Malay problem root of nation’s problem

AB Sulaiman

Malaysiakini

Jan 6, 11

COMMENT

About a year and a bit ago, the Old Boys’ Association of the Royal Military College otherwise known as ‘Old Putras’ organised an evening of discourse.

The forum noted that the Malaysian people were fragmented, the economy at a virtual standstill, and democracy eroded by dictatorship, returning feudalism, and theocracy. Those present wanted to analyse the degeneration and like good citizens we were to come up with some solutions.

It was then that one speaker, Mohd Dahan if I remember correctly, who stood up to say, “Solve the Malay problem, and you solve the country’s problem.” Now we are in the first month of the second decade of the 21st century, the ring of truth in his statement still prevails.

But at this time, 53 years after independence and 10 years to becoming a high-income country, it appears we are still embedded deep in a long list of unsolved national problems, with many getting worse than before.

Here are but some of them: A restive and fragmented population, high migration rate, poor rate of growth, broken public institutions like education and the judiciary, high crime rate, degenerating personal and public morality, price increases, inflation, and a generally authoritative, intimidating and arrogant government. Our comparative indices with other countries like in areas of transparency, human rights, education, are all on the downward swing.

And corruption, the perennial social cancer, taking place at the highest possible level, involving amounts that would make Carlos Slim (currently the richest man in the world according to Forbes) and Bill Gates almost poor by comparison.

Hope lies eternal, so let’s see whether we can try to solve at least some of the national problems, by first solving some Malay problems, for this coming year.

But first, what exactly is the ‘Malay problem’?

Unable to break the inertia

My observation of this matter stemmed from the collective Malay lack of knowledge and of modern technical skills and thereby negatively reflected in the country’s wealth distribution scenario.

In 1957 the record books indicated that Malay economic involvement was no more than at a paltry 2 percent. This is not good at all as viewed and agreed on by the founding fathers and every meaningful citizen of whatever ethnic background.

Since then the Malays have been given all opportunities to be more fruitfully involved in the country’s economic activities. In 1970, a name was given to this ground-breaking exercise known as social engineering under the New Economic Policy.

Lavishly-funded government policies and programmes were introduced to even the playing field for Malay incursion into the national economy.

But try as they might, the Malays could not manage to break the inertia and achieve any planning targets. (Please spare me the need to repeat even some of the details for they have been pretty well and regularly documented by proponents, supporters and critics alike.)

This was to me the first time the Malay problem surfaced. It’s that the perception that Malay economic backwardness (and ‘problem’) is solely economic in its cause and could largely be solved under the NEP.

In fact its architect, Abdul Razak Hussein (right), asked for 20 years for the project implementation; surely thinking that this period was enough to see the Malay through.

Sadly, history has indicated there has been a fundamental flaw in this presumption. In reality, his economic ineptitude being one, but far more is his psychological or mental deficiency.

Psychological or mental? Yes. He has this innate inability to realise that upon independence the country was morphing progressively into a new era: From old to new, rural to urban, agrarian to manufacturing, ancient to modern. From a life aligned with nature and the natural featured by myth, magic, miracle and mystery, to one surrounded and led by technical principles and science. It was an era of change.

Change requires a few mental subtleties. First there must be awareness or consciousness of the advent of change, and second, it requires a willingness to adapt to it. Without these two, any change is but a natural progression. The mind must therefore be equipped to be conscious and be aware of change. This is what the Malay did not have.

Ketuanan Melayu

History tells us that the Malay has not been able to produce the thinking faculty to recognise the coming of change to begin with. Hardly surprising therefore for him to show an inability to adapt at the appropriate time. He has no ability to accept and adapt to change.

So this is to me the root of the ‘Malay problem’.

This inability to change again to me reflects the inner features and characteristics of Malay thinking:

i) It is ethnocentric: it believes in the superiority of its own type over all other types.

ii) It is non-scientific: it believes in not yet ascertained truth and in non-provable ones.

iii) It is quick in denial.

iv) It is not aware of its mistakes.

They would produce the following end-product or behaviour patterns:

v) The Malay is a superior race.

vi) Islam is the one and only religion that gets approval from God Almighty.

vii) These are irrefutable truths.

viii) Anyone denying the above is a traitor to the race and an apostate to religion.

Items (i) to (iv) indicate that the Malay is racially conscious and highly religion bound. Items (v) to (viii) reveal his racism and religious tendencies. They in turn at least partially explain the favourite Malay ideology ‘untuk agama, bangsa dan negara’.

They have also been personified by the ketuanan Melayu entity, and giving rise to the Perkasa movement.

Doubters to this contention might wish to counter check: Are ketuanan Melayu and Perkasa not ethnocentric? They are for championing ‘Malay rights’ when the constitution says it’s only Malay ‘special privileges’.

They are also non-scientific for championing Islam, or at least the government-approved version of Islam: Sunni sect, Imam Shafie line, and until recently, Islam Hadhari variety.

Who then are ketuanan Melayu members? To me, the ketuanan Melayu entity comprises those who generally harbour the eight features just mentioned above. As individuals they are:

i) The ruling party members, especially Umno leaders;

ii) The civil servants running the government machinery;

iii) The officers and personnel running government agencies like the police, military, customs, immigration, etc.;

iv) The ulama whose job is to protect and propagate Islam;

v) Political chiefs aspiring to get to the top of the party ladder.

It’s eerie to think the obvious – that this list would net almost the entire educated, urban, middle class, Malay population. And they are the embodiment of the Malay problem!

In other words, the root, core, essence of the Malay problem is the Malay collective culture!

Shameful performance

How has this collective culture been performing as the top leaders and managers of the country? Well, unless I am grossly wrong, you can’t create something good out of something rotten. Ketuanan Melayu (i.e. racism and religious fundamentalism) to me is something definitely rotten. So Malay supremacy has been able to create in the last decade or so the following:

a) Bending the laws to suit Malay interests. In this case the constitution has been amended a record 40 times (with 650 individual amendments) since 1957. Compare this with the US that has amended its constitution about 27 times since its founding. Or, Singapore, four times. Racism is institutionalised in this country!

b) Breaking the thin line between Syariah and civil laws. The supremacy of the constitution has been eroded.

c. Breaking down of institutions like the check and balance features of democratic governance. Democracy is all but dead. Have the periodic general elections, and that’s it, democracy is observed. Whatever happens in between is another matter altogether.

d) The flagrant use of lies, deceit, hooliganism on the part of the ruling elite against its own people. There is this massive breaking down of individual and public morality.

There are countless thousands of others.

We come back to Dahan’s wisdom. Now that we have re-acquainted ourselves with the Malay problem, how do we go about solving it?

This is no easy task for the obstacles are enormous. On the one side we have a people under the ketuanan Melayu ambit digging deep into the fortress of race and religion and not at all ashamed to use the political power available at its disposal. To the Malay, the saying that the ends justify the means is enshrined in gold.

The government and ketuanan Melayu are not about to let go easily. They are deep in the quagmire of lies, deceit, corruption, even sin and criminality. Only by them staying in power will they be able to prevent the law from taking its course.

On the other side we have the 21st century world demanding a 21st century open and flexible mind. Some of them are: Technical ability, professionalism, openness, honesty, fairness, justice, morality, transparency, responsibility, accountability and integrity.

Solutions

Whatever programme we have to solve the Malay problem, two elements must be present: The secularisation of the Malay mind and the restoration of basic human rights to the peoples of Malaysia.

It has to be repeated that it won’t be easy.

But hope against hope, the government must restore power to the people; the ulama must come to terms with universal realities. Civil servants too should reorient their thinking to serve the people rather than the politicians.

And the people, the average Malay down the road, must come to realise that the world is not an oyster, that individualism is the key to any personal or national development.

How can all these be achieved? Thinking influences behaviour – the ketuanan Melayu Malay mind must change from its ethnocentricity and non-scientific features to one of openness, fairness, rationality and respect for other men.

Develop the sense of the individual in him. Secularise Malay thinking. Open his closed mind. Go for secular education. Teach philosophy in schools. Do not teach children about religion until they are able to think for themselves.

Do anything to make the Malay more receptive for change. Then perhaps we can begin to solve the Malay problem, in 2011 and onwards.

AB SULAIMAN is an observer of human traits and foibles, especially within the context of religion and culture. As a liberal, he marvels at the way orthodoxy fights to maintain its credibility in a devilishly fast-changing world. He hopes to provide some understanding to the issues at hand and wherever possible, suggest some solutions. He holds a Bachelor in Social Sciences (Leicester, UK) and a Diploma in Public Administration, Universiti Malaya.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 7 January 2011, 12:34 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia slips down Democracy Index

Aidila Razak

Malaysiakini

Jan 6, 11

Malaysia has taken a slight tumble down the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2010 Democracy Index, slipping three places to number 71 out of 167 countries, with its overall score dropping from 6.36 points in 2008 to 6.19 last year.

This places Malaysia squarely in the “flawed democracy” category, along with 52 other countries that received overall scores of between 6 and 7.9 out of a maximum of 10 points.

Flawed democracies are countries that have “free and fair elections” and respect “basic civil liberties”, but face “problems such as infringements on media freedom”.

Such countries also have “significant weaknesses in other aspects of democracy, including problems in governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation”, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) index shows.

The score is an average of points garnered in five different categories: electoral processes and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning government, political participation and political culture.

Scoring is based on expert assessment and public opinion surveys through the World Values Survey, Eurobarometer surveys, Gallup polls, Asian Barometer, Latin Barometer, Afrobarometer and national surveys, as well as voter turnout and predominance of the legislative branch over the executive.

The EIU recorded concern over political participation and civil liberties in Malaysia, giving these categories fairly poor scores of 5.56 and 5.88 points respectively.

However, Malaysia pulled a respectable 6.79 points for a functioning government, while its electoral processes received 6.5 points and political culture scored slightly lower at 6.25.

The EIU describes the the political situation in Malaysia as a “fierce political tussle” between BN and Pakatan Rakyat, which it expects to continue in the near future.

Media freedom wanting

Political cultures in Asia, it notes, are “often underdeveloped and shallow”, even in countries considered to be democracies.

Special mention was made of the deterioration of media freedom in Malaysia, placing it beside Fiji, Sri Lanka and Thailand, where there is “often pressure on the independent media”.

“The reasons for this decline are complex and varied. Underlying negative trends appear to have been exacerbated by the post-2008 economic crisis.

“Many governments have felt increasingly vulnerable and threatened, and have reacted by intensifying their efforts to control the media and impede free expression,” the report states.

Topping the index is Norway, with an overall score of 9.8, while South Korea leads Asia in the index at 20th spot, with 8.11 points.

Southeast Asia’s youngest nation Timor Leste leads the region at number 42 (7.22 points) while Thailand comes up tops among Asean countries at 57th spot (6.55) followed by Indonesia, which is ranked 60th (6.53).

Nevertheless, Malaysia trumped Singapore by 19 places. With a dismal 5.89 points, the island-state was ranked 82nd,, making it to the “hybrid regime” where “elections have substantial irregularities that often prevent them from being both free and fair”.

Other countries ahead of Malaysia on the index include Botswana (35th at 7.63 points), Papua New Guinea (59th at 6.54 points), Mongolia (64th at 6.36 points) and Namibia (69th at 6.23 points).

                This entry was posted on Friday, 7 January 2011, 10:12 am and is filed under
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Malaysians want a RCI into the cause of Teoh Beng Hock mysterious death and not just a RCI into MACC’s investigation procedures

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and all the Barisan Nasional Ministers have not got the message – what the bereaved family and justice-loving Malaysians want is not just a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the investigation procedures and methods of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) but a Royal Commission of Inquiry to uncover the cause of the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock.

Both the volume and intensity of the call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into cause of Teoh Beng Hock’s mysterious death has increased many fold since the most unsatisfactory “Open Verdict” of the Teoh Beng Hock inquest on Wednesday.

Many Malaysians had in fact expected the worst as to whether Najib would honour his pledge to the Teoh Beng Hock family 18 months ago in July 2009 that “no stone will be left unturned” in finding out the real cause of Teoh’s death.

If Najib is sincere and serious that “no stone will be left unturned” to uncover why Teoh, who  had gone to the MACC headquarters in Shah Alam as a healthy and idealistic political worker, happily looking forward to his impending marriage and unborn child, had ended up as corpse, flung out of the 14th floor of the MACC Headquarters on July 16, 2009, then the next natural and logical step to the “Open Verdict” returned by the TBH inquest would be for the Prime Minister to commission a Royal Commission of Inquiry to probe further into the cause of Teoh Beng Hock’s death following the inquest findings ruling out suicide and the very important testimony on Teoh’s pre-fall injury.

How could Teoh Beng Hock sustain any pre-fall injury at the MACC Hqrs when MACC officers had strenuously denied that they had used any form of physical violence against Teoh or anyone investigated or co-operating with MACC in its investigations?

When speculation circulated after the TBH inquest’s “Open Verdict” on Wednesday that the Prime Minister was mulling the establishment of a RCI following the revelation by the  Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, I was most concerned that the RCI that Najib would be announcing would skip altogether the actual cause of Teoh’s death.

This was why I issued a statement yesterday pointedly reminding Najib that a RCI must not be  just into the MACC’s investigation procedures without pursuing the cause of Teoh’s death as he had announced 18 months ago on 17th July 2009, as any RCI which left open the cause of Teoh death like the verdict of the inquest, would be most unsatisfactory and unacceptable.

It is most regrettable that this reminder had been completely ignored by Najib with his announcement today.

Najib also announced that the Attorney-Genneral Tan Sri Gani Patail is joining the Teoh Beng Hock family in seeking a revision of the Open Verdict of the inquest into Teoh’s death.

The Teoh Beng Hock family is seeking a revision of the “Open Verdict” because a case had been made out at the inquest that Teoh’s death was caused by homicide.

What is the Attorney-General seeking in his revision? Does he agree that the inquest should have returned a verdict death caused by homicide? Or is Gani Patail seeking a revision that the Coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas should have returned a verdict of suicide?

If the Attorney-General is seeking to revise the inquest verdict to one of “death by sucide” instead of ann  Open verdict, is this the position of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Ministers?

The Coroner had made the important finding on Teoh’s prefall neck injury, which is testimony that Teoh had been subjected to rough treatment and physical violence at the hands of MACC officers at the MACC headquarters, despite MACC denials of torture or violence in any form.

What Gani Patail should have done is to have exercised his powers and duties under the law to take action and direct the police to initiate investigations against those MACC officers who must be held responsible for Teoh’s prefall neck injury and to get to the bottom of the truth about  the relationship of Teoh’s prefall injury to his death.

Gani Patail can act under Section 339(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code which provides that the Public Prosecutor may direct the reopening of “such inquiry and to make further investigation” when it appears to the Public Prosecutor that “further investigation is necessary” at the close of an inquest – a strong case which had been made by the Coroner’s finding on Teoh’s prefall injury.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 7 January 2011, 4:51 pm and is filed under
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Sarawak activists, lawyer detained ahead of polls

by
Keruah Usit

Malaysiakini

Jan 7, 11

Police detained four activists and confiscated ‘seditious’ CDs and VCDs containing video and audio recordings of TV Sarawak Bebas and Radio Free Sarawak late last night in Kuching and Miri in what appears to be coordinated arrests.

Kuching-based land rights activist and Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) secretary Nicholas Mujah and Miri-based land rights lawyer and activist Abun Sui Anyit were both detained by Kuching and Miri police respectively.

The duo had their statements taken by the police. The other two, who were arrested by police in Kuching but without their statements taken, were social activist Ong Boon Keong and Sadia staff Nikodemus Singgai.

Six Home Ministry officials and a team of Special Branch officers raided Sadia office just past midnight and confiscated about 1,200 of CDs and VCDs. Also confiscated were two compact disc burners and some promotional leaflets.

Mujah, Singgai and Ong were subsequently taken to the Satok police station in Kuching.

A few hours later, Mujah was transferred to the Home Ministry office in Kuching for questioning after the confiscated materials were recorded at the Satok police station.

He was told that he is being investigated under Section 6 of the Film Censorship Act.

While he was not charged, Mujah was required to return to the police station in one month’s time. The trio was finally able to head home at dawn, around 5.30am.

Prominent Kuching-based land rights lawyer See Chee How was present during the raid at Sadia office and accompanied those arrested by the police until all were released.

Lawyer intercepted at Miri airport

Meanwhile in Miri, Anyit was stopped by a group of police officers at the Miri airport at 8.30pm as he arrived from Kuching early last evening.

Anyit was said to be carrying about 200 similar CDs and VCDs as he was stopped by police and was told that they suspected the materials were seditious.

He was then taken to the Miri police station and had his statement taken. He was told that he was being investigated under section 4(1) of the Sedition Act and had been told to appear in court later today.

Anyit was eventually released on police bail and allowed to leave at around 3am.

Speaking to Malaysiakini this morning, Anyit, a PKR member, said that12 police officers had come to arrest him and that he was questioned about his political and work activities.

“They also asked about my parents, siblings and son… this has nothing to do with the CDs. I believe that this is politically motivated,” he said, adding that he is expected to be charged in court on Feb 7.

‘TV Sarawak Bebas’ is a DVD-based media targeting Sarawak’s vast rural communities.

It has recorded several stories from the rural communities on their fight to defend their land rights and about the abject living conditions.

‘Radio Free Sarawak’ is an independent station which started its daily broadcast on Nov 16 last year and sources its news from the expose-website Sarawak Report as well as from Sarawak activists and communities defending land rights and against abuses by the Sarawak BN government under long-time Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, who is popularly known as RPK, is a regular commentator on the radio programme.

Sarawak state election must be held before July 2011 and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat is mounting the most serious challenge yet to Taib Mahmud, who is facing mounting calls to quit after Sarawak Report exposes incidences of corrupt practice on a massive scale.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 7 January 2011, 12:44 pm and is filed under
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A gun for hire I am not

By
Tunku Abdul Aziz

8.1.2011

One of the crucial qualifications required of a politician, even one subsisting on the fringe of the magic circle such as I, is a capacity to develop a thick hide, quickly, to absorb, withstand and endure cheerfully the innuendos, aspersions and imputations of improper motives, that will assuredly come his way whatever he does, says or writes.

Although I am much the same person that I was before I made a conscious personal decision to throw in my lot with the DAP, I am today viewed with a degree of suspicion.

Some of my readers believe that I write as a party propagandist, yet others are of the view that I should refrain from commenting on the shortcomings of the Pakatan Rakyat, and worse, I should not say anything that might cast a shadow on my own party image.

I write as an independent columnist and comment on issues of the day as I see them, motivated not by sycophancy, as accused by a New Straits Times leader writer and others of his ilk or out of a misguided sense of loyalty to my own party, no matter what.

I despise anything that smacks of the putrid odour of decaying doctrinaire with its cultivated blindness to the importance of critical thinking. I am not a party political spin doctor. For that you must turn to APCO.

Last week when my article on the ban imposed by the Selangor state government on the use of the 1Malaysia logo on advertising material, I was inundated with hostile reactions which led me to conclude that the Age of Reason, at least in political terms, has bypassed Malaysia. “My party right or wrong” must have no place in the larger reckoning of our plan for Malaysia.

As for airing my party sensitive criticisms “through proper channels”, my detractors need to be reminded that I comment as an independent writer, and not as a party hack.

My own stand on 1Malaysia is on record. I have opposed it from day one, not because it had come out of the fertile imagination of Najib, or out of a strong uncontrollable doctrinal madness to oppose it for its own sake, but I did not believe that without his spelling out the social, political and economic policy underpinnings, it could amount to anything at all. He has not succeeded in convincing anyone that at the core of 1Malaysia is equal opportunity for all.

1Malaysia is not altogether without any virtue: racial unity is a perfectly honourable and desirable aspiration, but what we are waiting to hear from Najib is his elucidation in the clearest possible terms how he proposes to shift 1Malaysia from the aspirational to the practical.

For me, on the basis of what Najib has articulated so far, 1Malaysia must perforce remain in the realm of sloganeering.

On the level of the abstract, 1Malaysia is fine, but after more than a half-century of Merdeka, let us get to grips with what we all really want in the long term to ensure the sustainability of our multiracial society.

1Malaysia as 1Malaysian Malaysia offers a greater chance of success and will have the overwhelming support of all true Malaysians who regard Malaysia as their home and the object of their love and loyalty. It is a bold step to take now, and not committing to doing what is just and fair is not an option.

It is a brave new world out there and we must be in the mainstream of the new movement for progress, peace and prosperity grounded in basic principles of fairness, justice and equity for all the people of Malaysia. Without this commitment to social change, Malaysia will never be in a position to realise its full potential.

Let me make a public declaration of my status in view of the continuing debate on whether a person is Chinese, Malay, Indian, or whatever our race, is first or Malaysian first. I am Malay in cultural terms just as a Chinese cannot be anything but Chinese culturally. Malaysian is a political term and has nothing to do with any culture because you cannot by any stretch of the imagination claim that there is a Malaysian cultural tradition. There is none.

That having said, what is important is to do in our daily lives what is in the best interests of our country. Malaysian first is no better than 1Malaysia unless we are willing to make a commitment to subordinate our natural instincts to preserve our Malayness or Chineseness and submit ourselves to the higher and nobler cause and demands for a 1Malaysian Malaysia.

Therein lies the future of this great country. Are we up to the challenge?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 8 January 2011, 5:51 pm and is filed under
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Cabinet next week must ensure Teoh Beng Hock’s death does not end up as  “a heinous crime without criminals”

More than 25 years ago, the term “heinous crime without criminals” referred to the first biggest financial scandal in the country, the RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal – when no  one was held criminally responsible in the country for the financial malpractices, abuses of power and gross breach of criminal trust even though it claimed one innocent life, the cold-blooded murder of the young BMF Asst General Manager in Hong Kong,  Jalil Ibrahim.

The Cabinet next week must ensure that Teoh Beng Hock’s mysterious death at Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Hqrs in Shah Alam 18 months ago on July 16, 2009 does not end up as a “heinous crime without criminals” following Wednesday’s  Open Verdict of the inquest into Teoh’s death.

MCA President Datuk Dr. Chua Soi Lek has expressed full support for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s announcement on the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry, saying that the move showed that the Government was transparent and sensitive to the case.

This statement is testimony that the MCA President is completely insensitive to the sense of despair, outrage and consternation, felt not only by the bereaved and aggrieved members of the Teoh Beng Hock family that their 18-month  agonizing wait for justice and closure had been in vain with the “Open Verdict” of the Teoh Beng Hock inquest, but that of the ordinary Malaysians as well.

Can Chua explain how the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry specifically excluded from investigating the cause of Teoh’s death but only confined to the investigation procedures of MACC could help in uncovering the cause of Teoh’s death – taking a further step in pursuing the inquest finding excluding suicide as the cause of Teoh’s death and the important finding of Teoh’s prefall neck injury?

The MCA and all other Ministers next Wednesday must ensure that the Royal Commission of Inquiry is not a farce, not only in terms of reference and scope of investigations but also in membership – a RCI that Malaysians want and not one which started off without credibility or public support whatsoever.

Will MCA Ministers agree if  the Attorney-General’s objective is to seek a revision of the “Open Verdict” of the Teoh Beng Hock inquest to revise it to one of “death by suicide”?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 8 January 2011, 12:42 pm and is filed under
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Malay contractors association apologises to Guan Eng

By
Himanshu Bhatt

The Sun

Jan 7, 2011

GEORGE TOWN:
The Malay Contractors Association of Malaysia, which has in the past accused Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s administration of marginalising Malay businesses, apologised to him today through a delegation to his office here.

The association’s deputy president Datuk Mohammed Fadzill Hassan, who headed the delegation of about a dozen members, personally tendered his apology to the state government.

He said they wished to cooperate and work along with the administration. Lim responded by describing the new outcome as a “positive turn of events”.

“I hope we can start a new relationship based on facts and not emotion,” he said.

Lim stressed that accusations that Malay contractors were sidelined under the current Pakatan Rakyat government were untrue.

“Malay contractors are able to perform very well, as most of those who have won contracts under the state’s open tender policy are Malays,” he said.

He said that previously, companies won contracts with the state government because of political connection, but now under the Pakatan Rakyat administration, contracts were issued on merit, with considerations given to quality and best pricing.

It is understood that the delegation had also spoken to Lim about retracting the names of 49 contractor members listed in a circular by Lim’s office to all department heads in the state government.

Lim said the state had not blacklisted the any company.

“We only want to ensure that all government contractors are competent and qualified, and not cronies of anyone,” he said at a press conference before the closed-door meeting with the delegation.

In one of his last attacks on Lim in December last year, Mohammed Fadzill, who is also the association’s Penang branch chairman, had alleged that Malay contractors were awarded only state projects of insignificant value.

Lim had responded by showing records that Malay contractors had been given 94% of the state’s Public Works Department (PWD) contracts and all the state’s Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) projects.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 8 January 2011, 10:45 am and is filed under
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Mystery of mass animal death epidemic deepens

Daily Mail

7.1.2011

Thousands of dead turtle doves rained down on roofs and cars in an Italian town in the latest in a growing spate of mass animal deaths across the globe.

Residents in Faenza described the birds falling to the ground like ‘little Christmas balls’ with strange blue stains on their beaks.

Initial tests on up to 8,000 of the doves indicated that the blue stain could have been caused by poisoning or hypoxia.

A witness told www.examiner.com: ‘We have no idea why this happened all of a sudden.

‘The doves just started falling one-by-one then in groups of 10s and 20s.’

Hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, is known to cause confusion and illness in animals. It is also a common precursor to altitude sickness.

Experts said results from tests on the doves will not be available for at least a week.

They said that cold weather could have caused the birds’ deaths as the flock was swept into a high-altitude wind storm before falling to the earth.

It comes after two million dead fish were found to have washed up on shores in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

The alarming find is being blamed by authorities in Maryland on the stress caused by unusually cold water and overbreeding among spot fish.

That investigation comes just days after the deaths of an estimated 100,000 fish in northwest Arkansas, which is being blamed on disease.

A statement by the Maryland Department of the Environment said: ‘Natural causes appear to be the reason.

‘Cold water stress exacerbated by a large population of the affected species (juvenile spot fish) appears to be the cause of the kill.’

Preliminary tests of the water in Chesapeake Bay have showed the quality was acceptable, officials said.

The statement added: ‘The affected fish are almost exclusively juvenile spot fish, three to six inches in length.

‘A recent survey showed a very strong population of spot in the bay this year. An increased juvenile population and limited deep water habitat would likely compound the effects of cold water stress.’

Mass winter deaths among spot fish have occurred twice before in the Maryland area – in 1976 and 1980.

The incident is the latest mass animal death to hit the headlines in the last two weeks.

These include:

    * 450 red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles and starlings found littering a highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

    * 3,000 blackbirds on roofs and roads in the small town of Beebe, Arkansas

    * Thousands of ‘devil crabs’ washed up along the Kent coast near Thanet

    * Thousands of drum fish washed along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River

    * Two million small fish in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland

    * Thousands of dead fish found floating in warm Florida creek

    * Hundreds of snapper fish found dead in New Zealand

    * Scores of American Coots found dead on Texas highway bridge

Experts have speculated that New Year fireworks, thunderstorms, cold weather, parasites and even poisoning may be behind the deaths.

But conspiracy theorists have also speculated on the internet that secret government experiments could be behind them, with some even claiming it was a sign of a looming Armageddon at the end of the Mayan calendar next year.

Another theory is that the rapid movement of the Magnetic North Pole towards Russia may have affected the birds’ innate navigation systems.

Inbuilt navigation systems in birds and fish is believed to be affected by magnetism.

Scientists have said the Magnetic North Pole is shifting at an average of around 25 miles a year.

With birds and fish relying on it to travel to breeding grounds and warmed climes, there are fears that the shifting pole could be confusing the animals which means they do not migrate in time to avoid cold weather.

Tests are being carried out on the dead birds and fish, but results are not expected for several weeks.

Scientists have been baffled by the sudden deaths of hundreds of birds which have plummeted to the ground seemingly simultaneously in several locations.

Two hundred American Coots were found dead on a highway bridge crossing Lake O’ the Pines in Big Cypress Creek, Texas.

They are believed to have been hit by passing vehicles while walking or apparently trying to roost on the bridge.

Swedish experts blamed the shock of New Year fireworks for the unexplained deaths of 50 jackdaws found on a street in Falkoping, Sweden.

Many of the birds are believed to have died from stress or as a result of being run over while disoriented.

The largest incident took place in Beebe, Arkansas, were horrified revellers witnessed around 3,000 blackbirds crashing to their deaths into homes, cars and each other as they celebrated New Year.

Another 450 birds were found strewn along a highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after apparently hitting overhead power lines.

In both cases, the birds are believed to have become confused and were flying at a lower height than usual.

The deaths of tons of fish across the globe is being attributed to unusually cold water.

Thousands of Brazilian fishermen have been left struggling to make ends meet after the sale of seafood was temporarily suspended when masses of fish were discovered in Paranaguá, Antonina and Guaraqueçaba Pontal do Paraná.

Fish were also discovered rotting and floating in Spruce Creek, Florida, after another period of cold weather.

100,000 drum fish were found strewn along the shore of the Arkansas River.

And the cold snap has been blamed for the deaths of 40,000 Velvet swimming crabs – known as ‘devil crabs – found littering beaches in Thanet, Kent.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 8 January 2011, 4:32 pm and is filed under
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“Papa believed in people and principles, not in ideologies and systems” – A tribute to my father, Fan Yew Teng

By
Pauline Fan

Thank you, dear friends, for being here this evening to commemorate the life of my father, a man who touched so many not just by his tenacious commitment to social justice and through his incisive political writings, but also through his warm, radiant, playful personality. 	As my mother and sister have said, we have been deeply moved by the outpouring of love and support, the heartfelt condolences and tributes that have been offered to us during this difficult period. It brings us solace to know that Papa is remembered as a humanist, a patriot, and fighter for political freedom and human dignity. I know Papa would have been pleased to see so many of his friends and comrades here today, so many great men and women who have dedicated their strength, mind, and spirit to fight for a Malaysia for Malaysians.

Papa was a wellspring of strength, joy and laughter in our family. He loomed large in our lives; his presence was indelible, his charisma unmistakable. It is difficult for us to think of Papa as being absent from life, for he was always brimming with life. But in the weeks since his passing, I have come to know Papa differently, perhaps more completely, for the totality of one’s life is illuminated only in death. I know that Papa isn’t really absent at all, that he has simply transformed from ephemeral physical existence to a subtle, perennial presence in our lives. And if his spirit is felt among us more powerfully now than ever, it is because Papa lived and died by what he believed in – his uncompromising principles and deep-seated ideals.

The complex layers of Papa’s personal history have revealed themselves to me over time – from his activism with the National Union of Teachers in the 1960s to his years with the Democratic Action Party, to his tireless writing and activism outside formal politics. Papa’s fighting spirit was irrepressible; even in his hours of political defeat and isolation, he remained convinced that political change was both necessary and possible. Papa believed in people and principles, not in ideologies and systems. I think this is why he was so fascinated by history, the narrative of humanity itself. And he felt it his task, as a citizen and writer, to bear witness to history, to the triumphs and follies of his people, of his country and of his time.

Papa’s personal legacy to me is a passion he cultivated in me since childhood, a passion that shaped my life profoundly through young adulthood and continues to this day to mould who I am and how I relate to the world: an undying love of literature. Papa constantly invoked the spirit of the writers he loved most – George Orwell, James Joyce, Albert Camus among other. He imbibed and lived, in his own flesh and blood, the writer’s life: he wrote only by hand, or on his beloved old typewriter, he smoked a pipe in the style of Bertrand Russell, he read voraciously, and his room was a labyrinth of books, newspapers, magazines.

Papa was urged by an intellectual restlessness that is the mark of all true writers. He believed in the power of the written word to encapsulate the interminable drama of the human spirit, of the individual and society. Like his literary hero the Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Papa believed that literature was the “living memory of a people”. Language and politics were inextricably linked for Papa. His commitment to the written word reflected his conviction that writers had a duty to uphold the integrity of language, to employ it as a weapon of truth against a political rhetoric riddled with lies. It was this belief in the ability of language to speak truth to power that urged Papa to read and write to the very end. I imagine Papa now taking his place among his literary heroes; I imagine him engaging in endless conversations (and arguments) with them, in a place beyond space and time, beyond history, beyond language — a place, in the words of the poet, Yehuda Amichai, “where there is time for everything”.

Note: Eulogy by Sdr Fan Yew Teng’s daughter, Pauline, at memorial tribute service for Sdr Fan in Kuala Lumpur on 5th January 2011

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 8 January 2011, 11:58 am and is filed under
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Where the mind is without fear: A Tribute to my beloved father, FAN YEW TENG

By
Lilianne Fan

I was at my father’s side when he passed away peacefully on 7 December 2010, at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. He had been diagnosed with advanced cancer at the same hospital almost exactly a year ago. Finding words after the loss of one’s beloved father is one of the hardest things to do. And yet, our family has been receiving a healing river of words from near and far, from my father’s many friends and men and women whose lives he had touched through his life. These words have brought us comfort through our grief, and for this we are deeply grateful.

My father was a blessing, an inspiration and an absolute joy. He was deeply loving and devoted to our family. While he had a tendency to sometimes be protective as a father, he was also persistently provocative, incessantly reminding my sister and I to live boldly, to never be afraid of pushing boundaries in the name of our principles and dreams.

Since we were very young, Papa was our principal source of cultural exposure and civilizational education. He introduced us to the music of Edith Piaf and Om Kalsom, the writings of Rabindranath Tagore and Hannah Arendt. His mind was epic and encyclopedic, philosophical and poetic; his historical memory as impressive as his passion for justice was inextinguishable. The shelves, tables and floors of his bedroom and study were always overflowing with books, the walls adorned with portraits of his many heroes— Bertrand Russell, Frantz Fanon, Leo Tolstoy, George Orwell, and Nelson Mandela.

Papa’s deep humanism shaped us from an early age, as did the context into which our lives unfolded. Because he and my mother raised us in an intellectually-, politically- and socially-engaged household, we were exposed early on both to humanity’s creativity and promise, as well as the realities of oppression and injustice.

Papa was through and through a public intellectual. Like the philosophers of Ancient Greece, Papa believed that the hallmark of the citizen was versatility in knowledge and a constant striving for the advancement of one’s political community. He disdained material wealth and believed that, in the words of the Stoic philosopher Seneca,
 “it is the mind which makes men rich”
. He was deeply concerned with the dilemmas of his time, first and foremost in Malaysia, but also internationally. He was fearless and fiercely independent, preferring to stand outside society’s institutions to raise ethical questions and critique from a position of total impartiality.

As we were growing up, we would spend hours with Papa taking long walks around Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh, visiting his favourite second-hand bookshops and coffee-shops, listening to stories of his old schoolmates at Brinsford Lodge, teaching in Kuala Lipis and Tanah Merah, the spirited years with the DAP, and his epic land and sea journey from Port Klang to Madras and New Delhi, through Afghanistan, Iran, and Yugoslavia to join our mother in Cambridge in 1975. Papa would often read us drafts of his articles, fresh off the carriage of his beloved manual typewriter, and these were the primary source of our education on local and international politics. He would also involve us in many of his anti-war campaigns, from his mobilization against the Gulf War, to peace and solidarity activities for Bosnia, East Timor, and Sri Lanka. Papa’s tireless solidarity with struggles for justice and democracy around the world deeply influenced my own work on peace, human rights and international humanitarian law, as it was he who taught me that each of us has a responsibility to speak up against injustice in every manifestation, wherever we may encounter it. When I began working with refugees from Aceh in 1999, Papa was strongly supportive, always ready to participate in a campaign, or to offer me strategic advice and lessons in political history, just as he was when my work later took me to Burma and Haiti.

Even as he mastered the power of the spoken and written word, Papa also grew increasingly to respect the power of the sacred word and prayer. In this sense, he also became a spiritual mentor, whose daily practice taught us in a very direct way the meaning of faith. Until his last days he would make sure that he said a prayer of safe passage for us each time we travelled, even while he was bed-ridden over the past few months. Throughout his illness, Papa would continue to be more concerned by the suffering of others than his own. One day, just a few days after undergoing an operation, he told me, “My dearest, I have seen a world with endless possibilities of freedom, to which most people remain blind. The world would be a better place if people would help to set each other free. Please go and help them.” Even at the heights of his sickness, he never complained about his own condition; he only regretted that his illness limited his ability to defend those still suffering from oppression.

I know that I will always miss each and every moment that we shared together. But what I will certainly miss most are the moments of quiet simplicity, when words were not necessary:

– The mornings when I awoke to find him seated at the garden table, glowing in the gentle sunlight, whistling to the birds who were his constant companions;

– Resting my head upon his chest, feeling his hand stroke my hair gently, knowing that we would protect each other forever;

– Silently watching him each day with the deepest esteem as he would light a tea-candle at the altar in our home, lowering his head in prayer for our family and for the world.

With each day since Papa’s passing, I am coming to realize that surviving the death of a loved one is not about being left behind by the one who has died. Rather, it constitutes the binding of the living and dead to each other, and to the past, present and future, through a continuous act of love. “Survival”, in the words of the late philosopher Jacques Derrida,
“is at once the essence, the origin, and the possibility… (it is) the life beyond life, the life that is more than life… the most intense life possible.”

I miss Papa more than words could ever express. But I know that he is free, that he is at peace, and that he is in the heart of God. We know that he is, and always will be, present with us—protecting, guiding and loving us at every moment. To have had him as a father has been my greatest honour; to be his daughter, my greatest joy. It is with profound reverence that we, his children, inherit his vision and dreams, and assume the responsibility of keeping his legacy alive.

I know it would have been Papa’s hope that every one of us to continue working towards a Malaysian Malaysia, a nation founded on justice, democracy, and accountability to each and every one of its citizens, compassionate to those who seek refuge upon our shores, a model of pluralism in an increasingly divided world. He would have wanted each of us to keep fighting against the blatant inequality and discrimination that have been so entrenched in our legal, political, social and economic institutions; to resist and uproot the decay in our political culture; to keep on walking the long road to justice and true independence. To become a nation, in the words of Rabindranath Tagore:

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

Let us keep this dream alive; let the struggle continue.

Note: Eulogy by Sdr Fan Yew Teng’s daughter, Lilianne, at memorial tribute services for Sdr Fan in Kuala Lumpur on 5th January 2011 and in Ipoh on 6th January 2011

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 8 January 2011, 11:54 am and is filed under
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Malay Rights v Special Position

by
Stanley Koh

Free Malaysia Today

January 9, 2011

COMMENT

 “There are no Malay rights since our Constitution holds dear that all persons are equal before the law and entitled to equal protection of the law without discrimination on the basis of race and religion.”

That was what the late Ghazali Shafie said in a speech at the National Unity Convention in May 2001.

He continued: “What perhaps has come to be regarded as special rights is the special position of the Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak under Article 153 (of the Federal Constitution). The change from ‘position’ to ‘rights’ is frightening. Who did that, I wonder?

“In a plural society like ours, if the leadership was not bold and sincere enough to take corrective measures so that there would be a level playing field, then the situation would indeed be bleak and our society would be a playground for those who wish us ill.”

Born in Kuala Lipis, Ghazali was 88 at the time of his death in January 2010. He had a distinguished career in politics and government.

Many bigots, opportunists and self-serving leaders of today will probably dismiss those remarks on the New Economic Policy as just one man’s opinion. If they are ignorant of history, they may even question his authority.

If Ghazali were alive and facing these critics, he would probably reply in these words, which were part of the speech at the 2001 convention:

“It was Tun Abdul Razak who asked me to devise the NEP after being inspired by Rukunegara.

“The NEP was the fruit of consultations among the various races in the Consultative Committee and later Parliament, who agreed to the corrective measures by invoking affirmative action.”

In explaining affirmative action, he paraphrased Tun Abdul Razak, who likened it to the handicap system in golf, “so that,” he said, “everyone could play together on a level playing field.”

He added: “Almost ad nauseam, it was explained that the NEP was not to make the Malay community rich but to change vocations through affirmative action. To acquire riches is the privilege of any individual and it would be contrary to the Rukunegara if the only aim was to make the Malays rich.”

When he spoke those words, the greed for riches through the NEP had long taken root. Distortions and misinterpretations of the policy had already divided the nation, and our so-called leaders tossed around the word “unity” only when elections were near, and they still do so today.

But unity, if we take it seriously, is indeed the key to resolving the profound problems that the nation faces.

Is “1Malaysia” a call for such unity? Many Malaysians do not think so. They believe instead that it is a red herring meant to deflect attention from the continuation of discriminatory policies.

The thinking public does not buy all the hype about 1Malaysia that BN is pushing through the media organisations it controls. It remains an empty and meaningless slogan.

And, as if oblivious of what the public is saying, 1Malaysia has become a favourite catchword among BN politicians. They tag the slogan to everything, like a chef sprinkling salt in every dish. Do they really think that Malaysians are stupid enough to believe that mere rhetoric can charm them out of their dissatisfactions?

Ghazali was right when he said that our national problem had become complicated because of the kind of education Malaysians were receiving. And nothing has changed since he made that remark 10 years ago.

“We become argumentative over some words without analysis or a look at the semantics,” he said.

And Ghazali was right too when he said: “We don’t seem to care about the fundamental right to food and clothing.”

Critics accuse the Umno-led regime of spending millions of ringgit on decorative rhetoric and ceremonial reforms without making any real effort towards substantive institutional changes that would bring about compliance with democratic principles and respect for human rights and needs.

Ghazali stressed that there could be no lasting unity unless the playing field was level.

He added: “Let us not shift the goal posts when the field is beginning to level. This exercise at maintaining peace and stability must be kept in constant repair.”

Ghazali, once an Umno supreme council member himself, probably had some faith that the party would eventually come to its senses and start to set things right again. If he were alive today, would he still have such confidence?

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 9 January 2011, 4:39 pm and is filed under
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Utusan Malaysia’s daily staple of lies and falsehoods to  stoke communal poison and hatred the greatest disservice to Najib’s 1Malaysia slogan and nation-building

Utusan Malaysia’s
daily staple of  lies and falsehoods to stoke communal poison and hatred, sowing distrust and national disunity, is the greatest disservice to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia slogan and nation-building.

Mingguan Malaysia today is again  at its anti-national worst with its daily diet of lies and falsehoods to poison the political system and undermine the nation-building process when it made the completely wild and baseless charge in  insinuating in its editorial that DAP is working towards the goal of making Malaysia a republic and the abolition of the system of Malay rulers.

In its Sunday editorial
“Iktibar kemelut Selangor”
  by Awang Selamat, Mingguan Malaysia insinuated that the lesson to be learnt from the Selangor crisis is that Malaysia will end up a republic if PKR and DAP’s “rule of Selangor continues”, viz:

“Tetapi iktibar daripada kemelut di Selangor itu ialah jika PKR dan DAP memerintah, lagi banyak berlaku kemudaratan. Yang paling pasti, Malaysia akan berada di ambang republik.”

There is no need for me to reiterate the DAP’s public stand down the decades supporting the system of constitutional monarchy in Malaysia.

What Awang Selamat had insinuated are downright lies and falsehoods scraping the very bottom of gutter journalism.  In seven paragraphs of “Iktibar kemelut Selangor”, Awang Selamat had told more than seven lies in its multiple objective to disseminate communal hatred and ill-will, even attempting to sow discord among the Pakatan Rakyat parties of PKR, DAP and PAS in the Selangor coalition government.

Under Najib’s premiership and presidency of Umno, Utusan Malaysia has fully transformed from a newspaper into a “liespaper”, diametrically opposed to Najib’s objective of promoting an all-inclusive 1Malaysia media!

If Najib and Umno leaders, as well as the leaders of the other Barisan Nasional component parties, whether MCA, Gerakan, MIC or the Sarawak and Sabah component parties, continue to close their eyes to the daily dosage of lies and falsehoods in Utusan Malaysia to carry out its nefarious objective of pumping communal poison, Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region or socio-economic grouping, are entitled  to know what credibility could Najib’s 1Malaysia slogan command whether inside or outside the country.

After 18 months, is there not a single Cabinet Minister, whether Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC or Sabah/Sarawak component parties, who dare to raise in the Cabinet next Wednesday the grave issue of Utusan Malaysia’s hatchet job to discredit and dismantle Najib’s 1Malaysia concept with its daily staple of lies, falsehoods and poison to sow communal discord and national disunity?

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 9 January 2011, 3:16 pm and is filed under
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1Malaysia test of Najib’s Political Transformation Programme – get all BN parties to speak with one voice on 1Malaysia with Utusan Malaysia stop being the biggest enemy of the 1Malaysia concept

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak spoke of his new “transformation” programme after his meeting with Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament on Saturday – political transformation.

Since becoming Prime Minister 18 months ago, Najib has been drumming the “transformation” mantra, with a plethora of alphabet soup like Government Transformation Programme (GTP), Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and now a Political Transformation Programme to gird his signature concept of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now.”

But sadly, the country had never been more divided in the nation’s 53-year history than in the 18 months of Najib’s premiership, highlighting the hollowness and hypocrisy of his 1Malaysia concept, precisely because the loudest voice against Najib’s all-inclusive 1Malaysia concept had come from none other than UMNO’s official organ, Utusan Malaysia, which had been churning out a daily staple of lies and falsehoods to stoke communal hatred and national division.

It is most shocking and outrageous that in the past 18 months, there had been no serious effort to ensure that Utusan Malaysia, as the  Umno’s official organ, should spearhead the 1Malaysia concept instead of being its biggest enemy and detractor with the daily diet of lies and falsehoods poisoning inter-racial and inter-religious relations and fanning national divisions in the country.

Why have the Ministers for instance, not only from Umno, but also from MCA, Gerakan, MIC and Sarawak and Sabah component parties, failed to raise in the Cabinet the gravest challenge and threat to Najib’s 1Malaysia – Utusan Malaysia’s daily lies and falsehoods to stoke communal hatred and illwill and undermine national division?

Apart from the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, is there not a second Cabinet Minister who dare to publicly declare his or her full commitment to the 1Malaysia objective and being a Malaysian first and race, religion, geography and socio-economic grouping second?

Or are all the other Cabinet Ministers in support of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s declaration of being Malay first and Malaysian second – rejecting the 1Malaysia rationale where every Malaysian regards himself or herself as Malaysian first and race, religion, geography and grouping second?

The first test of Najib’s “Political Transformation Programme” is to get all Barisan Nasional leaders and parties to speak with one voice on 1Malaysia with Utusan Malaysia stop being the biggest enemy of the 1Malaysia concept with its daily staple of lies and falsehoods to stoke communal hatred and national division.

Can Najib’s political transformation programme pass this first 1Malaysia test?

                This entry was posted on Monday, 10 January 2011, 1:52 pm and is filed under
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An inspiring chronicle of change

by
Jee Wan

Malaysiakini

Jan 9, 11

When we won the Asian Football Federation Suzuki Cup, our PM declared 31st December a public holiday, claiming to support the 1Malaysia concept of “People First, Performance Now”. Hurrah, hurrah.

But when our PM attended a Christmas celebration at the Catholic Church Archbishop residence, the PMO directive ordered the church officials to remove crucifixes and prohibit them from singing hymns and praying, saying it’s to protect the prime minister’s Islamic credentials.

Here we are shouting 1Malaysia this and 1Malaysia that, but know not how to respect the tradition, culture and beliefs of another religion? What message are we sending out to the public and the world at large? That we are still immature even after 53 years of independence?

That even our own leaders can’t walk the talk?

That’s just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. And our opinion would probably sound very biased to those who only read the mainstream media or who have been constantly reminded and instilled with fear of change.

But seriously; if we want to see improvement and real progress, we need to change. Change the way we think. Change the way we perceive things. Change for the better.

A wise man once said, “He who rejects change is the architect of decay.” So, let this book, ‘March 8: Time for Real Change’, open your mind. Read it and then, tell me and those whom I share my stand with, if we’re biased.

‘March 8: Time for Real Change’, is an upgraded and revised edition of the 2008 original, titled ‘March 8 The Day Malaysia Woke Up’, put together by Kee Thuan Chye.

This edition is divided into 3 sections – Where We Are Now, Back to the Beginning and Where Do We Go from Here, and contains 42 essays altogether.

The ones in Where We Are Now discuss major issues that have happened since March 8, 2008 and reflect on whether the country is better or worse off.

Back to the Beginning consists of essays and interviews selected from the original book, which bring us back to the beginning of March 8, helping us to reflect and learn from our mistakes before moving forward. Lastly, in Where Do We Go from Here, we look forward and reignite hopes for a better future.

Hoping for real change

Spread sporadically throughout the book are comments and opinions shared by Malaysians from all walks of life, young and old, expressing their hopes for real change – each very moving, especially the ones written by determined, hopeful youths.

The essay that brought tugged at our hearts was the one written by Kee (right), titled Merdeka on March 8, which reminded us of what happened three years ago – the joy that spread like wild fire and camaraderie that had the right ingredients for the now 1Malaysia.

Everyone did their part to make a difference. There were those who came back from afar just to cast their votes, those who volunteered to help out at the polls and those who attended the numerous ceramahs during the campaign period, to see change. And change is what we got.

If this can’t convince people that we can make a difference, then I don’t know what can.

There are also brilliant interviews in this compilation. We enjoyed the ones with Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK) that had a rather suggestive title, How Big Are Your Balls? and Steven Gan in We Stand with the Underdogs.

It goes without saying that the interview with RPK is not without some bluntness, wisecracks and Malaysian slang slipping in every now and then. Not only did it tickle us to the core, but it made us ponder on a few things.

We liked what he said about fear. “Once you keep fearing and fearing, everything takut, gangster-lah, takut ini-lah, takut itu, I tell you we will never move forward.” And how can one learn not to be scared? “…set an example, and you get people to join you.”

And we found the last comment he gave in regard to Umno ruling by sheer intimidation, so true. Don’t blame the musang for eating the ayam, because that is its basic instinct. If you want to blame, blame the one who opened the door to let the musang in, i.e. people who gave the power to the parties to do so.

We Stand with the Underdogs, is an interview with Steven Gan, the editor of Malaysiakini, who’s also a dedicated, rare Malaysian journalist. In this interview, Steven shares with us about his experience and challenges working with an independent media.

The second half of this interview focuses on being an underdog and supporting those in the same position. “I think if BN happened to be out of power, we would be standing with them. It is part and parcel of the fact that there has to be some check and balance, and we need to play that role.”

Sweet success

Like many other Malaysians, he too, shared the sweet success of March 8. He said, “I think the most meaningful thing that came out of it is that there can be a change in government without riot”, further proving that we need not fear change, because we can handle change.

This book reminded us that change is possible; that there is hope for a better Malaysia. It helped us recollect what has happened and reignited that fire in us again, to want to make a difference.

Youths and those interested in knowing a little more about politics besides the ones you have read in the mainstream media would appreciate this book, as it gives a clear picture of what we have achieved thus far and what our future holds if we don’t do something about it today.

Please do not to turn a deaf ear and blind eye to politics; it’s not dirty if you’re fighting for peace and justice.

If you’ve never really cared about the future of Malaysia, then ‘March 8: Time for Real Change’ might just make you want to care about it now.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 10 January 2011, 12:48 am and is filed under
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China Rises, and Checkmates

By
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

New York Times

January 8 2011

If there’s a human face on Rising China, it belongs not to some Politburo chief, not to an Internet tycoon, but to a quiet, mild-mannered teenage girl named Hou Yifan.

Ms. Hou (whose name is pronounced Ho Ee-fahn) is an astonishing phenomenon: at 16, she is the new women’s world chess champion, the youngest person, male or female, ever to win a world championship. And she reflects the way China — by investing heavily in education and human capital, particularly in young women — is increasingly having an outsize impact on every aspect of the world.

Napoleon is famously said to have declared, “When China wakes, it will shake the world.” That is becoming true even in spheres that China historically has had little connection with, like chess, basketball, rare earth minerals, cyber warfare, space exploration and nuclear research.

This is a process that Miss Hou exemplifies. Only about 1 percent of Chinese play chess, and China has never been a chess power. But since 1991, China has produced four women’s world chess champions, and Ms. Hou is the one with by far the most promise.

At this point, I have to put my sensitive male ego aside. You see, Ms. Hou gamely agreed to play me after I interviewed her. She had just flown into Beijing after winning the world championship, and she was exhausted — and she shredded me in 21 moves.

Most dispiriting, when I was teetering at the abyss near the end of the game, her coach nudged her and suggested mischievously that we should switch sides. Ms. Hou would inherit my impossible position — and the gleam in her coach’s eye suggested that she would still win.

I protested that I could survive being beaten on the chess board by a schoolgirl. But to be toyed with, like a mouse by a cat — that would be too much. Ms. Hou nodded compassionately and checkmated me a few moves later.

At 14 she became the youngest female grandmaster ever. She’s still so young that it’s unclear just how remarkable she will become.

Women in general haven’t been nearly as good at chess as men, and the world’s top women are mostly ranked well below the top men — but Ms. Hou could be an exception. She is the only female chess player today considered to have a shot at becoming one of the top few players in the world, male or female.

Cynics sometimes suggest that China’s rise as a world power is largely a matter of government manipulation of currency rates and trade rules, and there’s no doubt that there’s plenty of rigging or cheating going on in every sphere. But China has also done an extraordinarily good job of investing in its people and in spreading opportunity across the country. Moreover, perhaps as a legacy of Confucianism, its citizens have shown a passion for education and self-improvement — along with remarkable capacity for discipline and hard work, what the Chinese call “chi ku,” or “eating bitterness.”

Ms. Hou dined on plenty of bitterness in working her way up to champion. She grew up in the boondocks, in a county town in Jiangsu Province, and her parents did not play chess. But they lavished attention on her and spoiled her, as parents of only children (“little emperors”) routinely do in China.

China used to be one of the most sexist societies in the world — with female infanticide, foot binding, and concubinage — but it turned a corner and now is remarkably good at giving opportunities to girls as well as boys. When Ms. Hou’s parents noticed her interest in a chess board at a store, they promptly bought her a chess set — and then hired a chess tutor for her.

Ye Jiangchuan, the chief coach of the national men’s and women’s teams, told me that he played Ms. Hou when she was 9 years old — and was stunned. “I saw that this kid was special,” he told me, and he invited her to move to Beijing to play with the national teams. Three years later she was the youngest girl ever to compete in the world chess championships.

It will be many, many decades before China can challenge the United States as the overall “No. 1” in the world, for we have a huge lead and China still must show that it can transition to a more open and democratic society. But already in discrete areas — its automobile market, carbon emissions and now women’s chess — China is emerging as No. 1 here and there, and that process will continue.

There’s a lesson for us as well. China’s national commitment to education, opportunity and eating bitterness — those are qualities that we in the West might emulate as well. As you know after you’ve been checkmated by Hou Yifan.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 10 January 2011, 2:31 pm and is filed under
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FYT – a legend is born

by
Dr Chen Man Hin

DAP life advisor

At the memorial services in honour of the late FAN YEW TENG,  hundreds of friends who had fought with him for human rights, democracy and justice gathered at the memorial services to pay tribute to a great Malaysian.  FYT spent most of his life in the service of  Malaysia and mankind.

As a teacher, he was editor of the publication  of the teachers’ union and leading trade union leader and was instrumental in getting pay increases and equal pay without gender discrimination.

As a political leader, he was acting secretary general of the DAP and served as a Member of Parliament until he lost a sedition case after being charged for printing an article about the injustices of  the day.

After politics he opted to struggle for human rights in the world arena. He was in the vanguard of world  NGOs to campaign for freedom for Aung San Su Ki, the imprisoned  leader of Myanmar, and other oppressed peoples.

At the memorial services at Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh and at his funeral service in Bangkok, many NGO representatives and the diplomatic corps paid tributes and showered accolades on FYT for his services and sacrifices  in the interests of the poor and for democracy and justice.

Back home he worked together with the NGOs irrespective of race or religion. He travelled among the people on his trusted bicycle.  He served the poor with humility and gave alms freely, so much so he would be constantly short of money. He never saved because he did not believe in riches. All he cared for was to serve the poor and struggle for human rights.

But Fan Yew Teng was a wealthy man when he departed from the world.  He was showered with tributes, praises and support from honourable compatriots who thronged the memorial services.

 He was rich, rich with honour, pride and glory. He had hundreds of like-minded friends in Malaysia and in foreign countries. He belonged to an elite group of human rights champions.

Farewell FYT. You have become a legend. A new legend is born – Fan Yew Teng, champion of the poor and freedom and justice fighter!!!

                This entry was posted on Monday, 10 January 2011, 1:49 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #48

By
M. Bakri Musa

Chapter Six: Malaysia: Assets and Liabilities

The Far and Pervasive Reach of the Malaysian Government

In Malaysia, the government’s powerful reach is extensive and pervasive, affecting everything and everybody all the time. This was dramatically demonstrated to me recently. A bright Malay student on her own effort was accepted for graduate work at Cambridge University. She applied to a local university for funding under its academic training program, and was accepted. But to get that scholarship she had to be interviewed by the Public Service Department (PSD). Fair enough. Then she was told that because her TOEFL (a standardized English test) score was outdated she would not qualify, she would have to re-sit the test.

Here she was, accepted by Cambridge and deemed qualified by the dean of a local university, but the bureaucrat at PSD had veto power over her. Never mind that she had graduated from a top American university (which was why she was accepted to Cambridge in the first place) and had aced the TOEFL years ago, but those facts did not persuade the esteemed civil servant. Fortunately she was tenacious enough to fight such inanities; but it took the personal intervention of the deputy prime minister no less to resolve the issue in her favor. Why should the deputy prime minister have to decide a simple matter like this? Is he not busy enough?

After the intervention of no less than the second top honcho in government, one would think that the problem would be solved and not recur. Far from it! Later, two of her colleagues were accepted to Boston’s MIT. Unfortunately they, being “good, dutiful” Malays, meekly accepted the PSD decision and agreed to re-sit their TOEFL to be held later in the year. Fortunately for them, MIT was kind enough to grant them a deferment.

There was however an unfortunate sad twist to their story. As a result of the 9-11 attacks, America is now restricting visas to Muslim countries. So there is no certainty they will be able to go to MIT when the PSD will finally approve their scholarship. So now we have two young bright Malays who are denied their full potential because of the pigheadedness of an obscure civil servant.

Ungku Aziz, the distinguished former Vice Chancellor of the University of Malaya, recounted his experience with a senior civil servant on expanding the campus library. The officer insisted that the university not waste money on acquiring new books until the lecturers had read all the existing books in the library. Imagine such mentality!

The late Tun Razak was so hamstrung by the rigidity and lack of imagination of civil servants that he started the various state corporations like Pernas and Petronas to bypass the hidebound bureaucracy. It was a brilliant strategy, but as these corporations expanded and retired civil servants were appointed to run them, they began acquiring all the characteristics of the civil service. Petronas, the national petroleum company, is widely regarded as the exception. While it has done many things right and performed better than many state owned companies including those owned by the various State Economic Development Corporations (SEDC), it is difficult to ascertain Petronas’s true status or actual performance. Only recently Petronas was embroiled in a controversy in buying (some say bailing out) a failing shipping company owned by the son of Prime Minister Mahathir. Only time will prove whether that particular acquisition was a sound business decision. To put matters in perspective, Exxon and Royal Dutch Oil both have reserves, assets, and revenues considerably greater than Petronas, but you would not know that by the size and lavishness of Petronas headquarters.

Nothing gets done in many Third World countries precisely because their massive and intrusive governments get in the way of the people. With big governments come complicated rules and cumbersome regulations. Then you would need the assistance of “specialists” to help navigate the myriad and complicated ways. In the West, their services are called lobbying; in the Third World, corruption. Either way they are a drag on efficiency and productivity.

The impact of corruption on investment is equivalent to the drag imposed by higher taxes. Thanks to globalization and the consequent free flow of information, corrupt practices in Malaysia are often first revealed abroad. The corruption of telecommunication contract was first revealed in Japan when the authorities were investigating their own companies. Likewise the old Lockheed scandal involving the purchase of military jets was exposed through congressional hearings in Washington, DC. Earlier I alluded to the Bank Negara’s foreign exchange debacle that prompted the Federal Reserve’s public rebuke.

The perception (as well as the reality) of corruption in Malaysia is worsening, despite official protestations to the contrary. Malaysians are only too aware of the ubiquity of petty corruptions at lower levels and influence peddling among the upper ranks. The country’s ranking in the Transparency International Perception Index has declined substantially in the last few years.

Governments are by nature inefficient. Suppose a government entity decides to allocate a million dollars to clean up the beaches. First there will be a series of meetings to select the head of the department and determine his or her status within the civil service hierarchy. Then there will be endless meetings to prepare the appropriate job description and “mission statement,” and on deciding whether the directorship will be “superscale” or “timescale” position, and the appropriate office space and parking slot! And of course the matter of the director’s living quarters. Then there will be detailed specifications of the trucks and tender bids. Perhaps a year later and after spending nearly half the budget on such administrative trivia would the first garbage be picked up! If the project had been given to a private contractor right away, he would be out there the very next day with his own pickup truck to clean up the beaches.

The drag that the public sector imposes on the economy is also seen in America. As a surgeon in private practice I treat many patients under government-sponsored programs. Every month I would receive stacks of new regulations to comply. The regulatory requirements became so burdensome that I decided to opt out. Recently I was negotiating with a government agency for rental of a building I owned. It dragged on for nearly a year with endless meetings with the directors of various departments (finance, real estate, environment, etc.). Businessmen experienced in dealing with the government factor in these added costs. It is not surprising that government agencies pay outrageously high prices.

To take a dramatic if not hilarious example, the 9-11 terrorists’ attacks revealed the dangerous gaps in American intelligence. At an oversight congressional hearing, it was revealed that the intelligence agencies knew the suspects beforehand through various intercepts. Unfortunately the agencies did not have any Arab- or Afghan-speaking employees to translate the messages. This led Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and a vigorous advocate of small government, to testify that the FBI and CIA directors could have just hailed a taxi outside their offices and the first driver to arrive could probably translate for them!

America can afford such inefficiencies because one, its government is not large relative to the economy, and two, the private sector is vigorous and thus could readily accommodate such governmental inefficiencies without damaging the overall economy. In Third World countries where the private sector is poorly developed, a large and inefficient government would devastate the economy.

The best government is not that which governs least, as the conservatives would have it, rather one that restricts its activities to those that are properly under its purview. Some of these include the nation’s defense, maintenance of law and order, and general public health. A government that dabbles in business, as Ibn Khaldun so wisely observed centuries ago, is doing a disservice both to itself as well to the nation and its citizens. A government big enough to give you everything, former President Gerald Ford once noted, is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. He meant by this is that government will end up taxing its citizens to death in order to provide all the services demanded by them. And this is the bane of socialist governments.

To me however, the taking away in the form of taxes from the citizens is the least dangerous aspects of big government. More pernicious is that such a government would end up taking away the citizen’s initiatives. That is the more devastating consequence. That worries me most about the ever-increasing generosities of special privileges afforded to Bumiputras. This danger is further compounded by the fact that the costs of those bounties are disproportionately borne by non-Bumiputras. As Bumiputras do not bear the full costs and burden, they are more likely to demand more and more until they become the full ward of the state. Then all initiative would be gone.

Ultimately the best form of government, as the German philosopher von Goethe noted, is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Examine the present Malaysian government. It is clearly involved in a multitude of unnecessary activities. Does the government do a better job in attracting tourists to justify a Ministry of Tourism? Similarly, I fail to see the justification for a ministry of information or one for sports, information and culture. Get rid of them. The most laughable ministry is that for entrepreneurial development. Do those makan gaji (salary man) bureaucrats really think that they could groom entrepreneurs? If they could they would have left government service a long time ago and started their own business!

When government controls the “means of production,” we have socialism and communism. Less well known but just as destructive as this structural socialism, is the more subtle form of functional socialism, where the state exerts control over industry via various laws and regulations. With inappropriate government policy, even sand could be made scarce in Saudi Arabia, as the economist Milton Friedman noted! And in the name of social equity, even capitalist governments have undertaken massive redistribution of wealth from producers to takers. This institutionalization of the Robin Hood mentality, though well intentioned, generally results in the leveling down of wealth. The government is so consumed with redistributing wealth that it neglects the more important function of creating it in the first place. This is the blight of mature Western democracies.

A critical reappraisal on the proper role of government is badly needed in Malaysia. While many are quick to point to the failures of market, the more devastating shortcomings and oppressiveness of big government are not well appreciated. I trust my fate more to the invisible hand of the free market than the strong arm of the government.

Next: Malaysia’s Digital Divide

                This entry was posted on Monday, 10 January 2011, 10:10 am and is filed under
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Malaysian as top Singaporean student for third consecutive year should be important agenda of Cabinet meeting tomorrow

A Malaysian as top Singapore student for the third consecutive year should be important agenda of the Cabinet meeting tomorrow if the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is serious about the New Economic Model and the Economic Transformation Programme to give top priority to retain and attract talents to catalyse Malaysia’s economic transformation.

In Singapore’s GCE ‘O’ Level examinations results yesterday, a Malaysian, 16-year-old Chia Pei Yun, was the topscorer with 10A1s from the school-leaving examination.

Chia, from Kuala Lumpur, completed a hattrick for Malaysians and also her school, Convent CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School after following the footsteps of Selangor girls Lai Kai Rou and Haw Sue Sern.

Chia is a former student of Kuen Cheng Girls’ School in Kuala Lumpur.

The Cabinet tomorrow should be reminded of the dire warnings of the New Economic Model last March, which said:

“We are not developing talent and what we have is leaving. The human capital situation in Malaysia is reaching a critical stage. The rate of outward migration of skilled Malaysians is rising rapidly.”

“Globalisation has created a fierce competition for talent, forcing companies and government to recognize that people are the most valuable assets. To compete on a regional and global scale, Malaysia must retain and attract talent. Malaysia must be seen by its people and others as a land of equal opportunity to earn a good living and provide a secure, happy life for each individual and family.”

The case of Malaysian students topping the Singapore schools for the third consecutive year is a sombre warning that despite all the glib talk and sloganeering about 1Malaysia, GTP and ETP, brain-drain of the best and brightest Malaysians  have proceeded at a even faster pace than the past.

Unless the Cabinet is prepared to come out with a commensurate response, even the formation of a Talent Corporation will not be meaningful in checking brain drain to retain and attract the best human capital in the country, the most important pre-condition to save Malaysia from bankruptcy in 2019.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 3:25 pm and is filed under
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Top Singapore student again from Malaysia

CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ does it again

By
Vimita Mohandas

channelnewsasia.com

10 January 2011

SINGAPORE: The 2010 GCE ‘O’ Level examination results were announced on Monday afternoon at the respective secondary schools of students who sat for the national exam last year.

The top student is CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School’s Chia Pei Yun, who scored 10 A1s. This is the third year the school has produced a top student in the ‘O’ Level exam.

But the Malaysian, on a Ministry of Education-ASEAN scholarship, said her learning journey wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.

English and Literature were her toughest subjects.

“I started reasonably early and over the whole year I put in some consistent work for every test that we got. In the end, it paid off. (Trying) to keep a relaxed mindset helps,” said Chia.

The avid music lover has set her heart on going to a junior college and intends to do some humanitarian work in the future.

Two others from the school were also among the nation’s top students. They scored 9 A1s.

The school also saw a record 75.8 per cent of students obtaining distinctions for English Language – a 10.3 per cent increase as compared to last year.

Meanwhile, three students share the honour in the top Chinese student category. They are Teo Jing Ming (Catholic High School), Choo Hui Ting Felicia (Methodist Girls’ School) and Julia Shan-Wen Fung (Singapore Chinese Girls’ School), who each scored nine A1s and one A2.

The top Malay student is Victoria School’s Muhammad Amirul Haqim Ghazali, who scored nine A1s.

Following his two older siblings, he took Chinese as a second language.

While he admits it was difficult, he said it was sheer hard work and tenacity that earned him his distinction.

Another challenge – keeping his spirits up after his father’s illness last year.

“When my dad had a heart attack, it adversely affected me. It spurred me on to have an ambition to become a heart surgeon, not only to help my family but other people who are stricken with this illness,” he said.

Sharing the honour in the top Indian student category are Kashmira of Cedar Girls’ Secondary School, Leah Tom of Crescent Girls’ Schools and H Sharanya Pillai of Riverside Secondary School. The students each scored nine A1s.

In the top Eurasian student category is Neubronner Daniel Robert of St. Joseph’s Institution, who scored nine A1s.

A total of 37,655 students sat for the examination last year. Of whom, 99.8 per cent – or 37,598 – obtained at least one or more GCE ‘O’ Level passes to be awarded certificates.

81.2 per cent of those who sat for the exam scored at least five GCE ‘O’ Level passes. This is 0.1 per cent higher compared with the results in 2009.

Private candidates would be informed of their results by post. They can also check their results via the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board website from 2pm Monday.

-CNA/wk/ls

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 9:21 am and is filed under
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Brain drain continues: Newest Singapore senior counsel – equivalent to island republic’s Queen’s Counsel – a Malaysian from Seremban

[Update and correction: The statement that Chan Leng Sun had “never worked in Malaysia” is wrong. In fact, Chan worked in Malaysia first. He was a pupil assisting a few dedicated counsel who were representing the former Lord President Tun Salleh Abas when he was being tried by a tribunal for alleged misconduct in 1988. It was only later that he went to Cambridge on a Kuok Foundation scholarship. Sincere apologies for the error – Kit 12 January, 2011 6.50 pm]

Yesterday, it was reported that a Malaysian is again the top Singapore student for the third consecutive year – 16-year-old Chia Pei Yun of CHIJ St Nicolas Girls’ School who hails from Damansara Utama, Selangor and  who scored 10 A1s in Singapore’s GCE O-level exams.

Today, my attention has been drawn to another Singapore news report last Friday underlining the grave problem of brain drain from Malaysia.

The following is the  Channel News Asia report:

Two lawyers appointed Senior Counsel

By Dylan Loh | Posted: 07 January 2011

SINGAPORE: Two lawyers with over 50 years of combined experience have been appointed Senior Counsel. They are Mr Roderick Martin, 63, and Mr Chan Leng Sun, 46.

The announcement was made by Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong at the Opening of the Legal Year on Friday.

The appointment recognises outstanding advocates and is seen by the legal fraternity as the Singapore equivalent of Britain’s Queen’s Counsel.

A committee comprising Chief Justice Chan, Attorney-General Sundaresh Menon and Justice of Appeal Chao Hick Tin among others, made the selection.

Mr Martin entered the legal service in 1972 and was a former Supreme Court Registrar. He also taught law at the NUS. Mr Chan served as a United Nations Legal Officer and also published works on international law.

Mr Martin said: “This appointment (Senior Counsel) is a reflection of past work and standards which have been maintained. And it also points to the standards which have to be maintained in the years to come. So it’s really benchmarking a particular standard for future performance.”

Mr Chan said: “The general reputation that goes along with the appointment will be something that might make other clients or other companies, who do not know (about) lawyers in Singapore, first consider that there’s this pool of lawyers that they should make enquiries about, (and take it from there.)” – CNA/ir

Chan studied in St. Paul’s Institution, Seremban and graduated from University of Malaya’s Law Faculty before doing his LL.M. in Cambridge under Kuok Foundation scholarship. He never worked in Malaysia.

This is the latest example of Malaysia’s debilitating long-standing braindrain with far-reaching consequences on Malaysia’s international competitiveness as well as nation-building.

What can the Talent Corporation do to check this brain drain to retain and attract talent to Malaysia, if the Najib government does not have the political will to carry out comprehensive political, economic, educational and nation-building reforms to convince Malaysians and others that Malaysia is “a land of equal opportunity to earn a good living and provide a secure, happy life for each individual and family”?

Apart from setting up the Talent Corporation, what has the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak done in his 18 months as Prime Minister in terms of policy and institutional reforms to check this brain drain?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 12 January 2011, 12:25 pm and is filed under
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Half the country disappears in M’sian history syllabus

by
Dr Geoff Wade

CPI Introduction

In view of the controversy swirling around the content of the History textbooks used in schools, we thought Dr Geoff Wade’s ‘The Origins and Evolution of Ethnocracy in Malaysia’ on the measures used to maintain Malay hegemony merit revisiting.

“It is very strange today that in the diverse, multi-ethnic polity of Malaysia, a single ethnic group completely controls and occupies virtually all positions in the judiciary, public administrative organs, the police, the armed forces as well as universities.

“While Malays constitute a majority of the population of this nation, their presence in all these spheres of power far exceeds their ratio within the general population.”

CPI first carried Dr Wade’s
ARI Working Paper No.111
 in our website on Sept 9, 2009. Dr Wade is an historian who researches various aspects of Sino-Southeast Asian historical interactions over the last 1,000 years and has recently been concentrating on 20th-century interactions between Southeast Asia and China. He previously studied and worked in Australia, Malaysia, China and Hong Kong.

This write-up belongs to the Working Paper Series by Asia Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore.

History Writing

Excerpt:

When trying to ensure that the populace is sympathetic to a particular point of view, starting inculcation young is a useful tactic. In various ways, Umno is using school history textbooks to push its view of Malayan and Malaysian history. There has been a gradual process of ethnic cleansing in Malaysian history books over the last 25 years.

A anonymous textbook entitled Sejarah Menengah Malaysia, (Tingkatan Tiga), published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) in under the Ministry of Education in 1971 had much space devoted to the British role in Malayan history, and included a chapter on the Chinese in the peninsula until 1874.

By 1998, a textbook entitled Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menegah Sejarah Tingkatan 1, also published by DBP and compiled by Dato’ Dr Abdul Shukor bin Abdullah and his 17 Malay collaborators, depicts a peninsula whose history begins with the Melaka Sultanate, when it appears that the population of Malaya was entirely Malay, and continues on into the Johor period of Malayan history. The cultural aspects are entirely Malay and it is as if half the country has disappeared.

A 2003 textbook entitled Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menengah Sejarah Tingkatan 5, published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka and compiled by Ramlah bte Adam and her seven Malay collaborators, concentrates on finding Malay national heroes, almost one for each state.

It portrays immigration as something which only happened in the 19th century and only involved people from India and China. The 1930s is written of only through vignettes of Malay figures, while the Malayan Union and Federation depicted as though only Malays and the British existed.

The state/Umno-endorsed and sponsored textbooks are increasingly depicting the history of Malaya’s past as almost solely a Malay history and are gradually excising the roles of Chinese and Indian figures from national history.

And when legislation, distorted history and electoral and media controls fail to convince others of the necessity and validity of Malay ethnocracy, there are always threats of violence available.

To read more, please revert to ‘
Second-class citizens deprived of opportunities
’.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 12 January 2011, 11:20 am and is filed under
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