DAP says shares stand on Islam with first three PMs

The Malaysian Insider

Aug 09, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 —  DAP said today its position is that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam the official religion and that this is consistent with the views of the country’s first three leaders, as it came under a series of attacks from Umno-aligned religious scholars who have said it is haram for Muslims to back the opposition party because it is against an Islamic state.

The party’s parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang also pointed out what he called the hypocrisy of the attacks as Umno’s fellow Barisan Nasional (BN) partner MCA had been attacking the DAP for being a pawn of PAS and opening the door to the eventual implementation of Islamic law.

Earlier today the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leadership also jointly slammed Utusan Malaysia for stoking “religious conflict” after the Umno-owned paper ran a controversial report on its front page yesterday titled “Haram sokong DAP” (Forbidden to support DAP).

“The DAP stand that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as official religion is no different from that of first three Prime Ministers – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein,” Lim (picture) said in a statement today.

Utusan Malaysia has been spearheading reports to suggest DAP was anti-Malay and anti-Islam while the MCA has been slamming its main rival for Chinese votes as a party bent on selling out the interests of non-Muslims to benefit PAS and its aspirations to eventually set up an Islamic state.

In what is becoming an increasingly contentious campaign for votes ahead of elections expected soon, Islam has become a focal point of the tussle for support.

The PR coalition has been put on the backfoot in recent months with its leaders being constantly forced to explain its stand on Islam amid a barrage of attacks from Barisan Nasional (BN) parties.

PAS leaders have said that while an Islamic state remains one of the stated aims of the party it has not been added into the common agenda of PR as the coalition seeks to find a consensus in its bid to take federal power.

“Although Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak proclaimed 1Malaysia as his signature policy to create a nation where every Malaysian would regard himself or herself as Malaysian first and race, religion, region and class second, UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders have tried their worst to divide Malaysians along race and religious lines.

“MCA for instance had pulled out all stops to panic Malaysian Chinese to reject the DAP on the ground that the DAP is only a pawn of PAS, while UMNO had gone all out to urge Malay voters to reject PAS and PKR because both are stooges of DAP,” said Lim today.

The Pahang Mufti has also backed the growing campaign among Umno-aligned religious leaders, declaring it “haram” (forbidden) for Muslims to support the DAP after several Islamic scholars called the secular party “kafir harbi” or belligerent infidels, distinguishing it from the MCA or MIC as parties that have accepted the faith’s supremacy in multireligious Malaysia.

The Mufti, Datuk Abdul Rahman Osman, was reported by Utusan as saying it is “haram’ and a sin for Muslims to support a party that has openly stated it is opposed to an Islamic state and the enforcement of hudud that provides for harsh penalties for crimes such as the amputation of hands for theft.

Yesterday, an Islamic religious scholar, Abdullah Sa’amah, declared it “haram” for Muslims to support the DAP, according to a front-page report in Utusan.

But the founder of the Pondok Geting religious school in Tumpat, Kelantan said it was acceptable for Muslims to support Umno’s political partners, the MCA and MIC, because they recognised Islam’s pre-eminence.

“Is Utusan Malaysia, the UMNO newspaper, now suggesting that the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia were enemies of Islam to the extent that the term “kafir harbi”  could be used in its seditious campaign to falsely paint DAP as anti-Islam?

“Here let me remind the UMNO leaders and Utusan editors what the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Cairo last year: “To Egyptians who view secularism as removing religion from the state, or as an infidel state, I say you are mistaken…It means respect to all religions.”

The religion’s right-wing faction, including within Umno, the ruling BN’s main party, has made its presence more pronounced in recent years with several Umno politicians in its Johor stronghold proposing hudud be enforced in the southern state.

To date, only Kelantan and Terengganu had passed hudud as laws but have not been enforced as they run counter to the Federal Constitution.

A recent survey by independent pollster Merdeka Center has shown that Malay voters’ satisfaction with BN dropped from 65 per cent in May to 58 per cent in June.

The approval ratings for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also BN president, among the Malay community had dipped from 79 per cent to 75 per cent in the same period.

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DAP stand that Malaysia is secular state with Islam as official religion is no different from that of first three Prime Ministers — Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein

I am really astounded to see the UMNO newspaper, Utusan Malaysia, continuing with its inflammatory, incendiary and seditious front-page headline campaign for the second consecutive day on “Haram Sokong DAP” for it is proof that there are UMNO leaders who have thrown caution and discretion to the winds as they are really desperate about UMNO’s ability to win the next general election by free and fair means.

Although Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak proclaimed 1Malaysia as his signature policy to create a nation where every Malaysian would regard himself or herself as Malaysian first and race, religion, region and class second, UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders have tried their worst to divide Malaysians along race and religious lines.

MCA for instance had pulled out all stops to panic Malaysian Chinese to reject the DAP on the ground that the DAP is only a pawn of PAS, while UMNO had gone all out to urge Malay voters to reject PAS and PKR because both are stooges of DAP.

It is clear that these UMNO/BN lies, falsehoods and hypocrisies are not working, and Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region, class, age or gender are rallying to the Pakatan Rakyat call for change to create an united, democratic, just, incorrupt, competitive, prosperous and progressive Malaysia that UMNO leaders have decided to plunge for the most divisive, incendiary and seditious racist and religious card with screaming front-page headlines for the second consecutive day in its  “Haram Sokong DAP” campaign.

Yesterday, the front-page headline was “Haram Sokong DAP”. Today, it is “Lagi Seruan Tolak DAP”, even bringing out a state mufti to allegedly support its campaign in  alleging that DAP is “kafir harbi”.

The DAP stand is clear and unequivocal from the very beginning, that we fully accept and respect the fundamental constitutional provision of Islam as the official religion while other religions can be practiced peacefully anywhere in the country.

The stand that has been taken by the DAP, that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as the official religion, is the same and consistent with the public positions taken by the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein.

Is Utusan Malaysia, the UMNO newspaper, now suggesting that the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia were enemies of Islam to the extent that the term “kafir harbi”  could be used in its seditious campaign to falsely paint DAP as anti-Islam?

Here let me remind the UMNO leaders and Utusan editors what the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in  Cairo last year: “To Egyptians who view secularism as removing religion from the state, or as an infidel state, I say you are mistaken…It means respect to all religions.”

The Utusan Malaysia campaign against the DAP is not only inflammatory and incendiary, but an anti-national and criminal act of sedition, as it falsely accused the DAP  as an enemy of Islam and  opposing Article 3 of the Malaysian Constitution on Islam as the official religion of the country.

Police reports have been lodged in Penang, Perak and Negri Sembilan today against the Utusan Malaysia for its inflammatory, incendiary and seditious campaign which are calculated to foment racial ill-will, religious hatred as well as undermine national unity.

If this incendiary, inflammatory and seditious Utusan Malaysia campaign is allowed to continue unchecked, then the first casualties will be Najib’s 1Malaysia policy slogan and the  55th National Day/49th Malaysia Day celebrations, which will be rendered a completely hollow and meaningless national occasion.

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Malaysia’s Olympic Legacy: Stop Moaning, Start Planning

Mariam Mokhtar

Malaysian Mirror

08 August 2012

It’s an established fact: Sportsmen like Lee Chong Wei unite Malaysians like no politician can. Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak struggles with his ‘1Malaysia’ slogan just as Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s promises of change, fail to convince some Malaysians.

There is a disgusting predictability whenever a high-profile tournament fails to deliver the expected victorious result.

In last weekend’s Olympic badminton finals when Malaysia’s hopes of her first Gold medal were dashed, we blamed the athletes, their lack of determination, their weak fighting spirit, their ineffective coaches and the useless accompanying officials.

We praised the victors for their superiority. We blamed the presence of certain personalities for bringing bad luck to the players. A few of us even introduced the racial element, to sport.

Why are our hopes pinned on a handful of sportsmen? Why do we have so few world-class athletes?

If blame has to be apportioned, then do not have a dig at our players. They did their best and they are champions in the true sense of the word – they united the whole nation, all the way, to the bitter end – win or lose. Now which politician is capable of that?

If anyone wants to seek answers for the lack of talented players on the international arena then try these two ministries – Education and Sports.

It is their lack of direction, their failure to increase investment in sporting facilities and their unwillingness to promote a variety of sports in schools that has led to a decline in participation in sports, in schools.

No-one wants to go the way of China or the previous cold war countries like East Germany and the Soviet Union, where children as young as four were plucked from their parents, treated like automatons and dropped into a harsh regime of training to become Olympic champions in their teens or early adulthood.

The older reader will remember a time in schools when there were fewer sports, and a small budget for sport in schools, but there were dedicated Physical Education (PE) teachers who were passionate about sport.

Schools had playing fields for children to play games. Some schools with generous benefactors would share facilities like swimming pools, with the ‘poorer’ schools. Schools could also use the local town padang for games.

A few decades ago, it was compulsory for children to choose two sports for their after-school activity, at least twice a week. Today, teachers complain that much of their time is taken up by administrative and other non-essential work.

Nowadays, the Education Ministry is intent on children scoring a string of As in exams whilst neglecting the mental and physical well-being of the child, which can be developed through sport.

If Malaysia is to emulate the success of other nations in producing sportsmen of high calibre then the answer lies in increased funding for school sports programs.

Why only offer financial rewards to successful athletes once they win gold at the Olympics? Why not pump money into potential athletes, earlier? Money should be invested in attracting, nurturing and training a crop of potential champions at the school stage.

Children must be inspired to take up active participation in sport, but they cannot do this without adequate equipment and teachers. Many parents and teachers bemoan the fact their schools lack sporting facilities and that playing fields have been built on, or sold.

What have the appropriate ministries done to promote healthy eating in schools? Our school canteens still sell a lot of food with low nutritional value.

Fat children aren’t the only problems we face in schools. There is a high level of truancy, a lack of aspiration, plus the rise of gangsterism. What has the Ministry of Education done to engage restless students in sport? As the self-styled First Lady Rosmah Mansor is showing us, if you can’t be an athlete, be an athletic supporter.

Children are easily bored, especially at the weekends and during the holidays. A combination of sporting activities, clubs and facilities, should help keep our youth occupied and out of trouble.

Housing estates rarely have sports facilities or parks nearby. Many roads are dangerous for cyclists. Gyms are too expensive. Public sporting facilities are sparse, inaccessible and costly.

Sports promote good health and a healthy lifestyle. Children who take up a sport, develop leadership skills, determination, discipline, drive and the desire to succeed. They also learn that they cannot be winners all the time. Most important of all, these children grow up to become confident adults.

Najib said he is listening to the rakyat. One of his latest slogans is: “We hear you and understand your needs on education.”

If the government is serious about wanting to produce generations of world-class athletes, then the hard work has to start at the early stage.

Investin our school children. Increase funding for sporting facilities in schools. Allocate more dedicated sports teachers. Introduce cheaper and more accessible sporting facilities.

Malaysians should stop blaming sportsmen. Instead they should question the government’s commitment to sport. The talent is out there, but first it has to be found, and then nurtured.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 9 August 2012, 11:05 pm and is filed under
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Religion, the new last refuge of the desperate

— The Malaysian Insider

Aug 09, 2012

AUG 9 — Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, the essayist Samuel Johnson once said, referring to false patriots. In Malaysia, we can add religion to that list of refuge for those desperate to be relevant.

PAS has done it, saying a vote for the party is the ticket to paradise.

And now for the past two days, Umno-run Utusan Malaysia has been quoting Islamic scholars and a mufti to reinforce the point that it is “haram” (forbidden) for Muslim Malaysians to vote for the DAP and its allies because the party is against an Islamic state or hudud law.

It would seem that the ruling coalition, which has expressed confidence in getting back the states and parliamentary majority that it lost, is now resorting to religion to regain support from the Muslim majority in the country.

It would also appear that everything the establishment does these days smacks of desperation, from the arrests of whistleblowers to trotting out so-called religious leaders to attack political opponents.

Are Umno-aligned scholars mimicking PAS, using the pulpit to preach fire and brimstone and malign political foes just for victory at the polls?

No sticking to facts that BN’s policies have developed the country from an agrarian economy to an industrialised nation where services are now a major revenue earner?

Why resort to these religious leaders to press for votes? And why the name-calling, using terms like “kafir harbi” or belligerent infidels on a secular party?

Do any of these religious leaders think they are doing the MCA or MIC a favour by praising them for having accepted Islam’s supremacy in a multi-religious country like Malaysia? Is religion even a consideration when one votes?

Malaysia can do with a lot less religion in politics and the private space. And religious scholars who think their word is law. It isn’t law but just an opinion, and a pretty dodgy opinion at that.

Casting the ballot should be predicated on policies and track record. Any other ways of getting the vote is just a desperate move to keep power. And that includes using religion, be it Islam or any other faith. Using religion is desperate, dodgy and despicable.

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Umno’s final solution

— Sakmongkol AK47

The Malaysian Insider

Aug 09, 2012

AUG 9 — Umno’s solution is something like the Nazi final solution. It thinks it can achieve national unity by pitting one race against one another. Today the Chinese, tomorrow the Indians and later all other non-Malay Malaysians. Eventually, it will apply the same gas-chambering treatment to the Malays who dared challenge and reject Umno.

Indeed Umno has already shown its inclination to political cannibalisation. The Malays who oppose and reject Umno are classed as either not having sufficient Malayness or apostates. The world of Malaysia is as how Umno defines it.

The majority of us reject this fascism.

And so we have a former PM of this country defining as citizens of this country those who came over to Sabah only on the basis of being able to speak Bahasa Malaysia and had stayed in Malaysia for a number of years. They stayed because the enforcement authorities allowed them to. They stayed because the enforcement authorities were corrupt.

This is a devious argument, simplistic and yet flippant of the matter at hand. It would have traction if the hordes of immigrants had legally come over to Malaysia, registered properly and abided by the laws of the country relating to naturalised citizenship. Then we would have exercised our SOVEREIGNTY as an independent nation having complete legal powers to determine the quantity and quality of those who want to become Malaysian citizens.

The stand as suggested by Dr Mahathir is similar to the loose woman asking her client are you done, while she reads the NST or Nanyang and smoking a cigarette.

They didn’t because they came illegally and adopting the Malay language had to be done to blend quickly. Their citizenship is questionable because people in Sabah know that they were brought into Sabah intentionally to dilute the population structure in Sabah.

We cannot give citizenship to people who came into this country illegally, smuggled themselves in or were brought in intentionally for the purpose of political balancing. If one million Indonesians had come over into Pahang with a similar population size, can the Indonesians be accepted as citizens by the Pahang people who will face the prospects of having Malay-speaking bona fide Indonesians as MB and exco members?  We might as well give citizenship to Nigerians and other Africans who entered the country and have quickly adopted the Malay language and have been cunning enough to escape the dragnets of our Immigration Department.

The Malaysian people have already shown that they no longer accept the Umno solution. The coming together of various races during Bersih 3.0 recently sent shivers along the spine of the Umno leadership. Unless of course they misread or simply refused to read the signals sent by the voluntary coming together of the various races during that event. The setting has changed but Umno refuses to adapt. Those who don’t adapt, perish.

As a DAP member I am also ready to concede that in the long run, the DAP will also lose its wider relevance if it also refuses to adapt to the new social setting. The new social setting demands recognition that despite being of different races, heterogeneity does not prevent the sharing of universal and common values. Different races value the same freedom and economic justice. Being of different races does not preclude sharing similar ideas about equality or sharing the same idea about a common future.

You think the right-thinking Malay is unmoved to see Umno abuse the Malay definition? The ordinary Malay finds it reprehensible when Umno exploits the Malay name to enrich the elite and selected few among the Malays. Umno commits the fatal mistake of thinking it can justify about almost everything by using the Malay name.

In response to the general vilification on Malaysian Chinese who are now more readily associated with the DAP, we ask who is the closest Malaysian Chinese to the PM these days? It’s a Malaysian Chinese who just secured a RM1 billion contract to do the Ampang LRT extension works. In that sense, the Umno president is selling out the Malays.

The video clip which I uploaded is only an ominous precursor of things that are coming. Umno’s direct or indirect support and endorsement to the film “Tanda Putera” must be condemned NOW as an attempt by a desperate government to drive a wedge in between the races of Malaysia. Umno’s black hand must be condemned as a highly irresponsible act of a government that claims it’s committed to democracy and a united Malaysia when really its interest is to maintain this country divided by playing of one anti-Umno/BN group against the other. “Tanda Putera” is another wag-the-dog variety of film.

Is that how one proves one’s Malayness? That is the way of an imbecile.

It is certain now that Najib had interceded on behalf of George Kent to award the Ampang LRT extension project valued at over RM1 billion to a Malaysian Chinese who belongs to the same ethnic group Umno is vilifying. The company failed the technical and financial prequalification requirements but for Najib’s intercession got the project anyway. This is the same Malaysian Chinese who was rumoured to have brokered the contract for the double tracking project for China Harbors.

Now, isn’t it the Malay leadership that is responsible for havoc visited upon the ordinary Malay? Why should the Malay countenance what the Umno leadership is doing? Umno is but one of a few alternatives available to the Malay to purse their objectives. When Umno is already rotten the core, its leadership consisting of half-past-six characters, why should the Malay obstinately stick to Umno?

He has choices and must indeed exercise his freedom of choice. If he does not choose Umno, he doesn’t cease to be Malay nor has he turned apostate. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 9 August 2012, 6:32 pm and is filed under
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Whence Comes Another Mahathir?

by Kee Thuan Chye

Malaysian Digest

09 August 2012

Mahathir Mohamad is an angel. A perfect being. He is incapable of doing wrong. He is a model to all Malaysians. He is wise. He is incorruptible. He never took a sen while in office. He saved his salary for his old age. Whatever goodies he received when he was prime minister, he gave to the Government. He only ate some of the fruits given as gifts because they would otherwise go bad.

During the Royal Commission of Inquiry on V.K. Lingam and the fixing of federal judges, he answered many of the questions with “I don’t remember”. He genuinely didn’t. He’s a geriatric, for goon-ness’ sake! Cut the old man some slack! How can he be expected to remember so many things in the 22 years of his premiership?

His administration was the best ever, and of course the cleanest. There were some scandals, but that happens with any administration in any part of the world. What’s more, Mahathir had nothing to do with them. Others were culpable; he was above it all. There were some bailouts, but the bailouts were necessary – no, critical. Without the bailouts, the country would have been hurt.

There has also been talk that he was involved in a plot togive citizenships to illegal immigrants in Sabah.This scheme started in the 1990s so that the grateful recipients would vote for Barisan Nasional (BN) and keep it in power there. Some call it Project IC, but others call it Project M, with ‘M’ standing for Mahathir.

But of course there is no evidence to link him to it. That’s why he can now come out to say that giving citizenships to immigrants in Sabah is right, and that those who oppose it are unfair and doing so for political reasons.

He says the immigrants have lived in Sabah a long time and they are fluent in Bahasa Malaysia,so why shouldn’t they be made citizens? Yes, indeed. What more solid reasons could there be?

Of course, he may have overlooked the fact that many spouses of Malaysians have been living in Malaysia as long, if not longer, and are as fluent in Bahasa Malaysia, if not more so, but they have not even been granted permanent residence (PR) – even though they have applied a few times.

But then maybe for PR, the Government needs to be more stringent. Could it be that PR also stands for Pakatan Rakyat, and that is something the Government doesn’t want to touch?

Whatever it is, the time is opportune for Mahathir to bring this matter up. Prime Minister Najib Razak has declared he will be visiting Sabah on Aug 11 to finally announce the terms of reference for a long-awaited Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the very same issue. If Mahathir is hinting that this would be a mistake, that in fact there should be no RCI, Najib should perhaps listen to the wise old man.

Or maybe Najib could come up with terms of reference that would just probe the issue superficially. After all, he just needs to make the Sabahans happy that an RCI is carried out at all; he doesn’t have to upset anyone’s applecart.

When Mahathir was PM, he never upset anyone’s applecart. And he also tried to make a lot of people happy. He created a number of Bumputera billionaires but he also gave the Chinese ample opportunities to be rich.

As he has always maintained, the media was free. He has said he never told the media not to be critical of him; it chose by itself not to be critical. The fault was not his; it was the media’s. He didn’t castrate the media owners and editors; they castrated themselves.

It is a measure of the man that he allowed media freedom although he himself believes that freedom can be a problem. Only last month, he said in the Philippines that freedom is enjoyed “at the expense of others, often at the expense of the community as a whole”.

He was always thinking of the whole community, the community that makes up the nation of Malaysia.

By the same token, he was guarded about freedom of information. As he also said in the Philippines: “ Secrets, including sensitive military secrets, are being leaked in the name of freedom of information. The whistle-blowers are hailed as heroes … When you create a problem by revealing people’s official secrets, something has to be done about it.”

One cannot be sure if he meant the alleged leaking of secrets during the Malaysian Government’s purchase of the Scorpene submarines, but it’s doubtful that he did.

As for whistle-blowers, he could have meant Rafizi Ramli and Johari Mohamad, both of whom were recently charged for leaking information related to the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal.

If he meant those two, of course he was right. They were not thinking of the community when they exposed the NFC scandal. They were not thinking of the shame and ridicule it would bring. At the expense of a Cabinet minister and her family, no less. No wonder the Government had to act against Rafizi and Johari. They deserved it.

Under Mahathir’s watch, there could never have been exposés like the Scorpene submarine deal or the NFC scandal.

That must explain why when he was prime minister, he had to stick with the Official Secrets Act – even though critics claimed it was protecting the corrupt. They wanted transparency from the deals the Government made on mega-projects. They blamed Mahathir for forsaking the tender system in favour of negotiated contracts.

They were misguided. Negotiated contracts were a necessity. He had to be certain that the big jobs were entrusted to people he knew; how else could he ensure that the projects would be successfully completed?

These naïve critics never understood that Mahathir’s responsibility was greater – and that was to look after his own people.

(So that you don’t misunderstand, “people” here refers to the rakyat of Malaysia.)

Now some people are saying that he was a dictator. How can this be? No wonder he is asking for proof that he was one. Calling him a dictator must be the unkindest cut of all.

Sure, Operation Lalang happened during his premiership and 106 people were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) then, but that was to prevent a potential racial riot. Well, don’t forget most of them were released soon enough. And if he did extend the detention of 40 of them to two years, it was because he genuinely thought they were a security threat.

At the very least, you have to admit that he’s consistent –last April, he still said the ISA was a good law because it “could curb potential threats”. He said it kept the country safe. See? He is always thinking of the country.

He was also doing the same when seven months earlier, he supported the repeal of the ISA because it would place Malaysia “on the moral high ground”. It meant that our country would be one notch higher than Britain and the U.S. because now “they are the ones” involved in “detaining people without trial”.

We should also take note of what he said about Malaysia: “Not all those who opened their mouth were immediately detained under the ISA … and the perception that there was no freedom in Malaysia was also not correct.”

Simply put, how could he have been a dictator? Not all who spoke up were detained. And those who were did not get detained immediately. What more freedom do we want?

Mahathir is perfect. He is always right. He was and still is a leader nonpareil. He has been the best prime minister we’ve ever had. To quote a line from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “Here was a Caesar! Whence comes such another?”

* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the bestselling book No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians, now available in majorbookstores.

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At least former PM Abdullah would have the basic decencies not to countenance UMNO and Utusan Malaysia’s anti-national “Haram Sokong DAP” campaign calculated to create racial and religious hatred and undermine national unity

For the third consecutive day, UMNO’s newspaper Utusan Malaysia is plugging its anti-national “
Haram Sokong DAP
” campaign calculated to create racial and religious hatred and undermine national unity.

Unlike the last two days when Utusan Malaysia’s anti-national campaign was front-page headline stories, Utusan today  devoted one full page on its campaign in page 9, with incendiary, inflammatory and seditious headlines like “DAP satu ancaman kepada umat Islam”.

From recent developments, it would appear that the UMNO leadership has become so desperate about UMNO prospects in the next general election that it has developed a most despicable two-pronged strategy:

using the government-funded film “Tanda Putra” as part of a campaign to falsely paint me as responsible for causing the May 13 riots in 1969, even the lie that I had urinated at the flagpole of the Selangor Mentri Besar’s house at the time, when I was never in Kuala Lumpur on May 11, 12 and 13, 1969; and

the Utusan Malaysia “
Haram Sokong DAP
” campaign to falsely paint the DAP as anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers.

I have been asking myself as to why the UMNO leadership, and in particular the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak,  have  to  resort to such unprecedented lies and falsehoods when Najib had been telling UMNO officials that he was confident of winning a two-thirds parliamentary majority and even winning back the states lost to Pakatan Rakyat  when elections are called!

Is this because of the recent survey by independent pollster Merdeka Centre showing that Malay voters’ satisfaction with Barisan Nasional had dropped from 65 per cent in May to 58 per cent in June and that the approval ratings for the Prime Minister himself among the Malay community had dipped from 79 per cent to 75 per cent in the same period?

Only yesterday, former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has described Najib as a leader of a weak government.

An even more pertinent question is whether Najib is a weak leader himself – a weak leader of a weak government or a strong leader of a weak government?

One thing for sure is that former Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawai, who is generally regarded as a “weak” leader, would have the basic decencies as a Malaysian leader and the strength of character  not to countenance UMNO and Utusan Malaysia’s anti-national “Haram Sokong DAP” campaign which is clearly calculated to create racial and religious hatred and undermine national unity.

In fact, as the DAP’s consistent stand that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as the official religion is no different from the positions taken by the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein, is UMNO and Utusan Malaysia trying to portray not only DAP but also  the first three Prime Ministers as threats and enemies to Islam?

I would urge Najib and UMNO leaders to take note of two important historic  events: firstly,  the speech by Tunku Abdul Rahman on his 80th birthday on 8th February 1983 at the grand dinner hosted by the Barisan Nasional, which Najib must have  attended with  all the top Barisan Nasional leaders including the then Prime Minister Mahathir, where Tunku’s most important message to the Barisan Nasional leaders was not to turn Malaysia into an Islamic State.

This was in fact the front-page headline in all the language newspapers the next day. The Star of 9th February 1983, for instance, carried the following front-page headline: “
The Tunku Turns 80 – Don’t Make Malaysia An Islamic State: Tunku
”.

Tunku stressed that Malaysia was set up as a secular State with Islam as the official religion and this was enshrined in the Constitution, which must be respected and adhered to.

Secondly, the full public support to Tunku’s call to Barisan Nasional leaders not to turn Malaysia into an Islamic State given by the third Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn, four days later when celebrating his 61st birthday on 12th February 1983.

This was the Star’s front-page headline on 13th February 1983: “
Hussein Says No To Islamic State Too
”. Hussein said it was “neither wise nor practical” to turn Malaysia into an Islamic State as Malaysia could still be functional as a secular state with Islam as its official religion.

Let Najib and the UMNO leadership declare whether in  launching the UMNO and Utusan’s “Haram Sokong DAP” campaign, the ground is also  being prepared for Utusan to mount an attack on the first three Prime Ministers on the same grounds?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 10 August 2012, 12:15 pm and is filed under
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Dr M mempunyai ‘migrant mentality’

 — Aspan Alias

The Malaysian Insider

Aug 10, 2012

10 OGOS — Dr Mahathir Mohamad telah membuatkan rakyat sebenar Sabah merasa tersinggung kerana kenyataan beliau (Dr Mahathir) bahawa pendatang yang telah lama datang ke Sabah diberikan kerakyatan kerana mereka sudah pandai berbahasa Melayu. Alasan untuk memberikan kerakyatan kepada pendatang ini amat memilukan kita sebagai rakyat negara yang merdeka dan kononnya sedang menuju kemajuan setanding dengan negara-negara maju.

Ketua Penerangan Parti UPKO, Datuk Donald Peter Mojuntin, telah membidas Dr Mahathir kerana tidak sensitif terhadap perasaan rakyat khususnya rakyat Sabah. Bekas Perdana Menteri itu tidak memahami bahawa isu pendatang yang terlalu ramai ini akan menjejaskan keselamatan negara kita akhirnya. Kini seramai 27 peratus daripada keseluruhan rakyat Sabah terdiri daripada pendatang asing khususnya dari Filipina. Ratusan ribu yang lain yang menetap di Sabah secara haram dan tidak ada apa-apa tindakan dari pihak kementerian keselamatan dalam negeri. Ianya amat mengerikan.

Buat kita dari semenanjung yang datang ke Sabah terpaksa menggunakan passport antarabangsa atau kad pengenalan. Tetapi itu tidak mengapa kerana itu merupakan salah satu syarat sebelum Sabah menyertai persekutuan ini. Kita ikut sahajalah undang-undang itu. Tetapi ratusan ribu rakyat asing yang datang tanpa izin dengan senang lenang duduk di Sabah tanpa apa-apa tindakan terhadap mereka.

Mereka (pendatang) ini telah diberikan kad pengenalan melalui projek IC yang telah membiarkan pendatang asing masuk ke Sabah tanpa dokumen perjalanan sah dengan bebas tanpa sekatan. Sebab mereka diberikan kad pengenalan ini tidak lain dan tidak bukan adalah kerana politik BN untuk mengekalkan kuasa dan perkara ini berlaku dari zaman pemerintahan Dr Mahathir.

Itulah sebabnya saya selalu berkata BN tidak boleh memberi jaminan keselamatan kepada negara kerana sikap pemimpin mereka yang pentingkan kuasa tanpa mengira “consequence”nya kepada kestabilan politik negara dalam jangka masa yang panjang. Yang penting bagi mereka (BN) ialah pengekalan kuasa walaupun dilakukan dengan cara kotor.

Mojuntin telah memberikan reaksi yang panas terhadap penulisan Dr Mahathir yang berpendapat mereka (pendatang asing) itu diberikan kerakyatan semata-mata kerana mereka sudah pandai berbahasa Melayu. Kalau kita kaji ramai rakyat negara kita mahukan kerakyatan negara asing khususnya di England atau pun Australia tetapi usaha itu bukanlah usaha yang senang.

Negara dan pemimpin British dan Australia tetap tidak memberikan kerakyatan dengan senang walaupun yang memohon untuk mendapatkan kerakyatan itu boleh bertutur dalam bahasa Inggeris dengan baik. Jadi kenapa kita mesti memberikan kerakyatan kepada pendatang Filipina itu semata-mata mereka sudah boleh bercakap bahasa Melayu dan telah duduk di negara ini agak lama.

Ribuan rakyat Malaysia yang telah menetap di Britain sejak puluhan tahun yang memohon untuk menjadi rakyat Britain, masih tidak mendapat taraf kerakyatan walaupun mereka begitu fasih dalam bahasa Inggeris. Justeru alasan yang diberikan oleh Dr Mahathir untuk memberikan taraf kerakyatan kepada pendatang Filipina itu adalah alasan yang sangat meleset. Ia merupakan satu pandangan yang tidak difikirkan betul-betul sebelum ditulis di dalam blog popular beliau itu.

Dalam isu pendatang asing di Sabah ini saya nampak satu kenyataan yang jelas tentang Dr M ini. Beliau masih lagi mempunyai “migrant mentality” walaupun sebahagian daripada diri beliau itu adalah generasi kedua atau ketiga daripada keluarga yang berasal dari sebuah negara lain.

Sebab itulah agaknya beliau begitu memihak kepada pendatang asing di Sabah itu. — aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Friday, 10 August 2012, 11:12 pm and is filed under
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Lessons from the demonization of DAP

By
Islamic Renaissance Front
 | August 10, 2012

The Malaysian Insider

AUG 10 ― “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” ~ Malcolm X.

The Islamic Renaissance Front views the recent claims that voting for DAP is “haram”, with great concern and unease.

We believe that those claims are contrary to the spirit of Islam, which holds that a leader is not to be valued in terms his or her race or religion per se, but fundamentally by his or her character and commitment to upholding justice. A just non-Muslim is more worthy of being a leader than an unjust Muslim.

This notion is based on the one of most important principles in the religion of Islam that supporting a corrupt and despotic leader although he is of the same race and religion is tantamount to support injustice, when injustice is the main enemy of Islamic law.

The great Muslim reformer from Syria, Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (1854–1902), held the opinion that since oppression and despotism are contrary to Islam, a just non-Muslim ruler is preferred to a tyrannical Muslim leader.

In particular, we find DAP’s vision of “Middle Malaysia”, wherein dignity, opportunity and prosperity is promised to all Malaysians regardless of ethnicity, gender and religion, wherein the welfare of the poor and oppressed are secured, as in no way in contradiction with Islam’s own aspirations for a just society in a modern globalized age.

On this matter, we echo the position of Tariq Ramadan who has insisted time and time again that the hudud penal code is not the be all end all measure of a Muslim’s faithfulness. Nor is the Islamic state the principle criteria to ensure the well-being of any society. Instead, the real challenge for Muslims today is pluralism: That is, how to live peacefully in a culturally complex and dynamic world that is ever-changing.

As Tariq Ramadan states it, Muslims must end their preoccupation with models and rules and focus on objectives and values of justice.

Lack of intellectual depth and originality

It is indeed a reflection of the sorry state of the contemporary Muslim mind that he must think of empowerment primarily in terms of punishment and state control. In the case of Malaysia, non-Muslims and non-Malays are often imagined to be at the receiving end of that fantasy.

What is more worrying is the attempt to promote the assumption that any wrongdoing by a Muslim is to be better than the righteousness of a non-Muslim. As Muslims, we have the duty to command good and forbid evil regardless of who does it.

What is tragically ironic about this campaign against DAP is that it is being spewed by members of a party whose own leader is busy talking about the importance of Wasatiyah or a moderate approach to religion. This also explains his ambivalence with regards to the hudud penal code or an Islamic state that has somehow been left unquestioned in these polemics.

The Prime Minister has gone on record to express his commitment to moderation, but while this has been done ostentatiously in front of the international press, it is deeply disappointing to see him utterly silent with regards to the extremism happening in his own country, propagated by sympathizers and members of his own party.

The sad example of iLMU

The so called religious scholars of iLMU, Umno’s official organisation of Islamic scholars, are one case in point. Fathul Bari Mat Jahaya has, unsurprisingly, stood in defence and further justification of Abdul Sa’amah’s initial position, claiming that DAP, because their position on Hudud, are unlike MCA.

The fact that MCA has on numerous occasions came out in opposition to the Hudud had somehow escaped Fahul Bari’s memory or attention. At best, he is ignorant of recent events in Malaysian current affairs. At worst, he is ignorant of BN’s electoral coalition strategy altogether, whereby because of Malaysia’s diverse demographics, Malays have no choice but to co-operate with non-Malays which has meant voting for Chinese candidates from an anti-hudud party like MCA.

The latter is perhaps more likely to be the case since several figures in iLMU have expressed their disdain for democracy altogether. In an op-ed in Utusan Malaysia earlier this year, Fathul Bari even tried, desperately and unsuccessfully one might add, to argue that the Prophet Muhammad himself was racist.

The hegemony of race and religion

The challenge of upholding democracy and justice in Malaysia begins with the fact that Malaysian society easily lends itself to the politicization of race and religion. We at the Islamic Renaissance Front believe that Malaysians will not see the true face of Islam flourish in their country if it will always be an ingredient to exploit racial sentiments.

Indeed, the undertones to the demonization of DAP that we are witnessing reflects just that: The use of religion to demonize a party whose majority of members are non-Malays. It is an old strategy in the fascist book of tricks: to dehumanize the other, to relegate and reduce their individuality into racial labels and to render their hopes, fears and vulnerabilities invisible; in other words, to oppress. What is worse, passages from the holy Quran are evoked in the process for justification.

The Islamic Renaissance Front once again calls for a civil political discourse, whereby issues of pressing importance are discussed in a calm, rational and dialogical manner, where compassion and empathy ― rather than the desire for power and competition ― reigns.

The conversation should proceed with an eye to ending oppression and finding a just solution for the happiness and prosperity of all.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 10 August 2012, 3:39 pm and is filed under
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The Glorious One’s flawed economics

— Sakmongkol AK47

The Malaysian Insider

Aug 10, 2012

AUG 10 — Since we are deluged with One this and One that, we shall now call Najib the Glorious One. My friend Aspan Alias has conferred the title Sahibus Samahah on him for other reasons. Let’s talk about his economics.

What actually is the central idea behind the ETP? The idea is as old as the prevailing thinking during Aristotle’s time. Which is you can control your charges to the extent the voice of the herald can reach. What this means in modern economic terms is it’s almost impossible to co-ordinate economic activities from a central command. You have to leave it to the market.

But Najib doesn’t understand this; he thinks that co-ordination of man’s activities isn’t possible without an ordering mind. In the minds of Najib’s advisers, the co-ordination of economic activities is not possible without a central directing body. Because that kind of arrangement allows them to play commissars to Najib’s Czar. They get to play the little Napoleons.

Hence PEMANDU. PEMANDU is essentially the representation of central command economics, an arrangement more at home in a communist economy or a fascist economy. Take your pick. Maybe we don’t see nationalisation of the means of production, but we are certainly staring at an ever increasing rate of government intervention in the economy and, of course, a refined method of central economic planning.

The minister becomes a businessman and a contractor and sometimes a currency trader. Their involvement creates havoc to the market economy.

Despite his public pronouncements of a market economy, Najib is a fascist at heart. His is a political philosophy that exalts race above all else, stands for a centralised autocratic government headed preferably by a leader with dictatorial tendencies under whose rule there is  severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition.

The attacks on Anwar Ibrahim appear to have lost steam because people are already indifferent and further attacks on Anwar will only serve to make people conscious of Umno leaders’ own moral depravities. Because people know that if you don’t butt- ram people, you are not Umno. You are not corrupt, you are not Umno. So, the attention is now directed to the DAP. Support for the DAP is forbidden. Is that an edict driven by political expediencies and an overriding desire by religious scholars to keep their positions so that they can avoid telling the inconvenient truth?

I am not at all concerned about how the DAP looks at Islam; if they are prejudiced against Islam, that’s because they are NOT Muslims. Have we forgotten that? Do we see DAP members renouncing democratic means to change the government and bearing arms to overthrow the government?

Don’t get sidetracked and blindsided by this recent Umno strategy. The main issues are still corruption, social divisiveness, economic mismanagement, bad governance, low-quality leadership. These are more important problems instead of trying to stir up our emotions about how the DAP or, for that matter, non-Malay political parties look at Islam. Malays should not attribute their own frailties and fragilities to the grand design of others.

Let’s get back to Najib’s glorious ETP. I got a call from a prominent Pekan politician lamenting Najib’s penchant for various acronyms which are not understood by the Pekan people. Deeds are more important to Pekan people than the spoken word.

Deeds like Najib’s proclivity to showy welfarism. Pekan people are getting wary of Najib’s Uncle-Toming inclinations. His immediate decision to offer RM100k to the family of a former Alleycats singer whose house caught fire demonstrates his desperate attempt to woo Indian votes. Unless of course Malaysian Indians can easily forget the pugnacious call to hang a Malaysian Indian as a result of this RM100,000 gift from the Glorious One.

Back to the Glorious One’s economic ideas. To understand the idea behind the ETP, one must step back; detach himself from the theatrics of the proponents of the ETP. The central idea behind the ETP is the erroneous belief that the myriad of economic activities can be co-ordinated centrally such as by PEMANDU. Collectivism and centralisation masked behind the catchphrase of market economy.

The success of the ETP will be limited to the main protagonists of the idea — the big firms selected to present that business plans which will benefit people like themselves. I have always maintained that the ETP is nothing but a glorified collection of business plans of selected market players repackaged as a national economic plan.

You can only co-ordinate the movement of a few players. That explains why the number of firms invited to participate is a manageable number. The originators of the ETP know this. The ETP is just an EXCUSE for the government to reward it business cronies. It was never an idea to transform the whole economy. It never was. Najib has been deceiving us all this while. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).

                This entry was posted on Friday, 10 August 2012, 9:28 pm and is filed under
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Ocean of doubt/skepticism greets Sabah RCIII

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, has finally announced the terms of reference of the Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry on Illegal Immigrants.

My initial tweet comments on Najib’s announcement are as follows:

(1) No RCI as Sabah RCIII (Illegal Immigrants) assailed with such ocean of public skepticism/doubt it is bona fide solution 2 four-decade problem

(2)   1st impressions – (i) too little, too late, too limited in powers

(ii) I/C 4votes no more Sabah problem but nation-wide. Y no national probe

(iii)Estimates of illegal immigrants in Sabah range from 1.5 mil to 2 mil. RCI capable of dealing with this number?

(iv) Do’s/don’ts of RCI?

(v) Can RCI probe Project M n call up Mahathir as star-witness?

(vi) Can RCI probe those responsible for massive issue of false documents?

(vii) why PM taken six months to finalise eight RCI terms of reference.

(viii) BN rejected my Sabah RCI motion in Parliament in 2008. Why?

The eight terms of reference of the RCI announced by Najib are:

1. To investigate the number of foreigners in Sabah given blue Malaysian ICs or citizenships;

2. To investigate if the award of such ICs or citizenships were according to the law;

3. To investigate if those given blue ICs, temporary identification receipts or citizenships through unlawful means have been registered in Sabah’s electoral roll;

4. To investigate if the authorities have taken any action or made improvements to standard operating procedures (SOPs), methods and regulations to prevent any irregularities in accordance with the law;

5. To conduct a deeper probe into the SOPs, methods and regulations on the award of blue ICs or citizenships to foreigners in Sabah by taking into consideration international norms and standards that are applicable to Malaysia, and to recommend amendments or changes to improve current practices;

6. To investigate the reasons behind Sabah’s population growth according to the following categories:

a) Sabah citizens residing in the state, including those given blue ICs or citizenships through birth certificates (late registration);

b) foreign workers (including family members);

c) illegal immigrants (including family members); and

d) fugitives

and to study their impact on the number of those registered in the electoral roll;

7. To investigate the social implications on the Sabah community following the award of blue ICs or citizenships to foreigners in the state; and

8) To investigate the number of “stateless” foreigners in Sabah given blue ICs or citizenships.

The RCI will be chaired by former Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong and will comprise four other commissioners ― former Universiti Malaysia Sabah vice-chancellor Datuk Seri Prof Dr Kamaruzaman Ampon, former Sabah Attorney-General Tan Sri Herman J. Luping, Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation deputy chairman and former Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Henry Chin Poy-Wu, and former Sabah State Secretary Datuk Kee Mustafa.

Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry secretary-general Datuk Saripuddin Kasim will act as the RCI secretary.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 11 August 2012, 5:47 pm and is filed under
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Dissecting the ETP Annual Report (Part 7): Perception Manipulation and Deception Unit

— Ong Kian Ming and Teh Chi-Chang | August 09, 2012

REFSA (Research for Social Advancement)

At PEMANDU, perception trumps reality. This very powerful government agency values perception and spin above genuine transformation. Starting with the headlines, its rosy communiqués trumpeted strong economic numbers in 2011 rather than admit that real gross national income (GNI) growth was below target, let alone explain the causes or articulate measures to close the gap.

PEMANDU lied in its annual report. It took “100 per cent” credit for the construction of a RM1.9 billion wafer fab plant that was never built. Malaysian official statistics have, until now, been accepted as reliable. This is crucial for investor and public confidence. We hope PEMANDU is not pressuring other government agencies and EPP owners to also dress up their numbers, which will ultimately lead to a catastrophic collapse in confidence in Malaysia.

Agreed-upon-Procedures (AUP) are not worth much. Contrary to general public perception, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) did not conduct a full audit. It conducted AUP, the ambit of which was so loose that PwC failed to detect a huge RM1.9 billion wafer fab plant that was never built. How many other less audacious lies slipped through the net?

PEMANDU is driving a delusion. The very foundations of the ETP are doubtful now that PEMANDU has confessed to errors that slashed 45 per cent off the incremental GNI claimed. Also, some so-called transformative EPPs were chosen based on exaggerated numbers. However, PEMANDU’s biggest “success” is manipulating Malaysians into believing that the ETP is transformational, when in fact, workers will take a mere 21 per cent of the incremental income the ETP promises to create, down from their 28 per cent share currently.

PEMANDU is misrepresenting economic performance. The fact is, real growth in 2011 was below PEMANDU’s target.

Even worse, PEMANDU is guilty of telling lies, including the whopper of taking “100 per cent”‘ credit for the construction of a RM1.9 billion wafer fab plant that was never built.

PEMANDU is transforming Malaysia for the worse. It values style over substance, glosses over important issues and misrepresents and deceives.

PEMANDU’s biggest success is manipulating Malaysians into believing the ETP will transform their lives. The reality is the bulk of the incremental national income that PEMANDU promises to generate will go to the elites.

Masters of Perception Manipulation and Deception

PEMANDU has continued to misrepresent information and deceive the Malaysian public in its communiqués and responses to our critiques of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) Roadmap and 2011 ETP Annual Report. It has accused REFSA of “nit-picking” and being “an old broken record” but failed to address very crucial points in its convoluted and verbose replies:

PEMANDU still refuses to acknowledge that real economic growth last year was below its target. Instead, it misleads Malaysians by highlighting nominal growth, which was boosted by inflation. Inflation makes us poorer, not richer. It is real economic growth that makes us richer, not nominal growth and PEMANDU has not articulated any measures to get real growth back on track;

PEMANDU has not retracted the blatant lie in the ETP Annual Report where it took “100 per cent” credit for the “construction of a 200mm wafer fab” plant that was never built. This is an audacious lie, pretending there was a huge RM1.9 billion investment that never existed.

Misdirection is endemic at PEMANDU, even in the face of hard facts and analysis. It still has not explained the extremely slow pace of actual investments in the ETP in its first year.

Truth has been the biggest casualty in PEMANDU’s drive to deliver “Big Fast Results”. Huge, audacious lies are told, goalposts shifted and targets retrospectively set at arbitrarily low levels following which “outperformance” is claimed. Failed projects are still kept “in the books” to boost the headline numbers.

But the facts can only be suppressed for so long. It is now becoming increasingly apparent that PEMANDU is driving a delusion — that the government can drive the economy.

PEMANDU manipulates perception on economic reality

The perception manipulation by PEMANDU starts with the headline data. It is extremely worrying that this powerful agency within the Prime Minister’s Department prefers to shift the goalposts (by quoting GDP instead of GNI) and misrepresent performance (using US$ and nominal numbers; and dragging in irrelevant 2010 data) rather than face the issues honestly.

If development and transformation are the genuine aims, then Malaysians would be far better served if PEMANDU acknowledges the reality that economic performance is weaker than it targeted, determines the causes and suggests remedial measures to help economic growth get back on track.

Here are two examples of PEMANDU’s manipulation of economic data to create the perception that it is performing well.

PEMANDU: GDP grew by an average of 6.2 per cent in 2010 and 2011; we are meeting our ETP target.

Fact: Real GDP grew by only 5.1 per cent in 2011, below PEMANDU’s 6 per cent target. 2010 GDP growth was stronger, but should not be included by PEMANDU because the ETP was launched only in October 2010.

Fact: PEMANDU’s use of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) here is odd. The ETP uses GNI (Gross National Income) to measure economic performance, not GDP.

Fact: Real GNI grew by just 4.7 per cent in 2011, even lower than real GDP growth and well below PEMANDU’s 6 per cent target.

The use of GDP instead of GNI is particularly insidious, because PEMANDU, in an earlier response to a REFSA critique, said that “comparing GDP to GNI is incorrect” since “this is comparing apples and oranges, and this begs the question as to why REFSA is choosing to compare two different measures”.

Subsequently, PEMANDU decided to go back to GNI, but shifted the focus to nominal instead of real growth:

PEMANDU: Our GNI per capita rose to US$9,508, a 17 per cent increase in 2011. We are well on track to reach our high-income target by 2020.

Fact: Exchange rate movements will change our income in US$ but make no real difference to our quality of life. For example, a salary of RM3,000 per month could be US$900, US$1,000 or US$1,100, depending on how weak the US$ is against the ringgit. However, that fluctuation in US$ makes no difference to the ordinary Malaysian on a day-to-day basis.

Fact: In ringgit, GNI per capita rose by 11.2 per cent. This may appear impressive, but nominal growth includes inflation, which makes us worse off, not better off. Nominal growth looked high, but it is real growth that matters, and that was very slow. How will real growth be speeded up? PEMANDU has not said anything.

Liars roam free at PEMANDU

PEMANDU: “100 per cent” credit for the construction of a 200mm wafer fab plant.

Fact:
 The RM1.9 billion plant was never built.

More than two months after we unearthed the shocking case of PEMANDU taking “100 per cent” credit in its Annual Report for a RM1.9 billion wafer fab plant that was never actually built, PEMANDU still has not formally retracted that barefaced lie.

Subsequent to our exposé, PEMANDU said in its ETP blog that capacity increases were facilitated via other companies.

PEMANDU’s response following our exposé of the non-existent wafer fab

At the project level, we rejoiced at having a promising early Entry Point Project, L-Foundry Malaysia, a Malaysian-German joint venture that was to move and relocate expensive European wafer fabrication operations to the more economical climes of the Kulim High Tech Park …

Due diligence was done. The JV management team went all out, and this involved German, Malaysian, Japanese, and American stakeholders. And all the support agencies were in high gear too. But as Murphy would have it, the German partners ran into operational difficulties which obviously they had not anticipated, and were forced to pull out.

The project as originally envisaged was scrapped. But that was never the end game. The L-Foundry Malaysia project was a means to an end. Our intended “true north” was to increase Malaysia’s wafer fab capacity to create a more balanced semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem, and MIDA did precisely that. They shifted to Plan B, and facilitated capacity increases via other companies.

Excerpt from http://etpblog.pemandu.gov.my/posts/2012/04/17/keeping-it-real-the-etp-as-a-microcosm-of-life/ Written by Chris Tan, Director, Electrical & Electronics NKEA, PEMANDU. Retrieved 27 July 2012

There is a huge difference between a gleaming new RM1.9 billion wafer fab plant and “capacity increases via other companies”. “100 per cent” credit is not deserved if the total investment is less than originally targeted. Furthermore, increasing capacity at existing companies is less valuable than introducing a new player which can broaden and deepen the industry.

The officers involved in this shameless act must be severely sanctioned. PEMANDU is a unit within the Prime Minister’s Department, which means it represents the prime minister himself, the leader of our government. The integrity of the information emanating from this department must be beyond reproach. A clear message must be sent that the government, and especially the prime minister himself, will not tolerate falsehood.

Data and information integrity is of paramount importance for any government undertaking, and even more so for an ambitious programme such as the ETP. Given PEMANDU’s clear bias towards rosy data, and its unwillingness to admit to misreporting even when confronted, can we be sure that this extremely powerful agency did not and will not pressure other government departments as well as the EPP project owners to overstate their data and “achievements” in order to boost PEMANDU’s apparent performance?

We must be wary of going down the old Soviet-style path of arbitrary target setting and professed achievements, or more recently, of Argentinean-style suppression of reported inflation to delude ourselves into thinking that our economy is in better shape than it actually is.

Misdirection is endemic at PEMANDU

PEMANDU seems to be driving the nation through smoke and mirrors. One minute dazzling reports appear with a poof, but when questions are raised, they are adroitly deflected with a puff.

We are incredulous that PEMANDU continues to misdirect and misrepresent in the face of hard facts and analysis. We had revealed that actual investments under the ETP were just RM12.9 billion — a mere 7 per cent of the RM179 billion committed that PEMANDU trumpets. However, rather than address the issue, PEMANDU chose to misdirect.

PEMANDU: We have been clear in differentiating committed investment and realised investment in our announcements. To suggest we are misleading the public is irresponsible.

Fact: The seminal ETP 2011 Annual Report, which was the document we analysed and quoted, made absolutely no mention at all of realised investments, let alone acknowledge that they were exceptionally low. Instead, the Annual Report focused on how investments were well ahead of target.

It was only in ONE ETP Update last year that realised investments were mentioned.

Trotting out misleading comparisons and statistics is unproductive and intellectually dishonest. If transforming our nation is the goal, PEMANDU must take the bull by the horns and address the root causes of why the private sector is so slow to invest, especially since many of the ETP projects are so-called “shovel ready”.

Were dodgy projects chosen as EPPs?

Our analysis forced PEMANDU to confess to erroneous assumptions that resulted in the GNI and job creation numbers being slashed by a shocking 45 per cent and nearly 20 per cent respectively.

The whopping 45 per cent reduction in GNI contribution means that the original forecast was nearly double the level that is now considered realistic. It appears that some EPPs had presented forecasts that extremely exaggerated their potential.

This throws into question the whole selection process and the very foundations of the ETP. PEMANDU’s much vaunted “labs” selected EPPs based on their economic projections. Now, it might be surmised that some EPPs with exaggerated forecasts were chosen instead of other projects which were more realistic and honest.

This massive error in the GNI impact calculations was discovered during the Agreed-Upon-Procedures (AUP) method of validation that independent professionals PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) conducted with PEMANDU for the 2011 ETP Annual Report.

The terms of the AUP have never been made public, but it appears that they were so loose that PwC could not compel PEMANDU to clearly admit to the error. Even more worrying is the fact that the procedures and/or PwC’s examination were so cursory that they failed to detect the massive lie of taking “100 per cent” credit for the construction of a multi-billion ringgit wafer fab plant that was never built. One wonders how many more cases of undeserved credit slipped through the AUP validation process.

PEMANDU is driving a delusion

PEMANDU is driving a delusion — that the government can drive the economy. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with setting ambitious targets. Ambitious targets underpinned by realistic plans, a ruthless focus on execution and good people take us to levels we would not have thought possible. But it is somewhat hubristic, not to mention delusional, to think that a government agency comprising 80 or so people can boost the economic growth rate by 20 to 50 per cent annually!

This is even more so when the agency in question, PEMANDU, claims that it is merely an aggregator expediting the real work which is being undertaken by the private sector. Malaysia does not operate under a command economy system whereby production can be cranked up by a percent or two in order to meet designated KPIs given from “above”.

PEMANDU is now failing for the same reason that command economies and central planning failed. Modern economies are far too complex for any single agency to administer. PEMANDU is now coming up against that economic reality. The splendid plans and EPPs developed and approved in the much vaunted PEMANDU labs are not so easily implemented, even with the red tape cutting skills of the highly-qualified and well-paid professionals at PEMANDU.

Private sector plans are dynamic and change according to economic conditions. Some projects may grow bigger, some may be downsized and, yes, entire companies may go bankrupt, as was the case with LFoundry and the wafer fab project. But PEMANDU sweeps such economic realities under the carpet in its drive to deliver “Big Fast Results”.  Blatant lies are perpetrated and targets are arbitrarily set at low levels so that they can be shown to have been “exceeded”. Projects which have gone awry still remain ‘in the books’ to boost the headline numbers.

2 + 2 = 5

The phrase “two plus two equals five” or “2 + 2 = 5” is a slogan used in George Orwell’s “1984” as an example of an obviously false dogma one must believe, similar to other obviously false slogans by the Party in the novel. It is contrasted with the phrase “two plus two makes four”, the obvious — but politically inexpedient — truth.

The Party interrogator of thought-criminals, O’Brien, says of the mathematically false statement that control over physical reality is unimportant. So long as one controls one’s perceptions to what the Party wills, then any corporeal act is possible, in accordance with the principles of doublethink (“Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once”).

“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later … Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy.

“The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was … that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable — what then?”

At this juncture, we come full circle and draw attention once again to the document that started it all, the Economic Transformation Programme: A Roadmap for Malaysia released by PEMANDU in October 2010. At that glitzy launch, and in the ensuing months, we too were enamoured with the velvety presentations and carrot of high-income nation status that PEMANDU dangled in front of us.

But here’s the rub. Cast aside our critiques and assume that PEMANDU achieves all it says it will as per its Roadmap. The lives of ordinary Malaysians will still not be transformed. Workers will take a mere 21 per cent of the new wealth, down from 28 per cent currently. The fact that the ETP benefits corporations and the elites more than ordinary Malaysians has been very “professionally” glossed over.

We close this series with another extract from “1984”:

“The name of every organisation was cut down into a single easily pronounced word that would preserve the original derivation. For example, the Records Department was called Recdep, the Fiction Department Ficdep, the Tele-programmes Department Teledep and so on.

This was not done solely with the object of saving time. Even in the early decades of the twentieth century, telescoped words and phrases had been a characteristic of political language; and it had been noticed that the tendency to use abbreviations of this kind was most marked in totalitarian countries and totalitarian organisations. Examples were such words as Gestapo, Comintern and Agitprop.

It was perceived that abbreviating a name narrowed and subtly altered its meaning by cutting out most of the associations that would otherwise cling to it. The words Communist International, for instance, called up a composite picture of red flags, barricades, Karl Marx and the Paris Commune. The word Comintern, on the other hand, suggests merely a tightly-knit organisation and well-defined body of doctrine.

Comintern is a word that can be uttered almost without taking thought, whereas Communist International is a phrase over which one is obliged to linger at least momentarily. In the same way, the associations called up by a word like Minitrue are fewer and more controllable than those called up by Ministry of Truth. This accounted not only for the habit of abbreviating whenever possible, but also for the almost exaggerated care that was taken to make every word easily pronounceable.”— The Principles of Newspeak

Try saying Performance Management and Delivery Unit instead of PEMANDU. What connotations come to you? Do share on our Facebook page and/or tweet us at @inforefsa.

Previously, in our dissection of the 2011 Annual Report of the ETP …

Part 1
 (The “D”ata in our DEEDS framework) highlighted how PEMANDU very adroitly masked the fact that real national income growth last year was below its target;

Part 2
 (“E”xecution) unearthed the shocking case of PEMANDU lying and taking “100 per cent” credit in its Annual Report for a RM1.9 billion wafer fab plant that was never built;

Part 3
 (“E”nterprise) uncovered the startling gap between committed and actual investments. The RM12.9 billion of actual investments is a mere 7 per cent of the RM179 billion committed investments that PEMANDU prefers to emphasise;

Part 4
 (“D”iversity) revealed that PEMANDU’s “recalibration” of the ETP figures is better described as a massive collapse. The incremental GNI (Gross National Income) and job creation numbers were slashed by 45 per cent and nearly 20 per cent respectively. Were some EPPs selected based on grossly exaggerated forecasts?

Part 5
 (“S” Socio-economic impact) showed that capital investment per employee (CIPE), an indicator of the quality of jobs created, is very low under the ETP. We see this as reflecting the fact that many ETP projects are “recycled projects” that are not fundamentally transformative.

Part 6
 summarised our recommendations for PEMANDU’s benefit, and highlighted the positive outcomes of our analyses and critiques, which PEMANDU had characterised as “nit-picking”.

DEEDS was conceived earlier this year when we published a series assessing PEMANDU and the ETP on the goals, plans and targets stated in the ETP Roadmap document. In keeping with the spirit of the alphabet soup of NKEAs, NKRAs, SRIs, EPPs, and GNI surrounding the entire GTP, we evaluated PEMANDU and the ETP on its DEEDS — Data transparency, Execution, Enterprise, Diversity and Socio-Economic Impact. The 8 Focus Papers in this Critique of the ETP Roadmap Series, together with related infographics and a powerpoint presentation can be found at www.refsa.org. — REFSA

*****

* Dr Ong Kian Ming holds a PhD in Political Science from Duke University and Economics degrees from the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics. He is attached to UCSI University, which has been named as the project owner of two entry point projects (EPPs). To avoid any potential conflict of interest, he will not make references to or analyse these two EPPs. He can be reached at
[email protected]
.

*
REFSA (Research for Social Advancement)
 executive director Teh Chi-Chang holds a first-class degree in Accounting & Financial Analysis from the University of Warwick, an MBA from the University of Cambridge and the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charter. Prior to joining REFSA, he headed highly-regarded investment research teams covering Malaysia, and was himself highly-ranked as an analyst. He can be reached at
[email protected]
.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 11 August 2012, 10:56 am and is filed under
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Najib should explain why he authorised Utusan’s 4-day despicable/seditious “Haram Sokong DAP”campaign when it could be extended to accuse first 3 PMs, including his father and uncle,  as enemies of Islam?

This is the fourth consecutive day that the UMNO newspaper Utusan Malaysia has conducted its despicable, seditious and anti-national “Haram Sokong DAP” campaign falsely betraying the DAP as anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers to create racial and religious hatred and undermine national unity.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should explain whether  he had authorized or approved the Utusan Malaysia’s four-day despicable, seditious and anti-national “Haram Sokong DAP” campaign when it could be extended to accuse the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, his father Tun Razak and his uncle Tun Hussein Onn as enemies of Islam?

This is because the stand of the DAP in accordance with the Malaysian Constitution, that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as the official religion of Malaysia, is no different from that of the first three Prime Ministers from 1957 to 1981, and in fact for the next two decades from 1981 to 2001 during the first 20 years of the premiership of Tun Dr. Mahathir until the fourth Prime Minister made the unilateral, arbitrary and unconstitutional declaration at the Gerakan national delegates conference on Sept. 21, 2001 that Malaysia is an Islamic state.

This is why Mahathir could blithely respond yesterday that he could not be equated to the DAP under the Utusan Malaysia “Haram Sokong DAP” campaign, as he had declared Malaysia an Islamic state when in power although he had not implemented hudud.

Does Najib agree with the clear implication of Mahathir’s response that the fourth Prime Minister could escape the strictures of Utusan Malaysia’s “Haram Sokong DAP” campaign, but not the first three Prime Ministers, including his father Tun Razak and uncle Tun Hussein?

Utusan’s despicable, seditious and anti-national campaign on “Haram Sokong DAP” must be condemned by all right-thinking Malaysians, whether in Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, as it is scraping the bottom of the barrel in the most irresponsible and  unprincipled politicking trying to fan racial ill-will and conflict in a multi-racial and multi-religious society.

Only in Johor Bahru early this week, Najib said that Islam should not be politicized by any quarters in this country to become  “political fodder”.

Why then is he as Prime Minister and UMNO President allowing the UMNO newspaper, Utusan Malaysia, to embark on such a despicable, seditious and anti-national “Haram Sokong DAP” campaign for four consecutive days – to the extent that even the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia have become vulnerable to attacks in any extension  of such a Utusan campaign?

Najib owes Malaysians a clear explanation whether he had authorized or approved the Utusan’s despicable, seditious and anti-national “Haram Sokong DAP” campaign, or whether he is prepared to publicly dissociate himself from it and condemn the Utusan Malaysia campaign as a deplorable example of belitting Islam by making the religion the political fodder by some political quarters  which he had denounced in Johor Bahru just a few days ago.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 11 August 2012, 3:07 pm and is filed under
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CONFIRMED! Umno NOT able to unite the Malays: Latest hudud card backfires

by Moaz Nair

Malaysia Chronicle

11 August 2012

A self-professed Islamic pondok (a village madrasah) “religious scholar” declared it “haram (forbidden)” for Muslims to support DAP, according to a front page story in Umno’s Utusan Malaysia, but added that MCA and MIC were acceptable because the two BN (Barisan Nasional) parties recognised Islam’s supremacy.

He said that Muslims must not vote for DAP and its two allies PAS and PKR in the federal Opposition pact of PR (Pakatan Rakyat) in the 13th general election that must be called before April next year.

To the majority this statement sounds more politics than Islamic. It only infers how “retarded” a person can be when it comes to understanding Islam. Utusan being UMNO’s mouthpiece, this statement has gravely backfired on the party.

UMNO is shuffling the race-cum-religious cards for political mileage much to the chagrin of right-minded Malaysians. The next general election will only see more non-Muslim and Muslim votes going to the Opposition. Is UMNO aware that DAP, MCA, MIC, Gerakan and other non-Muslim parties and in fact all the non-Muslims in the country recognise that Islam is the official religion of this country?

Has DAP-led Pakatan government in Penang become anti-Islam in Penang since the takeover of the state in 2008? In fact the state government of Penang has done more than BN for the Muslims in Penang just within 4 years to build up a better image of Islam in the state.

“We have no problems with DAP-led government,” commented a mosque Imam in Penang.  “They support us and we don’t see them against Islam,” he added.

Not against Islam

Having some reservation for hudud to be implemented by some political parties does not imply that they are anti-Islam.

If hudud is the only criterion for an Islamic state to take place, has not MCA said that they are against the implementation of hudud? DAP too has some reservations on this issue.  Even UMNO for that matter is not ready to implement hudud despite having a big number of Muslim members in the party. Does this imply that MCA, DAP and UMNO are all anti-Islam?

This pondok “scholar” has erred in his “scholastic” analysis of Islam from the perspectives of Muslims and non-Muslims. He can be forgiven as he is only running a pondok school and not holding the post of the rector of a reputed Islamic university.

As a religion, Islam is fair and all-encompassing if one goes by the Holy Koran, as it embraces the rights of every single human being on earth. It promulgates racial unity and denounces the exploitation of any person because of his race or religion.

“Let not the hatred of a people swerve you away from justice.  Be just, for this is closest to righteousness…” (Quran 5:8)

Politics aside, on hudud a prominent scholar Ali A. Mazrui states that “the punishments laid down fourteen centuries ago had to be truly severe enough to be a deterrent in their day, but since then God has taught us more about crime, its causes, the methods of its investigation, the limits of guilt, and the much wider range of possible punishments.”

With liberal movements in Islam expressing concerns about hadith validity, a major component of how Islamic law is created, questions have arisen about administering certain punishments by some regressive and backward Muslim countries.

Another prominent scholar, Tariq Ramadan opines that “at the incompatibilities with human rights in the way Islamic law is practised in many countries warrant an international moratorium on the punishments of hudud laws until greater scholarly consensus can be reached.”

UMNO and PR could possibly be right here, as they are not yet ready to implement hudud until a scholarly consensus can be reached on the issue.

Not fighting for supremacy of power

DAP and for that matter other parties representing the minorities and the non-Muslims are not fighting for supremacy of power in this country. They are not asking for free lunch but mere fairness and are striving to seek social justice for all – majority and minority groups.

They cherish the Constitution and respect Islam as the official religion of the country. At the same time they yearn for rights to practice their religion without provocation.

They are just seeking their rights as citizens of this country without questioning the rights of the majority. They seek the rights to worship and profess a religion of their choice. Islam does not prohibit this aspect of a non-Muslim community. Aren’t these guaranteed by Islam in Koran for all human beings?

“Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah [the Creator] hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, which never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things.}* (Al-Baqarah 2:256)

The Koran also states:

“Say: “The truth is from your Lord.” Let him who will, believe, and let him who will, reject [it].”(Al-Kahf 18: 29)

To take over the country

DAP is not looking forward to take over the country through elections. The Chinese comprise less than 25 percent of the population. It’s just irrational to assume that a 25-percent population is able to take over power from the majority Malay race in this country.

Neither are the Chinese interested in denouncing Islam as the official religion of this country. The most number of federal seats they could win in the next general election would be about 50 with the rest of the winning seats shared by PAS and PKR.

MCA, MIC and UMNO are in a political pact of Muslims and non-Muslims under BN. And for that matter, DAP is together with PAS and PKR for the same purpose under PR.

Going by the half-baked pondok “scholar’s” theory, if he feels that it is compulsory for the Muslims in PAS, PKR and DAP to reject DAP it must also be made a compulsion for Muslims to reject MCA and the other non-Muslim parties as well as UMNO. Why UMNO? UMNO is not yet ready to implement hudud despite being in power for the past 55 years and having Malay-Muslims as members.

Hudud is an integral part of Islam, no doubt.  But punishment is always the last resort in Islam and this comes only when there is social justice in the nation. The cart here has to be put behind the horse.

Beyond that, in our democracy the constitution is supreme. For hudud to be implemented there must be a consensus in parliament and it requires the change of the constitution and this can only be done with more than a two-thirds support.  Theoretically, hudud cannot be implemented without the support of the non-Malay and Malay lawmakers.

The scenario now is UMNO is not ready to implement hudud. For hudud to be implemented by PAS it needs the consensus within PR. But PR has affirmed that hudud is not their agenda as their priority would be to fight for social justice. There is thus nothing here to do with anti-Islam in both the political divide.

Lose more votes

It looks like UMNO is going to lose more votes from the Muslims and non-Muslims in the coming general election. This is the problem when we have too many self-professed “half-baked scholars” in the country on Islam who claim to be more knowledgeable about Islam than others.

The problem with majority of the Muslims today is that they may be able to read the Koran but hardly 10 percent of them understand the content of the Koran and the verses therein. Only less than 5 percent may truly understand what the Koran says.

Islamic education in most Muslim countries is not progressive but more of indoctrination. The system does not focus on critical sciences and thinking. Without a critical understanding of the Koranic verses Muslims can be easily exploited by many Muslim opportunists.

It’s always the case of the one-eyed man who will lead the blind. And with no proper education Muslims are left to the mercy of these so-called Muslim “scholars” and leaders.

So when the hudud issue is raised not many Muslims are able to defend the issue in a critical manner this syariah requisite in Islam. Not many Muslims are willing to argue from the critical point of view for fear that they will be labelled as anti-Islam.

Many of those looking at hudud from the Koranic perspective without the hadith are scorned by fellow Muslims. They would always want the hadith to “complement” the Koran.

There are many Islamic scholars these days that have analysed the hudud from a critical point of view even when many others have disagreed with their thoughts.  Religion is thus made so dogmatic for the uneducated to consume.

Of course some politicians are happy, as this is the only way they can exploit the ignorant masses. UMNO is doing just this this for their political gains.

Bogey to scare the non-Muslims

The irony is that, there are Malay-Muslim politicians who are also making use of this bogey to scare the non-Muslims. If the non-Muslims are ignorant of hudud they can be forgiven. But why isn’t UMNO taking the pains to explain to their party partners and the non-Muslims the true nature of hudud?

No, they are not interested in this and want the issue to become a “controversy” for their political gains. They have even outsourced this role to MCA – a step that has terribly backfired on UMNO and BN.

As Nik Aziz Nik Mat, the spiritual leader of PAS said, “Hudud is part of the syariah. People cannot be punished according to the whims and impulses of those in power. Punishment must always be tempered with mercy. Harsh punishment can only be meted out as the last resort when they have exhausted all avenues to rehabilitate the criminals.”

What have been practised in some backward Islamic nations are not prescriptions provided by Islam if one were to understand the Koran.

There is capital punishment in Islam, no doubt but with sound reasons. Capital punishment is not only confined to Islam. It is practised all over the world. A murderer when proven guilty fits to be punished by capital punishment. They have the gas chambers and death by hanging.

In China, for instance the corrupt, rapists and murderers are punished in a harsh way too. They are killed under the firing squad. Drug traffickers in many countries are given capital punishment when proven guilty.

Cannot expect much from him

We had a prime minister for 22 years – a Muslim – of the country who would keep on using hudud as a bogey before elections to scare the non-Muslims. Of course the Muslims in the country cannot expect much from him to portray Islam in a positive light for the non-Muslims to appreciate.

Just lately Najib Abdul Razak, the prime minister, was reported to have said that BN is not ready to implement hudud yet even though a few UMNO lawmakers have suggested the idea that hudud be implemented to involve the Muslims and the non-Muslims.

To this suggestion MCA reacted pugnaciously and was reported to have said that MCA will withdraw from BN if UMNO wishes to implement hudud.

Thus going by the pondok “scholar’s” term of reference then Muslims should not vote for all non-Muslim based political parties in the country.  How about when this is put the other way round by the non-Muslims: suggesting that all non-Muslims should not vote for Muslim leaders.

Is this the kind of Malaysia we want to cherish?

And for that matter will all the Muslims vote for UMNO or PAS in the next general election?  They will not. Since Islam has become the point of contention, why not let the Muslims do the political tussle and the non-Muslims become apolitical?

Will the Muslims be politically united among themselves without the non-Muslims playing a role in politics? This can be food for thought.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 August 2012, 8:37 pm and is filed under
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Najib’s voodoo economics

— Sakmongkol AK47

The Malaysian Insider

Aug 11, 2012

AUG 11 — Why is the government fudging over the issue of giving back what it owes the Kelantan government? That’s RM7.4 billion. The deal and agreement was signed between the Kelantan government and the federal government represented by the first chairman of Petronas, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Why the double talk? Why the need to form a special committee overseeing the payment of oil money owed? Is it because Umno is so accustomed to playing the role of the rent seeker?

I have asked earlier, wouldn’t it save public funds if the government asks Tengku Razaleigh what the agreement entails? He is still Umno, right? So why is he treated with mistrust? Najib was carrying his bag when he was working for Tengku Razaleigh.

And why is it the federal government implicitly mistrusts the Terengganu government by controlling the oil royalties that should be given to Terengganu? During Abdullah Badawi’s time, the appointment of the oil money was effectively controlled by Patrick Lim and his cohorts. Terengganu’s money was being managed by people at the Federal level because the Terengganu folks won’t know how to handle the money.

So you have the floating mosques, the crystal mosque, the Monsoon Cup complexes, a village consisting of a constellation of RM1 million holiday homes in Pulau Duyung and all that. Every kilometre, you have grandiose mosques built where polyclinics are more needed. You have ample number of mosques in Terengganu.

The answer is, because the federal government wants to command the use of the money and appoint it to uses it thinks fit. All in furtherance of its political interests. This flouts the cardinal rule of  better we to manage our money than someone else. The states must have independence in managing their own finances.

The truth is, the federal Umno leaders themselves don’t trust the provincial Umno leaders. Also the federal government jealously guards its concentration of powers. It will not allow the functioning of the true concept of the federation of independent states with their own legislative assemblies.

The oil money was first transferred into a Terengganu Sovereign Fund and later absorbed into 1MDB. Now, it’s given back to Terengganu on the quiet, fearing that Kelantan may want the same. But the money is applied in questionable ways. Is the oil money used to build the RM1 billion new palace for the Terengganu Sultan? The oil money it seems is more generously applied to the benefits of the elite and selected few.

The monies are justifiably owed to the state. The essence of a federation is the arrangement whereby each state exercises its own autonomy over a broad range of matters including control over its income and subsequent appointment of that income. The federal government has no business to restrict this independence.

So why is the federal government acting as the obsessive big brother to the individual states? The answer is because Najib Razak, like the PMs before him, likes to concentrate power in his hands or in the hands of a selected cabal consisting of likeminded and pliant minds with the support and connivance from the business cronies.

We have seen the adverse effects of this; the drive to extend the scope of government, in general, is mostly led by men of good will who will be the first to rue its consequences. The meaning of this artful description simply means, power corrupts the power holders.

Najib and those economic commissars must understand this. The great advances in civilization have never come from centralized government. We don’t advance because of a directive from central government.

Similarly, our economy will not advance because, Pemandu directs it. Economic advances are the product of individual geniuses in Balakong, in Old Klang Road, in Sungai Besi, in Felda schemes and the result of the exertions of the mind and body of individual entrepreneurs.

They do not come from central government.

Just look at the pace of economic advancement between the Malaysian Chinese and Malays. Why is the pace of economic advancement of Malays slower than that of the Malaysian Chinese?

The general answer is, the Chinese are largely left to develop on their own individualism depending primarily on the exertions of their minds and body. The Malays, on the other hand, depend on central directives and, using the favourite words of the PM, initiatives and his patronage. How clever and omnipotent is Najib to think that he can plan for the entire country? He is no bigger than the market.

The people in Balakong, in Sungai Besi, in Old Klang Road, in Sungai Buloh Industrial area, as well as in other places are able to develop better and faster because, central directives are weakest there.

Because of that, as we are now seeing, the Chinese are forming a better check on the excesses of the government. Umno responds to this by vilifying the Chinese and driving a wedge between harmonious race relations Malays are missing out on this action.

By relying primarily on private enterprise, the Malaysian Chinese can ensure they become an effective check on the powers of a government. Not only that, economic power IS an effective protection of freedom of speech, of religion and of thought.

Will the Muslim scholar arrive at a different personal view if he were a man of independent resources not depending on the government for his livelihood?

Ask an independent scholar what he thinks and we will get a different answer and indeed he will likely say, support to Umno and its political cabal is forbidden and haram. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 August 2012, 5:11 pm and is filed under
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