‘Duplicitous, dysfunctional and directionless’

By
Ong Kian Ming
 | 11:07AM Aug 14, 2013

Malaysiakini

COMMENT This week marks the first 100 days of the Najib administration since May 5, 2013, when BN won 60 percent of parliament seats with only 47 percent of the popular vote.

Najib Abdul Razak has the distinction of being the first Malaysian prime minister to hold on to the reins of power without having won the majority of votes.

He has further distinguished himself by presiding over a duplicitous, dysfunctional and directionless government. If this is a sign of things to come, the next five years will, if Najib lasts that long, see things in the country going from bad to worse.

Duplicitous

On the night of polling day, when it was announced that BN had retained power at the federal level, Najib called for a national reconciliation in order to unite the voters who had been “polarized” as a result of a high stakes and often heated general election campaign.

While calling for unity is all fine and good, especially if it is backed up by sincere intentions, Najib went on, in the same speech, to put the blame firmly on the “phenomenon” of a purported “Chinese tsunami”.

This jaundiced view ignores the fact that many Malays, in the state of Terengganu for example, also turned their on Umno in large numbers. This ignores the fact that many bumiputeras in Sarawak and Sabah also voted against the BN coalition in large numbers.

The duplicitous call by Najib to have a national reconciliation and at the same time “call out” the Chinese, opened the doors for others within the Umno leadership and machinery to jump on the bandwagon.

Utusan, the Umno-controlled newspaper, led the way with its now infamous headline ‘Apa lagi orang Cina mahu? (What more do the Chinese want?).

This was followed by threats by the Malacca government to open up Jonker Walk to traffic which would have effectively shut down the many traders there, the majority of whom happen to be Chinese.

Deputy Prime Minister – ‘Malay First, Malaysian Second’ – Muhyiddin Yassin also irresponsibly echoed Najib’s sentiments when he said that having one community support one side and another community supporting another would lead to “tensions in inter-racial relations and political instability”.

MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek added more fuel to the fire when he said that Malaysia had moved into a two-race system after GE2013.

And of course, one cannot leave out the indefatigable Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who accused the DAP of orchestrating the Chinese dominance of politics, in addition to being dominant in the economy, or so the former prime minister claims.

This is very far from a sincere gesture of wanting national reconciliation after a supposedly divisive elections campaign.

Najib’s own jitteriness over the legitimacy of his victory pushed him to call for all sides, primarily Pakatan Rakyat and their supporters, to accept the election results and to stop the Black 505 public protests.

His fears that the Black 505 public rallies would culminate into a Malaysian spring and the overthrow of the BN regime were totally unfounded, given the peaceful nature of all these rallies.

His insecure and duplicitous regime would act the only way it knew how – by using existing laws to persecute and prosecute social activists and Pakatan politicians.

In the space of one and a half months, a total of 80 individuals were charged – some with more than one charge. Out of these 80 individuals, only one – Papagomo – was a pro-BN person.

Many of the organisers of the Black 505 public rallies including elected representatives such as Nik Nazmi (Seri Setia assemblyman), Thomas Su (MP Ipoh Timor), Rafizi Ramli (MP Pandan) and Anthony Loke (MP Seremban) as well as social activists such as Chegubard, Adam Adli and Safwan Anang were charged under Section 9(1) of the Peaceful Assembly Act.

Ironically, the act that was supposed to make it easier for us to organise peaceful public rallies has instead been used to punish the organizers of these rallies.

One “concession” which Najib did make to Pakatan was to promise to put the Election Commission under the supervision of a Parliamentary Select Committee.

One cannot help but doubt the sincerity of such an offer – remember the outcome of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform? – especially since Najib will not even admit to some of the serious problems which took place during the campaign and on polling day.

We made international headlines for having spent millions of ringgit to procure indelible ink that turned out not to be so indelible after all!

Dysfunctional

It is almost expected for a weak leader to not be able to “control” his followers. He may say one thing only to have a key member of his team disagree with him in public. This was certainly Najib’s experience in this first 100 days.

He had already announced in July 2012 that he would replace the Sedition Act with a National Harmony Act and he reiterated this promise in an interview with the BBC in July 2013.

But soon after his repeat of this promise, his own home minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, disagreed with the repeal of the Sedition Act since this would, in his opinion, “legitimise sedition, whether it was in the form of slander, accusation and condemnation.”

The very same home minister also called for the Emergency Ordinance to be brought back in some shape or form after its abolishment by Najib’s administration before the 13th General Election.

The dysfunctionality of Najib’s government and the BN coalition which he leads was further accentuated by the tabling of the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Amendment Bill 2013 during the first parliamentary sitting post GE13.

It created an unprecedented outcry among the non-Muslim BN leaders and MPs making it seem as if none of them had been consulted or briefed about the contents of this bill before it was tabled.

The subsequent withdrawal of this bill, announced by Muhyiddin, could not erase the impression that Najib’s government was not – to put it mildly – on the same page.

Directionless

As if Najib’s duplicitous and dysfunctional government was not sufficiently worrisome, the lack of a firm direction for the country moving forward should give any reasonable man or woman reason to pause.

Rather than taking charge and facing the post GE13 challenges square in the face, Najib seems as if he’s allowed events to overtake and perhaps even overwhelm him.

The country’s Q1 2013 growth came in at 4.1 percent, the first time in six consecutive quarters where it registered a rate that was lower than 5 percent. In response to this, the Malaysia Institute of Economic Research (MIER) cut its growth forecast for the country from 5.6 percent to 4.8 percent.

CIMB Investment Bank economist, Lee Heng Guie, also cut his growth forecast for the country from 5.5 percent to 5.1 percent.

Coupled with growing household debt, which now stands at 83 percent of GDP, and the revision by Fitch Ratings on Malaysia from “stable” to “negative”, the prospects of a serious economic slowdown and a fiscal crisis happening in the not too distant future in Malaysia does not seem so far-fetched.

All Najib did in response to this, in his capacity as the finance minister, was to make vague claims about being able to reduce the budget deficit to below 4.0 percent of GDP when the 2014 budget is announced in October 2013.

With Petronas revenues and profits possibly being hit hard by the production problems in Sudan because of continued tensions between the North and the South, and also slower growth in tax collection receipts, Najib’s ambition to cut the government deficit to less than 4.0 percent of GDP does seem like pie in the sky.

Meanwhile, the federal government’s contingent liabilities – debt which are not officially ‘on the books’ but which is understood to be guaranteed by the government – has increased from RM96.9 billion in 2010 to RM150 billion in 2012.

One of the biggest reason for this increase is none other than the Najib created 1MDB, which according to a recent report in the Edge, has racked up debts of over RM38 billion.

Najib is also loth to admit that the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) has failed to achieve its lofty goals including delivering economic growth of 6 percent per annum. The palpable excitement which greeted the ETP when it was first launched in 2010 has now died down to a mere whimper.

The quarterly announcements or progress updates which highlighted the many billions of “new” investment and the many hundreds of thousands of new jobs has been noticeably absent in 2013, especially after GE13.

The delay of the RM60 billion RAPID petrochemical complex in Pengerang, Johor, which is the single biggest investment item announced under the ETP, does not give much confidence that the RM1.4 trillion target of investments can be achieved.

In addition, the much touted KPI achievements of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), including a 40% reduction in street crime, has been pooh-poohed by most, notably those who live in the urban areas who do not feel any safer or assured by these so-called “results”.

If the ETP and the GTP failed to capture public interest, especially among the urbanites who are most likely to be in positions to understand and appreciate the ETP and GTP initiatives, then surely Najib must come up with a new transformation plan or to tweak the current one so that these shortcomings can be addressed.

The problem with Najib is that having invested so much in the ETP and GTP, he does not know where to start in terms of significantly changing the parameters of the ETP and GTP.

Take the recent spate of shootings as an example. Instead of taking concrete measures to tackle this worrying trend – for example, by tracking down how these guns fell into the hands of these criminals and going after the suppliers of these firearms – Najib has allowed this home minister to put the blame on the 2,600 individuals released as a result of the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance.

Worse still, he has stood quietly by as his home minister ludicrously puts the blame for the recent increase in the crime rates on the 260,000 criminals who have been “activated” by the released former EO detainees. And the best that the GTP team can come up with? You guessed it – a “lab” on serious crime after the Raya holidays.

Meanwhile, there is a running tally on how many people will be shot and killed on any given day. And we breathe a sigh of relief at the end of the day if we are lucky enough to live through it without reading about casualties of gun violence.

Give Najib the benefit of the doubt?

Some Najib sympathisers have argued that he should be cut some slack because of the impending Umno elections. Once he has received his mandate from his party, he should be able to move on with the next phase of his transformation programme. There are many reasons to be sceptical.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi fulfilled none of his election promises despite winning a record 90 percent of parliamentary seats in the 2004 general election.

Najib, with a much weaker popular mandate, will always be looking over his shoulder to fend of threats from the right wingers in his party, including the still influential Mahathir, as well as Muhyiddin.

Najib has never shown that he is willing and able to take on big fights especially on reform issues. And when tough decisions have to be made or tough times have to be faced e.g. Bersih 3.0, he is usually out of the country or he delegates the responsibility to others.

Two years after the Sarawak 2011 state election, Chief Minister Taib Mahmud is firmly ensconced in power despite being prompted by Najib to pass the reins of power to someone else before the next state elections.

To summarize, the duplicitous, dysfunctional and directionless administration of Najib in the first 100 days is a strong sign of things to come. It will surely lead to a government that is duly discredited towards the end of its term.

Sadly, for the country and its people, things will have to get worse before they can get better.

____

ONG KIAN MING is the MP for Serdang. He can be reached at
[email protected]

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 15 August 2013, 11:04 am and is filed under
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We have to keep the faith, even if our leaders can’t

 — May Chee Chook Ying

The Malay Mail Online

August 14, 2013

AUG 14 — Many are making senseless statements; some to the extent of baying for blood. It’s almost unbelievable that our beloved motherland has descended to such depths. The irresponsible politics being played out by those morally bankrupt are keeping some people at the level of their instincts.

That’s what arrogant politics does – it divides the masses. It refuses to respond to new realities. It insists that the only way to solve problems is to bring back archaic structures and instruments that demean the human person. Are we still moving towards 2020, the year we are supposed to be a developed nation? How can a nation be developed when the puppeteers are still hoping to enslave the minds of the masses? To dictate to them and control their every move?

Things are coming to a head now in Malaysia. Instead of finding out what went wrong; whether those in power have had a share in the fault, looks like the liberty of some will have to be sacrificed in order to expedite matters. As usual, coming up with irresponsible band-aid solutions, e.g. bringing back the EO instead of implementing the ICPMC. Harking back to the dark old days when events in life are pushing us forward to change plans and directions?

It isn’t the scholars who are “illuminating” the masses about religion. They are pedantic politicians who think they can use religion to infuse fear and create strife. Do they think that God is as pathetic as them? That He cannot see beyond external rituals? It’s purity of heart, my friend, and justice to your neighbor. Why the incessant call to punish those who have been deemed to insult your religion? What about those times when you insulted others? I bet my last dime that truly religious people and those much loved by the Most High will not want to draw blood. Instead, they will want to seek dialogue. They will want to shout from the rooftop how beautiful their religion is. How merciful God is and how much He loves you. How He seeks to move the differences among men through love and not war.

I thought there was a call for reconciliation after GE13. A smart leader would have championed national unity and strove to unite both allies and enemies around him. An idiot wouldn’t. He would just keep quiet and allow his mean and vindictive officers to impose sanctions on those with differing views. The concept of social solidarity is just beyond him. He isn’t a leader of the people. He has allowed bigots to drown the voice of peace-loving Malaysians. He has allowed institutions to be hijacked to the point that more and more people are being oppressed and marginalised. He has allowed and condoned corruption in every crook and cranny to the point that we will sink to a state of lawlessness soon.

By the way, where is he?

Looking at what’s happening around us and hearing absurdity (or is it stupidity) from our so-called leaders, day in, day out can really numb our senses. But let’s not let that happen. On the contrary, since no one up there can be taken seriously, let’s be more vigilant. Let’s not give them a blank cheque. Let’s do due diligence in everything that concerns our motherland. Let’s make them accountable for every decision they make supposedly on our behalf which does not benefit us. They are our public servants. We are their masters. It’s time we assume responsibility and stop them from abusing their authority.

It’s a tall order but then again, this is our beloved motherland.  We can’t let her go to the dogs. We can do this if we are united and we are. Don’t let anyone tell us differently. Unity is after all, a grace. We have to keep the faith, even if our leaders can’t.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 15 August 2013, 10:53 am and is filed under
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Putrajaya blew over RM500m on pre-polls ad offensive

The Malay Mail Online

August 15, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 ― Putrajaya spent over RM500 million in its advertising blitz ahead of Election 2013 ― as much as the next four advertiser categories combined ― to dominate the list of top spenders for the first half of the year.

According to a report on local advertising growth by Vizeum Media, an international media-buying agency, the next closest contender was women’s beauty products, which laid out RM163 million or less than a third of the RM530 million spent by the government.

“[The General Election] drove government spending to a historical high of RM531 million, accounting for 9 per cent share of the advertising market or one-third of ADEX within the top 10 spending categories in 1H 2013,” Vizeum said in its July report.

The amount was a 160 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Of the over half-billion spent, the Prime Minister’s Department took up the lion’s share with an outlay of RM264 million for the first six months of the year or five times more than it did in 2012.

“Jabatan Perdana Menteri accounted for 50 per cent share of all government spending during the same period,” the report continued.

The sum was enough the make the PM’s Department the country’s second-largest single advertiser, losing out to multinational consumer goods firm Unilever Malaysia which spent RM286 million.

Ahead of Election 2013 in May, Putrajaya and the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) set out to conquer advertising space both in the traditional outlets such as print, television and radio as well as in the so-called new media on the Internet.

It participated in paid-for promotions such as social network Twitter’s “Promoted Accounts” and “Promoted Tweets” programmes, and delved heavily into adverting with online news portals.

On the Internet, it adopted “Better Nation” as its rallying theme, a play on its BN initials. These included a standalone website as well as linked advertisement on others.

Beyond advertising, the coalition also invested extensively in premiums such as an “Action Kit” containing 1 Malaysia-themed memorabilia such as caps, pens, stickers and more that were freely distributed to supporters and any who showed interest.

Billboards promoting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1 Malaysia theme as well as the “Janji Ditepati” (Promises Fulfilled) slogan that was the platform for the BN campaign also sprouted along the major highways in the country.

Despite the extensive advertising campaign, BN continued its slide from Election 2008 to hit its latest low in the May 5 general election.

It lost another seven seats from the 140 it had won five years ago, allowing the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to gain further ground by taking 89 of the Parliament’s total of 222 seats.

BN also lost the popular vote for the first time since 1969, when it had last contested as the Alliance Party.

PR had shunned traditional media outlets ahead of the election and again concentrated its resources on social networks and websites that had been credited with its unexpected gains in 2008.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 August 2013, 8:40 am and is filed under
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The general election surprise: younger Malays too went to Barisan

The Malaysian Insider

August 16, 2013

Here’s what was expected: Pakatan Rakyat (PR) comfortably won the battle for first-time and younger voters in Election 2013. Here’s what was not expected: Barisan Nasional (BN) snared more Malay votes in this category of voters.

Going into the elections, the general line was that PR would obtain the bulk of the first-time and young Malaysian vote because its focus on a range of issues, including corruption, would be attractive to younger voters.

Also, the Opposition had a stronger slate of young politicians like Rafizi Ramli, Nurul Izzah Anwar and Liew Chin Tong who found support among young Malaysians.

But Ibrahim Suffian of Merdeka Center sounded a note of caution for the opposition pact on this thinking. He noted that the majority of first-time Malay and young Malay voters gave their support to BN, suggesting that the Opposition has not done enough to convince young Malays that their future was secure with PAS, PKR and DAP.

And Ibrahim noted that this segment is only going to get larger in coming elections, due to the higher birth rate among Malays.

Given the changing population profile, Malays will be an even larger chunk of new voters in future polls than the nearly two-thirds, or 64.17% of new voters, registered this year.

So PR would have to continue refining its position on Malay rights and cobble together a plan with an emphasis on job and wealth creation.

The voting pattern of young and first-time voters was collated by the respected pollster Merdeka Center as part of its study of the recent general election.

There are five voting channels and each represents an age group. The pollster said that based on the electoral rolls used on election day there were some 2.7 million more voters, and the influx of new voters was more pronounced in mixed and urban seats.

Of the five channels or groups, the youngest group of under 30s was 64.17% Malay. The voter turnout overall for all races in this group of first-time and young voters was a hefty 83.22%. Of those, just over half, or 52.96%, voted for PR.

But those older than this group were more inclined to vote for the Opposition. In the 31-40 age group, 54.25% voted for PR.

The ethnic composition of this latter group was 53.12% Malays, 29.28% Chinese, 7.61% Indians and 10% others. The voter turnout was about the same as the younger group, at 83.47%.

“Pakatan Rakyat will have no choice but to reach out to the Malays, tackle their fears about the position of Malays and at the same time put forward a comprehensive economic plan,” noted Ibrahim. – August 16, 2013

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 August 2013, 8:58 am and is filed under
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Today’s New Straits Times front-page report of lies about DAP CEC re-election signals a new phase of the DDD (Demonise/Destroy DAP) propaganda war with lies and falsehoods

The New Straits Times (NST) front-page report today on the DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) re-election is a typical example of the mountain of DDD – “Demonise/Destroy DAP” – lies and falsehoods by Umno/Barisan Nasional media, culminating in the July appearance of the  booklet of lies by the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen”, in the past seven months.

The lead paragraph of NST front-page report headlined “DAP finally agrees to hold fresh CEC polls” by S.K. Thanusha Devi reads:

“Kuala Lumpur: DAP yesterday conceded that it must hold fresh polls, after it was found to have disallowed 753 party members from attending its congress-cum-elections as delegates in December”.

This is not journalism but a downright blatant and bare-faced lie, for two reasons:

DAP had right from the beginning challenged the spurious claim that 753 delegates, who were absent at the DAP Congress in Penang last December, had not been properly notified of the Congress and therefore denied the right to attend to  vote in the party elections; and

The RoS had never found that DAP had “disallowed 753 party members from attending” the party congress.

In fact there is no truth or basis whatsoever in the allegation as reported by the NST today that the Registrar of Societies (RoS) had in a letter on April 17, 2013, highlighted “753 DAP members claiming they were denied their right to attend the congress as delegates”, as

Firstly, there was no such denial of delegate right to attend the congress, as all the delegates were given the requisite notice under the party constitution; and

Secondly, it is a total fiction that 753 delegates complained to the RoS on this matter.

In fact, the party never received a single complaint from any delegate on being denied the right to attend the Congress, which was why the DAP repeatedly  asked the RoS to furnish particulars of the complainants and their complaints but to no avail.

It is outrageous and even surreal that Hitler’s Propaganda Minister Goebbels’ doctrine that if a lie is repeated often enough it could become a fact has now living proof in UMNO/BN Malaysia with NST and Utusan Malaysia as the main exponents.

The two main allegations of the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen” for the invalidation of the CEC elections, namely “753 absent delegates (mostly Indians)” and the “547 phantom delegates (most from Penang)” are downright lies and falsehoods.

The NST front-page report today is proof that the DDD “Demolish-Destroy DAP” campaign through a mountain of lies and falsehoods by Umno/BN propagandists and cybertroopers in the Umno/BN media and the cyberspace is not going to let up with the DAP decision for CEC re-election.

On the contrary, the DDD propaganda war and the campaign of lies and falsehoods will be stepped up.

The NST front-page report of lies about DAP CEC re-election signals a new phase of the DDD propaganda war with lies and falsehoods.

DAP leaders and members as well as the Malaysian public must be aware that the DDD propaganda war will escalate and intensify in the coming days and weeks until the DAP CEC re-elections, hoping to achieve the objective to demonise, demolish and destroy the DAP!

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 August 2013, 4:09 pm and is filed under
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The escalating religious intolerance must stop

– Lawyers for Liberty

The Malaysian Insider

August 16, 2013

Lawyers for Liberty views with extreme concern the escalating religious intolerance in Malaysia where in recent months, several minor incidents of perceived insult against Islam have been blown completely out of proportion by Umno leaders, their supporters and the mainstream media – leading to the arrest and remand of Maznah Yusof, known as Chetz, and Syed Ahmad (the resort owner), and in Alvivi’s case, criminal charges and denial of bail (which was later reversed after eight days in prison).

While religion especially Islam is a sensitive subject to most, this however must not detract from the fact that Malaysia is a multi-racial and multi-religious democratic state with established democratic norms including the Federal Constitution guaranteeing fundamental rights, rule of law, due process and other practises that mark Malaysia as a

modern and civilised state.

Religion like any other important issue cannot escape from being subjected to scrutiny, comment, satire and to the less eloquent, insult and condemnation.

The government and state institutions such as the police, Attorney-General’s Chambers and Jakim, instead of advocating harsh action, should take a more measured approach in diffusing this obvious attempt to pit Malay/Muslim against other ethnic group/religion and explain why Islam or any other religion should not be subjected to insults.

While it is true freedom of speech is not absolute and there are accepted limitations e.g. incitement to violence and hate speech – the threshold for freedom of speech however must be high.

This is all the more true in the vast and borderless Internet and social media age where anybody, in good faith or otherwise can comment on any issues including on religion.

It would be futile and irresponsible for the authorities to keep going after these perceived “insults” when there are more pressing matters at hand especially the high crime rate andthe shocking spate of violent crimes involving guns and explosives.

What Alvivi, Chetz and Syed Ahmad have done while insensitive and naïve were nothing compared to what pro-Umno individuals such as Ibrahim Ali, Zulkilfi Noordin, Ridhuan Tee, Mohd Noor Abdullah and others have done which were much more serious and offensive but led to no repercussion or action.

Needless to say, the authorities have acted selectively, disproportionately, in bad faith and double standards when persecuting Alvivi, Chetz and Syed Ahmad while doing nothing against pro-Umno individuals.

We therefore call on the authorities to act fairly and professionally, and not to misuse their powers for Umno’s political ends which are clearly aimed at eroding our nation’s inter-ethnic/ inter-religious relations and dividing the nation between Malay/Muslim and other ethnic group/religion and bolstering Umno’s credential as the “defender” of Islam and Malays. – August 16, 2013.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 17 August 2013, 1:16 am and is filed under
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Why MAS Share Is On Cheap Sale?

by Koon Yew Yin

16th Aug 2013

As a long term serious investor, I have a closer look at the cheap share price of MAS. Why is it selling at 33 sen. about one third of its par value?

 Many market analysts have already covered MAS and Idris Jallal has said that the company should be sold off as soon as possible. My intention of writing this piece is to help the BN Government decide to put in the final nail to bury MAS to save tax payers’ money. Obviously the Government did not see my previous article “Why MAS Is Still Flying” which I published about a year ago. It is important and worthwhile to include some of the points I mentioned earlier in my previous article.

The latest 1st quarter 2013 ending March shows that MAS lost Rm 279 million. In 2012, 2011 and 2010 the company lost Rm 433 million, Rm 2.424 billion and Rm 234 million respectively.

As usual, there are the incorrigibly optimistic cheerleaders for the airline who are unable to see the writing on the wall.  These ‘experts’ are still touting that the company is in recovery mode and will soon be returning to profitability.

The market however sees the prospects for the airline differently.  During the past few days the airline share has been trading around 35 sen level.  This is about the lowest share price that the airline share has recorded during the past many years.  Without the support of government-linked funds and left to market forces alone, it is possible that the share price of MAS will drop even more.

The recurring losses of MAS are a great mystery especially when they are compared with the performance of SIA.  I972 Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (MSA) became MAS and SIA. In the last 10 years from 2002- 2011 SIA reported a total pre-tax profit of Singapore $13,992 million, averaging S$ 1.4 billion per year.

Should the government continue to bail out MAS?

The most recent losses bring the total losses of MAS to at least over $3 billion.  In any normal business, any company incurring large and sustained losses would have closed down or gone into bankruptcy.  This has not happened to MAS yet but I think the time is right – many observers will say, long overdue – for the government to withdraw the open cheque book extended to MAS.

When planning the future of MAS, it is important that the government avoids not only the past mistakes but also takes a rational approach based on economic fundamentals.  One line of simplistic thinking is that there is a bright and profitable future for MAS since the number of air travelers continues to increase by about 5-7 percent per year.

But if you look at the history of airline industry profitability, this is not the case for airlines worldwide.  The fact is the airline industry requires huge capital and produces poor returns on capital employed. Hence, year after year, many airlines produce poor profit margins or outright losses.

Why is it that an industry with year-on-year rises in sales cannot generate good returns to shareholders?

It all comes down to the economic structure of the industry.  One of the forces that limit profitability is the intensity of the rivalry between the leading airlines. There is over-supply leading to pressure on prices. This is exacerbated by a high degree of freedom for new competitors to enter the industries.

If, say, an airline route between two destinations is found to be reasonably profitable it is not long before new entrants move in or current airlines simply move their planes to this profitable route.

It is truly an industry governed by the principle of “survival of the fittest”.

The ego and elections factor

It would seem that every developing nation wanting to show off to the world its progress MUST have its own airline, regardless of the impact on an industry already grossly over-supplied, and regardless of whether they have the ability to manage efficiently. So there is a regular stream of announcements of new airline ventures. Now that Malaysia has also done it and failed dismally.

The next logical question to ask is why doesn’t the Malaysian government allow MAS to fold up or go under?

There are two main reasons:  Firstly, the perennial optimism of managers and shareholders. “Just one more chunk of money will see us break through into profitability as we rout the opposition!” seems to be the credo of these parties based on their self and not national interest.

Secondly, there is government interference. This factor however is less found now as many governments have learnt not to come to the rescue of their airlines.

Malaysia has not learnt these lessons – initially for reasons of national pride tied to the ego of leaders but now increasingly apparently to save jobs and to prevent the retrenched employees from voting for the opposition. This may make sense politically but it is poor economics.

Let MAS fly or crash without further interference or delay is the only way forward in the national interest especially since Idris Jallal has said that the company should be sold off as soon as possible!

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 17 August 2013, 1:43 am and is filed under
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DAP facing life-and-death struggle with the widening of the battleground and opening of a third phase of the UMNO/BN  “DDD” campaign to demonise and destroy DAP

DAP is facing a life-and-death struggle with the widening of the battleground and  opening of the third phase of the UMNO/BN “DDD” campaign to demonise and destroy the DAP.

In the past several months, the Umno/BN “DDD” – “Demonise/Destroy DAP” – battalions of propagandists and cybertroopers had launched two phases of assault on the DAP, viz:

Firstly, the outrageous and preposterous allegation of the non-existent DAP-financed “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget from RM100 million to RM1 billion in past six years to demonise and character-assassinate Umno/BN leaders; and

Secondly, the   baseless and malicious campaign about electoral fraud in DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) elections last December, culminating in the booklet of lies by the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen” making two major allegations, namely “753 delegates (mostly Indians)” not notified of the DAP Congress and “543 phantom delegates (mostly from Penang)”,  when both are complete lies and falsehoods.

In the two phases of the “DDD” campaign, the battalions of Umno/BN propagandists and cybertroopers had concocted and recycled hundreds of lies and falsehoods against the DAP especially in the Umno/BN media Utusan Malaysia and New Straits Times.

The “DDD” campaign has not ended or abated after the DAP decision for CEC re-election to pre-empt continued abuse of power by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) at the behest of the Umno/BN political “masters”, particularly the deregistration of the DAP.

The   Umno/BN’s “DDD” campaign has now entered a third and even more deadly phase to demonise/destroy the DAP, with

*continued concoction and regurgitation of  lies and falsehoods against the DAP, with scores of lies and falsehoods concocted and regurgitated in the past three days just in Utusan Malaysia and New Straits Times;

*widening  of the DDD battlefield from hitherto Bahasa Malaysia and English media to Chinese and Tamil media; and

*official blessing given to the DDD campaign by none other than the Prime Minister and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who  jumped into the chorus of baseless attacks on the DAP within 48 hours of the  the DAP decision on CEC re-election, regurgitating the DDD lies and falsehoods against the DAP.

Najib alleged that the DAP is not a “credible political party” by trotting out the lie that DAP had failed to notify 753 delegates of the DAP Congress of the CEC elections last December, when he should know that this lie of “753 delegates (mostly Indians)” not notified of the CEC Congress last December, together with the equally meretricious lie of “547 phantom delegates (mostly from Penang)” were total concoctions without any proof whatsoever.

DAP is therefore facing a “life-and-death” test as the Umno/BN “Demolish/Destroy DAP” battalions are finalising devilish plans and marshalling their forces to try to destroy the DAP once and for all.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 18 August 2013, 9:15 am and is filed under
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Can religious leaders still talk through issues anymore?

by Jennifer Gomez and Hasbullah Awang Chik

The Malaysian Insider

August 19, 2013

To the world, before these past few weeks, Malaysia has been a country that always at least claimed to be a model for moderate faith and prided itself on cherishing interfaith dialogue and shared space.

No one is making that claim anymore, at least no one from the top. No one there can.

Not when in the space of bare weeks, Malaysians have seen two high religious figures – one Buddhist, the other Catholic – have to issue apologies to mollify a madding crowd.

Just last week, the Buddhist Chief High Priest of Malaysia Datuk K. Sri Dhammaratana apologised for the Buddhist group that used a surau in Johor for prayers, even though that group was from Singapore.

A few weeks earlier, the Vatican envoy to Malaysia Archbishop Joseph Marino apologised for his comments on the “Allah” issue after Malay rights groups kicked up a storm.

More recently, several government ministers have taken a hardline position on matters relating to faith. One deputy minister even gave the thumbs-up to an Astro disclaimer on a TV biopic of the new Pope.

Yes, Malaysia, it has come to this: someone thinks “Viewer discretion is advised” is necessary for a documentary on Pope Francis.

What impact is this climate of intolerance having on interfaith dialogue in the land whose prime ministers like Tun Abdullah Badawi and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad once said showed the world how moderate faith prevails?

Here’s the good news: thankfully – and surprisingly – little impact on the faithful.

Religious leaders say they are not ready to raise the white flag yet, insisting that interfaith dialogue is the only way to settle religious conflict.

Yes, there are serious challenges and long-standing issues, such as the conversion of minors and the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims, which remain unresolved.

Ex-Perlis mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin has a thought on why such challenges even exist for interfaith dialogue. He said the lack of success in interfaith dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims was due to the lack of understanding of what can and cannot be brought to the discussion table.

He offered that firstly, all parties should know that when Muslims come to the dialogue table, it is not to recognise the other religions as equal to Islam, but rather to recognise that Islam respects non-Muslims’ right to exist.

“Among some conservatives, they think that interfaith dialogue is about sacrificing the status of Islam. Which is why both sides of the divide should be clear about the underlying terms.

“When that is made clear, then interfaith dialogue can do a lot of good and promote better understanding on religious conflict issues,” he said.

This has worked to some extent in the Cabinet interfaith committee, notes Jagir Singh, president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism.

He said, “Dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims is certainly not dead. In fact, discussions among the various religious groups in the Cabinet committee has achieved some progress, although on certain complex issues, we have yet to reach a consensus.

“This is understandable because there are so many other factors involved which is beyond the committee.”

Jagir added that these factors include the stands taken by various non-governmental bodies and state religious departments.

He added that it was important for interfaith dialogue to continue so that there is a venue for different religious leaders to meet and forge understanding on various issues.

Buddhist monk Venerable Sing Kan, who was the immediate past vice-president of the interfaith council and is a current committee member, agreed with Jagir that interfaith dialogue should continue, but added that with the child conversion and “Allah” issues remaining unresolved, it appeared as though talks have reached a deadlock. The reasons for this should be addressed, she said.

Malay rights group Perkasa, on the other hand, feels there is no room for Muslims and non-Muslims to sit and debate on religion.

Its secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali said that Jagir “could fantasise all he wanted about the potential fruits of interfaith dialogue.

“Let the others reach consensus with them on religious matters, but this won’t happen with Perkasa. To us, they should just accept and understand the status of Islam as laid out in the Federal Constitution.”

Clearly, Perkasa falls in the “conservative” group that Mohd Asri spoke of. How can they be managed? Mohd Asri reiterates that all dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim parties must have the objectives clearly laid out beforehand. This, he said, will result in the talks having a better chance of achieving its aims.

“There is still hope for interfaith dialogue,” the former Perlis mufti stressed.

Venerable Sing Kan emphasises the leading role politicians need to take in setting the right spirit for religious tolerance and harmony.

On this front, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup plans on setting up a new council of religious heads for the purpose of understanding each other’s faiths.

Kurup told The Malaysian Insider that he will raise the matter at the Cabinet so that a council made up of members of the various religious groups can be formed to understand each other’s stand and values of their respective faiths.

He also clarified that this is different from the existing Cabinet committee to promote Understanding and Harmony Among Religious Adherents.

“Dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia can achieve results, but it needs to be fine-tuned to determine each religions’ stand and values,” Kurup said, in explaining the need for a new council.

It is a point also emphasised by the Vatican’s first envoy to Malaysia, the Archbishop Marino.

In his statement released to the media after his apology, he said that as the former Apostolic Nuncio to Bangladesh, a country whose majority population is Muslim, he “firmly believes that inter-religious dialogue is the means to promote good relations among peoples of different faiths, who can discover the beauty of each other’s belief”. – August 19, 2013.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 19 August 2013, 9:14 pm and is filed under
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Lawyers instructed to institute legal proceedings against Utusan Malaysia for recycling the lies of booklet “The Equity Report (CEC Election Fraud)” of fictitious “Father Augustus Chen”

I have instructed my lawyers to institute legal proceedings against Utusan Malaysia for recycling the defamatory lies of the booklet “The Equity Report (CEC Election Fraud)” of fictitious “Father Augustus Chen”.

In a
statement on August 5, 2013
, I said:

“Father Augustus Chen” who authored the booklet alleging irregularities in the DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) elections last December was “a total figment of imagination of the Umno/BN ‘war-room psy-war’ campaign against the DAP before and after the 13th General Elections”;

The allegations of DAP election irregularities by the fictitious “Father Augustus Chan” in his booklet is a regurgitation of the many lies and baseless allegations which had been published in some 400 anti-DAP reports and write-ups in UMNO/BN controlled media since January, particularly in Utusan Malaysia and New Straits Times;

The appearance of the booklet of lies by the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen” in July was to provide a semblance of justification for UMNO/BN and the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to act against the DAP, enabling Umno/BN leaders and Cabinet Ministers to quote the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen” as authority why action, such as invalidation of DAP CEC elections and even deregistration, should be taken against the DAP.

In my media statements in the following two days, I described the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen” as an
“evil genius”
 for cramming and packing some 100 lies and falsehoods into a 12-page booklet, and I
gave him seven days to surface
 and prove that he is not phantom.

The seven-day period for “Father Augustus Chan” to surface have long come and gone, and no “Father Augustus Chen” has appeared.

Nobody expected the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen” to surface as whoever steps forward to claim authorship of the scurrilous publication “The Equity Report” must not only be prepared to face multiple mega-defamation suits but criminal proceedings as well for the mountain of malicious and defamatory lies in the booklet.

Despite repeated DAP denials of the defamatory lies and falsehoods in the booklet by the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen”, Mingguan Malaysia yesterday carried a report by its reporter Kasthuri Jeevendran recycling the defamatory and malicious lies and falsehoods by the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen”.

The fictitious “Father Augustus Chen” made among others, two false and baseless allegations to justify RoS and Umno/BN government action against the DAP, firstly that “753 delegates (mostly Indians)” were not notified of the DAP Congress in Penang last December and secondly, that there were “547 phantom delegates (mostly from Penang)” who voted at the DAP Congress, as well as malicious and defamatory allegations against DAP leaders.

There is not an iota of truth in these malicious and defamatory allegations against the DAP and DAP leaders.

I have therefore asked my lawyers to institute legal proceedings against Utusan Malaysia for recycling the defamatory lies of the booklet “The Equity Report (CEC Election Fraud)” of the fictitious “Father Augustus Chen”.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 19 August 2013, 3:26 pm and is filed under
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The role of public interest litigation

– Dr. R. Rueban Balasubramaniam

The Malaysian Insider

August 19, 2013

After the recent general election, Malaysian democrats have again been frustrated. Once more, the United Malay National Organization (“UMNO”) emerged victorious, though many believe this was the most fraudulent election in Malaysia’s political history. Now, democrats are redoubling their efforts to reveal such fraud and to seek electoral reform at least with an eye to winning the next election.

Democrats take solace in the fact that UMNO is on very vulnerable political terrain; it cannot compete fairly within upon a democratic playing field, but they should not just exert political pressure on UMNO. They can use another strategy: public interest litigation designed to embarrass UMNO’s ethnocratic political program, a program rooted in an authoritarian and discriminatory principle of Malay political dominance. Through such litigation, democrats can cast further doubt on UMNO’s claim to exercise legitimate political rule.

At present, Malaysia has no tradition of public interest litigation. This, despite the existence of a supreme written Constitution that contains a bill of rights and provisions that protect important group interests within a rubric of legal equality and provisions that express the principles of the separation of powers and federalism, which guard against the excessive concentration of power in any single organ of government. It is plain that the constitutional framework imposes legal discipline upon political power in a way that is hostile to authoritarian rule that is readily amenable to public interest litigation.

Yet, no tradition of such litigation has emerged because the long-standing UMNO government has attempted to prevent citizens and judges from developing such a tradition. In the 1980s, after concerned citizens went to court to ask judges to check state authoritarianism by reference to constitutional norms, the government, led by Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, UMNO’s most well-known ethnocrat and the country’s longest serving Prime Minister, put an end to this practice. It sacked judges and amended the Constitution to limit judicial review. And, allegedly, the government rigged judicial appointments to produce a compliant judiciary.

Bracketing the question whether or not the courts are now well placed to develop a tradition of public interest litigation, it first bears noting that the conditions are right to revive public interest litigation. UMNO is weak. It no longer has a supermajority in Parliament and cannot amend the Constitution to suit politically expedient goals. Nor can it afford to appear to meddle in judicial affairs. Perhaps most significant is that UMNO lacks competent leadership. This is the result Dr. Mahathir’s long reign as UMNO head. Fearing challenge from within UMNO, he did not groom an adequate leadership structure within the party, so when he retired in 2003, he left it without the intellectual wherewithal to survive.

Right now, in a well-worn strategy, UMNO also seems keen to invoke the Constitution in its favour, precisely because it is politically weak. In the 1980s, the government argued that there is a “sacrosanct social contract” between Malaysia’s Founding Fathers in the Constitution, entrenching a legal-political principle of “Malay Dominance.” This argument inverts the doctrine of constitutional supremacy, which usually applies to impose hard legal limits on state power to protect citizens. UMNO relies on the doctrine to impose hard legal limits on popular politics to immunize the ethnocratic paradigm from political challenge under the guise of constitutionalism. It uses the doctrine to entrench an authoritarian state power over citizens.

Unfortunately, democrats have not developed an adequate response to this stance. Some lawyers and academics have sought to debunk the ethnocratic reading of the Constitution but they have only made a negative case. They have not set out a detailed constitutional vision for society that begins in an interpretation of abstract values of political morality like democracy, legality, and social stability and explain how these yield middle level principles that fit and justify the Constitution’s text, structure, and history, ultimately culminating in practical claims about what the Constitution requires.

In short, democrats need a theory of the Constitution capable of offering guidance for political deliberation, debate, and judgment suited to a pluralistic society like Malaysia.

Any such theory is likely to show how the Constitution enacts a “constitutional democracy,” not dictatorship. The cooperative efforts of thinkers, lawyers, judges, and citizens will be needed to build such a theory. But the principal laboratory for the construction of such a theory is the courts. There, conscientious lawyers and judges can apply and refine a coherent constitutional theory in the context of specific constitutional problems.

This is where the strategy of using public interest litigation will be crucial. The very recent Malaysian High Court judgment in Indira Gandhi on the constitutional validity of unilateral conversions of children by a Muslim parent shows how this strategy might work. In an impeccably reasoned judgment, Lee J articulates middle level principles to interpret constitutional text, structure, and history and then applies that interpretation to the issues before the court. While he does not set out a deeper theory of the Constitution, he alludes to such a theory in a postscript, noting that one has to read the Constitution as creating a framework of social cooperation predicated upon equality and tolerance intended for a pluralistic society. It is also worth noting that he expressly encourages public interest litigation as a way to develop this vision of the Constitution.

Lee J’s judgment foreshadows the sort of strategy for democrats I suggest here and reveals the power of that strategy. In this case, his arguments require the government to respond with a constitutional argument that lays bare its deeper theoretical assumptions about the Constitution, assumptions which will then be subject to legal testing that is apt to reveal that UMNO’s view of the Constitution is legally mistaken and politically unpalatable in a plural society. Public awareness of these problems is then likely to generate significant political pressure on the government to either accept meaningful democratic reform or eventually to exit.

Lee J’s decision shows that judicial independence is not dead in Malaysia and that courts can advance democracy via public interest litigation. – New Mandala, August 19, 2013.

* Dr. R. Rueban Balasubramaniam is Associate Professor of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Canada. He is also the principal founder of The Juristmalaya Initiative for the Rule of Law (www.juristmalaya.com) and is among the speakers at the Roundtable on Malaysia: Political Constestation Beyond GE13 and the Malaysia-Singapore Update 2013.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 19 August 2013, 6:36 pm and is filed under
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Apa lagi Mahathir mahu?

Mariam Mokhtar

Malaysiakini

Aug 19, 2013

If the third prime minister of Malaysia, Hussein Onn, had not nominated Mahathir Mohamad as his successor in 1981, the course of Malaysian history would have been very different.

Mahathir may have left office after 22 years in power, but today, he pops up like those annoying advertisements which appear, without warning, on your computer screen. Mahathir’s messages act in a similar way to some of those adverts; they can harm your computer with malware or other unwanted files, when they are “opened”. Perhaps, we need a spam-blocker that will work on Mahathir.

How will we ever learn from history, if we are prevented from examining what has gone badly wrong for this nation? Mahathir’s policies continue to divide the nation, but many Malays are under the illusion that he is their saviour. Sadly, after 56 years of independence, it is mostly non-Malays who are more Malaysian than the Malays.

Until we get a change in government, only one man can stop Mahathir’s deleterious effects on the nation – Najib Abdul Razak – but he either won’t or can’t bring himself to perform this saintly task. Such is the hold that Mahathir has over Najib.

Yesterday, Mahathir urged that MAS be privatised. His penchant for privatisation enables profitable companies to be annexed by his cronies or Umno Baru nominees. This practice has all but bankrupted the nation.

It is ironic that the man who once said that “Melayu mudah lupa”, should forget his role in handing the national airline carrier, on a golden platter to Tajudin Ramli. Few MAS employees will ever forget how the company’s performance plummeted with Tajudin at its helm.

Mahathir observed that Umno Baru had failed to tap into young, smart Malay professionals. He claimed that Umno Baru, unlike PAS, did not like, and possibly feared people who were smarter than its leaders. Again, Mahathir mudah lupa. He once isolated younger men in his cabinet, like Anwar Ibrahim and Musa Hitam, in an attempt to contain their political aspirations.

When Mahathir was the education minister in the early 70s, he quelled student unrest with an iron fist. Did he forget that the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA), which many associate with Umno Baru, stops young adults from their right to full political expression?

Younger people find the opposition coalition more appealing and Umno Baru is aware of this. In GE13, voters at polling centres were separated into one queue for elderly people and another for young adults.

EC officials ensured that the queues for the elderly moved relatively fast, whereas queues for the young moved with laborious slowness. In many instances, young voters, simply gave up and left despite staying in line for hours. Umno Baru reasoned that young people were more impatient and impetuous, and welcomed their absence.

We are told that Najib is known as Bapak Transformasi (Father of Transformation). History will be the judge of his success at transforming both the nation, and his party, Umno Baru.

Fears of greatest treachery

Najib realises that the nation is ripe for change but he is tortured by the recalcitrance of his party members. Like them, he has only his own interests at heart, and not the interests of the rakyat who elected them to office. He has only himself to blame for the bad example he set, which strengthened the Umno Baru delegates’ resolve against reform.

Najib knows his enemies from outside the party, but he fears that the greatest treachery to befall him will come from within his own party. He knows that many within his own cabinet would not hesitate to stick a knife into his back.

The new Home Minister Zahid Hamidi is openly defying Najib’s authority and also that of his cousin, Hishamuddin Hussein, the former home minister. Recently, Zahid unearthed 260,000 hard-core criminals, whereas Hishammuddin had found none and even had the audacity to tell the rakyat that the increase in crime was just a perception.

Zahid recently found 250,000 Shiite Muslims, when Hishammuddin did not even allude to them during his tenure as home minister. These are attempts to discredit Hishammuddin, and Najib, the cousin who put him there.

These machinations are possibly designed to unseat Najib at the crux of his political career, the Umno Baru general assembly which will be held later this year.

Earlier this month, Zahid warned that if the Sedition Act 1948 was abolished, four aspects of the federal constitution, namely the special rights of the Malays, the status of Malay rulers, the status of Islam as the federal religion and the status of Malay as the national language would be affected. Putting on a defiant tone, he advocated for the Act to be retained and said that he was unwilling to compromise on this issue.

When Najib promised to repeal the Sedition Act, last year, was he using this as a carrot to trick the public into voting for Umno Baru in GE13? Did Najib have any intention of keeping this promise or was it just a ploy to get the voters to think that he was a reformist?

Perhaps, Najib will use Zahid’s interjection as a convenient excuse not to repeal the Sedition Act and so win back the support of the hardliners in Umno Baru.

Unlike Zahid, Najib is facing the most important battle in his political life. Is Zahid’s opposition to the abolition of the Act  a means to present himself as the true defender of the Malays and of Islam in Malaysia?

All roads lead to Mahathir

Zahid is not acting on his own and it is glaringly evident, that all roads lead to Mahathir. The former PM has been very vocal in the past few weeks and will continue until the Umno party conference.

Mahahir will continue to instigate and foment dissent. His divisive policies are symbolic of his rule. When he left office in 2003, few outside of Umno Baru were moved when he wept as he made his resignation speech. His successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi gave us hope, but even he failed the rakyat miserably.

Mahathir claims that Umno Baru is the only party that can save the Malays. This is another of his damned lies. In truth, Umno Baru has caused the downfall of the Malays; ordinary Malays have become beggars in their own land because of his policies, and the Umno Baru elite are just pimps living off everyone else.

Today, time is running out for Malaysia, and if Najib does not act to defuse the racial and religious time-bomb set by Mahathir, it will cause untold damage to the country. Mahathir cares for nothing but the continuation of his legacy, through his son, Mukhriz. A leader who does not give a damn for the peace, prosperity and economic stability of the country, might as well be called the Father of Corruption. Apa lagi Mahathir mahu?

——————————————————————————–

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In ‘real-speak’, this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 20 August 2013, 11:30 am and is filed under
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In Borders case, common sense triumphs over bad faith

by Debra Chong

The Malay Mail Online

August 20, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 — In the face of Malaysia’s rising religious conservatism, a civil court judge has boldly ruled on reason and common sense to uphold a Muslim storekeeper’s constitutional right to sell a book Islam’s gatekeepers here found offensive.

The court case involving the local Borders’ sale of Canadian author Irshad Manji’s book “Allah, Liberty and Love” has been closely-watched since it hit national headlines last year after Islamic enforcement officials seized the stock and charged the store manager Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz with violating publication and distribution laws.

Five months after pronouncing the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (JAWI), the home minister and the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic affairs guilty of abusing their powers to illegally prosecute the bookstore’s Muslim manager, Datuk Zaleha Yusof of the Kuala Lumpur High Court has finally released her grounds of judgment.

Though couched in the language of the court, the judge’s strongly-worded explanation kept to a strict interpretation of the law that has given hope to Malaysians that their civil liberties as laid down in the country’s founding document remain as robust as the day they were conceived half a century ago.

“I am satisfied that the applicants have shown existence of illegality, abuse of discretionary powers, irrationality, unreasonable exercise of power, unconstitutionally and that there exists procedural impropriety on the part of the respondents,” Zaleha wrote in her grounds of judgment released last week.

“Looking at the whole scenario of the case, it is hard not to agree with the applicants that there are elements of mala fide in the handling and carrying out of the actions of the respondents,” she added.

Mala fide, meaning bad faith in Latin, carries a heavy meaning in law, as the judge noted.

“In law, mala fide can be inferred when there was absence of care, caution and a proper sense of responsibility.”

She observed that JAWI — named the first respondent in the bookstore’s suit — had acted in bad faith “when they exercised their dominant position and enforcement powers for a collateral purpose by:

(i) prosecuting the 3rd applicant, who is a Muslim, when they could not do so against the 1st applicant (as the corporate owner of Borders bookstore) or the 2nd applicant (as the person responsible over the display and sale of the Publications, and who as a non-Muslim could not be prosecuted under the Act 559”.

Nik Raina was the third applicant, while Borders’ assistant general manager in charge of merchandising Stephen Fung Wye Keong was the second applicant. The bookstore, which is licensed under the name Berjaya Books Sdn Bhd, was the first applicant.

The home minister and the Islamic affairs minister were named the second and third respondents respectively in Borders’ suit.

The religious enforcers had also acted in bad faith, the judge said, when it raided the bookstore in popular shopping mall Mid Valley Megamall on May 23, 2012 to seize copies of Manji’s books despite the Home Ministry only banning them over a week later on May 29.

JAWI’s arrest and prosecution of Nik Raina was also carried out in bad faith, the judge said, “for what was a non-offence at the time of the raid”.

“It can also be inferred when the 3rd applicant was deprived of her liberty without due care, caution and responsibility, when the 1st respondent arresting and prosecuting her despite knowing that she was neither the owner of the bookstore; nor had control over the selection of publications therein,” the judge wrote.

The home minister — then Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein — had acted in bad faith when he made an order in a “casual or cavalier fashion, in rushing the Prohibition Order to prohibit the publications, almost as an afterthought”, the judgment read.

Other highlights from the grounds of judgment:

On a state’s right to act against a Muslim, under state law:

“However, I must again emphasize, clear reading of item 1 of List II of the Ninth Schedule as I mention just now, shows that the state cannot enact laws in regard to matters included in the Federal List.

“Since matters pertaining to publications, printing and printing presses fall within List I i.e. the Federal List, validity of section 13 of Act 559 is questionable as it seems to be ultra vires the Act 301 and the Federal Constitution.

“Even if it is a valid law, what amounts to ‘contrary to Islamic Law’ as provided by that provision is also questionable as it is too wide. Members of public must be made known what publication is contrary to Islam law or precept of Islam.

“Otherwise, as the learned counsel for the applicants has submitted, a Muslim employee who works in a bookstore that also sells Christianity bibles, books on Buddhism or Hinduism or any other religion besides other books, we do have many such bookstores now, would be committing an offence.”

On the state’s discretion to ban books:

“Further there is nothing in the said Act 559 which provides for any state religious bodies to prohibit any publication. It only creates an offence of publication. In order to follow and adopt a harmonious interpretation of the laws, the only logical approach is for section 7 of the Act 301 to support section 13 of the Act 559 i.e. notification to the public first than only the enforcement action.

“We live in a multireligious and multiracial society. Such approach, in my opinion, would be harmonious and avoids any tension, controversy and conflict in our society and law.”

On JAWI’s action against Nik Raina because she is a Muslim:

“Applying that principle, as it stands now, I am of the opinion that the criminal charge against the 3rd applicant in the Syariah High Court is an infringement of Article 7 which is a provision concerning fundamental liberties, guaranteed by our Federal Constitution.”

On the home minister’s dereliction of duty by passing his job to JAWI without checking:

“I also must state here that I agree with the learned counsel for the applicant when he submits that the 2nd respondent, by the averments in his affidavit, has abdicated his duties when he stated that the 1st respondent can perform seizures without any prohibition order from the KDN, as section 7 of Act 301 clearly states that the powers of prohibition with respect to publication lies with the Honourable Minister of Home Ministry. Hence, there is a procedural impropriety here which warrants a judicial review.”

Next, the Syariah Court hurdle

Yau Su Peng, the chief operating officer for Berjaya, voiced her relief that the civil chapter of the court case involving the store and its employees was nearing an end, but held reservations that the book on the legal saga could finally be closed.

“We are very appreciative of the commonsense approach taken by the Court but personally I question why it has taken so long (the raid by JAWI on our Borders outlet in Gardens occurred in May 2012) for justice to be pronounced,” Yau told The Malay Mail Online in a recent email interview.

The syariah charge against Nik Raina has yet to be withdrawn, she observed, even as the Attorney-General’s Chambers had last month confirmed it had asked the Federal Territory Syarie chief prosecutor and JAWI to do so.

“We are still waiting though, since the decision was given in March 2013, for JAWI to formally withdraw the charges in the Syariah Court against Nik Raina,” Yau said.

She said Borders, through its lawyers, had appealed to JAWI drop its prosecution against Borders’ Muslim manager in the Islamic court before the end of Ramadan so that Nik Raina could have a happy celebration with her family without the charge hanging over her.

“Sadly, this was not to be and we have been given the date of 28 August as the date on which the parties are to return to the Syariah Court to have the charges withdrawn formally,” Yau said.

Malaysia practises a dual-track justice system where Muslims are bound by both secular and Islamic laws but non-Muslims have legal recourse only in the civil court.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 20 August 2013, 9:34 am and is filed under
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When will regional and international magazines front-page Malaysia for being “lucky country” and for  “low-crime”?

The cover stories of two international magazines in the past month should have given considerable food for thought for Malaysians to ponder as to what has happened to Malaysia, more than 100 days after the recent general elections and which is to celebrate our 56th National Day in eleven day’s time.

The first is the 20th July 2013 edition of
The Economist

“The Curious Case of the Fall in Crime”
, reporting that
“The rich world is seeing less and less crime, even in the face of high unemployment and economic stagnation”
.

The Economist “briefing” article states:

Across the developed world, the crime wave that began in the 1950s is in broad retreat.

Both police records (which underestimate some types of crime) and surveys of victims (which should not, but are not as regularly available a source of data) show crime against the person and against property falling over the past ten years in most rich countries. In America the fall began around 1991; in Britain it began around 1995, though the murder rate followed only in the mid-2000s. In France, property crime rose until 2001—but it has fallen by a third since. Some crimes are all but disappearing. In 1997, some 400,000 cars were reported stolen in England and Wales: in 2012, just 86,000.

Cities have seen the greatest progress. The number of violent crimes has fallen by 32% since 1990 across America as a whole; in the biggest cities, it has fallen by 64%. In New York, the area around Times Square on 42nd Street, where pornographers once mingled with muggers, is now a family oriented tourist trap. On London’s housing estates, children play in concrete corridors once used by heroin addicts to shoot up. In Tallinn you can walk home from the theatre unmolested as late as you like.

While the debate is ongoing as to what is behind this spectacular and widespread improvement in the crime scene in the developed countries, what hit Malaysians in the face 100 days after the 13th General Elections and 11 days  before the 56th National Day Celebrations is the worst crime situation in the nation’s history, with Malaysians suffering from the worst “fear of crime” in the country with the easy availability of firearms and the frequency of  deadly firearm crimes.

What has gone wrong with Malaysia with the country reduced to such a state of lawlessness?

The second is the
Time
 magazine cover story last week on
“WE ARE AUSTRALIA: THE TRUE FACE OF THE LUCKY COUNTRY”
.

Is it conceivable that Malaysia could have been the subject of national and international magazines in the past three months as “The True Face of the Lucky Country”?

This is totally inconceivable with the upsurge and escalation of unprecedented language and politics of hate and intolerance revolving particularly around race and religion, trying to negate  the conventional belief that the diversity of the people, languages, cultures and religions in Malaysia is the country’s greatest asset rather than its greatest weakness.

More than a hundred days after the 13th general elections, and eleven days to the 56th National Day celebrations, Malaysians must ask when, and what Malaysians must do, for regional and international publications to front-page Malaysia for being a “lucky country” and being “low-crime country”.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 20 August 2013, 4:26 pm and is filed under
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DAP gives Utusan Malaysia 48 hours to answer letter of demand

by Hasbullah Awang Chik

The Malaysian Insider

August 21, 2013

DAP national legal head Gobind Singh Deo has given Umno-controlled daily Utusan Malaysia 48 hours to respond to a letter of demand over two defamatory articles.

The two articles headlined “At last the drama has ended” and “Kit Siang manipulated CEC elections?”, were dated August 17 and 18.

The first article quoted the Equity Report said to be written by a Father Augustus Chen, while the other report was that DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang had manipulated the party polls last December.

“The article quoting the Equity Report had no verification. Editor Zulkifli Jalil and reporter Kasthuri Jeevendran as well as Utusan Malaysia, have to answer all the allegations,” Gobind said at the party’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

DAP also wanted Utusan to reveal who was the real author of the booklet and has demanded for the apology within the stipulated time.

Gobind added that the Utusan editor and reporter should be clear about journalism ethics and should have verified allegations contained in the booklet before publishing the article.

He also said the Registrar of Societies (RoS) was equally influenced by the allegations in the booklet, which claimed that 753 delegates did not receive notices while 547 were phantom delegates.

“We have not determined how many court cases this has resulted in. DAP has been attacked in various ways for months now based on the Equity Report. Utusan must answer and DAP will not remain quiet. We will take this to court if there is no response from Utusan,” Gobind said.

The Puchong MP also explained that DAP had no other choice but to hold its re-elections, unless Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak or RoS declared that the party would not face de-registration.

“DAP has no problems to take RoS to court but due to time constraints, the registrar could at any juncture de-register the party if it was not satisfied with the reasons given,” said Gobind.

The so-called Father Augustus Chen had made among others claims, allegations to justify RoS and the BN government’s action against DAP – firstly, 753 delegates were not notified of the DAP Congress in Penang last December and secondly, there were 547 phantom delegates who voted at the DAP Congress as well as other allegations against the party’s leaders.

Despite repeated denials by DAP on the claims by Father Augustus Chen, Utusan Malaysia had carried the two articles, based on contents in the booklet. – August 21, 2013.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 2:57 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia next in crosshairs as Asian contagion risks grow

By Stuart Grudgings

Reuters
 | Wed Aug 21, 2013 3:08am IST

Aug 21 (Reuters) – Indebted, commodity-dependent Malaysia will be in investors’ crosshairs on Wednesday as heavy selling of Indonesia and India’s currencies threatens to spread to other Asian economies seen as most vulnerable to a withdrawal of U.S. monetary stimulus.

After Indonesia, where concerns over a gaping current account deficit sparked a stock market and currency rout this week, Malaysia and neighbouring Thailand are seen as the most vulnerable Southeast Asian markets to contagion effects.

“There is a lot of resemblance to prior crises like 1997-98. We have had two countries going down, India and Indonesia, and now you have got to start thinking about the third and fourth countries,” said Pradeep Mohinani, a Nomura credit analyst in Hong Kong.

“The likely candidates would be those with high fiscal deficits, slowing economies and high foreign ownership of government bonds. Thailand and Malaysia tick most of the boxes in that regard.”

Economists say that both those countries, as well as the fast-growing Philippines, are to some extent protected from major turmoil by their much stronger external balances compared with Indonesia and India.

Regional economies have built up hefty foreign reserves and sharply reduced foreign currency debt since they were devastated by the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

But their currencies have already been pushed to multi-month lows and could face further pressure from panicky investors who have taken fright at signals the U.S. Federal Reserve will start winding down its $85 billion-a-month support programme soon.

Malaysia releases data on Wednesday afternoon that is expected to show a pick-up in second-quarter growth, but could also reveal the kind of deteriorating current account position that has sparked market sell-offs from India to Brazil.

FALLING EXPORTS

Export plunges in recent months could push the current account into a quarterly deficit for the first time in 16 years.

“People weren’t expecting the deficit to get anywhere close to zero six months ago,” said Edward Teather, regional economist at UBS in Singapore.

He said a worsening deficit would add pressure on Malaysian policymakers to tighten monetary policy and tackle fiscal reforms, but saw it as much less vulnerable than Indonesia’s.

“There were big capital outflows during 2008 and Malaysia’s authorities handled them pretty well. Malaysia’s financial system is quite sophisticated.”

Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy, whose trade surplus fell in April to its lowest level since the 1997 financial crisis, is seen as particularly vulnerable because foreigners hold nearly half of its bonds.

It has run up high levels of both household and government debt in recent years, and efforts at fiscal reform are being held up by a weakened prime minister following a close-run election in May.

The ringgit currency has already been driven to three-year lows around 3.3 to the dollar, down more than 7 percent this year. Traders estimate the central bank has spent close to $1.3 billion to defend the currency in recent days.

Selling spread on Tuesday to the Kuala Lumpur’s stock market – usually seen as a regional safe haven – dragging the main index down 1.85 percent.

Fitch ratings agency cut its outlook on Malaysia’s sovereign debt last month, citing worsening prospects for fiscal reforms such as proposed cuts in the country’s steep subsidy bill and a new consumption tax to reduce its reliance on oil revenues.

Prime Minister Najib Razak faces a possible leadership challenge from within his ruling party in October, raising uncertainty over his pledge to cut one of emerging Asia’s highest budget deficits of 4.5 percent of GDP.

While most economists expect the current account to remain in surplus, its sharp fall to 8.7 billion ringgit in the first quarter from 22.8 billion in the previous period removed much of Malaysia’s perceived protection from heavy fund outflows.

Foreigners have been selling Malaysian bonds, reducing their holdings to 138 billion ringgit in June from 145 billion in May, according to the latest data.

“Any period when you have a lot of redemptions, then the fundamentals have changed. There’s a risk that not everything will be rolled over and there will be further pressure,” said Daniel Wilson, an economist at ANZ in Singapore.

THAI VULNERABILITIES

Thailand has also begun to look vulnerable due to slumping exports that were partly to blame for a surprise contraction in second-quarter growth on Monday. Its current account slipped to a deficit of $5.1 billion in the second quarter from a $1.3 billion surplus in the first three months.

“Given Thailand’s deteriorating trade and current account balances, we see some risks that similar concerns will also surface regarding the economy,” said Gundy Cahyadi, economist at OCBC Bank in Singapore.

“But at this juncture, we think that risks are fairly manageable.”

Thailand’s central bank chief Prasarn Trairatvorakul said on Tuesday that the baht’s sharp fall was not a worry yet and that the currency’s level was in line with fundamentals.

“We have no such factors as in the case of Indonesia. Our macroeconomic policy is quite well regarded by markets,” Prasarn told reporters.

Just months ago, Southeast Asia was a darling of foreign investors attracted by strong growth rates, a rising middle class and mostly improved fiscal positions. Economists say most of those factors are still in place and should protect most countries from sustained heavy outflows.

“Asia’s foreign reserves and current account levels are strong and will help mitigate the impact of any liquidity outflows,” UOB’s head of research Jimmy Koh said in a note.

“Similarly, Asian companies and financial institutions have built stronger balance sheets and healthier gearing levels, which will make them more resilient against market volatility.”

The Philippines appears less vulnerable than its neighbours to any market attack, thanks to rapid annual growth of 7.8 percent in the first quarter and a current account surplus supported by remittances from its army of overseas workers.

Manila’s benchmark stock index has climbed more than 12 percent this year, and is Southeast Asia’s second best-performing market after Vietnam. Foreign investors have been net buyers of $1.3 billion worth of Philippine shares year-to-date.

“In terms of the business cycle, Philippines is still very much in the early stages of the upturn,” said Michael Wan, an economist at Credit Suisse in Singapore.

“The country joined the party late compared to its peers such as Indonesia and Thailand.” (Additional reporting by Jongwoo Cheon in Singapore, Orathai Sriring in Bangkok, Anuradha Raghu in Kuala Lumpur and Karen Lima in Manila; Editing by Alex Richardson)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 5:18 pm and is filed under
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Aren’t we proud of Merdeka Day?

Frankie D’Cruz

Mail Mail Online

August 21, 2013

AUG 21 — Ten days to Merdeka Day and Brand Malaysia has yet to be portrayed responsibly and sensibly. Is just asking people to fly the Jalur Gemilang enough to whip up energy on the streets and raise national happiness and patriotism?

Nothing so far has reflected the theme for the 56th Merdeka Day – ‘My Sovereign Malaysia: My Native Land’ – to remind the people the importance of uniting to defend the nation and creating awareness of love and affection.

Oops! Sorry, we had the waving of the Jalur Gemilang on Aug 16 in Sungai Petani that flagged off the Jalur Gemilang Expedition to all the states.

Double apologies, we also had the Merdeka Jalur Gemilang Aidilfitri expedition that involved visits and presentation of aid to the disabled and the needy during the month of Syawal.

So, why aren’t Malaysians singing the theme song and wearing this year’s winning Merdeka logo by Noor Hishammudin Omar on our garments?

Simple: The song has not been released yet and the logo must be in someone’s folder.

The Information, Communication and Culture Ministry seems to be at a loss over how to inspire a national day party. It seems clueless over how to motivate us to be proud of ourselves and respect the great leaps Malaysia has made since independence.

The ministry seems to have no idea of the poetry of togetherness and spirited nationalism.

A run-up to the biggest national event that lacks the passion, hope and struggles of the populace is a major blow to the confidence and joy of the people.

In any Independence Day celebration, the people must see the values of the concept of the celebration of a nation you can trust. Everyone must have a clear understanding of what Malaysia currently is.

Independence Day is a celebration for everyone from Their Majesties to the man-on-the-street. It should be for all to tell a story with a strong sense of national character.

Malaysians will have absolutely no issue with the assets of national security forces taking centre stage during the parade at Dataran Merdeka on Aug 31.

But shouldn’t we be swelling with pride ahead of the performances by the police, Armed Forces and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency?

They did us proud to wipe out the terrorists from Sulu who invaded Lahad Datu and Semporna five months ago.

I can’t understand why the people have not been engaged to soak into the elements of the celebration – unity, patriotism, sovereignty and national security – ahead of Aug 31 when the Sulu incursion would be highlighted during the Merdeka Day parade at Dataran Merdeka.

Shouldn’t cultural and traditional memory and current challenges be created supremely humanistic to commemorate history?

A street poll yesterday by The Malay Mail revealed very few people knew what this year’s celebration was about.

Few knew the theme. No one has heard the theme song. No one could describe the logo. That’s a shame.

As it is, our society is increasingly more intolerant and certain people are starring in their own wretched soap opera to blacken Malaysia as oppressive and regressive in race and religious ties.

Hate speech and incitement that spark reckless and confrontational actions are worrisome. The conveyor belt of attention-grabbing stunts has enlarged and political weakness is disturbing.

So grave is our distress that being glued together as one is hurtling down the tracks as an accident waiting to happen.

So, the last thing we would like to be informed about Merdeka Day celebrations is that on the eve there would be an international fireworks competition in Putrajaya.

Or that there is a contest for the display of the Jalur Gemilang.

Aren’t we proud of our independence? Fatuous pandering aside, the lack of maturity by the decision-makers gets at everything Malaysia doesn’t want its citizens chewing over.

Clearly, it’s a case of a credible sparkle in the nation’s history nudged into absurdity.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 22 August 2013, 11:16 am and is filed under
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Fresh DAP polls on September 29

by Rita Jong

The Malaysian Insider

AUGUST 22, 2013

The DAP National Special Congress for the re-election of the central executive committee (CEC) will be held on Sept 29 in the Klang Valley at a venue to be confirmed later.

The party’s secretary-general Lim Guan Eng announced the date during a press conference after a two-hour closed door meeting with CEC members today.

“The candidates for the re-election shall be that of the same list as that used in the 2012 National Congress in December 2012, of course less those candidates who have withdrawn voluntarily from the contest,” said Guan Eng.

“This is because there is no controversy over the list of nominated candidates and the RoS (Registrar of Societies) had instructed only the re-election of the CEC.”

He said the party would also be using the same list of qualified delegates who took part in the party polls last December to re-elect the CEC.

“As we know, after eight months, there were some delegates who have been expelled.

“In the meeting today, it was decided these delegates who were expelled from the party would be allowed to take part, should they choose to,” he said.

As a result of the re-election, Guan Eng said, the party’s parliamentary liaison committee AGM and of the state ordinary conventions which were supposed to be held between August and December this year will be postponed to a date to be fixed by the new CEC elected next month.

He said Serdang MP Dr Ong Kian Ming will be the returning officer while Anthony Loke Siew Fook (Seremban MP) will be Special Congress Steering Committee chairman.

And for the first time, DAP will be appointing an international accounting firm to monitor the counting process.

“This will be first time done by any political party in Malaysian history,” he said.

“This is to prevent RoS from sabotaging us again.”

Guan Eng also reiterated that DAP was conducting the re-election under protest to avoid the party from being de-registered.

“RoS is operating as a tool of Umno. They don’t even want to meet us. They haven’t even given us any reasons why we should hold the re-elections,” he said, adding that this was an abuse of power.

Last week, DAP decided to hold a re-election of its CEC following a directive by the RoS on July 30.

The complaint to the RoS came after several disgruntled members claimed the election in December last year was not properly conducted after the party announced that a glitch in the tabulation had resulted in the wrong candidate being elected to the CEC.

These disgruntled members also claimed they were not informed of the party polls.

On Monday, Loke, the party’s national organising secretary, rebutted the allegations that it did not inform its 753 delegates of its party polls and produced evidence of members’ attendance record, signatures and postal receipts which showed notices were sent out.

Loke also argued that the RoS did not even interview the members who claimed they were not informed of the polls.

A booklet called “The Equity Report (CEC Election Fraud)” on the alleged irregularities and internal politics in the DAP polls, written by a Father Augustus Chen, was also widely distributed in Penang.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang had claimed that “Father Augustus Chen” was a fictitious character conjured by Umno to discredit the opposition party and asked that “Father Augustus Chen” come forward to prove otherwise.

He also claimed this dubious character was used by leaders from Umno and the RoS to invalidate the party’s CEC elections last year.

In the booklet, the writer accused Lim and his son, Guan Eng, of having manipulated the vote tabulation during the election.

Yesterday, DAP national legal bureau chairman Gobind Singh Deo gave Umno-owned newspaper Utusan Malaysia 48 hours to respond to a letter of demand over two defamatory articles – one quoting The Equity Report and the other accusing Lim of manipulating the party polls last December.

He also wanted Utusan to reveal who was the real author of the booklet and demanded for the apology within the stipulated time. – August 22, 2013.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 22 August 2013, 11:20 pm and is filed under
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True meaning of being Malaysian

 – Natesan Visnu

The Malaysian Insider

August 22, 2013

August 31, 1957 is a day we all fondly remember. We remember the image and voice of Tunku Abdul Rahman chanting the words “Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!Merdeka!” with the crowd joining in.

The word “Merdeka” remains meaningless after 56 years and average Malaysians are still in a dilemma with the meaning of “merdeka” or independence.

We live in a society where the identity of an individual is based on race and status. We are very fond of introducing ourselves as Malaysian Malay, Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indian, etc. In our daily conversation, we are very fond of using “The Chinese boy said….”, “India itu cakap….”, “That Malay makcik said…”, “Sabah and Sarawak people always like that….”, “Yang tu orang Kelantan” etc. We still live in a society where our identity is always based on race, status, state, dialect, etc.

In true essence, we have not achieved independence “state of mind” and we are still at where we have begun. We are not Malaysian, we are still a nation with multi-identities and multi-ideologies. The word “Malaysian” is an ideology or extension of political will to create a pseudo-identity of a nation built based on multi-races and multi-cultural. The word “Malaysian” remains an ideology and the true definition of the word remains undefined.

“Malaysian” means nothing much to any of us unless when we are supporting our football team, Lee Chong Wei or Nicol David. Our unity only happens during sporting events. After that we are back being what we are. “Malaysian” with multiple identities and ideologies. The identity ideology remains an integral part of our daily affairs.

To take it further, we are even divided in our food. Malaysian Malay cuisine, Malaysian Indian cuisine, Malaysian Chinese cuisine. In reality, our cooking style is truly unique because of the combination of all spices, herbs, etc. The term “Malaysian” food is yet to be an identity of our own. We are not even united in our food identity. That leads to more doubts on what is being a “Malaysian”?

This year’s theme for Merdeka is “Malaysiaku Berdaulat, Tanah Tumpahnya Darahku” (My Sovereignty Malaysia, My Native Land). If we were to ask an average Malaysian, what does that mean to you, the answers will remain vague and idealistic in nature. We have lost our sense of being Malaysian a long time ago. The only true Malaysian I could recollect from history is Datuk Onn Jaafar. He was the first Malaysian to express his desire to formulate a single party that unites everyone under one roof. The only politician who engineered his own “political suicide” for forming the concept of Malaysian.

If his vision and dream was realised back in the days, we would have been very different. Maybe we will only remember the word “Malaysian”. The race ideology would have been erased from our mind and we would be really ‘”Merdeka” in spirit. Maybe today, we are known as “Malaysian” without any extension of identity.

The word Malaysian remains idealistic. The modern society armed with technology, knowledge and wisdom has moved backward. In the 60s, you could watch a P. Ramlee movie with a scene like “gin tonic and iblis tonic’. The simplistic humour demonstrated the Malaysian identity. Our culture was evolving towards being Malaysian until our progress  declined with the political nature of the country where we remain divided.

Movie makers with new ideas have attempted to liberate the society from the racial clutch. Yasmin Ahmad would be the pioneer for Malaysian ideology through her works. The Malaysian art scene has remained dull over the years after P.Ramlee and Yasmin Ahmad. Arts and literature shape the thinking of a society. Our art and literature scene has not shown any significant growth or maturity and we are still looking back at our glorified past with works of P. Ramlee and Yasmin Ahmad.

The barbaric thinking plaguing our society is becoming rampant. Instead of progressing and maturing as one, we are becoming more divided. We have lost our sense and judgement as human and we are developing our opinion based on race and status. We no longer look at other races as our brothers and sisters. We view people based on their colour, social status, wealth, power, influence, etc.

We are forgetting that once we were looked down by the British during the colonial era. All of us were treated as third class citizen. But now, we are doing what the British did to our fellow Malaysian. The new-age Malaysians are divided into the rich and poor, the powerful and powerless, etc. We have failed to look at human as human for their kindness, compassion, ethics and human values. We are no longer Malaysian, we just exist with whatever ideology that suits us as required.

The true meaning of Malaysian is still vivid and imaginary. A friend of mind said, ‘The people who consume alcohol are the thinkers and the people who consume coffee are doers. What our society lacks is a combination of both.’ Echoing on that analogy, we need the combination of alcohol and coffee drinkers for Malaysia.

This Merdeka should reflect the progress that we have made in years. The ups and downs as a nation and society. We are still an optimistic society and we have the potential to become a great nation. A nation that prospers with economic growth, political maturity, avant-garde education, intelligent citizens, technology advanced nation and sporting nation We have all the qualities but we lack in progressive thinking.  If we start looking from the Malaysian lens, we might start thinking and act differently. Steve Jobs said “think different”.

My Merdeka wish is for us to progress being Malaysian first. Let’s drop the identity of Malaysian Chinese or Indian. Lets move forward being Malaysian. Maybe when the next time you talk to someone, you just refer as plain Malaysian. Stop describing as Indian, Chinese, Iban or Kadazan. Just refer as plain Malaysian. Dr. Mahathir, Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang, Nicol David and Lee Chong Wei are Malaysian. No need for further description.

Selamat Menyambut Hari Merdeka! – August 22, 2013.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 22 August 2013, 3:57 pm and is filed under
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