Dedicating his life to Malaysia

(Speech by Allan Goh Chay Foo on behalf of the Class of ’59, High School, Batu Pahat)

Mr. and Mrs. Lim Kit Siang, Classmate Extraordinary,

All Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A very happy and auspicious new year to you. I am greatly honoured to be chosen to speak on behalf of the classmates of Lim Kit Siang to say a few words on this happy occasion.

The last time I made a speech was when I got married some fifty years ago. Since then, like all good husbands, I have been at the listening end, so I am hopelessly out of practice.

Emerson once said: “our greatest glory is not never failing, but rising up each time we fail.” I think he was referring to Lim Kit Siang.

In his long political career, Lim Kit Siang has fallen many times, often painfully, pursuing his dream of a free and equal Malaysia. Believe me, his efforts are never in vain, because thousands and thousands of like-minded Malaysians are dreaming the same dream right now. And that dream will come true one day!

Lim Kit Siang’s political journey has always been rooted in “otherness”. It was never about self-aggrandizement. It was never about self-enrichment. That path started in a little place called the Batu Pahat High School where Malay, Chinese and Indian classmates rubbed shoulders in equality. Back then, there was never a lesser son under the Malayan sun.

Kit’s political life after school is very much a public document, so there is no need for me to lionize him further tonight. However, let us not forget that when good people fail to stand up and be counted, the bad people will eventually take over. Let us always let him know that he will never walk alone, for we will always be there with him. Let him always know how much we respect and trust him for the man he is.

Lim Kit Siang, Happy Birthday! And many happy returns of the day! May all your dreams come true, and may the best of health be your companion for life.

Kit and I, and those other Fifty-niners sitting over there from the Batu Pahat High School, became classmates in 1949 in the Government English School. We grew up arguing, debating and disagreeing in almost everything with a passion only the very young could possess. But no matter what, we always remain as friends and classmates, even after half a century later.

As an indication of what the Class of 59 was about, three classmates entered politics after school. One Dato Dr Hee Tien became the Deputy Speaker of Parliament. Dato Mustaffa Mohd. became a Cabinet Minister. Lim Kit Siang became the Leader of the Opposition. I have often wondered, what if more of our classmates had ventured into politics then. Maybe Malaysia would not have become such a mess like now. I hope you will forgive an old man’s pipe dream……

Without further ado, I will dedicate this poem (written in consultation with other classmates) to our beloved birthday boy.

Lim Kit Siang

(In Honour Of His 75th Birthday)

When you answer the country’s urgent call

To help build a nation for one and all,

You dedicate your whole life for the quest

Of making Malaysia the very best!

You have never flinched from this steadfastness

In your tireless crusade for righteousness.

Though threatened endlessly with dark prisons,

And bedeviled with crude verbal poisons,

You soldier on for the best Malaysia,

Full of real fairness and sweet ambrosia,

With none standing as a diminished son,

Under Malaysia’s benevolent sun.

You dream of a country in harmony,

Where justice is in great testimony,

Where all folks are equal before the law,

None sacrificed to senseless legal flaw;

Where people pull in the same direction,

Making Malaysia the greatest nation:

Free of the vile, destructive racism,

And those dastardly communalism;

A nation without hints of corruption,

Never fettered by discrimination;

A country of one nation, one people,

With high principles writ on the steeple.

Since you first appeared in public notice,

Working selflessly in people’s service,

You have shown political dignity,

Truthful of values and integrity.

Labouring, never for personal gain,

You fight on despite many failures’ pain.

Yours has remained the most principled name,

With full personal honour as your mane.

Today you celebrate your big birthday.

May God bless you always, fulfill your days

With love from your family and friends dear;

Grant you the best health in the coming years.

Class of ‘59

Now is my pleasure to call upon the Monitor of the Class of 59, Mr Pek Teck Soon, to present to the Birthday Boy a momento of our deep respect and love for Lim Kit Siang, Classmate Extraordinary.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 24 February 2016, 4:17 am and is filed under
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Lets have a headcount of the 14 members of PAC – who are overseas,  why they are overseas, when they planned their overseas trip  or they should be condemned at  the bar of public opinion even  if  they not referred to parliamentary Committee of Privileges for gross dereliction of duty

The reason given by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin for postponing the PAC meeting today and tomorrow to receive the Auditor-General’s final audit report on 1MDB that  “most PAC members are overseas” and that “Its important that all PAC members are present to hear the audit report on 1MDB” is neither credible nor acceptable.

In the first place, why must all PAC members be present to hear the Auditor-General’s final report on 1MDB, when all PAC members had been given adequate notice of the meetings and the final audit report would be available in printed form, as it would have to be tabled in Parliament together with the PAC’s report.

Secondly, why are “most PAC members overseas” when the PAC meetings today and tomorrow had been fixed a fortnight ago with their full knowledge and agreement.

Did anyone of the PAC members indicate that he will be overseas and not available for the PAC meetings today and tomorrow when the PAC fixed these two dates as the last PAC meeting on Feb. 11 – and who are they?

If not, why the amazing development of “most PAC members are overseas” – as if everyone among the Barisan Nasional PAC members are scurrying overseas on these two dates?

There are 14 members on the PAC, namely Chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin (Rompin), Deputy Chairman, Dr. Tan Seng Giaw (Kepong), Datuk Ahmad Hamzah (Jasin), Datuk Liang Teck Meng (Simpang Rengam), Datuk Abd Aziz bin Sheikh Fadzir (Kulim Bandar Baru), Datuk Wee Jeck Seng (Tanjong Piai), Datuk Koh Nai Kwong (Alor Gajah), Hasbi bin Habibollah (Limbang), Datuk Nawawi Ahmad (Langkawi), Datuk Dr. Marcus Mojigoh (Putatan), Tony Pua (Petaling Jaya Utara), William Leong Jee Keng (Selayang), Datuk Kamarul Baharin Abas (Telok Kemang) and Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan (Kota Bahru).

Lets have a headcount of the 14 members of PAC – who are overseas,  why they are overseas, when they planned their overseas trip  or they should be condemned at the bar of public opinion even  if  they not referred to the parliamentary Committee of Privileges for gross dereliction of duty.

In fact, all the absentee PAC members causing the cancellation of the PAC meetings today and tomorrow  for the Auditor-General to present his final audit report on the 1MDB should be referred to the Committee of Privileges and they should be penalized unless they have good reason for going overseas after the finalization of the two PAC meetings.

Are  “most PAC members are overseas” – i.e. at least eight of the 14 members are overseas, as stated by the PAC Chairman?

If so, let us have their names, and good reason why they are overseas. If not, Hasan has misled Parliament and the Malaysian public, and he should be referred to the Committee of Privileges for such a baseless and mischievous statement apart from raising the very pertinent question whether he is fit and proper  to chair PAC!

Malaysians are entitled to know the identity of the  eight PAC members who played truant and become parliamentary miscreants to sabotage the PAC from meeting today and tomorrow for the Auditor-General to present his final audit report on 1MDBC.

Who are these Infamous Eight?

What could be more important to these eight PAC members than the presentation of the Auditor-General’s final audit report on the 1MDB, when the postponement of the PAC meetings today and tomorrow have become  international news?

Malaysians are entitled to know the parliamentary miscreants who are overseas today and tomorrow and the reasons why they are abroad when they should be at home to carry out their solemn and heavy PAC and parliamentary duties to get to the bottom of the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal.

Could it be that some PAC members are not in the country because they are in Mecca to perform the umrah?

Could performing the Umrah be a valid excuse to justify a gross dereliction of duty like being  absent from the PAC meetings today and tomorrow for the Auditor-General to present his final audit report on 1MDB, especially if the Umrah programme was fixed after knowing the dates of the PAC meetings today and tomorrow?

Couldn’t these MPs perform the Umrah after the PAC meetings today and tomorrow?

Voters in constituencies of the parliamentary miscreants who sabotaged the holding of PAC meetings today and tomorrow for the Auditor-General to submit his final audit report on the 1MDB should demand that their defaulting MPs publicly apologise for their dereliction of duties and even resignation from Parliament.

In this connection, Hasan should state whether he is himself in the country or overseas!

I have just visited the Parliamentary website (i.e. Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 7.30 am) and it still carries the “Berita Terkini” on the PAC page with the following two items:

“Ketua Audit Negara akan membentangkan Laporan Akhir Pengauditan Terhadap Syarikat 1MDB pada 24 Februari dan 25 Februari 2016 ini, di hadapan Jawatankuasa Kira-Kira Wang Negara (PAC).

“PAC menjangkakan untuk membentangkan Laporan PAC berhubung Pengurusan Kawalan Urus Tadbir Syarikat 1MDB dalam sesi Dewan Rakyat yang bermula Mac ini.”

This is another example of the shambolic governance in Malaysia, where the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing, as the PAC Chairman is clearly following dictates not from the PAC but outside Parliament!

Hasan has said that the PAC meetings for the Auditor-General to submit his final audit report has been postponed to the first week of March i.e. before Sunday 6th March.

Would Hasan resign as PAC chairman if the PAC meetings are again postponed for one reason or another and are not held before March 6 for the Auditor-General to present his final audit report on 1MDB?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 24 February 2016, 7:38 am and is filed under
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Semangat Rocket

(Speech by DAP Acting National Chairman Tan Kok Wai at Kit Siang’s 75th birthday celebrations at Equatorial Hotel, Penang on 20th February 2016)

Let us salute Sdr Lim Kit Siang. Not just for his 50th birthday but for all the achievements and sacrifices he has made to make Malaysia a better country for all.

We are here to celebrate the birthday of a great Malaysian, a statesman, a legendary hero of the people, as DAP’s parliamentary leader.

And we are very happy to see that Sdr Kit Siang is still going strong.

In 2011, when we celebrated his 70th birthday , some were thinking that Sdr Lim was preparing for his retirement.

However, five years later, we celebrate his 75th birthday,  Sdr Lim has decided to proceed with his journey to fight for the rights of all Malaysians,  to continue the great job he has done for the last 50 years.

This dinner is of significant importance not only because today is the 13th day of the Chinese Lunar New Year but it is also in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the DAP.

It is also the 50th anniversary of Sdr Kit Siang’s party membership.

I trust that all right-thinking Malaysians elsewhere in the country, who are not able to join us here, would salute a great man like Sdr Lim because he had steadfastly stood, with unwavering conviction,  through thick and thin all his life, not for himself but for the greater good of the nation and for the people.

Sdr Lim may be 75 now but as the emcee (Patrick Teoh) has correctly pointed out, his heart is at less than 57. Malaysia is at a crossroad, and the people are  in need of Kit Siang’s sterling hands.

Malaysia is declining, worse than ever, our country is in multiple mega scandals and crisis.

People are frustrated and angry. Frustrated because criminals are in control of Putrajaya, whose days are numbered and will be finished off in the next general election. People are angry because the rats are looking after our kitchen!

To all of us in the DAP who are knowledgeable about the party’s history, we are very grateful to Sdr Lim for his enormous contributions to party-building, whose political courage and  outstanding bravery have made DAP the party of choice for many Malaysians now and we are going forward without retreat, with Sdr Lim leading on to the battlefront.

My speech of appreciation is not sufficient and  cannot do justice to Sdr Lim who has played a very distinguished role in the founding years of the party as well as in the times when DAP faced many challenges and difficulties.

The party has moved on and we have built up to the strength of today, and we owe so much to Sdr Lim.

We pray that Sdr Lim will be blessed with good health and strength to continue leading us in our struggle for a just and united Malaysia –  a  Malaysia where all citizens can live together as proud and equal Malaysians.

The greatness demonstrated by Sdr Lim for the country and for the party is a great source of inspiration for all of us.

I call this inspiration and  this courage ‘Semangat Rocket’ – the semangat that will propel the party forward, the semangat that will be good for this country, for nation-building,  the semangat that will enliven all Malaysians to be with the DAP to continue our fight for a country where all Malaysians can live in fairness, equality and prosperity.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 24 February 2016, 4:36 am and is filed under
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The ‘Malay problem’ is not unique unto us

– M. Bakri Musa

The Malaysian Insider

23 February 2016

In the first part, I argued that the “Malay Problem” is real and not simply a myth. As such we could study, analyse and research it systematically so as to enable us to craft sensible solutions and develop pilot programs to overcome it.

In short, a problem is potentially solvable, in contrast to a mere myth where we would have to employ dukuns to exorcise our demons.

In this essay I argue that our problem is not unique unto our community. A just and compassionate Allah would not single out Malays to be thus burdened.

Nor have our ancestors committed grievous sins for Allah now to punish us, their zuriats (descendants).

The corollary to my observation is that there is much that we can learn from others, from those who have been successful on what to do, as well as from those not so lucky on what not to do.

Lessons from others

When I lived in Montreal in the 1970s, I was struck by the barely-concealed contempt the English-Canadians had of their French-speaking compatriots. Struck not by its strangeness rather its familiarity, what with memories of Malaysia of the 1950s still fresh in me, and reinforced by my having visited Malaysia during the height of the May 1969 race riots.

Those Francophones were interested only in their beer, weekend frolics, and making babies, the English-Canadians sneered.

Come Sunday morning, those French-Canadians would flock to their churches to confess their sins. Cleansed and refreshed, by Monday they would start the whole destructive cycle all over again.

McGill University, the country’s premier institution, was then conspicuous for its rarity of Francophone students. Sounds all too familiar at that time to a Malaysian.

A few decades earlier and across the Atlantic in Ireland, the dynamics between the majority Catholic Irish and minority Protestant English too seemed deja vu to a Malaysian. The mutual contempt and disdain they had for each other would every so often erupt into their own version of “May 13 incident”. Again, all too familiar to a Malaysian!

If any Irish parents then were to aspire higher and dream of a better future for their children by enrolling them in the much superior “godless” Protestant English schools and colleges, they risked being excommunicated. That is, being a murtad, to put in local lingo, by the Catholic Church.

Meanwhile in Italy, those northerners considered their compatriots from the south as all gangsters and members of the mafia. If only it could get rid of the southern part of the country, Italy would be crime-free and fast become an economic power, those northerners claimed.

There are other ready examples.

In my book, Malaysia in the Era of Globalisation, I noted the remarkable similar dynamics we Malays had vis-a-vis the English colonialists as the Koreans their Japanese colonisers.

Granted, Korea’s colonisation was much briefer, but its brutality was unmatched. For example, those Koreans were not allowed even to speak their language; they also had to “Japanise” their names.

Today, the Irish and South Koreans are very different societies. Consider that Ryan Air, the Dublin-based discount airline, once attempted a takeover of venerable British Airways!

As for South Korea, Samsung smart phones have bested even Apple’s. Even rice cookers are now Korean-made, eclipsing Japan’s National brand.

As for the French-Canadians, consider that Hydro Quebec is the world’s largest generator of renewal energy through its hydroelectric plants while Bombardier, the original skidoo manufacturer started by a French-Canadian mechanic in his garage, is a leader in regional jets and rapid transit transportation.

Meanwhile the next president of Stanford is a French-Canadian, and not just any French-Canadian but one who was the first in his immediate family to attend college.

Going back to the Ireland of the 1950s, substitute Irish for Malays, the English for non-Malays (the Chinese specifically), Catholicism for Islam, and the entrenched clergy class for Jakim and our government-issued ulamas, the social dynamics would be eerily comparable.

In my book, I also cited a negative example, Argentina. A century ago it was a shining star, “The Land of Silver”.

Today it struggles through one crisis after another, economic and otherwise.

My point here is that the so-called “Malay problem” is not unique unto us. Societies that were once colonised or one just emerging from peasantry and subsistence existence share similar tribulations. And Malay society is both.

The corollary to my observation is that there is much that we can learn from the Irish, French-Canadians, and South Koreans on what to do, as well as from the Argentineans on what not to do.

There is yet another though minor facet to the Malay problem, and I will illustrate it thus.

I know of many Malays who have graduated from elite American universities or have succeeded in America, but they are not from Malaysia, or if from there originally now no longer consider themselves Malaysians except perhaps only emotionally.

Consider that the first Malay Harvard PhD was not from Malaysia but Thailand, Surin Pitsuwan. He received his degree 18 years before Perak’s Raja Nazrin had his. Raja Nazrin was a crown prince while Surin was an ordinary citizen from impoverished southern Thailand. Ponder that!

Yet another observation. At one time there were more Malays from Singapore than from Malaysia at UC Berkeley.

Last, I know of many Malay medical specialists in America, but again only a few are from Malaysia. The others came from such places as South Africa and Sri Lanka.

You can bet that there are no Ketuanan Melayu doctrines in those countries.

I once chided an important visitor from Malaysia who could not stop bragging about his son attending a third-rate American university on a Malaysian government scholarship.

I reminded him not-so-subtly that the man driving him around during his visit to California, a Malay originally from Kedah, had a son who graduated from the University of Southern California, an elite campus, sans any Mara or government scholarship.

When I told Ahmad Sabian that I have more respect for him than those Malaysian “big shots” he was driving around, he could not hold back his tears, the tears of joy, pride and accomplishment.

Today, nearly six decades after Merdeka, with the sultans and prime ministers being Malays, a government almost exclusively in Malay hands, and a national constitution that blatantly favours our community, we are still left behind. I explore this paradox in my next essay. – February 23, 2016.

* Dr M. Bakri Musa is the author of Liberating The Malay Mind, ZI Publications, Petaling Jaya (2013). This is the second of a six-part piece.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 24 February 2016, 7:21 am and is filed under
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Vision 2020 Failing

Tun Musa Hitam

20th February 2016

AT THE START OF THIS DISCOURSE, LET ME FIRST OF ALL CONGRATULATE IDEAS FOR CELEBRATING YOUR 6TH ANNIVERSARY TONIGHT. I NOTICE THAT YOUR LEADERSHIP AND MEMBERSHIP LIST CONSTITUTES THE YOUNG. THIS IS VERY ENCOURAGING AND THE FACT THAT SIMULTANEOUSLY YOU COMMEMORATE THE BIRTHDAY OF OUR FATHER OF INDEPENDENCE TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN IS MOST ENCOURAGING.

IN MY LONG, LONG LIFE, I HAVE BEEN THROUGH MANY PASSAGES, MOSTLY BEAUTIFUL, SOME ROUGH AND ONE OR TWO REALLY ROUGH AND TOUGH. BUT HAVING A VERY POSITIVE MIND WITH FAITH IN ALLAH SUBHANA WA T’ALA, I ACCEPT ALL AS GOD’S GIFT AS CONTAINED IN THE WORD “HIKMAH”.

IN GOING THROUGH MY LIFE, I THINK I HAVE SEEN IT ALL, ESPECIALLY IN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS. ALL ALONG I HAVE ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT I WAS TOUGH AND THAT I COULD TAKE IT ALL. I THOUGHT THAT NOTHING COULD SURPRISE ME, NOTHING COULD SHOCK ME AND THAT I HAVE ALWAYS MANAGED TO STAY CALM AND COLLECTED ESPECIALLY IN TIMES OF CRISIS. CALMNESS IN CRISIS, INDEED CALMNESS AS A CHARACTER TRAIT ENABLES ONE TO MAKE THE RIGHT JUDGEMENTS AND DECISIONS.

 WITHIN THE LAST FEW YEARS, HOWEVER, IT SEEMS TO ME THAT LIFE IN MALAYSIA IS TURNING UPSIDE DOWN AND INSIDE OUT. THAT MAKES IN DIFFICULT TO KEEP CALM! IN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS PARTICULARLY, BEHAVIOURS SEEM TO BE BASED ON THE STRUGGLES THAT PRIORITISE PERSONAL INDIVIDUAL SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. THE END SEEMS TO JUSTIFY THE MEANS AND ANYTHING, ANYTHING GOES. THE DIVIDING LINES BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD, RIGHT AND WRONG SEEM BLURRED.

LET ME EXPLAIN… IN MALAYSIA IT SEEMS TO ME THAT POLITICS AND THE GOVERNMENT ARE, SIMPLY PUT, AWFUL AND A SHAME, ESPECIALLY MEASURED BY STANDARDS ESTABLISHED BY OUR POLITICAL FOREFATHERS. IN 4 YEARS’ TIME, IT WILL BE 2020. DR MAHATHIR TOLD US ALL THAT BY 2020, MALAYSIA WOULD BE A DEVELOPED NATION. BY NOW, ASSUMING ALL TO BE EQUAL, WE SHOULD JUST BE ABOUT READY TO CROSS THE LINE OF DEFINITION FROM “DEVELOPING” TO “DEVELOPED”.

UNFORTUNATELY THOUGH, IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE 2020 DREAM IS FALLING APART BIT BY BIT BUT WITH ALARMING SPEED. THE WAY IT IS I AM NOW CERTAIN THAT WE WILL NOT REACH OUR GOAL OF VISION 2020! AND IF I MAY SAY AT THIS EARLY STAGE OF MY SPEECH, IT IS IRONICAL THAT DR MAHATHIR’S VISION IS NOW CERTAIN TO FAIL BECAUSE OF DR MAHATHIR HIMSELF.

BRILLIANT THAT HE WAS, HE FORGOT THAT IN ORDER TO SUCCEED HE NEEDED TO TRAIN LEADERS AT ALL LEVELS, BUT MOST IMPORTANT, POLITICAL LEADERS. BUT HIS PERSONAL LEADERSHIP RECORD SHOWS THAT HE DID AWAY WITH ALL POTENTIAL LEADERS ONE BY ONE AND IN GROUPS, AND RETAINED AND TRAINED FOLLOWERS! AND IT IS MOSTLY THESE TRAINED FOLLOWERS THAT HAD TAKEN OVER THE LEADERSHIP OF THE COUNTRY NOW.

THESE TRAINED FOLLOWERS ARE DEDICATED AND LOYAL TO WHOEVER SITS AT THE VERY TOP. THEY NEED TO BE, IN ORDER TO SURVIVE. IN ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT THEY DON’T EVEN SEEM TO BE COORDINATED IN THEIR STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS.

AMAZINGLY THOUGH, THE LEADER THAT SEEMS TO BE VERY CALM ALL ALONG IS OUR CURRENT TOPMOST LEADER. HE DOES NOT REGARD THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE COUNTRY AS A CRISIS BUT SIMPLY A “DIVERSION” AND HE SEEMS ABSOLUTELY CONFIDENT THAT HE WOULD SURVIVE IT ALL. HIS CALMNESS IS SO APPARENT SO MUCH SO THAT WHENEVER I AM ASKED TO EXPLAIN HIS CALMNESS, I CAN ONLY OFFER THIS EXPLANATION… “THE ONLY 5 RATIONAL EXPLANATION FOR HIS CALMNESS IS BY OFFERING AN IRRATIONAL ONE …”

SINCE THE IRRATIONAL SEEMS TO BE FLYING AROUND SO MUCH NOW, LET ME TELL YOU THAT THE MOST COMMON ONES ARE … “BOMO LAAAA!” .. “MAYBE INDIAN SWAMY!”.. “NO LAAA, INDONESIAN BUGIS!”.. “NO NO, KADAZAN!”.. “NO NO NO, NEGERI SEMBILAN, THEY ARE VERY GOOD!” .. “MANAAA! NS BOMO ONLY STOP RAIN MAAAA!” .. ANOTHER ONE, “YOU LISTEN TO ME, IT IS A CHINESE TEMPLE PRIEST.” .. SO GOES SPECULATION AFTER SPECULATION….. BUT LISTEN TO THIS DESPERATE LAST DITCH ATTEMPT … “ROSMAAAAAH!

 …VERY, VERY UNBELIEVABLE YET VERY FUNNY.

PLEASE, PLEASE TAKE THOSE WIDELY KNOWN REMARKS IN GOOD HUMOUR, PLEASE. BUT SERIOUSLY THOUGH, TO ME PERSONALLY, ALL THE ABOVE ARE ACTUALLY SYMPTOMATIC OF A VERY SERIOUS  STATE OF AFFAIRS IN OUR COUNTRY. CONFUSION REIGNS, FEAR FOR THE COUNTRY AND ALL THINGS RELATED IS GETTING TO BE A REGULAR NIGHTMARE, RUMOURS AND SPECULATION ARE THE ORDER OF THE DAY. THE MEDIA AND SPIN DOCTORS HAVE A FIELD DAY EACH DAY. NEWS AND ANALYSIS BORDER WIDELY FROM THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE TO THE MOST BIZARRE AND ATROCIOUS.

 THE ONLY STRONG SIGNALS EMANATING FROM THE LEADERSHIP THAT SHOW ANY SIGN OF WORRY ARE THE THREATS COMING FROM THEM OF “TIGHTENING” SELECTED SECURITY AS WELL AS LEGISLATION THAT SEEM TO BE AIMED AT FREE SPEECH AND PRESS, WITH SOME, ALLEGEDLY EVEN CONSTITUTIONALLY QUESTIONABLE.

WHERE HAVE WE GONE WRONG!!!? …WELL, ON THIS YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT OR SEARCH FOR ANSWERS. BECAUSE IT IS ALL THERE, EVERYWHERE YOU SEE, EVERYWHERE YOU READ, YOU HEAR, IN THE MEDIA, AT GATHERINGS AND EVEN AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN!!

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, LET ME SAY THAT I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH A WIDESPREAD OF PEOPLES’ PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS AMONGST MALAYSIAN CITIZENS. THIS IS MAINLY THE RESULT OF THE SPREAD OF EDUCATION CREATING A HUGE MIDDLE CLASS CROSSING RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS LINES, ALSO THE ARRIVAL OF DIGITAL DEMOCRACY AND THE POPULARITY OF SOCIAL MEDIA.

BUT THE QUESTION IS STILL “WHERE HAVE WE GONE WRONG?” THE ANSWER IS, IF I MAY CAP IT ALL… IT IS ALL WHOLLY AND SIMPLY CAUSED BY THE FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP!!

IN AN OPEN DEMOCRATIC, LIBERAL, MODERATE COUNTRY, THE GOVERNMENT COULD ONLY BE SUSTAINABLE PROVIDED IT IS LED BY GENUINE DEMOCRATS. ONCE THE LEADERSHIP TRIES TO RESTRICT AND CONTROL THOUGHTS, BEHAVIOURS AND EXPRESSIONS, THE AUTOCRAT THRIVES. AND… WHEN A LEADER IMPOSES HIMSELF AND DEMAND UNQUESTIONING LOYALTY ACCOMPANIED BY LOSS OF RESPECT OF GOOD GOVERNANCE HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW AS WELL AS NOT BEING CONSIDERATE OF THE PEOPLE’S WELFARE, THE UGLY HEAD OF DICTATORSHIP APPEARS.

MALAYSIA IS A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY MADE UP OF BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. WE HAVE ALSO BEEN BLESSED WITH OUR FOREFATHERS WHO LEAD US TO WHERE WE ARE. TUN ABDUL RAZAK IS A LEGENDARY FIGURE. FATHER OF DEVELOPMENT IS CERTAINLY AN APT REMEMBRANCE FOR HIM. CARE FOR THE ORDINARY CITIZEN AS HIS TOP PRIORITY WAS CERTAINLY THE FACTOR THAT HAS SEEN A RELATIVELY WIDESPREAD DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH THROUGH THE SPIRIT OF HARD WORK AND EDUCATION. TUN DR ISMAIL CAN SIMPLY BE DESCRIBED AS A MAN OF PRINCIPLE, INTEGRITY AND ACTION BASED ON CONSIDERATE AWARENESS. HE WAS FIRM BUT FAIR. HE WAS A MAN FEARED BUT RESPECTED BY FRIENDS AND FOES ALIKE.

ONE THING, HOWEVER, WAS CLEAR ABOUT MALAYSIA. IT WAS LEADERSHIP THAT HAS BROUGHT US WHERE WE ARE TODAY. AND TOWERING ABOVE ALL IS THE FIGURE OF TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN, OUR FATHER OF INDEPENDENCE. THIS PRINCE, MORE KNOWN AS A PLAYBOY IN HIS VERY EARLY YEARS AND LEAST TO BE IMAGINED AS PRIME MINISTER MATERIAL, WAS THE MOST TIMELY GIFT TO LEAD OUR COUNTRY TO INDEPENDENCE AND BEYOND. THE ROYALTY IN HIM EARNED HIM THE HIGH ESTEEM THAT THE PEOPLE NEEDED THEN, WITH MAINSTREAM MALAYSIANS STILL VERY FEUDAL IN MENTALITY. HIS VERY “HUMAN” CONDUCT IN HIS DAILY LIFE ENDEARED HIM TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. ABOVE ALL, HIS UNDERSTANDING OF DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES MADE POLITICS THEN SOMETHING THAT WE COULD MARVEL ON. I CAN RELATE TO THESE FIRST HAND.

IN THOSE EARLY DAYS OF OUR HISTORY, POLITICS WAS MORE IDEOLOGICAL THAN MATERIAL. THERE WERE INDEED, YES, INDEED, TWO CAMPS IN UMNO… THE “TUNKU” CAMP AND THE “RAZAK” CAMP… THE TUNKU CAMP WAS CLEARLY AND UNAPOLOGETICALLY RIGHT WING, PRO WEST AND PRO BUSINESS. THE RAZAK CAMP WAS ALLEGEDLY “SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST” INCLINED, A BRAND ENOUGH TO SCARE AND SCUTTLE PEOPLE AWAY ALL THE WAY IN THOSE DAYS WHEN COMMUNIST TERRORISTS WERE THE BIGGEST THREAT TO OUR INDEPENDENCE.

THE POINT I WISH TO MAKE ABOUT THE TUNKU IS THAT THERE I WAS, AN IDENTIFIED RAZAK BOY, WHO WAS EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF UMNO LITERALLY RUNNING THE PARTY MACHINERY, HAVING VERY REGULAR CONTACTS WITH THE TUNKU AS PRESIDENT OF THE PARTY. YET, NEVER HAD I FELT ANY SIGN OF DISPLEASURE OR ANY UNWILLINGNESS ON HIS PART TO SEE ME REGULARLY ON ANY MATTER RELATING TO PARTY AFFAIRS. NOT  ONLY THAT, PERSON TO PERSON HE WAS ALWAYS ACCOMMODATING AND KIND.

LET ME RELATE TO YOU A FEW ANECDOTES:-

AFTER I WAS OFFERED A LEADERSHIP GRANT BY THE US GOVERNMENT, I WENT TO SEE THE TUNKU TO SEEK HIS PERMISSION. I STILL REMEMBER HOW HE RESPONDED TO MY REQUEST … “WATPA YOU NAK PI AMERICA NAK BELAJAR SANA TU. DEPA BODOH! YOU PI UN LAH… “WHILE ADDRESSING ME HE PUSHED HIS CALL BUTTON AND WHEN HIS SECRETARY, JEE CAME IN HE TOLD JEE… “INI MUSA NAK PI AMERIKA. BIAR DIA PI NEW YORK LAH, UN…” THERE RESTED MY CASE! THAT INCIDENT ACTUALLY LAUNCHED MY EXPOSURE TO INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS!

ANOTHER ANECDOTE: WHEN TUN RAZAK DECIDED THE JOHOR MENTERI BESAR SHOULD BE ASKED TO RETIRE, HE ASKED ME TO GO TO ALOR STAR TO INFORM THE TUNKU AND SEEK HIS PERMISSION. ON ARRIVAL AT THE TUNKU’S HOUSE AFTER A LONG  DRIVE FROM KUALA LUMPUR… NO FLYING AND NO HIGHWAY THEN… TUNKU ASKED ME TO JOIN HIM FOR LUNCH. JUST HIM AND ME… HOT HOT SAMBAL AND ULAM ULAM ALL… IT TOOK ME HARDLY 10 MINS TO GET HIM TO AGREE TO TUN RAZAK’S PROPOSAL. AFTER LUNCH HE ASKED ME TO GET INTO HIS CAR TO ACCOMPANY HIM TO HIS HILL “RETREAT” WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE A MERE SIMPLE KAMPONG HOUSE TYPE ON A HILL. BUT THE AMAZING THING WAS THAT ALL THE WAY DRIVING THROUGH THE KAMPONG HE SEEMED NEVER ENDING IN GREETING THE VILLAGE FOLKS. ALL SEEM VERY FRIENDLY AND RESPECTFUL OF HIM… IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT WE ENTERED THE STRONGHOLD OF THE OPPOSITION ISLAMIC PARTY PAS!

ANOTHER ANECDOTE: WHENEVER PREPARING A SPEECH FOR THE TUNKU, THE WRITTEN TEXT NEEDED TO BE IN BOLD LETTERS AND SPACED BROADLY. ONCE WHILE ADDRESSING A HUGE CROWD THE TUNKU SUDDENLY PAUSED AND SEEMED TO HAVE DIFFICULTY IN READING THE TEXT… THEN HE MUTTERED, RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE MYRIADS OF MICROPHONES, “… APAA NI! ENTAH APA DEPA TULIS NI TAK FAHAAAM…” AFTER A BRIEF MOMENT OF UNEASY SILENCE, THE WHOLE CROWD BURST INTO LAUGHTER AND CLAPPINGS… I GUESS BECAUSE OF THE SPONTANEOUS REMARKS HE MADE AND THE VERY HUMAN AND VERY ENDEARING WAY IT WAS EXPRESSED.

ONLY ONCE DID I GET A PUBLIC CRITICISM FROM THE TUNKU. WHEN I WAS AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT LEADER, I HAD THE OCCASION TO ARGUE WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CEYLON THEN, SOLOMON WEST DIAS BANDARANAIKE, AT A TEA RECEPTION IN COLOMBO. HAVING BEEN A GUEST AT THE MALAYAN INDEPENDENCE DAY IN KUALA LUMPUR, MR BANDARANAIKE REMINDED ME THAT MALAYA WOULD BE IN RACIAL TURMOIL WITHIN A FEW YEARS. I PROTESTED AND DENIED THAT IT WOULD EVER HAPPEN. AT THE SAME TIME THOUGH, THAT CONVERSATION LEFT AN INDELIBLE AND DISTURBING MARK IN MY MIND. THUS, WITHIN THIS FRAMEWORK OF MIND WHEN I LATER BECAME UMNO SECRETARY AND DELIVERING SPEECHES, I NEVER FAILED TO REMIND MY AUDIENCE THAT BEING A MULTI-RACIAL COUNTRY PRACTISING PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY, MALAYSIANS SHOULD ALWAYS LEARN FROM THE EXPERIENCES OF CEYLON AND BE FOREWARNED OF THE DANGERS OF RACIAL CONFLICTS. MY REMARKS WERE OFTEN WIDELY PUBLICISED. ONE DAY, WITH BOLD LETTERS IN UTUSAN MELAYU, THE TUNKU WAS REPORTED TO ADMONISH ME BY BRANDING .. BUT NOT NAMING ME .. AS “BUDAK-BUDAK UBUN LEMBUT” (CHILDREN STILL SOFT IN THE HEAD) TRYING TO TEACH ELDER LEADERS WHAT TO DO…

THE ANECDOTES I RELATE ABOVE ARE SIMPLE SUM-UPS OF THE TUNKU AND THE ENDEARING PERSONALITY THAT ENABLED MALAYSIA TO SAIL ON TO PROGRESS. IT WAS ALSO HIS ABILITY TO IDENTIFY, CHOOSE, ENCOURAGE AND NURTURE OTHERS TO BE PREPARED TO TAKE OVER THE LEADERSHIP OF BOTH THE PARTY AND COUNTRY. PARLIAMENT WAS ROBUST, NOISY AND QUESTIONING ON ALL MATTERS RELATED TO THE GOVERNMENT. THE LEADERSHIP SUBJECTED THEMSELVES TO THE CLOSEST 15 SCRUTINY. REPRESENTATIVES IN FORM AND SUBSTANCE REALLY REPRESENTED THE PEOPLE. ON MY PERSONAL PART, MY MAJOR CRITICISM OF THE TUNKU WAS THAT HE CONTINUED TO RUN THE GOVERNMENT “INTUITIVELY” WHEREAS AS WE PROGRESSED IN WHAT THE COUNTRY NEEDED WAS A “SCIENTIFIC” GOVERNMENT.

IT WAS A BLOT IN OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY THAT THE TUNKU WAS VERY ROUGHLY TREATED ESPECIALLY AFTER HIS RETIREMENT. BUT THEN, IN THE END THE TUNKU REGAINED THE RESPECT AND ADMIRATION OF MALAYSIANS.

TONIGHT YOU MUST HAVE NOTICED THAT MY PRESENTATION WAS NOT AN INTELLECTUAL OR ACADEMIC ANALYSIS. THE FIRST PART WAS SO CURRENT BUT PRESENTED BY ME AS AN AXED EX-DPM HAVING GONE THROUGH THE ROUGH AND TUMBLE OF MALAYSIAN POLITICS. ON THE TUNKU I WAS ACTUALLY ONLY PRESENTING HIM AS THE MAN AS A MAN. I HOPE THAT IT IS 16 USEFUL AND PROVOCATIVE ENOUGH TO MAKE IT WORTHWHILE FOR YOU TO BE WITH ME TONIGHT.

THANK YOU FRIENDS, FOR YOUR INDULGENCE AND THANK YOU AND CONGRATULATIONS IDEAS. MAY ALLAH BLESS US ALL.

[KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT THE 6TH ANNIVERSARY OF INSTITUTE OF DEMOCRACY AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS (IDEAS) SATURDAY, 20 FEBRUARY 2016 | RENAISSANCE HOTEL KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA]

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 24 February 2016, 4:45 am and is filed under
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Had Hasan Arifin told a deliberate lie when he said that “most PAC members are overseas” when the overwhelming majority of PAC members were in fact in the  country with more than a comfortable  PAC quorum?

Had Datuk Hasan Arifin, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman, told a deliberate lie when he said that “most PAC members are overseas” as reason for the last-minute postponement of the PAC meetings scheduled yesterday and today for the Auditor-General to present his final audit report on the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal, when in actual fact the overwhelming majority of PAC members were in the country with more than a comfortable PAC quorum?

Had Hasan  himself scampered and scurried overseas on Tuesday to give some semblance to his “tall tale” that “most PAC members are overseas” to justify the last-minute cancellation of the PAC meetings yesterday and today, which even MCA and Gerakan MPs on PAC had no advance notice?

Can Hasan reveal here where  he has run to overseas, and what is he doing abroad when the PAC was scheduled to meet yesterday and today for the important conclusive stage of the PAC investigations into the 1MDB scandal?

Hasan should realise that if he is in the military, he would have been  court-martialled and given the supreme penalty if he had absconded and abandoned his station and duties at the most crucial and critical hour!

I feel comforted that I have reason to believe that  Hasan was not speaking the truth when he said that “most PAC members are overseas” and that the majority of the PAC members (regardless of political party) are not parliamentary miscreants who had played truant by scampering and scurrying overseas to sabotage the PAC meetings yesterday and today.

Is it not true that only two PAC members were overseas to perform the Umrah – Datuk Ahmad Hamzah (Jasin) and Datuk Nawawi Ahmad (Langkawi)?

Hasan’s scampering and scurrying overseas to make an infamous “trio” of PAC members overseas is a most irresponsible and even cowardly act.

I challenge Hasan to prove me wrong that the majority of the PAC members are in the country and could attend the PAC meetings yesterday and today if he had not “sabotaged” it by unilaterally,  arbitrarily  and even dictatorially “postponed” them to the first week of March.

The question is whether Hasan could be trusted that the two postponed PAC meetings would be held in the first week of March before Parliament reconvenes on Monday, March 7.

I have no confidence that Hasan could be trusted on this score!  Is this the reason why Hasan has not made any public announcement as to when the PAC would meet before Parliament reconvenes of March 7 for the Auditor-General to submit his final audit report on the 1MDB?

Hasan is indeed one of a kind.  In Malaysia and all over the world, everyone would want the speediest end to the mystery of the 1MDB scandal, which has brought such infamy to Malaysia’s international reputation, and should  be pressurising the Auditor-General for early submission of his final audit report – but we have a PAC Chairman who is doing the very opposite, refusing to honour the scheduled PAC meetings for the Auditor-General to submit his final audit report on 1MDB, and wanting to cause further and indefinite procrastination.

The PAC should be one of the mechanisms to ensure that justice is done in the 1MDB scandal, but the PAC Chairman has now become a “fugitive from justice” by scurrying and scampering overseas to justify his unilateral and arbitrary postponement of the PAC meetings yesterday and today.

No PAC Chairman in Malaysia had committed a greater breach of parliamentary privilege than Hasan Arifin, who will go down in Malaysian parliamentary history as the most well-known but most  infamous PAC Chairman.

What a shame and dishonour!

(Media Statement in Batu Pahat  on Thursday, February 25, 2016)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 25 February 2016, 9:40 am and is filed under
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Banning The Malaysian Insider is like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly – what is the Najib government trying to hide?

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, seems to be fulfilling his vow made during the recent commemoration of his 40 years of involvement of politics – with reams and reams of congratulatory advertorials finally paid for by the taxpayers – that he would strive to take Malaysia to “greater heights”.

Malaysia had never achieved “greater heights” in corruption than under the Najib premiership – being named third in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015” and dropping four places in Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2015.

Now, Najib has brought Malaysia to a new “greater height” of being the first Prime Minister in Malaysia to violate the 20-year Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Bill of Guarantees of “No Censorship of the Internet”, a guarantee made by Tun Dr. Mahathir when he was Prime Minister “as a gift to the world”,  with the ban yesterday on  the  news portal, The Malaysian Insider.

Described world-wide as the latest in a series of clampdowns on media organisations that have published reports critical of the government and the Prime Minister, particularly over Najib’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” twin mega scandals, Malaysians and international opinion can only ask Najib what is he  trying to hide and suppress when he has to  use a sledgehammer to try to kill a fly and cannot rely anymore on the plain truth and nothing but the truth to win in the world of ideas?

The government has a plethora of laws against Internet abuse and the ban on The Malaysian Insider is completely unjustifiable, especially as the news portal had not received any prior notice of the ban.

I call on the Prime Minister to uphold and abide by the 20-year Bill of Guarantee to the world of “No Internet Censorship”, immediately revoke the ban and  ensure that good sense prevails and refrain from the precipitate rush towards “parliamentary dictatorship”  first foreshadowed by the rush to enact the National Security Council Bill in December last year usurping the constitutional powers of the Yang di Pertuan Agong, the Cabinet, the Sarawak and Sabah State Governments and the 11 State Governments in Peninsular Malaysia to enable the Prime Minister to declare an unconstitutional  “de facto” state of emergency.

Najib should come clean on the twin mega scandals, uphold the fundamental liberties and human rights guaranteed in the  Constitution and be true to the oath of office as Prime Minister protect and defend democracy in Malaysia instead of being the destroyer of the Malaysian Constitution and democracy.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 26 February 2016, 9:08 am and is filed under
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Nazri calls Muhyiddin a dog; Muhyiddin’s deputy calls Nazri a pig!

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Friday, 26 February 2016, 11:53 am and is filed under
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Has Guan Eng rocketed from a jailbird to become Malaysia’s 22nd richest person worth RM2.87 billion – in the league of Robert Kuok and Ananda Krishnan?

What a coincidence!

The same day that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak lumped news portals with “keyboard warriors and cybertroopers” for “unhealthy practice of journalism” in an attempt to justify the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) blockade of the news portal The Malaysian Insider, there was another blast of lies against the DAP.

This was in the form of an alleged list of the “richest” persons in Malaysia (below) circulated on the Internet,  with the DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister listed as the No. 22 “richest” person in Malaysia, worth RM2.87 billion –  preceded by 21 “richest” in Malaysia, ranging from Robert Kuok (RM42.2b), Ananda Krishnan (RM31.2b), Quek Leng Chan (22.3b) Teh Hong Piow (19.6b), Lee Shin Cheng (RM19.4), Lim Kok Thay (19.2b), Yeoh Tiong Lay (RM9.5b), Lao Cho Kun (RM6.5b), Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary (RM6.1b), Surin Upatkoon (RM4.8b), Kuan Kam Hon (RM4.6b), Tiong Hiew King (RM4.2b), Danny Tan Chee Sing (RM4.1b), G. Gnanalingam (RM4.06b), Lee Oi Hian & Lee Hau Hian (RM3.86b), Desmond Lim Siew Choon (RM3.82b), Vincent Tan (RM3.8b), Jeffrey Cheah (RM3.65b), Yaw Teck Seng & Yaw Chee Ming (RM3.16b), Goh Peng Ooi (RM3.06b), Tan Heng Chew, Eng Soon & Eng Hwa (RM2.9b) – and richer than others like Chen Lip Keong (RM2.61b), Ahmadyuddin Ahmad (RM2.42b),Lim Kuang Sia (RM2.4b), Lim Kang Hoo (RM2.32b), Shahril & Shahriman Shamsuddin (RM2.04b), Mokhzani Mahathir (RM2.02b), Ngau Boon Keat (RM2b), Ninian Mogan Lourdenadin RM1.98b),Azman Hashim (RM1.96b), Lim Teck Meng (RM1.48b), Chong Chook Yew (RM1.43b), Kong Hon Kong (RM1.37b), Leong Hoy Kum (RM1.24b), etc.

Has Guan Eng rocketed from a jailbird to become Malaysia’s 22nd richest person worth RM2.87 billion – in the league of Robert Kuok and Ananda Krishnan?

I did a quick search and found that it was Forbe’s 2016 Ranking of Malaysia’s 50 Richest, and the list was as correct except for Guan Eng’s listing as No. 22’s Richest, when it should be Lim Wee Chai.

Guan Eng is no where in the list, or even among Malaysia’s Richest 500, 5,000 or 50,000 but UMNO cybertroopers have no compunction to stoop so low as to “doctor” the list to malign and defame him and DAP leaders, as they had done in past, like the alleged RM1.5 billion Israeli donation to DAP in exchange for an Israeli naval base in Port Dickson, the purported DAP resolution to make Malaysia a “Christian state” or that I had been in Kuala Lumpur and led illegal “victory” street processions hurling anti-Malay abuses which provoked the May 13, 1969 riots when I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 1969 general elections and was in Kota Kinabalu on May 13, 1969 –all baseless and meretricious lies.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has urged netizens to report content which is offensive, incestuous, pornographic and false, with its Network Security Chief Officer for the Enforcement and Advocacy Sector, Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin asking netizens to adopt a critical approach and to report to the authorites for legal action to be taken.

However, DAP experiences with MCMC had been a most disappointing one, as numerous reports had been lodged with MCMC against false and insidious postings on the social media by UMNO cybertroopers against DAP and DAP leaders but no action whatsoever had been taken by MCMC or the police against such blatant falsehoods and lies.

Najib therefore sounds very lame when he complains about “unhealthy practice of journalism” as he had closed his eyes to the most inflammatory and insidious abuses by UMNO cybertroopers against DAP and Opposition leaders.

Najib’s lament is also no justification for the “sledgehammer” reaction to block access to The Malaysian Insider, in particular in reaction to the TMI report entitled: ‘Enough proof to charge Najib over SRC, says MACC oversight committee’.

The government has a plethora of laws against Internet abuse and the virtual ban on The Malaysian Insider is completely unjustifiable, especially as the news portal had not received any prior notice of the ban, part from being most undemocratic and repressive and a violation of the  20-year Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Bill of Guarantees of “No Censorship of the Internet”.

I call on the Prime Minister to uphold and abide by the 20-year Bill of Guarantee to the world of “No Internet Censorship”, immediately revoke the MCMC blockade and  ensure that good sense prevails and refrain from the precipitate rush towards “parliamentary dictatorship”  first foreshadowed by the rush to enact the National Security Council Bill in December last year usurping the constitutional powers of the Yang di Pertuan Agong, the Cabinet, the Sarawak and Sabah State Governments and the 11 State Governments in Peninsular Malaysia to enable the Prime Minister to unilaterally declare an unconstitutional  “de facto” state of emergency.

Najib should come clean on the twin mega scandals, uphold the fundamental liberties and human rights guaranteed in the  Constitution and be true to the oath of office as Prime Minister to protect and defend democracy in Malaysia instead of being the destroyer of the Malaysian Constitution and democracy.

Najib and UMNO/BN government must not arrogate to itself the prerogative of deciding for Malaysians what are truths, half-truths, lies and opinions to form their judgments, but must continue to be true and faithful to the constitutional guarantees of fundamental liberties of Malaysians, such as freedom of speech, expression and beliefs and the Rukunegara principles of the Supremacy of the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

Doctored Forbes 2016 List

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 27 February 2016, 10:26 am and is filed under
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The time has come for the “Save Malaysia” campaign

I am honoured to  be invited to launch one of the Tommy Thomas’ two books today:
“Anything But The Law”
.

We see Tommy as the “Lawyer’s Lawyer” in his book
“Abuse of Power”
, while his other book
“Anything But The Law”
 we see Tommy as the “Politician’s Politician”.

I want to tell Tommy that the world of politics beckons to him and  it is never too late or too old to take the plunge into the political maelstrom  for freedom, justice and good governance. Come and fight the good fight!

Tommy has suggested a few minutes of jolly, joyous and  light-hearted moments for the occasion but it will be hard to think of an occasion where one cannot  be more sober or even somber about our national situation.

Only yesterday, a Deputy Prime Minister who was summarily sacked from his high office some seven months ago  was suspended as Deputy President of UMNO, fully vindicating the recent description of the parlous situation of  the country by the longest-living  former Deputy Prime Minister, viz:

“Within the last few years …life in Malayaia is turning upside down and inside out, that makes it difficult to keep calm! In government and politics particularly, behaviours seem to be based on the struggles that prioritise personal individual survival of the fittest. The end seems to justify the means and anything, anything goes. The dividing line between good and bad, right and wrong, seem blurred.”

The former DPM whose political party position was suspended yesterday warned of the making of a new  dictator and called on the rakyat to rise up to oppose tyranny and wrongdoing and to Save Malaysia.

Even the former longest-serving Prime Minister is on the same wavelength, warning that the country is moving in the direction of the North Korean regime.

Another former Deputy Prime Minister, who is currently in incarceration, has rightly cautioned that the only way to implement true change is to address the crisis of confidence that the country is facing, and that mere fixation on an individual will not achieve this purpose – a deficit of trust in the judiciary, the media as well as the country’s democratic institutions and not just the Prime Minister or an individual.

This is now recognized by the latest DPM-casualty, who thought that the country’s “black episode” is making Malaysians more mature and the need for reforms in the country’s laws and political institutions and not just the mere rejection of one individual.

Even the longest-serving former Prime Minister seems to be talking a new lingo, when he said:

“I think the time has come when parties do not matter anymore. This is a problem affecting the nation.

“I want everybody to act as citizens who are concerned with what is happening in this country. As a citizen, it does not matter whether you are for the opposition or the government.

“Now it is time to act as citizens, irrespective of party affiliations or loyalties.”

I said last week on my 75th birthday, that my only wish is to see a realignment of progressive political forces to save Malaysia and to keep faith with the Malaysian Dream of an united, inclusive, moderate, democratic and prosperous Malaysia.

I have said enough since year about a Save Malaysia campaign which transcends race, religion, region, political parties and individuals and our efforts to see this goal come to fruition.

We do not want Malaysia to become a rogue and a failed state.

We must involve all Malaysians in “Save Malaysia” effort so that Malaysia can get back our lost national bearings.

Just as Nelson Mandela was released in 1990 to take part in the great task of national reconciliation in South Africa, Anwar Ibrahim should also released to take part in the “Save Malaysia” campaign.

Malaysia’s condition today reminds me of  Yeats’
The Second Coming
:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

The time has come for the best in Malaysia to act with full conviction to Save Malaysia, and I have no doubt that Tommy Thomas will be in the forefront of the “Save Malaysia” campaign.

(Speech at the launch of Tommy Thomas’ book
“Anything But the Law”
 at Le Meridien, Kuala Lumpur  in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 27th February 2016 at 5pm)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 27 February 2016, 10:32 pm and is filed under
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Is Azalina seriously suggesting that Muhyiddin should lodge a police report that when he was DPM, he had been informed by  Gani Patail,  then Attorney-General, that Prime Minister Najib had committed a criminal act?

Two most extraordinary statements in Malaysian politics  were made yesterday – one by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister in the Najib “purges” of July 28 and suspended as UMNO Deputy President on Friday  and the other by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department,  Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, one of the beneficiaries of the Najib “purges” and now a member of the troika of Najib’s foremost propagandists.

Muhyiddin revealed that before he was summarily sacked as Deputy Prime Minister, he was presented with evidence by the then Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail about the deposits from the state-owned SRC International into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts and informed that a crime had been committed by Najib.

This has led promptly to a statement by Azalina with the accusation of Muhyiddin in “a high-level conspiracy to topple” Najib as Prime Minister.

She said  Muhyiddin’s statement about being briefed by the Attorney-General about criminal proof against Najib was an admission that there was “a high-level conspiracy to topple the Prime Minister, in what would have been a coup against the democratic process and the decision of the people at the last general election”.

One can dismiss such a silly and shallow understanding of a “conspiracy” and a “coup” to topple Najib as Prime Minister when the Attorney-General had   proof of criminal wrongdoing by the Prime Minister, though such an accusation is still a surprise coming from a lawyer – as if Azalina would want the Attorney-General to seek audience with the Prime Minister to ask what he as Attorney-General should do with the evidence of the Prime Minister’s criminal wrongdoing, whether to suppress or how to suppress.

But the real sting in Azalina’s statement was at the end, where she asked:

“Why only now is Tan Sri Muhyiddin making such a confession, just after he was suspended as the Deputy President? What is his hidden motive and agenda? Can his act be seen as abetting since he claims to have information on an alleged criminal act, but did not report to the authorities until today?”

Is Azalina seriously suggesting that Muhyiddin should lodge a police report that when he was DPM, he had been informed by  Gani Patai, the  then Attorney-General, that Prime Minister Najib had committed a criminal act?

The next question that immediately follows is what guarantees the Police,  the Attorney-General and other investigating agencies can give to Malaysians and the world that such a Muhyiddin report would be investigated professionally, efficiently and impartially, without “fear or favour”?

Or would a Special Prosecutor of unquestioned independence and credibility be appointed, together with a team of independent investigators  empanelled to assist the Special Prosecutor, to carry out the investigations into Muhyiddin’s report?

In her statement, Azalina referred to a “charge sheet said to be drawn up in May 2015 – before the so-called Special Task Force was formed, before the investigation was started in June 2015”, presumably referring to the reported “charge sheet” to indict the Prime Minister of corruption wrongdoing with regard to the RM42 million SRC International scandal.

As far as I know, this is the first time information about “a charge sheet said to be drawn up in May 2015” had been made in the public domain.

Had Azalina received the necessary official clearance to declassify this information, or is  she guilty of breach of the Official Secrets Act for firstly divulging in public information on this so-called “charge sheet said to be drawn up in May 2015”?

Reading Azalina’s statement, I cannot but wonder whether she is defending Najib or surreptitiously helping to defeat Najib as Prime Minister.

With such “friends”, Najib may not need “enemies”.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 28 February 2016, 2:08 pm and is filed under
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Mystery Malaysian high roller at center of global laundering probe

By Jennifer Gould Keil

New York Post

February 28, 2016

He arrived from out of nowhere in 2009, a mysterious, geeky 28-year-old dropping ridiculous amounts of money all over the city.

When Lindsay Lohan was celebrating her 23rd birthday at 1Oak, he sent 23 bottles of Cristal to her table. He spent $160,000 on bottle service one evening at Chelsea hot spot Avenue and once flew eight waitresses from Greenwich Village club Pink Elephant to an after-party — in Malaysia.

Yet no one knew who this man, Low Taek Jho — otherwise known as Jho Low — was, or where he got his money.

The intrigue only deepened over the next few years, as Low collected a staggering amount of luxury real estate and famous artwork. He spent $30.55 million for an apartment in the Time Warner Center, as well as $23.98 million for a condo at the Park Laurel.

He bought Monets, Basquiats, Rothkos. He is widely thought to be the person who bought Picasso’s “Women of Algiers” last May for $141 million at auction — the most expensive painting ever purchased. He made the ARTnews list of the world’s 200 top private collectors.

Now the mystery of Jho Low may have finally been solved, thanks to a scandal that threatens the government of Malaysia and Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs.

Real-estate brokers in New York are being asked questions about the deals they worked on involving Jho Low, The Post has learned.

Federal investigators are probing what could end up being “one of the largest money-laundering frauds in the world,” a source told The Post.

Rich history

Jho Low certainly is well connected. The son of a rich Malaysian businessman, he attended the Wharton School and became a financial consultant. One of his clients was Terengganu, an oil-rich sultanate of Malaysia, which in 2008 set up a sovereign wealth fund called TIA.

One of Low’s friends from boarding school in London was Riza Aziz. In April 2009, Aziz’s stepfather, Najib Razak, became prime minister of Malaysia.

According to an online investigative outlet, the Sarawak Report, it was Low who helped orchestrate Razak’s takeover of TIA. The fund was transformed into 1Malaysia Development Berhad, otherwise known as 1MDB. Razak was made head of its advisory board.

The stated purpose of 1MDB was to raise money through bond sales — cash it would use for infrastructure projects in Malaysia or to launch joint ventures with Middle Eastern entities. It would earn enough to benefit the country, while giving the bond holders a reasonable rate of return.

As advisers to 1MDB and Razak, Goldman Sachs benefited greatly. There were three bond sales for 1MDB in 2012-13 totaling about $6.5 billion, reportedly yielding fees, commissions and expenses for Goldman of almost $593 million, about 9.1 percent. The typical cut for an investment bank is about 5 percent.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah MansorPhoto: AP

Then, last year, it all started to fall apart. First, the fund missed a payment on the $11 billion it owed to creditors. Then, in July, The Wall Street Journal reported that about $681 million from 1MDB ended up in the prime minister’s private bank account. Razak denied the money came from 1MDB.

There were calls for Razak’s resignation, which he has ignored, as Malaysian officials and the US Justice Department — along with Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong — have launched investigations into possible corruption.

Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, finds itself the target of fury in Malaysia. Its chairman for Southeast Asia operations, Tim Leissner, was involved in 1MDB, and his wife, fashion designer Kimora Lee Simmons, used social media to publicize her friendship with Razak’s wife, Rosmah Mansor. Mansor has spent millions of dollars on jewels, clothes and handbags — drawing unflattering comparisons to “Steel Butterfly” Imelda Marcos, the shoe-hoarding former first lady of the Philippines.

Leissner and Simmons abruptly returned to the United States, and Leissner resigned from Goldman last week.

Everything about the 1MDB scandal has been shrouded in intrigue. The transfer to Razak’s account involved Malaysia’s Ambank. In 2013, shortly after the money was transferred, Ambank’s founder, Hussain Ahmad Najadi, was shot dead in a Kuala Lumpur parking garage.

Najadi’s son, Pascal — a former banker for Merrill Lynch in New York — has fled Malaysia for Russia with his widowed mother. In an interview with The Post, Pascal said his father was murdered to prevent him from revealing what he knew about 1MDB. The Malaysian government has denied there is any connection.

Paying the price

Now the feds are investigating if Jho Low’s wild spending was courtesy of 1MDB, and if he was hiding assets or laundering funds.

Pascal Najadi has no doubt. “Jho Low was the architect . . . of the machinations of the Najib government,” he said.

If the idea was to keep a low profile, Low wasn’t following the script. He rented a $100,000-a-month Midtown apartment for himself — an unheard of sum during the height of the recession — and spent another $50,000 a month to house his entourage in the same building where Sean “Diddy” Combs was living.

Soon Low’s entourage of black Escalades eclipsed Diddy’s, purple Bergdorf Goodman bags were delivered to the Park Imperial, and Low was buying condos on the Upper East Side and 1 Central Park West. Jho Low even bought a jet belonging to New York real-estate billionaire Joseph Cayre.

Low helped Aziz and his partner Joey McFarland found the Hollywood production company Red Granite Pictures, which produced “The Wolf of Wall Street” with Leonardo DiCaprio. Low is thanked in the credits.

The Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery program now is investigating the Low-linked real-estate purchases.

In New York, brokers are “scared,” said another source with direct knowledge of the deals. “They don’t have fancy high-priced lawyers to protect themselves.”

Low, meanwhile, is selling — fast. He unloaded three art works — a Monet, Picasso and Basquiat — at a loss for a combined total of $54 million at Sotheby’s in London.

Aziz and McFarland declined interview requests. McFarland has tweeted photos of himself beside artworks owned by Low — including the “picture of the century,” Picasso’s “Women of Algiers.” “Me and the picture that broke the record,” he tweeted.

If Red Granite’s funds can be traced to illegal use of Malaysian state funds, it, too, could be seized by the Justice Department.

A spokesman for the production company told The Post via an e-mailed statement, “There has never been anything inappropriate about any of Red Granite Pictures or Riza Aziz’s business activities.”

As for Jho Low, he’s no longer throwing money around clubs. His bank accounts in various countries have been frozen, and he is short for cash, according to the Sarawak Report.

Najadi says, if Low’s smart, he’ll tell authorities what he knows.

“He is running out of options,” Najadi said. “The best case scenario is for Jho Low to cooperate with law enforcement — if he can.”

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 28 February 2016, 11:30 pm and is filed under
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Sliding towards an authoritarian state

Ooi Kok Hin

The Malaysian Insider

27 February 2016

A government that uses state agencies to silent its critics. A government that demands loyalty from mainstream media.

A government that abuses state resources for its political advantage and distributes propaganda books in the universities. A government that bans a newspaper and threatens its critics with sedition.

Is this Malaysia, Egypt, Thailand or North Korea?

On its eighth birthday, The Malaysian Insider is banned by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in the name of “national security”.

The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable. When I read the news these days, I feel a tinge of shame and anger because these are the kind of news that are reported from and about despotic regimes around the world. Is this really Malaysia and not North Korea, Egypt or Thailand?

Not so long ago, our economic growth was seen as exciting as South Korea’s. Then the Asian tiger economies (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong) boomed. We stayed behind.

Our second chance arrived when we were dubbed the “Tiger Cubs”, comprising of Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillippines and Thailand, the newly-industrialised, export-driven economies after the original and prosperous four tigers. Then the Asian financial crisis happened, and now we weren’t even sure of our place among the Tiger Cubs.

Vietnam is coming off very strong and rapidly in the past decade. If we remain stagnant and complacent as we are, let us not act surprised when we are overtaken by Vietnam.

It seems that our political decline echoes our economic decline. Are we still a democratic society, or an authoritarian state? Are we governed by a government elected by popular will and through free and fair elections, or a despotic regime who will do whatever it takes to cling to power and protect its own interests?

While Indonesia is forging ahead with its democratisation in the post-Suharto era, it is scary to think that Malaysia is going the opposition direction. We are scaling back promises of democratic progress and seem to be pressing further ahead on authoritarian state.

Nowhere is this shift from democratic to authoritarian aspirations more exemplified than the prime minister’s promise on live television in 2012, to abolish the arbitrary and abusive Sedition Act, a relic from the colonial era, only to backtrack later. The Sedition Act has now been reinforced and many more are rounded up for charges since.

Recently, a Mexican journalist was killed for doing his job. In Egypt, dozens of journalists are arrested by the military regime. In Turkey, President Tayyip Erdogan jailed journalists for supposedly threatening to overthrow the Turkish state.

Look at where we are heading at this moment. Think of any country’s government which bans a newspaper. Think of all the names that came up and decide whether you can be proud to associate the country with any of those names. Do we want our country to be like them?

The MCMC cited Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 – which deals with content that is “obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person”.

Look at the language. Pay attention to how vague and arbitrary it is. It is so loosely defined that you can imagine how it can easily be twisted and abused. It fits perfectly into the world of George Orwell.

On another occasion, the minister even said that The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has an anti-Malaysia agenda. I am not sure if the minister has come across WSJ in his tertiary education, but it is an international news organisation who couldn’t be interested enough to conjure a complex conspiracy to bring down the Malaysian government. His childish reaction is appalling beyond reason.

What will the state or MCMC do next? Ban international news networks that publish disagreeable reports on the debt-ridden state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)? If WSJ persists in pursuing the story, will MCMC ban the sale of WSJ’s print edition nationwide and block access to its online portal?

When Malaysians go to study overseas, we are often reminded not to tarnish the reputation of the country. With the fiasco caused by those at the very top, such calls ring hollow.

Nothing we do, not even failing and getting kicked out of school, can cause an iota of the damage done by those at the very top. Not only they do not try to reverse the perception, now the establishment does not care about media coverage and public perception anymore. It hinges on survival instinct and has shown its willingness to go the distance in order to protect its interest.

Finally, do they think that we are so stupid as to be so easily confused? Can our “leaders”, if they deserved to be called such, not look down on the intelligence of the Malaysian people?

Is it possible to challenge them to a quiz trivia, chess game, or debate to prove that we are not as easily confused as they are? The tendency to be easily confused is not a contagious disease.

Such is the sad state of the country presently. Have you ever wonder why and how a beautiful woman ends up with an obnoxious, selfish, and utterly undeserving partner? I feel the same way about our country and its “leaders” these days. – February 27, 2016.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 28 February 2016, 8:43 am and is filed under
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Time to find new allies, opposition tells Muhyiddin

by Mayuri Mei Lin

Malay Mail Online

February 27, 2016

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Left without a position, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should seriously consider how successful he can be in pushing for institutional government reforms from within Umno, his political foes said today.

Lawmakers from DAP and PKR added that they are willing to ally with the suspended Umno deputy president and work towards a common goal if he leaves the country’s largest political party.

“Muhyiddin should ask himself whether Umno is the right platform for him.

“If Muhyiddin truly believes in serving Malaysians, then he has to look for an alternative platform,” Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari said in a text message to Malay Mail Online.

He added DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has extended an olive branch to other sidelined Umno members to join forces and form a “new political realignment”.

“I believe Kit Siang has said we are open to working with anyone who wants to save Malaysia from corruption and the narrow politics of race and religion,” Zairil said.

Last January 3, Lim sought to reach out to disaffected Umno leaders, saying that his party and the new federal opposition alliance Pakatan Harapan is willing to call for a “new political realignment” to restore Malaysia’s internationally battered image for the country’s future.

Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong said Muhyiddin and fellow party critic Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad should both take a cue from the unanimous suspension decision by Umno’s supreme council.

“Anyway, for Muhyiddin and Dr M, it’s end of the road in Umno,” Liew said when contacted.

He said if the two Umno veterans were looking for supporters to their campaign, they would be better off doing so outside the Malay nationalist party than from within, where there were other like-minded people “full of anger” who would not mind casting aside ideological differences to break the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s decades-long rule.

“So some forms of realignment have to happen,” Liew added.

Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim shared similar views. Echoing Zairil, Sim said that the DAP would welcome Muhyiddin as a “part of the team” if the Pagoh MP proved himself committed to “save Malaysia”.

“DAP has said from the beginning, we will work with anyone who wants to save Malaysia.

“If Muhyiddin agrees to this direction, then he is welcomed to be part of the team.”

PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali and secretary-general Rafizi Ramli also extended a hand to Muhyiddin, saying they welcomed anyone regardless of their political, ideological and social differences to work for the betterment of the country.

“We must rise above our differences with the intention to take over the leadership of this weak country.

“The people have a right to a better life,” Azmin, who is also Gombak MP, said in a statement today.

In a separate statement earlier, Rafizi offered his hand in friendship to Muhyiddin to join what he dubbed a “movement of rakyat” based on a reform agenda.

Umno’s supreme council unanimously voted to suspend Muhyiddin last night and replaced the second in-command with Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi temporarily.

Muhyiddin took to Facebook where he penned a lengthy response, saying he would not appeal against his suspension but would instead push for an overhaul of the country’s public institutions.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 28 February 2016, 6:55 am and is filed under
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DAP’s most important and challenging tests are not in the past 50 years but in next 20, 30 years

It was exactly 30 years ago that I moved from Kota Melaka parliamentary seat to Penang to contest in Tanjong constituency – the Battle of Tanjong of 1986 – against the incumbent Dr. Koh Tsu Koon who was to become the Penang Chief Minister for four terms spanning 18 years from 1990 to 2008.

DAP comrades in Penang had in fact suggested in early seventies that I move to Penang to lead the DAP charge to make Penang the “engine head” for political change in Malaysia, and although this suggestion was made at every subsequent general election, I had not agreed to the move from “south to north” until the 1986 general election.

Although the subsequent  “Battles of Tanjong 2 and Tanjong 3” in 1990 and 1995 did not succeed in DAP capturing the Penang State Government, this objective was finally achieved in the 2008 and 2013 General Elections, and it is my hope that Penang will not only continue to be the seat of DAP-led Penang State Government, but the base for the achievement of federal change of government in Putrajaya in the next 14th General Election.

Although the DAP is now celebrating our 50th anniversary, I believe that the DAP’s most important and challenging tests are not in the past 50 years, but in the next 20 to 30 years.

We want the DAP message of justice, freedom, good governance and national unity not just to ring loud and clear in Penang but throughout Malaysia, in Peninsula Malaysia as well as in Sarawak and Sabah.

DAP is in the throes of an important transition, and we must be guided by two challenging objectives and principles.

Firstly, DAP started as a party for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region. We never wanted to be a Chinese, non-Malay, Penang or Peninsular party.

We are the party of choice in the urban areas, whether in Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak or Sabah, but we must not lose sight of our founding party principle to be a Malaysian party for all Malaysian citizens, regardless of race, religion or region.

Our first challenge is to undergo the  transition from an urban-based political party representing the urbanites into a truly Malaysian party representing all Malaysian citizens regardless of race, religion or region, whether in the urban or rural areas.

Our second challenge is the recognition of the reality that for the foreseeable future in the next two  decades, the DAP will not be able on its own to form the Federal Government, not even a state government, without being part of a multi-racial and multi-religious political coalition.

We must cut our coat according to our cloth and manage our political development and transition in line with these two principles.

This is why DAP has embarked on the journey of the Malaysian Dream – Impian Malaysia, Impian Sarawak, Impian Sabah, Impian Kelantan, Impian Kedah/Perlis, Impian Perak and Impian Johor and pledged support for the Pakatan Harapan coalition.

This is also why next month, I will be visiting some 20  parliamentary constituencies in Kedah, Perlis, Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan as part of the nation-wide “Mana RM2.6 billion?” conscientisation campaign – mooted after  my six-month suspension from Parliament for basically demanding full accountability from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak for his RM55 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” twin mega scandals.

As a  result of my six-month suspension, I will not be able to attend the March/April meeting of Parliament starting on 7th March, where Najib’s twin mega scandals will again haunt and dominate the parliamentary session – proving that the Prime Minister cannot be more wrong when he claimed during his 2016 New Year message on 31st December 2015 that the twin mega scandals were no more issues this year, having been resolved and “buried”!

It is indeed strange and odd that while Najib is denouncing news portals and “keyboard warriors and cybertroopers” for “unhealthy practices of journalism” to justify the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) blockade of the news portal, The Malaysian Insider, the UMNO cybertroopers are at the same time launching a relentless  cyberoffensive of lies and falsehoods against the opponents of UMNO/Barisan Nasional.

Yesterday, it was a merciless attack on DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng alleging that he had become Malaysia’s 22nd richest person worth RM2.87 billion – which was a downright lie in the league of previous lies by UMNO cybertroopers like the alleged RM1.2 billion Israeli donation to DAP in exchange for an Israeli naval base in Port Dickson, the purported DAP resolution to make Malaysia a “Christian state” or that I had been in Kuala Lumpur and led illegal “victory” street processions hurling anti-Malay abuses which provoked the May 13, 1969 riots when I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 1969 general elections and was in Kota Kinabalu on May 13, 1969.

Today, there is a new cyberoffensive of lies against me and DAP leaders.

This is in the form of a chart under the heading “Keluarga Komunis Malaysia”  purportedly to show that the former MCP Secretary-General Chin Peng, the former PAP Secretary-General and Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew and I were cousins, and that such ties of related kinship involved other DAP leaders like Teresa Kok, Ngeh Koo Ham, Nga Kor Ming, Anthony Loke, Tony Pua and of course Lim Guan Eng.

There is absolutely no truth to such lies by the UMNO cybertroopers, but it betrays a certain “desperation” and “political bankruptcy” by Najib and his cybertroopers that they have to stoop to such  wild lies and base tactics to demonise their opponents.

Such lies and falsehoods, whether by UMNO cybertroopers or propagandists, appear to be set to intensify in the coming days and weeks.

For this reason, Malaysians should be more discerning to be able to  differentiate  truth from lies on the social media and the Internet.

[Speech (2) at the Penang DAP Dinner to jointly celebrate DAP’s 50th Anniversary and Lim Kit Siang’s 75th Birthday at Hang Chiang School Hall, Penang on Sunday, 28th February 2016 at 10 pm]

                This entry was posted on Monday, 29 February 2016, 2:59 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia must get out of the present  political cul de sac if the nation is to break the trajectory towards a failed and rogue state

The greatest challenge facing the country is how to get out of the present political cul de sac if Malaysia is to break the trajectory towards a failed state because of rampant corruption, socio-economic injustices, collapse of governance, unbridled racial extremism and religious intolerance and bigotry and a rogue state because of violations of democracy, rule of law, free speech and egalitarianism.

If we are selfish and only think of our self interests, whether of political parties or individuals, we should not upset the status quo and the best thing to do  is to wait for the next 14th General Election for UMNO/Barisan Nasional  in the next hustings under the leadership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak cannot be weaker and more vulnerable.

But this will not be in the best interests of the nation, for Malaysia would have descended further in the next two years down the slope towards a failed and a rogue state.

However, the country seems to be in a cul de sac, both for those in the corridors of power and outside.

Despite one scandal after another, catapulting Malaysia to the stratosphere of being Number Three as the world’s “worst corruption scandal in 2015”, falling four places in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2015, twin mega scandals which is the subject of investigations by seven different nations and caused the Prime Minister of Malaysia to be the subject of US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) probe as to whether he is a “kleptocrat”; the plunging Malaysian ringgit; increasing brain drain;  worst racial and religious polarisation in the country; Najib seems to have become even  stronger politically with crackdowns on democratic freedoms and  human rights like the recent action against The Malaysian Insider  although his image and credibility has never been so low for a Malaysian Prime Minister whether nationally or internationally.

Those outside the corridors of power are also in a dilemma as to how get out of the political cul de sac to stop an unpopular Prime Minister from dragging the country in the direction of a failed and rogue state.

For the past year, I have been advocating a “Save Malaysia” campaign which transcends race, religion, region, politics and individuals to stop the nation’s trajectory towards a failed and rogue state.

Even former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir, seemed to have come around to the view firstly, that the  best way is for the country to have two political parties as  this would ensure that one or the other would win a majority to form the government; and secondly, that everybody should act as patriotic citizens, irrespective of party affiliation or loyalties, to save the nation from heading for perdition.

Is the country ready for a realignment of progressive  and patriotic political forces to save Malaysia and to keep faith with the vision of an united, inclusive, moderate, democratic and prosperous Malaysia?

The coming weeks will seek  to give an answer to this question.

(Speech at the Penang DAP Dinner to jointly celebrate DAP’s 50th Anniversiary and Lim Kit Siang’s 75th Birthday at Hang Chiang School Hall, Penang on Sunday, 28th February 2016 at 10 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 29 February 2016, 8:44 am and is filed under
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Reverting to type, Dr Mahathir forces a high noon with Najib

NEWS ANALYSIS BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

29 February 2016

Reactions are coming in fast and furious from all quarters since Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that he had quit Umno – the second time he had done so since 2008.

His supporters believe this announcement will shake Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak while his critics say good riddance to a has-been. The Malaysian Insider attempts to make sense of Dr Mahathir’s move and sort out the fact from the hyperbole.

The reality is Dr Mahathir knows that he no longer has the influence or the levers of power in Umno to force Najib’s resignation.

So, he needed to leave the ruling party and be part of some national movement to oust the man he backed wholeheartedly for the premiership in 2008. If he had remained in Umno, he would have been little more than an outspoken 90-something-year-old blogger.

Harsh? Perhaps. But could the once powerful leader do anything to stop his son being removed as the Kedah menteri besar or prevent Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin from being suspended by the Umno Supreme Council?

The answer is a short no. Both have been sidelined and out of power, remaining only as divisional leaders in Pagoh and Jerlun, respectively. Another one left at the wayside is vice-president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, the Semporna division chief.

They are but three of the 193 divisional leaders in Umno. A minority against the rest who have stuck to Najib’s side in this showdown between the grand old man of Malaysian politics and the son of the man who brought him back into Umno.

The question is then, will Najib be losing sleep tonight?

Unlikely. The prime minister knows that as long as Umno Supreme Council and the bulk of division chiefs are with him, it will be difficult to dislodge him from his position as the Umno president, and by virtue of that, the prime minister of Malaysia.

Having said that, he would have preferred facing a fractured and rudderless opposition bloc instead of one with some semblance of unity and purpose.

So expect Umno’s warlords to circle the wagons around Najib as Dr Mahathir tries to whip up a semblance of a coalition among the critics against Najib.

And own up, did anyone ever believe that they would live to see Dr Mahathir share the same platform as his political nemesis and the man he jailed under Ops Lallang, Lim Kit Siang?

Apparently this is in the pipeline with Dr Mahathir saying that he would be part of a group comprising DAP, PKR and Amanah, out to oust Najib from office.

Dr Mahathir with Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, Rafizi Ramli, Lim Guan Eng, Mohamed Sabu against Najib and Umno. Desperate measures for desperate times?

Or is Dr Mahathir just reverting to old playbook. In 2008, he quit Umno in protest against Tun Abdullah Badawi’s government and teamed up with a band of bloggers against the administration.

But the move is not likely to shake Najib’s standing in Umno but setting up of core could unify forces against the prime minister, something the fractious Pakatan Rakyat or Harapan have been unable to do.

Yet, it remains to be seen if this grand coalition can take off.

After all, why would anyone else listen to Dr Mahathir when even his own party has decided to turn their backs on him these past year. – February 29, 2016.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 29 February 2016, 10:53 pm and is filed under
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Will Najib present White Paper to answer two questions thrown up in the public domain in the past two days  – was there a charge sheet in the AG’s office last July  to indict Najib for corruption and did the then AG brief the DPM at the time about Najib’s “corruption” wrong doing?

Two questions that arose directly from Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s statement on Saturday and Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department rebuttal the same day await official confirmation or denial.

Firstly, was there a charge sheet in the Attorney-General’s Chambers before the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail was summarily sacked on July 27 which would have indicted the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak for corruption in the RM42 million SRC International scandal?

Secondly, whether the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail at the time had briefed the then Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, about Najib’s “corruption” wrongdoing, which precipitated the “purges” by Najib on July 28, involving the sacking of the Deputy Prime Minister, a Senior UMNO Cabinet Minister and the Attorney-General as well as other grave reprecussions undermining the Rule of Law in the country.

A third question that would arise, if the answer to the first question is in the positive, is why the new Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali had deliberately told a lie when he denied the existence of the charge sheet in a statement on July 31?

The Prime Minister should present a White Paper when Parliament reconvenes on March 7 to explain to MPs and the nation the events of July last year, whether the AG’s Chambers had prepared a charge sheet last July to indict the Prime Minister for corruption, whether the then Attorney-General had brief the Deputy Prime Minister about his “corruption” wrongdoing and why the new Attorney-General Apandi had exonerated him of any corruption wrongdoing in the light of this background.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 29 February 2016, 3:42 pm and is filed under
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Beware of the Ides of March – but who should beware?

The past 12 months have been a year never experienced by Malaysians who, with increasing desperation and sense of hopelessness, have never felt so sick and wracked by so many crisis, whether the RM55 billion 1MDB crisis, the RM2.6 billion “donation” crisis – or actually more, as according to the latest revelation by Wall Street Journal today, more than US$1 billion and not just US$681 million had been deposited into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts  – the 6% GST imposed on April 1; the worst racial and religious polarisation in the nation’s history with the unprecedented rise of extremism,  intolerance and bigotry; the devaluation of the Malaysian ringgit hovering at RM4.2 to the US dollar; the plunge in Malaysia’s educational standards and accomplishments; Malaysia’s deterioration in important international indices with  the country named No.3  in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015” or falling four places in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2015; the loss of national and international confidence in the Prime Minister who is being investigated by US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) whether he is a “kleptocrat” with the 1MDB scandal the subject of investigations by seven foreign countries; the threat of a new “dictatorship” with parliamentary passage of the National Security Council Bill (which has as yet to receive the Royal Assent) and above all, the future and survival of the Merdeka Constitution of 1957 and the Malaysian federation formed in 1963!

Everywhere and every day, informed, concerned and patriotic Malaysians are asking: How did Malaysia reached such a sorry pass, when the country once dreamt of international greatness and accomplishments in various fields of human endeavor in our early decades of nationhood, and how Malaysia could get out of the rut or cul de sac we have stuck ourselves in.

I remember my speech to Malaysian students in Alexandria when DAP MPs made a fact-finding visit to Jordan and Egypt in April last year where I called for “new thinking, even thinking the unthinkable” about the unprecedented political landscape evolving in the country, with Malaysia in “No Man’s Land” where even the very existence of the Malaysian federation had been called into question for the first time since the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

It is in those abnormal political circumstances where the politics of the country seemed to have entered “no man’s land” that I had mooted the idea of a Grand Coalition – which I had then described as  post-BN and post-PR –  to “Save Malaysia”.

I had stressed that the proposed  ‘Grand Coalition was  not a ‘”Unity Government” like the UG concept of UMNO and PAS, but a completely different creature altogether.

It was to be a Grand Coalition of MPs from both sides of the political divide as well as both sides of the South China Sea, Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, to defend constitutionalism and rule of law with a new Prime Minister and a new Malaysian Government – going beyond the existing political parties.

The new Prime Minister can come from either side of the political divide who wants to Save Malaysia and defend the Federal Constitution and the rule of law, who can be a man or a woman.

I said that for such a Grand Coalition to work, it must meet also other criteria to be a viable and sustainable government, as for instance, being fully inclusive of all Malaysian races, religions and regions, in other words, a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-regional new Malaysian coalition government comprising Muslims and non-Muslims, Malays and non-Malays, and Malaysians from Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah.

Furthermore, it must have a visionary and forward-looking programme to restore Malaysia’s greatness and allow Malaysia to punch above its weight in many areas of human endeavour, whether political, economic, social, educational, sports, information technology or environmental – creating a clean, incorruptible government of excellence which upholds the rule of law and human rights.

I had then asked whether  this idea of a Grand Coalition, going beyond the existing political parties, was a practical and achievable concept.

My question in Alexandria in April last year remain valid and relevant today.

I had made two further points in my speech in Alexandria last April – firstly, the release of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim from Sungai Buloh prison to be back in the mainstream of Malaysian politics; and secondly, my preparedness to work with all like-minded Malaysians regardless of their past, including Tun Mahathir on a common agenda to “Save Malaysia” from roller-coaster policies which threaten to plunge Malaysia down the slippery slope, whether in nation-building, politics, economics, education or other aspects of national life to that of a failed state and a rogue state.

This is based on my belief that for the  formidable task to “Save Malaysia”, we must be prepared to put our differences in the past to one side and concentrate all our energies on one common agenda, to save Malaysia from all centrifugal forces to tear the country asunder.

Much water has flowed under the bridge since my speech in Alexandria last April, but one thing is constant, the Malaysian “sickness” has further worsened and seemed to be terminal.

Almost every other day, there is bad news which only plunge national and international confidence to a new low – just in last few days, the sacking of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as UMNO Deputy Chairman after his sacking as Deputy Prime Minister together with Senior Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail; Muhuddin’s revelation that he was briefed of Najib’s “corruption” wrongdoing by the then Attorney-General, Gani Patail before he was sackied as Deputy Prime Minister;  the revelation by the Minister in the Prime Minsiter’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said of the existence of a “charge sheet” in the Attorney-General’s chambers to indict Prime Minister Najib for corruption over the RM42 million SRC International scandal; the second quitting from UMNO by Malaysia’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir and the Wall Street Journal’s latest revelation today that deposits into  Najib’s personal bank accounts totaled more than US$1 billion and not just US681 million (RM2.6 billion) as earlier reported.

The question is whether the  country is ready for a “Save Malaysia” campaign which transcends race, religion, region, politics and individuals to stop the nation’s trajectory towards a failed and rogue state, involving a realignment of progressive  and patriotic political forces to save Malaysia and to keep faith with the vision of an united, inclusive, moderate, democratic and prosperous Malaysia?

This a challenge facing all Malaysians today.

I have met and discussed with Mahathir on the current national situation as well as with Datuk Zaid Ibrahim about his March 27 initiative, both of which are encouraging developments to find a solution to the national cul de sac.

DAP will support all efforts to “Save Malaysia” as distinct from campaigns to “Save Najib” or “Save UMNO”.

I notice that one reaction to Mahathir’s second quitting of UMNO was UMNO Information Chief, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, who said that Mahathri was willing to sacrifice his own party in order to achieve his personal agenda.

I have no comment on this, but Annuar is probably the only politician in the country if not the world who could quote Shakespeare’s “It’s not that I love Caesar less, but I love Rome more” not once but thrice – first time in the early eighties, over the Mahathir-Musa rift, the second time over the UMNO expulsion of Anwar in early nineties, and now over Mahathir’s second quitting of UMNO.

Beware of the Ides of March – the question is who should beware?

(Speech at the retreat of DAP Councillors in Selangor held at DAP National Hqrs on Tuesday, 1st March 2016 at 12 noon)

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 March 2016, 4:01 pm and is filed under
Anwar Ibrahim
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Corruption
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Mahathir
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Malaysian Dream
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Najib Razak
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nation building
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