‘Tanda Putera’ itu ‘tanda Umno terdesak’

— Aspan Alias

The Malaysian Insider

Aug 17, 2012

17 OGOS — “Tanda Putera” merupakan filem yang dipergunakan oleh Barisan Nasional lebih-lebih lagi Umno untuk “discredit” Lim Kit Siang dan ini merupakan tindakan “desperate” pihak BN dalam menunggu pilihanraya yang paling mencabar dalam sejarah negara ini.

Isu perkauman dan agama diperbesarkan oleh pihak Umno kerana itu sahaja yang mereka rasakan boleh menyekat peningkatan pengaruh DAP dalam kancah politik tanahair. DAP sudah diterima oleh sebahagian orang Melayu sebagai parti yang mampu membawa kebaikan kepada negara bersama-sama dengan PAS dan PKR.

Tohmahan dan tuduhan palsu ke atas LKS itu merupakan jalan yang terakhir untuk BN mengelakkan diri daripada terjatuh tersungkur di hadapan mata rakyat kerana momokan terhadap parti itu sejak lebih empat dekad lalu sudah secara deras tidak diterima lagi oleh ramai orang Melayu.

Umno dalam kedudukan “desperate” untuk mendapatkan sokongan orang Melayu kerana sebahagian besar dari orang Melayu sudah menerima PAS sebagai parti gantian kepada Umno untuk mereka sekarang ini.

Kaum Cina pula sudah meninggalkan MCA yang selama ini merupakan parti yang mewakili bangsa Cina dalam Perikatan dan BN selepas itu. Maka memainkan isu perkauman itu merupakan salah satu daripada strategi untuk mengelakkan orang Melayu dari memberikan perhatian terhadap DAP.

Dalam posting saya semalam saya telah menulis tentang betapa “desperate”nya Umno jika PAS dan DAP terus-terusan bekerjasama dengan baik kerana jika kedua-dua parti ini tidak dapat dipecah-belahkan oleh Umno maka keputusan pilihanraya yang akan datang ini adalah “predictable”.

Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba, pengarah filem itu menafikan bahawa filem itu membawa maksud untuk menuduh LKS terlibat memyebabkan tercetusnya tragedi 13 Mei 1969 itu. Saya mempunyai andaian yang isu ini dengan sengaja dipermainkan kerana politik dan kuasa.

Ramai yang bercakap dan menghubungi saya berpendapat ini merupakan permainan politik yang sangat kotor dan LKS sepatutnya mengambil tindakan Mahkamah jika cukup kesahihan yang isu ini diperbesarkan semata-mata kerana permainan politik desperado pihak yang ketagih dengan kuasa itu.

Jika isu fitnah itu menyebabkan kecederaan kepada intergriti pemimpin maka mangsa kepada isu itu sememangnya wajar untuk tampil mengambil tindakan undang-undang kerana isu ini akan menyebabkan perpecahan rakyat yang berdasarkan pada kaum.

Isu yang dimainkan oleh pihak yang menyokong pemerintah ini adalah isu yang tidak bertanggungjawab dan ia bertentangan dengan slogan-slogan pihak pemerintah untuk menjaga kepentingan kesemua kaum di negara ini.

Kita sudah merdeka selama 55 tahun dan isu perkauman ini nampaknya diburukkan oleh pihak parti-parti yang memerintah. Sekarang ini, rakyat pula yang bersabar dengan tindak-tanduk BN untuk mengelakkan pergaduhan antara kaum di negara ini. Tindakan media massa dan alternatif yang memihak kepada BN sengaja mahu mengingatkan peristiwa berdarah itu untuk menakut-nakutkan orang Melayu dan untuk menyemai perasaan benci-membenci di antara kaum.

Kita elok memberi pandangan kepada pihak parti-parti yang memerintah supaya berkelakuan baik untuk mendapat penghormatan rakyat, bukannya menabur fitnah terhadap mana-mana pihak untuk mengekalkan kuasa. Walau bagaimana pun rakyat tidak mudah untuk menerima tohmahan ini kerana rakyat sudah tersedia dengan persepsi yang sangat buruk terhadap parti pemerintah sekarang ini.

Adalah tidak bermoral untuk sesiapa memperjudikan keselamatan negara kerana ingin terus berkuasa dengan memecah-belahkan rakyat. Bagi LKS, beliau berhak untuk mempertahankan diri beliau daripada korban fitnah yang tidak terperi kotornya ini.

LKS sepatutnya ke mahkamah dalam masa yang terdekat ini kerana fitnah mesti diperangi habis-habisan. Isu ini keluar kerana pilihanraya akan tiba. Rakyat ramai harus bangkit untuk menolak sebarang tindakan yang bersifat perkauman untuk meninggalkan sebuah negara yang aman damai kepada generasi kita yang akan datang.

Bagi rakyat pula kita seharusnya tidak terjebak dengan permainan kotor sesetengah pihak ini kerana kita juga tidak boleh membiarkan pihak ini memperbodoh-bodohkan kita dan bersekongkol dengan niat jahat pihak tersebut.

Kita memperjuangkan kehidupan rakyat yang muhibbah dan harmonis kerana sejak merdeka kita mempunyai satu matlamat yang “ultimate”, iaitu penyatuan semua kaum dan mencapai tahap “national unity” yang optima.

Itulah sebaik-baik peninggalan untuk generasi kita yang akan datang. — aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 22 August 2012, 7:19 pm and is filed under
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Tweets from Sabah (4) – 20% oil royalty and Janji Ditepati public hearings

Tweets
@limkitsiang
:

My 4day 500km visit of Sabah (KotaMarudu TipOfBorneo Kudat Matunggong Ranau Penampang Tawau Sandakan) w MP LimLipEng eye-opener 4JTD by BN

Aug 21, 5:50pm

Suggested in Tawau PM Najib conduct daily “Janji Ditepati” dialogues in 23 Sabah districts from 1-16 Sept 2hear views Sabah’s 49yrs in Msia

Aug 21, 5:55pm

Dare Najib hold daily “Janji Ditepati” dialogues in Sabah? Of cos not as he will b drowned with “Janji Tidak Ditepati” grouses by Sbh ppl!

Aug 21, 8:08pm

Capacity crowd @ DAP Karamunting ceramah – increasingly powerful popular support 4change. The longer delay in 13GE greater pressure 4UBAH

Aug 22, 6:29am

Time 2chk Sandakan decline n restoration of its former glory. Once “Little Hong Kong”, Sandakan has degraded 2 become “Little Philippines”.

Aug 22, 6:39am

Sandakan once premier centre of Sabah.Former capital British NorthBorneo 62yrs(1884-1946) until WWII when capital transferred 2KK(Jesselton)

Aug 22, 6:43am

Today Sandakan lost out 2Tawau n even Miri Bintulu in Swak as they all have international airports but not Sandakan. Janji Tidak Ditepati!

Aug 22, 6:46am

If PR forms federal govt in Putrajaya in 13GE, new PR govt will in first 100 days approve construction of international airport 4Sandakan!

Aug 22, 6:52am

At Karamunting ceramah last nite, Sandakan ppl in audience listed issue of International airport in list where “Janji Tidak Ditepati”!

Aug 22, 6:57am

Other big-ticket JTD in Sandakan are longstanding infrastructure broken promises on power water n highways (terrible Labuk Rd 8-16Mile)

Aug 22, 7:05am

Called on Najib 2form “Janji Ditepati” RCI or lead public hearings in 23 Sabah districts 4Sabah ppl 2speak up on Sabah’s 49 yrs in Msia

Aug 22, 7:13am

If no response from Najib next 48hrs Sabah DAP 2launch “Janji Ditepati” public hearings all over Sabah on hopes/promises fulfilled/betrayed

Aug 22, 7:33am

Told ceramah Sabah/Swak Chief Ministers proven PR right in demanding oil royalty increase from 5 to 20 per cent 4states 2b used 4development

Aug 22, 7:40am

Sabah CM Musa followed Swak CM Taib now talking abt state oil royalty issue “open 4discussion”. Proof of power of PR n ppl in Sabah Swak

Aug 22, 7:44am

Only 2weeks ago Musa had dismissed PR demands 4increase of oil royalty from 5 to 20% as “illogical”. Y sudden change of heart? All bcos 13GE

Aug 22, 7:49am

But x good enuf just 2say “open 4discussion” – open invitation 2Musa/Taib 2officially endorse PR demand 4 20% increase of state oil royalty

Aug 22, 7:56am

My 4day 500km visit of Sabah (KotaMarudu TipOfBorneo Kudat Matunggong Ranau Penampang Tawau Sandakan) w MP LimLipEng eye-opener 4JTD by BN

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 22 August 2012, 10:58 am and is filed under
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‘Another May 13 only if orchestrated’

Anisah Shukry | August 23, 2012

Free Malaysia Today

While decades of socio-economic advances have lessened the likelihood of another racial riot, analysts say the threat of racial riots, although small, still exists.

PETALING JAYA: The threat of another May 13 incident is minimal but real, political analysts said, pointing fingers at “right-wing groups” they claim would be eager to instigate such riots.

On May 13, 1969, violence broke out between the Malays and the Chinese, sparked off by an election setback for the Malay-dominated ruling alliance. The riots lasted several weeks, with the death toll said to be 196.

Politicians often raise the tragic incident to cow Malaysians into maintaining the status quo – one that had seen the ruling government in power for 55 years.

But while analysts did not rule out the possibility of another racial riot, they said it would only occur if manufactured by certain quarters.

“The threat of May 13 repeating itself is real but only if there are people manipulating the incident,” Prof James Chin of Monash University told FMT.

“It is not likely to happen spontaneously,” he stressed, adding that unlike other countries, violence was not inherent in Malaysia’s political culture.

“There are lots of right-wing groups, for example, certain Malay groups – you know what I’m talking about – who will be happy to have such riots take place,” he said.

Analyst Ong Kian Ming echoed this sentiment, saying that the incumbent government might be desperate enough to orchestrate a riot if the results of the general election were not in their favour.

“There are efforts by some quarters to create this fear-mongering in order to achieve political ground.

“If this continues, it is possible that if the election results are close, the incumbent government may feel desperate enough to manufacture violence in order to hold on to power,” he said.

But the USCI lecturer said that if any group attempted to use violence as an excuse to stay in power, it would most likely backfire.

“The Malaysian electorate is more mature now. If the incumbent government uses these dirty tactics, it will only hasten their departure. There will certainly be a backlash,” he said.

Malaysia has changed

Ong cited the many changes between Malaysians today and those four decades ago as proof that it was unlikely that another racial riot would manifest itself on its own accord.

“The Malaysian electorate is much more mature compared to the electorate in 1969. We can see that in the 2008 general election, where there was a peaceful transfer of power in five states.

“I think that is a testament that Malaysians have matured politically and will not fall into the racial bait trap,” he said.

Ong also said the rise of the Malay middle class would also make Malays less likely to engage in violence with their Chinese counterparts.

“The Malay middle class is much larger compared to that of 1969 and they would have a lot more to lose if the racial riots were to take place.

“That means many will do all they can to prevent something like this happening,” he said.

He added that there now existed a strong middle ground in civil society which would decrease the likelihood of racial rioting, citing the recent Bersih 3.0 rally for free and fair elections as an example.

“The Bersih movement, in which Malaysians from all ethnic groups took part in it, carried on without any incidence of violence. It was only until the police fired tear gas that violence arose,” he pointed out.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 August 2012, 7:28 pm and is filed under
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Can University of Malaya leapfrog in QS World University Rankings 2012 to be released in 20 days’ time to restore her previous place as one of the world’s top 100 universities before 2015?

At the University of Malaya’s centennial celebrations in June 2005, the then Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak threw the challenge to University of Malaya to raise its 89th position among the world’s top 100 universities in THES-QS (Times Higher Education Supplement-Quacquarelli Symonds) ranking in 2004 to 50 by the year 2020.

Instead of accepting Najib’s challenge with incremental improvement of its THES ranking, the premier university went into a free fall when in 2005 and 2006 it fell to 169th and 192nd ranking respectively, and in the following two years in 2007 and 2008, fell out of the 200 Top Universities ranking altogether.

In 2009, University of Malaya made a comeback to the 200 Top Universities Ranking when it was placed No. 180, but  in 2010 it again fell out of the 200 Top Universities list when it dropped to 207th placing.

For the 2011 QS Top 200 Universities Ranking, University of Malaya returned to the Top 200 Universities Ranking, being placed at No. 167.

In the THES-QS World University Rankings 2009, University of Malaya leapfrogged 50 places from No. 230 placing in 2008 to No. 180 in 2009; while in the 2011 QS World University Ranking, University of Malaya leapt 40 places from No. 207 in 2010 to No. 167 in 2011.

The QS World University Rankings 2012 will be released in 20 days’ time. Can University of Malaya make another leapfrog as in 2009 and 2011 to seriously restore her place as one of the world’s top 100 universities by before 2015?

The government has announced that in addition to Najib’s challenge to University of Malaya in 2005 to be among the world’s Top 50 universities by 2020, the National Higher Education Strategic  Plan called for at least three Malaysian universities to be ranked among the world’s top 100 universities.

Recently, the U.S. News World’s Best Universities Rankings included five local universities in its Top 100 Asian Universities, but this is not really something to celebrate about.

The U.S. News World’s Best Universities Ranking is actually based on the QS 2012 Top 300 Asian University Rankings released on May 30 this year, which commented that overall, although University of Malaya improved its ranking as compared to 2011 ranking, the majority of Malaysian universities dropped in their rankings this year as compared to 2011.

In contrast, University of Singapore (with whom University of Malaya was of comparable international standards 45 years ago) is ranked the second Top Asian university while Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is ranked No. 17 – way ahead of University of Malaya.

Other countries in Asia are forging ahead in their higher education planning and reforms and it is imperative that  Malaysia is not left behind.

This the
analysis
 of the 2012 QS Asian University Rankings:

The story at the top of the QS University Rankings: Asia was one of consistency, with the 21 year old Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) topping the table for the second year running, ahead of the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Hong Kong University.

The top-10 generally is young, averaging at 77.5 years old, compared to 338.6 for the world rankings – indicative of an extremely dynamic region.

Chinese investment in universities has continued to pay dividends, with nine of the top-10 Chinese institutions moving up, including Peking University, which overtakes the University of Tokyo for the first time – mirroring China overtaking Japan in terms of GDP.

Japan’s top-10; on the other hand, all lost ground, though it remain one of region’s – and the world’s – higher education powerhouses.

With NUS moving up into second, and Nanyang Technological University remaining at 17, Singapore performs well, with strong internationalization policies benefitting both universities. And with seven institutions in the rankings (four in top-15), Asia’s other city-state, Hong Kong, also reasserts its status.

South Korea’s performance is noteworthy. Above average investment in education and research has paid off, with the 15 leading Korean universities improving their positions, led by Seoul National University, which climbs from sixth to fourth place. A total of 55 Korean universities feature the top-300 – a figure only Japan and China better.

Outside of these nations, we see India once again underperforming, with only 11 universities in the ranking, the vast majority of which are various Indian Institutes of Technology. Internationalization has been identified as a key issue. The Philippines also performed poorly, with all its universities losing ground as budget cuts kick in.

Taiwan, on the other hand, increases its share of top-200 universities by three, taking the total up to 19. And in more good news for the nation, National Taiwan University also broke into the top 20.

Malaysia’s results were mixed, with top ranked Universiti Malaya’s move up to 35 offset by the drop in position of nine out of its 15 ranked universities. Thailand also lost ground, with two fewer universities (12).

Where will the Malaysian universities, particularly University of Malaya, stand when the QS World University Rankings 2012 is  released in 20 days’ time?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 August 2012, 6:47 pm and is filed under
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Global economic slowdown and political uncertainty in Malaysia

Shankaran Nambiar
, Kuala Lumpur | August 15th, 2012

East Asia Forum

The world is on the brink of an economic crisis and the consequences are likely to be dire.

The current state of the global economy presents multiple challenges to Malaysia. While the effects will first be felt within the economic sphere, they will also have a significant impact on domestic politics. This will add to the prevailing state of political uncertainty.

Some of Malaysia’s key trading partners are already struggling economically. The crisis rocking the euro zone has received a considerable amount of analysis, but the economic situation in other countries also merits attention.

The performance of the US economy is a concern for Malaysia. US GDP, which saw growth of 3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011, decreased to 1.9 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2012. Growth in the US hardly recovered, but whatever recovery it had achieved now appears shaky. Analysts put the forecast for US growth at 1–1.5 per cent for 2012. Some have raised the probability of a recession to 50 per cent. The unemployment rate has not budged from 8.2 per cent, as the increase in employment opportunities has not kept pace with population growth.

Any hopes that could have come from China have been dashed. In the previous quarter, China grew by 8.1 per cent. The growth rate has now fallen to 7.6 per cent for the period stretching from April to June. This makes it China’s slowest quarter since the first quarter of 2009, when it was feeling the effects of the global financial crisis.

With the rest of the world experiencing a slowdown, Singapore’s economy has also been affected. Singapore is a significant trading partner for Malaysia, and what happens to Singapore will affect Malaysia greatly.

In light of the problems its trading partners are experiencing, Malaysia can also expect difficulties. On the economic front, it is hard to see where the export-oriented manufacturing sector will find demand for its products. Low global demand will translate, sooner or later, into low GDP figures. All indications are that the Malaysian economy will slow in the next quarter.

On the fiscal side, the problems are no less daunting. The Malaysian economy has had long stretches of fiscal indiscipline. The present political cycle adds pressure on government spending. With the elections ahead, there has been massive government spending on a variety of items, including salary revisions for civil servants, and payments for senior citizens and children with disabilities. The causes may be good, but they place a burden on the government’s purse. Current government spending that is a consequence of the political cycle will, in all likelihood, have to be followed by more spending to mitigate the effects of an economic slowdown, once it occurs.

Time and again, the state of the economy has influenced political shifts.

Current economic circumstances may have led to the election dates being delayed. Even strong governments crumble when the economy weakens. The Malaysian government, like any other rational government, will not want to take the risk of holding elections at a time when the economy is less than robust.

If the elections are delayed for too long and the global slowdown strikes in the meantime, the performance of the Malaysian economy will persuade some sections of the electorate to deny their votes to the ruling party. A wave of retrenchments and economic uncertainty will not be endearing to large sections of the public. Any stimulus package which is undertaken at a time of crisis — as can be expected to happen — will worsen the fiscal situation. This will be seen as a further sign of poor macroeconomic management and an indication of fiscal profligacy.

All this leads to a continuing trail of uncertainty, both political and economic. One can only hope that any ensuing instability, political or economic, does not have unduly disturbing consequences.

__

Shankaran Nambiar is an economist who consults for various national and international agencies. He lives in Kuala Lumpur.

An earlier version of this article was published in the Edge Financial Daily on 25 July 2012.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 August 2012, 12:25 pm and is filed under
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Ideology and debt: A reply to Dr Mahathir

— Pak Sako

The Malaysian Insider

Aug 23, 2012

AUG 23 — In his blog post “Change” (August 22, 2012), former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad criticised the socialist ideology.

He then claimed that “Malaysia has no ideology”.

This is not accurate.

It can be strongly argued that the Malaysian government after 1980 followed the “neoliberalism” ideology, a pro-business ideology.

This economic ideology was aggressively promoted around the world at the start of the 1980s by two pro-business world leaders: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (elected 1979) and American President Ronald Reagan (elected 1981).

Both leaders had strong business connections and economic advisers who were pro-business, Alan Walters and Milton Friedman respectively.

Mahathir became prime minister around the same time, in 1981. Not long after, he officially announced a privatisation policy in 1983 (Jomo K.S. and Wong Sau Ngan (eds.), “Law, Institutions and Malaysian Economic Development”, page 42).

Mahathir too had close business associates, and his economic adviser was a businessman called Daim Zainuddin.

The neoliberal ideology says privatise publicly-held assets, sell them off to private business interests, entrepreneurs, corporate “captains”.

This is what the Malaysian government did.

The “massive privatisation strategy” carried out during Mahathir’s tenure is said to be linked to “increased competition for resources within the ruling Malay party”; it redistributed resources “in favour of emerging factions centred on key political leaders” (Jeff Tan, “Privatization in Malaysia: Regulation, Rent-Seeking and Policy Failure”, 2008, page 5).

Privatisation seems to be a favoured economic policy of the Malaysian government till today.

The neoliberalism ideology calls for weaker worker unions so big businesses can have more “economic freedom”.

The Malaysian government’s development agenda subordinated labour in favour of private business interests, especially in the 1980s (Jomo Sundram and Patricia Todd, “Trade Unions and the state in Peninsular Malaysia”, 1994). Labour organisations are weak relative to business power in Malaysia.

The neoliberalism ideology wants free labour markets, let wages be competed down if necessary, minimum wage rules are bad.

Mahathir also lately argued against minimum wages in Malaysia, claiming it might bankrupt Malaysia (“Dr M: Minimum wage may bankrupt Malaysia”, The Malaysian Insider, March 2, 2012). He did not consider the positive aspects of minimum wage rules.

The neoliberalism ideology supports a strong state, but not a strong state that directly provides for the public welfare, but a strong state that enables businesses and capitalists to flourish freely — corporate freedom and welfare.

Mahathir too does not like the welfare state.

The welfare state approach claims that basic social needs and securities must be fulfilled as a precondition to economic prosperity.

The opposite way is the neoliberal one: to support the corporate class in the hope that wealth will “trickle down” sufficiently to fulfil the fundamental needs of society.

In short: Mahathir complains about the injustices of the neoliberal international order, but he himself followed the neoliberal style (Johan Saravanamuttu, “Malaysia’s Foreign Policy, The First Fifty Years: Alignment, Neutralism, Islamism”, 2010, pages 202-203). Malaysia sharply switched to economic policies advocated by the neoliberal ideology under his rule. Mahathir’s personal positions on a number of issues are characteristic positions of the neoliberal ideology.

On debt, Mahathir says Greece borrowed a lot of money and is bankrupt.

But Europe fears Italy has also borrowed too much and is going bankrupt.

Malaysia has now been given a financial warning: a top debt ratings agency says our public finances are weak — they are at the same level as debt-struck Italy (“Fitch warns Malaysia of possible downgrade due to ‘deteriorating’ public debt ratios’, The Edge, August 1, 2012).

Malaysia’s debt is now more than half of the income Malaysia as a whole earns in a year. This debt is RM456 billion. This debt nearly doubled since 2007 — a matter of four years.

This is equal to saying that every Malaysian now owes about RM16,000. If you earn RM4,000 a month, that is four months’ pay.

Mahathir says: “Look at [Barisan’s] record… compare it even with the developed West. They are in deep financial trouble…”

Mahathir says: “Five years to give a trial as government is dangerous. Many things can be destroyed in five years.”

Question: Which government doubled Malaysia’s debt in less than five years?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 August 2012, 7:10 pm and is filed under
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Johor MB expects to lose nine seats

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz
 | August 23, 2012

Free Malaysia Today

Johor has always been touted as the bastion of Umno, but one wonders if it really is so, given the inroads the opposition made in 2008.

In the 2008 general election, there was a 14% swing to the opposition. What has happened to that swing? It is increasing and getting stronger.

And this has got the menteri besar worried, intimating to his Umno division heads in one meeting that he expects at least nine parliamentary seats and up to 16 state seats to fall to the opposition in the 13th general election.

That means he has not discounted fully the swing to the opposition.

He has acknowledged that, at best, with all the efforts and the bribery that Umno has carried out, the party has only managed to claim back some 5%.

That means there is still around a 9% swing with the opposition.

Based on that conservative assumption, the nine parliamentary seats are indeed in jeopardy.

My personal view is that Pakatan Rakyat can win the nine parliamentary seats and more.

Umno and Barisan Nasional is dicey in at least six more seats – Tanjung Piai, Gelang Patah, Pulai, Pasir Gudang Tebrau, Simpang Rengam and Parit Sulong.

Which really means, Pakatan could end up with between nine and 15 seats.

Will Shahrir contest?

Having said that, there is also the Johor Baru seat to consider. JB has a sizeable Chinese population which should prove to be a boon to Pakatan.

The determining factor here would be Umno’s choice of candidates. If Shahrir Samad chooses to retire, then JB will fall to Pakatan.

Shahrir can only be persuaded to stand if the Umno people can stoke his contempt for Anwar Ibrahim.

Shahrir himself is not that confident. He has said privately that most of the faces he sees in JB are not familiar to him.

The other seat which I am interested to see is Pulai. It’s currently held by UDA Holdings Bhd chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamed Rahmat.

Nur Jazlan is a decent fellow but has recently been the victim of Umno’s habit of practising infanticide. It kills off its young talent.

When Nur Jazlan came up with a strategy of raising money for UDA with the redevelopment of the Pudu Jail area, he became a victim to the ravenous appetite of Umno warlords ever on the lookout of using government to make tons of money.

And that has not gone down well with him and his supporters.

__

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but joined DAP earlier this year. He is a FMT columnist.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 August 2012, 12:28 pm and is filed under
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Be aware of Fitch’s fiscal warning

— Ramon Navaratnam

The Malaysian Insider

Aug 23, 2012

AUG 23 — International ratings agency Fitch Ratings has once again warned Malaysia that its public finances are under sustained strain!

This firm but polite expression of censure, if not admonition, should not be played down by unduly highlighting Malaysia’s short-term good economic growth gains in the last two quarters of this year .

Neither should we be complacent about the serious declines in economic growth and stability occurring currently in the relatively rich developed industrial world. We can do this only at our own peril.

The fact of the matter is that Malaysia will be adversely affected by the global slowdown in the near future. The extent of our economic slide is difficult to project at this time. But we know for sure that we cannot take a “business as usual” attitude against the headwinds and strong disruptive socio-economic currents whirling around us, at home and from abroad.

Thus we have to safeguard the economy against increasing strains on our national “credit profile”. This means, in short, exercising more fiscal discipline to restrain our high budget deficits and the budget and national debt from growing big and bad.

Budget 2013, to be tabled in Parliament next month, must therefore ensure that the necessary budget fiscal and monetary measures are adopted to strengthen our economic foundation and the fiscal reforms relating to better management of budget revenues, expenditures, the national debt and balance of payments, in the face of the inevitable global economic slowdown

Budget 2013 must therefore clearly show that it has taken Fitch’s fiscal warning seriously or Malaysia will have to pay penalties now being experienced by many developed countries!

We believe 2013 Budget should and will accordingly be designed appropriately.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 24 August 2012, 12:22 am and is filed under
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Call on Najib to establish tribunal to probe many serious allegations of corruption and abuses of power against Attorney-General Gani Patail by Mat Zain and Robert Phang

Malaysiakini reported today that outspoken former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) panel member Tan Sri Robert Phang has been cleared of the corruption allegations made against him.

This follows the confirmation by the MACC director of investigations Mustafar Ali in an SMS in response to a query from Malaysiakini.

Phang had been issued with a letter from Mustafar, dated November last year, clearing him of the allegation made by an anonymous blogger.

However, the letter from the MACC that cleared Phang also stated that it cannot be used for the purpose of publication by the media.

The MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Abu Kassim Mohamed  should be censured in Parliament if he cannot give satisfactory explanation why MACC suppressed information for some 15 months that Phang had been cleared of corruption allegations made against him.

In this connection, the Chairman of the MACC’s Operations Review Panel, Tan Sri Hadenan Abdul Jalil should also explain why he withheld information about Phang being cleared of corruption allegations some 15 months ago in May last year.

Hadenan had said that MACC “had failed to find enough evidence to charge Phang”, which contributed to the impression that MACC investigations on Phang was still ongoing.

Wasn’t it true that the MACC and its Operations Review Panel cleared both the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail and Phang at the same meeting in May last year?

If so, why Hadenan only announced after the MACC Operations Review Panel meeting in May last year that MACC investigations had cleared the Attorney-General of a corruption allegation related to his haj pilgrimage, that “the panel is satisfied that the investigation did not indicate any criminal offence”, but conspicuously omitted or withheld information that Phang had also been cleared of corruption allegations against him?

Recently, Phang lodged a police report calling on the MACC and the police to investigate allegations against Gani for abuses of power as described in a new book entitled “Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail: Pemalsu, Penipu, Penjenayah?”

Phang said the AG must  investigate the accusations made against him as AG and to sue the author of the book for defamation if the allegations are wrong.

It would appear that the Government Transformation Programme to combat corruption and abuses of power in high places has degenerated into a double battle of Gani vs Robert Phang as well as Gani vs Mat Zain.

Malaysians are seriously concerned that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak seems to be completely impotent although the country is having the most controversial Attorney-General in history, with the most number of serious allegations of corruption and abuses of power against the holder of the office of Attorney-General in the nation’s 55-year history.

Only two days ago, the former Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department chief Mat Zain Ibrahim has sent the latest of his series of  letters asking the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak why he is not prepared to have a tribunal to investigate the Attorney-General despite an abundance of allegations and evidence against Gani but could give the nod to the formation of a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah.

The latest serious allegation made by Mat Zain, who was the investigation officer into the Anwar Ibrahim “black eye” assault in 1998 and subsequently Anwar’s four police reports lodged between July 9 and August 20, 1999 on political personalities including former Finance Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin, former international trade and industry minister Datuk Paduka Rafidah Aziz, former Malacca Chief Minister Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Cik is  that Gani, like PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli,  had been guilty of violating the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia).

Both Phang and Mat Zain have made very serious allegations against Gani and the  Prime Minister cannot continue to be indifferent to having the most controversial Attorney-General in the nation’s history, as the Attorney-General is the chief legal officer of the land who should be upholding the law rather than being seen or perceived as the chief law-breaker.

For these reasons, Najib should seriously reconsider his earlier refusal and move forward to establish a judicial tribunal to address once and for all the many serious allegations of corruption and abuses of power  made against Gani by both Mat Zain and Phang to clear the perception that the Attorney-General has become the chief law-breaker instead of being the chief law-upholder in the land.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 24 August 2012, 5:26 pm and is filed under
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Ignorance on Sabah: Nuid must take the rap

Ket Shin Pua

Malaysiakini

Aug 23, 2012

The recent police report made by Rozza Rothman against people from the peninsula insulting Sabah in Facebook postings reminds us again of the long and unceasing attitude of Malayans looking down on Sabah and Sabahans.

This is due mainly to the misconception created by the failure of the efforts of national integration and national unity made under the National Unity and Integration Department (Nuid) which has been operating since 1969 (after the May 13 riots), spending hundreds of millions of ringgits trying to bring together Malaysians in the peninsula and those in Borneo.

The Malaysian blog reported in July 2006 that “Probably 99 percent of Malaysians have not even heard of the very existence of the National Unity and Integration Department.

Ironically, as its name suggests, it is the one entrusted to ‘integrate’ and ‘unite’ the people and therefore should have been very familiar to the public!” the writer even commented, “What the devil have you been doing all these years except collect your monthly pay?”

The biggest problem with the Nuid is its plain ineptness, lack of creativity and drive. And the over-dominance of peninsular officers who have the attitude that it is the Borneons that need to be rehabilitated from the wild, to be civilised, so they can be on par with the more civilised Malayans.

There is less thought about rehabilitating the peninsular Malaysians into learning about Borneo which to them is unimportant and not even part of the real Malaysia.

Ever since the beginning people in the peninsula had always looked upon Sabah and Sarawak as the nation’s wild side, areas covered with trees occupied by monkeys, pythons, crocodiles and even wild men living on treetops. The Facebook insults reported by Rozza included comments saying Sabahans still live on trees.

In the past peninsular teachers coming to teach in Sabah used to shop for pain-killer tablets and toothpaste in large amounts in their hometowns before they boarded the planes to Kota Kinabalu because they believed those items can’t be found here.

In one TV live interview Dr Maximus Ongkili was called by a girl from Penang who asked what monetary currency was used in Sabah. Sabahans coming to KL are asked, “Bila sampai Malaysia?” or worse, “When is Sabah going to join Malaysia?”

I have friends who had been asked to please go ahead and enjoy the fish-head curry because “You people don’t have this in Sabah”.

The list of blatant ignorance runs long and wide, proving how ignorant people are in the peninsula. Even in the age of the Internet when surfers can easily see tens of thousands of pictures of Sabah online, they still really, really believe we live on trees.

Other the 43-year failure of the Nuid, this intolerable ignorance is also caused by the timidity and cowardice of our members of Parliament who act like wet mice in Kuala Lumpur, bowing and smiling to the Malayans as if to admit they are actually less civilised.

They allow themselves to be looked down upon to curry favours. They forget that one of their duties as the representatives of Sabahans is to educate the ignorant people of the peninsula that Sabah is a beautiful and a more peaceful place where peninsular teachers and civil servants come to get married and settle down because of the beauty of the state.

They need to shout in Parliament every now and then to remind the people there that they owe Sabah and Sarawak for the wealth and prosperity being enjoyed by them.

The fine highways, airports and buildings (including the Petronas Towers) are there because of oil from the Borneo states.

This is so ironic because Sabah, the producer of this precious black gold is mired in poverty, having terribly bad roads while they have four-lane highways even to gambling haven, Genting Highlands.

Our MPs need to shout in Parliament, “Jangan lupa orang Sabah yang kasi makan kamu!” to shame them into recognising our contribution to their prosperity there which is like 20 years ahead of us.

I urge the police to take serious action on Rozza’s report and inform us of their progress.

Soon, someone need to make a police report on the gigantic failure of the Nuid, even to sue it, or at least to audit its performance and penalise it for decades of failure to unite Malaysians.

It needs to explain why Malaysians today are more polarised than ever before and why it is not taking any action against those causing racial and religious disunity, especially people like Ibrahim Ali who is on record for threatening to kill Christians and calling for a ban on Christians from teaching in schools. If they can’t do the job the Nuid should be closed down to save precious money.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 24 August 2012, 12:10 am and is filed under
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Mat Zain’s letter to PM – Gani Patail also violated BAFIA like Rafizi

Mat Zain bin Ibrahim,

22 OGOS 2012

Kepada,

YAB Dato Seri Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak,

Perdana Menteri Malaysia,

Jabatan Perdana Menteri,

Putrajaya,

Wilayah Persekutuan

Yang Amat Berhormat Dato Seri,

Assalamualaikum wbt.

GANI PATAIL JUGA MELAKUKAN KESALAHAN JENAYAH DIBAWAH BAFIA SEPERTIMANA RAFIZI.

Rafizi Ramli,Pengarah Strategi PKR telah dituduh pada 1 Ogos 2012 dibawah Banking and Financial Institution Act 1989 (Bafia), kerana menyebabkan pendedahan empat penyata kewangan berkaitan NFC dan Pengerusi syarikat tersebut, Dato Seri Mohd. Salleh Ismail. Turut dituduh ialah Johari Mohamad, seorang bekas kerani Public Bank.

Dari sudut undang-undang Bafia,pertuduhan yang dikenakan terhadap Rafizi dan Johari adalah teratur. Begitu juga dari segi hak dan kuasa untuk memulakan prosiding tersebut, sememangnya Peguam Negara dibekalkan dengan kuasa berkenaan mengikut Perlembagaan Persekutuan.

YAB Dato Seri sendiri telah mempertahankan pertuduhan yang dikenakan keatas mereka berdua itu, dengan alasan untuk memelihara integriti dan kredibiliti sistem kewangan dan perbankan Negara. Saya yakin YAB telah diberikan taklimat sepenuhnya oleh Peguam Negara mengenai latar belakang kes terhadap Rafizi dan Johari, sehingga mereka dituduh, serta implikasi tindakan tersebut.

Perkara yang YAB dipercayai tidak diberitahu.

Saya percaya antara perkara mustahak yang YAB  tidak diberitahu atau sengaja disembunyikan daripada pengetahuan YAB ialah, bahawa Allahyarham Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah dan  Gani Patail sendiri pernah mendedahkan penyata kewangan melibatkan Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik (RTC), isteri dan anak-anak RTC serta juga penyata kewangan beberapa syarikat milik atau yang RTC mempunyai kepentingan, selain daripada beberapa harta lain kesemuanya bernilai sekurang-kurangnya RM 40 juta.

Perbuatan ini berlaku berkaitan penyiasatan Badan Pencegah Rasuah (BPR) terhadap RTC yang didakwa melakukan beberapa kesalahan rasuah dan salahguna kuasa ketika beliau menjadi Ketua Menteri Melaka.

Ringkasnya, kesalahan yang telah dilakukan membabitkan Gani Patail itu, adalah sama seperti kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh Rafizi. Oleh yang demikian, sekiranya Rafizi telah dituduh dibawah Seksyen 97 BAFIA, maka Gani Patail juga tidak boleh dikecualikan daripada dikenakan pertuduhan yang sama.

Kronologi ringkas.

Dalam penyiasatan terhadap RTC itu, pihak BPR telah memperolehi beberapa banyak dokumen bukti berkaitan harta boleh alih dan tidak bolih alih yang telah dikumpulkan oleh RTC menerusi rasuah dan salahguna kuasa, ketika menjadi Ketua Menteri Melaka.

Antara dokumen bukti yang diperolehi dalam siasatan itu, ialah lebih daripada 10  penyata-penyata bank  berlainan atas nama RTC sendiri, isteri dan juga anak-anak beliau. Selain daripada itu, ialah penyata kewangan beberapa syarikat milik RTC atau yang beliau mempunyai kawalan dan kepentingan.

Menerusi penyata-penyata kewangan tersebut, turut boleh dikenalpasti dengan positif ialah nombor akaun,transaksi dan baki terakhir dalam tiap-tiap akaun serta identiti bank-bank dan cawangan yang terlibat. Amaun yang terdapat dalam bank-bank tersebut yang dapat dikesan ketika itu, ialah lebih kurang RM 14.5 juta. Itu pun penyata daripada beberapa buah bank lagi masih belum diterima ketika itu.

BPR dan Bahagian Pendakwaan Jabatan Peguam Negara, telah menyediakan ringkasan keterangan yang terperinci, termasuk menyediakan deraf  empat pertuduhan yang akan dikenakan terhadap RTC. Tiga pertuduhan kerana salahguna kuasa dan rasuah, manakala satu pertuduhan kerana membuat Statutory Declaration (SD) palsu.

Turut dilampirkan kepada ringkasan keterangan adalah senarai harta-harta alih dan harta tak alih, milik RTC dan ahli keluarga beliau dan termasuk penyata kewangan daripada beberapa institusi kewangan, lengkap dengan nombor akaun, transaksi dan baki akhir tiap-tiap akaun, serta nama cawangan bank yang berkaitan.

Semua dokumen ini dikelaskan sebagai “RAHSIA” dan ditandatangani oleh Gani Patail sendiri disetiap helai dokumen tersebut, termasuk penyata-penyata kewangan yang dilampirkan itu.

Laporan polis.

Diantara 9 July 1999 dan 20 Ogos 1999, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim (Anwar) telah membuat 4 laporan berasingan mendakwa Tun Mahathir Mohamad, Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah(Allahyarham)ketika itu Peguam Negara dan Gani Patail, menyalahgunakan kuasa dengan melindungi perbuatan rasuah Tan Sri Eric Chia(mendiang), Tun Daim Zainuddin, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz dan RTC.

Bagi maksud surat ini, saya akan memfokuskan kepada laporan terhadap RTC sahaja, memandangkan bagi laporan yang lain,tidak ada melibatkan pendedahan penyata kewangan yang menjadi kesalahan di-bawah Bafia, melainkan kesalahan mendedahkan dokumen di-bawah Akta Rahsia Rasmi (OSA).

Perlu dinyatakan disini bahawa ketika Anwar membuat laporan-laporan tersebut, beliau berada dalam tahanan di-Penjara Sungai Buloh. Laporan-laporan yang beliau buat dipercayai adalah menerusi pihak berkuasa Penjara memandangkan semua laporan beliau ditulis tangan dalam Bahasa Malaysia dan Inggeris, menggunakan kertas tulis mengandungi cop “Pengarah Penjara Sungai Buloh”.

Kemungkinannya tidak boleh diketepikan, bahawa beberapa ramai kakitangan penjara dan sekalipun tahanan-tahanan lain, berpeluang melihat isi kandungan laporan Anwar beserta dengan lampiran-lampiran yang dikepilkan bersama,sebelum sampai ketangan polis.

Laporan siasatan BPR terhadap RTC kemudiannya didapati disebarkan menerusi internet sungguhpun penggunaan internet ketika itu tidaklah begitu meluas seperti masakini.

Klasifikasi laporan-laporan Anwar.

Peguam Negara telah menasihatkan untuk klasifikasikan semua laporan Anwar dibawah Akta Rahsia Rasmi sahaja, kecuali laporan berkaitan Tun Daim Zainuddin, yang kemudiannya dirujukkan kepada Ketua Pengarah BPR.

Bagaimanapun setelah meneliti klasifikasi dan skop siasatan yang dinasihatkan oleh Peguam Negara,atas kapasiti Ketua Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah KL,saya telah menulis surat Rujukkan
(PR)35/26 bertarikh 25 Ogos 1999
 kepada Pengarah JSJ Bukit Aman dan mencadangkan semua laporan Anwar diklasifikasikan dibawah Seksyen 2(1) Emergency(Essential Powers)Ordinance 2,1970 iaitu kesalahan salahguna kuasa sepertimana yang Anuar adukan.

Siasatan akan tertumpu juga kepada bila dan bagaimana dokumen-dokumen yang dikelaskan sebagai “RAHSIA” oleh Gani Patail boleh berada dalam simpanan Anwar ,sedangkan beliau ketika itu berada dalam penjara,serta mengenalpasti orang-orang yang bertanggung jawab menyebabkannya.

Selain itu, saya telah mencadangkan supaya satu notis dibawah Seksyen 51(1) Kanun Prosidur Jenayah diserahkan kepada Anwar, untuk memaksa beliau mengemukakan semua dokumen-dokumen yang ada dalam simpanan atau kawalan beliau.

Maklum balas Jabatan Peguam Negara.

Empat hari selepas menghantar surat kepada Pengarah JSJ Bukit Aman,secra tiba-tiba saya menerima sepucuk surat daripada Jabatan Peguam Negara, dialamatkan atas nama saya persendirian dan dikelaskan sebagai “SULIT”
Rujukan PRM(WP)5/99 SULIT(5) bertarikh 28 Ogos 1999.

Surat tersebut adalah untuk memaklumkan kepada saya, bahawa Gani Patail telah membuat laporan polis berkaitan pendedahan kepada umum laporan siasatan BPR terhadap RTC, sepertimana laporan yang dibuat oleh Anwar bersabit Tun H.S.Lee Rpt:22517/99 bertarikh 20.8.1999. Saya juga dimaklumkan bahawa laporan oleh Gani Patail itu disiasat oleh Musa Hassan yang pada ketika itu ialah Penolong Pengarah JSJ (Bahagian Pendakwaan dan Undang-Undang)Bukit Aman.

Bagaimanapun Peguam Negara tidak memaklumkan butir laporan yang dibuat oleh Gani Patail, mahu pun nombor laporan yang berkenaan ataupun nombor kertas siasatan yang dibuka oleh Musa Hassan, atau mengapa Gani hanya membuat laporan balas dalam kes melibatkan RTC sahaja dan tidak yang lain.

Saya menganggap perbuatan Gani Patail dan Musa Hassan pada ketika itu ialah untuk “hijack” keseluruhan penyiasatan yang sedang dijalankan oleh Polis KL dan menghalang Polis KL daripada pergi lebih mendalam dalam penyiasatan keatas laporan-laporan yang dibuat oleh Anwar.

Pendirian YAB Perdana Menteri berkaitan kesalahan dibawah BAFIA.

Untuk tidak tersasar daripada tujuan asal saya menulis surat terbuka ini kepada YAB Dato Seri, saya memohon YAB menyatakan pendirian YAB setelah dimaklumkan bahawa Gani Patail juga terlibat melakukan kesalahan jenayah di-bawah BAFIA, sepertimana juga Rafizi Ramli dan Johari Mohamad.

Saya menjangka Gani akan sekeras-kerasnya menafikan bertanggung jawab mendedahkan laporan penyiasatan dan penyata kewangan tersebut, walaupun tanda tangan beliau sendiri terdapat dalam setiap muka surat, dokumen-dokumen berkenaan yang beliau kelaskan sebagai RAHSIA dan sewajarnya disimpan selamat mengikut prosidur Jabatan Kerajaan.

Jika Gani Patail ingin menolak tanggung jawab pendedahan dokumen tersebut kepada Allahyarham Peguam Negara Tan Sri Mohtar, sepertimana yang pernah beliau dan Musa Hassan lakukan dalam penyiasatan terhadap Tun Mahathir Mohamad, berhubung kait dengan kes Tan Sri Ali Abul Hassan Sulaiman, maka biarkan beliau sendiri membuat kenyataan itu.

Fakta yang nyata ialah penyata-penyata bank berkenaan yang ditandatangani oleh Gani Patail telah sampai ketangan orang-orang yang tidak mempunyai otoriti untuk melihatnya dan disebarkan kepada umum.

Jika beliau boleh membenarkan beberapa dokumen palsu digunakan dalam RCI mata-lebam dan kemudian menyebabkan  dokumen palsu yang beliau sendiri arahkan untuk dibikin oleh seorang Doktor Pakar, dilesapkan sebelum laporan akhir RCI dikemukakan kepada YDP Agong;

jika beliau sanggup menyembunyikan fakta mustahak mengenai kelakuan dirinya daripada pengetahuan   YDP Agong semasa perlantikan sebagai Peguam Negara , serta melakukan beberapa kesalahan lain yang boleh dibuktikan;

maka, melakukan satu lagi pembohongan, mungkin tidak menjadi masaalah bagi beliau.

Diantara RCI dan Tribunal.

Selain dari TRIBUNAL, tidak ada badan lain yang layak mengadili kelakuan Peguam Negara sekalipun RCI. Jauh sekali satu Panel Bebas yang ahlinya diberi kuasa seorang Timbalan Pendakwa Raya sahaja dan dilantik pula oleh seorang Peguam Cara Negara.

Walaupun dalam bulan Mac yang lalu ,YAB telah menyatakan TIDAK akan membentuk Tribunal untuk menyiasat Gani Patail, walaupun beberapa banyak pendedahan yang credible berkaitan salahlaku jenayah beliau dihebahkan kepada umum,saya masih meletakkan harapan bahawa YAB sanggup menimbang semula pendirian tersebut.

Sekiranya YAB Dato Seri sedia menunaikan tuntutan rakyat Negeri Sabah supaya RCI ditubuhkan menyiasat masaalah pendatang haram yang telah bermula lebih kurang empat dekad lalu di-Negeri itu, maka saya yakin YAB Dato Seri juga sedia menimbang semula tuntutan rakyat Semenanjung, yang telah beberapa kali menuntut untuk Tribunal dibentuk menyiasat Gani Patail.

Siasatan kes RTC belum selesai tetapi ditutup.

Menyentuh laporan siasatan terhadap RTC tersebut,pihak BPR dan juga Jabatan Peguam Negara dengan jelas merekodkan bahawa siasatan RTC masih belum selesai memandangkan terdapat beberapa buah bank lagi yang masih belum mengemukakan penyata terperinci beberapa akaun lagi ketika itu.

Jika demikian, maka anggaran amaun yang dikatakan telah dikumpul oleh RTC menerusi perbuatan rasuah dan salahguna kuasa adalah melebihi RM 40 juta.

Disamping itu pula pada 31 Mac 2011, YB Dato Seri Mohamad Nazri Aziz telah mengesahkan di-Parlimen bahawa Peguam Negara tidak mempunyai kuasa untuk “indemnify” kesalahan jenayah mana-mana orang pun berdasarkan pertimbangan politik.

Selain itu YB Nazri juga berjanji akan menyiasat status harta melebihi RM 40 juta yang disahkan oleh BPR dan Jabatan Peguam Negara telah diperolehi oleh RTC menerusi jalan salah itu, sama ada dipulangkan kepada RTC atau tidak atau apa sebenarnya kedudukkan harta tersebut.

Sehingga hari ini pun jawapan yang YB Nazri janjikan itu, masih belum disempurnakan lagi. Ringkasnya siasatan keseluruhan BPR terhadap RTC masih belum selesai sehingga hari ini.

Jika siasatan masih belum selesai sepenuhnya dan Peguam Negara telah pula menutup kes tersebut, maka ianya jelas adalah suatu perbuatan salahguna kuasa pendakwaan.

Peguam Negara tidak mempunyai hak atau kuasa untuk memulangkan harta yang diperolehi secara rasuah dan salahguna kuasa kepada RTC atau mana-mana orang sekalipun.

Dengan demikian itu orang ramai boleh mendesak Operation Review Panel, SPRM untuk mengkaji semula kes terhadap RTC dan mengarahkan SPRM membuka semula kes tersebut, memandangkan terdapat perkembangan terbaru dalam kes berkenaan.

Penutup.

Sekiranya keterangan salahlaku Gani Patail  yang telah didedahkan belum lagi meyakinkan YAB Dato Seri, maka saya menyatakan bahawa saya sanggup, bersedia dan mampu membentangkan keterangan-keterangan yang telah saya kemukakan sejak 1998 lagi secara terbuka.

Saya sedar akan konsekuennya sekiranya keterangan yang telah, atau akan saya kemukakan kelak, didapati tidak benar atau direkacipta ataupun jika melanggar mana-mana undang-undang berkaitan pendedahan kepada umum.

Salam Eidul Fitri, Maaf zahir batin.

Yang benar,

Mat Zain Ibrahim.

22 Ogos 2012

                This entry was posted on Friday, 24 August 2012, 4:05 pm and is filed under
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MCA’s Record on Education:  Shameful and Pathetic

Koon Yew Yin

The Malaysian Insider

21st August 2012

Various thoughts come to my mind on reading the report that the Selangor MCA will build more Chinese schools if Barisan Nasional regains the state at the coming election.  According to the Selangor MCA chairman, Donald Lim Siang Chai the MCA “will help the state government approve more land for Chinese schools, particularly in predominantly Chinese areas in Selangor”.

One is of disbelief that the MCA leaders can stoop so low in their attempt to win a few seats in the coming elections. But perhaps we should not be surprised that the MCA is scrapping the bottom of the barrel in terms of political integrity.  Learning from the senior partner, UMNO, electoral bribery appears to be the main item in the standard operating procedure manual of MCA for the coming election, so desperate is the BN to remain in power.

The second is to question why this proposal to build more Chinese schools has come now.  After all, before Pakatan took over in 2008, the MCA was part of the Selangor state government for 50 years.  During the past decade the demand for Chinese schools in the state (and in other urban areas of the country) has especially grown tremendously.  However, this demand was ignored by the MCA leaders.

Why State Land was not alienated for Chinese Schools

Why was this community and national need been pushed aside?  The reason is that the MCA leaders were more engrossed in getting contracts for themselves and their cronies and in making hay while the sun was shining on the notorious Toyo administration.

The reason why state land was not approved for Chinese schools in the years leading to the 2008 elections is that the MCA leaders were busy requesting land for their cronies and business partners. This is the only conclusion any ordinary person can come to.

If Donald Lim would like to dispute and take me up on this, I will be happy up take up his challenge.  It can be easily shown who is correct by opening up the state government’s records on land alienation during the period of the Toyo administration and to compare the approvals granted to cronies versus the Chinese community.

National Education: Bigger MCA Failing

Not only has MCA failed Chinese education dismally it has also been a leading partner in the decline of our national school system.  Today our national schools are characterized by regressive language and religious dogmas, dismal performance, low standards and unemployable products.  No middle or upper middle class parent – whether Chinese, Malay, Indian or from any community – would want to have their young children schooled in the sekolah rendah kebangsaan and sekolah menegah if they can help it.  In fact, frankly, most Malaysian parents if they can help it avoid the national schooling system like the plague.

This national disgrace has one of its leading stake players the MCA which has held the Deputy Minister of Education portfolio for umpteen years. Can the MCA point to any educational innovation that it has introduced? Can the MCA point to any educational policy of merit, fairness, and tolerance that it has been responsible for since independence?

Let’s take the system of government scholarships.  During the last 40 years of the NEP, tens if not hundreds of thousands of parents of non-Bumiputera students with excellent SPM results have complained of discrimination when their children have been rejected in their applications for government scholarships.  Only after the scholarship results are announced and there a public outcry do we see MCA politicians try to do damage control by jumping into the fray and go with a begging bowl to the PSD and other scholarship award authorities.

The Chinese Deputy Minister of Education may be good at giving speeches to Chinese schools but when it comes to helping determine the course of national educational policy in key areas, his position is more like that of the office boy. I am writing about this from personal experience. I have given scholarships to more than 100 poor students. Some of them are really brilliant but they could not get Government scholarships. For example, Wan Pui Yee with 12 As in her SPM could not get a government scholarship.

Let’s take another sore point in education. The establishment of the matriculation college system has discriminated against the deserving non-Bumiputeras. Malaysian public universities offer a one-year matriculation programme. These courses have largely catered to the Bumiputera population and are deemed as having a much lower standard, qualifying criteria and final examination requirement for entry into university. This situation is in contrast to that which non-Bumiputera students face as they are required to sit for the much tougher two-year STPM in Form 6. Thus there exist two parallel tracks for students wishing to enter local universities, one with an easier syllabus and lower entry requirement, the other requiring a higher level of achievement.  Now how did this system come about if the MCA has not been a willing accessory to the educational crime!

The unwritten rule that the Bumiputera should be given opportunities at the expense of the non-Bumiputera destroys social cohesion and quality human resource development. It is an inferior and morally unacceptable form of educational investment which the MCA has been a party to.

A Fair National Policy: What has MCA Done?

Many Malaysians, including myself, fully support the policy that attention should be given to the educational needs of the underprivileged in society, with appropriate consideration and greater weight to those in the poorer rural-based Bumiputera (Malays and non-Malay Bumiputera) community. However, the needs of deserving non-Malays should also be treated fairly and equally.

The policy which I practice in my charitable work is that scholarships should be awarded to the deserving from all communities.

Information on awards should be publicly disclosed and widely disseminated. In contrast the government’s scholarship policy tacitly endorsed by the MCA has been indiscriminately applied to favour one community. Without proper checks and balances, it has had and continues to have a crippling effect on Malaysian parents and their children. But I suspect MCA leaders whose children are not in the national system are immune to this and other flaws in our education system.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 24 August 2012, 12:00 am and is filed under
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Another education ‘plan’?

Rom Nain

Malaysiakini

Aug 24, 2012

Tucked away on the inside pages of the Malaysian mainstream newspapers, far from the celebratory, feel-good stories of Hari Raya celebration, Umno politicians’ ‘open houses’ – largely paid for by us sucker taxpayers, I’m sure – and generally stories of gluttony and good cheer, was a report on the launch of yet another regime ‘plan’ or ‘blueprint’.

You may be forgiven for having missed this. After all, apart from being distracted by the Eid celebrations, by now many of us surely must be facing ‘transformation fatigue’ or ‘blueprint exhaustion’ after almost  four years of clichés about change yet being really offered much of a muchness, more of the same.

But, nonetheless, what’s this latest lark, err plan?

Well, it’s the ‘education blueprint’, a purportedly massive – not to mention ambitious and, certainly potentially mucho expensive – undertaking to transform (S..t! There’s that darn word again) the Malaysian education system over the next 13 years.

If you’re a superstitious person, just that number of years stated alone will, I’m sure, make you wary about the feasibility of the plan.

And even if you aren’t, given that 13 years is a rather long time, I’m sure you would ask if, over the period of the 13 years, there will be regular reviews to make sure that the ‘plan’ is having its desired effects in what, to be sure, will continue to be a changing world.

But before even all that, before we embark on more than a decade of implementation of educational strategies, perhaps it would be pertinent to ask: What the hell seems to have gone wrong that yet another blueprint is required for our education system?

Apparently all will be revealed on Sept 11, when the PM himself, now fondly called Bijan within some circles in cyberspace, will launch the National Education Blueprint.

We are reliably (hahaha) informed by the mainstream press that the former five-year National Education Blueprint (2006-2010) ‘promised drastic changes to the school environment to make students more confident, creative and innovative’.

Having been an educationist for a bit now, and also being a devoted fan of the Men in Black films, I’m sure this promise was met, but somehow all those ‘confident’, ‘creative’ and ‘innovative’ Malaysian kids were then kidnapped by Martians and brought to Mars.

And in their place, those nasty Martians must have left behind Martian clones, complete with Malaysian MyKads. And, despite having a combined IQ of minus 13 (S..t! There’s that number again), these many thousand clones were nonetheless trained to mark ‘X’ (or is it ‘/’) on Malaysian ballot papers.

But, to be serious, the editorial in the mainstream newspaper went on to say that under the previous blueprint, “…existing weaknesses were to be tackled, including the lack of basic amenities in rural schools, the need to refurbish old school buildings, and the failure among a small percentage of the student population to grasp the 3Rs”.

These, surely, are absolutely basic problems that were there many, many years ago, certainly when I was a schoolboy in the 1960s and 1970s.

‘Were they all Malaysian Rip Van Winkles?’

And if we consider that these problems still existed just six years ago, in 2006, and needed to be addressed and overcome under the previous Education Blueprint, then we really need to ask: What were the politicians and civil servants in the education sector doing all these many decades that has resulted in these problems persisting?

Were they all Malaysian Rip Van Winkles, fast asleep on the job?  Like our beloved home minister who very recently – and with a straight face, I’m sure – declared that it was only recently that the BN government saw a need to focus on crime-busting?

These basic, unresolved problems notwithstanding, if, indeed, there has been a five-year national education plan in place all this while, why, pray tell, was there all that fuss and complete u-turn with the policy/strategy/plan/cockamamie move to teach Science and Mathematics in English?

Indeed, now we are told that Ah Jib Gor or Bijan himself has suggested to one of the predictably many panels behind this new blueprint that English Literature should be included in the curriculum ‘to improve the proficiency of students in the language’.

I’m sure you can imagine how sparks will fly if and when that suggestion becomes something more.

Those guys in Perkasa, Pekida, even Umno Youth, I believe, will burst their blood vessels at the prospect of their offsprings learning Shakespeare, Eliot and, God forbid, DH Lawrence.

Indeed, it might just be a coincidence – although there have been too many of such ‘coincidences’ lately – but just as that was reported, another item was released by our impartial news agency, Bernama.

It tells us of this excited ‘Prof Madya’ (mad ya?) in some obscure Malaysian public university proposing that Malay Literature which, according to him, is not popular in schools these days, be made a core subject.

Such hand-sown, home-grown brilliance just knocks you out, doesn’t it? Students increasingly find a subject uninteresting, making it unpopular. Instead of exploring the reasons why, we just make it a core subject and force it down their throats. And did you say that we will be celebrating 55 years of Merdeka! not so long from now?

At any rate, I for one look forward to Sept 11, when the New Education Blueprint will be announced by the PM.

But, given that the panel designing it is headed by a former vice-chancellor of the country’s first ‘Apex’ university that, somehow, has not been able to crawl far up the world university rankings since, please excuse me if I don’t hold my breath.

——————————————————————————–

ROM NAIN is a media analyst and academic who is weary of incompetent, unethical leaders and their apologists and spin doctors in the media who try to get away with murder while professing to rub shoulders with God’s angels.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 August 2012, 5:22 pm and is filed under
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Apakah hajat Dr M yang belum kesampaian itu?

 — Aspan Alias

The Malaysian Insider

Aug 24, 2012

24 OGOS — Dr Mahathir Mohamad berkata rakyat tidak sepatutnya percaya kepada janji-janji pembangkang khususnya terhadap Anwar Ibrahim, Ketua Pembangkang.

Pandangan itu adalah pandangan beliau dan beliau berhak untuk memberikan pandangan terhadap sesiapa seperti juga saya mempunyai pandangan yang sama terhadap beliau (Dr Mahathir). Ini negara demokrasi dan sesiapa pun boleh dipercayai atau sebaliknya oleh sesiapa juga.

Dr Mahathir sememangnya kita tahu yang beliau tidak mahu langsung sesiapa untuk mempercayai Anwar, seteru politik terbesar beliau. Dr Mahathir mahukan semua orang bersama-sama memusuhi musuh beliau.

Tidak mungkin Dr Mahathir mempunyai pandangan yang baik terhadap Anwar. Kalau Dr Mahathir bercakap perkara baik tentang Anwar itu merupakan tanda-tanda yang jelas yang dunia ini akan kiamat tidak lama lagi.

Tetapi banyak pihak lain yang tidak percaya terhadap Dr Mahathir. Mereka tidak percaya terhadap Dr Mahathir pun bukannya tidak bersebab. Malahan salah satu dari sebab kenapa Umno secara deras ditinggalkan oleh orang Melayu adalah kerana Dr Mahathir.

Orang Melayu tidak meninggalkan Umno tanpa sebab. Tidak munasabah Umno yang begitu lama berkuasa dengan tiba-tiba ditinggalkan rakyat begitu sahaja. “There must be a cause for a cause…” kata seorang sahabat saya.

Hanya ramai pemimpin Umno tidak mahu tahu kenapa mereka di tinggalkan oleh orang ramai termasuk ahli-ahlinya sendiri. Mereka (Umno) masih percaya yang mereka itu masih dikagumi rakyat dan tidak hairan mereka seperti orang tuli tidak mendengar rintihan rakyat ramai. Sebaliknya mereka (Umno) menyalahkan orang lain pula kerana parti itu sekarang mempunyai sokongan yang rapuh dari rakyat.

Keyakinan terhadap Pakatan Rakyat, itu merupakan manifestasi rakyat untuk melihat perubahan dan tidak ada sesiapa yang boleh mempengaruhi sesiapa untuk tidak menyakini pimpinan di sebelah Pakatan Rakyat itu.

Pakatan Rakyat belum mendapat mandat lagi untuk mentadbir Putrajaya tetapi jika mereka (PR) mendapat mandat rakyat barulah kita tahu samada janji-janji yang termaktub di dalam manifesto mereka (PR) akan terlaksana atau tidak.

Tetapi ada bukti-bukti awal yang kita lihat yang PR mempunyai kredibiliti yang tinggi sebagai pemegang amanah jika kita jadikan kerajaan-kerajaan yang di tadbir oleh Pakatan Rakyat sebagai ukurannya. Maka untuk mencari dan membina keyakinan terhadap Pakatan Rakyat jika mendapat kuasa untuk mentadbir Putrajaya tidaklah sesusah dahulu.

Oleh itu tidak ada hak sesiapa untuk menyeru supaya tidak mempercayai Pakatan Rakyat selagi belum diberikan kuasa mentadbir Putrajaya itu. Belum ada bukti lagi yang PR tidak mampu untuk menunaikan janji-janjinya kerana belum diberikan peluang untuk mentadbir Putrajaya.

Di sebaliknya BN-lah yang telah menunjukkan bukti yang janji-janji mereka masih banyak belum tertunai sehingga hari ini walaupun telah memerintah negara sejak merdeka. BN telah gagal samasekali untuk membina sebuah negara yang mana rakyatnya bersatu padu malahan Umno menggunakan taktik memecah belahkan rakyat dengan memainkan sentimen agama dan bangsa sebagai senjata untuk terus berkuasa. Umno hanya boleh berkuasa jika rakyat berpecah belah.

Umno khususnya masih belum berjaya untuk meningkatkan penyertaan orang Melayu dalam bidang industri sekurang-kurangnya 30 peratus dari kekayaan negara seperti yang terkandung didalam DEB dan dasar ini pun sudah tamat sejak 22 tahun yang lalu.

Keistimewaan untuk Bumiputera di kuasai oleh segelintiran kroni-kroni pimpinan Umno dan orang melayu biasa tidak mendapat faedah dari DEB itu.

Apa yang sepatutnya dirasai oleh Bumiputera yang ramai itu semuanya dibolot oleh segelintiran yang rapat dengan mereka yang berkuasa. Rakyat telah lama bersabar dan telah pun memberikan banyak peluang untuk Umno memperbaiki keadaan di atas nama kesinambungan kuasa dan berbagai-bagai lagi alasan.

Tetapi Umno mengambil kesabaran rakyat itu sebagai kelemahan dan boleh diperkotak-katikkan mengikut kehendak nafsu dan syahwat mereka sahaja.

“Maintenance” untuk mengekalkan Umno dan kepimpinannya amat tinggi. Apabila parti itu kehilangan banyak sokongan maka pimpinannya terpaksa melakukan tindakan-tindakan yang sangat mahal harganya dan semua kos penyelenggaraan Umno itu ditanggung oleh rakyat jelata. Program “walkabout” Najib Razak di seluruh negara melibatkan perbelanjaan beratus juta ringgit dan semua perbelanjaan itu adalah tanggungan rakyat belaka.

Tidak usah kita ulangi apakah dia yang saya katakan sebagai kos penyelenggaraan yang tinggi itu kerana isu itu di sebut dan di tulis acap kali oleh banyak pihak. Tetapi Umno banyak isu lain yang kita tidak memberikan tumpuan dan isu-isu itu memang selayaknya menjadi sebab untuk rakyat menolak parti itu dalam pilihanraya yang akan datang ini.

Kita tidak boleh terpengaruh dengan ajakan Dr Mahathir untuk tidak menyokong Pakatan Rakyat itu kerana Mahathir berkata-kata seperti itu hanyalah untuk menyelamatkan diri beliau sendiri.

Dr Mahathir mahukan kita bermusuh dengan semua musuh beliau. Apa yang ditakuti oleh Dr Mahathir jika Pakatan memerintah, ialah beliau (Mahathir) tidak boleh hidup dalam sebuah negara dan kerajaan yang bersistem.

Beliau telah memerintah selama 22 tahun dengan sistem beliau sendiri dan tidak memberikan kepada sistem-sistem yang lazim kita lihat dalam mana-mana negara demokrasi tulin.

Jika kita pulihkan sistem yang betul dan lazim bagi sebuah negara demokrasi, maka Dr Mahathir akan dipintas oleh sistem itu dan sistem itu tidak akan membolehkan Dr Mahathir hidup dengan senang hati. Jika benar Dr Mahathir sebagai seorang yang telus dalam pentadbirannya beliau tidak perlu takut dengan sistem pentadbiran yang baik.

Dalam keadaan sekarang, Dr Mahathir tidak boleh berdiam diri dan beliau sudah tidak mampu untuk bertahan sebagai seorang negarawan seperti yang di perbesarkan oleh penyokong-penyokong tegar beliau.

Beliau terpaksa terus berpolitik dan kita tidak nampak bagaimana beliau boleh berhenti berpolitik. Beliau tidak ada lagi masa untuk hidup sebagai seorang negarawan. Malahan inilah yang Dr Mahathir tidak akan mampu mencapainya tahap sebagai seorang negarawan sepanjang hayat beliau.

Setakat ini Dr Mahathir masih lagi seperti seorang pegawai penerangan untuk Umno yang sudah luntur sokongan hari demi hari ini. Kita tidak pernah terlintas dalam pemikiran kita yang pada suatu hari kita akan terjumpa seorang pemimpin yang memerintah negara begitu lama akhirnya tidak dapat berhenti dari bermain politik peribadi sepanjang hayatnya seperti Dr Mahathir ini.

Walaupun beliau sudah bersara dari jawatan PM beliau masih lagi berpolitik, seolah-olah ada agenda dan hajat beliau yang masih belum tercapai. Hanya beliau sahaja yang tahu, walaupun orang ramai boleh mengagak sebab-sebab beliau jadi begitu. — aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 August 2012, 11:31 am and is filed under
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Claims of doctored crime statistics need swift answers

― Koon Yew Yin

The Malaysian Insider

Aug 24, 2012

AUG 24 ― Crime is an issue of great concern to everyone in the country. This is why it is necessary for the authorities to respond as soon as possible to the whistle-blowing letter from a police officer of over 30 years experience and his allegations of the doctoring of the official statistics. The longer the delay, the greater will be the impression that a cover up is taking place.

This disclosure of massaging and manipulation of the official statistics has been the hottest news over the internet media in the last few days and it has now been picked up by the opposition politicians.

To ensure that it does not become a political football and to preserve whatever trust and respect that the public has for the Barisan Nasional government’s statistics, especially related to the Government Transformation Programme, I would like to provide some advice to the Najib administration.

Who should respond

Firstly, no less a person than the home minister whose portfolio includes the police needs to address the issues raised by the whistle blower. Hishammuddin Hussein should convene a special press conference at which he can refute the damaging allegations made of political interference in the work of the police and the charge that “the police have succumbed to the political pressure in agreeing to achieve the targeted KPI set under the NKRA.”

Should he fail to do so, it will be an admission of guilt. Worse, it will show him as unfit and undeserving of the high position of home affairs minister. In such a development, it is incumbent on Prime Minister Najib Razak and the Cabinet to give him marching orders and put him out to pasture in the same way that has happened to Sharizat Jalil.

Secondly, Koh Tsu Koon and Idris Jala, ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department, and the latter, chief executive officer of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) must not pretend to be dumb and deaf on this.

As CEO of PEMANDU, the unit monitoring the implementation of the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) initiative, Idris Jala is responsible for the statistical data that is released to the public. The whistle blower has provided a detailed account of how crime records are recorded and processed, and how these records have been manipulated to give the impression of a decline in crime in the country.

The onus is on Tsu Koon and Idris Jala to show that the whistle blower has got his facts wrong and to also answer the other serious allegations in the internet media on PEMANDU’s role in this botched attempt to fool the public.

For the sake of their conscience and personal integrity, it will be necessary for both Tsu Koon and Jala to apologise to the public should their own investigations show that the allegations made by the whistle blower are substantially correct.

This public apology must be followed by a cleanup of the mess and by strong action to punish those responsible for this despicable attempt to hoodwink the public on such a serious matter. Only in this way will Tsu Koon and Jala repair their reputation which is in tatters following this debacle.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and Crime Prevention NGO

There are at least two other organisations that need to be answerable to the public on this national scandal. One is PricewaterhouseCoopers who was paid a tidy sum to audit the crime statistics.

Have their auditors been a knowing party in the way in which the statistics were massaged? To protect and maintain their reputation, an internal inquiry followed by an official explanation is also necessary. If the whistle blower’s allegations are substantially correct, the public will need an assurance from PricewaterhouseCoopers that there will be no repetition of this despicable white collar criminal activity in any future work with the authorities.

In its Malaysia website, PwC claims to “take pride in the fact that our services add value by helping to improve transparency, trust and consistency of business processes.” For now, many members of the public are of the opinion that this declaration is simply bull s… and that PwC’s business is not conducted within the framework of ethical professional standards.

Finally, the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) must come out openly on this issue. According to the official literature and other news reports on the MCPF, the body is the largest NGO on the subject of crime prevention with the prime minister as the patron and the deputy prime minister as the chairman.

This officially sanctioned NGO has prominent members from both the public and private sector serving in its executive council at national and state levels. In fact, the list of executive council members reads like a who’s who of rich and famous in Malaysia!

I would especially welcome a statement from Lee Lam Thye who as vice-chairman of MCPF and of various other officially sponsored NGOs has been making statement after statement in the official media on this and that issue.

According to his latest statement, habitual shoplifters should be publicly shamed to deter them from continuing with their spree. In the news report he stated, “If people still want to continue filching stuff, then we may need more stringent punishment. A fine may not be enough. We need to publicly name and shame them via the media”.

To be fair to habitual shoplifters, I would like to suggest that we take up Lam Thye’s proposal and apply a similar punishment to those who have been guilty of providing cover to the doctoring of the crime statistics. This would also include any NGO that may be providing a fig leaf to cover up various naked official lies and untruths.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 August 2012, 3:04 pm and is filed under
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Defections raise Anwar election chances

By Anil Netto

Asia Times

August 24, 2012

PENANG – The defection of two key ruling coalition parliamentarians to the political opposition has shifted Malaysia’s pre-election equation and highlighted the importance of the crucial swing states of Sabah and Sarawak in what is expected to be a neck and neck contest.

Historically a “fixed deposit” of votes for the Barisan Nasional (BN), the coalition that has ruled the country consecutively since independence from colonial rule, Sabah and Sarawak are expected to play a prominent role in the coming general election pitting Prime Minister Najib Razak versus opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

BN won 140 of 222 federal parliament seats at the 2008 elections, a result that saw the Pakatan Rakyat opposition win control of five of 13 federal states. After the recent defections, BN holds 20 of 25 federal parliament seats allocated to Sabah and 29 of 31 in Sarawak on the island of Borneo.

If the recent defections signal a gathering trend away from BN, as some political analysts suggest, the two states have the potential to swing the next general election in favor of the opposition. The present parliamentary term expires in April 2013 and general elections must be held by October, although Najib has the prerogative of calling a snap election at any time.

Opposition leaders recognize that they cannot win federal power without making sharp inroads in the BN’s Sabah and Sarawak strongholds, as well as in Johor and Pahang on the peninsula. There are certain indications, including not least the recent parliamentary defections, that Pakatan Rakyat may be chipping away at the BN’s historical grip on these states.

One of the two Sabah parliamentarians who crossed over recently was reported as saying in an opposition party paper that three more lawmakers may follow suit. Leveraging into rising grassroot sentiments against peninsula-based parties, Pakatan Rakyat leaders have made efforts to cultivate local Sabah-based politicians.

Of the 20 federal parliament seats in Sabah now held by BN, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the coalition’s dominant party, holds 12, with the remainder controlled by BN component parties representing other indigenous and ethnic groups.

Issues that could swing votes in the two states include a large influx of migrants from neighboring countries that has bred resentment among locals, relatively high poverty rates despite Sabah’s rich oil resources, and the rising belief that the country needs a viable two-party system to check official corruption and abuse of power.

Opposition leader Anwar seems eager to exploit the recent defections to spur Pakatan Rakyat’s bid to win the crucial swing states at the next elections and demoralize BN supporters.

An earlier Anwar-led attempt to lure enough parliamentary defections to topple BN in the aftermath of the 2008 polls ultimately failed and raised questions about the credibility of his earlier claims to have sufficient numbers to take power. With the lost political momentum, BN managed through legal maneuvers to seize back control of one of the opposition won states.

Loose loyalties

This time, however, Anwar is playing his cards closer to his chest. His political supporters have cautioned him about party hoppers whose loyalties may be suspect over the long run. Party stalwarts fear defectors could act as UMNO Trojan horses, who would hop back to BN either during the election campaign period or soon after they had won seats on a Pakatan Rakyat ticket. The recent defections in Sabah, others argue, could be interpreted as a betrayal of the Sabah people’s mandate at the last polls.

BN is not taking the threat lightly, however. Prime Minister Najib, realizing the widespread resentment among many Sabahans over a recent influx of immigrants, including from the neighboring Philippines, has moved to ward off further defections of lawmakers through the announcement of the formation of a royal commission of inquiry to probe the problem.

Allegations of widespread and systematic granting of citizenship and identify cards (ICs) to immigrants surfaced in the early 1990s, soon after UMNO’s entry into Sabah mainstream politics. The irregular citizenship allowances were later dubbed “Project IC” or “Project M” by the opposition, as they occurred under the administration of then premier Mahathir Mohamad. The suspicion at the time was that these immigrants would vote overwhelmingly in favor of the BN, cementing its electoral hold over the state.

Entrenched poverty is another long lingering sore point. Despite its substantial oil wealth, Sabah’s rural poverty rate stands out compared with other states in the federation. Other bumiputera, indigenous groups apart from ethnic Malays situated mainly in Sabah and Sarawak, account for about half of Malaysia’s poor even though they make up only 11% of the national population.

“The incidence of poverty among other bumiputera increased from 14% in 2007 to 17% in 2009, and their contribution to total poor households rose from 41% to 51%. Also in 2009, the intensity of poverty was most visible among other bumiputera,” noted a Millennium Development Goals report in 2010.

Some Sabah and Sarawak politicians hope the emergence of a viable two-party political system will allow them to play a more decisive role in ensuring their states’ grievances are addressed at the federal level. One of the key focal points for Sabah and Sarawak is the question of oil royalties, fixed by the BN-led government at a meager 5% of petroleum revenues.

Opposition politicians like Anwar have indicated that if they win federal power, Pakatan Rakyat would raise the royalty to 20%. The campaign pledge nods towards larger unresolved issues of state autonomy and decentralization, aspirations in Sabah and Sarawak that the BN-led government has never seriously considered.

Certain BN politicians have questioned the economics of Anwar’s royalty pledge for Sabah and Sarawak.

“My view is if Anwar intends to stick to his promise, he has no choice but to eventually cut allocations meant for the non-oil producing states,” wrote Abdul Rahman Dahlan, a BN parliamentarian from Sabah. “Of course, the other alternative is to cut allocations to critical sectors like education, rural infrastructure, health and security across the board, which is equally a disastrous scenario.”

BN leaders, meanwhile, are apparently rethinking their electoral strategy for the two swing states, seen in policy flip-flops seemingly aimed at stemming further parliamentary defections in the run-up to the polls.

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud said on Monday that his state would soon discuss with the federal government the need to review the 5% oil royalty rate. A day later, Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman said a new petroleum sharing formula is “negotiable” after earlier this month describing Pakatan Rakyat’s 20% pledge as “illogical.”

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 August 2012, 1:50 pm and is filed under
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Is dishonest doctoring of crime statistics the answer to the three-year mystery why Malaysians suffer increasing fear of crime in the midst of official claim of drastic fall in crime rate?

At last, Malaysians appear to have got the answer to the three-year mystery why Malaysians suffer increasing fear of crime in the midst of official claim of drastic fall in crime rate.

This came in the form of an email from a righteous and patriotic police officer with more than 30 years in service, which I received on Tuesday, 21st August, during the last day of my four-day 500-km visit to Sabah interior.

The email, under the subject “Crime Statistics – Let the truth be told”, had also been sent to other receipients and has since been published widely on news portals and websites.

In the email, the police officer who said he wished to remain anonymous, wrote:

“The police and Pemandu have feigned ignorance about the crime statistics manipulation. The figures dished out does not reflect the actual crime situation. How the figures were doctored is explained in the attached article. In fact the police and Pemandu knows about the manipulation but unable to undo the wrong.

“The public’s fear is justified. The police are in the wrong track of tackling crime.”

This police officer explained in his article:

In 2009, the Government came up with the ‘Government Transformation Program’ (GTP) and ‘crime’ was amongst the ‘National Key Result Area’ (NKRA). The Key Performance Index (KPI) set for the police on the 27 July 2009 under the NKRA was to reduce crime by 20%.

That tall order to reduce crime by 20% was a dilemma for the police. The police knew that the demand is idealistic but not feasible to be achieved. Any criminologist will tell that crime is the product of socio-economic factors and the police being a part of the criminal justice system cannot alone tackle this issue.

However, in upholding the dignity and image, the police succumbed to the political pressure in agreeing to achieve the targeted KPI set under the NKRA. With the prevailing policing standard and practice the police may be able to contain the crime situation to a certain extent, but to reduce it by 20% is absolutely a feat impossible. So, in desperate times, desperate measures are taken.

The anonymous police officer explained and  exposed in detail the systemic police attempt to lower the crime statistics by shifting the index crime to the non-index crime, as the latter is not considered serious to warrant inclusion in the crime statistics to determine the crime situation.

This run into several thousand cases. For instance:

•	Robbery cases under the Penal Code was classified as index crime. This offence is subsequently reclassified as a non-index crime under section 382 of the Penal Code. Since section 382 of the Penal Code is a non-index crime, it will not be reflected in the crime statistics;

•	Burglary under section 457 of the Penal Code is an index crime. This offence is reclassified as a non-index crime under sections 452 or 453 of the Penal Code. Since sections 452 and 453 of the Penal Code are non-index crimes, they will not be reflected in the crime statistics; and,

•	Causing hurt under sections 324 and 326 are index crimes. These offences are reclassified under section 148 of the Penal Code. And since section 148 of the Penal Code is a non-index crime, it will not be reflected in the crime statistics.

The silence from the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin, the NKRA Ministers Datuk Sri Idris Jalil and Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon in the past three days is both thunderous and deafening for with all the data at their command,  they should have been able to instantly rebut the serious allegations of dishonest statistics tampering by the anonymous police officer so as to present a false picture to Malaysians  of a drastic fall in crime index in the past three years and to brag about the  hollow success of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib’s 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programmed (GTP).

The official theme of this year’s 55th Merdeka Day is “Janji Ditepati”.  The anonymous but patriotic police officer who had debunked the false propaganda by the Home Minister and the two NKRA Ministers has underlined how empty and meaningless is this Merdeka Day theme.

If Hishammuddin, Idris Jal and Koh continue to keep their silence on the debunking of the false police claim and statistics about falling crime rate and index, then Malaysians must thank the anonymous police officer for performing his patriotic duty to answer the mystery question in the past three years – why Malaysians suffered increasing fear of crime in the past three years in the midst of official claim of continuous drastic fall in crime rate!

Then the time has also come for the country to have a new Home Minister who is serious about fighting crime and honest with Malaysians about the actual crime situation in the country.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 August 2012, 5:29 pm and is filed under
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Hishammuddin
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Najib Razak
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