Perkasa: Najib ‘listened’ to our MRT requests

By
Clara Chooi
 | May 20, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — Perkasa praised Datuk Seri Najib Razak today, saying it was the prime minister who influenced Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (SPNB) to relax its criteria for contracts under the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project.

The party’s economic director, Dr Zubir Harun, told The Malaysian Insider that Najib had “listened” to concerns raised recently by Malay rights groups on how Bumiputera contractors were being excluded from opportunities in the multibillion ringgit rail project.

“The PM listened to Perkasa and reacted positively. Now, thanks to the PM who looked at our request, SPNB has more or less tried to ensure that all contractors — Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera — can get involved in the MRT and share the cake,” he said when contacted this morning.

Zubir claimed that during a walkabout earlier this month, Najib had already informed the groups that he accepted their concerns and SPNB would soon review its conditions.

“There was a large audience there who heard him. You can quote me on this. It was an announcement by the PM himself,” he said.

Zubir was responding to SPNB’s announcement yesterday that it had agreed to revise the pre-qualification criteria for contractors who wish to tender for elevated civil works, stations and depots work construction packages under the MRT.

The project owner said beginning today, contractors will be allowed to form joint ventures (JV) or consortiums involving no more than three firms to bid for the projects.

The elevated stations and depots work packages include building works, station M&E works, traction and power sub-station building works, park and ride facilities, depot building drainage, depot equipment and landscape works while the elevated civil works package include substructure works, elevated guide way structure and segmental girders.

Zubir said SPNB’s new guidelines now allowed equal opportunities for all firms to compete in the project tender.

He stressed that Perkasa’s requests were reasonable, pointing out that the group was only adhering to the promise of “inclusiveness” in Najib’s New Economic Model (NEM).

“If SPNB has stuck to its old model, requiring firms to have RM10 million in paid-up capital, then where is this inclusiveness that has been promised?

“This change shows that the PM is listening to the Malay groups and looking after the interests of the Bumiputera. At the same time, there is inclusiveness so all firms have a chance now,” he said.

Zubir added that there was no reason for any criticism on the matter as the revised guidelines only made sure that everyone would be able to “share the MRT cake”.

“It is a big cake. Do you not agree with me that we should all have a share in it? I am taking a very moderate stand here. This is how we view it.

“Why only allow the big players to enjoy? Does our request cause any trouble to people? Does it affect racial harmony? I think it is fair,” he said.

Perkasa, along with several other NGOs representing Bumiputera entrepreneurs, had complained last month that without allowing the formation of JVs, the smaller Bumiputera contractor firms would not be able to take part in the project tender.

During a press conference on the matter, Zubir had said that the strict guidelines would not only prevent Bumiputera participation but also benefit the “rich non-Bumis”.

He accused MMC-Gamuda monopolising the entire project, saying the JV had “purposely” enforced the guidelines.

The Malay rights leader had also complained of SPNB’s condition forcing firms to fork out a bond payment of RM300,000 at the pre-qualification level in order to bid for projects, which he said was unattainable to Bumiputera contractors if they were not allowed to form JVs.

“MMC-Gamuda itself is a joint venture… most big-scale government projects are, why not this?” Zubir had added.

The total project cost of the MRT was estimated at RM36.6 billion for three rail lines through the Klang Valley when it was first proposed two years ago but that projection did not include cost of land and also rolling stock for the MRT.

SPNB has also not finalised the financing and project manager’s fees for the MRT although planning has started for initial civil engineering work to begin in November.

Regulator Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) had said the Finance Ministry has set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to raise funds for the project but had admitted the method has yet to be determined.

The SPNB chief had also said some 100 firms have applied for pre-qualification for the 16 packages in the elevated part of the 51km-long MRT; the deadline for pre-qualification ended on April 13.

The MRT is the country’s biggest infrastructure project and also the largest National Key Economic Area (NKEA) project under Najib’s New Economic Model (NEM).

The massive project is expected to generate 130,000 jobs during its five-year construction phase. The government hopes that more than half of the population in Greater KL will use the public transport system to prevent traffic congestion.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 20 May 2011, 3:05 pm and is filed under
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Prasarana eases tender conditions

By
Yow Hong Chieh

The Malaysian Insider

May 19, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd appears to have caved in to pressure from Malay rights groups today when it revised pre-qualification criteria for several construction packages for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (KVMRT).

The project owner said contractors who wish to tender for elevated civil works, stations and depots work construction packages will be allowed to form joint ventures (JV) or consortiums among local companies starting from tomorrow.

“Prasarana has always been sensitive to all constructive views for our projects and the stand is reflected again in this decision, which was made purely based on the need to get more contractors to participate and the need to make the bidding for the KVMRT project more competitive,” the company said in a statement today.

“Although we have revised the pre-qualification criteria, Prasarana will continue to ensure that only genuine, qualified and competent contractors to be selected to bid for the work contract packages. We will review contractors based on their proven past track records and financial capacity.”

The joint venture or consortium, however, should not involve more than three companies and contractors will only be allowed to submit a maximum of two applications to “ensure a quality and efficient partnership”.

The elevated stations and depots work packages include building works, station M&E works, traction and power sub-station building works, park and ride facilities, depot building drainage, depot equipment and landscape works while the elevated civil works package include substructure works, elevated guideway structure and segmental girders.

Prasarana had on March 30 imposed additional criteria on contractors taking part in the project tender which disallowed them from forming joint ventures or consortiums.

Group managing director Shahril Mokhtar said this was to ensure that only “genuine, competent and suitably qualified” contractors who could meet the project deadline were selected.

“The pre-qualification criteria are not overly stringent and enable many experienced contractors to qualify on their own without entering into a joint venture with others,” he had said in a statement.

But Perkasa was quick to accuse Prasarana of blocking Bumiputera contractors from participating by enforcing “strict” guidelines that would only benefited “rich non-Bumis”, saying that MMC-Gamuda was “looting and monopolising” the project.

The Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia later asked the government to hand over the whole project to it as Bumiputera contractors were finding it hard to bid for tenders.

The KVMRT is expected to be the largest-ever construction project in Malaysia and had earlier been estimated to cost between RM36 billion and RM53 billion.

Prasarana has said, however, that those estimates are now outdated and new estimates will be made once the alignment is finalised in June.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 20 May 2011, 8:04 am and is filed under
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Teoh inquiry: A-G seeks to defer hearing of revision application

The Star online

Thursday May 19, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR: Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail has written to the Shah Alam High Court seeking to defer the hearing date of his revision application over the open verdict delivered by the Coroner’s Court following its inquest into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock.

The Shah Alam High Court is scheduled to hear the revision application on May 23.

The A-G wants Justice Datuk Wira Mohtarudin Baki, who will be hearing the application, to defer hearing date until the Commission of Inquiry investigating Teoh’s death makes its conclusions.

The commission had announced that a report of its findings will be handed over to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on June 24.

A copy of the letter by the A-G to the Shah Alam High Court was faxed to lawyer Karpal Singh, who is acting for Teoh’s family, late Thursday afternoon.

Karpal said he had written to the judge Thursday objecting to the A-G’s request and wanted the date to be retained.

“Let the judge hear the A-G’s application in open court on May 23 and and we (the legal team for Teoh’s family) will give our reasons why we are objecting to it,” said Karpal.

The commission initially had concluded its hearing on May 10 but reopened it Wednesday to allow counsel representing Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Datuk Seri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah’s request for a note written by Teoh prior to his death to be re-examined by the Chemistry Department.

On Jan 5, the A-G filed the revision application after Coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas the same day delivered an open verdict and ruled that the death of Teoh in 2009 was neither a suicide nor homicide.

Teoh, political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on July 16, 2009, on the fifth floor corridor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam after he had given a statement at the office of the Selangor branch of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the 14th floor of the same building. – Bernama

                This entry was posted on Friday, 20 May 2011, 5:32 am and is filed under
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The General Election is in July, folks!

By
Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad
 | May 20, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

MAY 20 — I wish I didn’t have to say this but better safe than sorry, so I’m going to say it anyway. I honestly hope I’m completely wrong but my sixth sense is telling me that I’m right again.

Yes, despite whatever the prime minister has said, is saying, and will be saying, about the date of the 13th General Election (GE), I dare say that it’s all meant to coax and delude us into believing that it’s not going to be a snap poll.

And for all the “excellent” track record of this government, it will be foolhardy to expect me for one to buy the assurances. All the more because this country oddly represents the remaining dinosaurs of a la Westminster electoral democracy, where only the premier (and his wife in the case of Malaysia) and God Almighty know exactly when a general election will be held!

It does sound very weird, but very true indeed. Even the UK, the origin and birthplace of a la-Westminster democracy, is moving towards setting election dates well in advance.

Come what may, Najib is hell bent on winning this GE. It is a do-or-die mission. As demonstrated by his now infamous quote, he will defend Putrajaya at all cost – “Even if our bodies are crushed and our lives lost, brothers and sisters, whatever happens, we must defend Putrajaya!”

Utmost in his political calculation is to win, plain and simple. This mandate is the be-all and end-all of his political struggle. Defeat is not an option. He is frantically desperate to secure victory.

Going by the spectre of the unending tumultuous events post-12th GE, and quite unlike all his predecessors, Najib is very wary and fully conscious that the going is onerous and the outcome almost unpredictable. The million-dollar question that begs an immediate answer now is when would it be most strategic and correct for him to conduct this 13-GE.

Despite dispelling speculation that the dissolution of the 12th parliament will be soon, this writer is far from convinced that Najib is honest at that. It’s not meant to be pejorative but quite on the contrary it is to depict him as a smart strategist, if indeed he is one.

The writer’s arguments are as follows:

Foremost in his consideration would be this strategic question: “what?” The “when” and “how” would follow suit. “What” is surely the most important question the master strategist has to answer for himself, and this cannot be delegated. Doing so would spell his doom. To be capable of executing it, it presupposes that he has gathered all the pertinent and critical information there are, from all “sources”, overt and covert.

Simply put, Najib would have to decide what it is he wants to achieve? He hasn’t much to choose from. Defeat is not an option as emphatically said earlier. So, he is left with either (a) regain his lost two-thirds majority in parliament or (b) win by a simple majority.

It is the belief of this writer that Najib has settled for the latter i.e. winning by a simple majority. He still harbours hopes that perchance, on a good outing, he can still wrestle back the two-thirds majority. But what’s the fuss behind making the choice, you might want to ask. Well, it is simply this.

If he chooses a simple majority, that is a lot easier to achieve. If he is passionate and insistent on regaining his two-thirds majority, he has to ensure that the strategic objective is achievable and he wouldn’t have the “degree of freedom” and flexibility to call for a snap election, a quick kill of sorts. This snap option would allow him to ambush his political enemies, when they will be caught flat-footed and foolishly grinning still.

This writer would like to believe that Najib is being very realistic and has settled for a simple win. The defining consideration for Najib is premised on the fact that delaying the GE is not going to do his party and the BN any favours.

Najib requires 112 seats to win. His own party is already in control of 79 seats. Assuming he doesn’t lose any, he only requires 33 seats to win. Even if in the worst-case scenario of Pakatan winning 10 parliamentary seats in Sarawak and eight from Sabah, Najib is still secure with 40 seats from the 58 seats (25+31+1) from his so-called “fixed deposit” states of Borneo. Najib could still make it home with 119 seats to win the “first-past-the-post” electoral system. The actual dynamic is, of course, more complex and fluid. This piece avoids that discourse.

Najib has also bought into the notion that his trajectory is almost at a plateau – on that “diminishing return” part of the S-curve. The recently concluded Sarawak state election spoke volumes of the hypothesis. He doesn’t want to be reminded of the marked swings of the various indigenous groupings of Sarawakians including the usually-docile-submissive Malay-Melanau grouping.

An 8 per cent nationwide swing especially in West Malaysia, as observed in the Sarawak election, would be catastrophic, and would kick him out of Putrajaya. That is a very grim scenario for Najib. Worse still, he doesn’t expect nor hope for this to reverse, even if given more time. In short, time is not the essence of winning back the trust that they have lost. MCA and MIC no longer provide the required additional support. If anything, they have become a liability to Najib.

The rot has gotten too deeply seated, almost terminal as in a cancer patient. Foremost, he doesn’t believe that the Chinese would make a comeback any time soon. No amount of cajoling the Chinese has been fruitful. Equally, if not more distressful for him, is that no amount of tough rhetoric has been productive either.

If anything, it has got from bad to worse. The last round of DAP-Christian state and Perkasa-crusade fiasco was simply too tragic for Najib’s approval rating, especially because he is seen as condoning Perkasa’s condescending rhetoric, the fighter-dog of Umno.

The premier has now to do the obvious. To borrow an investment cliché, he has to “cut-loss”. He has to swallow a lot of his ego and humble himself to the rakyat. Perchance they might want to forgive him but they, the rakyat and the electorates, shall not forget that it’s the two-thirds majority that has resulted in the BN’s decades of ruling with impunity. He has now only to settle for a win – a simple majority.

The next question that begs a prompt answer is a tactical one – the “when.” This is the most intriguing, though. Given the earlier argument, the answer is equally evident. If possible, he wants it today. Why? Well, it is the writer’s conviction that Najib is a coward. Nothing pejorative again though, please. But that is the plain naked truth. He is a very risk-averse personality. Incidentally, that doesn’t augur well with our emerging nation. It is just his demeanour, and it has to do with one’s personality. You can’t hide it.

Najib has never been known to be a risk-taker. He had it all so good so far, almost on a silver platter i.e. from his youthful days of becoming the Youth chief of Umno and all. Do you recall any challenging battles he waged to get to where he is now? Hardly, right? Right again.

In the same vein, Najib is not willing to subject himself to the dynamic of his own party’s check and balance. Given the growing undercurrent of dissent within the ranks of the warlords and the middle-upper leadership, Najib is going to use the coming GE as a convenient ploy to get the party’s wannabe candidates to toe the line. Traditionally, it’s the Umno president’s prerogative to decide the candidacy for the GE. Holding the GE early is surely to his advantage.

He dares not take them on a debate of his 1 Malaysia and “inclusiveness” rhetoric, which seems so diametrically opposed to Umno’s ideology of Ketuanan Melayu. Holding the election early would quell and quash all dissenting voices. That’s being crafty, but still in the mould of a “coward”. Again, he must hold the GE soonest.

Hence, Najib is now out to execute an elaborate decoy plan to delude his nemesis into believing that the election could very well be after Budget 2012, and could well fall on his magical feng shui date of 11-11-11.  But that is on a Friday, mind you. Ludicrous, you might be thinking. He will be cursed for having it on an auspicious Friday.

This writer has been informed by reliable sources that the Election Commission has been told to be prepared for any eventuality. Local authorities have also been warned to be on the alert. Most telling is the fact that Umno and the BN have now gotten down to having polling and counting agents identified by name, in all streams in the Polling Districts throughout the country. That’s the level of preparedness. This writer can vouch for that.

Najib very recently mooted the idea of having a mock election for Umno and the BN in July. While having a dry run is not unfamiliar especially for the ruling party, the announcement is odd and smacks of treachery. This fuels the notion of a well-contrived decoy.

Besides, Najib is not going to get much of the “feel-good” factor if he were to delay the timing for the 13th GE till after the Budget 2012. The adverse impact of spiralling prices of daily goods and essential services is not going to be reversed by the many goodies packaged and handed out by Najib in Budget 2012.

On a bigger scale, the global economy is even more challenging, and it’s not going to be merciful to emerging economies like Malaysia’s. The recent expose by the various global entities, like the World Bank (Malaysia Economic Monitor) — disparity in income distribution, Global Financial Investment — on illicit outflow of funds, UNCTAD (Global Investment Report), are very harmful to Najib’s approval rating. Delaying GE exposes Najib to worse “downside risks”.

Last but not least is the assessment of his nemesis, the Opposition Leader and the nascent Pakatan Rakyat. Will Najib be better off or worse off if he delays the GE?

Briefly, Najib has tried his level best to break the camaraderie of Pakatan Rakyat. That route is a no-go, it seems. His attacks seem to concretise further Pakatan’s solidarity.

His only plausible option is to further mount and intensify a hate campaign to damage and demolish the credibility of the PKR’s supremo. Meanwhile, deferring the GE would allow the Pakatan to oil their machineries further so as to overcome Sarawak’s predicament. Najib is not oblivious to this fact.

However, political pundits are divided about whether the delay in calling the GE might result in an “overkill” on the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim character assassination strategy. But the Malay-Muslim psyche is peculiar in matters of “attacks on individuals” especially if it pertains to people held in awe and respect by the community and the ummah. Najib is very suspicious of the Malays when it comes to this.

In conclusion, this writer has again to say it. Much as he hates that the 13th GE would be held before mid-July, he feels it is better to be safe in anticipating for it, rather than be sorry. In case Najib outsmarts Pakatan on this one.

I rest my case.

* Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad is a member of the PAS central working committee and MP of Kuala Selangor.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 20 May 2011, 1:00 pm and is filed under
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Tired of the racism

By B. Venugopal | May 20, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

MAY 20 — I would like to provide some feedback on the reasons I left the motherland and headed for greener pastures here in Australia. First and foremost is the biased and preferential treatment given to Malays ahead of other races in the country.

As a country that has been independent for 50 years and more, it is disgraceful that the government condones open racist practices through the lack of meritocracy in the universities, the lack of opportunities for non-Malays working in government agencies and if they do work in the government there is a quota system used for promotion to the highest level.

There is also the insistence of the government to include religion in all areas of our daily lives from work, to school and to functions when clearly, religion is a personal thing and should be practised individually without the government interfering.

Last but not least is the total lack of protection given to an individual, for example, the two people have fallen to their deaths from Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) offices. The police personnel also do not provide any protection whatsoever to the general population.

This is just but a brief insight into a lot more complaints and reasons why many non-Malays have left the country. We do not want to be discriminated against because of our race and religion.

That is why, in the West, religion is separate from government and the best people for the job are promoted, and even if there is bias, it’s not propagated by the government like how Umno uses Utusan Malaysia to target Indians and Chinese when most times, we could be third- or fourth-generation Malaysians and clearly more Malaysian than the Indonesian migrants brought in.

* We asked readers who have migrated to tell us in their own words why they left. This is one of the stories.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 20 May 2011, 5:54 pm and is filed under
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Where is home?

GLB

The Malaysian Insider

May 20, 2011

MAY 20 — I am an east Malaysian living abroad. Some 25 years ago, I left for my studies but not on any funding or scholarship. I remember it well… I was young and ambitious but somehow it was a tough financial situation for my parents.

To cut a long story short, with a bit of luck and contributions from farsighted individuals I landed in San Francisco with US$4,000 to my name. Big money back then.

But the 4K was barely enough for a semester’s tuition fee, room and board in a university in a major American city. Foolishly — yes, that’s the word — with a feeling of desperation and uncertainty plus a whole big unknown future in front of me I went ahead to try my best with what I had. A university admission letter.

Today, I say “wow” — how did I do that? I recall working three jobs in between classes to make ends meet; get home from night shifts after midnight every day and very often hungry. I asked myself — am I here to work to pay rent or to get that degree?

Those “comfortable Bumi scholars” I met in university were set for good time. I never did understand why after many rounds of applications for financial assistance I was rejected. Was it because I was a native Bumi or just plain not Malay or Muslim? What does being a Bumi really mean? Many, many questions.

Yes, desperation and hard work got me to where I am now. This is where the kids say, “Borrrring!” Today, I would never have imagined that 25 years on I am the regional MD for one of the biggest electronics companies in the world (no need for names lah).

My work takes me to several dozen countries regularly and when I compare their economic potential, culture and history with my beloved Malaysia I realise one thing: I love my country Malaysia but I truly hate the unjust policies, social injustice, dirty politics, racial and religious divisions.

It’s so obvious, isn’t it? In my kampung even now — it’s true, back in the east — people from all walks of life, customs and religions are comrades. Come visit at the end of May and you’ll know what I mean. I seldom see that in Semenanjung. One day, I hope to live and see, a renewed Malaysia.

So back to the original question: why I left, well… it boils down to a single question: “Where is home?” I asked my eight-year-old son and he said: “Here, right here where I am now with you.” I agree. How do you dispute simple logic like that? Where is your home?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 20 May 2011, 11:17 pm and is filed under
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10 Days in May (22)

Tweets
@limkitsiang
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Day 15 – Y Hisham-CSL duet still silent on seditious/treasonous Utusan “Christian Msia” bogey? Hope everybody forget abt it? Fat chance.

Utusan “Christian Msia” bogey multiple test 4Najib as PM – 1Msia, GMoM call, whether BN leaders r extremists moderates or opportunists

This is Y on 1st day Parliament 13June asking Najib abt bona fide of GMoM when extremism reign supreme w Utusan case/jihad agst Christians

Will KTK tell Najib no point 2continue as National Unity Minister when Msia never more divided despite 1Msia slogan bcos of uMNO extremists?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 9:34 am and is filed under
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10 Days in May (23)

Tweets
@limkitsiang
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TBH RCI shld re-open public hearing 2probe MACC cover-up conspiracy on TeohBengHock’s death rt from beginning – inc MACC record inquest/RCI

Especially RCI shd probe whether MACC involved in “black blog” http://bit.ly/1b8mDc appeared 1wk after TBH death 2throw off attn to its role

Claiming 2b “Truth 4TeohBengHock”, “black blog” blamed DAP 4murder of TBH. “Black blog” mastermind admit TBH murdered. Who murdered TBH?

How cld documents only in MACC hands appear in “black blog” if MACC not implicated? Lies agnst DAP leaders in “black blog”. Y n what motive?

Major RCI omission if “black blog”/MACC’s role not publicly probed. TBH death destroyed Najib’s 1st 100 Days as PM. RCI credibility @ stake.

Were MACC conduct consistent w 1 w clean hands clear conscience on TBH’s death or suspiciously 1 with guilty mind? What abt Sarbani’s death?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 11:16 am and is filed under
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BN must respect next GE result

by
John Inbaraj

The Malaysian Insider

May 21, 2011

MAY 21 — Great Men talk of Ideas, Average Men talk of Things, and Small Men talk of other Men. If I choose to be kind, I can best rate the Malaysian government as average.

In the days of old, our leaders were visionaries, people who talked of great plans and ideas for the country. They had quality —  the likes of Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn.

Whether or not their visions and policies achieved their desired goals, they were genuine Malaysians with a heart for the nation. There were others on the sidelines who stood strong to ideals and contributed unselfishly to nation building.

However, the prime minister after that, the great Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, began the systematic dismantling of the principles of democracy and the downward slide of an entire nation. He is widely seen as the man who almost single-handedly destroyed the basic instruments of parliamentary democracy.

As the chief executive, he was an elected dictator, the executive completely subservient to him. Parliament became a mere rubber stamp. And the Judiciary was hammered so badly that it may now need a miracle to restore its status as one of the Commonwealth’s most competent pillars of democracy.

Key personnel who spoke against him were removed. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah who democratically challenged him for the Umno presidency was finished off politically. Many are still not convinced that the election itself was clean. Then we had Tun Musa Hitam, Tun Ghafar Baba, and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim leaving the deputy premiership of the country under not-so-good circumstances. During Dr Mahathir’s reign, Umno was also deregistered by the courts.

Down the line, Tan Sri Ahmad Noordin, the then Auditor-General, and Tun Salleh Abas, the then Lord President of the Supreme Court, were manipulated out of office for daring to go against him. The monarchy, too, had its powers clipped during his tenure.

“Operasi Lalang” was another sad and frightening episode during Dr Mahathir’s regime. No one was free, whether the opposition leader, a disabled human rights activist or just an ordinary citizen. University Student leaders went into hiding and religious people could not sleep in peace.

At Stadium Negara, a massive Umno gathering daringly shouted abuse at especially Chinese and Indian Malaysians, telling them to go back to China and India. Some of these Umno leaders are now helming the country!

Cronyism evolved without much ado. Under the guise of raising Malay equity, people associated with the leadership became overnight millionaires. During the economic downturn crony companies were bailed out with public funds.

The sale of Malaysian Airline System to Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli and the re-purchase later by the government at a ludicrous price smacked of open corruption. Negotiated tender was a new and popular method of giving out contracts. With privatisation, Malaysians suddenly saw a steep increase in the cost of living.

At the height of Dr Mahathir’s battle with Tengku Razaleigh (during the latter’s time in Semangat 46), rumours abounded of an influx of foreigners especially into Sabah and Sarawak. Today, PKR seems to suggest that over 100,000 foreigners allegedly have been granted citizenship, allowing them to vote and help re-capture Selangor for Barisan Nasional.

Malaysians are peace-loving and docile people. Going to the streets and waging war is not our style. Quietly though, many people especially the younger generation are planning to flee this country and take up residence in other countries. Moderate Malay-Muslims are among them.

Mere lip service that the government is fair to all races cannot help. When decisive action is not taken fairly against perpetrators of racial and religious discord, one cannot help but fear that they are partial to some or even to those who orchestrate some of these events.

Utusan Malaysia’s brazen attempts to create social and religious discord and the government’s response to it seem to suggest that this may in fact be a government agenda.

Surviving Umno and BN politicians must know what is happening. The senior ones who may no longer be active in the government must stand up and save this country from bankruptcy, extremism and terror… while they are still held in high esteem and before they pass on.

The moderates of all races, the god-fearing people and well-intentioned politicians past and present, those in state agencies such as the election commission, the judiciary, the armed forces and the MACC must stand up for justice and fair-play.

The government of the day must move to ease the minds of the people by a resolution of parliament that the 13th general election will be democratic, free and fair. The resolution must further include a clause that the BN shall concede power graciously should the opposition win whether at state or national level. It is the peoples’ right to choose and it is this right that will ensure that democracy continues to thrive. The will of the majority must prevail.

I humbly ask the prime minister and his Cabinet to declare this statement to the people. Win fairly and you stand tall. Lose graciously and you still walk tall. The coming general election will be the most important yet for our beloved country. — aliran.com

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 9:42 am and is filed under
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DAP mocks PSD over scholarship oversight

By
Boo Su-Lyn

The Malaysian Insider

May 21, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — The DAP questioned how the government could make a “silly” mistake in not granting scholarships to top students despite spending billions on information technology.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin reportedly ordered the Public Service Department (PSD) yesterday to investigate complaints that some SPM top scorers were not offered scholarships.

“Isn’t spending billions of ringgit on computerisation a waste of public funds when the federal government cannot even correct the simple but silly mistake of not granting scholarships to top students?” DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said in a statement today.

Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, stressed that his ministry was not to blame as its list of scholarship candidates had already been forwarded.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, who is also the MCA Youth chief, reportedly said last Wednesday that government officers who disobeyed Cabinet directives were one of the main reasons why top deserving students failed to get scholarships.

Lim repeated his party’s call for a full investigation into the annual problem of top-scoring students not being granted PSD scholarships while lower-performing students were given overseas scholarships instead.

“Malaysians are puzzled as to how this blunder by fumbling officials can even occur,” he said.

“In this day and age, with computerised databases and the amount of technology available, how can such a straightforward process of awarding scholarships to top students end up so botched?” asked the Penang chief minister.

He pointed out that the government spent about RM2 billion on IT infrastructure and services last year, according to the Malaysia Information Technology Report for Q2 2011.

“Every year, billions of ringgit are spent on upgrading and maintaining government IT systems, yet errors of this magnitude can still occur,” said the Bagan MP.

Lim added that it was a “no brainer” to correct the error, urging the government to award deserving students with scholarships immediately.

He also said it was “preposterous” for the government to ask deserving students to appeal for the PSD scholarships.

“To do so is akin to punishing them for a fault that is not theirs!” he said.

“The federal government had better get their act together or risk losing more Malaysian talent to other countries who must be laughing their heads off at our sheer incompetence,” he said.

MCA Youth accused the DAP yesterday of exploiting the controversy for political gain and not to help top scorers overlooked by the PSD.

MCA Youth secretary-general Datuk Chai Kim Sen said the opposition party was only good at “instigating problems” to curry favour with voters but had so far failed to propose solutions to the annual problem.

Chai said MCA Youth was already busy reviewing scholarship appeals to help “victimised” top students but the DAP was slowing matters down by making the public “restless and impulsive” and unable to think clearly.

He also said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s decision to give PSD scholarships to all students who achieve 8A+ in the SPM regardless of race was because of the MCA’s constant insistence.

Wee said last Thursday that some 363 straight A+ students who deserved to be funded to study abroad had lost out to those with lower grades.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 5:19 pm and is filed under
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DAP reaches out to Malays online

By
Shannon Teoh

The Malaysian Insider

May 21, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — Unable to shake off its tag as a Chinese chauvinist party, DAP is now hoping to make a splash in the Malay online media landscape with a news portal, a step it says it should have taken “a long time ago.”

Just days after vice chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim’s admission that the party has failed to attract Malay support, DAP will launch a Bahasa Malaysia language website — Roketkini.com — in the hopes of making itself heard among Malays.

“Right now, there is a huge void for us in the Malay media. You don’t hear anything about DAP except for us being attacked,” said political secretary to the party’s secretary general Zairil Khir Johari.

The largely Chinese party has been repeatedly accused by the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) and Malay media of practising racial politics.

The Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia has continually attacked DAP for trying to usurp Malay political power.

It also printed an unsubstantiated report recently alleging that church leaders had plotted with DAP to install a Christian as prime minister and turn Malaysia into a Christian state.

Roketkini, said Zairil (right), will not only be a website, but a “brand for us to hold forums, talks and other events in Bahasa Malaysia to reach this demographic.”

Zairil, who will sit on the board of advisors for the website, added that even though the website would cater mostly to an urban crowd, it was still the best tool for reaching rural Malays.

“DAP does not have grassroots in rural areas. So even though we have a Malay version of our party newspaper Rocket, it is difficult for us to distribute it.

“The website will actually solve distribution problems for us and even though lower-income Malays may not have a computer, most of them still access the Internet somehow,” he said.

Roketkini will launch on Monday and lean heavily on Facebook to market itself and interact with readers.

Editor Wan Hamidi Hamid said that “it doesn’t matter whether they are Mat Rempits, they will still have a Facebook account.”

“Many of them are carrying laptops and using Facebook because they are so cheap now, cheaper than smartphones,” the veteran journalist said.

He said they were able to use mobile internet or WiFi services that are now readily available at cafes and even food stalls.

Party strategist Liew Chin Tong also said that the young urban vote was the future as 72 per cent of Malaysians were under the age of 40 and made up half of all eligible voters.

He added that 65 per cent of Malaysians lived in urban areas.

Zairil said that all content will be in Bahasa Malaysia although the writers would be from different racial backgrounds.

“We have even approached some ‘dissidents’ from across the political divide although none have agreed yet,” he said.

However, DAP is unsure of how much of an impact this would have in terms of votes.

With a general election expected to be called within a year, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is still struggling to reverse a swing of Malay votes.

But Wan Hamidi said that the main point was to place DAP’s views into the Malay language sphere and begin to create a debate within the community.

“We should have done this a long time ago. With the Malay speaking audience, we really have nothing to lose and plenty to gain,” Zairil concluded.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 8:19 am and is filed under
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Defend the truth, not Utusan Malaysia

Malaysiakini

May 21, 11

‘They must defend Utusan at all costs as it is an Umno launch pad to attack its opponents both in and outside the party.’

Protesters issue call: ‘Defend Utusan at all costs’

David Dass
: Why the need for these fierce demonstrations? Why are these people behaving as if they are under siege? Who are they trying to intimidate?

No one is demanding closure of the Utusan Malaysia. No one is questioning the rights of the Muslims. No one is questioning the place of Islam as the religion of the federation.

The complaint by many is that the editors of Utusan acted irresponsibly by publishing unsubstantiated allegations of a provocative and inflammatory nature, which if believed could cause tension between Muslims and Christians.

Is it wrong to complain when someone does something that is clearly wrong? Are these groups defending Utusan despite its wrongdoing?

Are the rights of non-Muslims going to be subject to the dictates of the mob? Are non-Muslims, as taxpaying citizens of this country, also not entitled to protection?

Swipenter:
For printing lies, false reporting and spreading disharmony amongs the different races these protestors are willing to “defend Utusan at all costs”. Imagine what would they do if Utusan’s articles are unbiased, truthful, factual and written without fear or favour.

Vaporise all the critics of Utusan with WMD?

BTN
: With such a mentality, Perkasa and Umno might just as well drop dead. When that happens the Malays can lift their head up high and be recognised for what they have achieved rather be associated with ‘sampah masyarakat’ like this bunch of morons.

They shout and claim that they are willing to die for Utusan Malaysia but when chaos does happen, they will turn tail and run like cowards.

If all this time and energy is used correctly, the Malays would have been so maju (progress) that they won’t need to make a fool of themselves like this.

Anakmami:
 Umno, Utusan and Perkasa have turned Malaysia into a pariah state. Trust me this is just another sandiwara to make the masses forget about the bigger issues at hand. We should let them be… Utusan is facing a slow death.

Only morons read that paper and the rest of our mainstream dailies. Now malulah to tell anyone that I’m a Malaysian. It’s amazing how placid we Malaysians taxpayers are.

That is why such dramas becoming more rampant. We let all these zero IQ goons run amok.

Cannon:
 People can now see that the mischief of Utusan and Perkasa are Umno-sponsored. It is no longer a secret that Umno has been trying to hide. Umno goons are out in the open to join Perkasa thugs to ‘protect’ Utusan.

These Umno goons can break the law with impunity. They can stick their lawlessness – ‘norm’ – up the face of Malaysians, with the law enforcement authority standing aside doing nothing.

So, what has changed after GE12? Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia unity and his ‘transformation’ plan have proven to be one bright shining lie. Umno is as arrogant, defiant and unjust as ever.

The BN coalition parties are as clueless, powerless and helpless, completely subjugated by and subservient to Umno. This is the BN the electorate have to see as we enter GE13.

Abil:
 What kind of perversity is this? They wrote an incorrect article, fanned racial and seditious sentiments and this sick nation wants to defend them? Why do they want to defend what is blatantly wrong?

Ttloo
: Umno Malays must defend Utusan at all costs since it is an Umno launch pad to attack its opponents both in and outside the party.

In the era of the Internet, no media can ward off criticism. As such, no wall can protect Utusan. Only the Malays who speak the truth can.

Patriot
: This is a group led by a bunch of frustrated, disgruntled, washed-out leaders who have lost all political relevance, just to create some racket.

They are an insignificant minority who if left to their own fanatical screaming, none of which makes any sense or logic, will eventually fade away into the darkness.

The newspaper that tries to regain its once respectable readership level by playing to this kind of dirty and unauthenticated reports will not only face the same fate but will most positively, serve as a catalyst for a change in government in the not-to-distant future.

Do not waste your time and energy pouring out anger or disgust, just let them destroy their malignant selves.

Goliath
: What mentality is this? Protesting something that is still pending investigation (almost likely to be untrue).

What do they get out of it? Nothing, except causing more disunity which I believe is against the principle of 1Malaysia.

PM, how do you expect your 1Malaysia concept to be successful when your own people are behaving otherwise. There got to be a better way to solve this ‘Christian nation’ crisis.

Malaysian Born
: This is just a bunch of riff-raff out to get some headlines. The fact is that Utusan is nothing more than a party paper that has now lost all credibility and readership.

I would not be surprised that the only time they get any papers sold are when they stir up some nonsense or say something incendiary and racial.

Its survival is based on the largess of Umno and has nothing to do with readership as even the Malays are sick and ashamed of them.

There was a time when preaching racial hatred and instigating violence could have worked. Frankly, other than embarrassing their race, they are nothing more than a caricature to be ignored.

Labu:
 “Utusan Malaysia is the official voice of the Malays…,” kata mereka. Ini tak betul. Yang betulnya Utusan Malaysia “is the official voice of the Umno Malays.”

Sebab itu Utusan sudah tidak laku lagi sekarang. Ramai orang Melayu tidak mahu lagi ikut kepala gila Utusan.

Singa Pura Pura:
There is only one word to describe those who would defend Utusan Malaysia or Perkasa with their lives. And it is a basic Malay word: bodoh.

How on Allah’s earth did Utusan or Perkasa come to be equated with Malay? Just because they claim or purport to defend that which they would have the Malays believe are Malay rights?

Utusan and Perkasa are the mindless minions of Umno. Umno is the feudal machine that preys on the weakness of the Malays so that its leaders can continue to be feudal kings in the land of the Malays.

Boonpou:
 Where are the moderate Malays? Where are the educated Malays? Why are you not speaking up against such hooligans and idiots who allegedly represent you? Please, you need to speak up. You need to tell these morons they don’t represent you.

Ashvin Raj
: Umno is giving opium to these people to protest over a non-existent issue.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 2:53 pm and is filed under
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Discovering the real Hussein Onn

Zainah Anwar

Malaysiakini

May 21, 11

These are excerpts from a speech by the writer at the launching of ‘Legacy of Honour’ – a pictorial biography of three Johor leaders.

COMMENT

When the Noah Foundation approached me to write about Ja’afar Onn, Onn Ja’afar and Hussein Onn (right), I jumped at the opportunity. I knew much about these three men, because my father, the late Anwar Malek, was a comrade of Onn from the 1920s when they were young government servants in Muar.

In 1946, my father, Onn who was then the district officer of Batu Pahat and Noah Omar, then a magistrate in Batu Pahat, and with three other friends spent 24 hours huddled together to discuss the formation of a United Malays Organisation, to fight against the Malayan Union.

Together they drafted the seminal letter sent to Utusan Melayu in Singapore, making a clarion call for all state-level Malay associations to come together under one umbrella to oppose the Malayan Union, which would have transferred the sovereignty of the Malay States to the king of England.

This book has been 16 long years in the making! It was a journey of blood, sweat and rewrite. But I thoroughly enjoyed the research, the interviews, the writing.

I started at the Johor Baru archives in 1995, going through all the Menteri Besar files of Ja’afar. I must thank the friends of the JB Archives who had transcribed many of the Menteri Besar’s hand written notes and letters – 800 in total – from Jawi into romanised script.

Those that were not transcribed I photocopied and took home to my mother, who read them to me as I found it difficult to read the old-fashioned elongated Jawi tarek script, as it was called.

I have included a selection of these letters in the book to show the pride and seriousness with which Ja’afar took on his duty as Menteri Besar, be it reprimanding the British postmaster-general or the commissioner of public works for their imperious behaviour towards Malay clerks underneath them, or expressing his misgivings to the young Sultan Ibrahim about the appointment of a British general advisor to Johor.

Another aspect of the research I enjoyed most was the interviews with so many incredible old men and women, comrades, colleagues and family members of Onn and Hussein. They were spirited, strong-willed, opinionated, candid – even though they were 70, 80 and 90-year-olds.

They spoke about events that occurred 50, 60 years ago as if they occurred yesterday – sometimes heaving with pride talking about the demonstrations they organised against the British, and sometimes their eyes brimming over with tears at the indignities Onn suffered at the hands of lesser politicians, as he fought a lonely political struggle after he left Umno.

Onn was a charismatic and fearless leader, who could have been the first prime minister of independent Malaya. But he chose to resign from Umno rather than compromise on his belief that Umno must open its doors to all races as equal members in order for Malaya to gain independence and become a united nation.

A man who spoke his mind

My biggest surprise in the research, however, was discovering the real Hussein Onn. I spent many weeks in the library of the New Straits Times going through every single newspaper clipping on Hussein. What clearly emerged was a leader with a strength of character, a steely sense of honour and integrity on what is right and wrong, fair and unfair.

Somehow all the values he stood for, seen from his biting criticism on the ills that beset Malaysian politics – be it corruption, abuse of power, political opportunism, character assassination, were overlooked.

The journalists of those days headlined their stories with the boring news that the prime minister today opened this or that event, while his strong words of reprimand and chastisements, which should have made headlines, were buried in the final paragraphs in nine-point print, as if they were of no significance.

Here was a man who spoke his mind, who called a spade a spade, who scolded and cajoled Umno members, his backbenchers in Parliament and the civil servants, willing them to serve with honour; and yet the warnings he gave as early as 1974 on the evils of corruption and abuse of power never made the headlines, nor capture the public imagination.

Hussein was a man who believed that without integrity and honesty, a political leader is nothing but an opportunist. But in a world that admired style over substantance, and toughness over consultation, a political leadership grounded in morality was dismissed as weak, and shunted aside.

We all owe a gratitude to the Noah Foundation for redressing this injustice done. I am honoured by this opportunity to show to the public that in Hussein was a rare man, and an even rarer politician.

Temptations and enticements surround men in power, but few have the moral fibre and strength to resist them. Hussein was a singular man, who lived by his principles, in public and in private; and in the end, he found modern day politics too distasteful for him to bear.

I do hope this book will be translated into Bahasa Malaysia to reach a wider audience, in particular the Umno members – for them to know and to remember a lost world where politics was not about the pursuit of personal power and advantage, but one of dutiful and honourable service.

ZAINAH ANWAR is the former executive director of Sisters in Islam (SIS), and is currently a member of the SIS board of directors. She is also a former member of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 3:04 pm and is filed under
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Fleeing Syrians say too late for reforms, Assad must go

Reuters

By
Yara Bayoumy

BOQAYA, Lebanon | Sat May 21, 2011

(Reuters) – Syrians who fled for their lives from a security crackdown in the border town of Tel Kelakh say violence has hardened attitudes toward President Bashar al-Assad and unrest will not end until he steps down.

Assad had lost credibility and it was too late to implement reforms since security forces laid siege to the town, raiding homes and arresting and killing dozens, they said.

“The first words my year-old son will learn to say are: ‘We don’t want Bashar’,” said Ahmed, who fled from Tel Kelakh, where security forces, the army and irregular Assad loyalists known as shabbiha had cracked down on earlier this week.

“Are these his reforms? To oppress people? Until when will we be downtrodden?” he said. Like other refugees interviewed by Reuters in the Lebanese border village of Boqaya, he asked that his surname not be used to protect his family still in Syria.

Rights groups say Assad’s forces have killed at least 800 people in a crackdown against protests inspired by uprisings across the Arab world. Syrian authorities say armed groups, backed by Islamists and outside powers, are to blame for most of the violence and have killed more than 120 soldiers and police.

The 45-year-old president has said the protests are serving a foreign-backed conspiracy to sow sectarian strife.

Many of the refugees accused the forces of a bias against the Sunni Muslim majority in a country ruled for decades by followers of Assad’s minority Alawite offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

At Boqaya’s village mosque, turned into a makeshift shelter, an 18-year-old refugee named Omar said he had been detained and beaten by security forces while he was organizing for women to flee the town last weekend.

“One soldier said: Let him die like a dog because his name is Omar,” the refugee, whose left eye was swollen red, told Reuters. Omar is a common name among Sunnis, rare among Shi’ites and seen by many in the region as a mark of Sunni identity.

GRAVEST CHALLENGE

Assad has dealt with the gravest challenge to his rule by making reform gestures, such as lifting a hated decades-old state of emergency, while sending tanks to flashpoints to suppress protests raging in the country for the last nine weeks.

A rights activist said security forces shot dead 44 demonstrators who took to the streets of Syria on Friday, in defiance of a military crackdown.

UNHCR quotes local authorities as saying 4,000 Syrians have crossed into Lebanon since late April and 1,000 people fled Tel Kelakh to Lebanon’s Wadi Khaled region in the last week.

Lebanese families have been taking them in since security forces first launched their operation on Tel Kelakh a week ago.

Some Lebanese residents left their homes to make more room for refugees. The Boqaya village mosque is strewn with mattresses and belongings. Other refugees sit on home terraces, smoking water pipes, nervously watching Syrian tanks take up positions kilometers away.

Um Hamza, staying in a home with 35 other people, said she and scores of people who squeezed into a lorry on Saturday night to make the short journey across the border had come under fire from the direction of the Meshtemehly and al-Ghayda villages, both of which are predominantly Alawite.

“There was fire from both sides. The bullets were raining on us. Six people were wounded,” she told Reuters. At least two other people corroborated her statement.

Syria prevents most international media from operating in the country, making it difficult to independently verify witness and official accounts.

Some residents, especially the men, say there is no way they will go back to Syria with Assad’s government still intact.

They express hope that mass protests will erupt in Damascus and the second city of Aleppo and that soldiers will defect from the army. In the meantime, all they can do is stay defiant.

“We used to demand freedom,” said another refugee also named Omar. “But after we saw this freedom in the shape of tanks and terrorizing by the army, we will not accept anything less than him stepping down.”

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 10:12 pm and is filed under
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Ibrahim Ali a clear and present danger

Malaysiakini

May 21, 11

‘Ibrahim, you specifically used the term ‘perang salib’ in your speech, don’t deny it now. Anyway, we know that he and his mentor are immune to ISA.’

‘Don’t use ISA or sedition laws against Ibrahim Ali’

Atan-Toyol
: Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali said that “Islam is being ridicule”. Give me one example, Ibrahim. If Islam is being ridiculed at all, it is you who is doing the ridiculing by your uncalled for calling for a crusade against Christians, when they have not even provoked you.

Ibrahim, you are just doing this so as to appear like a champion and hero to the rural Malays, and ‘protector’ of Islam. Islam does not need protection, Allah will protect his religion, as He says of the Quran also. So, start growing up, and be like a mature Malaysian.

Cannon:
Perkasa’s tirade against Christians has revealed at least three things:

1) Perkasa’s hostility against Christians and non-Malays is Umno-sponsored.

2) The supposedly ‘neutral’ public institutions (notably, Home Ministry, Attorney-General’s Chambers, PDRM) that are not taking any action, are controlled by Umno operatives.

3) PRDM (Royal Malaysian Police), in particular, is the uniformed henchmen of Umno. The police are shielding the Umno regime from the people.

Malaysians can exploit this information and turn it back to Umno’s disadvantage. Forward the YouTube clip of Ibrahim Ali’s speech to your relatives and friends. Where there’s no Internet link or computer, burn the speech on VCDs and mail them to your friends.

It’s crucial voters in the semi-rural and rural areas be reached, especially in Sabah and Sarawak. Expose the dirty strategy of a ‘kuasa-gila’ Umno that is out to create chaos in order to cling to power. Malaysians can fight Umno’s lawlessness with information.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s position is academic, but he scores brownie points by saying he does not agree to using the ISA against Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali. The ISA is intended to incarcerate insurgents who advocate violence in seizing power, and subversive elements who are a threat to public order and national security.

Malaysians want to see equal application of the law, regardless of race. Punks like Ibrahim Ali who incite hatred playing up sensitive issues such as race and religion to cause chaos, is a clear and present danger. If the ISA is not used here, it will only embolden more such brutes to emerge.

This draconian law should be applied to curb such punks, who can be even nastier in undermining our social order, knowing they can escape with light punishment. If the BN government fails to detain Ibrahim Ali, it demonstrates to its citizens its powerlessness.

Anonymous_4031
: It is naive to think that the home minister or prime minister would slap Utusan Malaysia for implementing directives issued to Utusan, as Anwar Ibrahim, who is former DPM, could attest.

Hence, the caution letter by the home minister is nothing to shout about. It is just for public consumption. Will such a fatherly reprimand come from the home minister if Sin Chew Daily, New Straits Times, Star, were to even hint about remarks made by Perkasa and those Umno-leaning bloggers? They would be struck down immediately even before any investigation takes place.

This double standard will not work over time; Malaysians will react at the ballot box. Look at the protests in the Middle East and North Africa. Ordinary people demonstrated. Two leaders – Tunisia and Egypt – had gone. More will follow in the coming months or years.

Rakyat Malaysia
: All this is just a play. A very big play. The main problem with the country now is not religious or racial issues. It is made to look like it. The important issue now is sluggish economy and high inflation, which the BN government is trying its best to divert our attention away and it is doing it quite successfully.

Watch out for the high inflation tsunami in the next coming months (electricity rate hike, diesel price hike, RON95 price hike, construction cost hike, sugar price hike, food items price hike, etc). We could hit 60 percent inflation this year.

Why all politicians harping on race and religion? I’d rather see them talk about improving the welfare of all Malaysians.

Rayfire
: Ibrahim Ali, you specifically used the term ‘perang salib’ in your speech, don’t deny it now. Anyway, we know that he and his mentor are immune to ISA. Utusan is merely publishing ‘authorised’ sedition, so action against them will not likely happen.

We, the people, need to find alternative way to punish them. The only secret weapon we have that doesn’t run into billions of ringgit is our votes. Collectively it will be worth trillions for our future generation.

Ben Hor:
 Of course, we do not condone using ISA or sedition laws against Ibrahim Ali since these laws are considered to be draconian. But since we have a draconian government, why should there a double standard?

Unless the government repeals these laws, I say everything is fair game. However, we all know Ibrahim Ali is untouchable. Ibrahim Ali using ‘jihad’ for shock value? Why stop there? You should also start brandishing a keris and say you want to “bathe it with the blood” of the Christians too. Heck, put it on Youtube too.

Mengxiang
: DSAI (Anwar Ibrahim), like you I too am against using the ISA and Sedition Act on Ibrahim Ali as a matter of principle. However, how about committing him to a mental institution as he is clearly mad and not in control of his mental faculties?

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 11:47 am and is filed under
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Lynas says paid Putrajaya for toxic waste cover

By
Debra Chong

The Malaysian Insider

May 21, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — Lynas Corp has revealed it deposited money with Putrajaya as an indemnity for potentially dangerous residue that may result from processing its radioactive rare earths in its Pahang plant, which is now under review.

However, Lynas did not elaborate on the deposit. It also did not disclose the sum paid to the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) under the purview of the science, technology and innovation ministry in charge of approving and monitoring radioactive industries.

“Lynas has also agreed to place funds with the Malaysian government to ensure safe management of any remaining residues as required by the AELB,” the Australian miner told The Malaysian Insider in a statement.

But AELB’s director-general Datuk Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan denied his agency had made the deposit a requirement.

Lynas and the AELB insist the rare earths ore is safe.

“It’s got nothing to do with AELB. You got to check with Mida. Check with MITI,” he told The Malaysian Insider when contacted.

The Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (Mida) under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) had successfully pulled Lynas to set up shop here after China — the world’s biggest rare earths producer — closed its doors to foreign firms to maintain its 97 per cent chokehold on the global rare earths market.

In recent weeks, green groups here and in Australia have been lobbying their respective governments to nix the project ahead of Lynas’s September start, citing the company’s opaque plans on waste, storage and transport management across 3,000km from the Mount Weld mine in Western Australia to the Gebeng refinery.

Lynas has repeatedly stressed it is committed to safety and transparency.

In the same statement, the company refuted claims its rare earths cargo breached Australian safety laws and accused naysayers of having personal and political agendas to thwart its business plans.

Lynas is among the world’s biggest suppliers of rare earths, a group of minerals vital in the manufacture of high technology goods that is eco-friendly but creates toxic by-products in the process.

Opposition to the Lynas plant continues to mount.

Its RM700 million refinery being built in Gebeng on Malaysia’s east coast is touted to be the world’s largest and most sophisticated upon completion.

“To be clear, the Mount Weld rare earth concentrate is not classified as Dangerous Goods by the criteria of the Australian Dangerous Goods Code (ADG Code) for transport by road or rail, and is not classified as Dangerous Goods for transport by sea (International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code 2006),” Lynas said in response to the mounting criticism.

It added that Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) had given it the thumbs-up to move its export cargo from Mount Weld to Fremantle port in June 2009.

“The EPA concluded that there was no radiation risk to public health or to the environment,” it said.

Lynas also rubbished comparisons between its operation and that of Magellan Metals that was forced to shut down its shipping operation after its lead cargo was found to have leaked toxins on route.

“The Lynas rare earths concentrate has been irresponsibly compared to lead carbonate concentrate. There can be no comparison between the two.

“Magellan’s lead carbonate concentrate is a toxic material classified as a dangerous good. The Lynas rare earths concentrate is not classified as a dangerous good,” it said.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 11:38 am and is filed under
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M’sia needs more Paul Tans and Mat Zains

Malaysiakini

May 21, 11

‘Unfortunately it is the very existence of the Mat Zains that some see it as the source of disunity in the Malay community.’

Bishop hails ex-cop’s exoneration of Christians

Cala:
 Of course, there will be many amongst us who would like to see more of the type of former CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim to speak the truth for the sake of national unity, peace and stability.

In Loh (2001) ‘Where has (ethics) politics gone: The case of the BN non-Malay politicians and political parties’, as found in Hefner (2001) ed. ‘The politics of multiculturalism’ argued that due to Umno-led BN regime’s institutional arrangements, non-Malay politicians within BN have been conditioned into doing public services (tarring roads and cleaning drains, attending to complaints from residents at the local level, etc), instead of involving themselves “in activities that lead to conscientisation of the people”.

So how can we expect them to provide checks and balances to the all-powerful Utusan Malaysia?

MalaysianSriLankan
: I know there are many ‘Mat Zains’ in our country but their individual efforts are ignored by the Umnoputras. They are even being victimised and threatened. So I sincerely hope they can act collectively as a group and make their points heard.

Justiceandpeace:
As I understand the Christians, their kingdom is not earthly but heavenly and there is no doctrinal basis at all for them to establish a Christian nation on earth. They made a mistake during the Dark Ages – and that is why it is called ‘The Dark Ages’ – causing untold suffering to the Christian nations of Europe.

That is why today, they do not have Christian nations where the church have a direct powerful say in the affairs of state, and there is a determined separation of church and state.

The Malaysian Church should declare this clearly and learn this important lesson of history and seek only to influence the nation by the power of good works, right-thinking and excellent example.

By their good example, they can inspire all good people in Malaysia to help bring this nation to the next level.

Onyourtoes
: Forgive me for being cynical. There are many former government officials and former BN politicians who had held important positions in the government.

However, the sad part is many will choose to speak the truth or to be with the morally right only when they are out of power or no more holding positions or were not favoured after their retirement.

I don’t not want to second guess Mat Zain or Shafie Yahaya (the former director of ACA), but this is the hard reality.

Swipenter
: The ethics, morality and spirituality of this country began to decline and decay under the leadership of Dr Mahathir Mohamad. He has single-handedly engineered and usurped the independence and the sense of righteousness of those God-fearing men who once helmed our democratic institutions and replaced them with self-serving ones, subservient to him and his ambitions.

Once the check and balance mechanism, which is so vital to democracy to flourish, was destroyed, there is no longer any effective means to check and stop evil, immorality, abuses and corruption from taking roots in the administration and governance of the country.

While we can credit him for all the modernity of the country but beneath this thin veneer of gleaming towers, highways and other modern infrastructures, we have a rotten, disunited and decaying society.

Fortunately we still have a few good men left like Mat Zain to give us hope for a return to good governance which is just, fair, transparent, accountable and corruption-free.

Sarajun Hoda
: We right-minded Muslims unite with you too, Bishop Dr Paul Tan.

Paul Warren
: Unfortunately it is the very existence of the Mat Zains that some see it as the source of disunity in the Malay community. Calling for the unity of the Malay community appears to be something that is sacrosanct and ordained by God.

To achieve it appears to be the almighty goal of the likes of Ibrahim Ali and Mahathir. But really what are the fissures that they see in the community that gives them the notion that the community is disunited? And if they are, why then is there this urgent need for them to be united?

The need for any community or society or a nation to unite is when danger encroaches. Is there any such danger? Well, some like me will say no. But Ibrahim Ali and Mahathir say yes. They will always perpetuate a bogeyman.

It was the Chinaman once. So now it is the turn of the Christians. So let’s just love them to death.

Ghkok
: Bishop Dr Paul Tan and Encik Mat Zain, both of you have my greatest respect and admiration for your clear, unambiguous and principled stand on the issue that threaten us all in this country. The rakyat of this country salutes both of you. There is hope after all.

Anonymous
: There is an evil plot to take over the country by Christians. They will experiment with the minority Christians (only 10 percent) and turn them into super soldiers by injecting them with the Mutant-X gene.

Then the Christians will be like Ip Man – one guy fights 10 (or maybe 20). And all the Malay-Muslims will be captured and thrown into jail. It sounds like a great script for a comic book hero movie. I hope somebody is paying me for this script. Perkasa and Umno owes me a big one.

Tuah PJ
: Good tidings Bishop Dr Paul Tan. There are still many Mat Zains to be discovered, believe me. And it will be proved during the next general election. From a Muslim friend.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 10:07 am and is filed under
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Pua: Reform failure behind economic ranking slip

By
Boo Su-Lyn

The Malaysian Insider

May 21, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — The Najib administration’s failure to implement economic reforms was to blame for Malaysia’s recent six-place drop on a global competitiveness scale, DAP’s Tony Pua said today.

The DAP publicity chief also disputed International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed’s claim that the results were largely due to the perception of the business community.

“Both the prime minister and minister of international trade and industry must recognise that it is the government’s failure to implement the necessary reforms as well as its repeated U-turns in policy-making which have caused the stark drop in global competitiveness rankings,” said Pua in a statement today.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said the business community and the public had realised that “real change” was not forthcoming, despite hearing “transformation” rhetoric from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration for more than two years.

“Critical reforms have been quietly shelved,” said Pua, adding that politically-connected businesses were going about their deals as usual.

“Very simply, no amount of fancy PR consultants will be able to change that ‘perception’ if the government fails to deliver on its promises of change and transformation… the failure of Datuk Seri Najib Razak to recognise this will only result in further loss of competitiveness and ultimately the failure to break out of our middle income trap to achieve the much coveted ‘high-income status’,” he added.

Malaysia fell six slots, from 10th to 16th, in the closely-watched Institute of Management Development (IMD) 2011 World Competitive Rankings.

Malaysia is now only two places above the spot it occupied two years ago after dropping the most in ranking out of the top 20 countries.

Pua also said it was “shocking” that Malaysia slid in the “government efficiency” and “business efficiency” categories from ninth to 17th and fourth to 14th respectively.

“What is worse is for the minister of international trade and industry to justify the drastic drop in rankings due to the fact that these two categories are measured on ‘perception’ and hence insinuating that they are not accurate!” he remarked.

The DAP lawmaker pointed out that Mustapa was quick to praise Malaysia when the country reached the ninth and fourth ranks in those categories last year.

“Why didn’t the minister qualify his ‘joy’ by saying that the improvements were just ‘perception’ and not based on ‘real or hard data’ last year?” asked Pua.

He said the public has seen through Najib’s “glossy ‘transformation’ programmes” like the New Economic Model (NEM), Government Transformation Programme (GTP), Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP).

The NEM is part of the Najib administration’s plan to push Malaysia towards becoming a high-income nation by 2020, and is complemented by other broad initiatives such as the GTP, ETP and National Key Results Areas (NKRA). These are in addition to the five-year Malaysia Plans and the annual Budget.

The first part of the NEM was published last March and it recommended major structural changes to the economy and for affirmative action to be more market-friendly.

But after Malay rights groups led by Perkasa railed against the NEM, Najib was forced to backtrack and describe the recommendations as a “trial balloon”.

The bold recommendations set out in the first part of the NEM to boost competitiveness by reducing quotas were largely absent in the second part.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 12:37 pm and is filed under
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Remember the 2009 speech, Najib?

Teoh El Sen | May 21, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

During a speech that year, the PM stressed on fair and responsible reporting. But the current controversy surrounding Utusan sends a different signal.

PETALING JAYA: Three days after taking office as the nation’s sixth prime minister on April 3, 2009, Najib Tun Razak attended the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) awards night.

During his speech, Najib had stressed on the importance of the media’s role in nation-building, underscoring the need for responsible and fair reporting.

“We need world-class, fact-based reporting in Malaysia. The media must be fair and responsible in reporting. I believe we can move beyond those offering journalism of conspiracy theories and rumors,” he had said.

Najib had added that the media was powerful in lending credibility to stories and rumours that percolate up from the grassroots and the internet.

Two years on, the Umno president was now drawing flak for allowing his party-owned newspaper Utusan Malaysia to publish reports that critics claimed were not only seditious, but threatened national security.

The latest controversy involving the Malay daily was a front-page report on the alleged collusion between DAP and Christian leaders to undermine the position of Islam in Malaysia.

The report was based on the unsubstantiated claims of two pro-Umno bloggers on what had allegedly transpired during a closed-door meeting in the DAP-run state of Penang.

Commenting on how the situation had changed since Najib made that speech in 2009, analysts panned the premier for reneging on his words.

‘This shows he is double-faced’

Centre for Policy Initiatives(CPI) Asia director Lim Teck Ghee said Najib’s silence or a lack of a stand in the latest controversy would lead the public to believe that he was “double-faced”.

“Well, what can I say… Najib was either lying… or he has forgotten completely about what he said (in the 2009 speech),” Lim told FMT.

He said this example meant that Najib’s opinions and statements were not to be believed and should be taken with “an enormous quantity of salt.”

“I think this certainly affects his credibility not only nationally but internationally. He will go down in history as a weak and vacillating leader who is so consumed by wanting to stay in power that he is totally unscrupulous,” he added.

Lim said such contradictions showed that Najib “thinks he can get away with it” as he had the backing of the mainstream media.

“He has not only allowed Utusan to publish every kind of anti-national and very divisive reporting but seems to be condoning and encouraging it,” he added.

The academic said Najib’s “hypocrisy” applied to other issues as well, including religious freedom, tackling corruption and ensuring transparency.

“He appears to say something and do something entirely different,” he said, adding that politicians were supposed to adhere to a minimal standard of leadership and should be held accountable for what they say.

These examples, Lim said, showed that the government, which was claiming to be transforming, was “totally incapable of any kind of change.”

‘What else do you expect?’

Meanwhile, Monash University Malaysia’s political scientist James Chin said it was hard to expect anything else from Najib.

“All past prime ministers of this country have done this, every time Utusan does something naughty, they keep silent,” he told FMT.

Chin stressed that Utusan was the “cheerleader of Umno” and its role was to provide a direct link between Umno and the grassroots Malays.

“It is understood. All politicians contradict themselves everyday. They say one thing but tomorrow they say another thing. Everything Najib said about freedom of the press is just the opposite of what the government is doing,” he noted.

Chin said that Najib’s recent call for moderation was exactly what his predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had said in a speech during his tenure as prime minister.

“Hyporisy is so common. It’s become part and parcel of Malaysian life,” he added.

Chin said that he would not take any minister, or Najib, seriously when it came to allowing free and fair reporting.

“There will always be tight control over the mainstream media, and I don’t see them giving up control of this anytime soon,” he added.

‘Najib waiting for probe report’

However, another political analyst, Universiti Sains Malaysia’ Sivamurugan Pandian was more accomodative of Najib’s stance, or lack thereof.

“I think in that case what he did was he allowed others to air their views first,” he said.

Sivamurugan said he strongly believed that Najib was waiting to see the outcome of the Home Ministry and police’s investigations into Utusan before coming up with a statement on the issue.

Sivamurugan, who writes the “Pena Dr Siva” column in Utusan, said the country was undergoing an unprecedented change in that the degree of sensitivity of certain issues had changed due to an increasing level of education.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 3:44 pm and is filed under
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S’pore gains from M’sia’s brain drain

Patrick Lee | May 21, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

Malaysia’s brain drain is both heavily Chinese and concentrated just below the border, says a report by the World Bank.

PETALING JAYA: A large portion of the best and the brightest Malaysia has to offer have taken root in Singapore.

According to a 2011 World Bank report entitled “Malaysia Economic Monitor: Brain Drain”, 121, 662 highly-skilled Malaysians migrated to the island nation by 2010.

This accounted for nearly half of the 276, 558 Malaysians registered as “brain drain” individuals by 2010.

Additionally, the report said a total of 385, 979 Malaysians were residents of Singapore in 2010.

“Singapore alone absorbs 57% of the entire (Malaysian) diaspora, with most of the remainder residing in Australia, Brunei, United Kingdom and the United States,” the report added.

On top of that, it said that 88% of Malaysians residing in Singapore were ethnic Chinese, with Malays and Indians accounting for 6% and 5% respectively.

It has been estimated that there are more than one million Malaysians residing overseas.

Top reasons for migration

According to respondents interviewed by the World Bank, the top three drivers of brain drain included career prospects (66%), social injustice (60%) and compensation (54%).

The report also noted a worrying fact: one out of every 10 Malaysian with tertiary degrees in 2000 migrated to countries listed under the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

This, the report said, was twice the global average. It added that if the list included Singapore, it would have been two out of 10.

The report also revealed that Malaysia’s brain drain had gone up, claiming that the “skilled diaspora” was three times larger than it was 20 years ago.

However, the report said that the true number of Malaysians in Singapore might be much larger, especially with non-residents working there.

Every day, thousands of Malaysians cross the border over the jam-packed Causeway from Johor Baru to work in the island nation.

Strong sense of attachment

However, the report said that many overseas Malaysians did not scorn their place of birth. “Surveys of the Malaysian diaspora point to a strong sense of attachment to the motherland,” it said.

Numbers showed that almost half of the the Malaysian diaspora possesed a strong sense of patriotism or emotional attachments to the country. Another 20% remained undecided.

“This seems to suggest that many Malaysians remain connected to home even though they are living or studying abroad,” the report added.

It said that many Malaysians were likely to return if “enabling conditions were satisfied”, especially over “talent management policies”.

Respondents surveyed in the report largely suggested a paradigm shift from race-based towards needs-based affirmative action. A large portion also called for a change to take place in the government and public sector.

Adding to these thoughts, the World Bank said there was some progress made with the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

However, the report said in order to have a lasting impact, the country needed more broad-based productivity and “investment climate enhancements.”

“Productivity and inclusiveness lie at the heart of Malaysia’s transformation programme. Implementing these forcefully will go a long way towards turning the brain drain into a gain,” it said

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 6:00 pm and is filed under
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Umno wants Guan Eng

The Malaysian Insider

May 21, 2011

MAY 21 — Many people have ridiculed former Biro Tatanegara chief (BTN) Tan Sri Nordin Kardi for suggesting that the Democratic Action Party (DAP) is a good fit for Barisan Nasional (BN).

According to the one-time advisor to Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Lim Kit Siang and company should join BN because their aspirations for a “Malaysian Malaysia” can be achieved under the prime minister’s 1 Malaysia.

That is a mixture of hyperbole and rubbish by the man who, as head of BTN, nurtured the chauvinism we witness in Umno today.

On the face of it, DAP joining BN is like the US Democrats teaming up with the Tea Party or the new reformers in Egypt joining up with Hosni Mobarak’s gang — an idea best kept in the category of impossible dreams.

But truth be told, elements of the Najib administration have been talking about bringing DAP into the fold for more than a year, ever since they realised that MCA and Gerakan have lost their pull with the Chinese.

These elements include corporate figures close to Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Presumably, they have offered to bankroll this endeavour.

Under this plan, the main approach would be made to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng. Those in Najib’s circle believe that the carrot would be that Guan Eng could remain as the chief minister and would get the full financial backing of the federal government to develop Penang.

Senior positions in the Cabinet would also be offered to Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh to break down any resistance they have to joining up with their sworn enemies in BN.

A key principle of this plan — and its  weakest — is the belief the old guard of DAP want to taste being in government before their passing and that Guan Eng will want to stitch up his political career before his father leaves the scene.

Underlying this “let’s get DAP in plan” is also the grudging respect for the party’s dynamism and the philosophy of Najib’s father that to make BN stronger, space must be made for more political players — even adversaries.

In recent months, some Najib insiders have again raised the value of getting DAP to join BN and have touched base with possible individuals who can broach the subject with the DAP leadership. Once again, the imperative seems to be to snag the Chinese vote and kill off Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Malaysia’s nascent two coalition system.

On the surface, this plan does not have the broad support of Umno or BN component parties, especially the MCA and Gerakan. In fact, both these parties hinted at their animosity towards Lim Guan Eng’s government in Penang by trying to block several infrastructure projects signed during Chinese Premier’s Wen Jiaobao’s visit here.

In all likelihood, it is a plan hatched by some of Najib’s insiders and corporate players, who feel it will be a major boost for Najib if he manages to bring DAP into the fold and destroy PR in one fell swoop.

The PM appears aware of this idea, grand to some and utterly ridiculous to others.

Ridiculous because the DNA of DAP and BN is as dissimilar as can be. One is a political party which wants to abolish the ISA, OSA and a slew of restrictive legislation, while the other is a coalition which believes that its hold on power is synonymous with the continued existence of these laws.

Ridiculous because the DAP champions meritocracy and the dismantling of the architecture which creates second-class citizenship, while many elements in Umno believe inclusiveness begins and ends with a 1 Malaysia badge.

Ridiculous because the likes of Kit Siang and Karpal would prefer to be remembered as politicians who fought on principles and paid heavily for it rather than political opportunists looking for one last stab at fame and power.

But such is the low estimation at which MCA and Gerakan are held in Umno that some in Najib’s circle are willing to entertain the fantasy of getting DAP to join the BN.

That is why some, like Nordin Kardi, are willing to say that DAP’s much derided “Malaysian Malaysia” slogan is very much like 1 Malaysia.

It may very well be that. But that doesn’t mean DAP wants to join BN.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 May 2011, 3:33 pm and is filed under
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10 Days in May (24)

Tweets
@limkitsiang
:-

Identity yrselves – UMNO/BN Ministers who secretly support Utusan’s “Christian Msia” bogey http://bit.ly/lX7f5r Totally agnst Najib’s GMoM!

Umno/BN Ministers shld not b closet extremists while outwardly claim 2b moderates secretly assuring Utusan support 4its Christian Msia bogey

If Najib is serious about GMoM he shd draw line in the sand n ask every Minister 2declare whether 4 or agnst Utusan’s Christian Msia bogey

How many Umno/BN Cabinet Ministers qualify as genuine moderates – x extremists or opportunists – 2join MMoM, 1st national bldg block 4 GMoM?

Will Najib dare 2patronise MMoM- 1st object 2rally moderates of all races religions 2censure Utusan “Christian Msia” bogey n abjure bigotry?

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 10:29 am and is filed under
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Najib Razak
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10 Days in May (25)

Tweets
@limkitsiang
:-

TBH RCI-Open apology 4twin death TeohBengHck Sarbani prerequsite 4MACC 2regain public confidence in its indpndence integrity professionalism

This also serves as response @mpkotabelud Msia needs politics of engagement not guerilla. Let’s work together 2make SPRM more effective!

Support politics of engagement 2make Msia better country everybody proud 2call home. Thats Y I had given full support 2MACC replacing ACA

MACC got more staff budget powers than ACA. But what did it do? Became BN catspaw 2serve BN agenda declaring war agnst PR caused TBH’s death

Let MACC declare what is its brief 2Shafie @TBH RCI? 2assist RCI 2findout truth of TBH death or 2protect MACC w red herrings/MACC cover-ups?

Will Shafie support TBH RCI re-open inquiry 2findout MACC officer behind “black blog” 2accuse DAP of murder of TBH 2distract attn from MACC?

YB what 3rd version of Sarbani’s death? Suicide homicide ….? Sleepwalking? @mpkotabelud There is a plausible 3rd version circumstance

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 12:04 pm and is filed under
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10 Days in May (26) – Tweet exchange on Sarbani, 2nd MACC death

The
“10 Days in May (23)”
 tweets yesterday resulted in a tweet exchange
(reproduced below)
 with BN MP for Kota Belud
Abdul Rahman Dahlan
 on assistant customs director Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed, the second case of MACC death:

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

What abt it? u wanna politicise it just like u did to TBH? RT @limkitsiang: MACC…What abt Sarbani’s death?

21 May

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

Y now MACC spokesman 2defame Sarbani? Met Sarbani’s family? @mpkotabelud Sarbini came on his own to MACC office that morning. Uninvited. .

23 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Who said he jumped? There is a plausible 3rd version circumstance. U don’t speculate! RT @limkitsiang: U believe Sarbani jumped?

23 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan
Defame?

R u still on drips? 3rd plausible circumstance. R we to take ur words hook, line &sinker? RT@limkitsiang: 2defame Sarbani?

23 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

@mpkotabelud YB Don’t be MACC stooge. Read – http://bit.ly/kCXkJs Sarbaini did not kill himself, says family (TMI)

23 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

@limkitsiang Sarbini came on his own to MACC office that morning. Uninvited. So he willingly came to MACC to be murdered? Thts absurd!

23 hours ago

ezzademir Ezzad Emir

@limkitsiang Uncle, all this while you politicise the death. Death turns you on? Retire and smell the roses uncle Kit. @mpkotabelud

23 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

Still so flippant if what happened 2TBH Sarbani happened 2 yr loved ones? @ezzademir Death turns u on? Retire smell the roses @mpkotabelud

23 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

I feel sorry for Sarbaini’s family. But there is 3rd version. U stop speculate. RT@limkitsiang: ..Sarbaini didnt kill himself, says family

23 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

@limkitsiang I honestly dissapointed in you. SPRM needs your support instead u belittle them evry step of the way! Let’s fight it together.

23 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

6 independent committees. 42 members incl oppo. Eminent ppl. Wht else do u want? RT @Iskandarbak @limkitsiang SPRM mst standup 2 scrutiny.

23 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

@limkitsiang U r an impossible! Just like when u made the poor TBH death a racial issue. Yes you heard me right!

22 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

Only racist c TBH as racial issue. Same as Sarbani. No racial issue. Human rights 4all Msians @mpkotabelud .u made TBH death racial issue..

22 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

1st version Macc killed him. 2nd suicide. 3rd version? Let police finishes its job. So difficult? U r so irresponsible. RT@limkitsiang

22 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

@limkitsiang As much as I feel sorry for Sarbaini’s family, the truth must be investigated. And u r not helping at all! Shame!

22 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

@mpkotabelud YB y r walking example whats wrong w MACC oversight cttees. As 1 of 42 “eminent” ppl, u shld “oversee” not be MACC echo/stooge

22 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Which is? RT @Iskandarbak: @mpkotabelud @limkitsiang OMG yb kotabelud, Y r u missing d point big time?

22 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

He tweeted and insinuated murder in MACC. And getting political dividends out of it. Cheap! RT @Iskandarbak: R u r havng constipatn 2day?

22 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Yes u r! Why did u SPECIFICALLY demand Chinese Ministers in cabinet to stand up and ask RCI for TBH? Why targeted … http://tmi.me/arzR6

22 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

I didn’t speculate. He did. I just said there are 3 versions. RT@Iskandarbak: U intro a 3rd version. Isnt tat speculatn also?

22 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

I oversee but u don’t see at all! See the diff? RT @limkitsiang: u r exmpl whts wrng w MACC cttees. U shld “oversee” not be MACC echo/stooge

22 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

Sarbani died on 6April. Is @mpkotabelud concerned police taking such long time? What happened 2full internal probe pledged by MACC chief?

22 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Cepat atau lambat u maki! Either way, u got ur political dividend. Smart! RT@limkitsiang: Sarbani died. R u concern police taking long time?

22 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

As MACC stooge @mpkotabelud trotted out MACC version w/o question as proven by RT – not job of responsible member MACC oversight cttees.

22 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

U r a politician first, Msian second , Chinese third. That sums it up! RT @limkitsiang: As MACC stooge @mpkotabelud trotted out MACC version

22 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

Won’t trade epithets. When will MACC chief make public probe re Sarbani’s death? @mpkotabelud U r politician 1st, Msian 2nd, Chinese 3rd.

21 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Msia needs politics of engagement not guerilla. Let’s work together 2make SPRM more effective! RT @limkitsiang: MACC stooge @mpkotabelud

21 hours ago

(I responded to Abdul Rahmans “politics of engagement” tweet in
“10 Days in May (25)”)

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang
DAP called 4RCI into Sarbani’s death http://bit.ly/k4dVrv “DAP gesa Putrajaya adakan suruhanjaya diraja kedua siasat SPRM” (TMI)

21 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Corruption must b fought wt tenacity. MACC must be given unwavering support. Sure it will be tough journey. But one day we will get there.

21 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Corruption’s not abt politics, race &religion. Mix tht, prob will never end. I blame u, u blame me syndrome. Time 4bipartisan spirit. Game?

21 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Yes I admit MACC is not perfect either. But we hv no choice. We hv to fix it. It’s work in progress!

21 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Dtk Abu is doing his best. But his time is wasted on firefighting. Evrything is politicized disguised as human right crusade RT @ezzademir

21 hours ago

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 22 May 2011, 1:58 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Sarbani
,
Teoh Beng Hock
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