Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #71

By
M. Bakri Musa

Chapter 9: Islam in Malay Life

Religion must act as the lights do in a car, and not as the brakes do.

—Abdolkarim Soroosh, Contemporary Iranian Philosopher

Islam is Malaysia’s state religion. It permeates all aspects of Malaysian life, for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In this chapter I will examine the impact of Islam on law, education, and economics. These are the three major areas that have the greatest impact on the ability of Malaysians generally and Malays in particular at meeting the challenges of globalization.

            A visitor to Malaysia quickly becomes aware of how pervasive Islam is in the country. At prayer times the Azzan (call to prayers) is heard loud and clear from loudspeakers at the minarets of the numerous mosques. One is awakened in the morning by the Azzan and put to sleep at night by it. The Azzan regularly interrupts television programs, often at the most inopportune moment, as just before the dramatic climax of a scene or even in mid sentence. It is not the call to Azzan that exasperates viewers; rather the rude and crude manner in which the robotic technicians back in the studio mindlessly and mechanically stopped the tape. If they can find a convenient spot to interrupt programs for commercial breaks, why cannot they do the same for the Azzan? They can, but the fact that they are not doing it reflects the contempt they have for their viewers. And during the fasting month of Ramadan, the entire country is in suspended animation; nothing gets done, particularly in the public sector.

            While in the past Malays would greet one another with “Selamat Pagi!” (Good Morning!), today they use the Arabic salutation Assalamualaikum (Peace be upon you!). Young men now sport beards and wrap themselves in thick turbans and flowing green robes, oblivious to the scorching heat and humidity, all in an effort to appear “Islamic.”

            Mosques during Friday prayers overflow, with congregants forced to pray outside. In their pious pursuit they have no qualms about praying over stinking open sewer drains. Such jarring incongruities do not affect their sensibilities. Every year Malaysia sends more pilgrims (on a per capita basis) to the holy land than any other nation. Many brag about making the trip many times, even though it is required only once, and then only if conditions permit. But I see many young men and women eagerly interrupting their careers to make the pilgrimage.

            Presumably these fortunate souls have paid off their home mortgages and put aside enough funds for their retirement and children’s education to be able to afford the trip.

            This pervasiveness of Islam leads many to suggest that the faith is experiencing a revival or resurgence. This appearance of religiosity and piety is only a façade, a very thin veneer. Muslims in Malaysia appear Islamic only in their adherence to the rituals and other external manifestations of the faith. Alas one looks askance at their core. Tolerance, long a tradition with Islam, is sadly lacking among them. They look upon fellow Muslims who disagree with them as kafir (infidel) – an extremely pejorative term when applied to Muslims – and refuse to partake in any social or religious overtures with them. Imagine what their attitude is towards the real kafirs: non-Muslim Malaysians.

            On a more mundane level, they drive like maniacs, oblivious of other road users. They park their cars in the middle of the street and block the traffic in their rush to be at the mosque. That they would inconvenience other road users is irrelevant as long has they get to claim their religious brownie points. As for charity, another esteemed Muslim attribute, well, they have paid their zakat (tithe) and that is enough. There is no need for them to contribute to their children’s schools or local community. Nor do they profess any concern for the plight of fellow Muslims from Bangladesh and Indonesia amongst their midst. Those foreigners are illegal immigrants anyway, not worthy of any goodwill. Slavery and indentured labor may have been banned but Malaysians’ treatment of their maids would make slave owners of pre-Civil War America look generous by comparison.

            To me, there is no revival or renaissance of Islam in Malaysia, more a regression to a form more suitable for ancient Bedouins. More accurately, present-day Malays are obsessed with the ways of ancient Arabs rather with the pristine message of Islam.

            In 2001 the government issued a publication written by one of its functionaries proclaiming that Malaysia is an Islamic state. Written in Malay, it was a clumsy attempt to blunt PAS’s charges that the nation is not “Islamic” enough. The booklet was meant to be a preemptive attack on or to “out Islam” PAS, to use Farish Noor’s (a Malaysian writer) phrase. Instead it precipitated a raging controversy. The government was forced to sheepishly withdraw the silly publication. A measure of the booklet’s irrelevance is that its cover features a plane. What those images have to do with Islam is beyond my comprehension. In light of the 9-11 attacks, it is not a terribly smart idea to associate Islam with jet planes.

            Subsequent to that there was another raging controversy over some essays written in the popular press by lay Muslim writers. These provoked the ire of the religious scholars, who deem that such discussions on Islam are their exclusive preserve. They went to the extent of petitioning the King (the head of Islam) to take actions on these writers for allegedly insulting Islam. That the King and his Council of Rulers actually entertained such a silly petition is by itself very revealing.

            Such heated controversies reflect the coarsening of public discourses in Malaysia. These public discussions, far from enlightening the citizens and bringing them together, merely succeeded in acerbating the polarization and deepening existing divisions. The blame for this sorry state of affairs goes to both the organizers and participants of such events. These discussions were less on the merits or demerits of the issue, rather more on displaying the oratorical prowess and Islamic credentials of the participants. These public debates very quickly degenerated into name-calling, and reduced simplistically to “my ulama is more knowledgeable (or pious) than yours” type of exchanges.

Next:   Authoritative Versus Authoritarian Ulamas and Scholars

                This entry was posted on Monday, 27 June 2011, 10:34 am and is filed under
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Police in grip of Bersih hysteria

By
Terence Netto

Jun 27, 11  | MalaysiaKini

COMMENT
It’s now quite clear that the Bersih 2.0 march planned for July 9 is not such a threat to public order and security as the fret and fever the government has generated over the whole affair.

It has driven elements of our security establishment nuts.

How else to explain the arrests of 30 Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) activists in Penang late Saturday, apparently under section 122 of the Penal Code which arraigns rebellion against the king?

That the likes of the professorial Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim, the PSM chair, the affably rotund S Arutchelvam, party secretary-general, and the mild-mannered Dr D Jeyakumar, their sole MP in Sungai Siput, are capable of plotting something as bizarre as rebellion against the king – as well believe that Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali has all along been an agent of PAS.

The band of diehard socialists that drive the PSM, small in number and serene in conviction, is very much like the above named trio of its leaders: the most lethal weapon they could plausibly wield to assault anybody is a poster of Che Guevara.

The news that a posse of PSM activists were intercepted by police while they were on a campaign swing up north and were hauled to police stations in Butterworth and Kepala Batas to be arraigned for plots as earthshaking as rebellion against the king is about as credible as the recent prediction of the end of the world by a religious sect.

PSM a menace to national security?

Sure, Penang deputy chief police officer Abdul Rahim Jaafar changed tack somewhat when he claimed that the arrested PSM bunch were in possession of printed materials which showed they were intent on reviving communist ideology.

Strictly speaking, the espousal of communist ideology is not an offence in itself. However, militancy in its expression would qualify as a detainable offence under the terms of the Internal Security Act 1960.

Nowadays, holdouts for communist ideology are regarded as on a level with proponents of flat earth theory: otherworldly rubes who are a little quaint, but not terribly dangerous.

If sympathy for communist ideology can be considered an offence, especially in these times, some people of stellar standing in this country would be indictable.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad once pronounced the fall of the communist bloc a “catastrophe” for emerging countries because the pre-1989 bipolar world enabled nations like Malaysia some space for independent strutting on the world’s stage.

Both Mahathir and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin have been known to have met up with former Communist Party of Malaya stalwarts, like the late Rashid Maidin, to chat with them, not, presumably, out of sympathy for their ideology; more likely, it was curiosity about their ability to endure adversity.

For BN, power is a permanent possession

The problem with the rhetorical inflation that has led the cops in Penang to attempting to turn a small band of socialist diehards into a menace to national security is that the reaction is the result of a mind-set that regards the state in a proprietary manner.

Overheated talk like ‘Putrajaya must be defended at all costs’ and ‘The opposition is using the Bersih march to topple the government’ reflects this attitude that power is not a trust but a permanent possession.

Opposing aspirants for the same power are regarded as interlopers that must be repelled at all costs. It is a view peculiar to hegemons and dictators.

Ironically, the slogan the PSM activists were touting in their campaign – ‘Enough is enough! Retire BN!’ – goes to the heart of the problem: Umno-BN’s prolonged incumbency has a reached a point where their retirement is imperative for salvaging the country.

If Umno-BN were to opt for levity in their response rather than humourless gravity and rhetorical flatulence, their reaction would be: “What retire! So you can introduce your antiquated ideology. You must be kidding.”

But the clumsy apparatchiks of state power would much prefer a reflexive response to an original idea most times. For them, it’s easier to use a sledgehammer than a scalpel.

In the meantime, Bersih 2.0 waxes on the waves of clumsy reaction.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 27 June 2011, 12:21 pm and is filed under
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Release the 30 PSM members, DAP demands

By
 Melissa Chi

June 26, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — The DAP has demanded for the immediate release of the 30 Parti Sosialis Malaya (PSM) members, including Sungai Siput MP Michael Jayakumar, who were arrested in Penang, and has dispelled claims that they were trying to revive communism.

“I call on the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to ensure that good sense prevails in his government despite facing the mortal challenge of a peaceful Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9 calling for free, fair and clean elections — as such a proposed peaceful rally cannot, under any stretch of the imagination, be equated to a ‘war against the King’,” said the DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang at the DAP Ubah Dialogue organised by the DAP Socialist Youth of Johor (Dapsy) at Hotel Li Gardens in Masai, Johor Baru, tonight.

The police said yesterday they were probing an alleged attempt by some Bersih activists to revive communism, and are investigating 30 PSM members for “waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.”

Deputy Penang police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Jaafar was quoted by Astro Awani as saying that remand orders would be exercised to detain the 30 activists under Section 122 of the Penal Code.

Section 122 of the Penal Code states: “Whoever collects or attempts to collect men, arms or ammunition, or otherwise prepares to wage war with the intention of either waging or being prepared to wage war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or any of the Rulers or the Yang di-Pertua Negeri or abets the waging or the preparation of such war, shall be punished with imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term not exceeding twenty years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

“In fighting for his political survival, the Najib government and ministers should not undermine public confidence in the independence, impartiality, integrity and professionalism of the key national institutions that these pillars of the national system of governance destroys all public and international confidence in them, resulting in loss of foreign investment and a precipitate economic decline,” Lim said.

The first rally in 2007 saw up to 50,000 people take to the capital’s streets before they were dispersed by police with tear gas and water cannons.

Malay rights group Perkasa has threatened a counter rally if Bersih continues with its plans while Umno Youth said it would hold a rally in support of the Election Commission, which is the subject of Bersih’s demands.

PAS has asked for one million members to take to the streets on July 9 to support Bersih, which has also organised rallies in several cities around the world.

“The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the prime minister and the government-of-the-day can count on my loyalty and patriotism and that of the DAP in any treasonous war against the king, but we will not lend ourselves to any fictitious claims to justify gross abuse of power and blatant human rights violations against patriotic Malaysians to prevent them from a peaceful and democratic exercise of free speech and free assembly.

“I read with consternation The Malaysian Insider report and I believe this is also the shocked outrage of Malaysians — with the question bulking large as to how the country has swiftly descended into such a macabre farce,” the Ipoh Timor MP said.

It is understood that the 30 activists were detained at the Sungai Dua toll plaza near Kepala Batas in Penang while on their way to a gathering in support of the Bersih rally planned for July 9.

The government has said it will not issue permits for Bersih’s planned rally on July 9, which calls for free and fair elections.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 27 June 2011, 1:25 am and is filed under
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Swearing at police not an offence

26 Jun 2011 |
The Telegraph

Scotland Yard has told its officers that bad language on its own is not a good enough reason to detain someone.

The guidance has been given on Justify, Account and Record memo cards, which are carried on patrol.

According to The Mail on Sunday the advice states: “The courts do not accept police officers are caused harassment, alarm or distress by words such as: f—, c—, b—–ks, w—–s.”

It also informs officers that to place someone in handcuffs “for officer safety” is “not sufficient” and “we can handcuff anyone but we must be able to justify it”.

A spokesman for the Met was unable to confirm the exact date the guidance was issued, but said the cards had been in use “for several years”.

He added: “The Metropolitan Police Service issues officers with a memo card providing useful guidance on the execution of their powers.

“This includes advice regarding appropriate note taking and ensuring that they have appropriate grounds for an arrest.

“In particular it reminds them that the courts do not accept that simply swearing at a police officer is grounds for an arrest and illustrates how the MPS has had to make settlements in the past when officers have arrested solely for this.”

                This entry was posted on Monday, 27 June 2011, 1:39 am and is filed under
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Unggun Bersih

By
 A. Samad Said

June 27, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

Semakin lara kita didera bara —

kita laungkan juga pesan merdeka:

Demokrasi sebenderang mentari

sehasrat hajat semurni harga diri.

Lama resah kita — demokrasi luka;

lama duka kita — demokrasi lara.

Demokrasi yang angkuh, kita cemuhi;

suara bebas yang utuh, kita idami!

Dua abad lalu Sam Adams berseru:

(di Boston dijirus teh ke laut biru):

Tak diperlu gempita sorak yang gebu,

diperlu hanya unggun api yang syahdu.

Kini menyalalah unggun sakti itu;

kini merebaklah nyala unggun itu.

*
A. Samad Said
 adalah Sasterawan Negara Malaysia

                This entry was posted on Monday, 27 June 2011, 12:34 pm and is filed under
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Walk with the rakyat, not against us, Bersih tells Najib

June 26, 2011 |
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — Bersih 2.0 told Datuk Seri Najib Razak today the next two weeks leading to its July 9 rally will define his leadership, saying any further crackdown is a “tragic reflection of the failure” of his government in handling the issue.

The group also said it was disappointed in the prime minister’s declaration that Bersih 2.0 supporters are to be held responsible should chaos ensue during the July 9 rally, noting that it was against any form of violence.

“We once again make an open, sincere and heartfelt call to the prime minister to walk with the rakyat, not against us,” Bersih 2.0 said in a statement issued tonight.

The Bersih rally has come under attack from Umno and its allies, notably Malay rights group Perkasa which has also said it will march if Bersih doesn’t call off its protest. Umno Youth will also march but to defend the Election Commission which Bersih is lobbying to reform the electoral process.

Police have warned against any rallies and promised touch action against the organisers, all of whom have been called in for questioning tomorrow.

They arrested 30 Bersih activists from the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) in Penang yesterday, and have remanded them for a week while investigating charges that they were “waging war against the monarch”. The Home Ministry has also not ruled out using security laws that allow detention without trial.

“We are glad that the prime minister has finally broken his silence regarding the July 9 rally, but are disappointed that instead of fulfilling his government’s role as the protector of the constitutional rights and safety of peace-loving Malaysians, he has chosen instead to misrepresent our intentions and wield the dark sceptre of unwarranted repressive ‘consequences’,” added the group headed by former Malaysian Bar president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan.

They said they were disappointed at the accusation that the purpose of Bersih 2.0 was to “wrest back political momentum from the BN.”

“The prime minister must have either failed to read and understand our stated goals, or is deliberately putting Bersih 2.0 in a misleading light.

“As a movement, we have no interest whatsoever in the political momentum of any political party – our goal is to make the electoral system truly free and fair so that all political parties in Malaysia, bar none, can contest on a level playing field, where the rakyat can freely choose whoever they think is best to lead them,” they said, adding they have invited Najib’s Barisan Nasional (BN) to take part in the rally.

They pointed out that the rally was the perfect opportunity for Najib to show the progressive views he has espoused.

“He can conclusively do so simply by allowing the July 9 rally to proceed unhindered and by directing all government agencies to cooperate fully with all involved to ensure that that each and every Malaysian wishing to exercise their constitutional right may do so without any fear of clashes or chaos.

“We feel that this would be the best use of the energies and resources of the police, who have continued to thoroughly perplex observers both locally and abroad by arresting patriotic, peace-loving Bersih 2.0 supporters for ‘waging war against the monarch’.

“Surely this stark and alarming lack of logic and common sense will further tarnish our nation’s image and contradict the values championed by the prime minister and his government,” the group said.

While agreeing with Najib that political power is in the hands of the people, Bersih 2.0 said “until comprehensive reforms are introduced into the electoral system to make it free and fair, political power will remain in the hands of a select few, and not Malaysians at large.”

“Bersih 2.0 is of the view that these two weeks will be a defining moment for the prime minister and his government.

“As the final authority in the government, any crackdown on civil society, refusal to guarantee the safety of Malaysians on July 9, or rhetoric that unfairly demonises patriotic, peace loving citizens will be a tragic reflection of the failure of the prime minister to live up to their promises and the responsibilities entrusted to them by the Malaysian people,” the group added.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 27 June 2011, 1:21 am and is filed under
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A campaign of courage

By
Stanley Koh
 | June 28, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

Why is the rally for electoral reforms such a political hot potato? Why this gush of threats and calls for the punishment of the Bersih rally organisers? Why is the Barisan Nasionl hegemony so fearful of electoral reforms? Why shouldn’t it support free, fair and clean elections?

Bertrand Russell once propounded the theory that bad leadership in a democracy is a logical impossibility. “The electorate always get the leaders they deserve. No matter how incompetent or venal the leaders are, the electorate must have been even worse to have elected them.”

But this cynical view cannot apply to Malaysia. The Malaysian experience has shown that it is possible for good citizens to get bad leaders.

Malaysians deserve a capable government. Not only must the best men and women among the candidates across the political divide win elections; they must also be elected under democratic principles supervised by a truly independent body.

Ministers and Members of Parliament should not be chosen because they are somebody’s cronies or through political horse trading or by back-door means, as in the appointment of senators among election losers.

The electorate must have all fair and just opportunities to elect the best governing team for the country.

That is why Malaysians must strive for changes in the electoral landscape.

In 2005, the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), with support from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, published a study of the existing electoral system in Malaysia. With contributions from more than a dozen distinguished academicians, it gives us one of the best analyses of Malaysia’s electoral history.

“The general conclusion reached in this assessment of the current state of Malaysia’s electoral system is that Malaysian elections cannot be considered reasonably free and fair because they do not fulfil the functions required of them in formal democratic theory,” the authors wrote.

The rather silly official rebuttal against claims of unfairness and unjust elections is that the large voter turnout is a clear indication of public confidence in the electoral process.

And then there is the even more perverted argument that the opposition’s gains in the last general election proved that Malaysian elections are free and fair and the Election Commission is indeed independent.

That Malaysian elections are not conducted fairly is not just an allegation from opposition parties; it is also the observation of non-partisan citizens. No intelligent Malaysian can deny that the Barisan Nasional (BN) uses public institutions and public agencies to help it win elections and no thinking observer can fail to notice that it often resorts to threats, intimidation and bribery.

MCA hypocrisy

Those who know something of the history of Malaysian elections cannot fail to note that the system is diseased. Except for the 1969 and 2008 elections, BN has consistently been re-positioned with two thirds of the majority in Parliament although this is not reflected in its share of the popular vote.

Since the advent of the Internet, there has been an increase in documented evidence of BN’s ghetto politicking and various forms of blatant unethical campaign practices.

What is morally wrong cannot be politically correct, despite the perverted thinking among the leadership of the BN component parties, especially the MCA.

Indeed, the hypocrisy of the current MCA leadership is in stark contrast to the thinking of the party’s founding fathers. Hence, it should surprise no one to hear MCA recently threatening action against members planning to participate in the July 9 Bersih rally.

MCA’s current leaders, if they were true to the party’s founding ideals, should instead revisit the efforts of their predecessors to ensure a just political system.

In 1986, the MCA leadership voiced out, albeit discreetly, its disquiet over a range of unfair practices it attributed to the Umno leadership. Some of these had to do with the Chinese being under-represented in the BN government. MCA leaders had a pessimistic view of the future. They felt that the Umno hegemony would continue to cause an erosion of Chinese political power.

The leadership frankly admitted in a report: “The BN system in itself poses an inherent disadvantage for the Chinese community.

“This system gives the ruling elite in Umno the built-in opportunity to exploit intra-party divisions within Barisan to their advantage.”

The report also criticised the political bias in the delineation of electoral constituencies, citing the repeated amendment of the Federal Constitution to give heavier weight to rural constituencies, which it said went against the one-man-one-vote principle.

Past MCA leaders through the years have also lamented Umno’s domination of the both the executive and judicial arms of government and questioned the independence of the Election Commission (EC).

In great contrast to their predecessors, the current MCA leaders tend to behave like wimps. Their raging rhetoric against the Bersih rally is clearly symptomatic of political impotence, leaving us with the impression that MCA is a failed party devoid of ethical leadership.

Party president Dr Chua Soi Lek’s argument that Bersih has allowed itself to be used by the opposition in organising the rally has been reinforced by his deputy Liow Tiong Lai’s intimidating remark that the party will discuss whether to sack members who participate in the rally.

This posturing is likely to drive another nail into MCA’s coffin. In recent years, the party has repeatedly confirmed its irrelevance. Its raving and ranting over the Bersih rally could well be the tipping point of its political demise.

While we write off MCA, the pertinent question to ask is: Should conscientious Malaysians unite and rally to Bersih’s support against the sleazy electoral landscape?

Constitutional experts, political scientists and conscientious academicians seem to think so.

Electoral systems shape the nature and structure of political parties and of the wider party system in the countries in which they operate. The independence of the EC would promote greater accountability of MPs to their constituents.

Experts and opinion makers also contend that electoral reforms would contribute to greater political stability for all players in power.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 7:03 pm and is filed under
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Dear Brother Anas

by
Art Harun

The Malaysian Insider

Jun 27, 2011

JUNE 27 — I am moved to comment on your
“Open letter to Lim Guan Eng.”

First of all, I have no doubt of your centrist stance. Having known you for close to 27 years, I think I could state, with some level of authority, that your centrist stance is one which you have embraced all this while. Now you are just utilising that stance for what you think is for the good of the society. I respect that.

As unity is a subject which is really close to your heart, allow me to put my thought to that subject, especially in relation to what you had written in your said open letter.

Unity is a concept, an abstract, if not an intangible one at that. Being an abstract, it cannot be physically measured. It is a state of mind. It exists within parameters of perception. It is not like health or financial success, where someone could declare that our nation is full of healthy people, or that it is full of wealthy people.

By contrast, unity is like the concept of safety. One can declare that statistical data shows that crime rates have fallen by, say, 20 per cent. But one cannot, armed with that statistical date, conclude that the country is safe.

In similar fashion, with respect, one cannot just create a slogan and a nice little symbol and paste the slogan and symbol on banners and shirts as well as bombard the media with them and declare that unity has magically, if not miraculously, delivered itself to this country and her people. It does not work that way when it comes to unity.

When we speak of unity, or rather the concept of unity, we have to understand what the concept entails; what it really means and what it is all about. Please don’t take me wrong. And when we want to achieve unity, we have to have a definite and tangible plan to make it a reality.

An intangible and abstract concept such as unity cannot be achieved or brought to reality with intangible and abstract moves, such as the creation of a slogan or symbol.

To me, unity, in so far as a nation — more particularly, Malaysia — is concerned, consists of two kinds. They are:

• situational unity, and,

• transcendental unity.

Situational unity is pockets of one-ness shown or practised by the people as individuals or as members of a group which they belong to. It arises out of cultural practice or individual beliefs. It might even arise out of certain circumstances and even out of purely selfish reasons and not precipitated by any altruism at all.

Examples of these situational unity are seen daily in our lives. People of various races and faiths sit together at a stall sipping their teh tarik while talking about how our magistrate’s courts turned into a sex video cinema, for example.

When the Malaysian football team won the Suzuki Cup not so long ago, Malaysians of all races went berserk with a little burst of spontaneous patriotism and nationalism everywhere; at teh tarik stalls; at homes; in cyberspace over Twitter or Facebook, etc. A long time ago, when Malaysia beat Saudi Arabia at Stadium Merdeka, I spontaneously stood up together with 45,000 other Malaysians to sing “Negara Ku”, without being prompted by anybody or anything.

In my office, I, a Malay partner, am in unison with my partners of other races, for a purely self-altruism purpose, namely, to make a living.

Those are what I call situational unity.

Although at macro level, these pockets of situational unity may seem insignificant or even irrelevant, to me, they are reflective of a positive mind set. They show that there are certain situations or set of situations where people of various races and faiths are driven to disregard and put aside their cultural and genetic differences and spontaneously unite and become one.

That is proof that while unity, being an abstract concept, cannot be directly engineered, situations or circumstances conducive or leading to it may be created to foster unity.

Meanwhile, transcendental unity, in terms of a nation and nation building, would mean the people, regardless of their race, faith and cultural background or even genetic make-up, coming together and moving in unison towards the greater and common good of this nation while at the same time, putting aside self-altruism and interests.

I call this concept of unity transcendental unity because it is an ideal and not real. A complete transcendental unity, I would dare say, can never be achieved because it is against human nature.

Human beings are by nature selfish. Francis Fukuyama, in his book “The Origins of Political Order”, pointed out that human beings, for example, have the propensity for favouring their family and friends, something which Fukuyama calls “patrimonialism”. If I may, I would stretch Fukuyama’s patrimonialism even beyond family and friends. I think it is also human nature to prefer one’s tribe, race or community.

Notwithstanding the fact that an absolute state of transcendental unity can never be achieved, a civilised society led by a government which is committed to achieving a common good for the nation must, at great cost and effort, work to achieve a state of transcendental unity or as close as possible to that state.

It is of course easy to disunite the people, especially when the people consist of various races and faiths and coming from diverse cultural background, than to even maintain a facade of unity.

Unity exists even as a facade. History would of course show that facades of unity were often created by dictators, authoritarians and totalitarians. These facades of unity would soon disintegrate as the dictators, authoritarians and totalitarians fell.

As soon as Saddam Hussein was defeated, for example, the almost serene and tranquil racial, religious and cultural “melting pot” of Iraq became a boiling porridge of tribal and sectarian divisiveness. Just as the Berlin Wall fell, glasnost and perestroika liberated the Russians from years of communism, the country broke into pieces and some former colonists, like Yugoslavia, descended into hellish war fuelled by centuries of racial and religious wounds.

The danger with creating a facade of unity, instead of working towards the establishment of a transcendental unity, is that we might be lulled into sleep with a dream-like belief that our people are united for the better good of this country while on the ground, racial bigotry and hatred are allowed to fester and infest the very fabric of our society, hidden behind this facade of unity which we created for whatever purpose which only we know. Deep underneath this veil or facade of unity, there is a virulent form of disease working insidiously. God helps us if or when this viral infection becomes too late to treat.

As I had stated earlier, there are innumerable pockets of situational unity displayed by us day in and day out in Malaysia. This proves that if left behind on their own and without interference by politicians and self-altruistic rebel- rousers, we, Malaysians, regardless of racial, religious or cultural background, are able to switch on our natural love for a peaceful co-existence. We are able to put aside our differences and become one if a situation conducive for such unity is present.

Towards achieving a state of transcendental unity, it is therefore the duty of a responsible government to create this conduciveness. This conduciveness will not be present when there are newspapers like Utusan Malaysia being allowed, by the continued patronisation of the biggest political party in the ruling government, to spew racial hatred and bigotry almost on a daily basis.

This conduciveness will also not be in existence, regardless of how loud we shout 1 Malaysia and 1 this-and-that if at the same time ultra-right-winged organisation such as Perkasa be given a free hand — and mouth and leg — to threaten bloodshed and create racial fear by issuing warnings and mongering fear with impunity as if these people are above the law.

This conduciveness will not exist when a rational discourse is not granted to minority groups who are trying to voice out minority’s concerns, insecurity as well as well as fight for the recognition, at least, of their rights.

At this juncture Anas, your call for the acknowledgement by the DAP that this land had always belonged to the Malays and that the Malays have been kind enough to let the non-Malays to be here and that the DAP should be grateful for this kindness come into play.

Although various historical as well as anthropological studies could very well be used to at least dispute your assertion that this land had always belonged to the Malays, I do not wish to go into such dispute in this post.

For the sake of argument, let’s just assume for a while that you are correct, that this land, i.e. this land which was otherwise known as Tanah Melayu, had belonged to the Malays.

With respect Anas, you had failed to recognise, or give any consideration at all, that such acknowledgement had been given by the non-Malays during the inception of this country as an independent state in 1957.

I say so based on the argument which has always been used by the likes of Dr Mahathir and his ilk. Not based on any arguments made up by myself, the so-called Melayu Liberal who has given a bad twist to the word “liberal” and “Melayu”.

Dr Mahathir and his band of nationalistic scholars argue that in 1957, there was a “social contract.” This social contract, in effect, consists of the Malays being kind enough to “grant” citizenship to the Chinese and Indians. Because of that kindness, and to show gratitude towards the Malays, the Chinese and Indians agreed to grant “special rights” to the Malays. These “special rights” are enshrined in article 153 of our Federal Constitution.

I have written so many articles on this subject. I will not argue with Dr Mahathir anymore on this.

Now, let’s just assume that what Dr Mahathir said about the compromise to be a correct and true historical fact.

If the Chinese and Indians who were given the right to citizenship by the kind and gracious Malays had in turned gladly conceded that the Malays have special rights under our Constitution, that would of course mean that the Chinese and Indians had in fact acknowledged that Tanah Melayu had belonged to the Malays before 1957.

The acknowledgement which you sought dear Anas had been given in 1957 by the Chinese and Indian community. This acknowledgement, based on Dr Mahathir’s won historical theory, took the form of the concession of special rights being given to the Malays in Article 153 of our Federal Constitution.

If that is so, why is there a need for the non-Malays, especially the DAP, to make such acknowledgement again, in 2011?

While I agree that acknowledging the past is sometimes good for us — just so we do not forget our roots — a demand for such acknowledgement time and again would be regressive in terms of achieving transcendental unity in my humble opinion.

What we need is an acknowledgement by all Malaysians and by all political parties, that all of us have our respective rights guaranteed under the Federal Constitution. The government then must assure that all these rights will be respected and they will not be trampled willy-nilly as of we are some ant colonies being ruled by a bunch of hungry ant-eaters!

As it is, we can’t even wear a yellow T-shirt nowadays! What conduciveness towards unity are we talking about?

In my humble opinion, it would do nicely for a state of transcendental unity of the government could start creating a situation conducive to unity instead of patronising pseudo-nationalist individuals and organisations. If there is any acknowledgement which is necessary for unity, I think the acknowledgement should come from the State and not from the people. That is because the people’s ability to unite is amply shown by the countless of situational unity day in day out by the people.

Before I end Anas, allow me to tell the story of the Melanesian societies of the Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.*

The societies existing in these two newly-independent “Westminster democracies” are based on tribal lineage and kinsman. To say that they are fractious would be a gross understatement. Papua New Guinea has more than 900 languages, which is nearly one-sixth of the number of languages in the whole world! The Solomon Islands are not far behind. It has a population of about 500,000 people and yet it has about 70 different languages.

Each tribe is headed by what they call a Big Man (certain tribes are headed by a Big Woman, of course). In each society, the position of Big Man or Big Woman is earned and not passed by generations. A Big Man must therefore prove himself as a leader and is constantly aware of a challenge being mounted by a challenger.

The ability of a Big Man or Big Woman is judged in accordance with his or her ability to distribute pigs, shell money and other resources to the members of his tribes.

As and when a Westminster democracy was introduced, the concept of parliamentary representative was transposed on these societies. The result was, of course, chaotic, to say the least. The various tribes do not vote based on political ideologies or programmes for the common good of the country. They vote for their Big Man or Big Woman.

In turn, when these Big Men or Women are elected, they do not work for the common good of the country or for the people as a nation or state. They are more concerned with how many pigs they could get and deliver to their tribe. If not, they would lose their respective position as the Big Man or Big Woman.

That fractious approach towards nation building makes a mockery of the Westminster democracy that these two states practise. Unity is unknown to these two as the people are only move in accordance with their self-altruistic motivations.

We might laugh when we read about this. But doesn’t it remind us of a modern and semi-developed place we know?

Unity starts with a resolution. And that resolution is a resolution to move in unison for the greater good of the nation.

Have a good day Anas. — art-harun.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 8:24 am and is filed under
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Deciphering Najib

byj
Jacob Sinnathamby

The Malaysian Insider

Jun 28, 2011

JUNE 28 — Malaysia is in the mess it is because we don’t have leaders of spine, integrity and consistency in our midst.

I am astounded on a daily basis by statements made by Datuk Seri Najib Razak. I don’t care about Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin or Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein or even Datuk Ibrahim Ali — you expect the racism and rubbish spewing from these characters because this is what they are about.

But Najib didn’t sound like that in the beginning of his term as the prime minister. He promised changes, said he would be inclusive and heal the wounds that have been tearing this country apart. He promised 1 Malaysia and other stuff.

But throughout, there was a nagging feeling that he did not quite believe all the stuff he was speaking about. The first hint was the constitutional crisis in Perak where Najib sanctioned and encouraged the overthrow of a democratically-elected government.

The second hint was the manner in which he always seemed missing when the rogue Ibrahim Ali, and Perkasa, savaged our country with his brand of racism and thuggish behaviour. Najib never wanted to get involved, maybe afraid that standing up for Malaysia would involve losing some support in Umno.

Then came the incident at the Sibu by-election where he attempted to bribe the voters but was rebuffed. And after that, his reluctance to chide Utusan Malaysia or the Umno bloggers for their fairytale story of a Christian plot to take over the country.

I would like to think that these were just aberrations but I believe his disappointing behaviour in the last few weeks suggests that Najib is no different from Muhyiddin or Hishammuddin. More refined and intelligent but just the same.

His speech at the PPP assembly was astounding because it was part delusional and part dishonest.

Firstly, he told the opposition to man up and contest elections rather than go to the streets for the Bersih rally on July 9. My point is that no Malaysian opposition party has gone outside the electoral system, despite elections being a stacked deck.

So going to the streets is not about running scared or having no guts, it is about contesting fair elections. In fact, it is Najib who is running scared judging by the manner in which his government and the Election Commission have been changing postal vote rules. The opposition believes that there will be widescale cheating to keep BN in power.

The government’s reaction to Bersih rally suggests that this suspicion is not off the mark.

Najib’s other statement at the PPP function which got my attention was his point that power in Malaysia lies with the people, and not street demos.

You have got to be joking. If he really meant that, then Pakatan Rakyat will still be ruling Perak and there would be respect for sanctity of the vote, for the concept of one man, one vote. In fact, Najib should be all for election transparency if he truly believes that power lies with the people.

Instead, we are witnessing arrests and language more suited to a dictatorship. Worse yet, we are being insulted with some amateurish police work on the supposed communist threat.

I suppose this is Najib’s Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 11:51 pm and is filed under
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Dr Jeyakumar detained, Ibrahim Ali walks free

Malaysiakini Your Say
 | Jun 28, 11

‘Ibrahim will walk away with a small fine, but Pakatan Rakyat leaders will find themselves ineligible to contest elections.’

Ibrahim Ali hauled up for alleged sedition

DannyLoHH:
 The double standard of treatment is glaring. Sungai Siput MP Dr D Micheal Jeyakumar was arrested and remanded for seven days for having some T-shirts with him, whereas Ibrahim Ali, who had openly threatened bloodshed and violence, is “probed” for two hours and then let go.

Penang deputy police chief Abdul Rahim Jaafar, you are doing a really good job of portraying the image of the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) as the running dogs of Umno.

Samuel:
 What Ibrahim Ali’s message is that the Malays are stupid to be made use of by other races (in this case by Bersih chief S Ambiga). So if Bersih is lead by a Malay leader, then it is okay?

You see what kind of human being this Ibrahim Ali is to use race as an excuse without basis. Malaysia will not achieve racial harmony with this katak around who will lompat here and there to seek his fortune and use racial issue as his platform.

Bender:
 Ibrahim Ali’s misplaced concern that the rally is backed up by Malays shows how distorted his mind is. What’s wrong with Malays fighting for justice? It’s about time.

If it turns out that majority of people who join Bersih are Chinese or Indians, I wonder what filth will come out of his mouth and what crusade he will declare then.

Seriously, this Ibrahim Ali character has no intention whatsoever to see the Malays become developed. He’d rather have them become more like him – stupid, racist and full of hot air.

Ace:
 Just another big wayang kulit again. Ibrahim Ali was probably invited in with a red carpet and treated to premium imported coffee and snacks, and after two hours, told to go out and put on a show to the press outside.

Pemerhati:
 Umno is trying very hard to win the next elections by all the crooked methods it can think of. For instance, in the recent past it tried to create racial tension by masterminding the cow-head and pig-head incidents so as to influence the Malays into voting for BN.

The recent ‘Datuk T’ trio’s pornographic video incident and the ensuing farcical investigation and trial of the trio was engineered by Umno to discredit the opposition leader. The latest seditious Ibrahim Ali outburst against the Chinese and the ‘Hindu woman’ was again an attempt by Umno to create racial tension.

By now it has become very obvious that Umno is carrying out another charade similar to the ones it carried out after the cow-head and pornographic tape incidents. In this instance, Ibrahim Ali will be given the maximum opportunity and publicity to attack Bersih and create tension.

After all this is over, Umno will almost certainly come up with another issue to create tension and demonise the opposition.

Kannan M Sakti:
 Gerakan Aman (Peace Movement) – I wonder if they know the meaning, because the man who’s wearing the ‘Gerakan Aman’ is burning S Ambiga’s photo! Bikin tak serupa cakap (what they say is not what they do) – itulah Geng Ibrahim Katak Ali yang kononnya menerajui Gerakan Aman.

Ketuanan Rakyat:
 The Datuk T were given VIP treatment for showing pornography, Ibrahim Ali will similarly be treated as a VIP for doing Umnoputras’ dirty work for them. Can we expect fairness from ‘ketuanan’ Umnoputras-led government police?

Solaris:
 Of course he’s unfazed. I’d be too if I were him. No master would intentionally hurt his loyal attack dog for doing what it was told to.

L Joy:
 This is a showpiece to blind the public about Umno’s hand behind Perkasa. They have to have this show so that they can really take action on Bersih and Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

Ibrahim will walk away with a small fine, but Pakatan Rakyat leaders will find themselves ineligible to contest elections. The judiciary will take care of this for Umno.

Nik V:
 We need to prepare for the reality that the ‘reformasi’ for a new Malaysia will not come easy as the current Umno-Perkasa-BN government under Najib Razak will not be prepared to give Malaysia back to all Malaysians without putting up a strong resistance.

We need to hope and pray that the regular police personnel loves the rakyat and his own family more than the few old political masters and superiors who are intent on turning our own security forces against the ordinary Malaysian in order to hold on to their corrupt and unrepentant ways.

Terus:
 If Perkasa and other government-linked NGOs are prepared to clash and intimidate a peacefully-organised Bersih rally, can you imagine what they will do if Umno-led BN was to lose the next general election?

Ibrahim Ali’s “advice” to Malaysians of Chinese descent is really frightening.

Blogsmith:
 Mana ada keadilan? The police are now so clearly bipartisan. Wear red or yellow T-shirt get locked up, but those who threaten violence, go free.

Police summon Ambiga, Samad Said

YF:
 National laureate A Samad Said was one of the early pure Malays who have berjuang (struggled) for negara, bangsa dan agama (country, people and religion). The fact that Samad is not supporting Umno speaks volumes and show that Umno is not for the Malays but for selected “desperate parties”.

Sarajun Hoda:
 Bersih must go on. I suggest to all the rally people to go give themselves up, peacefully, for arrest at the nearest police stations, if that is required to correct the wrongs of the present government which thinks it knows everything and arrogantly never listens to people’s cries.

MySecret:
 All Bersih participants should be prepared to be detained or even locked up for 24 to 48 hours. Let’s not kid ourselves. Get ready for that badge of honour. It’s a cause well worth the story for your future generations. History will definitely be on your side.

Passing Cloud:
 The BN government is losing control fast. It’s desperate and no one is safe. Who’s its next victim?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 12:47 pm and is filed under
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Kit Siang: Cops violated parliamentary privileges

By
Clara Chooi

The Malaysian Insider

Jun 28, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang today accused the police of violating parliamentary privileges when they appeared in the House this morning to record statements from two opposition MPs on the Bersih rally.

 The senior parliamentarian said he had never before witnessed such an incident since he became an MP in 1969.

“I am shocked and outraged that the police have shown up in Parliament today to record statements from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parliamentarians – Azmin Ali (PKR – Gombak) and Mohd Firdaus Jaafar (PAS – Jerai).

“This is the first time within my memory as an MP since 1969 of any policeman invading the parliamentary precincts to take statements from any MP,” he wrote in a statement today.

Lim called on Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia to tell Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar to stop his men from repeating the incident in the future.

He also urged the House’s Rights and Privileges Committee to convene an emergency meeting to condemn the purported “violation” by the police.

“MPs from both sides of the divide should also raise the issue of police violating parliamentary privileges and precincts, invading the privacy of Parliament to take police statements from MPs, at Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and International Parliamentary Union (IPU) conferences to compare parliamentary practices in Malaysia with Commonwealth countries as well as with the rest of the world,” he said.

Earlier this morning, Azmin and Mohd Firdaus were questioned by the police at the Parliament lobby over their ceramah speeches made earlier this month where the purportedly spoke about the upcoming Bersih rally.

Azmin said the appearance of the police in Parliament had been unexpected but Mohd Firdaus admitted to reporters that he had invited them to meet him in the House.

When approached today, PR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the police had shown “disrespect” to the duties of the MPs by appearing in Parliament to record their statements.

“But in this 1 Malaysia, anything can happen so it does not surprise me,” he said.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 9:26 pm and is filed under
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Mat Zain: Bala’s SD might save cops on death row

Malaysiakini

Jun 27, 11

Former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim has urged Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar to intervene in the decision of the Attorney-General’s (AG’s) Chambers not to charge private investigator P Balasubramaniam with falsifying a statutory declarations (SDs).

In an open letter to Ismail, Mat Zain said the contents of Balasubramaniam’s statutory declarations, if tested in court, may influence the outcome of the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case.

Two young police personnel, Azilah Hadri, 33, and Sirul Azha Umar, 36, were both sentenced to death for Altantuya’s murder.

However, political and defence analyst Abdul Razak Baginda was acquitted of abetment without his defence being called. Prosecutors did not appeal the decision.

“If the judge had mistakenly freed Abdul Razak, that is inconsequential. Maybe that is his luck. But we cannot allow the judge to mistakenly sentence Azilah and Sirul to death.

“We hold to the principle that it is better to allow 10 criminals to escape publishment than punish one innocent man,” wrote Mat Zain.

He said that Azilah and Sirul deserve a fair trial and that they are in the process of appeal. Any new evidence, no matter how remote, should be adduced to the court at this stage, he said.

“The police cannot allow any evidence in the Altantuya murder trial to be buried or manipulated by any parties,” he said.

He said that in 1993, Bukit Aman federal police headquarters had established a 10-member panel to probe the Batang Kali Massacre, which happened 45 years ago, after new evidence was uncovered, and the Altantuya murder case should be no different.

Two declarations

Mat Zain’s letter was in response to de facto Law Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz’s ongoing spat with Subang MP R Sivarasa and Batu MP Tian Chua over Balasubramaniam’s two conflicting statutory declarations.

Back on July 3, 2008, with much fanfare and enthusiasm, Balasubramaniam revealed his first statutory declaration which included explosive claims linking then-Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to Altantuya.

Abdul Razak was known to be a close ally and confidante to Najib and reportedly advised the Defence Ministry when the latter was defence minister.

Less than 24 hours later, a sullen looking Balasubramaniam revealed a second statutory declaration, retracting all his allegations against Najib, during a suspicious and hastily organised press conference.

It was later learned that Balasubramaniam had fled the country, but continued to insist that he had been pressured into making the second statutory declaration and that his first was true.

Nazri had on two occasions told the Dewan Rakyat that the AG’s Chambers had closed the case on the two statutory declarations because the documents had “no effect” on the Altantuya murder trial.

Court should decide, not AG

The AG’s decision was based on a precedent set in an earlier case which made a false statutory declaration a violation of the law only if the document was used in court.

Commenting on this, Mat Zain in his open letter said that the admissibility of the statutory declarations was not for AG Abdul Gani Patail to decide, but the courts.

“Such an excuse was as if Abdul Gani had usurped the function and powers of the judge that was hearing the Altantuya murder trial,” wrote Mat Zain.

He said that the responsibility of the prosecutors or defence as officers of the court was to present all witness statements to the case as even minute evidence can have a major impact, as seen in the inquest into the death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock.

Mat Zain argued that the veracity of the alleged ‘suicide note’ presented by the AG’s Chambers at the eleventh hour of the proceedings could not verified but influenced the inquest anyway.

In the case of Balasubramaniam’s statutory declarations, its effects on the Altantuya murder trial would only be known if the statements were tested in court, he said.

Mat Zain also disagreed with the AG’s Chambers assertion that there was a case precedent in which a false statutory declaration was in violation of the law only if it was used in court.

He said that this was disproved in the case of PP vs Sharma Kumari in 2000, which provided a convincing rebuttal in simple language.

“Anyone who reads the PP vs Sharma Kumari case report can conclude that the answer and explanation provided by Abdul Gani for Nazri in Parliament was untrue,” he said.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 7:59 am and is filed under
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Najib GTP in past two years a depressing failure

I posed a supplementary query in Parliament to Question No. 5 to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Senator Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon who had boasted about the great success and achievements of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Government Transformation Programme to date.

Puncturing his balloon, I pointed out that the purpose of Najib’s GTP is to restore national and international confidence in the efficiency, independence, integrity and professionalism of key national institutions but the reality in the past two years had been the very opposite – with even greater plunge of public and international confidence in the efficiency, independence, integrity and professionalism of key national institutions like the police, judiciary, elections commission and the anti-corruption commission, the MACC.

I pointed out that the continued plunge in public and international confidence in the key national institutions had become an usual occurrence and the reasons could be gleaned from daily online news reports.

I quoted to Parliament a sample from this morning’s Malaysiakini, viz:

“Dr Jeyakumar detained, Ibrahim Ali walks free”;

“Yes, poems are now a national security threat” and

“Umno Youth ‘threatened’ to torch PKR HQ”.

Five hours later, there have been even more such disturbing headlines in Malaysiakini highlighting the “madness” enveloping the country and why Malaysians are voting with their feet and foreign investors given more reasons why they should not direct FDIs to Malaysia, viz:

“Utusan overdrives on Bersih ‘communist’ plot”;

“Bishop calls for an end to Christian bashing”;

“’Catch criminals, not protestors’”;

“M’sian judges evade constitutional issues”;

“Gov’t urged to justify RM48m upkeep of PM, DPM residences”.

I asked Koh whether in view of such catastrophic drop in public and international confidence in the key national institutions, which highlights the depressing failure of Najib’s GTP, this subject would be tabled for priority discussion in the Cabinet for remedial measures to be taken.

Koh gave a “cock-and-bull” reply which totally ignored the substance of my supplementary question, resulting in my standing up in Parliament to protest that Koh had failed to address my supplementary question, leading my describing Koh as “pelari” or “escapist”!

Clearly Koh is incapable of answering this question. But is there anybody in Cabinet and Government, including the Prime Minister, capable of answering it?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 4:40 pm and is filed under
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National laureate probed over ‘seditious poem’

Joseph Sipalan

Malaysiakini

Jun 27, 11

National laureate A Samad Said today decried police investigations into his poem recital during a Bersih 2.0 event and said the authorities are now treating poetry as a weapon.

The septuagenarian was hauled up for about 90 minutes of questioning today at the Dang Wangi district police station on his poem recited during the June 19 ‘launch’ of the Bersih 2.0 rally.

(Refer to the poem Unggun Bersih below)

“Poetry has now become something extraordinary; it has now become a weapon,” he told a throng of journalists jostling to hear the soft-spoken man.

Pak Samad, as he is popularly known, is being investigated under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 27(5) of the Police Act 1967 which relates to unlawful assembly.

The laureate, easily recognisable by his shock of white hair and long white beard, said he was “saddened” that the authorities viewed his poem “with prejudice”.

“In my poem, I did say that we need to purify democracy, not muddle it or pollute it… and in poetry, those are suggestions that are very pure and should be appreciated, not viewed suspiciously.

“Personally, I find it rather strange why this has happened. A writer contributes through his art, to document a situation that is worsening, (but) it is viewed with such prejudice. This saddens me so,” he said.

Samad pointed out that rather than cowing the nation’s literary community, the actions of the police against him could likely spur a more spirited movement from his peers and fellow writers in pursuing the freedom of expression.

“It may be seen as a warning, but for writers, this would spur them and encourage them as they begin to realise that literature has power too,” he said.

“I intended to produce something that was pure, not to incite,” he said.

“It is the actions of the police that will spur the nation’s literary community to respond to his predicament.

“This act should motivate our literary community (to state their views openly),” Samad said when asked if the investigation into his poem would spook other writers and artistes from going public with their views.

‘Art cannot be interrogated’

Samad’s counsel, N Surendran, slammed the police for launching the probe into his client’s poem, stressing that this could possibly be the first time a literary great is being hauled up for “simply reading a poem”.

Surendran claimed the police had also asked “strange” questions, which insinuated that the Bersih 2.0 rally is politically motivated and at other times, matters completely unrelated to the investigation.

“They asked him where he got his datukship, whether the poets at the event (Bersih 2.0 launch) were paid to read out their poems and they even asked him if the event is politically motivated.

“I cannot recall an instance where a national laureate has even been investigated for poetry… we cannot cross-examine or interrogate art,” Surendran said.

Samad stood firm in his support for the rally, saying it should not be allowed to be hijacked and turned into a racial issue.

“I don’t want to touch on race. This is not about one race going against another, this is about Malaysians… I will be there,” he said.

Samad, a celebrated Malay poet and novelist, is no stranger to protest rallies, being one of the big names who joined the March 2009 mass gathering to protest the government’s policy on the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI).

A strong proponent of Malay literature, he penned at least a dozen novels and countless poems, and has also worked as a journalist in several national Malay-language papers including Utusan Melayu, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian.

He was honoured as a national laureate, or Sasterawan Negara, in 1985.

Suhakam: Respect freedom of assembly

Meanwhile, in another related development, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) reiterated its position that it is the right of members of public to assemble and to express their views in a peaceful manner, as provided for under Article 10(1)(b) of the federal constitution, as well as Article 20(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The statutory human rights institution has called on the government to respect the freedom of assembly in many of its previous annual reports submitted to Parliament.

The reports also recommend that proportionate and non-violent methods be employed should the police find it necessary to control or disperse a crowd during an assembly.

“The commission calls on the authorities to allow the planned peaceful assemblies to be held, and on the parties intending to hold these assemblies to exercise their rights in a peaceful and responsible manner.

“The commission shall duly monitor the event,” its chairperson Hasmy Agam (above, right) said in a statement issued today.

THE POEM

Note: A. Samad Said read out only the last two stanzas of his poem

Unggun-bersih

Semakin lara kita didera bara –

kita laungkan juga pesan merdeka:

Demokrasi sebenderang mentari

sehasrat hajat semurni harga diri.

Lama resah kita – demokrasi luka;

lama duka kita – demokrasi lara.

Demokrasi yang angkuh, kita cemuhi;

suara bebas yang utuh, kita idami!

Dua abad lalu Sam Adams berseru:

(di Boston dijirus teh ke laut biru):

Tak diperlu gempita sorak yang gebu,

diperlu hanya unggun api yang syahdu.

Kini menyalalah unggun sakti itu;

kini merebaklah nyala unggun itu.

The Bersih Fire

(translation)

As the coals that molest us rage higher

we shout still the message of Merdeka

for democracy as bright as the sun

as pure as dignity our purpose is one

Deep is our worry – as democracy’s wounds

long is our sadness – as democracy’s woes

at arrogant democracy we scorn

for a strong free voice we dream

Two centuries ago Sam Adams decreed

in Boston was tea poured into blue seas

no need for riotous shouts full of ire

only for a truly heartfelt fire

Alight now the sacred fire

spread afar raging higher.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 8:44 am and is filed under
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Rais, the desperadoes are those in Umno

Malaysiakini Your Say
 | Jun 28, 11

‘If PSM were waging war, the authority would have known a long time ago. Why is it only during the lead-up to Bersih that they discovered this?’

Rais: Communist ideology last resort of the ‘desperate’

Multi Racial:
 Information Minister Rais Yatim, you are getting senile. It was the authority who coined the communist threat and slapped it on the group which supports the peaceful demonstration for fair and clean elections.

It was Umno who was getting desperate, so don’t turn around saying others were getting desperate. If Umno is confident with the support they having, why not allow Bersih to go ahead with their peaceful demonstration?

Clearly, BN is fearful of the people power. They have been using the media to suppress things and were successful in the past, but things have changed and people now realise that they have been conned by a bunch of politicians who are only interested in taking care of themselves and their cronies.

Kgen:
 PSM’s ideology is socialist, not communist. If Rais doesn’t know how to distinguish between them, he should not open his mouth and prove his ignorance.

Muak:
 The people are now telling the government that power comes from the people and the people will take it back if the ruling regime abuses it. Umno/BN has abused the power given to them by the people for 54 years. So it’s time for the people to take it back from idiots like Rais Yatim.

You can only be seen as “rampas kuasa” when power is not yours. But power in Malaysia belongs to the people, not Umno, not MCA and not MIC or Gerakan. Power does not belong to the opposition as well.

Power is entrusted to the ruling government and when the ruling government does not perform according to the expectations of the people who voted them into power, the power is the entrusted to a party who will do that.

It’s as simple as that, something the Umno/BN folks just don’t understand. Or more accurately, refuse to understand. The people are the bosses.

KSN:
 The first step they will take is to detain all Bersih leaders and opposition parliamentarians under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The second step will be to start the new settlements, the Gerald Templer type, which the whole country is familiar with and have plenty around to remind us of our history.

The third step will be to declare emergency to fight ‘communist insurgency’.

The fourth step will be to bring back the British and Indian soldiers, Gurkhas included. Otherwise, how are we going to defeat the communists? Right folks?

Anonymous:
 Excuse me, do they have proof that PSM is spreading communism? If PSM were doing so, the authority would have known about it a long time ago. Why is it only during the lead-up to Bersih that they discovered this?

Is it alright for a minister to say something like that without substantiated proof?

Fellow Malaysian:
 It is mind-boggling that PSM and its supporters could be carted off and investigated for waging war against the king for wearing some T-shirts bearing pictures of Chin Peng and Rashid Maidin.

What about tourists who come here and buy T-shirts bearing snapshots of Che Guevara, Stalin or Mao Zedong? Are they communist suspects as well? If equal treatment were to be meted out, ought they not be investigated as well?

S’porean at heart:
 Rais is trying to spook kampung Malays into believing that Pakatan Rakyat is trying to overthrow the government. PSM is one of the smallest political parties there are. Anyone can see that PSM is no threat, except to BN.

Citizen:
 When I was a teenager in Negri Sembilan, Rais was the menteri besar and we had great respect for him for being a humble man. Then when he was part of Semangat 46, we admired his boldness to go against the ruling power, but now he has become just another Umno yesman.

Where is the Rais that I knew? You can do better than this. You have brains, please put it to good use.

Disbeliever:
 This is an unfair statement from a senile senior minister who actually doesn’t deserve to be in the cabinet. It all boils down to one thing; it’s not Bersih 2.0 or the ppposition who are the desperadoes, but rather Umno and BN.

They will resort to any means – to quote PM Najib Abdul Razak “to defend Putrajaya at all cost” – to win the next general election and remain in power.

Kee Thuan Chye:
 Resorting to communism is the last resort of the desperate indeed, but in this case, the desperate are the people in power. Rais numbers among them, of course.

That’s why he talks like this – it is most unbefitting of a man who holds a PhD. More like something you’d expect from an PMR dropout. But then, he knows who his target audience is, so he aims it at that intellectual level. Which makes him a Machiavelli for PMR dropouts.

Dharma:
 I supposed Rais wants us to believe that PSM is the fifth columnists for the Soviet empire – deliberately weakening the country to make it easier for the communists to march in. The only problem is that the Soviet empire does not exist anymore. This speaks volumes for the intellectual bankruptcy and the extreme moral perversion of Umno.

I hope the electorate have woken up to the reality of this thoroughly stupid (for all its brute cunning) and truly evil coalition government. While making Malaysia a social and economic waste ground, one wonders how much suffering lies ahead before BN is at last ejected by an angry, disillusioned nation.

Anonymous_5fb:
 Rais Yatim, you are right, rakyat are desperate with Umno-led BN government, but communism is not our choice, clean democracy is. That’s why we are going to join the Bersih walk on July 9.

DannyLoHH:
 Dear Rais, Umno is the one desperate by resorting to the resurrection of the communist bogeymen. No one in their right minds will believe that T-shirts are weapons that could “wage war against the Agong”.

Words and images on a T-shirts do not have enough impact to sway minds, nor does it carried enough weight to be used as a projectile weapon. So, where is the threat?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 12:50 pm and is filed under
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Spectacle of Police invading Parliamentary precincts to take police statements from MPs a most deplorable precedent of violation of parliamentary privileges and must be condemned in strongest terms

I am shocked and outraged that the police have shown up in Parliament today to record statements from Pakatan Rakyat parliamentarians – Azmin Ali (PKR – Gombak) and Mohd Firdaus Jaafar (PAS – Jerai).

This is the first time within my memory as an MP since 1969 of any policeman invading the parliamentary precincts to take statements from any MP.

The spectacle of the police invading parliamentary precincts to take police statements from Members of Parliament is a most deplorable precedent, violating parliamentary privileges and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms by MPs regardless of party.

The Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia must uphold the dignity and privileges of Parliament and tell the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Ismail Omar in no uncertain terms that the Police must not violate parliamentary privileges and precincts and insist that police carry out their duties such as taking statements from MPs outside parliamentary premises.

The Parliamentary Privileges Committee and the House Committee must meet in emergency session at such unacceptable violation of parliamentary privileges and precincts by the police.

MPs from both sides of the divide should also raise the issue of police violating parliamentary privileges and precincts, invading the privacy of Parliament to take police statements from MPs, at Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and International Parliamentary Union (IPU) conferences to compare parliamentary practices in Malaysia with Commonwealth countries as well as with the rest of the world.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 6:09 pm and is filed under
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Umno Youth members protest Khairy death threat at PKR headquarters

By
Shannon Teoh and Clara Chooi

The Malaysian Insider

June 28, 2011

PETALING JAYA, June 28 — Hundreds of Umno Youth members on motorcycles circled the PKR headquarters here late last night in a threatening manner ahead of the July 9 Bersih rally, ostensibly to protest a death threat against their leader Khairy Jamaluddin.

They arrived at the office block in Tropicana, just a few doors away from the Tropicana police station, claiming that a death threat sent to Khairy recently came from the opposition party, which denied the allegation.

The group of Umno Youth members protesting outside the PKR headquarters last night.

Executive committee member Lokman Noor Adam claimed he led 600 Umno Youth members at 10.30 last night, blocking the street in front of the PKR headquarters as they chanted loudly in the night.

He said the gathering of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur Umno Youth members was to “send a clear message to PKR that we are not afraid and we are ready to meet them even earlier.”

The Umno Youth chief, who is currently overseas, had said he received the threat via text message on Sunday warning him to call off a counter rally against the Bersih march for electoral reform.

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution told The Malaysian Insider that 300 Umno Youth members, mostly on motorcycles, had travelled from as far as Shah Alam but were not stopped by police despite waving Umno flags.

“They gave a speech outside, threatening that if the Bersih rally proceeds, they will harm Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim,” he said, referring to the Bersih chief and PKR de facto leader respectively.

“They also threatened to burn down our HQ,” the Machang MP said, adding that he had lodged a police report at the police station a few doors down.

However, Lokman told The Malaysian Insider that Umno Youth did not threaten PKR with violence.

“We gave strict orders not to touch their headquarters. We are not like them,” he said.

PAS has promised to bring in hundreds of thousands of supporters from across the country as Pakatan Rakyat (PR) gears up for a second such rally in recent years.

The first Bersih rally in 2007 saw up to 50,000 people take to the streets of Kuala Lumpur before they were dispersed by police armed with tear gas and water cannons.

The demonstration has been partly credited for Pakatan Rakyat’s record gains in Election 2008, where the opposition pact swept to power in five states and won 82 parliamentary seats.

However, counter rallies are being planned by both Perkasa and Umno Youth who have pledged to march despite the government insisting it will not issue any permits for gatherings in the city on July 9.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 8:33 am and is filed under
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Yellow Fever

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 7:06 pm and is filed under
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Bersih T-shirts illegal, declares Hisham

By
Shannon Teoh

The Malaysian Insider

Jun 29, 2011

PUTRAJAYA, June 29 — Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today T-shirts with messages in support of Bersih have been outlawed because they were related to an illegal assembly.

“The Bersih T-shirt is related to an illegal assembly, then whatever they are wearing is illegal,” he told reporters.

Police officers have been arresting activists and opposition members wearing Bersih T-shirts ahead of next weekend’s rally and counter rallies organised by Umno Youth and Perkasa, all of which the government has said will not be given police permits.

However, the Bersih organisation has not been declared illegal nor has the word “Bersih” been gazetted as such.

Hishammuddin did not mention today under what law the T-shirts would be considered illegal.

Speaking at a press conference here, he also rejected claims that the police clampdown on those supporting the July 9 march for electoral reforms was politically motivated.

“On whose part? I can ask the same thing to them,” he said, implying that it was Pakatan Rakyat (PR) who were politicising police action related to the Bersih rally.

The Umno vice president also promised that action will be taken against the Umno Youth members who had surrounded the PKR headquarters on Monday, when they allegedly threatened to burn down the office.

“I told the police to treat them as with Bersih. Nobody is above the law,” he said.

Police officers have also raided the Bersih office in Petaling Jaya today, according to steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah.

She told reporters here in Parliament that 20 policemen were currently raiding the premises, and claimed that a search warrant was not issued prior to the raid.

Activists under Bersih and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) component parties are gearing up for the rally this July 9, the second such gathering calling for electoral reforms.

The first rally, also organised by Bersih, was held in 2007 and saw some 50,000 people take to the capital’s streets.

The gathering eventually dispersed, however, and resulted in chaos when the police deployed tear gas and water cannons on demonstrators.

The historic event has been partly credited for PR’s record gains in Election 2008, when the opposition pact was swept to power in five states and won 82 parliamentary seats.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 2:50 pm and is filed under
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Bersih T-shirts seized, seven activists held in raid

By
Shannon Teoh

June 29, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

PETALING JAYA, June 29 — About 20 policemen, at least one of whom was armed with an assault rifle, raided the Bersih secretariat here today, confiscating hundreds of the movement’s iconic yellow T-shirts and bringing seven in for questioning.

Seven staff members of women’s rights non-governmental organisation Empower, which hosts the secretariat for the group pushing for electoral reforms, were initially questioned at the premises that had been blocked by about 10 police vehicles, including a Black Maria.

Police then seized several items contained in seven plastic bags and five boxes as well as five banners before taking the workers to the Petaling Jaya police district headquarters.

Selangor Chief Police Officer Datuk Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah said they had obtained information that illegal activities were taking place in the house, adding that police have now found the tip to be accurate.

Tun Hisan also said that hundreds of T-shirts and other apparel have been confiscated from Bersih, which is planning a rally pressing for electoral reforms in Kuala Lumpur on July 9, adding that the group is not registered with the Registrar of Societies.

Lawyer Honey Tan, representing Empower, said that police were investigating the workers under the Printing Presses and Publication Act and for planning an illegal assembly under the Police Act.

She added that the seven were not arrested but taken in for further questioning.

Bersih had earlier said that no search warrant was issued prior to the raid and that police threatened to cut the locks to the office.

Empower is an NGO that is part of the Bersih coalition pushing for free and fair elections.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein earlier today declared the Bersih T-shirts “illegal” over links with the unsanctioned July 9 rally.

Police have arrested nearly 100 people since the weekend, some of them for wearing the yellow Bersih T-shirts.

Bersih began an online campaign this afternoon asking those with Facebook and Twitter social network accounts to paint the Internet yellow with icons and badges of that colour.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 4:08 pm and is filed under
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But wait, Bersih didn’t threaten to torch Umno HQ

Malaysiakini Your Say
 | Jun 29, 11

‘Bersih leaders were the first to receive death threats, yet there were no Bersih supporters outside PWTC threatening to burn down Umno’s HQ.’

Umno Youth ‘threatened’ to torch PKR HQ

Swipenter:
 We are all sick of the threats of violence verbalised by Perkasa and Umno supporters every time when things are disagreeable to them.

This is reminiscent of the threats issued by Umno Youth to burn down the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) over the issue of vernacular education.

Umno and its outsourced NGOs have no respect for differences of opinion. They just want to force their views down the throats of others by issuing threats of violence and bloodshed. If they think that what they are doing really works, they are sorely mistaken and deluded.

Anak Bangsa Malaysia:
 Once again, we ask the tired rhetorical question: “What were the police doing?” Umno Youth mob threatened to burn down the PKR building in front of them.

Oh yes, I forgot, the police were probably reminiscing fondly about how they also stood by contentedly while Umno Youth and Perkasa thugs defiled a severed cow’s head in Shah Alam.

They were also probably busy thinking up new strategies to harass the 70-plus year old national laureate A Samad Said and anything that remotely looks yellow. Well done, Royal Malaysian Police.

Geronimo:
 This clearly shows Umno’s kind of mentality. Bersih committee members were the first to receive threatening SMS messages and yet there were no Bersih supporters gathered outside PWTC threatening to burn down the Umno HQ.

The SMS received by Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, by all account, could be a ploy, and these boneheads, without waiting for further verification, have started to retaliate on PKR.

Such shallowness is pathetic. At least, Bersih and its supporters took the whole SMS issue in its stride, because the ultimate objective is the march on July 9. They didn’t have time to be involved in such petty issues.

Don’t Leave Name: Funny there was no arrest despite there having been three reasons for the police to have done so:

1. The threat to burn down PKR’s building

2. Wearing red T-shirts (I thought it was a taboo to Umno)

3. Illegal gathering

All the above are not good enough to warrant an arrest?

Alicescat:
 Do we even have a police force?

Danny LoHH:
 Is this the lead-up to a massive clampdown and arrest of opposition leaders? The way it played out is chillingly similar to what transpired before the 1987 Ops Lalang, where there was an Umno Youth gathering threatening violence.

But the one that got arrested are the target of their violence rather than the hooligans that called themselves Umno Youth.

This is yet another glaring display of double standards by the police. On the same night, DAP party leaders were arrested for wearing yellow T-shirts and making speeches about the Bersih rally, while the Umno thugs who openly threatened violence and arson walked free.

Pity him:
 This is Umno’s way of ‘defending’ Putrajaya at all cost. They are apparently on the warpath to destruction while others are on the warpath to reforms. This is perhaps Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin’s route to remain relevant by unleashing his warriors before the walk. Others walk for reforms while his goons walk to disrupt.

Multi Racial:
 This cannot be tolerated. These people should be put behind bars. If wearing certain shirts are consider “waging war against the king”, what is this violent threat to torch the PKR headquarters? Love for the king?

The king himself should come out and say something against this violent threat. These people are going overboard and has to be stopped.

Ferdtan:
 The more Umno Youth make a fool of themselves, the more support Bersih will get. This may persuade the many political fence-sitters to vote against Umno if such rash actions were let loose.

This shows the end of BN after 50 years of rule. “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.”

Anonymous:
 Will owners of shophouses at Merchant Square lodge police reports of Umno Youth threatening to torch the PKR building? Who do these Umno Youth think they are? Shophouse owners have a stake in that building, too.

The fire is sure to spread to their properties if PKR HQ is torched. Sue Umno Youth. Teach them a lesson. They are not above the laws.

Nik V:
 If this were by PAS, PKR or DAP, their leaders would be held accountable and probably hauled up. But strangely when it comes to the uncivilised manner by a supposed seasoned political party like Umno, we don’t hear the ‘independent’ police calling their leaders to be accountable.

Pemerhati:
 All the nasty actions like the cow-head and pig-head incidents, the pornographic video and now, the threat to burn down PKR’s headquarters have been engineered by the very top Umno people who have almost complete control over the judiciary, the enforcement agencies and the rest of the public service.

They have amassed billions from their corrupt activities and can easily pay a few hundred people to create such mischief and tell the police to stand aside. Sometimes they put up some farcical show trials against their own hired hands to fool the people and the world into thinking that there is rule of law in the country.

At this point in time, PM Najib Razak and his cohorts are just using scare tactics. The big question is how will these people react if they sense that they are going to lose the coming elections? And does the opposition have any contingency plans to counter any extreme behaviour by these crooked people?

Abasir:
 All of this started with Najib’s win ‘at all costs’ speech. Desperation knows no bounds – for him this is a do-or-die attempt to hold on to power (and avoid answering some ‘sensitive’ questions).

Knowing the amount of skeletons stuffed in, God knows how many closets, he will try anything and everything. Where he is concerned, all options are on the table.

‘Bersih chaos’ will burn PKR, corrects Umno Youth

Ignis Sacra:
 Arman Azha Abu Hanifah is quite right, of course. His words were clearly taken “out of context” – they were said before the place could be burnt down, not after.

So it cannot have been a threat. It was only a prediction, a scientific prediction. A self-fulfilling prophecy is not a threat, it’s a sure thing. One has to be “context-sensitive” about these subtleties.

DannyLoHH:
 Arman can deny as much as he wanted, the video has been captured, his speech was recorded and uploaded onto YouTube, where he clearly declared: “Kalau … Julai 9, mereka teruskan Bersih, kita jatuhkan pejabat disini, tidak ada disini lagi. (Crowd roaring)… Setuju tak setuju? (More of crowd roaring)”.

He had threaten to burn down the PKR HQ in public alright. Evidence is there and collected. We’ll see if the police will take action. I won’t hold my breath, though.

KSN:
 Umno Youth, you said you went to PKR office to exercise your freedom of assembly? How ironic, how hypocritical and how stupid. Is that not what Bersih rally of July 9 all about, freedom of assembly?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 10:56 am and is filed under
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Coming soon: Bersih a front for extraterrestrials?

Malaysiakini Your Say
 | Jun 29, 11

‘First, Utusan claims Bersih is sponsored by foreign Christians organisations. Then, it’s by communist elements, together with a US pro-democracy NGOs.’

Utusan overdrives on Bersih ‘communist’ plot

Ignis Sacra:
 It is all the doing of the resentful ghost of that arch crusader, former chancellor Joseph Konrad Adenauer.

Unhappy with current chancellor Angela Merkel, the tortured ghost is now seeking his evil consolation from the idea that every last Malay must be condemned and crucified.

It’s as simple as two plus two, as plain and clear as the lines on your own hand. Everyone can see it. Utusan Malaysia can. Why can’t you?

DannyLoHH:
 First Utusan claims that Bersih is sponsored by foreign Christians organisations. Then it’s by communist elements, together with a US pro-democracy NGOs that are closely linked to Anwar Ibrahim.

Can they go any more far fetch than these? My gosh, they can’t even string up a coherent slander (fitnah) against Bersih.

Anonymous_40a7:
 What next, guys? Bersih is a front for extraterrestrials to take over Malaysia? Or the devil’s plot to convert Malays in becoming his worshipers?

If this is the best Utusan can come up with, I wonder where the journalists are from – Wonderland?

Multi Racial:
 Well, just watch how far those without integrity and responsibility willing to go to tell lies.

Bishop calls for an end to Christian bashing

Anonymous:
 The fact that Utusan can continue to lie with impunity obviously tells us that the Umno-led government is at the brink of collapse and therefore very desperate now.

They can stoop so low as to resort to intimidation, thuggery, gangsterism, death threats, baseless accusations and all sorts of dirty tactics aiming at thwarting the Bersh 2.0 rally. But can they overcome the ever rising people’s power?

Paul Warren:
 But Bishop Paul Tan, you have failed to consider the readership of Utusan. They are obviously of low IQ, frothing in their mouths while watching old Western reruns where Indians are the obvious enemy.

Anything like what you write will be beyond their understanding. Obviously, those who act on such allegations, like the Umno-led government as well as the police, which initiated an investigation that shall never see an end, must have peanut-sized brains.

Lee Hwa Beng: We need more Christian leaders like Bishop Tan who dare to speak the truth.

Ferdtan:
 Dato Lee Hwa Beng, we agree: we need more Christian leaders who dare to speak the truth. But what about MCA – does it dare speak out? After all, you are the government and your partner, Umno, owns Utusan.

Anonymous_40dd:
 The authority is bent on linking the Bersih rally to communists, Christians, extremists waging war against the Agong, the Pakatan Rakyat opposition, etc. They simply fail to recognise that the rally is the natural response of people treasuring true democracy in our country.

Anonymous_4056:
 Firstly Umno-owned Utusan claimed Christians wanted to make Christianity the official religion of Malaysia and said there was a conspiracy to install a Christian prime minister. Now it claimed that the opposition wanted to revive communism. These shameless Umno minions are spreading all sorts of lies just to cling to power.

Honestly, we do not know what they are going to claim next. It will be so ridiculous that only Umnoputras would believe them. This goes to show how stupid they can be. These Umno leaders will go to the extend of getting the police to be involved and even have the cheek to drag the Agong’s name into their nefarious schemes.

Ben Hor:
 As long as Utusan continues to print and Ibrahim Ali continues to breathe, Christians will continue to be bashed, for everything and anything. Maybe it is high time that the Christians rise and form a ‘Christian Perkasa’ group, just to see what the government would do.

Ruben:
 I have always loved my country and considered myself Malaysian first before I identified myself as a Christian. I have a lot of respect for my fellow Malaysians of other races and I have a lot of close friends among them, both at work and socially.

Now I feel very disappointed, very hurt, very angry and also fearful. Why? Because the government is bent on pitting one race against another, one religion against another. How can Utusan be given freedom to print articles such as these?

Tuah PJ:
 Yes, yes, Utusan. All the PAS members taking part in Bersih 2.0 are Christians too.

NGO: Arrested Korean student no security threat

DannyLoHH:
 The Umno regime is so scared of its own shadow that a female intern from South Korea is depicted as a spy with malicious intention to topple the ruling regime.

Song Min Young is working on a research paper, comparing Malaysia elections with that of the South Korea. I bet the experience our police force is giving her will have a lot of “positive” impact on her research paper. So much for preserving the image of Malaysia on the international arena.

Ong Guan Sin:
 A poor foreigner falling victim to the Umno/Utusan conspiracy. When she goes back home, her story will anger as well as entertain her fellow Koreans. No Koreans tourists will come. Minister Ng Yen Yen should lodge a complaint against Utusan for spoiling Malaysia’s tourism industry.

Communist plot: PSM reports Utusan to police

PolitikAsia:
 The May 18 Foundation is a reputable organisation in South Korea that uplifts democracy. It is not any kind of organisations as depicted in a slanderous manner that Utusan has done. Just google them.

Ben Hor:
 The plot really thickens when we start adding foreign nationals – one from the right-wing and another from the left. This sure is getting very interesting.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 10:49 am and is filed under
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Explain disparity between ‘actual’ and ‘approved’ FDIs, DAP tells Putrajaya

By
Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

The Malaysian Insider

Jun 29, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 — The Najib administration must explain the wide disparity between approved foreign direct investments (FDIs) and actual investment figures, the DAP said.

DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua told reporters that a written reply by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) revealed that from 1996 to 2010 only RM179.8 billion out of the RM289.9 billion of approved investments had been realised.

“A shocking RM199.1 billion of declared FDI had disappeared without a trace,” he said in a statement today.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP pointed out that the actual FDI figure in 2010 was RM9.4 billion as opposed to the approved FDI figure of RM29.1 billion.

“The government should not just present only the positive statistics while hiding all the less than rosy stuff from the prying eyes of the public for that will only lead to self-praise and complacency, ensuring longer term decline in our economic performance,” he added.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 6:43 pm and is filed under
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