The myth about vernacular schools being obstacles to unity

by
Ravinder Singh

The Malaysian Insider

MAY 16, 2013

The myth about multi-stream schools being obstacles to unity keeps on being bandied about by racists who cannot see, or rather refuse to see, the wood for the trees.

The latest call for the banning of vernacular schools was by no less a personality than the pro-chancellor of Universiti Technology Mara (UiTM), Tan Sri Dr Abdul Rahman Arshad, at a GE13 post-mortem forum “Muslim Leadership and Survival” organised by the Federation of Peninsula Malay Students (GPMS) and the UiTM Alumni Association. This imagined, simplistic solution to improving race relations has been shot out by many people — politicians, academicians, administrators, etc — over the years.

It’s amazing how people in important positions try to shove their perceptions, or even falsehoods, on the masses by making them appear like facts. If there are listeners who believe these people, it is simply because the listeners have no knowledge of the issue at hand and so they think these important people surely know best. But do they?

Abdul Rahman had a long career in education, rising up to be director-general of Education. One of the posts he has held was that of director of Educational Planning and Research. He had also served as deputy eirector of Education in Kedah in 1966. I have a question for him.

When English-medium primary schools were converted to national schools, they were given new names such as SRK so-and-so. One such school in Alor Star was re-named after the Sultan of Kedah, i.e. SRK Tunku Abdul Halim. It must have been the best school to deserve this honour.

However, by the early ‘90s this school was one of the worst in Alor Star. It is unlikely that 22 years on, it would have gone back to its glorious days of the ‘50s. Once down it is very difficult to rise again, like Humpty Dumpty.

The question: how did a school that was the best when it was an English-medium school become one of the worst after being converted to a national school? Was any research or study done to find out why and how the decline took place?

This situation is surely not peculiar to this one school, but something common throughout the country. Even some Malay parents have lost faith in national schools and are sending their children to Chinese primary schools.

To cover up for the declining standards, a big fraud was committed on the nation by systematically lowering passing marks to keep the statistics showing that educational standards were being maintained or even improved. As a result, children have left schools without acquiring the basic skills of the 3Rs — reading, ‘rithmatic and ‘riting. Yet just a few months back we were told by the education minister that our schools are as good if not better than those in developed countries like Germany.

Unity is about relationships between people — whether they live in peace with each other or look upon each other as enemies. There is no evidence that all people who speak the same language always live in peace with each other. People who not only speak different languages, but also profess different religions and cultures, have shown the ability to live as brothers and sisters. So it is political humbug to demand that vernacular schools should be abolished for Malaysians to be united, unless “united” means not having one’s own mind to decide whom to vote for.

It is racism in its various forms that builds walls around people. Vernacular schools have been around since the 19th century and they did not build those walls. We have never seen the kind of racism that we see today. The rise of racism is directly related to political expediency. Racism is spreading because some people are immune from the law.

As an educationist, Abdul Rahman should step forward and explain how SRK Tunku Abdul Halim, which was the best English-medium primary school in Alor Star, become one of the worst schools after being converted to a national school. This is not an isolated case, but an example of how our schools have gone down the drain.

It would be very fruitful to look hard, and honestly, at this decline of our national schools than to scream the fallacy that abolishing vernacular schools is the way to national unity.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 May 2013, 9:17 am and is filed under
Articles
,
Education
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Umno’s unpardonable sins against the Malay rakyat

by
Aliran
on 15 May 2013

Life under the coconut shell is no longer sustainable. It is time to open our minds and challenge our preconceived notions, says Tota.

The general election is over. A allegedly fraudulent electoral system and a highly tainted electoral roll has once again ensured a BN victory, albeit a hollow one with less than 48 per cent of the popular vote.

Over a long period of 56 years, Umno has played havoc with the Malay mind through crippling political and religious propaganda. In this election, the educated, intelligent and well-informed Malay in the urban and semi-urban areas have toppled the proverbial coconut shell that Umno kept them trapped under and come out to realise that there is a wondrous political world outside!

As predicted by well-known surgeon and writer Dr M Bakri Musa in his book “Liberating the Malay mind”, Umno needs a scapegoat. The “hantu” pendatang, the Chinese bogeyman, has been resurrected once again to serve their purpose. No one has analysed the Malay dilemma more clearly and expressed it more succinctly than Dr M Bakri Musa. I quote below a few excepts from his book about what Umno has done to the Malay mind:

Malays have been addicted to the comfort of life underneath the coconut shell for far too long. Now with the shell breached by globalisation and the digital waves, it is dawning upon us that our “comfort” is anything but. There is a far greater, more open, and definitely wondrous universe out there that we have been missing.

Life under the coconut shell is no longer sustainable; for many it is already intolerable. We can either topple this shell ourselves or risk having it done by external forces. With the former we would be in command of our destiny; we could purposely choose the timing, manner, and consequently the outcome. With the latter, we would be at the mercy of events and circumstances beyond our control; we would effectively become victims.

The metaphorical Malay coconut shell – our closed minds – cannot be destroyed physically. Besides, with the huge pores already created by globalisation and the digital revolution, many have already successfully emerged from underneath it, with only the mushrooms to sustain us.

This would be the fate that awaits those with a closed mind. Perhaps we could rationalise that by adopting a “leave us alone” philosophy. Such an option, however, is not for us to choose but for others to impose.

The colonials imposed upon the world and us their narrative of “the lazy native”. With our closed minds we readily accepted that and then lived up to it. Only centuries later did we manage to escape (though).

In an ironic twist, we have now substituted our own equally fictional narrative of ourselves. This one, not surprisingly, puts us at the opposite end of the scale, that of the privileged “son of the soil” (Bumiputra). With that we declare our inherent superiority, taking a leaf from the colonials. The latest incarnation of this new narrative is Ketuanan Melayu. Alas, while we may have changed our story, the reality remains the same; we are merely trading one mental coconut shell for another. That is no liberation.

In this capitalistic world we would not be far wrong if we were to, as the pundits put it, follow the money. Just as those divine novels and soap operas make tons of money for their publishers and producers, so too our narrative of Ketuanan Melayu for its perpetrators. Thus it is not a surprise that those who shouted the loudest and shrillest about it are also among the most privileged of Malays – the Umnoputras. They live in palatial bungalows, have children attend expensive English schools, acquire multiple trophy wives, and own fleets of luxury cars, all made possible through political patronage, “Approved Permits” and outright corruption.

The perpetrators of Ketuanan Melayu already sense this impending implosion; hence their preoccupation with creating new myths. We are now led to believe that our problems are the results of the conspiracies of various hantus (ghost or devils). First there is the hantu of globalisation with its associated hantu of capitalism and secularism, and then hantu pendatang (of immigrants). If those were not enough, there is also the added hantu of religious extremism. We are currently totally bewitched, if one is to believe this new narrative. Again, the majority with their trapped minds have willingly accepted this new version of reality.

There is another feature of the brain that rivals its ability to edit non-conforming information, and that is its tendency to see the whole instead of the parts. This gives rise to the dominance of “framing.”

Society too can be imprisoned by this framing effect. We Malays, or specically our leaders, have framed our dilemmas as one of Ketuanan Melayu instead of our lack of competitiveness, as it should be. All of our actions are thus “framed” by our mindset.

This preoccupation with Ketuanan Melayu and obsession with the various hantus distract us from recognising the real existential threats we face. We are all familiar with our laggardness in economics, education and other arenas, as our leaders never tire of reminding us. Those are bad enough, but there are other far greater and indeed more immediate threats we are oblivious to because of all these other distractions.

One immediate threat is the deepening polarisation and increasing inequities within our Malay community. This is a far greater threat than the more familiar inter-racial variety. I worry less about another interracial conflict ala May 1969 and fear more a Malay civil war.

The other threat is that we risk being left behind by emerging global trends.

Finally, our increasing obsession with religion puts us right in the target of its extremist elements. Once they get hold of our institutions and power structure, it would be very difficult to dislodge them. Iran and Afghanistan are ready examples, soon to be joined by Pakistan and, if we are not careful, Malaysia.

It is time to craft another narrative, one that better reflects us and the world we are part of more accurately, with much less fanciful artistic licence. Were we to do that, our actions would more likely be productive and less disruptive.

Even if our new chronicle were to have some less-than-truthful elements, with an open mind and the associated humility and willingness to learn, we could at least tweak and re-edit to make our story conform more to reality.

That is what a free mind bestows upon its owner. With a closed mind our narrative would calcify, and with time it would become far detached from reality. Then we would willingly distort new information to make it conform to our increasingly warped view.

Liberate the Malay mind, Merdeka minda Melayu, and we effectively topple our coconut shell. Information (freer access to it), education (liberal and broad-based, with competence in science and mathematics), and engagement in trade and commerce (capitalism – the genuine, not the ersatz or rent-seeking variety) are proven effective tools not only in toppling our mental coconut shell but also in preparing us for the wonderful open world.

Liberate the Malay mind and those various hantus would be exposed for that they are, figments of our rich imagination. With a free mind, we would turn those crises into opportunities. Liberate the Malay mind and we will re-frame our dilemmas. Liberate our minds and we liberate our world.

Before we can even begin to comtemplate freeing the Malay mind, we must first acknowledge the forces that have kept and are keeping it closed. Foremost are the myriad of intrusive and repressive rules, the mother of which is the Internal Security Act. Those are meant less for security, more for repression. Then there are our schools and universities, intent on indoctrinating rather than educating our young. More entrenched is the corruption of our cultural values where respect for leaders is mistaken as a licence for them to indulge at our expense. If those were not enough, then there is our particularly myopic interpretation of our faith.

p.s. I urge every Malaysian to read the excellent book ‘Liberating the Malay mind’, by well-known surgeon and writer M Bakri Musa.

Tota is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to our Thinking Allowed Online section.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 May 2013, 4:26 pm and is filed under
Bakri Musa
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


What betrayal?

by
P Ramakrishnan

Aliran

Was there an agreement before the general election? Did Chinese Malaysians actually promise the BN their votes ahead of time, asks P Ramakrishnan.

Discredited politicians are trying to denigrate the Chinese by accusing them of betrayal. What betrayal are they talking about? Do they indeed know what they are talking about?

When you talk of betrayal, it means going back on one’s word. It means dishonouring a solemn pledge.

For this to take place there must have been a clear understanding and undertaking between two parties. In this case it would be the Barisan Nasional and the Chinese community reaching an understanding and pledging to vote in a mutually acceptable manner with regard to GE13.

Was there such an understanding and undertaking on the part of the Chinese community to vote for the BN? Who brokered this undertaking?

The entire Chinese community does not belong to any political party aligned to the BN to be beholden to it. Even if they were, they were not obliged to vote only for the BN. In the 2008 general election, even Umno members deserted the BN and voted for the opposition. Nobody then accused the Malay community of betrayal.

Why then are the Umno president and those in cahoots with him beating the war drum against the Chinese community and accusing them of betrayal?

As far as Malaysian voters are concerned, there was no report of any undertaking by Chinese Malaysians to vote for the BN. How then can the BN accuse the Chinese community of betrayal?

Half-baked politicians who know nothing about elections and democracy are talking nonsense when they accuse the Chinese community of betrayal. Why should anyone – especially the vast majority who had not taken up membership with MCA/Gerakan – even come to this arrangement when the elections are touted to be free and fair? They are in no way obliged to go the way of the BN.

When elections are conducted, the voters have the fundamental freedom of choice to elect whomever they choose to support. When that choice is denied, it is no more a democratic election. It becomes a farce which is mockingly peddled as free and fair elections.

Chinese Malaysians were even accused by Tun Dr Mahathir of rejecting the hand of friendship extended by the Malays to the Chinese. Mahathir is surely fishing in troubled waters!

Tun, when was this hand of friendship extended in exchange for voting BN? When was this conditional hand of friendship extended to the Chinese community before the GE13? Who was brokering for the Malays? And brokering for which Malays? You must surely realise that there are other Malays who do not belong to Umno and who are not whining!

What about the Malays in Pas and Keadilan? They are not complaining of any such betrayal!

It is only certain Umno members – in fact only a minority of them – who are making this scandalous claim to sour our peace and harmony. For selfish reasons and for self-preservation, these unscrupulous Umno members are making the ChineseMalaysians the scapegoat for Umno’s dismal performance in the GE13.

Umno, the writing is on the wall for you. The sooner you take note of this the better it will be for you – otherwise it will be bye-bye for you!

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 May 2013, 9:20 am and is filed under
Articles
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


With ‘enemies’ like this…

by
Goh Keat Peng

There is a saying which is often at the tip of our tongue: “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” Which is to say there are times when friends do seem to behave like our worst enemies.

But at times, the reverse could be equally true: with enemies like these who needs friends!

Let me hasten to say that I don’t consider those with whom I may disagree politically as my enemies. If there are no two teams, you won’t have a football match. If there are not at least two sides, we won’t have an elections.

But the current situation in our country seems to border on the ludicrous or the ridiculous. Or at least to us plain citizens, politicians do seem to say the darndest things. This is not to say it happens only in our country (please consult
http://officialssay.tumblr.com
).

This would border on the comical IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE FACT THAT THE SUBJECT BEING ADDRESSED ARE OF THE HIGHEST ESSENCE OF WHAT AND WHO WE ARE AS A NATION!

But what are we plain citizens to think when one of the first things the prime minister said after our recent general elections was something about … tsunami. And no sooner than he was appointed, the new home minister actually said that those who are not not satisfied with the country’s electoral system should migrate elsewhere. Mr Minister, my father was born here. Yes I admit that I did not vote for your team and yes I was not and still am not happy with the electoral system nor indeed the way the recent general elections was conducted nor, for that matter, the electoral roll. Should I book a ticket on the slow boat to …?

And here’s the point, the haste in which some people have urged the country to move on is simply not a fabulous option. I would really want to move on quite frankly.  That would really suit me just fine. But how may I move on when the highest officials are saying such things? Is anybody in charge there? Shouldn’t there be an urgent meeting whereby the powers that be get a grip on themselves and get their act together?

Certain things did happen during the country’s recent elections. Some serious questions need to be faced up to.  Some properly considered answers are due to loyal citizens. For the sake of the powers that be – for their own sake – start treating the citizens with respect and dignity.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 May 2013, 9:23 am and is filed under
Articles
,
nation building
,
Politics
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


槟六万人再集会反选举舞弊 高喊国阵肮脏选委会是骗子

刘嘉銘

2013年5月18日 晚上9点26分

凌晨1点50分更新

尽管内政部长阿末扎希促不满选举制度者移民，但继峇都加湾体育馆的黑色集会后，逾6万人今晚再度涌入旧关仔角草场，抗议选举舞弊及要求落实一人一票的公平选举原则。

截至晚上11点，可容纳6万人草场已近乎爆满。槟首长林冠英演讲时也宣布，出席者突破6万人。

群众于较早的晚上9点左右在大会司仪带领下，高喊“国阵肮脏”与“选委会是骗子”口号。

为了省略申请准证程序，此场原本由行动党主办及名为“一人一票，拯救民主”的感谢人民大集会，临时改名为介绍槟州民联政府新阵容讲座会，并转由州政府名义举行。

槟行政议员罗兴强之前披露，警方答应批准集会准证，唯须移师至槟岛市政局体育场。

但考虑到槟岛市政局体育馆场地太小，民联决定在原地举行，但改用州政府名义，因为州政府的活动只需事先通知，不必获得警方批准。

吉祥向刘胜权抛5挑战

振林山候任国会议员林吉祥（右图）演讲时，为被纳吉招入阁的国际透明组织大马分部主席刘胜权抛出5项挑战。

第一、针对纳吉与其他内阁部长如何在选举期间，违反选举廉正盟约而向国会提供完整的报告。

第二、在首次内阁会议中提出设立皇家调查委员会，彻查不公平的选举，以达致国民和解。

第三、设立皇家调查委员会，调查513事件及其幕后祸首，以便永远无人再能借此恐吓人民。?

第四、设立皇家调查委员会，调查赵明福、沙巴尼等死因。

第五、设立皇家调查委员会，调查涉及砂拉越首长泰益玛目及沙巴首长慕沙阿曼的重大丑闻。

林吉祥也要刘胜权交代，纳吉究竟是在签署选举廉正盟约的前后，献仪其担任部长。此外，他预告，星期天会在振林山推介一项大马人之梦的运动。

我国处最好与最坏时代

林吉祥早前引用，狄更斯经典著作《双城记》的名句，即“这是一个最好的时代，也是一个最坏的时代；这是明智的时代，这是愚昧的时代…”，形容我国目前的处境。

“改变来临前肯定有一段黑暗期。纳吉凭着49%的支持担任首相，已导致人民感到愤怒、失望及不知何去何从。”

但是，他欣见年轻人的觉醒与崛起，同时呼吁民众继续斗争及支持安华担任首相。

“为何我们需要离开这个国家？如果（内政部长）阿末扎希不希望我们改朝换代，他可以立刻离开马来西亚。”

他更质问，当纳吉一边说国民和解之际，阿末扎希的言论是否才真正反映了其内阁的思维。

冠英：反对消费税到底

林冠英（左图右）表示，虽然有人企图挫败今晚的集会，但民众却不愚蠢及没上当。而且，民联会继续依循三个步骤，即法庭、集会及议会来纠正选举舞弊。

“我们不是说要每个星期都要集会，但如果有，希望大家踊跃响应。”

此外，他说，民联会在国会挑起，税收局向一些人士发难的课题。他更警告，民联一旦执政则会确保刁难人民的官员“执包袱”。

“我们也会在国会反对消费税到底，少数人休想向多数人征税。我们知道，他们没钱了，但不贪污不就有钱咯。如果不懂这样做，请让我们当政府示范给你看。”

告诉国阵威胁不再奏效

压轴演说的安华批评，国阵以提控公正党斯里斯蒂亚州议员聂阿兹米及逮捕学运领袖阿当阿迪（Adam Adli），来回应人民的崛起。

他说，尽管有人提醒他也要小心，唯他过去15年早习惯了牢狱之灾的威胁，而无所畏惧。

“阿末扎希说集会非法，难道欺诈就合法？你可以禁止集会，但不能要人民之声屈服。休想有恐吓，可以在51%的多数民众身上奏效。”

“不管他们怎么说，我们已经赢了大选。有人说，没关系啦，下届大选再来。不，我说让我们先解决这一届大选的问题。纳吉应该感激民联，确保示威保持和平与冷静。”

“巫统说，我输了应该退休，但问题是我们赢了。难道别人偷你车子和房子，你会说算了，接受事实吧？我说去你的（my foot），没有一个人正常的人会接受欺诈。”

内长言论证明不会改变

槟行动党主席兼槟行政议员曹观友演讲时表示，50万人响应各城市的集会，显示全国人民仍关心选举后政治局势。

“内政部长的言论令我相信，国阵与巫统不会改变，只会用回老套的方式执政。如果要改变，只能等我们来改变他们。”

他与槟行政议员章瑛同声呼吁出席者，协助到乡区传达改革的讯息，否则人民与民联无法取得进一步的突破。

槟第二副首长拉玛沙米则挑战，纳吉援引《煽动法令》对付发表“移民论”的阿末扎希。

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 11:38 am and is filed under
Elections
,
Penang
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Malaysia in “best of times, worst of times” – call on Malaysians to keep faith and  hope in moment of despair and to press on until victory is achieved for  change of government and policies

The two weeks of Malaysia since the 13GE on May 5 is best described by Charles Dickens in the opening paragraph of his historic fiction of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities (a book written 154 years ago and which has sold over 200 million copies):

“IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”

It was “the best of times” for Malaysia, when Malaysians, transcending race, religion, region, class, gender and age, were united in the hope of change of government and policies; but it was “the worst of times” when such hopes were crushed by the dirtiest general election in the nation’s 56 year history.

It was “the spring of hope” when Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, class, gender and age dare to  dream the Malaysian Dream  where there is an end to the politics of race, corruption, cronyism, abuses of power and all forms of injustices; but it was “the winter of despair” with one  post-13GE drivel after another from those re-established in power  about “Chinese tsunami”, “Chinese taken for a ride”, “Apa Lagi Cina Mahu” and the latest challenge to patriotic Malaysians to  “Migrate elsewhere” if they are not satisfied with the country’s electoral system, demonstrating that the evil tentacles of the old politics of race, lies and fear are still very much alive and powerful.

The “Light” in the epoch of “Darkness”, when there is so much disappointment, outrage and anger in the country at the 13GE results that Datuk Seri Najib Razak could be sworn in as Prime Minister with 47% of popular vote while Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is denied the highest office in the land with 51% of the popular vote, is the accelerated political awakening of Malaysians, particularly the  young generation of Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region and class, coming out in their tens and hundreds of  thousands to demonstrate their commitment to bring about peaceful and democratic change in the country.

I feel hopeful and confident about the future for Malaysia when I  see  the sea of young, fresh, eager faces  all over the country courageously taking a stand for peaceful and democratic change to save Malaysia from the old politics of race, corruption, cronyism, abuses of power and all forms of injustices and sending out the clear and unmistakable signal  that Malaysians, particularly the young generation of Malaysians,  would not allow the disappointments and setbacks of the 13th General elections to dim or undermine their commitment to see change in Malaysia.

In fact, the reverse is the case, as they are more resolved and committed to ensure that their future is not stolen away from them in the way that the 13th General Elections victory was stolen from them on May 5.

With Malaysia presently in “best of times, worst of times” – I call on Malaysians to keep faith and  hope in moment of despair and to press on until victory is achieved for  change of government and policies.

The time has come to fly high the standards of the Malaysian Dream, uniting Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region, class, gender or age, in a common national vision and destiny to build a great, democratic, free, safe, green competitive and prosperous nation for all Malaysian citizens.

At the Gelang Patah 13GE victory thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, 26th May 2013, we will launch the Malaysian Dream Movement, to be the vehicle for the realization of the Malaysian Dream.

I urge all like-minded Malaysians to support and join the Malaysian Dream Movement.

The Malaysian Dream Movement which will be launched in Gelang Patah next Sunday will be expanded all over the country and I look forward to the support of all Malaysians when it  expands from Gelang Patah to all states in the country, particularly in Penang.

(Speech  at the Pakatan Rakyat 13GE thanksgiving ceramah at Penang Esplanade on Saturday, 18th May 2013 at 10.30 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 11:04 am and is filed under
Anwar Ibrahim
,
Elections
,
Najib Razak
,
Pakatan Rakyat
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Five things for Paul Low to do as Minister of Integrity in Najib Cabinet

I have described Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet announced three days ago as the most unimpressive Cabinet of six Prime Ministers in the nation’s 56-year history.

I maintain this judgment despite the surprise appointment of the Transparency International-Malaysia President Datuk Pau Low as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Deparment, whose portfolio should be on Integrity and fighting corruption in Malaysia.

This is because Low has not been able to give any assurance that his appointment marks a tectonic shift in the Najib government’s commitment to make anti-corruption top priority, and not just “more-of-the-same salesmanship and gamesmanship” under the tutelage of Idris Jala’s sloganeering National Transformation Programme in the past four years – which saw Malaysia’s international standing on the anti-corruption front plunging to new lows.

To convince Malaysians that Paul Low’s appointment is not going to be another repeat of Idris Jala appointment of “more of the same” of the past four years, there are five things  which Paul Low should immediately address in the first week as Minister, viz:

Full report and assessment whether the Prime Minister, BN Ministers and candidates have complied with the TI-M Election Integrity Pledge which Najib had signed on behalf of all BN leaders and candidates in Low’s presence on Feb. 20.

This will be one of my first parliamentary questions to him when the 13th Parliament convenes next month, and he should immediately commission a full investigation so that he could give full, detained and satisfactory answer to this query when Parliament meets.

Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI)  on National Reconciliation after the 13GE, as announced by Najib after his mistaken and ill-advised comment about the 13GE results as a “Chinese tsunami” when it is a Malaysian and urban tsunami.

There is urgent need for “national reconciliation” after the campaign of “Money Money Money”, “Lies Lies Lies” and “Fear Fear Fear” by UMNO/BN in the 13GE as well as the post-13GE exploitation of race and religious cards by UMNO/BN leaders and propaganda organs.

The terms of reference of the RCI on national reconciliation should include a wide-ranging and in-depth investigation into the electoral frauds, abuses and irregularities committed in the 13GE.

It is these electoral malpractices which are the root causes  for the cloud of doubts about the legitimacy of Najib as Prime Minister, and consequently raising questions about the legitimacy of the new Cabinet, creating conditions needing  a national reconciliation.

RCI on the May 13, 1969 riots to ascertain the causes and culprits so that the spectre of May 13 will cease to be used in every general election to frighten voters from freely exercising their constitutional right to vote. The purpose is not to punish the culprits, which has become quite academic after 44 years, but for the nation to know the truth and cleanse the nation’s soul from lies and falsehoods about the May 13 riots all these decades.

RCI on grand corruption in Malaysia, investigating in particular into the serious allegations of grand corruption against the Sarawak Chief Minister, Tan Sri Taib Mahmud and the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman, with regard to serious allegations freely available on the Internet.

Re-open investigations into the death of Teoh Beng Hock and Ahmad Sarbani, both of whom died at Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) premises while under MACC custody.

Can Paul Low deliver on these five counts in his first week as Minister, by getting agreement by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to implement them?

When was Paul Low first informed by Najib of his intention to  appoint him  as Minister in  the Prime Minister’s Department to be responsible for the government’s programme on integrity and anti-corruption?

Did he raise any of these five issues to get Najib’s agreement before agreeing to the Cabinet appointment?

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 11:12 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
General
,
Najib Razak
,
Teoh Beng Hock
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Google Glass Is Watching  – Now What? .

By AMIR EFRATI and GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

Wall Street Journal

 May 17, 2013

TECHNOLOGY

As Congress frets about the privacy implications of Google Glass, one thing is clear: The technology that can redefine what is “public” and link the digital and physical worlds is here.

Now the question is what will anyone do about it?

Questions of appearance and privacy arrive for Google Glass wearers.

Owners of wearable Internet-connected devices already face choices about where or when it is appropriate to wear them—while legal experts say there aren’t many protections for people whose activities the technology records.

Noble Ackerson, a 33-year-old software developer in Washington, D.C., who has been wearing Google Glass for the past month, says he has developed his own “common sense” etiquette standards for Google Inc.’s new digital headset.

For instance, he takes Glass off in a public restroom, in a movie theater and in casinos, where having such a device could give him an unfair advantage. “Google Glass has technology that isn’t new, and the etiquette we’ve applied to existing technologies should roll into it,” he says.

Products like Glass are sparking a discussion about what is possible with technologies such as facial recognition, and whether governments need to intercede. While several members of Congress pressed Google on Thursday for answers about how its technology works, some business owners like bars or casinos are already banning it.

Right now, Google Glass, which places a small computer screen above one eye and has a built in motion sensor, camera and microphones, acts like an extension of a person’s smartphone.

It lets the user take photos and record videos by touching the side of the device or speaking commands aloud, as well as allowing them to give Web users access to the device’s camera so they can “see” what the wearer is looking at. People also can use Glass to make phone calls, access Google’s Web search, get turn-by-turn navigation information and receive text messages on the screen, as well as send texts using their voice.

The device isn’t widely available, but Google plans to publicly launch it next year.

Early testers of the device say the potential benefits—such as giving paraplegics the ability to take photos using their voice or making it easier to document police brutality, among other uses—outweigh such privacy and security risks.

But one potential use has captured the imaginations—and fears—of many: facial recognition.

While such technology still faces numerous hurdles, the capability to use it for purposes once relegated to science fiction have already been proven in a real-world context, most recently by Carnegie Mellon University researchers in 2011.

By combining public information from social networks and facial-recognition technology, the researchers used a webcam on a college campus to identify people by name, and then—by using information from their social-network profiles—also predict sensitive personal data, such as hobbies and Social Security numbers.

“The genie is out of the bottle,” says Carnegie Mellon professor Alessandro Acquisti, who was part of the research team. “My bet is facial recognition and augmented reality will become commonplace and popular.”

While real-time facial recognition technology isn’t yet scalable, remaining hurdles already are being overcome, he says, and societies will need to “discuss and try to create frameworks so that good applications will survive and creepy ones will not.”

Google Glass product management director Steve Lee said in a statement Friday that “we won’t add new face-recognition features to our services unless we have strong privacy protections in place.”

On Thursday, Mr. Lee and other Google employees say that while any device, including today’s smartphones, can be misused to hurt or spy on other people, the company would endeavor to bar such applications from being available on its public app store for the device.

Mr. Lee says the device would also be a “lousy” way to spy on people because the wearer must face whatever it is they are recording. The device’s small screen lights up when it is taking a photo or recording a video using the camera, allowing people near the wearer to know that it is on.

Mr. Lee added that he expected there would be facial-recognition applications available on Glass in the future, possibly created by third party software developers.

Google has said data recorded by the device would be bound by its current privacy policy, meaning it could be collected in an anonymous way and the company would hold data about specific individuals only if they explicitly agree to it, the same as with smartphone-related data.

Most of the wearable devices on the market, with names like LUMOback and Fitbit, are meant to capture health-related information about the person wearing them, such as heart rate and posture. Now new devices led by Google Glass capture data around the wearer—including the people they interact with.

For instance, a forthcoming $279 device called Memoto, designed to be worn on a chain around the neck or clipped to clothing, automatically snaps photos every 30 seconds, or nearly 3,000 a day, and uploads them to the Web so the wearer can access them.

Oskar Kalmaru, a co-founder of Memoto, said the company stresses to its customers “how it’s actually a pretty crappy spycam: no remote control, no streaming, very visible and so on.”

There is almost nothing individuals can do to prevent their activities from being recorded or tracked while in public, legal experts say. Chris Conley, a technology policy attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, says that while Google Glass is currently a primitive device, “it’s something you could see evolving into a state of constant awareness of the environment, making it difficult for third parties to understand whether they’re being analyzed or recorded.”

But he added that he “can’t think of anything that Google Glass could conceivably do that is actually going to run into legal concerns,” unless perhaps someone creates an application that invades people’s privacy by “seeing” underneath their clothes, similar to the passenger scans at U.S. airports.

Consumers and governments world-wide have grappled with some of these questions before with the discreet cameras on cellphones. When they first emerged in the early 2000s, some worried about their potential use for espionage and voyeurism. Businesses such as gyms banned their use.

And in 2004, Congress passed the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act without much opposition, which prohibits photographing a naked person without his or her explicit permission in a gym, dressing room, or other places that one expects “a reasonable expectation of privacy.” (Violators face fines of up to $100,000 and up to a year in prison.)

Yet a decade later, camera-phones have become an accepted and relatively uncontroversial part of modern culture.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 8:52 pm and is filed under
IT
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Najib should disclose who  must bear  responsibility and take the rap for the constitutional farce and embarrassment to the YDPA with oath-taking of two Ministers and three Deputy Ministers on Thursday unlawful, null and void

In his two-hour address to the first meeting of the new Cabinet of 30 Ministers and 27 deputy ministers at Putra Perdana on Thursday after their  swearing-in before the Yang di Pertuan Agong at Istana Negara, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak invoked the spirit of exemplary service to the ministers by giving their best to the people and the country.

Najib said cabinet members must “add value” to their services by engaging the public in public forums, face-to-face sessions and even social or traditional media.

Unfortunately, Najib’s post-13GE Cabinet, which is already the most “unimpressive” of all six Prime Ministers in the nation’s 56-year history, started off with great egregious disservice to the people and nation as the oath-taking of two Deputy Ministers and three Deputy Ministers were of unlawful, null and void.

Najib also failed to “walk the talk” to engage the public  by observing thunderous silence in the past three days dodging my expose on Friday that two Ministers, Datuk Paul Low and Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar (both Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department) and three deputy ministers, Waytha Moorthy (PM’s Office) , Dr. J. Loga Bala Mohan (Federal Territories) and Datuk Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah (Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism) have illegally been sworn in when they could not be appointed whether to the post of Minister or Deputy Minister for the simple reason that they are not qualified to hold any Cabinet office without first being  sworn in as Senators.

Why didn’t Najib, or his Deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin admit publicly that they had committed a constitutional blunder and caused embarrassment to the Yang di Pertuan Agong as the oath-taking of the two Ministers and three Deputy Ministers concerned were  unlawful, null and void, and tender unqualified public apology for such a gross mistake?

Najih should disclose  who must bear responsibility and take the rap for such a constitutional farce and blunder causing enormous  embarrassment to the Yang di Pertuan Agong, making Malaysia a laughing stock to the diplomatic circuit and the international community?

Such a constitutional blunder had never happened before in the 56-year history of the nation. Why did it happen now?  Have the protocols standards declined just like all standards in public life, whether educational, judicial or civil service in the past five decades?

If the new Najib Cabinet is so accident-prone, making an unconstitutional blunder never made in the past half a century, what can Malaysians expect from this Cabinet?

I had in fact expected greater efficiency in the Najib administration, taking immediate action to remedy the constitutional blunder by getting the two Ministers and three Deputy Ministers to be sworn in as Senators on Friday night itself – even if it is a midnight oath-taking.

But the Najib administration is not even capable of swiftly rectifying its errors.  Nothing has been done in the past three days to rectify the constitutional blunder, exhibiting a shocking degree of incompetence and inefficiency or just indifference and “tidak-apa” attitude.

With such a background, can anyone expect “great things” from  the new Najib Cabinet?

I understand the three deputy ministers would be sworn in as Senators on Tuesday, while the swearing-in of the two Ministers would be in early June.

The three deputy ministers and two Ministers would to  repeat their oath-taking as Ministers and deputy ministers before the Yang di Pertuan Agong before they can assume their Ministerial offices – making them swearing twice on the oath of office and the Official Secrets Act!

Otherwise, their legality as Ministers and Deputy Ministers would be immediately open to challenge.

What a farce!

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 5:59 pm and is filed under
Constitution
,
Muhyiddin Yassin
,
Najib Razak
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Najib’s feckless and uninspiring cabinet

Mariam Mokhtar| May 19, 2013

Free Malaysia Today

Najib is impotent when tackling corruption, or defusing racial and religious tensions. His weakness as a leader is reflected in the Cabinet line-up

COMMENT

Najib Tun Razak’s defence of the Malay daily Utusan Malaysia which displayed a provocative headline, “What more do the Chinese want?” does nothing for national reconciliation, something which Najib promised to address, after GE-13.

Trying his best to placate an increasingly cynical public, Najib vowed to be a prime minister for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, state or political views.

He said, “I love my country …… We will also continue to promote moderation among multiracial Malaysians and place great importance on racial harmony and national unity.”

Despite the sweet talk, he refused to censure Utusan, but said, “You blame Utusan but you don’t ask about the Chinese papers.”

If Najib was adamant that both the Malay and Chinese newspapers were stoking racial hatred, the right thing would have been to punish both papers.

Najib is impotent when tackling corruption, or defusing racial and religious tensions. His weakness as a leader is reflected in the Cabinet line-up.

Musical chairs

When the rakyat complained about rising crime, the former home minister Hishammuddin Hussein ridiculed them and said their “perception” of increased crime was inaccurate. What would Hishammuddin and his family know about crime with round-the-clock security and well-guarded properties?

Hishammuddin’s reaction to the Suluk invasion was to say that the armed militia was just a group of old men having a picnic. At the height of the Sabah incursion, Hishammuddin showed more enthusiasm by donning his shades, and being photographed with Malaysian soldiers.

With Najib treating the running of the country like a child’s game, it was unavoidable that his Cabinet reshuffle resembled a game of “musical chairs”. Najib moved Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the former defence minister, who gained notoriety for his disastrous handling of the Sabah incursion, to the Home Ministry.

White gloves were once used as an anti-corruption symbol, but Zahid’s stance was to say that with gloved hands, he would be unable to “feel” his wife. If Zahid is flippant with issues like corruption, will crime flourish under him? His tenure as defence minister was marked by indecision, prevarication, media blackouts and blaming.

Zahid’s article in Utusan Malaysia caused further outrage when he rebuked the opposition followers and Chinese youth, and told them to emigrate if they were displeased with the outcome of GE-13.

Zahid’s irresponsible comments have scuppered Najib’s attempt at reconciliation. More importantly, Zahid has shamed the Malay community. A home minister who ignores cultural integration and harmony, cannot be expected to start the nation’s healing process.

The daft Zahid lacks tact and diplomacy. If people who are displeased were to leave the country, vacuums would be created in industry, financial institutions, the medical services, commerce and more. It would be simpler for Zahid and his Cabinet colleagues to emigrate as they drain our resources, although they are fewer in number.

Children of Umno Baru

Former de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz assumes his new role as the Tourism and Culture minister. Nazri’s controversial ties with the tycoon Michael Chia and the loan of the latter’s Hummer to Nazri’s son, present a conflict of interest.

Children of Umno-Baru politicians have an attitude problem. Their parents control the public purse, but it is the kids who think they control the rakyat. Will Nazri be as creative as Ng Yen Yen, in abusing taxpayers’ money? Will he waste millions of ringgits in setting up Facebook pages to promote Malaysia?

Using Facebook will risk the ire of Nazri’s Cabinet colleague, the former Perlis Menteri Besar, Shahidan Kassim. Three years ago, Shahidan wanted Facebook to be blocked because it posed a threat to national security. A Facebook account holder had insulted Islam and Malaysian leaders.

Najib has a knack of appointing corrupt men into senior positions. A few years ago, Isa Samad became the Felda chairman whilst yesterday, Umno’s “six million dollar” man, Tajuddin Abdul Rahman was appointed a deputy minister. Tajuddin’s allegedly corrupt deal involved RM1.3 billion ringgits and a 23-year concession to build the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Tapah campus.

What is the rationale behind Najib’s appointment of Transparency International Malaysia president Paul Low as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department? The MACC is ineffective in resolving corruption issues. Will Low’s appointment spark changes or will he be gagged?

Why does a bloated Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) of around 44,000 people, need eight ministers and two deputies? The excessive manpower suggests that it is a highly inefficient organ.

In some relationships, the dominant spouse can be a destructive element. So has Najib been scarred by personal experience? Is he fearful of women? Why are only two women in Najib’s Cabinet, despite women comprising around 50% of the population?

Najib’s penchant for “back-door politics” will be his undoing. He did it with Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the former minister for women; now, it was the turn of P Waythamoorthy, whom Najib made a Senator and deputy minister in the PMD.

Secret deal with Waythamoorthy?

The official announcement that Waythamoorthy would return to Malaysia, from exile in London, was released only in July 2012. This writer strongly suspects that Waythamoorthy was holding secret negotiations with Najib, or his aides, in early 2011.

About the time that Najib was going to repeal the ISA, around mid-2011, Waythamoorthy started dropping hints that he would return to Malaysia. Around Christmas 2011, he had a large packing crate which virtually blocked his hallway; however, he denied that he was leaving. Then, he left London at the end of July 2012.

Waythamoorthy’s decision to return to Malaysia was not as spontaneous as he would like us to believe.

If Waythamoorthy and Najib had a pact, then Waythamoorthy’s accusations that Pakatan Rakyat had rejected the Hindraf blueprint and had refused to accede several state and parliamentary seats, are a whitewash. Najib and Waythamoorthy probably conspired to exert maximum damage to Pakatan.

Waythamoorthy’s attempts to strike a deal with Pakatan were nothing more than a sham, designed to waste Pakatan’s time and deceive the public.

Britain is one of the most tolerant countries and years in exile in a country which takes racism seriously, has failed to educate Waythamoorthy. His family were subject to racist attacks but these were promptly dealt with by the authorities. Waythamoorthy has failed to learn from his experience and on his return to Malaysia, chooses to fight racism with his brand of racism.

Waythamoorthy sued the British government which he blames for the present-day plight of the Indians in Malaysia. How foolish will Najib look with a member of his cabinet taking this legal stand against the British government? Will Najib force Waythamoorthy to retract the legal claim especially as delicate trade talks with the British concerning arms are ongoing? If Waythamoorthy refuses, will Najib sack him?

Waythamoorthy’s sense of false pride and smug satisfaction at his new role in BN comes at a high price. He has betrayed the Indian community and belittled his brother’s sacrifice in jail. He has sullied the good intentions of the poor Indians who donated to his cause.

Waythamoorthy may be proud to enjoy a seat in Najib’s Cabinet but he does not have the respect of Malaysians, especially the Indians, whom he claims to represent.

Mariam Mokhtar is a FMT colum

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 10:43 pm and is filed under
Hindraf
,
Najib Razak
,
Pakatan Rakyat
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


New IGP Khalid Abu Bakar and new Home Minister Zahid Hamidi should stop playing politics to please their political masters and return to their first duty – to make Malaysians, tourists and investors safe from crime and the fear of crime

The new Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and the new Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should stop playing politics to please their political masters and return to their first duty to the people – to make Malaysians, tourists and investors safe from crime and the fear of crime.

Both should realize that they are being paid by the taxpayers to carry out their primary duty to reduce crime, to protect the safety of Malaysians, tourists and investors and to abolish the fear of crime which is haunting Malaysians in many criminal black spots in the country, instead of abdicating from their duties by playing politics with their positions.

If Khalid and Zahid have too much free time on their hands, why don’t they do something more useful and directly related to their primary responsibilities – such as giving themselves a  one-year challenge to remove the infamy of Johor Baru as the capital of crime in the country by ensuring that 12 months from now, the people of Johor Baru can feel safe and free from both crime and the fear of crime when moving around the Johor capital?

Are Khalid and Zahid prepared to publicly declare that they will resign from their present posts if the fail in this one-year task to make Johor Baru safe and secure for all again?

Today, Mingguan Malaysia is up to its daily mischief when it carried the front-page headline “PDRM mula siasatan – KPN arah konspirasi guling kerajaan melalui Malaysia Spring disiasat”.

I am not bothered about such police investigation and in fact welcome it, as it would prove the utter falsity of such allegations.

But what is intolerable and unacceptable is the double-standards and the  distorted sense of police priorities involved.

For instance, why hasn’t the Police started investigations into the most racist and seditious speech ever made in the public domain in Malaysia in the past 44 years, the incendiary, inflammatory and chauvinist speech by former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Noor Abdullah on Sunday, although police reports had been lodged in this case?

Why has the IGP announced the  start of police investigations into the outrageous and baseless allegation of DAP behind a conspiracy to create chaos and bloodshed in Malaysia by instigating an Arab Spring, when the person who made the allegation did not have the integrity or courage of conviction to lodge a police report, as he knows he is telling lies and  will risk a counter-report of having committed the crime of false reporting?

Can the IGP explain on what criteria the police will take the initiative to lodge police reports to enable police investigations to be initiated, as distinct from cases where serious allegations have been made against top government leaders but where the police has maintained the attitude of the three monkeys of eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouth and speaks not?

Let the IGP explain to the new Parliament on what grounds and in what cases the Police lodges its own report to initiate police investigations, the cases where the Police had refused to initiate such police report, and the reasons for each case – as well as to submit a whole list of cases involved for each category.

It is sad that playing political games and not to ensure the people’s safety and security from crime and the fear of crime is regarded as the highest  priority and greatest challenge of the new Home Minister, Zahid Hamidi.

When will Malaysia have an IGP who dare to declare and act publicly that his first duty is to defend Malaysians from crime and the fear of crime, and not to play political games to please the political masters of the day?

It is this deplorable attitude that has led Zahid to make the utterly indefensible and outrageous challenge to Malaysians who do not agree with the current electoral system to leave the country, betraying an abysmal ignorance of the meaning of patriotism as well as democracy.

Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has already established  himself as the worst Home Minister in the history of the country.  It would appear that his record would not last long, as Zahid promises to beat and replace Hishammuddin for the dubious record of being  the worst Home Minister in Malaysian history.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 3:48 pm and is filed under
Crime
,
Police
,
Politics
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Racism and a Blueprint for Rebuilding Malaysia

by Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi

Although many things remain uncertain after the GE13 result, one thing is unarguably clear…Malaysia is in trouble.

Who is in trouble? Not Pakatan, not BN to my mind…we are. We…the Rakyat. Our Children is in trouble and ..yes, theirs too in the distant future if we do not stop this juggernaut called…racism.

I would like to outline my basic blueprint for rebuilding this country with the special focus of eliminating racism as its main objective.

My program may be ‘shocking’ or ‘unsusual’ but it has the virtue of never been thought of or tried.

In architectural design training, the best design ideas are usually the ‘shockers’! I have been trained to understand the box but never to stay long in it and to always leave it on the front porch…well, most of the time.

My program or blueprint can be easily implemented by BN…if it wants to, if it has the heart, the will and intelligence to.

But if it is still sore with statements of ‘leave the country’ or ‘sodomising minds’ and Chinese Tsunami, then I would assume that it is disinterested to resolve the racism problem in this country.

Point Blank.

Now if the Minority BN government does not want to implement the program, will the majority Pakatan form its own shadow cabinet and pool their financial resources to implement this program?

In the first place, I have to ask Pakatan leaders a point blank question? Are you guys actually interested in resolving our dreaded racism issue?

I have followed very closely political events in this country from 1997, and after all that Anwar and Pakatan have gone through…I still have a small lingering doubt. In my academic reading, Pakatan is simply a strong coalition built to fight one single enemy. Which enemy? Racism? Religious Intolerance? Poverty? Nope…just the BN.

I am generalizing of course but I am using my poetic license to make this simple point….that racism will still not go away if Pakatan now sits in Putrajaya. Why do I say so? Because I have not witnessed a single paper by Pakatan to seriously look at the problem of racism.

Now if Pakatan, too, seems disinterested to rebuild Malaysia, then it is up to the Third political force, the Rakyat via the machinery of NGOs  like Bersih and Islamic Rennaissance Front to take matters into our own hands. My philosophy is simple…if you believe in something, you just have to do it yourself.  Then comes next election we, the rakyat will throw both parties out and rule in a different way. How? Think out of the box-lah.

Now, before outlining my program allow me to say a few nice words about Barisan Nasional. Not the present BN but the old founding fathers of BN. Yes…the one before Mahathir and the sacking of Tun Salleh Abbas.

To be fair UMNO, MCA and MIC have done a great service to this country by successfully working with one another amicably and providing peace and prosperity for three decades. When I stand amidst 2,000 academics at UTM hall with easily 90% Malay Muslims scholars, I would say BN deserves an A-. Why A minus?

Must subtract a very strong minus for 1969 Mei 13th. Now let’s be clear the A- is for a BN before Mahathir. The post Mahathir BN deserves a failed grade and the grade for a post GE13 BN is a letter and level of failure that I can’t even find low enough.

Why have I given a failed grade to Mahathir’s BN when we have shiny tall buildings, and a New Putrajaya Kingdom with a massive crystal mosque? Because this was when basic human decency and dignity was violated. The Operasi Lalang, the Memali bloodshed, the Tun Salleh Abbas Sacking, The Anwar ‘Kangaroo’ Trial, The Anwar Second Sodomy Case, The Dubious Sexually Explicit Videos and above all else the death of many innocent children in the National Service.

Fail. E-, F, X or whatever. It is my academic reading that this nation has lost its citizen’s honor and respect. How can that compare to BRIM and the Tall Two Towers of Petronas or the Splendour of Putra Mosque?

Allah The Most High sent all his Prophets to teach about the dignity and humaneness of man to treat one another with love and compassion. Allah The Most Beneficient needs no 600 million ringgit mosque. So.. in summation, BN was a great blessing…then…but now it is becoming an entity that would dismantle what its own fore fathers had built. In principle, there is nothing absolutely wrong with the political concept of BN…its present leaders show no quality comparable to the leaders of old.

 	Right, so now comes my program. Remember..I am not a social scientist, nor a super management guru but just a guy with a Phd in architecture, 40 books to my name, hundreds of encylopaedia entries, hundreds of media articles and a fondness for reading how to get close to god from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Freethinkers perspectives. This is my take and my priority in dealing with racism.

First and foremost, I would like to retrain 50 ustazs or religious teachers for 6 months on a single message; Islam abhors, rejects and can never tolerate racism in any form, action or even thought. The ustazs will be taught in class, at the temples, churches and houses of people from various races and religions. Upon graduation, they will be the light that will realign the Muslim Malay mindset. Why have I made the ustazs my top priority? I have listened to thousands of sermons, cds, cassetes ceramahs to know that the ustazs and the content of their lectures and sermons have contributed greatly to the polarization of this country.

My second priority is education. I have already written extensively about Vernacular schools and the National Curriculum. Just to sum up, there is just two points. First, if we are to keep the vernacular schools and religious madrasah, then a no-nonsense policy that the children must have a Year Out at the primary and the secondary level at a National School. Second point is that the National School Curriculum must be revamped so that Cultural and Religious needs of non-Malay Muslim students must be strictly adhered to. Get rid of some of the content for science, maths, history, geography and Bahasa Malaysia and give it to cultural studies and Religious understanding. There will be teachers teaching Islam teaching Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism in the National curriculum.

My third priority is my Hijra Children Concept which I wrote in Malaysiakini some time ago. In sum, I called for volunteer parents of 14 year olds and 16 year old sons to come forth and exchange their children with a family of a different race and culture for a period of 3 months. In this way not only the children will get to interact with different peoples in Malaysia, the parents can also interact with the relatives of other culture related to the adopted child. This is a very important program because of its direct social implications.

Fourthly, I would personally dismantle the National Service, kick out all military personnel and reorganize the camps into a fun fill Summer Camps concept of 2 weeks with 50% Malays and 50% non-Malays on a voluntary participatory method. There will be no military style program but more of games, talks, art and craft and service to the community visitation to temples, churches and mosques.

Fifthly, I would reorganize Dewan Bahasa and split it into one which still concentrate on developing knowledge in Bahasa Melayu but the other entity must publish books about our different cultures and religions in the Malay, Chinese and Indian languages. The books should be about rituals, customs, religions and traditions.

Sixth, I would concentrate on our teachers in secondary and primary schools. The teachers have to be retrained like the Ustaz but in a 1 month course where they learn in class but also get close to the multi-ethnic parties.

Seventh is a program for university students. The students must be retrained to understand that cultural understanding is paramount in business management as well as public relation. Regardless of whatever profession students target these two skills are necessary for a confident career advancement or prospect.

The eighth program is what I call the ‘Personal touch’. In the age of mobile phones, fast internet and everything on a tight schedule, we must go back to the simple days of laid back talking, eating and plain old socializing. All politicians, high ranking officials should take off one week end every 4 months to pick  from a preselected family of a different race and live with them and participate in the family, religious  and social  rituals. Leaders must come down to earth once in a while…or for a number of whiles in fact in order to rediscover the true meaning of humility, tenderness and simple caring. All these human traits seem to have disappeared in front of the lcd screen. At UTM School of Architecture, the Measured Drawing Program where students have to measure and record the history of heritage buildings, they would have to stay for a month with the families that owns the houses and the community which surround it. The inter-cultural exchange is a by-product that I found most beneficial and important.

	There you have it. My simple blueprint. Call it naïve, strange or even ridiculous. But this is my honest reading of what has happened in Malaysia and how I think might return us back to a nation with a serious and humane conscience and minus racism and religious intolerance. If BN and Pakatan is disinterested, then Malaysians of all walk of life with the help of NGOs can raise funds and organize ourselves to do what must be done for our children’s future. Racism in Malaysia will never disappear and having certain parties purposely, accidentally or even naively perpetrating mistrusts between the races will not help the situation change. The fate of our nation lies with the few citizens who still have a conscience, hope and the vision to see Malaysia in a new light.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 2:29 pm and is filed under
Education
,
nation building
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


The Men Who Made Me

Letter

By Gunslinger

The People’s Parliament

Posted on April 26, 2013

My first exposure to politics was when , as a little girl of 5 or 6 in Ipoh, I ran out of my   house to wave at the charismatic Mr.Patto of DAP, campaigning through   loudspeakers on his moving open-truck. He was fiery and I thought he was so   brave and clever, standing up there and speaking without any fear. My father   told me that Mr. Patto urged Malaysians not to fear change, and said that   every citizen should call himself a Malaysian first and foremost, and not a   Malay, Chinese or Indian. I never forgot that. Ever.

I remember thinking back then that even if I had even a quarter of his courage, I would   be a lucky girl indeed. Years later, as a young adult, when I read that he had   passed away, I was very saddened. Not because he had died, because I knew he   must have lived a full, exciting life – lived more than most would have done   in their lifetimes of subservient kneeling to whomever could throw them a few   scraps. I was sad because he never got a chance to make a difference to more   Malaysians by being a part of the ruling party. I felt his tough resilience,   his strong character and his courage of convictions would define character for   a lot of young Malaysians.

My father   encouraged me to read the newspapers, which I found extremely boring. For even   then I thought the reporting was pretty lop-sided, with mud-slinging and name   calling by BN politicians to opposition party members, reported in what I felt   was salacious glee. I eventually started following the adventures of one very   inspiring man who stood out again and again as a lion of courage and strength   amongst most other men – Mr. Karpal Singh. He took no nonsense from silly   politicians, he fought with courage against corruption, he admonished   newspapermen who got their facts wrong, hell, he even took on the King. Man,   did he rock my world!

I was shocked   when he was sent to prison for merely voicing his opinions, under the ISA,   which was meant for communists. Opposition seemed a bad word back then, but I   never got it. Why was being in the Opposition negative? Even as a child of   eight, I could see the logic and absolute necessity of a strong opposition,   which unfortunately most adults could not and would not see. I guess the lull   of complacency, of the ‘let’s not rock the boat, we are fine now, what’ was at   its greatest heights then. But I was not convinced.

So, in a dark   lost world, Mr.Karpal Singh became my knight in shining armour.
 A man who   would fight for what’s right. There were so few like him. Most men in   positions of authority just sold out to the highest bidder like cheap   prostitutes – for titles, for positions, for contracts, for seats. And with   such intelligence, charisma, calibre and capability Mr. Karpal Singh could   have been at the top of the stakes. But he never even considered cashing in   his chips, because he had that rarest of commodities most men and women don’t   have. Commodities that makes one stand out like a beacon in a sea of insipid   folks – self-pride, honour, integrity. That is what makes a man, a real man.

And the people in   the Opposition had it. Mr.Lim Kit Siang   had it. I have watched his hair grow   from black to white , but that pursed up lips of stubborn resilience, that   fierce determination in his eyes has never diminished. That fearless   questioning that went on, while backbenchers from BN shouted like monkeys on   heat to drown his voice. He never gave up. And sometimes, I wondered why men   like Karpal and Kit Siang went on, when they were locked up, reviled,   slandered against…it would have been all too easy to just let it go and walk   away. But they did it out of duty, to a country they loved. Now , that is what   I call patriotism. Not shouting slogans, waving flags. Patriotism is making   wrongs right for your country – without fear or favour.

These are men of   courage, wisdom and integrity who should be ruling Malaysia, but they were   never given a chance. If they had been, we would have seen a different   Malaysia today. A Malaysia with backbone.

I must have been   9 or 10 when I followed my first election result tally with my father until   the wee hours of the morning. I was the youngest in the family, and probably   the most passionate, thereby I naturally became Daddy’s helper. I was helping   him count and we took turns adding up results – it was a landslide victory –   again – for Barisan Nasional. Ho hum. As usual. Then Mahathir came on screen.   And he was gloating, with such a disgusting smirk on his face, that I wished I   could lean into the tv and slap him.

I never liked   him. Call it a child’s instinct, call it a child’s innocence or conversely,   maturity beyond my age, I saw evil in him. I did not like his constant smirk,   I did not like his shifty eyes, I did not like his disparaging words against   the opposition who had lost. He was never a gentleman. The dislike for him has   only intensified over the years, as I see now how he is also the ultimate   racist who has divided and segregated the country, stolen our souls and spirit   and has made a fortune for himself, using the Malay and bumiputra agenda to   manipulate simple-minded Malays, while being a full Indian himself.

My father was an   avid reader, and he read everything from politics to economics to romance   (yes, when he could not get his hands on anything else). He was merely a clerk   in Telecoms, but in another life, in a parallel universe with more   opportunities his way,he might have been more, much more.

My most vivid   memory of my dad is of him sitting on his favourite worn out chair, with one   leg crossed under him and the other swinging in tandem to the mood of the   moment, reading with his black horn-rimmed glasses, in his white singlet and   blue striped shorts. We were poor, but hell, we had our books. There was this one book that he kept next to   him and read and re-read more often than the others. It was Tan Sri Tan Chee   Koon’s “Without Fear or Favour’. He was   in awe of Tan Chee Koon, said there were few men like him. And he used to tell   me this story – “This man beat the odds, girl. Born of immigrant parents, he   rose at 5.30am every morning to feed livestock, cycled 5 miles to tap rubber,   and when he came back at 4pm, he would tend to the vegetables and fruit trees   and sometime between all that , found time to become a doctor and lead the   opposition and write some of the most brilliant books that speak of a nation –   without fear or favour. See, you don’t have to always remain poor if you work   hard.”

My father kept   telling me to read Tan Chee Koon’s book, I must have been 13 or 14 then. The   teenager in me, though, was more interested in the racy, tittillating Sidney   Sheldons and Joan Collins then, and I never did read that book. And when my   father died, and my mother and I had to leave our home for good, I lost a lot.   My home, my security, my sense of belonging, those books, but most of all , my   father who made me cherish what was real and good in this world. I forgot that   book, and my promise to my dad to read it. But I remember it now, as the   mother-of-all-elections come close, and I managed to look it up in the   internet, and realise that it is a book before its time. A book that asks   questions that have been stifled for too long. A book just like its name. I   promise I will read it, dad, and I am doing more than that – I am spreading   the word of your favourite book to many, many more.

The nightmare of   BN continued.

Tun Salleh Abbas,   the Lord President was removed from the judiciary along with 5 other prominent   , respected and most importantly, honest, judges by Mahathir. The independance   of the judiciary was killed in one stroke. I was horrified. But people still   voted BN in. It was the worst decision the country made, because Malaysia sunk   into a state of lawlessness after that. And with that one by one, the many   institutions that keep a country grounded through check and balance, and   accountability fell like a stack of dominoes.

I must have been   in the university when I read that Lim Guan Eng, then a young passionate DAP   member, was thrown into jail for championing the cause of a young Malay girl   who was raped by a prominent BN politician. It defied logic, and it   strengthened my hatred for Barisan Nasional and for stupid people who kept   voting Barisan Nasional in every election like goats to the slaughter. It was   a stupidity and selfishness that has come back to haunt them over and over   again.

Growing up, I   stood on the shoulders of giants like Patto, Karpal, Kit Siang and I saw   beyond the veil of deceit, stupidity and arrogance the ruling party had kept   us under. I saw my nemesis – his name was Mahathir, and I learnt what real   evil was, and how evil can manipulate everything to get its own ways. For even   the Devil can quote the Scripture for his own benefit, the Bible tells us.   Yes, Mahathir made me too – he made me aware of how conmen work, and opened my   eyes to deceipt, racism, hatred, manipulation and how absolute power corrupts   absolutely.

The insidious   evil of Mahathir and his legacy of slimy politics and mega cronyism changed a   landscape. The master manipulator had everyone singing his praises, except me.   And then the tide turned – Anwar happened. I was there on the 20th of Sept   1998 – shouting REFORMASI with my fellow countrymen. Oh, for a glimpse of   hope, for change, for a better Malaysia. I never felt more Malaysian that day,   when finally I met people who threw of the shackles of race and religion and   sang a song of freedom, as one people, one nation. United by Anwar. It must   have been Mahathir’s nightmare.

We followed Anwar   Ibrahim. We saw a leader. It did not matter if he was gay or straight, Malay   or Iban, Muslim or Bahai – he was hope. And that little sliver of hope kept a   torn nation together, in fevered anticipation. We dared to hope, we dared to   dream once again. And the dream was so beautiful.

The dream was   intermittently shattered by brutality and force of the oppressors – I saw   frail Tian Chua beaten up, abused and manhandled. But that frail man was only   frail in body , but an unstoppable juggernaut in heart and spirit.They beat   him, he got up. And he got up more times than they could push him down. Where   Karpal, Kit Siang , Patto had gone to jail and given up many privileges to   remain steadfast in their beliefs, Tian Chua gave his body, took the beatings   and soldiered on. They taught me the real meaning of sacrifice – to not just   talk the talk , but to walk the walk.

Anwar Ibrahim,   was just like those men I mentioned above – just that he started on the other   side of the fence, and had it easier than Patto, Karpal or Kit Siang. But   everyone deserves a second chance and Anwar Ibrahim has proven to me, by the   sheer volume of torture, slander and injustice meted out by BN and still not   buckling to their pressure – that he has my vote to be the change I have been   wanting for as long as I can remember.

My father, Patto, Kit Siang, Karpal, Tan Chee Koon, Guan Eng, Tian   Chua, Anwar and many others who speak without fear or favour – they have   shaped my character. My fighting spirit. The pride I feel   in myself for never needing to grovel for handouts, for always standing on my   own two feet. The way I hold myself up high, look people in the eye and DEMAND   my rights in this country I call home, not shyly whisper for it.

I am no more a   child, I am not afraid of bullies anymore. I am the new generation, a   generation that is part of a global village, who is conditioned not merely by   the environment and politics of this country but by that of a global   community. You can’t fool us with lies. That time is long gone. But you will   watch us roar. And march forward to stake our claim in a country we call home.   We know no other home but this home, and we will fight to make it ours, the   way we want it. We will speak, and not forever hold our breath. And we will   NOT go gently into the night, but rage, rage against the dying   light….

I see millions of   Malaysians in youtube videos, who must feel like me, waving flags with fire in   their eyes, passion in their souls, hoping for a change.

I am 44 years   old. I was born into BN rule. And I don’t want to die under BN rule.

My country, my   people and I deserve more than this. And I hope to see the men who made me,   and men and women like them, be given the chance to bring back pride, soul,   spirit and hope to the disenfranchised youth. To create more young men and   women like me to go on and carry the torch for a future we can proudly leave   behind for our children.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 7:21 am and is filed under
nation building
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Why, Prime Minister?

by Zaid Ibrahim

May 14, 2013

I have never seen as many vile and seditious statements invading the public sphere as I have in this past week. We’ve had Utusan Malaysia provoking the Chinese for rejecting the Barisan Nasional and UMNO leaders labeling non-UMNO Malays as greedy and easily misled. An academic suggested the abolishment of vernacular schools to encourage unity among the races and an old “historian” said that the Chinese are not actually keen on unity. To cap it off, a retired Court of Appeal judge practically made a call for “restoring” Malay rights and dignity by whatever means.

I never realised that retired judges are also involved in part-time politics, although I believe this case to be a serious aberration.  In the meantime, have we heard anything from the Prime Minister expressing regret for these statements? Perhaps a promise to take some action to stop this dangerous game of provocation? None whatsoever; in fact, he defended Utusan by saying Chinese newspapers are playing the same game.

Is this the kind of Prime Minister we want? Certainly not. I have been very patient with him, as have so many Malaysians.  We have always given him extra room to breathe because we thought he was surrounded by the worse ultras in UMNO. We allowed him to dabble in “double speak” because we thought it was necessary for him to maintain his equilibrium as UMNO President. But enough is enough. This man has to go. He is afraid to do the right thing for the country. His 1Malaysia is a sham. I blame him for allowing this mad, racist frenzy to pander to UMNO delegates so he can retain power at the party elections at the end of the year.

His conduct is inexcusable.
 If he wants to deal with a challenge from his No 2, he need not appear to be more Malay than Muhyuddin.  There is no need to unleash the keris and Utusan or to get all these half-baked Malay leaders to spout hate.  His mentor Dr Mahathir has given him all the ammunition he needs. UMNO is the only political party in the world where a Supreme Council decision can override any provision in its own Constitution (hard to believe but it’s true). Even the Chinese Communist party does not have this provision. So all the Prime Minister has to do is get the Supreme Council to pass a resolution prohibiting any challenge to his position. With his men intact in the Supreme Council (both elected and appointed by him), there would be no contest for the party presidency. Even if this resolution is “flawed” it could not be challenged in court. Dr Mahathir has made sure of that. With the amendment to the Federal Constitution and the Societies Act, the Court no longer has any power of judicial review of decisions made by political societies.

So why engage in this song-and-dance that can irreparably damage racial and religious harmony in the country, when all you want is another five years at the helm? UMNO delegates are easily managed if their leader has the means to address their concerns. They are not terribly difficult to deal with.  Just ask Dr Mahathir.  So please, spare innocent Malaysians your UMNO gamesmanship—we want peace and harmony, not hate politics.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 6:24 am and is filed under
Mahathir
,
Media
,
Muhyiddin Yassin
,
Najib Razak
,
nation building
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


You are racist if you are not racist

 — conspiracytheor1st

The Malaysian Insider

May 19, 2013

MAY 19 — You will never read from anywhere that brand Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King as racists.

Abraham Lincoln pawned his life to fight against the enslavement of the African Americans, Nelson Mandela traded decades of his freedom to free South Africa from the shackles of the Apartheid policy and Martin Luther King paid for his life for the equal rights of Americans. Their detractors could call them any vile names they wished but never as a racist.

Only in Malaysia, the very people who do not condone racism and voted against it are labeled as racists. Over the decades, Umnno, led by Dr. Mahathir and his armada of mass media had been accusing DAP with its vision of “Malaysian Malaysia” as a bigoted political party, hell-bent to destroy the Malay.

The rakyat particularly the IT savvy urban-dwellers who ironically voted for the multiracial parties from Pakatan Rakyat in GE13 were branded as racists because they rejected the race-based political system where every race fights endlessly to defend their respective rights.

To put things into perspective, could anyone imagine any American being branded as racist if they do not endorse Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization?

For a record, DAP has a total of 2 Malay lawmakers representing the party, (Malay from MCA = 0, Malay from MIC = 0). The number of Indian and Sikh representatives from DAP amounts to 14 at state level and 6 at parliament level (MIC state assemblymen = 6, members of parliament = 4).

Talk about DAP being a Chinese chauvinist party, their Indian and Sikh representation is 2 times of MIC!

As for PAS, the party even has a Chinese Muslim state assemblyman in Kelantan and fielded a Chinese Christian in Ayer Hitam. Not to mention PKR is very evenly represented by all ethnics including the Kadazan-Dusun ethnic from Sabah.

So the question is, exactly how many non-Malays represented Umno and Malays represented MCA and MIC? Your calculation is as good as mine – NONE.

Now, where is the racism element in Pakatan Rakyat, specifically DAP?

What about BN endorsement of the far right groups such as Perkasa and Hindraf, both which were rejected by the rakyat? What about the racist remarks from an ex-judge and a pro-chancellor of a university? What about the call by various far right NGOs to boycott Chinese products? Najib do you have the courage to make a stand these nonsense?

Come post election, our very Prime Minister set the racial persecution ball rolling by coining the term of “Chinese Tsunami”. The accusation of Chinese voted along the racial line become more raucous by days with attacks spearheaded by none other than Utusan.

Excuse me, didn’t the Chinese voted overwhelmingly for Rafizi Ramli in Pandan against a MCA candidate? I am sure had Khalid Samad from PAS contested in the Chinese majority Seputeh constituent which was won by Teresa Kok with super majority in the last general election, he would have won handsomely too, even if he was up against the president of MCA!

The highlight of the Malaysian political black comedy must go to the recent fiasco resulted by remark from Azran Osman Rani, the CEO of AirAsiaX who stated that “I am Malaysian. I am anti-racism. I am disgusted by Utusan’s editorial stance” – a statement apparently defending the Chinese community from the continued racism attack in the media.

Now he is branded by his detractors from being arrogant, ungrateful, someone who has forgotten his root to a racist by some blogspot!

Only in Malaysia, you are racist if you are not racist.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 May 2013, 11:26 pm and is filed under
DAP
,
MCA
,
Pakatan Rakyat
,
PAS
,
PKR
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


10 things Anwar must do

P Gunasegaram

Malaysiakini

May 17, 2013

QUESTION TIME
By now the cabinet has been appointed and while there are fresh faces, no one I have spoken to expects any drastic changes from the norm especially as Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is bound to face pressure from Umno delegates at the forthcoming Umno general assembly.

We seem to be going from one election to another and delaying much needed change accordingly. And as everyone knows by now, Umno delegates don’t at all represent the common voice of the Malays but posture to make it appear as if they do.

Thus it was that when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi got a massive mandate from the people in the 2004 elections, obtaining over 90 percent of parliamentary seats, he refrained from taking measures he promised because his advisers told him there will be a backlash from Umno delegates.

Ah, well, history repeats itself, especially when you don’t learn from it, and one can expect the pressures from within Umno to stop any push towards major change which will benefit the country as a whole without descending into the morass of race, religion and language.

For Pakatan Rakyat, very much still in opposition, the fight continues in earnest. But if it wants to wrest Putrajaya from Barisan Nasional, there are a number of things it has to do and its de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim will have to bear these in mind.

Pakatan would have made much more headway in the elections just past if they had focused on even half of this. But no matter, there is always still time and it is necessary to build on the gains if Malaysians are to see the two-party system emerge.

To my mind, a two-party system emerges only when there has been at least one change of power. That has not happened yet and here is our list of 10 things that Anwar must do if he wants a fair chance of Pakatan forming the next government.

This follows upon our list of 10 things that Najib must do if he wants BN to win again which we highlighted last week.

1. Accept the election results or challenge it in court soon

The elections are over. We all know about election fraud. If there is any, pull out the evidence and take it to the courts. Or forever remain silent and move on to the future. Yes, by all means take steps to stop gerrymandering if you can but there is no point lamenting endlessly that some constituencies have many times the number of constituents than others. Take over government and change that.

2. Stop the 505 rallies

There is no point going around the country complaining about election fraud now. If it’s the intention to  mobilise effort, it is much better to do so later when Pakatan has reorganised itself along the lines we have suggested. Then it will serve a purpose because you can tell the people what Pakatan is going to be doing in terms of the next elections and get their buy-in and support.

3. Focus on the next election

The question on most people’s lips post-election is: What now for Pakatan? How is it going to win the next election? That’s what the focus should be for Pakatan – the next election and how it plans to win it. Obviously it can’t win without support from Sabah or Sarawak and obviously it can’t win without more support from rural areas in peninsular Malaysia. That will be the two points Pakatan must address plus hold on to current seats.

4. Devise a strategy for Sabah and Sarawak

Clearly the Sabah and Sarawak strategy is not so great. Contesting under the banners of peninsular parties in the eastern states is a recipe for disaster outside of the handful of highly urbanised areas. There is a great need for grassroots organisation and for people who can work that. That can come only from local people and local parties.

Pakatan needs to find such people and parties, not easy, yes, but impossible to make inroads otherwise. They wasted five years earlier, better not waste another five.

Here’s something that can be promised Sabah and Sarawak if Pakatan comes to power – a deputy prime minister (say two-and-a-half years each) from the two states.

5. Think about reaching out more to the rural areas

Yes, BN won with less than the popular vote, yes Pakatan had the majority of votes but everyone knows about rural seats being smaller in terms of number of constituents. It’s been that way always with changes to the federal constitution to make the difference worse.

So what is Pakatan doing to get the rural vote? Bad government is out as Kedah has shown. PKR needs to work the ground much more, while DAP and PAS need to widen their appeal to different communities instead of steadfastly remaining in their own pockets of strength. If rural votes are over-represented it makes good strategic sense to go and put more efforts there.

6. Announce the candidates list for the next election now

Pakatan needs drastic change too. Why not make the bold and unprecedented move of announcing their entire slate of candidates – state and parliamentary seats – say six months from now and by as much as four-and-a-half years before the next election. That will give all their candidates a long enough time to work the constituency and for the aspiring wakil rakyat to shake hands with his constituents at least once before elections.

Imagine the kind of competitive advantage that a move like that will give Pakatan and the kind of opportunity to work the ground, which will be the key determinant of the results of the next election.

7. Announce a full shadow cabinet at federal and state level

Follow up number six above with an announcement of the full state and federal cabinet line-up, including for prime minister and deputy prime minister/s and chief ministers. That is a fantastic way to keep the current government in check by offering constructive criticism, suggestions and where necessary brickbats for measures that may be taken.

That also signals to the general public that there is enough cohesiveness in the opposition coalition to form a viable, reasonable government. Do these two within six months.

8. Spell out in one clear voice how you will be different

Really, we can’t have PAS saying it wants an Islamic state and hudud and DAP talking of a Malaysian Malaysia. Focus on the common things that everyone wants and think about what it is the people themselves want. And think about what is right and wrong from a moral and ethical point of view. Evolve this common platform, everyone stick with it and move on and away from these contentious issues between the coalition partners.

The trick is to take a common stance on substantive issues and where there is little likelihood of a change in positions, simply compromise. PAS is not likely to get hudud and the official religion will be Islam nevertheless – just live with that. To go into an election with mixed messages is dangerous for everyone.

9. Make a clear stance on corruption and education

After the last election, Anwar promised to overthrow an elected government with a majority of 28 seats by getting frogs to jump parties. That’s clearly wrong. Take a firm stance against both criminal and moral corruption and stick with it come what may. The moral compass must always point in the right direction.

Similarly, education is not to be played around with for political purposes as has been done in the past. Indications are clear that most Malaysians want the quality of English to improve, for instance. Yet, Pakatan has not supported the teaching of Maths and Science in English in a clear concession to pressure groups. Good education must not be compromised for political expediency.

10. Work with the government where you can

There are times when the government does good things. There is much to support in the government and economic transformation programmes. Where it is good, there is no harm but every benefit in supporting it wholeheartedly.

Pakatan should seek to work together with the government actively and cultivate good relations with the federal government for the benefit of the three states it controls. So long as it does not compromise on its own, hopefully high ideals and principles, that should be fine.

If Pakatan assiduously puts these suggestions into practice, then it has a better than even chance of winning the next time around, especially if Najib does nothing about his list of 10.

——————————————————————————–

P GUNASEGARAM is founding editor of KiniBiz. He says the hope for change must always spring eternal in the human breast, with apologies to Alexander Pope.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 7:12 am and is filed under
Anwar Ibrahim
,
Pakatan Rakyat
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.