam but even for Christianity.

“We must discuss these issues pertaining to the reality and environment which we are living in now,” he said.

Lawyer Syahredzan Johan said the issue had arisen because of unilateral conversion, which had yet to be addressed by Putrajaya.

“The issue here is when a single parent, either the mother or father, has the right to decide their children’s religion.

“Further study and research must be carried out on this issue to avoid future incidents of a similar nature.”

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad joined the chorus of criticism against Jais over its actions, and told the state religious body yesterday to refer to the Quran.

“Such incidents have happened because they have not adhered to the teachings of the Quran,” said Dr Mahathir. – June 5, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 June 2014, 7:46 am and is filed under
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Muslim woman who married a Hindu refuses to back down

by V. Anbalagan, Assistant News Editor

The Malaysian Insider

4 June 2014

For the last seven years, Zarinah Abdul Majid had been making frequent trips to the Shariah Court and the National Registration Department (NRD) hoping to remove the word “Islam” from her identity card, as she is not a practising Muslim.

She said she spent thousands of ringgit hiring lawyers to help but it was all in vain.

Zarinah then took a bold step – she decided she was going to marry the man of her dreams, a Hindu – and that too, in a temple on Sunday.

“I was not afraid any more. I was fed up and could not wait any longer. I am getting old and I want a family of my own,” she told The Malaysian Insider, speaking in Tamil.

On Sunday, the 32-year-old factory worker had the “thali” tied around the neck by her boyfriend of seven years, in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony in a temple in Petaling Jaya.

She had invited 400 guests and spent more than RM30,000 on the ceremony and the reception that followed.

But the reception did not go as planned as enforcement officers from the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais), accompanied by policemen, took her away to question her about her religious status.

“Most of my guests were shocked and obviously, they left without eating. It was so embarrassing and painful,” she told The Malaysian Insider.

The Malaysian Hindu Sangam, Bar Council, Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) and civil society condemned Jais and the police for “trespassing” into the temple and disrupting the ceremony.

Zarinah was released later but she told The Malaysian Insider that she was not backing down.

“Although I carry a Muslim name, I am a practising Hindu. I also follow the customs and culture strictly,” she said in a telephone interview.

Zarinah said her parents who were Hindus were married in 1980. The father was known as S. Mahendran and mother, S. Vasandamma.

“Later, my father was converted to Islam by a relative and he carried the Muslim name, Abdul Majid,” she said.

Zarinah said her mother remained a Hindu.

She said as a result, she and three other siblings were identified as Muslims in their birth certificates and MyKad.

Zarinah said after the birth of her brother in 1990, their father left the home and never returned.

“My mother did not realise that we were Muslims because she is illiterate. But the family only practised the Hindu faith,” said Zarinah, who lived with her family in Sungai Way.

Zarinah said over the last 20 years, the family members had seen many lawyers to find a solution to their problem but it turned out to be an exercise in futility.

“We would have spent about RM20,000 in legal fees alone but nothing has changed. On paper, we are still Muslims,” she said, sounding disappointed.

Zarinah said she met her husband seven years ago and made another attempt to get out of this quagmire.

From the little knowledge she gained from the lawyers she had met and advice from friends, Zarinah went to the Shariah Court to get an order to renounce the faith.

“I was told that the court has to issue a certificate for NRD to delete the word Islam in the identity card,” she said.

“All I can say was that I was given the run around by the officials and it was frustrating at times.”

Zarinah said she could not register her marriage under civil law for as long the word “Muslim” appeared in the MyKad.

She finally decided to go through the traditional wedding as “age was catching up and I want have a family”.

“My husband managed to tie the ‘thali’ to signify that we are married,” said Zarinah who was dressed in a saree before she was taken away by Jais officials to Shah Alam for questioning.

She was freed about 2pm after her statement was recorded.

Zarinah said her guests were shocked.

“Even my Muslims friends privately confided that what happened in the temple was uncalled for as Jais officials could have called me in for questioning later.”

Zarinah said she knew the culprit who tipped off the authorities about the marriage ceremony but added it could be a blessing in disguise.

“All this while, I was fighting a losing battle to exert my rights which many people did not know. I hope justice will now be done since my problem has now gone public.”

    I spent so much money and time working on this problem and now they are telling me to do the same thing.

Meanwhile, Jais had denied raiding or disrupting Zarinah’s wedding ceremony.

Deputy director-general of Jais Ahmad Zaki Arshad said they were only investigating complaints from the public and took a statement from the bride to ascertain her religious status.

He said the department had followed proper procedures.

“This was not a raid or an operation. We only conducted routine checks and asked the IC holder whether she is a Muslim,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Zarinah said Jais told her to change her name and religion to avoid being dragged to court for apostasy.

“But that was what I was trying to do for years. I spent so much money and time working on this problem and now they are telling me to do the same thing.”

Zarinah said there was a possibility that she could be charged with insulting Islam if the problem was not solved quickly. – June 4, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 June 2014, 7:38 am and is filed under
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Najib should set up a Cabinet committee comprising Home Ministry, NRD and the various state Islamic authorities to provide speedy resolution and rescue from limbo a few hundred cases of Malaysians  who were mistakenly registered as Muslims in b/c or i/c

The Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim should give his personal attention to ensure that the Selangor Islamic Department (Jais), which disrupted the Hindu wedding ceremony of factory worker Zarinah Abdul Majid, 32, at a Shah Alam temple on Sunday, make recompense by assisting Zarinah to change her religious status in her identity card  as she had been a practising Hindu all her life.

Khalid should ask Jais to give him a weekly report until Zarinah’s problem had been resolved and succeeded in changing to  her true religious status.

Jais’ high-handed, arrogant  and insensitive action on Sunday in disrupting Zarinah’s wedding ceremony at the Hindu temple in Shah Alam is a “no-no” which shows no respect for other religions in the country and bring disrepute to Malaysia internationally  and must never be repeated.

Jais can investigate into complaints but it must never be done in a manner which violates or trespasses the sanctity of other religions and brings ill-repute to Malaysia’s international reputation.

Moderate and right-thinking Malaysians,  both Muslims and non-Muslims, are outraged by the high-handed action by Jais, with the Selangor Mentri Besar describing it as an “embarrassment” while the  former Perlis mufti Datuk Dr. Mohd Asri Zainual Abidin has likened it as akin to “Talibanisation”.

The most recent Jais action is undoubtedly  a most negative and destructive development which not only undermines inter-religious harmony and relations in plural Malaysia but stains the country’s international reputation as a model multi-religious nation.

Arising from the high-handed Jais action, I want  to make two proposals:

Firstly, the Selangor Executive Council should set up a special committee involving Jais to help resolve all Zarinah-like cases in the state to end the  hardships and  sufferings caused by bureaucratic obstacles to resolving problems caused by wrong and mistaken registration of a person as a Muslim in birth certificates or identity cards when the person involved had never been a Muslim;

Secondly, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should set up a Cabinet committee comprising Home Ministry, NRD and the various state Islamic authorities to provide speedy resolution and rescue from limbo the  few hundred cases of mistakenly registration of the persons concerned  as Muslims in   birth certificates or identity cards.

A recent case highlighted by Astro Awani concerns an error which occurred nineteen years ago on the identity card of Johann Lim Nordin which has caused a lot of inconvenience and heartache for him.

On his official identity card, his full name is stated as Johann Lim Noordin bin Billy Noordin while his birth certificate states his name as Johann Lim Noordin .

By religion, Johann is a Buddhist and has never been a Muslim.

Pronounced as Yo-han, this 32-year old Chindian from Penang has been unable to get this error resolved with the National Registration Department (NRD) since he was 13-years-old.

In the last communication from the NRD last month, the department suggested for Johan to obtain an official letter from the Syariah Court stating that he is not a Muslim!

It does not speak well for Najib’s Government Transformation Programme when such mistakes of wrong and mistaken entries whether in birth certificates or identity cards about the religious status of a person seems impossible of rectification, causing untold hardships, inconvenience and even  sufferings to the victims concerned.

Islam  is not under attack even with the rectification of the hundreds of cases of wrong and mistaken registration in birth certificates or identity cards of holders as Muslims when they are not.

Can Najib explain why it is so impossible under his administration to resolve these few hundred cases causing so much hardships, inconvenience and even sufferings especially as he preaches the concept of wasatiyah to reflect his commitment to uphold justice and harmony in Malaysia?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 June 2014, 2:28 pm and is filed under
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Sailor may have seen flight MH370 on fire

New Zealand Herald

Jun 4, 2014

A British woman who was sailing near Indonesia at the time Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared says she believes she saw the plane “burning” and billowing smoke before it crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

An eye-witness account from yachting enthusiast Katherine Tee, 41, has now been filed with the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) leading the search, based in Australia, which is yet to find any trace of the missing jet.

In her account, Ms Tee has described seeing “an elongated plane glowing bright orange, with a trail of black smoke behind it”, heading from north to south.

The object was flying at “about half the height” of two other flights in the same patch of sky at the time, she said, in a series of posts detailing the sighting on the yachting website Cruisers Forum, where Ms Tee is a moderator.

She later told the Phuket Gazette that she initially dismissed the incident as being “just a meteor” or even a figment of her imagination – until a recent check of GPS logs confirmed that the plane’s projected track may have taken it very close to where the yacht was sailing at the time.

Ms Tee’s 50-year-old husband Marc posted the data maps from their journey to the forum, where other members suggested it was very possible she could have been the last person to see the plane before it headed south into very remote seas.

“This is what convinced me to file a report with the full track data for our voyage to the relevant authorities,” she said.

As for whether or not what Ms Tee saw really was a burning plane, she has admitted on the forum that she was going through a particularly stressful part of the journey at the time, including difficulties in her marriage, and that her judgement may have been impaired.

“I saw something that looked like a plane on fire. That’s what I thought it was. Then, I thought I must be mad… It caught my attention because I had never seen a plane with orange lights before, so I wondered what they were,” she said.

“There were two other planes passing well above it – moving the other way – at that time. They had normal navigation lights. I remember thinking that if it was a plane on fire that I was seeing, the other aircraft would report it.”

When the pair arrived in Phuket everyone was talking about the missing jet, and asked if they had seen anything. Ms Tee said she told them what had happened, but that she “didn’t think anyone would believe me when I was having trouble believing my own eyes”.

“I didn’t even consider putting out a Mayday at the time. Imagine what an idiot I would have looked like if I was mistaken, and I believed I was.”

She has now filed two reports to the JACC, which she said had replied to say her data logs would be looked into. The Phuket Gazette reported that officials are yet to confirm the account will be investigated in full.

Ms Tee said the best she hoped for in coming forward was that she might help narrow down the search effort and see the plane recovered sooner.

“Will this help the authorities of the families get closure? I have no idea,” she said.

“All I can confirm is that I have since learnt that we were in the right place at the right time, so it seems possible, but I chose to sweep it under the carpet and now I feel really bad.

“Maybe I should have had a little more confidence in myself. I am sorry I didn’t take action sooner.”

– The Independent

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 June 2014, 9:44 am and is filed under
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Teachers’ right to support political party of their choice, say teachers, NGOs

by Elizabeth Zachariah

The Malaysian Insider

4 June 2014

Teachers should not be compelled to only support Barisan Nasional as they have the right to support any political party of their choice, educationists said today.

“Teachers are just like any other citizen in the country. And like other professionals, they have political opinions too,” said Hashim Adnan, president of the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP), in response to Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor’s call to teachers to return to politics under BN’s fold.

“They should be given freedom to exercise their rights,” he added.

PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil, meanwhile, described Tengku Adnan’s statement as a move to use teachers for narrow political interests and to politicise education.

“Tengku Adnan’s statement is nothing more than to make teachers Umno-BN propagandists. This is an unhealthy development for the future of education in the country, and goes against the basic philosophy and raison d’etre of the National Education Blueprint promoted by the Education Ministry,” he said in a statement today.

Echoing him, Suara Guru Masyarakat Malaysia head Mohd Nor Izzat Mohd Johari said restrictions in politics showed that Malaysia’s claim of practising democracy was not true.

“We see many forms of restraint when it comes to politics and teachers especially, if one moves even slightly away from BN,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

“This has been happening for so long, when a teacher shows interest in politics that is not BN, they immediately get transferred.

Nor Izzat, who was once slapped a transfer order for going against Putrajaya’s school-based assessment (SBA), said the government was now worried as there was a growing number of teachers supporting the opposition.

“If the government is more open about this, I am certain teachers will come back to support them but with all these restraints, we are just sick of it,” said Nor Izzat, who was transferred to a rural school in Pahang about 80km from his previous school in Jerantut, after planning a rally to protest against the implementation of the SBA, last February.

After failing to to reverse the transfer order, Nor Izzat is now teaching at the new school, commuting almost 200km daily from his home.

He criticised the Education Ministry for exercising the same power over a teacher who was ordered to remove her Facebook page after she posted campaign posters of DAP’s Teluk Intan by-election candidate, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.

“This is the same thing. It is such an unhealthy environment. What they’re doing now isn’t going to get teachers to support them.

“We, too, as citizens want the freedom to choose which political party to support and we are angry that we are not given this,” he added.

High-ranking officials in the Education Ministry had reportedly “advised” a teacher to remove her “anti-government” Facebook postings in support of Dyana Sofya.

The teacher told a news portal that a special officer to the ministry’s director-general told her to close down her Facebook page, and that she would be “watched”.

Meanwhile, Hashim said while it was good that teachers were allowed to join politics, they should not carry their political views into the classroom.

“It’s good if they want to join politics. But they must know how to divide their time and attention. The classroom must be out of bounds.

“They cannot bring politics into the classroom and brainwash students. They must also guarantee that their political ideas are not spread to students which could cause hatred among them,” he added. – June 4, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 June 2014, 8:49 am and is filed under
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Teluk Intan – As we missed winning the Battle for the Moment, we must ensure victory in the Battle for the Ages

During yesterday’s  thanksgiving walkabout in Teluk Intan with by-election candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud together with DAP Perak and Teluk Intan leaders, I was asked by the press whether I had any regrets with the nomination of Dyana as the candidate.

Definitely not. As I told the press, we wanted to win the Battle of the Moment, but we also wanted to win the Battle of the Ages. 爭朝夕爭千秋

Although we suffered the setback of losing the Battle of the Moment with a razor-thin majority of 238 votes, it is all the more imperative that we should gird ourselves to ensure that we can triumph in the larger Battle of the Ages.

What Dyana and I find most heartening in our walkabout yesterday was the words of encouragement by the voters of Teluk Intan of all races, who advised Dyana not to be too upset by  the setback of a defeat in the Teluk Intan by-election but to “live to fight another day” for the new politics of  justice, freedom, accountability and good governance which is free from the politics of race.

Dyana’s candidature in Teluk Intan has signaled a new phase of Malaysian politics to break the gridlock of the politics of race which had shaped Malaysian electoral politics for over half a century.

We are now seeing a new awakening among  Malaysian youths to go beyond the politics of  race, but which is resisted and opposed by the Umno old guards who are pulling out all the stops to frustrate the forces of awakening and change.

The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and UMNO MP for Pulai, Nur Jazlan, was perceptive when he wrote:

“’By losing a battle you find new way to win the war’. Ungkapan Inggeris ini, kini digunakan pucuk pimpinan dan pakar strategi pakatan pembangkang dalam merencanakan serta memikirkan strategi baru bagi menghadapi BN dan Umno.

“DAP sedar keputusan meletakkan Dyana dalam PRK Teluk Intan sebenarnya, adalah pertaruhan paling besar yang dibuat parti berkenaan selepas mendapat kejayaan cemerlang dalam PRU13 lalu.

“Bagaimanapun, mereka juga sedar kemenangan dengan calon ‘favorite’ parti berkenaan tidak akan mengubah sebarang status quo di Dewan Rakyat atau menumbangkan BN sebagai kerajaan pemerintah.

“Mereka (DAP) sama sekali sedar ‘habuan’ paling utama yang dinantikan adalah PRU14 dan sebab itu, parti yang sering dilabelkan ‘cauvinis’ itu, mengambil pendekatan untuk ‘test the water’.

“Bagi DAP walaupun kalah di Teluk Intan, parti berkenaan sudah mempunyai ‘bintang’ baru yang sudah pasti diketengahkan dalam PRU14 lalu, dan tidak perlu bersusah payah lagi untuk memperkenalkan Dyana kepada pengundi.

“PRK P76 menjadi gelanggang terbaik untuk memperkenalkan Dyana di pentas politik Malaysia, dan dengan segala pujian, kritikan dan cemuhan yang dihadapi gadis Melayu profesional berusia 27 tahun ini, saya perlu akui seluruh Malaysia sudah mengenalinya.

“Satu hakikat yang sebenarnya, gagal dieksploitasi sepenuhnya oleh BN serta Umno dalam memperkenalkan calon muda bagi menghadapi PRU14 dan sudah pasti Dyana boleh bertanding di mana-mana sahaja di semenanjung Malaysia termasuk bertanding berlawan dengan saya di kerusi Parlimen Pulai (sememangnya tidak asing bagi Dyana).

“Terus terang saya katakan dalam usia 27 tahun, Dyana sudah mendapat segala publisiti yang diperlukan dalam menyiapkan diri menjadi wakil rakyat DAP dalam PRU14 dan jika dibandingkan dengan diri saya pada usia berkenaan terpilih sebagai exco Pemuda Umno Malaysia pada 1996, namun, tiada siapa mengenali saya kecuali sebagai anak arwah Tok Mat, setiausaha agung Umno ketika itu.

“Inilah kelebihan yang diperoleh Dyana dan DAP bagi menghadapi PRU14 dan untuk seorang ‘rookie’ tetapi berjaya mendapat jumlah undi sebanyak 19,919, ia tetap sesuatu yang membanggakan bagi seorang calon ‘payung terjun’.

“Sesuatu yang perlu dibimbangi Umno, adalah peningkatan undi Melayu yang diterima Dyana dalam PRK Teluk Intan dan ia membuktikan pengundi Melayu kini, tidak lagi mengundi berasaskan parti tetapi turut mengambil kira soal bangsa calon berkenaan.”

But it is the  former press secretary of second Prime Minister Tun Razak and former UMNO Youth exco member, Ahmad Mustapha Hassan, who delivered the coup de grace for UMNO  in his latest article  “Umno growing more infantile in its words and deeds”. He  wrote:

“Umno’s successor Umno Baru has outlived its usefulness to the Malays and has also outlived the positive role it has played for the entire nation and its people.

“It is now an outdated political party due to its inability to rejuvenate with new blood and keep up with the times. This can be seen from the comments and statements being made by its present crop of leaders, showing lack of intelligence and sobriety.

“Even a young leader like Khairy Jamaluddin who is well educated has to come out in the spotlight with his rather stupid comment that the DAP candidate for Teluk Intan lacked experience. He has to be reminded that he was passed over when BN formed a new cabinet under Datuk Seri Najib Razak although he was head of Umno Youth…

“It is now replaced by a servile and sycophantic mentality. That is the reason why young, educated and intelligent Malays shun Umno Baru. They have no time and inclination for a party with such attitude and behaviour. Instead of having bright and intelligent members, Umno Youth is now infiltrated by thugs and gangsters.

“DAP has a sizeable crop of young, intelligent, educated and purposeful cadres of Malaysians. PAS also has a number of bright young members and so does PKR. But this has not been the case with Umno. The party and its leaders have adopted an arrogant stance as if Malaysians owe them a living.

“It is time Malaysians showed them the door to exit the political scene forever.”

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 June 2014, 5:09 pm and is filed under
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Attacking DAP, Dyana not heroism, Zaid tells UiTM, ‘defenders of Malay race’

The Malay Mail Online

June 6, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 — Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and those who fashion themselves “defenders of the Malay race” can be true heroes by working to end the country’s socio-economic ills and not in attacking the DAP or Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said.

The former de facto law minister took to his blog yesterday to defend the largely-Chinese party and its rising Malay star, observing the vitriol released by UiTM lecturers, administrators and other graduates during the 12-day campaigning for the May 31 May Teluk Intan polls that ended with the DAP’s loss to Barisan Nasional (BN).

“Perhaps they think this enhances their profiles and makes them suitable for promotion and contract extensions because they are ‘champions of the Malays’, but they are actually doing a disservice to academia generally,” wrote Zaid.

An alumnus of the university, the one-time de facto law minister noted the savagery of the attacks against Dyana, the DAP’s 26-year-old candidate in the Perak by-election and against her party, and said the display showed a marked departure from the original aim of UiTM’s promoters, which he said was to help the Bumiputera become world-class professionals.

The “racial indoctrination” at the Bumiputera-preferential university had gone overboard, he said, adding that the campaign of hate-painting the DAP as anti-Malay and Dyana as a “traitor” to her own race for aligning herself with a Chinese-majority party “made no sense” and was hurting UiTM’s reputation as an academic institution as well.

“To me, they shouldn’t make fools of themselves by airing their political views. It was unnecessary for the former Vice-Chancellor and the alumni to gang up on Dyana just because of her political beliefs,” Zaid wrote.

The 63-year-old related that when he was a student, the institute’s then director Datuk Arshad Ayub, had only reminded its scholars to study hard and make the most of the opportunity to improve their socio-economic standing and be useful to their communities.

“None of us were described as ‘traitors’ for our liberal views,” said Zaid, who went on to become a lawyer and founded the country’s largest law firm that bears his name.

“We were never told that the Chinese (i.e. the DAP) were out to take over the country or that Christians were converting Muslims en masse,” the Kelantan-born said.

He observed that most of the DAP’s members are “ordinary businessmen, Chinese schoolteachers, rubber dealers, pork sellers, shopkeepers, factory owners and shop-lot operators” who had no links to the ruling elite who could give them a leg-up economically with preferential treatment in public projects.

“They aren’t independent power producers like YTL and Genting. Indeed, those Chinese who usually get these prized assets are not DAP members, so what can ordinary DAP members do to pose a threat to the Malays?” he asked.

He also questioned if the “defenders of the race” considered the opposition party a threat because of its “Malaysian Malaysia” ideology.

“How can this slogan be threatening? It’s the DAP’s way of saying that all citizens are equal before the law, which is the correct position to have in any country in the world… except Malaysia, apparently,” the lawyer-turned-politician said.

Zaid, a former member of Umno and PKR, said the DAP’s ideology could not be worse than communism, and added that the party had a right to its brand of “skewed” political views in a free country.

He pointed out that the Chinese in the DAP were no different from the Chinese in the MCA, a founding partner in the ruling BN coalition.

“They all look alike. The only difference is this: Chinese in the MCA are willing to let Umno rule forever as long as they get some seats in the Cabinet, or are given some port and highway concessions from time to time,” he said.

Hitting out at the educators in UiTM who immersed themselves in petty politics and confused the student population, Zaid suggested they were the “real traitors to the Malays because they are supposed to teach Malays to be educated and skilled”.

He urged UiTM’s educators to return their focus on academia and find ways to deal with the social and economic diseases plaguing the nation, listing crime, corruption, poverty, drug addiction among Malay youths and the rising divorce rate among Malays as examples.

“Would it not be better if UiTM became a positive force for the betterment of its students and of society, instead of being involved in cheap politics?

“Attending to serious socio-economic issues is a lot harder than parading oneself as a defender of the race, but that’s what serious academics do if they really want to be true heroes,” Zaid said.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 6 June 2014, 11:04 am and is filed under
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Is Malaysia Asia’s Weakest Link?

By William Pesek

Bloomberg View

Jun 5, 2014

From missing airplanes to jail-bound opposition leaders, Malaysia has recently made international headlines for all the wrong reasons. Will the nation’s economy be next?

That’s the thrust of new report from Sarah Fowler of U.K.-based Oxford Economics, which ranks Malaysia the “riskiest country in Asia of those we consider,” more so than India, Indonesia and even coup-happy Thailand. On the surface, she points out, all’s well: Growth is zooming along at 6.2 percent, the external balance is reasonably sound and political stability reigns. But all’s not what it seems. “Prompted by its high levels of public debt, rising external debt and shrinking current account surplus, there has been a shift in the perception of risks towards Malaysia and away from Indonesia,” Fowler explains.

Malaysia wasn’t included in Morgan Stanley’s “fragile five” list of shaky emerging economies last year, as were India and Indonesia. But Fowler scratches at a number of Malaysian vulnerabilities that deserve more attention: external debt levels that in recent years have risen to close to 40 percent of gross domestic product; a higher public debt ratio than India; the biggest short-term capital flows among the 13 major emerging markets Oxford tracks, including Indonesia; and a shrinking current-account surplus.

This last point is still somewhat of a positive. As the mini-crises in developing nations last year demonstrated, a balance-of-payments surplus is a very good thing to have. Also, Malaysia’s use of so-called macroprudential policies has succeeded in preventing huge property bubbles of the kind afflicting Singapore and Hong Kong. But Malaysia’s current-account surplus is dwindling, from 16 percent of GDP in 2008 to 3.7 percent last year. And household debt is, to use Fowler’s words, “worryingly high” at more than 80 percent of GDP compared to less than 60 percent in 2008.

What really concerns Oxford, and myself, is the complacency factor in Putrajaya. Malaysia is effectively a one-party state, having effectively been ruled by the same party for six decades. Its 40-year-old, pro-Malay affirmative-action program chips away at the country’s competitiveness more and more each passing year. The scheme, which disenfranchises Malaysia’s Chinese and Indian minorities, is a productivity and innovation killer. It also has a corrupting influence on the political and business culture.

“A climate of entitlement amongst the Malay community limits entrepreneurialism and vested interests within the United Malays National Organization still resist change,” Fowler argues.

The need for change is becoming acute, though, as China’s dominance grows and neighbors like the Philippines get their acts together. Indians just elected the party of reform-minded Narendra Modi and Indonesians will soon choose a successor for Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a contest that’s all about reducing corruption and improving governmental efficiency. And Malaysia? Well, Prime Minister Najib Razak’s lackluster party is clinging to power. Meanwhile, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim may soon be in jail again on sodomy charges many see as politically motivated.

The government’s handling of Malaysian Air Flight 370 said it all. Its deer-in-the-headlights response to the plane’s disappearance was the product of an insular political culture. The trouble is, that insularity is holding back a resource-rich economy that should be among Asia’s superstars, not its weakest links.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 6 June 2014, 6:49 am and is filed under
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