MCA’s death knell gets louder

Stanley Koh | October 20, 2012

Free Malaysia Today

The party goes into a crucial annual assembly amidst doubts over its chances of recovery.

COMMENT

Chinese voters are no longer asking whether MCA will remain credible as part of the ruling coalition, but whether it will survive even as an opposition party.

The general belief is that it will do worse in the 13th general election than the bruising it got in 2008, and most of the blame is placed on Dr Chua Soi Lek’s leadership, or rather the lack of it.

At the party’s 59th annual general assembly this weekend, Chua will no doubt try to boost party morale in preparation for the impending election. Sources familiar with his style predict that he will use emotional rhetoric aimed at imbuing the rank and file with the fighting spirit necessary to pull off the miraculous feat of winning more seats than the party did in 2008.

He is also expected to emphasise that he has brought unity and stability to the party, as he has done on many occasions. His detractors in the party say the claim sounds more hollow and frivolous with each repetition.

Chua, 65, limped into the MCA presidency in April 2010, carrying a tremendous amount of moral baggage. Since then the party has plunged ever more deeply into the political abyss, with no convincing sign that it will recover any time before the election.

Such is the pessimism within a sizeable section of the membership. But many prefer to whisper to each other about their grievances and frustrations rather than discuss them openly, mostly for fear of being accused of disloyalty in the face of a seemingly formidable Pakatan Rakyat, specifically DAP.

When Chua took over as the MCA’s ninth president, many party insiders regretted, saying the event was an ugly stain on the legacy of the third largest Chinese organisation in the world.

They were not referring only to the confession two years earlier that he was the protagonist in a widely distributed pornographic video, but also to his alleged plotting against rivals as he worked his way to the top. Some have said that his political machinations were even sleazier than his sexual indiscretion.

Details of the alleged plotting against former presidents Ong Ka Ting and Ong Tee Keat might one day emerge. For now, however, insiders claiming to be in the know would only speak in general terms, perhaps out of love for the party and in the hope that it will somehow tide over these trying times and one day regain its lost glory.

Recalling Chua’s assertion that he was not interested in any executive position in MCA, they say he was in fact all the while manoeuvring his way to the top, getting himself appointed as Barisan Nasional’s chief coordinator, and then contesting and winning the deputy presidency of MCA and eventually the presidency.

They accuse him of being behind the “Save MCA Campaign” that forced an open inquiry into a so-called “snoop squad”, which in turn undermined the credibility of then president Ong Ka Ting.

Glaring favouritism

They note that many of the party activists who lobbied for the March 2010 EGM that installed him as party president have been rewarded with ministerial and senatorial posts and top jobs in the party and agencies linked to the party. Others are potential candidates in the coming general election.

Such glaring favouritism makes nonsense of his claims of success in uniting the party. Detractors say he had better leave out any talk of unity in his speech this Saturday (today) unless he is not concerned about being called a liar.

Like Umno, MCA is facing the grim possibility of losing votes from even its traditional base of supporters. Analyses of figures from the 2008 election show that sizeable numbers of card-carrying members rejected both parties. The question now is not whether those members will return to the fold this time around, but how many more will join them in giving votes to the opposition.

What about Chinese voters not affiliated with either MCA or any of the opposition parties – the so-called fence sitters? Since they are not involved in any factional animosity, is there any chance that they are impressed enough by Chua’s leadership to give their votes to MCA?

“Me and my friends are not supportive of MCA as a party and consider its role as no longer relevant,” Gary Lim, a 32-year-old insurance executive, told FMT.

Lim, like many voters in his age group, said he resented being treated like a fool by MCA’s propaganda machine.

Referring to what he described as “distortions and lies” about PAS, he said: “It’s as if we’re all so ignorant, or we don’t have other sources of information.

“I have friends from all over Malaysia, and many are from Kelantan. They told me they are living harmoniously there. In fact, they even boast about how liberal the Kelantan government is. I’ve been told that there is even a place where a pork seller does his business close to a mosque.”

Lim said he doubted that the 13th general election would see MCA doing even as well as it did in 2008.

Tony Leong, 50, said Chua and his party appeared to be lacking in sincerity. He said MCA should look at itself in the mirror before accusing rival parties of neglecting their duties to the electorate.

“Recently,” he said, “I read in the news about an MCA leader accusing the opposition of not doing anything at all.

“That is a sweeping statement and a blatant lie. I live in Taman Perdana, Balakong. The opposition MP takes good care of the constituency in terms of rubbish collection, road repairs and even organising gotong royong.”

Food vendor David Yap, 51, said that if MCA were to win more than 15 parliamentary seats in the next election, it would be because of phantom votes. Yap believes there will be a lot of cheating, especially in Selangor, where BN is desperate to deny Pakatan a second term.

Yap, who claimed to be an avid follower of current events through print and online media, said he could not cite any achievement that MCA had made under Chua’s leadership.

“I don’t know what MCA has done apart from barking at the opposition,” he said. “Perhaps it will be more effective as an opposition party. But we’ll see.”

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 20 October 2012, 1:25 pm and is filed under
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HK dropped Musa’s case after MACC probe, says Nazri

By Clara Chooi

Assistant News Editor

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 20, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 ― Putrajaya has confirmed that Datuk Musa Aman was only cleared of corruption after Malaysian graftbusters told Hong Kong authorities that a RM40-million cash contribution allegedly meant for the Sabah chief minister was a “political donation” to Umno.

De facto law minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz told The Malaysian Insider that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) probe on Musa was initiated after Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) requested for information on the issue.

He said the ICAC had asked for MACC’s co-operation after Sabah timber trader Michael Chia was arrested and charged with money laundering in 2008 for attempting to smuggle S$16 million (RM40 million) out of Hong Kong.

According to media reports, Chia had at the time told Hong Kong authorities that the money belonged to Musa.

“MACC agreed to co-operate with its Hong Kong counterparts and found that the money in question was not for Musa’s personal use.

“The agency then reported back to ICAC with the information and the Hong Kong authority decided to drop the matter and pull its complaint from the Swiss court,” Nazri told The Malaysian Insider yesterday.

The minister was asked to respond to DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang’s accusation that he had been giving conflicting reports to Parliament on which anti-graft authority ― Malaysia’s or Hong Kong’s ― had first cleared Musa of graft.

In a statement yesterday, Lim had demanded a full disclosure and chronology of events leading to Musa’s name being cleared, raising suspicion over whether Malaysia had tampered with the graft case to save the Umno leader from a graft charge.

Lim pointed out that Nazri had at first told Parliament that it was Malaysia’s Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) that had absolved Musa, based on findings from MACC’s investigation on the matter.

The minister also said that the ICAC had pulled its Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act (MACMA) application from Switzerland’s courts after finding that the RM40 million was meant for Sabah Umno and not Musa’s personal use.

But when speaking on the issue in the Dewan Rakyat again on Thursday, Nazri had told House that it was ICAC that had first cleared Musa, even telling opposition parliamentarians to refer their queries to the Hong Kong agency if they were dissatisfied with the decision.

Lim said that Nazri had “tied himself up in contradictions” and demanded the minister clarify which agency ― MACC, the AGC or Hong Kong’s ICAC ― had cleared Musa’s name, as well as the chronology of events.

Among others, Lim said Nazri should disclose details on when the MACC had completed its probe and submitted its papers to the AGC, when the AGC declared the matter closed and whether the MACC had agreed to its opinion.

He added that the minister should also reveal when the ICAC had completed its probe and decided to pull its case from the Swiss courts.

“Many questions cry out for answer on the RM40 million ‘smuggled’ cash from Hong Kong to Malaysia, ending up as donation to Sabah Umno, which Nazri should clear in Parliament on Monday,” the senior DAP lawmaker said.

When asked when the AGC had stepped in to declare Musa innocent, however, Nazri told The Malaysian Insider that he was unsure.

“I think it’s best that you ask the AGC on that. I am not clear as to whether the AGC cleared Musa after ICAC dropped the case or before,” he said.

Yesterday, Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak had dismissed allegations by the opposition that the RM40 million had been “smuggled” into Malaysia. He had previously defended the donation, but refused to divulge details on the source of the funds.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 20 October 2012, 9:05 am and is filed under
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How do Najib,  Nazri or MACC know whether RM40 million “smuggled” cash at HKIA in August 2008 was laundered money or not?

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday denied that there was any attempt to illegally smuggle the RM40 million “donation for Sabah Umno” into the country.

Responding to a question at a press conference at the UMNO headquarters yesterday, Najib curtly said “No” when asked whether there was any basis to the opposition claim that the funds were smuggled or laundered through Hong Kong, adding: “It has already been explained in Parliament”.

Nothing has been explained in Parliament as to whether the RM40 million cash in Singapore currency which Sabah timber trader Michael Chia had in his luggage before boarding a flight to Kuala Lumpur at the Hong Kong International airport on August 14, 2008  and  was arrested for currency trafficking and laundering was “smuggled or laundered money”.

All that Parliament had been told is the Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman had been cleared of “corruption” as  the RM40 million concerned were “contribution” to Sabah UMNO and not for Musa’s personal use, and that “no element of corruption was proven” – although this flies in the face of media reports at the time that Chia had told the Hong Kong authorities that the money belonged to Musa.

There are two separate questions here: firstly, whether the RM40 million cash was a transaction in an offence of corruption, whether involving Musa or UMNO Sabah; and secondly, whether the RM40 million cash was dirty money derived from corruption and/or illegal activities which had to be smuggled or laundered into the country.

Nazri has reportedly retracted what he told Parliament on Thursday and  clarified that it was the MACC and not Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) which had cleared Musa of corruption on the ground that the RM40 million cash was a contribution to Sabah UMNO and not for Musa’s personal use.

But when Najib denied that the RM40 million cash was “smuggled or laundered” money, claiming that it had already been explained in Parliament, it invites the question how Najib or Nazri know that the RM40 million cash in Singapore currency for which Michael Chia was arrested at the HK International Airport on August 14, 2008 for currency trafficking or laundering was NOT “smuggled or laundered” money?

Did MACC also clear Michael Chia’s RM40 million cash in Singapore currency as clean money and not dirty corruption or laundered money, and if so, MACC should explain how it arrive at this finding or it risk being dubbed as Malaysian Abetting Corruption Commission instead of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 20 October 2012, 12:37 pm and is filed under
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Is DAP all that matters to MCA?

By Jimmy Wong
|
 The Malaysian Insider

Oct 21 — Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek must be a short-sighted politician for saying that MCA is ready and united to battle DAP in the coming general elections.

Is that all this MCA president thinks about? Beating DAP, not representing all Malaysians in a government.

Is the MCA just focussing on the Chinese vote and not other voters, in its “Battle Without Fear” campaign to keep DAP from becoming part of any government?

What about other races? Actually, what happened to MCA’s soul-searching after the Chinese rejected it in the 2008 elections? Have they forgotten that they wanted to be more inclusive, more Malaysian?

If this is how low MCA has sunk, from a party that protected Chinese interests but also represented Malayans wanting independence, then the party should just close shop.

Beating DAP is not even a target for any self-respecting politician. It is the aim of those who just want to keep power and position without an idea of what to do with such power and position.

MCA needs to understand that it is contesting to win votes for a government that will bring a better future for Malaysia, not to deny rivals their victory.

It looks like it is now a party of also-rans, those who are too simple-minded and obsessed with just keeping power and relevance. It is a party that subscribes to divide-and-rule, one that just wants to say it is all for the Chinese.

The Chinese are more pragmatic than that. This is Malaysia, our homeland. We don’t need to stick to old ways and traditions just so that a few politicians are in the Cabinet.

We want to keep being Malaysians, no matter race or creed. MCA’s politics that Dr Chua subscribes too will just keep us divided with him on the top.

No thank you sir. You should listen to your predecessor Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik. He used to say DAP was No Action, Talk Only or NATO. I think that is now an apt description of the MCA.

Why don’t you just put the party out of its misery and shut it down if you still believe your raison d’etre is to beat the DAP?

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 21 October 2012, 5:00 pm and is filed under
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Why so much fear?

By Lucius Goon
 |
The Malaysian Insider

OCT 21 —
The Chinese are scared about hudud and have become wary of the DAP’s marriage with PAS, says Chua Soi Lek.

The Malays dislike DAP, says Najib Razak.

So I say: what is the problem, then?

The coming elections should be a walkover with an easy victory for Barisan Nasional. No reason for Najib and BN to lose sleep because the rakyat are with the BN.

Or at least that should be the case if what has been said by BN leaders at the MCA AGM is truthful.

I have no idea what the voter sentiment is at the moment but I do sense that one name seems to strike fear into BN and it is not Anwar. It is DAP.

Can’t understand why, because going by what Soi Lek and Najib said, two of the largest constituents of voters in Malaysia either are suspicious of DAP or hate the DAP.

In addition, going by the logic of what has been said, our elections should have been long over by now.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 21 October 2012, 4:55 pm and is filed under
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History contradicts minister’s arguments that Malaysia is not secular

By
Zurairi AR
 | October 22, 2012

The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 ― Historical accounts show that Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn had both said Malaysia is a secular state, contradicting de facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s remarks in Parliament today that the country had no secularist roots.

Nazri told Parliament today that Malaysia has never been declared or endorsed as a secular state, arguing that the country was formed of the Malay Sultanate, an Islamic government and, unlike countries like the United States, India or Turkey, was never declared as secular.

His remarks today come amid debate over the status of the Federal Constitution. It was also made despite a previous Supreme Court ruling that said Malaysia is a secular state, as well as previous statements made by earlier leaders such as the Tunku, the country’s first prime minister.

Tunku Abdul Rahman had referred to Malaysia as a secular state, and not an Islamic one, on a number of separate occasions.

He was first recorded telling Parliament on May 1, 1958: “I would like to make it clear that this country is not an Islamic state as it is generally understood; we merely provided that Islam shall be the official religion of the State.”

The Star had also reported Tunku speaking on February 8, 1983 at a gathering to celebrate his 80th birthday, with the headline “Don’t make Malaysia an Islamic state ― Tunku”, where he said “the country has a multi-racial population with various beliefs. Malaysia must continue as a secular state with Islam as the official religion.”

In the same newspaper, Malaysia’s third PM, Tun Hussein Onn, was reported as supporting his predecessor in rejecting Malaysia being made an Islamic state.

“The nation can still be functional as a secular state with Islam as the official religion,” Hussein said.

National University of Singapore’s Hussin Mutalib had interviewed Tunku for his book, Islam in Malaysia: From Revivalism to Islamic State.

In the interview, Tunku said: “…There is no way we should have an Islamic state here … The nature of our political parties, our coalition government, our democracy, and our multiracial life are sufficient foundations which can be used to build a prosperous and peaceful Malaysia. Why must we look to Iran and other Islamic states?”

An Islamic state is defined as a country where the primary basis for government is Islamic religious rule, the Syariah law. Article 3 of the Federal Constitution states that Islam is the religion of the Federation, and it is used to support the claim that Malaysia is an Islamic state rather than secular.

However, in drafting the Constitution of Malaysia, the Reid Commission had this to say about Islam as an official religion, in its report in February 1957: “The observance of this principle shall not impose any disability on non-Muslim nationals professing and practising their own religion and shall not imply that the state is not a secular state.”

According to the same report, the Council of Rulers (Majlis Raja-Raja) were against the inclusion of such provision: “It is Their Highnesses’ considered view that it would not be desirable to insert some declaration such as has been suggested that the Muslim Faith or Islamic Faith be the established religion of the Federation.”

Justice Abdul Hamid, a member of the Reid Commission from Pakistan, was the main proponent for inserting the provision. “A provision like one suggested above is innocuous. Not less than fifteen countries of the world have a provision of this type entrenched in their Constitutions,” Hamid said in the report.

“(This) declaration has not been found to have caused hardships to anybody, no harm will ensue if such a declaration is included in the Constitution of Malaya.”

The 1988 Che Omar bin Che Soh v. P.P. case in Supreme Court (now Federal Court) is commonly quoted in support of secular Malaysia.

In his judgment, then Lord President Salleh Abbas summarised: “…We have to set aside our personal feelings because the law in this country is still what it is today, secular law, where morality not accepted by the law is not enjoying the status of law.”

The position of Malaysia as a secular state went unchallenged until it was declared otherwise by the nation’s fourth PM, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in September 29, 2001, while launching Gerakan’s National Delegates Conference.

“Umno wishes to state clearly that Malaysia is an Islamic nation,” the former premier announced, after PAS challenged Umno to declare Malaysia an Islamic state. “This is based on the opinions of many clerics (ulama) who have explained the concept of Islamic state in the past. For the public’s information, a cleric has even written a book titled Malaysia Is an Islamic state.”

Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration first declared the country as an Islamic country in July 17, 2007. Then-Deputy PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak told reporters after officiating the International Conference on the Role of Islamic States in a Globalised World: “Islam is the official religion and we are an Islamic nation. But as an Islamic nation, it does not mean that we don’t respect the non-Muslims. The Muslims and the non-Muslims have their own rights (in this country).”

This statement was echoed by Abdullah in a parliamentary written reply. “Malaysia is an Islamic country which is administered based on the principles of Islam and at the same time adheres to the principles of parliamentary democracy guided by the highest law of the land – the Federal Constitution.”

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 October 2012, 5:20 pm and is filed under
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MCA in denial, PAS gets my vote

May Chee

Malaysiakini

Oct 22, 2012

I think every kampong or neighbourhood has this one person whom you see at the warung or food-stall during mealtimes. He kind of holds court, speaks rather loud and in a condescending tone.

If you stay long enough, you will also notice that he never pays for his food. It’s as if he needs to speak the way he does to earn his keep. I think you call that “freeloading”?

All these “hate” speeches lately by the MCA against PAS, “hudud”, and about my favourite Mursyidul Am, Nik Aziz instigating rape of non-Muslim women, borders on being just that – “freeloading”.

Rehashing news from 2008 just goes to show how bankrupt MCA has become. To go back in time when you should move forward – to create, innovate, progress, anything but backslide and with such malice, too. It beggars belief!

Instead of suggesting something constructive, the MCA, in election gear, decides to embark on a fear-mongering campaign.

Goodness, a dearth of brains in the MCA-ah? Are the people in MCA even serious about wanting to represent our interests in Parliament? Aiyoh, how-lah?

How can we trust such bird-brains to fight for us? Sure lose, hands-down!

Despite what a fumbling imbecile of a minister may say, Karpal Singh, another towering Malaysian has reminded us not too long ago that in 1988, former lord president of the Federal (later, Supreme) Court of Malaysia ruled that the country was governed by secular law which meant Malaysia was a secular state.

Is that not clear enough?

Come on MCA, we are not morons. We know you for what you are. Among the featherbrain schemes, initially the 1Care and now, the latest being the AES, you are in cahoots with the plunderers to rob us Malaysians blind!

How lofty can you people in the MCA get? Are you not touching base with the ordinary rakyat? How on earth can we afford to enrich you and your cronies any further? To feed your avaricious appetite for money and power?

Have you not seen how the poor are getting poorer and the ordinary Malaysian is finding it hard to get by? And you people still think that it is only a perception that the crime rate has skyrocketed?

Are you people in the MCA living in denial or what? By the time you wake up, the rest of us Malaysians have crossed over to the other shore while you stay behind, stranded! Worse still, you’ll be drowned!

PAS president, Abdul Hadi Awang, himself had reiterated last year, that the Koran did not provide for an Islamic state but a welfare state.

That’s not a bad thing. Shouldn’t that be every leader’s responsibility, to see to the welfare of the state?

What do we have in the MCA? Now and then, fighting for scraps that fall off the banquet table? Even Lazarus had better! Are you anyone’s equal, MCA? 1Malaysia, what’s that?

A miserable handful of scholarships for some students and that too, debatable about whom they go to. I’ve heard stories about how some people obtained their scholarships. You are a farce, MCA, you really are!

We have real problems here, in Malaysia. For instance, we need to do something real quick about our mounting debts. It’s definitely not a perception that we live in fear.

My daughter was almost “mishandled” by someone in a car-park in one of the shopping centres in KL recently. Thank God she had a friend with her and a gentleman who parked his car on the same level.

I cannot wait to pack her off to where she can be safer. Our education system is in shambles.

My nephew who has been placed first in class since he started Standard 1 told my sister that he needed Physics tuition because his teacher has not taught since the beginning of this year.

All she does is to ask the students to refer to some bright sparks in class.

I don’t want to foam at the mouth, as RPK would say. But honestly, MCA, are you aware of the problems we, the people whom you profess to represent, have?

Doubt fear-mongering, using PAS as your punching bag, is the quick-fix we need. Get real, MCA or ship out!

To me, the MCA has apparently isolated itself from the misfortunes of the ordinary rakyat, and day after day, wastes the opportunity to help them.

Yes, it’s an opportunity to be of service to others, for the last shall be first and the first, last.

I don’t see any effort coming from the people in MCA that promote human dignity nor do I see any of them participating actively in the building of the future of this nation.

But I do see how hastily these same people wanted to implement the AES. I see a loathing self-interest to enrich their own coffers and a lack of courage in standing up to their “sleeping partners”.

Or is it a case of “you scratch my back, I scratch yours”; acting like opportunists whose deeds do not match the responsibilities that they are entrusted with.

Coming from the Malacca hometown of Tun Tan Siew Sin, I shudder to think that the MCA of today has all but lost its original identity and mission.

I see a leadership whose intuition is bogged down by corruption, cronyism and cowardice. And for that, the MCA is already deemed irrelevant and will have no further impact on our Malaysian history.

I believe many, past and present leaders of the MCA, realise that they are no longer respected by the majority of Malaysians, not even those they “sleep” with.

Yet, MCA, you are not purging yourselves to merit this respect. Sad, no?

Aren’t you made of sterner stuff? Your forefathers crossed oceans, with nothing more than the shirts on their backs, to seek a fortune for themselves. Even the cousins they left behind in Thong San are doing really well.

As national leaders, those of you in the MCA should open your eyes to the evils that afflict the nation. You should know by now that injustices will be paid for dearly or are you still fooling yourselves that you can get away with it?

We need progressive leaders who can champion unity, not those who still engage in the stone-aged tactics of divide-and-rule. That’s not Malaysian. We have to discover a new meaning in the Malaysian way of living.

For that, we have to leave behind an existence where we live alienated lives from one another. That’s no more Malaysian. We need each other to mature as a true, progressive people.

Things will work out better for us if we share our responsibilities. That’s Malaysian. Having a stranglehold on the economy and perhaps, leaving entire classes of people in poverty is no more acceptable. It shall not be Malaysian.

The devil is not out there, MCA. It’s not PAS and it’s not the DAP. It’s within you.

Be afraid, MCA, be very afraid. I’m not alone here when I, a Catholic and a Chinese woman says, “PAS gets my vote, any day!”

God bless, especially Mursyidul Am, Nik Aziz and please forgive MCA’s insolence. Thank you.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 October 2012, 11:06 pm and is filed under
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Should Government Scholars Be Grateful?

By
Kee Thuan Chye

Malaysian Digest

Should recipients of government scholarships be grateful? Grateful to whom?

I’m asking this because former minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil mentioned recently that PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli was a Petronas scholar and yet he appeared to be going against the people who had given him the scholarship. As the Petronas scholarship is a government scholarship, she implied he was being “ungrateful”.

She even suggested that other young people of Rafizi’s generation might also be “ungrateful”.

But should Rafizi – and other Petronas scholars, indeed all government scholars, including those awarded the Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) scholarships – be beholden to the Government and eternally grateful to it?

First of all, what is “the Government”?

It is the entity that rules and administers the country. And in our democracy, it is made up of the party or parties that won the most number of parliamentary seats in the last general election to gain the right to rule the country.

This party or parties can lose the next general election and cease to be “the Government”. In other words, it is only the government of the day.

Governments come and go, as people say, which means no party or parties can claim ownership of the title “Government” forever.

Barisan Nasional (BN) is the coalition of parties that makes up the current government of the day. In years to come, it may no longer be that. In fact, it may cease to be that sooner if it loses the upcoming 13th general election.

So if “the Government” is something that is subject to change, how can anyone be beholden to “the Government”? How can anyone be eternally grateful to “the Government”?

To supposedly back up her call, Shahrizat said, “I come from a generation that is grateful for things happening to you and we are taught not to bite that hand that feeds you. And somebody who is seen as biting the hand that feeds you would be deemed as derhaka (betrayal).”

But whose is “the hand that feeds” all recipients of government scholarships?

Where does the money to fund the scholarships come from?

Does it all come from the pockets of the ruling elite that helms the government of the day?

Of course not. The money comes from the rakyat. The money from the taxes they pay goes into the coffers of the government of the day. Of course there’s also Petronas money, but that is also the rakyat’s money. And part of this collective money goes into funding scholarships.

By this simple reasoning, “the hand that feeds” all government scholars is the hand of the rakyat.

So if government scholars need to be grateful, they should be grateful to the rakyat. Not the government of the day.

They can show their gratitude by serving the rakyat, by looking after its interests.

Rafizi chose to do this by joining an Opposition party.

Since looking after the rakyat’s interests is what political parties – ruling or Opposition – should do, his opting for that should not be an issue.

After all, the ruling party is supposed to ensure that the rakyat’s welfare is served through the policies it formulates and implements while the Opposition parties are supposed to point out lapses in the implementation and expose the shortcomings. Simplistically put, they should both serve the same cause.

By that token, Rafizi – as well as other government scholarship recipients – should be free to join whichever party they choose. It is their democratic right. Besides, our Federal Constitution itself grants every citizen the right to free association.

Indeed, by exposing the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal, Rafizi was actually serving the rakyat’s interests. He showed us that our money which was given to the National Feedlot Corporation was allegedly not being used to serve its avowed purpose.

How then could Shahrizat suggest the contrary – that Rafizi was being ungrateful to the provider of his scholarship and was committing derhaka?

What derhaka? He should instead be commended for what he did. In fact, he should deserve the rakyat’s gratitude.

Speaking of gratitude, there is one thing more – something basic which I think needs to be examined.

Why should Rafizi or any young person be grateful at all to anyone for getting a government scholarship?

I think they need not be. Because it is the responsibility of the State to see that our young get proper education. If we the rakyat pay taxes that go into giving the young scholarships, we should accept it because we are helping to fulfil that responsibility. It is money correctly spent. It’s like what we would do for our own children.

Besides, as citizens, these young people are entitled to such help – provided they deserve it. And if they are entitled to it, why should they need to be grateful?

From what we can see of Rafizi’s track record and the things he has done in the public sphere, he appears to be a brilliant man. He must have deserved his Petronas scholarship. If, as a taxpayer, I were to have had a hand in funding his education, I would have been more than happy for having done that.

I would not expect him to be grateful – although he has nonetheless performed his duty to society by exposing the NFC scandal.

And by extension, I would not expect any deserving government scholarship recipient to be grateful.

They needed it, we helped. That’s the end of the matter.

*
Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the bestselling book No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians, available in bookstores together with its Malay translation, Jangan Kelentong Lagi, Kita Semua Orang Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 October 2012, 4:30 pm and is filed under
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Dr M defends policies, says Jews created problems

By Zurairi AR

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today blamed Jews for “creating problems for us,” and pointed out that while his economic policies may have been interpreted as anti-Semitic it was actually to help develop Malaysia.

This morning, former Cabinet minister Tan Sri Sanusi Junid said Dr Mahathir’s policies when he was prime minister were inspired by Germany’s past policy of limiting Jewish financial influence to help the Malays but they were later thwarted by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Sanusi told a Malay economic forum that Dr Mahathir and former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin were hoping that Malays would control the economy but when they saw progress was slow, they decided to follow the German example of not granting banking licences to Jews, in their treatment of Chinese interests.

“The problem is that they (Jews) were the ones who created problems for us and the world because they disobeyed international law and got away with it,” Dr M said in a press conference this afternoon.

He also pointed out that he won the general election in 1999 because non-Malays supported him, while Malays refused to since they thought his treatment of Anwar was unfair.

Sanusi said earlier that Dr Mahathir’s plan failed when Anwar became finance minister and approved two banking licences to non-Malay banking groups — Alliance Bank and Hong Leong Bank.

Malaysia’s banking system was formerly largely controlled by the Chinese but many were taken over by or forced to merge with government-controlled entities.

The loss of Chinese-founded banking institutions is widely perceived by the Chinese community as of one of the ways they have been discriminated against under the guise of helping the Bumiputera community.

The Umno-led Barisan Nasional government, however, had previously maintained that direct intervention was required to uplift the Bumiputeras and that mergers would help create stronger banks that could withstand globalisation.

The Najib administration has said, however, that it will gradually liberalise the financial sector and any banking mergers should now be based on market forces.

Dr Mahathir is known for his strident remarks about global Jewish interests.

In 2003, he urged Muslims to unite against Jews who, he says, rule the world by “proxy”.

His blistering attack on Jews drew headlines and a swift condemnation from Israel.

He named Israel as “the enemy allied with most powerful nations,” and said Jews ruled the world and got others to fight and die for them, but added that they would not be able to defeat the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 8:38 pm and is filed under
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Germany’s past anti-Jew policy inspired Dr M’s banking reforms, says Sanusi

By Lee Wei Lian

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was inspired by Germany’s past policy of limiting Jewish financial influence to help the Malays but it was later thwarted by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, former Cabinet minister Tan Sri Sanusi Junid said today.

Sanusi told a Malay economic forum that Dr Mahathir and former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin were hoping that Malays would control the economy but when they saw progress was slow, they decided to follow the German example of not granting banking licences to Jews.

But the plan failed when Anwar became finance minister and approved two banking licences to non-Malay banking groups — Alliance Bank and Hong Leong Bank.

“We thought that if we can’t control the economy, we would follow Germany,” Sanusi said at the Malay Economic Congress here. “In Germany banking licences are not given to the Jews.”

He said while pre-existing licences had been given to non-Malays, Daim made sure that all banks had Malay directors, which was important to ensure all banks had Malay influence.

“But unfortunately a huge disaster happened (kecelakaan besar); when Anwar became finance minister he approved banking licences for Alliance Bank and Hong Leong bank,” he said. “We didn’t want to give.”

Sanusi said that as a result there are now “two non-Malay banks without Malay influence.”

Malaysia’s banking system was formerly largely controlled by the Chinese but many were taken over by or forced to merge with government-controlled entities.

The loss of Chinese-founded banking institutions is widely perceived by the Chinese community as of one of the ways they have been discriminated against under the guise of helping the Bumiputera community.

The Umno-led Barisan Nasional government however had previously maintained that direct intervention was required to uplift the Bumiputeras and that mergers would help create stronger banks that could withstand globalisation.

The Najib administration has said however that it will gradually liberalise the financial sector and any banking mergers should now be based on market forces.

Sanusi also said at the forum that Malays were unable to accumulate wealth as while they earned money, it was ultimately spent in non-Malay businesses.

“Who is rich? We are? Where is the money? There is none. It goes through the channels of non-Malays. The money only passes through Malays and that’s why we are unable to accumulate,” he said.

The former Kedah mentri besar noted that normally political power is held by those who have economic power.

“But Malays have political power because they are smart,” he said.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 8:32 pm and is filed under
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Kit Siang: Former PMs declared Malaysia a secular state

Karen Arukesamy and Hemananthani Sivanandam at the Dewan Rakyat

The Sun

22 October 2012

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 22, 2012): The country’s first prime minister, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, had openly declared that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as its official religion, the Dewan was told today.

“I can give documents and proof to show that the former prime ministers of the country have declared Malaysia as a secular state and not an Islamic state,” DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) said when rebutting Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz’s statement that Malaysia is not a secular state.

Quoting The Star of Feb 9, 1983, Lim said the Tunku had reportedly said: “Don’t make Malaysia an Islamic state” in his speech on his 80th birthday on Feb 8, 1983.

“It was a huge function, which was attended by all the Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, including the current prime minister (Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak).

“The Star frontpage on Feb 9, 1983 read: ‘The Tunku turns 80 – Don’t make Malaysia an Islamic state: Tunku’.

“On Feb 13, 1983, Tun Hussein Onn, who became the third prime minister, on his birthday, gave his full support to Tunku’s statement as reported in The Star: ‘Hussein says no to Islamic state’,” Lim added.

Citing further from pre-Constitution documents, Lim said all the documents clearly indicate that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as the official religion, but not an Islamic state.

Nazri had earlier in response to John Fernandez (DAP-Seremban) said that the word “secular” was nowhere stated in any part of the Federal Constitution.

“Malaysia’s position is different from other secular countries like the United States, India and Turkey, which clearly in their constitutions state that the country is a secular state,” Nazri said.

“A secular state does not identify any particular religion as the official religion but people are allowed to practise their own religion.

“Their religion is different from each other and is a personal practice. In our constitution, the word secular is not directly mentioned in any part of the constitution,” Nazri had told the Dewan during the question-and-answer session.

Nazri also cited court cases to say that Malaysia was “never declared a secular country”.

Lim said he was surprised that Nazri as a Minister in the PM’s Department, did not know that previous PMs had declared Malaysia as a secular state.

Lim added that pre-Constitution documents like the Reid Commission and Cobbold Commission have stated and guaranteed that Malaysia is a secular state.

“Tunku was quoted as saying that ‘Malaysia was set up as a secular state, (with) Islam as the official religion and this is enshrined in the constitution’.

“This shows that Malaysia, unlike other secular countries, uniquely has its official religion,” Lim added.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 7:49 am and is filed under
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Malaysia a secular state contrary to Nazri’s remarks, say law experts

By Debra Chong and Ida Lim

The Malaysian Insider

October 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Malaysia is and has always been a secular state even though not expressly stated in the Federal Constitution because the country’s supreme law and founding document is secular, several law experts say as debate continues to storm over the mainly Muslim nation’s status.

The legal pundits refuted minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s remarks in Parliament yesterday that Malaysia is not a secular state because it had never been declared or endorsed as such and is wholly absent in the Constitution though he stopped short of labelling the country an Islamic state.

“It’s absolutely untrue,” said Tommy Thomas, regarded as one of the country’s foremost authorities on constitutional law.

“To me, to say that Malaysia is not a secular state because the Federal Constitution does not say so is a real, oversimplistic argument. Just like the Federal Constitution does not say Malaysia is an Islamic state,” he told The Malaysian Insider last night.

The veteran lawyer, who had studied the subject and presented an essay debunking Malaysia as an Islamic state at the Malaysian Law Conference seven years ago, said his research had shown that the country’s forefathers and the legal experts who helped draft the Constitution had intended the country remain secular even as it acknowledged the individual Malay state Rulers’ rights and power over religious matters which, he pointed out, was for the most part ceremonial.

Thomas pointed to a Pakistani Federal Court judge, Abdul Hamid, who was part of the five-man Reid Commission formed in 1956 to help draw up Malaysia’s Constitution and held the minority dissent on religion, did not go so far as to say Malaysia must have an Islamic state in its Constitution.

He said Abdul Hamid’s remarks from then was the clearest indicator that the country should remain secular.

Abdul Hamid was the main proponent for including a provision that read: “Islam shall be the religion of the State of Malaya, but nothing in this Article shall prevent any citizen professing any religion other than Islam to profess, practice and propagate that religion, nor shall any citizen be under any disability by reason of his being not a Muslim.”

Thomas said Abdul Hamid, who was from Pakistan, which had gained its independence from Britain in 1947 — a good 10 years before Malaya — and had an Islamic Constitution that put it squarely as an Islamic state, had noted that such a proviso was “innocuous” and would not cause any “hardship” to anyone, but that the judge’s suggestion was rejected by the Conference of Rulers which was against the idea.

The lawyer of more than 30 years’ experience told The Malaysian Insider he still stands by his 2005 essay titled “Is Malaysia an Islamic State?” which concluded that the country was and remains secular, and that no one has disputed his argument to date.

“No one has ever written in to say it’s nonsense,” Thomas said, who blamed Malaysia’s fourth and longest-serving prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, for sparking the present confusion over Malaysia’s Islamic or secular state status.

The former Bar Council secretary-general noted in his 2005 essay that it was Dr Mahathir who unilaterally declared Malaysia to be an Islamic country in a political speech at the Gerakan party’s national delegates conference on September 29, 2001.

Dr Mahathir had single-handedly negated the secular pronouncements made by his predecessors including first prime minister and the country’s founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj and third PM, Tun Hussein Onn, by saying: “Umno wishes to state loudly that Malaysia is an Islamic country. This is based on the opinion of ulamaks who had clarified what constituted as Islamic country. If Malaysia is not an Islamic country because it does not implement the hudud, then there are no Islamic countries in the world.”

Thomas’ views on Malaysia’s secularism found strong support with three other legal experts.

Former de facto law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, who is among the most vocal opponents to the introduction of hudud law, the strict Islamic penal code, took to Twitter yesterday in an immediate response to Nazri’s remark.

“Constitution don’t define lots of things. It doesn’t define democracy, so does it mean we are not democratic?” the former lawyer who started Malaysia’s biggest private practice posed on his microblogging account @zaidibrahim.

“If Malaysia is neither secular or theocratic, then its whatever BN says it is,” said Zaid, referring to the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Civil liberties lawyer Syahredzan Johan echoed the two law veterans.

“Just because the Federal Constitution does not have the word ‘secular’ does not mean that Malaysia is not a secular state.

“Just like how the word ‘democracy’ does not appear in our Constitution, yet we are a country that practises parliamentary democracy,” he said in weighing in on the debate that raged in Parliament yesterday following Nazri’s remark.

Syahredzan stressed that Malaysia is secular because the Constitution is secular.

“An Islamic state would place the Quran as the highest authority, but our Constitution provides in Article 4 that the Constitution is the highest law of the land.

“The validity of laws therefore must be measure upon the yardstick of the Constitution, and not Islamic principles, thus making the Constitution a secular one,” he said in an emailed response to The Malaysian Insider.

He pointed out that the Supreme Court had set a precedent in 1988 when it rejected an argument in the landmark case of Che Omar Che Soh, a Muslim drug trafficker facing the mandatory death sentence, that because Islam is the religion of the Federation, laws passed by Parliament must be imbued with Islamic principles and that the death penalty was void because it was not according to hudud, or Islamic law.

Tun Salleh Abas, who was then Lord President and head of the judiciary, had said in the landmark ruling that “however, we have to set aside our personal feelings because the law in this country is still what it is today, secular law, where morality not accepted by the law is not enjoying the status of the law.”

    Just because the Federal Constitution does not have the word ‘secular’ does not mean that Malaysia is not a secular state. — Civil liberties lawyer Syahredzan Johan

Universiti Malaya law lecturer Azmi Sharom also agreed with Syahredzan’s view and went a step further to explain the confusing dual-track judicial system that allows for an Islamic or syariah court to be practised alongside the civil courts.

“Malaysia is a secular state in my point of view because ALL laws must be in line with the constitution and the Constitution is a secular document.

“We have a syariah system because a secular constitution allows it. We have Islamic government agencies but their behaviour is governed by the principles of a secular constitution,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Azmi seemed confident that Malaysia’s secular status will remain unchallenged despite Nazri’s remark yesterday and Dr Mahathir’s 2001 declaration.

“The only way that Malaysia can lose its secular status is through a serious amendment of the Constitution and that will require two-thirds majority agreement in both Houses of Parliament and the agreement of the Conference of Rulers and the states of Sabah and Sarawak,” he said, and added: “Unlikely.”

But Syahrezan was less sure, noting that while legal eagles were splitting hairs over Malaysia’s Islamic versus secular state, a more worrisome trend had emerged in the courts whereby the civil courts appeared to be ceding their authority to the Islamic courts in disputes involving Muslims.

“We are seeing a trend lately to place what the authorities deem as ‘Islam’ on a higher pedestal, even higher than the Constitution itself.

“If the nation is as how the minister described it, ‘founded on the basis of an Islamic government’, then it makes it easier to justify unconstitutional laws and acts because they are ‘Islamic’,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

The up-and-coming lawyer said that the whole debate over the country’s secular or non-secular status was linked to hudud, which is being hotly debated in public in the run-up to the 13th general election that must be called by next April.

“Unfortunately, we seem to be dancing to the tune of those with political motives, who for whatever reasons want Malaysia to be transformed into a theocratic state, or at the very least be seen to champion such a cause.

“The fear is that these will be justified by ascribing extra-constitutional meanings to the words in Article 3, ‘religion of the Federation’, so much so that laws and acts that are unconstitutional would become permissible merely by attaching an Islamic label on them.

“We may see more and more encroachments into the realm of fundamental liberties, and actions taken by authorities inconsistent with the Constitution or ultra vires their powers all in the name of religion,” said Syahredzan.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 7:40 am and is filed under
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MCA and UMNO leaders’  “devil’s compact” for each side to tell the most blatant lies and falsehoods to frighten Chinese and Malay voters respectively

My  first reaction to the speech by the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek at the MCA 59th Annual General Assembly on Sunday is one of outrage that so much lies and falsehoods could be crammed into a single speech.

Just three examples of such lies and falsehoods spouted by Chua on Sunday:

1.	“DAP has succeeded in convincing non-Mulsims that PAS’ hudud will reduce crime and corruption in the country. This is another big lie. Of the 11 countries that practice hudud, eight are regarded as the most corrupted and they are also recognized as unstable and unsafe countries.”

2.	“UBAH is for :- U for Untuk, B for Bentuk, A for Agama and H for Hudud ala PAS. CHANGE, would mean :-C = Choose H = Hudud A = At N = Next G = General E = Election”

3.	“It (DAP) will continue to mislead, give false hope to the Chinese that if the Chinese vote DAP, they are empowered to be kingmaker in the country”

Chua is desperately trying to convince himself and Malaysians that DAP is championing PAS’ hudud to the extent of arguing that it will “reduce  crime and corruption” in Malaysia and turning the 13 General Election into a referendum for  “hudud ala PAS”.

Chua is right. This is a “big lie”, but a big lie perpetrated by Chua himself and not by the DAP.

DAP leaders have never  shied away  anywhere from admitting DAP’s differences with PAS on the questions of Islamic state and hudud, and even PAS leaders have publicly admitted that a vote for PAS in the 13 General Elections is not a vote for hudud, but a vote for the Pakatan Rakyat’s common programme of upholding justice, ensuring democracy, restoring the independence and professionalism of important national institutions destroyed by UMNO/Barisan Nasional and promoting national unity among Malaysians regardless of race, religion, class or territory.

Most ridiculous of all is the lie by Chua that  DAP leaders are telling the Chinese that they  are the “kingmaker in the country” as this had never been the DAP stand.

Chua’s MCA presidential speech is replete with lies and dishonesty.

In asserting that of the 11 countries that practice hudud, eight are regarded as the most corrupt, did Chua pause to consider why in the past 17 years (and in particular in the past 3 ½ years of Najib premiership) Malaysia has become more and more corrupt, losing out to six Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) nations in the latest 2011 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) when sixteen years ago, Malaysia towered over all OIC countries in the TI CPI 1996 in terms of development, rule of law and transparency?

In 1996, Malaysia was ranked No. 26 out of 54 countries with a score of 5.32 – ahead of Jordan (No. 30 – score 4.89), Turkey (No. 33 – 3.54) and Egypt (No. 41 – 2.84).

Sixteen years later, in the 2011 TI CPI, Malaysia crashed to 60th placing with the lowest-ever score of 4.3 – losing out to six OIC countries and only one step ahead of Turkey, as illustrated as follows:

Qatar – No. 22 (rank)  7.2 (score)

UAE   – 28			(6.8)

Bahrain- 46			(5.1)

Oman –  50			(4.8)

Kuwait – 54			(4.6)

Jordan – 56			(4.5)

Saudi Arabia – 57		(4.4)

Malaysia – 60		(4.3)

Turkey  –   61			(4.2)

But this was not Chua’s most outrageous act at the MCA Conference, which must go to his defence of the MCA Wanita Deputy Minister’s claim that PAS condones the rape of non-Muslim women who do not conform to the Islamic dress code.

The initial outrage at Chua’s  speech soon gave way to sadness and pity that a MCA President could stoop so low as to spout such lies and falsehoods because of the sense of desperation about prospects in the 13GE.

It is very clear MCA and UMNO leaders have reached a “devil’s compact” for each side  to tell the most blatant lies and falsehoods to frighten Chinese and Malay voters respectively, as they seem to have concluded that such politics of hate and duplicity is the only way to protect and preserve UMNO/BN power in the 13GE.

UMNO leaders, especially the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who opened the MCA Annual General Assembly, do not believe the MCA lies and falsehoods, as Chua Soi Lek’s defamation of PAS and Islam for  condoning rape of non-Muslims.

But they kept quiet, in the same way that MCA leaders are keeping quiet although they do not believe UMNO lies and falsehoods that DAP wants to create a Christian Malaysia, abolish the Malay Rulers and set up a Republic!

This is the “Devil’s Compact”. No wonder the recent statement by  former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir – “Better the devil you know than the angel you don’t.”

There can be  no more truthful confession of the existence of the  UMNO/MCA “Devil’s Compact” resulting in  the most devilish politics in the nation’s history, utterly heedless of truth and justice, in the UMNO/BN politics of desperation to remain in power in the 13GE.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 5:21 pm and is filed under
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More Nonsense from Nazri

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 2:50 pm and is filed under
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Sure signs of MCA’s terminal disease

Stanley Koh | October 23, 2012

Free Malaysia Today

The writing was all over the wall at Dewan San Choon last weekend.

COMMENT

If anyone still needs to be convinced that MCA is in its death throes, then the loud talk, the sabre rattling and the tasteless pomp at its 59th annual general assembly should do the trick.

The weekend meeting gave unmistakable signs that MCA is in denial about its loss of relevance as a political organisation representing Malaysian Chinese and its inability to regain their support.

All this became evident the moment Deputy President Liow Tiong Lai opened his mouth last Saturday to address the party’s youth wing. He profusely thanked Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for “wooing back” Chinese support to “Barisan Nasional and MCA” through his transformation programme.

Liow’s tone embarrassed many delegates to the assembly. Some were heard whispering that it was a virtual admission that the party was now so impotent and so lacking in good leadership that it had to depend on Umno for its lifeline.

President Dr Chua Soi Lek, who spoke on Sunday, was even more sycophantic. After his usual attack against Pakatan Rakyat, including unsubstantiated remarks about the failure of Pakatan-rule states, he proceeded to pour praise upon Najib, to the point of mistakenly describing him as a “democratically elected leader”. He even tried to show a fondness for abbreviations and acronyms, which Najib is known for.

The Star, of course, maintained the tone of adulation. Reporting on Najib’s speech at the assembly, it described it as “inspiring, honest, clear” and spoken “from the heart”.

To their credit, Malaysian Chinese are not so easily bought by such gimmicks. They see today’s MCA as a hypocritical and pretentious party, full of contradictions and addicted to doublespeak. It did not escape the notice of assembly delegates that these characteristics were reflected in the decorations at Dewan San Choon, in the change of uniform from white to the BN blue, and in the orchestrated cheering and applause.

Nothing happened at the assembly that could convince the average voter that there has been any credible move to correct fundamental weaknesses in the party and its leadership.

As one delegate put it, “It’s the same old sandiwara”—a yawn-inducing prolongation of the frivolous press releases and the bitter vitriol against Pakatan that the party’s publicity department has been churning out since Dr Chua became party president.

Another critic said the party leaders, while pointing an accusing finger at Pakatan, were pointing the other fingers at themselves for their lack of political finesse and sticking the thumb into an unmentionable place to rebuke themselves for failing the credibility test.

Lesson not learned

Party members and erstwhile supporters admit that the politics of patronage and adulation had been part of MCA culture even before Dr Chua came to power, but they are appalled that the current leadership has failed to learn a lesson from the debacle of the 2008 general election.

Although there has been much talk of the need to change, there has been “zero transformation” under Dr Chua’s leadership, in the words of a delegate to the weekend assembly. His spinners have simply manufactured new slogans and concocted more half-truths and lies to cover up the weakness of his team.

The superficiality of the show of confidence and gumption at the assembly did not escape the notice of even the reputably impressionable Najib. He expressed a hope that the blueness of the delegates’ T-shirts was less important than a unity of minds and hearts.

The Prime Minister has often spoken of the coming election as a “war” needing the dedication of a “united army”.

Can the party win the war with new T-shirts, meaningless slogans, expensive dinners and a prospectus of rhetoric against its rivals? Are members of the public so dumb that they cannot see through the noisy talk and the pretensions of preparedness for war?

“MCA promotes peace,” says one slogan, as if no one is aware that it has a long record of leadership and factional fighting.

Another slogan, proudly displayed at the meeting hall, accused Pakatan of inciting hatred, as if it would not serve to remind the delegates of Dr Chua’s recent rhetoric against Islam.

Indeed, there are many hard-hitting questions that MCA leaders should ask themselves before launching scathing and ill-conceived attacks against the opposition.

If Pakatan is deficient in its practice of democracy, as Dr Chua and other MCA leaders have alleged, then what can one say about BN’s hijack of Perak? And what about Najib’s unelected presidency of Umno?

If BN is so democratic, why does MCA have to continually struggle for “bargaining power” in the coalition, as so many of its leaders have said publicly, especially when campaigning for positions in the party?

Freudian slip

When Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin rebuked MCA for behaving like an “abused wife” in its protestations over being treated unfairly by BN, many saw it as a Freudian slip, and party members were dumbstruck by the silence of their leaders.

There have been many other insults directed at the MCA leadership and the Chinese community from Umno and organisations affiliated with it. Most of these the MCA leaders have chosen to forget, thereby deepening the impression that they have lost both their backbone and their moral compass.

If only they were wise enough to realise that their real enemy is not any opposition leader or party, but themselves.

But wisdom and hypocrisy cannot exist in the same person, at least when you consider wisdom as defined in classical Chinese thought.

Chua is on record as being critical of political control of the press. “The problem is that many political parties own controlling stakes in the press, MCA included,” he wrote in his blog in the run-up to the election that installed him as party president.

Speaking of MCA, he said: “It has controlling stakes in both the Chinese and English press.

“As such the editors and journalists working for those particular papers are beholden to their political masters and would have to toe the line or risk facing the sack. With this in mind, how can the press truly be free?”

Our question is: Why did Chua appoint one of his core supporters, Dr Fong Chan Onn, as the Star’s chairman and why did MCA recently acquire a weekly Chinese paper, The Tomato?

The current party leadership has failed to keep many of its promises, including rectifying the lopsided ethnic composition of the civil service, police and armed forces. It has also neglected to ensure adequate Chinese representation in statutory bodies and government-linked companies and, of course, a reasonable share of political power.

However, the truth is that many voters today are no longer inspired by race-based politics, which makes MCA and the other major parties in BN irrelevant to them.

As for MCA members, it would be good for them to remember the Persian proverb that a former party president once quoted: “The rotting of the fish begins from the head.”

Is MCA facing extinction? Or, if it survives the next general election, will it continue to exist as a parasitic burden to Umno?

Perhaps, as many party members are hoping, MCA only needs to go on a five-year vacation to free its leaders from governmental responsibilities so that they could address their own weaknesses and thereby place the party on the road to recovery.

Stanley Koh is a former head of MCA’s research unit. He is now a FMT columnist.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 3:21 pm and is filed under
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Why are non-Malays enemies of BN?

 — Jaleel Hameed

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 23, 2012

OCT 23 — Tan Sri Sanusi Junid’s revelation today about Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s economic policy is shocking. How can any Malaysian government base its policy on Hitlerian Germany’s anti-Jew measures? How can it equate non-Malays to Jews, to be sidelined economically in the pursuit of a richer Malay community?

And why have non-Malays, no less citizens of Malaysia, become enemies of the Barisan Nasional (BN) under Dr Mahathir? Is the current government also following Dr Mahathir’s line and think the non-Malays should be ostracised?

Come, sirs in Putrajaya, pray tell? Are we really a country that uses race like Hitler when conducting business? That anyone who isn’t Malay shouldn’t be allowed to compete or must be handicapped to ensure the Malays progress further?

Sir, what does that make the Malays? We are a race that have competed and can compete with the world but you, yes you in BN, sir, make us look so unworthy that we need policies to make sure we can do well.

Of course, Dr Mahathir can believe that the Jews are responsible for everything, like he said today, “The problem is that they (Jews) were the ones who created problems for us and the world because they disobeyed international law and got away with it.”

But do his policies mean the non-Malays are also like Jews? That they should be treated as enemies?

Will anyone in BN repudiate this grossly racist and unfair idea of Dr Mahathir and his cohorts?

We are Malaysians but your policies are meant to divide us, which is what the British were blamed for. It seems, however, that Dr Mahathir borrowed a leaf from our colonial master’s playbook.

No, sir, no Malaysian should be an enemy of the government of the day. No Malaysian should be denied his right to do anything on the basis of race. That is evil and diabolical.

If anyone persists along such lines, sir, then BN will lose the next general election. And deservedly so.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 8:45 pm and is filed under
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Bankrupt Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M)

Mariam Mokhtar

Malaysiakini

Oct 22, 2012

The election chest is empty, chaos threatens BN, the overseas bolt-holes paid for with taxpayers’ money look increasingly inviting to corrupt politicians and Malaysians no longer feel that the government is on their side.

(With apologies to the composer of the popular children’s song below)

There’s a hole in the budget, dear Rosmah, dear Rosmah,

There’s a hole in the budget, dear Rosmah, a hole.

Then mend it, dear Najib, dear Najib, dear Najib,

Then mend it, dear Najib, dear Najib, mend it.

With what shall I mend it, dear Rosmah, dear Rosmah?

With what shall I mend it, dear Rosmah, with what?

With an AES, dear Najib, dear Najib, dear Najib,

With an AES, dear Najib, dear Najib, with an AES.

There’s a hole in my budget, dear Rosmah, dear Rosmah,

There’s a hole in my budget, dear Rosmah, a hole.

Use your head, then! dear Najib, dear Najib, dear Najib,

Use your head, then! dear Najib, dear Najib, use your head!

With former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad taking potshots at him from the fringes and many in his own coalition undermining him, isn’t it time someone put Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak out of his misery?

Few in his party consider him a capable leader and it does appear as if Najib is the only one who believes that he is up to the job. Either this prime minister has hidden talents, or we are blind to his abilities.

The date for GE13 has yet to be announced but the one-sided pre-election campaign has dragged on interminably. Najib has been busy criss-crossing the country whipping-up support for BN. He is in his element, with all spin and no substance to his rhetoric.

The rakyat may be weary of listening to Najib’s praise for BN’s development programme, track record and experience. They may tire of the opposition being bashed by BN. They might even switch off when both ruling and opposition members have a go at each other; but come GE13, they know which box to mark their ‘cross’.

Najib’s ploy to exhaust the rakyat with electioneering may actually backfire. He is already seen as indecisive and a man who fears facing up to his problems.

The rakyat are aware that opposition MPs are not perfect. They are impressed with the track record of the opposition-led states of Selangor and Penang, and they empathise with the Kelantan people who are deprived of development, by Putrajaya.

At least one man Najib can count on

Najib must have heard from his intelligence unit that BN is in deep trouble, but there is at least one man Najib can count on. This person is hoping for continuity, at least where his own position is concerned; but things are not looking too good for him either. He is Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir and he has come up with a cringeworthy slogan which should appeal to the self-indulgent Najib.

Last Thursday, Zambry was on hand to fete Najib at a ‘Promises Fulfilled’ event held in Lumut, where the PM unveiled the ‘Negeri Aman Jaya 1Malaysia Bersatu’ or ‘NAJ1B’ concept.

Zambry said that NAJ1B combined the ‘None Missed, None Marginalised’ slogan, under which he claimed all Perakians were able to reap the benefits of a BN administration.

Cynics merely mocked the latest obeisance of the Perak MB and said that one typographical error at the end of the acronym would lend a different meaning to the soundbite, whilst others wondered if the ‘N’ in NAJ1B stood for Najib’s narcissistic tendencies.

The more we hear Najib speak, the quicker we want him out of office. He may describe himself as virtuous and a champion of the people, but he does appear to be out of touch with the rakyat.

When invited to speak at MCA’s 59th Annual General Meeting (AGM), Najib and the MCA leaders said nothing meaningful. Their rhetoric was limited to attacks on neighbouring countries and the opposition.

Najib then insulted the intelligence of the Malays when he said: “If they (the DAP) are really multiracial, I dare them to contest in a Malay-majority constituency… The Malays have had enough of DAP, all rubbish.”

If the Election Commission (EC) would do its job properly and election boundaries were properly apportioned and gerrymandering was disallowed, perhaps Najib would like to test his “Malays are fed-up” theory.

Instead of a DAP candidate contesting in a new and fairly demarcated Malay majority constituency, how about pitting an Umno candidate there?

Najib might be shocked to learn that even Malays would not vote for the Umno candidate.

Malays are disappointed with Umno, and tired of being fed lies when Umno leaders justify corruption, money laundering, abuses of power and injustices. They are sick of the corrupt judiciary and police force, the shambolic EC and an inept civil service.

Like bit players in a bedroom farce

As far as many Malaysians are concerned, the MCA, like the MIC, are like bit players in a bedroom farce.

MCA president Chua Soi Lek appeared to encourage attacks on the opposition and responded to criticism of these with: “….. election is very near. And a good leadership should always be sensible and sensitive about its environment.

“While the AGM is always a platform for policy, laying out policies, we feel that this is not the time to talk about policy because the general election could be two, three months away.”

Earlier, the MCA Wanita vice-chairperson Heng Seai Kie accused PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz, of condoning the rape of non-Muslim women who did not adopt the Islamic dress attire.

This time, Malays from various political persuasions believe that Heng and MCA have overstepped the boundary.

Did we hear Heng speak out in support of the Penan child rape victims? On the day she made her statement, did she realise that it was the sixth anniversary of the murder of a Mongolian model by Malaysian policemen, allegedly on the orders of a very senior Umno politician? Did she condemn the protection afforded to a cabinet minister who had allegedly raped his maid?

With Heng’s insult, rumours about a reconciliation between Umno and PAS, to unify the Malays, were scorched. The Chinese have abandoned MCA, just as the Malays have abandoned Umno.

If the MIC really wants to prevent gangsters from infiltrating Indian youth, why not channel the monthly payment of RM30,000 made to S Samy Vellu into an holistic scheme to help the Indian youth. Businessmen from India are quite capable of generating business links in Malaysia without a special envoy.

Almost every day, there is a manifestation of the corruption that festers within the BN government: Whimsical election hand-outs, money laundering, money smuggling, illicit outflows and overpriced government tenders. The Automated Enforcement System (AES) aka speed trap, hides a discrepancy of RM407 million between the actual purchase price and that which was tabled in parliament.

At the end of the day, ‘BR1M’ might as well stand for ‘Bankrupt Rakyat 1Malaysia’. Najib’s ‘1Malaysia’ is bankrupt of ideas, as well as being fiscally and morally bankrupt.

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 Wednesday, 24 October 2012, 8:33 am and is filed under
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Lament of a Stressed-out Minister

By Kee Thuan Chye

Malaysiakini

Oct 23, 2012

I tell you, it’s tough laa being a minister these days.

We have to take so much shit. From the media, from Facebook, from bloggers, from the Opposition. It was so different when Mahathir was PM. Nobody dared to question any minister then. Nobody wrote a word to criticise. But now …

And it’s not like we make that much money. Our salary is nothing compared to Singapore. Some more, the people don’t appreciate it. They think we are getting kickbacks left, right and centre.

This recent case over Musa Aman getting RM40 million … it’s not him, the money was for Umno. Political donation. What’s wrong with that? PM Najib already said it’s proper. But people still want to make trouble and call it money laundering. Just because Michael Chia got stopped when he was bringing the money out from Hong Kong.

Some more, they are saying Michael has been giving money to Musa’s sons in Australia for a long time. You believe that? They just want to make him look bad laa. They say Musa hasn’t said anything about the RM40 million so far, but can you blame him for keeping quiet?

I think the less said the better. Nowadays, you have to be careful what you say.

Hishammuddin kena after Bersih 3.0. Remember, the media asked him why police were confiscating memory cards from media cameramen and the public? He said, “SOP.” After that, they hentam him kau-kau for talking rubbish. No respect laa. Nowadays, they don’t show ministers respect, I tell you.

We were elected, you know, and appointed by the PM. OK laa, a few were not elected, but a minister must have respect. Otherwise, how to carry out the job properly?

So now we want people to respect us more. That’s why we arrested that young man for showing his backside to the PM and his wife’s photos. Who would have dared to do this to Mahathir when he was PM? We must return to the way we did things, the way we controlled, during his time. I know on social media they are calling us a fascist state but let them call what they like. We have to mean business.

If I were Hisham, I wouldn’t want to be Home Minister. Honestly speaking. You have to take care of national security, crime and, some more, people’s safety. But you just have to say people must be responsible for their own safety against crime and they come back and bash you. You just have to say PKR must realise it is taking a risk going to Johor because it is Umno territory and the online news website distorts your words. They say you said there’s no need to guarantee the safety of PKR in Johor, and how can the Home Minister say that.

Even Borders – Borders, you know. What is it? Only a bookstore. But it is challenging Hisham in court. It is saying he acted irresponsibly. It is saying he is not telling the truth. Over what? Over a deviant book by a Canadian Muslim that Jawi seized from the bookstore. Can you believe that?

No respect, that’s the problem. Poor Yen Yen. At the Himpunan Hijau Raub, some protestors whacked her poster with their shoes. They said it was the Hong Kong style. Why follow the Hong Kong style? It’s not part of our culture.

And poor Tiong Lai finally gave up his chance to get WWW 15 for his car number plate because they kept saying he was using RM24,200 of the people’s money to make a bid for it. But he told them he was entitled to it for free. In the end, he was honourable about it, he gave it up.

See? We are all not bad laa. They still think Tiong Lai is a liar after his bad experience handling the hoo-ha at Tung Shin Hospital during Bersih 2.0, but we’re not always liars … wait! That didn’t come out right. We don’t lie. We don’t lie. PM Najib said it best when he said, “The Government doesn’t know how to cheat the people.”

The people must realise that. They must realise we always try our best. Like Rais. He’s an old-timer. He has served the country so long, but still they hentam him. They made fun of him for writing the lyrics of ‘Janji Ditepati’. OK lah, he’s not a professional songwriter but he has good intentions.

He did so much to make ‘Himpunan Merdeka’ a success, to unite the people in a big celebration, to set a new world record for the number of tweets, and what did they do to him on Facebook? They ran a big picture of him with the caption “The world’s greatest …” I better not say laa. You see? Too much laa these people.

Two years ago, he made that remark about changing his mode and they put it on youtube and made all sorts of funny comments about him. And then they even tried to spin a false story alleging that he raped his Indonesian maid. Tak habis-habis.

They like all this sordid sex stuff. Shafie Apdal also they tried to dirty. Not enough they said he had a mistress. They also said he gave her RM1.5 million over three years.

Remember in the ’80s, there were strong rumours that a deputy minister was connected with the murder of his mistress? Nothing came out on that in the media. It was all just khabar-khabar angin. People didn’t dare come out in the open then. No one was ever charged for the murder. The deputy minister even got promoted to full minister.

But now even Nazri’s son – apa nama? … unh, Nedim – is dragged out in public. They demand to know why no criminal case against the boy for assaulting the condo security supervisor. They said CCTV showed Nedim strangling the man and punching him on the head. But police said CCTV showed Nedim was not involved. Who should you believe? Would the police lie? No way, right? Some more, Hisham has already said the case has been amicably settled. So it’s clear already lah.

Then they want to know about the murder of Darren Kang in 2004. That is old story laa. Police found that Nedim was not involved. And five Thais have already convicted for the murder. Habis cerita. Why are they still focusing on Nazri’s son?

No minister is safe any more laa. Even Najib. When the schoolboy asked him to give an example of Najis Mughallazah at some recent exhibition, there was a video recording of it that went viral – to show the world Najib couldn’t answer. Malu la! I mean malu in that it’s telling the whole world something so trivial. Some more, they played it up. Put on youtube. Said the PM didn’t know shit. What for?

The worst is what they are doing to the grand old man himself. Every time Mahathir says something, he’s sure to kena. Shameful laa the comments they write about him on social media and online news websites. The man is 87 years old. He used to be PM. In our culture, we must respect senior people.

But no. He said American mothers are whores, they hentam. A vote for Pakatan is a vote for Soros, they hentam. It’s okay to give ICs to illegal immigrants in Sabah, they hentam.

And because he said it is better for the people to vote for the devil they know, now people are calling us “devils”.

We are here to serve the people laa. We are not devils.

I don’t know la. If we win GE13 also, we will find it hard to govern after that. Every little thing only, they want to protest in the street. Even with PAA, they don’t care. Police say no, they still come out. For the next five years, they will be fighting us, watching us like hawks. Sometimes, I feel I want to give up.

* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the bestselling book No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians, available in bookstores together with its Malay translation, Jangan Kelentong Lagi, Kita Semua Orang Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 24 October 2012, 8:43 am and is filed under
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The final nail to its coffin?

by Dr Chris Anthony

23rd October 2012

MCA’s 59th annual general assembly began with high spirits and hopes. Adopting the motto “MCA can deliver” and “Battle without fear”, the delegates tried their best to put up a brave front and display great confidence of victory in the coming most crucial and decisive 13GE. But to many Malaysians who are following the political developments in the country, it was nothing but a great ‘sandiwara’ to try and regain MCA’s rapidly losing support among the Chinese.

There were three excesses that we witnessed at the just concluded MCA General Assembly which goes to show how desperate and jittery the party is with the approaching 13GE which many believe could give a fatal blow to the 63 year old second largest component in the BN,resulting in its demise.These were :

1.Excessive praise for Najib to the extent of idolizing him as though he is the de facto MCA president and savior of the party in the coming crucial 13GE.

2. Excessive attacks on the Pakatan Rakyat for its alledged “failures” in the states under its rule which showed the deep- seated fear for the opposition. People on the ground, including MCA members themselves, especially in Penang and to a certain extent Selangor know the ability of the Pakatan governments in administering the states under their care.

3.Excessive anti-Hudud and anti-Islamic state rhetoric to create fear among Chinese in particular and the non-Muslims in general. The MCA president went to the extent of saying that under the Hudud laws imposed in the Islamic state set up by Pakatan, the Muslims will be permitted to rape non-Muslim women.

The attack on, Mursyidul Am, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, a righteous and highly respected man for allegedly instigating rape of non-Muslim women is not only a blatant lie but illustrates arrogance and rudeness at the highest level.It shows nothing but a total disrespect for a simple,honest and righteous elderly man who is revered by many, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Will the MCA fare better after the general assembly? Has it succeeded in winning back the Chinese support with its fear tactics of an Islamic state and Hudud laws? What will be the effects on Malay voters who make up the majority in nearly all the ‘safe’ constituencies contested by MCA representatives? Will their attacks on Hudud and Islam go down well with them?

To my mind the MCA came out worse than they were before. Not only the Chinese have lost the little faith they had in it to represent them in the government but it has also lost the very vital Malay support needed to remain in power within the BN. Umno, being insecure itself, may be reluctant to allow them their ‘safe’ seats to contest for fear of losing the seat.

These desperate tactics together with change of the color of their attire at the assembly from its traditional white to blue makes this general assembly a mockery of MCA as the legitimate representative of the Chinese community. Nothing was said about how MCA is going to address the many urgent problems facing the Chinese, non-Muslims and the nation in general. Nothing was discussed about the rampant corruption that is driving the country to bankruptcy, the increasing racial and religious animosity that is threatening the peace and harmony we have toiled to build together and the open disregard for the laws and blatant abuse of power by those entrusted with it.

In fact the MCA General Assembly may have struck the final nail to its coffin as to most Malaysians, the MCA has become irrelevant, so is Gerakan, MIC and to some extent Umno. The demise of these race based parties may be a blessing in disguise as we need multi-racial parties to move forwards to survive in a globalized and highly competitive world.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 24 October 2012, 1:40 pm and is filed under
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UMNO/MCA “Devil’s Compact” confirmed by Mahathir within 24 hours

Yesterday, I publicly said that  MCA and UMNO leaders have reached a “Devil’s Compact” for each side  to tell the most blatant lies and falsehoods to frighten Chinese and Malay voters respectively in their desperate belief that  such politics of hate and duplicity is the only way to stampede Chinese and Malay voters to vote for Barisan Nasional in the 13th General Election.

I had expected MCA and UMNO leaders and their propagandists to embark on prolonged polemics to deny the existence of such an unholy compact and to throw up all sorts of “red herrings” to distract attention from the “Devil’s Compact”.

What I least expected was for my expose of UMNO/MCA’s “Devil’s Compact” to be confirmed within 24 hours in a most authoritative fashion and in a manner completely disarming and stripping the  MCA and UMNO leaders and propagandists bare of their wiles and hypocrisies.

There is only one person who could perform such a feat – Tun Dr. Mahathir and this was exactly what he did yesterday.

At a media conference yesterday at the Universiti Malaya symposium “Inter-civilisation dialogue towards peace, harmonious co-existence and sustainability”, Mahathir admitted that MCA’s “hardline stance” against hudud law at last weekend’s MCA General Assembly was merely aimed at “scaring” the Chinese community and was not aimed at the Malays or Muslims.

Mahathir said:

“Their purpose is to frighten the Chinese, not the Malays or Muslims… MCA wants to scare the Chinese so they will shun DAP.

“In the past, MCA never objected when we declared this country to be an Islamic state and that we will practice Islamic values.”

Yesterday, in a written reply in Parliament, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Senator Datuk Sri Jamil Khir Baharom said that if hudud laws are implemented in Malaysia, they will not have any implications on non-Muslims.

The MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek and the four MCA Ministers should explain whether Jamil’s answer represents the stand of MCA in Cabinet and the  Barisan Nasional, and if not, what are they going to do about it.

Mahathir’s confirmation that UMNO and MCA have a “Devil’s Compact” where each side can tell the most  blatant lies and falsehoods to respectively frighten Malay and Chinese voters and stampede them to vote for Barisan Nasional deserve the serious attention and strongest condemnation of all Malaysians.

In their “Devil’s Compact”, UMNO leaders keep their silence regardless of the lies disseminated by  MCA leaders “to scare the Chinese”, including falsehoods which UMNO leaders know are utterly baseless, such as MCA defamation of PAS and Islam for condoning rape of non-Muslims or for trying to set Malaysia back to the “Dark Ages”.

Similarly, MCA leaders keep their silence although they do not believe UMNO lies and falsehoods “to scare the Malays”, that DAP wants to create a Christian Malaysia, abolish the Malay Rulers and set up a Republic!

I am reminded of a general surgeon’s blog yesterday commenting on the 59th MCA General Assembly, who concluded:

“In fact the MCA General Assembly may have struck the final nail to its coffin as to most Malaysians, the MCA has become irrelevant, so is Gerakan, MIC and to some extent Umno. The demise of these race based parties may be a blessing in disguise as we need multi-racial parties to move forwards to survive in a globalized and highly competitive world.”

This is the greatest challenge for all Malaysian voters in the 13GE, whether we are to move forwards as Malaysians with a common vision of hope and optimism that Malaysians united as one people regardless of race, religion, class or territory is the best  guarantee for the country to stand tall to compete with the rest of the world or we allow ourselves to wallow in the politics of corruption and greed sowing inter-racial and inter-religious hatred, suspicion and distrust through lies and falsehoods which will only condemn the country to the trajectory of a failed state.

Pakatan Rakyat stands for the former to unite all Malaysians to forge  a common destiny while Barisan Nasional stands for the latter, persisting in its “divide-and-rule” tactics among the different racial and religious groups to continue to serve the interests of the Umno-putras and their cronies.

Let the demise of the race-based parties reach its high-water mark in the 13GE.

Pakatan Rakyat stands for the future while Barisan Nasional represents the past!

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 24 October 2012, 4:25 pm and is filed under
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Dr M: ‘Weak’ Najib won’t heed Malay concerns

Syed Jaymal Zahiid | October 24, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

The former premier said this is because the Malays are no longer the kingmakers and are now reduced to being ‘beggars’ in their own land.

KUALA LUMPUR: Dr Mahathir Mohamad today called the Najib administration “weak” and said it will not entertain the concerns of the Malays, especially its business community, as they are no longer the country’s kingmakers.

The former premier said the division among the country’s majority electorate has made them fragile and forced the present government to depend on the support of “others” in an apparent reference to the non-Malays.

This is the second time Mahathir had openly called Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s government “frail”, saying it is forced to make key concessions to non-Malay demands in the hope of winning their support in the upcoming national polls.

“I do not believe this government will take your demands seriously,” he told the 2012 Malay Economic Congress held here.

“This is because we [the Malays] no longer hold anymore political power… we have become a beggar in our own country,” he added.

The congress, in its resolutions passed today, criticised the Najib government for what it described as its failure to uphold the New Economic Policy, a system meant to enhance Bumiputera economic participation through race-based affirmative action programmes.

Mahathir claimed that Bumiputeras, forming 60% of the electorate of which the majority are Malays, are forced to fight for “what is theirs” silently as they feared being labelled as racists.

‘I am no racist’

The former prime minister, who served for 22 years, said however, if the non-Malays are vocal in protecting their interests they would not be viewed as racists.

“But I am not a racist. I want the wealth of this resource-rich nation to be shared equitably.

“I am not asking for much. We form 60% and we are only asking for 30% and they can take the rest. But even so, we are not getting the 30%,” he said, referring to the 30% equity ownership programme under the NEP.

Respectable leaders like Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and former Umno No 2 and now Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim had said that corruption under the ruling coalition had caused the NEP to fail.

Up to now, since more than 30 years of its implementation, the target had only reached 19% due to abuses of the system often by cronies connected to the ruling party, Umno.

This was admitted by Mahathir himself who told the congress that many of the policies created by the government and aimed at helping the Malays were frequently abused.

“So don’t blame the government. Sometimes we have done much for you but you have abused it. You need to look at yourself and reflect,” he said.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 25 October 2012, 5:14 pm and is filed under
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Happy Hari Raya Haji

Wishing Malaysian Muslims a happy and meaningful Hari Raya Haji!

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 25 October 2012, 6:56 pm and is filed under
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Has Chua Soi Lek turned MCA into Malaysian Charlatans Party by keeping quiet on Jamil’s parliamentary answer on hudud?

Has the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek turned MCA into “Malaysian Charlatans Party” by keeping quiet on the hudud answer given by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom in Parliament on Tuesday, exposing the utter hypocrisy of the MCA campaign on hudud in the past two years?

Yesterday, in my media statement “UMNO/MCA’s ‘Devil’s Compact’ confirmed by Mahathir within 24 hours”,  I had posed the question to Chua and the MCA leadership whether Jamil’s parliamentary reply “if hudud laws are implemented in Malaysia, they will not have any implications on non-Muslims” represented the stand of MCA in Cabinet and BN, “and if not, what are they going to do about it”.

There has been no answer but only thunderous silence!

How can this be the case when in the past two years, Chua had been leading his coterie of MCA Ministers and  Deputy Ministers up and down the country with only one campaign theme – that it is a “lie” that hudud laws will not affect non-Muslims.

Using the language of Chua and MCA leaders in their nation-wide campaign in the past two years, are they going to “chastise” Jamil for telling such a “lie” in Parliament, will they demand firm action to be taken by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak against Jamil as his parliamentary answer is contrary to the stand of the four MCA Ministers in Cabinet and the MCA national leadership in the Barisan Nasional or is MCA going to sever ties with UMNO over Jamil’s parliamentary answer?

Or is Chua and MCA Ministers and leaders just playing a political game, without any real conviction whatsoever, and their role is exactly as that described by former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir, viz: MCA’s “hardline stance” against hudud law was “merely aimed at scaring the Chinese community and not aimed at the Malays or Muslims”, which was why MCA “never objected” when Mahathir unilaterally, arbitrarily and unconstitutionally made the “929 Declaration” that Malaysia was  an Islamic State at the Gerakan National Delegates’ Conference on September 29, 2001.

Unlike MCA, DAP’s stand on hudud is clear, consistent and principled – that it is not suitable for Malaysia’s plural society and is not part of Pakatan Rakyat’s common policy platform.

In contrast, MCA is only playing an irresponsible political game as when it comes to the crunch in the final analysis, it would comply with UMNO’s wishes and dictates as happened in the unconstitutional and arbitrary “929 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic State.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 25 October 2012, 4:02 pm and is filed under
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