Thank you for making someone cry

by Goh Keat Peng

There are many ways to make someone cry.

Hit her or him and cause physical and emotional pain. Break her heart by letting her down. Disappoint her. Say untruthful things about her. Being unfair and unjust to her.

Yes many ways to bring unwelcome tears. In fact it takes just one person to cause untold harm to burst the tear bank.

But in Malaysia, in a small town, just the day before yesterday, a group of young men, UNIT AMAL of Pas (Islamic Party), did something so special, something not so common, to bring floods of unstoppable tears to someone dear to me!

Here’s the story in brief. A political rally was taking place when a group of youth on motor bikes came asking for trouble to an otherwise peaceful gathering. Then one of these hecklers found himself isolated from his group and was surrounded by some rally attendees who were not humoured by his trouble rousing. Clearly, the young biker found the trouble he came to look for but found it to be much more scary then he thought it would be. Clearly, he was in a lot of serious trouble and for sure he was about to be physically dealt with.

Enter Unit Amal, another group of young men but whose presence at the rally was for the very opposite reason from the group of hecklers on bike. Unit Amal (available in various parts of the country), being well trained, well taught, well brought up religiously, well motivated, went into action. Not to corner the young heckler so that the rally attendees could change his face for him. Not to teach the young heckler a lesson that was long in coming for him. But to rescue him from some very angry people he had in the first place provoked.

The crowd was so thick and furious that the Unit Amal lads had to resort to all their logistics and strategic training and make several attempt to finally isolate the young heckler to safety!

And this story made someone to cry. Because of being reminded that others who should know better and who often speak better unfortunately often don’t do the better things which educate, inspire and make our nation great. But because primarily, Unit Amal’s timely act in a dangerous situation was a most beautiful act. An act of mercy. An act of repaying wrong with right. A risky selfless act. An act of astonishing discipline and purpose.

For that, her tears were good tears; healing tears; good for the nation tears. Amin.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 28 March 2012, 10:15 am and is filed under
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Umno akan terus gagal memperjuangkan Melayu

— Aspan Alias

The Malaysian Insider

Mar 28, 2012

28 MAC — Sejak saya mengambil keputusan menyertai pihak alternatif melalui Parti Tindakan Demokratik (DAP) banyak rakan-rakan yang datang menemui saya untuk bertanya berbagai-bagai persoalan tentang tindakan saya itu.

Rata-rata yang datang bertanya itu adalah dikalangan mereka yang telah berkawan dan bersahabat dengan saya sejak puluhan tahun dahulu. Rakan-rakan yang jauh bertanya kepada saya melalui emel dan talipon dan memahami saya setelah saya memberikan kefahaman yang sebetulnya.

Apa yang saya nampak mereka lebih bertanya kenapa saya memilih untuk tidak lagi bersama Umno. Jarang-jarang mereka bertanya kenapa pilih DAP kerana mereka juga memahami yang DAP itu adalah sebuah parti yang berpengalaman dan telah berusia hampir lima dekad lamanya.

Mereka memahami yang DAP telah melalui semua ujian dan dugaan untuk “survival” nya kerana tekanan dan momokan oleh pihak pemerintah terhadap parti itu tidak henti-henti dilakukan oleh pihak yang takut dengan perkembangan pengaruhnya, lebih-lebih lagi sejak akhir-akhir ini.

Ramai mahukan saya memberikan mereka sebab kenapa tidak lagi mahu bersama Umno. Ada setengahnya saya jawab sambil berjenaka dan ada kalanya saya menjawab dengan serius dan memberikan dalil-dalil yang Umno akan berada dalan persada politik negara hanya sebentar sahaja lagi. Ramai di antara mereka telah pun memberikan sokongan moral kepada saya dan mereka tidak lagi menyimpan sebarang prejudis terhadap DAP lagi.

Tidak ada siapa yang melonggarkan sokongan ramai terhadap Umno itu, sebaliknya semuanya disebabkan oleh “conduct” Umno itu sendiri. Umno itu kian lemah bukan kerana pihak lain. Sebenarnya Umno itu sendiri seolah-olah terminta-minta parti itu ditinggalkan oleh ahlinya, setidak-tidaknya kepada mereka yang berfikir secara mendalam.

Kenapa saya berkata Umno itu sendiri terminta-minta untuk ditinggalkan?

Pertamanya, Umno telah menyalahgunakan mandat yang diberikan oleh rakyat sebegitu lama sehinggakan apa sahaja yang dilakukan Umno sekarang menjadi persoalan kepada rakyat ramai. Oleh kerana terlalu lama memegang kuasa, Umno sudah mengambil kelembutan orang Melayu dan rakyat “for granted” kerana mereka berfikiran yang orang Melayu tidak akan pergi kemana dan akan terus menyokong Umno walaupun Umno telah membinasakan peluang orang Melayu untuk maju dalam dunia yang serba berubah dan moden ini

Umno memandang rendah kepada ahli-ahlinya serta rakyat jelata yang mereka akan tetap berkuasa, waimma setelah memperkosa harta rakyat melalui budaya kronism yang telah begitu kental terbentuk dalam negara ini. Pendeknya Umno telah mengambil kelembutan hati orang Melayu sebagai kelemahan yang boleh diperkosa dan dinoda tanpa reaksi negatif dari mereka.

Di mana letaknya kemunasabahan yang orang Melayu masih tercicir sedangkan negara ini diperintah oleh Umno sejak negara mencapai kemerdekaan 54 tahun yang lalu? Kenapa Umno gagal untuk melaksanakan dasar-dasar yang terbentuk pra-Dr Mahathir  Mohamad yang begitu kukuh dengan sokong setiap kaum dinega ra ini? Kenapa Umno tidak melakukan pelaksanaan kepada dasar memperkukuhkan orang Melayu dengan sempurna.

Apa lagi yang Umno mahukan kepada orang Melayu sedangkan orang Melayu telah memberikan segala sokongan kepada Umno sejak merdeka sehingga tahun 2008 dahulu apabila orang Melayu sudah mula merasakan yang Umno tidak mungkin berjaya membela bangsanya lagi? Sekarang ahli-ahli Umno menyalahkan bangsa lain dan parti lain pula di atas segala kegagalan mereka.

Segala-galanya, kuasa, sokongan dan kesabaran Melayu dan rakyat keseluruhannya itu diambil kesempatan untuk membina budaya kronism untuk kepentingan perut dan nafsu-nafsi pimpinan sahaja. Sekarang mundar mandir kembali Perdana Menteri menabur janji dan mengingatkan orang Melayu supaya memberikan sokongan kepada parti Melayu Umno ini demi masa depan orang Melayu.

Bukankah semuanya itu telah diberikan oleh orang Melayu tetapi kenapa Umno masih tidak berjaya melakukan sesuatu yang berkesan untuk Melayu yang ramai ini? Sebaliknya parti itu hanya memberikan keuntungan kepada segelintir yang berada dikeliling pimpinan atasan sahaja. Kalau diberikan lagi mandat ini, kita sudah pasti keadaan akan masih sama malah orang Melayu akan ketinggalan dari segi pemikiran dan persepsi terhadap kehidupan secara negatif.

Setengah abad adalah terlalu lama untuk membiarkan Umno memerintah dan waktu untuk Umno duduk dipetak pembangkang sudah sampai supaya Umno tahu dan merasakan betapa pedihnya perasaan rakyat khususnya orang Melayu selama ini. Orang Melayu sudah bersabar begitu lama dan tahap kesabaran mereka sudah sampai kepenghujungnya.

Apa yang ramai orang Melayu sekarang berfikir ialah selagi Umno masih memerintah selagi itulah pemikiran orang Melayu akan jumud terus menerus dan memerhatikan sahaja bangsa-bangsa lain maju kehadapan. Ketinggalan kita itu pula dimainkan untuk memberikan harapan palsu untuk Umno mendapatkan sokongan dari orang Melayu, tetapi orang Melayu sudah tidak boleh dikotak-katikkan seperti yang selalu mereka alami.

Ramai diantara orang Melayu sudah mula memahami keadaan yang mereka tidak akan pergi kemana jika masih memberikan dukungan kepada Umno kali ini. Orang Melayu sudah menyedari mereka tidak boleh lagi menagih ehsan dari pimpinan Umno seperti menerima RM500 semasa pilihanraya mendatang kerana jiwa Melayu sekarang sudah mula bertambah kaya dan tidak mahu lagi dalam jiwa yang fakir dan jumud.

Ramai orang Melayu sedar bahawa mereka perlu memecahkan tembok yang menghalang mereka untuk berfikir dan bertindak semata-mata untuk generasi mereka yang akan datang. Melayu tidak boleh lagi bergantung kepada perasaan sentimen terhadap Umno kerana Umno yang sebenarnya pun sudah tidak wujud lagi. Orang Melayu sudah merasakan nikmat bersatu padu ini semasa era sebelum Dr Mahathir dahulu.

Maka orang Melayu kini mahu bersatu padu dengan jitu diluar Umno kerana Melayu sekarang sudah berjumpa dengan pilihan yang secara relatifnya lebih baik diluar Umno itu.

Orang Melayu mahu melepaskan diri mereka dari dikongkong oleh perasaan sentimen terhadap parti yang kononnya berjuang untuk Melayu. Orang Melayu sudah sedar setelah lebih dari lima dekad diperhambakan oleh pemimpin-pemimpin parti mereka yang tidak berkemampuan untuk memimpin bangsanya selain dari pandai memerah harta benda rakyat untuk kepentingan ahli-ahli keluarga mereka semata-mata.

Kepada setengah yang menyertai Umno itu kerana hendak menjadikan modal perniagaan dan bukannya untuk memperjuangkan nasib bangsa sendiri. Oleh kerana itu biarlah mereka sahaja yang bergiat dengan Umno itu. Bagi sesiapa seperti saya yang “having no business to be in business” ini meninggalkan parti itu.

“Akhirnya saya bertindak keluar dan menukar wadah saya. Saya bukannya bertukar akidah” kata saya kepada mereka. — aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 28 March 2012, 11:28 pm and is filed under
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What have our schools become?

— Jahabar Sadiq

The Malaysian Insider

Mar 28, 2012

MARCH 28 — Last weekend, I went back to school for a memorial. This was the second time in three years that I visited St John’s Institution. While the memorial for Master Vincent Fernandez was sombre, it ended on an uplifting note when the school rally rang through the old school hall.

The school itself appeared to be a far cry from its glory days. The field was bare but the main building had ferns and other vegetation growing out of it, showing the neglect and lack of respect for the hardware required for the education of the young. I had no heart to even peek into any of the classroom for fear of further disappointment.

As it is, the school that has produced a list of top Malayans and Malaysians since 1904 no longer boasts of a hockey or football team that dominate the Kuala Lumpur school leagues. We can only take pride that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak studied there, as did his cousin Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, Selangor ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, Perak regent Raja Nazrin Shah and a whole lot more others.

But a school is more than bricks and mortar. The Johannians past and present can and will chip in, as they did previously, to make our alma mater as good as new again and put the green in the right place — the field, not the building.

However, who will put education or the software right? For instance, my colleagues reported today that the Johor education authorities are having a weekend seminar for religious teachers to reinforce the Islamic faith, to counter liberalism, pluralism and the threat of Christianisation.

Really, that is a priority at a time when parents are hounding the government to reinstate English as a medium of instruction for Science and Mathematics?

What do schoolchildren these days learn in school? Do they have a field to even do physical exercises, let alone play football or hockey? What is our education system about? Staying in religious and racial silos? Or to acquire knowledge? To know more. To keep being inquisitive, that’s what I tell people.

My senior from St John’ Institution, Dr Farish A. Noor, wrote last week — What is Knowledge and why do I teach? where he elaborated his love for knowledge and teaching.

“Teaching is about that: It’s about encouraging and inviting students like you to think, so that we all build our knowledge together, and that our society will grow wiser in the future. That’s why your school books are the result of years of thinking and discussing and questioning, and that’s why you must always think and question in class; ask questions to your teachers, and to each other,” he wrote.

See, a whole lot of Malaysians are worried about their children’s future. Just as our parents were worried about us. But they trusted the school system, even the missionary schools to help us seek knowledge together without fear that our faith was brittle and unable to counter the onslaught of other religions. I think Najib, Hishammuddin and others are proof that Muslims can study in missionary schools or abroad and still remain faithful to their religion.

The irony is, both these gentlemen who studied in St John’s Institution and hold powerful positions were also once Education Ministers. And they have tried to shape the education system to produce men and women like them — knowledgeable and confident in their faith and abilities to rise to the top.

So why do we have such seminars for religious teachers? Why don’t we have seminars to make them teach better, like my teachers in St John’s Institution? Why do the authorities persist in chasing shadows of doubt to keep the sheep in the pen of a single-track mind? What do you hope to achieve with this? A nation of unthinking sheep?

I remember Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad outlining the nine strategic thrusts of Vision 2020 in 1991 and I wonder where it has gone.

Let me recap them —

    Challenge 1: Establishing a united Malaysian nation made up of one Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian Race).

    Challenge 2: Creating a psychologically liberated, secure and developed Malaysian society.

    Challenge 3: Fostering and developing a mature democratic society.

    Challenge 4: Establishing a fully moral and ethical society.

    Challenge 5: Establishing a matured liberal and tolerant society.

    Challenge 6: Establishing a scientific and progressive society.

    Challenge 7: Establishing a fully caring society.

    Challenge 8: Ensuring an economically just society, in which there is a fair and equitable distribution of the wealth of the nation.

    Challenge 9: Establishing a prosperous society with an economy that is fully competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient.

Do you think we have even reached the halfway point for any of the challenges? Isn’t it a concern that we are nowhere near any of the challenges? Isn’t it ridiculous that we are suspicious of those of other faiths trying to proselytise? Isn’t it astounding that we don’t hear of emphasis on science, mathematics or sports in our schools?

Isn’t it sad that an education system that has produced thinkers, visionaries and sportsmen who once ruled the world in their time now worry about boys and girls going astray in their faith?

Seriously, please leave that concern to their parents and do your job, teach and train your students to be the best that they can be.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 28 March 2012, 4:44 pm and is filed under
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Beyond the ‘Dong Zong issue’

by Azly Rahman

Malaysiakini

Mar 28, 2012

I read with interest about ongoing governmental discrimination against Chinese schools, as highlighted by Dong Zong.

Why are quality teachers and an abundance of resources still channeled only to Malay-dominated schools? Why are children in Chinese schools criminalised by the ‘sanction on teaching staff” which will ultimately deprive students of a good mother-tongue education?

What actually is our illness with regard to denial of the students’ right to their own language? Do policy makers actually understand the relationship between culture, cognition, consciousness and citizenship?

What does nationalism mean these days, and how do we understand it vis-a-viz use of language in schools? Whose brand of nationalism is being made dominant and what should an inclusive one look like?

What is the real issue behind the age-old request for the Chinese schools to have more teachers? How are the children criminalised by all this? Where is the peaceful path to this gentle profession called education?

When I think of education, I think of the children first and foremost. I think of each child as a gift brought into this world in all his/her cultural and cognitive complexities and of the pride of the family raising the child independent of what the ‘state’ wants the child to become.

Schooling is a process of mass babysitting in a capitalist state, such that the child will be provided a place for eight hours a days, seven days a week, to be taken care of, like in a kibbutz, while the parents go to work, selling their labour to the state.

The child is supposed to behave and learn new things while the parents are supposed to be obedient and, as good workers, bring profit to the state. The state, through its apparatuses, uses the profits and products of ‘alienated labour’ of  parents/workers and ‘develops’ the country according to what the political and economic elite imagines what ‘development’ means.

The child gets to be socialised to become citizens of the state. The mass baby-sitting agencies called public, private or parochial schools, tended by ‘managers of virtue’ called teachers – and wardens’ in boarding schools.

Their role is to ensure that the child learns to become nationalistic or even ‘patriotic’ in accordance to what this means vis-a-viz state ideology. In Malaysia, the current ideology is perhaps called ‘1Malaysia’.

Polarised education system

Are schools a happy place for the child? How shall the child be moulded? What language will he/she be proficient in? Whose culture will he/she inherit? In Malaysia, will it be the culture of the Malays? Or a hybrid of the Malay-Muslim culture? Who defines what will be it in the best interests of the child?

What actually is Malaysia’s philosophy of education in this age and time of growing restlessness demanding for radical change, inclusiveness, linguistic diversity and competency, and the demands of a globalised world?

Why not let the child be schooled well first in his/her mother-tongue to develop cultural pride, and next let the medium of instruction at the secondary level be in English primarily?

Why not teach even the subject of Islamic Studies and Moral Education in English, and next prepare the child well for tertiary education that is predominantly English-speaking, with courses such as Philosophy, Ethics, and Cultural Studies as compulsory first-year subjects?

Malaysians: Let us not be dishonest, ignorant or hypocritical in the way we design the best cultural and cognitive environment for the child to grow up to become world-wise and productive citizens. As it is now, Malaysia’s education system is polarising and inspired by the apartheid system.

The products of the Malaysian educational system have for several batches passed through the conveyor belt. The issue of race relations has become more and more exacerbated, partly as a consequence of the inability of the education policy makers to design peaceful educational settings and peaceable learning environments to allow respect and appreciation for each other’s culture to flourish.

Public discourse is becoming more plagued with calls by this or that racist-fascist groups in defence of the bankrupt and morally and nationally bankrupting ideology of Ketuanan Melayu or ‘pseudo-Malay idiotic pride’ as I would translate it.

Has there been any effort by the Education Ministry to design and implement a curriculum on multicultural education? Has there been an interest in it at all, given the nature of Malaysia’s communal politics that has evolved into the state of ethno-psychopathology bordering on irrationality, greed and massive corruption?

As an educator involved in the teaching of cultural perspectives, philosophy, and education, I’d like to see children in Malaysian schools bring their culture with pride into the classroom, to be shared with others in a deeply engaging creative learning context.

This is so that we bring in what the philosopher Charles Taylor would call the “ethics of authenticity” – of the ethical traditions of culture – into the learning process and not have these young curious cultural minds evolve into become ‘knockers or boosters’ of this or that brand of ultra-ethnocentrism.

Let us see how the Education Ministry will resolve this Dong Zong issue once and for all, before another regime takes this important  task more seriously.

DR AZLY RAHMAN, who was born in Singapore and grew up in Johor Baru, holds a Columbia University (New York) doctorate in International Education Development and Master’s degrees in the fields of Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies and Communication. He has taught more than 40 courses in six different departments and has written more than 300 analyses on Malaysia. His teaching experience spans Malaysia and the United States, over a wide range of subjects from elementary to graduate education. He currently resides in the United States.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 29 March 2012, 8:25 am and is filed under
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Nazri: No need for BN-PR panel to monitor GE-13

By Clara Chooi

The Malaysian Insider

Mar 29, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — Putrajaya has rejected Lim Kit Siang’s call to form a bipartisan commission to oversee the next general election, saying the Election Commission (EC) was capable enough of doing the job.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz told the Dewan Rakyat today that the EC was an independent body despite criticisms by the opposition, pointing out that the body had already successfully run 12 general elections and a total of 184 by-elections as of last year.

“The government does not plan to form another commission to ensure the coming polls are clean.

“This is because the EC already exists as an independent commission with integrity… its responsibility to conduct polls, whether general election or by-elections, has been carried out well and the governments formed so far after each poll are legitimate governments.

“Including when YB Bagan (the DAP’s Lim Guan Eng) became the chief minister (of Penang)… that was also a legitimate government,” he said.

But a dissatisfied Lim, who is the DAP’s parliamentary leader, stood up to refute Nazri’s claim, insisting that if the EC was truly free from political manipulation and the country’s election process had always been clean and fair, the opposition would have won in past polls.

“YB (Nazri) mentioned the results of the 12th general election. If the system was fair, perhaps Barisan Nasional (BN) would have already fallen, the government changed.

“Is the prime minister or the government ready to announce that, in line with the (PM’s) announcement that Malaysia will be the best democracy in the world, that the BN government will accept whatever decision in the coming polls?” he asked, amid heckles and shouts from BN backbenchers and former PKR MP N. Gobalakrishnan.

Nazri berated Lim for his “simplistic” assumption, pointing out that in Election 2008, the opposition had successfully trounced BN in five states.

“This is children speak. So the five states that the opposition won — that was free and fair. But the others than BN won — that was not?,” he told the House.

He was responding to Lim’s suggestion made earlier during his debate on the royal address that a bipartisan panel comprising members from both BN and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) be formed to ensure the coming 13th general election is free and fair.

Nazri also reminded the House today that Parliament had formed the select committee (PSC) to look into electoral reforms, saying that the panel was due to table its final report next Monday.

He noted that the bipartisan nine-man panel, which includes three PR members, has already included in its discussions key issues such as suggestions to revamp the postal voting process and clean up the electoral roll.

The Malaysian Insider reported yesterday that the PSC had concluded its final round of discussions in a stand-off between members across the political divide.

According to a panel source, of the 22 issues included in the report, BN and PR members had disagreed on seven key issues, including calls to clean up the electoral roll.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 29 March 2012, 5:54 pm and is filed under
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The tangled web Umno weaved (1)

— Sakmongkol AK47

The Malaysian Insider

Mar 29, 2012

MARCH 29 —

Oh what a tangled web we weave,

When first we practise to deceive!

That’s the whole problem with Umno in short. It has deceived the country and most of all it has deceived the Malays into believing that only Umno can deliver the Malays to the Promised Land. And it continues to weave the web and got itself entangled that the only way to free the Malaysian races is to destroy the web of deceit.

Let’s us now resolved to do just that. Kick out the band of robbers and the trader of false hopes. Let us kick out the deceivers.

It forfeited what it got- power since 1957 to accomplish what it set out to do — uplift the Malays. Why? Because it started on the wrong premise, and that premise wasn’t adapted and evolved into the engine to uplift the Malays first (since Umno’s struggle and raison d’etre is to serve Malay interest) and this country.

What’s the fundamental flaw in that premise? The fundamental flaw is, and this is what I believe personally, you think by having Article 153 in our constitution the position of the Malays would be automatically improved. No one in Malaysia, including the DAP leadership, disputes the meaning and intention of Article 153 as far as it involves the protection of Malay rights and so forth. Umno rule of over 50 years has proven to us one thing — that legislating rights do not confer the desired effects without applying dedication, quality leadership and determination over well-thought of policies to accomplish what Article 153 sets out to do. Umno hasn’t provided those other than living off Article 153 and stoking the fears of the Malays, believing that just by having that article Malay position would be automatically improved.

Let’s have a small debate over this fundamentally flawed premise which we can only resolve by offering a better alternative. But first, let us do away with some minor irritants.

I find it pitiful the half-spirited responses of Umno supporters here in my blog. The way they responded show they are in sixes and sevens. They can only do the ad hominem attacks and make unreasoned judgment calls. Example, I reasoned out why Umno will be rejected, they can only respond with a miserable and very personalised statement — no! Umno can triumph.

Here, we present to you a reasonably argued position and you can only respond by giving one or two sentenced rejoinders with expletives and exclamations? You are at liberty to hold that view but please honour us with some reasoning. That which is written cavalierly cannot be expected to be taken seriously. If you insist you want to respond in such a wishy-washy manner, may we recommend some of the gutter quality pro- Umno blogs?

But I also understand their frustration. They must say something. Even making an incomprehensible noise. Then there is this habitual spiteful question asking me whether this morning I have already sucked Guan Eng’s or Kit Siang’s ****. That’s the Umno quality. Umno is the sugar glider hiding in the pouch of Article 153 as they interpret it.

Umno has reached its end. Malays don’t have to feel sentimental about it. We can’t hasten nor postpone its demise. Umno has survived on several myths spun and drilled into the Malay subconscious over generations. It has survived on the myth that the Malays and Umno are inextricably linked.

The myths we mean include:

(1) The fate of the Malays rests on the fate of Umno.

(2) The fate of the Malay Rulers is linked to the fate of Umno.

(3) The fate of Islam depends on the fate of Umno.

This is Umno’s trinity of falsehoods. These formed the foundation of Umno’s legitimacy with the Malays. It makes itself out as the protector of Malay rights, protects the Malay, their religion and their country as represented by the Malay Rulers. Expose the myths and Umno loses legitimacy. This now is the overriding fear of Umno because it can no longer defend its legitimacy and therefore its reason to continue to be in power.

The only and principal reason why Umno is coming to its inglorious end is because these myths are no longer sustainable. A party that survives on falsehoods and not sustained by principles can never endure. This is the gravest mistake of Umno. Its claim to be pragmatic really means it makes up whatever is convenient as it goes along.

After over 50 years of leading the nation, what has Umno achieved for the Malays? Development? Umno has overrated itself.

Development is not something unique to Umno. Every party that has power can carry out development. We should be able to separate government and political party. A political party does not own the government. It legislates yes, but the implementation is carried out by civil servants beholden to the constitutional Ruler. So Umno can’t go around claiming only they can bring on development. The governments in Penang, Kelantan, Selangor, and Kedah also carry out development, indeed the development there has been achieved on more meritorious grounds. These states have better reserves, operated and achieved surplus budgets and have been able to avoid wasteful spending. Those are sterling qualities of good governments.

Last week PM Najib, leader of the party that lives on falsehoods and deception, lectured the people not to repeat their mistake. What mistake? The only mistake which people are now realising is that Umno and BN havs fleece the country. This is a government that subsidises its falsehoods on mounting debt. The public debt in relation to our GDP is almost reaching the camel back-breaking point. Yet the country’s incompetent and ignorant leaders are proclaiming it’s all right. And we have not even counted the value of guarantees given by this government to incompetent GLCs which, if they default, places all the questionable loans given to questionable people with questionable business proposals on the shoulders of the people.

RM1.3 trillion of ill-gotten money has been spirited out of the country over a period of 10 years, RM130 billion of which could be injected into the national budget to finance development funding. In addition we have RM20 billion a year lost on leakages, an euphemism for corruption. We try to convince ourselves that using a refined term is able to assuage our sensibilities. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 29 March 2012, 6:11 pm and is filed under
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Ahli bawahan ibarat garam bagi pemimpin Umno

— Aspan Alias

The Malaysian Insider

Mar 29, 2012

29 MAC — Akhir-akhir ini saya telah dihubungi oleh ramai di antara rakan-rakan saya untuk berjumpa minum petang dan makan malam. Mereka ini adalah di antara ahli-ahli Umno yang memberikan saya semangat dan sokongan moral untuk saya kembali bergiat, kali ini dalam DAP.

Sesungguhnya saya mempunyai ramai rakan-rakan di dalam Umno yang akhir-akhir ini selalu berhubung dan berbincang tentang politik setakat “level” kita yang rendah-rendah ini.

Kesemua diantara mereka terus menerus meluahkan perasaan tidak puas hati terhadap Umno yang kian merosot imejnya dikalangan rakyat. Kata mereka kali ini Umno akan berhadapan tentangan hebat dari pembangkang dan juga sibuk menyelesaikan masalah dalaman yang mereka sedang hadapi terutamanya semasa PRU nanti. Semuanya hendak menjadi calon dan semuanya merasakan mereka adalah calon “winnable” untuk Umno dan Barisan Nasional.

“Bro, kami ni gunanya hanya semasa pilihanraya sahaja. Lepas tu kita tidak ada guna dah. Mereka akan sapu semua yang ada dan peranan kita hanyalah untuk melihat dan memberikan sokongan bila mereka menghadapi masalah sahaja,” kata salah seorang yang bercakap dengan saya itu.

“Lepas ini kita tidak ada lagi peranan” katanya lagi.

Saya memberikan respon terhadap kata-kata ini. Saya menyatakan kepada mereka itulah yang saya marah dengan Umno. Pemimpin Umno memandang rendah kepada rakyat dan ahli-ahlinya sendiri.

Pemimpin-pemimpin besar Umno hanya menganggap ahli-ahli Umno di bawah ini seperti garam untuk masakan hidangan enak-enak mereka sahaja. Mereka tahu garam itu amat penting dalam sesuatu masakan untuk mengenakan masakan yang mereka akan baham itu.

Kita tahu garam itu penting tetapi pentingnya garam itu ada hadnya. Selalunya garam ini hanya digunakan dengan jumlah yang kecil. Ia hanya digunakan sedikit sahaja untuk masakan itu. Garam hanya digunakan setakat sesedap rasa sahaja. Mereka tidak akan menggunakan garam lebih dari setakat sesedap rasa, kerana jika garam digunakan berlebihan masakan itu akan menjadi masin dan tidak enak rasanya lagi.

Pemimpin-pemimpin Umno hanya menggunakan ahli-ahlinya hanya untuk pilihanraya dan mereka akan dibiarkan melata selepas itu. Mereka tidak akan diperlukan lagi apabila mereka sudah memberikan jasa dan bakti dalam sesuatu pilihanraya itu.

Ahli-ahli di bawah ini hanyalah garam kepada Umno. Ahli-ahli hanya dipergunakan untuk menyedapkan apa yang mereka makan. Apabila sudah digunakan garam ini, bekas garam itu akan diletakkan di tempat yang tidak sebaik ikan dan sayuran yang diletakkan didalam peti sejuk yang nyaman.

Jadi ahli-ahli Umno sekarang sudah mulai sedar yang mereka hanyalah “standard” garam sahaja kepada partinya. Garam merupakan satu “ingredient” yang paling murah sekali didalam sesuatu masakan itu.

Setakat itu sahajalah nilai ahli-ahli Umno kepada pemimpin-pemimpinnya. Tetapi garam-garam inilah yang selama ini menjadi penyedap kepada pemimpin yang makan sedap-sedap itu. Kalau tidak ada garam-garam ini didalam Umno, nanti mereka tidak akan merasakan makan yang sedap lagi.

Membasuh sayur-sayur yang ada “chemical” juga selalunya menggunakan air garam untuk mempastikan sayur-sayur itu suci dari kandungan “chemical” yang digunakan oleh penanam sayur itu. Apabila sayur-sayur sudah bersih dari kotoran itu, air garam akan dibuang sahaja dan mengalir ke longkang-longkang bersama-sama dengan air kumbahan yang lain-lain itu.

Itu sahajalah gunanya ahli-ahli Umno dan itu pun anggapan dan penilaian pemimpin-pemimpin besar terhadap mereka.

Patutlah Dr Mahathir Mohamada menganggap Umno ini di penuhi oleh orang-orang yang tidak berkelayakan (tidak professional). Kalau mereka (ahli-ahli Umno) itu professional masakan mereka hanya dianggap sebagai garam sahaja? — aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Friday, 30 March 2012, 10:36 am and is filed under
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Has Najib’s confidence of a sure win in 13GE been shattered by Mahathir’s repeated gloomy warnings?

For the past three weeks in his intensive electioneering campaign in Selangor and Perak   in the build-up to an expected 13th General Election date in June,   the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been exuding increasing confidence of a sure win in the next general election, including taking back Selangor state government from Pakatan Rakyat.

Najib’s popularity has been on the rise, surging 10 points to 69 per cent following his role as Santa Claus with RM500 cash handouts to low-income earners and a slew of multi-million ringgit approvals and  allocations in line with his “I help you, you help me” philosophy – but the Prime Minister’s high personal approval rating is not matched by the ruling coalition component parties.

Only last week, Najib said “strong winds are blowing towards Barisan Nasional”, public feedback “very encouraging” and people have been telling him that BN has regained public support since the 2008 polls.

The stage seems all set for 13GE in June.

But something very strange has happened in the past few days as if  all the momentum for a June elections have suddenly faltered.

Has Najib’s confidence of a sure win in the 13th General Election in June this year been shattered by former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s repeated gloomy warnings?

Mahathir delivered his  latest warning to BN of
“No easy wins ahead”
 yesterday, telling Barisan Nasional not to believe that it would enjoy any guaranteed electoral victories, saying Pakatan Rakyat is an opposition unlike those from his days as prime minister.

As Mahathir told Bernama Online:

“What is certain, it won’t be easy for BN to get two-thirds majority this time. The opposition now is not like that of the past, and the current situation is rather confusing.”

A day earlier, Mahathir had dropped another bombshell for UMNO to pulverise its  sense of confidence when he admitted that UMNO does not have quality and talented leaders to form a capable government  as “For decades, Umno has ‘not allowed’ the smart ones to join the party”.

Mahathir is now advocating that UMNO should field outsiders in the coming general election, put up “good candidates, whether they are UMNO members or not” and abandon the practice of only picking divisional leaders to contest.

With the evaporation of the earlier UMNO confidence of a sure win in the 13GE, even winning back Selangor and retaining Perak state governments, the stage seem to be set for Najib, on the eve of his third anniversary as Prime Minister, to do another “flip-flop” to push off the 13GE to a later date.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 30 March 2012, 1:15 pm and is filed under
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My wish list for electoral reforms

— Tota

The Malaysian Insider

Mar 30, 2012

MARCH 30 — If anyone thinks that general elections in Malaysia are free and fair, he or she must either be blind or totally daft.

We only go through the motions of participating in general elections without satisfying the prerequisites, which are the hallmarks of a truly democratic and progressive country. The shortcomings in the Malaysian electoral system are indeed shameful.

Below is my wish list for electoral reforms:

1. Amend the Constitution to make the Election Commission a totally independent body with powers to act against all forms of corruption and malpractice.

2. Implement the 2:1 rural/urban weightage in the delineation of constituencies as was provided for in the Reid Commission’s recommendations.

3. Stop all gerrymandering which has allowed the Barisan Nasional so often to get about 50 per cent of the popular vote but take 80 per cent of the seats in the state assemblies and Parliament.

4. Introduce proportional representation.

5. Introduce local council elections to create a participatory democracy.

6. Make 18 the voting age.

7. Control strictly the amount candidates spend on their election campaign.

8. Provide development funds to all 222 parliamentary constituencies. Stop the barbaric practice of giving RM1 million to only the Barisan-held constituencies.

9. Stop all corrupt practices before and during the election campaign period. Once Parliament is dissolved, prevent the caretaker-government from providing so-called development funding for constituencies — paving roads, giving school uniforms and bicycles to schoolchildren, giving rice and clothes to the poor, buffet dinners during rallies and bribing voters with cash.

10. Clean up the electoral roll of phantom voters, illegal immigrants as voters, the registration of dozens and even hundreds of voters under a single address. There should be no manipulation of the electoral roll to give the ruling party a very unfair advantage.

11. Ensure voters are allotted to voting centres nearest to their homes. Under no circumstances should voters be moved out of their constituencies without their permission.

12. Fix polling day always on a Sunday to ensure that voters are free to vote.

13. Ensure that the campaign period for the general election is at least 30 days so that voters have a chance to understand the issues involved.

14. Provide equal time and space in the electronic and print media to both the ruling party and the opposition.

15. Insist that the Election Commission ensures that civil service and government facilities — government vehicles, boats, planes, helicopters, etc — are not used by BN ministers, assembly members and supporters during the campaign period.

16. Use indelible ink to prevent multiple voting by a single voter.

17. Insist that the Election Commission ensures that the police are neutral and professional in the discharge of their duties. Police vehicles should not be parked nearer than one kilometre from the polling station to enable voters free access to voting centres without fear.

18. Stop counting ballots at voting centres. This enables the ruling party to know which areas are pro- or anti-government. This helps the ruling party in gerrymandering.

19. Give equal protection to all candidates participating in the elections.

20. Deal severely with anyone intimidating the public and voters by creating fear of racial trouble like May 13, 1969. Remember, a stupid ex-PM held a public order exercise in KL the day before election and telecast it “live” to create fear. Also, act against the defence minister who is prone to meet the chief of the army, navy and air force before polling day — as he did before the Bersih 2.0 Walk for Democracy.

21. Make postal ballots available to all citizens residing overseas as well as to only personnel on security duty in the jungle or border areas.

22. Allow observers, both local and international, to commence work once Parliament is dissolved and to end their duties after polling day.

23. Do not permit the malpractice of padding opposition-held constituencies with soldiers, police personnel, members of Rela, Perkida, Wataniah, etc on the pretext of maintaining security.

24. Implement automatic registration of voters.

25. End dirty politics during the general elections.

Without these electoral reforms we cannot call ours a democratic country, let alone the world’s best democracy. — aliran.com

* Tota is the pseudonym of an occasional contributor to Aliran Online.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 30 March 2012, 10:21 am and is filed under
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Do we have faith in the politics of fear?

— Mustafa K. Anuar

The Malaysian Insider

M
ar 30, 2012

MARCH 30 — Aliran is relieved to know that the organisers of the forthcoming Islamic seminar in Johor — “Strengthening the faith, the dangers of liberalism and pluralism and the threat of Christianity towards Muslims” — have dropped the purported “Christian threat” from the theme after objections particularly from certain quarters within the Christian community.

It is a relief to well-meaning Malaysians because in a society where religion and ethnicity are often easily and deliberately exploited to the hilt, those with ill intent and ill-will can easily stoke suspicion and hatred. Narrow-minded vested interests and the politics of divide and rule still hold sway, and those espousing the fire of ethnic and religious discord can undermine our unity and harmony.

To be sure, every religious community has every right to practise and fortify its collective faith but it is also expected to have respect for others from different faiths.

Additionally, one would expect the faithful of any revealed religion to be duty-bound to promote peace and goodwill among fellow human beings — and not sow seeds of discord and enmity.

That said, it is rather disturbing and very disappointing to note that the powers-that-be have glaringly kept mum over this serious controversy. This silence can be easily mistaken by irresponsible elements in our society as tacit acquiescence that could encourage them to further breach the accepted boundaries of decency in a multi-ethnic society. — aliran.com

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 31 March 2012, 1:50 am and is filed under
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Lynas Corporation for dummies (and Australians)

 — Ryan Albrey

The Malaysian Insider

Mar 30, 2012

MARCH 30 — I do not need to write a ‘for dummies’ guide for Malaysians. They have made up their minds about Lynas and are now quite knowledgeable about the issues. They have learned more about rare earth and radioactive thorium than many of us will ever learn in a lifetime and they want Lynas out of their country.

Instead, I write this for Australians for whom media coverage of this story has been sparse. It is difficult to work out why the media have paid scant attention to this story. I would have thought that this was a story made for journalists.

This story involves our relationship with Malaysia. Considering that Malaysia is one of our closest neighbours and a country whose cooperation we vigorously strive for, I would have thought that an issue like Lynas should be big news in Australia.

Sure, this might not be a diplomatic row between political leaders. Our prime minister is not calling theirs ‘recalcitrant’ and theirs is not threatening trade sanctions.

And of course, this story does not involve asylum seekers.

No, this is different!

While our respective prime ministers get along nicely and make funny deals like swapping refugees, a whole country, 28 million Malaysians, are starting to feel anger towards Australia.

In this modern age, bilateral relationships between two prime ministers are not nearly as important as the relationship between a body of 23 million people and another body of 28 million.

Australians are becoming quietly hated by Malaysians and nobody thought to tell Australians of this?

This story also involves the crucial ingredients to some of the most important high tech inventions that we have come to rely on in the 21st century. If Lynas fail to get their product to markets, the price of iPhones, iPads, hybrid cars and wind turbines will increase across the globe.

This story involves a three-way trade battle between Australia, Malaysia and China.

Most importantly, this story may involve a change of government in Malaysia — for the first time in 50 years.

Dear Australians,

Let me tell you about a company called Lynas.

Lynas is a mining company based out of Sydney. Their main mining tenement is at Mt. Weld, Western Australia, just 30km north of Laverton.

Their business model consists of digging these rare earth ores from the ground at Mt. Weld, processing them up a bit at Laverton and then trucking them to Fremantle before shipping them off to Kuantan on the east coast of the Malaysian peninsular. In Kuantan, they will further process their rare earth ore into rare earth oxides. Then they will make billions selling these oxides to buyers in America, Japan, France and China.

Your view of Lynas largely swings on your view of why Lynas made the decision to process these minerals in Malaysia rather than Australia.

It’s about the money!

It is cheaper for Lynas to operate in Malaysia than in Australia. Lynas knows that they will make more money for their shareholders if they operate in Malaysia rather than in Australia. Furthermore, Malaysia has a particular comparative advantage.

The disagreement between Lynas and those that oppose them stems from the source of this comparative advantage.

Lynas states that they built their Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Kuantan because of the availability of cheap skilled and unskilled labour, chemicals and fresh water. This may all be true, but it seems fanciful to me that this would be the main motivating factor for putting this plant in Malaysia rather than in Australia.

To understand why Malaysia is such an attractive destination for Lynas, one has to understand some important differences between Australia and Malaysia — beyond the difference in the cost of inputs.

The United Malays National Organisation (Umno), the ruling party in Malaysia has ruled for over 50 years. Nominally democratic, elections in Malaysia are ugly affairs, routinely tarnished by allegations of vote rigging, voter intimidation and strict control of the media by the Government among many other issues.

This is where Malaysia’s actual comparative advantage lies in heavy industries such as the processing of rare earth.

Without question the processing of rare earth pollutes. Massive quantities of super heated sulphuric acid are required to separate the rare earth elements from the rubbish elements they are found with under the ground.

In California, rare earth miner Molycorp was shut down in the late 1990’s after it was found out by government regulators that tons of radioactive tailings spilled out into the California desert many times over a number of years.

In the northern region of China, rare earth processing has done untold damage to the livelihood of farmers and local residents. Much of the truth of what has happened in China will probably never be told.

In Malaysia itself, Japanese company Mitsubishi processed rare earth in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Their shoddy operation is believed by public health experts to have done untold damage to a whole generation of Malaysian children in the area, some born with shocking birth defects and others contracting childhood leukaemia at five times the national average.

It is hard to think of an industry in more desperate need of democratic oversight. The rare earth industry needs to be monitored by bodies that source their authority from the very people that stand to lose the most if things go wrong.

The Malaysian Government does not represent the people of Malaysia. They represent the vested interests of big business. They represent the one per cent of Malaysians that can afford to flee the country should it ever become necessary.

The problem is that democratic oversight is expensive.

If Lynas were to conduct their operations in Australia, or any other country with a strong democratic tradition, they would be required to negotiate with the local communities. They would be required to present an argument to the voters that their presence brings benefits that outweigh the inherent, undeniable risks in processing rare earth. They would be required by largely incorruptible public servants to adhere to stringent public health and safety regulations that reduce the risks to the public, down to the lowest level possible.

This is not the case in Malaysia

The Malaysian public did not even find out about Lynas operations in Pahang until the construction of LAMP was almost finished. They read about it in the New York Times.

Access to official documentation surrounding the licensing scheme is a big farce.

Whistle-blower engineers working on the project tell of appalling breaches of basic standards in the construction while Umno politicians seek to sow discord in the community claiming that Malaysians opposed to the Lynas plant are seeking to assist the rare earth industry in China.

These materials will eventually come to market. Somewhere in the world, these materials will be processed and then turned into iPhones, hybrid cars and wind turbines. This environmental activist accepts that as inevitable.

However it should not happen in Malaysia where the institutions are not mature enough to deal with opportunists like Lynas Corporation. More than skilled labour, fresh water or sulphuric acid, it is democratic oversight that makes doing business more expensive in Australia for Lynas. This is where Malaysia has its comparative advantage.

However, the decision by the Malaysian Government to go ahead in the processing of dangerous chemicals is one that its voters will one day seek to disown.

That day may come sooner rather than later

Lynas have now been granted a temporary operating license and the likelihood now that Umno politicians will do anything to prevent Lynas from operating seems remote.

All eyes now are on the general election due no later than April 2013. If the results of those elections are much the same as the last 50 years, Lynas will go ahead in Pahang. However it is by no means a sure thing. At the 2008 general election, Pakatan Rakyat, led by the enigmatic Anwar Ibrahim, made unprecedented progress toward establishing a genuine two-coalition democracy.

Certainly the opposition has made great headway on the back of the Lynas issue. A nationwide rally held months ago brought tens of thousands of people out onto the streets in protest. In a country where streets protests are typically met with riot police eagerly wielding batons and tear gas, the numbers present at those protests indicate significant public discontent at the way in which the Malaysian Government have handled this Lynas matter.

Will Putrajaya (the administrative capital) fall to the opposition?

It is certainly possible.

Since an Australian mining company may have a hand in this, perhaps it is time that the Australian media started to look at this story more closely. — New Mandala

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 31 March 2012, 2:08 am and is filed under
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Cadangan PR untuk memansuhkan PTPTN wajar mendapat sokongan

by Aspan Alias

The Malaysian Insider

Mar 31, 2012

31 MAC — PTPTN wajar dimansuhkan dan saya bersetuju dengan cadangan Pakatan Rakyat(PR) untuk menghapuskannya jika PR diberikan mandat oleh rakyat dalam pilihanraya kali ini. Saya telah menulis isu pembiayaan pelajaran ini banyak kali kerana isu pelajaran dan pendidikan adalah isu teras dalam pembangunan negara. Pendidikan selalunya percuma di negara-negara maju.

Janganlah kita mengaku yang negara kita adalah negara maju dan rakyat yang berpendapatan tinggi tidak lama lagi tetapi kita tidak nampak tanda-tanda hasrat yang dilaungkan oleh PM Najib itu akan tercapai seratus tahun lagi. Takkanlah dengan memberikan wang ehsan RM500 baru-baru ini telah menjadikan negara kita rakyat yang berpendapatan tinggi.

Di kesebelasan negara-negara Scandinavia pelajaran adalah percuma. Di Germany juga percuma dan di Perancis dan banyak lagi negara-negara lain yang memberikan pendidikan dan pelajaran percuma sehingga peringkat tertinggi. Di negara-negara tersebut tidak ada nampak pemimpin politiknya pergi ke kawasan masing-masing menabur wang 500 euro dan sebagainya. Mereka tidak pun sibuk mendabik dada yang mereka telah memberikan sedikit kelegaan kepada rakyat mereka.

Alasan Menteri Pelajaran Tinggi, Khaled Nordin, yang PTPTN tidak boleh dilupuskan kerana ianya akan mengurangkan daya saing siswazah-siswazah kita adalah tidak munasabah. Khaled seterusnya bertanya jika hutang PTPTN itu dilupuskan, siapa yang hendak membayar hutang-hutang itu? DAN jika itu dilakukan juga maka IPTS akan tutup kerana pelajar-pelajar akan hanya bertumpu kepada IPTA.

Saya benar-benar tidak percaya menteri itu memberikan alasan yang tidak berlandaskan kepada kekuatan pemikiran seorang penggubal dasar. Apa yang susah sangat kerajaan hendak menyelesaikan masalah ini? Bukankah pelajaran dan pendidikan itu merupakan elemen asas untuk membentuk negara maju? Apa yang tidak dapat diterima ialah kerajaan tidak peka langsung tentang nasib anak-anak bangsa yang sudah sedia berhutang semasa muda mereka.

Pendidikan ini ibarat nafas kita. Nafas kita memerlukan udara untuk hidup dan udara itu percuma. Begitu jugalah pelajaran. Pelajaran itu tersangat penting untuk mengekalkan kewujudan sesebuah negara yang maju. Negara kita telah membazir dengan ketirisan yang sudah mencapai ke angka trillion ringgit, kenapa pula tidak ada kudrat untuk membiayai pelajaran rakyat jelata?

Jika rakyat boleh membayar hutang hanya seorang anak Perdana Menteri sehingga RM1.8 billion ringgit pada tahun 1998 dahulu, kenapa kita tidak boleh menanggung pembiayaan pelajaran rakyat yang ramai ini? Kenapa rakyat yang ramai terlalu susah untuk mendapatkan bantuan bebanan membayar hutang sedangkan pemimpin-pemimpin atau kroni mereka amat mudah untuk mendapatkan “bailout” dari kerajaan dalam angka yang beratus billion ringgit itu.

Apa peliknya jika rakyat kita mendapat pelupusan hutang PTPTN ini serta memansuhkan terus PTPTN ini? Jika Tajuddin Ramli diberikan gerenti untuk tidak perlu membayar hutang kepada kerajaan yang berbillion ringgit itu, kenapa hutang anak-anak bangsa yang baru masuk ke alam pekerjaan itu tidak dilupuskan? Jika Tony Fernandes yang sudah hampir terlungkup dengan berbillion ringgit itu boleh di selamatkan oleh kerajaan dengan bertenggek kepada MAS itu?

Kenapa Mirzan Mahathir yang tidak berjaya dalam perniagaannya boleh menggunakan wang rakyat untuk menyelamatkan beliau dari tersungkur dan tersembam ke bumi kerana kegagalannya? Kenapa susah sangat untuk memikirkan nasib ratusan ribu siswazah yang baru keluar dari universiti itu tidak boleh diselamatkan dari tindakan undang-undang kerana tidak mampu untuk membayar hutang PTPTN ini?

Isu PTPTN ini melibatkan hampir kesemua keluarga di seluruh negara maka cadangan PR untuk melupuskan dan memansuhkan terus PTPTN ini amat wajar diberikan sambutan dan sokongan. Jika semua masyarakat memberikan dorongan untuk menghapuskan terus sekim PTPTN ini maka ia akan berjaya dilakukan hanya dalam beberapa bulan sahaja lagi, iaitu semasa berada di dalam bilik mengundi serta saluran yang rakyat akan pergi untuk melaksanakan tanggungjawab besar ini.

Saya yakin alasan yang diberikan untuk menolak penghapusan hutang PTPTN ini merupakan satu alasan yang meleset apabila PR buktikan yang penghapusan itu boleh dilakukan tanpa sebarang masalah besar.

Jika mereka yang berkuasa dan kroni kepada pihak yang gagah perkasa dengan kuasa boleh dilupuskan dalam jumlah ratusan billion ringgit, tidak ada sebab kerajaan memberi sebab untuk tidak melupuskan hutang untuk ratusan siswazah yang hanya berjumlah lebih sedikit dari RM6 billion itu.

Jika pihak PR diberikan mandat kali ini maka keuntungannya kepada setiap keluarga akan jauh lebih banyak dari wang ehsan RM500 yang diberikan kerajaan BN baru-baru ini. Masing-masing patah-patahkan lah jari untuk membuat perkiraan itu. Tidak payah pakai mesin pengira yang canggih untuk mendapatkan jawapannya.

Yang penting setiap orang wajar bersabar menunggu hari membuat perhitungan ini. — aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 1 April 2012, 11:39 am and is filed under
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Support for NEP coming from ‘captive minds’, says Ku Li

By Shannon Teoh

The Malaysian Insider

Apr 01, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah resumed his attack on the New Economic Policy (NEP) today, stating that “captive minds” continue to support it despite Malaysia moving further from its objective of redistributing wealth through pro-Bumiputera policies.

The Umno veteran said there has been “no intellectual inquiry” into why “despite many years of implementing the NEP, inequitable distribution of income continues to plague the people” as “we have become incapable of devising an analytical method independent of current stereotypes about Malays, Chinese, Indians and others.”

Ku Li today said, “…The NEP…has produced results that are diametrically opposed to the original intention of bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots.” — file pic

“If the doctor keeps on prescribing the same medicine which produces opposite results, then something must be wrong with the doctor, and something more serious must be wrong with the patient who keeps on trusting the same doctor.

“Our thinking is based completely on a racial world view when it comes to matters of politics, education, economics, planning, and so forth. Needless to say, we promote a racial world view that thrives on the policy of divide and rule,” the Kelantan prince said at a book launch in Ipoh this morning.

Tengku Razaleigh, popularly known as Ku Li, had in February said “as a former finance minister, let me emphasise that it was never the intention of the NEP to create an incubated class of Malay capitalists.”

His statement further fuelled scrutiny of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s policies after the Najib administration decided to settle out of court the RM589 million debt owed by former Malaysia Airline System Bhd (MAS) chief Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli.

The settlement sum was undisclosed, prompting intense public criticism and attacks from the opposition over the right of taxpayers to know the amount of public funds recovered.

Tajudin, 65, had served as the airline’s executive chairman from 1994 to 2001 and was a poster boy of former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin’s now-discredited policy of nurturing a class of Malay corporate captains on government largesse during the Mahathir administration.

Ku Li, one of the greatest critics of the NEP and Dr Mahathir’s handling of the policy, had challenged the long-serving prime minister for leadership of Umno in 1987, which he subsequently lost by a narrow margin.

He said in his speech today that the country’s education system does “not encourage the moral and intellectual reform of the mind” resulting in a lack of debate on major issues such as good governance, corruption and rule of law.

“To this very day, the electorate has not understood the implications of the NEP which has produced results that are diametrically opposed to the original intention of bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots. The longer we try the policy, the further we are from the original goal.

“The discrepancy between vision and reality has taken an alarming turn. It has gone far beyond economics into the realm of ethics and morality. In numerous instances it has taken the form of corruption and decadence which has pushed the economy further down the drain,” he said.

He said “wanton corruption and wasteful spending” had resulted in spiralling national debt that now amounts to RM456 billion or 53 per cent of the GDP, which “if we are not careful, it won’t take us long before we become another Greece.”

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 1 April 2012, 6:35 pm and is filed under
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Pakatan declares polls reform panel a failure

By Clara Chooi

The Malaysian Insider

Apr 02, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) representatives in the government-mooted parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reforms complained today the panel had failed to meet its objectives, despite six months of heated discussions and at least six public hearings.

The members, Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak), Hatta Ramli (PAS-Kuala Krai) and Anthony Loke (DAP-Rasah), told a press conference here that the bipartisan panel had fallen short of expectations as it had completely neglected to address “fundamental issues” surrounding concerns over the country’s election system.

Key among these, said Azmin, was the call to clean up the current voter registry, which civil society groups and PR leaders have alleged are fraught with discrepancies.

The trio said today they have filed a motion notice with the Dewan Rakyat Speaker’s office under Standing Order 30(1) calling for amendments to be made to the PSC’s final report.

“This is so the Speaker can take note of our intention to amend the motion to be tabled on the PSC report, to attach a minority report to it,” Azmin said.

When asked for PR’s next plan of action should its motion be rejected, Azmin declined to comment, expressing confidence that Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia would give fair consideration to the proposal.

“Because this is an important motion… I am confident the Speaker will give a positive response.

“So we can debate this motion before the PSC report is tabled,” said Hatta.

The PSC’s 22-point report, which comprises its final recommendations for electoral reforms in Malaysia, was distributed to all members of the House today but it has been placed under strict embargo until 11.30am tomorrow when it is tabled for debate.

The nine-member committee had sat for its final meeting last Wednesday but ended a five-hour discussion in disagreement when those across the political divide were forced to “agree to disagree” on several key issues.

Bersih 2.0 recently warned of a possible “Bersih 3.0 rally” should the Najib administration fail to implement meaningful reforms to the country’s electoral process. — file pic

“What we are disappointed about is that on March 28, the panel held its final meeting to finalise its recommendations in the final report but it did not take into account the views of our members to include a minority report that will give a more detailed explanation of the fundamental issues involving the electoral roll, which the Election Commission (EC) has yet to clean,” said Azmin.

He reiterated that the panel’s members from PR had already presented much documented evidence showing discrepancies in the voter registry, which the EC has yet to address.

“We, on behalf of PR, were a part of the committee, we tried our level best to push for total reform in the electoral process.

“Unfortunately, this committee has failed to look at the entire proposal by civil society and individuals in preparing the final report… yes, they addressed some issues but they are not among the fundamental issues,” he said.

Apart from the electoral roll discrepancies, disgruntled PSC sources had last week also railed against the panel’s failure to address other key requests for reforms such as the scrapping of the postal voting system, ensuring free and fair access to the media and an extension of the election campaign period to up to 21 days.

These requests were among those proposed to the government by election watchdog Bersih 2.0, which last year organised a mammoth rally on the capital’s streets to demand free and fair polls.

The PSC was mooted shortly after the chaotic rally, which saw over a thousand arrests and even one death, when the Najib administration earned widespread criticism in the foreign media for its allegedly high-handed approach when cracking down on the event.

Bersih 2.0 recently warned of a possible “Bersih 3.0 rally” should the administration fail to implement meaningful reforms to the country’s electoral process before the 13th general election is called. PR lawmakers have voiced their support for such an event.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 2 April 2012, 8:47 pm and is filed under
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Reforming Education Part Two: Fixing Kampong Schools

M. Bakri Musa

Second of Six Parts: The Challenge of Providing Teachers

In Part One I discussed measures to increase the English fluency of kampong pupils, key to enhancing their employability and self-confidence. These include increasing the hours for English instruction, introducing immersion classes as with our earlier Special Malay and Remove Classes, and even bringing back colonial-era English schools to the kampongs. This section focuses on the special challenges of attracting teachers, specifically to teach English, and on improving kampong schools.

Attracting Teachers

Malaysia has a deep reservoir of English-speaking teachers trained under the old all-English system. They are now all retired, but given sufficient incentives they could be readily enticed to teach in our rural schools. Right now there are only half-hearted attempts at attracting them, with the efforts left to local headmasters. These headmasters, brought up under the existing system, are only too aware of their own limitations in English. They are not about to be welcoming of or risk having their own inadequacies exposed by these hitherto senior English-fluent teachers; hence the failure of the current policy.

To overcome this entrenched resistance you would have to impress upon the headmasters that their ability to recruit these retired teachers would be a major factor in their (headmasters’) promotions or bonus payments. We should also insist that future candidates for headmasterships, as well as other promotions within the ministry, be based on demonstrated competence in English. That is a very effective way of conveying the message on the importance of English. For those retired teachers, a call back to teach would be an opportunity to not only augment their pension income but also re-ignite their intellectual and professional challenges.

Another source of teachers would be born English-speaking spouses of Malaysians and expatriates. Again, we have plenty of them. The issue of working visas is administrative, and should be readily solvable. They may not be trained teachers, but given a brief training as we did with earlier “normal-trained” teachers, they would be able to handle their classes. Their limited teaching skills would be more than compensated by their enthusiasm and English fluency. They would also bring much-needed attitudinal and cultural changes to the class. They would expose our kampong pupils to a very different way of learning as well as speaking English. You can be certain these teachers would not be indulging in “Manglish” or “rojak” English, not to mention their improving our students’ accent. These teachers with their different cultural and personal experience would open up the world of our kampong kids. That would be reason enough to recruit these teachers.

For spouses of expatriates especially but also for those foreign spouses of Malaysians, this would also be a splendid and quick opportunity for them to learn and adapt to local culture and society.

The last and most expensive recourse would be to import teachers from English-speaking countries. The least expensive (in fact cheaper than hiring locals) would be to recruit from India and the Philippines. Some of my best and most inspiring teachers in high school were from India. That was then, however. Today I am uncertain whether bringing in teachers from those countries would serve our students well.

Another source, though not as cheap, would be Eastern Europe, specifically Poland. They may not be born English speakers but thanks to their superior education system they have acquired near-native fluency in that language.

Japan imports thousands of young Americans under its JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program; likewise China, Thailand and South Korea. Malaysia cannot match what the Japanese and Koreans are offering, about US$45K annually, but then living costs in Malaysia are considerably cheaper. Thailand has no difficulty getting foreign teachers for about 30K bhat (RM3K) per month. Malaysia could easily better the Thai pay. Foreigners, especially Americans and Brits, would have minimal difficulty adjusting to our roman script as well as other aspects of our society.

Thailand attracts essentially two groups of teachers: one, fresh graduates on a year or two hiatus before entering graduate or professional school; and two, seasoned mid-career teachers. Again, America provides a deep reservoir of both. Many Americans, especially those bound for graduate and professional schools (and thus among the brighter ones), take time off after graduation. These are the students who sign up for such programs as the Peace Corp and Teach For America. Malaysia obviously cannot match what Teach for America could offer in terms of salary, but can more than compensate for that deficiency with the adventure, experience and exoticness.

As for mid-career teachers, there are plenty of them who have become disillusioned with the highly bureaucratized and increasingly alienating and violence-plagued American public schools. With their pensions vested and their children now grown up, a Thai or Malaysian pay would nicely supplement their pension income, especially if we also provide them with living quarters. In my view these are the teachers we should actively recruit; they will transform our students and schools.

Many rural schools have teachers’ quarters. Most however are occupied by religious teachers. Well, we have a glut of them so we do not need to attract or cuddle them by providing them with houses. Reserve those quarters for foreign teachers and those teaching science and mathematics.

Currently Malaysia brings in scores of American “teaching assistants” under the Fulbright Exchange Program, a government-to-government initiative. I fail to see why Malaysia cannot recruit American teachers directly and independent of the US government, unless of course those Fulbright “teaching assistants” are funded by the Americans.

When we bring in these foreign teachers, we should not assign them individually rather as a group, preferably three to five to a school. If they were to be alone at a school, their influence would be minimal and be diluted; it would be difficult for them to make an impact. We need a critical mass of such teachers to effect changes in attitude and culture, quite apart from reducing the “foreignness” they would feel.

I had one such wonderful Canadian math teacher at Malay College, Mr. Neil Brown. He was taking a year off before pursuing his doctoral work at Cambridge. He was highly effective; our class set a national record for the number of As in calculus, but his impact outside the classroom was minimal. The local teachers dismissed him as a “hitchhiker.” If Malay College had a few more such teachers at the time, they would have triggered a cultural change among both teachers and students. More importantly, the local teachers would not be so disparaging of their foreign colleagues; the locals might even learn a tip or two from them.

This incidentally is what China is doing today. On a recent trip to Beijing I was surprised that the plane was full of teachers, lecturers or professors on their way to teach at various levels in China. I recently read the memoir of one such teacher where she related how touched (and scared!) she was in that her students would more readily confide their problems to her instead of the local teachers. She soon found out why. Those students did not trust their local teachers as they were seen as agents of the party or state.

A similar sentiment and mindset exist among our students. When I addressed Malaysians here in America, I was always conscious, as were the students, that there were representatives of the state, or more specifically UMNO (they are the same anyway), in the audience keeping an eye over the students. Not that it bothered me, but it certainly did some of the students. Incidentally there were also representatives from the religious department, more for policing than spiritual guidance!

The intimidating effect remains the same, and it affects not just the students. A British educator posted in Malaysia once confided to me that his local colleagues and superiors were none too pleased with him when he included some of my essays for his students’ reading assignment! It is such instances, more than anything else, that poison the learning atmosphere of Malaysian classrooms.

In recruiting these foreign teachers, I would look for additional skills they would bring, as for example their ability in drama, music and fine arts generally, as well as in sports so they could coach their students.

Improving our rural schools must begin with the teachers. Knowing the inadequacies of the education system generally and our teacher training program specifically, we would have to wait a very long while before we could get better trained local teachers. In the interim we have to adopt the measures suggested here.

It reflects our national priorities that we have a cabinet level decision-making mechanism to import maids but not to bring in skilled teachers.

Next: Part Three: Extending the School Day and Year

                This entry was posted on Monday, 2 April 2012, 10:00 am and is filed under
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Parliament debate on PSC report on electoral reform – most disgraceful episode and worst blot on Malaysian Parliament in nation’s 55 years

What happened today is the most disgraceful episode and worst blot on the Malaysian Parliament in the nation’s 55 year history.

It all stemmed from the mistake made by the Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin who had rejected an amendment motion by the three Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Members of Parliament on the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on electoral reform, Loke Siew Fook (Rasah), Mohamed Azmin (Gombak) and Dr. Mohd Hatta (Kuala Krai) seeking to incorporate a minority report into the PSC  final report tabled in Parliament yesterday.

After the PSC Chairman Datuk Maximus Ongkili moved the motion on the PSC report after question time, Loke stood up to object to the Speaker’s rejection in chambers of  the amendment motion by the three PR MPs.

Pandikar quoted Parliamentary precedents from New Zealand and the United Kingdom and  said there is no such thing as a  “minority report”.

When PR MPs responded to Pandikar’s invitation to quote precedents and pointed out that the Speaker had been wrongly advised when he claimed that there is no such thing as “minority reports” in Commonwealth Parliaments, Pandikar refused to review his decision.

Parliament spent close to an hour before lunch recess on the Speaker’s refusal to allow the amendment to the motion on the PSC report so to append a minority report addressing the fundamental issue of a clean and comprehensive electoral roll and this issue continued to dominate Parliament when the House resumed proceedings after lunch with Deputy Speaker Datuk  Robert Kiandee in the chair.

Shortly after the post-lunch exchanges, Pandikar made a surprise entry into Parliament and took over from Robert Kiandee and proceeded to suspend three PR MPs Azmin,  R. Sivarasa (Subang) and Dzulkefly Ahmad (Kuala Selangor) for questioning the Speaker’s ruling.

This reduced the House to pandemonium with all the PR MPs standing up in protest. This created a din in the House with PR and Barisan Nasional MPs as well as the Speaker shouting at the top of their voices.

Pandikar lost control of the House and hurriedly put Maximum’s motion to a vote without debate, which was allegedly passed with the majority of MPs not knowing what was happening! The House was then precipitately adjourned.

A sad day indeed when many MPs had wanted to debate the PSC report on electoral reform.

Pakatan Rakyat MPs from all the three parties, DAP, PKR and PAS, were prepared for a full debate on the PSC report on electoral reforms, zeroing in particularly on the Election Commission’s failure to ensure a clean and comprehensive electoral roll – the prerequisite for a clean, free and fair elections in the 13th GE.

In fact, only one of the eight Bersih 2.0 demands for clean, free and fair elections is being implemented – on the use of indelible ink.

Even on the 10 recommendations of the PSC interim report, only two have been fully accepted while the others have either been accepted only in part or rejected totally like the Election Commission’s rejection of the PSC interim report proposal for a reconfirmation of voters’ roll  in Sabah and the establishment of  a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the serious problem of illegals becoming voters in Sabah.

Under these circumstances, can Malaysians expect the 13th GE to be clean, free and fair in keeping with Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s claim of Malaysia as “the best democracy in the world”?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 3 April 2012, 5:36 pm and is filed under
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A transformed country, but an untransformed Parliament

— The Malaysian Insider

Apr 04, 2012

APRIL 4 — On the day Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak celebrated three years in office with the satisfaction of a plan in progress, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia showed the shallowness of the transformation towards a developed nation by 2020.

Najib can be proud of achievements under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and Government Transformation Programme (GTP), but in terms of a Political Transformation Programme (PTP), he can follow other Malaysians and frown at the tyranny of power shown by the Speaker yesterday.

Pandikar Amin dismissed the requests for a debate on a minority report from opposition members who wanted to add to the final report from the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms. And he tried to chase them out of the House for disputing his decision to disallow the debate.

Why the fear of a debate on a minority report? The entire report has all the recommendations and the discussion to reform the electoral process in Malaysia. So, why not a report that details the arguments for recommendations that did not make its way to the final report?

The Speaker is the final arbiter in the House. And with that power, comes great responsibility. Just like the prime minister who has a huge responsibility to fulfil promises made when taking the job.

If Najib can do his best, considering the circumstances that have snowballed over the years, why can’t Pandikar Amin do a better job? After all, what is the House about? To debate laws and issues for the betterment of Malaysia, is it not?

Is there any wonder that civil society has given up on legislative processes and instead takes to the street? This was what happened in the years preceding Merdeka with the people opposed to the idea of a Malayan Union, after the authorities refused to listen to their concerns.

We now have a duly-elected Parliament. We have members of parliament who sat in a parliamentary panel and who have issues with the final report on electoral reforms that the prime minister has promised will happen after a discussion in Parliament.

But the entire idea stumbles and trips on the last leg of its journey through Parliament. The Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs were prepared to debate and show their political foes, Pakatan Rakyat (PR), that the report and recommendations are enough. PR MPs were ready to debate in Parliament rather than take to the streets.

But the Speaker decided otherwise – even though his Deputy was chairing the debate then — because he can. All said and done, this is a disappointing end to the PSC that reflects Najib’s commitment to “the days of government knows best is over”.

Just when you think BN can renew itself for the future, you get throwbacks from the past tying it down. Pity, this has become a farce.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 4 April 2012, 1:33 pm and is filed under
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Bersih 2.0: PSC report fails in five key areas

Malaysiakini

Apr 3, 2012

Election reforms pressure group Bersih 2.0 is disappointed that the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reform has failed to address five key issues.

The five issues, Bersih 2.0 said, are:

 1.Manipulation of the electoral roll;

    2.The citizenship-for-votes scam in peninsula Malaysia;

    3.Enforcement of the Election Offences Act 1954 and enhancing the definition of election offences;

    4.A plan to stop ‘dirty politics’; and

    5.Inviting international observers.

In view of this, the Bersih 2.0 steering committee said it was “highly likely” that electoral fraud and other irregularities will continue unabated.

“A golden opportunity to right the wrongs and do something good for the benefit of Malaysians now and in the future has, sadly, been missed,” the committee said in a statement this evening.

Bersih 2.0 is the coalition that organised a mass rally on July 9 last year, which in part pressured the Najib administration into establishing the PSC, aimed at making suggestions to improve the electoral process.

Flaws in the electoral roll

The committee said the PSC had failed to suggest a thorough study into the processes of the Election Commission and the National Registration Department to stop manipulation of the electoral roll.

Such areas include, among others, the removal of names and the changing of polling station boundaries.

On the alleged citizenship-for-votes scam in Peninsular Malaysia, the committee said that it was disappointing that only Sabah was mentioned.

“While the problem is acknowledged to exist in Sabah, there is no reference to Peninsular Malaysia, where the issue is also of relevance,” said the committee.

On enforcing election laws, the committee said that should have been a study into the types of offences committed and recommendations on how to prevent them.

“Although there is a suggestion that the EC be given more powers to deal with such issues, the PSC does not seek to identify the problems and the clear infringements of the Election Offences Act 1954,” said the committee.

No international observers

On stopping “dirty politics”, the committee said that while there was a reference to a code of conduct in relations to a caretaker government, the code should cover all candidates and political parties.

The committee said that an example of such a code of conduct, from India, was furnished by Bersih 2.0 to the PSC at one of the hearings.

On international observers, the committee said that Malaysia has been officially participated in election observation missions before, such as in Burma and Thailand.

“If we If we subscribe to and endorse the principle of having international observers by our participation in such missions, then Malaysia’s reticence in inviting international observers is wholly inexplicable,” said the committee.

On the 22 recommendations by the PSC, the committee said most of the recommendations involved the EC as the main implementing body.

The committee said that this posed two obvious drawbacks.

Can the EC follow through?

First, it argued, the existing EC has shown itself to be incapable or unwilling to initiate reforms and the question now was whether the commission has sufficient credibility to commit itself to undertaking the proposed recommendations.

Secondly, the committee said, Bersih 2.0, which comprised several legal experts, believes that many of the PSC’s recommendations could be implemented immediately.

“We do not see the need to provide for a lengthy implementation period.  We reiterate that Bersih 2.0 has demanded that reforms should be implemented before the 13th General Elections are held,” he said.

Of the 22 recommendations, 18 were without a implementation time-frame.

“We note that while some recommendations do provide for a time-frame to report back, many others do not.

“The lack of a time-line merely prolongs the dissatisfaction and lack of confidence in the electoral system, and adds to the frustration of the people,” said the committee.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 4 April 2012, 10:55 am and is filed under
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Bersih 2.0’s point-by-point responses

Malaysiakini

Apr 3, 2012

Election reforms pressure  group Bersih 2.0 is not satisfied with the parliamentary select committee (PSC) final report and have scrutinised all 22 of the latter’s recommendations.

Bersih 2.0, who organised the mass rally on July 9 last year, is one of the main factors attributed the Najib administration’s decision to establish the PSC.

Below is Bersih 2.0’s comments, edited for brevity and clarity, on all 22 recommendations:

1. Voters residing overseas

The proposal to allow voters residing overseas to cast their ballots should be implemented immediately without any conditions. The condition set by the PSC for voters to return periodically to qualify to vote from overseas is unconstitutional.

There is no need for further study on carrying out overseas voting as proposals have been submitted and it will only delay implementation. Provisions exist to allow overseas registration of voters.

Civil society organisations will implement overseas voting on the Election Commission’s behalf if resourced financially.

2. Postal voting for EC staff and journalists

Permissible postal voters living in Malaysia – police/military voters and spouses, EC staff – should be reclassified as advance voters.

They should be extended also to election candidates, polling agents, counting agents, booth observers and candidates’ nominees on the EC enforcement teams.

They should only be allowed to vote in constituencies in which they are registered by the EC and gazetted.

Personnel on duty at polling stations should come from a mix of EC staff and members of civil society and the public residing in that constituency.

Members of the media should not be registered as postal voters.

The integrity of the postal vote system has not been thoroughly examined. This is best for transparency if the categories of advance and/or postal voters be reduced.

3. Distance voting

Distance voting should be implemented once the relevant regulations are amended and there is no need for further study.

“Our second memorandum already contains the draft amendments to the existing regulations.

“(We) have already submitted proposals and logistical solutions to the issue of distance voting, via the second memorandum to the PSC, on 21 March 2012.”

4. Pre-registration of citizens as voters upon reaching 20 years of age

This is unnecessary. Focus should be on automatic registration of voters at the age of 21.  The voting age should also be reduced to 18 years.

5. Date of dissolution of Parliament

Provision has to be made for situation where government loses a motion of no confidence.  If Parliament can only be dissolved after at least 4 years of office, an unpopular government can retain power.

6. Caretaker government

The concept of a caretaker government is supported, but not within the ambit of the EC.

Political consensus is needed in implementing this to achieve political neutrality during the election campaign period with no new spending commitments and no new projects announced.

There must also be political agreement on its composition.

7. Enforcement of existing regulations in connection with the offence of giving false information in registration matters

All necessary information needed for registration for voting or address changes should be based on information in the MyKad or notification issued by the NRD.

There is greater concern about the existence of false, duplicate identities within the NRD’s database, on which the EC relies.

8. Extending the campaign period

The minimum campaign period should be 21 days instead of 10. The length of time for overseas voters to receive, mark and return ballot papers on time is part of determining the minimum campaign period.

Enough time is needed for election candidates to disseminate their messages and for voters to consider issues.

The supposed higher cost of a prolonged campaign period is false. Most of the labour costs are not dependent on the length of the campaign period, and are incurred on polling day itself.

 Other fixed costs would remain unchanged.

Elections are sufficiently important that the cost should not be a primary concern.

The costs incurred by political parties and election candidates should not be considered. For candidates, existing regulations has placed financial limits on campaign-related expenditure.

9. Free and equitable media access

There should be fair, equal coverage of the campaign and parties with no bias. This must be implemented immediately and with a commitment from the relevant government ministry.

“We are pleased that the PSC has made reference to Article 115 (2) of the Federal Constitution and has called upon the EC to exercise their power under these provisions.”

10. Ongoing monitoring of the electoral roll

The postal voter roll and the principal one should be unified to avoid duplicates.

The work by MIMOS in comparing the 12-digit MyKad numbers is too simplistic, resulting in minimal errors identified.

The data testing requires more thorough parameters, for example, to see if there are duplicate old IC numbers. Identical names and high degrees of matching of MyKad numbers should be searched for to eliminate any duplicates.

For the police and military, the MyKad numbers and the military or police IC numbers should be listed to check for duplicates.

Postal addresses should be complete. The EC citing clerical errors to explain discrepancies is unacceptable. Entry checking by two separate personnel should be implemented to eliminate this. Physical verification of new voters’ addresses should have been carried out.

Minor variations in how postal addresses are entered have also led to duplicates. The monitoring of the EC’s duty with the electoral rolls should be done by an independent audit committee.

The PSC has not fully addressed instances of publicly-highlighted fraud. Immediate steps must be taken to address this and the EC should be taken to task. The 13th general election should not proceed with this electoral roll.

11. Inspector of the electorol roll for addresses with multiple voters

Inspection should not only begin for addresses with more than 50 registered voters as it could easily start for addresses with more than 11 voters. A period of 21 days would suffice to complete these investigations.

12. Objections to validated electoral roll

The chief registrar already has adequate discretionary power under Regulation 25 of the Registration of Electors Regulations to cause the registration of suspicious voters to be investigated even after the electoral rolls have been validated.  There is no need to study the granting of additional powers.

13. Studying automatic voter registration

There is no reason to delay the implementation of automatic registration of electors upon turning 21 years old. If an amendment to the Constitution is needed, support from all political parties in Parliament should quickly accomplish this.

14. Utilisation of an address other than the address on the identity card to determine a person’s electoral constituency

Instead of adopting the solutions proposed, the PSC is skirting the issue. A voter’s registered constituency must be based on information on the MyKad or notifications from the NRD.

A voter may register with the EC his or her choice of polling station, as long as it is within the same constituency. This may make it easier for a person to vote in large constituencies, without need to return to the polling station nearest the registered address.

15. Streghtening the position of the election commission

Members of the EC must enjoy public confidence and be able to ensure that elections are carried out freely and fairly, ceasing which they must resign.

The EC should not be answerable to Parliament, as proposed by the PSC, as it supervises the election of MPs and state assembly legislator. The EC should manage its own budget, to be audited by the Auditor-General.

A committee of non-politicians should receive nominations for EC membership and make recommendations to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Past and present members of political parties and serving or retired civil servants should be ineligible as for EC membership. The non-involvement of the prime minister in this should be emphasised.

16. Structuring and strengthening of the EC

A detailed study of the human resource capacity and performance of the EC is needed before any recommendation can be accepted.

If the recommendation to separate the three main functions of the EC is accepted (point 18), the EC staff could be reduced instead. Reports of an increase in EC staff from 100,000 to 240,000 people are alarming, as it is a sizeable block of postal voters.

The staffing of the EC should be independent of government with its own funding, staff and salary scheme.

17. Widening the work of the Election Academy

There is no evidence of active voter education programmes by the EC despite the Elections Academy’s existence since 2007. Civil society organisations have actively taken the lead in this.

The government should provide funding for these organisations’ programmes and discontinue the Elections Academy.

18. Separation of the main functions of the EC

Bersih 2.0 concur with the recommendation that the three main functions of the EC be separated and distributed to three separate bodies

 .

 The three main functions of the EC is as follows:

A. Conducting elections

 B. Registering voters

 C. Determining electoral boundaries

19. Distribution of seats in the house of representatives for the states of Sabah and Sarawak

The issue should be deferred until a Royal Commission of Inquiry has completed investigations and delivered findings into the ‘Project IC’ issue in Sabah.

20. Balanced electoral delineation

Each electoral constituency should have approximately the same population size. There is no need for rural weighted scheme used currently. The principle of “one person one vote” should be upheld without exception.

 21. State funding for political parties

Election funding to political parties should be provided based on the proportion of the popular vote obtained per party in the previous general election.  Political parties should not be allowed to utilise any other funding for an election campaign.

22. New electoral system

Bersih 2.0 agreed that studies should be carried out on alternative electoral systems.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 4 April 2012, 10:46 am and is filed under
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