Ministry of Health website latest fatal casualty of the A (H1N1) killer pandemic?

The A (H1N1) flu pandemic toll in Malaysia jumped by four in the past 24 hours from nine to 13.

The latest fatality is six-year-old Mohd Hyafiq Aiman Mohd Saiful Afendi, first death from Pahang, who died at 12.40 pm yesterday after he was admitted to the Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA) Hospital, Kuantan after he developed fever and complained of stomach ache.

The other three latest confirmed A (H1N1) deaths were a three-year-old girl, 12-year-old boy and a 20-year man – all from Malacca.

Since the first case of A (H1N1) flu death two weeks ago on July 23 – a 30-year-old Indonesian – the rate of fatality has increased  in pace and numbers, as illustrated by the following table of fatalities:

July 23 – 1 (KL)

July 27 – 1 (Subang Jaya)

July 28 –  1 (KL)

July 29 – 1 (Malacca)

Aug 2   – 2 (KL, Bagan Serai Perak)

Aug 3 –  3 (Malacca, Seremban, Sarawak)

Aug 4 – 2 (both Malacca)

Aug 5 – 2 (Pahang, Batu Pahat Johore)

Total – 13

Malaysians have been asked to access the Ministry of Health website at
www.moh.gov.my
 for the latest update and advice on the A (H1N1) pandemic.

I  have received complaints that the Malaysian Ministry of Health website is often not accessible. I tried to access it yesterday and this morning and it just would not load. There is no problem with other Ministry websites which I also tried, whether ministries of transport, education, higher education or international trade and industry.

Has the Ministry of Health website also become a fatal casualty of the A (H1N1) pandemic?

The Ministry of Health dedicated website on A (H1N1) pandemic does not inspire confidence that the Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai is providing  the necessary  leadership to inform, educate and mobilize Malaysians against the killer flu pandemic, especially when it is such a dismal failure in the most important task of communication of the pandemic to the Malaysian public.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 6 August 2009, 8:22 am and is filed under
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Musa’s gift to Najib in exchange for another term as IGP packaged as “elixir of life” to win next general elections but may really be a “poisoned chalice”

Tan Sri Musa Hassan’s last month as Inspector-General of Police in his two-year renewed term is not to act as the country’s Top Cop to draw up a blueprint and National Action Plan to roll back the tide of crime in the past five years but as a politician to lobby for another two-year renewal as IGP next month.

In exchange for another term as IGP, Musa has cleverly packaged to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak an “elixir of life” to win the next general elections but it may really be a “poisoned chalice”.

Musa is offering something many Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders have been dreaming of – to finish off the Opposition in one stroke.

This is a prospect Musa is holding out to the Prime Minister – to knock out the Pakatan Rakyat leaders from PKR, DAP and PAS in one blow by arresting and charging Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang and I for “masterminding” last Saturday’s peaceful gathering in Kuala Lumpur of tens of thousands of Malaysians demanding for the abolition of the Internal Security Act.

In the past five years, crime in the country has become so endemic that it runs the risk of becoming a pandemic like the current A (H1N1) flu pandemic, undermining the country’s international competitiveness and depriving Malaysians, tourists and investors the two most important fundamental rights – the right to be free from crime and to be free from the fear of crime as the streets, public places and the privacy of homes are no more safe and secure from crime!

But to Musa, the three biggest “crooks” in the country are Anwar, Hadi and Lim Kit Siang!

Recently, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz had his own list of the “three crooks”, viz former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir, former IGP Tun Hanif Omar and former Attorney-General Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman.

In another three weeks, Malaysians will be celebrating our 52nd National Day and it is tragic that Malaysian nation-building has come to such a pass that those whom the  powers-that-be  regard as “crooks” wield and command greater respect and authority from the masses than the formal leaders in government!

Musa is in the minority of those in the country who think that the future for Malaysia lies in turning the clock back, wipe out the opposition, and return to the era of virtual one-party rule of Umno hegemony under the pretence of a Barisan Nasional coalition.

The majority of Malaysians however believe that there is only hope for Malaysia in a highly competitive globalised world if the country evolves into a mature democracy with healthy and vibrant check-and-balance mechanisms for all the key institutions in the country as through the emergence of a two-coalition system.

The prospect that Musa is offering to Najib – the elimination of the leadership of the three Pakatan Rakyat parties – must be very mouth-watering and tempting,  even quite irresistible to a few among those in power today but would be utterly abhorrent to the majority of patriotic and far-sighted Malaysians.

If Musa envisages himself as a great political strategist who could assure Najib’s victory in the next general election, he should all the more surrender all notions of wanting to have his term as IGP renewed for another two years and openly step into the political arena as an Umno standard-bearer in the next general elections and see how he would fare in the judgment of the electorate.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 6 August 2009, 1:15 pm and is filed under
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Teoh Beng Hock inquest 3rd day

Inquest in recess Next witnesses on DNA and a criminologist But I have 2leave

Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:57 AM

Tan re-examination – Witness is attached 2toxicology dept basically poisons drugs alcohol

Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:46 AM

Chemist agrees that adrenaline level high if deceased under stress. She did not do adrenaline test.

Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:35 AM

Gobind – is it not true that taxicology rpt can show whether a person is under  stress. At first chemist says not certain then says yes.

Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:32 AM

Heated argument between Tan Hock Chuan n Gobind whether questioning cld raise various possibilities of death

Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:24 AM

Lab analysis only based on police request n case history that it fell from high places did not look into other possibilities

Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:15 AM

Gobind – Postmortem rpt says stomach contain traces of brownish fluid witness at first says did not recd brownish matter but later retracted

Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:08 AM

Toxicolgy rpt 2determine whether poison or dangerous substances 2b found conclusion from 4 specimens no alcohol or common presciption drugs

Thursday, August 06, 2009 9:58 AM

4 items – 2 bottles of blood,  urine specimen n  stomach contents all marked TBH

Thursday, August 06, 2009 9:43 AM

7th witness Zairahah chemist in PJ Chemistry dept  12 yrs experience On 21.7 recd 4 items from Klang GH 4lab test

Thursday, August 06, 2009 9:39 AM

No entries 4keluar masuk on 15 n 16 July as on many other days

Thursday, August 06, 2009 9:31 AM

TeohBengHock inquest resumes 3rd day hearing 6th witness Rahman PlazaM recalled w logbook kept by security personnel “Buku Keluar Masuk”

Thursday, August 06, 2009 9:27 AM

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 6 August 2009, 10:46 am and is filed under
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What need is there for Ku Li?

By Hussein Hamid

Who are these people that will lead us. Anwar Ibrahim did not know of his destiny until he was faced with the reality of life within the four walls of his cell. Lim Kit Siang and Karpal never did have the taste of power as Anwar did but are familiar with the harshness and isolation that the ISA impose on those that are unfortunate enough to endure its shadow. Tok Guru had his son put away under the same ISA and I believe that the sorrow and pain of a Father with a son put away for his beliefs is almost as great a sorrow as anyone can endure. By circumstance or design their destiny is to lead us and we are grateful for their commitment and presence in our ranks.

If I am asked this question of the next GE “In this hour of its greatest need, will you not, as a Malay, support UMNO after all that it has done for the Malays in this country?” The answer from my heart will be “yes” but my judgement is “NO !!” I will not be for UMNO because it can no longer champion the cause of the Malays – the reason UMNO was established many years ago”

We have Pakatan Rakyat. We have our leaders. We have the anger. We have the moral courage of those who know what they do is right and most important Ku Li – you know we have the numbers.

What need then is there for Ku Li?

It is a selfish need because in the battle that we are now in, even God is sometimes on the side of those with deep pockets and large armies – instruments that UMNO and Barisan are not lacking. Add to that the Judiciary – then you will understand Ku Li the need for you to provide us with the moral leadership to keep UMNO from doing what it will do –  now that they know that they will not win the next General Elections. This is one of our fear. Given a level playing field we do not doubt our ability to win – but who will ensure that level playing field. You Ku Li – you can.

There is also another reality we face. Spend ten minutes conversing with the average voter and you will understand the need to keep the anger burning within the people so that come the next GE, their votes will be used to do the right thing for Malaysia. The apparatus and instruments within the control of Barisan is too encompassing and if used with intent can ensure their survival after the next GE.  What do we have but the hearts and minds of the people – and sometimes this is not enough. So we will need you to be there so that they know that in as long as Ku Li believes in our cause – so will they !!

So Ku Li we will need you to ensure that Barisan will maintain a level playing field and for the people to be motivated enough to keep their anger. From where you choose to do so is your prerogative to decide – but Sir, in my humble opinion, you will do us a great service if that fight was fought from within our ranks. If our leaders can confide with you their thoughts, seek your advise when needed, share with you their confidence of the future and call you as one of their own – then I am certain that you would have achieve our life’s work – making our country our home again.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 6 August 2009, 8:20 am and is filed under
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Demonstrations: A fundamental right of citizens

by
Tunku Aziz

It would be an untruth if I said I was ever a fan of Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Be that as it may, I am sorry about his coming into office, unlike all his predecessors, weighed down by the heaviest baggage imaginable, stuffed up to the neck with allegations of impropriety that I’d rather not bore you with.

I will not enumerate them either as they are too many. Also it would be pointless to waste our time dwelling upon unproven allegations that should have been nipped in the bud before they got out of hand, but for some unexplained reason, Najib had allowed them to fester like tropical sores on his credibility and honour.

I, like many other Malaysians, want very much to keep an open mind. We earnestly hope that he will give serious consideration to confronting, in a court of law, those who have defamed and reviled him.

His studied indifference might be considered by some to be an appropriate response, but he is not helping his own cause. He is pandering to the insatiable appetite of the noisy rumour mongering, chattering classes.

People are not giving Najib the benefit of the doubt that he craves for. His moral legitimacy to govern is being seriously challenged because of his cavalier attitude to these extremely damning allegations.

I am not about to dispute his legitimacy to govern based on the mandate given to the Barisan Nasional by the people as part of the electoral process, but that, without an underpinning of high ethical standards of behaviour, renders a leader morally deficient.

Conventional wisdom has it that in the sticky situation he has found himself, the only recourse is for Najib to take those who have maligned him to court and clear his name, once and for all. People are asking “Why is he fighting shy of seeking justice in a court of law unless he has something to hide?” They have a point there.

For the sake of what is left of the country’s already battered reputation, and his own, he should clear his name sooner rather than later. Najib’s 1 Malaysia requires of him that he put the interest of the nation above his own.

We cannot have a prime minister who is not prepared to answer these serious allegations about his involvement in some seedy criminal activities, or those bordering on the criminal, and yet who expects us to embrace his yet hazy and unclear 1 Malaysia and to shower him with our trust and affection.

I know all these allegations may have no basis in fact and, therefore, all the more reason for Najib to let the criminal justice system be the arbiter of truth. Perceptions may not have any basis in fact, but they are real.

Najib wants so desperately to be loved, and to be well thought of. I see nothing wrong with that. It is just a silly bit of misplaced, self-serving egoism, a very human weakness most of us suffer from, but it is a harmless desire. However, there is everything wrong, if as rumours have it, public funds are being used to pay international and local spin doctors to bolster up his position.

Mahathir, when he was prime minister, so we are told, used public funds to have a meeting with President Bush arranged to boost his flagging international reputation. We expected this of Mahathir, a man of many contradictions with few scruples, but I should like to think that Najib is made of stronger and finer moral fibre, but then I could be wrong.

I am ecstatic, more than any one can imagine, by Najib’s strong rhetoric against corruption. I use the word “rhetoric” advisedly because while we have heard many populist pronouncements rolling off his smooth silvery tongue on a variety of issues, we are still waiting to see the colour of his money. Will he deliver as promised?

For someone who has been on the receiving end of countless allegations of perceived unethical public conduct relating to purchases of military assets during his watch as defence minister, he is right to want to distance himself from any further insinuation of impropriety.

Defence contracts are notoriously susceptible to corrupt practices the world over and because of this, people simply will not believe that a defence minister can be clean and pure as the driven snow, or be like Caesar’s wife, completely above suspicion especially when the procurement process is shrouded in secrecy and mystery, as ours is and has been for years.

For this, if not for any other reason, if I may be so bold as to advise Najib, he should order a complete review of the defence ministry’s procurement rules and procedures at once and bring them in line with best international public procurement practice.

The purpose of any procurement systems review is to ensure the highest degree of transparency. Without transparency, there is no accountability. Najib has a lot on his plate, and as they say, he has his work cut out for him, lucky him.

Minutes before writing this article, I had just finished reading, for the second time after a lapse of some years, F.W. De Klerk’s “The Last Trek – A New Beginning.” He was, of course the President of South Africa who dismantled apartheid and gave the people of that troubled nation a new democratic constitution which saw the once proscribed African National Congress in the seat of power after winning the general elections in 1994.

I mention all this because in spite of the fact that the Republic of South Africa had been under a state of emergency and under siege, De Klerk, in 1989, a few months before his inauguration as President, made a conscious political decision to legalise protest  demonstrations that had been made illegal until then, much to the consternation of his security advisers. They thought it was madness on his part given the circumstances prevailing at the time. Why did he do what he did? Let him tell us in his own words:

“We were faced with the fact that it would be impossible to avoid the gathering of thousands of people committed to the march. The choice, therefore, was between breaking up an illegal march with all the attendant risks of violence and negative publicity, or of allowing the march to continue, subject to the conditions that could help to avoid violence and ensure good order. These were important considerations, but none of them was conclusive. The most important factor, which tipped the scale, was my conviction that the prohibition of powerful protests and demonstrations could not continue. Such an approach would be irreconcilable with the democratic transformation process that I was determined to launch and the principles of a state based on the rule of law, which I wanted to establish.”(Italics mine.)

In terms of the security and public order situation then obtaining in South Africa, and the situation in Malaysia today, where peaceful demonstrations are illegal, the two situations do not bear the remotest resemblance.

The justification trotted out with regular monotony by the government is so outrageously dishonest as to insult our intelligence. A government that sees a need to continue to impose an undemocratic law has no place in a parliamentary democracy. For F.W De Klerk, the man who worked himself out of a job, it was nothing more than
“restoring what was regarded throughout the world as a basic democratic right.
” (Emphasis mine)

Perhaps De Klerk’s most inspiring statement in defence of democratic principles is “
…..no vision of the future can justify any government to ignore the basic human rights of the human beings involved. No cause is so great that we should allow it to dilute our sense of justice and humanity.
” (Emphasis mine)

On that note, as our legal friends would say, I rest my case. Now over to our self-proclaimed reformist prime minister.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 7 August 2009, 5:30 am and is filed under
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‘Massive attack’ strikes websites

BBC News

High-profile websites including Google, Facebook and Twitter have been targeted by hackers in what is described as a “massively co-ordinated attack”.

Other sites such as the blogging platform Live Journal were also reportedly targeted.

Twitter was taken offline for more than two hours whilst Facebook’s service was “degraded”, according to the firms.

Google said it had defended its sites and was now working with the other firms to investigate the attack.

“Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services,” the company said in a statement.

The company has not confirmed which services were targeted in the attack, but it is thought that its e-mail service Gmail and and video site YouTube were under fire.

“We are aware that a handful of non-Google sites were impacted by [an]… attack this morning, and are in contact with some affected companies to help investigate this attack,” the company said.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote on its own blog: “Twitter has been working closely with other companies and services affected by what appears to be a single, massively co-ordinated attack.”

“ Those behind this latest attack may be using it as a means of highlighting the vulnerability of the sites we take for granted. ”

He said that the motivation for the attack was unclear and that the company would “prefer not to speculate”.

However, Max Kelly, chief security officer at Facebook, told technology website CNET News that the attack was a strike targeted at a single user, pro-Georgian blogger Cyxymu.

“It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard,” he told the website.

Friday marks one year since the outbreak of war between Russia and Georgia.

Writing on his blog, Graham Cluley of security firm Sophos said: “This raises the astonishing thought that a vendetta against a single user caused Twitter to crumble, forcing us to ask serious questions about the site’s fragility.”

Spam attack

The popular sites were subject to a so-called denial-of-service (DOS) attacks on Thursday, the companies believe.

DOS attacks take various forms but often involve a company’s servers being flooded with data in an effort to disable them.

“Attacks such as this are malicious efforts orchestrated to disrupt and make unavailable services such as online banks, credit card payment gateways, and in this case, Twitter for intended customers or users,” wrote Mr Stone.

These often use networks of computers – known as botnets -under the control of hackers.

The strategy is often employed by protestors against, for example, government websites, said Roger Thompson, chief research officer at security firm AVG.

“Those behind this latest attack may be using it as a means of highlighting the vulnerability of the sites we take for granted.

“There is no profit to be made from DOS and those who do carry out an attack like this will lose their botnet, showing there is no gain to be had.”

Some unconfirmed reports have suggested that it was not a DOS attack but the result of a spam campaign containing links to Cyxymu’s web pages on the various affected services.

Archived pages on Cyxymu’s blog claim he was victim to this sort of attack, known as a “Joe Job”.

But Mr Cluley said he didn’t think that was a likely scenario. “Most people wouldn’t have bothered clicking on the link,” he wrote.

“However, I think it is possible that the spam campaign was either run alongside the denial-of-service from compromised computers around the world, or that someone who wasn’t responsible for the Joe Job decided to wreak revenge on whoever they believed to have spammed them (and they might have imagined it was Cyxymu) by launching a DOS from their botnet.”

Protest tool

All of the affected services were keen to stress that user’s data had not been put at risk in the attacks.

“Please note that no user data was compromised in this attack,” wrote Twitter’s Biz Stone.

“This activity is about saturating a service with so many requests that it cannot respond to legitimate requests thereby denying service to intended customers or users.”

Twitter has had a meteoric rise since its launch in 2006.

A ComScore study suggests that Twitter had around 45 million users worldwide as of June 2009.

However, as many users interact with the service through mobile phones or third-party software, the actual number of users is likely to be higher.

However, that pales in comparison to Facebook, which claims to have 250m active users worldwide.

Both recently garnered worldwide attention when they were used by Iranians to co-ordinate demonstrations following the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.

Many protesters believed there was electoral fraud and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi should have won.

Twitter chose to delay upgrade work during the protests to allow communication to continue.

In a BBC interview, co-founder Evan Williams denied the move had been a response to a US state department request.

Published: 2009/08/07 08:59:59 GMT

                This entry was posted on Friday, 7 August 2009, 6:39 pm and is filed under
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Saya Melayu

By Hussein Hamid

The problems we now face does not only concern Perak, Kelantan, Penang and Selangor but the whole country. It does not only concern the Malays, the Chinese, the Indians but everybody who are Malaysians. It is not a concern for today, tomorrow, next week or next year but a concern for not only today but more important, of the future. The errors we make, the foundations we build and all that we do now will be there for posterity  – to be judged by those that come after us. If we are not there to hear the verdict, our children will.

While the individual leaders within Pakatan Rakyat have long been in Politics their ability to govern and govern well is yet to be tested. But time favours them.

Time does not favor UMNO. The years of UMNO rule, while all not bad, has brought into question whether more of the same excesses are to prevail in the years to come?

“If Umno fails, the Malays fail and if the Malays fail the nation will also fail, this we cannot avoid (if it happens),” Mahyiddin.

The Malays have not failed UMNO !! Have you not won every General Election since the first one in 1959 – and winning all, bar the 1969 and 2008 elections, with two thirds majority everytime? Enough to do what you want in Parliment? Pass any law? Amend any exisisting one? No effective opposition to question your plundering and pillaging of the Nation’s treasures? Is that not enough time to champion the cause of the Malays or were you too busy championing your own self? From the Mata Mata who was robbing the poor taxi drivers of their hard earned daily earnings to our Prime Ministers whose family, relatives, drivers even bodyguards  – robbed us blind !!

And now after winning 12 General election like Oliver Twist you say “ Please Sir, Can I have some more?” No you will not.

As a Malay I had wanted UMNO to represent the Malay interest. Not UMNO’s interest.

As a Malay I see no harm that the Chinese or the Indian can cause me. Do not tell me that the Chinese and Indians can be a danger to me because they are a danger to UMNO.

As a Malay I do not have a quarrel with DAP,  Keadilan or PAS. Let them be and not make them my enemy because they are UMNO’s enemies.

As a Malay I see the richness that comes with the NEP being claimed by UMNO whereas it rightly belong to all Malays.

The Chinese, Indians and the others are not the nemesis of the Malays. They are citizens of Malaysia as the Malays are citizens of Malaysia. They never were or will ever be the enemies of the Malays. If the Malays are too polite then they are that because that’s the way we are. If the Chinese are good at business – then it is because they have had many years of doing just that. Was it not a Chinese who said “To grow rich is glorious!!”  What a wonderful sentiment! If the Indians are having their own problems trying to keep up with the others then maybe they should choose better leaders to lead them.

But these are sweeping statements to illustrate the great divide that could be exploited by mischievous politicians for their own advantage. But it will not happen now because of The Times They are A Changing…

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don’t stand in the doorway

Don’t block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There’s a battle outside

And it is ragin’.

It’ll soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin’.

Bob Dylan.

Everything that is right and reasonable points to the fact that the Malays in UMNO are men with vested interest and are not to be trusted. We cannot allow men in whom we have no trust to be in power. Let it not be said that the Malays do not have the resolve to effect change.

WE ARE DONE WITH UMNO.

I am truly and conscientiously persuaded that it is in the interest of the Malays and our country for us to do so. For, as Milton said, “never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep.”

What will now happen to UMNO? Ruin…it will be in ruins. The time for reconciliation between the Malays and UMNO is past. Hidup Pakatan Rakyat. Hidup PAS. Hidup Keadilan. Hidup DAP. As UMNO says:

” BERSAMA
KITA TEGUH
, BERCERAI
KITA ROBOH
! (UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL!)

MERDEKA.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 7 August 2009, 5:31 am and is filed under
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Take a secret poll among the 2,000 top police officers from ASP upwards and an overwhelming majority will definitely vote for a new IGP

Will the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, recommend to the Yang di Pertuan Agong another extension of tenure for Tan Sri Musa Hassan as Inspector-General of Police from next month?

I have said that there are over a hundred reasons why Musa should not have another extension of his tenure as IGP and nobody, whether Musa himself or the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, dare to throw a challenge to me to list out the 100 reasons to subject them to public scrutiny and judgment whether they are weighty and substantive enough to have a bearing on the decision as to who should be the No. 1 Policeman in the country from next month.

I have no personal axe to grind against Musa and am acting purely in the national interests, to roll back the tide of crime in the past five years which Musa had failed to do as well as to inject the Malaysian police force with the adrenaline, dynamism and a reinvigorated sense of purpose that only a new police chief could evoke in another attempt to scale the goal to become an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police force respected internationally for its competence, ability and success to fulfill the three core police functions to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and protect human rights.

I do not have a candidate to be the new IGP but I believe Malaysians as well as the 100,000-strong police force just cannot believe that the present batch of police leadership are so short of leadership material that the Prime Minister cannot find a single one  from the topmost 100 Police officers of Deputy IGP, CPs, DCPs, SACs I and II to qualify to be the new IGP.

I have no doubt that if the issue of whether the country needs a new IGP is put to a referendum in the country or the police force, the result will be an overwhelming “yes” for a new IGP.

Of course, if there is a referendum among the top 2,000 police officers from ASP upwards, it would have to be a secret poll to get the true  and authentic voice and vote of the  overwhelming majority for a new IGP.

If more reasons are needed to buttress the case for a new IGP, they can be found in the various opinion polls on the Home Ministry website since last month – where 9,729 persons or 97% of 10,060 respondents polled from 20th to 28th July 2009 felt unsafe because of the high crime rate, with only 1% or 89 respondents felt safe and 2% or 242 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

In the same poll, 95% or 8,883 out of 9,319 respondents felt that the safety of the people was not guaranteed as compared to 3% or 248 respondents who felt it was still guaranteed, with 2% or 188 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

To the question whether the government has done its best to ensure that the safety of the people was at the best level, 94% or 8,743 out of 9,261 respondents replied in the negative; 2% or 185 respondents replied in the positive with 4% or 333 persons “uncertain”.

A total of 78% or 7,366 out of 9,406 respondents disagreed with the statement that crime was a global issue and that Malaysia was not the only country faced with the increasing crime rate, while 18% or 1,659 persons agreed with it, with 4% or 831 respondents “uncertain”.

How can the top police officer  who had served for three years as IGP, including a two-year extension of his tenure, ask for a renewal as IGP with such disastrous record and abysmal vote of no confidence as illustrated by the Home Ministry’s own website polls?

The latest opinion poll on the Home Ministry website regarding the Internal Security Act, which went up on Wednesday night is another crippling vote of no confidence in Musa as IGP.

As at 1.30 pm today, a total of 6,614 people had participated in the poll, with 5,779 or 87% of the respondents dismiss it as “draconian law”, while 10% or 666 respondents accept it as “preventive law” with 3% or 169 persons “uncertain”.

From the poll, 91% or 6,117 out of 6,752 respondents want the ISA repealed, 9% or 610 respondents want it retained with amendments while 25 were “confused”.

On the question whether respondents were aware that “United States and Great Britain have their own preventive laws. ISA is one of the acts referred to by them”, 57% or 3,369 out of 5,932 respondents clicked “Yes, I know”, 40% or 2,365 respondents answered “This means nothing to me” with 3% or 198 respondents in the “I do not know” category.

All the Home Ministry website polls in the past weeks highlight one imperative –  there must be a new start for the police force under a new Inspector General of Police to begin the concept of democratic policing and rewrite the very mission and vision of the police, not to be the protectors of the government regime but to be the friends and protectors of the people, the rights of citizens and the rule law, and ensure the safety and security of all.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 7 August 2009, 2:53 pm and is filed under
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Utusan Melayu … or Ugutan Melayu?

By Azly Rahman

What is the function of a newspaper in a multicultural society? Is it to expand the mind of readers or to instill fear of others –or even of oneself?

Utusan Melayu (I am still familiar with this name rather than Utusan Malaysia) or the Malay Messenger has some good stuff to contribute to society but generally its and mission and vision is to build soul cages of the Malays. The mind of the Malay is warped, distorted, and archived into a realm of fear of itself and of others. Through the Malay language it brings thinking into a tabloidic dimension and relegates politics into a subject of advancing the backwardness of ultra-communalism.

Utusan Melayu is synonymous with Ketuanan Melayu, Tuntutan Melayu, Rasul Melayu, Kongres Melayu, Kesatuan Melayu, and other forms of glorified anomalies of the progressive Malay mind yearning to be free from the shackles of feudalism, superstition, and neo-feudalistic and urban-superstitious beliefs.

Utusan Melayu claims to be “Penyebar Fikiran Rakyat”. But does it expand the mind nor spread the message of peace of the Malays in relation to the much-needed marhaenism with other races?

By calling the Malays not to be “bachul” or “wimp” and to “bangkit” or to rise, the newspaper is showing its irrelevance and outdatedness of rhetoric. Tabloidic and tantric treatment of totalitarian thinking. The Malays are confused what these messages mean because they now have no reason to de-wimp themselves nor to rise. Against who? Are Malaysians not seeing the emergence, though with growing pains, of a two -party system that in which a multicultural coalition is gnawing the roots of ethnocentric-based political alliance that have survived on fear management?

Back to my confusion on the role of Utusan Melayu. On the idea of “kebaculan” and “kebangkitan” (wimpiness and wakefulness)

Perhaps there is a hidden message in all these. The call to de-wimp and rise is a call to arms against the few Malays in power that are using the media to create a false consciousness of who the real enemy is and what the real issue has been. Perhaps the call is to revolt against all forms of authoritarianism and totalitarianism that have made the Malays of these days carry an unpleasant name.

Perhaps the call is to rise against all kinds of organizations, paid or volunteer, that seems to advance the “rights of the Malays” and insist on keeping repressive intact to bludgeon others.

Is Utusan Melayu a threat to the advancement of the Malays? Is it still a popular tabloid that now uses threatening means to maintain readership? Or is it merely a continuation of a cultural transmission of fear and trembling, superstition and sensationalism, to get modern Malays to do shadowboxing/shadowpuppet play with bogeymen and bogeymen created from an old script of Ketuanan Melayu?

I do not know. But is it called Ugutan Melayu or Utusan Melayu?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 7 August 2009, 5:32 am and is filed under
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Greatest disappointment of all 18 Najib Cabinet meetings –  utter failure to address six urgent national issues from crime, corruption, education, health to nation building

The Cabinet meeting this Wednesday (5th August) is the greatest disappointment of all the 18 Cabinet meetings in the 124 days of Najib premiership because of its utter failure to address at least six urgent national issues ranging from crime, corruption, education, health to nation building.

The Cabinet has irresponsibly skirted grave and urgent national issues including:

Cabinet’s failure to heed nation-wide outrage at its refusal to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh Beng Hock’s mysterious death at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on July 16 instead of breaking up  the process into two parts – an inquest into the causes of Teoh’s death and a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into MACC interrogation techniques.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said in Pekan on Tuesday that the Commission of Inquiry into the MACC’s interrogation methods would only begin its work after the inquest into Teoh’s death.

It is Najib’s ensuing statement that the RCI “will take into consideration the findings of the inquest” which has given Teoh’s family the false hope that if they are not satisfied with the inquest findings, Najib is prepared to consider their request for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death.

As far as I know, there is no legal basis for Najib to do such a thing. To avoid any misunderstanding as to what Najib really meant in his Pekan statement, I had urged the Cabinet to state clearly and unequivocally that it will agree to expand the scope of the RCI to probe into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death if the family requests it after the inquest.

The Cabinet however avoided the issue completely.

I had asked for a clear Cabinet position as there is no legal basis or power for any  Royal Commission of Inquiry to overturn the findings of the inquest into causes of Teoh’s death.

The right and proper thing to do would have been to immediately expand the scope of the RCI to probe into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death and stand down the inquest pending the outcome of the RCI inquiry – as is the best international practices in Commonwealth countries in cases of mysterious deaths commanding great public interest.

Cabinet’s failure to express concern and institute a public inquiry into the excessive use of force by the police against the peaceful gathering by tens of thousands of Malaysians in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, August 1, demanding the abolition of the Internal Security Act, by indiscriminately firing tear gas and chemically-laced water cannon against peaceful and defenceless participants, bystanders as well as residents in the area, together with 589 arrests.

Cabinet’s failure to respond to the Parliamentary Roundtable of July 28 unanimously calling for a new Inspector-General of Police because of Tan Sri Musa Hassan’s failure to roll back the tide of crime in the past five years as well as to provide a new police leadership to establish an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police force to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and protect human rights.

Cabinet’s failure to include as the seventh National Key Result Areas (NKRA) the war against two killer epidemics, dengue and the A(H1N1), with monthly as well as six-monthly targets, particularly as the A(H1N1) pandemic has claimed 14 lives and exceeding 1,500 recorded cases in less than three months of the first confirmed case of A(H1N1).

Cabinet’s failure to modify its earlier decision on PPSMI (Teaching of mathematics and science in English) to make it more flexible, liberal and innovative to allow parents the choice to decide on the medium of instruction for their children in maths and science, both primary and secondary, in line with the national aspirations to be internationally competitive to become a high-income nation.

Cabinet’s failure to take stern action against Umno’s two newspaper groups, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian, which have recently been spouting rank racism, incitement and sedition totally subversive of the Prime Minister’s 1Malaysia objective and mission.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 7 August 2009, 11:37 am and is filed under
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Muhyiddin should stop gimmick of  playing “bad cop” to Najib’s “good cop” making the most outrageous statements

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin should stop the gimmick of playing “bad cop” to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s “good cop”, making the most outrageous statements which are a total mockery of the “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” slogan.

Muhyiddin is already  notorious for his comment on the A (N1H1) pandemic, which has rapidly raised the death toll to 17 fatalities after the first death two weeks ago with  the total cumulative cases mounting to 1,525.

Malaysians will long remember his  “Even if I am health minister, I cannot guarantee your safety” remark just as they will not easily forget  Muhyiddin’s open admission after being appointed Education Minister that he  did not know that English was  not a compulsory pass subject for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) although he had been Cabinet Minister for 14 years and  Johore Mentri Besar for nine years!

Muhyiddin’s latest outrageous statement is the one from Perth that the death threat made against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief is  politically-motivated and an attempt to bring down the institution and cause the people to lose confidence in it.

I condemn in no uncertain terms the death threat made to the MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said over the death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock, just as I condemn in the strongest possible terms  those responsible for Teoh’s mysterious death at the MACC headquarters on July 16 and demand that those who cause Teoh’s death be brought to justice.

But Muhyiddin was acting in a most irresponsible manner and completely unworthy of a Deputy Prime Minister in making baseless allegations of a political conspiracy to destroy the MACC by causing  the people to lose confidence in it and portraying the death threat to Ahmad Said as the centerpiece of such a political conspiracy.

Does Muhyiddin has any evidence to justify  such irresponsible allegations apart from the figments of his fevered imagination?

If Muhyiddin has evidence that the death threat to the MACC Chief Commissioner is politically motivated designed to destroy the MACC, why hasn’t he lodged an official police report and named names?

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat leaders do not want to destroy the MACC as we want  it to  return to its statutory  objective to be an effective and credible commission to declare war on corruption and not deviate from it and instead is declaring  war on the Pakatan Rakyat

There can be no doubt that public confidence in the  seven-month-old  MACC is at a nadir, even lower than the lowest point ever plumbed by its predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) in its 41-year history from 1967-2008.

This public crisis of confidence marking the very birth of the MACC is largely the MACC’s own making and has nothing to do with any politically-motivated conspiracy by the Pakatan Rakyat to cause the people to lose confidence in it.

There are two primary reasons for the crisis of confidence faced by MACC viz:

•	MACC’s partiality and bias against the Pakatan Rakyat and its record of being highly protective of top Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders; and

•	The mysterious death of Teoh Boon Hock at MACC headquarters for which no single MACC officer from Ahmad Said downwards have shown any remorse or compassion.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat want a MACC which is independent, efficient and professional in spearheading the war against corruption to place Malaysia among the top-ranking nations internationally recognized  and respected for its integrity and anti-corruption prowess and not one which has degenerated into a catspaw of Umno and Barisan Nasional to wage war against the Pakatan Rakyat while “grand corruption” in high political places remain unchecked.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 8 August 2009, 3:23 pm and is filed under
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Police, Home Minister and Prime Minister will not be able to hold their heads high in international community if Musa Hassan is renewed as IGP when under his three-year leadership, only 1% of the people feel safe

The 10,000-strong Malaysian police force, the Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak will not be able to hold their heads high in international community if Tan Sri Musa Hassan is renewed as Inspector-General of Police next month when under his three-year leadership as the country No. 1 Cop, only 1% of the people feel safe while 97% feel unsafe from the high crime rate.

This result of the latest opinion poll of public feedback about the crime situation in the country could be dismissed as anti-police propaganda if it had been conducted under the auspices of opposition political parties or NGOs concerned about crime.

But this is not an option open to the Prime Minister, Home Minister and the Malaysian police force for this is the result of a poll conducted itself  by the Home Ministry official website,
http://www.ikdn.gov.my/
.

Malaysia will become the laughing stock of the world, particularly the international policing community, if an IGP whose three years’ police leadership resulted in only 1% of respondents who felt safe while 97% felt unsafe because of the high crime rate in an official Home Ministry website could be rewarded with another extension of his renewal as IGP!

The sense of public safety of citizens, tourists and investors have deteriorated over the years according to official polls.

The Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission conducted a public opinion survey between 22nd November 2004 and 1 December 2004, and found that 89% of the 575 adult respondents from various parts of the country were “worried” to “extremely worried” about the occurrence of crime  in their neighbourhood. Only 11% or a ratio of one in ten of the respondents were not worried. The level of worry was broadly similar across ethnic groups in urban areas from all 13 states and the Federal Territory.

The Commission published the details of the  public opinion survey, viz:

Table – Ethnicity and Level of Worry

Ethnicity

Level of Worry

Total

Worried to Extremely Worried

Not Worried to Not Very Worried

Number

%

Number

%

Malay

215

89.2

26

10.8

241

Chinese

157

87.7

22

12.3

179

Indian

70

92.1

5

7.9

76

Other Bumiputra

25

86.2

4

13.8

29

Others

19

86.4

3

13.6

22

TOTAL

486

61

547

The Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission in its report of May 2005 observed:

“This very high level of worry is also a cause for deep concern, and should be addressed by PDRM.”  (Ch. 3 Sec. 6.8 p. 62)

Instead of addressing and reducing the very high level of worry about public safety in his three years as IGP, Musa has achieved the opposite – cranking up the public worry about the lack of safety from crime and their fear of crime from 89% at the end of 2004 to the present 97%! In his three years as IGP, the crime situation has deteriorated from one in ten of the respondents who felt safe from crime to the dismal and scandalous one in 100 of the respondents who felt safe from crime!

The findings of the  Home Ministry website opinion survey from 20th to 28th July 2009 are  as follows:

20 Julai 2009 – 28 Julai 2009

Unless the Home Minister and the Prime Minister are to rubbish or discredit the findings of the Home Ministry official website opinion poll, how can they justify the renewal of Musa as IGP when:

97% or 9,729 out of 10,060 respondents felt unsafe because of the high crime rate, with only 1% or 89 respondents felt safe and 2% or 242 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

95% or 8,883 out of 9,319 respondents felt that the safety of the people was not guaranteed as compared to 3% or 248 respondents who felt it was still guaranteed, with 2% or 188 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

94% or 8,743 out of 9,261 respondents felt that government had not done its best to ensure that the safety of the people was at the best level with  2% or 185 respondents felt that the government had done its best, and   4% or 333 persons “uncertain”?

Any self-respecting and honourable IGP in these circumstances would have resigned or leave at the end of his tenure instead of lobbying for another term as IGP, blocking a new start for the police under a new IGP to revamp the entire police force to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police force capable of fulfilling the three core police functions to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and protect human rights.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 8 August 2009, 11:02 am and is filed under
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Terrible haze in Miri

by
Curtin University of Technoloy Sarawak  student

I am currently student of Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus.

Over the past 2 days, the haze is getting worse and worse.

Time now is 4.19 am. Our students here cannot sleep at all due to the thick haze. We event cannot look out, which make our eyes in pain.

We dont have any channel to complain regarding this issue. Even we call the Fire Department, they say they are trying their best.

Miri City has to do something especially in this international university whereby a lot of foreign students studying here are suffering from this bad haze.

Our location are Senadin, Lutong and PermyJaya housing areas.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 8 August 2009, 8:08 am and is filed under
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Muhyiddin – honour Najib’s pledge that “The era where the government knows best is over” and allow parents the choice to retain the policy of  teaching Science and Mathematics in English for their children

When Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced his Cabinet four months ago on April 10, 2009, he built on his motto of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” a week earlier to be “a government with new approaches for new times – a government that places a priority on performance, because the people must come first”.

Najib declared: “The era where the government knows best is over. We can only achieve our ambition for Malaysia if the government and the people, in a unified effort, work together for success and progress”.

We are only in the First 128 Days of Najib’s premiership, but his injunctions and exhortations of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” and that “The era where the government knows best is over” had been completely ignored or forgotten by his Cabinet and bureaucracy.

Otherwise, the parents of SMK Seri Hartamas students  in Kuala Lumpur would not have been
locked out
 of the school yesterday when the school’s Parent-Teacher Association wanted to hold a properly-convened extraordinary general meeting to retain the PPSMI policy on the teaching of of science and mathematics in English in their school in 2012.

Why should the parents, concerned about the best education for the children in a Najib administration which respects parental choice as “The era of where the government knows best is over”, be treated as if  the parents concerned are criminals, subversives or anti-national elements by locking them out of the school instead of allowing them to hold the PTA EGM?

SMK Sri Hartamas PTA chairman Salmah Abu Bakar said the PTA EGM was not a protest but a gathering of parents who wanted to voice their opinions and concern over their children’s education.

She said: “We only want to be given an option — and that is to maintain the policy in our school.”

PTA Vice Chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said schools should be given the opportunity to discuss the option of retaining the PPSMI policy.

“The school has benefited from the policy and we should be given an opportunity to maintain the teaching of both subjects in English. Moreover, the students have been disheartened by the reversal as they have adapted well to the policy.”

Nor Halilah Lani, 48, who was among the parents at the gathering, said the policy should be retained because parents must be allowed the choice to choose what was best for their children’s education.

Though unable to hold the meeting, the parents were however able to witness one agenda of the intended EGM, which was to count ballots slips from parents stating whether they wanted the teaching of science and mathematics to continue in that school.

Of the 553 ballots counted, an overwhelming 97 percent were in favour. A total of 1,310 ballot slips were issued to students to hand over to their parents.

The Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, should be setting the example for all Cabinet Ministers in giving flesh and meaning to  Najib’s exhortation that “The era where the government knows best is over” by  directing the Education Ministry to fully respect the rights of parents to voice their demands for the option for their children to be taught mathematics and science in English, although the Cabinet has taken the policy decision to scrap PPSMI in 2012.

Surely, Malaysia is not coming to a stage where tear gas and chemically-laced water cannons would be directed at parents who take seriously Najib’s statement that “The era where the government knows best is over’?

Muhyiddin should reprimand the education officers responsible for locking out the parents of students  from SMK Seri Hartamas from the school and send out a clear message to all PTAs that there would be no repetition of such lock-outs and that they have the democratic right to voice their views about PPSMI which would be seriously considered by the Education Ministry.

It is reported that  ever since the Cabinet decision to reverse the PPSMI policy, there have been more inquiries than usual to international schools from Malaysian parents who are thinking of sending their children there.

Is the Najib administration  going to drive more students away  from the national education system with the rigid and inflexible application of the new PPSMI Cabinet decision?

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 9 August 2009, 12:02 pm and is filed under
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Oh No !! What Have I Got Myself Into?

By Hussein Hamid

steadyaku47

In the beginning UMNO and MCA had a tacit understanding that the Malays will have control of Political Power while the Chinese – the Economy. This arrangement brought with it all the intrigues and excesses that springs up when the Malays were in control of licenses and contracts that the Chinese business needed to do businesses and in return the Chinese made contributions during elections (that is how they became known as buy elections !!) up front services fees, kick backs and went into joint ventures with Bumiputra Companies and gave ‘directorship’ to Malays in Chinese owned companies.

Politics. Patronage and Profit.

This is the thing I cannot understand. Mahathir was not able to see where this lethal combination of Politics, Patronage and Profit will lead to? He is suppose to be quite smart. Was he under the mistaken belief that he would be able to ‘manage’ the situation to his personal advantage? Which in hindsight he did because to stay in office for 22 years
 required a degree of focus and commitment to a path that dismiss all other considerations except his own agenda. As he dispensed favors and punishments to those whom he thinks deserve them, Mahathir consolidated power within himself at the expense of our country and its Government. At the expense of personal freedom and an independent judiciary. At the expense of allowing its people to live in a decent and fair society. At the expense of UMNO whom he left in its death throes. Like a fish struggling to live out of water UMNO is so used to Money Politics that without it, it cannot survive.

In the last year of his rule Mahathir suddenly realized that the path he has put UMNO on would eventually cause its demise. Cause it to lose the unquestioning support of the Malays. Without the support of the Malays, UMNO cannot survive – and if UMNO cannot survive all the excesses under him would be exposed and dissected by those that will come after UMNO. What could he do to save UMNO?. In an inspired moment (as inspiring as Abdullah’s appointment of Zaid to the cabinet) Mahathir choose Abdullah to succeed him. Hoping against hope that what he could not do, Abdullah could. Abdullah could not. Like many inspired moment, however intuitive but not thought through clearly, it failed because the rot has set in too deep – as the chinese say – when a fish rot, it starts with it’s head. Mahathir was UMNO’s head – and after 20 years nothing much can be done short of giving time for all the rats to leave the sinking ship….though it must be said that even now, there are still rats swimming towards the sinking ship !!

And now comes Najib the anointed end game of the RAHMAN theory. Najib is an accumulation of errors. From the time he was Mentri Besar of Pahang to what he is now – what he has done in his personal and political life should preclude him from holding that high a public office. But while Anwar is for now the leader of the opposition, Najib must now be Prime Minister. But how can he be Prime Minister when he does not know how? Like Mahathir he only knows of Politics, Patronage and Profit. But unlike Mahathir he does not have the ability to ‘manage’ these three variants as Mahathir did. Najib has a public that will follow his every footstep, his every deeds. The internet will ensure that. The Malays do not forget too easily nowdays – and do not forget the other races – just go to the internet and all will be reveal in detail.

Just think Najib. In October 1987, Ops Lalang saw the arrest of 106opposition leaders and social activists under the Internal Security Act and the revoking of the publishing licenses of two dalies, The Star and the Sin Chew Jit Poh and two weeklies, The Sunday Star and Watan. Did you see how the arrest of just one activist, Wong Chin Huat created such an uproar? Mahthir can arrest 106 under the ISA – you cannot.

In the 1990 General elections, for the first time UMNO was confronted with an opposition of sorts – Semangat 46 with PAS and DAP (Gagasan Rakyat). UMNO/Barisan won only 53.4% of the votes. Now you are going onto the next GE with Pakatan Rakyat already in control of 4 States (ok lah we will give you Perak for now !!) and 82 seats in Parliament. Camna? Think got chance to win?

Mahathir dismissed two DPM and lost one to Anwar. Do you think you can shake off Muhyiddin? He will be sitting on your shoulder – not looking over your shoulder – sitting on your shoulder. One mistake and tiada maaf bagi mu !!!

None – I repeat none – of the PM before you was ever remotely involved in anything resembling the following before they became PM.

Razak Baginda.

Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Perak.

Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

And I am being very economical and charitable with this list because any one of those cases would have prevented any UMNO member from contesting even at Cawangan level. Setuju tak?

I remember my days with MNI about 30 years ago when I was Regional Supervisor of the northern region based in Penang. The first thing our CAO (Chief Administration Officer) or the Accountant did when they came on a surprise visit to the branch office was to check the Petty Cash. May the Lord have mercy on me if it was short by any amount.

Accountability Najib. Accountability.

So how are you to regain control of UMNO and start the clean up before the next GE? To start with I would suggest that you should look at your priorities within UMNO first. Tranparency. No Money Politics. No nepotism. No Deceit. No greed.

What should UMNO’s priorities be?

It should be  the establishment of “a society that is just and a nation that is democratic, progressive and united”. UMNO should be focused on promoting social justice, economic justice, eliminating political corruption and human rights issues within a non-ethnic framework –and that it will upholds the rights and interest of all Malaysians…. oh oh that sounds quite familiar. Almost the same as what PKR wants to do…..aisehman this is cannot…you will have to talk to Anwar, Kit Siang , Karpal or Tok Guru on this but I am sure the guys at Pakatan Rakyat would not mind that much if UMNO wants to work

together…but must be sincere lah. No projects, no negotiated tenders, no pink slips, no close one eye.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 9 August 2009, 5:00 am and is filed under
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RACE: TIME FOR A NEW BEGINNING

by
Tengku Razaleigh

(Speech at Kelab Umno Australia  Seminar “Racial Integration and its Challenges” in Melbourne on Sunday 9th August 2009)

RACE: TIME FOR A NEW BEGINNING

Distance, home and reflection

1)	The opportunity to study abroad is gift. I remember my days as a student in Belfast so long ago. Now as then, overseas study gives us the chance to be educated at some of the finest, best established institutions of higher learning anywhere, and to be exposed to the best that has been thought and done, and to measure ourselves against the highest standards. It is an opportunity to see the world.

2)	Travel and living abroad takes us far away from home, but in doing so it also brings us closer to ourselves, and closer to home. Have you experienced this? Have you felt time and distance making you more conscious of how unique and precious the places, relationships, colours, smells and yes, tastes, of home are? Distance can help us see things more clearly. Home is such an immediate, dense and total experience that we often need to go away to see its contours. Home is such an emotional experience that we often understand it better in the coolness of distance. We sometimes need the elevation of distance to see the map of our own country.

3)	I want to use this privileged distance that we now share, here in Melbourne, to speak frankly with you today about a matter that is usually so tightly wound up, so emotional, that at a national level we have not been able to have a rational discussion about it.

4)	I want to invite you to look across this distance at the map of the life in common that we call our country. I want to look across the distance of fifty two years of independence, across changes over my own lifetime, to understand where we have come from as a nation and where we are going. My topic is race and racial consciousness in Malaysian life, and especially in our politics.

Race in the political life of Malaysia

5)	Our social and political life is racialised to a degree seen in few other countries in the world.  There are historical reasons for this. Malaysia was, at its birth, a country deeply divided along communal lines. We negotiated and attained independence with a power-sharing arrangement between the leaders of the three major racial communities as represented by the Alliance coalition. The agreement and cooperation of these leaders ensured peace and stability while we modernised our economy. The skill and integrity of these leaders, and their clear authority among their own communities was key to the success of this model, which is sometimes described by political scientists as consociational democracy.

6)	This arrangement lasted only twelve years. After the traumatic riots of May 1969, we underwent a period of rule under the  National Operations Council before Parliament was restored. The New Economic Policy was drafted and put into action. A new coalition, the Barisan Nasional, was put together to ensure that every community had a place at the table. Once more, the idea was to resolve conflict within a consociational power-sharing arrangement. Each community was to have a place at the table. Conflicts were to be solved between the leaders of these communities, behind closed doors.  This arrangement was useful and effective for its time, but we have to wake up to the fact that it no longer works.

It is important to understand why:

7)	It was never meant to be a permanent solution. Our method of racial power-sharing is primarily a system for resolving conflict in a deeply divided society. It was designed as an interim work-around, an early stage on the way to “a more perfect union” and not as the desired end-state. Over the years, however, we have put up barricades around our system as if it were a fore-ordained and permanent ideal. In doing so, we have turned a half-way house into our destination, as if we must forever remain a racially divided and racially governed society.

8)	Instead, our ideal must be to become a free and united society in which individuals can express their ethnic and religious identities without being imprisoned in them. We must aim for a society in which public reasoning and not backroom dealing determines our collective decisions.

9)	The power-sharing model that we started life with is an elite style of government justified by the virtue and competence of natural leaders of their communities. It needs special conditions. It does not work when political parties are led by the ignorant and the corrupt who have no standing in the communities they claim to represent.

10)	It needs genuine agreement and cooperation between leaders who command support in their own communities and are universally respected. It  will not work if the power-sharing coalition is overly dominated by one person and the others are there as token representatives. Our founding fathers negotiated, cooperated and  shared responsibility as equals and as friends within a power-sharing framework. The communal interests they represented were articulated within the overarching vision of a united Malaysia. In the intervening years, as power came to be concentrated in the Executive, we preserved only the outward appearance of power-sharing. In reality we have had top-down rule and power has become increasingly unaccountable. Each of our political parties has also become more top-down, ruled by eternal incumbents who protect their position with elaborate restrictions on contests. Umno itself has become beholden to the Executive.

11)	Our decades under highly-centralised government undermined our power-sharing formula, just as it undermined key institutions such as the judiciary, the police and the rule of law. Our major institutions have survived in appearance while their substance has eroded. Seen in this light, the election results of March 8, which saw the Barisan Nasional handed its worst defeat since 1969, was just the beginning of the collapse of a structure which has long been hollowed out.

The end of the old, but not quite the new

12)	The racial power-sharing model now practiced by Barisan is broken. It takes more honesty than we are used to in public life to observe that this is not a temporary but a terminal crisis. An old order is ending. Our problem is that while this past winds down, smoothly or otherwise, the future is not yet here. We are caught in between. Despite our having become a more economically advanced society, with many opportunities for our citizens to express richly plural identities, our races have become increasingly polarised. Large numbers of our electorate still vote along ethnic and religious lines. Much of our political ground is still racially demarcated. Although we have made some progress towards truly multiracial politics, both the Government and the Opposition are largely mobilised along racial lines. It is not yet time to herald a new dawn. Instead, we are in a transition full of perils and possibilities.

13)	You are this generation caught between. You are the generation of transition. You will play a key role in determining its outcome. However well a certain kind of politics of racial identity may have served to reduce conflict in the past, it has come to the end of its useful life. We need a new beginning to racial relations in Malaysia, and you must pioneer that beginning. We need to re-design race relations in Malaysia, and you must be the architects and builders of that design.

14)	In coming to that new design I hope you take advantage of the perspective of distance that your overseas education has given you to not take as your starting point the tired answers that are passed on as conventional wisdom. You must reformulate the questions and come up with your own answers. When it is clear that one generation may have run out of steam, it is time to generate your own.  Where do you begin? May I suggest some perspectives and principles. Whatever the answers we come up with, I think the following elements are important:

I.	Begin with our common humanity. Respect our common humanity must override all lesser affiliations, including race. One of Islam’s most powerful contributions to human civilisation has been its insistence on the equality of all human beings. Islam tolerates no notions of racial superiority or inferiority. All human beings are equal before God. That same principle of equality is absolutely fundamental to democracy, and democracy is a foundational principle of our Constitution. Democracy is part of what makes us who we are as a nation. Even if we might still gravitate towards racial  groupings, our allegiance to these groups must never overshadow our allegiance to the Constitution, and to the claims of equal dignity that it establishes firmly and permanently. Political parties based on race or religion must never be allowed to do or say anything contrary to justice and equality.

II.	We must anchor ourselves in the Constitution and restore its primacy. This founding document of our country establishes definitively the equality of citizenship that is the bedrock of democracy. It gives us the framework of law and order within which we become a nation. It establishes the primacy of the rule of law, the sovereignty of Parliament, the independence of the judiciary and civil service and of our law enforcement agencies. These are the institutions which guarantee the freedom and sovereignty of the people.

III.	We should acknowledge that while race is a category that unites people in common feeling, it can also divide, and divide disastrously. While it unites people who possess a set of social markers it often divides the same people from other communities. We should appreciate not just the fact that we are diverse but diverse in different ways. What I mean by this is that we are not diverse in the sense of being merely Malay, a Chinese, an Indian, a Kadazan, Iban and so forth. Each of us inhabits these particular identities in different ways. Each of us is not just a member of a race. There are other classifications which matter to us, such as location, class, social status, occupation, language, politics and others.

We would be terribly impoverished as persons if our identity was given ahead of time and once and for all merely by our membership of a fixed racial category. I would be a very dull person if you could tell who I was simply by looking up my race. We would never have unity if that is primarily how we regard one another. If you reflect on yourselves, you might find that all kinds of identity matter to you: that you are a graduate of such and such a university, that you speak these languages, support this football team, enjoy certain food or music, love to travel, can write computer code, have read such and such books, and have so-and-so as friends. Just reflect on how you identify yourselves in your facebook profiles. Is race the only thing you regard as important about yourselves? Is it the most important thing???

To expect our politics to be given by our race is to make cardboard images of ourselves, it is to retard our growth as individuals and hence as a society. Similarly to see no more of others than their race is to turn them into stereotypes and maintain a view of the world bordering on racist.  I want to urge you, as the makers of the new social landscape we need in Malaysia, to reject taking race to be a unique and fixed categorisation, to reject race as a central category of social and political life.

a)	Race is a constructed category, in the sense that people shape what they count as a “race” according to time, place and purpose. There is no unique and rigid concept of it the way there is a rigid concept of buoyancy, double-entry book-keeping, equilateral triangles and photosynthesis. I would be offended if you tried to measure and determine my racial identity, and it would tell me that there was something deeply wrong with your worldview. I am not Malay in the sense in which water is H2O.

b)	Race is merely one among many identities we take up in life. We may not have much choice over how others categorise us, but we certainly have a choice about the relative importance to place on our own and therefore on the others’ racial identity. We have a choice in how much weight we put on it, and in how high in our scheme of values we put it. The contrast I want to draw is between the view that makes race out to be a unique and fundamental category, and a view that sees race as one out of many kinds of identification we could prioritise. If we see race as a watertight category, then you are either of race X or not, and everything else: your habits, thought-patterns, loyalties and politics must all follow from that. Then race becomes destiny. The politics of this kind of conception of race will always divide, and the ultimate solution to intra-racial problems it leads us to is, in the end, violence. It is easy to identify the practitioners of this kind of racial politics. They will rely on veiled threats of communal violence even as they take part  in democratic politics.

However, if we understand that racial identity is just one of many identities we have to balance, then it becomes our duty as thinking persons to set relative priorities on all these identifications. We need to ask ourselves whether we want to draw our moral values and perspective from our common humanity or from our racial identity. As educated, reasoning people, we cannot but find our common humanity the more fundamental value. We cannot but find rationally chosen universal values more important than inherited tribal affiliations.

c)	The ability to root ourselves in our common humanity first and foremost is the prerequisite for the development of a democratic society in which policies are decided by public reasoning rather than determined by violence and manipulation. This is because open public reasoning can only be carried out where there is equal respect for the dignity and rights of all citizens,  and such respect must be firmly rooted in an understanding that despite sometimes clashing interests and identities, we are united by a more fundamental common identity: that of a shared humanity created by God. Our common humanity gives us moral obligations to one another, regardless of our lesser affiliations in a way that racial identity does not.?

IV.	We need to arrive at new ways of mediating conflicting claims between the races, new ways of bringing people to the table, of including everyone in the decisionmaking process.

V.	These new ways must be based on more open conceptions of who we are. Malaysia’s major races have lived together not just for decades but for centuries. Their cultures have interacted for millenia. In that time there has been mutual influence, admixture and cross-pollination at a depth and on a scale that our politics, popular culture and educational curriculum has largely pretended does not exist.

In my own parliamentary constituency, jungle covered, far inland and one of the most remote in the peninsula (it used to be known as Ulu Kelantan and covered half the state, and when I started there I had to travel to it by boat), is a six hundred year old Chinese community, perhaps the oldest in the peninsula, living in peace with their Malay and Orang Asli neighbours. Why pretend that we do not owe so much to each other that we would not be ourselves without each other? At the level at which people actually live we are already inextricably linked to each other.

It is time to embrace this real diversity in our political and personal lives. Our racial identities are not silos in a cornfield, forever separate, encased in steel, but trees in our rainforest: standing distinct but inexplicable without each other and constantly co-evolving.

16) 	While giving room to whoever wants to organise and advocate political interests according to our ethnic and religious affinities, we must now, very firmly, assert that such affinities must always recognise the priority and primacy of our common citizenship, our equal dignity, and above all, our common humanity before each other and before God. First we are human beings who are open to one another.

17)	My young friends, I am not recommending anything novel. These are cardinal principle of our Constitution and the faiths we profess, most especially of Islam, and of reason itself. Let us have the sense of perspective to see our ethnic identities against these cornerstone principles of religion and ethics, and let us now educate our young, apprentice our youth, and conduct ourselves according to these principles. And then let us have a new beginning for Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 9 August 2009, 12:34 pm and is filed under
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Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia’s immunity to flout the law by continuously inciting  racial hatred and religious discord a public slap-in-the-face for Najib’s 1Malaysia concept

Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia’s immunity to flout the law by continuously inciting racial hatred and  religious discord is a disgrace to Malaysian journalism and a public slap-in-the-face for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept.

Just five days ago, Utusan Malaysia carried an editorial “Tidak sedarkah Melayu sedang di hina?” and an article “Melayu jangan jadi bacul” spouting unabashed rank racism, incitement and sedition totally subversive of Najib’s 1Malaysia slogan.

Today, Utusan Mingguan tried to create an explosive tinderbox by making baseless but incendiary allegations in a multi-religious Malaysia  that DAP is anti-Islam in its Sunday editorial “DAP anti-Islam?”

It is most shocking that Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had defended Utusan Malaysia’s racist and chauvinistic spoutings last Tuesday, as if Muhyiddin does not understand Najib’s 1Malaysia concept or that it has nothing to do with him.

Is Muhyiddin going to defend Utusan Mingguan’s incitement of religious discord in the country?

Can Najib and Muhyiddin answer questions that have been asked since Tuesday why the Barisan Nasional government is practising double-standards as there is no doubt that if any Chinese and Tamil language newspapers and journalists had written or published one-tenth of the inflammatory and seditious material inciting racist hatred and now religious discord, the Chinese and Tamil newspapers would have been closed down immediately and the journalists concerned thrown behind bars?

It is most shocking and outrageous that at last Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, not a single Minister from MCA, Gerakan, MIC and from the Sabah and Sarawak component Barisan Nasional parties had dared to raise this issue at the Cabinet to nip in the bud such racist and chauvinistic incitements which are totally subversive of Najib’s 1Malaysia motto.

The Cabinet inaction and indifference has encouraged Utusan Malaysia to move from racial to religious incitement.

Will MCA, Gerakan, MIC, Sabah and Sarawak BN Ministers continue to fail in their ministerial duties to put an end to such racial and religious incitement and sedition? Are there no moderate Umno ministers who are horrified by Utusan Malaysia’s crude  communal and now religious incitements and sedition?

Is Malaysia’s 52nd National Day going to be marred not only by the A (H1N1) flu outbreak, but even more serious, by a recrudescence of rank racist and religious incitement and sedition in Umno-controlled media?

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 9 August 2009, 3:01 pm and is filed under
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Fraudulent Defenders of Our Faith

By
M. Bakri Musa

With Ramadan soon upon us, Muslims everywhere are caught up in a heightened sense of spirituality. That is the good news.

Take last Thursday evening, for example.  The San Jose, California, masjid was inundated with believers staying late into the night.  It was the 15th of Shaaban, an especially blessed time in the Muslim calendar.  Shaaban is the month before Ramadan, and serves as a ‘warm-up’ to it.  As my Imam Ilyas noted wryly in his Friday khutba, what struck him was that many that evening had never before set foot on the premises.  That is the bad news.

Malays too are struck by this wave of religious fervor with the impending arrival of Ramadan. Thus the recent local governmental agency raid on a 7-Eleven store in Selangor, stripping the store of its beer inventory.  Never mind that the store had been selling that beverage for decades without any harassment from the authorities.

Then there was UMNO Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin calling on his PAS counterpart to ‘unite’ against DAP (and thus Pakatan) for allegedly ‘insulting’ Islam.  Not to be outdone, Khir Toyo, a fellow ‘fighter’ in UMNO Youth, chided PAS for not standing up to the Pakatan state government’s ‘insulting’ Islam by ordering the beer loot be returned to the store.

It turned out that the local agency had no authority to conduct such a raid.  Alas, observing the niceties of the law has never been a strong point with these Malaysian jihadist wannabes.

Our Malaysian jihadists may consider themselves ‘modern’ and of a different breed.  After all Khairy has been to Oxford while Khir is a trained dentist.  Alas they are ‘modern’ only in their outward appearances, what with their fancy suits and palatial bungalows.  In mindset and attitude however, they are no different from those madrasah-educated, disheveled bearded Talibans dwelling high in the caves of Afghanistan.

More to the point, I am not all assured that these overzealous ‘defenders’ of Islam are doing our faith any favor. On the contrary, these fraudulent defenders of our faith are smearing the image of Islam.

As my Imam Ilyas rightly pointed out on noting the large crowd at the masjid on the evening of 15th Shaaban, while he was pleased with the turnout he gently reminded us that it is far more important to do the many little “good” gestures required of us by our faith all the time than be focused on doing the spectacular ultra religious deeds during Ramadan.

For example, it is much more important to be generous throughout the year rather than making a highly publicized generous donation during Ramadan.  On another level, there is no point for us to live a life of vice and corruption and then once a year undertake a Hajj or umrah in an attempt to ‘cleanse’ ourselves.

If the average citizen could see through the hollowness of such ‘pious’ gestures, rest assured that Almighty Allah would have minimal difficulty figuring out the hoax.

The late Zakaria Mat Deros, a former railway guard turned fabulously wealthy politician with the obscenely ostentatious bungalow squatting amidst the squalor of the Malay kampong in Port Kelang, was a prime example.  He was accompanied on one of his frequent umrahs by no less than the head of Islam Hadhari, then Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi.

I wish that characters like Mat Deros were the exception; unfortunately they are the norm.  Consider that self-admitted adulterer Razak Baginda.  Not only did he try to cleanse himself religiously by visiting (yes, ‘visiting’ is the appropriate term) Mecca, he went on to ‘purify’ himself by going to Oxford.  Presumably he thinks that a doctorate from that august institution would purify him in the eyes of the secular crowd.

 I wonder how Razak Baginda felt when he undertook his umrah knowing that a young girl his daughter’s age was blown up to smithereens as a consequence of his philandering.  Did he offer any prayers for the soul of his former lover and for her still grieving family?  Charity and generosity after all are one of the pillars of our faith.

These Malays should heed the advice of my young but wise Imam.  They should instead focus on being ‘good’ in their every day existence instead of trying to display their piety in dramatic ways during special occasions.

The central injunction of our Quran – Amal makruf, Nahi mungkar (Command good, forbid evil) – should be our daily creed.  Frequent trips to Mecca, glamorous iftar parties during Ramadan, and having a surau as part of your palatial mansion will not make up for your ignoring this elemental and recurring Quranic refrain.

I wish that Khairy Jamaluddin and Khir Toyo, being young and the future leaders of UMNO, as well as others would address the gross injustices perpetrated on our citizens, the corruption that is infesting our society, and the poverty that blights far too many Malaysians, instead of being unnecessarily obsessed with 7-Eleven stores selling beer.  In the same vein I do not see Khairy, Khir and others of their ilk being outraged at UMNO stalwarts serving on the boards of Carlsberg and the Genting casino company.

The pair’s selective outrage baffles me.  Or stated differently, I, like others, readily see through their hoax.

There is nothing Islamic about a society infested with corruption, dehumanized by poverty, and riddled with injustices.  It would be the height of hypocrisy, and mock our great faith to boot, for Khairy and Khir Toyo to claim the mantle of Islamic leadership if they are a part of the state apparatus that allows these evils to continue.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 10 August 2009, 9:40 am and is filed under
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Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government facing a life-and-death threat with a high-powered Umno-BN conspiracy to topple it at all costs and restore Umno-BN rule in Selangor as in Perak six months ago

The Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government is facing a life-and-death threat with a high-powered Umno-BN conspiracy to topple it at all costs and restore Umno-BN rule in Selangor as in Perak six months ago.

This is not an ordinary challenge but a no-holds-barred onslaught and take-no-prisoners assault mobilising all available means and resources, including the most unethical and illegal, whether at state or national level, whether government or outside like the mass media, to destroy the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government and cause the break-up of Pakatan Rakyat.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat leaders in Selangor and in the country should be fully aware of this latest life-and-death threat to the 17-month-old Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government as testified by two pronouncements by the two top Umno leaders today.

In Perth, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Pakatan Rakyat will be “history in a year” while in Kuala Selangor the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak declared that he wanted “Selangor back in Barisan Nasional’s fold” as the state is the “heartbeat of the country”.

Najib should answer whether he wanted “Selangor back in BN” so badly that he is prepared to resort to both “fair and foul means” even to countenance the most unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional measures like the illegal coup d’etat in Perak in February this year?

In Selangor, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has been unleashed, not to declare war against corruption as is the intent of Parliament, but to declare war on the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat Excos and Assembly members.

There is already one casualty, the mysterious death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock at the MACC Headquarters on July 16.

Will the true causes and circumstances of Teoh’s mysterious death at MACC ever be uncovered? The Malaysian public does not have great confidence that this would be done, and this is why there is the sustained nation-wide call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry rather than an inquest into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death.

If the MACC is genuinely committed to wiping out corruption and abuses of power in the allocation of constituency funds, it should investigate all elected representatives including Barisan Nasional and not just target Pakatan Rakyat ones.

In fact, if the MACC investigate all  parliamentary and state assembly constituency allocations going back the last five, ten or 20 years, a special court on corruption would have to be set up to deal with the multitude of cases that can be the subjects of prosecution.

DAP will not countenance any abuse or misuse of constituency allocations and the leadership will have to review the whole system. The Pakatan Rakyat leadership will also have to conduct a review of the system to ensure two things: firstly, no abuse or misuse of constituency allocations; and secondly, no room for MACC to misuse its powers as catspaw of Umno/BN to declare war on Pakatan Rakyat.

Providing the macro setting for this high-powered conspiracy to topple the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government and to break up Pakatan Rakyat, an insidious campaign had been launched to defame and discredit  Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders – such as the lies and falsehoods of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is  “a traitor to the Malay race”,  that the  DAP as “anti-Islam” and that PAS is “subservient to DAP”.

Pakatan Rakyat is facing its worst crisis in 17 months and all Pakatan Rakyat leaders, state and national, must be in crisis mode, as the crisis stemmed from two fronts:

Firstly, from the high-level Umno/Barisan Nasional conspiracy to topple the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat state government and destroy Pakatan Rakyat at all costs and by whatever illegal and unethical means; and

Secondly, from the flurry of dissension among Pakatan Rakyat parties in Kedah, Penang and Selangor, causing more and more Malaysians to question  whether they had properly and rightly vested their trust and hope in Pakatan Rakyat for change in Malaysia.

Pakatan Rakyat leaders are meeting on Thursday and they must demonstrate that they have not lost sight of the larger vision of building on the momentum of the March 8, 2008 political tsunami to realize political changes in Malaysia by securing increasing support from Malaysians of all races, instead of frightening off support whether Chinese, Malays, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans.

Umno and BN have scented the possibility of “a kill” after the Manek Urai by-election in Kelantan  on July 14, 2009 after PAS won it with a reduced majority of 65 votes as compared to the 1,352-vote majority in the March 2008 general election.

Can PAS and Pakatan Rakyat prove that this was only a “false sense” on Umno and BN’s part in the upcoming Permatang Pasir by-election in Penang later this month?

(Speech by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Ipoh Timor Lim Kit Siang at a meeting of  DAP Selangor MPs, State Assembly members and local councillors at DAP PJ Utara service centre on Sunday, 9th August 2009 at 4 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 10 August 2009, 12:38 pm and is filed under
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Why has Najib condoned the Umno-inspired hysteria and gunning for Loke Siew Fook for insulting the Perak royalty and Islam when these allegations are completely groundless?

What has the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak joined in the Umno-inspired hysteria and gunning for DAPSY chief and MP for Rasah Loke Siew Fook for insulting the Perak royalty and Islam when these allegations are completely groundless?

This morning, Najib directed the relevant authorities to investigate Loke.

In directing the relevant authorities to investigate Loke without any background or preliminary check as to whether the DAPSY chief had make such grave allegations on his blog, and talking about offences under the Sedition Act, Najib is acting most irresponsibly as Prime Minister as he was in fact helping to fan the Umno-inspired hysteria that there is  a systematic attack on Islam and the royalty.

Loke has today lodged a police report at Dang Wangi Police Station, Kuala Lumpur, denying unfounded allegations and lies spread by certain blogs and SMS that he had made scurrilous and seditious statements in his blog insulting Islam and the Perak royalty.

This is clearly part of the latest gameplan of a master strategy by Umno to tarnish the image of DAP and DAP leaders as anti-Malay and anti-Islam in a larger political conspiracy to break up and destroy Pakatan Rakyat.

Now that Loke has openly denied the wild allegations, will Najib issue a public retraction of his directive to the relevant authorities to investigate Loke and censure the Umno leaders who had irresponsibly tried to gain political mileage from the lies, including Umno Ministers and  Deputy Ministers like the Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Deputy Minister for International Trade and industry Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir and Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir?

These Umno Ministers and leaders must be very desperate of publicity that they have to jump on lies and falsehoods to get into the news in the Barisan Nasional-controlled mass media.

Are Ahmad Zahid, Mukhriz and Zambry going to be gentlemen enough to publicly apologise to Loke for making baseless imputations and allegations against him, even to the extent of demanding that Loke be detained under the Internal Security Act and be charged under the Sedition Act?

                This entry was posted on Monday, 10 August 2009, 5:00 pm and is filed under
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