No, Perkasa does not represent me

Dr. Kamal Amzan

The Malaysian Insider

May 27, 2011

MAY 27 — This country is in a mess.

Before I begin, let me just say once and for all that Perkasa doesn’t speak for me. Neither does it speak for my family members and colleagues. Come to think of it, it does not speak for most of my patients, their family members and friends either.

Neither do the politicians and media in cahoots with this group of people with “special needs”. They will never represent me, be it in the present or in the future. Ever.

In case you are wondering, yes I am a tanned Malaysian, a group that Perkasa frequently embarrasses by claiming to represent.

Before they start rattling off their empty cans and pick a new fight, let me remind them that our purchasing power is about a third that of the Europeans. Our first-quarter economic growth at a pathetic 4.6 per cent is behind Singapore, Vietnam and even Indonesia, and while other countries woo talented minds into their midst, we are losing ours left, right and centre, replaced by none other than cheap unskilled foreign workers who are prepared to work harder than an average Malaysian.

Other countries are cutting down on fuel subsidies and consumption, searching for alternative fuel and going green. Many are abandoning their cars, motorbikes and taking to the streets on foot and bicycles and the same time finding ways to increase productivity to offset the expensive fuel.

We, on the other hand, are relying on a constant supply of cheap petrol, since there is no other means of reliable public transport or footpaths for pedestrians to walk on without being honked at. Since petrol prices are steady and not climbing, industries are reluctant to improve productivity, to save energy and go green.

And while the government calls on Malaysians to save and be prudent, we have government agencies shamelessly chasing after a 62-year-old for allegedly committing khalwat, tragically to his death, using hard-earned public funds.

What is their comment on all this problems in the country? Any ideas? Any solutions? Or are they only capable of talking about scholarships and Article 153 of the constitution?

Groups like Perkasa bicker so often that our country is in a mess. Developing a country takes time and effort and developed countries are developed because they are internally stable. They work together, not against each other.

Here, we even don’t even have the time and skills to maintain our buildings and roads. I am not referring to some remote government building but our national icons. Just take a drive to our KLIA and feast your eyes on the ageing mess. The highway leading to it and almost all the signboards are either wearing or are worn down. The paint in the airport carpark, carpark lifts is poorly maintained. Let’s not elaborate on unsightly LRT stations and frequent breakdowns of KTMB commuter trains.

A little bit about our commuter trains. Once, I waited for an hour and a half, before being squeezed, squished, pushed, pulled in a jammed-packed train that then broke down half and hour into the journey. Not to mention missing the station because the windows were blocked by standing passengers. There was no proper announcement. Either the speakers were too soft for my ears, or the conductor was too shy to speak in it.

How many buildings must collapse, landslides to occur, trains to break down, and lives maimed and lost before we sit up and take time off bickering with one another to address issues at hand? How many people must “jump” off buildings before everyone gets together to say enough is enough?

After 50 years, have we not learnt that our differences should be our strength and not something that tears us apart?

I await for the day when political parties, politicians, NGOs and individuals that distract, disunite, pit us against each other are banned, and their leaders prosecuted as traitors and enemies of the state. They should be treated worse than a drug trafficker who poisons the minds of Malaysians.

Until that day comes, I fear that our country will always be disunited by the irresponsible few.

I stand corrected for saying all this and more.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 28 May 2011, 7:49 am and is filed under
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NUJ: Utusan chose to pay subsidiaries over union workers

By
Yow Hong Chieh

The Malaysian Insider

May 27, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — Utusan Melayu Bhd funnelled millions in profit into subsidiaries even while claiming it could not pay workers their mandatory bonus, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) revealed today.

Utusan Melayu had asserted there was no need to pay its NUJ members a contractual two-month bonus for 2009 , arguing it had lost RM26 million as an individual company that year.

Article 44 of the collective agreement between Utusan Melayu and its NUJ branch stipulates that union members must be paid a two-month bonus if the company turns a profit.

But the Industrial Court heard recently that the holding company paid out up to RM37.5 million from its operating profit to Utusan Media Sales Sdn Bhd and even gave the subsidiary’s employees a two-month bonus in 2009 despite refusing to pay NUJ members.

Utusan Melayu also did not demand payment from subsidiaries Utusan Printcorp Sdn Bhd and Utusan Publications and Distributors Sdn Bhd, which owed it RM19 million and RM8.4 million respectively.

Utusan Melayu’s chief financial officer told the court that the RM76 million due from its subsidiaries as at December 31, 2009 were recorded under the item “other receivables”.

Industrial Court president Susila Sithamparam ruled today that Article 44 of the collective agreement referred to profit made by Utusan Melayu as a holding company with subsidiaries and not an individual company and ordered it to pay workers the two-month bonus.

NUJ general secretary V. Anbalagan today expressed hope that Utusan Melayu’s management would study the award carefully and make all outstanding payments owed to its employees “in the spirit of industrial harmony”.

He pointed out the Utusan Melayu’s NUJ members were some of the lowest paid among the eight branch unions affiliated to the union.

“The outstanding bonus payment will also help alleviate the financial burden of NUJ members employed in Utusan Melayu since the price of essential items has gone up,” he said in a statement today.

“Members have not enjoyed and salary hike and adjustments on other benefits since the 2008-2011 collective agreement is still pending in the Industrial Court.”

Anbalagan added that Utusan Melayu should also pay the bonus owed to workers for the year 2010, which he understood has also been withheld.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 28 May 2011, 7:33 am and is filed under
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ROCCS in 1st 100 Days in Sabah

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 28 May 2011, 7:10 pm and is filed under
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Understanding the bonds that make a nation

Ronald Benjamin

The Malaysian Insider

May 27, 2011

MAY 27 — An  article in The Malaysian Insider about the Democratic Action Party (DAP) reaching out to the Malays through its newly created online portal caught my attention. It made me reflect on a fundamental question of nation building in the Malaysian context: What would actually bond multi-ethnic Malaysia and how would such a bond be created?

There are indeed fundamental principles and endeavours that would bridge the ethnic divide in this country and transcend ethno-religious politicking and the constant political debates between the conservatives and liberals.

The first thing that political parties in Malaysia should do if they intend to cross boundaries of ethnic acceptance is that they have to understand the bond that holds human beings together. It is vital to understand the history, religion, language and culture of a nation and take steps to acknowledge that reality through the political dialogue of understanding and action.

For instance, the DAP could show concern and come up with ideas on how to make the national language more appealing since there are many Chinese who do not speak or understand the language, as revealed in a recent survey.

Or through its speeches, the party could speak more about the historical foundation of the nation, how it has evolved over time and what needs to be done currently to enrich it. This would involve communicating the Malay-Muslim roots of the nation and its evolution as a multi-ethnic country.

It would also involve explaining how the nation’s ethnic groups have been divided through the past colonial legacy of divide and rule, which currently characterises the Barisan National government’s political structure. This means that the nation is still living in the shadow of this colonial legacy, unable to bond as a multi-ethnic nation due to continuous ethnic politicking.

The DAP, as a political party which intends to cast its net wider, has to start acknowledging that it has done little in areas that bond the nation. It could have done more to explain the importance of the national language, articulate the historical roots and evolving nature of the nation and discuss what prevents Malaysians from achieving true unity.

Unable to gain much meaningful access to the mainstream media, the party could use the online media besides reaching out to the rural population with the help of its Pakatan Rakyat partners.

The spiritual, social and political issues that bind all ethnic groups together also need to be taken into consideration. These issues of concern include the ills of corruption, poverty, abuse of power and human rights violations. All these have universal dimension and the DAP has done a consistent and excellent job in this regard.

It is vital for the DAP as a political party to strike a balance. The party needs to broaden its current political thinking by reaching out towards conservative rural Malays through an understanding of the dynamics of conservative politics such as the importance of the history, culture, and language of the nation. And it needs to integrate all this into its quest for social justice.

This would break boundaries and make DAP a credible national party, which it is capable of because of its centrist ideology. The missing link has to be connected. —
aliran.com

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 28 May 2011, 7:42 am and is filed under
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Why I moved to Malaysia

An American

The Malaysian Insider

May 27, 2011

MAY 27 — An overwhelming wave of civic negativity is sweeping through Malaysia; not a day has gone by for the past two-and-a-half years without one hearing the drums of depression beating throughout the country.

And while the ranks of rejectionists swell, a small but increasingly loud group of people are barking back about the greatness, exclusivity and perfection of Malaysia.

It seems that in the midst of this civic recession and polarisation (a temporary and short-lived one, I hope) the media has failed to highlight the vast middle ground: the real Malaysia.

From my limited exposure to Malaysia, I have found the fabric of the country to be extremely resilient. Countless Malaysians courageously wake up every morning, enduring horrendous traffic jams to attend to their professional obligations in a timely manner.

Countless other Malaysians are also quietly but patiently laying down the building blocks of a vibrant civil society by setting up community grass-roots initiatives: neighbourhoods jointly working with the police force to ensure a safe environment, Malaysian youth congregating online in order to debate critical issues pertaining to Malaysia’s economy, society and well-being.

Hardworking Malaysians taking up one, two or even three jobs in order to cough up cash for their stacking bills and to keep up with an increasingly material and expensive life-style.

Malaysia rocked my 90s when the country used to make it to the forefront of each and every global newspaper and media outlet (for good reasons). I still remember my geography high-school classes when we intensively discussed the rise of Asia and Malaysia was constantly cited as an example.

Having spent my high-school years in France, a deeply socialist-minded country, my classmates and teachers were intent on seeing new countries challenge the crushing hegemony of the United States in the post-Cold War era we lived in.

My friends and I dived deep into Malaysia’s economic data making projections in order to forecast when and how Malaysia and Asean could become a global economic and geopolitical powerhouse.

The French — and Europeans — (at least on a student level) were in admiration of Malaysia’s leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement. My friends and I dreamt of being part of a country that aspired to change the status quo of the time: provide stability, wealth and services to its people but also striving to become the voice of a “third world”, then mired in poverty and desperation.

This was the Malaysia I knew. And the Malaysia I wanted to be part of. Be part of a success story. Not merely ride on one. But build with one.

And here I am, eight years later, working in Malaysia for a Malaysian company.

By the time I packed my bags and left the United States, I had become a lifeless robot dragging along an empty soul. I barely survived through an educational system which systematically upheld the value of success in a very superficial and materialistic way.

Malaysia was a wake-up call. Wandering through the streets of KL, I finally saw happy people, smiling and congregating around a drink as simple as “teh tarik”. Poor, rich, yellow, white and black, irrespective of any human denominator, entering their mosques, temples and churches to thank the Lord for, in the end, less material “blessings” than their Western counterparts. Outstanding!

Walking in the park and seeing families — mother, father, brother and sister — hand-in-hand enjoying a colourful weekend was a fantastic sight to behold. Hearing the call to prayer every early-morning, echoing through a sleepy Kuala Lumpur provided me with the conviction that Malaysia was a place where people would not surrender as easily to the endless and lifeless quest for consumerism.

My Muslim, Buddhist and Christian Malaysian friends sometimes excuse themselves from late dinners because they have to be back home signifying the sanctity of family and respect.

So as the debate over Malaysia’s future, economy, society and politics rages on, I urge all my Malaysian friends to take a step back and relax (just for a little, though). The little a humble French-American can share with Malaysia is that the defining platform for Malaysia’s success will ultimately be cemented in respect, love, simplicity and smiles.

Wander around your neighbourhood, help the elderly and needy. Give your seat to the disabled. Touch the burning forehead of an orphan, sympathise with his/her pain and give whatever you can give. And only then will you feel the soft and enchanting pulse of Malaysia: a place of contradictions, yes, but also a treasure for those who love simple things.

I love my Proton Persona because it’s a humble car that doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. I love my “roti canai” because its bland taste is what makes it so wonderful. And I love my P. Ramlee songs because they constantly remind me that the fabric of this country, in essence, is one of peace, respect and modesty.

Do not be carried away by non-verified facts and emotions. I hear swirling statements about Bangkok and Jakarta being a better place to live than Kuala Lumpur. Or maybe Malaysians enjoy two- to three-hour commutes in Jakarta traffic?

Or maybe Malaysian families enjoy exposing their children to Bangkok’s blinding prostitution and decadent nightlife? If Bangkok is such a good place to live in then surely, Kuala Lumpur must be the seventh heaven. Let’s stay realistic and factual, friends.

I have seen countless Malay, Chinese, Indian and indigenous Malaysians thrive in the Malaysian corporate world. But none of us can expect fulfilling our ambitions, both professional and familial, without sweat, sacrifice, hard work and most importantly integrity, honesty and diplomacy.

I will always be thankful to Malaysia for teaching me what I believe to be life’s most valued motto: most of the time a lot is not enough, but little suffices. And Malaysia is a heaven for life’s most cherished yet basic moments: family, diversity, spirituality and affordable happiness.

Just be yourself, Malaysia!

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 28 May 2011, 8:51 am and is filed under
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Why I stay, but why my children should not

Ekompute

The Malaysian Insider

May 27, 2011

MAY 27 — When the New Economic Policy was first launched in 1971, I really thought that it would only be for 20 years, just as what the government had said. But anyway, who can argue against the NEP when its two-prong objectives are to:

1. eradicate poverty, irrespective of race;

2. restructure society so as to eliminate the identification of ethnicity with economic function.

However, as Yogi Berra says, “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.”

If the two objectives had been pursued honestly and diligently, I think no one will object to the NEP, even if it runs perpetually.

However, the NEP has been turned into a political tool and interpreted to serve only those in power, such that even after double the time frame since its inception, the ordinary Malays are said to be still poor.

How can any wakil rakyat reconcile himself to this fact, that the people he claims to be fighting for are still living in poverty, while he himself, as a people’s representative, lives in a multi-million ringgit mansion?

Yes, I am referring only to wakil rakyats who are multi-millionaires. Where is their conscience and who are they trying to bluff?

Anyway, the 20 years have come and gone and the best part of my life is over. And then I was hoodwinked by the mainstream media throughout Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s rule, with its spins and lies, looking forward to the day when a more equitable society is achieved under the government-engineered NEP.

Then came “Ketuanan Melayu” that claims that because the Malays are the “tuans” in this country, special privileges are a Malay birthright that should become a permanent fixture of Malaysian society.

And I began to wonder, what is the meaning of Islam being the official religion of this country when Islam forbids racial supremacy of any kind?

I found the answer in Quran’s Surah 2 which says that there are three categories of people: (1) The Righteous; (2) The Disbelievers; and (3) The Hypocrites. See the order in which the Quran categorises the people.

The Hypocrites are placed after the Disbelievers. There is no need for me to elaborate but it enlightens me as to why things are happening the way it is in Malaysia, something that I had never, prior to referring to the Quran, been able to reconcile myself to, when the constitution specifically says that Islam is the official religion of the country. (To me, “the religion” and “the official religion” makes no difference.)

And as God would have it, the Internet revolution came and, with it, access to more information, the likes of which we have never seen before.

A strong admirer of Dr Mahathir before I started reading Malaysiakini and now, The Malaysian Insider, the abuses of the government boggle my imagination. I just find it unbelievable, had it not been true.

Selective prosecutions have made me lose faith in hoping for any justice in Malaysia under the present government. The only glimmer of hope is that there is now an alternative coalition that may yet dislodge the Barisan Nasional one day, if not in the next general election, then at the very least, bring the Barisan Nasional to its senses that justice and fairness must prevail in any society.

Without justice and fairness, no society can long endure. I have always wondered why Islamic spiritual values have not found its way into Malaysian society, despite the building of so many mosques, while the pursuit of money and power at all cost, two Satanic elements, have become the mainstay of Malaysian society.

Yet, despite the glimmer of hope, I still encourage my children to leave Malaysia, if they have half a chance… not to give up citizenship but to eke out a living elsewhere. Let the Malays take all the choicest jobs they want. Why fight with them, now that globalisation has opened new vistas.

Malaysia should be trying to compete at the international level and not engage in in-fighting among ourselves on this small speck of land. We are no different from a rich family whose members are always fighting over inheritance. We should well know what is waiting for this type of family at the end of the day.

As it is, we have already slid behind many countries in terms of economic competitiveness and this, despite the fact that Malaysia is blessed with so many natural resources, including petroleum. Only our ego is telling us that we are doing fine.

I do not think that the Barisan Nasional is going to leave graciously, should it lose in the 13th general election. On a more positive note, it is heartening to note that there are now more and more enlightened Malays who can see the injustice all around us.

Yes, there is still hope for Malaysia as long as we have a two-party system. And that’s good news for people like me who, at this age, have no other options but to stay.

And why not? After all, everything in this world belongs to God and we are all descendants of Adam and Eve… that is, if we still believe in Islam or any of the Abrahamic religions.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 28 May 2011, 7:59 am and is filed under
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At a crossroads

MD

The Malaysian Insider

May 28, 2011

MAY 28 — My wife and I met while we were studying overseas. After graduating, I returned to Malaysia while she completed her studies and eventually returned two years later. We started our careers and eventually got married and started our family. It never crossed our minds to settle anywhere else other than Malaysia. In university, I was active in the students’ movement and was determined that when I returned I would make a difference in my country.

That was 20 years ago.

Five years later, my brother decided to migrate. Deep inside I was angry and thought that he was foolish. He was an engineer with two degrees and an MBA, and he was seeking greener pastures? Well, he can leave… but no sir, I will stay and make this place I grew up a better place.

Another 12 years passed, and this time it was my sister’s family who was leaving. What? A family of medical professionals leaving? Even a specialist within their midst who won international awards and accolades for research papers, and they are turning their backs on us here? They earn tonnes more than me and they are worried they cannot afford their children’s education? Why don’t they stay here and together we will change the system and make this a better place? There are already so few of us left here to change the system and THEY ARE LEAVING!!?? Well they can go, but I will stay and soldier on…

Another three years passed; last week my wife downloaded an application form for migration. My hands trembled even as I held the form. Is this finally going to be the path I take? The form states that if I am over 45 I will not qualify! This is my final year!

This is my family’s last call… after this, we will not be welcomed even if we want to go. My heart sank. My wife and I had a heart-to-heart talk. We are middle-class professionals with no big businesses or wealth of any significance to be inherited by our children.

Our next generation will need a strong education foundation to start them off. They are doing well enough in school, not geniuses, but still in the best class and with good prospects for good careers if given a fair chance.

We have heard stories from friends and neighbours of children getting 9As and were asked to do geography when they wanted to be engineers. Were offered history when they wanted to do law. They had to go private. We are resigned to the fact that we will likely have to privately fund our own children’s education.

I looked at my bank account. Have I saved enough to put my children through private education? Not really… maybe partially. Will my children be able to get full A+s to get scholarships? Unlikely. Is my income low enough to be considered poor so that my children will qualify for underprivileged scholarships? I don’t think so. Is my skin “brown” enough for my children to get a “Bumi” quota? Sorry, wrong place.

Today I look into the mirror and I see grey hairs. My vision is beginning to blur. I have to change to a presbyopia specs soon. I switched on the computer and clicked on The Malaysian Insider — I see the face of Ibrahim Ali shouting. I looked out of the window, I see people queuing up in a petrol station nearby. I see Makcik Som selling nasi lemak, just as she has always done for so many years. Twenty years have passed.

I am tired. The prickly durian spirit of yesteryear has been worn down to a smooth watermelon. No longer prickly, no longer pungent. Am I giving up? No! Definitely not. But what about my children? Must they also sacrifice for my cause?

Yes, I have decided to put in my application, to give my children a fair chance. But I will stay, because I have a dream. A 20-year-old dream. I will settle my children overseas and I will return to make that difference that I dreamt of… If I don’t realise that dream at least my children won’t have to dream that same dream for their children. Ibrahim Ali may not like my children, but I do … enough to stop dreaming for a while.

Call me a traitor, pengkhianat, pendatang, pengkhayal or whatever. Maybe I don’t have enough faith in what I am doing. But I will leave for little while and I’ll be back. I am thankful that my great-grandfather came to Malaya for his children. Perhaps my generation will be the last generation here, but I will stay as long as I can.

Recently, I read an article about socialism that gave an analogy of an economics professor and his class. The class insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be too rich or too poor in such a system.

So the professor proposed that they experiment socialism in the class. All grades in their next test would be averaged so that no one would fail and no one would do extremely well.

After the next test, the entire class achieved an average of “B”. The students who studied were a little unhappy while those who did not were elated. By and large everyone accepted the situation because they passed.

As the second test approached, those who had studied previously worked a little less, while those who previously did not study did not see why they should study, afterall they still passed. So by the second test the average results was a “D”. Everyone was unhappy now.

By the third test, the average was an “F”. The scores never increased and everyone started bickering, name-calling and this resulted in animosity towards one another. Classes were disrupted and studies affected.

To their surprise, everyone failed in the next test. The professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that. You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

I believe our country is now at a crossroads. My father’s generation was at point “B” where everyone passed and managed an average score of “B” like in the professor’s class — by and large it was tolerable and everyone accepted the situation.

Today we are probably at an average score “D”. Things are not going that well and our country is not doing as well as it should. We are losing out to our neighbours. A lot of people are unhappy. People are starting to bicker. So where do we move from here? Point “F”?

I still hold on to my 20-year-old dream, so I will stay… but if I turn out to be a daydreamer then at least my children don’t have to live in their father’s daydream.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 29 May 2011, 2:04 am and is filed under
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Here is why I stayed

John Rahman

The Malaysian Insider

May 28, 2011

MAY 28 — I shall start with a story of hope.

Two, actually.

I had an ex-colleague who runs a car wash business in one of the most ulu places in Peninsular Malaysia. It’s a simple business, so simple that his wife just sits under a tree all day long collecting money and supervising some school kids they employ to do the dirty work. He keeps his day job while earning a cool RM7,000 side income every month.

In my skyscraper of an office now, an old makcik pushes around a shopping cart (probably nicked while the guards at the nearby hypermarket weren’t looking!) filled to the brim with knick-knacks, kacang, muruku and stuff. She comes by once a week and without fail, my colleagues and I will stock up on junk food to munch on while working. Based on sales on our floor alone — okay, maybe we are gluttons! — but we estimate she profits around RM50 per floor, and with well over 50 floors in the building, she must earn at least RM2,000 a week (tax free!).

We can complain about spiralling cost of living, but these are ordinary people taking full advantage of the abundance of opportunities in Malaysia to earn a living. This is the land of opportunity. If an illegal immigrant can come here and earn a living, justly or not, there is no reason why a person like me, born and bred in this environment, with ample knowledge of how things work — for better or for worse — cannot make it big.

I shall say this, whether or not people choose to leave the country is entirely up to them. Everybody has their own dreams and ambitions, and if migrating overseas takes you closer to those dreams, so be it. But do not give excuses to justify you leaving. You don’t need an excuse, certainly not a bad one, to pursue your life-long goals.

You do not need to blame the crummy education system — it is crummy, but it is an education system we all grew up with and I would like to think that a lot of us turned out fine.

You can’t blame racism or glass ceilings because everyone honest enough to admit will tell you that glass ceilings exist EVERYWHERE. The current debate over the “tradition” of Europeans as the de facto head of the IMF should tell you more than you need to know about glass ceilings.

All those crummy reasons don’t hold up because while Malaysians are busy flocking to Singapore, Singaporeans are busy flocking elsewhere too. That is where the whole argument falls apart. Do we see some green pasture across the straits that the Singaporeans don’t see? And do the Indonesians see something green about KL that we don’t?

My friends, this is the age of globalisation. Borders between countries are blurring. This is not like the time where miners came to Malaya from China with the sole purpose of better economic prospects. Today, there are Malaysians working in Sudan, Dutchmen working in Nigeria, Americans working in Siberia. Do you think these people are where they are because of some misguided notion that these places are better than their homeland? No, people work where they work and people build a home where they do because this is where life takes them.

When addressing his own country’s emigrant issue, Rajiv Ghandi once said: “A brain drain is better than a brain in the drain.” That we, as Malaysians, are deemed capable enough to be able to work anywhere in the world is a clear indication of our talents. And whether the people migrating will choose to admit it or not, these are talents nourished by the foundations we built for ourselves while growing up on the streets of KL, Ipoh and JB.

I can go on and on about how I want to change this country, how I want to make a difference. That is all true, but that is also secondary. People can claim that they are leaving because of better prospects, a more comfortable life. That is probably true as well, but still a secondary issue.

I propose a simpler explanation. I stay because I want to. People leave because they want to.

We go where life takes us.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 29 May 2011, 2:16 am and is filed under
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Make public PSD scholarship recipients

Tashny Sukumaran | May 28, 2011

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang says the prime minister must restore transparency and integrity to the selection process

KUALA LUMPUR:  DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang wants Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to make public the names of PSD scholarship recipients.

“Najib must restore transparency and integrity to the selection process by making public the list of scholarship recipients,” said  Lim.

“It’s a crying shame that even after so long, the Public Service Department is incapable of functioning in a competent and professional  manner.”

The former DAP chairman added that as the government had spent billions of ringgit on computerisation, this should be achievable.

“If it was not possible, those responsible for computerisation project should be sacked,” he said.

Lim also underlined the importance of restoring public confidence in the system by ending the double standard of having two different pre-university examinations.

“Malaysian students should be sitting for one common examination.

Separate systems go against Najib’s 1Malaysia concept as two different pre-U’s with different grading systems are open to accusations of  manipulation.”

Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships are given to students who obtain 8A+ .

Top scorers are offered matriculation and diploma courses, and then given scholarships when they further their studies at the first degree level, said Najib yesterday.

There will be 4,000 scholarships to be given to those who obtained at least 9As. Of the total, 1,500 will be for study abroad and the rest  for study locally.

There is a 60% Bumiputera quota for foreign PSD scholarships. The rest of the quota are given out to students based on merit (20%),  those from East Malaysia (10%) and the needy (10%).

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 29 May 2011, 7:24 am and is filed under
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MCA, don’t stop believing, says Adnan

By
Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malaysian Insider

May 29, 2011

The Pahang BN chairman says that MCA leaders must start “believing” in their strengths if they want to win more seats at the next general elections. — file picGENTING HIGHLANDS, May 29 — MCA leaders need to buck up and improve if the Barisan Nasional (BN) component party wants to win more seats at the next general elections, Datuk Seri Adnan Mansor said last night.

Adnan, who is Pahang BN chairman and Pahang Umno Liaison Committee chairman, said that the only way for MCA to accomplish this was for its leaders to start “believing” in their strengths.

“We must know our strengths before going into the GE … we need to know our position.

“MCA needs conviction … if you waver in your stand, confirm kita kalah (we will lose),” Adnan said during an MCA retreat last evening.

The veteran Umno leader said that once MCA “strengthened” itself, it could then work together with Umno as a solid coalition.

“The Chinese must be convinced that MCA can fight for the Chinese … we cannot say we are multiracial if there are no Chinese representatives in BN,” added the Pahang MB.

In Election 2008, MCA suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat when it saw its parliamentary representation cut by more than half from 31 to just 15 seats.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is widely tipped to call an early general election this year, but did not comment on the matter today.

The Malaysian Insider understands, however, that Najib is likely to delay snap polls until the end of this year or early 2012 as his party hunts for funds to finance a campaign to court Bumiputera and Indian voters in its bid to secure a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

It is understood Umno’s coffers were depleted after BN spent some RM500 million for the April 16 Sarawak election.

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, however, told The Malaysian Insider that he believes Umno’s increasingly ultra-Malay stance as well as the emergence of a sex video aimed at discrediting PR’s image are definite signs that general elections will be called by August.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 29 May 2011, 7:54 am and is filed under
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No ultimatum only harsh realities – “Time and tide waits for no man”

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 29 May 2011, 7:23 pm and is filed under
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Pua dares gov’t to declassify IPP contracts

Regina Lee | May 28, 11

Malaysiakini

The DAP has challenged the BN-led federal government to declassify the Independent Power Producer (IPP) agreements amidst the massive subsidy cutting exercise in the country.

The party’s publicity secretary and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said that this should be done to “justify the government’s refusal to restructure these wildly unfair contracts which allow them to make astronomical returns at the expense of the people”.

Earlier this week, MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek had waved off opposition insistence that the government stop subsidising independent power plants (IPPs) and Tenaga Nasional Bhd before slashing those covering fuel and sugar.

He said that this cannot be done as the government had signed deals with various power producers many years ago and this can only be renegotiated after the contracts lapse.

“As the government is tied to lots of agreements, the subsidies for IPPs cannot be immediately abolished, (just because) DAP says or Anwar (Ibrahim) says,” he was reported to have said at a press conference.

To that, Pua said that there is little point in arguing with Chua on the Purchasing Power Agreements (PPA) that nobody outside the cabinet has access to.

“I’d instead challenge Chua to prove his point that the government is completely helpless after signing the PPAs by demanding that these agreements be declassified for public scrutiny,” said Pua in a statement this morning.

He also said that the government should follow the precedent set by the 2009 declassification of the highway toll concession agreements.

That move opened the opportunity for close scrutiny of the agreements by researchers as well as Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers.

“The declassification of the highway toll concession agreements also proved the lies of the former works minister Samy Vellu who had for years claimed that the government would have to pay hundreds of billions of ringgit in compensation should these contracts be terminated.

“He hid his arguments behind the Official Secrets Act (OSA) which prevents the public from finding out the real truth,” said Pua.

‘Chua, don’t be another Samy’

“It is only with the declassification of the PPAs from the OSA that Chua can prove that he is not another Samy Vellu who tried to protect the interest of the crony concessionaires while hiding behind the OSA.”

He also declared that they have no confidence that the BN has the political will to ‘negotiate’ with these IPPs to restructure the terms of their contracts as announced by Minister in the Prime Minister’s department Idris Jala.

“The BN government had talked about renegotiating these contracts for more than six years now with absolutely nothing to show,” Pua said.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had earlier claimed that the government dishes out RM19 billion in fuel subsidies to IPPs as well as government-owned Tenaga, gobbling up the majority of fuel subsidies given out by the government.

However, Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Peter Chin Fah Kui denied the estimation, saying that the RM19 billion is instead the profit that Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) had to forgo for having to sell gas below the market price to the IPPs and Tenaga.

“If the Najib administration has the political will and is really sincere about renegotiating these contracts, it would not have taken him more than two years.

“It is only after being placed under pressure by the rakyat over the government’s attempts to cut subsidies for the man-on-the-street and not those for the large corporate cronies like the IPPs recently, that the recycled ‘renegotiation’ announcement was made,” said Pua.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 29 May 2011, 7:40 am and is filed under
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RM450m Tambatuon dam controversy – Why MP Kota Belud never visited kampong?

Tweets
@limkitsiang
:-

29th May 2011

Told YB has never stepped into KgTambatuon single time whether b4 or after election despite dam controversy. True? @Iskandarbak @mpkotabelud

Had media conference @KK MPHiew’s office on my visits 2Menggatal Kiulu KotaBelud KgTambatuon w leaders yesterdy. Touched on medley of issues

Most imp issue: Virtual unanimous opposition of KgTambatuon 2agricultural dam which was introduced in secretive insidious clandestine manner

4two yrs @mpkotabelud nvr stepped in2 KgTbtn 2dialogue w affected ppl n secure their support. Y if RM450mil dam meant 4good of Tbtn ppl?

Will @mpkotabelud agree unless KgTambatuon ppl sppt, d RM450 mil Tambatuon dam project shld be scrapped? Is YB rep of Umno cronies

Can @mpkotabelud answer:If I can come from Peninsular 2visit KgTambatuon 2understand dam controversy Y can’t MP 4 area visit village at all?

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 29 May 2011, 11:40 am and is filed under
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SUPP makes a 360 degree turn

Joseph Tawie | May 28, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

After thumbing its nose at the Taib government, party makes an about turn and decides it needs its two candidates in the state cabinet

KUCHING: The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) has made a 360 degree turn. Last month, after its poor election showing, it said it wanted nothing to do with Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s government.

The Central Working Committee (CWC), at a meeting last month, decided not to recommend any of SUPP’s elected representative to serve in the cabinet of Taib Mahmud after the party’s dismal showing in the election.

That decision  nearly tore the party apart. But at today’s CWC meeting, it unanimously agreed that Wong Soon Koh and Lee Kim Shin should represent the party and the Chinese community in the new cabinet of Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Wong and Lee are the only Chinese who were re-elected to their constituencies of Bawang Assan and Senadin respectively.

Thirteen other Chinese candidates lost in the recently concluded election. However, SUPP’s four Dayak candidates were all returned.

“The CWC members were unanimous in their decision that the two to represent the party and the Chinese community in the cabinet,” said SUPP president George Chan.

“If we are in BN, we must have representatives in the BN government,” he said.

Chan said that SUPP will definitely remain in the BN. The party has agreed to make “sweeping and major” changes to the party’s set up, including in all branches, youth and women wings.

“We agreed to revamp and get new leaders, even at the  branch level.

The top leaders have decided not to seek re-election at the triennial delegates conference at the end of the year.

“We’ll conduct roadshows and explain to branch leaders the position of the party and at the same time to get new leaders to help run the  party,” he said.

He said that all the CWC members will go to the ground and explain to members.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 29 May 2011, 8:10 am and is filed under
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Because this is home

by
Malaysian at home

The Malaysian Insider

May 30, 2011

MAY 30 — As a fresh graduate from a local university two years ago, I could have taken the easiest route and become an “instant expat” in a First World country. Singapore was just a Causeway away, after all, and the Malaysians who migrated there, my many relatives included, often came back with wonderful stories of success and the wealth that came with it.

It is a land of opportunity, they say, and if you want your talents appreciated (and be really rich), come here!

So I decided I would give it a shot, applying for a few jobs in Singapore before finally being called up for my first interview. And what I encountered shocked me. The interviewers were rude and chauvinistic, chiding me for my lack of Mandarin skills and openly dismissing my qualifications. The last straw for me came when I filled in my salary expectations.

“S$2,000?” I enquired as my pen hovered above the form, ready to put in the numbers. I figured if a Singaporean engineering graduate was paid S$2,400 to S$2,800, two thousand was a fair deal for a Malaysian graduate because of our unfortunately lower standard of education.

 “Er… that’s a bit too much,” came the reply.

“S$1,800 then?” I asked again.

“Still too much…”

I finally scribbled S$1,600 as she nodded in agreement. And that was how much I was worth in a city where rental prices for a room often hit the S$600 mark.

It was at that moment that I realised how little respect some segments of Singaporean society really have for us. We are no longer seen as “talents” the way some people are so keen to put it, but merely as cheap labour. I was just another face among the huge pool of Malaysians, Chinese nationals, Indians and other foreign nationals vying for yet another underpaying job in the island republic.

Needless to say, it was my last ever interview in Singapore because I decided I would not be applying for any more jobs there. In the months after that, I landed a job in Kuala Lumpur with a foreign multinational that paid me what I was worth and offered me opportunities for overseas work and travel.

Indeed, I am actually writing this from my office here in a European country where I am on a short assignment, and while I can honestly say that I am enjoying my time here, I also have to say that the difference in standards is not too big compared to Malaysia.

Like how I was at the immigration office here this morning to sort out some visa issues, and the service was as slow if not slower than Malaysia.

Do not get me wrong. While matching this “standard” is not exactly something to be proud of — we should always benchmark ourselves to the best after all — this incident reminded me of what a friend said a few years back. He had just returned from his studies in Australia then, and over a glass of teh tarik, he told me how the grass is not really greener on the other side, despite what a lot of people may say.

My reply? I will decide when I see it for myself. But now that I have, part of me is not actually disappointed that he is right.

It is also during these travels that I realise how mistaken my worldview was. Having been told for years how as a member of the minority in Malaysia you must move abroad to gain respect, I was pleasantly surprised to realise that the place and people who afford me the most respect is back home in Malaysia.

I mean, do some Malaysians really know what it is like to have racial slurs openly thrown at you on an Italian street? To have bad service at a restaurant just because you look different? Or to be questioned and your items searched by rude immigration officers at some European airports just because you look oriental (and hence profiled and targeted) while every white person breezes through?

Sure, we may have our minority-hating Perkasa and Ibrahim Ali hogging the headlines nowadays, but do they really reflect things on the ground? Do we experience such open and extreme racial profiling, stereotype and disrespect simply because of how we look? Really, do we hate each other that much?

The answer is no, because no matter how hard these people with vested interests try to inflame and divide us among racial and religious lines, at the end of the day I still end up buying my morning nasi lemak from the friendly neighbourhood makcik and have a cup of teh tarik at a nearby shop with my Indian macha.

Because we, on our most basic level, have learnt to respect and interact with each other in spite of the years of racial poisoning by some of our politicians. And it is our collective duty to ensure that we continue looking past our differences and ignore the voices of unreason that are trying to break us up.

I wish I can say for sure right now that I have made the right choice to stay, but I guess with all the things that are happening in Malaysia, only time can tell. In the meantime, I can only do my duty as a citizen and be constructive about the issues of this country, perhaps by volunteering with NGOs, political parties and making my opinions heard.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 30 May 2011, 6:25 pm and is filed under
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GE 13 Keyword – “PUTRAJAYA” – To Capture Or To Defend?

By
Richard Loh

Is Najib employed to govern this nation as a whole or as an impartial Prime Minister that are more concern with his political coalition parties and to remain in power? What we hear and read from his speeches daily which are supposed to be official government functions are filled with political innuendos.

It looks like a war has been wedged between the ruling government and the rakyat. Najib has been calling its party members to defend PutraJaya at all cost even if need to ‘crushed bodies and lost lives’ and now calling out to the youths as well.

How naive Najib can be to make these calls:

    “If in Egypt one million youths gathered in Tahrir Square to change that country’s leadership… in Malaysia, one million youths gathered to defend Putrajaya,” he said.

    “Are you willing to defend Putrajaya?” he asked repeatedly.

The youth in Egypt are fed up with the corrupt, arrogant and incompetent government hence their march to change their country’s leadership. In Malaysia, those leaders running PutraJaya are no different, corruptions are as rampant or even worst then Egypt, so is Najib calling Malaysian youths to defend PutraJaya and allow these corruptions to go on and be happy with those incompetent leaders with no integrity?

    Najib stressed that the government will not succeed in its ambitious transformation programmes without help from young Malaysians.

    “Some call me the Father of Transformation; I don’t know [if the description is accurate], but you all are the catalysts of change,” he said.

After over two years as the most powerful man in this nation, he keeps talking about transformation without any signs or indications that the nation has transformed into what he prescribed or is it just an illusion in his mind. Even worst is that his own ruling government, mostly run by his political party and coalition have shown no transformation nor the will to at all.

How can he be called the ‘Father of Transformation’ when he allows racism to strife and he himself is such a racist, if you can remember what he did in 1987. He is more fit to be called the ‘Father of Racism’ or ‘Father of Corruption’ when he can bribed voters with his famous call ‘You Help Me, I Help You’.

    “If the youths are with the government, our country will be peaceful and we can continue to make our country prosper,” he said.

This is the only correct statement he had ever made. Not only the youth must be with the government but all Malaysians.

The question is which type of Government?

The corrupt, racist and arrogant government who are willing to ‘crushed bodies and lost lives’ to defend at all cost in holding on to power, allowing extremists to perpetuate religious and race intolerance without any concern whatsoever happen to the rakyat and country;

Or

A government who put the nation and rakyat first before anything else, A Malaysia For All.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 30 May 2011, 11:49 am and is filed under
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Power rates up 7%, gas price to be floated

Kuek Ser Kuang Keng | May 30, 11

Malaysiakini

The federal government has raised electricity tariff by an average of 7.12 percent beginning June 1 as part of its subsidy reduction exercise.

The average rise is 2.23cent/kW unit, from the current average rate of 31.31 to 33.54cent/kW unit.

Natural gas prices are also set to rise by RM3 per mmBtu every six months until it reaches market levels by 2016, when its price would be fully floated.

Domestic users who use less than 300kW unit per month will not be subjected to this new electricity pricing scheme, which is multi-tiered according to usage.

According to Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Peter Chin, that this means that 4.4 million or 75 percent out of a total 5.94 million households would be unaffected by the new tariff.

The rate of monthly usage below 200kW unit will stand at 21.8cent/kW unit while for usage between 201 to 300kW unit the tariff will remain as 33.40cent/kW unit.

For those using 301kW to 1000kW units, the tariff has been raised from 0.1 to 10 percent, or RM0.07 to RM30.30.

However this only involves 23.5 percent or 1.39 million domestic users.

The waiving of the electricity bill for those who record less than RM20 usage monthly would cease on Dec 31, 2011.

The government has to fork out RM122 million in order to provide free electricity to 900,000 such users.

Meanwhile, it was also anounced that the charge to Petronas for power generation would rise to RM13.70 per mmBtu from RM10.70.

[More to follow]

                This entry was posted on Monday, 30 May 2011, 6:14 pm and is filed under
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Tambatuon Saga: A Village fights for its life

By Dr Edwin Bosi

Rombituon in the local Dusun dialect means stars. When the early settlers came down into this valley they saw thousands of twinkling stars as darkness set. Then they realize there were so many people settling down the plain as many as the stars that appeared before them. The people were enchanted with its beauty, decided to call it home and called it Tambatuon. The origin of Tambatuon went way back few hundred years ago, the people originating from Nunuk Ragang and Bundu Tuhan in the Ranau highlands. They believe Tambatuon has seen 17 generations of which only eight can be traced for now. The Dusuns predominates although other races such as the Chinese, Murut Lundayeh, Iban and Dusun-Timorese have made this village more plural.

The water in the river was pleasantly cooling, clean, crystal clear and refreshing. Fish was abundance. The river is lined with beautiful pebbles and boulders, the sound of rapids so pleasant never failing to draw the freshness and cooling breeze accompanied by nature’s forest aroma. As the eyes follow the meandering river one can see a commanding hill called Saduk Saduk (Nungkok) and well beyond it is the majestic Mount Kinabalu, the second highest mountain in South East Asia. For a moment one then realizes that the water before them has started up on the peak of Mt Kinabalu.

There were enough plain or flatland to plant padi, the staple food of the Dusuns and for that matter, the Asians stock. They supplemented their carbohydrate further with tapioca and maize, their protein derived from fish, chicken, cattle, buffalo and pigs. Game animals such as wild pigs and deer and other wildlife were once in abundance. They created the bunds out of rocks which add character to their farmland. They plant fragrance rice. Vegetables are easily grown. They have taken many trees from the nearby hills to build their homes and in return planted rubber trees. With dwindling timber, many homes are now constructed with cement blocks while woods for cooking are still observed here and there.

From 27km Kota Belud-Ranau highway, a side dirt road of about 5km brings you to Tambatuon village. The road is running on the top of the ridge gradually dipping down into the valley below. The Kadamaian river flows between two ridges. At about 3km from the road junction, the ridges appeared to converge becoming narrower and then diverge widening again. This is at the narrowest point where the two ridges meet where the proposed Kadamaian dam was to be constructed. The dam will submerge Tambatuon and surrounding forest including the rubber trees. The reason for damming is to provide water for the government paddy projects in Kota Belud.

The proposed dam caught the Tambatuon people by surprise. After years of developing this village into new paradise, the idea of a dam was just unfair and unjust. The villagers have titles to the land. They have spent lots of money, energy and time to find and make a decent living in Tambatuon. According to Singkui Tinggi, 14 generations have lived in Tambatuon. This is a historical site, our home and defending this village is worth everything.

Singkui himself is the first casualty when as village head he has stood firm against the dam and was subsequently removed from his post. He is not alone in this battle and seeing their open protests, letters of memorandum to political leaders in the government and notices at the entrance to their village is testimony of their been steadfast to stop the dam at all cost. Not surprising then the opposition and non-governmental organizations have been roped in to support their cause.

It is amusing to note that Tambituon was once heavily forested because early Pagan settlers were afraid to venture into the jungle as they believe many “penunggu” or spirits were also dwelling there. That may be one of the reasons why the villagers decided to move down to the plain. They farm the flatland and sell their products in Kota Belud markets using bamboo rafts and brave some of the dangerous rapids and floods. They also had to walk back the 32km distant carrying with them the much needed supply.

At one time measles almost wiped out the whole population of Tambatuon. For the villagers it was Satan that inflicted the death. According to Singkui, it was a frightening moment because the people who buried the death in the morning would die and be buried the next day. The mounting deaths made burying impractical. They decided to just dump and pile the bodies in a hut.

It is very delightful to listen to the history of Tambatuon. The village started on the slope and it is there the “batu sumpah” is planted by the white men and the locals. It is a sort of a covenant. In the 40s a British consultant by the name of “Tuan Impang” and village Chief KK Tunggal planted a boulder or “Batu Sumpah” in Tambatuon as a reminder not to encroach and disturb the village by anyone. Two village representatives from the surrounding villages were witnesses to the stone-laying ceremony where a goat was slaughtered the blood filled a hole on which the stone was laid. It is said that anyone who trespass this solemn oath will end up like the sacrificial goat and that believes continues to live on till today. The villagers are more than willing to guide anyone to see the original Tambatuon village site. It takes about an hour of trekking up the slope.

The villagers were not spared by the Japanese occupation. According to Singkui, the occupation saw the ugly side of humankind. Being peace loving and simple people, the cruelty of the Japanese is never forgotten. Singkui would tell how the people were led around literally by the nose, just like the way they get their beast of burden the buffaloes to work on the field. The Japanese came to the village in search of the white men.

Tambatuon started seeing more economic activity when the people embraced Christianity in 1959 and overcame the fear of the unknown and spirits that live in the forest. The USNO government assisted them with rubber seedlings and opening the lands for padi. USNO also constructed road to allow them to have easy access to the towns. USNO also built a school in 1966 and today, Tambatuon has proudly produced 22 degree and 51 diploma graduates. As of 2010, the villagers have successfully developed 300 acres of padi land, and 1600 acres for rubber, fruits and other cash crops. They have successfully implemented the “tagal” system whereby fish from the river will be harvested collectively at specified time.

The dam if it materializes will flood the whole village taking away with it the rubber trees, fruit trees, the padi land, livestock, homes and a Church. The dam will extinguish their history, their memory, their future and their life. They have worked hard to get out of the poverty entrapment. They have worked hard to give sound education to their children who are expected to retire in their village of origin. They have always worked and supported the government of the day until now when the government is bent to turn their homeland into a massive made-made lake. It is a rude awakening and has brought so much pain, anguish and sleepless nights.

The government Kadamaian representative here has publicly said that the people of Tambatuon are selfish and only thinking of themselves. He feels that they should sacrifice their homeland for a better good that is to provide sustainable water for the padi project way down the river which will benefit thousands of people and the country. For the Tambatuons such statement is uncalled for especially from a politician who they have supported all along. The issue has become murky by the day and the solution founded only when one party gives up.

The notices have been put up and displayed for all to see. Tambatuons do not want and will not allow research and survey works to be conducted in their homeland. They have clearly display their willingness to protect their homestead with their life. As it stands it is a political decision and only the Court of the land will finally lay this matter to rest once and for all. Once again the Native Customary Rights (NCR) will be featured prominently.

Today Tambatuon is a vibrant home to more than 846 inhabitants comprising 193 families living in 103 houses and farming an area of 5300 acres. The village has a church, homestead, mini hall, hanging bridges, primary school, kindergarten, tarred roads, water gravity and power supply. The village is also home for sunbirds, dragonfly and flowering plants.

The economic strength of Tambatuon is rubber. The people in Tambatuon have set their target where each family will have at least 5000 trees to tend to. They hope to plant fragrance padi twice a year as it finds easy market and good price at Pekan Nabalu especially among foreign visitors from Hong Kong. They like to see road networks connecting their farmlands and have many homesteads for more visitors. By and by, they want to produce a skilled and knowledgeable generations who can contribute positively to the country.

The elderly folks have no more option but to stay and fight and die for a home that they put so much of their blood and sweat. Singkui and others have seen the negative aspects of dam in Moyog. They saw how the affected villagers there have been shortchanged by the government in terms of housing facility and also no land for agriculture. The younger generation has an option to leave but surprisingly many including the graduates are staying to work on their rubber trees and farmlands. This is the spirit that we have been talking and wanting to see from our younger generations.

It looks like the government of today has failed to improve on what USNO had started for the people of Tambatuon. While the Court will settle this issue sooner or later, the only hope left for the people of Tambutuon at the moment is to rely upon the mysterious power of the “Batu Sumpah”.

(Published in
The Borneo Post
) on Sunday 1st May 2011

                This entry was posted on Monday, 30 May 2011, 11:59 am and is filed under
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The Institution of the Family

By Bakri Musa

Chapter 8: Culture, Institutions, and Leadership

The family is the most important social institution. To sociologists, it is the basic unit of social structure. Article 16 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states that “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society, and is entitled to protection by society and state.” It is in the family that the young are acculturated and imbued with the values and norms of society. One learns what is right and wrong and differentiates the good from the bad through the family. Thus no matter now noble and moral the values of a society are, all that would be naught if those very same values are not transmitted to the young because of the breakdown of the family.

            President Reagan in his State of the Union Address in 1985 following his landslide reelection declared, “For an America of wisdom that honors the family, knowing that as the family goes, so goes our civilization….” The anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski observed that the biological role of the human male would be similar to that of other male species, that is, to impregnate and disappear after having fulfilled his duty to propagate his specie. “And yet,” Malinowski wrote, “in all human societies the father is regarded by tradition as indispensable. The woman is to be married before she is allowed legitimately to conceive… An unmarried mother is under a ban, a fatherless child is a bastard. This is not by no means a European or Christian prejudice; it is the attitude found amongst most barbarous and savage people as well.” Malinowski’s observation is one of the few universalities of human social behavior.

            Related to the institution of family is that of marriage. Marriage is the genesis of the family; it is an institution universal to all cultures. The centrality of marriage can be attested by the fact all cultures have elaborate ceremonies to sanctify this matrimonial union between man and woman. It also signifies that all societies place a premium on the importance of the family. While marriage is universally recognized as a heterosexual union, there are notable exceptions. In America, with the greater acceptance of homosexuality, same sex marriage is increasingly recognized by many states, and with it such rights as the ability to adopt children and of survivor benefits. Among the Dahomey of West Africa, one woman could “marry” another, with the first woman being the “father” of the children (by other men) of the second woman. A comparable phenomenon is seen in wolfs where when the male leader of the pack is killed, and in the absence of another adult male, the most senior female assumes the role of a male, or “father” of the pack.

            Sociologists may have a variety of normative descriptions of what a family is as viewed by different cultures. Such variations notwithstanding, the central element remains with the father and the mother, together with all their children. Western cultures may emphasize this nuclear family; Eastern cultures may expand that to include the extended families (comprising of members of one or more generations).

            Regardless, the primacy of parents—father and mother—remains. The oft quoted African saying to the effect that it takes a village to raise a child does not in any way absolve parents from their primary responsibility of raising their own children.

            Much can be learned about a society by studying the state of the family. Many of the social problems encountered today – delinquency, child and spousal abuses, school dropouts, and incest – can all be correlated with the breakdown of the family. The deterioration of American society, in particular minority groups, can ultimately be traced to the disintegration of the American family. The statistics are alarming. In 1960, 7 percent of White and 17 percent of Black babies were born out of wedlock, but by 2000 the figures skyrocketed to 27 and 77 percent respectively. In 1960 about 45 percent of American families were the traditional nuclear family, but by 2000 the figure dropped to only 23 percent. There has been an alarming increase in the number of single parent families.

            In 1965 Daniel Patrick Moynihan, while serving in President Johnson’s administration, issued a report highlighting the “tangle of pathology” in poor urban Blacks that was in part traceable to the rapid breakdown of the Black family. This prescient observation, widely criticized at the time for being racist, predicted that this trend, unchecked, would portend a more general disintegration of society. The wisdom of that insight is now obvious, and its truth universal. It applies not only to Blacks and other minorities but also to Whites. Although there are no rigorous sociological studies in Malaysia comparable to the American ones cited by Moynihan, I am convinced that many of the social problems can be traced to the breakdown of the Malaysian, in particular Malay, family.

            Such studies are complicated by the lack of uniformity in the definition of the family. Although legally in Malaysia a husband with multiple wives would be considered as an intact family, in dynamics and reality it is a broken family. The children of the “senior” or abandoned wives are in all respects living in a fatherless home. Those children rarely see their father; they lack the all-important father figure not only to tell them right from wrong but more importantly, to give them the much-needed words of encouragement and a pat on the back when the inevitable mistakes are made. Or when they simply need some warm tender hugs! And when they grow up and get married, they will continue the same pattern set by their absentee fathers. They will also in turn abandon their own children. And the pattern would continue, inflicting damage on subsequent generations.

            Although I have not seen any empirical studies, I predict that the sons of men with multiple wives will also more likely to have multiple wives of their own. I also hypothesize that juvenile delinquents in Malaysia are more likely to be the products of broken homes and or families with multiple wives.

            The only reason Malaysia’s problems are not much worse than those in America is because Malaysia still has a strong extended family system to take up the slack. Thus abandoned children still have their uncles and aunts to fall back on. It is in urban areas where the bonds of the extended family are not as strong or nonexistent that we see the most sinister effects of the breakdown of the family. No surprise then that incest, lepak (loitering), bohsia (delinquency), drug abuse, and other indicators of social disintegration are primarily urban phenomena.

            In America, if a child is born into an intact family, that is the best predictor whether he or she will succeed in school and end up in college. The reverse is equally true, that is, a child from a broken family is more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.

            The popular media often cite researches done by Malaysian academics on the racial differences in the academic performances of pupils. The impression left from many such studies (and certainly the interpretation of the media) is that race is a major causative factor. Yet when I examine the original publications and scrutinize their statistics and methodology, I am always disappointed in their basic design and conclusions.

            Malaysian social scientists are trapped by the race bugaboo. I have yet to see published studies comparable to the Moynihan Report that factor in the status of the family, income, and location (urban or rural), that is, variables other than race. It would not surprise me that such a study would confirm Moynihan’s observation that a broken family is a major predictor of a host of social pathologies, instead of, as frequently noted, race.

            Such studies are not difficult to undertake, but their designs and interpretations would require the researchers to be well versed with modern statistical tools like regression analysis. For the most part, Malaysian social scientists, especially those locally trained, are mathematically challenged.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 30 May 2011, 11:45 am and is filed under
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A ‘snap poll’ in Malaysia? Political surprise, journalistic cliché

Clive Kessler

The Malaysian Insider

May 30, 2011

MAY 30 — Once again there is talk of an early or imminent election in Malaysia.

No surprise, nothing unusual in that.

And once again the commentators are considering the likelihood of a “snap poll.”

Again, no surprise, nothing unusual in that. Just silly.

The expression “snap poll” a cliché.

And, as ever, hasty recourse to the irresistibly available cliché is a sure sign that clear, fresh and direct thinking about the matter at hand has been avoided, short-circuited. That an “end-run” (to use a cliché!) had been made around the moment of analysis, the need for thought.

What is, or was, a snap poll? The term was coined to denote an election that is called suddenly, at an unexpected moment, to take advantage of the element of surprise.

The snap poll is to political life, to electoral politics, what Pearl Harbor was to naval warfare. Suddenly, early one morning, unannounced, out of a clear blue sky…

It is an encounter, a contest, that is pretty much over before it has begun.

It is a fight — and this is the whole point of the manoeuvre or stratagem — that is as good as over from the outset: before the back-footed adversary, here the political opposition, has a chance to get up from its chair, onto its feet, and into action.

One has only to think about that for a moment and one thing becomes clear.

That the idea, and use of the term, “snap poll” in Malaysia is quite ridiculous. Not just strange, oddly inappropriate, but altogether ludicrous.

It is absurd for two reasons.

First, all Malaysian elections are in effect snap polls.

In 1969 the national election campaign period was a long one. The Tunku wanted to give the people plenty of time to consider the issues, to weigh the choice that they faced.

Never again.

Since then, all election campaign periods have been brief.

Reform of election legislation has made this brevity, this compression or “telescoping” of the political season — a concentration of pressure and, some would say, enforcing an unreflecting rush to political judgment — possible.

Election campaigns in Malaysia — from the announcement of the poll, the proroguing of Parliament, the nomination of candidates, the campaign, the vote, and the declaration of the result of the poll — can accordingly be completed, from start to finish, in about 10 days. The whole business is usually “done and dusted” within two weeks.

That kind of concentration and rapidity of electoral procedure falls fully within the ambit of the term “snap poll.”

These are not elections that run for weeks, whose date is announced months ahead or else are calendrically set by law (as in the US) for the election of candidates to a fixed term of office, say four years.

You don’t need to speculate in Malaysia whether there will be a snap poll. There always is.

Every election is sudden and a “quickie”, fast to come and fast to be over and gone.

The only question is when.

When will the government decide to call it? When will it exercise its discretion, avail itself of the incumbent power’s prerogative, to “pull the trigger” (another cliché!) or (yet another) to get the contestants to the line and “sound the starter’s gun”?

That is one reason why the term “snap poll” in Malaysia is a silly misnomer.

There is a second.

Invariably in Malaysia, once the country is about two to three years further on from its previous election, and the next is felt approaching in two to three years’ time, incessant election speculation begins to develop, mount and inexorably intensify.

How does this happen?

Quite simply, there is a popular interest in the matter.

Why not? The citizen wants to know. As a stakeholder in the political community, the citizen wants to be part of, and informed about, the process of deciding the community’s common fate — not just a spectator.

Always politically adept, the government caters to and assiduously “plays upon” this interest.

It does so constantly and continually, raising and lowering the intensity of its hints, feinting and parrying this way and that, as in some exotic sword-dance or wrong-footing silat routine.

In doing so (to change our metaphor, or flee into a different cliché), it “plays the rakyat” the way a maestro plays a violin.

Its objectives in doing so are several.

It wants to “whet and feed” the rakyat’s “political appetite.”

If elections are eventually to be held, the enthusiasm of party workers must be sustained, the political attention of voters must be activated and focused, and people need to be reminded of their political obligations (especially, as the powers of the day in every country see the matter, to acknowledge gratitude for benefits already and most recently received).

Governments, by toying with speculation about imminent elections, also seek to “test the waters” (what, another cliché!) concerning their own popularity. They raise the hypothetical possibility of a snap poll to measure their own situation and prospects, “to see how they are running.”

They also use the measured and very controlled encouragement of election speculation to “fly various kites”: in other words to assess likely public reaction to certain provisional policy initiatives, as well as the popular acceptability, persuasiveness and effect of possible campaign stratagems and rhetorical innovations, such as new slogans.

Not least of its purposes in toying openly with ideas of an imminent poll is to dismay, disorient and “bamboozle” the opposition: to keep its strategists preoccupied with the short-run possibility, however unlikely, of having soon to face the polls and so force it to redirect and consume large amounts of its scarce energies and time.

Election speculation, no matter how fabricated or implausible, usefully distracts the opposition. It diverts the government’s opponents from pursuing necessary longer-term tasks, such as the development of defensible policies and from necessary, and necessarily time-consuming, political planning.

Talk of early elections forces the opposition to operate in “rush mode”, even “panic mode”, not “thoughtfulness mode.” It keeps the opposition “tied in knots.”

By this logic, there may be an “inverse” relation between election speculation and the likelihood of an imminent poll. The louder the talk of a “snap poll”, the less likely an early election may be.

Until, of course, the last indulgence in such talk, the last tactical flirtation with the idea before the election is finally called.

But by then the clock has largely run down, time is running out, and the calling of the election usually comes as no surprise…

After years of keen anticipation and bated breath, what you hear in the end is often just a sigh of relief.

So in sum, every Malaysian election is both, in one sense, a “snap poll” and, in another, not, since no Malaysian election ever can be.

Every election comes at the end of a two-to-three year-long cycle, or barrage, of election speculation.

A snap poll, a surprise, beyond all expectations, out of a clear blue sky? Hardly!

Every election comes as the final bow-and-curtsey in a protracted political “minuet”, an intricately staged dance, an officially choreographed “waltz” full of false turns and feinting circles, this way and that.

There is no such thing as a “snap poll” in Malaysia.

So, can somebody please put an end to the use here in Malaysia of this appalling, and here entirely meaningless and ludicrously inappropriate, cliché?

Will the commentators please put an end to unreflecting talk about this mythical beast?

The idea of the “snap poll” is, with them, as bizarre a reflex as that weird, intermittently uncontrollable arm-spasm of Dr Strangelove.

A breakfast cereal company used to promote its product with the slogan “Snap, Crackle, Pop!”

Here in the nation’s electoral life we get talk of “Snap” elections, the “Crackle” of the ensuing and incessant, political static, and then, eventually, “Pop!” goes the starter’s gun.

An election?

What election?

I never saw one.

Must have missed it.

Must have been at the movies that afternoon…

* Clive Kessler is Emeritus Professor, Sociology & Anthropology at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 May 2011, 8:01 am and is filed under
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Economists see higher inflation from energy hikes

By
Lee Wei Lian

The Malaysian Insider

May 30, 2011

Power tariffs will be increased by 7.12 per cent on average come June 1. — Reuters picKUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — Economists expect today’s price hikes in electricity and natural gas to be passed through to inflation-weary consumers, possibly pushing up the monthly consumer price index (CPI) by as much four per cent in the next few months from 3.2 per cent in April.

This follows the announcement from Putrajaya today that the electric tariff will be raised by 2.3 sen per kilowatt hour (kWh) or an average of 7.12 per cent while the price of natural gas charged by Petronas for power generation will go up by RM3.00 per mmBtu each six months until it reached market levels.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the monthly inflation rate from June through to the third quarter approaches four per cent,” said Maybank Investment Bank chief economist Suhaimi Illias. “People also forget that effective next month, the diesel super subsidy will also be removed which will impact the cost of logistics.”

He added that there could be a risk to consumer spending from higher inflation but said that the country’s economic growth should remain intact.

RAM Ratings chief economist Dr Yeah Kim Leng said that there will be a one-off pass through in cost from the hikes in electricity and gas prices and that it could add “not more than” half a percentage point to the CPI for 2011.

“We still have the tools for overall inflation management,” he said.

Yeah said that he does not foresee a major dent in the country’s economic growth prospects and noted that high energy prices are not confined to Malaysia.

Malaysia’s inflation rate rose to a 24-month high of 3.2 per cent year-on-year in April following a three per cent increase in March, due to rising global commodity prices.

Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui said that the increase in electricity tariffs was due to the rise in natural gas prices.

He added, however, that while the rates have been revised, the 75 per cent of domestic consumers who utilise less than 300 kWh will see their charges unchanged.

A collection of one per cent of from users of 301 kWh and above would also be channelled to the renewable energy fund.

He said that domestic consumers who fall in the 301 to 400kWh per month band are expected to experience a “minimal” electricity bill increase, between RM0.07 to RM6.60.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 May 2011, 7:47 am and is filed under
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Khazanah MD ‘frustrated’ in regulated industries, reports FT

By
Yow Hong Chieh
May 30, 2011 | The Malaysia Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar has admitted to being disappointed by his inability to trim fat from the portfolio he inherited in 2004 due to political interference, the Financial Times reported yesterday.

“We have had our frustrations, and there have been areas, mostly in the regulated sectors such as electricity, automobiles and aviation, where value has stagnated or even declined,” Azman (picture) told the international financial daily.

The Financial Times said that despite scoring a “crushing victory” in a US$3.6 billion (RM10.8 billion) takeover battle with India’s Fortis for Singapore healthcare group Parkway Holdings, Khazanah was still struggling to turn around companies in its legacy portfolio, which includes national carmaker Proton and Malaysia Airlines.

“Big questions remain about Khazanah’s ability to deal equally decisively with the rest of its portfolio, not least because of government opposition to radical surgery on any of its significant companies,” the report said.

“Khazanah’s ability to turn round the biggest legacy companies is tightly bound by government limitations on its freedom of manoeuvre.”

It added that the impact of this “political framework” was evident in the detailed financial information released by Khazanah this year, which showed that the value of newer investments grew by an average of over 20 per cent while older investments only grew by five per cent.

The agency, burdened by a complex and potentially conflicting mandate to grow the portfolio, earn significant returns, lead GLC transformation and help Malaysia become a developed country by 2020, had “significantly less firepower” than other wealth funds, the Financial Times pointed out.

The net portfolio value of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek at the end of December was US$149 billion compared to Khazanah’s US$24.6 billion.

Tan Teng Boo, chief executive of Kuala Lumpur-based investment adviser Capital Dynamics, told the daily that while there were many “very capable and committed people” in Khazanah, there were just as many political obstacles to real reform.

Although the investment fund’s portfolio showed “some growth”, he faulted politicians who refused to let Khazanah “do what is necessary” for its failure to transform lacklustre GLCs as mandated.

Azman, however, argued that the agency was fulfilling its mandate for the most part, citing a 39 per cent increase in portfolio value last year, with compounded annual growth of 13 per cent from its level of RM33.3 billion when he took over in 2004.

At the same time, the group has sold its 32 per cent stake in Pos Malaysia, reduced holdings in successful companies such as Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd and strongly encouraged regional expansion by successful portfolio companies like Axiata and CIMB.

“We are in the seventh year of a major transformation programme, and we have achieved a lot in terms of making the GLCs more efficient while also growing the value of our portfolio and playing our part in helping Malaysia to develop,” said Azman, a former UBS and Salomon Smith Barney banker.

“The GLCs have conclusively improved their performance as a result of the management and other changes we have made, with aggregate earnings for the 20 biggest rising by 49 per cent in 2010 to RM17.3 billion and total shareholder returns of 16.4 per cent since 2004.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 May 2011, 9:41 am and is filed under
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