Ashgar Ali Engineer: A life for peace

 — Sumanto Al Qurtuby

The Malaysian Insider

May 20, 2013

MAY 20 — I paused my work upon hearing the gloomy news of the death of Asghar Ali Engineer, one of the world’s greatest scholars of Islam, last Tuesday, after a prolonged illness.

Born in 1939 in the town of Salumbar in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, Engineer was a prolific writer who authored more than 50 books, many of which have been translated into many languages — including Indonesian — and he wrote innumerable book chapters, journal articles and columns.

But there is more. Engineer was also a daring peace activist who had been at the vanguard of civil society movements against religious tyranny and radicalism. Also, he was a truly passionate liberal Muslim thinker whose ideas on Islamic theology of liberation, secular democracy, Islamic ethics of social justice, women’s rights, religious tolerance and pluralism, non-violence, peace building, communalism and secularism have shaped many scholars and activists around the globe.

Since Engineer’s writings cover broad issues and themes, it’s difficult to decide which aspects of his work are the most important. As the scientist Ram Puniyani has aptly pointed out, “there is a deeper integration in deferent facets of the work [Engineer’s].”

However, it seems that Engineer’s fame, which goes far beyond his homeland, was primarily for his work on or, more precisely, against violent conflicts, particularly those committed in the name of religion, including Islam.

The first dreadful event that shook Engineer very deeply was the bloody Hindu-Muslim violence that broke out in Jabalpur, in Madhya Pradesh state, in 1961. This was the first major communal riot between the two religious groups after the mayhem of 1948, which followed the partition of the Subcontinent into India and Pakistan.

Born in a Bohra orthodox priestly family of Shiite Ismaili Muslims, Engineer was a student when he witnessed the tragedy. For him, violence in the name of religion was anathema in part because he had been soaked in spiritual and peaceful dimensions of Islam from his childhood. Engineer was taught by his father, Shaikh Qurban Hussain, who was a scholar of Islam and a Shiite-Ismaili leader, that Islam is a religion of peace and that no religion preaches violence.

But following the Jabalpur riots, Engineer began to wonder: if Islam — or any other religion — doesn’t teach violence and hate, why, then, were Muslims and Hindus in India fighting each other in the name of religion?

Indeed, India has witnessed a prolonged series of bloody communal violence from the Mumbai riots of 1893 to the more recent carnage in Gujarat and other areas resulting in countless deaths. Most incidents took place between Hindus and Muslims. But riots also occurred between Sunnis and Shiites or between factions within Sunni and Shiite Islam, or between Hindus and Sikhs or Christians, etcetera.

Engineer devoted his life to the study of these seemingly religiously-inspired conflicts and his research findings formed a crucial contribution to conflict and peace studies and to our understanding of the underlying factors of communal turmoil. Engineer, it should be noted, not only conducted fieldwork, analysed data and wrote up research findings from his desk, but he also mentored and trained peace practitioners and human rights activists, and marched down in the streets to fight against violence and promote communal harmony.

He thought that there was a something wrong with the beliefs and practices of some his fellow Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. who espoused extremism and intolerance. In his autobiography, “A Living Faith: My Quest for Peace, Harmony and Social Change,” Engineer stated that his father taught him to be peaceful and open-minded and show great respect for other religions. In his childhood, he wrote, Hindu Brahmin priests used to come and talk with his father to exchange views on each other’s beliefs with deep esteem.

Inspired by his father’s tolerant teachings and peaceful actions as well as by the spirit of philosophical and spiritual Islam and the universal ethics of the Quran, Engineer worked hard to create a “new India” (or a “new world” generally) which would be free from brutality and bigotry. To do this, he thought it necessary to create research centers, reinterpret Islamic/Quranic foundations for inter-religious peace and develop movements dedicated to non-violence. For his tremendous efforts in promoting inter- and intra-religious understandings, he was given numerous awards including the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) and the National Communal Harmony Award by the government of India.

Another of Engineer’s great legacies is that, from 1972 until his death, he had been a strong voice for Islamic reformation. He led the Progressive Dawoodi Bohra movement and although he was devoted to Shiism, Engineer strongly criticised its clergy system and Shiite leaders who manipulated lay believers by injecting “blind religious dogmas of the past” for their own political and economic interests. Islam, for Engineer, was primarily a “liberating force” and a means to achieve social justice.

Engineer compared today’s India to Mecca in the time of the Prophet Muhammad, during which oligarchy thrived due to greed as well as ignorant tribal rule, and, as a result, nobody took care of orphans, widows, the old and the poor.

Engineer used the socio-political settings of Arabia and the tribal leaders’ ill-treatment of Muslims during the time of Muhammad to analyse Indian contexts, and then developed an Islamic theology of liberation, rooted in the concept of tawhid (Oneness of God), as a religious foundation to resist the Shiite clergy in his country. Just like Latin American Catholic leaders who used Biblical traditions to advance a liberation theology to oppose violence and oppression (like Gustavo Gutierrez), Engineer used Quranic texts and Islamic teachings and values, combined with the prophetic practices of Muhammad, as a means of mobilisation, reformation and protest against what he considered the politics of injustice of the Shiite religious establishment.

Engineer declared that a religious person must continue to wage jihad against all forms of exploitation, discrimination, and injustices.

Due to his strong criticism of Shiite clerics, however, he put his life (and his family’s) at risk and became the routine subject of insults and fatwas accusing him of sacrilege. Despite the threats, however, he continued to spread and advocate a form of liberating, tolerant, just and peaceful Islam.

Just like India, Indonesia currently faces many problems: from terrorism, intolerance and radicalism to corruption and other social illnesses. It is high time for this nation to educate more “Engineers” and boost progressive understandings of Islam that oppose theocracy (including the Islamic state) and at the same time support secular democracy, the rights of women, homosexuals and non-Muslims, freedom of thought and expression, and the general notion of progress.

Only by implementing such ideas can the pluralistic character of Indonesia be maintained in the future — and protected from the false propaganda of some radical Muslim groups.

Rest in peace, Dr Engineer. — thejakartaglobe.com

* Sumanto Al Qurtuby is a research fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, Indiana.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 6:12 pm and is filed under
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GE 13 and the emergence of the enlightened Malays

― Ahmad Mustapha Hassan

The Malaysian Insider

May 20, 2013

MAY 20 ― The general election has come but not gone. I wrote on March 15 that the 13th GE would be the most undemocratic and the dirtiest elections Malaysia would ever experience. I was not wrong at all.

Umno/BN used underhanded tactics to gain power and it was never the tsunami as uttered by the PM, who not only could not regain Selangor but also failed to obtain the two-thirds majority in Parliament that he had promised. It is a disgrace and the choice for any honourable leader is to resign. But he willingly got himself reappointed as the prime minister.

The number of seats won also dwindled and the worst part was to lose the popular vote. This is a shame beyond redemption.

And then he also had the audacity to blame the Chinese for the loss. This was most unpardonable. The shift away from Umno/BN was multi-ethnic in nature and furthermore, the young voters had lost confidence in this party that has held power for more than 50 years. The Umno/BN rule was mired in corruption, cronyism and maladministration.

To win in fair and democratic elections would have been most honourable. But to win using unfair means was most deplorable.

Umno/BN had known that their heavy dependence on the rural electorate would not be as it used to be. PAS had posed as a critical threat to their rural hegemony. But there was one factor that they knew they can exploit and that was FEAR.

The Malay psyche had been based on fear. This factor had been the underlying foundation since the feudal days. It was more so when the Malays embraced Islam. They had been moulded socially, politically and economically on fear. This fear syndrome had made the Malays so much dependent on some kind of protection.

It was the aristocracy during the feudal days and since the fight against the colonial power Umno had posed itself as being the new protector. All Umno had to do was to nourish this element further. Thus the Malays are made to fear the dominance of other communities and also being Muslims are made to fear the ascendency of other religions, especially Christianity.

The liberated Malays in the urban areas were no longer tied to this syndrome and therefore Umno could not depend on this group of Malays for any support or sympathy. They had opened up their minds and were no longer shackled with outmoded beliefs and had become a class that could not be duped at all.

But the rural Malays unfortunately were still vulnerable to this element and all Umno had to do was to make full use of this fear factor to fight PAS. They had used the deception that a vote for PAS would mean a vote for the DAP. To the rural Malays, the DAP is still a Chinese political party and possibly the Islamic religion too would face a threatening danger. And this gimmick works. PAS lost a number of rural seats that they commanded before in 2008.

But it did not work with the Chinese. The Chinese have an open mind. MCA tried to con the Chinese by portraying that any vote for DAP would mean a vote for PAS and, thus, hudud. MCA had completely lost touch with the Chinese mentality.

Umno had championed the Malay rulers against the onslaught of the British colonial power and, thus, was accepted by the Malays as having championed the Malay cause for defending the integrity and sanctity of the Sultans. As from that date, Umno had imbued the Malay psyche with the notion that they were protecting the Malay interests, whatever that means.

AB Sulaiman, in his book “Sensitive Truths in Malaysia”, made this very relevant observation:

“The Malay mindset harbours the traditional thinking norm; its rational norm is suppressed. It is monistic, accepts indefinite knowledge as truth, and has tendency for value judgement and syllogism. Its acceptance of wisdom is instinctive and involuntary even blind.

“It is ethnocentric, has a penchant for myth and mystery, miracle and magic.

“It is easily swayed by doctrine and dogma, and falls prey to the punishments that dogma dictates.” (The Malay mindset is bound by mysticism and fear”, p.35/36)

The delineation of the constituencies had been very much biased towards the rural areas and combined with the posture as being protector of Malay rights, Umno could easily triumph in the rural areas. But this situation is slowly becoming a myth as the old generation is being replaced by the youths who are restless and are no longer taken in by empty rhetoric.

The idea behind having this rural bias was to assist Umno in maintaining power indefinitely. Thus numbers do not count at all. What is important is to create Malay majority constituencies to enable Umno to win.

GE13 witnessed the new shift in the voting power of the enlightened Malays who no longer believe in racism. Umno has become panicky and has lost all ideas on how to continually hold on to power.

The days of Umno’s unrivalled and indefinite political hegemony are clearly numbered!

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 6:25 pm and is filed under
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Najib should show immediate leadership to end the unprecedented racist nastiness arising from poor Umno/BN performance in 13GE or he would have reneged from his promise to be Prime Minister for all Malaysians

The 13th General Elections results on May 5, 2013 have caused  double disappointments, as both the contending coalitions, the Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional, have different reasons to be upset by them.

Pakatan Rakyat supporters are rightly outraged that the victory due to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat, as testified  by the 51% popular vote for Pakatan Rakyat as compared to 47% popular vote for Barisan Nasional, have been snatched away from them because of the dirtiest  general elections in the nation’s history.

Barisan Nasional leaders and strategists on the other hand are exasperated that their triple strategies of “Money Money Money”, “Lies Lies Lies” and “Fear Fear Fear” had failed to achieve their intended results, viz recapture of two-thirds parliamentary majority and regaining the state government in Selangor.

But what is of great concern to all thinking, rational and patriotic Malaysians is the unprecedented racist nastiness which have been allowed to surface and gain momentum in the two weeks after the 13th General Election results – initiated of all persons by Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself when he dismissed the 13GE results as a “Chinese tsunami” when it was a Malaysian and urban tsunami.

Najib’s deplorable statement was the signal for the race-baiting and further racial polarization in the past fortnight, such as the provocative and inflammatory Utusan Malaysia (UMNO organ) front-page headline “Apa Lagi Cina Mahu”; former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Noor Abdulla’s incendiary speech pitting the Malays against the Chinese, which I described as the most racist and seditious speech made publicly in the past 44 years; UiTM pro-chancellor Tan Sri Dr. Abdul Rahman Arshad revealing he was a “closet racist” when he was Director-General of Education when he called for the abolition of Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools; and worst of all, the call by some Malay groups to boycott Chinese businesses as a form of vendetta for the 13GE results.

It cannot escape notice of Malaysians and impartial observers, whether in the country or abroad, that during the 13GE campaign and after, it was the UMNO/BN parties and leaders who were guilty of indulging in communal campaigning and race-baiting, starting with the baseless, mischievous and malicious allegation by former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir, that I was contesting in Gelang Patah to cause a “racial confrontation” and that I was urging the Chinese to hate the Malays.

In contrast, the Pakatan Rakyat leaders whether from DAP, PKR and PAS, were asking Malaysian voters to reject and rise above the past politics of race, corruption and cronyism and embrace the new politics transcending  race about their common Malaysian identity,  integrity, freedom and good governance!

We are now starting the third week after the 13th GE results of May 5. Najib has wasted too much time and he  should show immediate leadership to end the unprecedented racist nastiness arising from poor Umno/BN performance in 13GE or he would have failed and  reneged from his promise to be Prime Minister for all Malaysians.

It is not just ordinary Malaysians as well as impartial observers inside and outside the country who can see that it is  the irresponsible UMNO/BN elements especially Utusan Malaysia  who are responsible for the unprecedented racist nastiness in the country.

This  is also very obvious to non-partisan civil servants in the country, as evident from the interview given by the National Unity and Integration Department director-general Datuk Azman Amin Hassan in New Straits Times yesterday, who called for an end to the racist “blame game” after the 13GE, and admitted that the “emerging trend” in the 13GE with “young Malaysians voting across the racial lines” is “a sign of unity”.

Is Najib and the Cabinet at its first meeting on Wednesday prepared to fully endorse Azman’s statements?

Azman’s interview with NST reporter Tan Choe Choe  should be compulsory reading for all Cabinet Ministers before their first meeting on Wednesday.

Better still, Azman should be invited to give a briefing about the new racial nastiness which have surfaced in the country after the 13GE results and which must be ended immediately with leadership by example by  Najib and the Cabinet if all the talk of “national reconciliation” is to have any meaning.

I commend the following sections of Azman’s interview for special attention by Najib and his new Cabinet:

Question: What prompted you to call on politicians and the media to stop inciting racial tension on May 13?

Answer: After GE13 (the 13th General Election), some people were taken aback and started this blame game, even though Barisan Nasional won with a simple majority.

There was unhappiness expressed against the Chinese and all that. This is bad for the nation. We’ve got to look at what really happened, what caused the shift in Chinese support — and it isn’t communal or racist. It was a breakdown of MCA’s strength within BN because of a leadership tussle. From interacting with them, I found that they don’t see anyone up there in MCA (that they recognise) as their leader. There is a vacuum in BN, so, there was a shift in the Chinese vote towards DAP because the latter was very strategic. The same goes for Gerakan. The Chinese feel none of these parties were aggressive enough in fighting for their rights. We should look at the issue from many perspectives, but there are people who just looked at it along racial lines.

Question: It’s easier to talk about it along racial lines.

Answer: It’s easier, yes. But what we should do now is move forward, to look at Malaysia first. The nation should come first, not political parties or our differences. If we want to look at our differences and condemn each other, there’s no end to it. There’s a new cabinet now and a new government — let’s see how we can reconcile with each other. We need to come together, to have this strength and move forward.

On May 28, our department is inviting some academicians, community leaders and politicians to give their comments on what actually happened at GE13 and after that, what’s the next step for the country. This is what we should do when we look at reconciliation and there’s still hope that we can resolve this issue amicably. Yes, as Malaysians we will face this kind of problem from time to time, this kind of flaring of tempers, but we will cool off soon after and be more sensible and less sensitive. But we need some intervention because if we let it (fester), it will be bad for Malaysia.

Question: Why is it always easier to fall back on race?

Answer: In Malaysia, our politics is still race based, so there’s still this demarcation by race when it comes to the election. But there’s been a shift — not just the Chinese shift to DAP. I’ve talked to the youths and the Malay Pas boys told me that they voted for DAP. They told me it’s because they are Pakatan — that there’s an understanding between Pas and DAP.

Ten years ago, you would never see an Indian boy or a Chinese boy voting for Pas and you would never see Pas supporters voting for DAP — never. Yet today, we can see this happening, especially among young voters. They are different.

So, this is (a demonstration of) the democratic space that we have today. It is transparent, everyone has a chance to vote and this is a new emerging trend we can see among youths.

Question: Are you happy to see this? I mean it seems to show that the people are really coming together to vote across racial lines.

Answer: Yes, you’re right. When they talk about the democracy, this is the real thing that’s happening at the grassroots level.

In that sense it is good. But when people are not happy with the results, when they have lost or when they didn’t win enough because they didn’t get a two-thirds majority, they don’t feel it (is a positive thing). To get a two-thirds majority in the world today is not easy any more, even a simple majority is good enough in the politics of today but these are the things that the old-timers are not willing to accept. This is the gap between the young and the old-timers like me. The way we think is different.

It’s Gen Y — they are all for the new media and they interact easily on it and you can see a lot of things are bridging the gaps (between the races). They interact with each other on issues. In that sense, they are more open.

Question: So, these youths are exposed and deliberating more on national issues than ever before?

Answer: Yes, they are more interactive. So we, the ones more used to the conventional ways, must adjust. These youngsters have a very different way of thinking. This has been expressed in 2008 and more so now in GE13. The new media is very influential because even if the information they get may not be correct, they tend to believe it because everyone else is talking abut it.

Elsewhere in his interview, when asked about the role of the media in the race-baiting and racial polarization during and after the 13GE results, Azman said:

Question: What about the media?

Answer: When I read some of the headlines, I felt it was too much. I was very alarmed and very concerned about it. Even though it was meant for Malay readers, the way the arguments went could incite the general public. It was worrisome and I think the Home Ministry should intervene and put a stop to it, not only to that paper, but any other paper that crosses that line. We need to give a balanced report. In a multicultural and multiracial society, we should be conscious about these things. But sometimes when I read the paper, (it feels like) they have also lost their minds; they became very emotional and hit (certain communities) hard. It’s very bad for nation-building.

I fully share in Azman’s reactions, concerns, fears and hopes. The question is whether Najib and his Cabinet Ministers are on the same page as the National Unity and Integration Department Director-General and whether the first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday will send out a clear and unmistakable message to end the new racist nastiness in the country, including action by the Home Ministry against Utusan Malaysia for its spate of irresponsible, racist, provocative, inflammatory and seditious articles both before and after the 13GE.

Only yesterday, Mingguan Malaysia carried lies about “Red Bean Army” – “pasukan tentera siber tajaan DAP iaitu Red Bean Army (RBA)…bertanggungjawab menyebarkan bagitu banyak fitnah serta tohmahan yang membahayakan ketenteraman awam…mengapi-apikan sentiment anti-Islam, anti-Raja Melayu dan anti-Melayu”.

These are downright lies and falsehoods, and I am hearing of “Red Bean Army” for the first time!

This is not the first time Utusan Malaysia has concocted lies about DAP – who will forget its monstrous lie about the DAP wanting to create a Christian Malaysia?

At the end of his interview, Azman said the National Unity and Integration Department “is ready to move forward”. The  more important question is whether Najib and his Cabinet are ready to move forward by ending the unprecedented racist nastiness initiated by irresponsible and disloyal individuals and groups. Is Utusan “ready to move forward”?

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 10:17 am and is filed under
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On a sustainable Malaysia

— Yasmin Rasyid

The Malaysian Insider

May 19, 2013

MAY 19 — I am sitting here on a fine Sunday, reflecting on the front page news in the Star (May 19th 2013), “Hills in Cameron Highlands ‘raped’ at an alarming rate”, and I was compelled to write this to the editors of all papers, with the aim of expressing my continued disappointment on how this country, rich in natural resources and heritage, is slowly wiping itself out of the surface of this planet.

Now that the political drama in the country has somewhat simmered down, I hope that this is the right time to help build a progressive and forward thinking nation, especially when it comes to ensuring that Malaysia is managed sustainably for the future generations.

In Pahang, we have seen what the media has called the “rape” of the century. For the last two decades, and in my experiences in local environmental issues, Cameron Highlands has gone from bad to worse. Property developers are rushing in to build so called eco or highland resorts. There are a few dams scheduled to be built on the same highland. Meanwhile, land clearing for agriculture is rampant, and landslides aren’t something new. Indigenous communities, meanwhile, and as usual, are side lined. Their voices almost deafened by other so-called urgent agenda. Don’t believe this? Google Tasik Chini.

On top of that, it is also known amongst the public and those savvy with green issues that gold mining in Pahang still uses cyanide. Whether cyanide still pervades the communities of Bukit Koman or not, only the strong probes of the sophisticated machines used by the Department of Environment are able to tell us the truth. What is perplexing is this – whether cyanide is pervasively used or not in Pahang, and whatever is it that comes out from the mouths of the politicians, what is stopping academicians or chemists in this country (private or government) to go down to the ground and be a CSI and measure and tell the truth. It’s bad enough that the media only reports what certain individuals or politicians say, so come on Malaysians, where are the chemistry experts in this country? Can’t you the least help us verify the content of the air, soil and water in Pahang? (Referring to: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2013/5/18/southneast/13124846). While you’re at it, work on a comprehensive study to measure the entire health of the country from water and air quality, to the presence of toxic chemicals in food and so forth. I believe the public wants to know all this.

Kelantan and Kedah are not far off in their range of environmental problems. Similar to Pahang, the hills have fallen to the wraths of loggers and so-called plantation owners. Under the pretext of opening up more land for agriculture, the irony is that the logs that are removed are probably more lucrative than the proposed agriculture crops. Kedah has made a bold move by announcing that it is placing a halt on all logging activities. I applaud them AGAIN as this is not the first time this commitment has been made public. Now let’s see in the next five years if the government will really walk the talk.

Today, as you drive up the North-South highway, you know you are entering Perak when you also witness the massive rape of its limestone hills. What was once the pride of the state remains a massive eye sore. I pride myself as a “Ipoh Mali” person. And those days when you said you are from Ipoh, the impression is that your skin is smooth and clear, your health is superb and so forth. Myth or legend, whichever way you like it, has it that the waters in the Ipoh valley are kept pristine by its natural environment and limestone hills. So pristine that even the bean sprouts that grow and thrive in Perak are bigger, crunchier and tastier. A person born and raised in Ipoh Valley is said to be lucky as he or she gets the cleanest and best drinking water. Today, all that is probably just hearsay.

In Sarawak, a state which has the most valuable amount of natural resources, many of which would keep other states green in envy. Many of us have watched the recent video by Global Witness. We can choose to ignore it. We can also choose to be woken up by how dirty politics, poor and unethical governance, and monopolization of power has transformed what is supposedly the richest state in the country, to one that is gradually losing its treasures. The Bakun dam, the Murum dam, and the other 10 or more dams in the state will change the landscape of the state permanently. What is worse is the fate of the indigenous people, whom we conveniently place aside. Lack of access to the media, and lack of empowerment, our indigenous people will never be like the Maoris in New Zealand or the Red Indians in Americas where their rights are now acknowledged. We are sidelining them in all areas and have forced them to be the “in betweens” in the country. What is the point of subscribing to the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) when we clearly are not observing the roles we have to play in protecting them?

Our indigenous relatives in this country hold the key to many secrets of our natural resources. Yet we manipulate them, we ostracize them, and we tell them that we are more Malaysians than they are. The voices of the original Bumiputera and Malaysians of this country have been drowned ever since we proclaimed our so called independence. Is this the makeup of a democratic nation?

In Selangor, and also many states that are facing water woes, the magnitude of water accessibility and quality is further exacerbated. For the last fifteen years, academicians, water experts, irrigation professionals and engineers have all heard of “integrated watershed (river basin) management”. In Selangor we even have a council called the Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (LUAS) established to look at better ways of management and improvement of water accessibility and quality to the rakyat. After all that, till today, we will don’t see much integration and holistic enforcement on the ground. River ways are thought of as separate entities as land use patterns. We work to supply water but fail to educate the public on the most suitable ways to conserve, and reduce usage of water.

I have flown in a helicopter around the Selangor river basin. That was in 2000 when I was working as a freshwater ecologist for an international environmental organization here in Malaysia. I thought the issues on the ground were horrific, and when I saw with my own eyes how land was misused and how that physically altered the morphology of rivers, I couldn’t phantom how we a nation which we pride today as being more intellectual, can’t work holistically to address these water woes. Yet daily, more homes have no choice but to save money to purchase water filters because seriously, no one would ever dare drink off the tap today. Not like those days anymore.

Similarly to energy, Malaysians consume some of the highest amounts of water and electricity in the region. Instead of focusing on reduction of consumption, our country loves the notion of feeding the masses by continuously building and supplying to the needs of the nation. Say hello to nuclear energy. My question is this: what if the needs of the nation are flawed and not sustainable?

In Penang, there is much that still needs to be improving although perhaps among all states in the country, this little island exemplifies more progressive green efforts than the rest. Yet, hillside development, water conservation and waste management are still top areas of concern in this state. Despite that, I have some confidence in Penang to champion better green efforts. I believe and correct me if I am wrong, the current Chief Minister did made public that he wants a greener Penang. That will keep us NGOs on our toes as we observe his actions on the ground in the next five years.

In Sabah, a state that prides itself in its surreal islands and amazing lush forests is not without any environmental problems. Early this year, some twelve (and maybe more) Pygmy elephants were poisoned to death. After all the hoo-ha on the urgency to find the culprits, the devastating news about the death of these animals, today, the issue(s) seemed to have been swept under the carpet. In Bolehland, wildlife suffer in the wild and so too in captivity. Now we know that our wildlife, no matter where they are, would still have their lives threatened by Malaysians. We know for a fact that enforcement is seriously lacking in wildlife crimes. We have forest rangers that trek huge areas of forests with old defense weapons and we are not the least interested to beef up the skills of the rangers and their method of protection against poachers, instead, we choose to spend money to purchase wildlife that is not native to this country. Am I the only one who sees an oddity in this prioritization of funds for local wildlife protection?

Meanwhile, Sabah also prides itself in its beautiful diving spots. Have you been to one of those posh areas yet? Better still, have you dared yourself to travel to the “other side” of the islands, and observe the local communities there? Not only are locals not engaged much in the local tourism industry, they are occasionally in worse states when it comes to accessibility to water, education and employment.

Malaysia prides itself in being a part of international initiatives. We subscribed to the Kyoto Protocol. Oh yes, and the Montreal Protocol too. Oh wait, there’s also the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP), and so many more. We also told the entire planet that we will reduce the country’s carbon emission intensity by 40%, of which many of us, and even government agencies, have no clue how far we have fared in this.

Now is the time that government agencies should put their barriers down and work hand-in-hand with communities, and environmental and social NGOs to address and solve environmental problems. There is nothing we can do about this if we remain hostile towards each other. There is, however, a gazillion positive activities that can be driven if we all work amicably and start by shaking our hands, and acknowledging that WE, Malaysians, will all have to work together, regardless of race or political beliefs, if we truly intend to salvage what is left of this country.

Communities are not happy today with what they see. They might not be scientists nor are they academicians but they have lived to see the big difference in the changes to the environment. Yet we cannot ignore their concerns and voices and sweep them all under the carpet. Where is the midway where communities, NGOs and government agencies can sit together in a civilized manner and tackle environmental issues holistically?

We pride ourselves in being the smartest species on this planet, yet we find it so difficult to communicate, solve issues and live harmoniously.

I would rather be spending my Sunday with my children tucked away in some waterfall away from the city. This Sunday, I mourned at myself and my country, as I read about all the kind of man-made destructions we have intentionally made under the pretext of economic gains.

My questions are:

1. Will the present government now take a real look at their manifesto and acknowledge that there is a serious need to engage all stakeholders, to come together to address a very critical issue – will there be a future for Malaysia? And HOW are they going to do this? It’s ok if they don’t know how because we have a lot of eager and knowledgeable Malaysians, here and abroad, whom will be very willing to help as long as the intention is clear and honest – to build a safer, cleaner and better environment for our children. 2. When are we going to seriously look at “development” from the eyes of sustainability? How do we make development authorities, corporate players and academic institutions play more engaging roles? When will we see a national blueprint for all industries in this country to work progressively towards a sustainable future? 3. If we all agree that the current environmental laws are inadequate, and that environmental enforcement is almost ineffective, then maybe we should consider (amongst all the money we spent in this country) to establish an independent environmental monitoring agency. Like the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States of America. We need some kind of independent, reliable and trustworthy entity that we all know can help us protect the environment, and subsequently, the health of its people. We need some kind of entity that will help put the people’s quality of life first, and by that I don’t mean monetary gain. I mean the right to be breathing in clean air, swimming in clean rivers and so forth. 4. When will all the big corporates, investment agencies, and political parties, start looking at the bigger picture of building a nation that is able to provide clean air, water and food for its own people, without being held at ransom by some economic tool? 5. Why is it so difficult to make any violation to the environment a criminal act? If we seriously want to take giant steps towards protecting our backyard, the rivers, the waterfalls, the trees, then we should looking at criminalizing those who pollute our waterways, air and health. Slap them fines, because we are good at it, and the government will see a new source of revenue which can be driven to initiate more conservation or rehabilitation activities on the ground.

I hope what I have written will stir some of you to think outside your comfort zone. It is intended to be so. Globally we cannot turn our backs on data that has shown that the atmosphere has not reached its critical level in terms of CO2 concentrations. We cannot deny the fact that the planet IS getting warmer. We cannot sit back and ignore the stories that we are filling up landfills faster than we can recycle. We cannot turn a deaf ear to the plight of 180,000 (at least) indigenous people whose land, homes, resources (water, food) are gradually taken away from there, rendering them to abandon their thousand year old traditional knowledge, culture and heritage. We also know that among all our neighboring countries, Malaysians use an extra 100 liters or so daily, way above the global average of usage per person.

Brace yourselves Malaysians. This is only the tip of the iceberg. You can choose one of this two.

Remain silent. Or start making some noise for positive reinforcements for the environment.

* Yasmin Rasyid obtained her undergraduate degrees in marine biology and contemporary religion from Duke University (USA), a M.Sc. in biotechnology (Malaya) and is now pursuing her PhD. She studied about the reproductive effects of a pesticide detected in Sungai Selangor which has shown to significantly reduce the sperm count and production of her lab rats and subsequently the destruction of testicular cells in Sprague-Dawley rates. She is glad that for one, her test subjects are male white rats but is also worried for all the other Malaysian men.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 6:25 am and is filed under
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The brilliance of Zahid Hamidi

by
Aerie Rahman

The Malaysian Insider

MAY 20, 2013

Move aside Khairy Jamaluddin and Saifuddin Abdullah — we have a new poster boy for change within the Barisan National power structure. Not used to flamboyance and only recently baring the fangs of radicalism, Zahid Hamidi has sparked a debate on a new form of politics: migratory politics.

With his decree demanding that those who are unhappy with the current political system migrate to republican states, this man is a maverick. He is braving the tide by countering Najib Razak’s efforts to stem the pernicious brain drain beleaguering this nation. We need more mavericks within BN! Not mere “yes men” whose servitude are repulsive, but men with independent minds. Zahid fits the bill. This is a man to watch, Malaysia!

I see that Zahid is a very clinical man who is impetuous and wants a better Malaysia as fast as possible. The prime minister has called for a national reconciliation. This is echoed by the spokesperson for Umno, Khairy (a rare breed within Umno, where he can string a sentence without any grammatical error).

But let’s be realistic here. National reconciliation doesn’t happen overnight. With a heterogeneous nation like Malaysia, finding the right balance is extremely difficult. It’s a long process which happens gradually. We’ve been trying for 56 years and we still identify each other by our racial identities. I don’t think I’ll be seeing “national reconciliation” in my lifetime. And I’m 22!

Throw a rock at Jalan TAR and it’ll probably bounce off a great many who are dissatisfied with the political process. Based on this Jalan TAR thought experiment, Zahid’s idea implies a mass exodus. This is wonderful for national reconciliation! Don’t you see? Those who are unhappy are gone, leaving a homogenous nation whose political ideologies are crony capitalism and lemon socialism! Race and religion is probably not an issue anymore since everything has become one. A united Malaysia, at last.

To oil the wheels of migration, your humble servant has a few proposals that Zahid should forward to the Cabinet. The first is to freeze the efforts of Talentcorp. Don’t get me wrong, Johan Merican is a smart guy. But luring in people who left the country by providing material incentives screams of disingenuousness. Once the incentives are gone, they’ll migrate away again. So Zahid, take note, please stop whatever Talentcorp is doing.

Alternatively, a bit of rebranding for Talentcorp could help. To do this, utilise the government-linked public relations firm Pemandu to burnish Talentcorp’s image. Change its name to Migratecorp. Amend the memorandum of association to reorient their goals, to helping Malaysians who are dissatisfied with the political process to migrate abroad.

Looking at the conditions of the global economy, decent employment is hard to come by. It’s difficult for non-EU citizens to secure jobs in the UK. Since Malaysia’s economy is doing relatively as BN claims, this is the opportune time to facilitate migration abroad. Use the petroringgit from Petronas to help Migratecorp resettle migrants into their country of choice. Create new jobs in the West exclusively for Malaysians.

This is going to be the largest social engineering project undertaken by the BN administration since the NEP. I’m excited!

I have no qualms if Zahid wants to take credit for these modest proposals. No need to mention my name. Maybe putting me as top priority for this mega-project would be a kind gesture. I’ve always wanted to try and live in New Zealand. I’ve never heard of racist attacks there compared to Australia or the UK.

So Zahid, let’s make it happen! Pretty soon you’ll engrave your name in the history books as the home minister who created homes for Malaysians abroad. Now that’s radical. — loyarburok.com

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 6:40 pm and is filed under
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The low-down on fighting graft

― Kunjuraman Karuppan

The Malaysian Insider

May 19, 2013

MAY 19 ― The focus on Transparency International-Malaysia chief Datuk Paul Low’s appointment as a minister in the Najib Cabinet can only mean one thing ― that everyone is depending on him to ramp up the fight against corruption.

That includes Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who picked Low to do the job despite a beefed-up Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the creation of corruption courts.

And this is where Low should know better than to say he is depending on the prime minister’s stature to enable him to fight corruption.

The truth is, Najib is depending on Low’s stature to show that his administration is serious about fighting corruption.

If that wasn’t the case, the prime minister would have chose Tunku Abdul Aziz, perhaps, to do the job. But the former TI-M chief seems more interested in riling up the DAP than leading the fight against graft.

Now that Low has the government support and heft to do the job, he should just go ahead and do it rather than give excuses to the extent of his powers and oversight in the matter.

Take charge of the MACC. Encourage and ensure the cases against big fish can stand the scrutiny of the courts, or drop it so that the likes of Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud know their standing in the country.

There are many allegations but the MACC is silent. Is there or is there not a case against Taib? Because that affects the credibility of the Barisan Nasional government that Low serves in.

Of course, Low is right and he can’t change the “culture” overnight.

But he shouldn’t also repeat the standard excuse that ministers’ shouldn’t reveal their assets publicly for fear of reprisals or security concerns over their families.

That’s the police’s job, to ensure safety and security. Not Low’s.

His job is simple. Fight graft from within the government to make the BN look like it is doing what it has promised to do.

No excuses. Do it or let someone else with firmer convictions to do that job. Or another government.

Malaysia has all the tools to fight graft. Low is the engine to make it happen, or so the prime minister believes. Prove him right, Low.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 6:39 am and is filed under
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The Tsunami

by Allan CF Goh

The Tsunami

GE13 has come and gone,

But the racists still drone and drone…..

This event brings forth a huge storm

Of righteous passion, pure and strong.

Despite the whirlpool of dark threats,

May 5 shows the Malaysians great.

They flocked to attend the address,

Defying vile threats of unrest.

They even braved the falling rain,

And their support was not in vain.

They dare give life to a just cause,

Sometimes, at a rather great cost.

They are the real, unnamed heroes,

Who want a better tomorrow.

From north to south, and east to west,

They come in thousands to attest

Their right to a true Malaysia,

Full of fairness and ambrosia;

Not one rented with racism,

Not one fouled with cronyism.

They abhor discrimination,

And those nefarious corruption.

Though they were robbed of their great dream,

In the face of crude, racist scream.

They inspire the tsunami

Of righteousness, not enmity.

The tsunami springs from their heart,

In protest of politics’ black art.

That tsunami embraces all

Malaysians who choose to walk tall.

Right thinking Chinese and Malays,

Indians and Kadazans, relay

To carry the torch of freedom,

Convinced of a moral wisdom.

This tsunami of majority,

Suffused with bright mentality,

Is still growing ever bigger,

Bonding unity ever stronger.

When despair goes, and faith returns,

Bad government will fall in turn,

Swept out by people’s tsunami,

Formed by those ordinary ‘me’.

With truth, justice as homily,

They join force as a family,

To march towards Putrajaya.

They will be there till berjaya!

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 10:42 am and is filed under
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Umno Baru’s hidden agenda

Mariam Mokhtar

Malaysiakini

May 20, 2013

When Ahmad Zahid Hamidi – the new home minister – told disgruntled opposition supporters that they should migrate if they were unhappy with the results of GE13, he had unwittingly confessed that Umno Baru has a hidden agenda.

This little-known plan is Umno Baru’s mass immigration policy and is a deliberate ploy fuelled by political self-interests. Asking people to emigrate will ensure that Malaysia is populated largely by Umno Baru-putras and selected foreigners.

Zahid reluctantly acknowledged that the rakyat was disappointed with the rigging of the polls, but at the same time, he revealed the fears of Umno Baru leaders. The cheating did not go as smoothly and secretly as they had intended.

Zahid possesses neither charisma nor intellect. His oft repeated line is for people to shape up or ship out. With each new political appointment, he stuns us with his ability to set new standards for boorish behaviour.

In 2008, he was appointed a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi with a portfolio which included religious affairs and agencies like the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim). He caused controversy when he warned officers that they had to support the government’s policies, or leave.

When Abdullah resigned and Najib Abdul Razak took over in 2009, Zahid was made the defence minister. He invited criticism when he said that the low percentage of non-Malays in the armed forces showed that they lacked patriotism.

Last week, Zahid could not resist baiting the public, telling the people who opposed the results of GE13 to “migrate elsewhere”.

Now, one out of every seven people in the country is a foreigner. If we were to follow Zahid’s advice, this would increase to one in five. This is based upon a population of 28 million, however, none of the rakyat know the true population of the country. The census figures are another of Umno Baru’s dirty little secrets, which they use to exert control over the rakyat.

Zahid has the ability to make remarks without thinking of the consequences. Perhaps his mouth works faster than his brain. On the other hand, his boss, Najib prefers to keep mum when ministers make provocative statements.

A history with Najib and Anwar

The two men – Zahid and Najib – share a long history which started when Zahid became Najib’s political secretary in 1986, but Zahid has also been closely linked with Anwar.

In 1998, Zahid supported calls for the then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to curb cronyism and nepotism. After a brief period of incarceration, Zahid claimed that he had been duped by Anwar to challenge Mahathir.

 After a much publicised apology to Mahathir, Zahid returned to Umno Baru, presumably with more than just his reputation bolstered.

Malaysia’s youth are not as easily fooled by Umno Baru’s tactics, social networking sites keep them informed and in GE13, they demanded fairness and change.

Influential people like student activist Adam Adli have been threatened with sedition, Seri Setia assemblyperson Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (left) has been charged with organising a mass rally, and Anwar Ibrahim has predicted that the authorities will be arresting him soon.

Most of us are shaped by our experiences in youth. Friends who grew up with Mahathir claim that the young Mahathir saw a lot of poverty on his rounds as a doctor. He would have known about the economic disparities between the various races, and to be fair, he treated many people without charge.

When he became a politician, Mahathir probably realised that his affirmative action policies could not remain in perpetuity. He knew that as Malays became better educated and more affluent, they would not return to the rural areas.

He understood that as people became increasingly exposed to global changes and opened their minds to different experiences, his affirmative action polices would lose their appeal.

Mahathir (right) knew that if ordinary Malaysians refused to vote for Umno Baru, he would have to bring people in from overseas to address the shortfall.

Our poorer neighbours – Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, Bangladesh and Pakistan – have several million people who would willingly work for longer hours and less money. By giving them jobs and promising them citizenship, they became indebted to Mahathir.

Only Malays may join Umno Baru, and hence only Malays are likely to vote for Umno Baru, so only Muslims who could become ‘instant Malays’ were imported.

Mahathir used these people, in a most evil fashion, to provide short-term economic benefits at the expense of ordinary Malaysians. His desire to give Umno Baru (and BN) long-term political and electoral advantages was even more pernicious.

The difficulty of introducing a Malaysian minimum working wage is widely known. Why would the authorities and employers approve this policy, when laws exist to import cheap labour to depress wages and control the people, the economy and future votes?

Rural folk made vulnerable

Mahathir abused people in the rural areas, as they were more vulnerable. He continued to neglect the rural communities by not providing job opportunities or by depriving them of infrastructure and services.

Many children of Felda settlers are graduates, but they are hampered by a lack of suitable jobs back in their communities and cannot make a valuable contribution to society.

Friends have complained of large numbers of Felda graduates who are unemployed. Some hold degrees in aeronautical engineering which cannot benefit their community, whilst others have complained that some graduates have skills which are not put to good use in their areas.

In the end, the disheartened youth gravitate to the cities, to be followed shortly by the older generation. Then, the rural areas become depopulated, and to sustain the economy, more foreign workers are smuggled in by the authorities.

With more foreigners, both legal and illegal being imported, the Umno Baru vote bank is endless. The migrants provide Umno Baru with votes, they generate production on the estates and boost the economy.

Umno Baru does not care that the urban areas are bursting with displaced Malaysians from the surrounding countryside.

Recently, parts of some cities are also being populated by foreigners. Malaysians have complained about a decline in services provided by hospitals, schools and community housing. The worst places record high rates of crime.

We know that from the 1980s onwards, Indians were displaced from the estates when plantations took over large tracts of land, perhaps, to satisfy Mahathir.

If the import of foreigners is not properly managed in the near future, the remaining Felda settlers and rural Malays will complete the exodus to the cities.

When that happens, and the Malays finally realise that Umno Baru has duped them, the recriminations will begin in earnest and Umno Baru will face a severe backlash from a cynical Malay community.

Then, politicians like Ahmad Zahid will wish that they had acceded to the relatively mild demands of free and fair elections from genuine Malaysians, rather than tell them to migrate.

——————————————————————————–

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In ‘real-speak’, this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 6:57 pm and is filed under
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Whither Dr M?

― Zaid Ibrahim

The Malaysian Insider

May 19, 2013

MAY 19 ― We know that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had little say in the naming of the new Cabinet. This wasn’t because he didn’t try. Indeed, he was rebuffed by the prime minister who suddenly felt strong and energised by his so-called new mandate after the election.

Barisan Nasional (BN) likened Datuk Seri Najib Razak to a rock star, and put posters of him in all constituencies during the campaign period as if he were the most popular politician to ever grace this country. Now he is continuing on the same path with his list of new ministers.

It matters little what Umno or the Barisan Nasional (BN) think because it’s a list who will keep him at the helm for the next five years.

This is why I think Dr Mahathir has lost his influence, or at least the will to fight back. He must be disappointed with this turn of events, for, in his 22 years in power, he never once dispensed with Umno or BN during a general election as if they didn’t matter.

He never traded on his personal popularity or put up posters of himself as Najib has gleefully done. To Dr Mahathir, it was always about Umno and the Barisan, and not the personality of individual leaders.

Dr Mahathir, despite being the hard man that he was, would never abandon the component parties. He was always loyal to his allies even if he knew some of them to be corrupt or were no longer useful to the coalition. Friendships mattered to Dr Mahathir. He did not use people and then forget them later.

It must be painful for him to see Najib embracing people like Datuk Paul Low and P. Waythamoorthy, whom Najib met just three weeks before election, practically abandoning the MCA and MIC who have been steadfastly loyal for over 55 years. This is not the Alliance or the Barisan spirit. This is a massive ego trip on a temporary high.

So it’s up to Dr Mahathir’s son, Datuk Paduka Mukhriz Mahathir, and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to redeem the glorious past and remove Najib at the forthcoming Umno general assembly (that is, if they still have the Umno-BN spirit in them).

Many Umno members think Najib is due for some payback at the November assembly, even though members are not normally very demanding. They are easily satisfied if the leaders take care of them, making them feel important and making sure their opinions count in the big decisions of the party. Najib, however, abandoned the counsel of the members during the election and chose instead to trust Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis and the “war room operators”.

When Dr Mahathir was in charge, he would push through his own ideas and plans of action but he somehow made Umno members feel as if they were part of the decision-making process. This political astuteness was part of the reason why he lasted so long. Najib, on the other hand, tends to outsource everything.

Should we fear Muhyiddin and his unfortunate “Malay First” outburst? I know him well enough to say that he is no more “ultra” than the next Umno fellow. Muhyiddin will never say to Malaysians who supported opposition, “go live elsewhere if you don’t like it here”, as an Umno vice-president loudly proclaimed on his first day in office.

You always know where Muhyiddin stands. He is also a smart man and knows the realities of multiracial Malaysia. He has been in the government for many years and has always been guided by pragmatic considerations. He has always been sure of his identity had has had no need to prove his “Malay credentials”.

In short, he will make for a better prime minister should BN unexpectedly win again in 2018.

Why am I so keen for Umno and BN to be strong? Because I want democracy to function well. This can happen only when both sides are led by capable men and women. Only when we pit the strongest and the bravest in politics will change take place in the people’s interest.

Mediocre leaders on either side of the divide are of no use to anyone but themselves.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 6:50 am and is filed under
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Zahid  not afraid of censure motion against him? Then get PM’s agreement for one full day reserved in first week of new 13th Parliament to debate censure motion against him!

New Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi asked today “what is there to fear” and said he is ready to face a censure motion in Parliament against him over his statement in Utusan Malaysia urging  those who are not happy with the current electoral system to “migrate elsewhere”.

Is Zahid really not afraid of the censure motion against him?

If so, I challenge Zahid to get the agreement of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak for one full day to be reserved  in the first week of the new 13th Parliament for a full debate on the censure motion against him and to announce this decision at the end of the first new Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

I do not expect any such announcement as it is not only Zahid who is afraid of the censure motion against him, Najib and all the other Cabinet Ministers are also worried and mortally afraid of the censure motion against Zahid.

This is because if there is a division and a full vote taken on the censure motion against Zahid, I will not be surprised if several of the 133 Barisan Nasional MPs would absent themselves from the division to dissociate and repudiate Zahid’s call on Malaysians who vote against BN in the 13GE and not happy with the current electoral system to “migrate elsewhere”.

In fact, most of the  Cabinet Ministers must be praying that the Zahid issue will die down and there would be no censure motion against Zahid, for they know that it is not possible to dismiss Zahid’s statement as a personal statement, as the new Sports and Youth Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin had tried to do.

After all, it was Najib himself who, at the two-hour briefing to the new Cabinet after the Ministerial and Deputy Ministerial swearing-in on Thursday, who “killed” Khairy’s weak attempt to distance himself from Zahid’s statement by claiming that it was merely Zahid’s “personal opinion” and does not reflect the government’s position.

This was totally against the clear and specific  directive by Najib  to the new Cabinet Ministers last Thursday, where the Prime Minister stressed  the importance of trust and confidence the people have given to the government and laid down the law that “whatever raised by Cabinet members is not in the name of the individual but something that represents the government and is a common stand”.

Najib said: “Whatever do we, it must be in the name of the government, we do not move in compartments or our respective silos.”

Are you listening, Khairy?  Unless the Cabinet on Wednesday publicly and collectively repudiates what Zahid had said in Utusan last Thursday, the new Home Minister’s call to Malaysians not happy with the current electoral system to “migrate elsewhere” IS the official stand of the Cabinet and government.

This is why the parliamentary censure motion against Zahid is also a censure motion against Najib and the entire Cabinet for not openly repudiating Zahid’s position.

In the 13GE, over 5.6 million voters, majority of whom are Malay voters, voted in support of Pakatan Rakyat against the Barisan Nasional.

What authority and right has Zahid or the Najib government  to call on Malaysian citizens, comprising Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans, who are not happy with the current electoral system, to “migrate elsewhere”?

Malaysians who do not like the current electoral system because it is unfair and undemocratic, where a leader of a political coalition with 51% popular vote is denied the Prime Ministership which goes to a leader of a political coalition with only 47% popular vote, is entitled to be unhappy, dissatisfied, outraged and angry and to want to change the government. If Zahid is not happy with this, he can “emigrate elsewhere”!

The pressure from the knowledge that he has committed a major faux pas must have caused Zahid to lose his emotional  balance as to make him to react publicly in a very childish fashion.

For instance, he retorted to PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim’s “this is not your father’s country” jibe by aping a tit-for-tat response, viz:

“This country is also not (Anwar’s) father’s. It is neither my father’s country nor his father’s country.”

This is an utterly stupid and mindless response.

What Anwar or anyone who made such a remark meant is that “this is not only your father’s country” but  also my father’s country, i.e. the country belongs to all!

It cannot be reduced to “This country is not your father’s. It is neither my father’s country nor his father’s country” which made no sense at all. It should be “This country is not only your father’s, neither is it only my father’s country – it is the country of all.”

It is sad and pathetic that Zahid has been reduced to such gibberish straits, and yet he says he is not afraid of the censure motion against him in Parliament!

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 May 2013, 4:08 pm and is filed under
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A tectonic shift

 — Jamil Maidan Flores

The Malaysian Insider

May 20, 2013

MAY 20 — After the 13th general election in Malaysia recently, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak grumbled about a “Chinese tsunami” that barged against his Barisan Nasional coalition, leaving it with only 47 per cent of the popular vote. Barisan Nasional has a Chinese component, the MCA, but the Chinese vote went heavily to the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, a three-party coalition led by former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Still, thanks to the gerrymandering of rural constituencies and to the huge perks of incumbency, Barisan Nasional won 133 of 222 parliamentary seats at stake and retained power. Najib remains prime minister.

So why is he grousing about a Chinese tsunami? I think it’s because he has felt a tectonic shift — in this case a tectonic shift in the political mood of Malaysia. It well may be that Malaysian politics will never be the same again. That doesn’t bode well for the Barisan Nasional, or for Najib himself.

Perhaps it’s a comeuppance. There were numerous reports of shenanigans attributed to the ruling coalition. Of flying voters. Of immigrants in Sabah who were given identity cards on condition they would vote for the ruling coalition. Of padded voters’ lists. Of people long dead who were able to vote. Of the Barisan Nasional campaign doling out a total of US$2.5 billion (RM7.5 billion) to poor voters, and resorting to other forms of subsidy schemes.

If these reports are true, and the evidence is piling up that they’re accurate, then there’s nothing that the local politicians of the Philippines, past masters of election fraud, can teach their Malaysian counterparts. However, to the credit of the Malaysian politicos, although there were some accounts of violence, there wasn’t a single shooting throughout the campaign.

As for the tsunami, it wasn’t Chinese. True, most Chinese Malaysians are sick and tired of the discrimination they’ve suffered over four decades. It rankles that they don’t have equal rights in business, in the civil service and in education. They clamour for a Malaysia that is a meritocracy like next-door Singapore. But there aren’t enough Chinese voters to raise a tsunami.

The tsunami was Malaysian — Muslim Malay and Chinese and Indian Malaysian. Urban, young and idealistic Malaysian. It had nothing to do with ethnicity. It had everything to do with a thirst for change. They’re through with divisive racial politics. They want an end to corruption and cronyism. They want to unleash the potential of a richly diverse Malaysian nation.

Once again, Anwar has failed to win the prime ministership, but he has led Malaysian politics out of the wilderness — and that should be enough for now. He won’t rest, however. Insisting the elections had been stolen from Pakatan Rakyat, he is leading public protests reminiscent of Cory Aquino’s civil disobedience campaign in the Philippines after she thought Ferdinand Marcos had robbed her of the presidential election in 1986.

Aquino’s protest movement led to regime change only because it merged with a military coup. For a people power revolution to succeed it must be supported by a sizeable part of the military, or else the entire military must stay neutral. That won’t happen in Malaysia. But national politics will continue to change. Meanwhile, the Najib government will try to rule with a weak and questioned mandate. It will have to cope with the divisions it has largely created, economic problems from exorbitant election spending, and extravagant promises impossible to keep.

Najib himself is politically wounded. His rivals in the ruling party, the Umno, smell blood. That’s a pity because among party eminences, he is the one who has a streak of the reformist in him. To survive, Umno must undergo sweeping and painful reform to match the shifting mood of Malaysian politics. Otherwise, the election this month was its last hurrah. — thejakartaglobe.com

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 21 May 2013, 8:07 am and is filed under
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Ambiga: Bersih’s ‘People’s Tribunal’ a ‘moral force’ to expose electoral fraud

BY CLARA CHOOI

The Malaysian Insider

May 21, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — Bersih 2.0’s “People’s Tribunal” may not have any legal standing but will serve as a “moral force” to publicly expose electoral fraud, said Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan when defending the polls watchdog’s final attempt at proving wrongdoing in the May 5 polls.

The renowned civil rights activist told The Malaysian Insider that Bersih 2.0 will soldier on with its plan to set up the tribunal which, she said, should be announced in two or three weeks’ time, despite earning condemnation from polls regulator Election Commission (EC).

“It is true that it is not set up under any law or statute. That is why it is called the People’s Tribunal,” she said.

“It will be an evidence-gathering tribunal and what we have is the moral force to prove what we have said before about fraud. That is its main aim — to gather evidence,” she added.

On May 6, a day after the tumultuous 13th general election, Bersih 2.0 announced its plan to set up the tribunal to look into the hundreds of reports of alleged cheating that took place during the polls.

The coalition of over 80 non-governmental organisations insisted that the polls results had favoured the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) largely because of these irregularities, and said it would not recognise the outcome until it had verified all allegations of fraud.

In the polls, BN continued its half-a-century unbroken rule and emerged victors yet again despite winning with a significantly smaller seat majority in the 222-seat Parliament.

    It is true that it is not set up under any law or statute. That is why it is called the People’s Tribunal. — Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan

The ruling pact snapped up 133 seats this time to Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) 89, failing yet again to recapture the coveted two-thirds parliamentary majority that it first lost in the 2008 general election.

PR refused to accept its losses, however, pointing to the fact that it had won the overall popular vote by scoring 51 per cent of votes cast, while BN only took 48 per cent — an outcome reminiscent of the 1969 polls when the ruling pact first lost the popular vote.

The federal opposition pact of PR has since confirmed plans to file election petitions to challenge the results in 27 federal seats where BN had won with marginal majorities, allegedly due to electoral fraud.

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli has also said that the same complaints will be brought before Bersih 2.0’s “People’s Tribunal” where, he said, PR’s evidence was likely to be treated with more seriousness than in any court of law.

Ambiga told The Malaysian Insider that the tribunal will be presided over by a five-member panel, which will include individuals of repute and who will not be members of any political parties or even from Bersih 2.0 itself.

She said the panel will likely come up with a set timeframe to conduct its probe, apart from deciding on appropriate terms of reference before commencing any hearing.

“We will then expect some sort of recommendations or findings to be made. This will be presented to all the relevant authorities, including human rights bodies like Suhakam,” she said.

“For Bersih… our role is just to facilitate the setting up of the tribunal. Further to that, we will not get involved. It must be completely independent,” she added.

Ambiga also explained that the setting up of the tribunal was taking longer than originally planned due to the complexity of its scope of investigation, as well as the selection of its panel members.

“We originally wanted to have it done by June but it looks impossible at this point. We should announce the panel within two or three weeks’ time.

“But as to when the panel will begin their hearings, that would be entirely up to the members to decide,” she said.

Despite widespread protests against its handling of the 13th general election, the EC has insisted that it had conducted the polls fairly and successfully, citing the higher turnout of voters at a whopping 84 per cent as evidence of voters’ confidence in the Malaysian electoral system.

“We have conducted a successful polls, there was an 85 per cent turnout… we have good job as you can see from the turnout,” EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said last week.

PR has been organising mammoth rallies across the country to prove voter dissatisfaction against the polls, which PR de facto chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has insisted had been stolen from his pact.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 21 May 2013, 7:56 am and is filed under
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The de-racialisation of Barisan Nasional?

— Yang Razali Kassim

The Malaysian Insider

May 20, 2013

MAY 20 — On the 44th anniversary of the May 13, 1969, racial riots that gave birth to it, the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) displayed signs of being in existential angst.

Though it won the 13th general election on May 5 by securing the most parliamentary seats, BN lost the popular vote and failed to wrest back its two-thirds parliamentary majority in the face of Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) strong showing.

While BN was relieved to have been returned to power, the results were a body blow that sent it into deep introspection. A significant upshot has been a proposal to transform itself from the current model of a coalition of communal parties into a single, merged multi-racial entity.

Significantly, too, this idea came from no less than the secretary-general of Umno, the party that is the lynchpin of BN and the epitome of Malaysia’s communal politics. Given his key position, Datuk Tengku Adnan Mansor could well be reflecting an internal debate now spilling into the open.

Other Umno leaders who have begun to publicly float such “radical” views in the wake of the 2013 general election (GE13) are Datuk Nazri Aziz and Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, both members of the Umno supreme council and the previous Cabinet. While Tengku Adnan and Nazri successfully defended their parliamentary seats, Saifuddin lost his despite being known for his reformist views.

Nazri started the ball rolling by calling for BN to ubah — the same clarion call for change which the opposition used so effectively during the hustings. He described BN as “outdated” and a political vehicle that does not resonate the younger voters.

His comments evoked a response from Tengku Adnan, who suggested the ruling coalition rebrand by merging its more than a dozen communal-oriented components. “BN could perhaps be made into a single party that is no longer race-based someday,” he was quoted as saying in The Malay Mail.

In fact, the idea of rebranding and renewing BN was first publicly mooted by the reform-minded former MP Saifuddin. On the day after his defeat, he said: “We are lucky to still be in government at the federal level.” To strengthen its position, he added, “we need to rebrand, there needs to be a new BN”.

These views are likely to provoke further debates in the public domain and corridors of power. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in his usual style, will allow the discourse to proceed, to see where the wind blows, and eventually decide on what he should ultimately do. He is likely to frame this within his larger post-election template of national reconciliation.

END OF COMMUNAL POLITICS?

If this shift in thinking within BN holds and becomes new doctrine, it will usher in a substantive change in the country’s dominant political ideology; it will mark a move away from the communal politics that has been the hallmark of Malaysia’s political system.

This will reprise the spirit of the founding father of Umno, Datuk Onn Jaafar, who had advocated an Umno open to all communities, not just Malays. As his thinking proved too unpopular and ahead of its time, Onn Jaafar left Umno in 1951 and since then, the idea of multiracial parties has struggled to take hold. What came close was a power-sharing model embracing the major ethnic communities — the three-party Alliance, which expanded in 1973 to become BN.

Like the Alliance, the idea of BN was anchored in communal politics, but unlike it BN aspired to be a single non-communal party one day. In this sense, Tengku Adnan’s idea of a unified non-communal BN was not really a revelation; even so, it signals that that “one day” may have come. The difference is that such a transformation and its timing are being forced by circumstances, not by BN’s own choice.

A BN-PR ALLIANCE?

There is still much to be sorted out. For instance, will the deracialisation of politics, if it comes about, be just at the BN level, or will it permeate all the 13 communal parties that comprise BN? For instance, will Umno open its doors to all races and not just Malays and Bumiputeras, and thus revive Onn Jaafar’s radical proposal to transform itself from the United Malays National Organisation into the United Malaysians National Organisation? Similarly, will the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress cease to exist as we know them?

Besides these issues that have to be resolved within BN, there is another layer of existential questions surrounding PM Najib’s post-election proposal for national reconciliation. A transformed BN that is no longer a coalition but a single party would, in theory, make it difficult to expand to embrace the PR parties — should this be part of the strategic consideration.

But the early signs point to the PR parties rejecting any idea of joining BN. Let us say a scenario emerges in which BN exists as a single party and PR remains a three-party coalition: Will a new model then emerge in which BN and PR converge as a new and larger two-party alliance, in the name of national reconciliation?

These are obviously tough questions that are not likely to be attempted, much less resolved, in the near term.

But they have to be contemplated if the country’s leaders are serious about change and reconciliation. Malaysia, post-GE13, is clearly at a critical juncture. — Today

* Yang Razali Kassim is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 21 May 2013, 8:37 am and is filed under
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New IGP Khalid Abu Bakar should be censured for wanting to play politics to please his political masters instead of focussing on his first duty – to make Malaysians, tourists and investors safe from crime and the fear of crime

The new Inspector-General of Police  Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar should be censured for wanting to play politics to please his political masters instead of focussing on his first duty to the people – to make Malaysians, tourists and investors safe from crime and the fear of crime.

I have just been informed that two police officers had questioned party adviser and founding DAP National Chairman Dr. Chen Man Hin for one hour and 15 minutes under Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code in connection with irresponsible and baseless allegations that the term “Malaysian Spring” which had been used by Dr. Chen in a private email last year was in connection with a conspiracy for violent and illegal overthrow of the elected government.

This is sheer nonsense and a pure waste of police resources, manpower and time when there are more important things for the police to do, as keeping Malaysians free from crime.

Two days ago the sister of the Deputy Prime Minister was victim of a house break-in in Petaling Jaya while the sister of the Inspector-General of Police was another victim of house break-in in Mantin.

With such a rife crime situation, it is downright irresponsible for the police to waste time and resources on a wild goose chase because some errant and irresponsible politicians have made false and outrageous allegations but who has no principles or courage of conviction to lodge official reports.

Is the police prepared to charge these persons who have made made baseless and irresponsible allegations causing the police to go on a wild goose’s case, wasting scarce public resources and time?

New Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi may be able to boast that the police investigation of Dr. Chen is proof of his seriousness as Home Minister. He cannot be more wrong – as it is proof that Malaysia has got a wrong person to be Home Minister who has no idea of what should be his proper sense of priorities.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 22 May 2013, 3:28 pm and is filed under
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After GE13, what changed, and the status quo

— The Malaysian Insider

May 23, 2013

MAY 23 — Now that the dust has settled after GE13 and the Malaysian Cabinet has been named, it is time to test the pulse in the country and figure out what has changed and what has not changed.

What has changed?

● Umno and Barisan Nasional’s armour of invincibility and sense of confidence

Nothing punctures confidence and self-belief than the fact that most voters gave their support to Pakatan Rakyat. The official spin is that the Chinese betrayed BN but that party line suits a national leadership looking to absolve itself from any blame. Fact is that many Malaysians were unwilling to trade their precious vote for temporary gratification.

● Fear factor gone forever

There was a time when a police threat or a warning about a repeat of May 13 would have kept Malaysians indoors. Not anymore, it seems.

Thousands have defied threats to attend post-election rallies in Selangor, Penang, Johor, Kedah and have done so in an orderly manner. In fact, participants of different races have come away from these gatherings feeling as one.

● Media landscape

Utusan Malaysia. News Straits Times. The Star. TV3. They all don’t get it. Skewed news, lies, do not cut ice with a population which gets its news and information from various sources.

Block out Anwar Ibrahim on mainstream media. No worries, there is always YouTube. Block YouTube. No worries, there is Facebook.

What has not changed?

● Tunku Aziz, Chandra Muzaffar, S. Nallakaruppan

The less said about this trio and their ilk the better.

● The home minister

Be careful what you wish for. Could anyone imagine anyone sounding more combative and ridiculous at the same time than Hishammuddin Hussein?

And yet given the evidence of the past few days, Zahid Hamidi could “surpass” Hishammuddin. Threats against an online journalist, a childish outburst urging Malaysians who seek a new electoral system to emigrate and a primary school bully act suggest that Zahid is more interested is auditioning for Umno polls and scoring points with the right-wing folk.

● When everything else fails, go to the old playbook

Mahathirism is not dead. Today’s crackdown on the opposition and the raiding of Harakah’s office and the tenor of police action suggest that someone is going to the old playbook of Mahathir Mohamad.

Strike fear into the hearts of everyone and “order will be restored.” May have been effective a few decades ago but it is questionable if the sledgehammer approach works. Still, the crackdown will probably be popular within Umno.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 May 2013, 6:31 pm and is filed under
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If there is “one man, one vote, one value”, BN would have lost two-thirds majority in Sabah State Assembly

In the recently held May 5 general elections, Barisan Nasional would have lost its two-thirds majority in the Sabah State Assembly if we really have a “one man, one vote, one value” system.

With 55.78 per cent of the total votes cast for the 60 Sabah State Assembly seats, i.e. 427,890 votes, Barisan Nasional should have only secured 34 State Assembly seats instead of winning 48 seats, which is 80% of the Sabah state assembly seats.

The three Pakatan Rakyat parties of PKR, DAP and PAS which contested all the 60 State Assembly seats secured 248,185 votes or 32.36% of the total votes cast, and which should won 20 State Assembly seats instead of just 11 (which is 18.33% of the 60 seats).

Star fielded 47 State Assembly candidates, winning one seat, and netted 5.63% of the votes cast while SAPP fielded 41 State Assembly seats, netting 28,305 votes or 3.69% ov the total votes cast, without winning a single seat.

Although a lively and strong Opposition presence has now been restored to the Sabah State Assembly after an absence of two decades, with 11 State Assemblymen (DAP 4 and PKR 7) from Pakatan Rakyat and one from Star, the May 5 general elections is an expensive lesson for the Opposition in Sabah, for the Barisan Nasional would have lost in another four parliamentary and eight state assembly seats if not for split votes among the Opposition candidates.

The four parliamentary constituencies are Keningau, Kota Marudu, Pensiangan and Tenon and the eight state assembly seats are Elopura, Melalap, Kundasang, Liawan, Paginatan, Kiulu, Nabawan and Tambunan.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat leaders are analysing the results of the Sabah general election 2013 general elections to draw up an action plan to begin follow-up campaigns to win the hearts and minds of the majority of Sabahans, for the next general elections will be a double battle for UBAH – both in Putrajaya as well as the Sabah state government.

What is noteworthy in the Sabah election results include:

(I) The defeat of UPKO President and Cabinet Minister Bernard Dompok in Penampang parliamentary seat;

(ii) The scraping through of PBS President Joseph Pairin Kitingan both in his parliamentary seat of Keningau and state assembly seat of Tambunan because of split Opposition votes, a sad decline for the PBS President who had raised the hopes of Sabahans as a whole and the Kadazan-Dusun-Muruts in particular in the great and historic Tambunan by-election of December 1984, with Joseph Pairin reduced to a pale shadow of his triumphant victory 30 years ago that now he had to win Tambunan and Keningau on a minority vote!

(iii) The victory of PKR’s Jeremy Malajad Malazad in Kadamaian, defeating Herbert Lagadan. This should be a conclusive and categorical message to the Sabah State government that it should heed the voice of the people, in particular with regard to the strong objections to RM450 million Tambatuon dam project.

(iv) The results of the SAPP candidates, in particular in Tawau.

The new Sabah State Assembly members will be sworn in on 13th June and the Sabah State Assembly will meet from June 17 to 20, promising a new era of Sabah politics.

DAP State Secretary and Assemblyman for Kepayan Dr. Edwin Bosi will be the DAP whip.

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/05/23/sekiranya-wujud-satu-orang-satu-undi-satu-nilai-bn-sudah-hilang-majoriti-dua-pertiga-di-dewan-undangan-negeri-sabah/

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 May 2013, 10:21 am and is filed under
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No sobriety or sanity in former judge’s statement

by
P Ramakrishnan

Aliran

Decent thinking Malaysians were justifiably shocked that a former judge of the Court of Appeals, Mohd Noor Abdullah, could have expressed views that are so abhorrently out of character for a judge.

There was no sobriety or sanity in his statement.

One would expect such incoherent utterings from the likes of extremists from Umno – not from a judge. But then, he reportedly has some connection with Umno and therefore it should not come as a surprise. Apparently, he is a member of Umno’s disciplinary committee.

He doesn’t seem to understand simple mathematics. The Chinese form about 26 per cent of the population. The popular vote of the Pakatan was 51 per cent. This being the case how could the Chinese have betrayed the Malays, presumably by voting for the DAP? Not every Chinese voter voted for the DAP. That is pretty obvious.

If it was only the Chinese vote that made the difference, how do you account for the Barisan’s loss in Kelantan? Did the Chinese contribute to Umno’s loss in Kelantan?

Pakatan came within a whisker of victory in Trengganu; was it because of the Chinese vote?

The DAP could not have won 38 parliamentary and numerous state seats without the support of the Malays. There is evidence that many thinking Malays had voted for the DAP.

Within the Pakatan itself, there is a marked, predominantly Malay presence who supported the DAP. Without that support the party could not have scored decisive victories in many parts of the country.

What the former judge fails to understand is the simple fact that Chinese and Malays overwhelmingly voted against Umno – not against the Malays. It is a pity that he is unable to comprehend or discern this glaring fact.

He is totally off the mark when he stated, “For the Malays, it is taboo to be betrayed, because when they are betrayed, they will react and when they react, their vengeance will be endless.

“When Malays are betrayed, there is a backlash and the Chinese must bear the consequences of a Malay backlash.”

It is mischievous of him to pit the Malays against the Chinese by giving a racial twist to the results of GE13. To begin with, there was no betrayal of the Malays – only a rejection of Umno. The irrefutable truth is that Umno does not represent every Malay in this country. And what is equally true is that not every Malay supports Umno either.

And yet, Mohd Noor harps on this outrageous, unsubstantiated myth of Chinese betrayal of the Malays: “The Chinese betrayal towards the Malay’s hand of friendship – that is true. Because they plotted to seize political power even though they already have economic power.”

It is irrational to talk about the impossible plot. How could a minority plot to seize political power in Malaysia? Is it possible? How could he even come to this silly notion and talk of this crap as if it is a democratic political possibility.

He is trying to whip up emotions by calling for the abolition of the term “Chinese” and “Indians” which would be replaced by “Malays” and “Non-Malays” or “Bumiputras” and non-Bumiputras.”

It is almost like dividing Malaysians into two compartments – “them” and “us”. This is atrocious. He has come across very bluntly and frankly as a Malay chauvinist who unrealistically takes a position that if you don’t slavishly support Umno then you are the enemy.

And he goes even further by stating, “The Orang Asli are our cousins, the Sabah and Sarawak Bumiputras are our relatives, everyone else are just our neighbours because they came to menupang (stay) here before”.

In other words, according to him – and except for those he has mentioned as cousins and relatives – the rest of us are only “neighbours”, not rightful citizens. This is definitely a cock-eyed view!

He dismisses history and ignores the constitutional provisions that have made the rest of us legitimate citizens of this nation. He has no appreciation for their contribution to the wealth of the country and its development.

For a former judge not to take into account all the relevant facts is rather unbecoming. Malaysians would rightly question his intellectual depth and his ability to discern fact from fiction.

He is talking nonsense when he states, “We gave them recognition and protection and eventually citizenship until they became rich.” This is absurd.

When the Chinese and Indians were brought to Malaya to develop this country, to lay the railway track, build the roads, tap rubber, to staff the civil service and maintain the resultant bureaucracy, they were under the auspices of the British.

We could not have attained independence without all three communities coming together and agreeing to the adoption of the federal constitution. The provisions enunciated in the federal constitution are terms that were mutually agreed upon. Citizenship and special provisions that were conferred and implemented subsequently were the result of this accommodation and agreement.

It is a matter of grave regret to Malaysians that Mohd Noor is absolutely incapable of comprehending the truth surrounding our nationhood. When people of his calibre are so ignorant or fail to accept certain inalienable facts of the land, we fear for justice in our judiciary. Is it any wonder that judgments that make no sense are handed down by certain judges!

All this apart, we need to ask why the national leadership, in particular the Prime Minister, has not taken him to ask for his seditious comments? The police have failed to act and the Attorney General has failed to charge him. This is another classical example of selective prosecution.

It is because of this anomaly that Malaysians want Ubah. Under the Barisan Nasional there is no hope, fairness and justice.

P Ramakrishnan

Executive committee member, Aliran

21 May 2013

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 May 2013, 10:34 am and is filed under
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Sekiranya wujud “satu orang, satu undi, satu nilai”, BN sudah hilang majoriti dua pertiga di Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah

Di dalam pilihan raya umum yang baru diadakan pada 5 Mei, Barisan Nasional sudah tentu hilang majoriti dua pertiga di dalam Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah sekiranya kita benar-benar ada sistem “satu orang, satu undi, satu nilai”.

Dengan 55.78 peratus daripada jumlah undi keseluruhan untuk 60 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah, iaitu 427,890 undi, Barisan Nasional sepatutnya hanya berjaya mendapat 34 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri bukannya memenangi 48 kerusi, iaitu 80% kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri.

Ketiga-tiga parti Pakatan Rakyat terdiri daripada PKR, DAP dan PAS yang bertanding di kesemua 60 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri mendapat 248,185 undi atau 32.36% daripada jumlah undi keseluruhan, dan sepatutnya memenangi 20 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri bukannya cuma 11 (iaitu 18.33% daripada 60 kerusi).

STAR yang meletakkan 47 calon Dewan Undangan Negeri, memenangi satu kerusi, dengan 5.63% daripada jumlah undi keseluruhan sementara SAPP bertanding di 41 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri, dengan 28,305 undi atau 3.69% daripada jumlah undi keseluruhan, tidak memenangi sebarang kerusi.

Sekalipun Oposisi yang kuat dan bersemangat sudah dipulihkan di Dewab Undangan Negeri Sabah selepas dua dekad ketiadaanya, dengan 11 Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (DAP 4 dan PKR7) dari Pakatan Rakyat dan satu dari STAR, pilihan raya umum 5 Mei merupakan pengajaran berharga buat Oposisi di Sabah, yakni Barisan Nasional sudah tentu kalah lagi empat kerusi parlimen dan lapan kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri jika tidak kerana undi pecah di kalangan calon Oposisi.

Empay kawasan Parlimen itu adalah Keningau, Kota Marudu, Pensiangan dan Tenon sementara lapan kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri adalah Elopura, Melalap, Kundasang, Liawan, Paginatan, Kiulu, Nabawan dan Tambunan.

Pemimpin DAP dan Pakatan Rakyat sedang menganalisa keputusan pilihan raya umum Sabah untuk merangka pelan tindakan bagi memulakan kempen susulan bagi memenangi hati majoriti rakyat Sabah, kerana pilihan raya seterusnya akan menjadi dua perjuangan untuk UBAH – di Putrajaya dan juga kerajaan negeri Sabah.

Apa yang perlu diberi perhatian di dalam keputusan pilihan raya Sabah termasuklah:

(I) Kekalahan besar Presiden UPKO dan Menteri Kabinet Bernard Dompok di kerusi parlimen Penampang;

(ii) Kemenangan tipis Presiden PBS Joseph Pairin Kitingan di kerusi Parlimennya di Keningau dan kerusi Dewan Undangan Negerinya di Tambunan semata-mata disebabkan oleh pecah undi di kalangan Oposisi, merupakan kemerosotan menyedihkan buat Presiden PBS yang telah mengangkat harapan rakyat Sabah dan terutamanya Kadazan-Dusun-Murut sewaktu pilihan raya kecil Tambunan yang hebat dan bersejarah pada Disember 1984, Joseph Pairin sudah hilang sengat 30 tahun lalu sewaktu beliau menang besar dengan kini hanya mampu memenangi Tambunan dan Keningau dengan undi kecil!

(iii) Kejayaan PKR Jeremy Malajad Malazad di Kadamaian, menewaskan Herbert Lagadan. Ini sepatutnya menjadi mesej jelas kepada kerajaan Negeri Sabah bahawa mereka perlu mendengar suara rakyat, terutamanya berkaitan tentangan hebat projek empangan RM450 juta Tambatuon.

(iv) Keputusan calon SAPP, terutamanya di Tawau.

Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah baru akan mengangkat sumpah pada 13 Jun dan Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah akan bersidang dari 17 hingga 20 Jun, menjanjikan era baru politik Sabah.

Setiausaha Negeri DAP dan Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri Kepayan Dr. Edwin Bosi akan menjadi whip untuk DAP.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/05/23/if-there-is-one-man-one-vote-one-value-bn-would-have-lost-two-thirds-majority-in-sabah-state-assembly/

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 May 2013, 11:33 am and is filed under
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