Shortcomings of the 2013-2025 National Education Blueprint

 — Hussaini Abdul Karim

The Malaysian Insider

Sep 12, 2012

SEPT 12 — I laud both the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak and the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who is also the Minister for Education for their motivation, tireless efforts and initiatives to come up with a better education policy to replace the current very much attacked policy which is construed as being a weak one and also the people in MOE who have been working very hard since April this year firstly, to organise the National Education Dialogue that took the team led by former Education Director General Tan Sri Datuk Dr Wan Mohd Zahid bin Wan Mohd Noordin, the National Education Dialogue Panel Chairman to 16 locations throughout the country including Sabah and Sarawak to conduct the Townhall Series of the National Education Dialogue and to prepare the impressive and attractive Preliminary Report – Malaysia Education Blueprint 2103- 2025 in both Bahasa Malaysia and in English which we all, who were present at the launch, were presented a copy each.

The first impression I get of the launch of the Malaysia National Education Blueprint 2013 – 2025 is the seriousness given by the government to education due to the fact that both the PM and the DPM were present at the event and the ‘off-the-cuff’ statement made by the former who is also the Minister of Finance is that he expects the expenditure for education in this country given the new plans, policies, syllabus and systems to be put in place and implemented as stated in the blueprint will be much higher than previous years and as the minister in charge, he will approve it.

This was followed immediately by a loud applause from all present. The PM also made another ‘off-the-cuff’ statement commenting on his pet subject, English literature, which will be introduced from next year and given the situation now, he said, “If you can’t teach them Shakespeare, the full version, try the abridged version first and if that is also too difficult then, start with the books by Enid Blyton”. This was also followed by a loud applause from the audience.

It is most pleasing to note the emphasis the Prime Minister placed on English language knowing that this is the right way for our people to progress. He had earlier reminded the people, in no uncertain terms, to always use and uphold Bahasa Malaysia as this is our national language.

There are many aspects in the blueprint which are commendable but nothing is new, it is more like something old that are sent back to the people in new package.

Given the high-spirited way the PM talks about English language, about its importance, about the need to be good in it and about its usefulness, I would at least expect PPSMI to be re-instated as the re-introduction of English medium schools or national integrated schools may be too much to ask for but it was not going to be.

It is generally acknowledged that PPSMI may not be for all as it’s more for students whose command of English is good, except for some oddball hardcore PPSMI supporters but, the demands for PPSMI are still very high and the numbers are quite significant, comprising people from all communities, and for those who want to do mathematics and science in either Bahasa Malaysia or in a vernacular language of the students’ choice; MOE must cater for them too.

The big demand for PPSMI should be reason enough for MOE to re-instate it. There are already enough of other strong reasons given the members of the public over the years for MOE to consider to re-instate PPSMI and that no mention of PPSMI being re-instated in the blueprint also gives us the impression that the PM and the DPM may not be ‘at one’ in this matter. Is there a compromise here and done at the expense of a large group of interested parties including the many students throughout the country (denied what they have asked for and what they deserve)?

National schools will not be the school of choice for many and many, if not all, of the objectives in Shift One of the education transformation plan, i.e. ‘Provide equal access to quality education of international standard’ will ever be achieved.

More parents living in Johor Baru and as far as Kluang and Batu Pahat will send their children to study in schools in Singapore and more parents will send their children to study in private international schools and private schools and more children will be home-schooled.

Also, many more Malay and Indian children will enrol in SJK(C) schools. On pages 7-15 to 7-18, ‘Enhancement of unity in schools’, the blueprint discusses at length the subject on unity, how to foster unity and how to enhance it but with young people segregated since young into the many different types of schools available in the country, including private international schools, private schools, Arab schools, Tahfiz, etc., the permitted situation will make the implementation of government agendas such as to achieve unity (perpaduan) and making the young people and the people of the future generations true Malaysians and to embrace the true Malaysian spirit more difficult, maybe impossible even.

The prime minister also mentioned in his speech about the unique school system that Malaysia has been having for many years, probably the only country in the world that has many school systems, i.e. the many different types of schools we have here in the country viz. national schools, national type (Chinese) schools, national type (Tamil) schools, agama schools, mission schools, private schools and private international schools. The last two are not under the ministry’s jurisdiction but the ministry’s private school’s division issues the licenses for those schools to operate in the country.

There are no restrictions or limits placed on the number of local students enrolled by these schools. I am not sure whether he wants us to be proud of this uniqueness or otherwise but he did mention it with gusto. I mentioned this because, in a multi-racial and multi religious country, garnering unity (perpaduan) among the people is of high importance. We have this many national school system since 1957 and this has proven that difficult for our government to create unity amongst the people, it is actually doing exactly the opposite.

The people are, from the age of seven, segregated into different communities. No amount of efforts, campaign or even force (which have not been tried) applied will result in moulding unity among the diverse people of this country.

I and many others thought that unity (perpaduan) is best started in schools by putting young boys and girls of different races and religion in the same class and schools and let them mix.

I have suggested a solution for this by introducing the national integrated schools systems, both primary and secondary, and offer all that students or what parents want their child or children to choose in their education, nothing that are being offered now is denied.

Ironically, unity (perpaduan) is not among the eleven shifts to transform the national education system even though it is widely discussed in the blueprint. Has this been overlooked?

We may have citizens in future who are citizens in name only by virtue of being born in the country to parents who are Malaysian citizens who may not know how to sing the national anthem, how to speak Bahasa Melayu, not know how to speak our national language, not know what is Rukunegara, may not be loyal citizens or citizens with nationalistic and patriotic spirit. The first thing they hear about trouble looming, we will see them packing their bags and leave. Do we want these types of people as citizens?

Shift No. 2 of the blueprint states, ‘Ensure every child is proficient in Bahasa Malaysia and English language’, this is an excellent paradigm shift and I believe this will be undertaken by enhancing the recently introduced (MBMMBI) programme.

I do not have any doubts at all about the efficiency of our teachers to teach and guide students to achieve the former aim but, knowing what the MBMMBI programme is like and, I can also expect what the enhanced MBMMBI programme would be like, what it entails and without either re-instating PPSMI, re-introducing English medium schools or put in place the national integrated schools proposal, I and many others, a huge chunk of the rakyat, do not see how the aim, ‘to be proficient in English language’, i.e., the other aim of Shift No. 2, can be achieved.

So, in 13 to 15 years starting from 2013, after the new national education transformation plan is put into place, the poor command of English language among our students including our undergraduates and graduates and all the problems that come along with that, will still be the same or even worse and we all wonder how many great opportunities we would all be losing and how far further down the slide the situation will be.

We can already sense the many more ‘goofs’ and ‘debacles’ happening as a result of this decision and some, not surprisingly, will be ‘goofs’ and ‘debacles’ repeated over and over again because, we notice that, MOE does not seem to learn from the past mistakes they made.

You can see me in five to ten years from now, if I am still around, and waiting for me to say, “I told you so, didn’t I?” But why gloat or regret it, it won’t make things better. So, if I am still around and if you come to see me in five or ten years from now, I will not say to anyone of you that but what you may hear from me is my great feeling of loss and regret because I was not able to get people to make the right change meaning, I have failed. I have failed to do the right thing for people of the younger generation and the generations to come!

The policy and decision makers may also not be around anymore in five or ten years from now and so, the wrong decision made today and its repercussions will mean little or nothing at all to them.

Members of the public, including me, have for years criticised the country’s poor education policies and systems, flip-flopping from one to another leaving many frustrated and our young people, some are our very own children, have become victims of those failed policies and systems.

Almost two generations of young people suffered and calls to the government to make changes to check the decline in standards where in the late 70s and earlier, we had one of the best education systems in the world and for the government, since the mid-80s, changed that for an inferior one baffles many.

Now that a golden opportunity has come our way, the fact that the government is still not going to make the changes that meet the demands of the present and the future, of the people and the country again baffles me.

Personally, given the time taken, the people involved, the efforts put into preparing the blueprint and the hype it has created, not to mention the cost incurred, I do not consider the blueprint as something that is ‘par excellence’ and this is very much contrary to the view given by one of the three international panel members, the former Korean education minister, Mr Byong-Man Ahn.

It is not mediocre either but it is just an average one and it won’t make things better for us, the people and the country. Nothing, to me and to many of us, in there, is new or something that I and the others have never heard of before and say, if the same blueprint becomes the final blueprint, I and the others are still doubtful of its successful implementation, given the poor record of MOE in implementing new systems and policies in the past, in spite of the assurance given by one of the independent national education transformation plan panel members, Tan Sri Dr Sharifah Hapsah binte Syed Hasan Shahabudin who is also the UKM Vice Chancellor, who told me after the launch that this time there will be a delivery systems unit that will monitor the implementation of the new policies, syllabus, curriculum, activities and plans as per the blueprint which will be placed at all state and district education offices and manned by qualified and experienced staff, it still isn’t enough to convince me and many others that policies will be implemented effectively.

There are far too many ‘Little Napoleons’ within and without the whole system, including some politicians, and nothing seems to be done to remove these people who were proven to be creating plenty of obstacles before, and the situation would still be the same now and in the short-term, middle-term and the long-term future.

I and many others (all are stakeholders) are extremely disappointed that the two main issues that have been discussed and talked about umpteenth times since about eight years ago, which have become very big issues in themselves, i.e. PPSMI and the re-introduction of English medium schools, are not given any consideration for inclusion in the blueprint at all.

We know that the government is not expected to come out with a populist type of blueprint that may be wrongly construed as a General Election’s lure but surely, knowing how important English language is as acknowledged by someone none other than the Prime Minister himself, a better and more concrete decision should have been made on English language vis-à-vis the national education policy.

There’s no need for me to stress on the critical situation of this point because I and many others have written numerous articles and letters, in particular PAGE, led by their ever venerable and outspoken president ,a good personal friend of mine and fellow activist, Datin Noor Azimah Rahim, who have been called by many unkind names by her adversaries such as Perkasa and language nationalists (Pejuang Bahasa) in particular which were published by mainstream newspapers as well as alternative online newspapers on the subject of the importance of English language.

However, the fact that neither of these proposals is included in the blueprint as solutions to check the slide of the standard of English language of our students including many university undergraduates and graduates can also be seen as pleasing one party at the expense of the other. I can already feel the ‘drift’ and hear the noisy and loud victory cries and jeers of some people and followed by their loud applause celebrating their ‘win’.

These people, to me, are more interested in pushing their own agendas and are even willing to relegate the importance of national development and they may not realise how much the country would lose and how far behind some more the country and the people will be because of the wrong decision made and also because the present leaders are more bent on pleasing them than making the right decision that will benefit the majority of the rakyat. So, if this is not a lure for ‘GE13’ for some people, what else is?

I am indirectly involved in preparing the intensive English language programme for IPTA undergraduates, a continuous programme which all IPTA graduates will undergo to improve their command of English so that when they leave after they graduate from the respective IPTAs, their English will be as good as their command of Bahasa Melayu (Bahasa Malaysia).

 Generally, students in Malaysia go through thirteen years of education before they enter university and they are all taught English language as a subject. However, due to the poor syllabus, poor method of teaching and the lack of good English language teachers, which are the normal complaints that we all hear all the time since the country’s education policy switched to the current policy since the 70s, the general standard of English of our students is considered very poor.

Now, it is the universities (IPTA) that have to handle the problem and shoulder the burden which should not be the case had the Ministry of Education ensured that a better English language syllabus, sufficient qualified teachers and proper emphasis on English language were given at national primary and secondary schools very much like the earlier days when our students’ command of the English language were at par with the best in the world.

If this was the case, local students now need not go through the proposed six month intensive English language programme before starting their degree courses but unfortunately, due to many not having a good command of English and some even with zero English proficiency, they have to go through an intensive crash course and it is hoped that as they go along at their respective faculties, they will use more English in the course of their studies and their day-to-day life, their proficiency will increase and be as good as those who are in MUET’s Band 5 or Band 6.

The continuous intensive English language programme for IPTA undergraduates is expected to be conducted until such time, schools can come out with students who’s command of English is good enough and acceptable by all the IPTAs and that is expected to happen between 12 and fifteen years from next year, However, it looks like, if not much changes are made to the Preliminary Malaysia National Education Blueprint 2013 – 2025,IPTAs may have to continue conducting the continuous intensive English language programme for a longer indefinite period.

During lunch, I was seated with some officials from the Ministry of Education and we had some discussions about the blueprint and the weaknesses in the country’s education system. One of the items discussed, which later turned to be an almost heated argument, is the teacher/student ratio which at 1:13, I think, is inaccurate and it does not represent the actual countrywide situation especially in schools that are located in towns and high density areas.

I believe, the ratio, which even the Minister of Education brags about, include crowded schools in towns and high density areas and schools that have more teachers than students in rural areas in the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak. What, I think, would me more accurate and would reflect the actual situation is to assess the two situations separately; have one ratio for crowded schools in towns and high density areas and one for rural schools.

In an attempt to support my assumption, I also told the people who were on the same table, that a very senior official from MOE has not too long ago, declared that 59% of the time, teachers were ‘absent’ from class. If the teacher/student ratio is 1:13, this should not happen.

The official who was talking to me said that MOE has already done that and it has the two ratios but when I asked what the ratios are, she told me that she cannot reveal the figures and when I insisted (in a raised voice), she told me that she had forgotten the figures so, is she speaking the truth or was she bluffing and does MOE actually have the figures or not?

I believe, when talking to members of the public, officials from MOE must not take us, members of the public, for a ride because, we will eventually know whether they speak the truth or lying and if we later discover that the official has lied, it won’t be good either for her or for MOE.

I do hope the prime minister, the deputy prime minister, the minister, other ministers, politicians, policy makers, administrators and the people in MOE would look again at the preliminary report of the Malaysia education blueprint again very carefully this time and re-study all the arguments that support them and those against and re-consider to include all the important components I mentioned above to be made part of the new education policies in order for us to have an excellent national education transform plan and to meet all the aspirations, missions and objectives to raise the country’s standard and become a 1st World country and for the people to enjoy a high income.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 12 September 2012, 11:45 pm and is filed under
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New National Education Blueprint 2013-2025 leaves many crucial policy questions unanswered

The Preliminary Report of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 was launched with much fanfare on Tuesday. This document, written by expensive consultants at taxpayers’ expense, although seemingly comprehensive, in actual fact still leaves many crucial policy questions unanswered.

If these gaping holes are not addressed, this blueprint will suffer the same fate as all the other education blueprints that have been launched by previous Prime Ministers and Education Ministers.

Firstly
, this blueprint does not contain any indication that the Ministry of Education has learnt from mistakes in the past.

Many of the initiatives announced under this new Blueprint are recycled ideas and past unfulfilled promises. For example, the Education Development Master Plan (Pelan Induk Pembangunan Pendidikan) 2006 to 2010 promised that any existing education gaps would be closed by continuing to provide necessary basic infrastructure necessities on a continuous basis.

But still, despite spending RM16 billion on physical infrastructure development from 2006 to 2010 under the 9th Malaysian Plan, there are still 1,500 (or 15%) of the 10,000 schools which do not have access to water suitable for drinking and 300 schools which still lack access to 24-hour electricity.

Today, we still hear many stories about schools promised but never built especially in the rural areas. At the same time, some poor quality schools are built at many times their cost price, to the benefit of political cronies.

In 2005, there were 2,768 schools without computer labs. In 2011, there were 2,700 schools without computer labs. In 2005, there were 1664 schools without functioning science labs. In 2011, there were 2,000 schools without functioning science labs. In other words, the number of schools without functioning science labs have actually increased by more than 300 and the number schools without computer labs decreased by only 68 despite the almost RM3 billion spent on IT and related infrastructure from 2006 to 2010 under the 9th MP.

In 2005, the SchoolNet project was supposed to have connected 9,285 schools to the internet even though only 8,900 schools had 24 hour electricity supply. Under this new blueprint, all 10,000 schools are supposed to have 4G internet access via the 1Bestarinet initiative. This project, which includes the provision of a virtual learning environment (VLE), is estimated to cost RM1.5 billion and was awarded to YTL Communications, a company with no track record for managing a project of this scale.

Without a transparent and comprehensive audit into past expenditure which failed to deliver the desired outcomes, such large scale development expenditure plans are likely to fall into the same cycle of mismanagement of resources and corruption.

Secondly
, there are some serious policy omissions in this blueprint which need to be highlighted.

For example, there is scarcely any mention of any plans to strengthen the quality of teaching and infrastructure in vernacular and religious schools despite these schools having almost a quarter of total primary school enrollment.

There is no mention of any commitment on the part of the government to increase the number of vernacular and religious schools, which are in high demand in some areas, as reflected by the large class sizes, sometimes numbering more than 50 in urban areas such as Subang Jaya.

In addition, although the fact that the gender gap is widening was highlighted – including the fact that female students comprise up to 70% of incoming cohorts in some universities – there were no concrete proposals raised in order to address this very serious and growing problem. There was no mention, for example, of the incorporation of alternative teaching methods which would be more appealing to boys compared to girls, especially  in areas with a higher number of boys dropping out of school.

Furthermore, despite identifying Sabah and Sarawak as having the districts with the highest number of low performing schools and pupils and also the highest number of dropouts, there were no concrete plans identified in this blueprint to tackle the unique problems faced by students in both states.

There was no mention of, for example, any strategies to target high performing Sabah and Sarawak Bumiputera natives to go back to their communities as teachers and agents for change.

Thirdly
, there are some policies in this blueprint which are not ambitious enough in its scope and scale.

For example, while the policy to decentralize the scope and responsibilities of the Ministry of Education at the federal level to the state and district levels is an encouraging step, especially if capacity is also increased at the local level, this policy does not go far enough.

It does not, for example, give any leeway for the establishment of English medium schools, for example, which is a popular choice among many, especially in the urban areas.

Fourthly
, specific strategies need to be identified for certain policies to work effectively.

For example, the goal of recruiting from the ranks of the top 30% of a cohort into the teaching profession is a laudable one which should have been implemented many years ago.

But according to the Ministry of Education’s own statistics, top academic performers comprised only 1% of applicants into the Bachelor of Education program in 2009 and this was only recently increased to 9% of total applicants in 2011.

To raise this figure to 30% would require pro-active strategies to target these top performers. The experience of Teach for Malaysia (TfM) to target 50 high performing fellows to become teachers for two years shows that top performers can be effectively enticed to become teachers. But without the identification of these targeting strategies, the top 30% goal will be an elusive one.

In addition, the call to recruit among the top 30% was not accompanied by the acknowledgement for the need for more aggressive recruitment strategies among the non-Bumiputeras especially in the national schools.

The Ministry’s own statistics shows that the percentage of Bumiputera teachers in national schools have increased from 78% in 2001 to 81% in 2011 while the percentage of Indian teachers have remained at 5% with the percentage of Chinese teachers dropping from 17% to 14%.

Targeting the top 30% of any cohort should result in a representative distribution of recruits. Given the current aversion of high performing non-Bumiputeras, it is disappointing that this blueprint does not outline any new recruiting strategies to overcome this historical aversion among non-Bumiputeras to see teaching as a meaningful and rewarding career.

One proposal, which DAP supports unreservedly, is the recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) for entry into public universities and the civil service, which would mean that more non-Malays who are in Chinese independent schools would be able to apply to be teachers for all subjects, and not just for Mandarin.  Unfortunately, this has been totally omitted in the blueprint.

There were also no new strategies outlined in the blueprint on how to increase the appeal of vocational and technical education as attractive educational pathways.

Despite RM577 million of development expenditure pumped in during the 9th Malaysia Plan for technical and vocational education and training, the number of students enrolled in vocational education actually fell from 62,200 in 2008 to 51,500 in 2011, a fall from 2.7% to 2.2% of total students in secondary schools.

At the same time, the number of students enrolled in technical schools has barely budged, currently numbering 20,000 or less than 1% of total secondary school students.

Identifying new strategies to make technical and vocational education more attractive is key to increasing intake and will likely reduce the male dropout rate by ensuring that a larger number of males who are not ‘academically inclined’ will stay in secondary education.

Fifthly
, while we welcome the commitment promised in the blueprint that the Ministry will publish annual reports to track the various KPIs and to conduct comprehensive five  year reviews in 2015, 2020 and 2025, we also express our initial reservations about the seriousness of this commitment.

We have seen how the statistics and achievements announced under the Government Transformation Program (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) were manipulated in order to artificially boost these KPIs.

The crime figures under the GTP and the progress of selected Entry Point Projects (EPPs) are notable examples. We have seen the same propensity of grade inflation in our education system where statistics from the Examination Syndicate show that 50% of Form 5 students would have failed to achieve minimum standards in the English language Cambridge assessments compared to only 20% under the SPM examination.

If the Ministry of Education is serious in making its progress transparent, it should make detailed data publicly available including UPSR, PMR and SPM results of each primary and secondary school so that the stakeholders such as parents and academics can evaluate this progress for themselves.

There is still time for the government to address these shortcomings. If the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, who is also the Education Minister, are serious about education reform, they should address these and other shortcomings during the public consultation period before the blueprint is finalized in December.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 13 September 2012, 12:29 pm and is filed under
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Siege on Suaram

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 13 September 2012, 10:06 am and is filed under
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Whither the voice of reason?

By
Henry Loh
 | September 13, 2012

The Malaysian Insider

SEPT 13 — Of late we only need to scan news sites and local dailies and we are likely to come across news items that highlight that “men have lost their reason”. To express unhappiness over the organisation of Bersih 3.0, we had grown men (ex-army veterans) performing “butt exercises” outside the front gate of Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan’s residence. Their crude and unbecoming behaviour only serves to highlight their level of maturity (or lack of) and remains but a sad reflection of their character.

We have also read about individuals going to the residence of the chief minister of Penang to conduct “funeral rites” while placing a garlanded framed photograph of the CM on the gate of his house. Other examples of such behaviour — the sending of a faeces-shaped “chocolate cake” and the disruption of ceramahs (the throwing of stones and water bottles) — all point towards this unwelcome and alarming increase in irrational, violent and unreasonable behaviour.

Harassment, intimidation

The perpetrators of such crude and unbecoming activities have clear intention to harass and intimidate the recipients of their antics. The trend continues and is likely to worsen. The Star (June 21, 2012) reported that Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has served a letter of demand to Ambiga and Bersih steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah seeking compensation of RM351,200 for losses and costs incurred during the Bersih 3.0 demonstration in the city centre on April 28, 2012. The letter, signed by DBKL director-general Salleh Yusup, said that Bersih should submit the compensation within two weeks or face legal action. The letter of demand from DBKL is in addition to an earlier suit filed by the government of Malaysia against Ambiga and nine others for RM122,000 over damage to vehicles during the rally.

These acts of harassment will only serve to strengthen the resolve of Bersih leaders such as Ambiga and Maria Chin to continue their struggle for free and fair elections in the country. They and the other Bersih leaders can take comfort in the fact that thousands upon thousands of people came out of their own free will to march on the streets of KL and many other cities in the world to demand free and fair elections. Damage to property could in all likelihood be attributed to the actions of the police, when they used their water cannons and fired tear gas to disperse the Bersih participants, who by many accounts were already making their way home.

To a question raised in Parliament, the Home Ministry replied that a total of 967 tear gas canisters and grenades were fired during the rally. Was it necessary for such an excessive use of tear gas canisters and grenades? According to the Home Ministry, the government spent a total of RM1.8 million as a result of Bersih 3.0. Much money could have been saved if the police force had shown more restraint and stuck to their objective of ensuring that protesters did not enter Dataran Merdeka instead of chasing down protesters who were already far away from Dataran. Indeed if there had been more restraint, damage to property would also have been minimal.

In the case of the Bersih 3.0 gathering in Penang, people came out in the thousands and gathered at the Esplanade. They listened to some speeches, chanted their demands for free and fair elections and then dispersed peacefully — and that too after ensuring that the field was properly cleaned up and free of litter!

Growing awareness

The powers-that-be ought to realise that Malaysians are generally peace-loving, caring and concerned individuals. Time and again we have proven that we are mature enough to gather in peace to make a stand on any issue and to behave in a responsible and non-violent manner. Of course, there will be a small minority such as the Perkasa types, who will not hesitate to provoke and cause trouble at gatherings — but they certainly do not represent the majority of civil society.

In the past, the ruling government was fond of referring to the “silent majority” — those who are not members of any NGO or political party. It claimed that the “silent majority” only desired stability and was not prepared to rock the boat. Indeed, this may well explain why the ruling Barisan has been able to dominate the last 11 general elections.

At the 12th general election in 2008, the winds of change started to blow at a much higher velocity and as many as five states fell into the hands of the opposition. (One state, Perak, fell back into the hands of the Barisan when three state assembly members switched their allegiance and supported Barisan instead of Pakatan Rakyat.) The political arena and landscape has changed considerably since the 2008 watershed general election.

With the dawn of the Internet age and the easy availability of information, scandals such as the Scorpenes deal, the National Feedlot Corporation and PKFZ are no longer under wraps and are now public knowledge. Blatant corrupt practices that seemed to go unpunished are now making the Malaysian public sit up and take notice. Malaysians are now more informed, knowledgeable and aware of significant political, social and economic events. Politicians can no longer pull wool over our eyes and expect us to believe that all is well.

The success of Bersih 3.0 is a testament to the power of civil society forces at work. Politicians on both sides of the divide should sit up and take note that their every move, decision and position taken on all significant issues are being monitored and evaluated. Voters will then know how and what to decide when the next general election comes around.

Not surprisingly, many politicians who have for years enjoyed the position, privileges and perks that political power provided are doing their best to maintain their current stranglehold. They fail to see and cannot accept the fact that the electorate has reached a level of sophistication and developed a discerning attitude to stand by what is right and just and speak out against greed, corruption and abuse of power.

Acts of harassment and intimidation are done by those who refuse to see the light. Instead, they hope for the status quo to continue. They certainly do not represent the majority. While they may have allowed their good judgment to lapse and dissipate, I am hopeful and confident that others — the majority of peace-loving, discerning and concerned Malaysians — will nurture and continue to treasure their “voice of reason”. As Ambiga said recently, no one should underestimate Malaysians. Hidup Malaysia! Hidup Rakyat! —
aliran.com

*
Henry Loh is an Aliran executive committee member.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 13 September 2012, 12:23 pm and is filed under
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Emulate patriotic and public-spirited Ahmad Habib to come forward to save Malaysia and debunk dangerous and despicable lies

Ahmad Habib, the “RealSoldier”

On 4th August last month, I had issued the first of my categorical denial of the preposterous claim which had appeared on the official Facebook page of the May 13 movie, Tanda Putra, that I had urinated on the flagpole in front of the then Selangor Mentri Besar’s residence provoking  the May 13 riots in 1969.

The facebook had carried a photo portraying me being manhandled, with the caption:

“Lim Kit Siang telah kencing di bawah tiang bendera Selangor yang terpacak di rumah menteri besar Selangor ketika itu, Harun Idris, (Lim Kit Siang had urinated at the foot of the flagpole bearing the Selangor flag at the then Selangor MB’s Harun Idris’ house)”

The photo was posted in the album in the Facebook titled ‘Peristiwa-peristiwa yang dimuatkan di dalam filem ini’ (Events depicted in this movie).

Although the photo and caption have since been removed from the movie’s official page, I have a screenshot of the earlier posting.

A fortnight later, Aida Fitra Buyong, the executive producer of the movie, Tanda Putera, added insult to injury when she alleged that I was being “defensive” over the publication of my photograph on the May 13 film’s official Facebook page perpetrating the lie that  I had urinated at the flagpole bearing the Selangor flag at the then Selangor Mentri Besar’s residence, provoking May 13, 1969 riots.

I found this bare-faced and irresponsible attitude by the creators of the May 13 film, unrepentant in their defence of lies and falsehoods and utterly contemptuous of the truth, in particular  about the total fiction about the urination at the then Selangor Mentri Besar’s residence provoking May 13, 1969 riots when I was never in Kuala Lumpur on May 11, 12 and 13, 1969, doubly scandalous, outrageous and offensive.

It completely debunked the claim by Tanda Putera’s director Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba that the May 13 riot scene, which lasts about 10 minutes of the 115-minute film, was historically accurate.

As the reckless accusation by Tanda Putera’s executive producer had compounded the earlier defamation against me on the film’s official Facebook page, I instructed my lawyers to institute legal proceedings relating to the defamation.  I have been informed by my lawyers that this is underway.

I had previously referred to two readers’ postings from the 76 comments in Malaysiakini following its report on August 6 on my denial that I had urinated on the flagpole outside the former Mentri Besar’s house, one of which is as follows:

RealSoldier
witness513 its simply absurd to accuse LKS performing such despicable act because the flagpole is not freely accessable to the public as it is located within the compound of the MB’s house which is fenced and manned by a jaga. BY accident I was at the MB’s on that fateful day from 3.00am to 5.30am on 514 following rescue operations by the security forces.

This is what I said in my media statement of 5th August 2012:

“What
RealSoldier
posted made eminent sense, as in 1969 I never knew where was the official residence of the Selangor Mentri Besar, let alone that it has a flagpole ‘located within the compound of the MB’s house which is fenced and manned by a jaga’.

“This posting exposes the downright lie and dangerous falsehood that I or anyone could have urinated at the foot of the flagpole at the then Selangor Mentri Besar’s house – when it was within a confined and guarded compound.”

I had thought that the writer of this post was a soldier who was on duty during the May 13 riots, but I was wrong. He was at the time a MARA student.

He is businessman Ahmad Habib, who have through his friend and lawyer, contacted me expressing his willingness to testify that I had not urinated on the flagpole of the then Mentri Besar’s house, provoking May 13 riots in 1969.

We have Ahmad Habib with us today to set the record straight about the lie that I had urinated on the flagpole of the then Mentri Besar’s house.

I would call on Malaysians to emulate patriotic and public-spirited Ahmad Habib to come forward to save Malaysia and debunk dangerous and despicable lies, falsehoods and language of hatred spread by irresponsible and unpatriotic Malaysians.

Ahmad Habib has debunked not only the lie that I had urinated at the flagpole of the Selangor Mentri Besar’s house, but that anyone else could have done it as the flagpole is within the confined and guarded compound of the Mentri Besar’s house.

But how did the canard of the “urination” at the Selangor Mentri Besar’s house, provoking the May 13 riots, originate?

Is the film Tanda Putra the originator of this irresponsible lie and canard?

Since the Tanda Putra official facebook entry, I had asked around whether anyone had ever heard of any “urination” incident at the flagpole of the Selangor Mentri Besar’s house provoking May 13 riots, and nobody has ever heard of it before.

Neither the White Paper issued by the National Operations Council on 9th October 1969 entitled “The May 13 Tragedy” nor Tunku Abdul Rahman’s book “May 13 – Before & After” made any reference to any such urination incident at the Selangor Mentri Besar’s residence.

Mazlan Harun, the son of the then Selangor Mentri Besar, told The Malaysian Insider in its report dated August 20 that he had heard from a former deputy home minister of the alleged flagpole incident, but said he could not prove the truth of the statement.

He said:
 “I don’t want to say whether it’s true or not but I was informed by a former deputy minister in the Home Ministry — his name doesn’t have to be mentioned — who read this report, this sensitive report that says Kit Siang urinated (at the flagpole).

“If he lied, then I lie, that’s why many people are asking (that) all reports about May 13 be revealed.”

Mazlan should identify the former deputy Home Minister who told him this lie, and I call on the Inspector-General of Police to confirm whether there was such a police report, and if so, what action the police had taken at the time with regard to such a falsehood.

On August 21, 2012, The Malaysian Insider published the following:

“
Kit Siang and May 13
 —
Ahmad Mustapha Hassan

Aug 21, 2012

AUG 21 — Allow me to explain about the above controversy.

I was there on that fateful day as an executive member of Umno Youth. The gathering was organised by Selangor Umno Youth whose leader was Harun Idris and the secretary then was Ahmad Razali Ali.

The whole area was dominated by Umno Youth members and no non-Malay could ever enter the place. That being the case, it was impossible for Lim Kit Siang to be there and did what he was purportedly accused of. If he did, he would have been killed by the mob.

In fact the first killing that I witnessed was outside the gate, on the road. A young coffeeshop boy, about 13 or 14 in age, was slaughtered by the mob and his body kicked into the drain running by the road. He was an innocent boy trying to earn some pocket money.

I mentioned the May 13 incident in my book “The Unmaking of Malaysia”.

As stated in his book, Ahmad Mustapha was a student activist (he headed the University of Malaya Socialist Club as President from 1958 to 1959, treasurer of the University Muslim Society and editor of Pelajar the organ of Pan Malaya Malay Students Federation GPMS), a civil servant, a political activist, a diplomat at one stage when he was made First Secretary at the Malaysian Embassy in the Hague, Netherland from 1970 to 1974 and general manager of BERNAMA the Malaysian national news agency from 1980 to 1987.

This is what Ahmad wrote in his book on the May 13 Incident which was published in 2007:

My Horrendous Experiences

A lot has been written about the May Thirteenth Incident, especially regarding the causes and political reasons underlying this very unhappy episode. There have also been different reports about the total death casualties, ranging from about 200 to about 1,000. Here, I am only relating what I experienced as an individual who was present at the scene at the time when the rioting disturbances and bloodshed that book place.

At this point, I do not want to apportion blame to any political party or ethnic group or any other party for the May Thirteenth Incident. All I can say is that in the beginning, all of us in UMNO were ready to march in a procession.

Being a member of the UMNO Youth Central Committee and an active member of its political bureau, I accepted the physical risk and the challenge to march in solidarity with the rest of the UMNO youth leaders. ..

I witnessed a killing of  an innocent coffee shop boy who was delivering some drinks to those attending the gathering. Suddenly, long knives (parang) and other sharp weapons appeared as if from nowhere.  These weapons might have been concealed inside the bamboo hedge surrounding the Mentri Besar’s residence, but I don’t know who had concealed them there.

I am firmly convinced that the core members of UMNO youth present on that fateful day had no part in the killing of the coffee-shop boy. I was about 200 yards away from where the incident happened. The sudden change of events and the atmosphere that prevailed stupefied us and most of us were in a daze.

We were unaware and unprepared for such a situation. Our first reaction was one of shock and total disbelief that this incident was happening right before our very eyes (so to speak), and initially we just stood and watched, frozen and petrified.  May Allah forgive me for not doing anything to prevent this horrific incident.

When the seriousness of the situation dawned on me, I was unable to think of anything except the safety of my family and my children.  But the scene of the killing was very haunting. I can still until today visualize that tragic incident. Even as an UMNO youth leader I would not be able to do anything positive to stop this madness.  A crazy mob had taken over the situation and I and fellow UMNO youth were helpless.

Headbands were handed out and I put on one of these, and till today I don’t know what the purpose of the headbands was, and why I put one on. I was not sure also why we were issued with headbands, and who ordered them to be issued.  Possibly the headbands were meant to be worn when we marched out in the procession. But why were these headbands not issued when we all first arrived?  Why didn’t anyone explain why these headbands were being issued and where did they come from? Most of all, was the mob situation pre-planned and fanned by some irresponsible elements? If so, who were they? Till today, the answers to these questions continue to haunt me.

That fateful night was a night full of confusion. There was no one who could take charge, not even a government leader. There was definitely an atmosphere of panic and instability in the area.

Everyone was only interested in their own individual safety.  After being holed out in the Mentri Besar’s residence for the better part of the night, I only managed to get back home with the help of the police at close to three o’clock the next morning.

It is clear that there are irresponsible elements who are trying to arouse fear and spew hatred by raising again the spectre of May 13.

It should be the responsibility of all Malaysians, including leaders of Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, to lay to rest the spectre of May 13.

Let Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat co-operate with one common objective: “We don’t want May 13 repeated.”

Could there be another May 13 in the next general election? My answer would be a strong NO.

Without going into the debate as to who should be held responsible for the May 13 tragedy in 1969 (and there are diametrically conflicting accounts and versions of who should be held responsible and this is why right from the beginning after the May 13 riots, DAP and I had called for an independent Royal Commission of Inquiry into its causes) the circumstances today are completely different from those prevailing 43 years ago in 1969.

The most important difference between 1969 and the 13th general election is the emergence of a multiracial multireligious national coalition represented throughout the country to peacefully and democratically challenge UMNO/BN’s hold to power in Putrajaya -as the Pakatan Rakyat coalition of PKR, PAS and DAP is a Malaysian coalition of all races, religions and regions in Malaysia!

Only the most irresponsible, anti-national and treacherous elements in our country can try to distort and misinterpret a Pakatan Rakyat victory in the 13GE as victory of one race against another, as to justify wild thoughts tinkering with the idea of another May 13, when any victory for Pakatan Rakyat will be a Malaysian victory representing all races.

This is the time to end all irresponsible and unpatriotic attempts to raise the spectre of May 13 through dangerous lies and  falsehoods like the Tanda Putera Facebook canard that I had urinated at the flagpole of the Mentri Besar’s residence to provoke May 13, 1969 riots.

(Media Conference Statement at DAP Hqrs in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, 14th September 2012 at 11 am)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 14 September 2012, 11:34 am and is filed under
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Instead of high watermark for women’s rights,  Najib’s hijacking of women portfolio proves to be an even lower point for women agenda

The launching of Pakatan Rakyat’s Women’s Agenda tonight is a historic event, as gender equality and  empowerment of women to improve their social, educational, economic and political status must be accepted by everyone as part of human rights which must involve the commitment and challenge to everyone in the country.

Recently, women’s rights should have witnessed a highwater mark in Malaysia when the Women’s Minister is also the Prime Minister, but unfortunately, the opposite is the case – with women agenda reaching an even lower point with the  hijacking of the Women Minister’s portfolio  by a male – as if there are no eligible and qualified Malaysian woman for the post!

“Janji Ditepati” has recently been Najib’s favourite subject, but with Najib as Women’s Minister for the past six months, are women in Malaysia satisfied with “Promises Fulfilled” with regard to women issues and causes?

Do women in Malaysia feel safer from crime, whether in shopping malls, car parks, public streets or even in the privacy of their homes?  The answer is a resounding “NO”, even with parents fearful about the safety of their underaged daughters following the recent spate of cases where judges made a mockery of statutory rape legislation to protect underaged girls.

The Malaysian government is fond of boasting about the achievements and status of Malaysian women in the international arena, particularly with regard to gender equality and women empowerment.

In actual fact, Malaysia is not in any leading position in the international context with regard to gender equality and women empowerment, as  reflected by the lowly ranking of Malaysia in the 2011 Global Gender Gap Index report prepared by the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

Malaysia’s overall Global Gender Gap Index (GGPI)  ranking, which is made up of three criteria firstly economic participation and opportunity; secondly, health and survival; thirdly, political empowerment, is a lowly No.97 out of 135 countries, worse than Philippines (8), South Africa (14), Cuba (20), Mozambique (26), Argentina (28), Sri Lanka (31), Nambibia (32), Guyana (38), Kyrgyz Republic (44), Kazakhstan (49), Thailand (60), Botswana (66), Bangladesh (69), Brunei (76), Albania (78), Armenia (84) and Indonesia (90).

Malaysia’s ranking in terms of women’s representation in government is the worst of all three criteria, ranked 115, behind Sri Lanka (7), Bangladesh (11), Philippines (16), India (19), China (57),  Indonesia (61), Vietnam (76), Cambodia (78), Singapore (83) and Thailand (97).

Neighbouring and other Asian countries have had women as heads of state of government, like Indira Gandhi of India, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Corazaon Aquino of Philippines, Megawarti Sukarnoputri of Indonesia, Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand, Sheikh Hasina of Banglasdesh and Mrs. Srimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka.  But no women have risen to the top in Malaysia, whether at the federal or state levels, as no woman have ever been Mentri Besar or Chief Minister.

This gender gap must be rectified.

Malaysia should aim to be included  in the top 50 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index and one way for the attainment of this objective is  the implementation of Pakatan Rakyat’s Women Agenda if and when  Pakatan Rakyat takes power in Putrajaya in the 13th General Election.

(Speech at the launch of the Pakatan Rakyat Women’s Agenda “Wanita Berdaya Negara Sejahtera” in Shah Alam on Thursday, 13th September 2012 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 14 September 2012, 2:40 pm and is filed under
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Suggestions for the new education blueprint

— Justin Santiago

Sep 13, 2012

SEPT 13 — Forget about trying to pretend to have an education blueprint that only seems to take baby steps to improve the level of education in the country.

Here are some sure-fire steps to improve the quality of education in the country by leaps and bounds without needing any blueprint.

Make it mandatory for all children of MPs, state assemblymen, Cabinet ministers all the way up to the prime minister to attend primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions in the country. This is a sure-fire way to improve the quality of education throughout the country.

If the politicians and government who are talking big about how high the standard of education in the country is, then their own children should benefit by it. Much like how government officials were forced to use Proton Perdanas, now is the time to force quality education down everyone’s throat

In a single swoop throughout the country standards will improve when the children of government officials participate as part of the transformation process. Those wanting their children to study at “prestigious universities” overseas will be forced to resign.

To prevent a situation where improvements are seen only in the schools or universities which are attended by the government officials’ children, policies have to be in place to make sure each of the children go to different schools or universities. If we do the maths the quality at approximately 400 schools and universities will improve dramatically. As for the rest of the schools or universities? Well, over time they too will improve with the coming and going of government officials.

As for the teaching profession, teachers’ salaries would have to be increased dramatically to be on par with the salaries of ministers.

This is to ensure that only the best will gravitate towards the teaching profession and correspondingly standards would go up. With the higher salary, teachers would be totally banned from providing private tuition outside school hours. There will be no need for teachers to look for additional income since their salaries are already high. Those caught will be handcuffed and jailed.

Funding for this jump in salaries would come from taking back all the money that is being spent on producing and implementing the education blueprint. There would be enough money not only to pay the higher salaries but for bonuses as well.

Teachers should also be given more authority and take up courses on how to administer punishment to ensure strict discipline among their students, one of which would be to learn how to wield a cane for the boys and how to pinch ears for the girls. There is no better way to discipline than administering a bit of pain. This move will also bring back respect to the teaching profession.

There you have it — a sure-fire way to raise the quality of education, the quality of the teaching profession and ultimately the quality of students.

* Justin Santiago was a student of St John’s Institution long before any blueprint was ever needed.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 14 September 2012, 7:09 am and is filed under
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Growth without private investment

 — Jayant Menon

The Malaysian Insider

Sep 12, 2012

SEPT 12 — It was not long ago that the Malaysian development story was hailed as a model of FDI-driven, export-led industrialisation worthy of emulation by aspirants in the developing world.

Malaysia remains an outstanding model of how openness to trade and FDI can transform a poor, agrarian economy into a thriving, manufacturing-based, middle-income one in a generation. During this time, Malaysia also successfully preserved social harmony in its multiracial society, relying on economic openness to sustain growth under an expensive affirmative action programme that skewed incentives, the New Economic Policy (NEP). In this sense, the NEP performed an important signalling role and played its part in delivering the peace and stability that enabled Malaysia to sustain high growth. This growth, combined with revenues from large oil reserves, facilitated a massive tax-transfer scheme that favoured the majority, without significantly eroding macroeconomic stability.

But all that changed after the Asian financial crisis. FDI flows fell sharply and continued to remain low even after recovery. While foreigners continue to shun Malaysia, even domestic investors seem to have fled, with Malaysia becoming a net exporter of capital since 2005. Malaysia continues to grow, but without private investment it is unlikely to break out of the middle-income trap. Indeed, these days Malaysia is often discussed as a classic case of the middle-income trap. Growth without private investment is also unsustainable and Malaysia risks sliding back.

What happened and can it be fixed?

The investment malaise can be attributed to two interrelated factors: distortions introduced by the NEP and its subsequent policies, and the widespread presence and overbearing influence of government-linked corporations (GLCs) that deter private investment. While the impacts of both factors may have been masked during the heady days leading up to the Asian financial crisis, this is no longer the case in the current competitive environment, where residency options for both capital and skilled labour are much greater. Fixing the problem requires addressing the distortions of the NEP and curtailing the influence of the GLCs.

The NEP is now past its use-by date. Many of Malaysia’s economic problems, including the slump in private investment, are rooted in the distortions resulting from the workings and implementation of the NEP and its subsequent policies. Quotas and other types of selective quantitative restrictions are the most distortionary instruments of protection. They affect almost every aspect of economic and social life — from gaining entry to post-secondary education and all the way to the boardroom and back down to the factory floor. Since the NEP had the redistribution of wealth — rather than the redistribution of income — as its target, many GLCs were created to pursue this objective. Thus, the link between the NEP and the GLCs implies that any solution must address both constraints.

It is estimated that the dominance of GLCs is highest in the utilities sector, at 93 per cent, and transportation and warehousing sectors, at 80 per cent. The dominance of GLCs is also greater than 50 per cent in the agricultural sector, banking, information communications and the retail trade. In the aggregate, the GLC share is approximately one-third — unusually high for a country representing itself as an open and modern market economy. The influence of GLCs is so pervasive in some sectors that it crowds out private investment. It is arguably more important to address the GLC problem rather than the NEP for the revival of private investment.

It remains to be seen whether the government’s plans for divestment in some of these GLCs will remove the barriers that have discouraged new firms from entering what have been traditional strongholds. Whether the proceeds from the government divestment will be channelled back into government involvement in different sectors, as has been happening lately, is another concern. Although the reforms embedded in the government’s New Economic Model, Economic Transformation Programme and Tenth Malaysia Plan (TMP) signalled a departure from the previous government’s priorities and approach to development, implementation has been lacklustre at best and mendacious at worst. The devil is not in the detail but in its implementation. The fact that the TMP itself includes several new affirmative action measures is also telling.

Malaysia has always opted for economic expediency during times of impending crises. It is unclear whether the changed political landscape and tighter electoral prospects that prevail today — in the context of a slowing world economy with negative impacts threatening to spill over domestically — will prevent such risky but necessary policy change. Although there have been a few recent moves to dilute the NEP, some of these measures have already been reversed. Similarly, while there is an active programme of divestment from GLCs, there are also GLC acquisitions in new sectors, making it more of a diversification than a divestment programme. Malaysia’s investment malaise can be fixed, but not in this way. — East Asia Forum

* Jayant Menon is Lead Economist (Trade and Regional Cooperation) at the Asian Development Bank.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 15 September 2012, 9:47 am and is filed under
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Hishammuddin should apologise for his unbecoming and deplorable  “No safety guarantee” stance or is he going to apologise only after the next general election like  his keris-wielding as UMNO Youth Leader?

The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has made many outrageous statements and done many outrageous things in his political career, like

•	his infamous keris-wielding as Youth Leader for three consecutive years since 2005 until he had to apologise for them when MCA, Gerakan and even UMNO leaders blamed him  as one of the causes of “political tsunami” in the March 2008 general election;

•	his defence and justification of the insensitive and sacrilegious cowhead demonstration in Shah Alam in September 2009;

•	his xanthophobia (fear of the colour yellow) in the run-up to the Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9, 2011 when he declared the yellow Bersih T-shirt illegal and a police arrestable offence to wear them and his illogical, unreasonable and unlawful ban on Bersih 2.0.

•	his wild, reckless and deplorable allegation that “some parties” wanted serious injuries and deaths at the Bersih 3.0 rally at Dataran Merdeka on April 28, 2012 in support of the Prime Minister’s equally wild, reckless and deplorable allegation that the Bersih 3.0 rally was an attempted coup d’etat to topple the government when the hundreds of thousands, regardless of race, religion, age and gender, who came out were peaceful,  armed at most with salt and mineral water to protect themselves from police tear-gas and chemically-lacked water cannons, wanted only to send the message of clean, free and fair elections to the government.

However, Hishammuddin has put all his previous outrageous statements and acts in the shade with the “mother of all outrages” when he made it clear yesterday that there will be no guarantee of security for PKR’s nationwide Merdeka Rakyat tour.

If Hishammuddin has his fingers on the pulse of the people, he should have sensed the instant sense of outrage nation-wide at his abdication of responsibility as Home Minister among all right-thinking Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or political beliefs.

I stand by four tweets which I posted last night:

1.	Most shameful statement for any responsible Home Minister http://goo.gl/2IrTU  Hishammuddin: No safety guarantee for PKR – by Koh Jun Lin (Mkini)

2.	No surprise if “No safety guarantee” come from keris-wielding UMNO leader but totally unbecoming and abdication of duty from a Home Minister

3.	Hishammuddin’s “No safety guarantee” outrageous and deserve condemnation from all right-thinking Malaysians. Anyone in Umno/BN who dare 2speak up?

4.	Hishammuddin proven to be utterly unprofessional Home Minister. Q is whether Police will also betray public trust and be equally unprofessional?

Hishammuddin’s appointment as Home Minister is proving to be one of the greatest disappointments and disasters of the Najib premiership.

Although “Reducing Crime” is one of the NKRAs of Najib’s Government Transformation Programme, there is a great sense of national unease about the state of crime and the political will of the Najib administration to ensure public safety and security three years after the Najib premiership because of a set of triple problems – rampant crime (total lack of credibility and confidence in official  statistics of falling crime index), unprecedented fear of crime among the public and the rise in political hooliganism, violence and crime!

Hishammuddin has made a half-hearted but totally unconvincing attempt at damage control when he twittered before noon today alleging that Malaysiakini had spun his comments on the security of PKR’s nationwide Jelajah Merdeka tour in Johore.

I have heard the audio clip of the interview with Hishammuddin which Malaysiakini had put up on its site, and it is clearly more supportive of the Malaysiakini report than Hishammuddin’s denial. What came clearly across is his refusal to give any guarantee for the safety of the PKR Merdeka Rakyat tour.

Hishammuddin cannot be oblivious of the fact that the current  issue at stake is the increasing trend of political hooliganism, violence and crime which Hishammuddin showed no interest or concern, whether in the interview yesterday or in his twitter clarification today.

When Hishammuddin refused, yesterday and today,  to condemn or even take notice of the increasing incidents of political hooliganism and violence, whether the splashing of red paint on the PKR campaign bus or the systematic attacks on the DAP Penang headquarters and three service centres of Penang DAP State Assemblymen including the Penang Chief Minister,  coupled with his refusal to ensure the safety of the PKR Merderka Rakyat campaign tour, his complaint that Malaysiakini had spun his words wears thin.

Hishammuddin should apologise for his unbecoming and deplorable  “No safety guarantee” stance, or is he going to apologise only after the next general election as he did with regard to his keris-wielding as UMNO Youth Leader?

If Hishammuddin refuses to apologise for his “No safety guarantee” stance or announce satisfactory measures to end the increasing spate of incidents of political hooliganism, violence and crime, Cabinet Ministers must ensure this subject  is on the top of the  agenda of the next Cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet should censure Hishammuddin if the Home Minister refuses to apologise for his “No safety guarantee” stance  and failure to come out with a satisfactory and effective plan to end the recent spate of political hooliganism, violence and crime in the country.

Otherwise, Hishammuddin’s “No safety guarantee” stance will be the biggest slap in Najib’s face as it will be the ultimate and definitive debunking of the “Janji Ditepati” slogan, which has been on Najib’s lips for the past few months.

But the question is whether there is a single Minister in the Cabinet who dare to bell the cat in the next Cabinet meeting!

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 15 September 2012, 4:28 pm and is filed under
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Is there a home minister in the house?

 — The Malaysian Insider

Sep 15, 2012

SEPT 15 — Considering the public perception of crime and a number of attacks on opposition politicians, one has to ask the question, is there a home minister in the country?

Is there someone responsible in the current government to ensure that each and every citizen can feel safe and secure in the country?

Is there someone responsible in the government to see to it that politicians of all stripes and hues and from any side of the aisle can move freely and campaign unhindered and unmolested?

Is there someone in the government who can rise above partisan politics to provide internal security for the country and not condone political hooliganism of any sort?

Is there someone in Putrajaya who will make sure that the international trade and industry minister and the foreign minister don’t have to make excuses to foreign investors and diplomats about the state of crime and political violence in Malaysia?

Why?

Because there doesn’t seem to be anyone who seems to fit that role now in Putrajaya.

Because the current politician holding that post has ignored attacks on his political foes, be it paint being splashed on buses and service centres or stones thrown on cars or nails left on the road waiting for an accident to happen.

And this politician apparently said yesterday: “No need for guarantees. It is decided by the people of Johor themselves. I think PKR knows this and can judge for itself from what is happening there.”

So, you see why we need a home minister now? Someone who is a statesman and a leader, not a petty politician.

Anyone? One can only hope Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak can find that someone fast or see his popularity fade quickly ahead of the next general election.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 15 September 2012, 2:05 pm and is filed under
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Lets make the 50th Malaysia Day next year really meaningful and historic not only to Sabahans and Sarawakians but to all Malaysians

49th Malaysia Day Message

15th September 2012

At a Sabah DAP forum in Kota Kinabalu on the 45th Malaysia Day on 16th September 2008,  I pledged that a Pakatan Rakyat government in Putrajaya would do what the Barisan Nasional had failed to do – declare September 16 as a national public holiday.

This forced the hand of the sixth Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who announced six months after assuming the premier’s office in October 2009 that Malaysia Day on September 16 would be a national holiday from 2010.

It took the Barisan Nasional 47 years to accord proper recognition to Malaysia Day on September 16, but the Barisan Nasional government has yet to seriously and  fully address the frustrations, grievances and alienations suffered by Sabahans and Sarawakians for three generations at not being given full and fair treatment as Malaysian citizens.

Furthermore, Malaysia Day on September 16 cannot really be meaningful when it is regarded as in the past three years as a mere Sabah and Sarawak event rather than as a national celebration – making  a mockery of the Prime Minister’s 1Malaysia slogan and policy.

My 49th Malaysia Day message is to issue a call to the people of Sabah,  Sarawak and Malaysia to make the 50th Malaysia Day next year really meaningful and historic not only to the people of Sabah, Sarawak but also to all Malaysians with the 50th Malaysia Day next year marking a  historic national celebration by all Malaysians!

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 15 September 2012, 11:24 pm and is filed under
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Rakyat asing-BN vs rakyat berdaulat Selangor-Pakatan Rakyat

— Aspan Alias

The Malaysian Insider

Sep 14, 2012

14 SEPT — Selangor tidak akan membubarkan Dewan Undangan Negerinya jika pilihanraya di adakan pada bulan November atau sebelumnya. Kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat Selangor tidak akan bersama dengan negeri-negeri lain dengan membubarkan DUN jika Najib mengumumkan pembubaran Parlimen seperti yang lazim di lakukan oleh mana-mana negeri di masa-masa yang lalu.

Kita sudah mendengar pendirian dari Kelantan yang berpendapat tidak mempunyai masalah untuk membubarkan DUNnya mengikut tarikh yang akan di umumkan oleh Najib. Kita masih lagi menunggu respon P. Pinang dalam hal ini.

Sesungguhnya Selangor adalah salah sebuah negeri berdaulat yang berada di dalam Persekutuan Malaysia dan negeri itu berhak untuk membubarkan atau tidak Dewan Legislatifnya. Tidak ada pihak lain berhak untuk menentukan tarikh pilihanraya bagi negeri yang berdaulat itu.

Pendirian negeri Selangor iru bersebab dan bukannya membuat keputusan itu semata-mata kerana hendak berlainan dari negeri-negeri lain. Selangor telah menjadi medan pihak yang inginkan kembali berkuasa dengan melakukan berbagai-bagai tektik kotor yang tidak pernah dilihat sebelum ini. Pihak BN telah menambah lebih dari empat ratus ribu pengundi yang dipersoalkan “legitimacy”nya sebagai pengundi.

Sampai kehari ini masalah itu belum dapat di selesaikan oleh SPR dan pilihanraya sememangnya tidak patut di adakan selagi semua pihak berpuas hati tidak ada pengundi-pengundi yang tidak “legitimate” termasuk di dalam senarai pengundi yang terdaftar dengan SPR.

Jika terdapat ratus ribu pengundi segera yang di daftarkan dengan pemberian kad pengenalan kepada warga asing itu, maka ia merupakan satu isu pengkhianatan kepada negara. Kita tidak mahu negara kita di tentukan politiknya oleh rakyat asing yang di berikan kad pengenalan segera semata-mata untuk kepentingan pihak yang sedang dalam keadaan “desperate”.

Jika ini berterusan  maka keadaan akan menjadi berbeza. Ia akan mewujudkan situasi dalam mana pemilihan adalah di antara rakyat asing yang di sokong oleh BN dan rakyat Selangor yang di sokong oleh Pakatan Rakyat.

Dalam isu ini apa yang dilakukan oleh kerajaan Pakatan Selangor amat mudah untuk di fahami. Pakatan Rakyat Selangor mahukan rakyat Selangor yang tulin sahaja yang mengundi dan bukannya dari rakyat asing yang mendapat kad pengenalan segera yang dikeluarkan oleh pihak BN.

Ia bermakna kerajaan Selangor terpanggil untuk mempertahankan kedaulatan negeri Selangor dengan membenarkan hanya rakyat tempatan Selangor sahaja yang mengundi. Tindakan kerajaan Selangor itu semata-mata untuk menjaga kedaulatan Selangor sebagai sebuah negeri yang menganggotai kerajaan persekutuan Malaysia ini.

Perlu di ingat kedaulatan kerajaan persekutuan itu datangnya dari kedaulatan kerajaan negeri-negeri yang menganggotai persekutuan kita ini.

Jika tercacat kedaulatan negeri yang menganggotai persekutuan itu maka ianya akan menjejaskan kedaulatan persekutuan kita ini.

Tetapi jika akhirnya Selangor terpaksa juga menghadapi pilihanraya kali ini tanpa dibersihkan senarai pengundi, maka pilihanraya nanti adalah pilihanraya untuk memilih pendatang asing yang di sokong oleh BN atau pun memilih kehendak rakyat negeri Selangor sendiri.

Yang penting rakyat dan pengundi tulin Selangor mesti mempertahankan kedaulatan negeri mereka dengan memberikan sokongan kepada Pakatan Rakyat yang benar-benar mahukan hanya rakyat tulin Selangor sahaja yang mengundi. — aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 15 September 2012, 9:34 am and is filed under
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The Essence Of Patriotism

by Allan CF Goh

(A poem)

Love is an innate emotion

That thrives on benign conditions.

It grows and grows with mutual needs,

Based on right honourable deeds.

If denied this mutuality,

Love fades into obscurity.

The love of one’s country, nation,

Is the same, without exception.

It cannot be legislated,

Nor by orders, regulated.

Patriotism needs nourishments,

And caring love, not punishments.

It must feel strongly and belong,

With due appreciation lifelong.

The feeling of equality,

Must be sustained with reality,

Buttressed with laws of pure fairness,

And a culture of just greatness.

There should be no masters and slaves,

Nor self-crowned dictators and knaves.

State’s supports must be based on needs,

That should be the government’s creed.

Opportunities are not linked to race,

But dispensed with deserving grace.

When the Nation learns equal love,

Patriotism will willingly hove

Into the hearts and souls of all,

Ready to heed the country’s call.

Patriotism, love are the same,

Cherish them to burnish their flame.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 15 September 2012, 10:39 am and is filed under
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Add one more crime to disturbing statistics: Aliran office broken into

P Ramakrishnan

Immediate past president

Aliran

15 September 2012

At around 9.00am on Tuesday, 11 September 2012, we discovered that the Aliran office had been broken into. The perpetrators had gained entry from the back portion of the building through the window by removing the grille.

They unlocked the wooden door from within the ground floor and proceeded to the first floor. They prised open the secured wooden door upstairs and entered the first floor.

The building wasn’t ransacked; nothing was strewn on the floor. They did a very neat job. According to the carpenter who came later to repair and fix the damage, these culprits had to be professionals because they did not cause severe damage to gain entry. He also revealed that his boss’ house was broken into two months ago. He lost three laptops and cash.

The loss that we discovered was amazing and somewhat startling. The notebook belonging to the current president of Aliran (Francis Loh) was stolen. The computer set and the printer belonging to the immediate past president (P Ramakrishnan) were stolen. The computer set used by the treasurer (Anil Netto) was also stolen. All these are old computers. But strangely two other computers used by the clerk were left behind! There was also RM26.90 in one of the drawers but this was not touched.

We made a police report and were told to go back and wait for one Sergeant Karim who would investigate and take a statement from us. Sergeant Karim came sometime later informing us that he was at the Jelutong Secondary School immediately behind the Aliran office investigating another break-in there. We were informed that burglars had carted away computer equipment (laptop, projector) and cash from the school.

The police dusted the Aliran office for finger prints without success, took pictures of the break in and took our statement. They were of the opinion that the burglars could have gone to the school after the Aliran break-in.

Cash-strapped as we are, we feel the financial strain arising from the loss of our computers. But we are no stranger to this situation. We have always been struggling on a shoe-string budget. The struggle will continue.

Much has been said about the reduction in crime rates to assure the populace that the security situation in the country is improving. Statistics are trotted out to convince Malaysians that the improving crime situation is no idle talk.

But Malaysians remain cynical and unconvinced. They hear of so many crimes taking place in their neighbourhood which go unreported. There are Malaysians who are reluctant to make police reports on the perceived premise that nothing is done or can be done to bring the culprits to book. They rationalise that it is a waste of time reporting.

But it is a fact, it seems, crimes take place on a daily basis across the country. People no longer feel safe. The fear is always present that they may be robbed or accosted or assaulted. They feel intimidated.

This is the reality.

Malaysians argue that the police go after the opposition with a determined purpose for any infringement of the law, however remote or mild, but this vigorous pursuit is lacking when ordinary Malaysians are victims of crimes. They contend that instead of deploying thousands of police personnel as was done during the Bersih 3.0 rally or any opposition centred activities, these personnel should be out in the streets ensuring our safety and security.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 16 September 2012, 5:43 am and is filed under
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Call on all Sarawak and Sabah MPs, whether BN or PR, to give unanimous support in Parliament  to proposal for a RCI to assess whether the dreams and aspirations  of Sarawakians and Sabahans in forming Malaysia had been fulfilled or betrayed in past five decades

This is the third year Malaysia Day is celebrated as a national public holiday – as it has taken 47 years before  Malaysia Day on September 16 was accorded proper recognition as a national public holiday by the Barisan Nasional federal government, starting from 2010.

This was thanks to two events: Firstly, the public pledge by Pakatan Rakyat that a PR government in Putrajaya would do what the Barisan Nasional had failed to do, i.e. declare September 16 as a national public holiday.

Secondly,  the “political tsunami” of the March 8, 2008 general election which caused the belated realisation by the Prime Minister and the BN leaders in Sarawak and Sabah that the BN MPs in the two states occupy a strategic “kingmaker” role determining the survival of UMNO hegemony and Barisan Nasional federal government.

The BN suffered a severe thrashing in the 2008 general election, winning 140 seats against the Pakatan Rakyat’s 82. However, 54 of these BN parliamentary seats come from Sarawak and Sabah – Sarawak 30 and Sabah 24.

Without  these 54 BN MPs from Sarawak and Sabah, BN would be reduced to 86 seats out of 222 MPs in Parliament,  a reversal of the political demography in Parliament and evicting B N from Putrajaya into the Opposition ranks.

Although PR and the 2008 “political tsunami’ have combined to force UMNO/Barisan Nasional to concede in according Sept. 16 as a national holiday, this is a half-hearted gesture and not really meaningful as Malaysia Day is treated as a mere Sarawak and Sabah event instead of a national celebration by UMNO/Barisan Nasional – making a full mockery of Najib’s 1Malaysia slogan and policy.

Malaysia Day on Sept 16 is not celebrated by the Barisan Nasional government outside Sarawak and Sabah, whether at the national level or in any of the BN-run states. In contrast, Malaysia Day on Sept. 16 is celebrated by the PR Penang State Government today while in  2008, the PR Selangor State Goverment organised a 20,000-people Malaysia Day-eve countdown rally at the Kelana Jaya Stadium on Sept. 15, 2008.

Equally important and serious, the belated recognition of Malaysia Day as a national public holiday has not been followed by any transformation of the mentality of the Umno/BN federal government, and this is why it is still not ready and prepared to seriously and fully address the frustrations, grievances and alienations suffered by Sarawakians and Sabahans for three generations at not being given full and fair treatment as Malaysian citizens.

The official theme of this year’s 55th Merdeka Day/49th Malaysia Day celebrations is “Janji Ditepati”.  Does this Barisan Nasional boast of “Janji Ditepati” bear scrutiny, especially for the people of Sarawak and Sabah 49 years after the formation of Malaysia?

If the Barisan Nasional is confident that it has a great record of “Janji Ditepati” in Sarawak and Sabah 49 years after the formation of Malaysia, the BN government would have fully exploited the opportunity to showcase its “Janji Ditepati” achievements and accepted my proposal for the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to assess whether the dreams and aspirations of Sarawakians and Sabahans in forming Malaysia had been fulfilled or betrayed in the past five decades.

I specifically made this proposal in Parliament during the debate on the Royal Address for two consecutive years in March 2010 and March 2011, but there was no support not only from the Barisan Nasional government but also zero support from the BN MPs from Sarawak and Sabah.

I had made the proposal for a RCI on five decades of Sarawak and Sabah in Malaysia as far back as 2010 because this will be a most meaningful way to prepare for the 50th anniversary of Malaysia Day in 2013, putting all the shortfalls and failures of the dual promises of constitutional safeguards and development progress in the two states  in proper perspective and in the forefront of the national agenda.

Before Malaysia was formed in 1963, a Cobbold Commission conducted a fact-finding survey of the people of Sarawak and Sabah for their views as to whether the new nation should be established out of the federation of Sarawak, Sabah and  Singapore with Malaya.

Numerous fact-finding tours were also organised at that time to send Sarawak and Sabah leaders to Malaya to see for themselves the benefits and developments  Sarawak and Sarawak would enjoy if they agree to the establishment of Malaysia.

It was precisely on the dual promises of the constitutional safeguards for Sarawak (the 18 Points) and  Sabah (the 20 Points) and the material and developmental rewards the two states would enjoy that the new Malaysian nation was formed in 1963.

Let there be  a national debate and soul-searching as to how two  of the richest states in Malaysia, namely Sarawak and  Sabah, have been reduced in five decades to be among the  poorest  and the most inequitable states in the federation, as borne out by official statistics from the 2009 National Household Income Survey Report and from the EPU, viz:

1) Incidence of Poverty Overall

Sabah is the highest in the country at 19.7%

Sarawak is the third highest in the country at 5.3% (equal with Kedah). Perlis is 2nd at 6.0%.

2) Incidence of Rural Poverty

Sabah is the highest in the country at 32.8%

Sarawak is the 2nd highest at 8.4%

3) Gini Coefficient

Sabah is the highest at 0.453

Sarawak is the 2nd highest at 0.448

In fact, income inequality has increased in both states from 1999 to 2009:

Sabah, from 0.448 in 1999 to 0.453 in 2009

Sarawak, from 0.407 in 1999 to 0.448 in 2009

4) Poverty Line Income i.e. Monthly Income necessary to go above the poverty rate

Sabah is the highest at RM1048

Sarawak is the 2nd highest at RM912

Peninsular Malaysia is RM763

The people of Sarawak and Sabah were promised progress and development, at least to the level achieved by the Peninsular states.

Have these promises to Sabah and Sarawak been fulfilled in the past five decades? The answers must be a loud No.

Where have all the wealth of Sabah and Sarawak gone to in the past five decades?

After nearly five decades, many in the  Sarawak and Sabah interior even lack the most basic infrastructures to be found in the rest of Malaysia like regular electricity supply, uninterrupted piped water and good roads and bridges as well as the most basic of health and educational facilities.

After nearly five decades in Malaysia, there are at least four “massive” in Sarawak and Sabah – massive corruption, massive cronyism, massive landlessness and massive poverty.

My various  visits into the Sarawak and Sabah interior have  reinforced my conviction that a Royal Commission of Inquiry on five decades of Malaysian federation is vital and paramount as there are deep-seated frustrations and dissatisfactions that the two promises of constitutional safeguards and development progress for Sarawak and Sabah  had not been realised.

I think there is no more meaningful manner for Sarawak and Sabah to mark their 50 years of Malaysian nationhood than to conduct a comprehensive review of the successes and failures in all aspects of development in these two states in the past five decades with feedback from the people Sabah and Sarawak as well as to review the constitutional safeguards as contained in the 18 Points for Sarawak and 20 Points for Sabah.

After 49 years in Malaysia, Sarawak is afflicted with the curse of CLIB – corruption, Land (NCR) injustices, Infrastructure (backwardness) and Borneanisation (breach) while Sabah is afflicted by the additional  curse of CLIBI (illegal immigrants).

1. Corruption

Although Fighting Corruption is one of the priority six National Key Result Areas (NKRA) of Najib’s Government Transformation Programme (GTP), Malaysia’s corruption has gone from bad to worse in the past three years as tracked by Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index.

In Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah are two  of the top states where corruption is most rampant and intractable.

2. Land (NCR) injustices

The second major issue in Sarawak and Sabah five decades after the formation of Malaysia is the plight of the Dayaks of Sarawak and the Kadazan Dusun Muruts (KDMs) over Native Customary Rights (NCR) land.

As the Kuching High Court judge, Justice Linto Albert said in his judgment in the landmark “Pantu” NCR case:, “These are cries for justice because one cannot simply throw one’s hands in the air and say that is how life is”!

3. Infrastructure (backwardness)

Both Sarawak and Sabah are states with rich natural resources, whether oil, gas, or timber, but the wealth of the state have been hijacked by BN leaders and their cronies instead of being ploughed back to ensure that the people in two states enjoy the most basic of infrastructure resources – instead of the scandalous situation in many places in the two states, where there are water pipes without water,  electric poles without power supply or hospitals without doctors.

4. Borneanisation (breach)

Barisan Nasional’s failure to honour the “Borneanisation” undertaking contained in the 20/18-Point Agreements was recently highlighted by the proposal by Tun Zaki Azmi, chairman of the Special Review Commission on Civil Service Transformation, to lower the requirements for Dayaks and ethnic minority groups to enter the civil service so as to address the imbalance of racial composition within the civil service.

Zaki’s proposal had been lambasted by Dayaks leaders on both sides of the political divide as an insult and mockery of the Dayak community, as they contended there are enough qualified people from Dayaks and the minority groups but the problem is the absence of meritocracy not only for recruitment but also promotion in the civil service.

Zaki must be thanked for highlighting the failure of the Barisan Nasional government to implement Borneanisation in Sarawak as promised in the 18-Point Agreement in the past five decades, resulting in the sense of grievance, marginalisation and discrimination by the Dayak and ethnic minority groups with regard to the civil service.

5. Illegal Immigrants

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has taken six months to announce the members and terms of reference of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into illegal immigrants (RCIII) in Sabah.

More than a month have passed since Najib’s announcement, but there are no signs that the RCIII has started work or its members have been  presented with their Instrumrents of Appointment – which is pertinent as the six months given to the RCIII to complete its report is to take effect from their official appointments.

This raises the serious question whether the RCIII would be another meaningless Public Relations exercise like the RCI on Police Reform, the RCI on VK Lingam video clip and the RCI on Teoh Beng Hock case.

The theme of the  49th Malaysia Day is “Janji Ditepati” but it is clear that as far as Sarawak and Sabah are  concerned, the promises for the establishment of Malaysia 49 years ago had not been fulfilled not only in these four major issues for Sarawak and five for Sabah, but in many other areas as well.

Although time is tight, it is still not too late to set up a RCI to assess whether the dreams and aspirations of  Sarawakians and Sabahans in forming Malaysia had been fulfilled or betrayed in the past five decades to make next year’s 50th Malaysia Day truly historic and meaningful – a RCI whose work would not be dependent on the outcome of the imminent 13th General Elections.

I will make such a proposal for the third time in the forthcoming Parliament beginning next week.  Will all Sarawak and Sabah MPs, whether BN or PR, give it unanimous support?

(Speech at the Pakatan Rakyat Malaysia Day national celebrations at Chonglin Park, Kuching on Sunday, 16th September 2012 at 4pm launching the Pakatan Rakyat Kuching Declaration)
                                     .

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 16 September 2012, 9:31 pm and is filed under
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