Call on all Malaysians to declare corruption as the Number One enemy of all Malaysians and for all occasions – including the 14th General Election

A joke purportedly  about Trump and corruption is making the rounds, viz:

Donald Trump wants the white house painted!

Chinese guy quoted 3 million

European guy quoted 7 million

Malaysian guy quoted 10 million.

Trump asked Chinese guy how did you quote?

He said:

1 million for paint

1 million for labour

1 million profit.

He asked European?

He said :

3 million for paint

2 million for labour

2 million profit.

He asked Malaysian?

Malaysian said:

4 million for me

3 million for you

3 million will give it to the Chinese guy to paint.

Actually, the joke is not about Trump but about corruption in Malaysia!

I do not find it funny at all, but most mortifying,  as it is at Malaysia’s expense.

But is it true, that corruption in Malaysia is so “world-class” as to put other countries to shame?

“4 million for me, 4 million for you” out of a 10 million would put the corruption at 70% of the paint-job, which is phenomenally high.

But for Malaysia, this is nothing extraordinary.

In early October, the country  was convulsed by reports of the rampant corruption in the Sabah Water Department, especially the revelation that 60 per cent of the RM3.3 billion earmarked by the federal government to improve water supply to residents, including those in remote areas in the Sabah State, had been “siphoned off” by corruption.

The Director and Deputy Director of the Sabah State Water Department were arrested on Oct. 4 by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), together with the confiscation of  RM114 million worth of assets and RM53.7 million in “cold cash”, while further investigation revealed a money trail leading to Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

But Malaysians are mystified why, after a further series of arrest and spate of high-publicity outings by MACC officers,  there is suddenly complete silence on the Sabah “watergate” and nobody has been charged in court although it is more than two months after the initial  MACC arrests – and  after years of  MACC investigations before the Oct. 4 action!

The 60% Sabah “Watergate” corruption scandal was not the only scandal to hit Malaysia, as three months earlier, Malaysia netted worldwide infamy and ignominy as a “global kleptocracy” after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuits under the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative (KARI) on July 20 to forfeit US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland arising from over US$3 billion international embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering of 1MDB finds.

The investigative and regulatory authorities in over half-a-dozen countries, including closure of banks, imprisonment of former bankers and other criminal prosecutions, have become part of the  continuing international reverberations of the 1MDB global kleptocratic scandal – which is however totally denied and ignored in the country.

Malaysia’s global kleptocracy did not happen overnight, but is the result of unchecked rampant corruption in Malaysia, which caused Malaysia to be named by the international website, foreignpolicy.com, as the host country for the world’s third “worst corruption scandal of 2015” at the end of last year;  cited by Time Magazine in March this year as the second worst example of current global corruption and in May, rising to number two in the Economist index of crony capitalism, just behind Russia.

In Malaysia,  anti-corruption leaders like Pakatan Harapan MPs Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli, Bersih officials Ambiga Sreenivasan and Maria Chin, and student leaders like Anis Syafiqah Md Yusuf are being persecuted and penalized, causing Anis, the spokesperson of the #TangkapMO1 campaign to raise the valid cry: “Whole world knows we’ve been robbed, why are we still relaxed?”

It is to the eternal shame of Parliament and the  UMNO General Assembly they had  failed to defend the  country’s honour and reputation  in failing to  rebut and refute the ignominy and infamy of being regarded world-wide as a  “global kleptocracy” or to purge and cleanse Malaysia of such international infamy and ignominy.

Parliament and the UMNO General Assembly have failed Malaysians. Malaysians themselves must save Malaysia.

I call on all Malaysians to declare corruption as the Number One enemy of all Malaysians and for all  occasions – including the 14th General Election.

The battle lines in the 14GE is “democracy vs kleptocracy” – between  those who want to defend the 1MDB global kleptocracy whether directly or indirectly  and those who want to restore democracy in Malaysia so that we do not become a kleptocracy,  let alone “a global kleptocracy”!

Malaysians should have no truck with political parties or political leaders who are prepared to stomach or tolerate “global kleptocracy” in Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 12 December 2016, 4:42 pm and is filed under
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Call on Federal and Kelantan State Governments to set up a joint Commission of Inquiry to ensure just and equitable solution to the anti-logging grievances of the  Orang Asli Temiars in Gua Musang

The Orang Asli Temiar in Gua Musang are rebuilding their anti-logging blockades at the Balah Forest Reserve less than a fortnight after the destruction of the anti-logging blockades by the Kelantan State Forestry Department and the Police, which also saw the arrest of 54 protestors.

In my visit to the area and discussion with Orang Asli Temiars affected and Orang Asli NGO representatives, it is clear that the grievances of the Orang Asli Temiar kampongs in the area over the destruction of their resources and water source,  which caused them to first set up the blockades in September, have not been taken seriously by the authorities.

I call on the Federal Government and the Kelantan State Government to set up a joint Commission of Inquiry to ensure that there is just and equitable solution to the anti-logging grievances of the Orang Asli Temiars in Gua Musang.

The Orang Asli Temiar community must not be regarded or treated as  criminals or bad people  when  they are only peacefully protecting their legitimate rights as Malaysian citizens.

Both the Federal and State Government should not forget that the  Orang Asli, in particular the Temiars, played pivotal role in the war against communist insurgents.

Hundreds of Temiars were recruited by the British and later the Malayan government to form the Senoi Praaq force, which is a special unit in the Malaysian police tasked with tracking down Communists guerillas in the dense forest along Thai-Malaysian border.

Today, it is still common to meet with Senoi Praaq veterans among the elders in Temiar villages in Kelantan, as they are in their 60s and 70s.

The Temiar people are one of the largest sub-ethnic group of the Orang Asli population in Malaysia.  There are about 25,000 Orang Asli who identified themselves as Temiar, mainly residing in the headwaters of Perak and Kelantan.

They are mainly swidden farmers, planting hill rice for subsistence.  In recent decades, rubber and oil palm smallholdings are increasingly common, thus integrating their economic livelihood with national and global commodity cycle.  For instance, the depressed global commodity prices since 2014 had a deep impact on many Temiar small holders.

Access to forest resources are crucial for both economic and socio-cultural reasons.  Gathering non-timber forest produce (e.g. rattan, bamboo, etc.) provides supplementary incomes.  From the socio-cultural and spiritual perspective, the Temiars rely on the forest as places of recreation and for practising religio-cultural rituals.

Until about 10 – 15 years ago, the forests surrounding the Temiar settlement in Gua Musang district remain relatively intact and not exposed to large scale timber logging.

This is due in large part to the difficult geographical terrain and also, unknown to most, the Temiars settlement were security area off-limits to the public until the early 1990s.  Before that, communist insurgents active in the Thai-Malaysian border kept potential miners and loggers away from this vast Temiar-occupied customary land.

Between 1950 – 1989, huge changes have taken place in the Temiar society in upper Perak and Kelantan.  Because of the Emergency, traditional hamlets and settlements were regrouped into larger settlements protected by troops and barbwire, usually named as a Fort.

After Emergency ended, the jungle Forts mentioned above were renamed Pos (English: Post) and there remains some 20 such Pos in Kelantan today, e.g. Pos Pasik, Pos Simpor, Pos Belatim, Pos Bihai, Pos Pulat, Pos Tohoi, etc.  Normally, there are basic public amenities such as a clinic, a primary school and sometimes a police post in a “Pos” today.

According to government records, there are 118 Orang Asli (OA) villages in Kelantan today (in Malaysia, total 853 OA villages).  Only 45 have access to electricity.  Government records said all of these villages have access to treated water, but ground report suggest otherwise.

The quality of water supply in many Gua Musang villages has deteriorated in recent years, as the indiscriminate clear-fell logging destroyed the previously forested water catchment areas.  Indeed, many villages now rely upon polluted and silted river as water source.

Large scale deforestation in the Gua Musang districts started around 2008 – 2010 and has accelerated since 2012 – 2015, driven by logging and latex timber clone plantation (forest plantation).  Collectively, these were mostly under the Kelantan State Government “Ladang Rakyat” programme.

Each year, large tract of primary or secondary forests (10,000 hectares or more) were given out to Kelantan state-owned companies as timber concessions and after timbers extracted, the land converted to rubber plantation.  On paper, the land remains categorized as “Forest Reserves” or known as “Forest Plantations” because it was claimed that as the rubber trees mature 20 – 30 years later, they could be harvested as timber.

The logging concessions were given out without any form of tender, and with no or selective consultation with the local Orang Asli Temiar.

“Selective representation” is a key strategy of both the state and federal government agency (mainly: Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli, JAKOA) to obtain legitimacy of and consent to allow timber logging on the Temiar customary land.  It means, only certain groups, or only certain pro-establishment Orang Asli figures were given the privilege to be consulted.  These selected few would claim to represent the majority, in exchange for  patronage and rewards.

Native customary land, or tanah adat, of the Orang Asli is well recognized by the common law as its concept and practice are repeatedly affirmed by our judiciary, such as by the Federal Court in
Kerajaan Negeri Selangor vs. Sagong Tasi
.

Unfortunately, however, apart from the Selangor government post-2008, none of the state governments has taken steps to adopt policies and/or enact new laws to protect Orang Asli customary land in line with the court rulings and common law developments.

Under the Federal Constitution, Orang Asli matters is in the Federal list.  Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA, under the Rural Affairs Ministry) is a federal agency, but land matters are strictly under the state jurisdiction.

This has given rise to occasions where JAKOA accused the state government as the main hindrance in protecting Orang Asli land rights.  In actual fact, JAKOA has done little to none to negotiate with state governments.  Furthermore, JAKOA officers from top to bottom, work  closely with timber companies to facilitate loggings activities.

To date, there are very very few Orang Asli holding senior positions in JAKOA, and indeed in the entire civil service.

According to a recent parliamentary reply, out of a total 998 staffs in JAKOA, only 111 are Orang Aslis.  Only One is in the “Management and Professional” rank, the rest are all supporting/lower rank staffs.

In the entire civil service, there are 1,352 Orang Asli, but only 172 of them are in the Management/Professional rank (mostly in the teaching service).  Only One is in the Top Management position.

In less than nine months, Malaysia will be celebrating the 60th National Day Anniversary on August 31, 2017.

The Federal Government should make up for the neglect and failures to uplift the socio-economic position of Orang Asli for the past six decades by coming out with a New Deal for Orang Asli.

F0or a start, the Federal Government should ensure that by before August 31 next year, an Orang Asli is appointed to  head JAKOA and that over 50 per cent of the nearly 1,000 posts in JAKOA are occupied by Orang Asli.

(Media Statement during a solidarity visit to Pos Bihai, Gua Musang on Sunday, December 11 at 11 am where Orang Asli Temiar are  rebuilding  anti-logging blockades at the Balah Forest Reserves)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 12 December 2016, 12:18 pm and is filed under
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Crackdown on freedom and democracy in Malaysia

By Syerleena Abdul Rashid

Free Malaysia Today

December 10, 2016

68 years later, it is still celebrated in various magnitudes; its significance and meaning varies from one nation to the next but for Malaysians, the struggle to uphold justice, freedom and democracy has become more crucial than ever.

Every year on 10th December, the world celebrates Human Rights Day, a day where we reflect hard-fought battles to restore democracy, freedom and justice. Human Rights Day symbolizes past, present and future struggles to make universal human rights a reality for everyone– regardless of race, gender, disability or religion.

68 years later, it is still celebrated in various magnitudes; its significance and meaning varies from one nation to the next but for Malaysians, the struggle to uphold justice, freedom and democracy has become more crucial than ever; our struggle now is a battle between oppressive forces verses liberty.

2016 has been marred with a barrage of atrocities that violates civility, human rights and basic human decency. In times of absurd revelations, defending our constitutional rights have become more significant than ever. As Malaysians, we must protect these rights and appreciate the battles fought by those who resolved to see a better vision of the world materialize.

Prosecutions and oppressions of dissenting voices have spread beyond opposition politicians and activists to ordinary citizens and students. The Barisan Nasional government’s actions indicate a sickening crackdown on freedom of expression and assembly in the country – a last act of defiance born out of desperation and anxiety.

The latest victims of the tyrannical forces of those who govern from the ivory towers in Putrajaya are the four Universiti Malaya students: Anis Syafiqah Md Yusof, Muhammad Luqman Nul Haqim Zul Razali, Muhammad Luqman Hakim Mohd Fazli and Suhail Wan. All four students were recently suspended by Universiti Malaya for participating in the Tangkap MO1 rally at Dataran Merdeka, which was held earlier this year.

Other students have also been persecuted, charged and suspended in the past – Adam Adli, Fahmi Zainol, Asheeq Ali, Safwan Shamsuddin, Khairol Najib, Haw Yu Hong, Nur Syamimi Munirah, Khairul Anwar, and Adam Wilfrid; this list will continue to grow leading up to the next general elections.

The Barisan Nasional government lead by Prime Minister Najib Razak is on a feverish witch hunt to chastise and persecute Malaysians who dare criticize the wrong doings of the present regime. Commenting on 1MDB, questioning the slapdash leadership, demanding free and fair elections, drawing cartoons and student activism have all been met with iron fist punishment. The fascist like crack down on opposing voices is a stark contradiction of what is guaranteed to us as citizens of a democratic nation.

Prime Minister Najib Razak and the Barisan Nasional federal government have the obligation to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms enshrined under both international law and the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. They must also be made to understand that human rights is not just about freedom from violence, unlawful detention, discrimination; it is extended to freedom to express, criticize, associate, assemble, and practice one’s religion.

As Malaysians, we must demand that the ruling regime stop the mindless persecution of students and other dissenting voices, stop the senseless oppression and fear mongering tactics.

Prime Minister Najib Razak must be reminded that he is the Prime Minister of all Malaysians and not just the 48%, with that being said, he must reinstate democratic freedom, restore confidence in the system and provide sound solutions to alleviate us from this quagmire of socio-political despair.

As Malaysians, it is our utmost duty to see that our rights will not be trampled by those whose lust for power overrules logic and common human decency. We must also ensure that justice is extended to other victims of tyranny, protect those who are in danger and insist that investigations are to be carried out thoroughly and justly.

We, as Malaysians, have an obligation to see that democracy and liberty prevail even in our darkest hours.

Syerleena Abdul Rashid is DAP Wanita National Assistant Publicity Secretary.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 12 December 2016, 5:56 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia: Do the Umno grassroots believe that corruption is non-existent?

By Zan Azlee | 12th December 2016

Asian Correspondent

UMNO (United Malays National Organisation), the political party that leads the government in Malaysia, has in the recent years been facing numerous accusations and allegations of corruption.

One of the highest profile scandals is the world-famous 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy that many have tied to Prime Minister Najib Razak and his family.

Several international authorities have already kicked off investigations into the scandal because it involves the misappropriation of funds in the banks of multiple countries. The biggest of these in the headlines right now is the one being conducted by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). In Malaysia, however, the attorney-general has already absolved Najib of any criminal wrongdoing in the matter.

Umno, which Najib heads, still appears to have strong support from the Malaysian grassroots. Earlier this month, the party held their annual meeting of delegates across the country and since I’ve never once missed a meeting in over a decade, I did not want this year’s event to be any different. I also had a burning desire to find out if any of Umno’s grassroots members really believed that corruption wasn’t happening right below their very noses.

So I went. And there, I spoke to several assembly delegates and observers, all of whom had come to listen to their leaders discuss issues involving the party and the nation. It also needs to be said that the party is a Malay race-based party. So their main mission, really, is to protect the rights and interests of the Malays, who form the bulk of the Malaysian electorate.

A full disclosure on my part: I went in expecting that those I spoke to would vehemently defend their leaders and say they are clean and that corruption doesn’t exist. After all, with so much negative news in the media about Umno and its leaders, you would think that only the blind faithful would remain supporters of the party, right? But I was proven wrong.

“It is impossible that there is no corruption in Umno. But we can’t change it with a snap of a finger. It takes a very long time,” says Zaitun Yahya, who hails from Larut, a constituency in Perak, a state nearly two hours north of Kuala Lumpur.

Initially, it took me a while to get Zaitun to answer my question on whether she thought her party leaders were corrupt. She kept trying to evade the question, saying that leaders were elected to their posts for a reason. She even said that God had given them the right characteristics and intelligence to be leaders of the party.

Eventually, however, she relented and said it would be naive not to believe that corruption happens. But what struck me as funny was that while she disagreed with corrupt practices and said it was “impossible” to say the party was not in some way corrupted, she didn’t seem to believe that this could be changed. Or at least she felt it wasn’t something she could change. It’s not like she wanted it to continue. It was just that she felt she wasn’t in the position to take any action and that others were.

I spoke to another delegate from Bagan Serai, also in Perak, named Wan Jaafar Wan Ngah. Like Zaitun, Wan Jaafar’s expressed sentiments were similar. He said corruption was part and parcel of politics, and that he accepted it as that. It’s as if nothing can or should be done about it.

“I can’t say much about it. It’s all up to the leaders to explain the corruption allegations to us at the grassroots. It’s confusing for us but we do understand that is just how politics is,” he said.

From these brief interviews, it shows that many of these Umno grassroots leaders from cities, townships and villages outside the capital aren’t actually as ignorant or as naive as I had come to believe.

The only – and biggest – problem is that they aren’t taking any action about it and it doesn’t look like they plan to. Or it could be that they have no idea what they should or can do.

And if I’m right and that’s really the case, then the concept of democracy isn’t as clear as it should be in the country. At least not to these delegates. Delegates who, after the annual meeting, would have gone home to the far-flung corners of the country to spread their party message and agenda, whose followers and supporters are largely the Malays, who form the bulk of the Malaysian electorate.

When deciding who should run the country, the opinion of every single eligible voter counts. One person, one vote, right? So even if these delegates want to continue supporting their party, they need to realise that their opinions matter and that regardless how helpless they feel in any situation, they can do something about the things they don’t like.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 12 December 2016, 2:56 pm and is filed under
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Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah’s warning about rampant  grand corruption should be reminder to Cabinet, Parliament and the ruling political parties  of their failure to address this critical issue in Malaysia

The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah’s warning yesterday about rampant grand corruption in the country should be reminder to the Cabinet, Parliament and the  ruling political parties of their failure to address this critical issue in Malaysia.

Sultan Nazrin’s concern over corruption and criminal breach of trust committed openly by highly-educated and high-ranking individuals should serve as a salutary end-of-the-year reminder to both the Federal and State Governments that Malaysia must break away from the trajectory of a failed and rogue state where corruption and abuses of power become the prevailing  order of the day.

The Perak Sultan’s warning is most timely as a serious denial syndrome has afflicted the political leadership in the country, refusing to acknowledge that Malaysia has broken an infamous barrier when it is regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy”.

This is not the first time that the  Rulers have expressed concern about the importance of upholding public integrity in Malaysia.

In a historic statement of the pre-council meeting of the 239th Conference of Rulers on Oct. 7, 2015 , the Rulers expressed concern about the 1MDB financial scandal and asked  the government to complete the 1MDB investigations as soon as possible and to take “the appropriate stern action” against all found to be implicated.

Fourteen months have passed since the Conference of Rulers’ statement, but not a single person implicated in the global 1MDB kleptocratic scandal had been brought to book, despite the very attenuated recommendations for action by the Barisan Nasional-dominated Public Accounts Committee in April this year.

The intervening 14 months have fully vindicated the Conference of Rulers in their concerns about the 1MDB scandal, as the Conference of Rulers statement said:

“The findings of the investigation must be reported comprehensively and in a transparent manner so that the people will be convinced of the sincerity of the Government which shall not at all conceal facts and the truth.

“The failure to give convincing clarification and answers is feared to have resulted in a crisis of confidence.

“As a consequence, the people believe, whether basing on reality or perception, that this is among the causes for the plunge in the value of the Malaysian Ringgit, impacting the country’s financial market and economic climate negatively and at the same time adversely affecting the world’s view of Malaysia.”

These words of warning of the Conference of Rulers 14 months ago have proven to be very prescient and right with the passing months, with Malaysia undergoing the worst economic and political crisis of confidence in the nation’s 60-year history.

The 1MDB kleptocratic scandal had not only not been resolved in the past 14 months, but have become ever monstrous in scope and magnitude – the subject of US Department of Justice (DOJ) largest kleptocratic lawsuits to forfeit over US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland as a result of international embezzlement and money-laundering of US$3.5 billion 1MDB funds as well as  the subject of investigations and criminal prosecution in over half a dozen countries including Singapore, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, United States and Switzerland.

In Malaysia,  anti-corruption leaders like Pakatan Harapan MPs Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli, Bersih officials Ambiga Sreenivasan and Maria Chin, and student leaders like Anis Syafiqah Md Yusuf are being persecuted and penalized, causing Anis, the spokesperson of the #TangkapMO1 campaign to raise the valid cry: “Whole world knows we’ve been robbed, why are we still relaxed?”

I call on the Najib Cabinet to heed Sultan Nazrin’s warning, halt all persecution of anti-corruption leaders like Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramjli, Ambiga Sreenivan, Maria Chin and  Anis Syafiqah Md Yusuf and take immediate action to end the unprecedented crisis of confidence  caused by the 1MDB scandal which had been warned by  the Conference of Ruler in its  Statement on Oct. 7, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 13 December 2016, 8:44 am and is filed under
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Stop selective prosecution and discriminatory law  enforcement – haul the persons responsible for the  Zahid poison pen letter calling for Najib’s ouster to court but also prosecute all  who disseminate lies or  lodged false police reports against Opposition leaders

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that the police have received over 20 police reports over the poison pen letter purportedly written by him urging BN parliamentarians and senators to pressure for the ouster of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

He said he did not want to be involved (in the investigation) but he had been informed that the police were conducting a thorough investigation together with the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to find the source (of the letter).

He told reporters: “I am sure whoever this is will face the legal consequences from the government.”

I agree that Malaysia has recently  descended to the abyss of the politics of lies and falsehoods to create scare, fear, disharmony and hatred among the people and this deplorable political culture should not be allowed space and room to fester, which will poison  not only politics in Malaysia but also the process of nation building to build a show-case of a successful  harmonious multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural plural nation in this troubled world.

Those responsible for the poison pen letter dated Dec. 9 which had circulated through social media and WhatsApp purported  to be from Zahid and urged BN parliamentarians and senators to pressure Najib Abdul Razak to step down was delivering  a very low and despicable blow.

But who was really responsible for the Zahid poison-pen letter?

Zahid said it  was the work of those who were “jealous” of his close relationship with Najib and sought to split the two leaders.

Najib  accused the opposition of being envious of the solidarity displayed in the recent Umno annual general assembly, and that it was trying to strain his relationship with the Deputy Prime Minister.

But  the poison pen letter to strain the relationship between Najib and Zahid may not be the work from outside, as it could very well come from within UMNO!

But whether the perpetrators of the poison pen letter are from outside or inside UMNO, I agree that the full weight of the law should be thrown at them to discourage such low political culture.

In fact, what is urgently needed  is for Malaysia to have an independent, professional and non-partisan police and law enforcement agencies, to stop selective prosecution and discriminatory law enforcement.

Haul the creator of Zahid poison pen letter calling for Najib’s ouster to court but also prosecute all  who disseminate lies or  lodge false police reports against Opposition leaders.

In this connection, can Zahid or  the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar explain whether police investigations have started on the police report made by the DAP MP for Segambut Lim Lip Eng against the son of former Inspector-General of Police, Abdul Rahman Mohd Hanif Omar for lodging false police reports in making baseless allegations that foreign funds were distributed to the fictitious  “Red Bean Army” (RBA), purportedly controlled by DAP?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 13 December 2016, 11:51 am and is filed under
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Why Do People Hate China’s Dancing Grandmas?

By Sky Gidge

thatsmags.com

December 12, 2016

Few have less reason to dance than the older women who flood China’s parks, pavilions and parking lots daily, occupying public spaces with shimmying bodies and ear-ringing music.

They are what one researcher termed “the first generation of lonely mothers” in China’s history; products of economic reform, social change and the one-child policy.

They are left with few social outlets, a limited family circle and no employment, while living in a nation radically different from the one they grew up in.

But to tech worker Vanessa Wu, 28, they are mostly just annoying. Wu doesn’t enter her bedroom until 10pm, when the music finally stops. It begins again in the morning, sometimes as early as 6.30am, echoing from the small square across the street where groups of women dance in front of speakers they wheel in twice daily.

“I get it. It’s their way of keeping up with friends,” says Wu. “It just doesn’t need to be so noisy.”

In the apartment building’s common room, Wu’s words are met with nods from other middle class 20-somethings.

The music and the dancers, estimated at 100-million strong by state media, rattle windows and nerves across China every day.

Often depicted as surly and self-centered, the dancers are mocked, disparaged and sometimes physically attacked. Yet they dance on.

“If we want to do something, we do it. If you don’t like it, you can f*ck off.”

Around 7.30pm, up to seven different dance troupes arrive in Huanggang Park in central Shenzhen. Filling the park’s wide pavilion, badminton games are slowly pushed into the street while the groups raise the volume of their speakers in a battle to be heard. Security guards look on.

“I’ll need a drink if I’m going to deal with their noise,” Nancy Lin, 23, says as she walks towards the park. “The dancers have become a sort of symbol. They represent retired women with money and nothing to do, while the rest of us are working hard, but have nothing.”

Lin found a job with HSBC in Guangzhou after studying in Oklahoma, the United States. About 235 million Chinese people are in the middle income bracket, according to a 2011 Pew Research Center study, and Lin will likely join their ranks. The divisions between dancers and despisers are often economic, according to Wang Qianni, the author of a study on the phenomenon.

“The middle class care about their private rights, such as wanting private space without others intruding. They also prefer quieter spaces. The dancers just think loud music is a happy thing,” says Wang. “It’s a matter of taste, and taste is related to one’s class, age and life experience. They are different from each other in these aspects. So the dance becomes a battlefield.”

Back at Wu’s place, she and her neighbors are clearly bothered by the nightly noise pollution, so why not just ask the dancers to drop a few decibels?

“You can’t really ask them peacefully to turn it down,” Wu says. “They will gang up on you.”

The square across from Wu’s apartment is about the size of a soccer field. About 12 dancers stand in formation, all facing towards a speaker and going through the same dance moves. After the group begins to disperse, some remain chatting with a plump 50-something woman in a red dress who has been leading them.

When we ask her why she dances, she gives the same guarded responses we will hear from all the other people we interview: it’s a hobby. It’s healthy. It’s innocent fun. It’s that simple.

“There just isn’t much to say,” the woman concludes. Her answers sound practiced and calm, but the smile drops from her face when we ask if the music could be affecting the neighbors. The mood of the group changes; some women walk away, but one steps forward and begins shouting.

“If we want to do something, we do it. If you don’t like it, you can f*ck off.”

Mass dance in China can be traced back thousands of years, likely beginning as a folk ritual and sometimes making appearances in royal courts.

But the seeds of today’s tensions may have begun in the mid-90s, when a perfect storm of societal changes hit the nation.

The World Bank estimates that only 19 percent of Chinese people lived in urban areas in 1980, but by 1995 that number jumped to 30 percent, a migration of 183 million people – or 40 million more than today’s Russia.

As cities across China filled, a restructuring of state-owned enterprises began in 1995, seeing an estimated 40 million jobs axed over seven years; that combined with a retirement age of only 50 years old for women.

In the past, these women would have dedicated their time to taking care of large families, but by the mid-90s the one-child policy had already been in effect for 15 years, leaving many single children with four people to care for them: two parents and four grandparents.

In short, there were a lot of idle, unemployed, middle-aged women adapting to life in cities.

“In the United States you have book clubs, religious activities,” says Wang. “While in China we have a dance culture.”

According to Wang’s research, many women grew up with dance in one form or another and cite a desire to exercise and socialize as a reason to begin again, but she also found that there are deeper forces at play. The woman are asserting their existence in a society they are losing touch with, while confronting Confucian norms that have reemerged since Reform and Opening Up began.

“Dancing in public challenges a persistent expectation – even more prevalent in rural areas – that females ought to focus their attention on household matters,” writes Dr. Tom McDonald, in an article on sapiens.org. “These attitudes persist and influence where women can go and with whom they can socialize.”

McDonald is an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong and performed 15 months of research in rural Shandong Province, where he documented a dance troupe forming.

Speaking with us on the phone, McDonald explains that though superficially it might seem like a communal pastime, his study unearthed much more was at stake.

“In my case, they felt they were bringing something new and cosmopolitan into their village, and they feel that it is shifting the gender rules,” he says. “I think that we, as foreigners, tend to look at it with a kind of bemusement and think it’s quite funny and everything. It actually needs people to take it seriously. There is a lot of power and politics that goes on in these squares.”

Along with getting the women out in public, the dance had the unexpected effect of getting them onto the Internet, which became an integral part of the dancers’ lives.

“One of the real things that came out of my ethnographic research was these women were using QQ to find and download music,” he says. “[The Internet] also helped them form a subtle support network. Sometimes if there are household problems, they can talk about it online, when it might be difficult to do it during their daily lives.”

A Baidu search for public square dancing videos turns up more than 20 million results (a search for tai chi videos turns up less than two million). Many of the videos are instructional or produced by independent troupes to show off their routines. Clearly, public dance has become an integral part of these women’s identities.

The mass migration to China’s cities has continued – the majority of Chinese citizens now live in urban areas – along with a growth of the middle class, who often have a very different idea of what a city should be than the generation before them. With the two disparate groups increasingly inhabiting the same space, the chance for conflict rises, with news reports regularly featuring stories about rows between the dancers and people who want to use the public space or simply live nearby.

Two of the most striking and widely reported incidents involving the dance troupes took place in 2013. In one, a man on the outskirts of Beijing, irritated by the noise, blasted his shotgun in the air before setting his Tibetan mastiffs on the dancers. In another, dancers were allegedly pelted with feces in Wuhan.

Despite the tensions, this November more than 50,000 Chinese dancers asserted themselves like never before in history, reportedly setting a Guinness World Record as they performed simultaneously in 14 cities across China, including Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.

Images of the dancers, the vast majority women, show a tidal wave of matching red tracksuits, meant to draw attention to the health and welfare of retirees in China, according to the organizer, a company called Red Dance.

Back in Huanggang Park, a dancer, who asks not to be named, says she has been dancing for more than a decade and has no plans to stop.

“Of course we’ll be dancing in 10 years – it’s a hobby, just exercise. Nothing more.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 13 December 2016, 4:55 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia needs democracy. I’m in prison for that belief – but I won’t change it

Anwar Ibrahim

Guardian

Tuesday 13 December 2016

My country is at a crossroads: it can either return to freedom and transparency, or it can become just another failing Muslim-majority country

Winston Churchill once famously paraphrased: “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others.” Recent anti-progressive electoral upsets in the US and UK, combined with potential successes looming for similar sentiment in upcoming European polls, are conspiring to give democracy a bad name in some circles.

Yet despite the challenges, we must be globally resolute in our commitment to accountable representative governments, with reinforcing systems of transparency and accountability.

In the Muslim world in particular, real democracy is essential to confront the threats to life, peace, security, freedom and human dignity that have become virtually epidemic from Africa to east Asia. Failure to address political grievances allows extremists the opportunity to pounce on the disenchanted and marginalised with their brand of deviant Islam.

Earlier this year my long-time friend, Rached Ghannouchi of Tunisia, challenged his Islamist peers by boldly pronouncing at the Ennahda party convention, “We are leaving political Islam … We are Muslim democrats.”

While this ideal may be still nascent in the Middle East, in south-east Asia, the success of Indonesia and the relative progress of Malaysia can make them beacons for Muslim-majority countries globally. But as my own political imprisonment exemplifies, we still need unyielding international encouragement and pressure, if our nations are to fully realise their democratic destinies.

Two decades ago Malaysia was arguably the bright spot of progress in the Muslim world. We believed then that our combination of economic growth and improving democratic engagement would be an example for other Muslim-majority countries. The past 20 years, however, have seen our country go from bad to worse politically and economically, driven by compromised democratic institutions and years of systematic abuse by the ruling elite to maintain their grip on power.

Our people have chosen the path of reform and democratic accountability as the way forward. This was evident when they showed tremendous courage in the 2013 general election and delivered a 52% majority for the opposition coalition I was honoured to lead.

This sentiment has also been evident in our famous yellow-shirted “Bersih” rallies calling for “clean” government. Sadly, however, the UMNO-led government has increased harassment, arrest, and detention of nearly all key pro-democracy activists and opposition leaders.

Despite its uninterrupted rule since Malaysia’s independence, its ownership of over 95% of the nation’s media assets, and its control of the judiciary and federal police forces, the government dreads a democratic wave sweeping them from power. The historic scale of its kleptocracy has been highlighted internationally by the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, now the subject of the largest corruption investigation in US department of justice history.

I remain optimistic for our nation and about the victory of our citizens, because the current opposition coalition now even includes former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, and an increasing number of his allies defecting from UMNO. To stem a mass revolt, the ruling elite has resorted to desperate and repressive measures which have forced the country further into despotism. This includes the criminalising of public debate and a cynical exacerbation of racial and religious tensions. The latter factor has increased religious extremism to the point that per capita, Malaysia is sending six times the number of foreign fighters to join Islamic State as our neighbour Indonesia.

Seventeen years ago my colleagues and I took a defiant stance against autocracy: our “Reformasi” (reform) movement started with a dream of multi-ethnic politics grounded on the principles of reform, inclusivity and justice. Fast forward to today, and the movement has evolved into a formidable and vibrant opposition.

This has put Malaysia at a crossroads: it can either return to its rightful place as a shining political and financial star in a developing world desperate for such successes; or it can descend to the role of yet another Muslim-majority country with a failing democracy and economy. Internationally, support for fundamental political reforms in Malaysia can help create a south-east Asian bloc of Muslim governments that will be a model for the rest of the world.

What may be the final judicial review of my case will be held this week, and I hope my wrongful conviction will now be overturned. I pray my political imprisonment will soon end – as the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have all implored – and that I may be free again to witness a new chapter in world history. I believe the factors are well-aligned to see Malaysia return to its position of regional leadership. if its true friends can work to ensure it does not slide down a path from which it will be difficult to quickly recover.

As the original convener of the World Forum for Muslim Democrats in 2014, I am certain that freedom, transparency, accountability are the right answers for Malaysia and for the entire Muslim world. Democracy may not be the perfect solution to every problem we have, but simply put, it is better than every other option.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 14 December 2016, 1:31 pm and is filed under
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RM157 million assets seized by MACC this year only drop in the ocean if Perak Sultan’s warning against grand corruption taken seriously

The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Razali Ibrahim revealed in Senate yesterday that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had seized and frozen assets RM157.3 million this year, RM9.3 million last year and RM19.3 million in 2014.

The RM157 million assets seized and frozen by MACC this year is only a drop in the ocean if the Perak Sultan, Sultan Nazrin Shah’s concern over grand corruption is taken seriously.

Speaking at the Perak Maulidur Rasul 1438H celebrations in Tanjong Malim on Monday, Sultan Nazrin Shah expressed his concern over corruption and criminal breach of trust committed openly by highly-educated and high-ranking individuals.

He said  that based on media reports, corrupt practices and criminal breach of trust were not only rampant but even occurring on a very large scale.

Sultan Nazrin said history had shown that criminal breach of trust and corrupt practices, and ravenous use of power were factors that had caused the downfall of many governments and collapse of civilisations.

He said: “In the history of Islamic governments, many among the leaders of the Bani Umaiyyah (Umayyad Caliphate) and Bani Abbas (Abbasid Caliphate), due to their preoccupation with worldly pleasures, were willing to use their wealth to remain in power.

“When power was regarded as an opportunity to fulfill personal interest and not as a trust, the functioning of the government would be impaired and ultimately resulted in its downfall and collapse of a civilization.”

The Perak Sultan’s focus on “grand corruption” involving people in high places in government is most apt and timely, for Malaysians and the world are asking why China is catching “tigers” and Indonesia “crocodiles”, but Malaysia is not able to catch a single “shark” in the war against grand corruption.

In China, a million of the party’s 90 million members have been sanctioned for corruption-related offences since Xi Jinping took power as President – including scores of officials of deputy ministerial or higher status, demonstrating that high status within the party is no protection for “tigers” against investigation and conviction.

In Indonesia, high-profile “crocodile” anti-corruption cases involving  former Ministers and top officials ending in their imprisonment have become common occurrences.

But in Malaysia, a “shark” has still to be netted in the anti-corruption campaign.

Instead, anti-corruption leaders like  Pakatan Harapan MPs Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli, Bersih officials Ambiga Sreenivasan and Maria Chin, and student leaders like Anis Syafiqah Md Yusuf are persecuted and penalized, while “sharks” responsible for grand corruption in Malaysia are allowed to go scotfree.

Razali’s announcement in the Senate that the MACC had seized and frozen RM157.3 million this year seemed impressive, but it would appear that the entire amount was probably due to one case –  the Sabah State Water Department corruption case –  and if so, it is a mere drop in the ocean if the MACC has the freedom to go after the “sharks” in the corruption waters in Malaysia.

“Grand corruption” has been defined by Transparency International (TI) as “the abuse of high-level power that benefits the few at the expense of the many, and causes serious and widespread harm to individuals and society. It often goes unpunished.”

Transparency International has described grand corruption as “one of the great unresolved legal challenges of our day”.

It said: “With its serious and often global effects, combating grand corruption must be the responsibility of the international community.

“For this to happen grand corruption should be treated as an international crime.

“Transparency International has developed a legal definition of grand corruption to encourage advocates, scholars, lawmakers, and others to seek ways to enhance accountability of high-level public officials and others whose corruption harms their citizens egregiously and too often with impunity.

“If designated as an international crime countries could exercise universal jurisdiction, similar to the treatment of war crimes.

“Our targets: the leaders who co-opt the institutions of state for their own personal gain and sweep all before them to do that: human rights, human dignity, equality, development.”

Is the MACC and the Malaysian Government prepared to support TI in this global fight against “grand corruption” and has the MACC a special strategy to fight grand corruption in Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 14 December 2016, 7:27 am and is filed under
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U.S. Seizure of 1MDB Assets Moves on With Jho Low’s Family Sidelined

by Edvard Pettersson

Bloomberg

December 14, 2016

A U.S. effort to seize about $1 billion in assets allegedly acquired with funds siphoned from 1Malaysia Development Bhd. is moving ahead over objections from relatives of the Malaysian financier at the center of the scandal.

A Los Angeles federal judge’s ruling Monday blocking family members of Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low, from intervening in the forfeiture lawsuits gives the government the upper hand as it seeks to confiscate properties including a $100-million interest in EMI Music Publishing Group, a $35 million Bombardier jet and a $380-million stake in the Park Lane Hotel in New York.

To fight back against the U.S. in Low’s absence, four of his relatives, including his father and brother, are trying to replace the Swiss trustees holding the assets that have declined to oppose the forfeiture. According to the family, the Swiss trustees fear being exposed to criminal liability if they get involved.

U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer refused in Monday’s ruling to give the relatives additional time to pursue legal action in New Zealand and the Cayman Islands, where they are trying to replace the trustees with others who are more willing to defend their interests.

While they are beneficiaries of the trust, the Low family members don’t control the assets and therefore aren’t qualified to ask the court to delay proceedings in the forfeiture cases, Fischer said. The judge also said that their request to intervene was denied because they are already participants in the lawsuits by having filed proposed claims.

Robin Rathmell, a lawyer for the family members, told the judge the family members expected to secure court orders overseas replacing the trustees as soon as next month. Rathmell declined to comment on the ruling.

The Justice Department contends that the family members have no standing to contest forfeiture of the assets.

Low has said he provided consulting to 1MDB that didn’t break any laws. His family members have said that without a trustee defending the assets, they may go to the U.S. by default.

Even if the U.S. wins a default judgment, there may be years of legal wrangling ahead for the government to actually take possession of the real estate and investments at issue, said Raj Malviya, an estate planning lawyer with Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey Plc.

“A U.S. judgment is not going to be conclusive,” Malviya said in a phone interview. “The government will need to enforce it against a foreign trust in a foreign jurisdiction that may not give full faith and credit to a U.S. judgment.”

The case is U.S.A. v. Any Rights to Profits, Royalties and Distribution Proceeds Owned by or Owed to JW Nile (BVI) Ltd., 16-cv-05364, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 14 December 2016, 12:53 pm and is filed under
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Anwar’s “Malaysia at the crossroads” article in Guardian should be compulsory reading  for all Malaysians who care and are concerned about the nation’s future

Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister-designate  Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s “Malaysia at the crossroads” article in the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom should be compulsory reading for all Malaysians who care and are concerned about the nation’s future.

Malaysia’s choice is stark and dire. In Anwar’s own words:

“Two decades ago Malaysia was arguably the bright spot of progress in the Muslim world. We believed then that our combination of economic growth and improving democratic engagement would be an example for other Muslim-majority countries. The past 20 years, however, have seen our country go from bad to worse politically and economically, driven by compromised democratic institutions and years of systematic abuse by the ruling elite to maintain their grip on power…

“This has put Malaysia at a crossroads: it can either return to its rightful place as a shining political and financial star in a developing world desperate for such successes; or it can descend to the role of yet another Muslim-majority country with a failing democracy and economy. Internationally, support for fundamental political reforms in Malaysia can help create a south-east Asian bloc of Muslim governments that will be a model for the rest of the world.”

Contrast Anwar’s article with the Prime Minister’s Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s UMNO Presidential speech on 1st December –  the former infused with patriotic concern about Malaysia’s future despite its  potential for greatness and capacity for good in the international society and the latter  a small-minded and spiteful oratory reminiscent of Nazi-style “Big Lie” propaganda to pander to the most primordial sentiments by provoking the most elemental emotions  of fear, hate and intolerance totally inimical to the objective of  a  democratic, harmonious and peaceful  plural society.

As the annus horriblis  of 2016 winds to a close, a year which:

•
STARTED
 with the unprecedented epithets for Malaysia, like being named by the international website, foreignpolicy.com, as the host country for the world’s third “worst corruption scandal of 2015”;  cited by Time Magazine in March this year as the second worst example of current global corruption and in May, rising to number two in the Economist index of crony capitalism, just behind Russia;

•
SAW
 Malaysia “crowned” as a “global kleptocracy”  after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuits to forfeit over a US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland from a US$3.5 billion  international kleptocratic conspiracy of embezzlement and money-laundering of 1MDB funds; and

•
ENDING
  with Malaysia’s premier institutions, namely the Cabinet, Parliament and the ruling party for nearly six decades showing the whole world that  they are afflicted from a terminal denial complex refusing to acknowledge the ills of the country ushering  the country towards the trajectory of a failed and rogue state.

How did a “shining political and financial star” fall so low in a matter of two decades that we seemed stuck in the trajectory leading Malaysia to a failed and rogue state?

May be it would benefit  Najib and the UMNO leaders to read Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah written in 1377 on the rise and fall of dynasties, states or civilizations.

Six events this year stand out as warnings to the country to get out of the trajectory towards a failed and rogue state before it is too late, viz:

•	Malaysia as a global kleptocracy and the refusal to deal with the international stigma, keeping alive the question “Who is MO1” in the 1MDB global kleptocratic scandal.

•	The unprecedented plunge of the Malaysian ringgit and loss of confidence of local and foreign investors.

•	The onslaught on human and democratic rights of Malaysians, particularly opposition political, civil society and student leaders.

•	The shame of the PISA 2015 results, where the Education Ministry claims improvement in Malaysia’s scores in mathematics, science and reading in what is described as the “world’s school report” when PISA authorities excluded and derecognized Malaysia’s PISA 2015 results because of data deception. What is even more shocking, the Education Ministry has not only lost  moral compass – a bad example for the new generation of Malaysians – but  quite happy with their own announced results which are well below the global average!

•	Resort to Nazi-style “Big Lie” propaganda launched by the Prime Minister at the UMNO General Assembly, foretelling a campaign of lies, falsehoods and hatred in the reckless and ruthless exploitation of the politics of race and religion in the run-up to the 14th General Election expected in the next nine to 18 months.

•	Replacement of Vision 2020 by Najib’s National Transformation (NT) 2050.

Will 2017 be a worse annus horibilis than 2016?

Can Malaysia get out of the trajectory of a failed and rogue state to fulfill the promise to be a shining political and economic star in the international firmament, the dream of our forefathers when Merdeka was achieved in 1957 and Malaysia formed in 1963?

This is the challenge of  Malaysians in the next 12 months.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 15 December 2016, 8:30 am and is filed under
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After being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy, PISA 2015 should not be the second international infamy Malaysians have to suffer for the year 2016

Ten days are long enough for the Education Minister, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid to abdicate from  his responsibility to  explain the shame and infamy from  the exclusion and rejection of Malaysia’s results from the  Programme for International Student  Assessment (PISA) 2015, described as the world’s school report.

Deputy Education Minister, Datuk Chong Sin Woon, raised eyebrows when he said yesterday that “A report being prepared by the committee conducting the mathematics, reading and science under PISA 2015 will explain the reason for the inadequate sampling which resulted in Malaysia’s disqualification”.

Let me tell Mahdzir – Just tell the truth. There is no need for a committee to crack its head as to how to “massage the message” of Malaysia’s disgraceful disqualification from PISA 2015 although 9,660 Form III students from 230 schools reportedly took part in the PISA 2015 tests.

If the Education Ministry tries to cook up a cock-and-bull story to put it in good light over Malaysia’s disgraceful exclusion and disqualification from PISA 2015, it bears the risk of double infamy when it is exposed a second time.

When the PISA 2015 results were released worldwide in London on 6th December, and Malaysia was excluded from PISA 2015 rankings although Malaysia took part in the PISA 2015 tests, I had on the same day called on Mahdzir to give “a full and detailed explanation”.

In the past ten days, DAP MP for Serdang Ong Kian Ming had asked whether the Education Ministry had tried to rig the PISA 2015  sample schools in order to artificially boost Malaysia’s scores while DAP National Publicity Secretary and MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua, had called on Mahdzir to take stern action against all senior Education Ministry officials  complicit in the attempts to cheat PISA in trying to  produce fake performance outcomes by using a biased sample of schools.

Even the Parents Action Group for Education (Page) has urged the Education Ministry to provide detailed explanations on Malaysia’s performance in PISA 2015, especially why only 51 percent of those assessed were from schools, falling short of the 85 percent requirement for Malaysia to be ranked on PISA  2015.

As Education Minister, Mahdzir must have the courage to come forward to bear responsibility for the disgraceful PISA 2015 episode and explain what actually happened.

Let  PISA 2015 not  be the second international infamy which Malaysians have to suffer in the year 2016, after being regarded as a global kleptocracy following the biggest kleptocratic action by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to forfeit US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland from US$3.5 billion embezzlement and money-laundering of 1MDB funds.

Mahdzir should explain four  matters with regard to Malaysia’s disqualification from PISA 2015, viz:

1.	Why was Malaysia’s excluded and disqualified from PISA 2015, one of the three countries to suffer such ignominy. The other two countries are Kazakstan and Argentina.  It is not that Malaysia is taking part in PISA for the first time. PISA 2015 is the third PISA tests for Malaysia and there can be no excuse or reason for such an educational disaster.

2.	How can the Education Ministry maintain its  claim that Malaysia’s PISA 2015 results showing improvements in mathematics, science and reading  were accurate when they had been disqualified and excluded in the PISA 2015 rankings – especially as the Education Ministry had been informed of the disqualification before the official launch of PISA 2015 results in London on Dec. 6?

3.	The improvement in the scores for the three subjects claimed by the Education Ministry are:  for science, score of  443 points,  an increase of 23 points from the 2012 PISA score; for reading,  score of  431 points which was up by 33 points while for mathematics the score was 446 points, up by 25 points.  What would be Malaysia’s score if there had been no rigging of the school samples – will Malaysia’s PISA 2015 be the same or  worse than  PISA 2012?

4.	Whether PISA 2015 is a major setback for the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 to achieve above global average and be in top one-third of countries in international educational standards in less than a decade by 2025?

Even going by the Education Ministry’s claims of improved PISA 2015 performance, which is not recognized by the PISA authorities, Malaysia is still below the OECD average for all three subjects, which is 490 for Mathematics, 493 for Science and Reading.

If Malaysia is to in top one-third of countries in the PISA tests, Malaysia will have to perform better than countries including United States, Austria, France, Sweden, Czech Republic, Spain, Latvia, Russia, Luxembourg, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, Croatia, Iceland, Israel, Malta, Slovak Republic, Greece, Chile and Bulgaria which are countries in the second one-third ranking of PISA assessments, and better positioned than Malaysia, even going by the Education Ministry’s claims of PISA 2015 results which are not recognized by PISA authorities.

Is this likely without even talking about Malaysia edging out countries in the top one-third of PISA 2015 tests, led by Singapore, Japan, Estonia, Taiwan Finland, Macao, Canada, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, New Zealand, Slovenia, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Portugal and Norway?

The Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) has announced that it is taking action against 11 universities under suspicion of selling fake degrees where students don’t have to attend classes.

Can Mahdzir explain why the Education Ministry has so lost its moral compass as to be involved in trying to fake PISA 2015 results?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 December 2016, 2:17 pm and is filed under
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Ex-BSI Banker Seah Convicted of 3 Charges Tied to 1MDB Case

by Andrea Tan  and Melissa Cheok

Bloomberg

December 16, 2016

Yvonne Seah Yew Foong, a former BSI SA private banker, became the second person to be convicted in Singapore’s probe into alleged money laundering linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Judge Salina Ishak found Seah guilty of three charges in a Singapore state court Friday for aiding in forging documents and failing to report suspicious transactions allegedly related to Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho. Prosecutors are taking into account four other charges in seeking a two-week jail sentence for Seah, 45, while her lawyer Peter Low asked for a fine.

Imposing a fine for the “well-heeled” like Seah isn’t a sufficient deterrent, prosecutor Nathaniel Khng said in seeking the prison term. Seah’s conduct had harmed Singapore’s reputation, he said.

Seah’s supervisor Yak Yew Chee is serving an 18-week jail term after being convicted November for similar offenses. BSI was ordered in May to shut after authorities found serious anti-money laundering breaches. The Malaysian Low, also known as Jho Low, has been identified by Singapore authorities as a key person of interest in its 1MDB-linked probe and previously described his work with 1MDB as informal consulting work that didn’t break any laws.

Efforts to reach Low haven’t been successful. Both 1MDB and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who formerly chaired 1MDB’s advisory board, have consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Both Yak and Seah serviced the accounts of Low, 1MDB and related entities and were among six BSI employees referred to prosecutors by the central bank.

There was no evidence backing Seah’s claim that she found it “practically impossible” to disobey Yak’s instructions, prosecutor Khng said. Both Yak and Seah had worked together for 17 years including at Commerzbank AG, Coutts & Co. and BSI, he said.

The verdict for another former BSI banker, Yeo Jiawei, is scheduled to be delivered Dec. 21. Yeo was charged with obstructing justice by seeking to tamper with witnesses in the probe.

The case is Public Prosecutor v Yvonne Seah Yew Foong, Singapore State Courts.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 December 2016, 4:30 pm and is filed under
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Malaysian politics: ‘Mother of all battles’ shaping up

Yang Razali Kassim

Straits Times Singapore

DEC 15, 2016

The ruling Umno-led coalition faces a challenge from a new opposition alliance led by two former allies: Mahathir and Anwar. Despite Umno’s confidence, the ground may be far from sweet in the coming general election.

The mother of all battles is shaping up in Malaysian politics as beleaguered Prime Minister Najib Razak pulled out all the stops to defend himself in the face of a reconfiguring opposition.

Putting his dominant party, Umno, on a war footing at its recently concluded annual general assembly, Datuk Seri Najib resorted to the Islamic doctrine of wala – or loyalty to the leader – as he manoeuvred to rally support and ready Umno for a general election.

The enabler was his No. 2, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who started the ball rolling by pledging his own loyalty to Mr Najib, who has been under siege since the outbreak of the scandal involving state development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) last year.

Umno for the first time had to ward off an uprising against a sitting president led by a former prime minister and party president. In a single-minded drive to push Mr Najib out, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is leading a “people’s movement” to “Save Malaysia”. Having resigned from Umno in protest against Mr Najib, Dr Mahathir has joined the opposition, even reconciling with his former ally-turned-nemesis Anwar Ibrahim to revive their once powerful political partnership.

NAJIB’S SURVIVAL STRATEGY

Dr Mahathir is now demonised as a traitor who would even sleep with the enemy, the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP), to destroy Umno, the Malay party he once led. The trigger that launched him on this warpath is 1MDB which has implicated Mr Najib despite his denial of wrongdoing. The scandal has energised the divided opposition as well as Mr Najib’s critics, culminating in the departure from Umno of Dr Mahathir and three other leaders, including deputy prime minister and Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin. All three have formed a new party, PPBM, also known for short as Bersatu.

This new party has just joined the Anwar-inspired Pakatan Harapan, formerly known as Pakatan Rakyat. This could strengthen the opposition coalition out to topple Mr Najib, along with Umno and the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

It is this prospect of a reconstituted opposition coalition led in spirit and form by the two formidable former foes – Dr Mahathir and Anwar – that caused Datuk Seri Zahid to predict an epic clash. “We have to work triple-hard than previous elections because the mother of all battles will be in this coming elections,” he told The Malay Mail in an interview.

Another Umno leader, the chief minister of Johor state Khaled Nordin, has described the coming general election as a “battle for survival”.

The current political tension soon spilled over when police reports were made of a letter, dismissed by Umno as a “hoax”, which purported that Mr Najib had been asked to step down by Mr Zahid.

With his back to the wall, Mr Najib’s strategy for survival has transformed him from a gentlemanly politician to an almost unrecognisable political animal. At the outbreak of the 1MDB scandal, he swiftly removed key senior officials who were not on his side, including the attorney-general, before sacking his chief critic, the deputy premier Muhyiddin.

1MDB has now grown into an international scandal as several governments launched probes where the financial fiasco affected their jurisdictions, yet at the Umno general assembly over the weekend, 1MDB was hardly an issue as the entire party’s attention was deflected towards the impending general election.

ROHINGYA ISSUE

Mr Najib the Malay nationalist then extended his campaign by burnishing his credentials as an Islamic leader, latching on to the latest humanitarian crisis on the Rohingya in Myanmar, which came at an opportune time for him.

Usually cautious when making his moves and choosing his words, he was a different persona at the Rohingya solidarity rally the next day.

He did the unprecedented in Asean: He brushed aside a warning by Myanmar not to interfere in the country’s internal affairs. Upset that his foreign minister was turned away by Ms Aung San Suu Kyi when he sought bilateral talks on the issue, Mr Najib declared a limit to the Asean principle of non-interference when it came to human rights abuses. He even ticked off Ms Suu Kyi for not living up to her name as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, while urging Indonesian President Joko Widodo to mobilise a larger rally in support of the Rohingya. “Enough is enough!” he said. “They want me to close my eyes? Shut my mouth? I will not keep quiet. We will defend them (the Rohingya)!”

Billed as the Muslim Ummah Solidarity Rally for the Rohingya, it was clearly not just to show solidarity with the persecuted Rohingya, thousands of whom have taken refuge in Malaysia. It was also to showcase solidarity between Umno and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), the Islamist opposition which Mr Najib has been trying hard to woo. Indeed, this was a showcase moment – of him on stage together with PAS leader Hadi Awang.

In coming together to support the Rohingya, Umno and PAS have signalled their converging political interests. While this does not necessarily mean they will end up as formal allies in the coming elections, it does raise the prospect of an electoral pact. The more Umno can win PAS over, the less the chances of the Pakatan Harapan opposition getting stronger.

Meanwhile, Asean will now have to contain the political fallout on the diplomatic and regional fronts on the Rohingya issue.

THE MOOD OUTSIDE UMNO

Mr Najib is clearly overflowing with confidence. Umno leaders claimed the party had turned the corner and was now solidly behind him. While this may be so, it is too early to say if Umno is completely out of the woods, going by publicly aired sentiments. One came from a recent press conference by an Umno Youth leader who quit the party after he was suspended for allegedly trying to “sabotage Najib” by attempting to provide Dr Mahathir with a speaking platform.

It was not so much the Youth leader’s resignation but what he said. Many more were standing behind him, he said, while claiming there would be “busloads” who would leave Umno in “managed waves”. This would build up to the general election that is widely expected to be quickened to next year, before the fractured opposition can consolidate.

On a broader note, while Umno may still be the dominant Malay party, it is no longer regarded as the sole representative of the Malay community’s political aspirations.

Outside Umno – indeed outside the Malay community – the mood may be in stark contrast. A recent article by a former senior civil servant and now a think-tank senior, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, was telling. He warned of a “serious disconnect” between Umno leaders and the wider Malaysian public.

Mr Ramon wondered whether the Umno leaders’ confidence and happiness was “shared by all Malays and bumiputeras and especially, most Malaysians, including non-Malays and non-Muslims”. “Prime Minister Najib Razak and Umno leaders are generally confident of the future, but are Malaysians happy too?”

He listed five sources of discontent – inflation, corruption, unemployment, human rights, and deteriorating safety and security. The chairman of the Asli Centre for Public Policy Studies said: “Malaysia’s public confidence by any measure is now low and declining… This is causing much loss of public confidence and unhappiness, which all political leaders must address expeditiously, before it’s too late for the 14th general election.”

•Yang Razali Kassim is senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 December 2016, 4:02 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Vulnerability Exposed by Dollar’s Ascent

By RACHEL ROSENTHAL

Wall Street Journal

Dec. 15, 2016

Foreign investors are fleeing the country’s stock and bond markets

Malaysia has been one of Asia’s worst-hit economies amid the continued climb of U.S. interest rates and the dollar.

Foreign investors sold $5.3 billion of Malaysian stocks and bonds in November, the largest monthly outflow since September 2011, according to ANZ Bank. That is almost a quarter of the $22.1 billion pulled from emerging markets in the region, excluding China.

The bulk of the selling was in Malaysia’s bond market. The $4.5 billion of bonds sold by foreigners in November, in ringgit terms, marks the biggest monthly debt outflow on record, according to ANZ.

The ringgit was one of Asia’s worst-performing currencies in the aftermath of the U.S. election, and Malaysia’s central bank has been tapping the country’s already low level of reserves to support it. Last month, Bank Negara clamped down on offshore currency speculators, a worrying echo of its maneuvers to stem capital outflows during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.

Despite the government’s various attempts to support the currency, the ringgit has lost 6.5% of its value against the greenback since the U.S. election, hitting a nearly 19-year low on Nov. 30. On Thursday, the currency weakened 0.9%, following the Federal Reserve’s announcement of its first rate increase in 2016.

Malaysia’s Achilles’ heel is the high level of foreign ownership of its government bonds. Foreign money is flighty, a factor that can accelerate a liquidity crunch during times of stress. While the latest rash of selling cut the proportion of foreign ownership to 48% in November from 52% a month earlier, the percentage is still very high for an emerging market.

—Carolyn Cui contributed to this article

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 December 2016, 12:15 pm and is filed under
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Thailand to free Swiss man linked to 1MDB scandal

South China Morning Post

AFP

14 December, 2016

Thailand will free a Swiss man jailed for blackmail in a case linked to a graft scandal engulfing the 1MDB Malaysian state investment fund, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Xavier Justo was jailed last August for attempting to blackmail his former employer PetroSaudi International, a Saudi oil firm allegedly involved in corrupt dealings with Malaysian fund 1MDB.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who launched the scandal-mired 1MDB, has been besieged by allegations that he and his cronies looted billions of dollars from it, prompting calls for him to resign.

According to Thai police Justo was jailed after demanding around US$2.5 million from PetroSaudi to return sensitive company data he claimed to have taken before leaving the firm in 2011.

He was arrested on the Thai island of Koh Samui in June 2015 and handed a three-year sentence.

But on Wednesday his lawyer said he will get out early after a mass prisoner amnesty.

“After he is released he will be sent to Thai immigration and then sent back to Switzerland,” Worasit Piriyawiboon said, adding that his precise release date had not been set.

Malaysia has been gripped by the financial fiasco for over a year, with investigations now underway in several countries, including Switzerland and the United States.

Allegations that hundreds of millions of dollars in 1MDB money went missing from the PetroSaudi deals have swirled.

The US Justice Department– which has filed lawsuits to seize assets it says were purchased with stolen 1MDB money – says the fund was bilked with the involvement of an unnamed top Malaysian official.

A Malaysian Cabinet official has since admitted that individual was Najib.

Najib, 1MDB and PetroSaudi deny wrongdoing.

Last month tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Kuala Lumpur to demand Najib’s resignation.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 December 2016, 4:50 pm and is filed under
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Exclusive: Cost of pump-at-will oil policy spurred Saudi OPEC U-turn

By Rania El Gamal and Dmitry Zhdannikov | DUBAI/LONDON

Reuters

Dec 15, 2016

Saudi Arabia has long said it could produce as much as 12 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil if needed, but that pump-at-will claim – which would require huge capital spending to access spare capacity – has never been tested.

Sources say the kingdom may have stretched its current limits by extracting a record of around 10.7 million bpd this year, which could be one reason why Riyadh pushed so hard for a global deal to cut production.

Riyadh, the world’s top oil exporter, felt the burn of cheap oil this year when crude was trading below $50 a barrel, as the reality of its costly war in Yemen and the task of shaking up its economy to create thousands of jobs began to sink in.

With tight resources, Saudi Arabia found itself weighing the prospect of investing billions of dollars to raise oil output further if it wanted to gain more market share under a strategy adopted in 2014.

Instead, cutting production amid a global glut and low prices to take the pressure off its oilfields, secure better reservoir management and save itself unnecessary expenses, seemed the perfect deal.

“You invest in raising your production when prices are high, not when they are low,” a Saudi-based industry source said.

“Choices are tougher now. The question is, would the Saudi government with its tight budget put huge investment in raising production or put it somewhere else where it’s needed more?”

Oil rose as much as 6.5 percent on Monday to an 18-month high after OPEC and some of its rivals reached their first deal since 2001 to reduce output jointly. On Thursday, oil LCOc1 was trading above $54 a barrel.

Under the deal, Saudi Arabia, de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, will from January cut output to around 10 million bpd – well below the 12 million bpd that the state has affirmed it can produce.

Saudi-based industry sources and market insiders say the kingdom cannot sustain historically high output for long. State oil giant Saudi Aramco has never tested 12 million bpd and would find it hard to keep the needed investments flowing with current low oil prices, they said.

Aramco, responding to a Reuters request for comment, said only that the company does not comment on current production levels.

One source familiar with Aramco production management said the firm’s capacity stood at 11.4 million bpd and it was still working to boost that figure to 12 million by 2018.

“Twelve million bpd has been planned since 2008-2010 and every annual budget worked towards that goal,” the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

To achieve that goal, the company has annual operating expenses (opex) of $20 billion and capital expenditure (capex) at around $40 billion, the source said. “When the 12 million bpd plan is achieved by 2018, the overall capex will fall to $20 billion,” he added.

Aramco does not disclose its opex or capex figures.

SHIFT IN THINKING

In a note to clients in May, U.S. consultancy PIRA estimated Saudi Arabia’s instantly available capacity at that time at 10.5 million bpd, after tracing expansion plans since 2008 and calculating an annual decline rate of 4 percent.

“Saudi Arabia could produce more but it would likely come at the expense of optimal reservoir practices. They could certainly bring on new fields but this is a lengthy process (years) and expensive as well,” PIRA wrote.

“So far the kingdom is not adding any significant new producing capacity based on project announcements and rig activity but rather replacing the aforementioned 4 to 6 percent annual decline rate.”

Saudi oil officials have said they can produce up to 12 million or even 12.5 million bpd if needed, particularly in the event of a sudden, global supply disruption.

Some say it is not a question of whether Saudi can do it, it is a matter of how soon.

Former oil minister Ali al-Naimi had said that to reach 12 million, Saudi Aramco would need 90 days to move rigs from exploration work to drill new wells and raise production.

Saudi Arabia has been working for most of this year towards boosting prices, rather than leaving that job to market forces, a shift from the strategy it had championed since November 2014.

The pain of cheap oil was enough to bring other producers to the negotiating table, but industry sources said the kingdom was also keen to seal a deal as it plans to offload a stake in Aramco by 2018.

Riyadh’s finances have been under pressure. With a big budget deficit last year, the kingdom was forced to seek new sources of income, including taxes and other fees and to cut spending.

The government is trying to boost non-oil revenue and modernize the economy through an ambitious reform plan called “Vision 2030”, championed by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, of which the centerpiece is the Aramco stake sale.

But ironically, before cutting dependence on oil, the kingdom needs revenues from crude sales to conduct its reforms.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 17 December 2016, 11:52 am and is filed under
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Malaysia in an era of fake news, false cartoons and false allegations

Malaysia is now in an era of fake news, false cartoons and false allegations.

Today, the Penang Chief Minister’s Office had to deny a Whatsapp message on Dec. 14 with a photograph of the  Penang Chief Minister that  Lim Guan Eng had supported the action against the Rohingya community in Myanmar.

The Chief Minister’s special assistant Zaidi Ahmad, lodged a police report on the fake news and said  the whole objective of the fake Whatsapp message  was a racialist slander to incite religious sentiments against the Chief Minister.

In actual fact, at the Penang Chief Minister’s initiative, the recent Penang State Assembly unanimously passed a motion condemning the atrocities against the Rohingyas.

I understand that there are also fake news and fake postings on the Internet alleging that I had also supported the oppression of the Rohingyas in Myanmar when on Dec. 6 I had called for an international inquiry into the ethnic cleansing of Rohginyas in Myanmar.

But the perpetrators of fake news, false cartoons and false allegations are no respecters of truth.

Ten days ago, I had denounced a fake Cabinet line-up titled
“Barisan Kerajaan Baru 2017 – Pakatan Harapan DAP/PKR/PAN/PPBM”
 circulated on the social media, with me as Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamad as Deputy Prime Minister, PKR President Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Ismail as Woman and Family Development Minister,    Amanah President Mohamad Sabu as a  Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of “Agama Islam & Hubungan Antara Agama”  and President of PPBM,  Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of “Integrasi Nasional & Pengurusan Prestasi”.

Again, the whole objective of the fake Cabinet line-up was to buttress the Nazi-style propaganda offensive of lies and falsehoods launched by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in his UMNO Presidential speech on Nov.30, seeking to portray the DAP and myself as anti-Malay and anti-Islam and that if UMNO loses the 14th GE, the Malays will lose political power to the  Chinese who will dominate politics in Malaysia.

Najib is heedless of  fact  and truth, viz:

•	that DAP had never asked for a Chinese to be Prime Minister;

•	DAP is not a Chinese race-based political party but represent Malaysians regardless of race or religion;  and

•	if UMNO is defeated in the next general elections, the new coalition replacement in Putrajaya will want to prove that it could do better to look after the interests of all Malaysians, especially the Malays, so that UMNO will find it difficult to retake  Putrajaya in subsequent general elections.

I have been in politics for 51 years and the fact that Najib and the UMNO leadership with all the resources at their command as the Federal government of Malaysia could not uncover a single instance or example in my more than half a century of political life to substantiate their lies that DAP and I are anti-Malay and anti-Islam is the strongest proof of DAP’s commitment for more than half a century to the Malaysian Dream of a nation for all Malaysians regardless of race or religion?

There is recently in circulation on the social media, another fake  cartoon, entitled
“War of PRU 14”
, picturing financier  George Soros as the mastermind funding  all the Opposition parties in Malaysia, with me representing DAP as Soros’ chief agent yelling  “READY TO ATTACK” while directing Azizah of PKR, Sabu of AMANAH and Tun Mahathir of PPBM to go to “war”.

These are downright lies and falsehoods, seeking to portray Opposition leaders as unpatriotic and disloyal agents and stooges  of a foreign Soros conspiracy against Najib, which fall into the category of Nazi-style “Big Lies”,  hoping that if these “Big Lies” are repeated often enough, there would be Malaysians who would succumb and  believe in such garbage and trash.

But it is such propaganda campaign of garbage and trash which Najib launched in his UMNO Presidential speech  at the recent  UMNO General Assembly, disseminating lies, falsehoods and hatred,  dissembling  the truth as in  the conspiracy of silence over the 1MDB scandal although there is breaking news almost every day all over the world  about the 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal.

Today, for instance, a second banker in Singapore was jailed in connection with the 1MDB money-laundering investigations in Singapore.

In Thailand, a Swiss IT expert, Xavier Justo, jailed for three years last August for attempting to blackmail his former employer PetroSaudi International, a Abu Dhabi oil firm involved in the  1MDB money-laundering dealings, is expected to be able to celebrate Christmas with his family in Switzerland as he is among the thousands of Thai and foreigners granted a royal pardon by the new Thai king, Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradevarangkun.

Early this week, a US federal judge in Los Angeles, California rejected a move by family members of Penang billionaire Jho Low to claim assets seized by the US government in its probe into the international  1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal.

Jho Low is among the people named in civil lawsuits filed in July by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which alleged that more than US$3.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB.

The US DOJ lawsuits seek to seize US$1 billion in assets allegedly siphoned off from 1MDB and diverted into luxury real estate in New York, Beverly Hills and London, valuable paintings, and a private jet.

But in Malaysia, there is grand deception and charade, pretending that the 1MDB kleptocratic scandal, which had caused Malaysia to be regarded as a global kleptocracy, does not exist.

It is to the eternal shame of the Malaysian Parliament and the UMNO General Assembly that they took full part in this grand deception and charade, and completely failed in their national responsibility to come to grips with the greatest Malaysian kleptocratic scandal in the nation’s history.

This would not have happened under the first four Prime Ministers – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak (Najib’s father), Tun Hussein and Tun Mahathir who led the Federal Government in the first 46 years of the nation’s history.

In the eighties, the father of Independence and Malaysia,  Tunku Abdul Rahman worked with DAP for a more democratic, clean and responsible government.

Tun Razak would have no truck with any kleptocracy, and all Malaysians should now know of the “swimming pool” story told by Nazir, the younger brother of the Prime Minister, to illustrate how his father, Tun Razak, was selfless in his dedication to nation-building and feared the corruption of absolute power.

Nazir illustrated Razak’s frugality and integrity with the  “swimming pool” episode, recounting the failed attempt of the Razak children to ask their father for a swimming pool to be built at Seri Taman, the Prime Minister’s residence, and the “lecture” they received from Razak about the important distinction between public office and private use.

Razak told his children that anything spent on the proposed swimming pool in the Prime Minister’s residence would have to come from public funds, and there was no way he was going to allow the state coffers to be depleted on something as frivolous as a swimming pool.

Tun Razak was concerned about “what the people would think” if he used public funds to build a swimming pool in his official residence for the use of his children, but his son, Najib, as the sixth Prime Minister, was not perturbed as to what the world would think with Malaysia dubbed as a global kleptocracy!

What a difference between the father and the son.

Tun Hussein’s commitment to fight corruption is legendary, which can be testified by his son, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein – but again, what a difference between the father and the son.

Tun Mahathir’s opposition to the 1MDB scandal needs no introduction.

Clearly, the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia is doing something which the first four Prime Minister would never dreamt of doing – in allowing Malaysia to be regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy.

There is another thing which the first four Prime Ministers would never do – distributing what is clearly a government publication as an anonymous publication at the UMNO General Assembly.

I had asked whether Najib, UMNO and the Federal Government was responsible for  the expensive, glossy and multi-coloured 20-page publication, entitled “1MDB PASCA LAPORAN AUDIT NEGARA DAN PAC – SAMAN DOJ (JABATAN  KEHAKIMAN AMERIKA SYARIKAT) MERAGUKAN” which was distributed as an anonymous booklet at the UMNO General Assembly.

The booklet raised doubts as to whether “MO1” was the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak although a senior Cabinet Minister had identified “MO1” as Najib in a BBC interview.

The booklet  even alleged that the biggest US DOJ kleptocratic lawsuits to forfeit US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland was the result of complaints lodged by former UMNO leader Datuk Khairuddin Abdul Hassan.

The anonymous 1MDB booklet asked:

“Kenapa MOI dirujuk tanpa menyebut nama sebenarnya?

“Justeru kenyataan secara terbuka oleh DOJ ini amat meragukan, pelik dan aneh. Ia sengaja dibuat untuk menimbulkan persepsi negatif dan tafsiran yang tidak adil bukan sahaja terhadap Datuk Seri Najib tetapi juga terhadap kestabilan Malaysia.

“Apatah lagi ia berasaskan kepada aduan yang dibuat oleh Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan, iaitu seorang penyokong kuat Tun Dr. Mahathir dan memiliki imej negatif.”

Are these the official stands of the UMNO/BN Government of Malaysia? If so, why was the booklet distributed without the legal requirements to show who is the printer and publisher, which in other circumstances, would have justified immediate police action and criminal prosecution for breaches of the Printing Presses and Publications Act?

As Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan said just now, Malaysians are very disappointed about the politics of Malaysia – after the disappointments over the high hopes for Federal government change in Putrajaya in the 2013 general elections.

But we cannot lose hope,  as for good or bad, this is our country and only Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, can save this country from hurtling down the trajectory towards a failed and a rogue state.

As Amanah President, Mat Sabu, said just now, hope for a better tomorrow in Malaysia depends on the all-out support of the people for political change in Putrajaya in the 14th general elections, which is likely to be held next year.

To save Malaysia, the battlelines in the 14th General Election must be a stark choice between democracy or kleptocracy in Malaysia.

Malaysians should have no truck with political parties or political leaders who are prepared to stomach or tolerate “global kleptocracy” in Malaysia.

Many are asking “what’s next” after the dismissal by the  Federal Court on Wednesday  of Anwar Ibrahim’s review of his criminal conviction and sentence.

Pakatan Harapan’s decision of Anwar Ibrahim as the Prime Minister-designate when the Opposition coalition wins the general elections remains unchanged.

We will need an interim Prime Minister until Anwar is released from jail to become the Prime Minister of Malaysia – and Anwar will not be the first person to take such a journey from jail to the highest political office in the land  in mankind’s struggle for greater freedom and justice for the human race.

As Mat Sabu mentioned just now, Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail will be a good candidate for an interim Prime Minister.

I will add that with the agreement reached by Pakatan Harapan and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia on Tuesday for an electoral pact to defeat UMNO/BN in the next general elections, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will be a good candidate for the post of interim Deputy Prime Minister.

(Speech at Bukit Glugor DAP “Towards Putrajaya”  Dinner at Han Chiang School Hall in Penang on Friday, 16th December 2016 at 10 pm)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 17 December 2016, 8:31 am and is filed under
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