Why from a community of MCA “enablers” to MCA “bashers”?

by
donng55

Comment from
“Soi Lek’s impossible dream”
Sunday, 12 June 2011

We are not barren of appreciation of what MCA did for the Chinese community and the country as a whole before, during, and immediately after Merdeka.

But that was the nascent MCA more than two score years ago.

The MCA of today, since Ling Liong Sik’s day to be exact, is no longer the party we knew, respected, and loved.

We saw how its leaders for their own selfsih reasons pushed it down a very slippery slope leading to its current state of degringolade.

The threshold question is: Why is it that, we, from a community of MCA “enablers” who flocked to its standard every time when the party was in distress, have now transmogrified into a community of MCA bashers?

The answer is simple: MCA’s biblical betrayal to the Chinese community of decades of ineffectiveness and self-serving.

As well, it has been growing upon the party, debacle after debacle and intestine war after intestine war, so much so that the Chinese feel that the community is as much deceived by MCA as its cause is injured by it.

MCA has rubbed into us that it has become a big sad joke, a cockshy that cannot by any reasonable measure be thought of as an asset to the community.

We’ve long given up hope of conquering MCA’s Shibboleth and rekindling our feelings of kinship with the grieving pachyderm.

It’s a party that deserves not affection but acerbic animadversion from the community which it unashamedly purports to represent.

It’s a party which we see no chance for a reprise, and best to be left in repose and rot.

For decades, sinecures, lagniappes and cushy perchs are to be had for their asking. But instead of leavening compassion with responsibility in serving the rakyat as requital for their good fortune, they make a virtue of necessity, wax fat and kick.

It is toujours perdrix, too much of a good thing, that is the real problem with MCA caciques.

There’s just so much too much of thymos, effrontery, perfidy and moral mischief, especially amongst party leaders.

We feel that the culture of MCA has become the perfect Petri dish for memes, infectious behaviors such as corruption and arrogance.

Our reprehension of MCA is not a reprehension of today, or of last week, or even of last year, or of the year before. Our disappointment in them is too full for speech.

In Shakespeare’s King Lear, Edmund speaks of “the excellent foppery of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars.” The same can be said of the excellent foppery of MCA politicos — when they are thrown out on their caboose by the very community their claim to represent, they make guilty of their disasters not the surfeit of their own behaviour, but everything else under the sun.

What a shame!

(Note – above commentary deserves a larger audience – Admin)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 June 2011, 11:18 pm and is filed under
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Words into practice

By
R. Nadeswaran

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 | Sun2Surf

EVERY right-thinking Malaysian will certainly have to agree with the prime minister’s remarks made last week at the World Islamic Economic Forum in Kazakhstan that characteristics like openness, honesty and transparency are vital if the people are to have faith that their government is working for them and not for itself.

Saying that these guiding principles would also show that leaders and politicians were striving to lift the whole economy and not to “line their own pockets”, he sent this powerful message: “As political leaders and statesmen, it is up to us to show the resolve, dedication, commitment and political will required to do what is right, to right what is wrong and to prevent corruption from becoming a norm in our societies.”

This is not the first time that he has spoken out against the ills that afflict our society.

A month ago in Oxford, he spoke on religious moderation and the need to allow people of all faiths to express their views. But are his thoughts, philosophies and views being ignored if not defied by those in the corridors of power? Are our civil servants embracing openness, honesty and transparency? Are religious leaders taking cognisance of how they should conduct themselves?

Examples of their refusal or non-acceptance of these policies are too many to cite and the archives are full of reports which contain information on dishonesty and lack of transparency and accountability.

Why should the cost of producing the newsletter for a local authority be kept away from the public? Why is land alienation by the state government limited only to the “Minutes of the state exco” which fall under the purview of the Official Secrets Act? Why are the costs of purchasing items which are not “defence-sensitive” still being kept secret as if the whole country’s security will be compromised if the rakyat know about how much the army paid for a packet of instant noodles?

The prime minister is making all the right statements which will ensure a better quality of life for all Malaysians, but it appears that it is not going down the line to some people who have been accustomed to doing things their way.

Working in London and observing how Malaysian agencies conduct their business shows that many do not care how government money is spent. There’s no sense of accountability, transparency or openness, let alone honesty.

A case in point – the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) whose stand is totally in contravention of the prime minister’s views.

It has been eight months since a simple query was raised: “Which supermarket chain in the UK has 64 Malaysian products on its shelves?” Four reminders to the London office with copies to its director-general and the chairman in Kuala Lumpur drew no response.

A car arranged by the High Commission here to take us to Oxford to cover the prime minister’s visit was quoted at £350 (RM1,750). When asked about the exorbitant cost, the answer was that the service provider had been “efficient throughout all this (sic) years”.

It would be difficult to justify spending such a sum of money to our bosses, let alone the auditor – a car was hired for £21 (RM105) and with £30 (RM150) of petrol, the journey was done. No one wants to know or explain how that astronomical figure was arrived at because it has never been a practice to ask for quotations or compare prices.

Where’s the openness and honesty which the prime minister is preaching? Doesn’t anyone want to practise it? As for Tourism Malaysia, the less said the better because they have been caught being dishonest on more than once occasion. Saying anything more will result in accusations of “you are picking on us”!

The prime minister is singing the right tunes and drawing the right parameters for a prosperous Malaysia. If followed to the letter, all Malaysians irrespective of colour or creed can share the prosperity and happiness that it brings.

The choice is not of the majority but the select few who draw up policies and another group which implements them. At all times, the three magic word espoused by the prime minister – openness, honesty and transparency – must ring in their ears each time they want to do something.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 June 2011, 4:18 pm and is filed under
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‘Tambatuon dam is unnecessary’

By
Stephanie Sta Maria
 | June 14, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: An academic from the Faculty of Agriculture in Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) cast doubt on the necessity for the proposed Tambatuon dam in Kota Belud.

According to Christopher Teh, the dam is not the sole means to increasing Malaysia’s rice productivity as there was still plenty of room to increase the yields of existing paddy fields.

“Each field has a maximum potential yield of 10 tonnes per hectare but the current national average only stands at 4 tonnes per hectare per year,” he said.

“I’m not against increasing land acreage but between that and increasing the yields, the latter is a better choice. Let’s use what we already have instead of opening up new paddy fields and incurring higher costs.”

Teh’s assessment is at odds with that of Kota Belud MP, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, who is championing the construction of the Tambatuon dam to irrigate 25,000 hectares of unproductive paddy fields in Kota Belud.

The controversial project will involve flooding Kampung Tambatuon and resettling the 600 villagers there. But Rahman has maintained that the dam is vital to increasing rice production and averting a recurrence of the 2008 rice crisis.

Teh, however, said that Malaysia’s rice productivity has increased every year despite the acreage remaining fairly constant since the 1980s.

But he also noted that rice productivity must increase by at least 4.9% per year if Malaysia is to reach its target of being 100% self-sufficient in 2015.

Move beyond Mada and Kada

Last year, Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister, Johari Baharom, said that Malaysia could achieve 100% self-sufficiency if its two major rice areas increased their yields by between 5% and 10%.

The two areas are the Muda Agricultural Development Authority (Mada) and the Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority (Kada). But both Rahman and Teh disagreed with him.

“Future increases in production yield in Mada and Kada will not be able to replace the quantity imported by Malaysia,” said Rahman. “Both areas are almost saturated in terms of rice production yield and land areas.”

“They cannot, forever, supply the increasing needs of Malaysians in the future. And their acreage is diminishing because of housing developments there.”

Teh added that that while Mada and Kada could still experience small increases, it was also time to move beyond them and focus on low yield areas instead.

“Trying to squeeze more out of Mada and Kada is like testing a new vitamin on a healthy person. You won’t see the same results as you would if you gave that vitamin to someone who is ill.”

Sabah’s rice production challenge

In an earlier rebuttal, Rahman said that the national yield average has been dragged down by low yield areas in Sabah and Sarawak.

He also said that the dam would lift Kota Belud out of poverty.

Both points are supported by the research findings of UPM’s Associate Professor in the Deaprtment of Urban and Regional Planning, Ibrahim Ngah.

Ibrahim identified the state’s major rice producing areas as Kota Belud and Kota Marudu which contribute 70% of the state’s total rice production.

However, he found that rice covers 3% of Sabah’s total crop area and that rice production last year only accommodated up to 40% of the population needs.

“The problem is that Sabah has limited space for rice cultivation as large areas there are mountainous,” he said. “Some 29% of its land is suitable for agriculture and 84% of that has already been cultivated.”

“There is a need for further monitoring and management of the development of rice-producing area. This goal will not only ensure stable and continuous rice production but also improve the socio-economic welfare of the people.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 5:31 pm and is filed under
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“Yield Considerations” – Iskandar replies to Kota Belud MP Rahman on Tambatuon Dam controversy

By
Iskandar Basha Abdul Kadir

Yb Rahman,

I had opined that our
existing acerage
 in Malaysia can be used to
fully meet
 our rice security consideration (i.e to overcome the 35% shortage) provided our
Yield
 (Mt/hectare) can be increased to
5.0
. The 5.0 yield factor is backed by research materials that you had referenced in your report.

In your rebuttal to my June 4, 2011 feedback, you have clearly acknowledged this point albeit you put it as “I wish it was that simple. Here is the reason”.

You said the current yield average of 3.3mt per hectare is for the whole country and production yield differs based on location. In summary, you had alluded to point out that production locations in Peninsular Malaysia(PM) are already yielding at 5.0 or higher and has little room for additional yield. The national average, however, drops to 3.3 due to the low yeilds in East Malaysia(EM) and Kota Belud being one. I quote
“However, our national paddy production yield average has been dragged down by low yield areas namely in Sabah and Sarawak!”

I wish to draw your attention to flaws in your yield numbers that you have used to rebut. To better explain my point, I had asked you several times for acerage split between PM and Sabah/Sarawak. Unfortunately, it was not forthcoming and so I had used an assumption of 80/20 split which will clearly illustrate the point and can be refined with actual number if need be.

First, since our national average yield has been establised at 3.3mt per hectare,I have shown it as the Base Case

Base Case

Acerage Split

Yield Per Hectare

Pen Msia

80%

3.3

2.6

Sbh/Srwk

20%

3.3

0.7

Avg Yield

3.3

The contribution towards the average yield by PM is 2.6 and EM is 0.7, assuming the yield is uniform in PM and EM.

Now, if I take what you have said about PM’s yield hovering at around 5.0 and above, then the Base Case will look like Case 2.

Case 2

Acerage Split

Yield Per Hectare

Pen Msia

80%

5.0

4.0

Sbh/Srwk

20%

(3.3)

(0.7)

Avg Yield

 3.3

You can immediately see the flaw. To get a national average of 3.3 when PM is 5.0, then EM has to be negative (which cannot be true).

You can model the formula to play around with the acreage split and yield contribution (which I did) and the message will be clear that  we have still a long way to go in reaching
average
 yields of 5.0 and above for PM.

What the above clearly indicates is that, yield improvement opportunity is still very much available as a whole. We must embark on yield improvement stratergy on existing acreage before other major options.

Another key consideration that is logical and prudent is, if the yield from EM is very low, it also means that the skill set and methodology of the people who are managing the fields needs special attention to help improve yields. They would need hand-holding assistance and guidance to get them up the skill scale.

We must step approach to get the padi farmers ready for significantly bigger investments (e.g a Dam for their irrigation needs). You dont invest heavy first and then see if they are ready. Thats like putting the cart before the horse.  We must see tangible results based on the already invested amount of RM150M for better yields. If this is not forth coming yet, putting another RM450M into the Dam would not make sense.

My feedback is limited to only looking at the best approach for ensuring we reach our common goal i.e for better things for all including all Sabahans.

In conclusion, the Dam idea was mooted, primarily, because of ensuring national rice security. This primary consideration can be fullfilled  by (yes) simply improving the YIELD!

Hope it clarifies.

ISKANDAR

******************

Second rebuttal to Lim Kit Siang over DAM issue. Will he ever understand?

By Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan

MP for Kota Belud

Jun 06, 2011

Second rebuttal to Lim Kit Siang over DAM issue. Will he ever understand?

I normally respond to comments about my articles posted on this blog in the comments’ section. But this time I am making an exception. I am going to answer one comment which I think worthy front page in my blog.

Why? Since this particular comment was posted by Lim Kit Siang on his blog, I consider he subscribes to the points raised by this comentator. Thus it is my duty to write my second rebuttal of Lim Kit Siang’s understanding about the proposed dam in Kota Belud, which was superficially gathered only from his half a day visit to my constituency.

A commentator called HABIB RAK wrote (for better understanding of the issue, read my earlier article and incessant tweets by Lim Kit Siang on the subject matter):

“Based on the above report, Yield (ton/hectare) for Australia is 8.7, Japan 6.4, China 6.3, Vietnam 4.7 and Indonesia 4.6. For Malaysia it is 3.3 only. The report also indicates that for our self sufficiency, our yield needs to be improved to 5.0. So, is there another way to meet the key objective? The answer is a resounding YES. All we need to do to our existing acreage is to improve the Yield factor from 3.3 to 5.0 tons per hectare. If Australia, Japan and China can do it, so can we. Even Vietnam and Indonesia is closer to 5.0. Further, it is reported that some areas in Malaysia can even get up to 10ton per hectare!… We are already producing about 65% of our need now. Thus the requirement is how to get the remaining 35% without being dependant on external parties (other countries)… The key objective can be met by simply improving the yield factor by 51.4% from 3.3 to 5.0. This alone will more than cover the 35% shortfall.”

I can sum up what HABIB RAK is trying to say this way, that in order to have self sufficiency in rice, just simply increase production yields in existing paddy areas. No need dams. Simply? I wish it was that simple. Here is the reason.

It is true that yield (ton/hectare) for Australia is 8.7, Japan 6.4, China 6.3, Vietnam 4.7, Indonesia 4.6 and Malaysia 3.3, based on FAO report.  This information is based on the average yield for the whole country. For Malaysia, the production yield between planting areas differ from one another.

Major granary areas like like Muda Agricultural Development Area (MADA)  and Lembaga Kemajuan Pertanian Kemubu (KADA) have already achieving 5 ton/hectare to 6 ton/hectare which is comparable to Japan’s and China’s. Besides that, in Projek Barat Laut Selangor (PBLS), the yield is reaching 10 ton/hectare. However, our national paddy production yield average has been dragged down by low yield areas namely in Sabah and Sarawak!

So how much more can we squeeze out from MADA and KADA?

Currently under the Economic Transfromation Program (ETP), the government has further targeted to increase the paddy production yield in MADA and KADA from 6 ton/hectare to 8 ton/hectare which is about the same as Australia’s. With the land factor remains the same if not decreasing, it is unlikely for the yield to go beyond 8 ton/hectare in those areas. The more input/investment we put in, after certain point,  it will it will not give higher output ( I am sure HABIB RAK and Lim Kit Siang know the meaning of “law of diminishing returns”). Thus, future increases in production yield in MADA and KADA will not be able to replace the quantity imported by Malaysia.  Whether we like it or not, other existing granary areas like Kota Belud in Sabah and Batang Lupar in Sarawak have to pick up the remaining slack.

Another point to consider is Malaysia’s increasing population. Malaysia needs to open up new lands for paddy cultivation. MADA and KADA have reached almost saturated point in terms of rice production yield and land areas and they cannot forever supply the increasing needs of Malaysians in the future.

That is why, for Kota Belud, the government must increase its unproductive rice production yield from approximately 2 tons per hectare to at least 4 tons per hectare as a start, targeting 10 tons per hectare (or 4 tons per acre) in the future once all infrastructures are up. Only  3,929 hectares of the total paddy area in Kota Belud have good irrigation and drainage infrastructure. That is the reason for the urgent need to upgrade the infrasructure and find new sources of water ie the planned dam.

So far, government has spent RM150mil starting in 2009. That amount is for new drainage system, farm roads, bridges, upgrades of irrigation system etc. Some of the projects are still on-going, spanning many phases over several years. I am sure if he visited Kota Belud, HABIB RAK will be pleasantly surprised to see the hectic activities in Kota Belud’s paddy fields. My only advice is dont spend only half a day and talk to a handful of people like someone we know. Your judgement may be clouded.

Oh yes, before I forget. The other main objective of the dam is to boost the income of the poor farmers in Kota Belud. With the current low production yield of majority of the farmers in Kota Belud, it is very difficult for them to sustain in the industry. So, how in the world by putting in more resources to increase yields in MADA and KADA would actually help to increase Kota Belud’s farmers?

I really hope Lim Kit Siang will put this second rebuttal on his blog. Will he dare to tell the truth about the proposed dam in Kota Belud? Is it wishful thinking on my part? We will see.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 5:27 pm and is filed under
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Cancel invites to Mugabe, Bashir, DAP tells Putrajaya

By
Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

June 14, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — The federal government should cancel invitations to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for an international economic forum here, the DAP has said.

The two presidents are scheduled to attend a forum to be held in Putrajaya from June 19-21.

Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran said today that both leaders had an alleged track record in their respective countries of purported human rights violations, and charged that by inviting them, Malaysia would be seen as “indifferent” to the plight of the citizens of these countries.

Kulasegaran pointed out that since Malaysia was a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it needed to “take note of its responsibilities.”

ICC had issued a warrant of arrest in 2008 for Bashir over Khartoum’s genocidal campaign in Darfur.

“Malaysia should serve Bashir a warning that he is liable for arrest under the warrant issued by the ICC,” said Kulasegaran.

The DAP leader said that he had filed a notice to the Speaker’s office for an emergency motion on the matter.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 12:31 pm and is filed under
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Bashir not welcome

By
Tarani Palani

June 14, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz said the decision to invite the Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir was not discussed in the Cabinet.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia may withdraw the invitation issued to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to attend an international conference in Langkawi.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, said today that he will urge the government to withdraw the invitation because Malaysia has decided to accede to the Rome Statute.

“I am taking this matter seriously and I want to discuss in the Cabinet because the Cabinet has decided that we should accede to the Rome Statute.”

“As such, I would strongly recommend to the government to withdraw the invitation,” he said.

Bashir, who is widely seen by the international community as a dictator with a bad track record of gross human rights violation, has been invited to attend the annual Langkawi International Dialogue in Putrajaya from June 19-21.

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was also invited to the event.

There is currently an arrest warrant out on Bashir issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes and other gross human rights violation .

Speaking to reporters in Parliament, Nazri said the decision to invite Bashir was not discussed in the Cabinet.

He said the government, which had decided to accede the Rome Statute, should act in a manner that complies with the statute.

The Rome Statute is a compulsory binding treaty that needs to be signed in order for any country to be a member of the ICC.

Nazri himself had announced in March this year that Malaysia had decided to  join the ICC.

However, Malaysia is yet to ratify the Rome Statute.

Arrest Bashir

Earlier, representatives from the Malaysian chapter of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) cried foul at the invitation, saying that it was sending the wrong signal to the international committee about the country’s stand on human rights.

PGA-Malaysia, which has about 20 members, said today that the invitation to Bashir also served as a litmus test to gauge Malaysia’s commitment to the country’s intentions to join the ICC.

PGA-Malaysia secretary M Kulasegaran said the members wanted the immediate arrest of Bashir upon his entry into the country.

“Imagine that after saying we want to join the ICC, we invite the biggest crook in the world while killings are still going on in Sudan…what kind of a message does that send to the international community?

“He should not have been invited, but its not too late to cancel. But if he comes then please arrest him,” he said.

The Ipoh Timur MP had also filed a motion for the matter to be discussed in Parliament.

He hopes to know by Thursday as to whether the motion will be heard.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 6:01 pm and is filed under
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Court says Hee attacked Yew with pepper spray

The
Malaysian Insider

June 14, 2011

IPOH, June 14 – Aulong assemblyman Yew Tian Hoe won today a court ruling against his state lawmaker colleague Datuk Hee Yit Foong for attacking him with a pepper spray in the infamous May 7, 2009 Perak legislative assembly.

He also won a restraining order preventing her from future assaults against him.

Jelapang assemblyman Hee gained infamy after she quit the DAP and pledged loyalty to the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition leading to the fall of the then ruling Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state government.

She had been recorded attacking Yew in the lawmaking hall.

In his ruling, judicial commissioner Tarmizi Ab Rahman said Yew had successfully proven his case in the Ipoh High Court and awarded him the injunction, Yew’s lawyer Leong Cheok Keng told The Malaysian Insider.

“With this injunction, if Hee attacks Yew, then Yew can initiate contempt [of court] proceedings against Hee, apart from criminal proceedings,” the lawyer explained.

Tarmizi also ordered Hee, a Perak assembly deputy speaker, to pay court costs but said there was not enough evidence for him to evaluate the claims for damages.

“I welcome the ruling. Benar punya benar. Dia tak boleh tipu lagi. [The truth will prevail. She can’t lie anymore],” said Yew who filed the suit against Hee in June 2009.

Despite the obvious evidence of a photo and video recordings, Hee denied she had sprayed Yew and insisted she was only holding up a pen drive that resembled the spray canister.

In his statement of claim, Yew said he suffered pain and injury, mental shock and trauma, loss of dignity, and consequently public shame, humiliation and mental distress as a result of the attack.

Both Hee and Yew suffer from polio.

The Malaysian Insider understands that Hee fled the court complex in Ipoh this morning when approached by reporters for comments.

Her counsel Nor Emilia Iszehan told the press that she would first speak to her client before discussing any further action.

When contacted, Taiping MP and former state executive councillor Nga Kor Ming said today’s decision was a historic matter that proved PR’s claims to be true.

“This is the first time there is such a case where a deputy speaker of a House is being barred from attacking a person,” Nga said.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 3:32 pm and is filed under
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DAP’s ‘Dayak Brain Trust’ gets support

By
Joseph Tawie

June 14, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

Sarawak DAP chief Wong Ho Leng believes it is time Dayak themselves ‘take the lead to shape their political future’.

KUCHING: The Sarawak Dayak community has thrown its support behind Lim Kit Siang’s proposal to form a “Dayak Brain Trust”.

Lim, who is DAP adviser and Ipoh Timur MP, had suggested the formation of the “Dayak Brain Trust” (DBT) during a workshop with party assemblyman in Sibu on Saturday.

The Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia), a very influential Iban organisation that has members throughout the state, has described the move as a “good idea”.

Sadia president Sidi Munan, when contacted by FMT, said the DBT could also act as a resource centre.

“It’s a good idea. It could even act as a think-tank for the party which wishes to learn more about Dayaks’ cultural, social, economic and political needs.

“At least there is an organisation which makes an attempt to learn more about Dayaks’ problems and needs and is willing to help the community.

“There is nothing wrong in supporting such an idea,” Munan said.

According to Lim, the DBT would act as an advisory body and will recruit 10 Dayak professionals to advise them on serving the rural community.

Said Lim: “We are already sourcing for the 10 outstanding personalities to set up the Dayak Brain Trust.

“They would be professionals to advise the opposition including giving their views on ways to lead the folk towards economic, social, cultural and political awakening.

“Thus far we have approached a lawyer, a doctor, a businessman and those from specialised fields.

“These Dayak professionals were receptive and welcomed the idea.”

Dayak future

Expressing hope that the DBT would be formed within a month, Lim said he would let Sarawak DAP to work on the idea.

The idea came about during a dinner discussion last Friday as the DAP prepares itself to penetrate into the Sarawak heartland in the coming general election.

State DAP chairman Wong Ho Leng On said the 10 Dayak professionals identified from the DBT were non-DAP members who would provide independent views from their community.

“The people themselves must take the lead to shape their political future, and in many aspects, the needs of the Dayaks have been sidelined,” he said.

Wong said although the body would comprise members from the Dayak community, the Malay and Melanau communities would not be neglected.

Citing the recent April 16 polls, he said that people in Sabah and Sarawak were no longer Barisan Nasional’s (BN) fixed deposit as the Dayak support for the opposition had increased significantly since the 2010 Sibu by-election.

According to Wong, the support for the opposition from the Dayak community had increased from 22% to 32% in the last election.

Since its “big” victories in the election, DAP, which won 12 seats out of 15 it contested, has encouraging support from the Dayak voters.

Three or four of the seats it won were due to the strong support given by the Dayaks, and in some areas, it had received the support of more than 30% of the Dayaks.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 3:20 pm and is filed under
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DAP says nude squat case ‘humiliating’, demands Home Ministry response

By
Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

June 14, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — The DAP has demanded that the Home Ministry respond to reports that two Singaporean women were handcuffed and made to do squats naked by Malaysian immigration officials.

Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran said that the act was “humiliating” and “ridiculous,” while Bakri MP Er Teck Hwa said the incident would give other countries the perception that Malaysia was a “lawless” country.

“You cannot do this, why subject these women to this form of interrogation, it is humiliating,” Kulasegaran told The Malaysian Insider.

Batu Gajah MP Fong Po Kuan had brought the matter up earlier to deputy home minister Datuk Abu Seman Yusop, but Abu Seman had declined to offer a response as Fong’s question was not included in the list during question time.

“I tried to bring it up, but the deputy minister did not answer [my question],” Fong told The Malaysian Insider.

“People won’t want to come to our country anymore if this kind of practice occurs … this will affect the country’s image as a tourist destination.

“The Home Ministry must give a response, they must investigate what happened,” Er added.

Two Singaporean women who drove to Johor Baru for supper were questioned by Malaysian immigration officials, handcuffed, thrown behind bars and made to do squats while naked, the Singapore Straits Times reported today.

The two women said they had driven into Johor Baru without getting their passports stamped, through an unmanned immigration lane.

Following their punishment, they were allowed to return to Singapore after 48 hours with a warning.

Now back in Singapore, both women say they will never go back to Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 3:10 pm and is filed under
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Denied entry, Bersih chief sues Sarawak government

By
Debra Chong

The Malaysian Insider

Jun 14, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — Election watchdog chief Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan has filed a suit against the Sarawak government for barring her entry into the East Malaysian state two months ago, saying the move is against the Federal Constitution.

“Yes filed and leave application will be heard 13 July,” the Coalition for Fair and Free Elections (Bersih 2.0) chairman told The Malaysian Insider via a text message.

Sarawak and Sabah are allowed to deny entry even to Malaysians under the agreement to form Malaysia in 1963 with Malaya and Singapore, but must give a reason in doing so.

Ambiga was stopped at the Kuching International Airport on April 15; but no reasons were given as to why she was barred from entering the hornbill state where she was to monitor the polling process the next day.

The former Malaysian Bar president was travelling with two other Bersih 2.0 committee members — Subramaniam Pillay, a member of Aliran and Arul Prakash, a programme officer of Komas — and Ivy Josiah, executive director of Women’s Aid Organisation.

The trio were allowed in.

Ambiga joined a list of activists including Steven Ng, Cynthia Gabriel, Wong Chin Huat, Johan Tan and Subang PKR MP Sivarasa Rasiah, who were denied entry to the state in the days leading up to the state election in Sarawak, which ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) easily retained.

Bersih 2.0 has demanded that the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) investigate the “abuse and arbitrary use of powers” by the Immigration Department and the Sarawak state authorities.

Long-serving Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud has not responded to criticisms about denying entry to Malaysian activists while Putrajaya has also remained silent over a citizen’s right to free movement within the federation since the hornbill state formed Malaysia with Malaya, Sabah and Singapore in 1963.

However, pro-government newspapers in West Malaysia have been playing up reports of a graft probe against Taib, who has rebuffed Putrajaya’s efforts to get him to end his 30-year rule, marked by reports of land grabs from the natives.

Malaysia has been found to trail the rest of the world in protecting freedom of religion, expression and other basic rights, managing only to place 59th out of 66 countries surveyed by the World Justice Project (WJP) for its Rule of Law Index 2011.

Low scores for freedom of religion, expression, assembly and privacy also meant that Malaysia placed second to last in its income group, which includes other upper-middle-income countries like Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Iran.

This is the first time Malaysia has been included in the survey.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 8:41 am and is filed under
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House rejects motion on Ahmad Sarbani

By
Joseph Sipalan

June 14, 2011

MalaysiaKini

The Dewan Rakyat has thrown out an emergency motion to debate the death of Customs senior assistant director Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed while in the custody of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee agreed that the motion is specific and of public interest, but decided that it is not an urgent issue.

“As the date for the inquest has been set (from July 4-15), there is no need to expedite a debate (on Ahmad Sarbani’s death). So the House rejects this motion,” he said after Question Time.

Any emergency motion must satisfy all three criteria before it can be debated.

Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor), who filed the motion on June 10, had argued that it is vital for the issue to be debated as, until now, the MACC and the police have not been able to furnish proof to support suspicions that he was on the take.

He listed Ahmad Sarbani’s assets, which include a semi-detached house worth about RM250,000 and two other properties worth about RM60,000 and RM80,000 respectively, aside from a Honda CRV, a Proton Persona and a Perodua car and a motorcycle.

“Would a so-called corrupt civil servant live such an average life, or is the MACC purposely trying to tarnish his name? The police should make the outcome of their investigation public,” he said.

He also said the police and MACC should not be allowed to drag their feet as they did over the death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock, the first incident of a person dying while in the commission’s custody.

Lim, who is also DAP advisor, stressed that Ahmad Sarbani’s case should not end up like the Teoh inquest, which failed to satisfy many burning questions after the coroner returned an open verdict.

Ahmad Sarbani was found dead after falling from the third floor of the MACC’s Kuala Lumpur headquarters on April 6.

His death sparked public outrage, with Lim demanding that the authorities immediately set up a royal commission of inquiry to probe the MACC over the incident.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 3:27 pm and is filed under
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Minister: Soi Lek approved diesel subsidy cuts

S Pathmawathy | Jun 13, 11

Malaysiakini

MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek did not object to diesel subsidy cuts during the National Economic Council meeting when the matter was decided, revealed Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs Minister Ismail Sabri.

Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby today, Ismail said that Chua should have raised his concerns during the meeting instead of letting his party leaders complain now through the media.

“How can he now turn back and say it’s not fair? The MCA statement is unfair to government,” he said.

He added that the MCA should be helping the government in tackling protests by C2-class fishing trawler operators because the party had a hand in making the decision in the first place.

Ismail was responding to MCA deputy publicity chief Loh Seng Kok’s statement that the government was “being tough” on operators.

Ismail denied the accusation and said that it were the operators who were threatening the government.

“I said we can talk but don’t threaten the government. Don’t say ‘I give you three days to settle or otherwise…’. Don’t hold a strike first then call for discussions.

“You should discuss first. When you resort to a strike that means these things can’t be solved. They strike first and are backed by some opposition leaders. Then they threaten the government. No way! You have to talk to them-lah,” he said.

MCA seeks compromise

In a statement earlier today, Loh warned that if both the government and the operators were not willng to come to a compromise, the situation would worsen.

“Ultimately, the price hikes will end up being passed onto the consumers which is not an ideal solution,” said Loh.

Loh said that during a meeting with MCA recently, the affected boat operators were willing to pay up to RM1.40 per litre of diesel instead of the old price of RM1.25 per litre.

“Or if the price is reverted to RM1.25 per liter, they are willing to give up the government incentive of 10 sen for every kilogramme caught,” said Loh, urging the government to reconsider the alternative proposal.

After meeting representatives of affected operators recently, Chua alleged that the government should instead go after operators who abuse diesel subsidies.

In what he terms as a ‘Ali Baba’ practice, he said that 50 percent of operators were taking advantage of RM1.25 price and renting out their boats to foreigners.

Fishermen and trawler boat operators strike

About 1,000 fishermen and trawler boat operators in Kuantan, Johor and Perlis have refused to go out to sea for three days, from June 11, to demand for the restoration of the RM1.25 per litre diesel price.

Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming told reporters earlier today that fish prices has gone up by 30 percent and this would be a problem because fish makes up 60 percent of Malaysian’s protein intake.

Commenting on the strike, Ismail said that he considered the situation a crisis as it would cause a shortage in seafood supplies, and the price of fish would go up.

When asked if importing fish and other related items would resolve the problem, he said it had to be done to stop prices increasing. “For how long we will do this, I don’t know,” he said

At the moment, Ismail said he was unaware of any price increase but said that fish imports from Thailand would compensate for any shortfall.

Asked if the government would retract the subsidy cut, Ismail reiterated that the operators are capable of absorbing the additional cost.

“We don’t see a reason why we should, Class C2 is an industry. The government actually should charge them the industrial rates as in the case of the inshore or coastal fishing industry.

“What’s the difference between the deep-sea fishing industry and the coastal fishing industry? The former involves a ship that costs RM1 million to RM2 million. These are big ships, they can afford it,” he said.

He added that it was unfair if the government revoked the diesel subsidy given to small scale fishermen and that the government had no intention to do that.

Ismail also said that claims of 1,000 operators being involved in the strike were exaggerated and he estimated that only 50 were involved.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 12:13 am and is filed under
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Parliament rejects motion on Sarbaini

By
Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

June 14, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — Parliament has rejected an emergency motion to discuss the death of Ahmad Sarbaini, with Deputy Speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee saying that the matter was “not urgent” as an inquest will be taking place.

“Parliament has decided that there is no urgency to debate this motion … as an inquest on the matter will be heard on July 4-15 … the motion is hereby rejected,” said Kiandee.

Veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said last week he wanted Parliament to discuss the death of the Customs officer, following allegations that the MACC was trying to tarnish the Customs man’s name.

Lim had given notice to Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin to move a motion today during Parliament, and added that motion for debate will focus on Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s claims of a conspiracy.

An inquest into Sarbaini’s death will be held from July 4 to July 15.

Sarbaini, 56, was found dead on the badminton court of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) building in Jalan Cochrane on April 6 at about 10.20am, barely two hours after walking in.

His death, which occurred while the Teoh Beng Hock Royal Commission of Inquiry was still ongoing, came as a huge blow to the anti-graft body’s already battered credibility.

Teoh, a DAP aide, fell to his death at the then-Selangor MACC office on July 16, 2009. An 18-month inquest returned an open verdict, ruling out both suicide and homicide in Teoh’s death.

The police have recommended an inquest be held for Sarbaini and the Attorney-General has agreed but Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers have criticised the idea, citing Teoh’s case as reason to back their doubts.

Police filed an application for an inquest at the Jalan Duta court complex on June 3.

Coroner Aizatul Akmal Maharani said today the Sarbaini inquest would be heard at the magistrate’s court here.

Ahmad Sarbaini was among those detained by MACC on April 1 during a graft probe involving Customs officers who allegedly caused the Government to lose RM2.2bil in under-declared taxes.

He had been released on bail but went to the MACC building, apparently to change his statement.

Raja Petra, in a post on his Malaysia Today website yesterday, claimed the police had conducted a thorough check on Sarbaini’s assets and found no unusual or extraordinary wealth. He has also accused MACC of trying to tarnish Sarbaini’s name following his death.

MACC chief commissioner Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed has reiterated that an inquest will answer allegations into the death of the Customs officer.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 2:52 pm and is filed under
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Poem for World Environment Day 2011

by
Dr Zorina Khalid

12 June 2011

CONSIDERATION FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT,

WHY BOTHER, NOT MY CONCERN….

The ills of society

I’ve noticed it’s aplenty

People are selfish and not considerate

They just live life on a rampage

With not a bother or a thought

Did you not notice that?

Look at what’s happening to our country

Water use to glory

(Malaysia is tops in Asia for this)

Electricity wastage without feeling guilty

Because, I can afford to pay the utility.

Rubbish thrown out the window

Garbage clogging the drains and rivers

Lots of usage, lots more garbage

Don’t they ponder and bother?

How are we going to manage so much waste?

Toilets are dirty and with bad odour

Rubbish dropped on the floor, not my problem anymore

Hey! That’s the job of the cleaners

Such is the mentality of our people today

Trees are cut, hills are plundered

Come the rain, we get disastrous floods from mud

Lives are lost and disrupted

Lots of news and also anger

From the coverage in our media.

When it stops raining, taps are dried up

Again causing public furor

Finger pointing to find the cause

Or is this another God-given wrath?

Nobody seems to learn from past distraughts.

Haze returns yearly like a season

Causing discomfort and health disruption

More cars on the road, car-pool is not in fashion

Open burning is just frowned upon

No solid action to halt the problem.

This is my Malaysia

With citizens that are not bothered

Let the future be

I won’t be around to see

So why should I need to be considerate?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 5:47 am and is filed under
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RM1.8mil … for a Facebook page?

By
Joseph Sipalan

June 14, 2011

MalaysiaKini

The Tourism Ministry came under fire again today, as MPs questioned why it had spent RM1.8 million to start and maintain its Facebook page – yet another on the list of controversial projects.

Anthony Loke (DAP-Rasah) slammed the decision to use so much money when the social networking site can be used free of charge.

“On my last check, there are 20,308 fans on the ministry’s Facebook page. Comparably, the ‘Visit Penang’ Facebook page, for which the Penang government did not spend a sen, got over 100,000 fans. Why spend RM1.8 million?” he asked during Question Time.

Loke said it is hard to believe that not one person in the ministry has knowledge of how to maintain or update a Facebook account.

He stressed that the Tourism Ministry could have easily sought advice from various parties, including BN and opposition MPs, many of whom are ardent users of social networking sites.

“You don’t even have to ask members on this side (opposition). There are those among the backbenchers, such as Kota Belud and Rembau… they can come in as consultants,” he said, referring to Umno MPs Abdul Rahman Dahlan and Khairy Jamaluddin, who are both heavy Twitter users.

Deputy Tourism Minister James Dawos Mamit said the budget covers the cost of hosting various activities on the Facebook page, including six interactive Flash applications, development and maintenance work and advertising, which was tendered out to a company, Impact Creations Sdn Bhd, on a three-year contract from 2011-2013.

James, who stood in for Minister Ng Yen Yen despite being sick and suffering a sore throat, added that the ministry spent nearly RM300,000 to develop each of the six applications on their Facebook page.

‘It looks like a waste of money’

Khairy, in a supplementary question, agreed with Loke that the RM1.8 million budget “looks like a waste” of funds, stressing that the low interest in the ministry’s Facebook page is not reflective of the expenditure.

He acknowledged that it would take money to maintain the page and its various activities, but insisted that by engaging a company to focus on promotional work, there should already be big returns.

“Currently there are 2,013 ‘likes’, and the page design is nothing extraordinary. It’s only using the same template. We don’t even have to look at the Penang tourism page; some of the MPs here are even more popular,” he said, while asking how the ministry will measure the success of its campaign.

James pointed out that Impact Creations was engaged to run an advertising campaign to promote domestic tourism, particularly among Generation Y Malaysians who are generally more tech-savvy.

He said the success of the ministry’s social networking campaign, including advertising, will be measured based on the national return of investment in terms of an increase in domestic tourists.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 6:15 pm and is filed under
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Roubini Says ‘Perfect Storm’ May Threaten Global Economy

By
Shamim Adam
 | June 13, 2011, 12:12 AM EDT

Bloomberg

June 13 (Bloomberg) — A “perfect storm” of fiscal woe in the U.S., a slowdown in China, European debt restructuring and stagnation in Japan may converge on the global economy, New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said.

There’s a one-in-three chance the factors will combine to stunt growth from 2013, Roubini said in a June 11 interview in Singapore. Other possible outcomes are “anemic but OK” global growth or an “optimistic” scenario in which the expansion improves.

“There are already elements of fragility,” he said. “Everybody’s kicking the can down the road of too much public and private debt. The can is becoming heavier and heavier, and bigger on debt, and all these problems may come to a head by 2013 at the latest.”

Elevated U.S. unemployment, a surge in oil and food prices, rising interest rates in Asia and trade disruption from Japan’s record earthquake threaten to sap the world economy. Stocks worldwide have lost more than $3.3 trillion since the beginning of May, and Roubini said financial markets by the middle of next year could start worrying about a convergence of risks in 2013.

The MSCI AC World Index has tumbled 4.9 percent this month on concern recent data, including an increase in the U.S. unemployment rate to 9.1 percent in May, signal the global economy is losing steam. U.S. Treasuries rose last week, pushing two-year note yields down for a ninth week in the longest stretch of decreases since February 2008, on bets the Federal Reserve will maintain monetary stimulus.

Bond Market ‘Revolt’

World expansion may slow in the second half of 2011 as “the deleveraging process continues,” fiscal stimulus is withdrawn and confidence ebbs, Roubini also said.

Easing growth may spur demand for dollar assets as a “safe haven,” he said in response to questions after a speech in Singapore today. The Dollar Index, which gauges the U.S. currency’s value against a basket of six counterparts including the euro, yen and British pound, rose 0.1 percent as of 11:35 a.m. in Singapore, bound for a fourth straight daily increase.

Roubini is among analysts who predicted the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 that was triggered by a collapse in the value of U.S. mortgage securities.

Some of his other predictions haven’t panned out, including his call on July 4, 2010, for “market surprises on the downside” in ensuing months and a weakening in economic growth. The MSCI World Index rallied 23 percent in the second half of last year, while U.S. gross domestic product gains accelerated to 2.6 percent in the third quarter and 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter from 1.7 percent in the April-to-June period.

U.S. Bonds

Roubini said two days ago that in the U.S., a failure to address the budget deficit risks a bond market “revolt.” President Barack Obama’s administration has been negotiating with Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, over cutting the federal government’s long-term shortfall and raising the debt ceiling.

“We’re still running over a trillion-dollar budget deficit this year, next year and most likely in 2013,” Roubini said in a speech in Singapore on June 11. “The risk is at some point, the bond market vigilantes are going to wake up in the U.S., like they did in Europe, pushing interest rates higher and crowding out the recovery.”

In Europe, officials need to restructure the debt of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and waiting too long may result in a “more disorderly” process, Roubini also said.

European officials are racing to find a plan to stem Greece’s debt crisis by June 24 while sharing the cost of a new rescue with bondholders. Saddled with the euro area’s heaviest debt load, Greece is seeking additional loans after last year’s 110 billion-euro ($159 billion) bailout.

Japan’s Contraction

Japan’s economy, the world’s third-largest, slid into a recession last quarter, using the textbook definition of consecutive quarterly declines in GDP, after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis. The government is spending an initial 4 trillion yen ($50 billion) to clean up from the disaster, which is estimated to have caused as much as 25 trillion yen in economic damage.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on June 1 that supply constraints are easing faster than expected as companies rush to repair their facilities. The risk in Japan is “if growth fizzles out after a short-term reconstruction stimulus,” leading to a renewed struggle to maintain expansion around 2013, Roubini said.

China’s economy may face a “hard landing” after 2013 as government efforts to boost growth through investment cause excess capacity, Roubini told reporters after his June 11 speech.

‘Overcapacity’ in China

“China is now relying increasingly not just on net exports but on fixed investment” which has climbed to about 50 percent of GDP, he said. “Down the line, you are going to have two problems: a massive non-performing loan problem in the banking system and a massive amount of overcapacity is going to lead to a hard landing.”

A record $2.7 trillion of loans were extended in China over two years, pushing property prices to all-time highs even as authorities set price ceilings, demanded higher deposits and limited second-home purchases.

The nation’s current challenge is to maintain growth and curb price gains ahead of a leadership change next year, Roubini said. Officials may use administrative steps and price controls, as well as raising rates further and allowing currency appreciation, if inflation becomes a bigger problem, he said.

Political Transition

“The policy challenge through next year, where you have a delicate political transition of the leadership, is to maintain growth in the 8 to 9 percent range while pushing inflation below what it is right now,” said Roubini, the co-founder and chairman of New York-based Roubini Global Economics LLC.

After next year, the bigger challenge in China is “to reduce fixed investment and savings and increase consumption. Otherwise after 2013, there will be a hard landing,” he said.

The risk of “outright” deflation and the probability of another recession in the U.S. are lower now than a year ago, and output in Japan could rebound in the second half of the year, Roubini said two days ago. “High-grade” corporations have “very strong” balance sheets, he said.

Roubini in July 2006 predicted a “catastrophic” global financial meltdown that central bankers would be unable to prevent. The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008 sparked turmoil that led to the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

–Editors: Sunil Jagtiani, Chris Anstey

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 5:46 pm and is filed under
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Subsidies masking IPP ‘inefficiencies’, says think tank

By
Lee Wei Lian

The Malaysian Insider

Jun 13, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — Independent Power Producers (IPPs) would have to charge much more than their Singapore counterparts if natural gas were sold to them at market rates, due to their bloated and inefficient cost structures, claimed Research for Social Advancement (Refsa) today.

The think tank estimated that local IPPs would need to raise their average prices from 25 sen/kWh to 74 sen/kWh if subsidies were removed and gas prices were allowed to rise from RM10.70/mmBTU to the present market price of RM47.42/mmBTU.

In comparison, Singapore power producers charge 41 sen/kWh.

“Put simply, if the gas subsidy in Malaysia is completely removed, the IPPs generation cost would be 80 per cent higher than that of power generators in Singapore,” said Refsa executive director Teh Chi Chang, noting that in Singapore fuel prices are market based.

“In fact, the IPPs would not be able to survive in Singapore at all, because Singaporeans pay only 52 sen/kWh for their electricity, compared to the (estimated) Malaysian IPPs cost of 74 sen/kWh.”

He added that the IPP’s cost structure appeared to be “bloated” and suffering from “substantial inefficiencies”.

Refsa’s estimates come following statements from the Association of Independent Power Producers (Penjanabebas) that savings in gas costs — the difference between international gas prices and fixed price set by the government — are passed on directly to consumers through lower tariffs.

Teh also called for the IPP contracts to be made public, pointing out that even toll concession agreements that were previously classified have been made public, following which several toll freezes and abolishments were announced.

IPPs and their perceived lopsided purchasing power agreements with Tenaga Nasional Berhad have come under renewed scrutiny following the recent government’s decision to hike electricity prices.

The Najib administration yesterday formed a Cabinet committee comprising Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohd Yakcop; Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin; and Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah to look into IPP related issues.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 6:48 am and is filed under
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Tourism Ministry: RM1.8 million spent on Facebook pages

By
Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

June 14, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — A whopping RM1,758,432 was spent on developing six Facebook pages to promote Malaysian tourism, the Tourism Ministry said today.

Deputy Tourism Minister James Dawos Mamit said this today in reply to a question from Anthony Loke (Rasah-DAP).

Each Facebook page cost RM293,072 — Cuti-Cuti 1 Malaysia, Citrawarna 1Malaysia, Karnival Jualan Mega 1 Malaysia, Festival Pelancongan Seni Kontemporari 1 Malaysia, Kempen 1 Malaysia Bersih and Fabulous Food 1 Malaysia.

The Citrawarna 1 Malaysia page has so far attracted 20,292 Facebook fans since it was launched on May 21.

Mamit said that the RM1.8 million included costs for designing, flash programming and coding, testing and debugging, uploading and launching the application, system server deployment and campaign management.

“You need RM1.8 million to run Facebook pages and applications? A six-year-old can start a Facebook page.

“If Datuk Seri Ng Yen Yen has problems getting people to help start Facebook pages, DAP headquarters can help her out, we have people who can develop these things at no cost,” Loke told reporters later at a press conference.

Loke said that unless Ng explained the reasons behind the “exorbitant” costs for the “social media branding” exercise by her ministry, he would lodge a report to the Malaysian Anti-Crimes Commission (MACC).

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 5:01 pm and is filed under
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Umno turning into the old PAS

By
Hafiz Noor Shams

June 14, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JUNE 14 — If one had opined that PAS was more of a centrist than Umno 10 years ago, nobody would have believed it. It would have been an outrageous opinion. Yet today, it is no longer so foreign a prospect.

The recently concluded PAS internal election is the latest evidence of the party’s march to the centre. That election saw both the promotion of the so-called professional group to the leadership of the party and the adoption of a more realistic stance with regards to the Islamic state agenda.

The participation of PAS within Pakatan Rakyat has a lot to do with the reconfiguration of the party towards the political centre. While the criticism of ideological difference against the coalition as a whole remains valid, the alliance itself is the great engine that is pulling all of its members to a middle ground. That middle ground is proving to be the Malaysian centre.

This is should be contrasted with trends within Barisan Nasional, or really, just Umno.

Regardless of the sincerity of the accusation, Umno and its allies insist that PAS is committing a political betrayal. They claim PAS is abandoning the Islamic state ideal and ejecting the ulama from party leadership. Rather than acknowledging the developments as simply a move to the centre, they are more comfortable accusing PAS of kowtowing to DAP.

Betrayal or not, as with any move to the centre, those on the fringes will have less hold on the party. That will fuel some discontent.

Umno-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia wants Umno to appease the fringes. Assistant chief editor of Utusan Malaysia Zaini Hassan has gone as far as suggesting that Umno should have its own ulama wing, perhaps thinking that particular manoeuvre could outflank PAS.

He forgets that times are changed.

In the past, the Islamisation race between Umno and PAS always ended up with PAS being the loser. PAS did not budge even as Umno encroached on the traditional domain of the former. That allowed Umno to win centrist votes and gain some voters who could have voted for PAS.

That little trick might not work again after the latest PAS election.

With PAS slowly nudging towards the centre and Umno to the opposite direction, the Islamisation game has only one participant, and that is Umno. With enough momentum powering both sides, Umno might find itself taking the relatively more extreme position compared to PAS. This means Umno is at risk of becoming the loser this time around.

If both parties stay on their course, Umno will turn into the conservative party that PAS was. Meanwhile, PAS the centrist should be very happy with that.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 10:52 am and is filed under
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Why Does Australia Want to Send Refugees to Malaysia?

By
 Marina Kamenev/SYDNEY
 Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Time

Between 2003 and 2004, Marion Le, a Canberra-based lawyer, made regular trips to the remote island of Nauru in the South Pacific. But she wasn’t going for a beach holiday. At the time, Nauru was part of the so-called Pacific Solution, Australia’s policy of processing and detaining asylum seekers arriving by boat in offshore detention facilities.

From 2001 to 2007, thousands of asylum seekers were in offshore detention centers while Australian immigration officials decided their fate. Le, who helped many migrants file successful asylum claims to Australia, was among the Pacific Solution’s many critics in Australia and abroad, saying the system was both a human rights violation and a breach of international law. After former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd came into office in 2007 and closed the centers on Nauru, Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and the Australian territory of Christmas Island, Le recalls feeling “relief” that the government was finally listening to the plight of those that had been confined. (
Watch a video about asylum seekers in South Africa.
)

So it’s something of a surprise that today, Le wants to have the facility in Nauru reopened. “It’s the better of the two evils,” she says. The second “evil” that Le is referring to has been nicknamed the Malaysian Solution. It’s the latest plan by the Australian government to deter its longtime problem of “irregular maritime arrivals,” and to stop the business of the people smugglers who get them here. The proposal, tabled by Prime Minister Julia Gillard in early May, mandates that asylum seekers arriving to Australia by boat will no longer be taken to Christmas Island, where they have access to getting an Australian visa. Instead, the first 800 asylum seekers will be sent to Malaysia — “to the back of the queue,” as Gillard puts it. In turn, Australia will give a permanent home to 4,000 mainly Burmese refugees over a period of four years who are now residing in or near the Malaysian capital. “Now [the governments] are just people trading,” says Le. “What they are suggesting is deplorable.”

Since May 7, when the Malaysia Solution was announced, there have been more than 274 people who have arrived to Australia by boat. For the moment, they are in limbo on a detention center in Christmas Island. A formal deal between Canberra and Kuala Lumpur is close to being, signed according to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, though it has not been announced where the affected migrants will be processed. Bowen told ABC Radio on June 9 that they will be processed in a third country. (
See how refugees are living around the world today.
)

So far, Malaysia is the closest the Australian government has come to establishing a regional deal. But it’s not the first. Gillard had hopes for building a detention center in East Timor, but President Jose Ramos-Horta told journalists on April 29 that this is not an option. There have also been talks with Papua New Guinea about reopening the facilities at Manus Island, and Thailand has reportedly expressed interest in participating in a similar scheme to Malaysia. Critics are concerned about the seemingly arbitrary nature of the location for offshore solutions. “I feel like Gillard is just throwing darts around the Pacific Ocean and hoping one sticks somewhere,” says Le.

Malaysia, unlike Australia, is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, and therefore does not have special national laws that recognize refugees, fleeing their homes for fear of persecution, have different rights than illegal immigrants. “We have a country like Australia that has signed the Convention sending people to a country that hasn’t signed the Convention, and where we know refugee protection is deeply problematic,” says Graham Thom, a spokesperson for Amnesty International, which expressed concern over the agreement in a press release on May 8. The statement quoted a 2010 report by Amnesty which found that 6,000 refugees in Malaysia are caned annually for immigration-related offences, such as working, which is not legal for refugees in that nation. Bowen has since said that the 800 refugees coming from Australia will be issued with identity tags that should safeguard them against caning.

But particularly controversial has been the new policy’s treatment of children. Bowen told the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that unaccompanied children arriving to Australia by boat will not be exempt from being sent away. “I don’t want children getting on boats to come to Australia thinking or knowing that there is some sort of exemption in place,” Bowen told the news service. His said his concern was that parents would send their children alone on the perilous journey to Australia by boat.

Human-rights groups immediately condemned the new condition. “We think that what the government is doing is morally reprehensible,” says Norman Gillespie, the chief executive UNICEF AUSTRALIA. “These are children. When they come seeking asylum in Australia the minister is obligated to help them.” On June 4, 14 Labor Party MPs from Western Australia also signed an open letter voicing their disapproval of the Malaysia Solution. Two days later, Bowen backpedaled, saying that the fate of children arriving to Australia would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Most Australians are unconvinced. A June 2 Galaxy research poll conducted by the Daily Telegraph showed that 66% of voters are against sending asylum seekers to Malaysia — and that was before Bowen’s unpopular announcement regarding children. “It’s a quick political fix to stop boats coming, rather than a genuine attempt to develop a regional coordinated framework,” says David Manne, executive director of Melbourne’s Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre.

Since the new year, pressure has been mounting on the Australian government to find a new offshore solution for Australian-bound refugees. Currently, all migrants and asylum seekers who reach Australia by boat are first taken to Christmas Island, which, while technically part of Australia, is only 220 miles south of Jakarta. As that facility filled up, detention centers have now reopened on the mainland. On Dec. 15, a
boat carrying 90 asylum seekers sank near Christmas Island killing between 30 and 50 people
. A coronial inquest into the incident is being held. Scott Morrison, the opposition’s immigration spokesman, has said that Gillard’s Labor Party has “blood on their hands” for having a policy in place that encourages refugees to enter the country. Like many nations that recognize refugees, Australia grants permanent residence to asylum seekers if their application is successful. The opposition parties think the Malaysian option will be costly, as Australia will be taking five times more refugees than Malaysia in the trade. Opposition leader Tony Abbott also believes that this option will be ineffective, that Malaysia will become the new back door for people seeking to come to Australia.

In April, asylum-seeker detainees set fire to several buildings in Villawood Detention Center in western Sydney, as part of a protest after two asylum-seekers had their refugee-status applications rejected. On June 9, a riot involving 100 refugees also broke out there after one detainee was isolated in the compound. Morrison interprets the protests as symptoms of a system that’s out of control: “With an average of more than three critical incidents being reported every day in the detention network, ranging from self-harm and serious assaults to riots, fires and even deaths, the Government must now be held to account for the daily failures now occurring in our detention system,” he told the ABC on May 22. (
Watch a video about asylum seekers in France.
)

Now refugee advocates like Le find themselves making the same appeal to Gillard’s government as the opposition, which is also urging the government to re-open the detention centre in Nauru. Abbott and Morrison were both in Nauru over the weekend, and said that the center could be up and running in a matter of weeks. At least at Nauru, Abbott said in a recent speech, the government could guarantee that no illegal arrival would suffer physical abuse: “We could hardly expect Malaysia to maintain two regimes for illegal arrivals: a superior one for those coming via Australia and an inferior one for everyone else.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 5:44 pm and is filed under
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When the Joneses get too far ahead

By
 Zairil Khir Johari

Jun 15, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JUNE 15 — “What do you think?” asked the elderly taxi driver as he slapped his steering wheel in frustration. “Look at this jam. Even though the government makes it so expensive, people have so many cars. Not small cars. Look around. All big cars. COE alone how much? So many rich people in Singapore, so many tall buildings. But people like us, what do we have? We are not rich. Life is difficult. Everything is so expensive now. Cari makan also susah.”

The scorn in his voice was unmistakable. All I did was casually ask, “Uncle, how are things in Singapore nowadays?”

“This is the government’s fault,” resumed the cabby voluntarily. “They control everything, but they don’t know anything. They think they know. You see that car park there?”

I turned to where he pointed and nodded politely.

“Today it’s a car park. Tomorrow, it could be an office block. As high as the sky. It’s up to the government. That’s how it works here. They plan everything, all the buildings, all the development. They plan how we live. But what do they know about us? They don’t know us.”

“Why do you say that, uncle?” I offered, having decided that he wasn’t about to stop any time soon.

“Look at the ministers. The only time you see them is on TV. They live in big houses, pay themselves so much money. I know where they live. Big bungalows, big cars. And the prime minister? He walks around surrounded by so many bodyguards, I wonder if he can even see the people in front of him.” He sighed. “If they don’t even see us, how can they understand us?”

It was barely two weeks after Singapore’s watershed general election and the mood on the ground was still tense. Yet what struck me most about the taxi driver’s ramblings was that less than a decade ago, this same man would almost certainly have been a staunch defender and supporter of the government of the day.

It is unmistakably clear that the PAP has lost its core support base.

What happened? Is this not the same country that charted 14.7 per cent GDP growth in 2010, with record revenues continually streaming into government coffers? In the first quarter of 2011 alone, GDP was up by 22.5 per cent.

In theory, all the ingredients of a successful economy are in place. However, reality reveals that they are being prepared according to a recipe for disaster.

In other words, in Singapore we have a case of an economy with pulsating growth and furious development, but whose benefits and effects are hardly felt by those at the bottom. This in turn has given rise to an acute case of “keeping up with the Joneses”, an idiomatic expression that characterises socio-economic envy.

While Singapore’s GNI per capita of US$42,000 (RM127, 491) is extraordinary by regional standards, it is nowhere close to an accurate reflection of the ground where the average income of the bottom 20 per cent is less than US$991 a month.

In addition, the average income of the bottom 30 per cent has actually decreased over the last 10 years. This means that while average working class Singaporeans struggle to make a living, the Joneses among them are effectively earning stratospheric amounts, and are far from shy about it.

Yet it must be understood that income inequality by itself is not enough to cause widespread dissatisfaction. It is not as if the elite have never been rich, and for that matter neither is high ministerial pay a recent phenomenon. For anger to result, income inequality must be coupled with rising inflation and an increasing cost of living.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if Mr and Mrs Jones have bought a Bentley if you are able to afford a Camry. But when you struggle to earn a living and your children find it hard to own homes, the fact that the prime minister gets paid US$2 million a year suddenly sounds ludicrous, especially when his job is to ensure that you are able to live comfortably.

In light of this, it is pertinent that Malaysia takes heed and ensure that income inequality in our country does not spiral out of control, especially in the context of regional inflation due in part to high commodity prices and rising wages in China.

Already, the bottom 40 per cent of our country earns less than 15 per cent of total income while the top 20 per cent are comfortably sharing 50 per cent of the pie among themselves.

We must therefore ensure that in the race to achieve a high income economy and developed nation status by 2020, we must not allow income inequality, which is already prevalent and fast rising, to be coupled with a loss of social upward mobility for the middle and working class.

Capital injection and pump-priming economics may be the solution if we are merely concerned with growth numbers, but it may actually be the problem in the greater socio-economic context.

Whatever we do, we must never forget that ultimately, it is all about the people. If we do, then the Joneses would pull so far away they would no longer be within reach.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 10:59 am and is filed under
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While Najib claims welfare state, Utusan says DAP masterminds

By
Shannon Teoh

June 15, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — Umno’s Utusan Malaysia today accused DAP of masterminding PAS’s new welfare state agenda as a cover for its Malaysian Malaysia concept.

This comes despite Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s recent arguments that the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) has already implemented a welfare state in its five decades in power.

Assistant chief editor Datuk Zaini Hassan wrote in his column that Malaysian Malaysia, first used by Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) when it was still part of Malaysia, would ignore special Malay and Bumiputera rights and lead to social unrest.

“When studied closely, it is actually the Malaysian Malaysia concept… that neglects the special rights of another race that is being systematically driven by DAP, a PAP splinter party,” he wrote.

Ahead of a general election expected within the year, Umno and PAS, the two largest Malay-Muslim parties, have locked horns in a public debate over the welfare state concept that the Islamic party introduced in its general assembly two weeks ago.

President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had retreated from a hardline Islamic state agenda in his opening address, choosing instead to focus on a welfare state that redistributes wealth by taking a razor to government-linked corporations’ profits.

Umno immediately attempted to discredit the party with the Malay ground, with Najib echoing former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement that PAS had veered from its Islamic state agenda due to DAP’s influence.  Both PM Najib and his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, have said that PAS’s welfare state was not new and that BN has already been practising it in government.

Today, Zaini repeated the claim that a welfare state has nothing to do with an Islamic state and added that if DAP takes over Malaysia, “it will not be an economic policy that helps races that are in difficulty nor balance out the prosperity of different races as is already being done successfully now.”

“Are they willing to see students from one (race) not receive even one scholarship because another is seen as more deserving according to meritocracy? We fear that DAP’s welfare state will cause social unrest.

“If that is the way, then this country will be at war,” he wrote.

The Malay daily further accused Pakatan Rakyat (PR) of not implementing any welfare programmes in the four states it currently controls, and held this as proof that the welfare state agenda was just a front for DAP’s Malaysian Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 11:06 am and is filed under
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Where is the accountability factor?

By
Edwin Yapp

Jun 15, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JUNE 15 — I had been away on a break but being the news junkie I am, I had been following various interesting news even while on vacation.

One that certainly caught my eye was the item reported in The Malaysian Insider, as well as other online news sites, about how a recently set up government price check website had been hacked into, the act of which has resulted in the loss of over 2,000 registered users’ details.

The 1 Malaysia Pengguna Bijak’s (1MPB) website launched on June 7 allows the public to check and compare the prices of consumer products sold at 1,255 retail outlets nationwide by clicking on the portal (1pengguna.com).

The initial idea of setting up such a portal is a good one. The bid to make government services more accessible to the public should be encouraged.

But setting up such a website is not merely about making the information available in a database, registering a domain name, dolling up a web server and publicising it via advertisements, so that the public can start to use it.

Perhaps 10 years ago, doing so would be enough. But in today’s increasingly cyber-dependent and consequently, cyber-vulnerable world, it isn’t just enough.

The fact is that in today’s web-enabled world, anyone wanting to set up a web presence and offer services, especially one that would require that users surrender precious private and personal information, must not only have a secured server and service in place but must also ensure that security is at the core of its design.

Granted, we don’t know the exact details of the kind of security the vendors employed in the design of the 1MPB or indeed how the hacking incident took place.

IT community portal Lowyat.net, one of the first websites that reported this breach, did, however, note on June 11 that there were “several vulnerabilities in the RM1.4 million 1MPB site that allowed hackers to pull signup details, usernames, email addresses and hashed passwords (encrypted).”

Lowyat.net founder and chief executive Vijandren Ramadass told The Malaysian Insider there was “a severe lack of security on the site” when it was launched and that he tried contacting the website administrator but received no response.

“Obviously, this is not an RM1.4 million job. Security and user privacy is a very important issue, especially on a site backed by the government,” he said.

Other security experts I spoke with concurred with Vijandren, noting the breach should not even have happened in the first place.

One of them, Dhiillon Kannabhiran, founder of security organisation Hack In The Box, noted that this breach shouldn’t have happened at all. “It’s an SQL Injection issue, a security vulnerability caused by poor input validation on the web application,” he explained.

“In short, the application was poorly written and it allowed an attacker to copy/steal information from the backend database via nothing more than a web browser, meaning no specialised tools were needed.”

Dhillon went on to say that proper input validation and having secure programming practices would have been sufficient in preventing this attack.

“The vulnerability would also most likely have been discovered had the application/portal undergone a proper vulnerability assessment prior to being launched. The main entry point into the database was via the web application itself.”

But what really got me riled up were two other stories that appeared following the incident.

In its Saturday report, the Star online quoted Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry deputy secretary-general Mahani Tan Abdullah admitting to the breach of security but she downplayed the matter, saying that only the “the first layer” of the website’s security was penetrated.

Yesterday, in a bid to further defend its position and defuse the severity of last week’s breach, The Malaysian Insider reported that Tan said what hackers got was only “test data,” which ominously still contain the e-mail addresses of staff from the ministry.

She reiterated that no sensitive information was in jeopardy, arguing that the “hackers only went into the first layer where they could just read data which contained the names and the email addresses of the staff, which, by the way, is in the public domain.”

What seemed like innocuous and innocent comments are anything but. A breach in a public sector website’s security and the theft of information — regardless whether it was test information comprising internal staff e-mail address — no matter how seemingly harmless is still a breach and should not be downplayed as such.

And what makes it worse is that instead of acknowledging the weaknesses in how this web service has been introduced — one that is fraught with errors and vulnerabilities — a senior spokesperson tried to pass it off by saying the Ministry is “not unduly worried” about the whole episode.

In a manner reflecting a lot of the country’s politicians and bureaucrats, the habit of sweeping accountability under the carpet is just one of the many systemic problems Malaysia is facing.

Fact is, the breach did happen, and while not a legal expert, it wouldn’t be a stretch of any imagination that such breaches would have contravened several laws the country has enacted, namely the Computer Crimes Act 1997 and the Personal Data Protection Act 2010, to combat such crimes.

But even as the government claims to want to be more transparent and accountable, typical answers and actions like the one made only serve to act as an Achilles’ heel to its efforts to do so.

Plainly put, to dismiss and wave-off the information breach are not only irresponsible, careless but also wrong and should not, and must not be tolerated.

And what of the vendor — Sands Consulting Sdn Bhd — the firm the Star Online said was appointed to carry out the project? What has it said in regard to this matter? What is its justification for allowing this vulnerability to be exploited in the first place?

Unbeknownst to many, worse things could have happened, and will happen, if we do not demand higher accountability for our personal data protection.

One of which, as Dhillon noted, is that while 2,000 or so stolen accounts might not seem like a very large number, personal information leakages of any kind is a serious issue considering the data could be used for far more serious crimes.

This can’t be truer as renowned IT security multinationals such as Microsoft and Symantec, as well as local security agencies like Cybersecurity, have warned that the most insidious threats the cyber world faces today are the ones that use stolen information to perpetrate other cybercrimes.

The breach of information security in the 1MPB website serves to remind us that this is certainly no trivial matter and until and unless the government personnel responsible for setting up such websites and those they appoint to implement them are held accountable, our information, our very lives are at the mercy of those who are waiting to dupe and manipulate us.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 11:25 am and is filed under
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A nation in crisis

by
Stanley Koh

Free Malaysia Today

June 15, 2011

Is the barometer of our nation’s social health showing critical signs of a national coma? Is our nation mentally sick?

COMMENT

Between now and the first quarter of 2012, the temperature in anticipation of the next general election is likely to heighten as Malaysians will go to the polls to elect their government.

After the shocking results of the 2008 general election which saw the ruling Barisan Nasional regime losing its two-thirds majority and its 53-year authoritarian style of governance shattered, Malaysians are gradually awakening to the fact that there is no more justification for their leaders knowing what is best for the nation.

This approach which worked well for decades due to the wisdom of the founding fathers is obviously eroding with the new generation of leaders and the one-party state system.

What aspects of society should matter to Malaysians at the coming election?

Are there aspirations for the old ruling regime to provide more democratic space for its citizenry or is it time to drastically change the government?

What will be the deciding factors in the forthcoming election? What are the concerns of Malaysian voters and their mindsets as the national polls draw near?

For one, the gulf between the election promises by BN and the realities of its performance seems to be widening.

And above all, government leaders of the ruling regime seem to be living in a microcosm, in a realm remote from everyday realities.

Despite decades of promises to improve the quality of Malaysian life, eradicating poverty regardless of race and promoting a noble culture and good values, among many others, Malaysians are seeing the country’s social and mental health slipping into critical territory.

News headline can be shocking: a baby thrown out of an apartment window, abandoned babies left at garbage sites, Childline Malaysia receiving 3,243 calls from children about mental health problems or a eight-year-old school girl raped within the school compound.

Are these just the “tip of the iceberg” of our social health under the BN government whose priority is mega multi-million ringgit projects instead of human lives?

Today, it is a foregone conclusion even around the world that the definition of progress no longer hinges or is measured in terms of technology or material standards of living alone. Rather, a society that is morally, aesthetically, politically or environmentally degraded is not an advanced society.

Almost everywhere in the country, the symptoms of the breakdown of the traditional order are evident and to many, public perception seems to be deteriorating.

Is our nation mentally sick?

The variety of “social ills” runs like a restaurant food menu. Is the barometer of our nation’s social health showing critical signs of a national coma? Is our nation mentally sick?

Is our national social health condition reaching a crisis point due to over-emphasis on physical development and wealth generation while neglecting human spiritual progress?

Or is the BN government incapable of thinking out of the box to face the profound social and cultural changes over the decades?

Irish-American psychologist Patrick Fagan, who proposed the index called “Rejection/Belonging”

 ratio which serves as a barometer of the social health of a nation, said: “The way to measure how a nation is doing is by observing how many divorces and out-of-wedlock births there are.”

There is a saying that proof is better than argument.

Recent statistics show that the nation’s divorce rates are high, with average cases reaching 20% per year, and the majority are Muslims. Between 2000 and 2003, reported figures more than doubled to 6.3% among non-Muslims.

Cases of domestic violence based on official statistics since 2000 which recorded 3,107 cases keep climbing till today. Crimes against children involving rape, child abuse, sodomy and outrage of modesty have also increased over the years in major states like Selangor, Johor, Perak and Sabah.

The types of child abuse also included abandonment, physical beating, emotional or psychological torture. In 2003, the authorities received 768 reports including sexual abuse on those below 18, of which 430 cases involved incest and sodomy.

The track record of the BN administration over the decades shows that it is fighting a losing battle on many fronts.

According to news report disclosed by the Malaysian authorities, the population of drug addicts have exceeded one million. In 2005, more than 71,000 contracted AIDs and another 8,000 were HIV positive.

Broken homes and juvenile crimes in 2002 rose from 6,213 to more than 8,000 a year later, an average of 10 cases daily. In 2005, the government admitted the rise of juvenile crimes involving drug abuse, gambling, sexual offences, theft, traffic offences, possession of firearms and others.

Between 1990 and 2003, official figures cited some 70,430 infants were born out of wedlock.

Today, increasing crime rates are forcing three-quarters of Malaysians in urban towns and cities to imprison themselves at home behind security barriers supervised by CCTVs within gated residential zones.

Social problems affecting families include debts to loan sharks, embezzlement, bankruptcies, addictive gambling causing family breakdowns and juvenile crimes.

Snatch thefts which ran into thousands of cases between 2000 and 2005 are now less reported in the mainstream news unless they involve death of victims.

The tipping point

It is a major concern that the nation under the BN administration is responsible for the lame economy and poor economic prospects.

The current poor performance of the ruling regime in handling the withdrawal of subsidies on essential food items, which caused an adverse chain reaction in escalating prices of food and living costs, inevitably aggravated the social health of the nation.

The correlation between the family institution and the economic costs of living can make or break families. The lack of a “social security safety net” under the 53 years of BN rule has deprived Malaysians within the middle-income and poorer sections of society of a higher quality of living.

Statistics from the opposition show that the worse aspect of BN’s governance is social and economic management. It claimed that 2.6% was the average increase (in income) of Malaysians between 2000 and 2010 in comparison to the worldwide average of 3.2% (including all poor countries).

The scenario is not comforting with 40% of Malaysian households earning less than the average income of RM1,500 per month (the lowest income group).

If these claims are true, the impact of the fuel-price inflation on living costs can be devastating to the majority of Malaysians and the family institution. In turn, this adverse social economic impact can take a turn for the worse.

Over the years, the number of Malaysians seeking psychiatric help had already reached an astounding 20% of the total population. It was predicted that “mental illness” could be the second most major disease by 2014.

The number of suicide rates among Malaysians is not comforting either. In 2005, the Mental Health Report cited that one of 10 Malaysians had mental problems, citing a forecast of 10 to 12 suicide rates among 100,000 of the Malaysian population. There were 1,700 suicide cases during the eigth-month period in 2005 or 2,555 human lives lost every year.

Will these statistics do justice to re-elect a one-party system government which had governed for the past 53 years?

Costs of living, salary adjustments and debts or loans are close to the family institution. In 2009, a survey involving some 5,500 respondents indicated that 69% of them were extremely worried about rising costs of living.

Today, the scenario has worsened. Social ills and a moral crisis in public perception towards the governance of the nation can be a tipping point at the next national polls.

The usual justification and lame excuses – blaming the erosion of the Malaysian traditional values on industrialisation and the modern lifestyle – are no longer acceptable.

The catalogue of social ills officially acknowledged is only the tip of the iceberg. Thousands of cases went unofficially reported and statistics are undermined or hidden from public view.

A nation is made up of families. When a government fails to live up to its expectations in tackling social ills by hiding reality, pretending or posing to give an impression of a nation being well, when it is not, it risks the “tipping point” of another voter backlash.

While history is made up of decisions, a government should be wise to the fact that history can be a stern judge.

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

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 3:47 pm and is filed under
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