Pengiraan Detik 44 Hari ke PRU13 – Sekiranya Suharto atau Marcos telah menandatangani  Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya sewaktu di puncak kuasa, apakah akan memperhebat atau mencemar ikrar itu?

Saya tidak terkejut bahawa tiada sebarang jawapan atau apa-apa saja daripada Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Kabinet atau UMNO/Barisan Nasional terhadap cadangan saya di Kuching semalam supaya dilampirkan 10 Poin Tambahan kepada Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya Transparency International (TI) bagi memastikan penandatangan menurunkan tandatangan ke atas dokumen yang bermakna supaya membawa era baru integrity dan tadbir urus baik dan bukan sekadar aksi publisiti yang tidak memberikan apa-apa kesan terhadap kualiti integriti dan tadbir urus baik kerajaan akan datang.

Beberapa Ahli Parlimen Pakatan Rakyat telah menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI sebelum Najib menurunkan tandatangan dengan heboh Rabu lalu.

Disebabkan Najib telah menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI yang maka timbul keraguan tentang tujuan dan makna menandatangi ikrar sedemikian, memandangkan sepanjang empat tahun sebagai Perdana Menteri, Najib tidak pernah menunjukkan sebarang iltizam atau keseriusan untuk memerangi rasuah dan salahguna kuasa.

Ini sebabnya mengapa Malaysia telah menjunam ke kedudukan terburuk dalam Indeks Persepsi Rasuah (CPI) TI sepanjang empat tahun beliau menjadi Perdana Menteri dari 2009 ke 2012 berbanding 18 tahun lalu.

Bagaimana Najib dapat meyakinkan rakyat Malaysia bahawa beliau kini telah “bertukar haluan” memerangi rasuah dan salahguna kuasa apabila Malaysia sepanjang empat tahun lalu paling korup dalam tempoh 56 tahun jika dibandingkan dengan lima Perdana Menteri sebelumnya, baik  Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir atau Tun Abdullah?

Bolehkah dengan menurunkan tandatangan pada Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI Najib menyucikan dirinya daripada semua kegagalan untuk memeriksa rasuah dan salahguna kuasa sepanjang empat tahun lalu atau penglibatannya sendiri dalam urusan rasuah dan salahguna kuasa?

Sebelum saya hadir ke ceramah, saya telah mencari di internet siapakah pemimpin paling korup di dunia.

Untuk rantau ASEAN, dua nama yang menonjol adalah Suharto dan Marcos, yang seiring dengan “pemimpin paling korup di dunia” seperti Mobutu Sese Seko dari Zaire, yang mengumpulkan kekayaan melebihi US$5 bilion sementara negaranya semakin dihimpit kemiskinan dan Sani Abacha dari Nigeria yang keluarnya dianggap sebagai organisasi jenayah mengumpul kekayaan dianggarkan dari US$3 bilion hingga US$4 bilion.

Siapa yang boleh lupakan Marcos atau isterinya, Imelda yang mempunyai 2,500 pasang kasut? Dilaporkan bahawa ketika Marcos meninggalkan Filipina, agen Kastam Amerika Syarikat menjumpai 24 beg bimbit berisi jongkong emas dan berlian tersembunyi di dalam beg tangan serta sijil emas bernilai berbilion dolar.

Marcos mencuri US$5 bilion hingga US$10 bilion daripada tabung awam dan membawanya ke Amerika Syarikat, Switzerland dan negara lain apabila dia lari meninggalkan Filipina selepas rakyat Filipina bangkit menentang autoritatian, korupsi, tekanan politik dan pelanggaran hak asasi manusia.

Suharto mempunyai penghormatan buruk sebagai jaguh kumpulan rasuah sepanjang zaman, kerana Transparency International telah menggambarkannya sebagai pemimpin No.1 paling korup di dunia dengan dakwaan mengumpul US$15 bilion hingga US$35 bilion sepanjang 31 tahun menjadi Presiden Indonesia.

Sekiranya Suharto atau Marcos telah menandatangani  Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya sewaktu di puncak kuasa, apakah akan memperhebat atau mencemar ikrar itu?

Apa yang menimbulkan keraguan tentang Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI selepas Najib menandatanganinya adalah kehadiran Ketua Menteri Sarawak, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, yang telah meletakkan Malaysia di bawah perhatian kempen anti-rasuah antarabangsa selepas dakwaan menggemparkan oleh sebuah NGO berpengkalan di Swiss Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) September lalu yang menjangkakan asset keluarga Taib Mahmud berjumlah US$21 bilion (RM64 billion), dengan kekayaan Taib saja berjumlah US$15 bilion (RM46 bilion) selepas 30 tahun memegang jawatan.

Adakah Najib telah mengarahkan siasatan penuh dijalankan oleh Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah atau Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja terhadap dakwaan kekayaan berbilion dolar Taib Mahmud selepas 30 tahun sebagai Ketua Menteri Sarawak?

Saya mahu menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI tetapi saya mahu ia menjadi tindakan yang bermakna dan bukannya sia-sia.

Ini sebabnya mengapa saya mencadangkan penambahan 10 poin kepada Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI untuk menjadikannya dokumen bermakna, dan saya telah cadangkan lima daripada poin yang sepatutnya meliputi hal berikut:

Pengisytiharan Umum Aset oleh semua Menteri, Timbalan Menteri, Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Besar.

Berikrar “Tidak untuk politik wang” dalam Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13. Setiap ringgit perbelanjaan untuk PRU13, baik oleh calon mahupun parti politik berkenaan, mesti diakaunkan dan diaudit.

Penandatangan berikrar tidak akan membangkitkan momokan 13 Mei atau menggunakan politik ketakutan, ugutan atau kebencian atau menakut-nakutkan pengundi.

Iltizam penandatangan untuk pilihan raya bebas, adil dan bersih yang akan dipantau oleh Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Bersih dan Adil juga pemerhati dalam dan luar negara.

Penandatangan berikrar untuk menerima keputusan pengundi di dalam PRU13 dengan meminta mereka komited terhadap peralihan kuasa di Putrajaya sekiranya itu kehendak pengundi.

Rakyat Malaysia tidak mahu Kebangkitan Arab yang melibatkan pertumpahan darah dan revolusi.

Apa yang rakyat Malaysia mahukan adalah Kebangkitan Korea, seperti mana Korea Selatan 15 tahun mendahului Malaysia dengan peralihan kuasa secara aman apabila calon Oposisi Kim Dae-jung dipilih dan mengangkat sumpah sebagai Presiden.

Sekali lagi pada 2007, South Korea melalui peralihan kuasa dengan aman kali kedua dalam pilihan raya Presiden Korea Selatan.

Apakah Najib bersedia untuk melaksanakan iltizam dan keseriusannya dengan menjadikan “Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya” bermakna dengan menyetujui cadangan Tambahan 10 Poin untuk memastikan kita memasukio era baru integriti dan tadbir urus yang baik, tidak kira siapa pun yang memenangi PRU13?

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/02/26/44-day-countdown-to-13ge-if-suharto-or-marcos-had-signed-an-election-integrity-pledge-at-the-height-of-their-power-and-office-would-it-enhance-or-discredit-such-a-pledge/

                This entry was posted on Friday, 1 March 2013, 2:58 pm and is filed under
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Two M’sians among 12 killed in Lahad Datu

From
fb

Tweets:

1. Most shocking at death of 2 police cammandoes n 2 injured. http://goo.gl/YMnkq 2 M’sians among 12 killed in Lahad Datu (Mkini)

2. Death of two police commandoes unacceptable as Msian police enjoy superior security strength/logistics. Hisham also told press conference today “no deaths”

(From Malaysiakini)

A spokesperson of the sultanate of Sulu claimed that 10 people were killed and four others wounded in a exchange of fire between Malaysian security forces and the Sulu sultanate intruders in Lahad Datu this morning.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that two Malaysian police commandoes were killed in a mortar attack, and that another two injured soldiers have since been airlifted to a hospital.

ABS-CBNnews reported that Sulu sultanate spokesperson Abraham Idjirani said he had just talked to the self-proclaimed Sulu sultan Jamalul Kiram’s (left) brother Azzimudie Kiram, who heads the armed group in Lahad Datu.

Azzimudie confirmed that 10 of his men were killed and four others wounded in the shooting incident.

“He saw the bodies himself,” Idjirani told a press conference in Manila.

“The fatalities included one woman.”

                This entry was posted on Friday, 1 March 2013, 3:31 pm and is filed under
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Who will be PM?

P Gunasegaram

Malaysiakini

5:50PM Feb 28, 2013

QUESTION TIME
 On the surface, that seems an easy enough question to answer. Perhaps if Pakatan Rakyat wins, then almost everyone expects Anwar Ibrahim to become prime minister, even though there are minor dissenting voices from among coalition partners, notably PAS.

So why should not Najib Abdul Razak become prime minister if Barisan Nasional wins? Sure he will, for a start but how long he remains prime minister will depend crucially on how well – or badly – BN does at the polls.

As it is there is not a single person I could find who does not think there is some kind of tension between Najib and his deputy, both as Umno head and prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin. The popular wisdom is that Muhyiddin is poised to take on Najib if BN does not do well enough in the polls.

This column took a look at who is likely to win the polls about a month ago. In the unlikely event that Pakatan wins, Anwar is the clear choice for prime minister.

In the likely event that BN wins, the situation is not very clear-cut. Recall that Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was pressured to step down as Umno head and prime minister even though he was a mere eight seats short of a two-thirds majority in the 2008 elections.

At the federal level it was a victory that would have counted as respectable in most countries except Malaysia, and of course our neighbour down south, Singapore.

The bigger rub was the unprecedented loss of five states in peninsular Malaysia and the popular vote here being just over 50 percent – for the opposition. Unquestionably Sabah and Sarawak saved the day for BN.

Abdullah had to come down from a major victory previously in 2004 when BN won over 90 percent of  parliamentary seats and all states but Kelantan. The strong turn against BN in the peninsula was the reason Abdullah had to relent to pressure within his party to go, which he did later in 2008.

That resulted in Najib becoming the longest serving prime minister and Umno head without a direct mandate from the people via elections. But the day of reckoning is near and by June 28 at the latest the die will be cast. Then it will become clear, if BN wins, whether Najib will face pressure to cede the reins of power to Muhyiddin.

At the federal level, the common view, which I share, is that BN will not regain its two-thirds majority but is likely to remain in control via a smaller majority. That is not likely to help Najib’s case any, unless there are mitigating factors, aka the results of the state elections.

High-stakes gamble

For Najib, that means BN will have to at least regain Selangor. That much seems obvious to Najib himself who has basically appointed himself as BN’s election director for Selangor in a high-stakes game to lessen pressure on him if BN wins – and regains Selangor.

But it is not a gamble that Najib could have avoided. If BN’s showing at the parliamentary level is less than before, than he has to do at least better in terms of states. Otherwise, the pressure is going to be great for him to step aside in favour of Muhyiddin, who is getting on in age and no doubt wants to try his hand at the helm.

One can expect then that a lot of effort is going to be spent on regaining Selangor. Even if there is some reduction in the number of parliamentary seats for BN, bringing Selangor into the BN fold may just tilt the balance in favour of Najib if there is no significant loss in terms of other states.

But what is the reality or rather the realistic outcome? If Pakatan wins (unlikely) Anwar will be PM. If BN wins big (unlikely) Najib will be PM. If BN wins narrowly (most likely) Najib is going to come under plenty of pressure to step down.

The eventual PM in that final scenario may well be, yes, Muhyiddin. I am not even going to comment – at least for now – on what that means for you and me.

P GUNASEGARAM is founding editor of KiniBiz, a business news portal set up in a joint-venture with Malaysiakini. After all these years, Malaysian politics still baffles him.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 1 March 2013, 6:43 am and is filed under
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40-Day Countdown to 13GE – Malaysians invited to give their views whether I should sign TI-M’s Election Integrity Pact after signature by Najib

Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) chairperson Paul Low has conceded that the Election Integrity Pledge (EIP) signed by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak last week is not legally binding.

However, TI-M will hold the signatories, including Najib, responsible by publishing their wrongdoings on its website and social media such as Facebook and Twitter to put pressure on violators of the pledge.

I thank Paul Low for being frank about admitting that there is no legal way to enforce Najib’s signature of the EIP but what should be troubling for TI-M is that the EIP also lacks moral, ethical and persuasive force as its strategy of  “name and shame pledge violators online” is unlikely to strike fear in the hearts of hardened violators.

This is why Najib could be a serial violator of  the TI-M EIP in the 15-day Chinese New Year of the Snake, including the following instances:

•	Broke the pledge to uphold the principle of “Truth, integrity and ethical conduct and accountability” when Najib campaigned in Kuala Terengannu perpetrating the falsehood that “a vote for DAP is a vote for the oppression of the Muslims”;

•	Violated the pledge of “good governance and transparency” when Najib issued the racist and divisive directive to exclusively screen the May 13 film, Tanda Putera, to 3,000 Felda settlers although the Cabinet decided last November that the film was “inappropriate” to be screened because of “bias” in the portrayal of the May 13 riots in 1969.

•	Guilty of the corruption of  “money politics” in the run-up to the 13GE with the  lavish expenditure of over  RM3.5 million to invite Korean K-Pop superstar to Penang for BN Chinese New Year Open House on Feb. 11 to perform Gangnam Style – when money politics in the run-up and during general election campaigns is the mother of rampant corruption in Malaysia.

How can TI-M’s “name and shame” strategy ever work with Najib and Umno/BN when they do not feel any tinge of shame over the 18-year annual  TI Corruption Perception Index (CPI) series which has given the four-year Najib premiership the dubious record of being even more corrupt than all the previous five Malaysian PMs, namely Tunku Abdul Rahman, Razak, Hussein Onn, Dr. Mahathir and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi?

How can TI-M’s “name and shame” strategy with regard to its Election Integrity Pledge ever work or has any chance of success when so far Najib has ignored the worst and most ignominious “name and shame”  strategy over  a series of unresolved and long-standing international scandals, whether it be the C4 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, the RM7 billion Scorpene submarine purchase from French defence company DCNS when Najib was Defence Minister and a series of mega defence procurement financial scandals like the RM400 million Defence Ministry privatization scam involving the Selangor Wanita UMNO chief Raja Ropiaah Raja Abdullah?

This was why I have posed the following questions in the past week following the fanfare of the Prime Minister signing the TI-M’s Election Integrity Pledge:

1.	If Suharto or Marcos, the two persons who have elevated ASEAN to global status in the company of the “most corrupt leaders in the world” like the notorious and infamous kleptocrats Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Sani Abacha of Nigeria, had signed an Election Integrity Pledge at the height of their power and office, would it enhance or discredit such a pledge?

2.	Has TI-M any mechanism to receive and investigate public complaints that signatories have violated the four principles enshrined in the Election Integrity Pledge to uphold “truth, integrity, ethical conduct and accountability” – whether in the run-up or during the 13GE campaign?

3.	Are  there any provisions for TI-M to delete and disqualify signatories to its Election Integrity Pledge who blatantly violate its four principles in the run-up to and during the 13GE?

4.	Is TI-M agreeable to an addendum to its Election Integrity Pledge to ensure that signatories are signing a meaningful document to usher in a new era of integrity, which should spell out among other things the following commitments by the signatories:

(i)	Public  Declaration of  Assets by all present Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Chief Ministers and Mentris Besar (a) before they held  political office and (b) at present.

(ii)	“No money politics” pledge in the 13GE.

(iii)	Pledge not to raise the spectre of May 13 or use the politics of fear, blackmail or hatred to intimidate or frighten voters;

(iv)	Commitment to free, fair and clean elections; and

(v)	Pledge to accept the verdict of the voters of the 13GE and to facilitate a peaceful transition of power in Putrajaya if this is the will of the electorate.

Malaysians do not want an Arab Spring involving bloodshed and revolution.

Instead of inviting Psy to Malaysia with his Gangnam Style, Malaysia should emulate  the South Korean democratic transformation in 1997 when South Korea took the crucial step to become a mature democratic country when it effected a peaceful transition of power with Opposition presidential candidate Kim Dae-jung elected and sworn in as South Korean President.

Can Malaysia achieve a South Korean Spring  which that country underwent  in democratic transformation 15 years ago and witness a peaceful transition of power in Putrajaya in the 13GE?

I am prepared to sign TI-M’s Election Integrity Pledge but it must be a meaningful event not a meaningless exercise serving to  “whitewash” rampant corruption and gross abuses of power by  hardened violators of integrity, transparency and accountability!

I invite Malaysians to give their views whether I should sign TI-M’s Election Integrity Pact after the  signature by Najib, whether through the social media or through other direct channels.

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/03/04/pengiraan-detik-40-hari-ke-pru13-rakyat-malaysia-dijemput-untuk-memberikan-pandangan-mereka-sama-ada-saya-perlu-menandatangani-ikrar-integriti-pilihan-raya-ti-m-selepas-ditandatangani-najib/

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 2 March 2013, 8:05 am and is filed under
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GE13 a referendum on media

 — The Malaysian Insider

Feb 28, 2013

FEB 28 — This must be the longest wait ever for a general election in Malaysia, and it’s impossible to hold it five years after the March 8, 2008 elections.

This will also be an election that will test and assess the Malaysian media.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was realistic when he called it the “social media” elections, because most of what Malaysians know now come from online sources.

In effect, this year’s election is also a referendum on the kind of media that Malaysians want.

Do we want an untruthful media tied to political interests — online, print or television — or do we want a media that serves the interests of Malaysians?

Do we want a media that regurgitates without question or one that questions, inquires, checks facts and verifies before publishing or broadcasting news?

Do we want our news “vanilla”, in the parlance of the Internet, or do we want it coloured with bias and perception without it being labelled as such?

These questions might not be explicitly on the ballot when the elections are finally called but it will be on the mind of voters.

The ones who now already think twice before shelling out RM1.20 for the morning dailies or decide to waste an hour on prime-time news or just watch a television series or a downloaded video.

The Malaysian media is already on trial for many reasons in the court of public opinion, and some in the judicial courts.

This General Election 2013 will be the ultimate court and referendum on the Malaysian media.

It’s time to get back to the principles of journalism, of relevance and providing news that matters, accurately rather than spin and innuendoes or even outright false reporting.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 2 March 2013, 9:30 am and is filed under
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Hopes for Malaysia to be a high-income economy are not bright because Najib’s NEM does not dump the NEP policy

by Dr. Chen Man Hin

DAP life advisor

2nd March 2013

Look at the FDIs inflow to Malaysia compared to other Asean countries for 2012.

According to UNCTAD  Malaysia FDI for first half of 2012 was US4 billion, and for the full year would be around US 8 billion.

Whereas  it was Singapore US 27.4 billion,  Indonesia 8.2 billion,  Thailand 5.6 billion.

World bank figures for PER CAPITA INCOME for 2011 are:

Malaysia   US$     9500     ( US$  7440 in 2008)

Singapore         46241

Thailand           4972

HONG KONG        36012

South Korea         22424

But Malaysia’s PCI of US9500 is far way from the required high income level of US$ 16,000

A  world authority on finance, ICAEW (ACCOUNTANCY AND FINANCE) has predicted that Malaysia per capita income is expected to increase by one third by 2020.  one third of 9500 is about 3200.  add it to 9500, and Malaysia PCI would be US$ 12700.

But US$ 16000 is the minimum level for high income status. so by the analyst estimate, Malaysia would not reach high income status by year 2020

This is a brutal fact that Najib must admit.  With his present policies of NEM  cum NEP, the country will stay in the low income economy.

Najib wants to push his NEM, but is blocked by the UMNO cronies who want to keep NEP for their own selfish aims,  to maintain the 30% quota in all sections of the economy – foreign investments, industries, construction and housing.  The NEP make UMNO cronies very rich, but the people suffer because the economy is slow and unproductive.

This is the time for change.  Time for the people to have a government  that is clean and competitive.  With free market enterprise, Malaysia will have the opportunity to join the Four Tigers,  Singapore, Hong Kong, S Korea and Taiwan.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 2 March 2013, 10:13 pm and is filed under
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39-Day Countdown to 13GE:  Proposal for an  all-party council to help deal with Sulu Sabah crisis and call  on Najib to make immediate extended visit to Sabah

While Malaysians are still mourning the death of two national heroes, elite police commandos Insp Zulkifli Mamat 29 and Sabaruddin Daud 46 who were  killed in the shootout in Kampung Tanduo in Lahad Datu on Friday morning with Sulu armed intruders, with three other commandoes injured, the nation is shocked this morning at the news that there have been another two police casualties in Semporna last evening.

Malaysians woke up this morning  to the sad news that
“Cop killed in Semporna, another injured in gunfight with militants” (TMI)
  but  by noon time, the police confirmed that there were two policemen who were killed in an ambush in Kampung Seri Jaya Siminul, a village on stilts above the water,  in Semporna at about 6.30 pm last evening – and that a third is fighting for his life at the general hospital in Semporna.

But worse were to come, when Malaysians learnt of the  news of the first joint press conference by the police and army in Felda Sahabat Residence, Lahad Datu after the three-week stand-off with armed Sulu intruders at Kampung Toudou, as reflected in the following Malaysiakini reports:

•
Five cops killed in Semporna ambush, says IGP

•
IGP: More armed intruders have landed

•
Army General: Intruders ‘well-trained’

It is also reported of another landing by intruders in Kunak.

Last night I received reports of two police casualties in the clash in Semporna and I am sure this information would have been passed around Sabah last evening, raising the question of credibility and reliability  of official information about the Sulu crisis in Sabah.

The official authorities should realise that in this era of instant information and communication, there is a need to revise and modernise their pre-information era policies and practices to ensure their own credibility.

Patriotic Malaysians have many questions about the handling of three-week stand-off with the Sulu armed intruders in Lahad Datu and whether the casualties of the security forces could have been avoided if the whole situation had been properly handled right from the beginning.

These doubts and queries, however legitimate,  must now take second place, as there is no doubt that the country is faced with a crisis involving national sovereignty and the people’s security which must take topmost priority.

I proposes an all-party council be formed, with representatives from both the ruling and opposition coalitions,  to help deal with the Sulu Sabah crisis to show the world that Malaysians, regardless of political affiliation, race, religion or region, are united as one in protecting the sovereignty of the nation and the security of the people.

I have two other proposals on the Sulu Sabah crisis to give full support to the military and police personnel who are in the frontline defending the national sovereignty with their lives:

•	An emergency meeting of Parliament which should be convened within the week, even on 8th March 2013 to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2008 general elections, to tell the nation and the world that although the country is facing the 13th general elections, Malaysians regardless of political affiliation, race, religion or region, are united and solid in defending the national sovereignty and people’s security with regard to the Sulu Sabah crisis;

•	The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should make an immediate extended visit to Sabah to allay the concerns and unease of Sabahans at the various incidents of intrusion into Sabah and the security of the people in Sabah.

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
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                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 March 2013, 2:23 pm and is filed under
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Silly idea to control social media

– The Malaysian Insider

Mar 02, 2013

MARCH 2 – One wonders where Datuk Maglin Dennis D’Cruz was on April 3, 2009 when Datuk Seri Najib Razak took office as Prime Minister and said “the days of government knows best is over”.

One wonders where D’Cruz was during the Budget 2013 speech last year when Najib proposed a fund to give smartphone rebates for youths to enable them to access the Internet.

One wonders where this man who is Deputy Minister of Information, Communication and Culture was when Najib dubbed this year’s polls as a “social media election”.

Why? Because this unelected politician said today the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was looking into suitable methods to monitor and control the use of social media in the general election.

Monitor and control? Is this some hermit socialist or communist state we are living in where the authorities do not trust its citizens using social media tools?

State news agency Bernama quoted D’Cruz as saying the MCMC will monitor all users of social media, regardless of their political beliefs, to ensure peace and smooth running of the general election.

He goes on to say monitoring of the social media was vital as certain quarters were only good at making baseless allegations and spreading lies to gain political mileage, adding that he himself had once fallen victim to such lies and accusations.

Thank you for your experience, Mr Deputy Minister but the MCMC has more responsibilities than to police the Internet. They already have to manage the rebate scheme for smartphones, phone and data service quality and coverage and also broadcasters.

Why can’t those who the deputy minister say “should not be so selfish and lie just for the sake of gaining political mileage because what matters most in politics was to ensure that the people will live in peace and harmony” be left to the police when reports are made.

In fact, one should even ask the deputy minister if people at large also trust politicians to do their job rather than play politics at an event organised by a government department.

Isn’t that abusing your office as much as you fear others will abuse social media for their own ends.

Politicians like D’Cruz are an anachronism for Najib who wants to widen the use of social media for innovation and to push Malaysia as a country of talents with high incomes.

Monitoring and controlling what people do on social media is akin to what the Soviets did when they ruled Russia. It just dumbs down people to become sheep.

Malaysia can do without such politicians like D’Cruz who only think of controlling people’s minds. These are dinosaurs best left as museum exhibits and a reminder we need a society that is responsible for what it does, rather than one that lives under the shadow of control.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 March 2013, 8:55 am and is filed under
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38-Day Countdown to 13GE – Thuggish disruption of 4,000-people DAP UBAH Dream Truck ceramah in Teluk Intan latest proof that Najib has no intention to honour TI-M’s Election Integrity Pact on clean, free and fair 13GE

The thuggish behaviour and disruption of the 4,000-people DAP UBAH Dream Truck  ceramah in Teluk Intan by some 20 flag-waving UMNO/BN activists last night is the latest proof that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has no intention, commitment or will to honour Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M)’s Election Integrity Pact on clean, free and fair 13th general elections which he signed with such fanfare on Feb. 20.

All the four principles which Najib swore to uphold in the TI-M Election Integrity Pledge were all violated in the thuggish disruption of the DAP UBAH ceramah by Umno/BN activists, resulting in an half-hour sit-down public protest by the people of Teluk Intan at the impotence and failure of the police to uphold law and order when confronted by  some 20 disrupters enjoying high-powered backing, namely:

•	Truth, integrity, ethical conduct and accountability;

•	Uphold and give  priority to the interests of the rakyat as a whole;

•	Good governance and transparency; and

•	Compliance with all the applicable laws and regulations of Malaysia.

If Prime Minister can blatantly violate ethics, morals and the  laws of the land after signing the endorsement of the Election Integrity Pledge, more and more Malaysians will come to learn that Najib and the UMNO/BN leadership are not to be believed or trusted at all – not only what they say, but what they had appended their signatures to!

The thuggish UMNO/BN disruption of DAP UBAH Dream Truck ceramah in Teluk Intan  is also the latest testimony of the growing desperation felt by UMNO/BN leaders about their prospects in the 13GE – despite the latest forecast by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI) predicting a BN victory in the 13GE with an expected 123 – 135 seats or a parliamentary majority from 24 to 48 parliamentary seats.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir said yesterday that Najib will take the country to greater heights if BN is returned to power in the next general elections.

Now very few Malaysians, whether in or outside Umno/BN believe in  Mahathir, as the previous Prime Minister had gone on public record many times castigating Najib as a “weak” leader and even demanding  as recently as Jan 31 that Najib should give way to Deputy UMNO President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as Prime Minister if Najib fails to get a stronger mandate in the 13GE than previous Prime Minister Tun Abdullah in 2008 general election and regain the two-third parliamentary majority for Umno/BN.

Nobody, least of all Mahathir, expects Najib to win the 13GE with a two-thirds parliamentary majority, which UMNO veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah regards as a virtual “impossibility” after the series of “controversial issues” affecting Umno/BN.

Razaleigh told Oriental Daily News  today that  ASLI forecasts for the 13GE are not reliable as the think-tank is pro-government and its analysis biased.

Razaleigh  forecasts that BN can lose 10 – 15 parliamentary seats in Sabah after the Lahad Datu debacle where after a three-week stand-off with a ragtag group of some 200 armed Sulu militants, seven police personnel lost their lives  while Sabah plunged into a state of tension with national sovereignty and  the security of the people of Sabah under grave threat.

If UMNO/BN loses 10 – 15 seats to Pakatan Rakyat in Sabah in the 13GE, which is well over the one-third of total parliamentary seats in Sabah, then PR is well on the way to Putrajaya to form the next Federal Government – for it will signify the end of the BN “fixed deposit” state in Sabah.

If Sarawak and Johore, the other two BN “fixed deposit states”, followed Sabah’s example, then Najib’s fate is sealed and he will fulfill the RAHMAN prophecy and be the last UMNO/BN Prime Minister in the country.

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/03/06/pengiraan-detik-38-hari-ke-pru13-gangguan-bersifat-samseng-terhadap-ceramah-ubah-dream-truck-yang-dihadiri-4000-orang-di-teluk-intan-bukti-terbaru-najib-tiada-niat-untuk-menjunjung-ikrar-i/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 4:58 pm and is filed under
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Covert Malaysian Campaign Touched A Wide Range Of American Media

Outlets from Huffington Post to National Review carried pieces financed by the Malaysian government. An international campaign against Anwar Ibrahim.

By
Rosie Gray
 | March 1, 2013 at 12:35pm EST

BuzzFeed

A range of mainstream American publications printed paid propaganda for the government of Malaysia, much of it focused on the campaign against a pro-democracy figure there.

The payments to conservative American opinion writers — whose work appeared in outlets from the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner to the Washington Times to National Review and RedState — emerged in a filing this week to the Department of Justice. The filing under the Foreign Agent Registration Act outlines a campaign spanning May 2008 to April 2011 and led by Joshua Trevino, a conservative pundit, who received $389,724.70 under the contract and paid smaller sums to a series of conservative writers.

Trevino lost his column at the Guardian last year after allegations that his relationship with Malaysian business interests wasn’t being disclosed in columns dealing with Malaysia. Trevino told Politico in 2011 that “I was never on any ‘Malaysian entity’s payroll,’ and I resent your assumption that I was.”

According to Trevino’s belated federal filing, the interests paying Trevino were in fact the government of Malaysia, “its ruling party, or interests closely aligned with either.” The Malaysian government has been accused of multiple human rights abuses and restricting the press and personal freedoms. Anwar, the opposition leader, has faced prosecution for sodomy, a prosecution widely denounced in the West, which Trevino defended as more “nuanced” than American observers realized. The government for which Trevino worked also attacked Anwar for saying positive things about Israel; Trevino has argued that Anwar is not the pro-democracy figure he appears.

The federal filing specified that Trevino was engaged through the lobbying firm APCO Worldwide and the David All Group, an American online consulting firm. The contract also involved a firm called FBC (short for Fact-Based Communications), whose involvement in covert propaganda prompted a related scandal and forced an executive at The Atlantic to resign from its board.

According to the filings, Trevino was also employed to write for websites called MalaysiaMatters and MalaysiaWatcher.

Trevino’s subcontractors included conservative writer Ben Domenech, who made $36,000 from the arrangement, and Rachel Ehrenfeld, the director of the American Center for Democracy, who made $30,000. Seth Mandel, an editor at Commentary, made $5,500 (his byline is attached to the National Review item linked to above). Brad Jackson, writing at the time for RedState, made $24,700. Overall, 10 writers were part of the arrangement.

“It was actually a fairly standard PR operation,” Trevino told BuzzFeed Friday. “To be blunt with you, and I think the filing is clear about this, it was a lot looser than a typical PR operation. I wanted to respect these guys’ independence and not have them be placement machines.”

Trevino said neither he nor the client knew what the writers were going to write before it went up.

“I provided a stipend to support their work in this area and they would just ping me whenever something went up,” he said.

Domenech, a former Washington Post blogger who runs a daily morning newsletter called The Transom, said he “was retained by Josh’s Trevino Strategies and Media PR firm in 2010 with the general guidance to write about Malaysia, particularly the political scene there.”

“I did not ever have anyone looking over my shoulder for what I wrote, and the guidance really was just to write about the political fray there and give my own opinion,” Domenech said. “Of course, Josh picked me knowing what my opinion was — I stand by what I wrote at the time and I continue to be critical of Anwar Ibrahim, who I think is a particularly dangerous fellow.”

Domenech attached two pieces he’d written about Malaysia for the San Francisco Examiner as well as one for the Huffington Post in his email to BuzzFeed.

Chuck DeVore, the Vice President for Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation (where Trevino now works), said he was unaware of the arrangement in an email.

“He knew of my expertise and suggested I write some pieces,” DeVore said. “As I’ve seen over the years, it’s not uncommon for freelancers to be paid for their work from various sources. I frankly didn’t think much of it, having been paid by papers in a few nations abroad and by PR firms, such as the one Mr. Trevino was running at the time.”

“He never told me who his client was,” DeVore said. “I wonder if they did the same via him? Interesting that he filed the paperwork, given it appears he was working for someone else.”

Mandel said, “I was blogging about issues relating to Israel and anti-Semitism in 2010, and Josh approached me about a Malaysian opposition figure who had made anti-Semitic comments and was affiliated with anti-Israel organizations. I had full editorial freedom — Josh never saw anything I wrote until after it was published — and I had no relationship with the Malaysian government. I was paid by Josh for what was probably a handful of blog posts in the fall of 2010, I believe, while working as a freelancer in Washington.”

According to Trevino, he was approached by publicist and social media executive David All in 2008. He never had contact with “the ultimate client,” he said. “I only had an assumption of who I was working for. I never knew exactly who APCO was dealing with, never knew exactly who FBC was dealing with.”

Trevino acknowledged that he shouldn’t have lied to BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith, then at Politico, when this first came up in 2011.

“When Ben Smith contacted me in July 2011, I ought to have come clean with him at the time,” he said.

As for why he waited until five years after the fact to register with FARA, Trevino said he didn’t know he was supposed to have registered until recently.

“The accurate answer is that I didn’t know there was a foreign agents database at all.” Trevino said. “When all the stuff with the Guardian went down in August, I had a friend ask me whether I regeistered with FARA and I said what’s FARA?”

“They allowed me to do a retroactive filing,” he said.

Trevino terminated his relationship with Malaysian interests when he joined the Texas Public Policy Foundation, he said.

This article has been updated to include comments from Mandel.

Update 2:33 p.m.: Trevino called back to say that he had actually checked with his legal counsel in 2011 after being questioned by Politico, but had been told at the time that he didn’t need to register anywhere.

“Ben Smith had actually asked me if I was a foreign agent back in 2011,” Trevino said. “I asked a lawyer friend, my counsel. I said, hey, is there anything I need to comply with? He came back and said no.”

“After the Guardian thing, I reached out to a different counsel, and I did some googling and found out about FARA,” Trevino said.

UPDATE: Trevino’s Malaysia-related posts have been removed from the Huffington Post and replaced with an editors’ note that says the author “violated blogger guidelines by not properly disclosing financial ties that amounted to a serious conflict of interest.”

UPDATE: The Washington Examiner, where Domenech’s post on “The search for moderate Muslims” originally appeared, has removed the post from its website and replaced it with an editors’ note saying that “the author of this item presented content for which, unbeknownst to us, and in violation of our standards, he had received payment from a third party mentioned therein — a payment which he also failed to disclose.” The Washington Examiner owned the San Francisco Examiner at the time and content was shared.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 3:57 pm and is filed under
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Dato’ Seri Najib Razak sewajarnya menumpukan usaha memastikan kedaulatan wilayah negara, keselamatan rakyat Sabah dan anggota pasukan keselamatan

Kenyataan media pimpinan Pakatan Rakyat

Setiap pimpinan mana-mana negara sekalipun bertanggungjawab mempertahan kedaulatan wilayah negara, keselamatan rakyat dan anggota pasukan keselamatan.

Kegagalan mempertahankan kedaulatan negara dan keselamatan rakyat merupakan satu pengkhianatan serta menodai amanah rakyat. Justeru Pakatan Rakyat berhasrat mengingatkan pimpinan negara agar tegas mempertahankan kedaulatan wilayah negara dan tidak alpa memastikan keselamatan setiap rakyat Malaysia, terutamanya di Sabah ekoran dari insiden pencerobohan sekumpulan bersenjata warga asing di sekitar Lahad Datu serta Semporna. Setiap inci tanah Sabah dan keselamatan rakyatnya wajib dipertahankan.

Pencerobohan di Lahad Datu telah mengorbankan dua nyawa perwira negara manakala insiden terbaru di Semporna pula mengorbankan enam nyawa perwira negara. Kita merakamkan ucapan takziah buat keluarga mereka dan rakyat Sabah serta berdoa moga roh mereka dicucuri rahmat.

Pakatan Rakyat juga mengajak seluruh rakyat Malaysia untuk tetap teguh mendokong pasukan keselamatan, samada dari pihak polis atau tentera. Kita berdoa moga mereka kekal selamat serta bersemangat mempertahankan negara dan rakyat Malaysia dari ancaman penceroboh.

Pakatan Rakyat sedar keadaan mutakhir di Sabah sememangnya menimbulkan kebimbangan, akan tetapi kita menyeru agar orang ramai tetap bertenang dan tidak mengambil tindakan terburu-buru atau menyebarkan berita-berita fitnah yang boleh menimbulkan keresahan. Pakatan Rakyat ingin menyatakan dengan jelas keyakinan kita terhadap kecekapan dan kebolehan anggota pasukan keselamatan. Mereka pastinya dapat menjalankan tugas dengan profesional sekiranya diberi kebebasan bertindak tanpa sebarang campurtangan politik.

Sehingga kini, kita merasa kesal dan kecewa dengan sikap kepimpinan negara yang tidak mempamerkan kewibawaan dan iltizam dalam menyelesaikan masalah ini. Pimpinan negara juga gagal menyalurkan maklumat tepat, cepat dan telus serta memberikan penjelasan terhadap apa yang berlaku kepada umum sehingga menyebabkan khabar angin tersebar luas.

Pakatan Rakyat menggesa supaya isu ini tidak dijadikan arena tuduh-menuduh dan sewajarnya kepimpinan negara memberi tumpuan kepada isu keselamatan negara serta tidak mengalihkan pandangan rakyat dari kelemahan mereka. Sewajarnya mereka menyedari, keutamaan adalah demi mempertahankan kedaulatan negara, keselamatan rakyat dan perwira negara yang bertungkus lumus di perbatasan.

Pakatan Rakyat menuntut agar segera diadakan satu sidang khas Parlimen bagi membincangkan isu pencerobohan ini serta demi untuk mendapatkan gambaran sebenar insiden yang tercetus di Sabah. Kita juga berhasrat mengadakan satu persidangan meja bulat di antara pimpinan Pakatan Rakyat dengan pimpinan kerajaan dalam usaha untuk mencapai muafakat bersama berhubung isu ini.

YB DATO’ SERI ANWAR IBRAHIM

Ketua Umum KEADILAN

YB DATO’ SERI ABDUL HADI AWANG

Setiausaha Agung PAS

YB LIM KIT SIANG

Penasihat DAP

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/03/04/the-federal-government-should-now-priortise-on-guarenteeing-our-territorial-integrity-and-security/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 3:49 pm and is filed under
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“Democracy” in Malaysia – Neither Free nor Fair

The position of Barisan Nasional (BN) has always been to insist that Malaysia is a democracy on the basis that we have regular elections and that opposition politicians are elected to the legislature, be it in the federal parliament or the state legislatures. Since the 2008 general elections, BN politicians have used the example of the opposition winning control of an additional four state legislatures in Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor as additional ‘proof’ that Malaysia is indeed a democracy.

This kind of simplistic thinking and arguments from the BN exemplifies the root of the problem faced by our country. We set our own ‘benchmarks’ and then proceed to congratulate ourselves by giving patting ourselves on our backs when we have ‘achieved’ them.

Democracy is not ‘merely’ about elections

While we are not like North Korea or China where opposition political parties and elections are not allowed, all reasonable and rationale people would agree with the proposition that we are nowhere near being a full-fledged democracy like the United Kingdom or the United States or more recent additions to the ranks of democratic countries such as South Korea and even Indonesia.

Democracy is not merely about elections. It is much more than that. It must include the protection of civil liberties and political rights. There must be guarantees for many important freedoms which are crucial for the functioning of democracy not just in its form but more importantly, in its substance. This would include protection for the freedom of the press and freedom to assemble freely. This would include proper checks and balances in the system such as parliamentary oversight and executive accountability. This would include having an independent civil service and independent government agencies such as the Election Commission, the Attorney General’s Chamber and the Anti-Corruption Agency as well as an independent judiciary. Unfortunately, the BN have overlooked all these other crucial components of democracy. Some politicians have even remarked that if the electorate doesn’t like the ‘rules of the game’ set by the BN, they can always vote the BN out. This, of course, totally ignores the fact that the electoral playing field is grossly skewed in favor of the BN through undemocratic means that have been institutionalized in the 56 year rule of the current regime.

The view that Malaysia cannot be defined as a democracy is found in ALL of the widely accepted classifications and rankings of countries according to their level of democracy. These would include the Freedom House “Freedom In the World” Reports, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s “Economist’s Democracy Index” ranking and the Polity IV scores designed by political scientists, just to mention a few.

The most well-known of these rankings is the Freedom House Freedom in the World rankings which categorizes countries into “Free”,” Partly Free” and “Not Free” classifications. These rankings, which started in 1972, have listed Malaysia as a “Partly Free” country since 1972. We have not improved our ‘democratic’ scores even as many of our neighbors in South East Asia and other parts of Asia have established or starting to establish themselves as “Free” countries. South Korea achieved this distinction in 1988 and Taiwan in 1996. Mongolia, which is better known in Malaysia for other matters, was categorized as a “Free” country in 1991. Indonesia, which experienced the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, achieved the “Free” classification in 2005.

Even for those who argue that Malaysia at least holds somewhat competitive elections, Freedom House provides an instructive comparison. Out of 195 countries in the Freedom of the World Report in 2013, 117 or 60% were classified as ‘electoral democracies’. This included some countries that were in the “Partly Free” category. Malaysia was not one of them. Indeed, Malaysia did not fulfill all of the conditions to qualify as an electoral democracy including:

A competitive, multiparty political system;

Universal adult suffrage for all citizens (with exceptions for restrictions that states may legitimately place on citizens as sanctions for criminal offenses);

Regularly contested elections conducted in conditions of ballot secrecy, reasonable ballot security, and in the absence of massive voter fraud, and that yield results that are representative of the public will;

Significant public access of major political parties to the electorate through the media and through generally open political campaigning.

In other words, the BN fails even on the ONE issue – that of competitive elections – which it uses to argue the case that Malaysia is a democratic country.

In the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2011 ranking of 167 countries, Malaysia was ranked 71, tied with Zambia. Under this index, Malaysia was also categorized as a “Flawed Democracy”.

However, it is not only these rankings on Democracy where Malaysia performs poorly in spite of the protestations among many BN politicians that Malaysia is indeed a democracy. Malaysia also performs poorly in other measures of important components of democracy, of which Press Freedom is a crucial characteristic.

The Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders, showed that Malaysia’s 2012 ranking had fallen 23 places to 145 out of 179 countries, which is an even lower position the previous low in 2002. The Press Freedom Index reported that:

“Malaysia (145th) also presented a sorry record, falling 23 places to a position below the one it had in 2002. Despite an all-out battle by rights activists and online media outlets, a campaign of repression by the government, illustrated by the crackdown on the “Bersih 3.0” protest in April, and repeated censorship efforts, continue to undermine basic freedoms, in particular the right to information.”

In the Freedom House Global Press Freedom Rankings 2012, Malaysia was similarly ranked at a low level coming in at 144 out of 197 countries and was categorized as “Not Free” joining luminaries such as Cambodia, Jordan, Madagascar and Pakistan.

While corruption (or the lack thereof) is not a direct measure of a country’s democratic credentials, it is an important measure nonetheless in terms of measuring the quality of institutions and the presence of strong checks and balance in a country. On this count, Malaysia has performed at an equally appalling level. Malaysia’s Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranking fell from 36 in 2001 to a low of 60 in 2011. It improved slightly to 54 in 2012 but is still a long way off from the ranking of 33 achieved in 2001. Even then, we fell far short of the levels of transparency in all of the developed democracies including the Nordic countries, New Zealand and Australia, just to name a few.

To reiterate, by all international measures of democracy, Malaysia cannot be understood or classified as categorized as a Democratic country. Malaysia has been classified as a ‘Partly Free country’, a ‘flawed democracy’, a ‘hybrid regime’, a ‘dominant party authoritarian regime’ or a ‘soft authoritarian regime’ and an ‘autocracy’ but no respected political scientist or international organization has ever put Malaysia among the ranks of what is commonly accepted as Democratic countries.

Has Democracy Flourished under Najib?

A few BN politicians may retort by arguing that the trajectory of the country is heading in the right direction in terms of deepening and furthering democracy under Prime Minister Najib. They would point to the Political Transformation Program (PTP) which has led to the amending and / or abolishing of various repressive bills and orders including the Internal Security Act (ISA), the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) and the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA). They would also point to the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Electoral Reform under Najib’s watch.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, these so-called reforms are typical of BN’s practice of preferring form over substance. Indeed, instead of taking definitive steps towards establishing democratic norms, they instead gloss over substantive measures in favor of making cosmetic changes. Furthermore, without the necessary political will behind these reform steps, the powers that be often fail to implement even these basic legislative changes.

For example, the Security Offences (Special Measures) Bill (SOSMA) which has replaced the International Security Act (ISA) has received criticism from various sources. The Bar Council President, Lim Chee Wee, in April 2012, expressed his concern that the definition of ‘security offences’ under Section 3 of the SOSMA bill was still too broad. In addition, the Bar Council also expressed concern that under Clause 4(5) of the SOSMA bill, police officers above the rank of superintendent are empower to decide whether to detain a suspect for 28 days for investigation purposes, without having to refer the case to the court, instead of being subjected to judicial oversight.

In terms of practice, a recent detainee under SOSMA, Mohd Hilmi Haslim, who is a cafeteria assistant at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex, was denied access to legal representation by the police even though the law only allows the police to deny such access for only 48 hours.

In the same vein, although the amendments to the UUCA now allow university students to join a political party, a student is still prevented from being involved in political party activities within a campus. These amendments also empower the board of directors of a university or the registrar general to determine if the society or organization that a student intends to join is ‘unsuitable to the interest and well-being of the students or the university”.

These restrictions is deemed by the Bar Council to be ‘unnecessarily restrictive, unreasonable and disproportionate barriers to a student’s freedom of association under Article 10(1)(c), and freedoms of speech and expression under Article 10(1)(a), of our Federal Constitution.’

We saw the lack of sincerity on the part of the BN government in even following the spirit of these amendments when the Ministry of Higher Education sent out a circular to private and public institutions of higher learning in the Klang Valley area dissuading students from attending the Himpunan Rakyat on the 12 of January, 2013.

More recently, it was reported that the International Islamic University cancelled a student organized forum on the upcoming general elections without specifying the exact reasons. One should remember that Professor Abdul Aziz Bari, a respected constitutional lawyer, was suspended by IIU in 2011 for expressing his professional opinion on a constitutional issue involving a member of the Royalty.

Instead of expanding the freedom of expression and intellectual thought of students as well as faculty, we continue to see overzealous administrators shackling the minds and voices of those within the ranks of our institutions of higher learning. What is considered as normal and even sacrosanct in all universities in democratic countries is seen as potentially destabilizing and sensitive in our own institutions of higher learning.

In terms of the amendments to the PPPA, the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) has expressed that these changes are not sufficient and are ‘far from adequate to ensure that the media is free to report fairly and accurately’. Furthermore, CIJ states that ‘The fact that publishing permits must still be granted and the minister has a right to revoke or suspend these permits means that the government still has effective control over the Malaysian print media’.

In practice, the Home Ministry still refuses to grant Malaysiakini a printing permit even though the Kuala Lumpur High Court has ruled that the Ministry’s decision not to grant Malaysiakini a printing license and ‘improper and irrational’ as well as ‘unreasonable’.

The abysmal lack of real progress in terms of political reform by PM Najib is borne out not only by these concrete examples but also in international reports.

Since Najib assumed the premiership in 2009, Malaysia’s Civil Liberties and Political Rights Scores in the Freedom in the World reports published by Freedom House has remained stuck at 4 out of 7 (1 meaning the most free, 7 meaning the least free).

In terms of human rights, the Human Rights Watch World Report 2013 states that Malaysia is ‘backsliding on rights’. The government’s use of various agencies in order to investigate Suaram, one of Malaysia’s leading human rights organizations, ostensibly on the grounds of ‘accepting foreign donations to undermine the Malaysian government’ was highlighted. This report also stated that the investigations into Suaram were ‘prompted by Suaram’s decision in 2010 to become involved in a French judicial investigation examining alleged corruption in Malaysia’s purchase of submarines from a French defence company’.

In terms of media freedom, the EIU’s Democracy Index 2011 report notes that Malaysia is one of the 40 countries where there has been deterioration in the scores for media freedom since 2008. In addition, Malaysia continues to be ranked as “Not Free” by the Freedom House Freedom of the Press index and by the Reporters Without Border’s Press Freedom Index during Najib’s 4 year premiership.

Perhaps a greatest blemish on Najib’s political reform record is the heavy handed crackdown by the police on the Bersih 3.0 gathering of peaceful protestors on the streets of Kuala Lumpur on the 28th of April, 2012. The heavy handed and disproportionate response by the police in reaction to the breach of one of the police barricades at Dataran Merdeka received widespread condemnation both domestically and internationally. The irony of this disproportionate response was that it happened just weeks after the introduction and passing of many of these so-called political reform bills in a history setting parliamentary session where the clock was ‘frozen’ at 12 midnight in order to rush through these bills.

What sort of political reform can this be if they are half hearted in its intent and substance and worse of all, not backed by the sufficient political will to make sure that they are implemented?

If Najib’s Political Transformation Program (PTP) were to be given a KPI score, like the ones issued by the Government Transformation Program (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Program (ETP), the score should be an undisputed FAIL.

How can genuine democracy thrive in Malaysia?

The evidence presented thus far suggests that the BN government has failed to live up to its Vision of a Malaysia ‘fostering and developing a mature democratic society’, set out by former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir, who, of late, seems to have forgotten his own Vision 2020.

Najib has lacked the political will and courage to implement genuine political reform that will lead the country on the path to a genuine democracy. The superficial and cosmetic legislative measures have not been backed up by concrete action. Most worryingly, Najib refused to and still refuses to answer the question on whether he will guarantee that there will be a peaceful transition of power in Putrajaya if Pakatan Rakyat were to capture a majority of parliamentary seats in the upcoming general election. If Najib is not willing to guarantee one of the basic and fundamental guarantees of a functioning democracy – a peaceful transition of power from one government to another – how then can we expect a genuine democracy to be established, much less thrive, under a BN government?

The only way forward, it seems to me, is that we must replace the current BN government in the 13th general election as the first step towards firmly establishing Malaysia as a democratic country. Once in power, Pakatan Rakyat will have the burden of delivering on its promises including the promises of genuine legislative reform so that the components and characteristics of democracy can be institutionalized, in form as well as in substance.

We have made such promises in the Buku Jingga and most recently, in our first ever Pakatan Raykat Manifesto.

If we do not deliver on these promises, then the people of Malaysia will do what voters in other democratic countries have done with regularity – which is to replace one government with another. This is what genuine democracy will look and feel like.

But this will not happen until the current BN government is kicked out of power with a resounding mandate from the people.

The 2008 general elections opened the door for many possibilities which Malaysians could not have imagined happening in their lifetimes. The 2013 general elections will be the historic opportunity for Malaysians to throw open the floodgates for a genuine democracy to thrive in our country. Then only can we safely say that our country has achieved the ranks of a truly democratic country with a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

[
Paper presented on “An appraisal of the electoral democracy in Malaysia” at the International Conference on Malaysia 13th General Elections at Lake Club, Kuala Lumpur on March 4-5, 2013 at 11 am
]

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 3:17 pm and is filed under
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Now will you listen to Sabah?

 — Erna Mahyuni

The Malaysian Insider

March 03, 2013

MARCH 3 — Living on a knife’s edge: that was the Sabahan reality for the last two weeks.

While Putrajaya played at diplomacy and our home minister mugged for the cameras, many Sabahans were left angry and confused.

There are intruders on our doorstep! Why are they not being chased out?

Do not believe the rumours, Putrajaya said.

We are hoping for a peaceful resolution, Putrajaya said.

And now, good men are dead.

My mother, ever the optimist says, “Let’s hope it all turns out for the best.”

But I know that right now she is checking that the knives are where she hid them.

Sabahans are not surprised.

Just a few years back, the Population and Housing Census Report for 2010 of the Economic Planning Unit said 27 per cent of Sabah’s population are foreigners.

Nearly a third of Sabah.

70 per cent of of Sabah’s prison population are also foreigners.

It is the reality Sabahans live with. Foreigners are everywhere, with even their own dedicated settlements.

According to Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, formerly of SUHAKAM and currently PROHAM chairman, when Kampung Ice Box in Tawau burnt down 25 years ago, 5000 people lost their homes.

Only 500 were Sabahan.

Everyone’s favourite MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin’s own constituency of Kinabatangan numbered about 85,000 as of June 2005.

Only 25,000 of his constituents were Malaysians.

To say that Sabahans have seen it coming is an understatement. Even now, there are ‘black areas’ in the state capital of Kota Kinabalu that locals will not go. Enter them at night, residents are warned, and you might not see the morning. Not even the police dare.

For years, Sabahan politicians from both Barisan Nasional and the opposition have clamoured for action. Funnily enough, illegal immigrants are one of the few things that has them on the same page.

Because this is our reality: Sabahans have been at the mercy of foreigners for years. Foreigners who have been aided and abetted by Putrajaya.

The RCI findings have proven instead that the sheep have been asking the wolves for protection.

While Filipinos are given ICs and voting rights, many true native Sabahans in rural areas do not have birth certificates or MyKads.

Of course, Sabahans are angry. Some have even taken to calling West Malaysians ‘semenanjing’ (West Malaysian dogs).

And can you blame them?

Can you blame them for being angry at Putrajaya’s failures? For its promises that once it took over the state from the opposition that things would be better? Rosy visions of development and prosperity!

Sabah is still poor. Sabah is still awash in illegals.

And now Sabahans are cowering in their homes, living out the nightmare they knew could be coming.

If only Putrajaya had listened.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 2:13 am and is filed under
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Pengiraan Detik 39 Hari ke PRU13: Cadangan agar ditubuhkan majlis semua pihak untuk membantu menguruskan krisis Sabah dan menyeru Najib untuk membuat lawatan segera ke Sabah

Dikala rakyat Malaysia masih berkabung  untuk kematian dua wira negara, komando polis Insp Zulkifli Mamat 29 dan Sabaruddin Daud 46 yang terbunuh di dalam insiden tembak menembak dengan penceroboh bersenjata Sulu di Kampung Tanduo Lahad Datu pada pagi Jumaat, tiga lagi komando cedera, negara dikejutkan lagi pagi ini dengan berita bahawa terdapat dua lagi polis maut di Semporna malam semalam.

Rakyat Malaysia bangun pagi ini dengan berita sedih bahawa “
Polis terbunuh bertempur dengan militan Filipino di Semporna
” tetapi menjelang tengah hari, pihak polis mengesagkan terdapat dua pegawai polis yang terbunuh di dalam serang hendap di Kampung Seri Jaya Siminul, sebuah perkampungan atas air, di Semporna pada sekitar 6.30 petang semalam – dan yang ketiga sedang bertarung nyawa di hopistal awam di Semporna.

Namun yang lebih buruk bakal terjadi, apabila rakyat Malaysia mendapati berita sidang akhbar bersama pertama oleh polis dan tentera di Felda Sahabat Residence, Lahad Datu selepas tiga minggu stand-off dengan penceroboh bersentaja Sulu di Kampung Toudou, seperti yang digambarkan di dalam laporan
Malaysiakini
:

Lima anggota polis terbunuh di Semporna, kata IGP

IGP: Lebih ramai penceroboh mendarat di Sabah

Panglima ATM kata penceroboh ada kemahiran

Turut dilaporkan terdapat satu lagi pendaratan oleh penceroboh di Kunak.

Malam semalam saya menerima laporan kematian dua orang polis di dalam pertempuran di Semporna dan saya pasti maklumat ini sudah pun berlegar sekitar Sabah petang semalam, menimbulkan tandatanya terhadap kewibawaan maklumat rasmi berkenaan krisis Sulu di Sabah.

Pihak berkuasa sepatutnya sedar bahawa di era maklumat  dan komunikasi serba pantas ini, terdapat keperluan untuk melihat kembali dan memodenkan dasar dan amalan era pra-informasi mereka bagi memastikan kewibawaan mereka.

Semakin ramai rakyat Malaysia yang patriotik tertanya-tanya tentang pengurusan stand-off selama tiga minggu dengan penceroboh bersenjata Sulu di Lahad Datu dan sama ada korban pasukan keselamatan dapat dielakkan sekiranya seluruh situasi itu ditangani dengan betul sejak awal lagi.

Keraguan dan rasa ingin tahu ini, tidak kira betapa absah sekalipun, perlu diletakkan di tempat kedua, memandangkan tidak diragui lagi negara kini berdepan dengan krisis melibatkan kedaulatan negara dan keselamatan rakyat yang mesti dijadikan keutamaan tertinggi.

Saya mencadangkan majlis semua pihak ditubuhkan, dengan perwakiland daripada kedua-dua perikatan pemerintah dan oposisi, untuk membantu menguruskan krisis Sulu Sabah bagi menunjukkan pada dunia bahawa rakyat Malaysia, tidak mengira gabungan politik, kaum, agama atau kawasan, bersatu dalam memelihara kedaulatan negara dan keselamatan rakyatnya.

Saya mempunyai dua cadangan berkenaan krisis Sulu Sabah untuk member sokongan sepenuhnya kepada anggota polis dan tentera yang berada di barisan hadapan mempertahankan kedaulatan negara dengan nyawa mereka:

Satu sidang tergempar Parlimen yang sepatutnya diadakan dalam minggu ini, walaupun pada 8 Mac 2013 yang menandakan ulangtahun kelima pilihan raya umum 2008, untuk memberitahu negara dan dunia bahawa walaupun negara berdepan dengan pilihan raya umum ke-13, rakyat Malaysia tidak mengira gabungan politik, kaum, agama dan kawasan, bersatu padu mempertahankan kedaulatan negara dan keselamatan rakyat melibatkan krisis Sulu Sabah;

Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak perlu membuat lawatan segera ke Sabah untuk meredakan kebimbangan dan kerasahan rakyat Sabah terhadap pelbagai insiden pencerobohan ke Sabah dan keselamatan rakyat di Sabah.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/03/03/39-day-countdown-to-13ge-proposal-for-an-all-party-council-to-help-deal-with-sulu-sabah-crisis-and-call-on-najib-to-make-immediate-extended-visit-to-sabah/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 3:14 pm and is filed under
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Pengiraan Detik 40 Hari ke PRU13 – Rakyat Malaysia dijemput untuk memberikan pandangan mereka sama ada saya perlu menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI-M selepas ditandatangani Najib

Pengerusi Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) Paul Low telah mengakui bahawa Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya (EIP) yang ditandatangani oleh Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak minggu lepas tidak terikat dengan undang-undang.

Bagaimanapun, TI-M akan mempertanggungjawabkan mereka yang menanda tangan, termasuklah Najib, dengan mendedahkan kesalahan mereka pada lama sesawang dan media sosial seperti Facebook danTwitter untuk memberikan tekanan kepada mereka yang melanggar ikrar.

Saya berterima kasih kepada Paul Low kerana berterus-terang mengakui bahawa tiada cara menguatkuasakan melalui undang-undang tanda tangan EIP Najib akan tetapi apa yang sepatutnya membuatkan TI-M terganggu adalah kurangnya moral, etika dan kemampuan meyakinkan kerena strategi “memalukan mereka yang melanggar ikrar secara atas talian” tidak mungkin menggentarkan hati keras mereka yang melanggar ikrar.

Inilah sebabnya mengapa Najib boleh menjadi pelanggar EIP TI-M bersiri dalam tempoh 15 hari Tahun Baru Cina, termasuklah contoh berikut:

Mengingkari ikrar unruk mendukung prinsip “Kebenaran, integriti, tatalaku beretika dan akauntabiliti” apabila berkempen di Kuala Terengganu dengan mencipta pembohongan bahawa “undi untuk DAP adalah satu undi kepada penindasan terhadap umat Islam seluruhnya”;

Mengingkari ikrar “Tadbir urus yang baik serta ketelusan” apabila Najib memberikan arahan yang bersifat perkauman dan memecah-belahkan untuk secara eksklusif menayangkan filem 13 Mei, Tanda Putera, kepada 3,000 peneroka Felda walaupun Kabinet membuat keputusan November lalu bahawa filem itu “tidak sesuai” ditayangkang kerana “berat sebelah” dalam memaparkan rusuhan 13 Mei 1969.

Bersalah melakukan rasuah “politik wang” menjelang PRU13 dengan perbelanjaan besar melebihi RM3.5 juta untuk menjemput bintang K-Pop Korea ke Pulau Pinang untuk Rumah Terbuka Tahun Baru Cina BN pada 11 Febuari untuk mempersembahkan Gangnam Style – politik wang menjelang dan ketika kempen pilihan raya umum merupakan ibu kepada rasuah yang berleluasa di Malaysia.

Bagaimana strategi “namakan dan malukan” TI-M akan berjaya terhadap Najib dan UMNO/BN apabila mereka tidak merasakan sebarang rasa malu terhadap Indeks Persepsi Rasuah (CPI) TI sepanjang 18 tahun yang telah memberikan rekod buruk kepada empat tahun pemerintahan Najib sebagai lebih korup berbanding Perdana Menteri sebelumnya yakni Tunku Abdul Rahman, Razak, Hussein Onn, Dr. Mahathir dan Abdullah Ahmad Badawi?

Bagaimana strategi “namakan dan malukan” TI-M berkenaan Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya akan berjaya atau mempunyai sebarang kemungkinan berjaya apabila setakat ini Najib tidak mempedulikan strategi “namakan dan malukan” paling teruk dan memalukan melibatkan skandal antarabangsa yang lama tidak selesai-selesai, baik pembunuhan C4 warga Mongolia Altantuya Shaariibuu, pembelian kapal selam Scorpene berjumlah RM7 bilion daripada syarikat pertahanan Perancis DCNS ketika Najib merupakan Menteri Pertahanan dan siri-siri skandal besar perolehan kewangan pertahanan seperti penipuan penswastaan RM400 juta Kementerian Kewangan melibatkan  ketua Wanita UMNO Selangor Raja Ropiaah Raja Abdullah?

Inilah sebabnya mengapa saya telah melontarkan soalan-soalan berikut minggu lalu berikutan riuhnya Perdana Menteri mendandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI-M:

Sekiranya Suharto atau Marcos, dua orang yang telah menaikan nama ASEAN ke peringkat global apabila mengiringi “pemimpin paling korup dalam dunia” seperti  kleptocrats Mobutu Sese Seko dari Zaire dan Sani Abacha dari Nigeri, telah menandatangani  Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya sewaktu di puncak kuasa, apakah akan memperhebat atau mencemar ikrar itu?

Apakah TIM mempunyai sebarang mekanisme untuk menerima dan menyiasat rungutan bahawa penandatangan telah melanggar empat prinsip yang termaktub di dalam Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya – baik ketika menjelangnya PRU13 atau ketika kempen PRU13?

Apakah Transparency International Malaysia  mempunyai peruntukann memadam dan membatalkan penandatangan kepada Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya yang terang-terangan melanggar empat prinsipnya menjelang PRU13?

Adakah TI-M bersetuju kepada penambahan kepada Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya untuk memastikan penandatangani telah menandatangan satu dokumen yang bermakna untuk mewujudkan era baru integriti, yang perlu menyebutkan antaranya  iltizam berikut daripada penandatangan:

Pengisytiharan Umum Aset oleh semua Menteri, Timbalan Menteri, Ketua Menteri dan Menteri Besar (a) sebelum mereka memegang jawatan (b) pada waktu ini.

Berikrar “tiada politik wang” dalam PRU13.

Berikrar tidak akan membangkitkan momokan 13 Mei atau menggunakan  politik ketakutan, ugutan atau kebencian untuk menakut-nakutkan pengundi;

Iltizam terhadap pilihan raya bebas, adil dan bersih; dan

Berikrar untuk menerima keputusan pengundi PRU13 dan akan memudahcara satu peralihan kuasa yang aman di Putrajaya sekiranya itulah kehendak pengundi.

Malaysia tidak mahu Kebangkitan Arab yang melibatkan pertumpahan darah dan revolusi.

Sebaliknya dengan menjemput Psy ke Malaysia dengan Gangnam Stylenya, Malaysia sepatutnya mencontohi peralihan demokratik Korea Selatan pada tahun 1997 apabila Korea Selatan mengambil langkah penting untuk menjadi negara demokrasi matang apabila melaksanakan peralihan kuasa secara aman dengan calon presiden Oposisi  Kim Dae-jung yang dipilih dan mengangkat sumpah sebagai Presiden Korea  Selatan.

Bolehkah Malaysia mencapai tahap Kebangkitan Korea Selatan yang dilalui negara itu dalam transformasi demokratik sejak 15 tahun lalu dan memperlihatkan satu peralihan kuasa secara aman di Putrajaya dalam PRU13?

Saya bersedia menandatangi Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI-M tetapi mestilah sesuatu yang bermakna dan bukannya amalan sia-sia hanya untuk “menutup” rasuah yang berleluasa dan penyalahgunaan kuasa oleh pengingkar integritim, ketelusan dan akauntabiliti!

Saya menjemput rakyat Malaysia untuk memberikan pandangan mereka sama ada saya patut menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI-M selepas Najib menandatanganinya, baik melalui media sosial atau saluran langsung yang lain.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/03/02/40-day-countdown-to-13ge-malaysians-invited-to-give-their-views-whether-i-should-sign-ti-ms-election-integrity-pact-after-signature-by-najib/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 3:06 pm and is filed under
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Sabah, Merdeka and Aquino

by Glenda M. Gloria

http://www.rappler.com

03/03/2013

Is it possible to understand Muslim Mindanao without looking at Malaysia? Perhaps not. This stern neighbor has played its hands rather wisely: feeding a Filipino rebellion on one hand, and helping end it on the other.

Sabah has been home to thousands of Muslims who once fought for independence under the Marcos dictatorship. It was their refuge when the military continued to pummel them with bombs and bullets in Mindanao. Sabah was always part of their real — and imagined — community. Before colonizers carved out superficial boundaries in that part of the world, the Muslims of Sabah, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu were one community that freely traded goods with each other, paid unhampered visits to one another, and spoke the same language. The imperious Sultanate of Sulu reigned over these islands.

Thus while Manila has consistently put the Sabah claim on the back burner, the reality is that to many Filipinos, Sabah has long been theirs. They grew up on the island, got married there, raised their kids, and put up businesses. An estimated 65,000 Filipinos carry passports as “political refugees” in Sabah. In the capital city of Kota Kinabalu, I once asked a former member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) why he had chosen to live there. “It’s our land. These are my brothers,” he said. They call themselves “Suluks” not Filipinos.

At the height of the MNLF’s secessionist campaign in the 1970s and 1980s, Muslim rebels sought refuge in Sabah. In Sabah they mapped out plans to bring down the Marcos military to its knees. In its lush jungles they trained young recruits in guerrilla warfare. While Nur Misuari toured the Middle East to raise funds for his movement, his young commanders held clandestine meetings in Sabah to plot the war against Marcos.

Which begs the question, why would Malaysia tolerate this when it could not even put up with a ragtag group of old guards now holed up in Lahad Datu?

The answer partly lies not in Sabah or Sulu or Tawi-Tawi but in another place that keeps the dark secrets of a bungled special operation to invade Sabah: Corregidor Island.

Jabidah, Ninoy Aquino

In March 1968 — 45 years ago this month — the Philippine military shot dead young Muslim recruits whom they had trained to invade Sabah as part of Ferdinand Marcos’ adventurous pursuits at the time. The underground plot was named Oplan Merdeka (freedom in Bahasa Melayu).

Trained under a commando unit called Jabidah (the name of a beautiful woman in Muslim lore), they were recruited from Muslim provinces such as Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan. Army officers led by then Maj Eduardo Martelino first taught them the rudiments of warfare on the sleepy island of Simunul, Tawi-Tawi. A picturesque town, Simunul is home to the first mosque in the Philippines built in the 14th century. It is also a breath away from Semporna, an island off Sabah. Last month, it was in Simunul where followers of the Sultan of Sulu prepared to sail to Sabah to begin the standoff.

Back then, Simunul lacked the environment for rigorous training. Thus the Army boarded its recruits on a ship to the forlorn, tadpole-shaped island of Corregidor. Promised a monthly allowance, the recruits waited patiently for cash to send to their parents back home. It never came, triggering widespread demoralization that culminated in a petition addressed to Marcos.

The Army was ordered to fix the problem, but the situation was doomed. The young Muslims mutinied against their training officers. Oplan Merdeka was about to be exposed. The government panicked and ordered the Army to silence the recruits forever in what is now infamously known as the Jabidah massacre.

A few survived (including one who would tell the story), but more than two dozen got killed, their bodies burned before being thrown into the sea by the Army’s elite forces on board a presidential helicopter. The senator who did his own sleuthing and pushed for a high-profile congressional probe on the massacre — and Merdeka — was no less than the President’s father, then Sen Ninoy Aquino Jr.

The Jabidah massacre was the spark that lit the Muslim rebellion. It also changed Malaysia forever.

Times were different then. The Philippines was ahead of its neighbors and was in the best position to claim Sabah. Malaysia seemed an easy target at the time: the Federation had just been born in 1963, Singapore had just broken away, and Indonesia was becoming a problematic neighbor.

Malaysia took Jabidah to heart; never again would it be vulnerable to its neighbors. Sabah began getting the attention it deserved through projects and a huge budget.

To spite Marcos, Malaysia welcomed MNLF rebels to its fold to the extent of arming and providing them sanctuary. Eventually the rebels got integrated into Malaysian society. This didn’t cause problems in multi-ethnic Malaysia. Because while Marcos unleashed his sword to defeat Muslim rebels, Mohammad Mahathir took the more sophisticated path — discouraging Islamic extremism by mobilizing and spending state resources to allow moderate Islam to flourish.

Teaching Misuari a lesson

Its porous borders, however, made it difficult for Malaysia to stop the entry of job-hunting Filipinos. The number of undocumented Filipino workers in Sabah reached 400,000 at one point. This would not have been a problem if not for the 1997 financial crisis that forced Malaysia to deport Indonesian and Filipino workers. In 1999, Zamboanga City felt the brunt as it witnessed the arrival of a few hundred deportees via commercial ships.

The situation called for bilateral cooperation. But then President Joseph Estrada had just thrown his support behind Mahathir’s jailed opponent at the time, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and this severely strained the excellent ties that both countries enjoyed under the Ramos administration.

The situation turned for the worse in 2000, when Abu Sayyaf bandits kidnapped tourists on one of Malaysia’s prime islands, Sipadan, brought them to Sulu, and earned millions of dollars in ransom. Malaysia deported about 700 Filipinos from Sabah after the incident, but denied it was a retaliatory move.

And then something happened in 2001 under the Arroyo government. Malaysia’s old friend ran into trouble.

Misuari quarreled with the Arroyo administration and incited a revolt in Sulu. When the military moved against him, he counted on one ally to save him from getting jailed. On a pump boat, Misuari escaped to Sabah. Malaysia is a friend. Or so he thought.

Shortly after reaching the shores of Jiamperas in November 2001, the Muslim leader who once awed the Islamic world was handcuffed and detained by the Malaysian police. He was deported to the Philippines in January 2002, briefly detained on charges of leading a botched revolt in Sulu.

Malaysia’s move proved how it regarded Misuari and how aware it was of its bigger priority — to co-opt another rebel movement that was being lured by radical Islam. Thus its decision to host the peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The past offers a few lessons to all the actors involved in the Sabah issue.

First is the Merdeka trauma. To land in Sabah via Simunul and to revive the Sabah claim through the threat of prolonged confrontation is simply unacceptable to Malaysia.

Second is the wisdom of keeping the claim dormant for now. Even the wily Marcos eventually dropped his hot pursuit of Sabah, setting his sights instead on expanding Philippine voice in Southeast Asia. In 1977, during the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur, Marcos announced his intention to drop the claim in the spirit of regional cooperation. He never got beyond a verbal commitment though because politicians back home criticized him. President Aquino’s mother, Corazon Aquino, did not revive the claim, but neither did she pursue relations with Kuala Lumpur. It was only in 1993 when the first official visit by a Philippine president to Malaysia was made in 30 years — by Fidel Ramos. He took the more nuanced route, pushing for the BIMP-EAGA economic corridor and converting the East Asian backdoor into a business hub.

Does the Aquino administration have a plan for this area as well?

Third is the fact that the Sultanate of Sulu, which has proprietary rights over Sabah, has always been open to a settlement. But the squabbling heirs couldn’t agree on how to do it. Under Cory Aquino, top-level sources told us before, Malaysia offered the sultanate at least US$70 million as settlement. But a politician who claimed to be one of the heirs protested, scuttling the talks. Under Ramos, Malaysia asked Philippine officials to persuade the heirs to accept the setting up of a “generously funded” foundation that will assist Muslim communities in Mindanao, according to then ARMM governor Parouk Hussin. No agreement was ever reached. (Read: Sabah as the last gold coin)

Is this something that should be pursued in the current peace process being brokered by Malaysia or outside such parameters? (Read: Bloodshed in Sabah and the peace process)

Fourth is the ultimate question that a responsible government needs to resolve eventually: Should it drop the claim entirely? Under Ramos, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) officials quietly pushed for the establishment of a consulate in Sabah so it could make a full inventory of Filipinos with passports or work permits. Malaysia welcomed the idea, and both countries signed an agreement on it. But when further studied by the legal office of the DFA, this was shot down. A consulate implies that the claim to Sabah has been dropped.

Many in government still cling to the view that Manila should use Sabah as leverage with Malaysia in negotiating better terms for Filipinos there. But other experts believe that pursuing the claim has become unrealistic. To some diplomats, Manila should stop the pretense, because this has deprived Filipinos of full-time consular services there. Have you ever wondered why our government didn’t get much information regarding the standoff? We don’t have presence there!

Fifth is the reality that while the claim is dormant, many Filipinos consider Sabah their own. It pays to be sensitive to this. Sabah is not just an academic or political issue. It is about social networks deeply rooted in the past. To confront the Sultan’s bombast with conventional political wisdom betrays narrow-mindedness. As the recent past has proven, the Sultan of Sulu has never been known for bold moves. For the situation to reach a bloody end shows utter lack of focus and sophistication on the part of government — the kind that happens when one is distracted by political noise.

What can be done to end the impasse?

For one, perhaps the government should stop a presidential wannabe from talking about Sabah as if he had credibility to do so. And then do quiet work – preferably through the backdoor. – Rappler.com

Glenda M. Gloria wrote the book – with Marites Dañguilan-Vitug – “Under the Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao” in 1999 which won the National Book Award. The only authoritative account of the Jabidah massacre, it revisits the sources of conflict in Mindanao and retraces its tortuous path to the present.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 1:48 am and is filed under
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The Federal Government should now priortise on guarenteeing our territorial integrity and security

Lahad Datu Statement from Pakatan Leadership

Any leader of any country must defend his nation’s sovereignty and the security of his people.

Failing to do so is a grave betrayal of the people’s trust in its government. Therefore, Pakatan Rakyat urges the present national leadership to do that which is required of them, to defend our land and never to compromise the safety of each and every Malaysian, and the test of those principles is ongoing in and around Sabah’s Lahad Datu and Semporna with the escalating violence brought by armed foreigners.

In Lahad Datu two of members of our security forces have lost their lives, while the latest acts in Semporna have claimed six of our men in uniform. We express our sincere condolences to these men’s families and may God bless them for they have given the highest sacrifice for a grateful nation.

Pakatan Rakyat calls on all Malaysians to show unreserved support to our security forces, both the police and military. And pray that they remain safe while defending our nation and its people from harm.

Pakatan realises the recent incidents in Sabah raise concern and fear, but we urge the public to remain calm and not to act rashly and hurt their fellow countrymen.

The coalition takes this opportunity to restate its confidence in the capacity and capability of our security forces to protect our country’s sovereignty.

We are disappointed with the weak leadership show by the federal government whose responsibility is to keep Malaysia’s security intact.

While we are convinced that national security transcends political divides and all citizens must support the security forces’ efforts, it does not abrogate the federal leadership for its lax treatment of the whole affair.

This leadership has failed to pass accurate information quickly so that the public is aware of what is happening, an error which has caused rumour-mongering to be rife.

We understand that the government is investigating the leader of opposition to over the armed intrusions in Sabah. We would like to state categorically that Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim is in no way involved with the escalation of violence in Sabah nor the cause of it.

The Sabah intrusion is now into its fourth week (Day 23) — fourth day of hostilities — and the federal leadership appears not to have a clear plan to overcome the violation of our sovereign territory, or to stop any further intrusions. Instead Putrajaya is irresponsibly trying to avert the eyes of the people from its own role.

It is time the federal government realises its jobs is to defend and protect Malaysia, its people and the warriors on the frontline.

Pakatan urges for an immediate meeting between the leadership of our coalition and the prime minister, home minister and defence minister, followed by a special sitting of Parliament to discuss the intrusion.

We strongly demand Putrajaya stops finger-pointing at others especially Pakatan Rakyat and never to betray the trust of the Malaysian people.

DATO’ SERI ANWAR IBRAHIM

Leader of the Opposition

DATO’ SERI ABDUL HADI AWANG

PAS President

LIM KIT SIANG

DAP Parliamentary Leader

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/03/04/dato-seri-najib-razak-sewajarnya-menumpukan-usaha-memastikan-kedaulatan-wilayah-negara-keselamatan-rakyat-sabah-dan-anggota-pasukan-keselamatan/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 3:45 pm and is filed under
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Pakatan Rakyat
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The worst home minister

 — Willy Gomes

The Malaysian Insider

Mar 03, 2013

MARCH 3 — You are off the hook, Syed Hamid Albar. You are no longer the worst home minister Malaysia has had. And for that you can thank your fellow politician from Johor, Hishammuddin Hussein.

Syed Hamid, you will forever be remembered as the minister who ordered the arrest of a journalist under the ISA for her own protection! You also ignited the Allah debate by not allowing the Malay section of the Herald to use the word Allah.

Bravo!

But you have nothing on Hishammuddin. The man is clueless about everything. He looks like a tourist in Lahad Datu and actually thinks that it is reassuring for Malaysians to hear that he will not leave Sabah until the incursion situation has been resolved.

Can someone get him out of there and allow the police or army to handle this grave situation? His handling of the incursion has been a joke as have the portrayal of the Sulu fighters.

Everything is under control. We are trying to solve this thing without bloodshed…and the donkeys at the mainstream media played along, not even mentioning that the intruders were heavily armed until much later.

Everything Hishammuddin has touched has been a failure, from dealing with the cow-head protests to promoting tough action against Bersih rallygoers.

In any other country, he would have been sacked by the prime minister.

But sadly not in Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 2:20 am and is filed under
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Time to unite to fight a common enemy, not bicker

By Jahabar Sadiq

Editor

The Malaysian Insider

Mar 04, 2013

COMMENTARY
March 4 — There comes a time when Malaysians must unite and fight a common enemy, not bicker and blame each other over what is going wrong. That time is now for Sabah.

We need to support our policemen and troops facing Filipino militants who wish to lay claim over a land whose people decided to form Malaysia 50 years ago with Malaya and Sarawak.

We need to make sure the sacrifice of eight fallen policemen was not in vain, that their widows and children know their husband or father’s death has helped keep Malaysia intact and free.

We need to see what our priorities are now, to end the bloodshed and standoff in Sabah with Filipino militants who have broken our territorial integrity and laws.

We need to get our peace and security back. We stand united or we fall divided. Pure and simple.

The time for investigating what went wrong with our defence of Sabah will come. The time for apportioning blame and reveal the traitors will come.

Right now, we need our politicians to stop blaming each other and accusing each other of instigating this incursion. Such talk is not constructive and will not help our security forces do their job.

This is not the time for politics, and the less we hear from people like Special Affairs Department (Jasa) director-general Datuk Fuad Hassan the better. We don’t need him to tell us what to do and be patriotic.

We are Malaysians, we are patriotic and 100 per cent in support of our security forces in facing the threat of these Filipino militants.

We need to listen to people like Jasica Ahmad who tweeted from her account @jasicaahmad, saying “sulu hashtag is scary… i prefer #prayforsabah more positivity and prayer than talking about politic and do nothing.”

Or for example, 12th Kopites1982® who said in his @ElHazizyKopites Twitter account: “It matter not by which flag you stand up for, what matter is ‘Ini Rumah Kita’ #PrayForSabah #UniteAndFight”.

Azrul Hafiz also made it clear in his @azrulhfiz Twitter account, saying “just stop wih political issues and keep pray for our nation #PrayForLahadDatu #PrayForSabah”.

Right now, the Ministry of Defence is sending two battalions of soldiers as fast as possible to double the strength of security forces in Sabah. Budget carrier AirAsia is helping to send the troops there.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has vowed to stay there with his top brass and policemen until the situation is resolved. And Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has said the time for talk is over, it is time for action.

Malaysia has been patient enough. Our policemen and soldiers are at the forefront of an unexpected war with Filipino militants and locals who appear to owe their allegiance to the Sulu sultan and not our Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

A squad of 25 policemen went to investigate suspicious activity in Kampung Simunul in Semporna but only 19 came back alive after being rescued from an ambush on Saturday while six others died.

Two other policemen had died in Lahad Datu on Friday. That is eight deaths too much for a peaceful country like Malaysia and a beautiful state like Sabah.

So let’s get with the programme. Take action first, expel the militants or capture them to face the wrath of Malaysian law.

Only then we can have a review and inquest over what went wrong in Sabah. Not now. Now is the time to unite and fight back our enemies.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 March 2013, 7:12 am and is filed under
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