Subsidies for the poor or Umno-putras, part 1

 — Koon Yew Yin

The Malay Mail Online

June 29, 2014

JUNE 29 — Every now and then we will get statements from government on how much it is spending on subsidies for the poor.

This message is especially loud and clear during vote canvassing in elections or by-elections; or when there is an intended rise in the price of goods and commodities.

A few days ago, the Najib administration announced that it will increase electricity prices by an average 7.12 per cent from 1 June so as to trim the subsidy.

Natural gas prices will also rise by RM3 per mmBtu every six months until it reaches market levels.

So far there has been little public reaction to this price increase partly because it has not been factored yet into the monthly bills of the public.

But be warned that this increase in electricity bills will affect all households — poor, middle class and rich. Even the poorest households spending less than RM20 will be affected as the free service to them will be discontinued at the end of the year. It looks like the children of poor households will have to read by candle light in the night.

The public is also not aware that this increase in gas price move will have a knock on effect on their daily expenditure since the prices of ALL goods and services will rise. This is because industrial and commercial consumers will have an average increase of 8.35 per cent in their power bills. We can expect all businesses – big and small — to pass on the electricity and gas price hike in their bills to the public since this affects their bottom line!

Unbelievable 0.27 per cent increase in inflation rate

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yackop has told reporters that the gas price increase is expected to cause an inflation level of 0.27 per cent this year. How he arrived at this amazingly low figure has not been disclosed but it looks unbelievable.

Since the government is responsible for putting out the national statistics we can expect some extra massaging to go into the calculation of the gas price hike impact on the consumer price index. This massaging will ensure that the predicted figure becomes the real, realised and authoritative one. After all, as the saying goes, there can be lies, damn lies and statistics.

My purpose in focusing on this issue is not simply to criticise the government for trying to reduce subsidies. We have been running a massive government deficit and we need to bring government expenditure down or we face bankruptcy as a nation. That is a challenge which we must overcome because the fiscal deficit issue has already reached crisis proportions.

What I am concerned about is whether power subsidies — with its impact on overall cost of living and the poor and middle class households — should be in the front line of cuts in government expenditure.

This is an issue which needs more analysts to come out with their feedback so that the government can have a larger range of perspectives and data available before implementation of subsidy cut policies.

These are not simply pure economic issues; they have social implications. Already we have the second highest household debt in Asia at 86 per cent of GNP. This is official debt. If we take into account the unofficial debt which ‘Ah Longs’ have provided, we probably already have the highest household debt in Asia.

Let us also not forget that beginning from next year, the Goods and Services tax (GST) of about 4 per cent will be implemented. While this will strengthen the government’s revenue base, it will add on to the financial burden faced by the lower and middle class.

I am in favour of fiscal reforms that can trim the country’s debt level and widen our revenue base,. But I am also of the view that we need to cut back on all the major categories of government expenditure, and not just subsidies, if there is to be positive impact to the economy and nation.

Major categories of government expenditure

The following are some of the major categories of government expenditure.

*Petrol, diesel and gas subsidy

    *Food commodities subsidy

    *Expenditure on GLCs. MAS for example, during the past 7 years,  has made three cash call exercise for the amount of RM7 billion while accumulating losses of RM4.1 billion in three years.

    *Social expenditure on education and health

    *Economic expenditure on transport

    *Expenditure on civil servants (salaries, pensions, etc)

    *Expenditure on defence

    *Expenditure on NEP-related Bumiputra businesses

Each of these categories of government expenditure benefits a different group. Although a few of these categories are labelled as subsidies, in fact, we can consider most of them as a form of subsidy – an approach which was used by the government not long ago to calculate the level of subsidy that was being provided to the public by including health and education as components.

In the second part of my article, I shall focus on subsidies for the rich and on sectors which are undeserving and where the expenditure has not generated much national benefit.

* This is the first of a two part article focusing on the issue of subsidies for the poor and the rich.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 29 June 2014, 7:31 pm and is filed under
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It is  Muhyiddin who should resign as Education Minister and not the forced resignations of Prof Redzuan and Saifuddin from University of Malaya

The person who should resign for the plight of higher education in Malaysia today is not Professor Datuk Dr. Mohamad Redzuan Othman as head of University of Malaya’s Centre for Democracy and Elections (UMcedel) and his removal as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in the university, or former deputy Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah as senior research fellow from University of Malaya, but Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as Education Minister.

What has Muhyiddin to show in more than a year  as the powerful Education Minister gobbling up  the former Ministry of Higher Education, in the field of tertiary education apart from the latest disgraceful episode of interference with and violation of  academic freedom resulting in the resignations of Redzuan and Saifuddin from the University of Malaya?

It has become a heart-rending occasion for Malaysians whenever there is a publication of world university rankings, for it is not to find out how well Malaysian universities compare with the best in the world but how badly Malaysian universities fared in international university comparisons and benchmarkings.

Less than two weeks ago, the release of the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2014 provided latest testimony of the continued decline in global rankings of Malaysia’s public universities, with no  local tertiary institution in the top 100.

Five countries were represented in the top 10 of the Asian university rankings – Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and China. Even India made outstanding progress with 10 institutions in the top 100, compared with only three last year. Thailand was in the top 100 list.

The Middle East was also well represented, with  universities from Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Turkey making the list.

University Of Tokyo  emerged top among Asian universities followed by the National University of Singapore.

University of Hong Kong, Seoul National University and China’s Peking University clinched the third, fourth and fifth spots respectively.

Thailand has two universities in this year’s ranking, King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thonburi,  which rose five places to joint 50th, and Mahidol University, which dropped 21 places to 82nd spot.

Singapore has two highly placed universities in the ranking, NUS at second spot and Nanyang Technological University at 11th position.

Hong Kong was named the star performer by THE, given its size, and the fact that it had six universities the top 50 of the ranking.

In April, Malaysian public universities were also left out of  this year’s ranking of the annual Times Higher Education Top 100 Universities under 50 years old.

Four Asian universities were ranked among the top 10 of the world’s young universities, including South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology which took the top spot, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) (third placing), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (4) and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (5).

The country was also absent from the Times Higher Education World Reputation rankings list released in March, losing out to other Southeast Asian countries.

Will Redzuan and Saifuddin’s resignations from University of Malaya, and the failure of Malaysian universities to regain world-class academic standards and standing, which is so critical and crucial to Malaysia’s international competitiveness, be on the agenda of the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, and is this one of the “taboo” subjects which no Minister dares to raise in Cabinet?

                This entry was posted on Monday, 30 June 2014, 1:23 pm and is filed under
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When principled men like UM’s Redzuan lose a battle, but win the war

COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

30 June 2014

This is a good day for Malaysia.

Yes, most of us will be sorry that Professor Datuk Dr Mohamad Redzuan Othman is being forced out of his job at Universiti Malaya.

But this is also a good day for Malaysia. Because the principled stand taken by this gentleman is another sign that there are individuals in Malaysia who will not be cowered or silenced or threatened by insecure Barisan Nasional (BN) politicians aided by supine and morally-bankrupt government officials.

Only a few days ago, Tan Sri Shamsul Abbas, the chief executive officer of Petronas, spoke with unusual candour about the pressure being exerted on the national oil company by rent-seekers. He championed meritocracy, knowing full well the attacks he would invite from those who believe it is their birthright to plunder Malaysia’s resources.

He knows that powerful forces want him out of Petronas. The easier option would have been to say that the national oil company’s resources do not belong to him and look the other way as the plundering continued.

Similarly, it would have been so easy for Redzuan to sacrifice his beliefs for personal advancement and pecuniary interests.

 All he had to do was ensure that the surveys conducted by Universiti Malaya’s Centre for Democracy and Elections (UMcedel) were friendly to Putrajaya and showed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was as popular in Malaysia as North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is in Pyongyang.

All he had to do was give his word and bow to demands not to invite opposition politicians to address students at functions at UM.

But Redzuan and those of the same moral fibre usually don’t take short cuts and often cannot be bought off by the powerful and rich. They answer only to God and know that it is infinitely more rewarding doing the right thing now and undergoing hardship and persecution but having a clear conscience before the Almighty than in amassing riches, gaining a tenure and then facing damnation later.

It says much about Redzuan that he was prepared to lose his livelihood on a matter of principle.

Just as it says much about the thin-skinned and shameless politicians who occupy high office in Putrajaya and the Education Ministry officials who do their bidding even when they know that the directives they are enforcing are wrong and unjust.

But this is the Malaysia we live in today – where principled individuals are being called upon daily to stand up to the tyranny of the powerful.

There is hope as long as there are individuals such as Redzuan. And many more nameless and faceless Malaysians who stand up for their principles and beliefs. When hope is lost and despair sets in, remember the names Shamsul and Redzuan and what they do to make Malaysia a better place for all. – June 30, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 30 June 2014, 12:29 pm and is filed under
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Any back-door attempt to enforce hudud is illegal, says Ambiga

V. ANBALAGAN, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

1 July 2014

There is an attempt to rewrite the Federal Constitution by using “the back door” to introduce hudud but that plan will fail as it is illegal, says former Bar Council chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan.

The remark was in reference to a move to table a private member’s bill in Parliament that will allow Kelantan to enforce its Shariah penal code in the PAS-controlled state.

The east coast state has been governed by the Islamist party PAS since 1990.

If passed by a simple majority vote, the bill will give effect to the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II of 1993.

The bill, likely to be tabled in the coming session, seeks power from Parliament for Kelantan to make laws in respect of criminal matters which come under federal jurisdiction.

Ambiga said this is where the nation missed the stature of senior lawyer Karpal Singh who persistently argued that Malaysia was a secular state and the Islamic penal code could not be implemented.

“We all miss Karpal Singh because he was a defender of our Federal Constitution,” said Ambiga, who paid tribute to the senior lawyer and parliamentarian.

The Gandhi Memorial Trust of Malaysia last evening posthumously bestowed Karpal with the public service award in a form of a pewter-made tiger, in honour of the man who was dubbed the Tiger of Jelutong.

Ambiga said Karpal had asked Putrajaya to refer to the Federal Court for a legal opinion whether Malaysia was a secular or Islamic state when there emerged opposing views.

“We need his voice today, to defend this constitution of ours that we have all accepted for more than 50 years as ‘secular’.

“Now we hear arguments that suggest that our constitution is not secular. This in my view is an attempt to rewrite our constitution through the back door,” she added.

Ambiga said in 1988, a five-man bench of the then Supreme Court in the case of Che Omar Che Soh v Public Prosecutor held that the law in Malaysia was secular.

She said the then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas who wrote the judgment had also said, “We have to set aside our personal feelings because the law in this country is secular.”

Four of the judges were Muslims while the three lawyers who represented the appellant were non-Muslims.

Ambiga also told The Malayisan Insider that hudud could not be implemented even with a constitutional amendment as that would go against the basic structure.

She said Article 4 stated that the Constitution is the supreme law of the Federation and any inconsistent law passed after Merdeka Day will be declared illegal.

Former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mahadev Shanker said Karpal was the embodiment of the philosophy and principles of Mahatma Gandhi, a lawyer and freedom fighter.

“Like Gandhi, Karpal lived a simple life but his thoughts were lofty,” Shanker said, adding that Karpal was also relentless in pursuit of truth but in a peaceful manner.

He said the 30,000 people from all walks of life who paid their last respects and who participated in the funeral procession bore testimony that Karpal led a meaningful life.

Former law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said Karpal’s other contribution as an opposition MP was to ensure that the government and Parliament were responsible to the people.

“In the course of carrying that duty, he was suspended from the House at least two times for tenaciously questioning the government,” he added.

Zaid said Karpal had a mind of his own and spoke according to his conscience.

Datuk Jagjit Singh, who studied law with Karpal at University of Malaya in Singapore, said the former DAP national chairman would always be remembered for his contribution to the Malaysian criminal justice system.

“Karpal is responsible for restoring the standard of proof required in criminal cases which the Privy Council had once altered,” he added.

Karpal’s widow Gurmit Kaur received the award in a ceremony at the Royal Selangor which was attended by about 300 people.

He died on April 17 in a car accident at the North-South Expressway, along with his assistant, Michael Cornelius Selvam Vellu. – July 1, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 July 2014, 3:54 pm and is filed under
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China’s Corruption Crackdown Snares Retired Military Chief

By Bloomberg News

Jul 1, 2014

China expelled a retired deputy commander of the People’s Liberation Army from the Communist Party for bribery, the highest-level military official ensnared for corruption in more than six decades.

Xu Caihou, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the highest military body, was expelled during a meeting of the Politburo presided over by President Xi Jinping, the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. Evicting Xu, 71, removes his legal protections as a senior cadre and his case has been handed over to military prosecutors.

The official confirmation of the investigation into Xu, which was opened March 15, comes as Xi campaigns to eradicate corruption from both the party and the 2.3 million-strong PLA, the world’s largest army by headcount. Xi, who took over as head of the CMC when he became party leader in November 2012, is seeking to turn the PLA into a capable fighting force and make the country a maritime power.

The expulsion of Xu shows both the depth of corruption in the army and the progress of Xi’s anti-graft drive, Colonel Liu Mingfu, a professor at China’s National Defense University, said in a phone interview.

Treating China’s Achy Economy »

“The PLA has two battles to fight: one is a potential real one on the real battle ground, the other is the fight against corruption,” Liu said. “Without winning the second battle, the army will lose the first one without a doubt.”

Xu took advantage of his position to help others get promoted, and he took bribes directly and via his family, according to Xinhua. He also used his position to make profit for others, and his family has accepted property and money, it said, calling its impact “vile.”

Nowhere to Hide

“The PLA is an armed group to enforce the party’s political tasks,” the Politburo declared, according to Xinhua. “The party will never allow a place for corrupt people to hide, and the military will never allow a place for corrupt people to hide.”

A commentary on the front page of today’s People’s Daily newspaper, which is published by the party, pledged to seriously punish those who violate party discipline or the law, no matter how high their rank.

The Politburo meeting occurred a day before the 93rd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party, which is celebrated on July 1. Xi has warned corruption is the biggest threat to the survival of the party, which took power in 1949.

Bo Xilai

Xu became a vice chairman of the commission in September 2004, the same month then-President Hu Jintao took over from Jiang Zemin as its head. He was a member of the powerful Politburo between 2007 and 2012, alongside Bo Xilai, the former party chief of Chongqing who was sentenced to life in prison for corruption in September last year. Xu was believed to have ties with Bo, who was mayor of Xu’s home city of Dalian between 1993 and 2000, according to reports in state media.

Xu’s last public appearance was in January in Beijing at a Chinese New Year gala performance for incumbent and retired military officials. There had been speculation in Hong Kong media that Xu may be spared prosecution because he has terminal bladder cancer.

“By taking down the biggest military tiger, Xi showed he is a completely different commander-in-chief,” Xu Guangyu, senior adviser at Beijing-based research group the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, said before the announcement.

Jiang, Li

Jiang Jiemin, former head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Li Dongsheng, former public security vice minister, and Wang Yongchun, former vice deputy general manager at China National Petroleum Corp. were also expelled from the party at the meeting. Jiang and Li have been linked to former security chief and Bo Xilai-supporter Zhou Yongkang, who is the most senior target of anti-corruption investigators, according to reports in the South China Morning Post.

Li was appointed public security vice minister four years after Zhou took one of nine spots on the Politburo Standing Committee with oversight of China’s security apparatus. Jiang, a former CNPC and PetroChina chairman, and Zhou were top executives who served together at an oilfield in eastern China in 1989-1990, according to their official biographies. Zhou was general manager of CNPC in the 1990s.

Retired general Xu, considered one of Jiang Zemin’s top military proteges, was a vice chairman in charge of military personnel, wielding considerable power over the armed forces. He was allegedly linked to Gu Junshan, the disgraced former deputy logistics head of the PLA, who was charged in March with corruption, misuse of state funds and abuse of power, according to the South China Morning Post.

Gold Statue

Gu, 57, was under investigation for two years before being formally indicted for corruption. He received hundreds of millions of yuan in cash and gifts, according to state media reports, and cases of Moutai liquor and a gold statue of Mao Zedong were found at his house in the city of Puyang in Henan province.

The downfall of Xu will enhance Xi’s authority over the army, National Defense University’s Col. Liu said. Buying and selling military ranks was widespread in the army in the decade under Xi’s predecessor Hu, and it was common for military officials to use money to climb the career ladder, according to reports in state media.

The PLA is considering revamping its official evaluation system to focus on competence, clean conduct, political reliability and trustworthiness, Xinhua reported in February. It will audit military personnel before deciding to promote them or let them retire, it reported in September.

Xi has vowed to snare both “tigers” and “flies,” or senior and lower-ranking officials, in his campaign to root out corruption.

“Catching such a big military tiger would be unthinkable if Xi hadn’t won the support of retired and incumbent military leaders and state leaders,” Liu said. “He’s not fighting a solo anti-graft fight.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 July 2014, 4:50 pm and is filed under
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Historic sentence for Akil

Haeril Halim

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | July 01 2014

The Jakarta Corruption Court handed down a historic sentence on Monday evening by sentencing 53-year-old former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar to life imprisonment, the most severe sentence in the court’s history.

The former Golkar Party politician, who showed no sign of remorse for his wrongdoings, was found guilty of accepting  Rp 57 billion (US$4.7 million) in bribes from a number of regional heads to influence decisions on election disputes during his tenure at the court.

The life sentence for Akil marks the first time the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has successfully convinced the court to sentence a graft defendant facing graft or money-laundering charges to life in prison since its establishment in 2003.

The panel of judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court found that Akil, who was formerly a member of the House of Representatives, had laundered Rp 160 billion during his term at the court and Rp 20 billion when he was at the House.

“Our examination has found the defendant guilty of corruption,” presiding judge Suwidya said as he read the verdict at the court on Monday night.

During the approximately eight hours it took to read the verdict, Akil, who had frequently displayed a degree of arrogance during his almost four-month trial, listened impassively to the judges’ explanation of their verdict, occasionally closing his eyes. However, he appeared somewhat taken aback after hearing the judge say the words “life sentence”.

If Akil accepts the verdict, or if a higher court upholds his life sentence should he appeal against the verdict, then he will spend the remainder of his life behind bars.

Suwidya said that KPK prosecutors’ demands to strip Akil of his political rights and for him to reimburse the state with Rp 10 billion would not apply to Akil as he would spend the rest of his life in jail should the verdict later be found to be legal and binding.

Responding to the verdict and sentence, Akil said that he would appeal against them.

“I will file an appeal,” Akil said after hearing the verdict.

KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto said that Akil’s conviction was a strong impetus for the antigraft body to charge the regional heads who used a number of go-betweens, varying from businessmen to lawyers, to bribe Akil.

“We will study the verdict in the first place then we will make moves to charge the bribe payers,” Bambang told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

With regard to the bribe payers, the court has so far sentenced former Gunung Mas regent Hambit Bintih, go-betweens businessman Cornelis Nalau Antun and Golkar lawmaker Chairun Nisa to four years, three years and four years in prison respectively in relation to the Gunung Mas election dispute.

Meanwhile, in relation to the Lebak regency and Banten gubernatorial election disputes being tried at the Jakarta Corruption Court, the court has handed down its verdicts on politically wired Banten businessman Tubagus Chaeri “Wawan” Wardana, who is the younger brother of suspended Banten governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah, and go-between lawyer Susi Tur Andayani, with five years behind bars for each.

The KPK is still completing Atut’s dossier in the case.

Recently the KPK also named Palembang Mayor Romi Herton along with his wife Masyitoh graft suspects for allegedly bribing Akil. Other regional leaders who allegedly bribed Akil but remain at liberty are former Lebak deputy regent Amir Hamzah, Empat Lawang Regent Budi Antoni Aljufri, South Lampung Regent Rycko Menoza, Buton Regent Samsu Umar Abdul Samiun, Morotai Island Regent Rusli Sibua and Central Tapanuli Regent Raja Bonaran Situmeang.

Bambang added that the KPK would also ensure that the verdicts on perpetrators handed down by the Jakarta Corruption Court would be upheld in higher courts.

“After the verdict the KPK will also focus more on revealing other graft cases plaguing the political dynasty in Banten,” Bambang said, referring to the political dynasty of Atut.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 July 2014, 10:59 am and is filed under
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How ISIS is overshadowing al Qaeda

By Tim Lister, CNN

June 30, 2014

(CNN) — In a bold declaration of its ambition, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has laid claim to leadership of the global Islamist movement, calling on Muslims worldwide to swear allegiance to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

By claiming such preeminence, ISIS is seeking to eclipse al Qaeda and its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in what analysts see as the most dramatic shift in militant jihadism since 9/11. But ISIS also makes the outlandish claims — if its words are taken literally — that it leads 1.5 billion Muslims and that the world, not just the deserts of Syria and Iraq, are its new stage.

What did ISIS say?

The declaration was made Sunday in a 34-minute audio message by ISIS spokesman and ideologue Abu Muhammad al-Adnani al-Shami, who said that from now on, ISIS would simply be called the “Islamic State.” That is much more than a change of name; it simultaneously strips away the geographical limits imposed by the previous name and underlines the movement’s control of a wide swath of territory in Iraq and Syria. It even suggests that the group should exercise authority over Islam’s holiest places.

In a direct challenge to al-Zawahiri, al-Shami said it is now “incumbent upon all Muslims to pledge allegiance to the Khalifah Ibrahim and support him.”

Khalifah Ibrahim is the name now given to al-Baghdadi, a secretive figure never seen in ISIS’ voluminous propaganda output. Al-Shami says that al-Baghdadi has accepted the pledge of allegiance offered by senior figures of the “Islamic State.”

“Thus he is the imam and Khalifah of Muslims everywhere,” al-Shami concluded with stunning brevity.

Why a caliphate matters

Al-Shami said that in the areas now controlled by the group, the legality of all states and organizations becomes null and void, an assertion that the colonial-era borders of the Middle East are no longer valid. Instead, they are replaced by a caliphate carved from ISIS’ recent territorial gains.

A video released by the group Sunday underlined the point in graphic fashion, showing the destruction of a border crossing between al-Hasakah in Syria and the Iraqi province of Nineveh. ISIS also released a series of photographs purporting to show a parade through its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa in celebration of the declaration and of the Khalifah Ibrahim.

The restoration of the caliphate was the dream of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in establishing al Qaeda, but ISIS has seized more territory, and more cities, than any al Qaeda affiliate. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula briefly took control of a string of towns in southern Yemen early in 2012 but was driven out of them later that year.

ISIS’ methods — especially its habit of summary executions — and its refusal to accept al-Zawahiri’s authority have also led to a very public and bitter rupture with the parent organization. ISIS was disowned by al Qaeda in February after defying al-Zawahiri’s demand that it cease operating in Syria in favor of another al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al Nusra. Al Qaeda’s General Command said that ISIS was “not a branch of the al Qaeda group … does not have an organizational relationship with it, and al Qaeda is not responsible for their action.”

But the group’s successes have shifted the balance. In language that appears to taunt al Qaeda and al Nusra, al-Shami said Sunday: “They never recognized the Islamic State to begin with, although America, Britain and France acknowledge its existence. … Should we consult those who have abandoned us? Those who have betrayed us? Those who have disowned us and incited against us?”

Different from al Qaeda

Charles Lister, a Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, said the impact of the announcement “will be global as al Qaeda affiliates and independent jihadist groups must now definitively choose to support and join the Islamic State or to oppose it.”

“While it is now inevitable that members and prominent supporters of al Qaeda and its affiliates will rapidly move to denounce al-Baghdadi and this announcement, it is the long-term implications that may prove more significant,” Lister says.

Al Qaeda’s declining potency in its Afghan-Pakistan heartland, the death of bin Laden and the group’s fracturing into semiautonomous franchises have left a new generation of jihadists looking for a spiritual home — and a field of combat. ISIS provides that, and it has a slick propaganda machine producing high-quality videos posted on social media.

But Charles Lister says: “Al Qaeda will retain considerable support, and once the dust has settled, we will very likely find ourselves in a dualistic position of having two competing international jihadist representatives: al Qaeda, with a now more locally focused and gradual approach to success, and the ‘Islamic State,’ with a hunger for rapid results and total hostility for competition.”

Lister said ISIS has evolved as a tightly controlled group with “an almost obsessive level of bureaucracy, account-keeping, and centrally controlled but locally implemented military-political coordination.” But unlike al Qaeda, it has also “developed an increasingly efficient model of governance, capable of simultaneously implementing harsh medieval justice and a whole range of modern social services.”

To Aram Nerguizian, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the question is: “How can they create governance structures that don’t completely chafe against the social fabric of these towns?”

ISIS has grown exponentially over the last four years, taking advantage of ungoverned space and violent Shia-Sunni sectarianism to win the attention and support of thousands of would-be jihadists. It has attracted hundreds and probably thousands of fighters from across the Arab world and Europe. Even so, its forces are spread across a huge area and would be vastly outnumbered and outgunned by the Iraqi military should it reorganize into an effective force. And ISIS depends on powerful Sunni tribes to the west and north of Baghdad as its hosts and partners. If they perceive its practices as too draconian or its caliphate as marginalizing them, the tolerance they have shown in the face of a common enemy — the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki — will soon evaporate.

What happens in Syria?

One of the biggest questions is how other groups in Syria respond. One smaller Syrian faction, Jeish al-Sahaba, has already declared its allegiance to the “Caliphate.” At a local level, some al Nusra fighters pledged allegiance to ISIS before it declared the caliphate. “We unified with ISIS to stop bloodshed and spare our region and its countryside the danger of war and displacement,” said al Nusra’s leader in the eastern town of al Bokamal.

But other al Nusra elements clashed with ISIS in the town Monday and seem to be still working with other factions, even the relatively secular Free Syrian Army, in Deir Ezzor, a province where ISIS is strong. Most analysts foresee an inconsistent mix of competition and coexistence, even cooperation between the two groups, whose ideological roots are similar.

But many Muslims see the declaration of a caliphate as both apostasy and a ludicrous overreach by ISIS. The Syrian opposition council in Eastern Ghouta, an important area in the battle against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, last week attacked any notion that ISIS could form a state.

“ISIS must delete the world ‘state’ from the name of the faction and to be jihadi faction because ISIS does not have tangible or religious structure,” the council said, in a statement obtained by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army in eastern Syria, Omar Abu Leila, described the declaration of the caliphate as “unbelievable.”

“There are millions of Syrians who are not with ISIS, so how can they speak about a caliphate in our land?” he said.

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ISIS Threatens Al Qaeda as Flagship Movement of Extremists

By BEN HUBBARD

New York Times

JUNE 30, 2014

AMMAN, Jordan — As Syria’s civil war raged, a Kuwaiti Islamist, Ghanim al-Mteiri, funneled cash from wealthy donors in the Persian Gulf to Syria’s affiliate of Al Qaeda in hopes that it would overthrow the government and lay the foundations of an Islamic state.

So Mr. Mteiri watched in dismay as another, even more violent jihadist organization, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, seized a chunk of Syria, stormed into Iraq and not only declared itself an Islamic state, but also demanded that all Muslims swear allegiance to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

For the first time since its emergence more than two decades ago, the Qaeda of Osama bin Laden finds itself facing a rival jihadist organization with the resources and influence to threaten its status as the flagship movement of violent extremism. For the moment, Al Qaeda has lost ground, but the question remains: Will this new group, which now calls itself simply the Islamic State, endure?

Those still allied with Al Qaeda think the new group will fall victim to the same tactics that somehow have simultaneously made it an enemy of the West and of Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of Al Qaeda.

“We all dream of an Islamic state, but we want a political Islam that is able to stand up and not be erased from the map,” Mr. Mteiri said. “The great powers will never accept this, and they are bigger and stronger than ISIS.”

Although many dismissed as propaganda ISIS’ announcement on Sunday that it had established a caliphate — or global Islamic state — the group’s out-of-nowhere rise in just over one year has created a clash over ideology and tactics between partisans of the world’s two leading jihadist organizations. It also has created a generational split as ISIS has electrified a new group of radical jihadists with its emphasis on sectarian warfare and founding an Islamic state.

On Monday, ISIS members paraded through Raqqa in Syria, demonstrating the kind of success that has won it a growing following and outsize mystique: It showed off what appeared to be a Scud missile and other heavy weapons apparently looted from Iraqi military bases.

“It is clear that the first and second generation that started Al Qaeda, most of them are supporting Zawahri, but the new generation is more radical and closer to ISIS,” said Hassan Abu Hanieh, a Jordanian expert on Islamist movements.

While Al Qaeda remains committed to using terrorist tactics against the West and Arab governments, it has criticized ISIS for killing civilians and for waging war on other Muslims. This rivalry has disrupted the jihadist landscape across the Middle East and spurred new debates about how to fight jihad and what, exactly, an Islamic state is supposed to look like.

“People don’t have to like it, but they have to respond to it,” said Shadi Hamid, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, of the group’s declaration of an Islamic state. “Now that there is an actual caliphate with a caliph, a lot of Muslims are going to have to talk about what that means, and there is going to be some sympathy.”

The successes of ISIS owe much to the failures of other Islamist movements and the group’s ability to take advantage of local circumstances, including Sunni anger in Iraq at the Shiite-controlled government, experts say.

The Egyptian military’s ouster one year ago of the country’s elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, dealt a harsh blow to the Muslim Brotherhood’s philosophy of gradual change through electoral politics and societal reform.

Al Qaeda’s central leadership has been waning in power and influence for years. American drone strikes have limited the ability of its leaders to manage their far-flung affiliates, and Mr. Zawahri, who took over after the death of Bin Laden, is widely seen as out of touch and lacking the charisma to inspire young militants.

This younger generation has been wooed through ISIS’ social media campaigns and finds its activist approach to statehood more inspiring than Al Qaeda’s long-term vision.

“Al Qaeda is an organization and we are a state,” said an ISIS fighter who gave his name as Abu Omar in an online chat. “Osama bin Laden, God have mercy on him, was fighting to establish the Islamic state to rule the world, and — praise God — we have achieved his dream.”

The global ambitions of ISIS were clear in the audio recording, read by the group’s spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, announcing the caliphate that it released Sunday when it changed its name and emphasized that it did not recognize any geographic limit to its authority.

Reactions from other militants around the region were split. Small groups in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere lauded the declaration, while hundreds of men waved black flags and fired their guns in the air in celebration in Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital.

Others mocked the move as little more than bravado.

“Now while I am preparing my meal to break the Ramadan fast, news is breaking that al-Adnani has announced the caliphate!” Hani al-Sibai, a jihadist preacher in London, wrote on Twitter. “Either you pledge allegiance or return to Saturn!”

ISIS grew out of the remnants of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which took advantage of the vacuum caused by Syria’s civil war to reorganize, gather resources and recruit new fighters. It developed a reputation for ruthlessness after launching car bomb attacks on rebel bases, executing minorities and forcing its puritan views on civilians.

Its lightning surge into Iraq last month rode a wave of widespread anger among the country’s Sunnis at the discriminatory policies of Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. That advance posed a dilemma for some Islamists who had criticized ISIS’ violence toward rebel groups in Syria but now saw it as standing up for Iraq’s Sunnis.

Abu Mohammed al-Maqdissi, a radical cleric who recently condemned ISIS as a “deviant organization,” has remained silent on the group’s advances since being released from prison in Jordan this month. But Munif Samara, an Islamist doctor who knows him well, said the cleric was studying the new developments and that ISIS had behaved well in Iraq.

“The Iraqi situation is very different from the Syrian situation,” Mr. Samara said. “ISIS has not had any problems with the Sunnis in Iraq, so there is no reason for any Islamic group to be against it.”

While most expect ISIS to remain on the scene, many suspect that it has overreached and will not be able to sustain its recent advances.

Others note that many of its current allies in Iraq appreciate its help in fighting a common enemy but reject its ideology, meaning the group could face stiff resistance if it tries to assert its authority.

Reflecting those latent tensions, Sheikh Zaydan al-Jabiri, the head of the political wing of Iraq’s Tribal Revolutionaries Council, praised ISIS in an interview here for helping Iraqi’s Sunnis stand up to Mr. Maliki’s government, which he saw as a proxy for Shiite Iran.

“As long as the Islamic State is standing for the same principles as the tribes, we are together,” he said.

But when a visitor played the recording of the ISIS spokesman announcing the caliphate, Sheikh Jabiri called the speaker a “son of a dog” and said that tribes were already Muslim and would not let anyone rule them in the name of Islam.

“That project won’t work for us,” he said. “No way.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 July 2014, 8:26 pm and is filed under
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Subsidies for the poor or Umno-Putras, part 2

 – Koon Yew Yin

The Malaysian Insider

1 July 2014

In the
first part
 of my article on subsidies for the poor or the rich such as Umno-Putras, I drew attention to the subsidy cut on gas that has come into effect and analysed its impact on poor- and middle-class households.

In this second part, I shall look at the area of subsidies for the cronies of the political elite which run the country – subsidies which are beneath the radar, unaccountable, undeserved and which have been partly responsible for the financial mess that the country is now facing.

What should be in front line of subsidy cuts

What should comprise the first, second or third rung of subsidy cuts to balance the national budget should be open to national debate.

In what sector; and affecting which beneficiary group and by how much? All these questions are important and especially necessary since the government is facing pressure from several powerful quarters for special treatment and preference in the country’s socio-economic programmes.

Subsidy cut in higher education

One sector that we should consider subsidy cuts is higher education.

Although I am a strong advocate of strengthening access to higher education, there must be a rigorous cost-benefit analysis of public universities.

During the last 40 years, tens if not hundreds of billions of ringgit have been spent on Mara junior colleges and public universities where the enrolment has been skewed towards the Malays.

All these colleges and universities have done badly with low educational standards and unemployable graduates.

Last week brought damning evidence of the decline in the standards of public universities with not a single Malaysian local tertiary institution placed in Asia’s top 100.

The finding by the Times Higher Education Asia University Ranking 2014 is worrying because in the 1970s, Malaysian universities and colleges were acknowledged to be among the best in the region.

Shocking disclosure on UiTM campus construction ‘piratisation’

Now is the right time to evaluate this subsidy to public higher education using rational criteria and taking a holistic and national rather than racial approach.

This is especially necessary in light of recent disclosures that RM8.6 billion is being spent to privatise construction of six UiTM campuses nationwide.

Besides the key question of whether this new construction is necessary given the glut of UiTM graduates who cannot compete in the job market, there are other questions as to how the public funds will be spent and who benefits.

According to PKR MP and whistle-blower Rafizi Ramli, “This is a repeat of the same in all privatisation concessions of other UiTM campuses where each concession company has links with Umno leaders or businessmen with close ties with Umno.”

Citing information from CCM, he has claimed that Detik Utuh Sdn Bhd – where Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli is a majority shareholder – holds a minority stake in Unitapah Sdn Bhd, which was awarded a 23-year concession to build and rent out the Tapah campus to UiTM.

Further, Rafizi made a shocking disclosure that “every privatisation concession of UiTM branch campuses is making profit for Umno politicians through rental that is a burden on the rakyat”.

Besides Tajuddin, Rafizi has alleged that Datuk Shahrir Abdul Jalil – the brother of former minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil – had a stake in a company involved in the construction of a UiTM campus in Negri Sembilan.

This is a serious charge, which needs to be investigated by the anti-corruption authorities as well as made the subject of a special and separate parliamentary inquiry, especially if there was no open tender involved in the award of the concessions.

What we are seeing with educational expenditure is a repetition of the massive abuse with toll road, water and independent power producer (IPP) concessions.

Selected cronies are given a licence to print money by the government through long-term concessions which are negotiated behind closed doors and provide the concessionaires with guaranteed profit.

There is no open tender, no transparency, no competition, no cost-benefit analysis, and no papers or disclosure available to the public except when a whistle-blower emerges.

When will the toll collection stop? Why should the toll rate be increased when there are increasingly more road users?

Perkasa wants more spoon-feeding, subsidies for Malay businesses

The other major concern is the grant of RM20 billion from Petronas under a revised pro-Bumiputera New Economic Model (NEM) announced in September last year by the prime minister.

Not only does it appear that the subsidy grant of RM20 billion is not enough to appease Umno-Putras but we are now hearing  arguments from Perkasa chief, Datuk Ibrahim Ali, that Petronas’s CEO, Tan Sri Shamsul Azhar Abas, should resign for saying that Petronas belongs to all Malaysians, and not just to the Bumiputeras.

What we are seeing is another attempt by rogue Umno or ex-Umno elements to hijack the nation’s scarce financial resources for the small group of Malay cronies (and non-Malay partners) in the name of the NEP and affirmative action to assist the Malay community.

Spoon-feeding the rich, such as Ibrahim and undeserving Malay companies, will not come cheap. Poor Malays will suffer as we can see clearly from the impact of the power price hikes.

And if that is allowed to happen, not only are the poor Malays the losers but the entire nation as our fiscal reforms will go down the drain.

Government should make the right choice

Subsidies for the poor or rich? Subsidies for bloated, inefficient and loss-making GLCs, such as MAS or subsidies for small and medium-scale enterprises?

Subsidies for the benefit all Malaysians or for Bumiputeras only? Subsidies for public universities to produce unemployable graduates and to benefit concessionaires?

We still have time to make the right decisions. But time and the nation’s wealth and money are fast running out.  – July 1, 2014.

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Will first expanded Cabinet meeting tomorrow mark the end of 14-month Najib administration on autopilot since 13GE last May?

Malaysians have been hit by the twin  disaster of two disappearances.

The first is the 115-day disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 370.

Despite the world’s largest and longest land, sea and under-sea search, not only is there no wreckage or debris of the aircraft with 239 passengers and crew on board after nearly four months of search,  there is even controversy as to the aircraft’s flight-path  and its final destination.

The latest 55-page report released by the Australian Transport Safety Board last Thursday postulated that the MH 370 flight was on autopilot with the passengers and crew having  died from suffocation, with the plane likely crashed farther south into the Indian Ocean than previously thought – a distance of some 5,000 kilometres.

The idea of a “ghost plane” for a whole stretch of journey completely on autopilot as far as Kuala Lumpur to  New Delhi (3,831), Kabul (4,838 km), Beijing (4,335 km), Seoul (4,662km), Tokyo (5,315 km) or Perth (4,162 km) simply boggles the mind.

But even worse than the 115-day disappearance of the MH370 Boeing 777 is the 422-day disappearance of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who was conspicuously absent to provide the hands-on leadership and direction on major issues affecting the country in the past 14 months.

Najib appears to have set Malaysia on autopilot, coasting through not only an  utterly shambolic administration and the nation’s  most  polarized period because of  race and religion, allowing extremists and agent provocateurs to trample on the sensitivities of a plural society and to provoke breaches of the peace to cause a racial and religious conflagration with the relentless escalation of  dangerous and irresponsible incitement of racial and religious hatred, conflict and tensions.

It would appear that extremist and intolerant groups have not only been given immunity and impunity to continuously up the ante to  incite racial and religious hatred, tension and conflict, but to re-cycle the threat of  May 13 riots.

Such a May 13 threat was  made last Friday, questioning whether those who commented against the Federal Court ruling on the Allah issue wanted another May-13 riots.

About six months ago in January, such an May 13 threat was issued in a protest by UMNO Penang and its allies on an issue which had nothing to do with the DAP, asking “Does DAP want another May 13” accompanied by other inflammatory and incendiary banners like “Because of DAP leaders’ mouth, May 13, 1969 happened…Want some more?”, “ABCD – Asal Bukan Cina DAP” and “DAP is the enemy of Islam”.

It is a tribute to the rationality, soberness and  maturity of the overwhelming majority of Malaysians, regardless of race  and religion, proving that they are moderates and real Malaysian patriots  who  want peace and harmony in our plural society, and  who are not easily  influenced by the irresponsible, extremist and intolerant groups in our society who want to start a racial conflict or even a religious war in our country.

Will the first expanded Cabinet meeting tomorrow mark the end of 14-month Najib administration on autopilot since 13GE last May and send out a clear and unmistakable message to end the drift and loss of leadership and direction to create an united, harmonious, just, competitive and great Malaysian nation?

Many Malaysian patriots and nationalists, who pride themselves as being Malaysians than just being Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans, had restless or even sleepless nights in the past 14 months wondering and worrying about the future of the country as it has been on auto-pilot completely bereft of leadership and direction since the general elections in May last year.

Najib has even given up propounding his signature policy of an inclusive 1Malaysia  where Malaysians regard themselves as Malaysians first and their race, religion, region and socio-economic status second.

His international initiative of  “Global Movement of Moderates”, whose credibility had been  undermined by his government’s empowering and outsourcing of extremist and intolerant demands completely antithetical to the 1Malaysia concept and repudiation of the message of moderation, harmony and co-existence underlying the “Global Movement of Moderates” campaign, is now even more suspect  with his recent glorification of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and terrorists at a UMNO function.

Can Malaysians expect a new proactive nation-building policy beginning with the first meeting of the expanded Cabinet tomorrow, such reaffirming that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as the religion of the Federation and  taking a firm stand against the “May 13” threat coming out of the closet every half-a-year to incite and racialise issues which have nothing  to do with race but is about the unhappiness of all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans about the government’s abuses of power, arrogance and indifference to the people’s sufferings whether as a result of price hikes or the absence of  clean, efficient and good governance.

   Lim Kit Siang

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 July 2014, 3:26 pm and is filed under
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1946, when it all went wrong for us

Wong Chin Huat

The Malaysian Insider

2 July 2014

Where Malaysia is heading, with sensational news from Muslim-only Allah, Hudud for all, body-snatching, wedding gate-crashing, police defying the Common Law Courts, to now Muslims buying only from Muslims?

The common question asked by many Malaysians is either “what have gone wrong?” or “Where have we gone wrong?” The relevant question, to my mind, is neither of these but “when have we gone wrong?”

Yes, not what and where, but when. And my answer is 1946.

The ultimate question

What happened in 1946? The British who returned to Malaya after the war started their preparation for her decolonisation.

An utmost pertinent question emerged: can multiculturalism and common citizenship co-exist?

Put it bluntly, can the minorities ask for citizenship with equal rights if they refused to be assimilated?

The expectation of assimilation had its grounds, both globally and locally.

Then, the homogenous nation-state model – one nation, one state, one language, one culture — laid down by the French since their Revolution in the 18th century was the norm. Countries with diverse populations were anomalies.

Such a view was even shared by many liberals. Liberal thinker John Stuart Mill said, “Free institutions are next to impossible in a country made up of different nationalities. Among a people without fellow-feeling, especially if they read and speak different languages, the united public opinion, necessary to the working of representative government, cannot exist.”

In other words, cultural homogeneity or homogenisation is a pre-requisite for democracy.

Locally, thanks to the spread of both the Malay language and Islam in Nusantara by 17th-18th century, and later by the British colonial policy to back and consolidate the Malay kingdoms to facilitate their indirect colonial rule, Malays became a composite ethno-religious category.

If you embraced Islam and you spoke Malay, you could be absorbed as Malays. This was not limited to Minangkabaus, Bugis, Acehnese, Mendalings, Banjarese or later Javanese, but also the Arabs and Indian Muslims.

In early 20th Century, the last two groups were once called Darah Keturuan Arab (DKA) and Darah Keturunan Keling (DKK) and greatly resented by Nusantaran Malays for taking up economic shares as Malays.

The resentment against the Arab- and Indian-Malays subsided when the non-Muslim and non-Malay-speaking Chinese and Indians were seen as the real threat to the Malays.

Hence, by 1946, Malays – not withstanding their parochial loyalty to their states and cultures – had become a culturally defined “melting pot” ethnic group, not unlike America, France or even China.

The 1946 question, reframed in this lens, would be: should the Chinese and Indians be given equal rights if they refused to be “melted”?

The Yes and No struggles

Offering a liberal naturalisation scheme to the Chinese and Indians, the Malayan Union proposed by the British was a “Yes”.

Years later, “the Malaysian Malaysia” idea espoused by People’s Action Party (PAP) and later Democratic Action Party (DAP) is a “Yes”.

The Malays in 1946 answered the question with a loud “No”, which was embodied in the formation of Umno.

And the replacement of the Malayan Union by Persekutuan Tanah Melayu (Federation of Malaya) indicated the victory of the “No” camp.

It did not only establish Umno’s hegemony, but also dictated why we have a centralised and rigid federal system when most federations elsewhere exist to accommodate and manage differences between rival groups.

If accommodation was the goal, the Malayan Union – a multi-ethnic unitary state – should have been kept as the Federation of Malaya was really a federation of Malay ethnocracies.

The 1957 compromises

The “No” victory was however soon cut short by the eruption of the Communist insurgency. Malay nationalists were forced by the British to recognise the reality of the de facto civil war at home and cold war at the global level.

This led to Umno founder-president Dato Onn’s championing of the radical idea of opening up Umno to the non-Malays and his eventual departure from the party.

The electoral challenge posed by Dato Onn’s Independence of Malaya Party (IMP) then forced Umno to cooperate with MCA at the local level for the 1952 Kuala Lumpur Municipal Election.

The success of this ad-hoc experiment sealed the rule of the game for multi-ethnic politics. By 1955, when the Alliance swept 51 out of 52 seats contested in Malaya, it was already a tripartite coalition speaking the language of moderation and accommodation.

The ethnocratic aspiration of Umno was diluted but not completely abandoned. The outcome of pragmatism of all sides was the Merdeka Compromises with three important quid-pro-quo deals.

The first was on citizenship. In exchange for the jus soli principle which would allow most non-Malays to obtain citizenship, special status was granted for the Malays.

Interestingly and perfectly consistent with the historical evolution of the Malayan Malays, Malays are defined not by biological lineage, but by religion, language, custom and the geographical origin of Malaya or Singapore. In other words, this is an open melting pot that one can opt in.

The second was on religion. Religious freedom was guaranteed on two counter-conditions: first, Islam – already the official religion for the Malay states – was made the religion of the Federation; and second, written as a proviso to the constitutional provision itself, religious conversion can only be one-way, from non-Muslims to Muslims.

The third was on language. Linguistic freedom was guaranteed with the establishment of Bahasa Melayu as the national language as the corresponding parallel. At the policy level, the Chinese- and Tamil-medium schools would stay but the ultimate goal would be unifying all schools with the Malay language.

Reading together the three exchanges of the Merdeka Compromise and the constitutional definition of the Malays, Malaya was a gentle and gradual nation-building project to eventually make everyone a Malay.

The project had two tools: first, the differential in citizenship right as an inducement; second, the protectionist environment that prevents the minority faiths and languages from flourishing fully and competing with Islam and Bahasa Melayu.

The phrasing out of Malaya by the larger federation of Malaysia did not change this project. Rather, the project of building a Malay nation-state just became the de facto Malaysia.

East Malaysian leaders who stood in the way of the Malayanisation process were either ousted (Stephen Kalong Ningkan) or ousted then tamed (Donald Stephens and Pairin Joseph Kitingan).

The de-legitimation of plural society

The ultimate goal of building a mono-ethnic nation-state is well entrenched in the officialdom and indoctrinated through historical textbook. By secondary school, Malaysians are taught that the plural society is basically a threat or challenge to national unity.

And its emergence is reduced to two simple factors, both tied to the colonial history: first, the importation of the Chinese and the Indians as mining and agricultural workers; second, the failure of the Colonial Government to have them assimilated, primary by allowing the development of separate education systems.

This anti-diversity discourse in simplified anti-colonial language – using convenient short-hands like “divide and rule” – ignores two important facts.

First and foremost, if there was any ground of such discourse for Malaya, Malaya has been replaced by the larger Malaysia and the Bornean Malaysia was never Malay countries.

Sabah and Sarawak did have plural societies and melting-pot-style amalgamation by a single dominant faith or language never happened, as it did in Malaya.

Second, even in Malaya, the story was never thorough. Chinese miners in Perak and Selangor were much brought in by rivalling Malay chieftains, with whom they later took sides in the Malay civil wars. Most tellingly, Chinese immigrants in Johor were mainly brought in by Temenggung Ibrahim and his son Sultan Abu Bakar, who had not a single drop of English blood.

In other words, the immigrant communities were really more the natural consequence of capitalist development, much like why we have millions of foreign workers today, rather than some colonial conspiracy.

The crime of honesty

Lacking a nuanced and honest analysis of our colonial history de-legitimises our multiethnic society, making it something needs to be tolerated and contained rather than celebrated or advanced.

It also de-legitimises secularism and democracy, which are seen as part of the post-colonial order.

The 1957 order was shifted in 1969 to be more pro-Malay in the aftermath of the May 13 riot.

The 2008 political tsunami marked the beginning of a counter-shift towards centre, against the excesses of the 1969 shift.

The controversies staged by Perkasa, Isma and Utusan are but efforts to stop or reverse this counter shift. From their standpoints, these are rational moves that should not surprise anyone really.

After all, if the 1957 model of gentle and gradual assimilation is the unquestioned premise, then really the measure of moderation would be just really about gentleness and gradualness, much like how much heat you apply to a slow cooker so that a live frog in it would believe it is having a spa treatment.

Then, Perkasa, Isma and Utusan of course are gravely guilty of honesty.  – July 2, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 July 2014, 11:09 pm and is filed under
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Fears of extremism rise in Muslim nations, poll shows

The Malaysian Insider

 2 July 2014

Fears about Islamic extremism are rising in nations with large Muslim populations from the Middle East to South Asia and support for radical groups is on the slide, according to a poll released yesterday.

Concern about extremism has increased in the past 12 months amid the dragging war in Syria and attacks by Nigeria’s Boko Haram militants, the Pew Research Center found after interviewing more than 14,200 people in 14 countries.

Extremist groups such as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Boko Haram and even Hamas, which won elections to take control of running the Gaza Strip, are also losing support.

And backing for the use of suicide bombings against civilian targets has dropped significantly in the past decade following a slew of brutal attacks.

The review was carried out from April 10 to May 25, before the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – now renamed the Islamic State – took over the northern Iraqi town of Mosul in a lightning offensive which has seen it seize a large swathe of territory.

In Lebanon, which shares a border with Syria, as many as 92% of those interviewed said they were worried about Islamic extremism.

That figure was up 11 points from 2013, and was spread evenly among Lebanon’s Sunni, Shiite and Christian communities.

Concern has also risen in Jordan and Turkey, both of which border Syria and have taken in significant numbers of refugees fleeing the three-year war to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in which extremists have increasingly moved into the chaos.

Some 62 % of Jordanians voiced fears about extremism, up 13 points since 2012, while in Turkey half of those polled shared the same concerns, up 18 points from two years ago.

“In Asia, strong majorities in Bangladesh (69%), Pakistan (66%) and Malaysia (63%) are concerned about Islamic extremism,” the Pew report said.

However, in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, such fears were not shared, with only four in ten people voicing any anxiety about extremism.

An overwhelming majority of Nigerians (79%) were against Boko Haram, behind the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls earlier this year, while 59% of Pakistanis said they have no love for Taliban militants.

Just over half of Palestinians (53%) have an unfavourable opinion of Hamas, blamed this week by Israel for the murders of three teenagers, and the figure rises to 63% in the Gaza Strip, higher than on the West Bank controlled by the rival Fatah party.

Only 46% of Palestinians believed that suicide bombings could be justified against civilians, down from 70% in 2007.

And the figure among Lebanese Muslims has fallen from 74% in 2007 to 29% today. – AFP, July 2, 2014.

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No way Malaysia can catapult to “top 10 or 12” of Transparency International CPI without catching any “big fishes” like what is happening in France, Indonesia, Philippines and China

Anti-Corruption agencies in France, China, Indonesia and Philippines created shock waves in their countries in the past 48 hours when they  caught “big fishes” and took action against “grand corruption” in the past 48 hours.

In France, former president Nicolas Sarkozy has just been charged with corruption and influence peddling after being questioned for 15 hours, marking the first time a French ex-head of state had been taken into custody in a criminal investigation.

If convicted of those charges, he could face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

In the Philippines, former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was suspended from Congress as Pampanga representative for 90 days pending her trial for graft over the award of US$329 million construction contract to Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE in the National Broadband Network (NBN) controversy when she was Filipino  President in 2007.

In Indonesia, the Jakarta Corruption Court handed down a historic sentence on Monday evening by sentencing 53-year-old former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar to life imprisonment, the most severe sentence in the court’s history.

The former Golkar Party politician was found guilty of accepting Rp 57 billion (US$4.7 million) in bribes from a number of regional heads to influence decisions on election disputes during his tenure at the court.

The life sentence for Akil marks the first time the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has successfully convinced the court to sentence a graft defendant facing graft or money-laundering charges to life in prison since its establishment in 2003.

In Beijing, China’s corruption crackdown snared  the highest military official in more than six decades when the Chinese Communist Party Politburo meeting presided over by President Xi Jinping expelled Xu Caihou, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and  a retired commander of the People’s Liberation Army. With the removal of Xu’s legal protections as a senior cadre, his case has been handed over to military prosecutors.

What has Malaysia anti-corruption campaign to show compared to these major anti-corruption developments in France, Philippines, Indonesia and China?

Absolutely nothing, as there is either complete silence from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on the outcome of  his five-year anti-corruption campaign or just fanciful statements like the recent one by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner, Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed in his interview with  The Edge that he aspires for  Malaysia to be in the “top 10 or 12” of the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

As MACC  has not caught a single “big fish” in Najib’s five-year premiership – apart from causing the still unresolved deaths of Teoh Beng Hock and Ahmad Sarbaini at MACC premises – it boggles the imagination that Abu Kassim could even consider Malaysia to be ranked  in “top 10 or 12” in TI CPI as compared to proactive anti-corruption campaigns in   France, China, Indonesia and Philippines in their recent actions against “grand corruption”.

I am reminded of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s stand on the TI CPI. When  TI CPI was first introduced in 1995, Malaysia was ranked No. 23 out of 41 countries. I can still remember the condemnation by Mahathir, who was  Prime Minister at the time, who accused it as part of the Western “white men” conspiracy to demonise Asian countries as the global anti-corruption NGO was headquartered in Berlin.

However, in the months before he stepped down as Prime Minister in October 2003, Mahathir was singing a different tune, suggesting that Malaysia must compare its public behaviour with Finland, which came out as the world’s least corrupt and most ethical country in the TI CPI for three consecutive years at that time.

Mahathir is on public record as saying that corruption in Malaysia today is worse than his 22 years as Prime Minister from 1981-2003.

The TI CPI annual series seem to vindicate Mahathir.

Malaysia’s latest TI CPI ranking has improved by one step, placed 53 out of 177 countries compared to 54th ranking in 2012, while the TI CPI score has improved to 50/100 compared to previous year’s 49/100.

However, the 19-year series of TI CPI annual rankings from 1995-2013 highlights a most shocking result, that  Najib five-year premiership has always registered a lower TI CPI ranking when compared to  the two previous Prime Ministers, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah.

This is illustrated by the following chart on TI CPI 1995-2013:

Prime Minister

Best ranking

Best score

Worst ranking

Worst score

Mahathir

23(1995)

5.32/10 (1996)

37 (2003)

4.8/10 (2000)

Abdullah

39(2004)

5.1/10 (2005/7/8)

47 (2008)

5/10 (2004/6)

Najib

53 (2013)

50/100 (2013)

60 (2011)

4.3/10 (2011)

Malaysia cannot expect any significant improvement in our  TI CPI positions unless and until the Najib premiership gets serious in waging an all-out war against “grand corruption” and  Malaysia’s counterparts  of Sarkozy, Gloria Arroyo, Akil Mochtar and Xu Caihou are brought to the courts of justice.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 July 2014, 2:01 pm and is filed under
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Open letter from a Malaysian living in New Zealand

— John Ling

The Malay Mail Online

July 2, 2014

JULY 2 — When the news first broke that a Malaysian diplomat had been accused of sexual assault in New Zealand, I was struck by that sharpest of emotions — shame. And soon enough, that shame deepened into disgust when official government correspondence was released. They appeared to show that diplomatic immunity had been used to sidestep a criminal conviction, and this was done at the expense of a young female victim.

This international incident has sent shockwaves through New Zealand society. Kiwis are famously known for their cheerful and unassuming nature. But, in this instance, they have grown increasingly vocal at what they perceive to be a miscarriage of justice. Anger has been directed primarily at the present National government for not pushing hard enough to prosecute the offender within New Zealand’s jurisdiction. Anger has also been directed at the Malaysian government for exploiting a loophole in the Vienna Convention that allowed them to fly the offender back to Malaysia.

To understand why this alleged crime has struck such a raw nerve with New Zealanders, you first have to understand this country’s history.

In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world to offer women the right to vote. Then, in 2001, it became the only country in the world where the top positions of power were all held by women — Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Attorney General and Chief Justice.

The struggle for an egalitarian society occupies an almost mythic status in the New Zealand consciousness. People here are largely non-religious. Instead they follow common secular philosophy. They call it giving someone a “fair go”. It’s what every Kiwi child is expected to learn from a young age — no gender, no ethnicity, no dogma is allowed to supercede another. And the fight to advance women’s rights is placed on the same sacred pedestal as racial and marriage equality.

Little wonder, then, that New Zealanders should take this diplomatic incident as an affront to their values. It mocks over 120 years of liberal tradition. And this hurts all the more because Kiwis have traditionally held Malaysia in high regard. Malaysian restaurants are hugely popular here, and Malaysia Airlines has been a favoured carrier for Kiwis looking to travel to Asia.

Sadly, with the recent uptick in religious extremism, the catastrophic loss of MH370, and now this diplomatic faux pas, Malaysia’s reputation has now been called into question. There are now those whispering that this country is little more than a gangster state. A place where there’s no honesty; no integrity; no respect for women’s rights.

For the Malaysian community in New Zealand, this has placed us in the difficult position of having to act as apologists for the misdeeds of our bureaucrats. Rightly or wrongly, it now feels as if whatever age of innocence we once enjoyed is now long gone. “Malaysia Truly Asia” has become an ironic slogan for everything that’s wrong with our country of our birth.

For decades now, through times of war and peace, the New Zealand government has extended its hand of bilateral friendship. It has proven itself willing to give Malaysian citizens a fair go. We have come here as visitors, students and migrants, and throughout, Kiwis have been shown us nothing but warmth and generosity.

The onus now is on the Malaysian regime to prove that it is capable of reciprocating such friendship and goodwill. Only time will tell whether justice will be served fairly and impartially. The Malaysian community in New Zealand are hoping against hope that this will be the case.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 July 2014, 8:19 pm and is filed under
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The Search for Malaysian Airlines MH370. Unanswered Questions. Wreck of Unidentified Aircraft in Bay of Bengal? Crucial Information Withheld

By GeoResonance

Global Research

June 30, 2014

The staff at GeoResonance are not prone to conspiracy theories, we all deal with facts and science. It appears some of  the authorities involved in the search have not been completely transparent with all of the facts. The MH370 tragedy has created more world interest than any event since 9/11, under those circumstances 100% transparency is a must. There are many unanswered questions.

The families and friends of those on board MH370 are dismayed that Inmarsat admitted the raw data released was only enough to prove their original model. Everyone was expecting all of the raw data to be released which would have allowed alternative models to be created. This could have shown up any errors that may exist in the original model which “assumes” MH370 ended up in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Many people are asking why the Australian over the horizon radar Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) did not see MH370. The map below showing the JORN range is taken from an Australian Air Force fact sheet on JORN (https://www.airforce.gov.au/docs/JORN_Fact_Sheet.pdf)

On 26th of June 2014, the Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss presented the latest search area in the Southern Indian Ocean.

It is clear if MH370 did fly along or land on the assumed Inmarsat Southern arc flight path, then JORN would have seen it to the North/West and West of Australia. One report suggests the Laverton based radar may have been looking North for Asylum seekers arriving by boat. If this is reality it would have been looking to the North and West of Christmas Island as that is where nearly all boats head to or past when making for Australia from Indonesia. No matter which  direction the Laverton radar was looking whether North or West, it should have seen a large commercial aircraft on the assumed Southern arc. Angus Houston representing JACC and Martin Dolan Chairman of ATSB have stated numerous times the Inmarsat model of a Southern arc is a fact. Family members and experts are asking the Australian authorities why JORN did not see MH370 if the Southern arc is indeed a fact. They have been given flawed logic on radar direction, but mainly silence. Independent investigators will be asking the Australian Government many questions on this  topic.

The families are asking why some commercial cargo remains unidentified. Considering the scale of this tragedy all details must be released. The families want to  know why the Malaysian Government would withhold such crucial information.

The  families also would like to know why Rolls Royce will not release the data on pings sent from MH370 at: 2:25am, 2:27am and 8:19am. The pings at 2:25am and 2:27am are out of the ordinary, as pings should normally be sent every hour only unless there is a problem with an engine. The data would normally include engine performance details as well as other aircraft data.

GeoResonance stands by its claim that we have located what appears to be the wreck of an aircraft 190km South of the Bangladesh coastline in 1,000 to 1,100  metres of water. We have never claimed this to be MH370, however it is a lead that must be thoroughly followed through. It has been confirmed that the precise location supplied by GeoResonance to all authorities involved in the search for MH370 has not been searched. The main reason for ignoring the location is the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) Chairman Martin Dolan making a statement that GeoResonance methodology cannot do what we claim. This is  without ever having anyone contacting GeoResonance for a technical presentation. This slanderous and ignorant statement by a senior public servant is unfathomable when GeoResonance regularly produces accurate results for commercial clients around the globe.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 July 2014, 10:48 pm and is filed under
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Arab Spring, Jihad Summer

By Pepe Escobar

Asia Times

2 July 2014

 Welcome to IS. No typo; the final goal may be (indiscriminate) regime change, but for the moment name change will do. With PR flair, at the start of Ramadan, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS, or ISIL – the Islamic State of the Levant – to some) solemnly declared, from now on, it will be known as Islamic State (IS).

 “To be or not to be” is so … metaphysically outdated. IS is – and here it is – in full audio glory. And we’re talking about the full package – Caliph included: “the slave of Allah, Ibrahim Ibn ‘Awwad Ibn Ibrahim Ibn ‘Ali Ibn Muhammad al-Badrial-Hashimi al-Husayni al-Qurashi by lineage, as-Samurra’i by birth and upbringing, al-Baghdadi by residence and scholarship”. Or, to put it more simply, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

 IS has virtually ordered “historic” al-Qaeda – yes, that 9/11-related (or not) plaything of one Osama bin Laden – as well as every other jihadi outfit on the planet, to pledge allegiance to the new imam, in theological theory the new lord over every Muslim. There’s no evidence Osama’s former sidekick, Ayman “the doctor” al-Zawahiri will obey, not to mention 1.5 billion Muslims across the world. Most probably al-Qaeda will say “we are the real deal” and a major theological catfight will be on.

 After all, in Syria, ISIL as well as Jabhat al-Nusra were initially fighting under the banner of al-Qaeda, until the brand – in spectacular fashion – decided to dump al-Baghdadi. He and ISIL went too far – with all those videos of decapitations and crucifixions and serial profanation of Shi’ite, Sufi and Christian sanctuaries.

 Al-Baghdadi, born Ibrahim al-Badri in Samarra, is an average Sunni Iraqi cleric with a degree in pedagogy from the University of Baghdad. His alter ago was born after Shock and Awe in 2003, and soon metamorphosed into a de facto serial killer – blowing up Shi’ite kids at ice-cream shops or scores of women at Shi’ite weddings.

 ISIL’s track record in Syria includes banning every flag apart from its own; the destruction of any “polytheist” temple or sanctuary (except if it is Sunni); and strict imposition of Islamically correct women wear. Most of all, it is a track record of terror. This is not an army, rather a well-trained militia of professional mujahid, European passport holders included, with battlefield experience in Iraq, Afghanistan and, to a lesser degree, Chechnya. Heavy weaponizing is petrodollar-financed – the usual, wealthy “Gulf donors”, which does not exclude official connections.

 Sources of income diversified mightily when ISIL captured the oilfields surrounding Deir Ezzor in Syria; and after the recent offensive across Niniveh province in Iraq, they were able to lay their hands on vast arsenals of heavy artillery, lots of cash and gold bullion and, why not, US Humvees left behind. Their trademark, of course, are those columns of brand new white Toyota Land cruisers – free off road advertising Toyota HQ in Japan may not find particularly welcome.

 Loaded with oil and profiting from tax revenue, IS is now firmly on its way to provide (minimal) services and support a (mighty) Jihadi Army – much like the Taliban from 1996 to 2001. One may be sure IS will continue its massive “social engagement” strategy; talk about a chatty Caliphate which loves YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. No wonder they are a hit among Google generation recruits – as well as becoming fund-raising aces via gruesome videos. In thesis, indoctrination progresses hand in hand with “charity work”; residents of Aleppo, for instance, can dwell on how ISIL (gruesomely) looks and feels on the ground.

Mission forever unaccomplished

 It’s unclear how the new IS reality will play on the ground. The new Caliph has in fact declared a jihad on all that basket of corrupt and/or incompetent Middle East “leaders” – so some fierce “battle for survival” reaction from the Houses of Saud and Thani, for instance, is expected. It’s not far-fetched to picture al-Baghdadi dreaming of lording over Saudi oilfields – after decapitating all Shi’ite workers, of course.

 And that’s just a start; in one of their Tweeter accounts IS has published a map of all the domains they intend to conquer within the span of five years; Spain, Northern Africa, the Balkans, the whole Middle East and large swathes of Asia. Well, they are certainly more ambitious than NATO.

 Being such a courageous bunch, the House of Saud is now tempted to accept that imposing regime change on Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq is a bad idea. That puts them in direct conflict with the Obama administration, whose plan A, B and C is regime change.

 Turkey – the former seat of the Caliphate, by the way – remains mute. No wonder; Ankara – crucially – is the top logistical base of IS. Caliph Erdogan’s got to be musing about his own future, now that he’s facing competition. In theory, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan are all saying they’re ready to fight what would be a “larger-scale war” than that gift that keeps on giving, the original, Cheney junta-coined GWOT (global war on terror).

 And then there’s the future of the new $500 million Obama fund to “appropriately vetted” rebels in Syria, which in fact means the expansion of covert CIA “training facilities” in Jordan and Turkey heavily infiltrated/profited from by IS. Think of hordes of new IS recruits posing as “moderate rebels” getting ready for a piece of the action.

 It’s easier for Brazil to win the World Cup with a team of crybabies with no tactical nous than having US Secretary of State John Kerry and his State Department ciphers understand that the Syrian “opposition” is controlled by jihadis. But then again, they do know – and that perfectly fits into the Empire of Chaos’s not so hidden Global War on Terror (GWOT) agenda of an ever-expanding proxy war in both Syria and Iraq fueled by terror financing.

 So 13 years ago Washington crushed both al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Then the Taliban were reborn. Then came Shock and Awe. Then came “Mission Accomplished”. Then al-Qaeda was introduced in Iraq. Then al-Qaeda was dead because Osama bin Laden was dead. Then came ISIL. And now there’s IS. And we start all over again, not in the Hindu Kush, but in the Levant. With a new Osama.

 What’s not to like? If anyone thinks this whole racket is part of a new live Monty Python sketch ahead of their reunion gig this month in London, that’s because it is.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 3 July 2014, 10:19 pm and is filed under
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Crying shame that after four years of GTP1 and GTP2, Najib cannot point to any BFR – Big Fast Results – in the “Fighting Corruption” NKRA  to contradict Mahathir’s claim that Malaysia today is more corrupt than during his 22-year premiership 1981-2003

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is ectastic that the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) has been recognized as one of the world’s top 20 leading government innovation teams by United Kingdom’s innovation foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Nesta in its publication on Monday.

He said in his latest posting on his Facebook and Twitter accounts today that

he had established Pemandu in 2009 to support the implementation of the National Transformation Programme with its accompanying Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) to turn Malaysia into a high-income economy by 2020.

It is a crying shame that despite having Pemandu named as one of the world’s top 20 leading government innovation teams, Najib cannot point to any BFR – Big Fast Results – to contradict former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir’s claim that Malaysia today is more corrupt than during his 22-year premiership from 1981-2003.

This is a great pity for  “Fighting Corruption” is one of the seven National Key Results Areas (NKRAs) pistons for the GTP engine, which cannot succeed or perform in tip-top condition if the piston to fight corrupt falters and fails.

This was already obvious in May when the Prime Minister launched with great fanfare the GTP Annual Report 2013, covering not only the first three years of GTP1 but also the first year of GTP2, and although Najib claimed “stellar success” for GTP in  “surpassing overall targets”, he could not point to any BFR or achievement for the “Fighting Corruption” NKRA.

The only consolation for  the “Fighting Corruption” NKRA in the GTP Annual Report 2013  was Malaysia’s rise from 54 to 53 in Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2013.

This was the best TI CPI achieved by Malaysia under Najib’s premiership since 2009, as the country was ranked No. 56 in 2009 and 2010, No. 60 in 2011 and No. 54 in 2012.

However, what is undeniable is that the  TI CPI placing achieved during Najib’s premiership were the worst, both in ranking and score, as compared to the five years under Tun Abdullah and 22 years under Tun Mahathir as Prime Minister.

When Mahathir stood down as Prime Minister in 2003 after 22 years as Prime Minister, Malaysia was ranked No. 37 in the TI CPI 2003.

Is Najib or Pemandu prepared to state when Malaysia is expected to regain the 37th placing of TI CPI – before 2020, after or never again?

Just for information, at present two countries shared the 36th ranking in the TI CPI 2013 – Taiwan and Israel, with CPI score out of 61 out of 100, compared to Malaysia’s 50 out of 100.

It is instructive for Najib and the Ministers in charge of NTP/GTP and the anti-corruption portfolio to study the TI CPI 2013 ranking and score for the 177 countries we well as  the 19-year series of TI CPI from 1995-2013.

Firstly, the initial 1995 TI CPI shows that there is great stability in the first top ten “least corrupt” nations in the past two decades, as the top ten countries listed in 1995 TI CPI are the same as the top 10 in the 2013 TI CPI – although with some changes of placing and score.

The first “top ten” countries in the 1995 TI CPI are:

1.	New Zealand

2.	Denmark

3.	Singapore

4.	Finland

5.	Canada

6.	Sweden

7.	Australia

8.	Switzerland

9.	Netherlands

10.	Norway

The “top ten” countries in the 2013 TI CPI are:

1	 Denmark

1	 New Zealand

3	 Finland

3	 Sweden

5	 Norway

5	 Singapore

7	 Switzerland

8	 Netherlands

9	 Australia

9	 Canada

Secondly,  in the last 19 years, Malaysia achieved the dubious distinction as one of the few countries which had been downgraded both in TI CPI ranking and score, losing  out to countries which had lower CPI ranking and score in 1995 and is also now at risk of being overtaken by countries including China and Indonesia which had been at the bottom of TI CPI in 1995, ranking No. 40 and 41 respectively.

Malaysia ranked No. 23 with CPI score of 5.28/10 in 1995, was ahead of Taiwan (Rank 25 Score 5.08), Spain (R26 Score 4.35), South Korea (R27 Score 4.29) Hungary (R28 Score 4.12) and Turkey (R29 Score 4.10) but in the 2013 TI CPI, with a ranking of No. 53 and score of 50,  we  have lost out to Taiwan (R36 Score 61), Spain (R40 Score 59), South Korea (R46 Score 55),Hungary(R47 Score 54) and been caught up by Turkey (R53 Score 50).

Unlike Malaysia, which has achieved a lower percentile score in the past 19 years, i.e. 5.28/10 in 1995 to 50/100 in 2013, all other countries in Asia have improved on their percentile score in the past 19 years from 1995 to 2013, eg. Thailand from 2.79/10 to 35/100; India from 2.78/10 to 36/100; Philippines from 2.77/10 to 36/100; Pakistan from 2.25/10 to 28/100; China from 2.16/10 to 40/100 and Indonesia from 1.94/10 to 32/100.

From these trends, Malaysia runs the risk of being overtaken by both China and Indonesia  before 2020 in the annual TI CPI both in ranking and score unless Malaysia quickly bucks up and show its seriousness on the anti-corruption front.

How are Malaysians going to hold their heads high when the world perceive Malaysia as being even more corrupt than China and Indonesia before the end of the decade?

What Big Fast Results (BFR) has Pemandu in store for the “Fighting Corruption” NKRA, particularly in the battle against “grand corruption”,  as to justify Pemandu to be included as one of the world’s top 20 government innovation teams “to create innovative solutions to their most pressing problems” by breaking the back of corruption in Malaysia?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 3 July 2014, 3:56 pm and is filed under
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In the grisly delusions of Isis, past and present are one

By Tom Holland

Financial Times

July 2, 2014

Faith and memory can haunt the Middle East, often to convulsive effect. Almost 70 years after the founding of Israel in the land that devout Jews believe was promised them by God, another state has been reconstituted that similarly traces its origins back to ancient times, and claims a divine sanction for itself.

On Sunday, carefully timed to coincide with the start of Ramadan, the jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant proclaimed the resurrection of “khalifa” or caliphate. No longer, they have announced, are they to be known by the acronym “Isis”.

Instead, with pretensions so global in scope that they now haughtily dismiss the legality of all other “emirates, groups, states, and organisations”, they have rebranded themselves as a universal Islamic state. Videos on YouTube duly portray the whole world as existing in the shadow of their fluttering black banner. On Twitter, their hashtag has been upgraded with great solemnity from #ISIS to #IS. Mastery of social media and an obsession with history are the keynotes of go-getting contemporary jihadists.

This is not quite the paradox it might seem, for in their fantasies past and present are invariably conflated. The concept of the caliphate that Isis is busy pushing on Facebook and Twitter reaches back, according to the traditions told by Muslims to explain the origins of their faith, to the very beginnings of Islam.

The spectacular sequence of conquests back in the seventh century, when the Arabs humbled the two great powers of the day, the Roman and Persian empires, had been presided over (so it is said) by a sequence of “caliphs”, or successors to the Prophet Mohammed. Shia Muslims believe a terrible wrong was done to the fourth of these, a cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed by the name of Ali, when factional politicking prevented him from stepping immediately into his father-in-law’s shoes. But the vast majority of Muslims commemorate both Ali and his three predecessors as the “Rashidun”, or “rightly guided”. It is their legacy, and that of the Prophet Mohammed himself, that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis, is hoping to appropriate by proclaiming himself caliph.

The point is made with a typical lack of subtlety by his choice of nom de guerre – for Abu Bakr, an old-brother-in-arms of Mohammed, had been the first of the rashidun. And that is not all. Mr Baghdadi has also claimed, for good measure, to be descended from the family of the Prophet Mohammed himself.

The ambition is quite breathtaking in its audacity: to cast the sanguinary extortion racket run by Isis as the very embodiment of God’s plans for humanity.

This being so, it is no surprise that those opposed to it should loom in the jihadist imagination as literally hellish foes. To the fighters of Isis, adversaries past and present are all part of a single demonic continuum. Syria, where the followers of Mohammed humiliated the Christian Romans – and Iraq, where they routed the Zoroastrian Persians – are lands as hallowed to contemporary jihadists as the Holy Land was to crusaders.

The contours of seventh century history, in the opinion of those who would found a universal Islamic empire over the rubble of Shia and western-backed regimes, have never really altered.

There is little reason to think that the murderous cohorts of Isis will succeed where the greatest sages and statesmen in Islamic history have failed

When Isis propagandists dismiss the Iraqi army as “Safavids”, they are alluding to the 16th-century dynasty that turned Iran Shia; between the Zoroastrian empire overthrown by the Arabs, so they imply, and the government of Nouri al-Maliki, the beleaguered Iraqi prime minister, there is barely a difference.

Similarly, when an Isis press release praises the followers of Mohammed for having “forced the noses of the cross-worshippers on to the ground”, it is not only the Romans who stand condemned. The French and British, who carved up the Middle East between them; the Americans, whose meddling in Muslim lands casts it as a latter-day Rome; the west as a whole, with its pestiferous notions of democracy and secularism – all are seen as offensive to God. Naturally, if the establishment of a neo-caliphate is indeed the expression of divine favour, then the stakes being played for in the Middle East are cosmic in scale.

The reality, however, is likely to prove altogether more sordid. “O believers,” it declares in the Koran, “obey God, and obey the Prophet, and those set in authority over you.”

Who those “set in authority” should be, though, it does not specify. Over the course of Islamic history, Muslims have repeatedly projected their own hopes and convictions on to this indeterminacy – and never arrived at a definitive answer. There is little reason to think that the murderous cohorts of Isis will succeed where the greatest sages and statesmen in Islamic history have failed. The caliphate announced at the weekend is likely to expire as it was born: amid a welter of blood.

The writer is author of ‘Persian Fire’ and ‘In the Shadow of the Sword’

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 3 July 2014, 9:22 pm and is filed under
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