Four views on Islam and the state

Can Islam support a secular, democratic government?

Christian Science Monitor

August 30, 2007

I need a secular state

By Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im

ALTANTA – To be a Muslim by conviction and free choice – which is the only way one can be a Muslim – I need to live in a secular state. By a secular state, I mean one that is neutral regarding religious doctrine to facilitate genuine piety. The state should not enforce sharia (the religious law of Islam) because compliance should never be coerced by fear or faked to appease state officials. When observed voluntarily, sharia-based values can help shape laws and public policy through the democratic process. But if sharia principles are enacted as state law, the outcome will simply be the political will of the state.

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Many Muslims equate secularism with antireligious attitudes. Yet I believe that a secular state can promote genuine religious experience among believers and affirm the role of Islam in public life.

The so-called Islamic state is conceptually incoherent and historically unprecedented. There simply is no scriptural basis for an “Islamic state” to enforce sharia.

The leadership of the prophet Muhammad in Medina is an inspiring model of the values Muslims should strive for in self-governance, transparency, and accountability. But since Muslims believe that there is no prophet after Muhammad, the Medina model cannot be replicated.

There’s no precedent for an Islamic state in practice. Historically, rulers sought the support of Islamic scholars and religious leaders to legitimize their authority, but religious authorities needed to maintain their autonomy. This was always a negotiated relationship, not a marriage.

The experience of the vast majority of Muslims across the world today is about struggles for constitutionalism and human rights, economic development and social justice – not about the quest for Islamic states to enforce sharia. The world community must support Muslims in these struggles instead of punishing them for the sins of the extremist fringe of political Islamists.

Muslims and others often blame sharia and Islam for the backwardness and underdevelopment of Islamic societies. This view is inaccurate and unproductive. Such blame shifts responsibility and the ability to change away from Muslims as human agents to abstract forces or causes.

Historical interpretations of sharia that discriminate against women and non-Muslims can and should be reinterpreted and reformed. Without such transformation, state officials cannot be expected or trusted to uphold principles of constitutionalism and human rights. Yet those principles are prerequisites for advocating the necessary transformation. The secular state provides the space for and facilitates both aspects of this dialectic process.

• Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im is the author of the forthcoming book “Islam and Secular State: Negotiating the future of Sharia.” Burqas and ballots

By Jocelyne Cesari

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. – Islam is often perceived as a potential threat to democratization. Justifications for this view are grounded in the common view that for Islam there’s no separation between politics and religion.

In the West, politics based on individual rights and religion as independent of the state have marked the triumph of a liberal vision of the self within a secularized public arena. It may be argued that no similar movement has taken place in the Muslim world. It may be tempting, then, to infer that the Muslim mind is resistant to secularization. However, the reasons for such resistance are political and contextual and have very little to do with the Koran.

Within the Muslim world, Islam either is a state religion or is under state control. Therefore, the state is almost always the primary agent responsible for the authoritative interpretation of tradition.

As a result, Islamic thought has lost a certain vitality, not only in questions of government, but also on issues of culture and society. Thus it is not that the so-called Muslim mind is naturally resistant to critical thinking, but rather that analysis and judgment have too often been the exclusive prerogative of political authorities.

In fact, recent polls show that Muslims praise democracy as the best political system. At the same time, they acknowledge the importance that sharia, or Islamic law, plays in their lives. This is where misunderstanding often occurs. Sharia does not refer to actual laws but to a set of moral principles and norms that guide Muslims in their personal and social choices.

In the same vein, most Muslims living in Europe and the US appreciate the democratic and secular nature of the states where they reside. With minor exceptions, there is no real attempt by Muslims in the West to change Western political regimes and to establish Islamic states.

This does not mean, however, that all tensions disappear. In other words, even if the caliphate (Islamic government comprising Muslims worldwide) is not really a priority for Muslims in the West, conflicts of interest on values have emerged as illustrated by the Salman Rushdie affair and the head-scarf and cartoon crises. Areas of conflict between interpretations of Islamic tradition and the social norms of secular democracies include the family, the status of women in marriage and divorce, and the education of children.

Thus, Muslims want to be democratic on their own terms. This means that they want religious norms to be visible in their personal, daily lives – even if they live in the West. Moreover, this means that members of democratic, Muslim-majority societies would want religious norms to be acknowledged in public social life.

This raises legitimate concerns about the recognition and freedom of other religious minorities within a social system dominated by Islamic references. Western politicians and intellectuals must acknowledge processes of modernization and democratization that include Islamic references, while striving to protect religious and cultural minorities and guarantee freedom of expression. Without these safeguards, it is impossible to envision any democracy, Islamic or otherwise.

• Jocelyne Cesari is a professor of Islamic studies at Harvard. Her essayappears courtesy of the Common Ground News Service.

The leery Arab street

By Jorgen S. Nielsen

DAMASCUS, SYRIA – Why is it that Muslims appear to find it so difficult to see anything positive in Western secularism?

In some Muslim languages, the discussion is made almost impossible by the fact that the word used for secularism translates into English as “no religion” or “without religion.”

Certainly, Muslims do not like a lot of what they see as Western: the loneliness of the individual, the breakdown of the family, the destruction of drug addiction, random violence, recreational sex. Of course, they are not alone in feeling these concerns, and many conclude that the cause is the decline of religion.

In the mid-1920s, the Egyptian scholar Ali Abd al-Raziq’s book “Islam and the Roots of Government” argued that the prophet Muhammad had founded a religion, not a state, so religion should not determine state structures today. The book was immediately condemned and, we are told by most Islamic scholars, is no longer of interest. But it has remained continuously in print since then and can still be bought in Cairo bookshops. So someone must be reading it!

I talked recently with a group of Islamic scholars from one of the more conservative movements in Britain. We got on to the topic of an “Islamic order.” Clearly, it was not enough that a government or economic system should call itself Islamic. It had to be Islamic. But what did that mean? That led to things such as social justice, a reliable legal system, personal liberty, equality, popular participation, accountable rulers, etc. One scholar ventured that northern European welfare states were arguably a good deal more “Islamic” than any state in the Muslim world.

If there are such important shared values, why then such mixed feelings about the idea of secularism? Clearly, the attack on secularism is encouraged by the clerics. If religion in its traditional forms is pushed to the margins of public life, what remains for them?

On the Arab street, secularism is often seen as a foreign import, brought in by the colonialists as a way of limiting the power of the Islamic religious institutions that often provided the core of anticolonial resistance. Secular politics is also associated with the military dictatorships that survived in alliance with the opposing powers of the cold-war period.

Today, the only effective challenge to this inheritance comes from the Islamist movements, and people arguing for a secular perspective run the constant danger of being accused of collaboration with the West. It is this twin dynamic that makes it more likely for many to tilt away from modern, pluralistic secularism toward a religious political system.

• Jorgen S. Nielsen is director of the Danish Institute in Damascus. His essay is from the Common Ground News Service.

Political Islam’s ethics

By Bill Warner

FRANKLIN, TENN. – Arguing about religion is fruitless, but we can and should talk about politics. Discussion about the relationship between Islam and secularism must be based on an understanding of political Islam and its dualism. What is Islam? Answers from Muslims and Westerners are contradictory and confusing. But the scientific method gives clarity.

Scientific analysis shows that there are two Korans, one written in Mecca (the early part) and the second written in Medina (the later part). The two Korans include contradictions. “You have your religion and I have mine” (109:6) is a far cry from “I shall cast terror in the hearts of the kafirs [non-Muslims]. Strike off their heads…” (8:12). The Koran gives an answer to these contradictions – the later verse is “better” than the earlier verse (2:106). The Koran defines an Islamic logic that is dualistic. In a unitary, scientific logic, if two things contradict each other, then one of them is false. Not so in dualistic logic – both can be true!

Islam divides humanity into two groups: Muslims and kafirs (unbelievers). The doctrine that applies to Muslims is cultural, legal, and religious. The doctrine that applies to kafirs is political. Sixty-seven percent of the Meccan Koran and 51 percent of the Medinan Koran is political. Even the concept of hell is political, not religious. Of the 146 parts of the Koran that refer to hell, only 4 percent deal with morality – such as murder or theft. But 96 percent refer to people who are hellbound if they do not agree with Islam’s prophet Muhammad – an intellectual and political position.

Muhammad preached the religion of Islam for 13 years and garnered 150 followers. Then, in Medina, Islam became political, and through jihad, he became the first ruler of all Arabia. Islam succeeded in spreading across the globe largely because it became a form of politics.

The Koran says in 14 verses that a Muslim is not the friend of the kafir. This is pure dualism. The entire world is divided between Islam and the kafirs. The dualism of the Koran has no universal statements about humanity except that every person must submit to political Islam.

Ethics is the membrane between religion and politics. Islam has two sets of ethics. One set is for Muslims and the other set is for kafirs; this is dualistic ethics. A Muslim should not harm another Muslim, but the kafir can be robbed, killed, or cheated to advance Islam. Islamic political dualism is hidden by religion. The “good” verses of the Meccan Koran cover the verses of jihad in the Medinan Koran. Thus religious Islam shields political Islam from examination.

Some Muslims point to Turkey and claim that Islam can have a modern secular government. But authentic Islam and authentic secularism are contradictions. Secularism is made possible only on a foundation of a separation of religion and the state, freedom of conscience, and a universal ethical and legal system. But Muhammad integrated government and religion. Islam by definition means total submission to the will of Allah. And the dualistic logic of the Koran designates one set of ethics and laws for kafirs and another set for believers. Therefore, political Islam precludes secularism.

• Bill Warner is director of the Center for the Study of Political Islam.

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Islamic State shows burning of hostage, Jordan vows ‘earth-shaking’ response

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

Reuters

Feb 3, 2015

AMMAN (Reuters) – Islamic State militants released a video on Tuesday appearing to show a captured Jordanian pilot being burnt alive, and Jordan vowed to avenge his death with an “earth-shaking” response.

A Jordanian official said the authorities would execute several militants jailed in Jordan in response, including a Iraqi woman who Amman had sought to swap for the pilot taken captive after his plane crashed in Syria in December.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the content of the video, which showed a man resembling airman Mouath al-Kasaesbeh standing in a black cage before being set ablaze. But the reaction of the Jordanian authorities made clear they treated it as genuine.

Jordan, which has been mounting air raids in Syria as part of the U.S.-led alliance against Islamic State insurgents, would deliver a “strong, earth-shaking and decisive” response, a government spokesman said.

“The revenge will be as big as the calamity that has hit Jordan,” army spokesman Colonel Mamdouh al Ameri said in a televised statement confirming the death of the pilot, who was seized by Islamic State in December.

The fate of Kasaesbeh, a member of a large tribe that forms the backbone of support for the Hashemite monarchy, has gripped Jordan for weeks and provoked rare protests against King Abdullah over the government’s handling of the crisis.

The king cut short a visit to the United States to return home following word of Kasaesbeh’s death. In a televised statement, he said the pilot’s killing was an act of “cowardly terror” by a deviant group that has no relation to Islam.

Jordan had sought to swap the pilot for Sajida al-Rishawi, the Iraqi woman militant who was sentenced to death for her role in a 2005 suicide bombing in Amman that killed 60 people.

Islamic State had demanded her release in exchange for the life of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto. The beheading of Goto, a veteran war reporter, was shown in a video released by the group on Saturday.

The Jordanian security source said Rishawi would now be executed “within hours”.

The Jordanian military might also escalate attacks on Islamic State, said retired air force General Mamoun Abu Nowar. “We might even see in a couple of days the rate of sorties increased dramatically. We might have some special operations against their leadership too,” he said.

In the Islamic State video, Kasaesbeh is interviewed, describing the mission he was due to carry out before his jet crashed. The video also showed footage of the aftermath of air strikes, with people trying to remove civilians from debris.

A man resembling Kasaesbeh is shown inside the cage with his clothes dampened, apparently with flammable liquid, and one of the masked fighters holds a torch, setting alight a line of fuel which leads into the cage.

The man is set ablaze and kneels to the ground.

Fighters then pour debris, including broken masonry, over the cage which a bulldozer then flattens, with the body still inside. The video showed a desert setting similar to previous videos of killings.

DEMAND FOR REVENGE

In the pilot’s hometown of Karak in southern Jordan, people demanded revenge.

“I want to see Sajida body’s burnt and all the other terrorists in Jordanian prisons … Only then will my thirst for revenge be satisfied,” said Abdullah al-Majali, a government employee among dozens of demonstrators in the center of Karak.

Witnesses said anti-government protests briefly broke out in the town when Kasaesbeh’s death was announced as angry relatives blamed the authorities for failing to save him.

Jordanian state television said on Tuesday that he had been killed a month ago, on Jan. 3.

The White House said the intelligence community was studying when the video was recorded and that President Barack Obama had ordered his team to devote all resources to locate other hostages held by Islamic State.

A staunch U.S. ally, Jordan is part of the alliance against the Islamic State group that has seized large areas of Syria and Iraq. King Abdullah has defended the campaign against domestic criticism, saying that moderate Muslims need to combat a group whose ideology and brutality have insulted Islam.

Obama praised al-Kasaesbeh for his bravery and said he was “in the vanguard of the effort to degrade and defeat the threat” posed by militants from Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

“Today, the coalition fights for everyone who has suffered from ISIL’s inhumanity. It is their memory that invests us and our coalition partners with the undeterred resolve to see ISIL and its hateful ideology banished to the recesses of history,” Obama said in a statement.

In the video, the burned man wore orange clothes similar to those worn by other foreign Islamic State captives who have been killed since the U.S.-led coalition started bombing the militants in July.

Islamic State has released videos showing the beheadings of five U.S. and British hostages and said that it killed two Japanese captives in the same way. It has meted out the same treatment to many more Arab prisoners, including Syrian government soldiers.

The militants have stepped up the gruesome killings while coming under increased military pressure from the air strikes and a ground campaign by Kurdish and Iraqi troops to reverse their territorial gains in Iraq and Syria.

Islamic State emerged out of al Qaeda in Iraq. It expanded into Syria as the country was plunged into a civil war estimated to have killed 200,000 people since 2011.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Tuesday that 51 civilians, including children, had been killed by Syrian air force strikes inside the country within the past day.

The U.S.-led coalition says it does not coordinate with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, who Washington has described as part of the problem. It does work with the Iraq government, which is also fighting Islamic State.

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Oliver Holmes, Tom Perry and Mariam Karouny in Beirut and Julia Edwards and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Jordan Executes Prisoners After ISIS Video of Pilot’s Death

By ROD NORDLAND and RANYA KADRI

New York Times

Feb. 3, 2015

AMMAN, Jordan — When relatives learned Tuesday night that the Islamic State had released a video showing the death of a Jordanian fighter pilot, First Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, they tried to keep it from his mother, Issaf, and his wife, Anwar. They switched off the television and tried to wrest a smartphone out of his wife’s hand, but she had already seen a mobile news bulletin.

Anwar ran crying into the street, calling her husband’s name and saying, “Please, God, let it not be true.” Issaf fell to the floor screaming, pulled her head scarf off and started tearing at her hair.

That was even before they knew how he had been killed. No one dared let them know right away that Lieutenant Kasasbeh’s tormentors had apparently burned him alive inside a cage, a killing that was soon described as the most brutal in the group’s bloody history.

Jordan responded rapidly, executing Sajida al-Rishawi, who was convicted after attempting a suicide bombing, and Ziad al-Karbouli, a top lieutenant of Al Qaeda in Iraq, before dawn on Wednesday, according to the official news agency Petra.

On Tuesday, Anwar Kasasbeh had been laughing at the memory of her husband’s delight when he discovered that her family kept rabbits in their home. After they married, her parents gave them the rabbits to take care of.

“It was so funny, he was so happy about those rabbits,” Anwar told a visiting reporter about her 26-year-old husband. “He told me how he always wanted rabbits.”

The video, with its references to the Islamic State’s punishment of nations like Jordan that joined the American-led coalition against it, appeared to be an attempt to cow the Arab nations and other countries that have agreed to battle the militants in Syria. So far, it appeared to have had the opposite effect in Jordan, which suggested its resolve had been stiffened. But the capture of the pilot had already hurt the coalition, with the United Arab Emirates suspending its own airstrikes in December and demanding that the group improve its search and rescue efforts for captured members.

The release of the video came after weeks of growing anxiety in Jordan as the country’s leaders tried desperately to win the release of Lieutenant Kasasbeh, a member of an important tribe and the first fighter for the coalition bombing the Islamic State to be captured. Their attempts became more complicated late last month when the Islamic State, also called ISIS or ISIL, suddenly entangled the pilot’s fate with that of a Japanese man it held hostage, demanding that Jordan release Ms. Rishawi in exchange for him.

If Jordan failed to do so by last Thursday, they said, Lieutenant Kasasbeh would be killed. Jordanian officials expressed willingness to bargain, a major concession to the militants, but refused to release Ms. Rishawi until they received proof that the pilot was alive.

On Tuesday, Jordanian officials said they learned that the pilot had actually been killed on Jan. 3, suggesting that their caution had been justifiable. They did not, however, explain where they got the information.

Continue reading the main story

Even by Islamic State standards, the latest propaganda video was particularly gruesome. The footage alternated images of the pilot while he was alive with segments showing the rubble of destroyed buildings and the burned bodies of Syrians allegedly killed in coalition airstrikes. Islamic State members took to Twitter to applaud the pilot’s death, calling it an eye for an eye.

At the end of the 22-minute video, an Islamic State fighter set a powder fuse alight as Lieutenant Kasasbeh watched, his clothes drenched in fuel. The flames raced into the cage and engulfed him. The camera lingered, showing close-ups of his agony, before concluding with pictures of what the Islamic State claimed were other Jordanian pilots and an offer of a reward of 100 gold coins for whoever killed one of them. (American officials said they were trying to authenticate the video.)

A new video released by Islamic State militants on Tuesday and first reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors jihadist activity on the Internet, showed the execution of First Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, a Jordanian air force pilot.

The Jordanian military responded swiftly. “The blood of our hero martyr, Moaz Kasasbeh, will not go for nothing,” said Mamdouh al-Ameri, a spokesman for the Jordanian military. “And the revenge will be equal to what happened to Jordan.”

Within hours, a convoy was seen leaving the women’s prison in Jordan, presumably taking Ms. Rishawi to the men’s prison an hour outside Amman where executions are carried out, normally by hanging.

Both prisoners had already been sentenced to death for terrorism offenses. Mr. Karbouli was accused as one of the planners of the 2005 hotel bombings in Amman that killed more than 57 people; Ms. Rishawi was the only one of four suicide bombers in that attack whose explosive vest failed to detonate. Both were affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq, which became the present-day Islamic State.

Jordan and the United Arab Emirates are among several Arab countries taking part in American-led air raids against Islamic State positions in Syria. Two other Arab states, plus Iraq, are members of the coalition in other capacities.

Lieutenant Kasasbeh was said to have been shot down in his F-16 fighter bomber on Dec. 24 during an air operation against Islamic State positions not far from the militants’ stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria.

He cut a dashing figure in uniform, with green eyes, black hair and a slim build, and he had a significant social media following.

His capture transfixed the nation, which suddenly saw photos of the lieutenant being dragged by militants out of a swamp where he had apparently crashed.

Weeks before the deadly attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in France prompted refrains of “Je Suis Charlie,” Jordan’s Queen Rania started a campaign on Instagram called “We Are All Moaz.”

Lieutenant Kasasbeh’s captivity at first aroused anti-coalition sentiment among many in Jordan, but public opinion shifted dramatically as the Islamic State issued videos showing what it said were the beheadings of two Japanese hostages, including the one the militants had wanted to trade. By last week, critics of the coalition and the government had come under fire for trying to turn the pilot’s plight to political advantage.

For someone in the elite forefront of Jordan’s air force — its 60 or more F-16s are its most important aircraft — Lieutenant Kasasbeh did not show any early interest in the military or in flying, his family said.

“It was just by happenstance,” his father, Safi Youssef Al-Kasasbeh, said Sunday. During his last year in high school, his son, the fourth of eight children and the third son, had been planning to go to medical school in Russia, as his mother had long encouraged. But he saw a notice in a Jordanian newspaper inviting candidates to see if they qualified for the air force, and, on a lark, Lieutenant Kasasbeh applied for what would be a prestigious position.

To everyone’s surprise, he was chosen over hundreds of other applicants and went straight to flight school instead of to college. He was commissioned as an air force officer in 2009.

His eldest brother, Jawad Safi al-Kasasbeh, an engineer seven years older than Moaz, took his captivity particularly hard. Twice, Jawad had saved his younger brother’s life when he was a small child: once when Moaz accidentally started a fire, and another time when he nearly stuck a nail in an electric socket.

“Now, when he really needs me, I can’t do anything,” Jawad said. “I was the one who was supposed to support him, to be there for him.”

Jawad even helped introduce him to his future wife, Anwar, the sister of Jawad’s best friend. The couple had moved into an apartment of their own, in the family’s hometown, Al Karak, so Moaz could be close to his parents, instead of near the air base a couple hours’ drive away. Moaz often visited his parents on days off, and the last time Jawad saw him, five days before he was captured, he had been taking his father’s car to Amman for repair.

Far from the speed-addict image of the fighter pilot, his family said, Moaz was austere in his personal habits. His car was a nine-year-old Mitsubishi Lancer, and he rarely wore jeans, preferring suits when he was not in uniform.

His brothers and his parents agreed that Lieutenant Kasasbeh had always been the favored son, the one closest to the parents among the eight siblings. He usually got his own way with his father, but not always.

Like Anwar, Jawad recalled how much his brother had wanted a pet rabbit and how he had badgered their father, who said they had no place to put it. So Moaz built an enclosure in the yard and asked again. When his father said they had no food for the animal, Moaz gathered rabbit food and stocked the enclosure. Still no. So he got his baby sister and put her there, saying, “See, she’s my rabbit now.”

Tears came to Jawad’s eyes as he recalled that story. Before she learned of her husband’s death, Anwar, his wife, worried that he would be upset if he returned home to learn that, distracted by concern over his plight, no one had taken care of the rabbits, and they had escaped.

Rukmini Callimachi and Somini Sengupta contributed reporting from New York; Rana F. Sweis from Amman, Jordan; and Karam Shoumali from Istanbul.

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My lawyers instructed to institute criminal and civil proceedings against  an UMNO  blogger Syed Akhbar Ali for his defamatory tweet insinuating that I am a communist and racialist who is anti-Malay who caused the May 13 race riots

I have instructed my lawyers to institute criminal and civil proceedings against an UMNO blogger Syed Akhbar Ali for a defamatory tweet late last night insinuating that I am a communist and a racialist who is anti-Malay who caused the May 13 race riots.

Syed Akhbar’s tweet carried a graphic  of me in the garb of Mao Tse Tung, alleging that I am “Bapa 13 Mei”, and accusing me of having  caused the May 13 race riots in 1969 because of my  anti-Malay  statements and slogans, with a caption  “’MELAYU KELUAR! APA LAGI DUDUK SINI, KITA HENTAM LU, SEKARANG KITA SUDAH ADA KUASA” LIM KIT SIANG (BAPA 13 MEI).

The graphic in Syed Akbar’s tweet alleged that I had made the following statements in  the following places and dates:

1. Menggunakan slogan “Malai-Si” bermaksud “Mati Melayu”.

2. “Apa polis boleh buat, kita Raja. Buang sama polis Melayu.”

     – (11 Mei 69, Bukit Bintang)

3. “Mati Melayu, sakai pergi masuk hutan”.

– (11 Mei 69, Jalan Bukit Bintang).

4. “KL sekarang cina punya”.

– (11 Mei 69, Jalan Changkat Dollah)

5. “Melayu balik kampung, melayu sekarang tiada kuasa. Sekarang kita Cina sudah control.”

– (12 Mei 69, Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman)

6.  “Melayu keluar…! Apa lagi duduk sini, kita hentam lu, sekarang kita sudah ada kuasa…”

– (12 Mei 69, Jalan Khir Kampung Baru)

7. “…semua Melayu kasi habis, kasi halau semua polis.”

– (12 Mei 69, depan Balai Polis, Jalan Pudu)

8. “Apa ini Melayu, kita sudah perintah dia negeri, ini negeri bukan melayu punya, mata-mata lancau…!”

– (12 Mei 1969)

9. “Butuh Melayu, Malai si, pergi mati Melayu…”

– (12 Mi 69, Jalan Canvel).

10. “Ini negeri bukan Melayu punya, kita mahu kasi halau semua Melayu”

– (12 Mei 69, Jalan Bukit Bintang).

These are dastardly lies. Not only I have never said them (in fact, there are words and terms in this category which  I had never used in my life), I was never in Kuala Lumpur from May 11 – 13, 1969 during the May 13 riots which  the police Special Branch can vouch from their records.

There has  recently been an escalation in the language and rhetoric of hate, intolerance, bigotry and extremism based on lies and falsehood.

Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, age or gender must unite and declare that they will not allow these extremists and merchants of hate, intolerance and bigotry to destroy the peace, unity, harmony  and the future of multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural Malaysia  by their language, rhetoric and politics of hate and deceit.

I call on moderate and patriotic Malaysians to  unite to say No To Extremism and to have  Zero Tolerance for the politics of lies and hate.

Let my decision to institute criminal and civil proceedings against Syed Akbar Ali be the first blow of decent, moderate and patriotic Malaysians to save Malaysia from extremism and to declare “Zero Tolerance for the  Politics of  Extremism, Hate and Lies in Malaysia”.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 4 February 2015, 4:15 pm and is filed under
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Open Letter to Ministers an hour  before Cabinet meeting – Don’t be “half-past six Cabinet” of “deadwood” Ministers, and don’t be moral pygmies and political dwarfs but take a stand on behalf of present and future generations on the great issue of right and wrong in Malaysia

Only last Thursday, I had the occasion to comment that the Malaysian Cabinet Edition 2015 is probably the worst in the 58-year Malaysian history – acting like the traditional three monkeys with eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouths  that speak not.

This was when the Cabinet failed to repudiate and reprimand the Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan for his irresponsible and reckless statement that the restoration of local government elections could worsen racial polarisation in support of the equally bizarre statement by the PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang that the restoration of the third vote could cause a repeat of the May 13 race riots.

Abdul Rahman is the most irresponsible Local Government Minister in the nation’s history for no other Local Government Minister had ever made such a statement in the past 50 years since the suspension of local government elections on March 1965 on the ground of threat from Indonesian Confrontation.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had dismissed the previous Cabinet as “half-past six” and the former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin was no less caustic when he talked about “deadwood” Ministers.

But the  Cabinet 2015 seems set on proving Mahathir and Daim right  in their condemnation of the quality, character and even work ethics of the current batch of Cabinet Ministers.

The Cabinet 2015 had already totted up several major failures in the first month of the new year, including:

*Failure to conduct major  and proper public inquiry such as a Royal Commission of Inquiry  into the very botched-up disaster management, whether response, relief or reconstruction of the 2014 Floods, the worst floods catastrophe in living memory in Malaysia, resulting in 25 dead, a million flood victims, quarter of a million evacuees in flood relief centres and billions of ringgit of losses.

*Moral and Political Cowardice in failing to address the scandal of the Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi’s gross breach of Ministerial propriety, code of conduct and even violation of Official Secrets Act when he wrote the infamous letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) vouching for the character and integrity of an alleged gambling kingpin Paul Phua standing trial in Las Vegas, Nevada for illegal gambling, contradicting the earlier Malaysian police account to FBI – without the consent or knowledge of the Inspector-General of Police, the Foreign Ministry, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

*Failure to stop the crackdowns against human rights, whether against  university students and academicians, like the refusal to renew the contract of the University of Malaya deputy vice chancellor Professor Dr. Mohd Hamdi Abdul Shukor because of his refusal to support UMNO, the punitive action against the UM8 student leaders in the University of Malaya for organising a political talk or against freedom of expression, like police raid of the office of Malaysiakini’s cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Hague, better known as Zunar, in police investigations under the Sedition Act.

Today, the  Cabinet 2015 will be facing an acid test, as to what it proposes to do with the racist fulminations of the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob when urging  Malays consumers to boycott Chinese businesses to compel them to lower prices.

Sabri’s clarification of his earlier racist fulminations on Facebook has only added insult to injury, putting salt to the wound of plural Malaysia having a Minister who is such a rabid racist.

If Sabri had called on consumers to unite against profiteering and unethical businesses, he would have received universal support, but he chose to do what should be an anathema for any Minister or political leader in multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysia –  to communalise and incite racial  and religious hatred and venom on an issue which has nothing to do with race or religion.

Sabri had compounded the sins of rabid racism with rank dishonesty when he resorted to lies and falsehoods to incite racial and religious hatred, conflict and tension in the country.

In fact, he committed four sins in two short sentences when he said

“Malays are still refusing to boycott (Old Town White Coffee) what more when its owner is said to be the DAP Ngeh family of Perak who are known to be anti-Islam.

“As long as the Malays don’t change, the Chinese will take the opportunity to oppress the Malays.”

First, fanning racialism and hatred  in inciting Malays to boycott  Chinese businesses.

Second, spreading the lie that Old Town Bhd is owned by “DAP Ngeh family” when the information is in the public domain that former DAP Perak Chairman for 16 years, Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham and his family does not own a single sen of share in Old Town Bhd.

Third, fanning religious hatred, conflict and tensions by  spreading the false accusation that  DAP leaders are “known to be anti-Islam”.

Fourth, spreading the lie that the Malays are oppressed by the Chinese, when the greatest oppressors of the Malays and bumiputras are the Umno-putras.

The Ismail Sabri episode bears out the concern expressed by the Yang di Pertuan

Agong two weeks ago that he had never been more concerned about race and religious relations in the country since ascending to the throne 57 years ago in 1958 – a year after the country’s independence.

The Yang di Pertuan Agong had said: “I have been on the throne for 57 years. Even though I have witnessed many incidents, I have never been this worried about race and religious relations, which are becoming brittle.”

The Yang di Pertuan Agong is right. Never before in the past 58 years have a Minister behaved in  so irresponsible, reckless  and racist a fashion as to call for a boycott along racial lines such as  urging the Malay consumers to boycott the Chinese businesses.

What is the Cabinet going to do on the Ismail Sabri issue?

Treat Ismail Sabri as a hero like the gathering of former UMNO Youth leaders yesterday, with Ministers lining behind Sabri with “We Are All Ismail Sabri” endorsements?

Another “traditional three monkeys” performance of eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouths that speak not?

Or take the bull by the horns and  rise up to the occasion to take a clear-cut stand on the great Rights and Wrongs in our country, one of which must be “Zero tolerance for racism and extremism”.

Malaysia is at an important cross-roads in our nation-building. Are we to continue on the path of moderation and multi-racialism to build unity, harmony and national greatness or are we going to allow extremism, intolerance and rank racialism and religious bigotry to hijack the nation-building process,  resulting in national division and discord and  paving the way for Malaysia to join the ranks of the failed states.

The Ismail Sabry issue is not an issue of UMNO or BN, nor is it an issue of Malay, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans, or Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and Sikhs.

The issue is whether a rabid racialist who could openly call for a confrontation of races, i.e.  Malay consumers boycott Chinese businesses, is qualified to continue as a Minister  of a government of a plural nation and whether all other Ministers, whether UMNO, MCA, Gerakan, the Sabah and Sarawak BN parties, are prepared to be identified with Ismail  by continuing to serve in the same Cabinet.

This is why I am writing this Open Letter to all Ministers  an hour  before the Cabinet meeting today with the message: “Don’t be ‘half-past six Cabinet or ‘deadwood’ Ministers, and don’t be moral pygmies and political dwarfs!”

Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, gender or age expect the Cabinet Ministers to take a stand on behalf of the present and future generations on the great issues of right and wrong in Malaysia!

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 4 February 2015, 8:09 am and is filed under
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35 Ministers of Najib Cabinet 2015 made history – proving to have comprehension problems worse than ordinary school children who are already several years behind other countries

Although the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin claims that Malaysia has the best education system  in the world, better than  Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, international educational tests like PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) have consistently shown that Malaysia’s 15-year-old students are not only below the international average in the three critical subjects of reading, science and maths but four or even five years behind their peers in the top-performing countries/regions in Shanghai, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.

But it is fortunate that the 35 Cabinet Ministers did not represent the country in these PISA and TIMSS tests or Malaysia would be ten or even more years behind  other countries.

This is because the Cabinet today has created history and a record of sorts, demonstrating that the 35 Ministers in the Najib  Cabinet 2015 have comprehension problems worse than ordinary school children who are already several years behind other countries.

This is because  even the average  school children would not have made the colossal error committed by the 35 Ministers today in concluding that the  call by the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses was not targetting Chinese traders alone but aimed at all traders.

After the Cabinet meeeting, the police today called up Ismail Sabri for investigation over his racist call on his Facebook to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese business, which prompted my tweet: “Sheer rigmarole when PMO has cleared Ismail Sabri”.

This has only made the police, the overwhelming majority of whom are dedicated and professional officers committed to the duty to maintain peace and uphold law and order, look very foolish.

On Monday, when Ismail  went overboard with his racist fulminations on his Facebook calling on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese business, I had occasion to ask the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar whether his twitter account had broken down or whether Bukit Aman had suffered a breakdown of Internet  access, as he had been strangely quiet for several hours on his twitter account.

One of Khalid’s trademarks as IGP is to immediately take to the twitter to direct his police officers to investigate political or civic society leader (but not from Barisan Nasional) for any infringement of the law in their statements or speeches, and I myself was such a  victim, when the IGP twittered that the police would investigate me under the Sedition Act for saying on the fifth anniversary of the death of Teoh Beng Hock that his killers have yet to be brought to book as Beng Hock did not commit suicide by jumping off the 14th floor of MACC in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009.

It was a few hours after my tweet that Khalid took to the twitter to say Ismail would be investigated, but all this was only for show, full of light and thunder but meaning nothing.

The Cabinet meeting today is the most disgraceful in the nation’s history as the Cabinet Ministers just fell short of former UMNO youth leaders who gathered  yesterday with the “I am Ismail Sabri” placard endorsement.

It shows that the 35 Ministers are incapable of taking a stand on the Great Rights and Wrongs in the country.

Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, gender or age will have to  pass  judgment on the quality and character of the 35 Cabinet Ministers, for no Malaysian has brought more shame and disgrace to the country’s international reputation and standing than the Cabinet Ministers themselves since the start of the new year.

(Speech at the DAP Sarikei Dinner in Sarikei on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 February 2015, 12:39 pm and is filed under
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If there is nothing wrong with his Facebook post calling on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses, why has Ismail Sabri deleted the post?

Malay Mail Online today reported that “due to his busy work schedule” the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is not expected to give his police statement this week over his controversial Facebook post call on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses.

Yes, Ismail is now very busy basking in the glory of a new “hero” status after  political pressure was invoked in the Cabinet, resulting not only in 35 Ministers, but also the two MCA  Minister who had been breathing fire and brimstone against Ismail’s racist remarks  before yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, to meekly accept that Ismail’s call on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses were actually a very smart call to all traders and not at those of a certain race to reduce prices!

Nobody knows how the two MCA Ministers could square the circle, but clearly they have acquired such superior art of political somersaults not understood by ordinary mortals, including ordinary politicians.

However, if the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar’s tweet  directing a police investigation into Ismail’s Facebook post making the racist call to Malays to boycott Chinese businesses is still to be taken seriously after the Cabinet clearance of Ismail’s Facebook post,  shouldn’t the police be investigating the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the entire Cabinet to learn how they could transform Ismail’s racist call to Malay consumers to boycott to Chinese businesses into a call to all traders and not at those of a certain race to reduce prices?

Not only Malaysians, but the world would like to know how the Malaysian Cabinet achieve such a double miracle, firstly transforming a racist all to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses into an all-embracing call covering all races in the country; and secondly, an even bigger miracle, to convert political leaders, like the two MCA Ministers, who were absolutely convinced of the racist  nature of Ismail’s Facebook post before the Cabinet meeting, into accepting that Ismail’s posting was not racist at all!

Be that as it may, will the police also investigate Najib and all the other 34 Ministers in the Cabinet as to how they had transformed a racist call into a non-racist call?

Ismail said that he had done nothing wrong in his Facebook post and would not apologise, In fact, he is feted as a national hero – bigger than even the Home Minister Zahid Hamidi.

But if there is nothing wrong with his Facebook post calling on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses, why has Ismail Sabri deleted the post from his Facebook?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 February 2015, 2:45 pm and is filed under
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PAS veteran backs DAP’s third vote bid

The Malay Mail Online

February 3, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 — Despite his party president’s opposition, PAS veteran Datuk Wan Abdul Muttalib Embong has voiced support for DAP’s bid to restore local government elections.

The former lawyer who had also previously acted as the Islamist party’s legal adviser said withholding local elections from being carried out showed democracy was only being half-practised, Sinar Harian reported today.

“We don’t know what their structure is like but (what’s wrong) in in us giving democracy?

“Do you (the government) want 50 per cent democracy? Can’t be like that, you (as the government) are not transparent,” he was quoted saying by the Malay daily.

Wan Abdul Muttalib said since elections were already being held at the state and federal levels, the third vote should also be restored to show that Islamic administrators were also just.

The disagreement over the third vote is the most recent flashpoint between PAS and DAP, who have been trading barbs over the Islamist party’s plan to enforce Islamic penal law in Kelantan.

DAP had proposed that its Pakatan Rakyat allies adopt Penang’s approach and enact state laws in Selangor and Kelantan to try to return the third vote to Malaysians.

PAS, however, accused DAP of acting unilaterally in seeking to restore local council elections, in apparent retaliation the latter’s vehement attacks over the Islamist party’s hudud ambition.

Local council elections were suspended in 1965 because of the Indonesian Confrontation and then-prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman promised the Dewan Rakyat that the third vote would be restored once the Confrontation was over.

They were never brought back; Parliament subsequently passed a law in 1976 abolishing local elections.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 5 February 2015, 1:13 pm and is filed under
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IGP Khalid should just call off his twitter directive on Monday to police officers to investigate Ismail Sabri for his racist call to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses now that the Cabinet has massaged it into an inoffensive call to all traders and not directed at any race

It would appear that the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has also become victim of the Ismail Sabri virus as to make him say and do weird, outlandish or unacceptable things but  putting up a pretence that what he is doing is the most normal, routine or ordinary thing.

Ismail made a rabidly racist call on Malay consumers to boycott Chines business and is trotting round the country basking as a hero as he felt vindicated not only by UMNO leaders lining up behind him  with the placard “We Are All Ismail Sabri”, but by the Cabinet as well.

On Wednesday, the entire Cabinet succumbed to the Ismail Sabri virus when the Cabinet decided, as announced in a subsequent Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) statement, that Ismail’s call did not target Chinese traders alone but was aimed at all traders.

The PMO made a gem of a statement, which should framed for all posterity, stating:

“We were informed that his statement was aimed to reprimand traders who refuse to reduce the price of goods even when the price of fuel has reduced.

“The reprimand was aimed at all traders and not at traders of any particular race. He also suggested that consumers use their buying power to force traders to reduce the price of goods.”

The police has not been spared the Ismail Sabri virus attack, as the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar reiterated today that the police will not call off its investigations involving Ismail Sabri but will continue with its probe.

On Monday, after Ismail went overboard with his racist fulminations on Facebook calling on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese business, I had asked the Inspector-General of Police whether his twitter account had broken down or whether Bukit Aman had suffered a breakdown of Internet access, as he had been strangely quiet for several hours on his twitter account on Ismail’s transgression.

One of Khalid’s trademarks as IGP is to immediately take to the twitter to direct his police officers to investigate political or civic society leader for any infringement of the law in their statements or speeches, and I myself was such a victim, when the IGP twittered that the police would investigate me under the Sedition Act for saying on the fifth anniversary of the death of Teoh Beng Hock that his killers have yet to be brought to book as Beng Hock did not commit suicide by jumping off the 14th floor of MACC in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009.

It was a few hours after my tweet that Khalid took to the twitter to say Ismail would be investigated.

However, with the Cabinet exonerating Ismail from any transgression, it is the height of ridicule for the police to continue with the rigmarole claiming that the police will still investigate Ismail’s “innocuous” (according to the Prime Minister and Cabinet) call on Malay consumers to boycott  Chinese businesses.

Khalid should just call off his tweet directive on Monday to police officers to investigate Ismail as nobody believes that the police will dare to  find the Prime Minister and Cabinet wrong and in violation of the law in massaging Ismail Sabri’s racist call to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses into an inoffensive call to all traders and not at those of a certain race.

Why waste police time and resources on an investigation into the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-based Industry when it is obvious even to a child that such police investigation will not be going anywhere?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 6 February 2015, 4:35 pm and is filed under
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Instead of rage and rant over the racism and hypocrisy of the Ismail Sabri episode, scorn and mockery will be more powerful weapons which can even bring down the entire edifice of Najib premiership

Three serious political disasters afflicted the Najib premiership in the past two months:

·      * firstly the botch-up in all the three phases of response, relief and reconstruction of the disaster management plan and preparedness of the Federal Government in the Floods 2014, the worst floods catastrophe in living memory, as the damages in terms of 25 dead, a million flood victims with a quarter million in the various flood relief centres and billions of ringgit losses could have been minimised;

·    *   secondly, the shameful episode of the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi’s infamous letter to the US Federal Bureau of Investigationhs (FBI) vouching for the character of alleged gambling kingpin Paul Phua, standing trial in Las Vegas, Nevada for illegal gambling, in contradiction of previous earlier police report to FBI and even more serious, without the knowledge or  approval of the Police, the Foreign Ministry or the Prime Minister, and being caught red-handed with lie after lie like the denials by previous Home Ministers that they had written similar letters and with the Cabinet kept completely in the dark and dare not do what is right on the matter; and

·       *Thirdly, the craven and dishonest stand of the 35 Ministers in the Najib Cabinet 2015 on the racist call by the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Datuk Ismail Sabri, to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses was not targeting Chinese traders alone, but aimed at all traders – which reminds one immediately of Hans Christian Andersens immortal tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Of the three political disasters afflicting Prime Minister Najib and his Cabinet, it is the third episode which is capable of bringing down the entire edifice of the Najib premiership down in ruins.

There are two responses to the Ismail Sabri saga, one is to rage and rant at such racism and hypocrisy as well as arrogance and chicanery, the other to scorn and mock at such stupidity and idiocy, as to try to enact a modern-day Emperor’s New Clothes – which is why I had commented that the 35 Ministers in the Najib Cabinet 2015 had made history, in trying to prove that they have comprehension problems worse than ordinary Malaysian school children who are already several years behind their peers in other countries.

Images and words about the Ismail Sabri saga have been competing since Monday to be the most fatal and lethal to destroy not only Ismail’s credibility but that of the Prime Minister and the entire Barisan Nasional leadership.

Which of the following has the most fatal and lethal effects for such a purpose –

*Ismail’s initial Facebook post;

·       *the phalanx of UMNO Youth leaders giving full endorsement holding placards of “We Are All Ismail Sabri”;

·       *the craven Cabinet decision and the shocking PMO’s statement justifying Ismail’s racist call;

·      * Ismail Sabri appearing on TV and going around basking in the glory as the new–found hero;

·      * the picture of the MCA President and Transport Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai and Ismail Sabri “all smiles” at the KLIA yesterday demonstrating great bonhomie despite their purported differences in the Cabinet over the latter’s racist call.

So sad, for the Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders  don’t know what they do, in destroying whatever is left of their credibility and political integrity.

It is still not too late for  Ismail Sabri to salvage the situation for himself and the Najib premiership – which is to do what is right from the beginning, to apologise for his racist call and to resign in cognisance that he had committed an unpardonable sin as a Minister in a plural society in acting and behaving like a rabid racialist when he should have conducted himself as a moderate and model Malaysian.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 6 February 2015, 12:20 pm and is filed under
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“Mengenang Negarawan, Meraikan Sasterawan”

Puisi ‘Air yang berkata’ di bawah ini ditulis khas oleh Sasterawan Negara A. Samad Said bersempena pelancaran Gabungan Impian Kelantan di Kota Bharu pada 31 Januari 2015.

Pak Samad berkongsi tarikh lahir dengan Bapa Kemerdekaan, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj pada 8 Februari.

Sebuah forum memperingati hari lahir Tunku serta meraikan hari lahir Pak Samad bertajuk
“Mengenang Negarawan, Meraikan Sasterawan”
 akan dianjurkan oleh Roketkini pada:-

Tarikh:
7 Februari 2015 (Sabtu)

Masa:
2 petang

Tempat: Mandarin Court Hotel, Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur.

Google Maps :
http://goo.gl/TWTrlq

Semua dijemput hadir!

~~~~~

Air yang berkata

Alam berkabar melalui mega,

jeritan ngeri dari samudera.

Banjir menguji dan gempar mencabar,

kerdip amaran dan kerlip iktibar.

Tergertak tetiba tersentak perih,

tercelik dan insaf geletar rintih;

di atas buana indah yang resah

tersentak kita dicakar cuaca.

Setiap cabangan berlinang lemah,

jatuh dan bangun sesenyap berhikmah.

Wajah lautan, tasik serta sungai,

pondok, rumah, jembatan juga denai,

sesekali gempar menampar debar,

lara yang mengasuh kita bersabar.

Telahpun terdandan reretak tanah,

mulailah tapak membina rumah,

sepenuh tabah, insaf dan mengerti,

mangsa banjir berdiri gah kembali.

Setiap cabaran mengirim erti

kiasan bertenun seindah budi.

A. Samad Said

24-27.1.2015

                This entry was posted on Friday, 6 February 2015, 5:27 pm and is filed under
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On Jackie Chan and boycotting racism

Dyana Sofya

Malay Mail Online

February 6, 2015

FEBRUARY 6 — Displaying form befitting a philistine Perkasa member rather than a Cabinet Minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s recent open call for Malays to band together to boycott Chinese businesses in order to punish them for causing price hikes is ridiculous, to say the least.

It is also apparent that the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister is detached from everyday Malaysian reality, because the last I checked, the rising prices at the local mamak I frequent for my curry fix on cheat days prove that inflation is not coincidental with race.

Racism starts from the top

However, Ismail Sabri’s comments comes as no surprise as it is the modus operandi of Umno leaders to resort to race-baiting and scapegoating rather than confront the truth. In fact, he has since been unapologetic about it.

After all, what reason is there for him to apologise when even the prime minister is content to shrug it off without so much as a reprimand? Taking the cue from their leader, other Umno members and even a former minister have actually come out in support of the statement, proclaiming that “we (they) are all Ismail Sabri”. If by that they mean they are all unintelligent racists, then I fully agree.

The writer says the only placard that Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob deserves is the infamous Jackie Chan ‘What the eff’ meme.The writer says the only placard that Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob deserves is the infamous Jackie Chan ‘What the eff’ meme.In fact, I would add that the only placard that Ismail Sabri deserves is the infamous Jackie Chan “What the eff” meme. Or is it Datuk Jackie now?

A minister should find solutions, not cause problems

Surprisingly, even former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been more level-headed on this issue, stating that instead of playing the race card, Ismail Sabri should find out the real cause of the problem and solve it. This statement was echoed by a group of young Malay activists from the DAP.

The irony is not lost on Malaysians, who are very well aware that this very minister who is attempting to lay the blame for inflation on the Chinese is himself in a position to actually affect government policies that could impact the livelihood of ordinary Malaysians.

If anything, he should be taking the blame for our economic woes as it is the BN’s policies that have created the situation of high debts and low disposable income amongst Malaysians.

Is it the fault of the Chinese that the median wage of Malay workers is RM1,600 a month? How can it be, when even the median wage of Chinese workers does not exceed RM2,000 a month? The sad fact is that more than half of all Malaysian workers of all races are stuck in a low-income trap. And there is no hope to escape as long as cost of living continues to escalate without a corresponding rise in productivity and wages.

But why try to fix real problems when you can simply put the blame on others? Perhaps Ismail Sabri will also find a scapegoat for the GST when its implementation meets with public backlash.

Malaysians stand up for Malaysians

The truth is that there is nothing racial about our economy. We no longer live in 1969 when economic functions are exclusive to racial domains. Today, our economic and social relationships are so intertwined with each other that the boycott of any group would lead to great negative consequences.

According to the writer, good deeds go beyond racial boundaries, as do profiteering and rent-seeking which could be seen in the way Malaysians responded to give out aid during the recent floods. — Picture by Choo Choy MayAccording to the writer, good deeds go beyond racial boundaries, as do profiteering and rent-seeking which could be seen in the way Malaysians responded to give out aid during the recent floods. — Picture by Choo Choy MayHowever, I take solace in the fact that the reality on the ground is nothing like what is depicted by Ismail Sabri. Here I would like to share my experience during the recent flood relief efforts.

In the first few days of the flood crisis, there was a great need to provide essential supplies for the victims in the East Coast. While going from store to store to purchase goods and supplies, we came across many Chinese shop owners who, upon discovering that we were collecting aid for the flood victims, gave us very generous discounts.

Many of them even sold us goods at cost price, simply because they wanted to contribute to fellow Malaysians in distress, even if the majority of them were Malays.

In fact, many Chinese-based NGOs were not only amongst the first to arrive at the scene with aid, but also the most efficient in assisting the victims on the ground. Thankfully, most Malaysians do not share Ismail Sabri’s point of view. Just imagine, what if these Chinese businesses and volunteers decided to boycott the Malays who were in need?

Good deeds go beyond racial boundaries, as do profiteering and rent-seeking. Hence, it is unwise and even impossible to compartmentalise the economy the way Umno tries to. In this regard, if there is a need to boycott anything, we should boycott racism.

#Boycottracism

                This entry was posted on Friday, 6 February 2015, 3:03 pm and is filed under
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When did PAS Muktamar pass a resolution  to oppose restoration of the third vote  as since the seventies, PAS position in Parliament was to support  restoration of local government elections?

The restoration of the 50-year suspension of local government elections is an important building block not only for democracy but also for plural nation-building in Malaysia.

It has nothing whatsoever with the 3Rs of race, religion or rulers, as some are trying to imply.

Like other countries, local government is concerned with the other 3Rs of “Rates, Roads and Rubbish” although the scope of local government responsibility has expanded by leaps and bounds worldwide, such as including community services like libraries and parks, tourism, urban renewal, community health services, accessible transport and pollution control.

Elected local government is to empower citizens with the democratic right to participate in the third tier of democratic governance to take ownership of  the decision-making process about their immediate environs – serving as a training ground for citizens in the direct experience of democratic governance at the grassroots level.

The restoration of local government elections, or the third vote, has recently and suddenly become a subject of controversy, marked by many myths, misconceptions and downright lies. Let us deal with some of them.

FIRST,
 there is the myth and misconception  that DAP had suddenly sprung this issue from no where, adding aggravation to the Pakatan Rakyat crisis which is already bedeviled by the hudud differences between DAP and PAS in Pakatan Rakyat.

I want to stress that the DAP will strive our utmost to live up to the hopes and trust of Malaysians, who have given Pakatan Rakyat 52% of the national vote in the 13th General Elections to bring about change and improvement in the quality of life in the country.

The Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council is finally meeting this Sunday, and DAP is fully committed to fulfill the people’s hopes and trust in PR based on two basic principles: firstly, the reaffirmation of the Common Policy Framework which had been the guiding policy bedrock for the three component parties of DAP, PAS and PKR in PR since the formation of PR in April 2008; and secondly, reaffirmation of the basic PR operational principle that PR operates on the basis of consensus of the three component parties and that the PR Leadership Council is the highest decision-making body of the PR.

Based on the continuation of these two fundamental principles which had been PR’s guiding compass since the PR formation in April 2008, DAP is prepared to walk the last mile to sustain PR.  There will  be no PR however if these two guiding principles are  rejected and jettisoned.

It is a great fallacy that the DAP had suddenly sprung the subject of the restoration of the third vote from nowhere on PR or on PAS.

The restoration of local government had always been the objective of DAP ever since our formation in 1966.

In fact, the restoration of the third vote was one of the issues in the Oct. 1968 parliamentary by-election of Segamat Utara which saw the first election of Musa Hitam as MP.

The restoration of local government elections is in line with the PR Common Policy Framework commitment to “strengthen local government democracy” and the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat 2013 General Elections Manifesto which promised a People’s Government in PR’s second term in Selangor, with the specific undertaking to “carry out decentralization through a gradual implementation of Local Government Elections”.

With such specific and clear-cut commitments to the restoration of the third vote in the PR Common Policy Framework and the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat 2013 General Elections Manifesto, how can anyone suggest that the DAP had “sprung” the issue of the restoration of the third vote from nowhere?

In fact, in March 2010, Selangor Mentri Besar and the Penang Chief Minister wrote separate letters in the name of the respective PR state governments to the Election Commission asking it to conduct local government elections in their respective states, but which was opposed by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

This meant that the Selangor PAS were not only privy, but a full party to the initiative taken by the then Selangor Mentri Besar  on behalf of all PR Excos to press for the restoration of the third voter.

How can anyone in Selangor PAS say that they had not supported the restoration of the third vote as a member of the Selangor PR Government in 2010?

The DAP did not “spring” any surprise on the other PR parties with our stand on the restoration of the third vote, which is in line with the PR Common Policy Framework, the Selangor PR 2013 General Election Manifesto and the initiative by the Selangor Mentri Besar and Penang Chief Minister in March 2010 pressuring the Election Commission to conduct local government elections.

It is the PAS leadership which sprung the “surprise” on other PR parties about its vehement opposition to the restoration of the third vote, even warning that it could lead to a repeat of May 13 race riots.

I am not a member of PAS but I follow closely political developments in the country.

When did  PAS Muktamar adopt a resolution to oppose the restoration of the third vote?

This has come as a surprise to me as the PAS position in Parliament since the 70s was for the restoration of local government elections which was suspended on March 1, 1965 by the then Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman on the ground of threats from Indonesian Confrontation.

We can have differences and debates about the powers, the funding and even the restructuring of the local government authorities, whether we should keep to the 150 local authorities at present or return to the pre-Athi Nahappan Royal Commission Inquiry restructuring of some 400 local authorities but the principle of elected local government authorities is a core principle which cannot be compromised, as  it distinguishes democrats from non-democrats.

For this reason, I am heartened that there are strong democratic voices in PAS in support of the restoration of the third vote, like PAS veteran Datuk Wan Abdul Muttalib Embong, who was formerly Terengganu Exco member in the former PAS state government 1999-2004 as well as former PAS legal adviser, and other democrats in the present batch of PAS MPs.

The SECOND
 myth and misconception is the one spread by ISMA that the call for restoration of the third vote was a post-13GE grab for political power by the Chinese at the expense of the Malays – suggesting that DAP was behind such a “Chinese grab for political power” as some 60 per cent of the State Assembly seats in the country are already under the DAP control.

This is a total lie and fallacy as:

 (i)               DAP does not control 60% of the state assembly seats, as all the three Pakatan Rakyat parties of DAP, PKR and PAS did not even win 50% of the total state assembly seats in the 13th General Election. The total number and percentage of state assembly seats won by the three PR parties in the 13GE are 229 seats or 45% of the total of  505 state assembly seats in the country. This is broken down into 85 State Assembly seats for PAS, 95 for DAP and 49 for PKR,  or 16.8% for PAS, 18.8% for DAP and 9.7% for PKR out of he total of 505 state assembly seats.

(ii)             The DAP had never been a party for the Chinese or any one race or religion, as right from our establishment 49 years ago, DAP had been committed to the goal of being a party for Malaysians of all races and religions. In fact, DAP is the first Pan-Malaysian political party in Malaysia, with branches in all the states in the country.

THE THIRD
myth and misconception is  that the restoration of local council elections would benefit the Chinese at the expense of the Malays, ignoring the local government restructuring and the process of Malay urbanization in the past five decades, resulting in Malaysia  having 148 local authorities, about 90% of which have Malay majorities of over 50% of the population, while only two per cent or three of the 148 local authorities have Chinese majorities, leaving a balance of 13 with plurality of races, seven of which are Chinese-dominant and six Malay-dominant.

There are a total of 12 local authorities in Kelantan, ranging from the lowest of 92% Malays in Kuala Krai to the highest of 99.7% Malays in Dabong. Terengganu has seven local authorities, ranging from the lowest of 95.2% Malays in Kemaman to the highest of 99.7% Malays in Setiu.

Is it seriously suggested that if local government elections are held for these 29 local authorities in Kelantan and Terengganu, the Chinese will capture any of these local authorities when the percentage of Malays in these local authorities range from 92% 99.7%?

Where are the Chinese voters in these 29 local authorities in Kelantan and Terengganu to emerge from so as to allow the Chinese to  capture the Kelantan and Terengganu local authorities? Are they going to be “phantom” Chinese voters?

THE FOURTH
 myth and misconception is that local government elections is “communist” and “chauvinist” – whatever the latter means. Those who argue this are really ignoramus. Don’t they know that local government elections are also held in Indonesia, Turkey and Iran. Are they suggesting that President Jokowi of Indonesia, President Erdogan of Turkey and former Iranian President Ahmadnejad  are “communist” or “chauvinist” or Indonesia, Turkey and Iran are infested with  “communists” and “chauvinists”?

In three weeks time, it is the 50th anniversary of the suspension of local government elections. In five years’ time in 2020, Malaysia wants to join the ranks of the fully developed nations under Vision 2020.

There is no better time than now to demand the restoration of the third vote for Malaysians for Malaysia  cannot claim to have the necessary conditions to join the ranks of fully developed nations when we are not even prepared to restore the third vote in Malaysia, when elected local government was a right of the first Merdeka and Malaysia generation in the 50s and early 60s!

(Speech at the Roketkini forum “Benarkah pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan akan hakis hak Melayu?” at Mandarin Court Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 5th February 2015 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 6 February 2015, 8:38 am and is filed under
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Fear of Vladimir Putin grows in EU capitals amid spectre of ‘total war’

Ian Traynor, Europe editor

Guardian

6 February 2015

Analysis: That Angela Merkel has gone to Moscow speaks to the sudden gravity of the situation in east Ukraine

In Brussels and other European capitals, the fear of Vladimir Putin is becoming palpable. The mood has changed in a matter of weeks from one of handwringing impotence over Ukraine to one of foreboding.

The anxiety is encapsulated in the sudden rush to Moscow by Angela Merkel and François Hollande. To senior figures closely involved in the diplomacy and policymaking over Ukraine, the Franco-German peace bid is less a hopeful sign of a breakthrough than an act of despair.

“There’s nothing new in their plan, just an attempt to stop a massacre,” said one senior official.

Carl Bildt, the former Swedish foreign minister, said a war between Russia and the west was now quite conceivable. A senior diplomat in Brussels, echoing the broad EU view, said arming the Ukrainians would mean war with Russia, a war that Putin would win.

Announcing the surprise mission to Kiev and Moscow, Hollande sounded grave and solemn. The Ukraine crisis, he said, started with differences, which became a conflict, which became a war, and which now risked becoming “total war”.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister and until recently the head of Nato, publicly voiced fears that Putin could expand what is seen as Soviet revisionism to countries now in Nato and the EU. In the Baltics, Putin might risk a little exercise in “hybrid warfare”, he said, just to test how the western alliance would react.

That Merkel has gone to Moscow is telling in itself and speaks to the sudden gravity of the situation. The Russian-speaking German chancellor has talked to the German-speaking Putin more than 40 times in the past year as the main western mediator on Ukraine. But until Friday she had never gone to Moscow. Only a few weeks ago she vetoed a summit in Kazakhstan with Putin because she believed there was no point negotiating with someone she no longer trusted.

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Putin is demanding that a large tract of eastern Ukraine, taken by force by his separatist proxies in recent weeks, be granted internationally licensed autonomy and that a new frontline be recognised as a basis for a putative ceasefire.

The parallel might be 1991 in Croatia when the Serbs took a quarter of the country and then consolidated their grip behind lines patrolled by UN peacekeepers. It crippled and destabilised Croatia.

European policymakers say this is Putin’s aim in Ukraine. In Croatia the land-grab lasted four years until Zagreb, gradually armed by the Americans and Europeans, quickly routed the Serbs militarily.

The big difference then was that the Serbs were stretched by a bigger war next door in Bosnia where eventually Nato bombed them to the negotiating table. That will not happen with the Russians.

Arming the Ukrainians, meanwhile, will open up big divisions between the Americans and most Europeans. Putin is playing on those divisions as he plays on splits between the Europeans. He does not need to try very hard. The divisions are ever-present over sanctions.

On Monday the EU will impose more sanctions, extending a blacklist of pro-Russia separatists and Russians by 19 names. These penalties are minor. The broader economic sanctions in force against Russian banks and companies are more serious. They lapse in July unless extended by all EU governments.

Last year the biggest opponent was Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, whose then foreign minister, Federica Mogherini, now coordinates EU foreign policy. The new leftwing pro-Russia Greek government may be this summer’s problem.

The sanctions policy has so far held up, but is showing acute strains. Senior diplomats from EU governments regularly say the sanctions are hurting but are not working because they have not changed Putin’s behaviour. The EU is split in two, with Britain leading the pro-sanctions side and a sizeable group complaining that the punishment has cost the EU an estimated 15% of exports to Russia. Germany is the pivot, the swing power.

Putin is increasingly seen as a reckless gambler who calls bluffs and takes risks, and is inscrutable, paranoid and unpredictable. Trying to work out what he wants is guesswork. The Europeans sound scared.

Ukraine is a huge problem for Europe, not least the dawning realisation that fixing it will cost tens of billions and will take a very long time. But for Europe it is becoming clear that the real nightmare is not Ukraine, but Putin’s Russia.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 February 2015, 6:53 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s flawed democracy

Syerleena Abdul Rashid

The Malaysian Insider

6 February 2015

According to The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, only 12.5% of the world’s population in under governments that practice “full democracy”. The EIU index further identifies that only 24 countries are “ull democracies” whereas 52 countries are regarded as “flawed democracies”. Malaysia, our great nation, is one of these countries.

Flawed democracies are defined as countries that even with the presence of free and fair elections,therein lay considerable drawbacks and limitations that magnifies the inadequacy of present political systems.

Although basic liberties or rights are recognised, they may sometimes only exist in theory and may not be practiced or applied.

A good example would be how Article 10 in our Federal Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, assembly and association: (a) every citizen has the right to freedom of speech and expression; (b) all citizens have the right to assemble peaceably and without arms; (c) all citizens have the right to form associations; but reality paints a grim picture of how such freedom have been greatly curtailed under the pretext to preserve peace and order.

The term democracy comprises of two Greek words, demos (people) and kratis (power), which simply denotes the idea of “people power” where citizens are given the authority to create governments, laws and regulations.

Additionally, the very same citizens have the power to see certain governments come to an end.

An ideal and true democratic government provides its people with excellent education, good healthcare, affordable housing and present equal opportunities to all. Under this concept, democracy simply recognises that all women and men are created equal and should live in safe environments – away from conflict, devastation and disorder.

Unfortunately for Malaysians, there are those within the ruling regime and several elected leaders who do not believe in that understanding of democracy.

Who can forget Minister of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s suggestion that our country is at “greater risk of greater polarisation of race should local government election is mandated,” or PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang, who warned Malaysians that if such elections were to be held, our country could see another May 13.

Most recently, Nik Abduh Nik Aziz shared his skewed view on democracy by affirming that “elections were neither the only way to obtain justice nor guaranteed to eliminate inequality”. He added that Islamic democracy was far superior to modern democracy – the one subscribed and sanctioned by modern society, but fell short in delivering full details on what defines or constitutes as Islamic democracy.

They believe that their brand of democracy works best in our society. The type that limits civil liberties, freedom of expression and speech, restricts social mobility and consents to institutionalised racism or in this case, reinforces Malay supremacy.

They simply fortify conservative philosophies camouflaged as modern democratic practices that are in line with docile Malaysian society, which is already by itself, highly contradicting and confusing to the well-learned Malaysian.

The ruling elite flaunts this brand of democracy which they claim offers protection to all. However, the average Malaysian realises that there is a certain fallacy to such claims.

The gap that exists between theory and practice has produced a divided social structure that favours one ethnicity more than the other(s) – where although all Malaysians are created equal, some are more equal than others.

Our government asserts the supremacy of one religious denomination, while disregarding what is enshrined in our Federal Constitution. This simply, does not provide the best basis for democracy to prosper neither does this encourage the development of public spirit nor does it support the nurturing of a more mature political culture – one that instills a strong sense of responsibility and social empowerment.

For most Malaysians, realising the limitations we, as a society, are made to endure under the guise of democracy is never an easy thing to digest. The average citizen understands democracy as an ideology where people get to vote for who they want or who they feel can best serve them and their community.

In another sense, democracy also stresses on personal freedom, liberty and choice.

It is based on the concept of majority rules; however, that isn’t the case for Malaysia. The result of GE13 was a huge wake up call for the nation which left many of us wondering “Is our country truly democratic at all?”

We know that the ruling regime failed to garner the popular vote and are nothing more than a minority government that simply cannot represent how a majority of Malaysians feel or think; thanks to gerrymandering and our flawed electoral system, the present administrators are not fitted with knowledge, compassion or insight needed to helm a nation and steer it into much needed social progress and economic prosperity.

Life in a democracy simply guarantees the unfettered development of the spirit and the unhampered expression of the mind. It does not thrive on the suppression of wisdom nor thought but encourages free thinking and discussions.

There must not be any Gestapo like rule – no ISA, no Sedition Act, no sudden disappearances in the dead of night, no death in custody and by all means, Malaysians must never be threatened for expressing our opinions on matters that we feel strongly about, such as questioning the competency of present leaders and half-baked policies that only may only be advantageous to our country’s elite.

Given the flawed democracy our country now complies too, as Malaysians, we need to understand and scrutinise these flaws in order to rectify the system, in hopes that, one day, our country too, can join the ranks of nations that profess and practice full democracy.

Whatever, or however, we choose to define democracy, there is without a doubt, that the democratic system simply promotes egalitarianism, social equality and opportunities that do not repress or suppress its citizens.

Democracy, even with all its defects and flaws as observed by local critics, still guarantees a better allocation of opportunities to the common woman and man. – February 6, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 February 2015, 2:41 am and is filed under
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Tunku and Pak Samad are quintessential Malaysians who must be the models for Malaysians to emulate if we want Malaysia to succeed as a truly developed nation by 2020

This is a “double honour” gathering, to remember a statesman Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia and to celebrate a national laureate, Pak Samad, not just because they share the same birthday on February 8, but because they are quintessential Malaysians, the embodiment of what a Malaysian should be, transcending race, religion and region, representing what is best for decent and civilized human beings, espousing the causes of  truth, freedom, justice and dignity for all.

Tunku and Pak Samad should be models for all Malaysians to emulate if we want Malaysia to succeed as a truly developed nation by 2020, as envisaged by Vision 2020.

A quintessential Malaysian is a rare commodity in Malaysia today, although we are in the fifth decade of nationhood – 57 years after Merdeka in 1957 and 51 years after the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

I am reminded of Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities (my Form Four textbook – and it is another sign of worsening times in Malaysia that our students today do not have such textbooks anymore) and how the novel started, which seemed also to describe the national situation in Malaysia today, viz:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

In her speech, Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan called on the nation to return to the basics and other speakers, Maria Chin Abdullah, PAS MP for Parit Buntar Dr. Mujahid Yusuf Rawa and our special guest of honour Pak Samad had spoken of the woes confronting the nation.

In the fifth decade of our nationhood, Malaysia has lost her way.

Can we get back our bearings, to be an united, harmonious and purposeful nation with a successful political, economic and educational system  leveraging on the best of the diverse races, religions, cultures and  languages finding confluence in Malaysia?

The answer must depend on whether we can nurture more quintessential Malaysians, who though remain as Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans,  or Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs or Taoists, are united by an overarching aspiration and common bond as quintessential Malaysians!

It is most unfortunate that there are no quintessential Malaysians among the 35 Ministers or the Najib Cabinet would not have shamed and dishonoured itself in its  craven handling of the Ismail Sabri episode, where a Minister’s rabid racist call to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses was sanctioned and defended as a call to all traders to reduce prices when the problem of price increases has nothing to do with race whatsoever.

The Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein did the nation no service when he said this morning that Ismail’s rabid racism is “nothing compared to the atrocities committed by ISIS militants”.

This shocking statement is in fact the best proof that the Ministers in the Najib Cabinet have lost their moral compass to distinguish right from wrong and their inability and incapacity to take a stand on the Big Questions of Right and Wrong in the country.

Does Hishammuddin want to see beheadings, human beings burnt alive and other ISIS atrocities committed in Malaysia?

Hishammuddin’s outrageous statement is completely unacceptable as the 35 Ministers seem content for Malaysia to be in the race of who is worst among nations (like “not as bad as ISIS atrocities”) instead of in a race of who is best!

Just before I was called up by the moderator Sdr. Edry to speak, I read of another forum this morning where Ismail was chastised by the panellists, including  former University Malaya vice chancellor Tan Sri Ghauth Jasmon, senior research fellow of Department of International and Strategic Studies, University of Malay Professor Datuk Mohammad Abu Bakar, lawyer and columnist Roger Tan and Chairman of Board of Trustees of 1Malaysia Foundation Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, who told Ismail to “think first before opening his mouth”.

Chandra suggested that the Prime Minister take his ministers for a retreat to advise them on what to say, but the problem is that the Prime  Minister himself has lost the capability to distinguish right from wrong.

In Tunku’s time,  Ismail would have been castigated for such rabid racism and even be sacked from the Tunku’s Cabinet.

What would Tunku have done if he is Prime Minister with regard to some of the controversies of the day?

The Tunku suspended local government elections on 1st March 1965 with the promise of restoring them when peace was restored. Such a suspension has lasted 50 years. However, I believe Tunku would have kept his word and restored local government elections if he had continued as Prime Minister.

I do not think Tunku, who had established  the Athi Nahapaan Royal Commission of Inquiry into the workings of the local authorities,  would have any hesitation in setting up a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the recent “worst floods catastrophe in living memory” to learn the reasons and mistakes for the botched-up floods disaster management in all three phases of response, relief and reconstruction , as the  flood damages could have been minimised and not the final toll of 25 lives, a million flood victims with a quarter of a million in the various flood relief centres and billions of ringgit of property losses, both public and private.

Tunku would no doubt be horrified by the rampant corruption today, and the subversion of the national institutions like the police, the judiciary and the civil service, which have lost their independence, impartiality and even professionalism evident in the early years of our nationhood.

One of Tunku’s most steadfast and uncompromising positions is his commitment to the bedrock principles of nation-building spelt out in the Federal Constitution – Malaysia as a  democratic, multi-racial and secular nation with Islam as the religion of the Federation and freedom of religion for other faiths practised by Malaysians.

Pak Samad, who has morphed from a National Laureate to become a People’s Laureate, is not only famous for his writings, but his commitment for democracy and justice, with his assuming the role of  co-chairman of the Bersih movement when he was nearing eighty years old.

His age did not dim his youthful energies for the cause of freedom and justice.

Malaysia needs more quintessenial Malaysians like  Tunku and Pak Samad to save our country.

Just now, Ambiga made a stirring call on all political parties, both government and opposition, and the civil society, to rise to the national challenge to put aside their differences and come together to address the plight of the people, particularly the issues of the economy and livelihood of the people, good governance  and the worsening race relations in the country.

On behalf of the DAP, I want to give instant public endorsement to Ambiga’s call.

Ambiga’s call for national unity and national reconciliation provides  leaders of political parties and the civil society the opportunity and challenge to become quintessential Malaysians like Tunku and Pak Samad – to put the interests of the nation above all other considerations.

Ambiga’s initiative will resonate among ordinary Malaysians. Will it resonate with the leaders of the Barisan Nasional component parties, and will UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the Barisan Nasional parties in Sabah and Sarawak endorse Ambiga’s call?

We will wait and see.

(Speech at the “Mengenang Negarawan Tunku, Meraikan Sasterawan Pak Samad” gathering at Hotel Mandarin Court, Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, February 7, 2015 at 2 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 February 2015, 8:39 am and is filed under
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Why is Najib the only one of six Prime Ministers to sanction, condone and defend the totally indefensible rabid racist statement of one of his Ministers?

The rabid racist statement by the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-based Industry  Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob calling on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses has snowballed from the aberration of one errant Minister to a crisis of an  entire errant Cabinet of 35 Ministers because of the extraordinary and outrageous decision by the Cabinet to sanction, condone and defend Ismail’s racist fulminations.

Today is  the first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman’s 112th birthday anniversary. I have no doubt that if the Ismail Sabry episode had happened in Tunku’s time as Prime Minister, Ismail would have been made to apologise for his racist fulminations and  even been sacked from Tunku’s Cabinet.

This was why in my statement six days ago on 2nd February, I had said:

“If a past Minister had done what Ismail did under the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, he would have been sacked on the spot immediately after the expression of such racist sentiments, for it would be conclusive proof of his total unsuitability to continue as a Cabinet Minister in a plural society.

“I think such a Minister would have been sacked by Tun Dr. Mahathir during his 22 years of premiership although Mahathir may now look for excuses to come to Ismail’s defence or rescue.”

Mahathir had proven me wrong, for he had publicly expressed his disapproval for Ismail’s racist fulminations, rightly pointing out that the rising cost of living had nothing to do with ethnicity.

But Mahathir had tried to soften his blow of  disapproval by saying: “Maybe he didn’t think (about) what he said. If he thinks carefully, he would not say boycott Chinese goods.”

Mahathir said Malay and Indian businesses were also not reducing their prices and not all traders are Chinese, stressing “This is not about Chinese or Malay, this is about oil prices going down, but goods prices are not going down.”

I do not think under Tun Abdullah’s premiership, there would have been place for such a rank racist in the Cabinet.

Why then is Najib the only one of six Prime Ministers to sanction, condone and defend Ismail’s racist fulminations when the other five Prime Ministers before him would never have done such a thing?

Is this because he is the weakest Prime Minister in the nation’s 58 year history?

All the other 34 Ministers have done a great disservice to their Ministerial offices and their own credibility and reputation in lining up behind Ismail to deny the undeniable, defend the indefensible that the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister had crossed the line of what is permissible for a Minister, in making a rabid racist call on a matter which has nothing to do with ethnicity.

Ismail had in fact betrayed his oath of Ministerial office, to serve all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region!

In sanctioning, condoning and defending Ismail’s racist fulminations, all the other 34 Cabinet Ministers, regardless of their political party of origin, have also betrayed their oath of Ministerial office!

The Cabinet on Wednesday (Feb. 11) should revisit the Ismail Sabri case, and it must be made clear to Ismail that he should unconditionally retract and  apologise for this baseless racist fulmination, or he should be sacked from the Cabinet if not as a decision of the Prime Minister, then as a decision of the Cabinet by way of a Cabinet resolution!

Malaysia cannot have a Minister who live in the world of “double think”, “double talk” and “double act”!

Now the country is also in danger of having a Cabinet of “double think”, “double talk” and “double act”.

Wednesday is the last opportunity for the Cabinet to prove that the 34 Ministers have pulled back from the precipice and have not joined the rank of Ismail Sabri to “double think”, “double talk” and “double act”

But rest assured, even if there is a Minister or Cabinet of “double think”, “double talk” and “double act”, the overwhelming majority of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, will not be subdued or cowed into a people of “double think”, “double talk” and “double act” for they will continue to be decent, sensible  and moderate human beings who will  not allow the rhetoric and politics of  hate, intolerance, bigotry and extremism to govern their lives!

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 February 2015, 11:23 am and is filed under
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